TEXT:
GERTRUDE
Be thou assured, if words be made of breath,
And breath of life, I have no life to breathe
What thou hast said to me.
HAMLET
I must to England; you know that?
GERTRUDE
Alack,
I had forgot: 'tis so concluded on.
HAMLET
There's letters sealed: and my two schoolfellows,
Whom I will trust as I will adders fanged,
They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way,
And marshal me to knavery. Let it work;
For 'tis the sport to have the engineer
Hoist with his own petard: and 't shall go hard
But I will delve one yard below their mines,
And blow them at the moon: O, 'tis most sweet,
When in one line two crafts directly meet.
This man shall set me packing:
I'll lug the guts into the neighbour room.
Mother, good night. Indeed this counsellor
Is now most still, most secret and most grave,
Who was in life a foolish prating knave.
Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you.
Good night, mother.
Exeunt severally; HAMLET dragging in POLONIUS
NOTES:
Gertrude in the First Quarto
A major difference between the various texts of Hamlet is that in the First Quarto, Gertrude is substantially more on Hamlet’s side. As of this moment in the play, she agrees to “conceal, consent and do my best, what stratagem so’ever thou shalt devise”. Obviously there’s a lifetime of study and investigation available to those who would enjoy combing through the textual differences between the various versions of this play, but it’s worth noting big changes like this when they crop up!
Hoist on his own Petard
Hamlet’s image of a bomb-maker being blown up by his own bomb is famous to us nowadays because the words are perpetually tied to each other. It’s actually a very bathetic image. The word petard came from French, and is derived from the French word for a fart. It’s surely no accident that it’s a kind of fart-bomb that Hamlet uses to describe Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s potential failure.
William Cecil, Lord Burghley
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley (13 September 1520 – 4 August 1598) was an English statesman, and the chief advisor of Queen Elizabeth I for most of her reign. When she was crowned queen in 1558, he was made her secretary. He stayed in her service until his death, and in that time he served twice as Secretary of State (1550–53 and 1558–72) and thereafter became Lord High Treasurer from 1572 until he died in 1598. His son Robert had an equally impressive political career that spanned the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I.