O'er which his melancholy sits on brood.
He shall with speed to England,

For the demand of our neglected tribute:
Haply, the
seas, and countries different,
With variable objects, shall expel

This something settled matter in his heart;
Whereon his brain's still-beating puts him thus
From fashion of himself. What think you on't?
Pol. It shall do well: But yet do I believe,
The origin and commencement of his grief
Sprung from neglected love.

My lord, do as you please;

But, if you hold it fit, after the play,
Let his queen mother all alone entreat him
To show his grief; let her be round with him;
And I'll be plac'd, so please you, in the ear
Of all their conferences: If she find him not,
To England send him; or confine him, where
Your wisdom best shall think.

King. It shall be so :

Madness in great ones must not unwatch'd go.

SCENE II.

Enter the first ACTOR, and HAMLET.

[Exeunt.

Ham. Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounc'd it to you, trippingly on the tongue; but, if you mouthe it, as many of our 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 whipp'd for o'erdoing Termagant; it out-herods Herod : 'Pray you, avoid it.

1 Act. I warrant your honour.

Ham. Be not too tame, neither, but let your own discretion 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 'twere, the mirrour 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'erweigh a whole theatre of others.-0, 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 christian, nor the gait of christian, pagan, nor man, have so strutted, and bellow'd, that I have thought some of Nature's journeymen had made men, and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably.

1 Act. I hope we have reformed that indifferently with us.

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 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.[Exit FIRST ACTOR.

Horatio!

Enter HORATIO.

Hor. Here, sweet lord, at your service.

Ham. Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man
As c'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? Should the poor be flatter'd?

No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp,
And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee,
Where thrift may follow fawning. Dost thou hear?
Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice,
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

Hast ta'en with equal thanks: and bless'd are those,
Whose blood and judgment are so well co-mingled,
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, 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 see'st that act a-foot,
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 that we have seen;
And my imaginations are as foul
As Vulcan's stithy: 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.

Hor. Well, my lord,

[Flourish of Trumpets and Drums.

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

A grand March.

Enter POLONIUS, KING, QUEEN, OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, OSRICK, MARCELlus, BERNARDO, FRANCISCO, GENTLEMEN, and LA

DIES.

King. How fares our cousin Hamlet?

Ham. Excellent, i' faith; of the camelion's dish : I eat the air, promise-cramm'd: you cannot feed capons so.

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

Ham. No, nor mine now.-My lord,—you play'd once in the university, you say?

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 kill'd i' the capitól; Brutus kill'd me.

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. [Bell rings, and the Curtain rises for the Play. Queen. Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me. Ham. No, good mother, here's metal more attractive.

Pol. O ho! do you mark that?

Ham. Lady, shall I lie in your lap?

Oph. You are merry, my lord.

[Lying down at OPHELIA's feet. Ham. O! 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, 'tis two months, my lord.

Ham. So long? Nay, then let the devil wear black, for I'll have a suit of sables. 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.

Oph. What means the play, my lord?

Ham. Miching mallecho: it means mischief.
Oph. But what is the argument of the play?

Enter Second ACTOR, as the Prologue.

Ham. We shall know by this fellow.
2 Act. For us, and for our tragedy,
Here stooping to your clemency,
We beg your hearing patiently.

[Exit Second Actor. Ham. Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring?

Oph. "Tis brief, my

lord.

Ham. As woman's love.

Enter the ACTRESS, and First ACTOR, as a Duchess,

and Duke.

1 Act. Full thirty times hath Phœbus' cart gone round

Neptune's salt wash, and Tellus' orbed ground;
Since love our hearts, and Hymen did our hands
Unite commutual in most sacred bands.

Actress. So many journies may the sun and moon
Make us again count o'er, ere love be done!
But, woe is me! you are so sick of late,

So far from cheer, and from your former state,
That I distrust you. Yet, though I distrust,
Discomfort you, my lord, it nothing must;
For women fear too much, even as they love:
Now, what my love is, proof hath made you know;
And as my love is siz'd my fear is so.

1 Act. Faith, I must leave thee, love, and shortly too; My operant powers their functions leave to do:

F