Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

Guil. Happy, in that we are not over-happy; on fortune's cap, we are not the very button.

Ham. Nor the foles of her shoe?

Rof. Neither, my Lord.

Ham. Then you live about her waift, or in the mid

dle of her favours ?

Guil. 'Faith, in her privates we.

Ham. In the fecret parts of fortune? oh, most true; fhe is a ftrumpet. What news?

Rof. None, my Lord, but that the world's grown honeft.

true.

Ham. Then is dooms-day near; but your news is not Let me question more in particular: what have you, my good friends, deferved at the hands of fortune, that the fends you to prison hither?

Guil. Prifon, my Lord!

Ham. Denmark's a prison.

Rof. Then is the world one.

Ham. A goodly one, in which there are many confines, wards, and dungeons; Denmark being one o'th' worst.

Rof. We think not fo, my Lord.

Ham. Why, then, 'tis none to you; for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it fo: to me, it is a prifon.

Rof. Why, then your ambition makes it one: 'tis too narrow for your mind.

Ham. Oh God, I could be bounded in a nut-fhell, and count myself a King of infinite space; were it not, that I have bad dreams.

Guil. Which dreams, indeed, are ambition; for the very fubftance of the ambitious is merely the fhadow of a dream.

Ham. A dream itself is but a fhadow.

Rof. Truly, and I hold ambition of fo airy and light a quality, that it is but a fhadow's shadow.

Ham. Then are our beggars, bodies; and our monarchs and out-ftretch'd heroes, the beggars' fhadows; Shall we to th' Court? for, by my fay, I cannot reason. Both. We'll wait upon you.

VOL. VIII.

G

Ham.

Ham. No fuch matter. I will not fort you with the reft of my fervants; for, to fpeak to you like an honest man, I am moft dreadfully attended; but in the beaten way of friendship, what make you at Elfinoor?

Rof. To vifit you, my Lord; no other occafion. Ham. Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks; but I thank you; and fure, dear friends, my thanks are too dear of a half-penny. Were you not fent for? is it your own inclining? is it a free vifitation? come, deal juftly with me; come, come; nay, speak.

Guil. What fhould we fay, my Lord?

:

Ham. Any thing, but to the purpose. You were fent for and there is a kind of confeffion in your looks, which your modefties have not craft enough to colour. I know, the good King and Queen have fent for you.

Rof. To what end, my Lord?

Ham. That you must teach me; but let me conjure you by the rights of our fellowship, by the confonancy of our youth, by the obligation of our ever-preferved love, and by what more dear, a better propofer could charge you withal; be even and direct with me, whether you were fent for or no?

Rof. What fay you?

[To Guilden. Ham. Nay, then I have an eye of you: if you love me, hold not off.

Guil. My Lord, we were fent for.

Ham. I will tell you why; fo fhall my anticipation prevent your difcovery, and your fecrecy to the King and Queen moult no feather. I have of late, but wherefore I know not, loft all my mirth, foregone all cuftom of exercife; and, indeed, it goes fo heavily with my difpofition, that this goodly frame, the earth, feems to me a fteril promontory; this moft excellent canopy the air, look you, this brave o'er-hanging firmament, this majeftical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to me, than a foul and peftilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is a man!

how noble in reafon ! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving how exprefs and admirable! in action how

like an angel! in apprehenfion how like a God! the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals! and yet to me, what is this quinteffence of duft? man delights not me, nor woman neither; though by your smiling you feem to fay fo.

Rof. My Lord, there was no fuch ftuff in my thoughts. Ham. Why did you laugh, when I faid, man delights

not me?

Ref To think, my Lord, if you delight not in man, what eaten entertainment the players fhall receive from you, we accofted them on the way, and hither are thyoming to offer you fervice.

am. He that plays the King fhall be welcome; his Majefty hall have tribute of me; the adventurous Knight fhall ufe his foyle and target; the lover fhall not figh gratis; the humorous man fhall end his part in peace; and the lady fhall fay her mind freely, or the blank verse fhall halt for't. What players are they?

Ref. Even thofe you were wont to take delight in, ́ the tragedians of the city.

Ham. How chances it, they travel? their refidence both in reputation and profit was better, both ways. Rof. I think, their inhibition comes by the means of the late innovation.

