row of the rubrick will fhew you more. For, look, where my abridgements come.

Enter four or five Players.

Y'are welcome, mafters, welcome all. I am glad to fee thee well; welcome, good friends. Oh! old friend! thy face is valanc'd, fince I faw thee laft: com'st thou to beard me in Denmark? What! my young lady and mistress? b'erlady, your ladyship is nearer heaven than when I faw you last, by the altitude of 5 a chioppine. Pray God, your voice, like a piece of uncurrent gold, be not crack'd within the ring.-Mafters, you are all welcome; we'll e'en to't like friendly faulconers, Aly at any thing we fee; we'll have a speech ftraight. Come, give us a tafte of your quality; come, a paffionate speech.

1 Play. What fpeech, my good lord?

Ham. I heard thee fpeak me a fpeech once; but it was never acted or if it was, not above once; for the Play, I remember, pleas'd not the million, 'twas Caviar to the general; but it was (as I received it, and others, whofe judgment in fuch matters cried in the top of mine) an excellent Play; well digefted in the fcenes, 7 fet down with as much modefty as cunning. I remember, one faid, there was no falt in, the lines, to make the matter favoury; nor no matter in the phrase, that might indite the author of affection; but call'd it, 9 an honeft method. One fpeech in it I chiefly lov'd; 'twas Æneas's tale to Dido; and thereabout of it especially, where he speaks of Priam's flaughter. If it live in your memory, begin at this line, let me fee, let me feeMr. Pope.

5 a chioppine.] A tight-heel'd fhoe, or a flipper.

6 cried in the top of mine] i. e. whofe judgment I had the highest opinion of.

7 fet down with as much modefty] Modefty, for fimplicity. 8 that might indite the author] Indite, for convi&.

9 an honest method.] Honeft, for chaste,

:

The

The rugged Pyrrhus, like th' Hyrcanian beaft, -It is not fo; it begins with Pyrrhus.

-

The rugged Pyrrhus, he, whofe fable arms,
Black as his purpose, did the Night resemble
When he lay couched in the ominous horse;
Hath now his dread and black complexion smear'd
With heraldry more difmal; head to foot,
Now is he total gules; horridly trickt
With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, fons,
Bak'd and impafted with the parching fires,
That lend a tyrannous and damned light
To murthers vile. Roafted in wrath and fire,
And thus o'er-fized with coagulate gore,
With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus
Old grandfire Priam feeks.

Pol. 'Fore God, my lord, well fpoken, with good accent, and good discretion.

1 Play. Anon he finds him,

Striking, too short, at Greeks. His antique fword,
Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls,
Repugnant to Command; unequal match'd,
Pyrrhus at Priam drives, in rage firikes wide;
But with the whif and wind of his fell fword
Th'unnerved father falls. "Then fenfelefs Ilium
"Seeming to feel this blow, with flaming top
"Stoops to his Bafe; and with a hideous crafh
Takes prifoner Pyrrhus' ear. For lo, his fword,
Which was declining on the milky head
Of rev'rend Priam, feem'd i'th' air to ftick;
So, as a painted tyrant, Pyrrhus stood;
And, like a neutral to his will and matter,
Did nothing.

"But as we often fee, against some storm,
"A filence in the heav'ns, the rack ftand ftill,
"The bold winds fpeechlefs, and the orb below
"As hufh as death: anon the dreadful thunder
Doth rend the region: So after Pyrrhus' paufe,

A

A roused vengeance fets him new a-work:
And never did the Cyclops' hammers fall
On Mars his armour, forg'd for proof eterne,
With less remorse than Pyrrhus' bleeding fword
Now falls on Priam.

Out, out, thou ftrumpet Fortune! all you Gods,
In general fynod take away her power:

Break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel,
And bowl the round nave down the hill of heav'n,
As low as to the fiends.

Pol. This is too long.

Ham. It fhall to th' barber's with your beard. Pr'ythee, fay on; he's for a jigg, or a tale of bawdry, or he fleeps. Say on, come to Hecuba.

