noise. I would have such a fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant;' it out-herods Herod. 'Pray you, avoid it. 1 Play. I warrant your honor. 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 special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature; for any thing so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first, and now, was, and is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time, his form, and pressure. Now this, overdone, or come tardy off, though it make the unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve; the censure of which one, must, in your allowance,3 o'erweigh a whole theatre of others. O, there be players, that I have seen play, and heard others praise, and that highly,-not to speak it profanely, that, neither having the accent of Christians, nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so strutted and bellowed, that I have thought some of nature's journeymen had made men, and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably. 1 Play. I hope we have reformed that indifferently with us. Ham. O, reform it altogether. And let those that play your clowns, speak no more than is set down for them; for there be of them, that will themselves laugh, to set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too; though, in the mean time, some necessary_question of the play be then to be considered. That's 1 Termagaunt is the name given in old romances to the tempestuous god of the Saracens. 2 Pressure is impression, resemblance. 3 i. e. approval, estimation. 4 The quarto 1603, "Point in the play then to be observed." Afterwards is added, “ And then you have some again that keeps one suit of jests, as a man is known by one suit of apparel; and gentlemen quotes his jests down in their tables before they come to the play, as thus:Cannot you stay till I eat my porridge? and you owe me a quarter's wages; and your beer is sour; and blabbering with his lips: And thus keeping villanous; and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it. Go, make you ready. [Exeunt Players. Enter POLONIUS, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENStern. 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 haste. Will you two help to hasten them? Both. Ay, my lord. [Exit POLONIUS. [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and Guildenstern. Ham. What, ho; Horatio! Enter HORATIO. Hor. Here, sweet lord, at your service. As e'er my conversation coped withal. Hor. O my dear lord, Ham. Nay, do not think I flatter; For what advancement may I hope from thee, That no revénue hast, but thy good spirits, To feed, and clothe thee? Why should the poor be flattered? No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp; And crook the pregnant' hinges of the knee, Where thrift may follow fawning. Dost thou hear? Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice, And could of men distinguish her election, She hath sealed thee for herself. For thou hast been Hast ta'en with equal thanks; and blessed are those, in his cinque a pace of jests; when, God knows, the warme Clown cannot make a jest unless by chance, as the blind man catcheth a hare: Masters, tell him of it.". 1 Pregnant, quick, ready. 2 Quarto 1604-"co-medled." No traveller returns,-puzzles the will; Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought; Oph. Good my lord, How does your honor for this many a day? Oph. My lord, I have remembrances of yours, That I have longed long to re-deliver ; I never gave you aught. No, not I; Oph. My honored lord, you know right well, you did; And, with them, words of so sweet breath composed Rich gifts wax poor, when givers prove unkind. Ham. Ha, ha! are you honest? Ham. Are fair? you Oph. What means your lordship? Ham. That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should admit no discourse to your beauty.3 Oph. Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than with honesty? Ham. Ay, truly; for the power of beauty will sooner 1 Quartos-pitch. 2 Folio-away. 3 i. e. "your honesty should not admit your beauty to any discourse with her." The first quarto reads, "Your beauty should admit no discourse to your honesty;" that of 1604, "You should admit no discourse to your beauty." transform honesty from what it is to a bawd, than the force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness; this was some time a paradox, but now the time gives it proof. I did love you once. Oph. Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so. Ham. You should not have believed me; for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock, but we shall relish of it. I loved you not. Oph. I was the more deceived. Ham. Get thee to a nunnery; why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest; but yet I could accuse me of such things, that it were better my mother had not borne me. I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious; with more offences at my beck, than I have thoughts to put them in,' imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven! We are arrant knaves, all; believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery. Where's your father? Oph. At home, my lord. 2 Ham. Let the doors be shut upon him; that he may play the fool no where but in's own house. Farewell. Oph. O, help him, you sweet Heavens! Ham. If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for thy dowry. Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery; farewell.3 Or, if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough, what monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go; and quickly too. Farewell. Oph. Heavenly powers, restore him! Ham. I have heard of your paintings too, well enough. God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another; you jig, you amble, and you lisp, 1 "Than I have thoughts to put them in." To put "a thing into thought," is "to think on it." 2 Folio-way. 3 Folio-Go, farewell. 4 The folio, for paintings, has prattlings; and for face has pace. and nickname God's creatures, and make your wantonness your ignorance. Go to; I'll no more of it; it hath made me mad.' I say, we will have no more marriages those that are married already, all but one, shall live; the rest shall keep as they are. To a nunnery, go. [Exit HAMLET Oph. Ŏ, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown! The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's eye, tongue, sword ; The expectancy and rose of the fair state, The glass of fashion, and the mould of form, The observed of all observers! quite, quite down! And I, of ladies most deject and wretched, That sucked the honey of his music vows, Now see that noble and most sovereign reason, Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune, and harsh; That unmatched form and feature of blown youth, Blasted with ecstasy.3 O, woe is me! To have seen what I have seen, see what I see! Re-enter King and POLONIUS. King. Love! his affections do not that way tend; Nor what he spake, though it lacked form a little, Was not like madness. There's something in his soul, O'er which his melancholy sits en brood; And, I do doubt, the hatch, and the disclose,1 Will be some danger; which for to prevent, I have, in quick determination, Thus set it down. He shall with speed to England, For the demand of our neglected tribute. Haply, the seas, and countries different, With variable objects, shall expel This something-settled matter in his heart; Whereon his brains still beating, puts him thus 1 "You mistake by wanton affectation, and pretend to mistake by ignorance." 2 Quarto time. 3 Ecstasy is alienation of the mind. Vide Tempest, Act iii. Sc. 3. 4 To disclose was the ancient term for hatching birds of any kind; from the Fr. esclos. |