TEXT:
SCENE III. A room in the castle.
Enter CLAUDIUS, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN
CLAUDIUS
I like him not, nor stands it safe with us
To let his madness range. Therefore prepare you:
I your commission will forthwith dispatch,
And he to England shall along with you.
The terms of our estate may not endure
Hazard so dangerous as doth hourly grow
Out of his lunacies.
GUILDENSTERN
We will ourselves provide.
Most holy and religious fear it is
To keep those many many bodies safe
That live and feed upon your majesty.
ROSENCRANTZ
The single and peculiar life is bound,
With all the strength and armour of the mind,
To keep itself from noyance; but much more
That spirit upon whose weal depend and rest
The lives of many. The cease of majesty
Dies not alone; but, like a gulf, doth draw
What's near it with it: it is a massy wheel,
Fixed on the summit of the highest mount,
To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things
Are mortised and adjoined; which, when it falls,
Each small annexment, petty consequence,
Attends the boisterous ruin. Never alone
Did the king sigh, but with a general groan.
CLAUDIUS
Arm you, I pray you, to this speedy voyage;
For we will fetters put upon this fear,
Which now goes too free-footed.
ROSENCRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN
We will haste us.
NOTES:
Massy Wheel
The only image that came into my mind while writing this episode for such an important and metaphorical wheel was the notion of the Wheel of Dharma, which is so central to Buddhist philosophy and cosmogeny. I don’t know if Rosencrantz has been studying the sutras while in Wittenberg, but his image of a turning wheel to which everyone’s destiny and well-being is attached is tantalisingly close to Buddhism’s Dharmachakra. It is possible that someone could make an argument for Rosencrantz’ Buddhism on the basis of this image an
Fetters were a particular kind of restraint, fastened around the ankles. Specifically designed to impede movement, they have been in use at least since the writing of the Bible.