thanks; but I thank you: and sure, dear friends, my thanks are too dear a halfpenny. Were you not sent for? Is it your own inclining? Is it a free visitation? Come, deal justly with me: come, come; nay, speak.

GUIL. What should we say, my lord?

HAM. Why anything-but to the purpose. You were sent for; and there is a kind of* confession in your looks, which your modesties have not craft enough to colour: I know the good king and queen have sent for you.

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. [To GUILDENSTERN.] What say you? HAM. [Aside.] Nay, then, I have an eye of you. If you love me, hold not off.

GUIL. My lord, we were sent for.

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 sterile 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 vapours. What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! 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; no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so.

(*) First folio omits, of.

(+) First folio, heavenly. (1) First folio omits, firmament. a- but to the purpose.] That is, only to the purpose. b Nay, then, I have an eye of you. I see through your purpose, or, as the quarto of 1603 phrases it, "I see how the winde sits."

I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation prevent your discovery, and your secrecy to the king and queen moult no feather.] The folio absurdly reads, "I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation prevent your discovery of your secricie to the King and Queen: moult no feather."

d-lenten entertainment-] Meagre, stinted entertainment, like the cheer in Lent.

ecoted them-] Came alongside of them.

f the humorous man-] By the "humorous man" we are not to understand the funny man or jester, he was termed "the clown," but the actor who personated the fantastic characters, known in Shakespeare's time as "humourists," and who, for the most part, were represented as capricious and quarrelsome.

g tickled o' the sere ;] "Tickled o' the sere,"-correctly, perhaps, tickle o' the sere"-appears to signify those easily moved to the expression of mirth.

little eyases,-] Nestlings; unfledged hawks.

that cry out on the top of question,-] This is conjectured by the commentators to be an allusion to the shrill, alto voice in 353

VOL. III.

Ros. My lord, there was 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 from you: we coted 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;8 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. How comes it? do they grow rusty?

h

Ros. Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace but there is, sir, an aiery of children, little eyases, that cry out on the top of question,' and are most tyrannically clapped for 't: these are now the fashion; and so berattle the common stages, (so they call them) that many wearing rapiers are afraid of goose-quills, and dare scarce come thither.

HAM. What, are they children? who maintains them? how are they escoted? Will they pursue the quality no longer than they can sing? will they not say afterwards, if they should grow themselves to common players," (as it is most like,§ if their means are no better) their writers do them

(*) First folio omits, then. (+) First folio omits, suck. (1) First folio, be-ratled. (§) Old text, like most. which the boys declaimed! The phrase, derived perhaps from the defiant crowing of a cock upon his midden, really meant, we believe, like

"Stood challenger on mount of all the age,"

to crow over or challenge all comers to a contention. In a subsequent scene, Hamlet, speaking of the play which "pleased not the million," observes, "but it was (as I received it, and others, whose judgment in such matters cried in the top of mine) an excellent play," &c.; where "cried in the top evidently means crowed over. Again, in Armin's "Nest of Ninnies," the author, alluding to fencers or players at single stick, talks of "making them expert till they cry it up in the top of question."

kescoted?] Said to mean, paid; from the French escot, a shot or reckoning.

m

1-quality-] Profession, or calling. Here, Histrionale studium. -common players,-] As we now term them, "strolling players." "I prefix an epithite of common, to distinguish the hase and artlesse appendants of our Citty companies, which often times start away into rusticall wanderers, and then (like Proteus) start backe again into the Citty number."-J. STEPHENS, Essayes and Characters, 1615, p. 301.

A A

GUIL. O, there has been much throwing about of brains.

HAM. Do the boys carry it away?

Ros. Ay, that they do, my lord; Hercules and his load too.(3)

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, an hundred ducats a-piece, for his picture in little. 'S blood, there is something in this more than natural, if philosophy could find it out.

[Flourish of trumpets without.

GUIL. There are the players.

HAM. Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your hands. Come; the appurtenance of welcome is fashion and ceremony: let me comply with you in the garb; lest my extent to the players, which, I tell you, must show fairly outward, should more appear like entertainment than yours. You are welcome: but my uncle-father and aunt-mother are deceived.

GUIL. In what, my dear lord?

HAM. I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw.b

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 swathing-clouts.

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 it. You say right, sir: for o' Monday morning 't was so, indeed.

POL. My lord, I have news to tell you. HAM. My lord, I have news to tell you. When Roscius wast an actor in Rome,

POL. The actors are come hither, my lord.
HAM. Buz, buz!c

POL. Upon mine honour,—

HAM. Then came* each actor on his ass,

POL. The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoricalcomical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral, scene-individable, or poem unlimited: Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light. For the law of writ and the liberty, these are the only men.

