Ros. What say you? • So 4tos. 1623, 32. queen: 4tos. [To GUILDENSTern. HAM. Nay, then, I have an eye of you;* [Aside.] -if you love me, hold not off. GUIL. My lord, we were sent for. HAM. I will tell you why; so shall my anticipadiscovery of tion prevent your discovery, and your secrecy to the king and queen* moult no feather. I have of 1623, 32. late, (but, wherefore, I know not,) lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises: and, inheavenly. deed, it goes so heavily with my disposition, that 1623, 32. this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a steril promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air, •firmament look you, this brave o'erhanging, this majes tical roof fretted with golden fire, (2) why, it appears no other thing to me, than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form, and moving, how express and admirable! in action, how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? man delights not me, nor woman neither; though, by your smiling, you seem to say so. Ros. My lord, there is no such stuff in my thoughts. HAM. Why did you laugh then, when I said, Man delights not me? Nay then, I have an eye of you] Upon or after you, a sharp look out. b so shall my anticipation prevent your discovery, and your secrecy to the king moult no feather.] Be beforehand with your discovery, and the plume and gloss of your secret pledge be in no feather shed or tarnished. The reading is from the 4tos. express] According to pattern, justly and perfectly modelled. d paragon] Model of perfection. See Two G. of V. Prot. II. 4. Ros. To think, my lord, if you delight not in man, what lenten entertainment (25) the players shall receive from you: we coated them on the way; (26) and hither are they coming, to offer you service. HAM. He that plays the king, shall be welcome; his majesty shall have tribute of me: the adventurous knight shall use his foil, and target: the lover shall not sigh gratis; the humorous man shall end his part in peace: the clown shall make those laugh, whose lungs are tickled o'the sere; (2) and the lady shall say her mind freely, (*) or the blank verse shall halt for't.-What players are they? Ros. Even those you were wont to take such delight in, the tragedians of the city. b HAM. How chances it, they travel? their residence, both in reputation and profit, was better both ways. Ros. I think, their inhibition comes by the means of the late innovation. (29) HAM. Do they hold the same estimation they did when I was in the city? Are they so followed? Ros. No, indeed, they are not. (30) [HAM. How comes it? Do they grow rusty? Ros. Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace: But there is, sir, an ayrie of children, little (3) yases, that cry out on the top of question," and are most tyrannically clapped for't:(33) these are now the fashion; and so berattle* the com- beratled. mon stages, (so they call them) that many, wear- 1623. ing rapiers, are afraid of goose quills, and dare scarce come thither. с • The humorous man shall end his part in peace] The fretful or capricious man shall vent the whole of his spleen undisturbed. b travel] Become strollers. goose quills] Lampoons. ⚫ then, O.C. HAM. What, are they children? who maintains them? how are they escoted? Will they pursue the quality no longer than* they can sing? will they not say afterwards, if they should grow themselves to common players, (as it is like most, if their means are not better,) their writers do them wrong, to make them exclaim against their own succession?f g Ros. 'Faith, there has been much to do on both sides; and the nation holds it no sin, to tarre them to controversy: there was, for a while, no money bid for argument, unless the poet and the player went to cuffs in the question. HAM. Is it possible? GUIL. O, there has been much throwing about of brains.h HAM. Do the boys carry it away? Ros. Ay, that they do, my lord; Hercules and his load too.'] HAM. It is not strange: for my uncle is king escoted] Paid. From the Fr. escot, a sort of reckoning. JOHNSON. pursue the quality] The calling. See Two G. of V. 1. Outl. IV. 1. с d no longer than they can sing] Keep their voices. grow themselves to] Advance themselves, shoot up to. ⚫ like most] Most like, or likely, is the modern turn of the phrase. 'exclaim against their own succession] By another sort of outcry traduce that profession, to which they must look, as an inheritance or future provision. to tarre them] Set them on. See K. John, IV. 1. Arth. throwing about of brains] Sharp and nice discussion. i Hercules and his load too] Every thing before them. Mr. Steevens observes, "the allusion may be to the Globe playhouse on the Bankside, the sign of which was Hercules carrying the Globe; as for a time he did in ease of the labours of Atlas." 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. ['Sblood,*] there is something in this more⚫ So, 4tos. than natural, if philosophy could find it out. [Flourish of Trumpets within. GUIL. There are the players. HAM. Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your hands. Come then: the appurtenance of welcome is fashion and ceremony: let me comply with you in the garb; lest my extent to the this, 4tos. players, which, I tell you, must show fairly outward, should more appear like entertainment than* *then, O.C. yours. You are welcome: but my uncle-father, throughout. and aunt-mother, are deceived. GUIL. In what, my dear lord? HAM. I am but mad north-north west: when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a hand-saw. (35) and so Enter POLONIUS. POL. Well be with you, gentlemen! HAM. Hark you, Guildenstern ;-and you too; -at each ear a hearer: that great baby, you see there, is not yet out of his swathing-clouts. Ros. Haply, he's the second time come to them; for, they say, an old man is twice a child. HAM. I will prophecy, he comes to tell me of the make mowes at him] Use antic gestures, mockery. See Temp. II. 2. Calib. The quartos read mouths. bin little] In miniature. See III. 4. Haml. comply with you in the garb] Compliantly assume this dress and fashion of behaviour. See Haml. of Osric, V. 2. d my extent to] The degree of courtesy dealt out. entertainment] Acceptance of service, kind reception. players; mark it, you say right, sir: for o'Monday morning 'twas so indeed. POL. My lord, I have news to tell you. HAM. My lord, I have news to tell you. When was, 4tos. Roseius [was] an actor in Rome, • So 4tos. can, 1623, 32. light for writ and the the law of liberty. These &c. O. C. POL. The actors are come hither, my lord. 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; pastorical-comical, historical-pastoral; tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral; scene indivisible or poem unlimited. Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light. (97) For the law of writ and the liberty, these are the only men.(38) * HAM. O Jephthah, judge of Israel,—what a treasure hadst thou! POL. What a treasure had he, my lord? HAM. Why-One fair daughter, and no more, POL. Still on my daughter. [Aside. HAM. Am I not i'the right, old Jephthah? POL. If you call me Jephthah, my lord, I have a daughter, that I love passing well. HAM. Nay, that follows not. POL. What follows then, my lord? HAM. Why, As by lot, God wot,(39) and then, you know, It came to pass, As most like it was,-The first row of the Pons* Chanson will shew you. more; for look, where my abridgments come. (40) • Then came each actor on his ass] This seems to be a line of a ballad. JOHNSON. column or division: Pons sung on bridges. Hamlet Pans is the reading of the row of the Pons Chanson] Row is |