Pol. Upon my honour,

Ham. "Then came each actor on his ass,425 Pol. The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoralcomical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical - historical - pastoral, scene individable, or poem unlimited; Seneca can not be too heavy, nor Plautus too light. For the law of writ and the liberty, these are the only men.

430

Ham. O Jephthah, judge of Israel, what a treasure hadst thou!

435 Pol. What a 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.

440 Ham. Am I not i' the right, old Jephthah? 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?

445 Ham. Why,

450

"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 abridgement

comes.

Enter four or five Players.

welcome all. I

Welcome, good

You are welcome, masters,
am glad to see thee well.
friends. O, my old friend! Thy face is
valanced since I saw thee last; com'st thou 455
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 460
not cracked within the ring. Masters, you
are all welcome. We'll e'en to't like French
falconers-fly at any thing we see; we'll
have a speech straight. Come, give us a
taste of your quality; come, a passionate 465
speech.

First 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, pleased not 470 the million; 'twas caviare to the general. But it was as I received it, and others, whose judgements in such matters cried in the top of mine-an excellent play, well digested in the scenes, set down with as much modesty 475 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 called it an honest method, as wholesome 480

485

490

495

500

as sweet, and by very much more handsome than fine. One speech in it I chiefly lov'd; 'twas Eneas's 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 Phyrrus, like the Hyrcanian beast,"
-'tis not so. It begins with Pyrrhus:-

"The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms,
Black as his purpose, did the night resemble
When he lay couched in the ominous horse,
Hath now this dread and black complexion
smeared

With heraldry more dismal. Head to foot
Now is he total gules, horribly tricked

With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons,
Baked and impasted with the parching streets,
That lend a tyrannous and damned light

To their lords' murder. Roasted in wrath and
fire,

And thus o'er-sized with coagulate gore,

With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus
Old grandsire Priam seeks."

So, proceed you.

Pol. 'Fore God, my lord, well spoken, with good accent and good discretion.

505 First Play.

510

"Anon he finds him
Striking too short at Greeks. His antique sword,
Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls,
Repugnant to command. Unequal matched,
Pyrrhus at Priam drives, in rage strikes wide,
But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword

The unnerved father falls. Then senseless Ilium,
Seeming to feel this blow, with flaming top
Stoops to his base, and with a hideous crash
Takes prisoner Pyrrhus' ear; for, lo! his sword,
Which was declining on the milky head

515

Of reverend Priam, seemed i' the air to stick.
So, as a painted tyrant, Pyrrhus stood
And like a neutral to his will and matter,
Did nothing.

But, as we often see, against some storm,

520

A silence in the heavens, the rack stand still,
The bold winds speechless and the orb below
As hush as death, anon the dreadful thunder
Doth rend the region, so, after Pyrrhus' pause,
Aroused vengeance sets him new a-work;
And never did the Cyclops' hammers fall
On Mars's armour forged for proof eterne
With less remorse than Pyrrhus' bleeding sword
Now falls on Priam.

525

Out, out, thou strumpet, Fortune! All you gods, 530
In general synod take away her power!

Break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel,

And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven
As low as to the fiends!"

Pol. This is too long.
Ham. It shall to the barber's, with your beard.

Prithee, say on; he's for a jig or a tale of
bawdry, or he sleeps. Say on; come to

Hecuba.

535

First Play. "But who, O, who, had seen the mobled 540 queen-"

Ham. "The mobled queen"?

Pol. That's good; "mobled queen" is good.

545

550

555

560

565

570

First Play. "Run barefoot up and down, threatening

the flames

With bisson rheum, a clout upon that head
Where late the diadem stood, and for a robe,
About her lank and all o'er-teemed loins,

A blanket, in the alarm of fear caught up;-
Who this had seen, with tongue in venom steeped,
'Gainst Fortune's state would treason have pro-
nounced.

But if the gods themselves did see her then,
When she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport
In mincing with his sword her husband's limbs,
The instant burst of clamour that she made,

Unless things mortal move them not at all,
Would have made milch the burning eyes of
heaven,

And passion in the gods."

Pol. Look, whe'er he has not turned his colour and has tears in 's eyes. Prithee, no more. Ham. 'Tis well; I'll have thee speak out the rest of this soon. Good my lord, will you see the players well bestowed? Do you hear? Let them be well used, for they are the abstract and brief chronicles of the time; after your death you were better have a bad epitaph than their ill report while you live. Pol. My lord, I will use them according to their desert.

Ham. God's bodykins, man, much better. Use every man after his desert, and who shall 'scape whipping? Use them after your own honour and dignity. The less they deserve,