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. [Aside.] Still on my daughter. HAM. Am I not i' the right, old Jephthah? 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,

You are welcome, masters; welcome, all:-I am glad to see thee well:-welcome, good friends.O, my old friend! Thy face is valiant since I

saw thee last; comest thou to beard me in Denmark?-What! my young lady and mistress! By 'r lady, your ladyship is nearer to heaven, than when I saw you last, by the altitude of a chopine.(5) Pray God, your voice, like a piece of uncurrent gold, be not cracked within the ring.(6)— Masters, you are all welcome, We'll e'en to 't like French falconers, fly at anything we see: we'll have a speech straight: come, give us a taste of your quality; come, a passionate speech.

() First folio, can.

a - let me comply with you in the garb;] Let me fraternize or onjoin with you in the customary mode; and not, as modern ditors expound it,-"Let me compliment with you," &c. To omply, literally, means to enfold.

b I know a hawk from a handsaw.] An old proverbial saying; originally," a hawk from a hernshaw, i.e. a heron; but corrupted before Shakespeare's day.

c Buz, buz!] An interjection of impatience used when any one began a story already known to the hearers.

d for look, where my abridgment comes.] In the folio, 'My abridgements come." Abridgment" was only another

(+) First folio, Pons Chanson. (1) First folio omits, to. word for pastime; so, in "A Midsummer Night's Dream," Act V. Sc. 1,

"Say, what abri igment have you for this evening."

e Thy face is valiant since I saw thee last;] The quartos have valanced. But compare the advice of Iago to Roderigo;-"Follow thou the wars; defeat thy favour with an usurped beard;" i.e. assume a martial aspect; and also the context in Hamlet's speech, "comest thou to beard me in Denmark," where the point is lost without the fierceness implied by "valiant."

1 PLAY. What speech, my lord? HAM. I heard thee speak me a speech once,but it was never acted; or, if it was, not above once; for the play, I remember, pleased not the million; 't was caviare(7) to the general: but it was (as I received it, and others, whose judgment in such matters cried in the top of mine) an excellent play; well digested in the scenes; set down with as much modesty as cunning. I remember, one said there were no sallets" in the lines to make the matter savoury, nor no matter in the phrase that might indict the author of affectation; but called it an honest method, as wholesome as sweet, and by very much more handsome than fine. One speech in it I chiefly loved: 't was Eneas' tale to Dido; and thereabout of it especially, where he speaks of Priam's slaughter: if it live in your memory, begin at this line;―let me see, let me see ;

The rugged Pyrrhus, like the Hyrcanian beast, -it is not so;-it begins with Pyrrhus :

The rugged Pyrrhus,-he, whose sable arms,
Black as his purpose, did the night resemble
When he lay couched in the ominous horse,-
Hath now this dread and black complexion smear'd
With heraldry more dismal; head to foot
Now is he total gules; horridly trick'd c
With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons,
Bak'd and impasted with the parching streets,
That lend a tyrannous and damned light

To their vile murders: roasted in wrath and fire,
And thus o'er-sized with coagulate gore,
With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus
Old grandsire Priam seeks.

So proceed you.†

POL. 'Fore God, my lord, well spoken; with good accent and good discretion.

1 PLAY.
Anon he finds him
Striking too short at Greeks; his antique sword,
Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls,
Repugnant to command: unequal match'd,‡
Pyrrhus at Priam drives; in rage strikes wide;
But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword
The unnerv'd father falls. Then senseless Ilium,
Seeming to feel this § blow, with flaming top
Stoops to his base; and with a hideous crash
Takes prisoner Pyrrhus' er: for, lo! his sword,
Which was declining on the milky head

Of reverend Priam, seem'd i' the air to stick:
So, as a painted tyrant, Pyrrhus stood;
And, like a neutral to his will and matter,
Did nothing.

But as we often see against some storm,
A silence in the heavens, the rack stand still,
The bold winds speechless, and the orb below
As hush as death, anon the dreadful thunder
Doth rend the region; so, after Pyrrhus' pause,

(*) First folio, One cheefe Speech.

(+) First folio omits, So proceed you. (1) First folio, match. (§) First folio, his.

asallets-] So the old copies. Modern editors commonly change the word to "salt," or "salts." Mr. Singer quotes Baret: "Sal. Salte, a pleasante and mery word, that maketh folke to laugh, and sometimes pricketh."

bas wholesome as sweet, and by very much more handsome than fine.] This clause is not inserted in the folio.

Aroused vengeance sets him new a-work;
And never did the Cyclops' hammers fall
On Mars his armour, forg'd for proof eterne,
With less remorse than Pyrrhus' bleeding sword
Now falls on Priam.-

Out, out, thou strumpet, Fortune! All you gods,
In general synod, take away her power;
Break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel,
And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven,
As low as to the fiends!

POL. This is too long.

