TEXT:
GERTRUDE
To draw apart the body he hath killed:
O'er whom his very madness, like some ore
Among a mineral of metals base,
Shows itself pure; he weeps for what is done.
CLAUDIUS
O Gertrude, come away!
The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch,
But we will ship him hence: and this vile deed
We must, with all our majesty and skill,
Both countenance and excuse. Ho, Guildenstern!
Re-enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
Friends both, go join you with some further aid:
Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain,
And from his mother's closet hath he dragged him:
Go seek him out; speak fair, and bring the body
Into the chapel. I pray you, haste in this.
Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
Come, Gertrude, we'll call up our wisest friends;
And let them know, both what we mean to do,
And what's untimely done. […]
O, come away!
My soul is full of discord and dismay.
Exeunt
NOTES:
Missing Lines
Some editions of the play go so far as to fill in the blank after “what’s untimely done”. Some editions will jump straight to “O come away”, as is written in the Folio. Others might acknowledge that there’s a gap here, and still others might include the addition proposed by Edward Capell, an 18th century editor. He suggested that the hole could be filled with the phrase “so haply slander”. Have a look at your copy of the text, whoever might have edited it, and see for yourself if they include this little segment that follows, or indeed if they even acknowledge that those words were his suggestion. What we DO still have are the four lines that follow. Capell’s suggestion was that Claudius is describing slander, and hoping to avoid it. Slander,
Whose whisper o’er the world’s diameter,
As level as the cannon to his blank,
Transports the poisoned shot - may miss our name
And hit the soundless air.