Enter Hamlet, and two or three of the Players.

Ham. SPeak the fpeech I pray you, as I pronounc'd it to you, trippingly on the tongue. But if you mouth it, as many of our Players do, I had as lieve the town-crier had spoke my lines. And do not faw the air too much with your hand thus, but ufe all gently; for in the very torrent, tempeft, and, as I may fay, whirl-wind of your paffion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it fmoothnefs. Oh, it offends me to the foul, to hear a robuftous periwig-pated fellow tear a paffion to tatters, to very rags, to fplit the ears of the groundlings who (for the most part) are capable of nothing, but inexplicable dumb fhews, and noife: I could have fuch a fellow whipt for o'er-doing termagant; it out-berods Herod. Pray you avoid it.

Play. I warrant your Honour.

Ham. Be not too tame neither; but let your own difcretion be your tutor. Suit the action to the word, the word to the action; with this fpecial obfervance, that you o'er-step not the modesty of nature; for any thing fo overdone is from the purpose of playing; whofe end both at the firft and now, was and is, to hold as 'twere the mirror up to nature; to fhew virtue her own feature, fcorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time, his form and preffure. Now this over-done or come tardy off though it make the unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve: the cenfure of one of which, must in your allowance o'er-fway a whole theatre of others. Oh, there be Players that I have seen play, and heard others praife and that highly, (not to speak it prophanely) that neither having the accent of chriftian, nor the gate of christian, pagan, or man, have fo ftrutted and bellow'd, A a 3

4 of which one

that

that I have thought fome of nature's journey-men had made men, and not made them well; they imitated huma nity fo abominably.

us.

Play. I hope we have reform'd that indifferently with

Ham. Oh reform it altogether. And let thofe that play your clowns, fpeak no more than is fet down for them: For there be of them that will themselves laugh, to fet on fome quantity of barren fpectators to laugh too, though in the mean time fome neceffary queftion of the play be then to be confidered: That's villainous, and fhews a moft pitiful ambition in the fool that ufes it. Go, make you ready. [Exeunt Players.

Enter Polonius, Rofincroffe, and Guildenstern. How now, my Lord? will the King hear this piece of work?

Pol And the Queen too, and that presently.

Ham. Bid the Players make haste.

Will you two help to haften them?

Both. We will, my Lord.

S

[Exit Polonius.

[Exeunt.

CENE V.

Enter Horatio to Hamlet.

Ham. What ho! Horatio!.

Hor. Here, fweet Lord, at your service.
Ham. Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man
As e'er my converfation cop'd withal.
Hor. Oh my dear Lord-

Ham. Nay, do not think I flatter:

For what advancement may I hope from thee,
That no revenue haft, but thy good fpirits,

To feed and cloath thee? Should the poor be flatter'd?
No, let the candied tongue lick abfurd pomp,
And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee,

Where thrift may follow fawning. Doft thou hear?
Since my dear foul was miftrefs of her choice,

And

d

And could of men diftinguish, her election

Hath feal'd thee for her felf. For thou hast been
As one, in fuffering all that fuffers nothing:
A man, that fortune's buffets and rewards

Hath ta'en with equal thanks. And bleft are those,
Whose blood and judgment are fo well co-mingled,
That they are not a pipe for fortune's finger
To found what stop the please. Give me that man
That is not paffion's flave, and I will wear him
In my heart's core: ay, in my heart of heart,
As I do thee.Something too much of this. -
There is a play to-night before the King,
One scene of it comes near the circumstance
Which I have told thee, of my father's death.
I pr'ythee, when thou seeft that act a-foot,
Ev'n with the very comment of thy foul
Obferve mine uncle: if his occult guilt
Do not it felf unkennel in one fpeech,
It is a damn'd ghoft that we have feen:
And my imaginations are as foul

As Vulcan's 'fmithy. Give him heedful note,
For I mine eyes will rivet to his face,

And after we will both our judgments join,
To cenfure of his feeming.

Hor. Well, my Lord.

If he fteal aught the whilft this play is playing,
And 'scape detecting, I will pay the theft.

Enter King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Rofincroffe,
Guildenstern, and other Lords attendant, with a Guard
carrying torches. Danish march. Sound a flourish.

Ham. They're coming to the play; I must be idle.
Get you a place.

King. How fares our coufin Hamlet?

A a 4

5 ftithy. ... old edit. Theob. emend.

Ham.

Ham. Excellent, i'faith, of the camelion's difh: I eat the air, promife-cramm'd: you cannot feed capons fo.

King. I have nothing with this anfwer, Hamlet, these words are not mine.

Ham. No, nor mine now, my Lord. You plaid once i'th' univerfity, you fay? [To Polonius. Pol. That I did, my Lord, and was accounted a good

actor.

Ham. And what did you enact?

Pol. I did enact Julius Cæfar, I was kill'd i'th' Capitol : Brutus kill'd me.

Ham. It was a brute part of him, to kill fo capital a calf there. Be the players ready?

Rof. Ay, my Lord, they ftay upon your patience. Queen. Come hither, my dear Hamlet, fit by me. Ham. No, good mother, here's mettle more attractive.

Pol. Oh, ho, do you mark that?

Ham. Lady, fhall I lye in your lap?

Oph. No, my Lord.

[Lying down at Ophelia's feet.

Ham. Do you think I meant country matters?

Oph. I think nothing, my Lord.

Ham. That's a fair thought to lye between a maid's legs. Oph. What is, my Lord?

Ham. Nothing.

Oph. You are merry, my Lord.

Ham. Who, I?

Oph. Ay, my Lord,

Ham. Oh God, your only jig-maker; what fhould a man do, but be merry? for look you how chearfully my mother looks, and my father dy'd within these two hours.

Oph. Nay, 'tis two months, my Lord.

Ham. So long? nay then let the devil wear black, for I'll have a fuit of 7'ermyn. Oh heav'ns! die two months ago, and not forgotten yet! then there's hope, a great

man's

man's memory may out-live his life half a year: but by'rlady, he muft build churches then; or elfe fhall he fuffer not thinking on, with the hobby-horfe; whofe epitaph is, For ob, for ob, the bobby-borfe is forgot.

SCENE VII.

Hautboys play. The dumb fhew enters.

Enter a Duke and Dutchefs, with regal coronets, very lovingly; the Dutchess embracing him, and be her. He takes ber up, and declines his head upon her neck. Lays him down upon a bank of flowers. She feeing him asleep, leaves him. Anon comes in a fellow, takes off his coronet, kifles it, and pours poifon in the Duke's ears, and Exit. The Dutchess returns, finds the Duke dead, and makes paffionate action. The poisoner, with fome two or three mutes come in again, feeming to lament with her. The dead body is carried away. The poifoner woes the Dutchess with gifts, fhe feems loth and unwilling a while, but in the end accepts bis love. [Exeunt.

Oph. What means this, my Lord? Ham: Marry, this is miching Malicho, that means, mischief.

Opb. Belike this fhew imports the argument of the play?

Enter Prologue.

Ham. We fhall know by this fellow: the players cannot keep counsel, they'll tell all.

Opb. Will he tell us what this fhew meant?

Ham. Ay, or any fhew that you'll fhew him. Be not you afhamed to fhew, he'll not fhame to tell you what it

means.

Oph. You are naught, you are naught, I'll mark the play.

Prol. For us, and for our tragedy,

Here ftooping to your clemency,
We beg your bearing patiently.

Ham.