William Shakespeare: Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

ACT II. 2. Scene II. A room in the Castle. (continued)

Guil.
Which dreams, indeed, are ambition; for the very substance of
the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.

Ham.
A dream itself is but a shadow.

Ros.
Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality that
it is but a shadow's shadow.

Ham.
Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs and outstretch'd
heroes the beggars' shadows. Shall we to the court? for, by my
fay, I cannot reason.

Ros. and Guild.
We'll wait upon you.

Ham.
No such matter: I will not sort you with the rest of my
servants; for, to speak to you like an honest man, I am most
dreadfully attended. But, in the beaten way of friendship, what
make you at Elsinore?

Ros.
To visit you, my lord; no other occasion.

Ham.
Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks; but I thank you:
and sure, dear friends, my thanks are too dear a halfpenny. Were
you not sent for? Is it your own inclining? Is it a free
visitation? Come, deal justly with me: come, come; nay, speak.

Guil.
What should we say, my lord?

Ham.
Why, anything--but to the purpose. You were sent for; and
there is a kind of confession in your looks, which your modesties
have not craft enough to colour: I know the good king and queen
have sent for you.

Ros.
To what end, my lord?

Ham.
That you must teach me. But let me conjure you, by the rights
of our fellowship, by the consonancy of our youth, by the
obligation of our ever-preserved love, and by what more dear a
better proposer could charge you withal, be even and direct with
me, whether you were sent for or no.

Ros.
[To Guildenstern.] What say you?