POLONIUS.
'Fore God, my lord, well spoken, with good accent and good
discretion.
I PLAYER.
Anon he finds him,
Striking too short at Greeks: his antique sword,
Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls,
Repugnant to command: unequal match'd,
Pyrrhus at Priam drives; in rage strikes wide;
But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword
The unnerved father falls. Then senseless Ilium,
Seeming to feel this blow, with flaming top
Stoops to his base; and with a hideous crash
Takes prisoner Pyrrhus' ear: for lo! his sword,
Which was declining on the milky head
Of reverend Priam, seem'd i' the air to stick:
So, as a painted tyrant, Pyrrhus stood;
And, like a neutral to his will and matter,
Did nothing.
But as we often see, against some storm,
A silence in the heavens, the rack stand still,
The bold winds speechless, and the orb below
As hush as death, anon the dreadful thunder
Doth rend the region; so, after Pyrrhus' pause,
A roused vengeance sets him new a-work;
And never did the Cyclops' hammers fall
On Mars's armour, forg'd for proof eterne,
With less remorse than Pyrrhus' bleeding sword
Now falls on Priam. —
Out, out, thou strumpet, Fortune! All you gods,
In general synod, take away her power;
Break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel,
And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven,
As low as to the fiends!
POLONIUS.
This is too long.
HAMLET.
It shall to the barber's, with your beard. — Pr'ythee say on. —
He's for a jig or a tale of bawdry, or he sleeps: — say on; come
to Hecuba.
I PLAYER.
But who, O who, had seen the mobled queen, —
HAMLET.
'The mobled queen'?
POLONIUS.
That's good! 'Mobled queen' is good.
I Play.
Run barefoot up and down, threatening the flames
With bisson rheum; a clout upon that head
Where late the diadem stood, and for a robe,
About her lank and all o'erteemed loins,
A blanket, in the alarm of fear caught up; —
Who this had seen, with tongue in venom steep'd,
'Gainst Fortune's state would treason have pronounc'd:
But if the gods themselves did see her then,
When she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport
In mincing with his sword her husband's limbs,
The instant burst of clamour that she made, —
Unless things mortal move them not at all, —
Would have made milch the burning eyes of heaven,
And passion in the gods.
POLONIUS.
Look, whether he has not turn'd his colour, and has tears in's
eyes. — Pray you, no more!
HAMLET.
'Tis well. I'll have thee speak out the rest of this soon. —
Good my lord, will you see the players well bestowed? Do you
hear? Let them be well used; for they are the abstracts and brief
chronicles of the time; after your death you were better have a
bad epitaph than their ill report while you live.
POLONIUS.
My lord, I will use them according to their desert.
HAMLET.
Odd's bodikin, man, better: use every man after his
desert, and who should scape whipping? Use them after your own
honour and dignity: the less they deserve, the more merit is in
your bounty. Take them in.
POLONIUS.
Come, sirs.
HAMLET.
Follow him, friends. we'll hear a play to-morrow.
[Exeunt Polonius with all the Players but the First.]
Dost thou hear me, old friend? Can you play 'The Murder of
Gonzago'?
I PLAYER.
Ay, my lord.
HAMLET.
We'll ha't to-morrow night. You could, for a need, study a
speech of some dozen or sixteen lines which I would set down and
insert in't? could you not?
I PLAYER.
Ay, my lord.
HAMLET.
Very well. — Follow that lord; and look you mock him not.
[Exit First Player.]
— My good friends [to Ros. and Guild.], I'll leave you till
night: you are welcome to Elsinore.
ROSENCRANTZ.
Good my lord!
[Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.]
