the most part, are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb shews, and noise: I would have such a fellow whipp'd for o'er-doing Termagant; it out-herods Herod: pray you avoid it. 1 Play. I warrant your honour. 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 shew 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 the which one must, in your allowance, o'er-weigh 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, or Turk, 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 villainous, and shews 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. We will, my lord. [Exit POLONIUS. [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. Ham. What, ho! Horatio ! Enter HORATIO. Hor. Here, sweet lord, at your service. Ham. Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man As e'er my conversation cop'd withal. Hor. O, my dear lord, Ham. Nay, do not think I flatter; For what advancement may I hope from thee, That no revenue hast, but thy good spirits, To feed and clothe thee? Why should the poor be flatter'd? No; let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp, In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart, As Vulcan's stithy. Give him heedful note; And, after, we will both our judgments join In censure of his seeming. Hor. Well, my lord; If he steal aught the whilst this play is playing, [Danish march heard. Ham. They are coming to the play: I must be idle; Get you a place. A Flourish. Enter King, Queen, POLONIUS, OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and Others. King. How fares our cousin Hamlet? Ham. Excellent, i' faith; of the camelion's dish: I eat the air, promise-cramm'd. You cannot feed capons so. King. I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet : these words are not mine. Ham. No, nor mine now. - My lord, you play'd once in the University, you say? [TO POLONIUS. Pol. That did I, my lord; and was accounted a good actor. F2 Ham. And what did you enact? Pol. I did enact Julius Cæsar: I was kill'd i' th' Capitol; Brutus kill'd me. Ham. It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf there. - Be the players ready? Ros. Ay, my lord; they stay upon your patience. Queen. Come hither, my good Hamlet, sit by me. Ham. No, good mother, here's metal more attractive. Pol. [To the King.] Oho! do you mark that? [Lying down at OPHELIA's feet. Oph. No, my lord. Ham. I mean, my head upon your lap? Oph. Ay, my lord. Ham. Do you think I meant country matters ? Oph. I think nothing, my lord. Ham. That's a fair thought, to lie between maids' Oph. You are merry, my lord. Ham. Who, I? Oph. Ay, my lord. Ham. O God! your only jig-maker. What should a man do, but be merry? for, look you, how cheerfully my mother looks, and my father died within's two hours. Oph. Nay, 'tis twice two months, my lord. Ham. So long? Nay then, let the Devil wear black 'fore I'll have a suit of sables. O Heavens! die two months ago, and not forgotten yet? Then there's hope, a great man's memory may outlive his life half a year; but, by'r Lady, he must build churches then, or else shall he suffer not thinking on, with the hobby-horse; whose epitaph is, "For, O, for, O, the hobby-horse is forgot." Trumpets sound. The Dumb-Shew enters. Enter a King and Queen, very lovingly; the Queen embracing him. She kneels, and makes shew of protestation unto him. He takes her up, and declines his head upon her neck; lays him down upon a bank of flowers: she, seeing him asleep, leaves him. Anon comes in a fellow, takes off his crown, kisses it, and pours poison in the King's ears, and exit. The Queen returns, finds the King dead, and makes passionate action. The Poisoner, with some two or three Mutes, comes in again, seeming to lament with her. The dead body is carried away. The Poisoner woos the Queen with gifts: she seems loth and unwilling a while; but in the end accepts his love. [Exeunt. Oph. What means this, my lord ? Ham. Marry, this is miching mallecho; it means mischief. Oph. Belike, this shew imports the argument of the play. Enter Prologue. Ham. We shall know by this fellow: the players cannot keep counsel; they'll tell all. Oph. Will he tell us what this shew meant? Ham. Ay, or any shew that you will shew him: be not you asham'd to shew, he'll not shame to tell you what it means. Oph. You are naught, you are naught. I'll mark the play. Prologue. "For us, and for our tragedy, |