b Ham. What! are they children? who maintains them? how are they escoted? Will they pursue the quality no longer than they can sing? will they not say afterwards, if they should grow themselves to common players, (as it is most like, if their means are not better) their writers do them wrong, to make them exclaim against their own succession? Ros. 'Faith, there has been much to do on both sides; and the nation holds it no sin to tarre them to controversy: there was, for a while, no money bid for argument, unless the poet and the player went to cuffs in the question. Ham. Is it possible? Guil. O there has been much throwing about of brains. Ham. Do the boys carry it away?* Ros. Ay, that they do, my lord; Hercules, and his load too. Ham. It is not very strange; for my uncle is king of Denmark, and those, that would make mowes at him while my father lived, give twenty, forty, fifty, an hundred ducats a-piece for his picture in little. 'Sblood! there is something in this more than natural, if philosophy could find it out. [Trumpets within. Guil. There are the players. Ham. Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your hands. Come, then; the appurtenance of welcome is fashion and ceremony: let me comply with you in this garb, lest my extent to the players (which, I tell you, must show fairly outward) should more appear like entertainment than yours. You are welcome; but my uncle-father, and aunt-mother, are deceived. And then, you know, "It came to pass, as most like it was," The first row of the pious chanson will show you more; for look, where my 1abridgment comes. Enter Four or Five Players. You are welcome, masters; welcome, all.—I am glad to see thee well:-welcome, good friends-0, old friend! why, thy face is valanced since I saw thee last: com'st thou to beard me in Denmark?— What, my young lady and mistress! By'r-lady, your ladyship is nearer to heaven, then when I saw you last, by the altitude of a "chopine. Pray God, your voice, like a piece of uncurrent gold, be not cracked within the ring.-Masters, you are all welcome. We'll e'en to't like French falconers, fly at any thing we see: we'll have a speech straight. Come, give us a taste of your quality; come, a passionate speech. 1 Play. What speech, my good lord? Ham. I heard thee speak me a speech once,but it was never acted; or, if it was, not above once, for the play, I remember, pleased not the million; 'twas caviare to the general: but it was (as I received it, and others, whose judgments in such matHam. I am but mad north-north-west: when the ters cried in the Ptop of mine) an excellent play; wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a hand-well digested in the scenes, set down with as much Guil. In what, my dear lord? saw. Enter POLONIUS. Pol. Well be with you, gentlemen! Ham. Hark you, Guildenstern ;-and you too; at each ear a hearer: that great baby, you see there, is not yet out of his swathing-clouts. Ros. Haply, he's the second time come to them; for, they say, an old man is twice a child. Ham. I will prophesy, he comes to tell me of the players; mark it.-You say right, sir: o' Monday morning; 'twas then, indeed. Pol. My lord, I have news to tell you. Roscius was an actor in Rome, Pol. The actors are come hither, my lord. Pol. Upon my honor,- When modesty as cunning. I remember, one said, there was no salt in the lines to make the matter savery, nor no matter in the phrase that might indict the author of affectation, but called it an honest method, as wholesome as sweet, and by very much more handsome than fine. One speech in it I chiefly loved: 'twas Æneas' tale to Dido; and thereabout of it especially, where he speaks of Priam's slaugh ter. If it live in your memory, begin at this line:let me see, let me see ; "The rugged Pyrrhus, like the Hyrcanian beast,” "The rugged Pyrrhus,-he, whose sable arms, Ham. Then came each actor on his ass, Pol. The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral, scene individable, or poem unlimited: Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light. For the law of writ, and the liberty," these are the only men. Ham. O Jephthah, Judge of Israel, what a treasure hadst thou! Pol. What treasure had he, my lord? *"Escoted," i. e., paid. “The quality," ie., the profession. To tarre them, is to set them on. The sign of Shakespeare's theatre is said to have been Hercules carrying the globe- Mouths.- Comply with you in this garb," Le., embrace you in this fashion.-"Extent," i. e., extend ing of the hand in friendship.- Writ for writing. Pol. 'Fore God, my lord, well spoken; with good accent, and good discretion. 1 Play. "Anon he finds him "Row," i. e., column.-"Chanson," i. e, ballad"My abridgment," i. e., those who come to abridge my talk. Valanced," i, e., fringed with a beard. A chess was a clog or shoe with a thick cork sole.-o Caviare was a condiment not generally relished.-p" In the top of e above.-"Indict," i. e., impeach. Gules, in heraldry is red.