Hamlet. 'Tis well; I'll have thee speak out the rest soon. Good my lord, will you see the players well bestow'd? Do you hear, let them be well us'd; 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. Polonius. My lord, I will use them according to their desert. Hamlet. 'Od's bodykins, 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. Polonius. Come, sirs. Hamlet. Follow him, friends: we'll hear a play to-morrow. [Exit Polonius with all the Players but the First.] Dost thou hear me, old friend? Can you play the Murder of Gonzago? First Player. Ay, my lord. 1 Hamlet. We'll ha't to-morrow night. You could, for a need, study 1 a speech of some dozen or sixteen lines which I would set down and insert in't, could you not? First Player. Ay, my lord. Hamlet. Very well. Follow that lord; and look you mock him not. [Exit First Player.] My good friends, I'll leave you till night: you are welcome to Elsinore. Rosencrantz. Good my lord! Hamlet. Ay, so, God be wi' 2 ye. [Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Now I am alone. O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I ! 1 Commit to memory. 2 "God be wi' you" is a step, in the abbreviation of "God be with you," to our "good-by." 3 The idea he had conceived. Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect', A broken voice, and his whole function1 suiting For Hecuba! What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, That he should weep for her? What would he do, Had he the motive and the cue 2 for passion That I have ? He would drown the stage with tears, And cleave the general ear with horrid speech; Make mad the guilty, and appall the free, A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak,3 A damn'd defeat 6 was made. Am I a coward ? Tweaks me by the nose? gives me the lie i' the throat, Ha! 'Swounds, I should take it! for it cannot be But I am pigeon-liver'd, and lack gall 1 Mental and bodily energy. 2 Prompting; technically, among players, the last word of the preceding speech prefixed to the speech of an actor to let him know that he is to come on the stage. 3 Mope. 4 "' John-a-dreams' (i.e., ' of dreams ') means only 'John the dreamer,' a nickname, I suppose, for any ignorant, silly fellow. Thus the puppet formerly thrown at during the season of Lent was called 'Jack-a-lent,' and the ignis fatuus, Jack-a-lantern.'"-JOHNSON and STEEVENS: Shakespeare (edition 1785). 5 Incapable. 6 Ruin. To make oppression bitter, or ere this I should have fatted all the region kites With this slave's offal. Bloody, bawdy villain! Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless 1 villain ! O, vengeance ! Why, what an ass am I ! This is most brave, That I, the son of a dear father murder'd, Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell, Must, like a wench, unpack my heart with words, A scullion! Fie upon't! foh! About, my brain ! I have heard Have by the very cunning of the scene 2 For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak 1 Void of natural feeling. 2 Evil deeds. 3 Probe. 4 Shrink with fear. 5 "Abuses me to damn me," i.e., misleads me to my ruin. 6 To the purpose. [Exit. ACT III. SCENE I. A Room in the Castle. Enter KING, QUEEN, POLONIUS, OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ, and King. And can you, by no drift of circumstance,1 Grating so harshly all his days of quiet With turbulent and dangerous lunacy? Rosencrantz. He does confess he feels himself distracted; But from what cause he will by no means speak. ^Guildenstern. 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? Rosencrantz. Most like a gentleman. Guildenstern. But with much forcing of his disposition. Rosencrantz. Niggard of question, but of our demands Most free in his reply. Queen. To any pastime ? Did you assay 2 him Rosencrantz. Madam, it so fell out that certain players We o'erraught 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, Polonius. 'Tis most true; And he beseech'd me to entreat your Majesties To hear and see the matter. King. With all my heart; and it doth much content mie 1 "Drift of circumstance," i.e., indirect way. 2 Tempt. To hear him so inclin'd. Good gentlemen, give him a further edge, King. [Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Sweet Gertrude, leave us too; For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither, Her father and myself, lawful espials, Queen. I shall obey you.- And for your part, Ophelia, I do wish That your good beauties be the happy cause Of Hamlet's wildness: 2 so shall I hope your virtues Will bring him to his wonted way again, To both your honors. Ophelia. Madam, I wish it may. [Exit Queen. Polonius. Ophelia, walk you here.— Gracious,3 so please you, We will bestow ourselves. [To Ophelia.] Read on this book; That show of such an exercise may color Your loneliness. We are oft to blame in this, 'Tis too much prov'd,—that (with devotion's visage And pious action we do sugar o'er The devil himself. King. [Aside] O, 'tis too true! How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience! 1 Confront; meet. 2 Eccentricities. 3 Addressed to the King. |