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Madness in Great ones muft not unwatch'd' go,

But

[Exeunt. Enter Hamlet, and two or three of the Players. Ham. Speak the fpeech, I pray you; as I pronounc'd it to you, trippingly on the tongue. if you mouth it, as many of our Players do, I had as lieve, the town-crier had fpoke my lines. And do not faw the air too much with your hand thus, but ufe all gently; for in the very torrent, tempeft, and, as I may fay, whirl-wind of your paffion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it fmoothnefs. Oh, it offends me to the foul, to hear a robuftious periwig-pated fellow tear a paffion to tatters, to very rags, to fplit the ears of the groundlings: who (for the most part) are capable of nothing, but inexplicable dumb-fhews, and noife: I could have fuch a fellow whipt for o'er-doing Termagant; it out-herods Herod. Pray you, avoid it. 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 fpecial obfervance, that you o'erftep not the modefty of Nature; for any thing fo over-done is from the purpofe of playing; whofe end, both at the firft and now; was and is, to hold as 'twere the mirror up to nature; to fhew virtue her own feature, fcorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time, his form and preffure. Now this over-done, or come tardy of, tho' it make the unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve: the cenfure of which one muft in your allowance o'er-weigh a whole theatre of others. Oh, there be Players that I have feen play, and heard others praise, and that highly (not to fpeak it prophanely) that neither

having the accent of chriftian, nor the gait of chriftian, pagan, nor man, have fo ftrutted and bellow'd, that I have thought fome of nature's journey-men had made men, and not made them well; they imitated humanity so abominably.

Play. I hope we have reform'd that indifferently with us.

Ham. Oh, reform it altogether. And let thofe, that play your Clowns, fpeak no more than is fet down for them: For there be of them that will themselves laugh, to fet on fome quantity of barren fpectators to laugh too; though, in the mean time, fome neceffary queftion of the Play be then to be confidered: That's villanous; and fhews a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it. Go make you ready. [Exeunt Players.

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Enter Polonius, Rofincrantz, and Guildenftern. 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 hafte. [Exit Polonius. Will you two help to haften them?

Both. We will, my lord.

Ham. What, ho, Horatio!

Enter Horatio, to Hamlet.

Hor. Here, fweet lord, at your service.
Ham. Horatio, thou art e'en as just a Man,

As e'er my converfation cop'd withal.

Hor. Oh my dear lord,

Ham. Nay, do not think, I flatter:

[Exeunt.

For what advancement may I hope from thee,
That no revenue haft, but thy good fpirits,

To feed and clothe thee? fhould the poor be flatter'd?
No, let the candied tongue lick abfurd Pomp,

N 2

And

And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee,

Where thrift may follow fawning. Doft thou hear?
Since my dear foul was mistress of her choice,

And could of men distinguish, her election
Hath feal'd thee for herself.

For thou haft been

As one, in fuffering all, that fuffers nothing:
A man, that fortune's buffets and rewards
Haft ta'en with equal thanks. And bleft are those,
Whose blood and judgment are fo well comingled,
That they are not a pipe for fortune's finger,
To found what ftop the please. Give me that man,
That is not paffion's flave, and I will wear him
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 pr'ythee, when thou fee'ft that Act a-foot,
Ev'n with the very comment of thy foul
Observe mine uncle: if his occult guilt
Do not itself unkennel in one speech,
It is a damned Ghoft that we have feen:
And my imaginations are as foul

As Vulcan's Stithy. Give him heedful note;
For I mine eyes will rivet to his face;

And, after, we will both our judgments join,
In cenfure of his Seeming.

Hor. Well, my lord.

If he fteal aught, the whilft this Play is playing,
And 'fcape detecting, I will pay the theft.

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Enter King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Rofincrantz,
Guildenstern, and other lords attendant, with a guard
carrying torches. Danish March. Sound a flourish.
Ham.HEY'RE coming to the Play; I must be idle.
THE
Get you a place.

King. How fares our coufin Hamlet?

Ham. Excellent, i'faith, of the camelion's difh: I eat the air, promise-cramm'd: you cannot feed capons fo.

King. I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet ; thefe words are not mine.

Ham. No, nor mine. Now, my lord; you play'd once i' th' univerfity, you fay ? [To Polonius. Pol. That I did, my lord, and was accounted a good actor.

Ham. And what did you enact ?

Pol. I did enact Julius Cæfar, I was kill'd i' th' Capitol: Brutus kill'd me.

Ham. It was a brute part of him, to kill fo capital a calf there. Be the players ready?

Rof. Ay, my lord, they ftay upon your patience. Queen. Come hither, my dear Hamlet, fit by me. Ham. No, good mother, here's mettle more attractive.

Pol. Oh ho, do you mark that?

Ham. Lady, fhall I lie in your lap?

Oph. No, my lord.

[Laying down at Ophelia's feet.

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 a maid's legs.

Oph. What is, my lord?

Ham. Nothing.

Oph. You are merry, my lord.

Ham. Who, I?

Oph. Ay, my lord.

Ham. Oh God! your only jig-maker; what should a man do, but be merry? For, look you, how chearfully my mother looks, and my father dy'd within thefe two hours.

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Oph. Nay, 'tis twice two months, my lord.

Ham. So long? * nay, then let the Devil wear black, 'fore I'll have a fuit of fable. Oh heav'ns! die two months ago, and not forgotten yet! then there's hope, a great man's memory may out-live bis life half a year: but, by'r-lady, he muft build churches then; or elfe fhall he fuffer not thinking on, with the hobby-horfe; whofe epitaph is, For oh, for oh, the hobby-horfe is forgot.

SCENE VI.

Hautboys play. The dumb fhew enters.

Enter a Duke and Dutchefs, with regal Coronets, very lovingly; the Dutchess embracing him, and he her. She kneels he takes her up, and declines his head upon her neck; he lays him down upon a bank of flowers; fue feeing him afleep, leaves him. Anon comes in a fellow, takes off his Crown, kiffes it, and pours poison in the Duke's ears, and Exit, The Dutchefs returns, finds the Duke dead, and makes paffionate action. The poifoner, with fome two or three mutes, comes in again, Jeeming to lament with her. The dead body is carried away. The poifoner wooes the Dutchess with gifts; fhe feems loath and unwilling a while, but in the end accepts his love.

HAT means this, my lord?

[Exeunt.

Oph. W Ham. Marry, this is miching Malhechor;

it means mischief.

* nay, then let the Devil wear black, for I'll have a fuit of fable.] The Conceit of these Words is not taken. They are an ironical Apology for his Mother's chearful Looks: Two Months was long enough in Confcience to make any dead Husband forgotten. But the Editors, in their nonsensical Blunder, have made Hamlet say just the Contrary. That the Devil and he would both go into Mourning, tho' his Mother did not. The true Reading is this, Nay, then let the Devil wear black, 'fore I'll have a Suit of Sable.

Warb.

Oph.

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