Pol. Though this be madness, yet there's method in't. Will you walk out of the air, my lord? Ham. Into my grave? [Afid Pol. Indeed, that is out o' the air.-How preg. nant fometimes his replies are! a happiness that often madness hits on, which reason and fanity could not fo profperoufly be delivered of. I will leave him, and fuddenly 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, fir, 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 feek lord Hamlet: there he is. Rof. God fave you, fir! Guil. Mine honour'd lord! Rof. My moft dear lord! [Exit. Ham. My excellent good friends! How doft thou, Guildenstern? Ah, Rofencrantz! Good lads, how ye both? do Rof. As the indifferent children of the earth. Guil. Happy, in that we are not over-happy, On fortune's cap we are not the very button. Ham. Nor the foals of her face? Rof. Neither, my lord. Ham. Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of her favours. Guil. 'Faith, her privates we. Ham. Ham. In the fecret parts of fortune? O, moft true; fhe is a ftrumpet. What news? Rof. None, my lord; but that the world's grown honeft. Ham. Then is dooms-day near: But your news is not true. [Let me question more in particular : What have you, my good friends, deferved at the hands of fortune, that she fends you to prison hither? Guil. Prifon, my lord! Ham. Denmark's a prifon. Rof. Then is the world one. Ham. A goodly one; in which there are many confines, wards, and dungeons; one of the worst. Rof. We think not fo, my lord. Denmark being Ham. Why, then, 'tis none to you; for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it fo: to me it is a prifon. Rof. 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 fubftance of the ambitious is merely the fhadow of a dream. Ham. A dream itself is but a fhadow. Rof. 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 out-ftretch'd heroes, the beggars' fhadows: Shall we to the court? for, by my fay, I cannot reafon. Both. We'll wait upon you. Ham. Ham. No fuch matter: I will not fort you wit the rest of my fervants; for, to speak to you lik an honeft man, I am moft dreadfully attended But, in the beaten way of friendship, what mak you at Elfineur? Rof. To vifit you, my lord; no other occafio Ham. Beggar that I am; I am even poor thanks; but I thank you and fure, dear friend my thanks are too dear at a half-penny. Were not fent for? Is it your own inclining? Is it a fre visitation? Come, come; deal justly with me come, come; nay, speak. Guil. What fhould we fay, my lord? yo Ham. Any thing-but to the purpose. You we fent for; and there is a kind of confeffion in you looks, which your modefties have not craft enoug to colour: I know, the good king and queen hav fent for you. Rof. To what end, my lord? Ham. That you must teach me. But let me co jure you, by the rights of our fellowship, by the cor fonancy of our youth, by the obligation of our eve preferved love, and by what more dear a better pro pofer could charge you withal, be even and direc with me, whether you were fent for, or no? [To GUILD Ham. Nay, then I have an eye of you ;-if you love me, hold not off. Rof. What fay you? Guil. My lord, we were fent for. Ham. I will tell you why; fo fhall my anticipa tion prevent your discovery, and your fecrecy to the king and queen moult no feather. I have of late (but wherefore, I know not), loft all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises: and, indeed, it goes fo heavily with my difpofition, that this goodly fame, the earth, feems to me a fteril promontory; this moft excellent canopy, the air, look you, this bave o'er-hanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to me, than a foul and peftilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reafon! how infinite in faculties ! in form, and moving, how exprefs and admirable! in action, how like an angel! in apprehenfion, how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quinteffence of duft? man delights not me,--nor woman either; though, by your fmiling, you seem to fay fo. Rof. My lord, there was no fuch stuff in my thoughts. Ham. Why did you laugh then, when I faid Man delights not me 2 Rof. 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 fervice. Ham. He that plays the king fhall be welcome; his majesty fhall have tribute of me: the adventurous knight fhall ufe his foil, and target: the lover thall not figh gratis; the humourous man shall end his part in peace: the clown fhall make those laugh whose lungs are tickled o' the fere; and the lady fhall fay her mind freely, or the blank verse shall halt for't-What players are they? Rof. Even thofe you were wont to take fuch delight in, the tragedians of the city. Ham. How chances it, they travel? their refidence, both in reputation and profit, was better both ways, Rof. Rof. I think, their inhibition comes by the mea of the late innovation. Ham. Do they hold the fame estimation they di when I was in the city? Are they fo follow'd? Rof. No, indeed, they are not. [Ham. How comes it? Do they grow rusty ? Rof. Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace: But there is, fir, an aiery of children, little eyafes, that cry out on the top of question, and are moit tyrannically clapp'd for't: these are now the fashion: and fo berattle the common stages (fo they call them) that many, wearing rapiers, are afraid of goofe-quills, and dare fcarce come thither. Ham. What, are they children? Who maintains 'em? how are they efcoted? will they pursue the quality no longer than they can fing? will they not fay afterwards, if they fhould grow themfelves 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 fucceffion? Rof. 'Faith, there has been much to do on both fides; and the nation holds it no fin, to tarre them on to controverfy: 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 poffible? Guil. O, there has been much throwing about of brains. Ham. Do the boys carry it away ? Rof. Ay, that they do, my lord; Hercules and his load too.] Ham. It is not very ftrange: for my uncle is king of Denmark; and thofe, that would make mouths at him while my father liv'd, give twenty, forty, |