are wrinkled; their eyes purging thick amber, and plumtree gum; and that they have a plentiful lack of wit; together with most weak hams. All which, Sir, though I moft powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it not honesty to have it thus fet down; for yourfelf, Sir, fhall be as old as I am, if, like a crab, you could go backward.

Pol. Though this be madness, yet there's method in't. Will you walk out of the air, my Lord?

Ham. Into my grave.

Pol. Indeed that is out o' th air:

"How pregnant (fometimes) his replies are?
"A happiness that often madness hits on,
"Which fanity and reafon could not be
"So profp'rously deliver'd of. I'll 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, Sir, take from me any thing that
I will more willingly part withal, except my life.
Pol. Fare you well, my Lord.

Ham. Thefe tedious old fools!

Pol. You go to feek Lord Hamlet; there he is.

[Exit.

SCENE VI. Enter Rofincrantz and Guildenstern.

Rof. God fave you, Sir!

Guil. Mine honour'd Lord!

Rof. My moft dear Lord!

Ham. My excellent good friends! How doft thou,
Guildenftern?

Oh, Rofinerantz, good lads! how do ye both?
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 fhoe?

Rof. Neither, my Lord.

Ham. Then you live about her wafte, or in the middle of her favours?

Guil. 'Faith, in her privates we.

Ham.

Ham. In the fecret parts of Fortune? oh, most true; fhe is a ftrumpet. What news?

Rof. None, my Lord; but that the world's grown

honest.

Mam. Then is doomf-day near; but your news is not true. Let me queftion more in particular. What have you, my good friends, deferved at the hands of Fortune, that the 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; Denmark being one o' th' worst.

Ref. We think not fo, my Lord.

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. Oh God, I could be bounded in a nut-fhell, 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 substance of the ambitious is merely the fhadow of a dream.

Ham. A dream itself is but a fhadow.

Ref. Truly, and I hold ambition of fo airy and light a quality, that it is but a fhadow's fhadow.

Ham. Then are our beggars, bodies; and our monarchs and outstretch'd heroes, the beggars' fhadows. Shall we to th' court? for, by my fay, I cannot reason. Both. We'll wait upon you.

Ham. No fuch matter. I will not fort you with the reft of my fervants: for, to fpeak to you like an honest man, I am most dreadfully attended; but, in the beaten way of friendship, what make you at Elfmoor?

Ref. To vifit you, my Lord; no other occafion. Ham. Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks; but I thank you: and fure, dear friends, my thanks are too dear of a halfpenny. Were you not fent for?

is it your own inclining? is it a free vifitation? Come, deal juftly with me; come, come; nay, fpeak. Guild. What fhould we say, my Lord?

Ham. Any thing, but to the purpose. You were fent for; and there is a kind of confeffion in your looks, T hich your modesties have not craft enough to colour. I know the good King and Queen have fent for you. Rof. To what end, my Lord?

Ham. That you must teach me; but let me conjure you by the rights of our fellowship, by the confonancy 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 fent for or no?

Rof. What fay you?

[To Guilden. Ham. Nay, then I have an eye of you: if you love me, hold not off.

Guil. My Lord, we were fent for.

Ham. I will tell you why; fo fhall my anticipation. 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 "cuftom of exercife; and indeed it goes fo heavily with

my difpofition, that this goodly frame, the earth, "feems to me a steril promontory; this most excellent "canopy the air, look you, this brave 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 ex

prefs 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 neither; though by your fmiling 66 you feem to fay fo.

Rof My Lord, there was no fuch stuff in my thoughts. Ham. Why did you laugh, when I faid man delights

not me?

Ref. To think, my Lord, if you delight not in man, what lenten entertainment the players fhall receive VOL. VIII.

L

from

from you. We accofted them on the way, and hither are they coming to offer you fervice.

Ham." He that plays the King, fhall be welcome; "His Majefty fhall have tribute of me; the adventurous knight fhall ufe his foil and target; the lover fhall "not figh gratis; the humorous man fhall end his part

66

in peace; the clown fhall make thote laugh whofe lungs are tickled o' th' fere; and the lady fhall fay "her mind freely, or the blank verfe shall halt for't. "What players are they?

Ref. Even thofe you were wont to take 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. I think their inhibition comes by the means of

the late innovation.

Ham. Do they hold the fame estimation they did 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? Ref. Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace: little eyafes; but there is, Sir, an aiery of children *; that cry out on the top of question, and are most ty rannically clapt for't. These are now the fashion, and fo berattle the common ftages, (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 purfue 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't poffible?

*Relating to he playhoufes then contending, the Bank fide, the Fortune, &c. played by the children of his Majesty's chapel.

Guil.

Guil. Oh, 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 strange; for mine uncle is King of Denmark; and those that would make mowes at him' while my father lived, give twenty, forty, fifty, an hundred ducats apiece, for his picture in little There is something in this more than natural, if philofophy could find it out. [Flourish for the players.

Guil. There are the players.

Ham. Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elfinoor; your hands: come then, the appurtenance of welcome is fathion and ceremony. Let me comply with you in this garbe, left my extent to the players (which, I tell you, muft flew fairly outward) fhould more appear like entertainment than yours. You are welcome; but my uncle-father and aunt-mother are deceiv'd.

Guil. In what, my dear Lord ?

Ham. "I am but mad north, north-west: when the "wind is foutherly, I know a hawk from a handlaw. SCENE VIII. Enter Polonius.

Pol. Well be with you, Gentlemen.

Ham. Hark you, Guildenstern, and you too, at each ear a hearer; that great baby you fee there, is not yet out of his fwathling-clouts.

Rof. Haply he's the fecond time come to them; for they fay, an old man is twice a child.

Ham. I will prophefy, he comes to tell me of the players. Mark it; you fay right, Sir; for on Monday morning 'twas fo indeed.

Pol. My Lord, I have news to tell you.
Ham. My Lord, I have news to tell you.

When Rofcius was an actor in Rome

Pol. The actors are come hither, my Lord.

Ham. Buzze, buzze.

Pol. Upon mine honour

Ham. Then came each actor on his afs

Pol. "The best actors in the world, either for tra-gedy, comedy, hiftory, paftoral, paftoral-comical, "hiftorical paftoral, fcene undividable, or poem un"limited.

L 2