Page:Hamlet - The Arden Shakespeare - 1899.djvu/141

SCENE II.—A Hall in the Castle.

Enter Hamlet and two or three of the Players.

Ham. Speak the speech, I pray you, as I
pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue;
but if you mouth it, as many of your players^{[a 1]}
do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke^{[a 2]} my
lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with 5
your^{[a 3]} hand, thus; but use all gently; for in
the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say,
the whirlwind of passion,^{[a 4]} you must acquire
and beget^{[b 1]} a temperance that may give it
smoothness. Oh, it offends me to the soul 10
to hear^{[a 5]} a robustious^{[b 2]} periwig-pated^{[b 3]} fellow tear
a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the
ears of the groundlings,^{[b 4]} who, for the most
part, are capable of nothing but inexplicable
dumb-shows and noise; I would^{[a 6]} have such a 15
fellow whipped for o'er-doing Termagant;^{[b 5]} it
out-herods Herod;^{[b 6]} pray you, avoid it.

1. 3. your players] Q 1, F; our players Q.
2. 4. spoke] Q, had spoke F.
3. 5, 6. much with your] Q, much your F, much, your Caldecott.
4. 8. the whirlwind of passion] F, whirlwind of your passion Q.
5. 11. hear] Q, see F.
6. 15. would] Q 1, Q; could F.

1. 8, 9. acquire and beget] acquire, through training and practice; beget, through a native artistic impulse.
2. 11. robustious] sturdy, as in King Henry V. III. vii. 159.
3. 11. periwig-pated] Steevens quotes from Every Woman in her Humour, 1609: "as none wear . . . periwigs but players and pictures."
4. 13. groundlings] spectators of the play who stood in the pit, paying, as we learn from Jonson, a penny for admission; capable, receptive, apprehensive.
5. 16. Termagant] the god of the Saracens, as represented in old romances and mystery plays. Florio, 1611: "Termigisto, a great bolster, quarreller, killer, tamer or ruler of the universe; the child of the earthquake and of the thunder, the brother of death."
6. 17. Herod] the violent Herod of old sacred plays. In the Coventry play of the Nativity a braggart speech is followed by the stage direction, "Here Erode ragis in thys pagond and in the strete also."