Pol. If you call me Jephthah, my lord, I have a daughter[881][882]
that I love passing well.[881]
Ham. Nay, that follows not.[881]
Pol. What follows, then, my lord? 395
Ham. Why,[883]
'As by lot, God wot,'[883]
and then, you know,[884]
'It came to pass, as most like it was,'—[884]
the first row of the pious chanson will show you more;[885] 400
for look, where my abridgement comes.[886]
Enter four or five Players.
You are welcome, masters; welcome, all. I am glad to see[887]
thee well. Welcome, good friends. O, my old friend! Why[888][889]
thy face is valanced since I saw thee last; comest thou to[889][890]
beard me in Denmark? What, my young lady and mistress! 405
By'r lady, your ladyship is nearer to heaven than[891]
when I saw you last, by the altitude of a chopine. Pray[892]
God, your voice, like a piece of uncurrent gold, be not
cracked within the ring. Masters, you are all welcome.
We'll e'en to 't like French falconers, fly at any thing we[893] 410
see: we'll have a speech straight: come, give us a taste of
your quality; come, a passionate speech.
First Play. What speech, my good lord?[894][895]
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,415
pleased not the million; 'twas caviare to the general:[896]
but it was—as I received it, and others, whose judgements[897]
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[898] 420
the lines to make the matter savoury, nor no matter in the
phrase that might indict the author of affection; but called[899]
it an honest method, as wholesome as sweet, and by very[900]
much more handsome than fine. One speech in it I chiefly[900][901]
loved: 'twas Æneas' tale to Dido; and thereabout of it especially,[902] 425
where he speaks of Priam's slaughter: if it live in[903]
your memory, begin at this line; let me see, let me see;
'The rugged Pyrrhus, like th' Hyrcanian beast,'—[904]
It is not so: it begins with 'Pyrrhus.'[905]
'The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms, 430
Black as his purpose, did the night resemble[906]
When he lay couched in the ominous horse,[907]
Hath now this dread and black complexion smear'd[908]
With heraldry more dismal: head to foot[909]
Now is he total gules; horridly trick'd[910] 435
With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons,
Baked and impasted with the parching streets,[911]
That lend a tyrannous and a damned light[912][913]
To their lord's murder: roasted in wrath and fire,[913][914]
And thus o'er-sized with coagulate gore,[915] 440
With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus[916]
Old grandsire Priam seeks.'
So, proceed you.[917]
Pol 'Fore God, my lord, well spoken, with good accent
and good discretion. 445