The body hidden

Another room. Hamlet has stashed Polonius's body somewhere in the castle. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern catch up with him and demand it. Hamlet, who has decided how he is going to play this, refuses to say. The exchange is one of the play's clearest displays of his "antic disposition." He calls Rosencrantz a sponge — soaking up "the king's countenance, his rewards, his authorities," and ready to be squeezed dry when the king is done with him. He calls the king "a thing of nothing." He runs verbal circles.

Asked again where the body is, he answers, with apparent randomness: "the body is with the king, but the king is not with the body. The king is a thing... of nothing." The riddle has weight underneath the antic surface — Hamlet knows Claudius's power is hollow. The cruelty toward Rosencrantz and Guildenstern is also real. He has decided they are no longer his friends.

Then he runs. He leads them on a chase through the castle, ostensibly toward the king, in fact to draw out the search and deny Claudius the dignity of a quiet recovery. The scene is short, almost a sketch; what it shows is that Hamlet, after the killing, is strangely energized. He has acted, finally, even if not on the act he intended.