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All Site ContentHamletAct 4Scene 3
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"Diseases desperate..."
Allusion
Act 4,
Scene 3
Lines 1-11a

An explanation of the proverbial allusion in Act 4, Scene 3 of myShakespeare’s Hamlet.

[Enter Claudius alone]

Claudius

I have sent to seek him and to find the body. 
How dangerous is it that this man goes loose;
Yet, must not we put the strong law on him.
He's loved of the distracted multitude,
Who like not in their judgment, but their eyes;
And where 'tis so, th' offender's scourge is weighed,
But ne'er the offense. To bear all smooth and even, 
This sudden sending him away must seem
Deliberate pause. Diseases desperate grown
By desperate appliance are relieved
Or not at all.    

Claudius is alluding to the well known proverb, “A desperate disease must have a desperate cure.” Or, as you might have heard it phrased, “desperate times call for desperate measures.”