Pol. Upon my honour,

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! 91 What a treasure had he, my lord?

Pol.

Ham.

Pol.

Ham.

Why

"One fair daughter, and no more,

The which he loved passing well."

Still on my daughter.

Am I not i' the right, old Jephthah?

[Aside.

Pol. If you call me Jephthah, my lord, I have a daughter

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 abridgment comes.

Enter the Players.

You are welcome, masters; welcome, all. I am glad to see thee well welcome, good friends. O, 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-'rlady, your ladyship is nearer to heaven, than 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

92

but it was 93

never acted; or, if it was, not above once, for the play, I remember, pleased not the million; 't was caviary to the general: but it was (as I received it, and others, whose judgments in such matters cried in the top of mine) an excellent play;

well digested in the scenes, set down with as much modesty as cunning. I remember, one said, there was no salt in the lines to make the matter savoury, nor no matter in the phrase that might indict the author of affection, 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: 't was Æneas' tale to Dido; and thereabout of it especially, where he speaks of Priam's slaughter. If it live in your memory, begin at this line: let me see, let me see; 94 "The rugged Pyrrhus, like the Hyrcanian beast," 't is not so; it begins with Pyrrhus.

95

--

"The rugged Pyrrhus, he, whose sable 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 dismal; head to foot
"Now is he total gules; horridly trick'd

"With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons;
"Bak'd and impasted with the parching streets,
"That lend a tyrannous and a damned light

"To their lord's murder: roasted in wrath, and fire,
"And thus o'er-sized with coagulate gore,

"With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus

"Old grandsire Priam seeks;" —

So proceed you.

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

1 Play.

66

"Anon he finds him

'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. |

96 "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,
"A roused vengeance sets him new a-work,
"And never did the Cyclops' hammers fall.
"On Mars's armour, 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. Ham. say on:

This is too long. |

Pr'ythee, 97

It shall to the barber's, with your beard.
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 rheum; 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 clamour that she made,

66

(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 colour, and has 98 tears in's eyes! Pr'ythee, no more.

soon.

Ham. 'T is well; I'll have thee speak out the rest of this 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.

99

Pol.
Ham.

My lord, I will use them according to their desert. God's bodkin, man, much better: use every man after his desert, and who should 'scape whipping? Use them after your own honour and dignity: the less they deserve, the more merit is in your bounty. Take them in.

Pol. Come, Sirs.

Ham. Follow him,

[Exit POLONIUS, with some of the Players.
friends: we'll hear a play to-morrow.

Dost thou hear me, old friend? can you play the murder of
Gonzago?

1 Play. Ay, my lord. |

Ham. We'll have it to-morrow night. You could, for a need, study a speech of some dozen or sixteen lines, which I would set down and insert in 't, could you not?

1 Play. Ay, my lord.

Ham. Very well.

Follow that lord; and look you mock him not. [Exit Player.] My good friends, [To Ros. and GUIL.] I'll leave you till night: you are welcome to Elsinore.

Ros. Good my lord!

[Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.
Now I am alone.

Ham. Ay, so; good bye to you.
O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!
Is it not monstrous, that this player here,
But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,
Could force his soul so to his own conceit,
That, from her working, all his visage wann'd;
Tears in his eyes, distraction in his aspect,
A broken voice, and his whole function suiting
With forms to his conceit? and all for nothing!
For Hecuba? |

100 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 passion,
That I have? He would drown the stage with tears,
And cleave the general ear with horrid speech;
Make mad the guilty, and appal the free,
Confound the ignorant; and amaze, indeed,
The very faculties of eyes and ears. Yet I,
A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak,
Like John -a - dreams, unpregnant of my cause,
And can say nothing; no, not for a king,
Upon whose property, and most dear life,
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,

101

As deep as to the lungs? Who does me this? | 'Swounds! I should take it; for it cannot be, But I am pigeon - liver'd, and lack gall

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 villain!
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 whore, unpack my heart with words,
And fall a cursing, like a very drab,

A scullion! Fie upon 't! Foh!

About my brains! Hum! I have heard,

That guilty creatures, sitting at a play,

Have by the very cunning of the scene
Been struck so to the soul, that presently

They have proclaim'd their malefactions; |

For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak
With most miraculous organ. I'll have these players
Play something like the murder of my father,
Before mine uncle: I'll observe his looks;
I'll tent him to the quick: if he but blench,
I know my course. The spirit, that I have seen,
May be the devil: and the devil hath power
T'assume a pleasing shape; yea, and, perhaps,
Out of my weakness, and my melancholy,
As he is very potent with such spirits,
Abuses me to damn me. I'll have grounds
More relative than this: the play 's the thing,
Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.

102

[Exit.