Guildenstern
Which dreams indeed are ambition, for the very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.
Hamlet
A dream itself is but a shadow.
Rosencrantz
Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality that it is but a shadow’s shadow.
Hamlet
Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs and outstretched heroes the beggars’ shadows. Shall we to the court? for, by my fay, I cannot reason.
Rosencrantz Guildenstern
We’ll wait upon you.
Hamlet
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?
Rosencrantz
To visit you, my lord; no other occasion.
Hamlet
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.
Guildenstern
What should we say, my lord?