Showing posts with label Hamlet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hamlet. Show all posts

Saturday 16 December 2023

Enter HAMLET and Players

 


SCENE II. A hall in the castle.


 Enter HAMLET and Players 


HAMLET


 Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to

 you, trippingly on the tongue: but if you mouth it,

 as many of your players do, I had as lief the

 town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air

 too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently;

 for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say,

 the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget

 a temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it

 offends me to the soul to hear a robustious

 periwig-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 dumbshows and noise: I would have such

 a fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant; it

 out-herods Herod: pray you, avoid it.


First Player


 I warrant your honour.


HAMLET


 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 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 show 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'erweigh 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, nor man, 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.


First Player


 I hope we have reformed that indifferently with us,

 sir.


HAMLET


 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 villanous, 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! I will the king hear this piece of work?


LORD POLONIUS


 And the queen too, and that presently.


HAMLET


 Bid the players make haste.


 Exit POLONIUS

 Will you two help to hasten them?


ROSENCRANTZ GUILDENSTERN


 We will, my lord.


 Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN


HAMLET


 What ho! Horatio!


 Enter HORATIO


HORATIO


 Here, sweet lord, at your service.


HAMLET


 Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man

 As e'er my conversation coped withal.


HORATIO


 O, my dear lord,--


HAMLET


 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,

 And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee

 Where thrift may follow fawning. Dost thou hear?

 Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice

 And could of men distinguish, her election

 Hath seal'd thee for herself; for thou hast been

 As one, in suffering all, that suffers nothing,

 A man that fortune's buffets and rewards

 Hast ta'en with equal thanks: and blest are those

 Whose blood and judgment are so well commingled,

 That they are not a pipe for fortune's finger

 To sound what stop she please. Give me that man

 That is not passion's slave, 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 prithee, when thou seest that act afoot,

 Even with the very comment of thy soul

 Observe mine uncle: if his occulted guilt

 Do not itself unkennel in one speech,

 It is a damned ghost that we have seen,

 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 judgments join

 In censure of his seeming.


HORATIO


 Well, my lord:

 If he steal aught the whilst this play is playing,

 And 'scape detecting, I will pay the theft.


HAMLET


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

 Get you a place.


 Danish march. A flourish. Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, POLONIUS, OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and others


KING CLAUDIUS


 How fares our cousin Hamlet?


HAMLET


 Excellent, i' faith; of the chameleon's dish: I eat

 the air, promise-crammed: you cannot feed capons so.


KING CLAUDIUS


 I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet; these words

 are not mine.


HAMLET


 No, nor mine now.


 To POLONIUS

 My lord, you played once i' the university, you say?


LORD POLONIUS


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


HAMLET


 What did you enact?


LORD POLONIUS


 I did enact Julius Caesar: I was killed i' the

 Capitol; Brutus killed me.


HAMLET


 It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf

 there. Be the players ready?


ROSENCRANTZ


 Ay, my lord; they stay upon your patience.


QUEEN GERTRUDE


 Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me.


HAMLET


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


LORD POLONIUS


 [To KING CLAUDIUS] O, ho! do you mark that?


HAMLET


 Lady, shall I lie in your lap?


 Lying down at OPHELIA's feet


OPHELIA


 No, my lord.


HAMLET


 I mean, my head upon your lap?


OPHELIA


 Ay, my lord.


HAMLET


 Do you think I meant country matters?


OPHELIA


 I think nothing, my lord.


HAMLET


 That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs.


OPHELIA


 What is, my lord?


HAMLET


 Nothing.


OPHELIA


 You are merry, my lord.


HAMLET


 Who, I?


OPHELIA


 Ay, my lord.


HAMLET


 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 these two hours.


OPHELIA


 Nay, 'tis twice two months, my lord.


HAMLET


 So long? Nay then, let the devil wear black, for

 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.'


 Hautboys play. The dumb-show enters


 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 wooes the Queen with gifts: she seems loath and unwilling awhile, but in the end accepts his love


 Exeunt


OPHELIA


 What means this, my lord?


HAMLET


 Marry, this is miching mallecho; it means mischief.


OPHELIA


 Belike this show imports the argument of the play.


 Enter Prologue


HAMLET


 We shall know by this fellow: the players cannot

 keep counsel; they'll tell all.


OPHELIA


 Will he tell us what this show meant?


HAMLET


 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.


OPHELIA


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


Prologue


 For us, and for our tragedy,

 Here stooping to your clemency,

 We beg your hearing patiently.


 Exit


HAMLET


 Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring?


OPHELIA


 'Tis brief, my lord.


HAMLET


 As woman's love.


 Enter two Players, King and Queen


Player 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

 About the world have times twelve thirties been,

 Since love our hearts and Hymen did our hands

 Unite commutual in most sacred bands.


Player 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,

 That I distrust you. Yet, though I distrust,

 Discomfort you, my lord, it nothing must:

 For women's fear and love holds quantity;

 In neither aught, or in extremity.

