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?

278

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, 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?

291

Ham. I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation prevent your discovery, and your secrecy to the king and queen moult no feather. I have of late-but wherefore I know notlost all my mirth, foregone all custom of exercises; and indeed it 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 appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of

work is man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! 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 say so. Ros. My lord, there was no such stuff in my thoughts. Ham. Why did you laugh, then, when I said "man delights not me"?

325

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 humorous man shall end his part in peace; the clown shall make those laugh whose lungs are tickle o' the sere; and the lady shall say her mind freely, or the blank verse shall halt for 't. What players are they?

340

[Ham. How comes it? do they grow rusty? Ros. Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace: but there is, sir, an aery of children, little eyases,1 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 'em? 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 no better, -their writers do them wrong, to make them exclaim against their own succession.

368

Ham. I will prophesy he comes to tell me of the players; mark it.-You say right, sir: o' Monday morning; 't was so 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. Ham. Buz, buz!

Pol. Upon my honour,—

Ham. Then came each actor on his ass,

410

Ham. O Jephthah, judge of Israel, what a treasure hadst thou!

Pol. What treasure had he, my lord?
Ham. Why,

"One fair daughter, and no more, The which he loved passing well. Pol. [Aside] 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,

431

You are welcome, masters; welcome, all; I am glad to see ye well; welcome, good friends. -O, my old friend! why, thy face is valanced since I saw thee last; comest thou to beard me in Denmark?-What, my young lady and mistress; By 'r lady, your ladyship is nearer to heaven than when I saw you last, by the altitude of a chopine.1 [Pray God, your voice, like a piece of uncurrent gold, be not cracked within the ring.]Masters, you are all welWe'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.

come.

452

First 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; 't was 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 sallets2 in the lines to make the matter savoury, nor no matter in the phrase that might indict the author of affection;3 but called it an honest method, as wholesome as sweet, and by very much more handsome than fine. One speech in it I chiefly loved: 't was 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:

471

"The rugged Pyrrhus, like the Hyrcanian beast," -'t is not so: it begins with Pyrrhus; "The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms,

Black as his purpose, did the night resemble

1 Chopine, high shoe.

2 Sallets, salads.

3 Affection, i.e. affectation.

So, proceed you.

Pol. 'Fore God, my lord, well spoken, with good accent and good discretion.

490

First 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 Ilium,
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.]

500

Ham. Follow him, friends: we'll hear a play to-morrow.

[Exit Polonius with all the Players except the First. Dost thou hear me, old friend; can you play the Murder of Gonzago?

First Play. Ay, my lord.

Ham. We'll ha 't 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?

First Play. Ay, my lord.

569

Ham. Very well. Follow that lord; and look you mock him not. [Exit First Player.]

1 Bisson, blinding.

Is it not monstrous, that this player here,
But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,
Could force his soul so to his own conceit,
That, from her working, all his visage wann'd;
Tears in his eyes, distraction in 's aspéct, 581
A broken voice, and his whole function2 suiting
With forms to his conceit ?3 and all for nothing!
For Hecuba!

What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, That he should weep for her? What would he do,

2 His whole function, i.e. all his faculties.

3 Conceit, conception.