Pol. Hath there been such a time (I'd fain know that), That I have positively said, ""Tis so,' When it prov'd otherwise? King. Not that I know Pol. Take this from this, if this be otherwise : [Pointing to his head and shoulder. If circumstances lead me, I will find 155 Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed Pol. At such a time I'll loose my daughter to him: Be you and I behind an arras then ; Mark the encounter: if he love her not, And be not from his reason fall'n thereon, Let me be no assistant for a state, But keep a farm and carters. 160 165 Queen. But, look, where sadly the poor wretch comes reading. Pol. Away, I do beseech you, both away; I'll board him presently :-0, give me leave.— Ham. Then I would you were so honest a man. Pol. Honest, my lord! 175 Ham. Ay, sir; to be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand. Pol. That's very true, my lord. Ham. For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a god kissing carrion-Have you a daughter? 180 Pol. I have, my lord. [Aside.] Still harping on my daughter-yet he knew me not at first; he said I was a fishmonger. He is far gone, far gone and truly in my youth I suffered much extremity for love; very near this. I'll speak to him again. What do you read, my lord? Ham. Words, words, words! Pol. What is the matter, my lord? Ham. Between who? Pol. I mean the matter that you read, my lord. 185 189 Ham. Slanders, sir; for the satirical slave says here, that old men have gray beards; that their faces are wrinkled; their eyes purging thick amber and plum-tree gum; and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams: all which, sir, though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it not honesty to have it thus set down; for you yourself, sir, should be old as I am, if, like a crab, you could go backward. Pol. Though this be madness, yet there is method in't. [Aside.] Will you walk out of the air, my lord? Ham. Into my grave? 198 Pol. Indeed, that is out o' the air. [Aside.] How pregnant sometimes his replies are! a happiness that often madness hits on, which reason and sanity could not so prosperously be delivered of. I will leave him, and suddenly contrive the means of meeting between him and my daughter.-My honourable lord, I will humbly take my leave of you. 205 Ham. You cannot, sir, take from me anything that I will more willingly part withal-except my life, except my life, except my life. Pol. Fare you well, my lord. 210 Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. Pol. You go to seek the Lord Hamlet; there he is. Guil. Mine honour'd lord! Ros. My most dear lord! [Exit POLONIUS. Ham. My excellent good friends! How dost thou, Guildenstern? Ah, Rosencrantz! Good lads, how do ye both? Ros. As the indifferent children of the earth. Guil. Happy, in that we are not overhappy; On fortune's cap we are not the very button. Ham. Nor the soles of her shoe? Ros. Neither, my lord. 216 220 Ham. Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of her favours. What's the news? Ros. None, my lord; but that the world's grown honest. 224 Ham. Then is doomsday 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. 230 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. 234 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, I could be bounded in a nut-shell, and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams. 240 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. 245 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. 249 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. 254 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 your own inclining? Is it a free visitation? Come, deal justly with me: come, come * nay, speak. Guil. What should we say, my lord? 260 Ham. Why anything-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? 265 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. [To Guildenstern.] What say you? 270 Ham. [Aside.] Nay, then I have an eye of you.-If you love me, hold not off. Guil. My lord, we were sent for. 274 Ham. I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation prevent your discovery, and your secrecy 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, D 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 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 faculty 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. 290 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. 296 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 tickle 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 delight in, the tragedians of the city. 305 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. Ham. How comes it? Do they grow rusty? 311 Ros. Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace: but there is, sir, an aery of children, little eyases, that cry out on the |