| Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue. But if you mouth it, as many of your players do, I had as lief the town crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand thus, but use all gently, for in the very torrent, tempest, and (as I may say) whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness. Oh, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb-shows and noise. I would have such a fellow whipped for o’erdoing Termagant. It out-Herods Herod. Pray you, avoid it. | Hamlet- Do the speech, player |
| Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor. Suit the action to the word, the word to the action, with this special observance that you o’erstep not the modesty of nature. For anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is to hold, as ’twere, the mirror up to nature, to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure. Now this overdone or come tardy off, though it make the unskillful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve, the censure of the which one must in your allowance o’erweigh a whole theatre of others. Oh, there be players that I have seen play and heard others praise (and that highly), not to speak it profanely, that, neither having th’ accent of Christians nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so strutted and bellowed that I have thought some of nature’s journeymen had made men and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably. | Hamlet- Don’t tone down too much, player |
| O, reform it altogether! And let those that play your clowns speak no more than is set down for them, for there be of them that will themselves laugh to set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too, though in the meantime some necessary question of the play be then to be considered. That’s villainous, and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it. Go, make you ready. | Hamlet- Do it correctly, players |
| Nay, do not think I flatter.For what advancement may I hope from theeThat no revenue hast but thy good spirits,To feed and clothe thee? Why should the poor be flattered?No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp,And crook the pregnant hinges of the kneeWhere thrift may follow fawning. Dost thou hear?Since my dear soul was mistress of her choiceAnd could of men distinguish, her electionHath sealed thee for herself, for thou hast been—As one in suffering all that suffers nothing—A man that Fortune’s buffets and rewardsHast ta’en with equal thanks. And blessed are thoseWhose blood and judgment are so well commingled,That they are not a pipe for Fortune’s fingerTo sound what stop she please. Give me that manThat is not passion’s slave, and I will wear himIn my heart’s core, ay, in my heart of heart,As I do thee.—Something too much of this.—There is a play tonight before the king.One scene of it comes near the circumstanceWhich I have told thee of my father’s death.I prithee, when thou seest that act afoot,Even with the very comment of thy soulObserve mine uncle. If his occulted guiltDo not itself unkennel in one speech,It is a damnèd ghost that we have seen,And my imaginations are as foul | Hamlet- I am not flattering you. This play will show Uncle’s guilt |
| Well, my lord.If he steal aught the whilst this play is playing,And ‘scape detecting, I will pay the theft. | Horatio- I will watch Claudius closely |
| O God, your only jig-maker. What should a man do but be merry? For, look you, how cheerfully my mother looks, and my father died within these two hours. | Hamlet- [making small talk w/Ophelia] |
| So long? Nay then, let the devil wear black, for I’ll have a suit of sables. O heavens! Die two months ago and not forgotten yet? Then there’s hope a great man’s memory may outlive his life half a year. But, by ‘r Lady, he must build churches then, or else shall he suffer not thinking on, with the hobby-horse, whose epitaph is “For, oh, for, oh, the hobby-horse is forgot.” | Hamlet- Its high time I stop mourning. |
| The Mousetrap. 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. ‘Tis a knavish piece of work, but what o’ that? Your majesty and we that have free souls, it touches us not. Let the galled jade wince, our withers are unwrung. | Hamlet- [gives a summary of the play] |
| So you must take your husbands.—Begin, murderer. Pox, leave thy damnable faces, and begin. Come, “The croaking raven doth bellow for revenge—” | Hamlet- [getting restless about the play starting] |
| He poisons him i’ th’ garden for ‘s estate. His name’s Gonzago. The story is extant, and writ in choice Italian. You shall see anon how the murderer gets the love of Gonzago’s wife. | Hamlet |
| Why, let the stricken deer go weep, The hart ungallèd play. For some must watch while some must sleep. So runs the world away.Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers—if the rest of my fortunes turn Turk with me—with two Provincial roses on my razed shoes, get me a fellowship in a cry of players? | Hamlet- [says this as Claudius wants to leave the play] |
| A whole one, I. For thou dost know, O Damon dear, This realm dismantled was Of Jove himself. And now reigns here A very, very—pajock. | Hamlet |
| O good Horatio, I’ll take the ghost’s word for a thousand pound. Didst perceive? | Hamlet |
| Your wisdom should show itself more richer to signify this to the doctor. For, for me to put him to his purgation would perhaps plunge him into far more choler. | Hamlet- If I go see my father, I will make him angry. Go consult a doctor |
| Nay, good my lord, this courtesy is not of the right breed. If it shall please you to make me a wholesome answer, I will do your mother’s commandment. If not, your pardon and my return shall be the end of my business. | Guildenstern- Your mother wants you |
| Make you a wholesome answer. My wit’s diseased. But, sir, such answer as I can make, you shall command. Or, rather, as you say, my mother. Therefore no more but to the matter. My mother, you say— | Hamlet- I cant stop fooling around. My mind is confused |
| Then thus she says: your behavior hath struck her into amazement and admiration. | Rosencrantz |
| O wonderful son that can so ‘stonish a mother! But is there no sequel at the heels of this mother’s admiration? Impart. | Hamlet |
| Good my lord, what is your cause of distemper? You do surely bar the door upon your own liberty if you deny your griefs to your friend. | Rosencrantz- You are harming yourself by not telling us what is wrong |
| Ay, sir, but “While the grass grows—” The proverb is something musty—Oh, the recorders! Let me see one. (takes a recorder) (aside to ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN ) To withdraw with you, why do you go about to recover the wind of me as if you would drive me into a toil? | Hamlet- [furthers on his statement that he has no future ahead of him] |
| It is as easy as lying. Govern these ventages with your fingers and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent music. Look you, these are the stops. | Hamlet- [teaches guildenstern how to use a recorder] |
| Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me! You would play upon me. You would seem to know my stops. You would pluck out the heart of my mystery. You would sound me from my lowest note to the top of my compass. And there is much music, excellent voice, in this little organ, yet cannot you make it speak? ‘Sblood, do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, yet you cannot play upon me. | Hamlet- You can push my buttons easier than you can push a recorder’s buttons |
| Tis now the very witching time of night,When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes outContagion to this world. Now could I drink hot bloodAnd do such bitter business as the bitter dayWould quake to look on. Soft, now to my mother.—O heart, lose not thy nature, let not everThe soul of Nero enter this firm bos | Hamlet- This is the spooky time of night. I must go see my mother |
| will speak daggers to her but use none.My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites.How in my words somever she be shent,To give them seals never, my soul, consent! | Hamlet- I will speak harshly to my mother |
Hamlet Act 3 Scene 2
September 8, 2019