 Now, what my love is, proof hath made you know;

 And as my love is sized, my fear is so:

 Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear;

 Where little fears grow great, great love grows there.


Player King


 'Faith, I must leave thee, love, and shortly too;

 My operant powers their functions leave to do:

 And thou shalt live in this fair world behind,

 Honour'd, beloved; and haply one as kind

 For husband shalt thou--


Player Queen


 O, confound the rest!

 Such love must needs be treason in my breast:

 In second husband let me be accurst!

 None wed the second but who kill'd the first.


HAMLET


 [Aside] Wormwood, wormwood.


Player 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.


Player King


 I do believe you think what now you speak;

 But what we do determine oft we break.

 Purpose is but the slave to memory,

 Of violent birth, but poor validity;

 Which now, like fruit unripe, sticks on the tree;

 But fall, unshaken, when they mellow be.

 Most necessary 'tis that we forget

 To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt:

 What to ourselves in passion we propose,

 The passion ending, doth the purpose lose.

 The violence of either grief or joy

 Their own enactures with themselves destroy:

 Where joy most revels, grief doth most lament;

 Grief joys, joy grieves, on slender accident.

 This world is not for aye, nor 'tis not strange

 That even our loves should with our fortunes change;

 For 'tis a question left us yet to prove,

 Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love.

 The great man down, you mark his favourite flies;

 The poor advanced makes friends of enemies.

 And hitherto doth love on fortune tend;

 For who not needs shall never lack a friend,

 And who in want a hollow friend doth try,

 Directly seasons him his enemy.

 But, orderly to end where I begun,

 Our wills and fates do so contrary run

 That our devices still are overthrown;

 Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own:

 So think thou wilt no second husband wed;

 But die thy thoughts when thy first lord is dead.


Player Queen


 Nor earth to me give food, nor heaven light!

 Sport and repose lock from me day and night!

 To desperation turn my trust and hope!

 An anchor's cheer in prison be my scope!

 Each opposite that blanks the face of joy

 Meet what I would have well and it destroy!

 Both here and hence pursue me lasting strife,

 If, once a widow, ever I be wife!


HAMLET


 If she should break it now!


Player King


 'Tis deeply sworn. Sweet, leave me here awhile;

 My spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile

 The tedious day with sleep.


 Sleeps


Player Queen


 Sleep rock thy brain,

 And never come mischance between us twain!


 Exit


HAMLET


 Madam, how like you this play?


QUEEN GERTRUDE


 The lady protests too much, methinks.


HAMLET


 O, but she'll keep her word.


KING CLAUDIUS


 Have you heard the argument? Is there no offence in 't?


HAMLET


 No, no, they do but jest, poison in jest; no offence

 i' the world.


KING CLAUDIUS


 What do you call the play?


HAMLET


 The Mouse-trap. Marry, how? Tropically. This play

 is the image of a murder done in Vienna: Gonzago is

 the duke's name; his wife, Baptista: you shall see

 anon; 'tis a knavish piece of work: but what o'

 that? your majesty and we that have free souls, it

 touches us not: let the galled jade wince, our

 withers are unwrung.


 Enter LUCIANUS

 This is one Lucianus, nephew to the king.


OPHELIA


 You are as good as a chorus, my lord.


HAMLET


 I could interpret between you and your love, if I

 could see the puppets dallying.


OPHELIA


 You are keen, my lord, you are keen.


HAMLET


 It would cost you a groaning to take off my edge.


OPHELIA


 Still better, and worse.


HAMLET


 So you must take your husbands. Begin, murderer;

 pox, leave thy damnable faces, and begin. Come:

 'the croaking raven doth bellow for revenge.'


LUCIANUS


 Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time agreeing;

 Confederate season, else no creature seeing;

 Thou mixture rank, of midnight weeds collected,

 With Hecate's ban thrice blasted, thrice infected,

 Thy natural magic and dire property,

 On wholesome life usurp immediately.


 Pours the poison into the sleeper's ears


HAMLET


 He poisons him i' the garden for's estate. His

 name's Gonzago: the story is extant, and writ in

 choice Italian: you shall see anon how the murderer

 gets the love of Gonzago's wife.


OPHELIA


 The king rises.


HAMLET


 What, frighted with false fire!


QUEEN GERTRUDE


 How fares my lord?


LORD POLONIUS


 Give o'er the play.


KING CLAUDIUS


 Give me some light: away!


All


 Lights, lights, lights!


 Exeunt all but HAMLET and HORATIO


HAMLET


 Why, let the stricken deer go weep,

 The hart ungalled play;

 For some must watch, while some must sleep:

 So runs the world away.

 Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers-- if

 the rest of my fortunes turn Turk with me--with two

 Provincial roses on my razed shoes, get me a

 fellowship in a cry of players, sir?


HORATIO


 Half a share.


HAMLET


 A whole one, I.

 For thou dost know, O Damon dear,

 This realm dismantled was

 Of Jove himself; and now reigns here

 A very, very--pajock.


HORATIO


 You might have rhymed.


