The origin and commencement of his grief
Sprung from neglected love.--How now Ophelia,
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 round1 with him;
And I'll be plac'd, so please you in the ear,
Of all their conference: 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.
[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 our players do, I had as lief 2 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 3; who, for the most part, are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb shows and noise: I would have such a fellow whipt for o'er-doing Termagant; it outherods Herod: Pray you, avoid it.

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?

No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp;
And crook the pregnant1 hinges of the knee,
Where thrift mayfollowfawning. Dost thouhear?
Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice,
And could of men distinguish her election,
She hath scal'd theefor 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
[mingled,

1 Play. I warrant your honour. Hum. Be not too tame neither, but let your Whose blood and judgment are so well coown discretion be your tutor: suit the action to That they are not a pipe for fortune's finger the word, the word to the action with this To sound what stop she please: Give me that man special observance, that you o'er-step not the That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him modesty of nature: for any thing so overdone is In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart, from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at As I do thee.-Something too much of this.the first, and now, was, and is, to hold, as 'twere, There is a play to-night before the king; the mirror up to nature; to show virtue her One scene of it comes near the circumstance, own feature, scorn her own image, and the very Which I have told thee of my father's death. age and body of the time, his form and pressure. I pr'ythee, when thou see'st that act afoot, Now this, overdone, or come tardy off, though Even with the very comment of thy soul it make the unskilful laugh, cannot but make Observe my uncle: if his occulted 2 guilt the judicious grieve; the censure of which one, Do not itself unkennel in one speech, must, in your allowance, o'er-weigh a whole It is a damned ghost that we have seen; theatre of others. O, there be players, that I And my imaginations are as foul have seen play,-and heard others praise, and As Vulcan's stithy. Give him heedful note: that highly, not to speak it profanely, that, For I mine eyes will rivet to his face: neither having the accent of Christians, nor the And after, we will both our judgments join gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so In censure of his seeming. 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 1 Speak strongly to. 3 Spectators in the Pit. 2 As willingly, 4 Impress.

Hor.
Well, my lord:
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
Get you a place.

[idle: 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. lord, you played once in say?

(To Polonius.] My

the university, you

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

Pol. [To the King.]0 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.

Ham. Do you think, I meant country matters?
Oph. I think nothing, my lord.
Ham. That's a fair thought.

Oph. What is, my lord.
Ham. Nothing.

Oph. You are merry, my lord.
Ham. Who, I?
Oph. Ay, my lord.

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 twice two months, my lord. Ham. So long? Nay, then let the devil wear black, for I'll have a suit of sables. 2 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 he must build churches then: or else shall he suffer not thinking on, with the hobby horse; whose epitaph is, For, 0, for, 0, the hobby-horse is forgot.

Enter Prologue.

Ham. We shall know by this fellow: the players cannot keep counsel; they'll tell all.

Oph. Will he tell us what this show meant?
Ham. Ay.

Oph. I'll mark the play.

Pro. For us, and for our tragedy,

Here stooping to your clemency,
We beg your hearing patiently.
Ham. Is this a prologue, or the poesy of a ring?
Oph. 'Tis brief, my lord.
Ham. As woman's love.

Enter a King and a Queen.

P. King. Full thirty times hath Phoebus' cart
gone round

Neptune's salt wash, and Tellus' orbed ground;
And thirty dozen moons, with borrow'd sheen,1
About the world have times twelve thirties been;
Since love our hearts, and Hymen did our hands,
Unite commutual in most sacred bands.

P. Queen. So many journeys 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;
And women's fear and love hold quantity;
In neither aught, or in extremity. [know;
Now, what my love is, proof hath made you
And as my love is siz'd,2 my fear is so.
Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear;
Where little fears grow great, great love grows
there.

P. King. 'Faith, I must leave thee, love, and

shortly too;

My operant & powers their functions leave to do;
And thou shalt live in this fair world behind,
Honour'd, belov'd, and, haply one as kind
For husband shalt thou-

P. Queen.
O, confound the rest!
Such love must needs be treason in my breast:
In second husband let me be accurst!
None wed the second, but who kill'd the first.
Ham. That's wormwood.

P. Queen. The instances, that second mar

riage move,

Are base respects of thrift, but none of love;
A second time, I kill my husband dead,
When second husband wins me to his bed.
P. King. I do believe, you think what now
you speak;

Trumpets sound. The dumb Show follows. 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, But, what we do determine, oft we break. seeming to lament with her. The dead body Purpose is but the slave to memory: is carried away. The poisoner wooes the Of violent birth, but poor validity: Queen with gifts; she seems loath and unwill-Which now like fruit unripe, sticks on the tree: ing awhile, but, in the end, accepts his love. But fall, unshaken, when they mellow be. [Exeunt. Most necessary 'tis, that we forget Oph. What means this, my lord? To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt: Ham. Marry, this is miching mallechos; it What to ourselves in passion we propose, means mischief. 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; 1 Lustre. 2 Measured. 8 Active.

Oph. Belike, this show imports the argument of the play.

1 Metrical dialogues during dances. 2 A rich dross.

8 Secret wickedness.

Motives