To show his grief; let her be round with him;
And I'll be placed, so please you, in the ear
Of all their conference: If she find him not,"
To England send him; or confine him, where
Your wisdom best shall think.

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 our players do, I had as lief* the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do * live, O. C. not saw the air too much, 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 (7) tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings; (18) who, for the most part, are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb shows, and noise (19) I would have such a fellow whipped for o'er-doing Termagant; it out-herods Herod:(2) Pray you, avoid it.

1 PLAY. I warrant your honour.

HAM. Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor; suit the action to the

:

a

word, the word to the action; with this special observance, that you o'er-step 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 'twere, 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 the which One, must, in your allowance, o'er-weigh a whole theatre of others. (22) O, there be players, that I have seen play, and heard others praise, and that highly, not to speak it profanely, (2) that, neither having the accent of christians, nor the gait of christian, So 4tos. pagan, nor man*, have so strutted, and bellowed, or, Norman, that I have thought some of nature's journeymen had made men, and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably.

1623, 32.

1 PLAY. I hope, we have reformed that indif ferently with us.

d

HAM. O, reform it altogether. And let those, that play your clowns, speak no more than is set down for them: (24) for there be of them, that will themselves laugh, to set on some quantity of barren spectators (25) to laugh too: though, in the

shew the very age and body of the time, his form and pressure] Hold up and reflect the shape or form, the lively pourtraiture of the age, and exhibit the mould, or (as we say, its form, of the hare) the very impress or indented mark, the pressure of the body of the time.

bcome tardy off] Without spirit or animation; heavily, sleepingly done.

the censure of the which One] "The judgment of which one class or description of persons (" one of whom" had been more familiar language) must, by your admission," &c. Instead of "the which One," the quartos read " which one."

indifferently] In a reasonable degree.

a

mean 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 GUILDEN

STERN.

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.

[Exit POLONIUS.

Will you two help to hasten them?

HOR. Here, sweet lord, at your service. HAM. Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man. As e'er my conversation coap'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, (26)
To feed, and clothe thee? Why should the poor
be flatter'd?

No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp;
And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee,

question] Point, topic. See I. 1. Barn. coap'd withaly Encountered with. copt.

The quartos read

faining, Where thrift may follow *fauning; () Dost thou

1623, 32.

* my,

hear?

Since my dear soul (28) was mistress of her choice, 1623, 32. And could of men distinguish, her election

Hath seal'd thee for herself: for thou hast been
As one, in suffering all, that suffers nothing;
A man, that fortune's buffets and rewards

Has ta'en with equal thanks: and bless'd are those, *comedled, Whose blood and judgment are so well *co-min

4tos.

gled, (29)

That they are not a pipe for fortune's finger To sound what stop she please: Give me that man That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him In my heart's core, (30) ay, in my 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 seest that act a-foot, ny, 1623, Even with the very comment of thy soul* Observe my uncle: if his occulted guilt Do not itself unkennel in one speech, It is a damned ghost (31) that we have seen; And my imaginations are as foul

32.

b

As Vulcan's stithe. (32) Give him heedful note:
For I mine eyes will rivet to his face;

And, after, we will both our judgments join
In censure of his seeming.

c

HOR.
Well, my lord:
If he steal aught, the whilst this play is playing,
And scape detecting, I will pay the theft.

* the very comment of thy soul] The most intense direction of every faculty. Thy is the reading of the quartos.

bocculted guilt do not itself unkennel] Stifled, secret guilt, do not develop itself.

In censure of his seeming] In making our estimate of the appearance he shall put on."

HAM. They are coming to the play; I must be idle:

Get you a place.

Danish March. A Flourish. Enter King, Queen, POLONIUS, OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and Others.

KING. How fares our cousin Hamlet?

HAM. Excellent, i'faith; of the cameleon's dish: I eat the air, promise-crammed: You cannot feed capons so. a

KING. I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet; these words are not mine.b

HAM. No, nor mine, now.

My lord,-you

played once in the university, you say?(3)

[TO POLONIUS.

POL. That did I, my lord; and was accounted a good actor.

HAM. And what did you enact?

POL. I did enact Julius Cæsar: I was killed i'the Capitol; (34) Brutus killed me.

HAM. It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf there. (35)-Be the players ready?

Ros. Ay, my lord; they stay upon your patience. (36)

promise-cramm'd: you cannot feed capons so] As afterwards in this scene he replies to Rosencrantz, who tells him he has the voice of the king himself for the succession, "but, sir, while the grass grows, &c. the proverb is something musty."

I have nothing with this answer; these words are not mine] i. e. they grow not out of mine: have no relation to any thing said by me.

No, nor mine, now] They are now any body's. Dr. Johnson observes, "a man's words, says the proverb, are his own no longer than while he keeps them unspoken."