King. Love! his affections do not that way tend;[1111]
Nor what he spake, though it lack'd form a little,[1112]
Was not like madness. There's something in his soul[1113]
O'er which his melancholy sits on brood, 165
And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose
Will be some danger: which for to prevent,[1114]
I have in quick determination
Thus set it down:—he shall with speed to England,[1115]
For the demand of our neglected tribute: 170
Haply the seas and countries different
With variable objects shall expel
This something-settled matter in his heart,[1116]
Whereon his brains still beating puts him thus[1117][1118]
From fashion of himself. What think you on 't?[1117] 175
Pol. It shall do well: but yet do I believe[1119][1120]
The origin and commencement of his grief[1119][1121]
Sprung from neglected love. How now, Ophelia![1122]
You need not tell us what Lord Hamlet said;
We heard it all. My lord, do as you please;[1123] 180
But, if you hold it fit, after the play,
Let his queen mother all alone entreat him
To show his grief: let her be round with him;[1124]
And I'll be placed, so please you, in the ear[1125]
Of all their conference. If she find him not, 185
To England send him, or confine him where
Your wisdom best shall think.
King. It shall be so:
Madness in great ones must not unwatch'd go. [Exeunt.[1126]
Scene II. A hall in the castle.
Enter Hamlet and Players.[1127]
Ham. Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced[1128]
it to you, trippingly on the tongue: but if you mouth it, as[1129]
many of your players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke[1130]
my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your[1131]
hand, thus; but use all gently: for in the very torrent, tempest, 5
and, as I may say, whirlwind of your passion, you[1132]
must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it
smoothness. O, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious[1133]
periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very[1134]
rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who, for the most[1135] 10
part, are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb-shows
and noise: I would have such a fellow whipped for o'er-doing[1136]
Termagant; it out-herods Herod: pray you, avoid it.
First Play. I warrant your honour.[1137]
Ham. Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion 15
be your tutor: suit the action to the word, the word[1138]
to the action; with this special observance, that you o'er-step[1139]
not the modesty of nature: for any thing so overdone[1140]
is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first[1141]
and now, was and is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to 20
nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own[1142]
image, and the very age and body of the time his form and[1143]
pressure. Now this overdone or come tardy off, though[1144][1145]
it make the unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious[1145]
grieve; the censure of the which one must in your allowance[1146] 25
o'erweigh a whole theatre of others. O, there be[1147]
players that I have seen play, and heard others praise, and[1148]
that highly, not to speak it profanely, that neither having[1149]
the accent of Christians nor the gait of Christian, pagan,[1150]
nor man, have so strutted and bellowed, that I have thought[1150][1151] 30
some of nature's journeymen had made men, and not made[1152]
them well, they imitated humanity so abominably.
First Play. I hope we have reformed that indifferently[1137]
with us, sir.[1153]
Ham. O, reform it altogether. And let those that play 35
your clowns speak no more than is set down for them: for
there be of them that will themselves laugh, to set on some[1154]
quantity of barren spectators to laugh too, though in the[1155]
mean time some necessary question of the play be then to
be considered: that's villanous, and shows a most pitiful ambition 40
in the fool that uses it. Go, make you ready.