Ham. Do they hold the fame eftimation they did, when I was in the city? are they fo follow'd? Ref. No, indeed, they are not.

Ham. How comes it? do they grow rufty?

Rof. Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace; but there is, Sir, an aiery of children, little eyafes, (15)

that

(15) But there is, Sir, an Aiery of Children, little Yafes, that cry out on the Top of Question.] The Poet here fteps out of his Subject to give a Lash at home, and fneer at the prevailing Fashion of following Plays performed by the Children of the Chapel, and abandoning the established Theatres. But why are they called little Yafes? I wish, fome of the Editors would have expounded this fine new Word to us; or, at leaft, told us where we might meet with it, 'Till then, I fhall make bold to fufpect it; and, without overftraining Sagacity, attempt to retrieve the true Word. As he firft calls 'em an Aery of Children, (now, an Aiery or Egery is a Hawke's

that cry out on the top of queftion; and are most tyrannically clapt for't; these are now the fashion, and fo berattle the common ftages, (fo they call them) that many wearing rapiers are afraid of goofe-quills, and dare fearce come thither.

Ham. What, are they children? who maintains 'em; how are they escorted? will they purfue the quality, no longer than they can fing? will they not fay afterwards, if they fhould grow themselves to common players, (as it is moft like, if their means are no better :) their writers do them wrong to make them exclaim against their own fucceffion?

Rof. 'Faith, there has been much to do on both fides; and the nation holds it no fin, to tarre them on to controverfy, There was, for a while, no money bid for argument, unless the poet and the player went to cuffs in the question.

[ocr errors][merged small]

Guil. Oh, there has been much throwing about of brains.

Ham. Do the boys carry it away?

Rof. Ay, that they do, my Lord, Hercules and his load too.

Ham. It is not ftrange; for mine uncle is King of Denmark; and those, that would make mowes at him while my father lived, give twenty, forty, fifty, an hundred ducats a-piece, for his picture in little. There is fomething in this more than natural, if philofophy could find it out. [Flourish for the Players.

Guil. There are the players. -Ham. Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elfinoor; your hands come then, the appurtenance of welcome is fashion and ceremony. Let me comply with you in this garbe, left my extent to the players (which, I tell you, muft fhew fairly outward) fhould more appear like entertainment than yours. You are wel.

or Eagle's Neft ;) there is not the leaft Question but we ought to reftore. -little Eyafes; i. e. Young Nefilings, Creatures juft out

of the Egg.

come;

come; but my Uncle-father and Aunt-mother are deceiv'd.

Guil. In what, my dear Lord?

Ham. I am but mad north, north-west: when the wind is foutherly, I know a hawk from a hand-faw..>

Enter Polonius..

Pol. Well be with you, gentlemen.

Ham. Hark you, Guildenstern, and you too, at each ear a hearer; that great baby, you fee there, is not yet out of his fwathling-clouts.

Rof. Haply, he's the fecond time come to them; for they fay, an old man is twice a child.

Ham. I will prophefy, he comes to tell me of the players. Mark it ;-you fay right, Sir; for on Monday morning 'twas fo, indeed.

Pol. My Lord, I have news to tell you.
Ham. My Lord, I have news to tell

When Rofcius was an actor in Rome

you.

Pol. The actors are come hither, my Lord.
Ham. Buzze, buzze.-

Pol. Upon mine honour.

Ham. Then came each actor on his afs

Pol. The best actors in the world, either for tragedy comedy, hiftory, paftoral, paftoral-comical, hiftoricalpaftoral, fcene undividable, or poem unlimited : Seneca: cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light. For the law of wit, and the liberty, thefe are the only men.

Ham. Oh, Jephtha, judge of Ifrael, what a treasure

hadft thou!

Pol. What a treasure had he, my Lord ? Ham. Why, one fair daughter, and no more,. The which he loved paffing well.

~~Pol. Still on my daughter.

Ham. Am I not i'th' right, old Jephtha?

Pol. If you call me Jephtha, my Lord, I have a daughter that I love paffing well.

Ham. Nay, that follows not.

Pol. What follows then, my Lord P

G. 35

Ham,

« AnteriorContinua »