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.