Page 27
Polonius:
Honest, my lord?
Hamlet:
Ay sir, to be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.
Polonius:
That’s very true, my lord.
Hamlet:
For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a good kissing carrion,—
Have you a daughter?
Polonius:
I have, my lord.
Hamlet:
Let her not walk i’ th’ sun. Conception is a blessing, but not as your daughter may conceive. Friend, look to't.
Polonius:
How say you by that? (Aside.) Still harping on my daughter. Yet he knew me not at first; he said I was a fishmonger. He is far gone, far gone. And truly in my youth I suffered much extremity for love; very near this. I’ll speak to him again.—What do you read, my lord?
Hamlet:
Words, words, words.
Polonius:
What is the matter, my lord?
Hamlet:
Between who?
Polonius:
I mean the matter that you read, my lord.
Hamlet:
Slanders, sir. For the satirical slave says here that old men have grey beards; that their faces are wrinkled; their eyes purging thick amber and plum-tree gum; and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams. All which, sir, though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it not honesty to have it thus set down. For you yourself, sir, should be old as I am, if like a crab you could go backward.
Polonius:
(Aside.) Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.—
Will you walk out of the air, my lord?
Hamlet:
Into my grave?
Polonius:
Indeed, that is out o’ the air. (Aside.) How pregnant sometimes his replies are! A happiness that often madness hits on, which reason and sanity could not so prosperously be delivered of. I will leave him and suddenly contrive the means of meeting between him and my daughter.
My honourable lord, I will most humbly take my leave of you.
Hamlet:
You cannot, sir, take from me anything that I will more willingly part withal, except my life, except my life, except my life.
Polonius:
Fare you well, my lord.
Hamlet:
These tedious old fools.
Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
Polonius:
You go to seek the Lord Hamlet; there he is.
Rosencrantz:
(To Polonius.) God save you, sir.
(Exit Polonius.)
Guildenstern:
My honoured lord!
Rosencrantz:
My most dear lord!