Student Question
What does Hamlet mean when he tells Claudius about Polonius's location in these lines?
"In heaven. Send hither to see. If your messenger find him not there, seek him i' th' other place yourself. But if indeed you find him not within this month, you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby."
Quick answer:
When Claudius asks Hamlet for the second time where Polonius's body is, Hamlet first tells Claudius to send a messenger to look for him in heaven, and if Polonius isn't there, then Claudius should go to hell to look for Polonius himself. If Claudius still can't find Polonius, then in about a month Claudius will smell Polonius's decomposing body in the stairway leading to the lobby of Elsinore Castle.
When Claudius hears from Gertrude in act 4, scene 1 of Shakespeare's Hamlet that Hamlet killed Polonius, Claudius sends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to find Polonius's body and to find Hamlet and bring him to Claudius.
CLAUDIUS. (to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern) Friends both, go join you with some further aid.
Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain,
And from his mother's closet hath he dragg'd him.
Go seek him out; speak fair, and bring the body
Into the chapel. I pray you haste in this.
In act 4, scene 2, Hamlet agrees to go with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to Claudius, and in act 4, scene 3, Claudius confronts Hamlet about Polonius, whose body Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were apparently unable to find. Hamlet simply wants to play word games with Claudius.
CLAUDIUS. Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius?
HAMLET. At supper.
CLAUDIUS. At supper? Where?
HAMLET. Not where he eats, but where he...
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is eaten. A certain
convocation of politic worms are e'en at him.
Claudius grows impatient with Hamlet's nonsense, and he asks him once again.
CLAUDIUS. Where is Polonius?
HAMLET. In heaven. Send hither to see. If your messenger find him not there, seek him i' th' other place yourself. But if indeed you find him not within this month, you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby.
Hamlet is still playing word games with Claudius, but this time Hamlet's response is much less playful. Assuming that Polonius either went to heaven or to hell, Hamlet tells Claudius to send one of his underlings to find Polonius in heaven. If Claudius's "messenger" can't find Polonius in heaven, then Hamlet suggests that Claudius should go to hell—figuratively and literally—and search for Polonius himself.
Hamlet gets tired of his own word games and simply tells Claudius, in a roundabout way, that if nobody finds Polonius within a month or so, they'll certainly smell his decomposing body in the stairway leading to the grand entrance area of Elsinore castle.
It's then that Claudius decides to put into action his plan to send Hamlet to England.
CLAUDIUS. Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial safety—
Which we do tender as we dearly grieve
For that which thou hast done—must send thee hence
With fiery quickness. Therefore prepare thyself.
The bark [ship] is ready and the wind at help [the wind is favorable],
The associates tend [the crew is ready], and everything is bent [ready]
For England.
Claudius uses Hamlet's killing of Polonius as an excuse to send Hamlet to England, supposedly for Hamlet's safety, but Claudius actually intends to have Hamlet executed by the King of England.
This plan might have worked, except for Hamlet's clever rewriting of Claudius's letter to the King of England, and the timely intervention of some inept pirates.