Why have Rosencrantz and Guildenstern come to Elsinore What does King Claudius ask them to do?

LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Hamlet, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.

Religion, Honor, and Revenge

Poison, Corruption, Death

POLONIUS ’Fore God, my lord, well spoken, with good
accent and good discretion.

FIRST PLAYER Anon he finds himStriking too short at Greeks. His antique sword,

Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls, 495

Repugnant to command. Unequal matched,Pyrrhus at Priam drives, in rage strikes wide;But with the whiff and wind of his fell swordTh’ unnervèd father falls. Then senseless Ilium,

Seeming to feel this blow, with flaming top 500

Stoops to his base, and with a hideous crashTakes prisoner Pyrrhus’ ear. For lo, his sword,Which was declining on the milky headOf reverend Priam, seemed i’ th’ air to stick.

So as a painted tyrant Pyrrhus stood 505

And, like a neutral to his will and matter,Did nothing.But as we often see against some stormA silence in the heavens, the rack stand still,

The bold winds speechless, and the orb below 510

As hush as death, anon the dreadful thunderDoth rend the region; so, after Pyrrhus’ pause,Arousèd vengeance sets him new a-work,And never did the Cyclops’ hammers fall

On Mars’s armor, forged for proof eterne, 515

With less remorse than Pyrrhus’ bleeding swordNow falls on Priam.Out, out, thou strumpet Fortune! All you godsIn general synod take away her power,

Break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel, 520

And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven

As low as to the fiends!

POLONIUS This is too long.

HAMLET It shall to the barber’s with your beard.—
Prithee say on. He’s for a jig or a tale of bawdry, or 525
he sleeps. Say on; come to Hecuba.

FIRST PLAYER
But who, ah woe, had seen the moblèd queen—

HAMLET “The moblèd queen”?

POLONIUS That’s good. “Moblèd queen” is good.

FIRST PLAYER
Run barefoot up and down, threat’ning the flames 530With bisson rheum, a clout upon that headWhere late the diadem stood, and for a robe,About her lank and all o’erteemèd loinsA blanket, in the alarm of fear caught up—

Who this had seen, with tongue in venom steeped, 535

’Gainst Fortune’s state would treason havepronounced.But if the gods themselves did see her thenWhen she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport

In mincing with his sword her husband’s limbs, 540

The instant burst of clamor that she made(Unless things mortal move them not at all)Would have made milch the burning eyes of heaven

And passion in the gods.

Polonius is impressed with Hamlet's recitation, and then the First Player takes over. The speech details Pyrrhus's dark, scary, blood-covered rage, which totally bores Polonius, who only likes the bits with dancing and sex. Eventually, we get to the part about Hecuba, Priam's wife, who's pretty upset by the whole thing.

Page 2

POLONIUSI hear him coming. Let’s withdraw, my lord.

They withdraw.

Enter Hamlet.

HAMLETTo be or not to be—that is the question:

Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer 65

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,Or to take arms against a sea of troublesAnd, by opposing, end them. To die, to sleep—No more—and by a sleep to say we end

The heartache and the thousand natural shocks 70

That flesh is heir to—’tis a consummationDevoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep—To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there’s the rub,For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, 75

Must give us pause. There’s the respectThat makes calamity of so long life.For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,Th’ oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,

The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay, 80

The insolence of office, and the spurnsThat patient merit of th’ unworthy takes,When he himself might his quietus makeWith a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life, 85

But that the dread of something after death,The undiscovered country from whose bournNo traveler returns, puzzles the willAnd makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of? 90

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,And thus the native hue of resolutionIs sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,And enterprises of great pitch and moment

With this regard their currents turn awry 95

And lose the name of action.—Soft you now,The fair Ophelia.—Nymph, in thy orisons

Be all my sins remembered.

Hearing Hamlet approach, everybody clears out so Hamlet can privately deliver one of the greatest speeches of all time. Seriously, guys, you have to see this one. What's the question? "To be, or not to be." In other words, is it better to go on living in this world or to, well...not? Hamlet compares death to sleep, which wouldn't be so bad, except that there's no way to know what kind of dreams we might have when we're dead. Of course, we'd escape a lot by being dead, like being spurned in love, except that maybe it's better to put up with the bad things you know about in life than to run off into death's "undiscovered country." Anyone else get chills? Hamlet then spots Ophelia reading her religious book, and closes his speech by saying he hopes she'll pray for him.

