Enter ROSENCRANTZ [and GUILDENSTERN] and all the rest.

CLAUDIUS      How now, what hath befallen?

ROSENCRANTZ          Where the dead body is bestowed, my lord,

We cannot get from him.

CLAUDIUS                  But where is he?

ROSENCRANTZ          Without, my lord, guarded, to know your pleasure.

CLAUDIUS      Bring him before us.

ROSENCRANTZ                      Ho! Bring in the lord!                        (4.3.11-15)

How now, what hath befallen? They had ONE job to do, Claudius might well be thinking, and they appear not to have done it. What’s happened NOW? (Where the hell is Hamlet?) Rosencrantz gets to be spokesman, do you want the bad news first? where the dead body is bestowed, my lord, we cannot get from him. He won’t tell us what he’s done with Polonius’s body! We’ve tried! But where is he? Where is Hamlet? Don’t tell me you’ve failed even to find him? This at least Rosencrantz can answer positively: without, my lord, guarded, to know your pleasure. He’s just outside, under guard, awaiting your orders! There can be a glance of smugness, or at least, with Guildenstern. Bring him before us, then, says Claudius, not a word of thanks, well bring him in then, get on with it, what are you waiting for, gratitude? But it’s Rosencrantz’s big moment, giving orders for once, to the security guys, the guards or soldiers—and to Hamlet: ho! Bring in the lord!