HAMLET


 O good Horatio, I'll take the ghost's word for a

 thousand pound. Didst perceive?


HORATIO


 Very well, my lord.


HAMLET


 Upon the talk of the poisoning?


HORATIO


 I did very well note him.


HAMLET


 Ah, ha! Come, some music! come, the recorders!

 For if the king like not the comedy,

 Why then, belike, he likes it not, perdy.

 Come, some music!


 Re-enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN


GUILDENSTERN


 Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with you.


HAMLET


 Sir, a whole history.


GUILDENSTERN


 The king, sir,--


HAMLET


 Ay, sir, what of him?


GUILDENSTERN


 Is in his retirement marvellous distempered.


HAMLET


 With drink, sir?


GUILDENSTERN


 No, my lord, rather with choler.


HAMLET


 Your wisdom should show itself more richer to

 signify this to his doctor; for, for me to put him

 to his purgation would perhaps plunge him into far

 more choler.


GUILDENSTERN


 Good my lord, put your discourse into some frame and

 start not so wildly from my affair.


HAMLET


 I am tame, sir: pronounce.


GUILDENSTERN


 The queen, your mother, in most great affliction of

 spirit, hath sent me to you.


HAMLET


 You are welcome.


GUILDENSTERN


 Nay, good my lord, this courtesy is not of the right

 breed. If it shall please you to make me a

 wholesome answer, I will do your mother's

 commandment: if not, your pardon and my return

 shall be the end of my business.


HAMLET


 Sir, I cannot.


GUILDENSTERN


 What, my lord?


HAMLET


 Make you a wholesome answer; my wit's diseased: but,

 sir, such answer as I can make, you shall command;

 or, rather, as you say, my mother: therefore no

 more, but to the matter: my mother, you say,--


ROSENCRANTZ


 Then thus she says; your behavior hath struck her

 into amazement and admiration.


HAMLET


 O wonderful son, that can so astonish a mother! But

 is there no sequel at the heels of this mother's

 admiration? Impart.


ROSENCRANTZ


 She desires to speak with you in her closet, ere you

 go to bed.


HAMLET


 We shall obey, were she ten times our mother. Have

 you any further trade with us?


ROSENCRANTZ


 My lord, you once did love me.


HAMLET


 So I do still, by these pickers and stealers.


ROSENCRANTZ


 Good my lord, what is your cause of distemper? you

 do, surely, bar the door upon your own liberty, if

 you deny your griefs to your friend.


HAMLET


 Sir, I lack advancement.


ROSENCRANTZ


 How can that be, when you have the voice of the king

 himself for your succession in Denmark?


HAMLET


 Ay, but sir, 'While the grass grows,'--the proverb

 is something musty.


 Re-enter Players with recorders

 O, the recorders! let me see one. To withdraw with

 you:--why do you go about to recover the wind of me,

 as if you would drive me into a toil?


GUILDENSTERN


 O, my lord, if my duty be too bold, my love is too

 unmannerly.


HAMLET


 I do not well understand that. Will you play upon

 this pipe?


GUILDENSTERN


 My lord, I cannot.


HAMLET


 I pray you.


GUILDENSTERN


 Believe me, I cannot.


HAMLET


 I do beseech you.


GUILDENSTERN


 I know no touch of it, my lord.


HAMLET


 'Tis as easy as lying: govern these ventages with

 your fingers and thumb, give it breath with your

 mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent music.

 Look you, these are the stops.


GUILDENSTERN


 But these cannot I command to any utterance of

 harmony; I have not the skill.


HAMLET


 Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of

 me! You would play upon me; you would seem to know

 my stops; you would pluck out the heart of my

 mystery; you would sound me from my lowest note to

 the top of my compass: and there is much music,

 excellent voice, in this little organ; yet cannot

 you make it speak. 'Sblood, do you think I am

 easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what

 instrument you will, though you can fret me, yet you

 cannot play upon me.


 Enter POLONIUS

 God bless you, sir!


LORD POLONIUS


 My lord, the queen would speak with you, and

 presently.


HAMLET


 Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape of a camel?


LORD POLONIUS


 By the mass, and 'tis like a camel, indeed.


HAMLET


 Methinks it is like a weasel.


LORD POLONIUS


 It is backed like a weasel.


HAMLET


 Or like a whale?


LORD POLONIUS


 Very like a whale.


HAMLET


 Then I will come to my mother by and by. They fool

 me to the top of my bent. I will come by and by.


LORD POLONIUS


 I will say so.


HAMLET


 By and by is easily said.


 Exit POLONIUS

 Leave me, friends.


 Exeunt all but HAMLET

 Tis now the very witching time of night,

 When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out

 Contagion to this world: now could I drink hot blood,

 And do such bitter business as the day

 Would quake to look on. Soft! now to my mother.

 O heart, lose not thy nature; let not ever

 The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom:

 Let me be cruel, not unnatural:

 I will speak daggers to her, but use none;

 My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites;

 How in my words soever she be shent,

 To give them seals never, my soul, consent!


 Exit