Read Shakespeare's Hamlet in Plain English Page 11
Act 4
Scene 1
Enter King, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to where the Queen has remained
King The deranged and unbalanced state Hamlet manifests disguises a hidden purpose. He has some covert agenda. You must explain what it is. We need to understand it. Where is he?
Queen Leave us for a while.
Exit Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Yes, my son, whom I have seen tonight.
King What have you managed to find out?
Queen He is completely crazed, utterly unbalanced; hopelessly and incurably mad. Upon hearing someone behind the arras, in his wild and uncontrollable insanity, he whipped out his rapier, cried: “What’s this? A rat!” and in his mindless derangement killed the old man who was hiding there.
King This is regrettable indeed. He would probably have tried to kill me, had I been there. His liberty constitutes a grave threat to us all: to yourself, to me, to everyone. This places me in a position of yet greater difficulty: what explanation am I to release when it is announced that Polonius is dead? Blame will be laid upon us; we should have had the foresight to ensure this mad young man was kept under far stricter control, restrained from going wherever and doing whatever he pleased. But such was our love and respect for him we held back from taking the appropriate action. Instead, to protect him, to prevent his madness from becoming public knowledge, we unwisely afforded him too much freedom and allowed the situation to become worse. Where has he gone?
Queen He was taking away Polonius’ body. He weeps for what he has done, his madness thereby showing itself to be genuine.
King Even before the sun has risen over the mountains, he’ll have been sent away from here. We’ll have to excuse him for this vile murder and accept that it was our own negligence that allowed it to occur. Ah, Guildenstern.
Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Friends, both of you, go and enlist someone to help you. Hamlet in his madness has slain Polonius. He dragged the body from his mother’s chamber and its present whereabouts are unknown to us. You are to go and seek him out, but be diplomatic and tactful with him. Ascertain the location of the body and have it transferred to the chapel. I pray you make haste in this.
Exit Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Come, Gertrude, we’ll consult with our wisest advisors and let them know of what we mean to do and of the untimely death of Polonius. While he’s in England, what is there to preclude his spreading malicious rumours about me? Slander holds the potential to insidiously poison and eventually destroy an individual’s reputation; to ultimately bring about their downfall. Then again, any slander may go unheeded. It may be that nobody would pay it much attention or take it seriously and it would be of no consequence. O, let’s leave; this has all left me quite perturbed and dismayed.