Pol. [Exeunt VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS. My liege, and madam; to expostulate Why day is day, night, night, and time is time, Queen. More matter, with less art. Pol. Madam, I swear, I use no art at all. That he is mad, 'tis true: 'tis true 'tis pity, And pity 'tis 'tis true: a foolish figure; But farewell it, for I will use no art. Mad let us grant him, then; and now remains, Or rather say, the cause of this defect, I have a daughter; have, while she is mine; Hath given me this. Now gather, and surmise. -"To the celestial, and my soul's idol, the most beautified Ophelia," That's an ill phrase, a vile phrase; "beautified" is a vile phrase; but you shall hear. Thus: "In her excellent white bosom, these," &c.Queen. Came this from Hamlet to her? Pol. Good madam, stay awhile; I will be faithful. "Doubt thou the stars are fire, Doubt, that the sun doth move; But never doubt I love. [Reads. When I had seen this hot love on the wing, Pol. I have, my lord. Ham. Let her not walk i' the sun; conception is a blessing; but not as your daughter may conceive:-friend, look to't. Pol. [Aside.] How say you by that? Still harping on my daughter:-yet he knew me not at first; he said, I was a fishmonger. He is far gone, far gone: and truly in my youth I suffered much extremity for love; very near this. I'll speak to him again. What do you read, my lord? Ham. Words, words, words. Pol. What is the matter, my lord? Pol. I mean, the matter that you read, my lord. Ham. Slanders, sir: for the satirical rogue says here, that old men have gray beards; that their faces are wrinkled; their eyes purging thick amber, and plum-tree gum; and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams: all of which, sir, though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it not honesty to have it thus set down; for you yourself, sir, should be old as I am, if like a crab you could go backward. Pol. Though this be madness, yet there is method in't. [Aside.] Will you walk out of the air, my lord? Ham. Into my grave? Pol. Indeed, that is out o' the air. How pregnant sometimes his replies are! a happiness that often madness hits on, which reason and sanity could not so prosperously be delivered of. I will leave him, and suddenly contrive the means of meeting between him and my daughter.-My honourable lord, I will most humbly take my leave of you. Ham. You cannot, sir, take from me any thing that I will more willingly part withal; except my life, except my life, except my life. Pol. Fare you well, my lord. Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. Pol. You go to seek the lord Hamlet; there he is. Ros. God save you, sir! [TO POLONIUS. [Exit POLONIUS. Guil. Mine honour'd lord! Ros. My most dear lord! Ham. My excellent good friends! How dost thou, Guildenstern? Ah, Rosencrantz! Good lads, how do ye both? Ros. As the indifferent children of the earth. Guil. Happy, in that we are not overhappy; On Fortune's cap we are not the very button. Ham. Nor the soles of her shoe? Ros. Neither, my lord. confines, wards, and dungeons, Denmark being one of the worst. Ros. We think not so, my lord. Ham. Why, then 'tis none to you; for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so: to me it is a prison. Ros. Why, then your ambition makes it one: 'tis too narrow for your mind. Ham. O God! I could be bounded in a nut-shell, 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 substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream. Ham. A dream itself is but a shadow. Ros. Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality, that it is but a shadow's shadow. Ham. Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs, and outstretched heroes, the beggars' shadows. Shall we to the court? for, by my fay, I cannot reason. Ros. Guil. We'll wait upon you. Ham. No such matter: I will not sort you with the rest of my servants; for, to speak to you like an honest man, I am most dreadfully attended. But, in the beaten way of friendship, what make you at Elsinore? Ros. To visit you, my lord; no other occasion. Ham. Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks; but I thank you: and sure, dear friends, my thanks are too dear, a halfpenny. Were you not sent for? Is it your own inclining? Is it a free visitation? Come, come; deal justly with me: come, come; nay, speak. Guil. What should we say, my lord? Ham. Why any thing, but to the purpose. You were sent for; and there is a kind of confession in your looks, which your modesties have not craft enough to colour: I know, the good king and queen have sent for you. Ros. To what end, my lord? Ham. That you must teach me. But let me conjure you, by the rights of our fellowship, by the consonancy of our youth, by the obligation of our ever-preserved love, and by what more dear a better proposer could charge you withal, be even and direct with me, whether you were sent for, or no? Ros. What say you? [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 anticipation prevent your discovery, and your secresy to the king and queen moult no feather. I have of late, (but wherefore I know not,) lost all my mirth, Ham. Then you live about her waist, or in the foregone all custom of exercises; and, indeed, it middle of her favours? Guil. 'Faith, her privates we. Ham. In the secret parts of Fortune? O! most true; she is a strumpet. What news? Ros. None, my lord, but that the world's grown honest. Ham. Then is doomsday near; but your news is not true. Let me question more in particular: what have you, my good friends, deserved at the hands of Fortune, that she sends you to prison hither? Guil. Prison, my lord! Ros. Then, is the world one. goes so heavily with my disposition, that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appeareth nothing to me, but 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; no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to Ros. My lord, there was no such stuff in my thoughts. Ham. A goodly one; in which there are many say so. Ham. Why did you laugh, then, when I said, man delights not me? Ros. To think, my lord, if you delight not in man, what lenten entertainment the players shall receive from you: we coted them on the way, 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 humourous man shall end his part in peace: the clown shall make those laugh, whose lungs are tickled o' the sere; 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. 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. 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. Ham. How comes it? Do they grow rusty? Ros. Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace: but there is, sir, an eyry of children, little eyases, that cry out on the top of question, and are most tyrannically clapped for't: these are now the fashion; and so berattle the common stages, (so they call them,) that many, wearing rapiers, are afraid of goose quills, and dare scarce come thither. 