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You need not tell us what Lord Hamlet said;
We heard it all. 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 conference. If she find1 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.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II. The same. A hall in the same.

Enter HAMLET and several 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 your 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, the whirlwind of 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

1 Find, i.e. find out.

would have such a fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant; it out-herods Herod: pray you, avoid it.

First Play. I warrant your honour.

17

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 't were, 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'erweigh a whole theatre of others. O, 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 Christians nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so strutted and bellowed, that I have thought some of nature's journeymen had made men, and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably.

First Play. I hope we have reformed that indifferently with us, sir.

41

Ros. Guil. We will, my lord.

[Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.] Ham. What ho! Horatio!

Enter HORATIO.

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Hor. Here, sweet lord, at your service. Ham. Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man As e'er my conversation cop'd withal.1 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? Why 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

73

Whose blood and judgment are so well commingled

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

80

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 prithee, when thou seest that act a-foot,
Even with the very comment of thy soul
Observe my uncle: if his occulted2 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.3 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.

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?

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.

Queen. Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me.

Ham. No, good mother; here's metal more attractive.

Pol. [To the King] O, ho! do you mark that?
Ham. Lady, shall I lie in your lap?
[Lying down at Ophelia's feet.

[Oph. No, my lord.
Ham. I mean, my head upon your lap?
Oph. Ay, my lord.

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Ham. O God, 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's two hours.

Oph. Nay, 't is twice two months, my lord. Ham. So long? Nay, then, let the devil wear black, for I'll have a suit of sables. O heavens! 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; [or else shall he suffer not thinking on, with the hobby-horse, whose epitaph is, "For, O, for, O, the hobby-horse is forgot."]

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Hautboys play. The dumb-show enters. Enter a KING and a QUEEN very lovingly; the QUEEN embracing him, and he her. She kneels, and makes

show of protestation unto him. He takes her up, and declines his head upon her neck: lays him down upon a bank of flowers: she, seeing him asleep, leaves him. Anon comes in a fellow, takes off his crown, kisses it, and pours poison in the KING's ears, and exit. The QUEEN returns; finds the KING dead, and makes passionate action. The Poisoner, with some two or three Mutes, comes in again, seeming to lament with her. The dead body is carried away. The Poisoner wooes the QUEEN with gifts: she seems loth and unwilling awhile, but in the end accepts his love.

move

Are base respects3 of thrift, but none of love:

A second time I kill my husband dead

When second husband kisses me in bed.]

P. King. I do believe you think what now you speak;

But what we do determine oft we break.

[Purpose is but the slave to memory;
Of violent birth, but poor validity: 4

Which now, like fruit unripe, sticks on the tree, 200
But fall unshaken when they mellow be.
Most necessary 't is that we forget

To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt:]
What to ourselves in passion we propose,
The passion ending, doth the purpose lose.
[The violence of either grief or joy
Their own enactures with themselves destroy:
Where joy most revels, grief doth most lament;
Grief joys, joy grieves, on slender accident.
This world is not for aye, nor 't is not strange
That even our loves should with our fortunes change;
For 't is a question left us yet to prove,
Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love.
The great man down, you mark his favourite flies;
The poor advanc'd makes friends of enemies.
And hitherto doth love on fortune tend:
For who not needs shall never lack a friend;

And who in want a hollow friend doth try, Directly seasons him his enemy.

But, orderly to end where I begun,

Our wills and fates do so contrary run,

That our devices still are overthrown;

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220

Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own:]

So think thou wilt no second husband wed;

But die thy thoughts when thy first lord is dead. P. Queen. Nor earth to me give food nor heaven light!

1 Leave, leave off, cease. 2 Instances, inducements. 3 Respects, considerations. 4 Validity, efficacy.

5 Whether, pronounced (as it was often written) whe'r. Seasons, i.e. brings to maturity in his true character.

Ham. O, but she 'll keep her word. King. Have you heard the argument? Is there no offence in't?

Ham. No, no, they do but jest, poison in jest; no offence i' the world.

King. What do you call the play?

Ham. The Mouse-trap. Marry, how? Tropically. This play is the image of a murder done in Vienna: Gonzago is the duke's name; his wife, Baptista: you shall see anon; 't is a knavish piece of work: but what o' that? your majesty, and we that have free souls,it touches us not: let the galled jade wince, our withers are unwrung.

Enter LUCIANUS.

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For thou dost know, O Damon dear,
This realm dismantled was
Of Jove himself; and now reigns here
A very, very-pajock.

Hor. You might have rhymed.
Ham. O good Horatio, I'll take the ghost's
word for a thousand pound. Didst perceive?
Hor. Very well, my lord.

Ham. Upon the talk of the poisoning? 300 Hor. I did very well note him.

Ham. Ah, ha! Come, some music! come, the recorders!3

For if the king like not the comedy, Why, then, belike, he likes it not, perdy. Come, some music!

Re-enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.

Guil. Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with you.

1 Hecate, pronounced Hecat.

2 Cry, company (from a cry of hounds).

3 Recorders, musical instruments.

Guil. Good my lord, put your discourse into some frame, and start not so wildly from my affair.

Ham. I am tame, sir: pronounce.

Guil. The queen, your mother, in most great affliction of spirit, hath sent me to you.

Ham. You are welcome.

Guil. Nay, good my lord, this courtesy is not of the right breed. If it shall please you to make me a wholesome answer, I will do your mother's commandment: if not, your pardon, and my return shall be the end of my busi

ness.

Ham. Sir, I cannot. Guil. What, my lord?

6

330