—"Trick'd," ie, colored. "Striking too short at Greeks: his antique sword, "Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls, "Repugnant to command. Unequal match'd, "Pyrrhus at Priam drives; in rage strikes wide; "But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword "The unnerved father falls. Then senseless Ilium, "Seeming to feel this blow, with flaming top "Stoops to his base; and with a hideous crash "Takes prisoner Pyrrhus' ear: for, lo! his sword "Which was declining on the milky head "Of reverend Priam, seem'd i' the air to stick: "So, as a painted tyrant, Pyrrhus stood; "And, like a neutral to his will and matter, "Did nothing. "But, as we often see, against some storm, "A silence in the heavens, the rack stand still, "The bold winds speechless, and the orb below "As hush as death, anon the dreadful thunder "Doth rend the region; so, after Pyrrhus' pause, "Aroused vengeance sets him new a-work, "And never did the Cyclops' hammers fall "On Mars's armor, forg'd for proof eterne, "With less remorse than Pyrrhus' bleeding sword "Now falls on Priam. “Out, out, thou strumpet, Fortune! All you gods, "In general synod, take away her power; "Break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel, "And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven, "As low as to the fiends!" Pol. This is too long. Ham. It shall to the barber's, with your beard. Pr'ythee, say on: he's for a jig, or a tale of bawdry, or he sleeps. Say on: come to Hecuba. 1 Play. "But who, O! who had seen the mobled queen" Ham. The mobled queen? Pol. That's good; mobled queen is good. 1 Play. "Run barefoot up and down, threat'ning the flames "With bisson frheum; a clout upon that head, "Where late the diadem stood; and, for a robe "About her lank and all o'erteemed loins, "A blanket, in th' alarm of fear caught up; "Who this had seen, with tongue in venom steep'd, "'Gainst fortune's state would treason have pronounc'd: "But if the gods themselves did see her then, "When she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport "In mincing with his sword her husband's limbs, "The instant burst of clamor that she made, "(Unless things mortal move them not at all) "Would have made & milch the burning eyes of heaven, "And passionate the gods." Pol. Look, whether he has not turned his color, and has tears in's eyes!-Pr'ythee, no more. Ham. 'Tis well; I'll have thee speak out the rest of this soon.-Good my lord, will you see the players well bestowed? Do you hear, let them be well used; for they are the abstracts, and brief chronicles, of the time: after your death you were better have a bad epitaph, than their ill report while you live. Pol. My lord, I will use them according to their desert. Ham. God's bodkin, man, much better: use every man after his desert, and who should 'scape whipping? Use them after your own honor and dignity: the less they deserve, the more merit is in your bounty. Take them in. Ros. Good my lord! [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, A damn'd defeat was made. Am I a coward? Who calls me villain? breaks my pate across? Plucks off my beard, and blows it in my face? Tweaks me by the nose? gives me the lie i' the throat, As deep as to the lungs? Who does me this? Ha! To make transgression bitter, or ere this Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave; Fie upon't! foh! "About my brain !—I have heard, “Wann'd," i. e., turned pale or wan.-"The cue," i, e., the hint or prompt-word: a technical phrase among players. "Peak," i. e., sneak.- John a-dreams was a common term for a droning simpleton.—” “Unpregnant of," i. e., unimpressed with. Defeat here signifies destruction.-p "Kindless," i, e., unnatural.-q “Drab," i. e., harlot.“ About my brain !" i. e., To work, my brain 1-■" Malefactions," i, e., evil deeds. Before mine uncle: I'll observe his looks; ACT III. SCENE I.-A Room in the Castle. [Exit. Enter King, Queen, POLONIUS, OPHELIA, ROSEN- King. And can you, by no drift of conference, Ros. He does confess, he feels himself distracted; But from what cause he will by no means speak. Guil. Nor do we find him forward to be sounded, But with a crafty madness keeps aloof, When we would bring him on to some confession Of his true state. Queen. Did he receive you well? Ros. Most like a gentleman. Guil. But with much forcing of his disposition. Ros. Niggard of question; but to our demands Most free in his reply. Queen. To any pastime? Did you assay him Ros. Madam, it so fell out, that certain players We do'er-raught on the way of these we told him; And there did seem in him a kind of joy To hear of it. They are about the court; And, as I think, they have already order This night to play before him. Pol. 'Tis most true: And he beseech'd me to entreat your majesties, "To hear and see the matter. [tent me King. With all my heart; and it doth much conTo hear him so inclin'd. Good gentlemen, give him a farther edge, [pials) [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. Queen. I shall obey you.