lifp, and nick-name God's creatures, and make your wantonnefs your ignorance. Go to, I'll no more on't, it hath made me mad. I fay, we will have no more marriages. Those that are married already, all bur one, fhall live; the rest shall keep as they are.

nunnery, go.

To a

[Exit Hamlet. Oph. Oh, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown! The courtier's, foldier's, fcholar's, eye, tongue, fword; Th' expectancy and rofe of the fair State,

The glafs of fashion, and the mould of form,
Th' obferv'd of all obfervers! Quite, quite down!
I am of ladies moft deject and wretched,
That fuck'd the hony of his mufick vows:
Now fee that noble and most fov'reign reason,
Like fweet bells jangled out of tune, and harsh;
That unmatch'd form, and feature of blown youth,
Blasted with ecftafy. Oh, woe is me!

T' have feen what I have feen; see what I fee.

King. Love! his affections do not that way tend,
Nor what he spake, tho' it lack'd form a little,
Was not like madnefs. Something's in his foul,
O'er which his melancholy fits on brood;
And, I do doubt, the hatch and the disclose
Will be fome danger, which, how to prevent,
I have in quick determination

Thus fet it down. He fhall with speed to England,
For the demand of our neglected Tribute:
Haply, the Seas and Countries different,

4 make your wantennefs your ignorance.] You mistake by wanton affectation, and pretend to miftake by ignorance.

the mould of form,] The model by whom all endeavoured to form themfelves.

With variable objects, fhall expel

This fomething fettled matter in his heart,
Whereon his brains ftill beating, puts him thus.
From fashion of himself. What think you on't?
Pol. It fhall do well. But yet I do believe,
The origin and commencement of this grief
Sprung from neglected love. How now, Ophelia?
You need not tell us what Lord Hamlet faid,

We heard it all.

My Lord, do as you please.

But if you hold it fit, after the Play

[Exit Ophelia.

Let his Queen-mother all alone intreat him
To fhew his griefs; let her be round with him,
And I'll be plac'd, fo pleafe you, in the ear
Of all their conf'rence. If fhe find him not,
To England fend him; or confine him, where
Your wisdom best shall think.

King. It fhall be fo.

Madness in Great ones must not unwatch'd go. : [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. But if you mouth it, as many of our Players do, I had as lieve, the town-crier had fpoke my lines. And do not saw the air too much with your hand thus, but use 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 finoothnefs. Oh it offends me to the foul, to hear a robuftious periwig-pated fellow tear a paffion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings: who for

6 the groundlings:] The meaner people then feem to have fat below, as they now fit in the upper gallery, who not well understand

P

ing poetical language, were fome-
times gratified by a mimical and
mute reprefentation of the dra-
ma, previous to the dialogue.
3

the

the most part are capable of nothing but 7 inexplicable dumb fhews, and noife: I could have fuch a fellow whipt for o'er doing Termagant; it out-berods Herod. Pray you, avoid it.

Play. I warrant your Honour.

Ham. Be not too tame neither; but let your own difcretion be your tutor. Suit the action to the word, the word to the action, with this fpecial obfervance, that you o'er-step not the modefty of Nature; for any thing fo overdone is from the purpose of playing; whofe end, both at the first 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 unfkilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve; the cenfure of which one must 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 speak it profanely, that neither having the accent of chriftian, nor the gait of chriftian, pagan, or 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 fo 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 themfelves laugh, to fet on fome quantity of barren spectators to laugh too; though, in the mean time, fome neceffary queftion of the Play be then to be confidered. That's villainous; and fhews a moft pitiful ambition in the fool that ufes it. Go make you ready. [Exeunt Players.

Enter Polonius, Rofincrantz, 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 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 fervice.
Ham. Horatio, thou art e'en as just a Man,
As e'er my conversation cop'd withal.
Hor. Oh my dear Lord,

Ham. Nay, do not think, I flatter:

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

[Exeunt.

To feed and cloath thee? Should the poor be flatter'd?
No, let the candied tongue lick abfurd Pomp,
And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee,
Where thrift may follow fawning. Doft thou hear?
Since my dear foul was miftrefs of her choice,

And could of men diftinguish, her election
Hath feal'd thee for herself, for thou hast 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,
s Whofe blood and judgment are fo well co-mingled,
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 feest that Act a-foot,
Ev'n with the very comment of thy foul
Obferve mine uncle; if his occult guilt
Do not itself unkennel in one fpeech,
It is a damned Ghoft that we have seen,
And my imaginations are as foul

6

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.