Ros. As the indifferent children of the earth. Guil. Happy, in that we are not overhappy; On fortune's cap we are not the very button. Ham. Nor the soles of her shoe? Ros. Neither, my lord.' Ham. What news? [honest. Ros. None, my lord; but that the world's grown Ham. Then is dooms-day near: But your news is not true. Let me question more in particular: What have you, my good friends, deserved at the hands of fortune, that she sends you to prison hither? Guil. Prison, my lord! Ham. Denmark's a prison. Ros. Then is the world one. Ham. A goodly one; in which there are many confines, wards, and dungeons; Denmark being one of the worst. Ros. We think not so, my lord. Ham. Why, then 'tis none to you; for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so: to me it is a prison. Ros. Why, then your ambition makes it one; 'tis too narrow for your mind. Ham. O heaven; I could be bounded in a nutshell, 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 shadow of a dream. Ham. A dream itself is but a shadow. Ros. Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality, that it is but a shadow's shadow. Ham. Then are our beggars, bodies; and our mo Non agimur tumidis velis Aquilone secundo, Hor. Epis. 2. 2. 201. narchs, and outstretch'd heroes, the beggar's shadows: Shall we to the court? for, by my fay,' I cannot reason. Ros. Guil. We'll wait upon you. Ham. No such matter; I will not sort you with the rest of my servants: for, to speak to you like an honest man, I am most dreadfully attended. But, in the beaten way of friendship, what make you at Elsinore? Ros. To visit you, my lord; no other occasion. Ham. Beggar that I am, I am even poor in 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, come, deal justly with me: come, come; nay, speak. Guil. What should we say, my lord? Ham. Any thing-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. But let me con Ros. To what end, my lord? Ham. That you must teach me. jure you, by the rights of our fellowship, by the eonsonancy of our youth, by the obligation of our everpreserved 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? if Ros. What say you? [To GUILDENSTtern. Ham. Nay, then I have an eye of you; [Aside]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 secresy to the king and queen moult no feather. I have of late, (but, By my faith. A glimpse of your meaning. 2 at a halfpenny. The secresy you are bound to observe remain inviolable, 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 steril 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 faculties 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, nor woman neither; though, by your smiling, you seem to say so. Ros. My lord, there is no such stuff in my thoughts. Ham. Why did you laugh then, when I said, Man delights not me? 2 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' th' sere; 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. 1 2 οὔτε μοι πὼς nder, our antic aniog neλíov.-BRUNK'S ANALECTA, t. i., p. 247. Sparing, like the entertainments given in Lent. 3 overtook. 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? 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. Ham. Do the boys carry it away? Ros. Ay, that they do, my lord; Hercules and his load too. Ham. It is not very strange; for my uncle is king of Denmark;3 and those, that would make mouths at him while my father lived, give twenty, forty, fifty, an hundred ducats a-piece, for his picture in little. 'Sblood, there is something in this more than natural, if philosophy could find it out. [Flourish of trumpets within. Guil. There are the players. Ham. Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your hands. Come then: the appurtenance of welcome is fashion and ceremony: let me comply with you in this 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. 1 young nestlings. 2 At the highest pitch of their voice. 3 I do not wonder that the new players have so suddenly risen to reputation: my uncle supplies another example of the facility with which honour is conferred upon new claimants.-JOHNSON. 4 In miniature. 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 swaddling-clouts. Ros. Haply, he's the second time come to them, for, they say, an old man is twice a child. Ham. I will prophecy, he comes to tell me of the players; mark it. You say right, sir: o'Monday morning; t'was then, indeed. Pol. My lord, I have news to tell you. Pol. The actors are come hither, my lord. Pol. Upon my honour, Ham. Then came each actor on his ass,' When Pol. The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historicalpastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historicalpastoral, 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. 2 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, Pol. Still on my daughter. Ham. Am I not i'th'right, old Jephthah? [Aside. 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, As by lot, God wot, and then, you The line of some ballad. • writing. |