10.4.11

Freshmen Homework 10.4.11
HOMEWORK:   
Today in class we worked on something of VITAL importance to your academic future: The Regents Critical Lens Essay. Please go over your response to the lens tonight and have it ready for class tomorrow. Here is a copy of what we worked on today.

Sophomore Homework 10.4.11
HOMEWORK:   

Summary: Act 2, scene 1

Banquo and his son Fleance walk in the torch-lit hall of Macbeth’s castle. Fleance says that it is after midnight, and his father responds that although he is tired, he wishes to stay awake because his sleep has lately inspired “cursed thoughts” (2.1.8). Macbeth enters, and Banquo is surprised to see him still up. Banquo says that the king is asleep and mentions that he had a dream about the “three weird sisters.” When Banquo suggests that the witches have revealed “some truth” to Macbeth, Macbeth claims that he has not thought of them at all since their encounter in the woods (2.1.19–20). He and Banquo agree to discuss the witches’ prophecies at a later time.

Banquo and Fleance leave, and suddenly, in the darkened hall, Macbeth has a vision of a dagger floating in the air before him, its handle pointing toward his hand and its tip aiming him toward Duncan. Macbeth tries to grasp the weapon and fails. He wonders whether what he sees is real or a “dagger of the mind, a false creation / Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain” (2.1.38–39). Continuing to gaze upon the dagger, he thinks he sees blood on the blade, then abruptly decides that the vision is just a manifestation of his unease over killing Duncan. The night around him seems thick with horror and witchcraft, but Macbeth stiffens and resolves to do his bloody work. A bell tolls—Lady Macbeth’s signal that the chamberlains are asleep—and Macbeth strides toward Duncan’s chamber.

Please read the following excerpt. 
As you read you will notice certain words have been highlighted.
After you have finished reading, I would like you to "Do now" them: 
1) copy down the highlighted words 
2) record the definition for the words and
3) create a sentence using that word. 

After completing this activity, please answer the guided questions that follow. 
Keep in mind that each answer should not only address the question completely, but also include "evidence to support [your] analysis" in the form of quotations from the text

[Enter BANQUO, and FLEANCE bearing a torch before him]

• Banquo. How goes the night, boy?

• Fleance. The moon is down; I have not heard the clock. 570

• Banquo. And she goes down at twelve.

• Fleance. I take't, 'tis later, sir.

• Banquo. Hold, take my sword. There's husbandry in heaven;
  Their candles are all out. Take thee that too.
  A heavy summons lies like lead upon me, 575
  And yet I would not sleep: merciful powers,
  Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature
  Gives way to in repose!
  [Enter MACBETH, and a Servant with a torch]
  Give me my sword. 580
  Who's there?

• Macbeth. A friend.

• Banquo. What, sir, not yet at rest? The king's a-bed:
  He hath been in unusual pleasure, and
  Sent forth great largess to your offices. 585
  This diamond he greets your wife withal,
  By the name of most kind hostess; and shut up
  In measureless content.

• Macbeth. Being unprepared,
  Our will became the servant to defect; 590
  Which else should free have wrought.

• Banquo. All's well.
  I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters:
  To you they have show'd some truth.

• Macbeth. I think not of them: 595
  Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve,
  We would spend it in some words upon that business,
  If you would grant the time.

• Banquo. At your kind'st leisure.

• Macbeth. If you shall cleave to my consent, when 'tis, 600
  It shall make honour for you.

• Banquo. So I lose none
  In seeking to augment it, but still keep
  My bosom franchised and allegiance clear,
  I shall be counsell'd. 605

• Macbeth. Good repose the while!

• Banquo. Thanks, sir: the like to you!

[Exeunt BANQUO and FLEANCE]

• Macbeth. Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready,
  She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed. 610
  [Exit Servant]
  Is this a dagger which I see before me,
  The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
  I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
  Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible 615
  To feeling as to sight? or art thou but
  A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
  Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
  I see thee yet, in form as palpable
  As this which now I draw. 620
  Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going;
  And such an instrument I was to use.
  Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses,
  Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still,
  And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, 625
  Which was not so before. There's no such thing:
  It is the bloody business which informs
  Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one halfworld
  Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
  The curtain'd sleep; witchcraft celebrates 630
  Pale Hecate's offerings, and wither'd murder,
  Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf,
  Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace.
  With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design
  Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth, 635
  Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
  Thy very stones prate of my whereabout,
  And take the present horror from the time,
  Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives:
  Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives. 640
  [A bell rings]
  I go, and it is done; the bell invites me.
  Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell
  That summons thee to heaven or to hell.

[Exit]

Questions:

How has Macbeth changed from when we were first introduced to him via the Captain/ Sergeant?

