e lady shall say her mind freely, or the
blank verse shall halt for't.[41]--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?[42] their residence, both in
reputation and profit, was better both ways. Do they hold the same
estimation they did when I was in the city? Are they so followed?

_Ros._ No, indeed, they are not.

_Ham._ It is not very strange; for my uncle is king of Denmark,[43]
and those that would make mouths at him[44] while my father lived,
give twenty, forty, fifty, an hundred ducats a-piece for his picture
in little.[45] There is something in this more than natural, if
philosophy could find it out.

[_Flourish of trumpets without._]

_Guil._ There are the players.

_Ham._ Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your hands. You are
welcome: but my uncle-father and aunt-mother are deceived.

_Guil._ In what, my dear lord?

_Ham._ I am but mad north-north west: when the wind is southerly I
know a hawk from a hern-shaw.[46]

[_Crosses_ R.]

_Pol._ (_Without_, L.H.) Well be with you, gentlemen!

_Ham._ (_Crosses_ C.) Hark you, Guildenstern;--and Rosencrantz: that
great baby you see there is not yet out of his swaddling-clouts.

_Ros._ (R.) Haply he's the second time come to them; for they say an
old man is twice a child.

_Ham._ I will prophesy he comes to tell me of the players; mark
it.--You say right, sir: o'Monday morning; 'twas then, indeed.

_Enter_ POLONIUS (L.H.)

_Pol._ My lord, I have news to tell you.

_Ham._ My lord, I have news to tell you. When Roscius was an actor in
Rome,----

_Pol._ The actors are come hither, my lord.

_Ham._ Buz, buz![47]

_Pol._ Upon my honour,----

_Ham._ Then came each actor on his ass.[48]

_Pol._ The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy,
history, pastoral, pastorical-comical, historical-pastoral, scene
indivisible, or poem unlimited: Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor
Plautus too light.[49] For the law of writ and the liberty, these are
the only men.[50]

_Ham._ _O, Jephthah, judge of Israel_,--what a treasure hadst thou!

_Pol._ What a treasure had he, my lord?

_Ham._ Why,--_One fair daughter, and no more,
The which he loved passing well._

_Pol._ Still harping on my daughter.

[_Aside._]

_Ham._ Am I not i'the right, old Jephthah?

_Pol._ If you call me Jephthah, my lord, I have a daughter that I
love passin