ACT IV.
Scene I. A room in the castle.
Enter King, Queen, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern.[1571]
King. There's matter in these sighs, these profound heaves:[1572]
You must translate: 'tis fit we understand them.
Where is your son?
Queen. Bestow this place on us a little while.
[Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.[1573]
Ah, mine own lord, what have I seen to-night![1574] 5
King. What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet?[1575]
Queen. Mad as the sea and wind, when both contend[1576]
Which is the mightier: in his lawless fit,[1577]
Behind the arras hearing something stir,
Whips out his rapier, cries 'a rat, a rat!'[1578] 10
And in this brainish apprehension kills[1579]
The unseen good old man.
King. O heavy deed!
It had been so with us, had we been there:[1580]
His liberty is full of threats to all,
To you yourself, to us, to every one. 15
Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answer'd?[1581]
It will be laid to us, whose providence
Should have kept short, restrain'd and out of haunt,[1582]
This mad young man: but so much was our love,
We would not understand what was most fit, 20
But, like the owner of a foul disease,
To keep it from divulging, let it feed[1583]
Even on the pith of life. Where is he gone?