Guil. 'Faith, her privates we.

Ham. In the secret parts of fortune? O! most true; she is a strumpet. What news?

Ros. None, my lord, but that the world's grown honest.

Ham. Then is dooms-day near; but your news is not true. Let me question more in particular: what have you, my good friends, deserved at the hands of fortune, that she sends you to prison hither?

Guil. Prison, my lord!

Ham. Denmark's a prison.

Ros. Then, is the world one.

Ham. A goodly one; in which there are many confines, wards, and dungeons, Denmark being one of the worst.

Ros. We think not so, my lord.

Ham. Why, then 'tis none to you; for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so: to me it is a prison.

Ros. Why, then your ambition makes it one: 'tis too narrow for your mind.

Ham. O God! I could be bounded in a nut-shell, and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.

Guil. Which dreams, indeed, are ambition; for the very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.

Ham. A dream itself is but a shadow.

Ros. Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality, that it is but a shadow's shadow.

Ham. Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs, and outstretched heroes, the beggars' shadows. Shall we to the court? for, by my fay, I cannot reason. Ros. Guil. We'll wait upon you.

Ham. No such matter: I will not sort you with the rest of my servants; for, to speak to you like an honest

man, I am most dreadfully attended'. But, in the beaten way of friendship, what make you at Elsinore? Ros. To visit you, my lord; no other occasion.

Ham. Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks; but I thank you and sure, dear friends, my thanks are too dear, a halfpenny. Were you not sent for? Is it Is it a free visitation?

your own inclining?

Come,

come; deal justly with me: come, come; nay, speak. Guil. What should we say, my lord?

Ham. Why any thing, but to the purpose.

You

were sent for; and there is a kind of confession in your looks, which your modesties have not craft enough to colour: I know, the good king and queen have sent

for you.

Ros. To what end, my lord?

Ham. That you must teach me. But let me conjure you, by the rights of our fellowship, by the consonancy of our youth, by the obligation of our ever-preserved love, and by what more dear a better proposer could charge you withal, be even and direct with me, whether you were sent for, or no?

Ros. What say you?

[To GUILDENSTERN.

Ham. Nay, then I have an eye of you2. [Aside.]—If you love me, hold not off.

Guil. My lord, we were sent for.

Ham. I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation prevent your discovery, and your secresy3 to the king and queen moult no feather. I have of late, (but

wherefore I know not) lost all my mirth, foregone all custom of exercises; and, indeed, it goes so heavily with my disposition*, that this goodly frame, the earth,

1 - I am most dreadfully attended.] Here ends an addition to the scene, only found in the folios. It began at "Let me question more in particular."

2 Nay, then I have an eye of you.] Steevens says, an eye of you means, I have a glimpse of your meaning." It is, in fact, only one out of many instances in which, in the time of Shakespeare, the preposition "of" was used for on.

3 - AND your secresy,] The folio erroneously has of for "and."

- it goes so heavily with my disposition,] The folio misprints heavenly for

seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appeareth nothing to me, but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form, and moving, how express and admirable! in action, how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? man delights not me; no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so.

Ros. My lord, there was no such stuff in my thoughts.

Ham. Why did you laugh, then, when I said, man delights not me?

5

Ros. To think, my lord, if you delight not in man, what lenten entertainment the players shall receive from you: we coted them on the way, and hither are they coming to offer you service.

Ham. He that plays the king, shall be welcome; his majesty shall have tribute of me: the adventurous knight shall use his foil, and target: the lover shall not sigh gratis: the humorous man shall end his part in peace the clown shall make those laugh, whose lungs are tickled o' the sere'; and the lady shall say

"heavily" of the quartos; and just below it entirely omits "firmament," though found in every older copy. Farther on, for "it appeareth nothing to me, but," it reads, "it appears no other thing to me, than." We have of course in these instances adhered to the quartos, and even that of 1637 introduced no changes of the ancient text.

5

lenten entertainment,] i. e. such entertainment as players met with in Lent, when they were often not allowed to perform publicly. Steevens thought that the words meant "sparing, like the entertainments given in Lent.” We COTED them on the way ;] i. e. We overtook them, or strictly came side by side with them; from the Fr. côté. See Vol. vi. p. 100. The quarto, 1603, has "We boarded them by the way." When Polonius is about to accost (which word has a similar meaning and etymology) Hamlet, he says, "I'll board him presently." To board is from the Fr. border, and the French use bordée for a broadside.

