Part 4 (2/2)

_Queene_ With all my heart, soone will I send for him.

_Cor._ My selfe will be that happy messenger, Who hopes his griefe will be reueal'd to her. _exeunt omnes_ _Enter Hamlet and the Players_. [F2]

_Ham._ p.r.o.nounce me this spcech trippingly a the tongue as I taught thee, Mary and you mouth it, as a many of your players do I'de rather heare a towne bull bellow, Then such a fellow speake my lines.

Nor do not saw the aire thus with your hands, But giue euerything his action with temperance. (fellow, O it offends mee to the soule, to heare a rebellious periwig To teare a pa.s.sion in totters, into very ragges, To split the eares of the ignorant, who for the (noises, Most parte are capable or nothing but dumbe shewes and I would haue such a fellow whipt, or o're doing, tarmagant It out, Herodes Herod.

_players_ My Lorde, wee haue indifferently reformed that among vs.

_Ham._ The better, the better, mend it all together: There be fellowes that I haue seene play, And heard others commend them, and that highly too, That hauing neither the gate or Christian, Pagan, Nor Turke, haue so strutted and bellowed, That you would a thought, some of Natures journeymen Had made men, and not made them well, They imitated humanitie, so abhominable: Take heede, auoyde it.

_players_ I warrant you my Lord.

_Ham._ And doe you heare? let not your Clowne speake More then is set downe, there be of them I can tell you That will laugh themselues, to set on some Quant.i.tie of barren spectators to laugh with them, Albeit there is some necessary point in the Play Then to be obserued: O t'is vile, and shewes A pittifull ambition in the foole that vseth it.

And then you haue some agen, that keepes one sute Of ieasts, as a man is knowne by one sute of Apparell, and Gentlemen quotes his ieasts downe In their tables, before they come to the play, as thus: [F2v]

Cannot you stay till I eate my porrige? and, you owe me A quarters wages: and, my coate wants a cullison: And, your beere is sowre: and, blabbering with his lips, And thus keeping in his cinkapase of ieasts, When, G.o.d knows, the warme Clowne cannot make a iest Vnlesse by chance, as the blinde man catcheth a hare: Maisters tell him of it.

_players_ We will my Lord.

_Ham._ Well, goe make you ready. _exeunt players._ _Horatio_. Heere my Lord.

_Ham._ _Horatio_, thou art euen as iust a man, As e're my conuersation cop'd withall.

_Hor._ O my lord!

_Ham._ Nay why should I flatter thee?

Why should the poore be flattered?

What gaine should I receiue by flattering thee, That nothing hath but thy good minde?

Let flattery sit on those time-pleasing tongs, To glose with them that loues to heare their praise, And not with such as thou _Horatio_.

There is a play to night, wherein one Sceane they haue Comes very neere the murder of my father, When thou shalt see that Act afoote, Marke thou the King, doe but obserue his lookes, For I mine eies will riuet to his face: And if he doe not bleach, and change at that, It is a dammed ghost that we haue seene.

_Horatio_, haue a care, obserue him well.

_Hor._ My lord, mine eies shall still be on his face, And not the smallest alteration That shall appeare in him, but I shall note it.

_Ham._ Harke, they come.

_Enter King, Queene, Corambis, and other Lords._ (a play?

_King_. How now son _Hamlet_, how fare you, shall we haue _Ham_. Yfaith the Camelions dish, not capon cramm'd, feede a the ayre. [F3]

I father: My lord, you playd in the Vniuersitie.

_Cor._ That I did my L: and I was counted a good actor.

_Ham_. What did you enact there?

_Cor._ My lord, I did act _Iulius Caesar_, I was killed in the Capitol, _Brutus_ killed me.

_Ham_. It was a brute parte of him, To kill so capitall a calfe.

Come, be these Players ready?

_Queene_ Hamlet come sit downe by me.

_Ham._ No by my faith mother, heere's a mettle more at- Lady will you giue me leaue, and so forth: (tractiue: To lay my head in your lappe?

_Ofel._ No my Lord. (trary matters?

_Ham._ Vpon your lap, what do you thinke I meant con- _Enter in Dumbe Shew, the King and the Queene, he sits downe in an Arbor, she leaues him: Then enters Luci- a.n.u.s with poyson in a Viall, and powres it in his eares, and goes away: Then the Queene commmeth and findes him dead: and goes away with the other._ _Ofel._ What meanes this my Lord? _Enter the Prologue._ _Ham._ This is myching Mallico, that meanes my chiefe.

_Ofel._ What doth this meane my lord?

_Ham._ You shall heare anone, this fellow will tell you all.

_Ofel._ Will he tell vs what this shew meanes?

_Ham._ I, or any shew you'le shew him, Be not afeard to shew, hee'le not be afeard to tell: O, these Players cannot keepe counsell, thei'le tell all.

_Prol._ For vs, and for our Tragedie, Here stowpiug to your clemencie, We begge your hearing patiently.

_Ham._ Is't a prologue, or a poesie for a ring?

_Ofel._ T'is short, my Lord.

_Ham._ As womens loue.

_Enter the Duke and Dutchesse._ _Duke_ Full fortie yeares are past, their date is gone, Since happy time ioyn'd both our hearts as one: [F3v]

And now the blood that fill'd my youthfull veines, Runnes weakely in their pipes, and all the straines Of musicke, which whilome pleasde mine eare, Is now a burthen that Age cannot beare: And therefore sweete Nature must pay his due, To heauen must I, and leaue the earth with you.

_Dutchesse_ O say not so, lest that you kill my heart, When death takes you, let life from me depart.

_Duke_ Content thy selfe, when ended is my date, Thon maist (perchance) haue a more n.o.ble mate, More wise, more youthfull, and one.

_Dutchesse_ O speake no more for then I am accurst, None weds the second, but she kils the first: A second time I kill my Lord that's dead, When second husband kisses me in bed.

_Ham._ O wormewood, wormewood!

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