Ham. I will prophesy, he comes to tell me of the players; mark it. You say right, sir: o'Monday morning: 'twas then, indeed. Pol. My lord, I have news to tell you. Ham. My lord, I have news to tell Roscius was an actor in Rome,—— you; When Pol. The actors are come hither, my lord. Pol. Upon my honour,- -Ham. Then came each actor on his ass, Pol. The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral [tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral,] scene individable, or poem unlimited: Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light. For the law of writ*, and the liberty, these are the only men. Ham. O Jephthah, judge of Israel,—what a treasure hadst thou! Pol. What a treasure had he, my lord? Ham. Why One fair daughter and no more, Pol. Still on my daughter. [Aside. Ham. Am not I in 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, As by lot, God wot, and then, you know, It came to pass, As most like it was,-The first row of the pious chanson† will show you more; for look, my abridgment comes. Enter four or five Players. You are welcome, masters; welcome, all :-I am glad to see thee well :-welcome, good friends.→→ O, old friend! Why, thy face is valanced since I saw thee last; Com'st thou to beard § me in Denmark ?—What! my young lady and mistress! By'r* Writing. + Christmas carols. + Fringed. § Defy. lady, your ladyship is nearer to heaven, than when I saw you last, by the altitude of a chopine*. Pray God, your voice, like a piece of uncurrent gold, be not cracked within the ring.-Masters, you are all welcome. We'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. 1 Play. What speech, my 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; 'twas caviaret 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 sallads in the lines, to make the matter savoury; nor no matter in the phrase, that might indite ¶ the author of affection**: 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: 'twas Eneas' 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;— The rugged Pyrrhus, like the Hyrcanian beast,'tis not so; it begins with Pyrrhus. The rugged Pyrrhus,-he, whose sable arms, * Clog. ↑ An Italian dish, made of the roes of fishes. ተተ Red. Convict. + Profession. § Multitude. Bak'd and impasted with the parching streets, To their lord's murder: Roasted in wrath, and fire, With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus Pol. 'Fore God, my lord, well spoken; with good accent, and good discretion. 1 Play. Anon he finds him Striking too short at Greeks; his antique sword, But, as we often see, against some storm, Out, out, thou strumpet, Fortune! All you gods, * Light clouds. + Eternal. Pol. This is too long. Ham. It shall to the barber's, with your beard.Pr'ythee, say on:-He's for a jig, or tale of bawdry, or he sleeps:-say on: come to Hecuba. 1 Play. But who, ah woe! had seen the mobled* queen Ham. The mobled queen? Pol. That's good; mobled queen is good. 1 Play. Run barefoot up and down, threat'ning the flames With bissont rheum; a clout upon that head, A blanket, in the alarm of fear caught up; ; But if the gods themselves did see her then, Pol. Look, whether he has not turn'd his colour, and has tears in's eyes.-Pr'ythee, no more. Ham. 'Tis well; I'll have thee speak out the rest of this soon.-Good my lord, will you see the players well bestow'd? Do you hear, let them be well used; for they are the abstract, and brief chronicles, of the time: After your death you were better have a bad epitaph, than their ill report while you live. Pol. My lord, I will use them according to their desert. Ham. Odd's bodikin, man, much better: Use every man after his desert, and who shall 'scape * Muffled. + Blind. Milky. whipping? Use them after your own honour and dignity: The less they deserve, the more merit is in your bounty. Take them in. Pol. Come, sirs. [Exit Polonius, with some of the Players. Ham. Follow him, friends: we'll hear a play tomorrow. Dost thou hear me, old friend; can you play the murder of Gonzago? 1 Play. Ay, my lord. Ham. We'll have it 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? 1 Play. Ay, my lord. Ham. Very well.-Follow that lord; and look you mock him not. [Exit Player.] My good friends, [To Ros. and Guil.] I'll leave you till night: you are welcome to Elsinore. Ros. Good my lord! [Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Ham. Ay, so, God be wi' you :-Now I am alone. O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I ! 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, A broken voice, and his whole function suiting With forms to his conceit? 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, Yet I, A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak, |