1258Ham. You cannot Sir take from me any thing, that I

1259will more willingly part withall, except my life, my

1260life.

1261Polon. Fare you well my Lord.

1262Ham. These tedious old fooles.

1263Polon. You goe to seeke my Lord Hamlet; there

1264hee is.

1266Rosin. God saue you Sir.

1267Guild. Mine honour'd Lord?

1268Rosin. My most deare Lord?

1269Ham. My excellent good friends? How do'st thou

1270Guildensterne? Oh, Rosincrane; good Lads: How doe ye

1271both?

1272Rosin. As the indifferent Children of the earth.

1273Guild. Happy, in that we are not ouer-happy: on For-

1274tunes Cap, we are not the very Button.

1275Ham. Nor the Soales of her Shoo?

1276Rosin. Neither my Lord.

1277Ham. Then you liue about her waste, or in the mid-

1278dle of her fauour?

1279Guil. Faith, her priuates, we.

1280Ham. In the secret parts of Fortune? Oh, most true:

1281she is a Strumpet. What's the newes?

1282Rosin. None my Lord; but that the World's growne

1283honest.

1284Ham. Then is Doomesday neere: But your newes is

1285not true. Let me question more in particular: what haue

1286you my good friends, deserued at the hands of Fortune,

1287that she sends you to Prison hither?

1288Guil. Prison, my Lord?

1289Ham. Denmark's a Prison.

1290Rosin. Then is the World one.

1291Ham. A goodly one, in which there are many Con-

1292fines, Wards, and Dungeons; Denmarke being one o'th'

1293worst.

1294Rosin. We thinke not so my Lord.

1295Ham. Why then 'tis none to you; for there is nothing

1296either good or bad, but thinking makes it so: to me it is

1297a prison.

1298Rosin. Why then your Ambition makes it one: 'tis

1299too narrow for your minde.

1300Ham. O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell, and

1301count my selfe a King of infinite space; were it not that

1302I haue bad dreames.

1303Guil. Which dreames indeed are Ambition: for the

1304very substance of the Ambitious, is meerely the shadow

1305of a Dreame.

1306Ham. A dreame it selfe is but a shadow.

1307Rosin. Truely, and I hold Ambition of so ayry and

1308light a quality, that it is but a shadowes shadow.

1309Ham. Then are our Beggers bodies; and our Mo-

1310narchs and out-stretcht Heroes the Beggers Shadowes:

1311shall wee to th' Court: for, by my fey I cannot rea-

1312son?

1313Both. Wee'l wait vpon you.

1314Ham. No such matter. I will not sort you with the

1315rest of my seruants: for to speake to you like an honest

1316man: I am most dreadfully attended; but in the beaten

1317way of friendship, What make you at Elsonower?

1318Rosin. To visit you my Lord, no other occasion.

1319Ham. Begger that I am, I am euen poore in thankes;

1320but I thanke you: and sure deare friends my thanks

1321are too deare a halfepeny; were you not sent for? Is it

1322your owne inclining? Is it a free visitation? Come,

1323deale iustly with me: come, come; nay speake.

1324Guil. What should we say my Lord?

1325Ham. Why any thing. But to the purpose; you were

1326sent for; and there is a kinde confession in your lookes;

1327which your modesties haue not craft enough to co-

1328lor, I know the good King & Queene haue sent for you.

1329Rosin. To what end my Lord?

1330Ham. That you must teach me: but let mee coniure

1331you by the rights of our fellowship, by the consonancy of

1332our youth, by the Obligation of our euer-preserued loue,

1333and by what more deare, a better proposer could charge

1334you withall; be euen and direct with me, whether you

1335were sent for or no.

1336Rosin. What say you?

1337Ham. Nay then I haue an eye of you: if you loue me

1338hold not off.

1339Guil. My Lord, we were sent for.

1340Ham. I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation

1341preuent your discouery of your secricie to the King and

1342Queene: moult no feather, I haue of late, but wherefore

1343I know not, lost all my mirth, forgone all custome of ex-

1344ercise; and indeed, it goes so heauenly with my dispositi-

1345on; that this goodly frame the Earth, seemes to me a ster-

1346rill Promontory; this most excellent Canopy the Ayre,

1347look you, this braue ore-hanging, this Maiesticall Roofe,

1348fretted with golden fire: why, it appeares no other thing

1349to mee, then a foule and pestilent congregation of va-

1350pours. What a piece of worke is a man! how Noble in

1351Reason? how infinite in faculty? in forme and mouing

1352how expresse and admirable? in Action, how like an An-

1353gel? in apprehension, how like a God? the beauty of the

1354world, the Parragon of Animals; and yet to me, what is

1355this Quintessence of Dust? Man delights not me; no,

1356nor Woman neither; though by your smiling you seeme

1357to say so.

1358Rosin. My Lord, there was no such stuffe in my

1359thoughts.

1360Ham. Why did you laugh, when I said, Man delights

1361not me?

1362Rosin. To thinke, my Lord, if you delight not in Man,

1363what Lenton entertainment the Players shall receiue

1364from you: wee coated them on the way, and hither are

1365they comming to offer you Seruice.

1366Ham. He that playes the King shall be welcome; his

1367Maiesty shall haue Tribute of mee: the aduenturous

1368Knight shal vse his Foyle and Target: the Louer shall

1369not sigh gratis, the humorous man shall end his part in

1370peace: the Clowne shall make those laugh whose lungs

1371are tickled a'th' sere: and the Lady shall say her minde

1372freely; or the blanke Verse shall halt for't: what Players

1373are they?

1374Rosin. Euen those you were wont to take delight in

1375the Tragedians of the City.

1376Ham. How chances it they trauaile? their resi-

1377dence both in reputation and profit was better both

1378wayes.

1379Rosin. I thinke their Inhibition comes by the meanes

1380of the late Innouation?

1381Ham. Doe they hold the same estimation they did

1382when I was in the City? Are they so follow'd?

1383Rosin. No indeed, they are not.

1384Ham. How comes it? doe they grow rusty?

1385Rosin. Nay, their indeauour keepes in the wonted

1386pace; But there is Sir an ayrie of Children, little

1387Yases, that crye out on the top of question; and

1388are most tyrannically clap't for't: these are now the