Claudius sends Hamlet to England

Scene summary

Claudius tells the councilors that he has sent for Hamlet and Polonius's body, but cannot punish the prince by law, because the people love him, and the crowd's affection obeys the eyes and not the judgment. For that reason, his dispatch to England must look like a mature decision. Hamlet is brought in by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and does not say where the body is. He replies that Polonius is at supper, not where he eats, but where he is eaten by worms, and that if they do not find him in Paradise, the king will smell him on the stairs of the gallery within a month. Claudius announces the immediate embarkation, and Hamlet takes leave of him calling him "dear mother"; corrected by the king ("your dear father"), he replies that father and mother are man and wife, one flesh. Alone, Claudius reveals that the letters order the king of England to kill Hamlet as soon as he arrives.