7

whose lungs are tickled o' the SERE ;] The meaning of "tickled o' the

her mind freely, or the blank verse shall halt for't.What players are they?

Ros. Even those you were wont to take such delight in, the tragedians of the city.

Ham. How chances it, they travel? their residence, both in reputation and profit, was better both ways.

Ros. I think, their inhibition comes by the means of the late innovations.

Ham. Do they hold the same estimation they did when I was in the city? Are they so followed? Ros. No, indeed, they are not.

Ham. How comes it? Do they grow rusty?

Ros. Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace: but there is, sir, an eyry of children, little eyases, that cry out on the top of question, and are most tyrannically clapped for't: these are now the fashion; and so berattle the common stages, (so they call them) that many, wearing rapiers, are afraid of goose quills, and dare scarce come thither.

Ham. What! are they children? who maintains them?

sere" is not at all distinct; but, as Douce showed, the phrase "tickle of the seare" occurs in Lord Northampton's "Defensative against the Poyson of supposed Prophecies," first printed in 1583. "Sere" may be derived from serum. "Every one (says Douce) has felt that dry tickling in the throat and lungs which excites coughing: Hamlet's meaning may therefore be, that the Clown, by his merriment, shall convert even their coughing into laughter." We are by no means satisfied with this, or any other explanation. The passage about the Clown is only in the folios, and in the quarto, 1603, where it stands, "The clown shall make them laugh that are tickled in the lungs.”

8 by the means of the late innovation.] This passage probably refers to the limiting of public theatrical performances to the two theatres, the Globe on Bankside, and the Fortune in Golden Lane, in 1600 and 1601. The players, by a "late innovation," were "inhibited," or forbidden, to act in or near "the city," and therefore "travelled," or strolled, into the country. See History of Engl. Dram. Poetry and the Stage, vol. i. p. 311, &c.

- an eyry of children, little eyases, that cry out on the top of question,] Shakespeare here alludes to the encouragement at that time given to some 66 eyry" or nest of children, or eyases," (young hawks) who spoke in a high tone of voice. There were several companies of young performers about this date engaged in acting, but chiefly the children of Paul's and the children of the Revels, who, it seems, were highly applauded, to the injury of the companies of adult performers. From an early date, the choir-boys of St. Paul's, Westminster, Windsor, and the Chapel Royal, had been occasionally so employed, and performed at Court.

how are they escoted'? Will they pursue the quality no longer than they can sing? will they not say afterwards, if they should grow themselves to common players, (as it is most like, if their means are not better) their writers do them wrong, to make them exclaim against their own succession?

Ros. 'Faith, there has been much to do on both sides; and the nation holds it no sin, to tarre them to controversy: there was, for a while, no money bid for argument, unless the poet and the player went to cuffs in the question.

Ham. Is it possible?

Guil. O there has been much throwing about of brains.

Ham. Do the boys carry it away?

Ros. Ay, that they do, my lord; Hercules, and his load too3.

Ham. It is not very strange'; for my uncle is king of Denmark, and those, that would make mowes at him while my father lived, give twenty, forty, fifty, an hundred ducats a-piece, for his picture in little. 'Sblood, there is something in this more than natural, if philosophy could find it out. [Flourish of Trumpets within. Guil. There are the players.

Ham. Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your hands. Come, then; the appurtenance of welcome is fashion and ceremony: let me comply with

1

escoted] Paid, says Johnson. From the French escot, a shot or reckoning. We have not met with the word elsewhere.

2- to TARRE them to controversy:] i. e. to excite them to controversy, as dogs to fight. See Vol. iv. p. 65; Vol. vi. p. 40.

3

Hercules, and his load too.] From Hamlet's speech, "How comes it! Do they grow rusty?" down to "Hercules, and his load too," is not in the quarto, 1604, nor in any subsequent edition in that form. In the quarto, 1603, there are sufficient traces of this part of the scene to enable us to be certain that it was acted when the play was originally produced.

It is not VERY strange ;] The folio omits "very."

5 — that would make MOWES at him-] So the folio, and not mouths, as in the quartos, 1604, &c. Perhaps they were originally the same word; but the quarto, 1603, has "that would make mops and moes," which was the more usual expression. Just afterwards the folio omits "fifty."