66 SHAKESPEARE. Rosencrantz. We think not so, my lord. Team [ACT II. Hamlet. Why, then, 'tis none to you; or there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it sq To me it is a prison. Rosencrantz. Why, then, your ambition makes it one; 'tis to narrow for your mind. Hamlet. O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams. 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 outstretch'd heroes the beggars' shadows. Shall we to the court? for, by my fay,1 I cannot reason. Rosencrantz. Quitenstern.} We'll wait upon you. Hamlet. No such matter: I will not sort 2 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.4 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? e Hamlet. Why, anything, but to the purpose. You were sent for; and there is a kind of confession in your looks which your modesties have not craft enough to color.5 I know the good King and Queen have sent for you. 1 Rosencrantz. To what end, my lord? Hamlet. That you must teach me. But let me conjure you, by the rights of our fellowship, by the consonancy 1 of our youth, by the obligation of our ever-preserved love, and by what more dear a better proposer could charge you withal, be even and direct with me, whether you were sent for, or no? Rosencrantz. [Aside to Guildenstern] What say you ? Hamlet. [Aside] Nay, then, I have an eye of you. If you love me, hold not off. Guildenstern. My lord, we were sent for. Hamlet. I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation prevent your discovery, and your secrecy to the King and Queen molt 2 no feather. I have of late-but wherefore I know not-lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises; and indeed it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapors. What a piece of work is man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals !5 And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? man delights not me: no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so. Rosencrantz. My lord, there was no such stuff in my thoughts. Hamlet. Why did you laugh, then, when I said, "man delights not me "? Rosencrantz. To think, my lord, if you delight not in man, what lenten entertainment 6 the players shall receive from you. 1 Harmonious intimacy. 2 Lose, or shed. 4 Exact; fitted to its purpose. 3 Ornamented. 5 " Paragon of animals," i.e., without a peer among animals. 6" Lenten entertainment," i.e., scanty welcome. 1 We coted them on the way; and hither are they coming, to offer you service. Hamlet. He that plays the king shall be welcome; his Majesty shall have tribute of me; the adventurous knight shall use his foil and target; the lover shall not sigh gratis; the humorous man shall end his part in peace; the clown shall make those laugh whose lungs are tickle o' the sere ; 2 and the lady shall say her mind freely, or the blank verse shall halt for't. What players are they? Rosencrantz. Even those you were wont to take delight in, the tragedians of the city. Hamlet. How chances it they travel? their residence, both in reputation and profit, was better both ways. Rosencrantz. I think their inhibition comes by the means of the late innovation.3 Hamlet. Do they hold the same estimation they did when I was in the city? Are they so follow'd ? Rosencrantz. No, indeed, are they not. Hamlet. How comes it? Do they grow rusty? 7 Rosencrantz. Nay, their endeavor keeps in the wonted pace. But there is, sir, an aerie of children, little eyases,5 that cry out on the top of question,6 and are most tyrannically clapped for't. These are now the fashion, and so berattle the common stages -so they call them-that many wearing rapiers are afraid of goose quills, and dare scarce come thither.8 1 Overtook and passed. 2 "Make those laugh," etc., i.e., make those laugh who are easily excited The "sere,' to mirth. or sear," is the catch of a gunlock. 3 Collier (as quoted by Furness) remarks: "This passage [inhibition comes, etc.] probably refers to the limiting of public performances [in London] to the two theaters, the Globe and the Fortune, in 1600 and 1601. The players by a 'late innovation' were ' inhibited,' or forbidden to act in or near the city, and therefore traveled, or 'strolled,' into the country.' 4 A brood, or nest. 5 Young hawks; figuratively, unfledged novices. 6 “Cry out,” etc., i.e., assert superiority; proclaim themselves superior. 7 Vehemently. 8" These are now the fashion," etc., i.e., "These young hawks make such Hamlet. What, are they children? who maintains 'em? how are they escoted? Will they pursue the quality 2 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 no better-their writers do them wrong, to make them exclaim against their own succession ? Rosencrantz. 'Faith, there has been much to do on both sides; and the nation holds it no sin to tarre3 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. Hamlet. Is't possible? Guildenstern. O, there has been much throwing about of brains. Hamlet. Do the boys carry it away? Rosencrantz. Ay, that they do, my lord; Hercules and his load 5 too. Hamlet. It is not very strange; for mine uncle is King of Denmark, and those that would make mows at him while my father liv'd give twenty, forty, fifty, an hundred ducats apiece for his picture in little. 'Sblood, there is something in this more than natural, if philosophy could find it out. [Flourish of trumpets within. Your Guildenstern. There are the players. hands, come then. a noise on the common stage, that the dramatists, whose wit is as keen as a rapier, are afraid to encounter these chits who fight, as it were, with a goose quill."-REV. C. E. MOBERLY. 2 Profession, or calling. 1 Paid. 5 "Hercules and his load:" we read in classic mythology that Atlas, one of the Titans, having assisted the giants in their war against the gods, Jupiter condemned him to bear the heavens upon his shoulders; and it is further fabled that Hercules (see Note 3, p. 32), in return for a favor granted him by Atlas, relieved the Titan of his burden. (See GUERBER'S Myths of Gerece and Rome, p. 228.) Possibly there is an allusion in the text to the Globe Theater, in which Shakespeare was interested. bearing a globe. Its sign was Hercules and ceremony: let me comply with you in this garb,1 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 deceiv'd. Guildenstern. In what, my dear lord? Hamlet. I am but mad north-northwest: when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw.2 Reënter POLONIUS. Polonius. Well be with you, gentlemen! Hamlet. Hark you, Guildenstern; — and you too; - at each ear a hearer: that great baby you see there is not yet out of his swaddling clouts. Rosencrantz. Happily 3 he's the second time come to them; for they say an old man is twice a child. Hamlet. I will prophesy he comes to tell me of the players; mark it. You say right, sir: o' Monday morning; 'twas so indeed. Polonius. My lord, I have news to tell you. Hamlet. My lord, I have news to tell you. When Roscius was an actor in Rome, Polonius. The actors are come hither, my lord. Hamlet. Buz, buz ! 4 Polonius. Upon mine honor, Hamlet. Then came each actor on his ass, Polonius. The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, tragicalhistorical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral, scene individable, or poem unlimited: Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus* 1 "Let me comply with you in this garb," i.e., let my welcome to you have this outward formality. 2 "Know a hawk from a handsaw" (originally "hernshaw," a heron) was in old proverbial expression in Shakespeare's time. 3 Haply; perhaps. 4 Fudge; idle talk. 5 " Seneca," etc. : "The tragedies of Seneca were translated into Eng |