Read Shakespeare's Hamlet in Plain English Page 12
Scene 2
(somewhere inside the castle)
Enter Hamlet
Hamlet Well that’s safely hidden away.
Hears someone calling him
What’s that? Who calls on me? O, here they come.
Enter Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and Others
Rosencrantz What have you done, my lord, with the dead body?
Hamlet Combined it with dust, to which it is kin (biblical allusion: Genesis: 3: 19: dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return).
Rosencrantz Tell us where it is so that we may take it from there and bear it to the chapel.
Hamlet Do not believe it.
Rosencrantz Believe what?
Hamlet That I can keep your intentions secret and not my own. Besides, to be questioned by a sponge, what reply should be made by the son of a king?
Rosencrantz Do you think I’m a sponge, my lord?
Hamlet Ay, sir, that soaks up the King’s favour and praise, his rewards, his sovereign powers; taking advantage of what he can do for you. But ultimately it’s the King who profits the most. He merely uses agents like you to serve his own ends. When he needs the information you, as his spies, have gleaned, he’s squeezing you and, like a sponge, you shall be dry again.
Rosencrantz I understand you not, my lord.
Hamlet I am glad of it. Fools do not appreciate sarcasm.
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 (in the grounds of the palace), but the King is not with the body (in the sense that he is not dead, or perhaps that he is simply not in proximity to it). The King is a thing…..