SCENE III. Another room in the castle.
Enter KING CLAUDIUS, attended
CLAUDIUS
I have sent to seek him, and to find the body.
How dangerous is it that this man goes loose!
Yet must not we put the strong law on him:
He's loved of the distracted multitude,
Who like not in their judgment, but their eyes;
And where tis so, the offender's scourge is weighed,
But never the offence. To bear all smooth and even,
This sudden sending him away must seem
Deliberate pause: diseases desperate grown
By desperate appliance are relieved,
Or not at all.
Enter ROSENCRANTZ
How now! what hath befallen?
ROSENCRANTZ
Where the dead body is bestowed, my lord,
We cannot get from him.
CLAUDIUS
But where is he?
ROSENCRANTZ
Without, my lord; guarded, to know your pleasure.
CLAUDIUS
Bring him before us.
ROSENCRANTZ
Ho, Guildenstern! bring in my lord.
Enter HAMLET and GUILDENSTERN
CLAUDIUS
Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius?
HAMLET
At supper.
CLAUDIUS
At supper! where?
HAMLET
Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain
convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your
worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all
creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for
maggots: your fat king and your lean beggar is but
variable service, two dishes, but to one table:
that's the end.
NOTES:
The Diet of Worms
The Diet of Worms was an imperial assemby (or diet) of the Holy Roman Empire that took place in 1521. The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V presided, and it took place in Worms, an Imperial Free City in what is now Germany. The assembly is most famous for having been a major moment in the career of Martin Luther, who addressed the assembly and was answered with the Edict of Worms. Hamlet is surely making a reference to it in the speech we cover in this episode. For more information on this historical episode and its relationship with Hamlet, you should check out Stephen Greenblatt’s superb book Hamlet in Purgatory.