Hamlet - Page 51

even291 and direct with me whether you were sent for or no?

Aside to Guildenstern?

ROSENCRANTZ What say you?

Aside?

HAMLET Nay, then, I have an eye of293 you.--

If you love me, hold not off.

GUILDENSTERN My lord, we were sent for.

HAMLET I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation prevent296

your discovery, and your secrecy to the king and queen

moult no feather298. I have of late -- but wherefore I know not

-- lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercise299; and

indeed it goes so heavily300 with my disposition that this goodly

frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory301, this most

excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave302 o'erhanging

firmament, this majestical roof fretted303 with golden fire, why,

it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent

congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is a man!

How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, in form and

moving how express307 and admirable, in action how like an

angel, in apprehension308 how like a god! The beauty of the

world, the paragon of animals -- and yet, to me, what is this

quintessence310 of dust? Man delights not me -- no, nor

woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so.

ROSENCRANTZ My lord, there was no such stuff in my thoughts.

HAMLET Why did you laugh when I said 'Man delights not

me'?

ROSENCRANTZ To think, my lord, if you delight not in man,

what Lenten entertainment316 the players shall receive from

you: we coted317 them on the way, and hither are they coming

to offer you service.

Tags: William Shakespeare Classics
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