CLAUDIUS I will be dispatching all three of you to England at once. I don't like the look of things, and I don't like him on the loose like this. Prepare to accompany him.
GUILDENSTERN Very well, my lord. It is our duty to protect your majesty. There are so many lives which depend on your wellbeing.
ROSENCRANTZ The life of a king is the vital force which extends out into all the lives of the kingdom. Never alone did the king sigh, without a general groan.
CLAUDIUS Prepare then for this speedy voyage. We will put fetters upon this problem which currently ranges free-footed.
ROSENCRANTZ We'll prepare at once, my lord.
(Rosencrantz and Guildenstern bow and exit.)
(Polonius enters.)
POLONIUS My lord, the Queen has summoned him to her chambers. I will go there now, and place myself out of sight in order to listen to what unfolds. It's better to have an audience besides a mother listening in.
CLAUDIUS Very well dear lord.
POLONIUS I will call on you before you retire and relate the events.
(Polonius exits.)
CLAUDIUS Oh, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven! It has the curse of Cain upon it--a brother's murder! As much as I desire to pray, my guilt defeats the intent. Bound between the two, I stand in pause of where to begin. If my hands are encrusted with my brother's blood, is there not rain enough to wash them clean again? The reason for mercy is so we can come face to face with an offence. Prayer is a two-fold force. It helps prevent us from doing wrong, and pardons us if we've fallen. But what prayer will serve my case? "Forgive me my foul murder?" But what if I still possess the effects for which I committed the act? A crown? A Queen? Can one keep the gains and still be excused? In the corrupted currents of this world, the guilty often shove justice aside by bribing the law with spoils from the crime. But not in heaven; there's no evasion there; and we ourselves are compelled to cross every T and dot every I of all our sins. What then? Try to repent win or lose? What can repenting not do? Yet what can it, when one cannot repent? What a wretched position! This heart is as black as death, and the more my soul struggles, the more caught up it becomes! Help, angels! All you can! Bow, stubborn knees!