 In class on MONDAY we discussed the fact that Hamlet was going to pretend to be "mad"...Do you think this this will turn out to be an effective strategy?

Senior Homework 10.4.11

 

HOMEWORK: 

Please read the following excerpt. 

As you read you will notice certain words have been highlighted.

After you have finished reading, I would like you to "Do now" them: 

1) record the highlighted words 

2) record the definition for the words and

3) create a sentence using each word. 

After completing this activity, please answer the guided questions that follow. 

Keep in mind that each answer should not only address the question completely, but also include "evidence to support [your] analysis" in the form of quotations from the text.

Summary

Within the castle, Claudius and Gertrude welcome Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two of Hamlet’s friends from Wittenberg. Increasingly concerned about Hamlet’s erratic behavior and his apparent inability to recover from his father’s death, the king and queen have summoned his friends to Elsinore in the hope that they might be able to cheer Hamlet out of his melancholy, or at least discover the cause of it. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern agree to investigate, and the queen orders attendants to take them to her “too much changed” son (II.ii.36).

Polonius enters, announcing the return of the ambassadors whom Claudius sent to Norway. Voltimand and Cornelius enter and describe what took place with the aged and ailing king of Norway: the king rebuked Fortinbras for attempting to make war on Denmark, and Fortinbras swore he would never again attack the Danes. The Norwegian king, overjoyed, bequeathed upon Fortinbras a large annuity, and urged him to use the army he had assembled to attack the Poles instead of the Danes. He has therefore sent a request back to Claudius that Prince Fortinbras’s armies be allowed safe passage through Denmark on their way to attack the Poles. Relieved to have averted a war with Fortinbras’s army, Claudius declares that he will see to this business later. Voltimand and Cornelius leave.

Turning to the subject of Hamlet, Polonius declares, after a wordy preamble, that the prince is mad with love for Ophelia. He shows the king and queen letters and love poems Hamlet has given to Ophelia, and proposes a plan to test his theory. Hamlet often walks alone through the lobby of the castle, and, at such a time, they could hide behind an arras (a curtain or wall hanging) while Ophelia confronts Hamlet, allowing them to see for themselves whether Hamlet’s madness really emanates from his love for her. The king declares that they will try the plan. Gertrude notices that Hamlet is approaching, reading from a book as he walks, and Polonius says that he will speak to the prince. Gertrude and Claudius exit, leaving Polonius alone with Hamlet.

Polonius attempts to converse with Hamlet, who appears insane; he calls the old man a “fishmonger” and answers his questions irrationally. But many of Hamlet’s seemingly lunatic statements hide barbed observations about Polonius’s pomposity and his old age. Polonius comments that while Hamlet is clearly mad, his replies are often “pregnant” with meaning (II.ii.206). He hurries away, determined to arrange the meeting between Hamlet and Ophelia.

As Polonius leaves, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern enter, and Hamlet seems pleased to see them. They discuss Hamlet’s unhappiness about recent affairs in Denmark. Hamlet asks why they have come. Sheepishly, the two men claim they have come merely to visit Hamlet, but he sternly declares that he knows that the king and queen sent for them. They confess this to be true, and Hamlet says that he knows why: because he has lost all of his joy and descended into a state of melancholy in which everything (and everyone) appears sterile and worthless.

Rosencrantz smiles and says he wonders how Hamlet will receive a theatrical troupe that is currently traveling toward the castle. The trumpets blow, announcing the arrival of the actors (or “players”). Hamlet tells his friends they are welcome to stay at Elsinore, but that his “uncle-father and aunt-mother” are deceived in his madness. He is mad only some of the time and at other times is sane.

Polonius enters to announce the arrival of the players, who follow him into the room. Hamlet welcomes them and entreats one of them to give him a speech about the fall of Troy and the death of the Trojan king and queen, Priam and Hecuba. Impressed with the player’s speech, Hamlet orders Polonius to see them escorted to guestrooms. He announces that the next night they will hear The Murder of Gonzago performed, with an additional short speech that he will write himself. Hamlet leaves Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and now stands alone in the room.

He immediately begins cursing himself, bitterly commenting that the player who gave the speech was able to summon a depth of feeling and expression for long-dead figures who mean nothing to him, while Hamlet is unable to take action even with his far more powerful motives. He resolves to devise a trap for Claudius, forcing the king to watch a play whose plot closely resembles the murder of Hamlet’s father; if the king is guilty, he thinks, he will surely show some visible sign of guilt when he sees his sin reenacted on stage. Then, Hamlet reasons, he will obtain definitive proof of Claudius’s guilt. “The play’s the thing,” he declares, “wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king” (II.ii.581–582).

