"At supper" — and to England

Claudius questions Hamlet directly. Where is the body? "At supper." At supper where? Hamlet seizes the chance for one of the most savage monologues in the play. Polonius is at supper, he says, "where he is eaten" — by worms. "Your worm is your only emperor for diet." A man fattens cattle to feed himself; worms fatten themselves on us. "Your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service, two dishes, but to one table." The democracy of decay is one of the play's permanent insistences, and Hamlet, joking, drives it home.

Pressed again, he gives Claudius the location: up the stairs into the lobby. Claudius dispatches attendants to find the body and tells Hamlet, with measured politeness, that for his own safety he is being sent to England immediately. The ship is waiting. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern will accompany him. Hamlet, who has guessed what kind of journey this is, feigns enthusiasm and goes.

Claudius, alone, breathes. The sealed letter the pair will carry to the English court orders, in plain language, the prince's execution upon arrival. England owes Denmark a debt; this is how the debt will be paid. "Do it, England," Claudius says, addressing the absent foreign king, "for like the hectic in my blood he rages, and thou must cure me. Till I know 'tis done, howe'er my haps, my joys were ne'er begun." The chess-piece will be off the board within the week.