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frame, the earth, seems to me a steril promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air, look the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to me, than 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, nor woman neither; though, by your smiling, you seem to say so.

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

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

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.

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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 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.

lenten entertainment —] i. e. sparing, like the entertainments given in Lent.

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we coted them on the way;] To cote is to overtake. the lady shall say her mind, &c.] The lady shall mar the measure of the verse, rather than not express herself freely or fully.

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 innovation.

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.

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Ham. How comes it? Do they grow rusty? Ros. Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace: But there is, sir, an aiery 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? 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 no better,) their writers do them wrong,3 to make them exclaim against their own succession?

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7 How chances it, they travel?] To travel in Shakspeare's time was the technical word, for which we have substituted to stroll. an aiery of children, &c.] Relating to the play houses then contending, the Bankside, the Fortune, &c. played by the children of his majesty's chapel.

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little eyases, that cry out on the top of question,] Little eyases; i. e. young nestlings, creatures just out of the egg. The meaning seems to allude to boys who ask a common question in the highest note of the voice, and declaim in common conversation. escoted?] Paid. From the French escot, a shot or

reckoning.

2 Will they pursue the quality no longer than they can sing?] Will they follow the profession of players no longer than they keep the voices of boys, and sing in the choir?

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their writers do them wrong, &c.] I should have been very much surprised if I had not found Ben Jonson among the writers here alluded to. STEEVENS.

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Ros. 'Faith, there has been much to do on both sides; and the nation holds it no sin, to tarre them on 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 too.3]

Ham. It is not very strange: for my uncle is king of Denmark; and those, that would make mouths 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.

Hum. Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your hands. Come then: the 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 outward, should more appear like entertainment than yours. You to tarre them on to controversy:] To provoke any animal to rage, is to tarre him. The word is said to come from the Greek word ταράσσω.

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Hercules and his load too.] The allusion may be to the Globe playhouse on the Bankside, the sign of which was Hercules carrying the Globe.

6 It is not very strange: for my uncle-] I do not wonder that the new players have so suddenly risen to reputation, my uncle supplies another example of the facility with which honour is conferred upon new claimants. JOHNSON.

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in little.] i. e. in miniature.

let me comply, &c.] To comply is apparently used in the sense of-to compliment.

are welcome: but my uncle-father, and aunt-mo ther, are deceived.

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 hand-saw.'

Enter POLONIUS.

Pol. Well be with you, gentlemen!

Ham. Hark you, Guildenstern,—and you 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 prophecy, he comes to tell me of the players; mark it. You say right, sir: o'Monday morning; 'twas then, indeed.

Pol. My lord, I have news to tell you.
Ham. My lord, I have news to tell

Roscius was an actor in Rome,

you. When

Pol. The actors are come hither, my lord.

Ham. Buz, buz!

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 a treasure had he, my lord?

9- I know a hawk from a hand-saw.] A proverbial speech. For the law of writ,] Writ, for writing, composition.

Ham. Why-One fair daughter, and no more, The which he loved passing well.

Pol. Still on my daughter.

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

Aside.

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, 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, old friend! Why, thy face is valanced' since I saw thee last; Com'st thou to beard me in Denmark?-What! my young lady and mistress! By-'rlady, your ladyship is nearer to heaven, than when

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Why, As by lot, God wot,&c.] The old song from which these quotations are taken, I communicated to Dr. Percy, who has honoured it with a place in the second and third editions of his Reliques of ancient English Poetry. STEEVENS.

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the pious chanson -] The pious chansons were a kind of Christmas carols, containing some scriptural history thrown into loose rhymes, and sung about the streets by the common people when they went at that season to solicit alms. Hamlet is here repeating some scraps from a song of this kind, and when Polonius enquires what follows them, he refers him to the first row (i. e. division) of one of these, to obtain the information he wanted.

my abridgment] He calls the players afterwards, the brief chronicles of the times; but I think he now means only those who will shorten talk. JOHNSON.

my

5thy face is valanced-] i. e. fringed with a beard. The valance is the fringes or drapery hanging round the tester of a bed.

6 to beard me-] To beard, anciently signified to set al defiance.

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