POLONIUS      Fare you well, my lord.

HAMLET         These tedious old fools.

Enter GUILDENSTERN and ROSENCRANTZ.

POLONIUS      You go to seek the Lord Hamlet? There he is.

ROSENCRANTZ         [to Polonius] God save you, sir. [Exit Polonius.]

GUILDENSTERN        My honoured lord.

ROSENCRANTZ         My most dear lord.

HAMLET         My excellent good friends. How dost thou, Guildenstern? Ah, Rosencrantz! Good lads, how do you both?

ROSENCRANTZ         As the indifferent children of the earth.      (2.2.213-222)

Polonius has had enough—fare you well, my lord—and so has Hamlet: these tedious old fools, spoken loud enough for Polonius to hear (and to pretend not to hear) as he exits, just as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern enter. Polonius gathers his dignity around him: you go to seek the Lord Hamlet? (Although there could be a sarcastic emphasis on Lord, I can still mind my manners, observe the proprieties even if you can’t.) Well, there he is. Good luck to you. Rosencrantz is polite, perhaps quizzically so—God save you, sir—as the old man finally makes his escape. A troubling, unsatisfactory encounter for him; he knows that Hamlet has got the better of him, but he can’t quite put his finger on how.

Guildenstern and Rosencrantz can be formal or, perhaps more likely, mocking in their greetings: my honoured lord, my most dear lord. Look who’s here! And Hamlet can’t believe it, he hasn’t seen these guys for ages: my excellent good friends! How dost thou, Guildenstern? Ah, Rosencrantz! How you DOING? Good lads, how do you both? And they start to fall into familiar banter: oh, as the indifferent children of the earth, says Rosencrantz, you know, comme ci comme ça, bit of this, bit of that. OK, I guess?