Flourish for the Players.
Guil. There are the players. Ham. Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your hands, come! Th' 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 outwards) should more appear like entertainment than yours. You are welcome. But my uncle-father and aunt-mother are deceiv'd. 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.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. Happily he's the second time come to them;for they say an old man is twice a child. Ham. I will prophesy he comes to tell me of the players. Mark it.-You say right, sir; a Monday morning; twas so indeed. Pol. My lord, I have news to tell you. Ham. My lord, I have news to tell you. When Roscius was an actor in Rome- Pol. The actors are come hither, my lord. Ham. Buzz, buzz! Pol. Upon my honour- Ham. Then came each actor on his ass- Pol. The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral; 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. Ham. O Jephthah, judge of Israel, what a treasure hadst thou! Pol. What treasure had he, my lord? Ham. Why,
'One fair daughter, and no more,The which he loved passing well.'
Pol. [aside] Still on my daughter. Ham. Am I not i' th' right, oldJephthah? 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 know, 'It came to pass, as most like it was.'
The first row of the pious chanson will show you more; for look where my abridgment comes.
Enter four or five Players.
You are welcome, masters; welcome, all.- I am glad to see thee well.-Welcome, good friends.- O, my old friend? Why, thy face is valanc'd since I saw thee last. Com'st' thou to' beard me in Denmark?- What, my young lady and mistress? By'r Lady, your ladyship is nearer to heaven than when I saw you last by the altitude of a chopine. Pray God your voice, like a piece of uncurrent gold, be not crack'd within the ring.- Masters, you are all welcome. We'll e'en to't like French falconers, fly at anything we see. We'll have a speech straight. Come, give us a taste of your quality. Come, a passionate speech. 1. Play. What speech, my good lord? Ham. I heard thee speak me a speech once, but it was never acted; or if it was, not above once; for the play, I remember, pleas'd not the million, 'twas caviary to the general; but it was (as I receiv'd it, and others, whose judgments in such matters cried in the top of mine) an excellent play, well digested in the scenes, set down with as much modesty as cunning. I remember one said there were no sallets in the lines to make the matter savoury, nor no matter in the phrase that might indict the author of affectation; but call'd it an honest method, as wholesome as sweet, and by very much more handsome than fine. One speech in't I chiefly lov'd. 'Twas AEneas' tale to Dido, and thereabout of it especially where he speaks of Priam's slaughter. If it live in your memory, begin at this line- let me see, let me see:
'The rugged Pyrrhus, like th' Hyrcanian beast-'
'Tis not so; it begins with Pyrrhus:
'The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms,Black as his purpose, did the night resembleWhen he lay couched in the ominous horse,Hath now this dread and black complexion smear'dWith heraldry more dismal. Head to footNow is be total gules, horridly trick'dWith blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons,Bak'd and impasted with the parching streets,That lend a tyrannous and a damned lightTo their lord's murther. Roasted in wrath and fire,And thus o'ersized with coagulate gore,With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish PyrrhusOld grandsire Priam seeks.'
So, proceed you. Pol. Fore God, my lord, well spoken, with good accent and gooddiscretion.
