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count myself a king of infinite space, were it
not that I have bad dreams.

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. Ham. Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs and outstretched heroes the beggars' shadows. 270 Shall we to the court? for, by my fay, I cannot

Ros.

reason.

Ro} We'll wait upon you.

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. Ham. Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks; 280 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?

Ham. Why, any thing, 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 290 have sent for you.

and queen Ros. To what end, my lord?

Ham. That you must teach me. 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. [Aside to Guil.] What say you?

Ham. [Aside] Nay then, I have an eye of you.-
If you love me, hold not off.

Guil. My lord, we were sent for.

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,
forgone all custom of exercises; and indeed it

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goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile pro- 310 montory; 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! 320 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.

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; 330 and hither are they coming, to offer you service. Ham. He that plays the king shall be welcome; his majesty shall have tribute of me; the adven

turous 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 such delight in, the tragedians of the city.

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, are they not.

Ham. How comes it? do they grow rusty?
Ros. Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace:

but there is, sir, an eyrie of children, little
eyases, that cry out on the top of question and
are most tyranically clapped for 't: these are
now the fashion, and so berattle the common
stages so they call them-that many wearing

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rapiers are afraid of goose-quills, and dare

scarce come thither.
Ham. What, are they children? who maintains 'em?

how are they escoted? Will they pursue the
quality no longer than they can sing ? will they
not say afterwards, if they should grow them-
selves to common players,-as it is most like,
if their means are no better, their writers
do them wrong, to make them exclaim against
their own succession?

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Ros. Faith, there has been much to do on both sides, and the nation holds it no sin to tarre them 370 to controversy: there was for a while no money bid for argument unless the poet and the player went to cuffs in the question.

Ham. Is't possible?

Guil. O, there has been much throwing about of brains.

Ham. Do the boys carry it away ?

Ros. Ay, that they do, my lord; Hercules and his load too.

Ham. It is not very strange; for my uncle is king 380 of Denmark, and those that would make mows at him while my father lived, give twenty, forty, fifty, a hundred ducats a-piece, for his picture

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