Oph. What means this, my lord? Ham. Marry, this is miching mallechos; it means mischief. Oph. Belike, this show imports the argument of the play. Enter Prologue. Ham. We shall know by this fellow: the players cannot keep counsel; they 'll tell all. 1 Oph. Will he tell us what this show meant? Oph. I'll mark the play. Pro. For us, and for our tragedy, Here stooping to your clemency, We beg your hearing patiently. Ham. Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring? Ham. As woman's love. Enter a King and a Queen. 6 P. King. Full thirty times hath Phoebus' cart gone round Neptune's salt wash, and Tellus' orbed ground; And thirty dozen moons, with borrow'd sheen', About the world have times twelve thirties been; Since love our hearts, and Hymen did our hands, Unite commutual in most sacred bands. P. Queen. So many journeys may the sun and moon Make us again count o'er, ere love be done! 5 Secret wickedness. 6 The earth. 7 Shining, lustre. In neither aught, or in extremity. Now, what my love is, proof hath made you know; And as my love is siz'd, my fear is so. Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear; Where little fears grow great, great love grows there. P. King. 'Faith, I must leave thee, love, and shortly too; 9 My operant powers their functions leave to do : P. Queen. O, confound the rest! Such love must needs be treason in my breast: None wed the second, but who kill'd the first. P. Queen. The instances', that second marriage move, Are base respects of thrift, but none of love; A second time I kill my husband dead, When second husband wins me to his bed. P. King. I do believe, you think what now you speak; But, what we do determine, oft we break. Of violent birth, but poor validity: Which now, like fruit unripe, sticks on the tree; To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt: Their own enactures with themselves destroy : 9 In proportion to the extent of my love. 9 Active. That even our loves should with our fortunes change; Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love. For who not needs, shall never lack a friend; But, orderly to end where I begun, Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own: But die thy thoughts, when thy first lord is dead. P. Queen. Nor earth to give me food, nor heaven light! Sport and repose lock from me, day and night! Ham. If she should break it now, [To OPHELIA. P. King. 'Tis deeply sworn. Sweet, leave me here a while; My spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile P. Queen. [Sleeps. Sleep rock thy brain; And never come mischance between us twain! Ham. Madam, how like you this play? [Exit. Queen. The lady doth protest too much, methinks. King. Have you heard the argument? Is there no offence in 't? 3 Anchoret. Ham. No, no, they do but jest, poison in jest; no offence i' the world. King. What do you call the play? Ham. The mouse-trap. Marry, how? Tropically. This play is the image of a murder done in Vienna: Gonzago is the duke's name; his wife, Baptista: you shall see anon; 't is a knavish piece of work: But what of that? your majesty, and we that have free souls, it touches us not: Let the galled jade wince, our withers are unwrung. Enter LUCIANUS. This is one Lucianus, nephew to the king. The croaking raven Doth bellow for revenge. Luc. Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time agreeing; Confederate season, else no creature seeing; [Pours the Poison into the Sleeper's Ears. Ham. He poisons him i' the garden for his estate. His name 's Gonzago; the story is extant, and written in very choice Italian: You shall see anon, how the murderer gets the love of Gonzago's wife. Oph. The king rises. Ham. What! frighted with false fire! King. Give me some light: : away! Pol. Lights, lights, lights! [Exeunt all but HAMLET and HORATIO 4 Curse. Ham. Why, let the strucken deer go weep, For some must watch, while some must sleep; Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers, (if the rest of my fortunes turn Turk with me,) with two Provencial roses on my razed' shoes, get me a fellowship in a cry of players, sir? 6 Hor. Half a share. Ham. A whole one, I. For thou dost know, O Damon dear, Of Jove himself; and now reigns here Hor. You might have rhymed. Ham. O good Horatio, I'll take the ghost's word for a thousand pound. Didst perceive? Hor. Very well, my lord. Ham. Upon the talk of the poisoning, Ham. Ah, ha! Come, some musick; come, the recorders.7 For if the king like not the comedy, Why then, belike, he likes it not, perdy. Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERn. Come, some musick. Guil. Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with you. Ham. Sir, a whole history. Guil. The king, sir, Ham. Ay, sir, what of him? Guil. Is, in his retirement, marvellous distem |