Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub

But, if you hold it fit, after the play,

Let his queen mother all alone entreat him
To show his grief; let her be round with him;
And I'll be plac'd, so please you, in the ear

Of all their conference: If she find him not,
To England send him; or confine him, where
Your wisdom best shall think.

King. It shall be fo:

Madness in great ones must not unwatch'd go. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.

A Hall in the fame.

Enter HAMLET, and certain Players.

Ham. Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it, as many of our players do, I had as lief the town crier spoke my lines. Nor do not faw the air too much with your hand, thus; but use all gently: for in the very torrent, tempeft, and (as I may say) whirlwind of your paffion, you must acquire and beget a temperance, that may give it smoothness. O, it offends me to the foul, to hear a ro-buftious perriwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings; who, for the most part, are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb shows, and noise: I would have fuch 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 difcretion be your tutor: fuit the action to the word, the word to the action; with this special observance, that you o'erstep o'erstep not the modesty of nature: for any thing so over. done is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first, and now, was, and is, to hold, as 'twere a mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time, his form and preffure. Now this, overdone, or come tardy off, though it make the unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve; the cenfure of 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 chriftians, nor the gait of christian, pagan, nor man, have so strutted, and bellow'd, that I have thought fome of nature's journeymen had made men, and not made them well, they imitated humanity fo abominably.

1. Play. I hope, we have reform'd that indifferently with us.

Ham. O, reform it altogether. And let those, that play your clowns, fpeak no more than is fet down for them: for there be of them, that will themselves laugh, to set on fome quantity of barren spectators to laugh too; though in the mean time, fome necessary question of the play be then to be confidered: that's villainous; and shows 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.- [Exit POLONIUS.

Will you two help to haften them?

Both. Ay, my lord.

[Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. Ham. What, ho; Horatio!

Enter HORATIO.

Hor. Here, fweet 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 haft, but thy good spirits,

To feed and clothe thee? Why should the poor be flatter'd?
No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp;
And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee,
Where thrift may follow fawning. Dost thou hear?
Since my dear foul was mistress of her choice,
And could of men diftinguish her election,

She 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 bless'd are those
Whose blood and judgement are so well co-mingled,
That they are not a pipe for fortune's finger
To found what stop she please: Give me that man
That is not paflion'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 seest that act a-foot,
Even with the very comment of thy foul
Observe my uncle: if his occulted guilt
Do not itself unkennel in one speech,
It is a damned ghost that we have seen;

And

And my imaginations are as foul

As Vulcan's stithy. Give him heedful note:
For I mine eyes will rivet to his face;

And, after, we will both our judgements join

In cenfure of his feeming.

Hor. 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 flourish. Enter KING, QUEEN, PO LONIUS, OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and Others.

King. How fares our coufin Hamlet?

Ham. Excellent, i'faith; of the camelion's dish: I eat the air, promife cramm'd: You cannot feed capons fo.

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 fay. [TO POLONIUS.

Pol. That did I, my lord; and was accounted a good actor.

Ham. And, what did you enact?

Pol. I did enact Julius Cæfar: I was kill'd i'the Capi tol; Brutus kill'd me.

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

Rof. Ay my lord; they stay upon your patience. Queen. Come hither, my dear Hamlet, fit by me. Ham. No, good mother, here's metal more attractive.

Pol. O ho! do you mark that?

Ham. Lady, shall I lie in your lap?

[To the KING.

[Lying down at OPHELIA's feer.

Oph.

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 lay 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 fuit of fables. 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 fuffer not thinking on, with the hobby-horse, whose epitaph is, For, O, for, O, the hobby-horfe is forgot.

Trumpets found. 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 pro testation unto him. He takes her up, and declines his head upon her neck: lays him down upon a bank of fiowers; he, feeing him asleep, leaves him. Anon, comes in a fellow, takes off his crown, kiffes 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, feeming to lament with her. The dead body is carried

« FöregåendeFortsätt »