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 most like, if their means are not better,) their writers do them wrong, to make them exclaim against their own succession? 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? Ham. I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a hand saw. 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 prophesy, he comes to tell me of the players; mark it. You say right, sir: o' Monday morning; 'twas then, indeed. Pol. My lord, I have news to tell you. Ham. My lord, I have news to tell you. When Roscius was an actor in Rome, 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, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragicalcomical-historical-pastoral, scene individable, or poem unlimited: Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light. For the law of writ, and the liberty, these are the only men. Ham. O Jephthah, Judge of Israel, what a treasure hadst thou! Pol. What a treasure had he, my lord? "One fair daughter, and no more, [Aside. Pol. Still on my daughter. 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," And then, you know, "It came to pass, as most like it was,"The first row of the pious chanson will show you more; for look, where my abridgment comes. Enter Four or Five Players. You are welcome, masters; welcome, all. I am glad to see thee well; welcome, good friends. Guil. O! there has been much throwing about O, old friend! Why, thy face is valanced since I Pol. 'Fore God, my lord, well spoken; with dignity: the less they deserve, the more merit is good accent, and good discretion. of brains. Ham. Do the boys carry it away? Ros. Ay, that they do, my lord; Hercules, and his load too. Ham. It is not very strange, for my 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 something in this more 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 this garb, lest my extent to the players, (which, I tell you, must show fairly outward,) should more appear like entertainment than yours. You are welcome; but my uncle-father, and aunt-mother, are deceived. Guil. In what, my dear lord? saw thee last: com'st thou to beard me in Denmark?-What! my young lady and mistress! By-'rlady, your ladyship is nearer to heaven, than when I saw you last, by the altitude of a chopine. Pray God, your voice, like a piece of uncurrent gold, be not cracked within the ring.-Masters, you are all welcome. We'll e'en to't like French falconers, fly at any thing we see: we'll have a speech straight. Come, give us a taste of your quality; come, a passionate speech. 1 Play. What speech, my good lord? Ham. I heard thee speak me a speech once,but it was never acted; or, if it was, not above once, for the play, I remember, pleased not the million; 'twas caviare to the general: but it was (as I received it, and others, whose judgments in such matters cried in the top of mine,) an excellent play; well digested in the scenes, set down with as much modesty as cunning. I remember, one said, there were no sallets in the lines to make the matter savoury, nor no matter in the phrase that might indict the author of affectation, but called it an honest method, as wholesome as sweet, and by very much more handsome than fine. One speech Speech in it I chiefly loved: 'twas Æneas' tale to Dido; and thereabout of it especially, where he speaks of Priam's slaughter. If it live in your memory, begin at this line :- let me see, let me see ;"The rugged Pyrrhus, like the Hyrcanian beast," -'tis not so; it begins with Pyrrhus. "The rugged Pyrrhus,-he, whose sable arms, "Black as his purpose, did the night resemble "When he lay couched in the ominous horse, "Hath now this dread and black complexion smear'd "With heraldry more dismal; head to foot "Now is he total gules; horridly trick'd "With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons; "Bak'd and impasted with the parching streets, "That lend a tyrannous and a damned light "To their lord's murder: Roasted in wrath, and fire, "And thus o'ersized with coagulate gore, "With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus "Old grandsire Priam seeks;" So proceed you. "And passion in the gods." Pol. Look, whether he has not turn'd his colour, and has tears in's eyes!-Pr'ythee, no more. Ham. 'Tis well; I'll have thee speak out the rest of this soon. Good my lord, will you see the players well bestowed? Do you hear, let them be well used; for they are the abstracts and brief chronicles of the time: after your death you were better have a bad epitaph, than their ill report while you live. Pol. My lord, I will use them according to their desert. Ham. God's bodkin, man, much better: use every man after his desert, and who should 'scape whipping? Use them after your own honour and 1 Play. "Anon he finds him "Striking too short at Greeks: his antique sword, "Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls, "Repugnant to command. Unequal match'd, "Pyrrhus at Priam drives; in rage, strikes wide; "But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword "The unnerved father falls. Then senseless Illium, "Seeming to feel this blow, with flaming top "Stoops to his base; and with a hideous crash "Takes prisoner Pyrrhus' ear: for, lo! his sword "Which was declining on the milky head "Of reverend Priam, seem'd i' the air to stick: "So, as a painted tyrant, Pyrrhus stood; "And, like a neutral to his will and matter, "Did nothing. "But, as we often see, against some storm, "A silence in the heavens, the rack stand still, "The bold winds speechless, and the orb below "As hush as death, anon the dreadful thunder "Doth rend the region; so, after Pyrrhus' pause, "Aroused vengeance sets him new a-work, "And never did the Cyclops' hammers fall "On Mars's armour, forg'd for proof eterne, "With less remorse than Pyrrhus' bleeding sword "Now falls on Priam. "Out, out, thou strumpet, Fortune! All you gods, "In general synod, take away her power; "Break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel, "And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven, "As low as to the fiends!" in your bounty. Take them in. Pol. Come, sirs. [Exit POLONIUS, with some of the Players. Ham. Follow him, friends: we'll hear a play to-morrow. Dost thou hear me, old friend? can you play the murder of Gonzago? 1 Play. Ay, my lord. Ham. We'll have it to-morrow night. You could, for a need, study a speech of some dozen or sixteen lines, which I would set down and insert in't, could you not? 1 Play. Ay, my lord. Ham. Very well. Follow that lord; and look you mock him not. [Exit Player.] My good friends, [To Ros. and GUIL.] I'll leave you till night: you are welcome to Elsinore. Ros. Good my lord. [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, That I have? He would drown the stage with tears, And cleave the general ear with horrid speech; |