my Lord?

_Ham._ Marry this is Miching _Malicho_[3] that
[Sidenote: this munching _Mallico_]
meanes Mischeefe.

_Ophe._ Belike this shew imports the Argument
of the Play?

_Ham._ We shall know by these Fellowes:
[Sidenote: this fellow, _Enter Prologue_]
the Players cannot keepe counsell, they'l tell
[Sidenote: keepe, they'le]
all.[4]

_Ophe._ Will they tell vs what this shew meant? [Sidenote: Will a tell]

_Ham._ I, or any shew that you'l shew him. Bee [Sidenote: you will]
not you asham'd to shew, hee'l not shame to tell
you what it meanes.

_Ophe._ You are naught,[5] you are naught, Ile
marke the Play.

[Footnote 1: The king, not the queen, is aimed at. Hamlet does not
forget the injunction of the Ghost to spare his mother. 54.

The king should be represented throughout as struggling not to betray
himself.]

[Footnote 2: _Not in Q._]

[Footnote 3: _skulking mischief_: the latter word is Spanish, To _mich_
is to _play truant_.

How tenderly her tender hands betweene
In yvorie cage she did the micher bind.

_The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia_, page 84.

My _Reader_ tells me the word is still in use among printers, with the
pronunciation _mike_, and the meaning _to skulk_ or _idle_.]

[Footnote 4: --their part being speech, that of the others only dumb
show.]

[Footnote 5: _naughty_: persons who do not behave well are treated as if
they were not--are made nought of--are set at nought; hence our word
naughty.

'Be naught awhile' (_As You Like It_, i. 1)--'take yourself away;' 'be
nobody;' 'put yourself in the corner.']

[Page 142]

_Enter[1] Prologue._

_For vs, and for our Tragedie,
Heere stooping to your Clemencie:
We begge your hearing Patientlie._

_Ham._ Is this a Prologue, or the Poesie[2] of a [Sidenote: posie]
Ring?

_Ophe._ 'Tis[3] briefe my Lord.

_Ham._ As Womans loue.

[4] _Enter King and his Queene._ [Sidenote: _and Queene_]

[Sidenote: 234] _King._ Full thirtie times[5] hath Phoebus Cart gon
round,
Neptunes salt Wash, and _Tellus_ Orbed ground: [Sidenote: orb'd the]
And thirtie dozen Moones with borrowed sheene,
About the World haue times twelue thirties beene,
Since loue our hearts, and _Hymen_ did our hands
Vnite comutuall, in most sacred Bands.[6]

_Bap._ So many iournies may the Sunne and Moone [Sidenote: _Q