Chapter 2

Scene II.
Elsinore. A passage in the Castle.

Enter Hamlet.

Ham. Safely stow’d.

Gentlemen. (within) Hamlet! Lord Hamlet!

Ham. But soft! What noise? Who calls on Hamlet? O, here they

come.

Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Ros. What have you done, my lord, with the dead body?

Ham. Compounded it with dust, whereto ’tis kin.

Ros. Tell us where ’tis, that we may take it thence

And bear it to the chapel.

Ham. Do not believe it.

Ros. Believe what?

Ham. 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?

Ros. Take you me for a sponge, my lord?

Ham. 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.

Ros. I understand you not, my lord.

Ham. I am glad of it. A knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear.

Ros. 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.

The King is a thing-

Guil. A thing, my lord?

Ham. Of nothing. Bring me to him. Hide fox, and all after.

Exeunt.