Act II, Scene 2
Starting from line 420 of the Folger Library edition
LORD POLONIUS
The best actors in the world, either for
tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical,
historical-pastoral, tragical-historical,
tragical comical-historical-pastoral, scene individable, or
poem unlimited. Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor
Plautus too light. For the law of writ and the liberty,
these are the only men.
Skip to line 451 of the Folger Library edition
HAMLET
…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 to’t
like French falconers, fly at any thing we see. We’ll
have a speech straight. Come, give us a taste of your
quality. Come, a passionate speech.
FIRST PLAYER
What speech, my good lord?
HAMLET
I heard thee speak me a speech once, but it
was never acted; or, if it was, not above once; for
the play, I remember, pleased not the million;
‘twas caviary 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 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 affectation; but called it an honest
method, as wholesome as sweet, and by very much,
more handsome than fine. One speech in it I
chiefly loved: ‘twas Aeneas’ tale to Dido, and
thereabout of it especially, where he speaks of
Priam’s slaughter: if it live in your memory, begin at
this line: let me see, let me see—
‘The rugged Pyrrhus, like the Hyrcanian beast,’—
it is not so: it begins with Pyrrhus—
‘The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms,
`Black as his purpose, did the night resemble
‘When he lay couched in the ominous horse,
‘Hath now this dread and black complexion smeared
‘With heraldry more dismal. Head to foot,
‘Now is he total gules, horridly tricked
`With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons,
‘Baked and impasted with the parching streets,
‘That lend a tyrannous and damnéd light
‘To their lord’s murder. Roasted in wrath and fire,
‘And thus o’er-sizéd with coagulate gore,
‘With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus
‘Old grandsire Priam seeks.’
So, proceed you.
FIRST PLAYER
‘Anon he finds him
‘Striking too short at Greeks. His antique sword,…