SCENE II. A Hall in the Same. Enter HAMLET and certain Players. 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 your 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 honour. | 115 Ham. Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion 116 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 't were, 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'er-weigh a whole theatre 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 Turk, 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. 117 Ham. O! reform it altogether. And let those, that play your clowns, speak no more than is set down for them: for there be of them, that will themselves laugh, to set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too: though in the mean 118 time some necessary question of the play be then to be considered: that's villainous, and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it. Go, make you ready. [Exeunt Players. Enter POLONIUS, ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. How now, my lord? will the king hear this piece of work? Ros. Ay, my lord. Ham. What, ho! Horatio! | [Exit POLONIUS. [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. Enter HORATIO. Hor. Here, sweet lord, at your service. As e'er my conversation cop'd withal. Hor. O! my dear lord, Ham. Nay, do not think I flatter; For what advancement may I hope from thee, That no revenue hast, but thy good spirits, To feed and clothe thee? Why should the poor be flatter'd? let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp, No; And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee, Where thrift may follow fawning. Dost thou hear? And could of men distinguish, her election Hath seal'd thee for herself: for thou hast been 119 To sound what stop she please. Give me that man Do not itself unkennel in one speech, It is a damned ghost that we have seen, As Vulcan's stithy. Give him heedful note; And, after, we will both our judgments join If he steal aught the whilst this play is playing, Ham. They are coming to the play; I must be idle; Get you a place. | Danish March. A Flourish. Enter King, Queen, POLONIUS, 120 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 capons so. King. I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet: these words are not mine. Pol. That did I, my lord; and was accounted a good actor. Pol. I did enact Julius Cæsar: I was killed i' the Capitol; 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. Ham. No, good mother, here 's metal more attractive. Ham. Lady, shall I lie in your lap? [To the King. [Lying down at OPHELIA's Feet. | Oph. No, my lord. 121 Ham. I mean, my head upon your lap? Oph. Ay, my lord. Ham. Do you think, I meant country matters? Oph. I think nothing, my lord. Ham. That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs. Oph. What is, my lord? Ham. Nothing. Oph. You are merry, my lord. 122 123 Ham. Who, I? Oph. Ay, my lord. Ham. O God! your only jig - maker. What should a man do, but be merry? for, look you, how cheerfully my mother looks, and my father died within these two hours. Oph. Nay, 't is 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! die two months ago, and not forgotten yet? Then there's hope, a great man's memory may outlive his life half a year; but, by -'r-lady, he must build churches 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." | Hautboys play. The dumb Show enters. Enter a King and Queen, very lovingly; the Queen embracing him. or three Mutes, comes in again, seeming to lament with her. The Oph. What means this, my lord? Ham. Marry, this is miching mallico; it means mischief. Enter Prologue. 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. Oph. You are naught, you are naught. I'll mark the play. Here stooping to your clemency, We beg your hearing patiently." Ham. Is this a prologue, or the poesy of a ring? Oph. 'T is brief, my lord. Ham. As woman's love. Enter a King and a Queen. P. King. Full thirty times hath Phoebus' cart gone round P. Queen. So many journeys may the sun and moon But, woe is me! you are so sick of late, So far from cheer, and from your former state, Now, what my love is, proof hath made you know, Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear; Where little fears grow great, great love grows there. P. King. 'Faith, I must leave thee, love, and shortly too; My operant powers their functions leave to do: And thou shalt live in this fair world behind, Honour'd, belov'd; and, haply, one as kind P. Queen. O, confound the rest! Such love must needs be treason in my breast: In second husband let me be accurst; None wed the second, but who kill'd the first. | P. Queen. The instances, that second marriage move, Are base respects of thrift, but none of love: A second time I kill my husband dead, When second husband kisses me in bed. P. King. I do believe you think what now you speak, But what we do determine oft we break. Purpose is but the slave to memory, Of violent birth, but poor validity; Which now, like fruit unripe, sticks on the tree, Most necessary 't is, that we forget 124 125 |