First Play. 'Anon he finds him[894]
Striking too short at Greeks; his antique sword,[918]
Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls,[919]
Repugnant to command: unequal match'd,[920]
Pyrrhus at Priam drives; in rage strikes wide; 450
But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword
The unnerved father falls. Then senseless Ilium,[921]
Seeming to feel this blow, with flaming top[922]
Stoops to his base, and with a hideous crash[923]
Takes prisoner Pyrrhus' ear: for, lo! his sword,[924] 455
Which was declining on the milky head
Of reverend Priam, seem'd i' the air to stick:[925]
So, as a painted tyrant, Pyrrhus stood.[926]
And like a neutral to his will and matter,[927][928]
Did nothing.[928] 460
But as we often see, against some storm,
A silence in the heavens, the rack stand still,[929]
The bold winds speechless and the orb below[930]
As hush as death, anon the dreadful thunder
Doth rend the region, so after Pyrrhus' pause[924][931] 465
Aroused vengeance sets him new a-work;[932]
And never did the Cyclops' hammers fall[933]
On Mars's armour, forged for proof eterne,[934]
With less remorse than Pyrrhus' bleeding sword[924]
Now falls on Priam. 470
Out, out, thou strumpet, Fortune! All you gods,[935]
In general synod take away her power,
Break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel,[936]
And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven
As low as to the fiends!' 475
Pol. This is too long.[937]
Ham. It shall to the barber's, with your beard. Prithee,[938]
say on: he's for a jig or a tale of bawdry, or he sleeps:
say on: come to Hecuba.
First Play. 'But who, O, who had seen the mobled queen—'[939][940][941] 480
Ham. 'The mobled queen?'[940][942]
Pol. That's good; 'mobled queen' is good.[943]
First Play. 'Run barefoot up and down, threatening the flames[944]
With bisson rheum; a clout upon that head[945]
Where late the diadem stood; and for a robe, 485
About her lank and all o'er-teemed loins,
A blanket, in the alarm of fear caught up:[946]
Who this had seen, with tongue in venom steep'd
'Gainst Fortune's state would treason have pronounced:[947]
But if the gods themselves did see her then, 490
When she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport
In mincing with his sword her husband's limbs,[948]
The instant burst of clamour that she made,
Unless things mortal move them not at all,[949]
Would have made milch the burning eyes of heaven[950] 495
And passion in the gods.'[951]
Pol. Look, whether he has not turned his colour and[952]
has tears in's eyes. Prithee, no more.[953]
Ham. 'Tis well; I'll have thee speak out the rest of this[954]
soon. Good my lord, will you see the players well bestowed?[955] 500
Do you hear, let them be well used, for they are the abstract[956]
and brief chronicles of the time: after your death you were
better have a bad epitaph than their ill report while you live.[957]
Pol. My lord, I will use them according to their desert.[958]