In censure1 of his seeming.

Ho.

Well, my lord;

If he steal aught, the whilst this play is playing,
And scape detecting, I will pay the theft.

Ham. They are coming to the play; I must be idle :

Get you a place.

Danish march. A florish. 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-crammed: 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 played once in the university, you say? [to Polonius. Po. That did I, my lord; and was accounted a good actor.

Ham. And what did you enact?

Po. I did enact Julius Cæsar: I was killed i' the Capitol; Brutus killed me.

Ham. It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf there. Be the players ready?

Ro. Ay, my lord; they stay upon your patience. Queen. Come hither, my dear Hamlet; sit by me.

1 Opinion.

Ham. No, good mother; here's metal more attractive.

Po. O, ho! do you mark that?
Ham. Lady, shall I lie in your lap?

Oph. No, my lord.

[to the King.

[lying down at Ophelia's feet.

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'

legs.

Oph. What is, my lord?

Ham. Nothing.

Oph. You are merry, my lord.

Ham. Who, I?

Oph. Ay, my lord.

Ham. O! 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 these two hours.

Oph. Nay, 'tis twice two months, my lord.

Ham. So long? Nay, then let the devil wear black, for I'll have a suit of sables.1 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

The richest dress.

on, with the hobby-horse, whose epitaph is,For, O, for, O, the hobby-horse is forgot.'

Trumpets sound. The dumb show follows.

Enter a KING and a QUEEN very lovingly, the Queen embracing him and he her: she kneels, and makes show 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 loath and unwilling awhile, but in the end accepts his love. [Exeunt.

Oph. What means this, my lord?

Ham. Marry this is miching mallecho; 1 it means mischief.

Oph. Belike, this show imports the argument of the play.

Enter PROLOGUE.

Ham. We shall know by this fellow: the players cannot keep counsel; they 'll tell all.

1 Secret wickedness.

Oph. Will he tell us what this show meant?

Ham. Ay, or any show that you'll show him : be not you ashamed to show, he'll not shame to tell you what it means.

Oph. You are naught, you are naught: I'll mark the play.

Pro.

For us and for our tragedy,

Here stooping to your clemency,
We beg your hearing patiently.'

Ham. Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring?
Oph. 'Tis brief, my lord.

Ham. As woman's love.

Enter a KING and a QUEEN.

P. King. Full thirty times hath Phoebus' cart gone round

Neptune's salt wash, and Tellus' orbed ground;
And thirty dozen moons, with borrow'd sheen,1
About the world have times twelve thirties been ;
Since love our hearts, and Hymen did our hands
Unite commutual in most sacred bands,

P. Queen. So many journeys may the sun and

moon

Make us again count o'er, ere love be done!
But, woe is me, you are so sick of late,

So far from cheer, and from your former state,

1 Splendor, lustre.

That I distrust you; yet, though I distrust,
Discomfort you, my lord, it nothing must:
For women fear too much, even as they love;
And women's fear and love hold quantity;
In neither aught, or in extremity.

know;

Now what my love is, proof hath made you
And as my love is sized,1 my fear is so.
Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear;
Where little fears grow great, great love grows there
P. King. Faith, I must leave thee, love, and

shortly too :

2

My operant powers their functions leave to do;
And thou shalt live in this fair world behind,
Honor'd, beloved; and, haply, one as kind
For husband shalt thou-

P. Queen.

O, confound the rest!

Such love must needs be treason in

In second husband let me accursed!

my breast:

None wed the second, but who kill'd the first.
Ham. That's wormwood.

P. Queen. The instances, that second marriage

move,

Are base respects of thrift, but none of love;

A second time I kill my husband dead,

When second husband kisses me in bed.

P. King. I do believe you think what now you speak,

But what we do determine oft we break.

1 i. e. in proportion to the extent of my love.