Page 3

ROSENCRANTZ She desires to speak with you in her
closet ere you go to bed. 360

HAMLET We shall obey, were she ten times our mother.
Have you any further trade with us?

ROSENCRANTZ My lord, you once did love me.

HAMLET And do still, by these pickers and stealers.

ROSENCRANTZ Good my lord, what is your cause of 365distemper? You do surely bar the door upon your

own liberty if you deny your griefs to your friend.

HAMLET Sir, I lack advancement.

ROSENCRANTZ How can that be, when you have the
voice of the King himself for your succession in 370
Denmark?

HAMLET Ay, sir, but “While the grass grows”—the
proverb is something musty.

Enter the Players with recorders.

O, the recorders! Let me see one. He takes a
recorder and turns to Guildenstern. To withdraw 375with you: why do you go about to recover the wind

of me, as if you would drive me into a toil?

GUILDENSTERN O, my lord, if my duty be too bold, my
love is too unmannerly.

HAMLET I do not well understand that. Will you play 380
upon this pipe?

GUILDENSTERN My lord, I cannot.

HAMLET I pray you.

GUILDENSTERN Believe me, I cannot.

HAMLET I do beseech you. 385

GUILDENSTERN I know no touch of it, my lord.

HAMLET It is as easy as lying. Govern these ventageswith your fingers and thumb, give it breath withyour mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent

music. Look you, these are the stops. 390

GUILDENSTERN But these cannot I command to any
utt’rance of harmony. I have not the skill.

HAMLET Why, look you now, how unworthy a thingyou make of me! You would play upon me, you

would seem to know my stops, you would pluck 395

out the heart of my mystery, you would sound mefrom my lowest note to the top of my compass;and there is much music, excellent voice, in thislittle organ, yet cannot you make it speak. ’Sblood,

do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe? 400

Call me what instrument you will, though you can

fret me, you cannot play upon me.

Enter Polonius.

God bless you, sir.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern tell Hamlet his mom wants to talk to him, and Hamlet says fine. Is that all? He's dismissing them, and they act offended. Aren't they friends? Why is he treating them this way. Hamlet accuses them of trying to manipulate him, and then acts insulted when they say they can't play the musicians's recorders because they don't know how. Well then, he says, why have you been trying to play me? Do you think I'm simpler than a recorder? (He's pretty clever the way he backs them into that corner.)

Page 4

KING Thanks, dear my lord.

Polonius exits.

O, my offense is rank, it smells to heaven; 40It hath the primal eldest curse upon ’t,A brother’s murder. Pray can I not,Though inclination be as sharp as will.My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent,

And, like a man to double business bound, 45

I stand in pause where I shall first beginAnd both neglect. What if this cursèd handWere thicker than itself with brother’s blood?Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens

To wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy 50

But to confront the visage of offense?And what’s in prayer but this twofold force,To be forestallèd ere we come to fall,Or pardoned being down? Then I’ll look up.

My fault is past. But, O, what form of prayer 55

Can serve my turn? “Forgive me my foul murder”?That cannot be, since I am still possessedOf those effects for which I did the murder:My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen.

May one be pardoned and retain th’ offense? 60

In the corrupted currents of this world,Offense’s gilded hand may shove by justice,And oft ’tis seen the wicked prize itselfBuys out the law. But ’tis not so above:

There is no shuffling; there the action lies 65

In his true nature, and we ourselves compelled,Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults,To give in evidence. What then? What rests?Try what repentance can. What can it not?

Yet what can it, when one cannot repent? 70

O wretched state! O bosom black as death!O limèd soul, that, struggling to be free,Art more engaged! Help, angels! Make assay.Bow, stubborn knees, and heart with strings of steel

Be soft as sinews of the newborn babe. 75

All may be well.

He kneels.

Claudius, finally alone, admits to murdering his brother, an act which carries with it God's curse (as in God's curse against Cain for killing his brother Abel). He can't even bring himself to pray. He doesn't think there's enough rain in heaven to wash the blood off his hands. (Ahem. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have similar trouble with blood.) So maybe he should pray, because isn't this what prayer is for? To stop us from doing bad things, and to pardon us when we've done bad things? But he can't ask for forgiveness for the murder, since he still has all of the gains he got from committing it. At the same time, he's really suffering, man: it's so hard to be the King and enjoy his dead brother's wife. Finally, Claudius gets it together enough to kneel and pray.

