make those laugh whose lungs are tickle[a 1] o' the
sere;[b 1] and the lady[b 2] shall say her mind freely,
or the blank[a 2] verse shall halt for 't. What
players are they?
Ros. Even those you were wont to take such[a 3] delight 345
in, the tragedians of the city.
Ham. How chances it they travel? their residence,[b 3]
both in reputation and profit, was better both
ways.
Ros. I think their inhibition comes by the means of 350
the late innovation.[b 4]
Ham. Do they hold the same estimation they did
when I was in the city? are they so followed?
Ros. No, indeed, they are[a 4] not.
Ham. How[a 5] comes it? do they grow rusty? 355
Ros. Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted
pace; but there is, sir, an eyrie of children,[b 5]
- ↑ 341, 342. tickle o' the sere] Explained first by Nicholson, and independently by Clar. Press: sere, the bar or balance-lever of a gun-lock (from "serre," a talon), a stop-catch; if "tickle," ticklish, loose, unsteady, the gun goes off at a touch; lungs tickle o' the sere, lungs that move to laughter at a touch.
- ↑ 342. lady] Hamlet is ironical; the lady, of course, will have indecent words to utter; if she omits them, the halting blank verse will betray her delicacy.
- ↑ 347. residence] i.e. in the city.
- ↑ 350, 351.] See Appendix, p. 229.
- ↑ 357, 358. eyrie of children, little eyases] eyrie or aerie, brood of nestlings; eyases, unfledged hawks. "Cry out" carries on the metaphor. In The Gentleman's Recreation, Part II. p. 21 (ed. 1686), we find "the name Eyess lasts as long as she is in the Eyrie. These are very troublesome in their feeding, do cry very much." Middleton, in Father Hubbard's Tales, 1604, speaks of "a nest of boys" at the Blackfriars "able to ravish a man" (noted by Prof, Hales).
— King Claudius, who receives such tribute as he deserves from Hamlet; Laertes, the fencer; Hamlet, the lover, who sighs gratis; Polonius, who ends his part as "most secret and most grave"; the grave-digger; and Ophelia, who speaks her mind in madness somewhat too freely.
