The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Part 25

_Ham_. That you must teach me: but let mee coniure[4] you by the rights of our fellowship, by the consonancy of our youth,[5] by the Obligation of our euer-preserued loue, and by what more deare, a better proposer could charge you withall; [Sidenote: can]

be euen and direct with me, whether you were sent for or no.

_Rosin_. What say you?[6]

_Ham_. Nay then I haue an eye of you[7]: if you loue me hold not off.[8]

[Sidenote: 72] _Guil_. My Lord, we were sent for.

_Ham_. I will tell you why; so shall my antic.i.p.ation preuent your discouery of your secricie to [Sidenote: discovery, and your secrecie to the King and Queene moult no feather,[10]]

the King and Queene[9] moult no feather, I haue [Sidenote: 116] of late, but wherefore I know not, lost all my mirth, forgone all custome of exercise; and indeed, [Sidenote: exercises;]

it goes so heauenly with my disposition; that this [Sidenote: heauily]

goodly frame the Earth, seemes to me a sterrill Promontory; this most excellent Canopy the Ayre, look you, this braue ore-hanging, this Maiesticall [Sidenote: orehanging firmament,]

Roofe, fretted with golden fire: why, it appeares no [Sidenote: appeareth]

[Footnote 1: --because they were by no means hearty thanks.]

[Footnote 2: He wants to know whether they are in his uncle's employment and favour; whether they pay court to himself for his uncle's ends.]

[Footnote 3: He has no answer ready.]

[Footnote 4: He will not cast them from him without trying a direct appeal to their old friendship for plain dealing. This must be remembered in relation to his treatment of them afterwards. He affords them every chance of acting truly--conjuring them to honesty--giving them a push towards repentance.]

[Footnote 5: Either, 'the harmony of our young days,' or, 'the sympathies of our present youth.']

[Footnote 6: --_to Guildenstern_.]

[Footnote 7: (_aside_) 'I will keep an eye upon you;'.]

[Footnote 8: 'do not hold back.']

[Footnote 9: The _Quarto_ seems here to have the right reading.]

[Footnote 10: 'your promise of secrecy remain intact;'.]

[Page 94]

other thing to mee, then a foule and pestilent congregation [Sidenote: nothing to me but a]

of vapours. What a piece of worke is [Sidenote: what peece]

a man! how n.o.ble in Reason? how infinite in faculty? in forme and mouing how expresse and [Sidenote: faculties,]

admirable? in Action, how like an Angel? in apprehension, how like a G.o.d? the beauty of the world, the Parragon of Animals; and yet to me, what is this Quintessence of Dust? Man delights not me;[1] no, nor Woman neither; though by your [Sidenote: not me, nor women]

smiling you seeme to say so.[2]

_Rosin._ My Lord, there was no such stuffe in my thoughts.

_Ham._ Why did you laugh, when I said, Man [Sidenote: yee laugh then, when]

delights not me?

_Rosin._ To thinke, my Lord, if you delight not in Man, what Lenton entertainment the Players shall receiue from you:[3] wee coated them[4] on the way, and hither are they comming to offer you Seruice.

_Ham._[5] He that playes the King shall be welcome; his Maiesty shall haue Tribute of mee: [Sidenote: on me,]

the aduenturous Knight shal vse his Foyle and Target: the Louer shall not sigh _gratis_, the humorous man[6] shall end his part in peace: [7] the Clowne shall make those laugh whose lungs are tickled a'th' sere:[8] and the Lady shall say her minde freely; or the blanke Verse shall halt for't[9]: [Sidenote: black verse]

what Players are they?

_Rosin._ Euen those you Were wont to take [Sidenote: take such delight]

delight in the Tragedians of the City.

_Ham._ How chances it they trauaile? their residence both in reputation and profit was better both wayes.

_Rosin._ I thinke their Inhibition comes by the meanes of the late Innouation?[10]

[Footnote 1: A genuine description, so far as it goes, of the state of Hamlet's mind. But he does not reveal the operating cause--his loss of faith in women, which has taken the whole poetic element out of heaven, earth, and humanity: he would have his uncle's spies attribute his condition to mere melancholy.]

[Footnote 2: --said angrily, I think.]

[Footnote 3: --a ready-witted subterfuge.]

[Footnote 4: came alongside of them; got up with them; apparently rather from Fr. _cote_ than _coter_; like _accost_. Compare 71. But I suspect it only means _noted_, _observed_, and is from _coter_.]

[Footnote 5: --_with humorous imitation, perhaps, of each of the characters_.]

[Footnote 6: --the man with a whim.]

[Footnote 7: This part of the speech--from [7] to [8], is not in the _Quarto_.]

[Footnote 8: Halliwell gives a quotation in which the touch-hole of a pistol is called the _sere_: the _sere_, then, of the lungs would mean the opening of the lungs--the part with which we laugh: those 'whose lungs are tickled a' th' sere,' are such as are ready to laugh on the least provocation: _tickled_--_irritable, ticklish_--ready to laugh, as another might be to cough. 'Tickled o' the sere' was a common phrase, signifying, thus, _propense_.

_1st Q._ The clowne shall make them laugh That are tickled in the lungs,]

[Footnote 9: Does this refer to the pause that expresses the unutterable? or to the ruin of the measure of the verse by an incompetent heroine?]

[Footnote 10: Does this mean, 'I think their prohibition comes through the late innovation,'--of the children's acting; or, 'I think they are prevented from staying at home by the late new measures,'--such, namely, as came of the puritan opposition to stage-plays? This had grown so strong, that, in 1600, the Privy Council issued an order restricting the number of theatres in London to two: by such an _innovation_ a number of players might well be driven to the country.]

[Page 96]

_Ham_. Doe they hold the same estimation they did when I was in the City? Are they so follow'd?

_Rosin_. No indeed, they are not. [Sidenote: are they not.]

[1]_Ham_. How comes it? doe they grow rusty?

_Rosin_. Nay, their indeauour keepes in the wonted pace; But there is Sir an ayrie of Children,[2]

little Yases,[3] that crye out[4] on the top of question;[5]

and are most tyrannically clap't for't: these are now the fashion, and so be-ratled the common Stages[6] (so they call them) that many wearing Rapiers,[7] are affraide of Goose-quils, and dare sca.r.s.e come thither.[8]

_Ham_. What are they Children? Who maintains 'em? How are they escoted?[9] Will they pursue the Quality[10] no longer then they can sing?[11] Will they not say afterwards if they should grow themselues to common Players (as it is like most[12] if their meanes are no better) their Writers[13] do them wrong, to make them exclaim against their owne Succession.[14]

_Rosin_. Faith there ha's bene much to do on both sides: and the Nation holds it no sinne, to tarre them[15] to Controuersie. There was for a while, no mony bid for argument, vnlesse the Poet and the Player went to Cuffes in the Question.[16]

_Ham_. Is't possible?