Now see that noble and most sovereign reason, To have seen what I have seen, see what I see! Re-enter King and POLONIUS. King. Love! his affections do not that way tend; And, I do doubt, the hatch, and the disclose, Thus set it down. He shall with speed to England, This something settled matter in his heart; Sprung from neglected love. - How now, Ophelia ! 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 griefs: let her be round with him; King. Madness in great ones must not unwatch'd go. It shall be so: [Exeunt. SCENE II. A Hall in the Same. 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 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) 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 would have such a fellow whipped for o'er-doing Termagant; it out-herods Herod: 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 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 which one must, in your allowance, o'er-weigh 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. 1 Play. 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. [Exeunt Players. Enter POLONIUS, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENstern. 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. Will you two help to hasten them? Both. We will, my lord. [Exit POLONIUS. [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. Ham. What, ho! Horatio! Enter HORATIO. 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. 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? And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee, Where thrift may follow fawning. Dost thou hear? Hast ta'en with equal thanks: and bless'd are those, In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart, As I do thee. - There is a play to-night before the king; One scene of it comes near the circumstance, As Vulcan's stithy. Give him heedful note; And, after, we will both our judgments join If he steal aught the whilst this play is playing, And 'scape detecting, I will pay the theft. 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 camelion's dish: I eat the air, promise-crammed. You cannot feed capons so. King. I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet: these words are not mine. Ham. No, nor mine now. the university, you say? My lord, you played once in [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; Brutus killed 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. Queen. Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me. [To the King. 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. Ham. Do you think, I meant country matters? Oph. I think nothing, my lord. Ham. That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs. Oph. What is, my lord? Ham. Nothing. Oph. You are merry, my lord. Ham. Who, I? Oph. Ay, my lord. 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 these 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 hobbyhorse; whose epitaph is, "For, O! for, O! the hobby-horse is forgot." Trumpets sound. The dumb Show enters. Enter a King and Queen, very lovingly; the Queen embracing him. 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, |