HAM. It shall to the barber's, with your beard. -Pr'ythee, say on:-he's for a jig or a tale of bawdry, or he sleeps :--say on ;-come to Hecuba.

1 PLAY. But who, O, who, had seen the mobled d queenHAM. The mobled queen?

POL. That's good: mobled queen is good.

1 PLAY. Run barefoot up and down, threat'ning
the flames +

With bissone rheum; a clout about that head,
Where late the diadem stood; and for a robe,
About her lank and all o'er-teemed loins

A blanket, in the alarm of fear caught up ;-
Who this had seen, with tongue in venom steep'd,
'Gainst Fortune's state would treason have pronounc'd;
But if the gods themselves did see her then,
When she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport
In mincing with his sword her husband's limbs,
The instant burst of clamour that she made,
(Unless things mortal move them not at all)
Would have made milchf the burning eyes of heaven,
And passion in the gods.

POL. Look, whêr he has not turned his colour, and has tears in 's eyes!-Pr'ythee,‡ no more.

HAM. 'T is well; I'll have thee speak out the rest of this soon.-Good my lord, will you sec the players well bestowed? Do you hear? let them be well used; for they are the abstracts 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 them according to their desert.

HAM. God's bodykins, man, much better: use every man after his desert, and who should 'scape whipping! Use them after your own honour and dignity: the less they deserve, the more merit is in your bounty. Take them in.

POL. Come, sirs.

HAM. Follow him, friends: we'll hear a play to-morrow. [Exit POLONIUS with all the Players except the First.]-[Aside to Player.] Dost thou hear me, old friend? can you play The Murder of Gonzago?

Ros. Good my lord!

HAM. Ay, so, God be wi' you!-
[Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.
Now I am alone.

O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!
Is it not monstrous, that this player here,
But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,
Could force his soul so to his own conceit,
That, from her working, all his visage wann'd:†
Tears in his eyes, distraction in 's aspéct,
A broken voice, and his whole function suiting
With forms to his conceit? and all for nothing!
For Hecuba!

What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,
That he should weep for her? What would he do,
Had he the motive and the cue for passion
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,
Confound the ignorant; and amaze, indeed,
The very faculties of eyes and ears. Yet I,
A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak,"
Like John-a-dreams," unpregnant of my cause,
And can say nothing; no, not for a king,
Upon whose property, and most dear life,

A damn'd defeat was made. Am I a coward?
Who calls me villain? breaks my pate across?
Plucks off my beard, and blows it in my face?

Tweaks me by the nose? gives me the lie i' the throat,

As deep as to the lungs? Who does me this, ha?

'Swounds, I should take it: for it cannot be,
But I am pigeon-liver'd, and lack gall
To make oppression bitter; or, ere this,
I should have fatted all the region kites
With this slave's offal:-bloody,+ bawdy villain!
Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless

villain!

O, Vengeance!—

Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave,' That I, the son of a dear father murder'd, Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell, Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words, And fall a cursing, like a very drab,

A scullion!

Fye upon 't! foh!-About, my brains! I have heard

That guilty creatures, sitting at a play,
Have by the very cunning of the scene
Been struck so to the soul, that presently
They have proclaim'd their malefactions;
For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak
With most miraculous organ.(8) I'll have these
players

Play something like the murder of my father,
Before mine uncle: I'll observe his looks;
I'll tent him to the quick; if he but blench,
I know my course. The spirit that I have seen
May be the devil: and the devil hath power
To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps
Out of my weakness and my melancholy,
(As he is very potent with such spirits)
Abuses me to damn me: I'll have grounds
More relative than this:-the play's the thing,
Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.

"Who? What an Asse am I? I sure, this is most brave," &c. The quartos, omitting "O, Vengeance!"

"Why, what an asse am I? this is most brave," &c.

g of a dear father murder'd, &c.] The folio misprints this,"That I, the Sonne of the Deere murthered;"

and the quartos 1604 and 1605 omit the word "father," much to the detriment of the passage, reading, "- of a deere murthered."

Ros. Niggard of question; but, of our demands, Most free in his reply."

QUEEN. Did you assay him to any pastime?
Ros. Madam, it so fell out that certain players
We o'er-raught on the way: of these we told him ;
And there did seem in him a kind of joy
To hear of it: they are about the court;
And, as I think, they have already order
This night to play before him.

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

To hear him so inclin'd.

Good gentlemen, give him a further edge,
And drive his purpose on to these delights.
Ros. We shall, my lord.

[Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDEnstern.

And unless "question "is admitted to mean argument, his emendation yields a truer description of Hamlet's bearing towards his schoolfellows than that afforded by the old text. It should be mentioned, too, that the 1603 quarto has,

"But still he puts us off, and by no meanes,
Would make an answere to that we exposde."