— Oph. Madam, I wish it may. [Exit Queen. you, We will bestow ourselves.-Read on this book, That show of such an exercise may color King. O! 'tis too true.-[Aside.] How smart Pol. I hear him coming: let's withdraw, my lord. [Exeunt King and POLONIUS. $Mand OPHELIA behind, reading. Enter HAMLET. Ham. To be, or not to be: that is the question:Whether 'tis nobler in the mind, to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune; Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them?-To die,-to sleep,No more; and, by a sleep, to say we end The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to,-'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. To die;-to sleep:To sleep! perchance to dream:-ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause. There's the respect That makes calamity of so long life: For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay, The insolence of office, and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? who would "fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death,The undiscover'd country, from whose 'bourn No traveller returns,-puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have, Than fly to others that we know not of! Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pith and moment, With this regard their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action.-Soft you, now! The fair Ophelia.-Nymph, in thy Porisons Be all my sins remember'd. Oph. 3[Coming forward] Good my lord, How does your honor for this many a day? Ham. I humbly thank you; well, well, well. Oph. My lord, I have remembrances of yours, That I have longed long to re-deliver; I pray you, now receive them. Ham. I never gave you aught. No, not I; Oph. My honor'd lord, I know right well you did; Ham. Ha, ha! are you "Bestow," 1. e., hide; place." This mortal cofl,"i start back." More relative," i. e., more intimately connected.d O'er raught," i. e., overtook." Edge," i e, relish.-"Affront," I. e., confront-Espials," i, e.. spies. "Tent him," i. e., probe him.-b" Blench," i, e., shrink; the tumult and bustle of this life. The respect," ie, the consideration." Of time," i. e., of the time.- Bodkin the term for a small dagger.-"Fardele," i, e., burdens"Bourn," i. e., bound; limit-p "Orisons," c., prayer 1 : Oph. My lord! Ham. Are you fair? Oph. What means your lordship? Ham. That if you be honest, and fair, your honesty should admit no discourse to your beauty. Oph. Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than with honesty? Ham. Ay, truly; for the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is to a bawd, than the force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness: this was some time a paradox, but now the time gives it proof. I did love you once. Oph. Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so. Ham. You should not have believed me; for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock, but we shall relish of it. I loved you not. Oph. I was the more deceived. Ham. Get thee to a nunnery: why would'st thou be a breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest; but yet I could accuse me of such things, that it were better, my mother had not borne me. I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious; with more offences at my back, than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I do, crawling between heaven and earth? We are arrant knaves, all; believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery. Where's your father? Oph. At home, my lord. Ham. Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may play the fool no where but in's own house Farewell. Oph. O! help him, you sweet heavens! Ham. If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for thy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery; farewell. Or, if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool, for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go; and quickly too. Farewell. Oph. Heavenly powers, restore him! Ham. I have heard of your paintings too, well enough: God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another: you jig, you amble, and you lisp, and nickname God's creatures, and make your wantonness your ignorance. Go to; I'll no more on't: it hath made me mad. I say, we will have no more marriages: those that are married already, all but one, shall live; the rest shall keep as they are. To a nunnery, go. [Exit HAMLET. Oph. O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown! The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's, eye, tongue, Th' expectancy and rose of the fair state, [sword: The glass of fashion, and the mould of form, Th' observ'd of all observers, quite, quite down! And I, of ladies most deject and wretched, That suck'd the honey of his music vows, Now see that noble and most sovereign reason, Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh; That unmatch'd form and feature of blown youth, Blasted with ecstasy. O, woe is me! To have seen what I have seen, see what I see! King. Love! his affections do not that way tend; Thus set it down. He shall with speed to England, Haply, the seas, and countries different, This something settled matter in his heart, SCENE II-A Hall in the Same. Enter HAMLET, and certain Players, unready. Ham. Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it, as many of your players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus; but use all gently for in the very torrent, tempest, and (as I may say) whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance, that may give it smoothness. O! it offends me to the soul, to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings; who, for the most part, are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb shows, and noise: I would have such a fellow whipped for o'er-doing Termagant; it out-herods Herod: pray you avoid it. 1 Play. I warrant your honor. I Ham. Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor: suit the action to the word, the word to the action, with this special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature; for any thing so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first, and now, was, and is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time, his form and 'pressure. Now, this overdone, or come tardy off, though it make the unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve; the censure of which one must, in your allowance, o'erweigh a whole theatre of of others. O! there be players, that I have seen play, and heard others praise, and that highly, not to speak it profanely, that, neither having the accent of Christians, nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so strutted, and bellowed, that I have thought some of nature's journeymen had made men, and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably. 1 Play. I hope, we have reformed that indifferently with us. that play your clowns, speak no more than is set Ham. O reform it altogether. And let those, down for them: for there be of them, that will "Round," i. e., plain; candid. The groundlings were the spectators in the pit of the theatre. Termagant, in old romances, was the name given to the tempestuous god of the "The mould of form," i. e., the model by whom all en- Saracens." Pressure," i. e., impression; resemblance.— deavored to form themselves.-"Ecstasy," 1. e., insanity." Allowance," i. e., estimation; approval. b be No; let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp, As Vulcan's stithy. Give him heedful note; Hor. Well, my lord; Ham. They are coming to the play: I must be idle; Get you a place. 'Sennet. Danish March.2 Enter King, Queen, POLONIUS, OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and others. King. How fares our cousin Hamlet? Ham. Excellent, i'faith; of the camelion's dish: I eat the air, promise-crammed. You cannot feed | King. I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet: these words are not mine. Ham. No, nor mine now.-My lord, you played once in the university, you say? [To POLONIUS. Pol. That did I, my lord; and was accounted a good actor. Ham. And what did you enact? Pol. I did enact Julius Cæsar: I was killed i' the Capitol; Brutus killed me. Ham. It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf there. Be the players ready? Ros. Ay, my lord; they stay upon your patience Queen. Come hither, my dear Hamlet; sit by me. Ham. No, good mother, here's metal more at tractive. Oph. Nay, 'tis twice two months, my lord. Ham. So long? Nay then, let the devil wear black, for I'll have a suit of sables. O heavens! there's hope, a great man's memory may outlive his die two months ago, and not forgotten yet? Then life half a year; but, by'r-lady, he must build church es then, or else shall he suffer not thinking on, with the hobby-horse; whose epitaph is," For, O! for, O! the hobby-horse is forgot." Trumpets sound. The dumb Show enters. Enter a King and Queen, very lovingly; the Queen embracing him. She kneels, and makes show of protestation unto him. He takes her up, and de clines his head upon her neck; lays him down upon a bank of flowers: she, seeing him asleep, leaves him. Anon comes in a fellow, takes off his croen, kisses it, and pours poison in the King's ears, and The Queen returns, finds the King dead, and makes passionate action. The poisoner, with some two or three Mutes, comes in again, seeming to lament with her. The dead body is carried away. The poisoner woos the Queen with gifts: she seems loath and unwilling awhile, but in the end accepts his love. exil. Ham. We shall know by this fellow: the players cannot keep counsel; they'll tell all. Oph. Will he tell us what this show meant? Ham. Ay, or any show that you will show him: be not you ashamed to show, he'll not shame to tell you what it means. "They stay upon your patience," ie, they wait upon your will-Miching mallecho," i. e, lurking mischief |