Page 5

HAMLET How is it with you, lady?

QUEEN Alas, how is ’t with you,That you do bend your eye on vacancy

And with th’ incorporal air do hold discourse? 135

Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep,And, as the sleeping soldiers in th’ alarm,Your bedded hair, like life in excrements,Start up and stand an end. O gentle son,

Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper 140

Sprinkle cool patience! Whereon do you look?

HAMLETOn him, on him! Look you how pale he glares.His form and cause conjoined, preaching to stones,

Would make them capable. To the Ghost. Do not

look upon me, 145Lest with this piteous action you convertMy stern effects. Then what I have to do

Will want true color—tears perchance for blood.

QUEEN To whom do you speak this?

HAMLET Do you see nothing there? 150

QUEEN
Nothing at all; yet all that is I see.

HAMLET Nor did you nothing hear?

QUEEN No, nothing but ourselves.

HAMLETWhy, look you there, look how it steals away!

My father, in his habit as he lived! 155

Look where he goes even now out at the portal!

Ghost exits.

So Hamlet turns to his mom and says, "How's it going?" Um, not well, Gertrude tells him. She asks what he's looking at and who he's talking to. Hamlet is shocked to realize that she can't hear or see the ghost. Last time, remember, all his buddies saw the ghost, too. So what's going on here? Gertrude clearly thinks Hamlet's lost it, but what do you think? Did the ghost choose only to appear to Hamlet this time? Whatever the case, the ghost leaves.

Page 6


Source: Folger Shakespeare Library
Enter King and Queen, with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. KINGThere’s matter in these sighs; these profound heavesYou must translate; ’tis fit we understand them. Where is your son? QUEENBestow this place on us a little while. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern exit. Ah, mine own lord, what have I seen tonight! 5 KING What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet? QUEENMad as the sea and wind when both contendWhich is the mightier. In his lawless fit,Behind the arras hearing something stir, Whips out his rapier, cries “A rat, a rat,” 10 And in this brainish apprehension kills The unseen good old man.	Claudius can see that Gertrude is upset, so he asks her what's up, and where's Hamlet? She asks Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to give them a minute, and then she tells Claudius that her son is definitely insane and has murdered Polonius. (She keeps quiet, as instructed by Hamlet, about the fact that his madness is an act. Nice work, Gertrude.)
KING O heavy deed!It had been so with us, had we been there. His liberty is full of threats to all— 15 To you yourself, to us, to everyone.Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answered?It will be laid to us, whose providenceShould have kept short, restrained, and out of haunt This mad young man. But so much was our love, 20 We would not understand what was most fit,But, like the owner of a foul disease,To keep it from divulging, let it feed Even on the pith of life. Where is he gone?	Oh boy, says Claudius. We really blew it. We should have kept Hamlet on a shorter leash, but alas, we were acting out of love, just trying to help him. Where is he now?
QUEEN To draw apart the body he hath killed, 25O’er whom his very madness, like some oreAmong a mineral of metals base, Shows itself pure: he weeps for what is done.	He's disposing of the body, obviously. But, Gertrude adds, she did notice that Hamlet is now inspired to cry a little, so maybe the murder of Polonius has done some good by getting Hamlet in touch with his feelings.
KING O Gertrude, come away! The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch 30But we will ship him hence; and this vile deedWe must with all our majesty and skill Both countenance and excuse.—Ho, Guildenstern! Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Friends both, go join you with some further aid. Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain, 35And 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. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern exit. Come, Gertrude, we’ll call up our wisest friends And let them know both what we mean to do 40And what’s untimely done. …Whose whisper o’er the world’s diameter,As level as the cannon to his blankTransports his poisoned shot, may miss our name And hit the woundless air. O, come away! 45 My soul is full of discord and dismay. They exit.	Enough of that, Gertrude, the King tells his wife. It's definitely time to ship young Hamlet away. Once he's gone, we'll find a way to smooth over what he's done. Claudius calls Rosencrantz and Guildenstern back and sends them to find Polonius's body and bring it into the chapel. Then he tells Gertrude they'll call their friends together and figure out how to handle this little...blunder. Egads.