Ros. To what end, my lord? Ham. That you must teach me. But let me conjure you, by the rights of our fellowship, by the consonancy of our youth, by the obligation of our ever-preserved love, and by what more dear a better proposer could charge you withal, be even and direct with me, whether you were sent for, or no? Ros. What say you? Ham. Nay, then I have an eye of hold not off. Guil. My lord, we were sent for. [To GUILDENSTERN. you; [Aside.]—if love me, you 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 not,) lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises: and, indeed, it goes so heavily with my disposition, that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a steril 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 vapors. What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! 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, nor woman neither; though, by your smiling, you seem to say so. Ros. My lord, there is no such stuff in my thoughts. Ham. Why did you laugh then, when I said, Man delights not me? Ros. To think, my lord, if you delight not in man, what lenten entertainment the players shall receive for you: we met 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 tickled o' the sere; and the lady shall say her mind freely, or the blank verse shall halt for 't.-What players are they? Ros. Even those you were wont to take such delight in, the tragedians of the city. Ham. How chances it, they travel? their residence, both in reputation and profit, was better both ways. Ros. I think, their inhibition comes by the means of the late innovation. Ham. Do they hold the same estimation they did when I was in the city? Are they so followed? Ros. No, indeed, they are not. Ham. It is not very strange: for my uncle is king of Denmark; and those, that would make mouths at him while my father lived, give twenty, forty, fifty, an hundred ducats a-piece, for his picture in little. There is something in this more than natural, if philosophy could find it out. [Flourish of trumpets within. Guil. There are the players. Ham. Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your hands. You are welcome: but my uncle-father, and aunt-mother, are deceived. Guil. In what, my dear lord? Ham. I am but mad north-northwest: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw. Enter POLONIUS. Pol. Well be with you, gentlemen! Ham. Hark you, Guildenstern,-and you too;-at each ear a hearer; that great baby, you see there, is not yet out of his swaddling clothes. Ros. Happily, he's the second time come to them; for, they say, an old man is twice a child. Ham. I will prophesy, he comes to tell me of the players; mark -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 you. actor in Rome, Pol. The actors are come hither, my lord. Pol. Upon my honor, Ham. Then came each actor on his ass, When Roscius was an 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. the law of writ and the liberty, these are the only men. For 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, The which he loved passing well. Pol. Still on my daughter. Ham. Am not I i' the right, old Jephthah? [Aside. 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. The Players enter, and at Hamlet's request, the first player recites a speech. Ham. 'Tis well; I'll have thee speak out the rest of this soon.Good my lord, will you see the players well bestowed? 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 hem according to their desert. Ham. Much better: Use every man after his desert, and who shall 'scape whipping! Use them after your own honor 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 to-morrow.-Dost thou hear me, old friend; can you play the murder of Gonzago? 1st 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? 1st 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 GUILDENSTERM. Ham. Ay, so, heaven be wi' you :-Now I am alone. O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I! Is it not monstrous, that this player here, What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, That he should weep for her? What would he do, That I have? He would drown the stage with tears, And cleave the general ear, with horrid speech; Make mad the guilty, and appal the free, Yet I, A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak, Why, I should take it: for it cannot be, But I am pigeon-livered and lack gall, To make oppression bitter; or, ere this, Humph! I have heard, Why, what an ass am I? This is most brave; For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak ACT III. SCENE I.-A Room in the Castle. [Exit. Enter KING, QUEEN, POLONIUS, OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN. King. And can you, by no drift of conference Get from him, why he puts on this confusion; With turbulent and dangerous lunacy? Ros. He does confess, he feels himself distracted; But from what cause he will by no means speak. When we would bring him on to some confession Queen. Did he receive you well? Ros. Most like a gentleman. Guil. But with much forcing of his disposition. Ros. Niggard of question; but, of our demands, Most free in his reply. Queen. Did you assay him Ros. Madam, it so fell out, that certain players Pol. 'Tis most true: And he beseech'd me to entreat your majesties, To hear and see the matter. King. With all my heart; and it doth much content me Good gentlemen, give him a further edge, King. [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN, Sweet Gertrude, leave us too: For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither; Her father, and myself (lawful espials,) Will so bestow ourselves, that, seeing, unseen, We may of their encounter frankly judge: That thus he suffers for. Queen. I shall obey you: And, for your part, Ophelia, I do wish, That your good beauties be the happy cause Of Hamlet's wildness; so shall I hope your virtues Will bring him to his wonted way again, To both your honors. Oph. Madam, I wish it may. [Exit QUEEN [TO OPHELIA. Pol. Ophelia, walk you here:-Gracious, so please you, We will bestow ourselves :-Read on this book; That show of such an exercise may color Your loneliness.-We are oft to blame in this,— 'Tis too much prov'd, that, with devotion's visage, And pious action, we do sugar o'er The devil himself. King. O, 'tis too true! how smart A lash that speech doth give my conscience! [Exeunt KING and POLONIUS Enter HAMLET. Ham. To be, or not to be, that is the question : Whether 'tis nobler in the mind, to suffer |