Act 1.12
Polonius:
Once again I come to you, and I know I'm uninvited. I can only feel our friendship's real, and you will not feel slighted. You are not a man that I would treat slightly. I hold you in affection. I found myself consumed in thought and moved swift in your direction. I have been very drawn to you just now, and I scarcely know why or whither. Then I look around and to my very frown, I find I am drawn hither. At your door I face the truth; you have been on my mind. So now I hope that this visit suits, that is a propitious time.
Claudius:
You come in friendship, that I hope, but still you wear your chain. Is this visit happenstance or is it something to win or gain?
Polonius:
I come in two minds over this. I've nothing here official. Still I'd feel somewhat remiss; I've a thought not superficial.
Claudius:
You're not a man, as I understand, that ever speaks quite lightly even though the tone you set might, to some, sound flighty. There's weight behind your every word, and still you don't speak ponderous. I find that way you are a man combined nothing short of wondrous. Keep on the chain if it feels right or remove it if that does suit. Your time propitious is quite right. You've my attention; I pray I am astute.
Polonius:
I have come to visit you, once again, now that the child is coming. Our hopes are truly stunning. We've all heard of what occurred with the philter made for fecundity. It has taken such a great effect in life that it comes in all profundity. Now the hope is for a son, and that's our nation's cure. That the crown will pass on gently down and succession is secure.
Claudius:
That the queen is with child is fact, a fact we all can celebrate. About the sex of this offspring, we can but useless cerebrate. There is no point to making guesses; there's always the same result. The odds are always one to one without redress, and that is no insult. However, the men within our line of men often have bred quite true. A son to each and every one, so that might see us through. Nature will just run her course, and mayhap, perforce, God will intercede to answer our great need. In the end, the lord will send a daughter or a son. Whichever comes, the will of God will be what's surely done.
Polonius:
And if the will of God is such, a trifle on the whimsical, what will we do if it proves true, it's a daughter that comes visible?
Claudius:
We will deal what comes out real, and do so with alacrity. Our nation is not so frail that it will fail, and this will come as tragedy.
Polonius:
If not tragic, still danger comes, and it comes from inside and surrounding. There are dangers to our country's cause that truly are resounding.
Claudius:
Tell me what you hear, my friend, that makes you so distracted.
Polonius:
There are forces here and forces there that surely will impact us. Whatever way the birth may go, dangers there will follow. I cannot stand to let it all alone. That's something I can't swallow. The force of Norway keeps an eye on every sign of weakness. In Elsinore, ambitions roar and speak of their own rights. Altogether, at their pleasure, they think they have the might to take the throne by force of arms, a force that spells disaster. For whoever wins, it will bring harm now and forever after. It will begin a war at home, and that will come as sin, make a country that has no future. Can we, in fact, demure to act while some royal child we nurture?
Claudius:
What choice have we that will give your mind ease? Is not the king himself?
Polonius:
But sure he is, and what he is, is certain no one else. He seems to feels the greatest deal of relief in this pregnancy. He watches each night, as if in light, for the coming as if he held some agency—yet old beyond his years. We saw this in your father. He faltered great as years went on. What if he, if his mind runs free, cannot rule the nation? Will the child of whatever sex survive to gain succession? Who will lead as this child grows? The child will need protection. Until the child's majority, we will need a polity that saves us from dejection.
Claudius:
Who will lead us in such cause, the queen and I precluded? Do you make your speech in jest or are you just deluded?
Polonius:
You are the one on whom I have fixed that will stall this growing glooming. It's not the same, and I am to blame, you will need a rush of grooming. You have a mind that's great enough, and your heart I know is true. All the fate of a nation great now does fall on you.
Claudius:
I feel the crushing weight of that fall, and can I stand such pressure?
Polonius:
We can but try, and by and by, our fate will take our measure.
Claudius:
You cannot wait and say my fate will fall to politics? And there I'll stay, and there I'll play, in the fields of the lunatics?
(They laugh)
With no remorse, you set my course now in history? Thus to work at politics and surrender the bliss of my pursuit of mystery?
Polonius:
Your brother's son is like your own, and in that way you are bound. The nation and the child will need protection if the king's unsound.
Claudius:
The child of the king is the child of the king, and I will make no claim. But if there's need for the child to succeed, if I fail, am I to blame?
Polonius:
There's no one else, you see, that has a claim so strong. We can attempt, you can't be exempt, or all else will go wrong. Such wrongness is fatality, and that we must belie. The tragedy will come to this; our nationhood will die.
Claudius:
You say that I a murder make if I don't serve as surety? To play at king while the child will bring himself to full maturity?
Polonius:
It is not I alone who make this request. It's history that speaks.
Claudius:
When you speak, you do your best, now what do you seek?
Polonius:
I seek to help you in this quest, to find the king in you.
Claudius:
It is a thing I'd rather bring elsewhere if I can choose.
Polonius:
As you know, I admire you for your mind and erudition
Claudius:
If I follow you and see this through, I do so in one condition.
Polonius:
As you speak, I will seek to respond in my full depth.
Claudius:
That you support me every day until you've nothing left. I cannot be alone in this, in this pursuit of madness. Politics and all its powers I see bring naught but sadness. It takes us from the moral sphere into the darkness' cold. Where all become my means in life to the end that I have told. I cared not to manipulate, to scheme for some stained goal. And now you suggest, I give up the rest, and sell out my very soul.
Polonius:
I do hear you, hear your honest cry, your feeling of distress. I respect the soul you have, and I'd wish to give it rest. But that will never serve just now, in the pressure of our time. If the worse comes, you too will suffer from the meanest crimes. You will know that all will go because you have failed your nation and your brother. For in all of Denmark and the world, there is no suited other.
Claudius:
I have heard such a request before, and that I did follow. It's not a thing I am glad of, nor in yours do I wish to wallow. But I cannot see another choice. I sin one-way or other. So you will help me to the end as I support my brother.
Polonius:
I will be there just by your side, and I will still speak the fool. We want all others that we're after to see it's who's in command, that it's you who is there to rule.
(They take each other's hands, and they embrace)
Claudius:
When do we begin this venture onto sacred sin?
Polonius:
(Takes of book from a voluminous pocket)
As a scholar, you can start with this although it may make you wince. It is by a Italian and called, in fact, The Prince. It is of Machiavelli, of who some speak infamy. His does instruct, and with no romantic smut, the way of successful governance. It will, I fear, strike you as drear, or your thoughts of this enhance.
Claudius:
I spent some time in Florence once, much to my delight. I learned the language there with ease, my Latin made it light and not a heavy task, as I found our Germanic cousins. I rather take the romance tongues and learn them by the dozens.
I'll read it and I'll study as I am wont to do. To deal well in a distasteful task is the best thing to get through.
(Claudius takes the book, opens it, and turns his back to sit down and begins to read)