for the harlot king
Is quite beyond mine arm, out of the blank
And level of my brain, plot-proof;

_The Winter's Tale_, act ii. sc. 3.

My life stands in the level of your dreams,

_Ibid_, act iii. sc. 2.]

[Footnote 11: two _ff_ for two long _ss_.]

[Page 186]

_Ham._ I am glad of it: a knavish speech
sleepes in a foolish eare.

_Rosin._ My Lord, you must tell us where the
body is, and go with us to the King.

_Ham._ The body is with the King, but the King
is not with the body.[1] The King, is a thing----

_Guild._ A thing my Lord?

_Ham._ Of nothing[2]: bring me to him, hide
Fox, and all after.[3] _Exeunt_[4]

_Enter King._ [Sidenote: _King, and two or three._]

_King._ I have sent to seeke him, and to find the bodie:
How dangerous is it that this man goes loose:[5]
Yet must not we put the strong Law on him:
[Sidenote: 212] Hee's loved of the distracted multitude,[6]
Who like not in their iudgement, but their eyes:
And where 'tis so, th'Offenders scourge is weigh'd
But neerer the offence: to beare all smooth, and euen,
[Sidenote: neuer the]
This sodaine sending him away, must seeme
[Sidenote: 120] Deliberate pause,[7] diseases desperate growne,
By desperate appliance are releeved,
Or not at all. _Enter Rosincrane._
[Sidenote: _Rosencraus and all the rest._]
How now? What hath befalne?

_Rosin._ Where the dead body is bestow'd my Lord,
We cannot get from him.

_King._ But where is he?[8]

_Rosin._ Without my Lord, guarded[9] to know your pleasure.

_King._ Bring him before us.

_Rosin._ Hoa, Guildensterne? Bring in my Lord.
[Sidenote: _Ros._ How, bring in the Lord. _They enter._]

_Enter Hamlet and Guildensterne_[10]

_King._ Now _Hamlet_, where's _Polonius?_

[Footnote 1: 'The body is in the king's house, therefore with the king;
but the king knows not where, therefore the king is not with the body.']

[Footnote 2: 'A thing of nothing' seems to have been a common phrase.]

[Footnote 3: The _Quarto_ has not 'hide Fox, and all after.']

[Footnote 4: Hamlet darts out, with the others after him, as in a hunt.
Possibly there was a game called _Hide fox, and all after_.]

[Footnote 5: He is a hypocrite even to himself.]

[Footnote 6: This had all along helped to Hamlet's safety.]

[Footnote 7: 'must be made to look the result