1 Play. But who, oh! who, had seen the mobled Queen,

Ham. The mobled Queen?

Pol. That's good; mobled Queen, is good.
1 Play. Run bare-foot up and down, threatning the
flames

With biffon rheum; a clout upon that head,
Where late the Diadem ftood; and for a robe
About her lank and all-o'er-teemed loyns,
A blanket in th' alarm of fear caught up:
Who this had feen, with tongue in venom fteep'd,
'Gainst fortune's ftate would treafon have pronounc'd:
But if the Gods themselves did fee her then,
When fhe faw Pyrrhus make malicious sport
In mincing with his fword her husband's limbs;
The inftant burft of clamour that she made,
(Unless things mortal move them not at all)
Would have made milch the burning eyes of heav'n,
And paffion in the Gods.

the mobled Queen, -] Mobled or mabled, fignifies veiled. So Sandys, fpeaking of the Turkish women, fays, their heads and faces are MABLED in fine linen, that no more is to be feen of them than their eyes.

Travels.

Pol.

Pol. Look, whe're he has not turn'd his colour, and has tears in's eyes. Pr'ythee, no more.

Ham. 'Tis well, I'll have thee fpeak out the rest of this foon. Good my lord, will you fee the Players well beftow'd? Do ye hear, let them be well us'd; for they are the abftract, and brief chronicles of the time. After your death, you were better have a bad Epitaph, than their ill report while you liv'd.

Pol. My lord, I will ufe them according to their defert.

Ham. God's bodikins, man, much better. Use every man after his defert, and who fhall 'fcape whipping? use them after your own honour and dignity. The lefs they deferve, the more merit is in your bounty. Take them in.

Pol. Come, Sirs.

[Exit Polonius. Ham. Follow him, Friends: we'll hear a Play to morrow. Doft thou hear me, old friend, can you play the murther of Gonzago?

Play. Ay, my lord.

Ham. We'll ha't to morrow night. You could, for a need, study a fpeech of fome dozen or fixteen lines, which I would fet down, and infert in't? could ye not?

Play. Ay, my lord.

Ham. Very well. Follow that lord, and, look, you mock him not. My good friends, I'll leave you 'till night, you are welcome to Elfinoor.

Rof. Good my lord.

SCE ENE VII.

Manet Hamlet.

[Exeunt.

Ham. Ay, fo, God b' w' ye: now I am alone.
Oh, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!
"Is it not monftrous that this Player here,
VOL. VIII.

N

"But

"But in a fiction, in a dream of paffion, "Could force his foul fo to his own conceit, "That, from her working, all his visage wan'd: "Tears in his eyes, diftraction in his afpect,

2

"A broken voice, and his whole function fuiting, "With forms, to his conceit? and all for nothing? "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 for paffion, "That I have? he would drown the ftage with

tears,

"And cleave the gen❜ral ear with horrid speech;
"Make mad the guilty, and appall the free;
"Confound the ign'rant, and amaze, indeed,
"The very faculty of eyes and ears.-Yet I,
A dull and muddy-mettled rafcal, peak,
Like Jobn-a-dreams, 3 unpregnant of my cause,
And can fay nothing, no, not for a King,
Upon whofe property and moft dear life

+ A damn'd defeat was made. Am I a coward?
Who calls me villain, breaks my pate a-cross,
Plucks off my beard, and blows it in my face?
Tweaks me by th' nofe, gives me the lye i'th' throat,
As deep as to the lungs? who does me this?
Yet I should take it for it cannot be,
But I am pidgeon-liver'd, and lack gall
To make oppreffion bitter; or, ere this,
I fhould have fatted all the region kites

2 all his vifage WAR M'D:] This might do, did not the old Quarto lead us to a more exact and pertinent reading, which is, visage WAN'D:

i. e. turn'd pale, or wan. For fo the vifage appears when the mind is thus affectioned, and not warm'd or flushed. unpregnant of my cause,] Unpregnant, for having no

3

due fenfe of.

4 A damm'd defeat was made.-] Defeat, for deftruction.