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_ ACT IV SCENE II
Elsinore. A passage in the Castle.
[Enter Hamlet.]
HAMLET.
Safely stow'd.
GENTLEMEN. [within]
Hamlet! Lord Hamlet!
HAMLET.
But soft! What noise? Who calls on Hamlet? O, here they come.
[Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.]
ROSENCRANTZ.
What have you done, my lord, with the dead body?
HAMLET.
Compounded it with dust, whereto 'tis kin.
ROSENCRANTZ.
Tell us where 'tis, that we may take it thence
And bear it to the chapel.
HAMLET.
Do not believe it.
ROSENCRANTZ.
Believe what?
HAMLET.
That I can keep your counsel, and not mine own. Besides, to be
demanded of a sponge, what replication should be made by the
son of a king?
ROSENCRANTZ.
Take you me for a sponge, my lord?
HAMLET.
Ay, sir; that soaks up the King's countenance, his rewards,
his authorities. But such officers do the King best service
in the end. He keeps them, like an ape, in the corner of his
jaw; first mouth'd, to be last swallowed. When he needs what you
have glean'd, it is but squeezing you and, sponge, you shall be
dry again.
ROSENCRANTZ.
I understand you not, my lord.
HAMLET.
I am glad of it. A knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear.
ROSENCRANTZ.
My lord, you must tell us where the body is
and go with us to the King.
HAMLET.
The body is with the King, but the King is not with the
body. The King is a thing-
GUILDENSTERN.
A thing, my lord?
HAMLET.
Of nothing. Bring me to him. Hide fox, and all after.
[Exeunt.] _
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