Page 266 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

As by lot God wot,
and then, you know,
It came to pass, as most like it was.
The first row of the pious chanson will show you [415] more, for look where

my abridgement comes.

Enter the Players.

You are welcome, masters. Welcome, all. − I am glad to see thee well. −
Welcome, good friends. − O, old friend, why, thy face is valanced since I saw
thee last. Com’st thou to beard me in Denmark? − [420] What, my young

lady and mistress! By’r lady, your ladyship is nearer to heaven than when I
saw you last by the altitude of a chopine. Pray God your voice, like a piece of
uncurrent gold, be not cracked within the ring. − Masters, you are all
welcome. We’ll e’en [425] to’t like French falconers, fly at anything we see.

We’ll have a speech straight. Come, give us a taste of your quality. Come, a
passionate speech.

1ST PLAY.
What speech, my good lord?

HAMLET
I heard thee speak me a speech once, but it [430] was never acted, or if it
was, not above once − for the play, I remember, pleased not the million,

’twas caviare to the general. But it was, as I received it − and others, whose
judgments in such matters cried in the top of mine − an excellent play, well
digested in [435] the scenes, set down with as much modesty as cunning. I
remember one said there were no sallets in the lines to make the matter

savoury, nor no matter in the phrase that might indict the author of affection,
but called it an honest method, as wholesome as [440] sweet, and by very
much more handsome than fine. One speech in’t I chiefly loved − ’twas
Aeneas’ tale to Dido − and thereabout of it especially when he speaks of

Priam’s slaughter. If it live in your memory, begin at this line − let me see, let
me see − [445]
The rugged Pyrrhus, like th’Hyrcanian beast −
’Tis not so. It begins with Pyrrhus −

The rugged Pyrrhus, be whose sable arms,
Black as his purpose, did the night resemble