Claudius. Welcome, dear Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
Moreover that we much did long to see you, 1085
The need we have to use you did provoke
Our hasty sending. Something have you heard
Of Hamlet's transformation. So I call it,
Sith nor th' exterior nor the inward man
Resembles that it was. What it should be, 1090
More than his father's death, that thus hath put him
So much from th' understanding of himself,
I cannot dream of. I entreat you both
That, being of so young days brought up with him,
And since so neighbour'd to his youth and haviour, 1095
That you vouchsafe your rest here in our court
Some little time; so by your companies
To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather
So much as from occasion you may glean,
Whether aught to us unknown afflicts him thus 1100
That, open'd, lies within our remedy.

Gertrude. Good gentlemen, he hath much talk'd of you,
And sure I am two men there are not living
To whom he more adheres. If it will please you
To show us so much gentry and good will 1105
As to expend your time with us awhile
For the supply and profit of our hope,
Your visitation shall receive such thanks
As fits a king's remembrance.

Rosencrantz. Both your Majesties 1110
Might, by the sovereign power you have of us,
Put your dread pleasures more into command
Than to entreaty.

Guildenstern. But we both obey,
And here give up ourselves, in the full bent, 1115
To lay our service freely at your feet,
To be commanded.

Claudius. Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern.

Gertrude. Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz.
And I beseech you instantly to visit 1120
My too much changed son.- Go, some of you,
And bring these gentlemen where Hamlet is.

Guildenstern. Heavens make our presence and our practices
Pleasant and helpful to him!

Gertrude. Ay, amen! 1125

Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, [with some Attendants].

Enter Polonius.

Polonius. Th' ambassadors from Norway, my good lord,
Are joyfully return'd.

Claudius. Thou still hast been the father of good news. 1130

Polonius. Have I, my lord? Assure you, my good liege,
I hold my duty as I hold my soul,
Both to my God and to my gracious king;
And I do think- or else this brain of mine
Hunts not the trail of policy so sure 1135
As it hath us'd to do- that I have found
The very cause of Hamlet's lunacy.

Claudius. O, speak of that! That do I long to hear.

Polonius. Give first admittance to th' ambassadors.
My news shall be the fruit to that great feast. 1140

Claudius. Thyself do grace to them, and bring them in.
[Exit Polonius.]
He tells me, my dear Gertrude, he hath found
The head and source of all your son's distemper.

Gertrude. I doubt it is no other but the main, 1145
His father's death and our o'erhasty marriage.

Claudius. Well, we shall sift him.
[Enter Polonius, Voltemand, and Cornelius.]
Welcome, my good friends.
Say, Voltemand, what from our brother Norway? 1150

Voltemand. Most fair return of greetings and desires.
Upon our first, he sent out to suppress
His nephew's levies; which to him appear'd
To be a preparation 'gainst the Polack,
But better look'd into, he truly found 1155
It was against your Highness; whereat griev'd,
That so his sickness, age, and impotence
Was falsely borne in hand, sends out arrests
On Fortinbras; which he, in brief, obeys,
Receives rebuke from Norway, and, in fine, 1160
Makes vow before his uncle never more
To give th' assay of arms against your Majesty.
Whereon old Norway, overcome with joy,
Gives him three thousand crowns in annual fee
And his commission to employ those soldiers, 1165
So levied as before, against the Polack;
With an entreaty, herein further shown,
[Gives a paper.]
That it might please you to give quiet pass
Through your dominions for this enterprise, 1170
On such regards of safety and allowance
As therein are set down.

Claudius. It likes us well;
And at our more consider'd time we'll read,
Answer, and think upon this business. 1175
Meantime we thank you for your well-took labour.
Go to your rest; at night we'll feast together.
Most welcome home! Exeunt Ambassadors.

Polonius. This business is well ended.
My liege, and madam, to expostulate 1180
What majesty should be, what duty is,
Why day is day, night is night, and time is time.
Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time.
Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, 1185
I will be brief. Your noble son is mad.
Mad call I it; for, to define true madness,
What is't but to be nothing else but mad?
But let that go.

Gertrude. More matter, with less art. 1190

Polonius. Madam, I swear I use no art at all.
That he is mad, 'tis true: 'tis true 'tis pity;
And pity 'tis 'tis true. A foolish figure!
But farewell it, for I will use no art.
Mad let us grant him then. And now remains 1195
That we find out the cause of this effect-
Or rather say, the cause of this defect,
For this effect defective comes by cause.
Thus it remains, and the remainder thus.
Perpend. 1200
I have a daughter (have while she is mine),
Who in her duty and obedience, mark,
Hath given me this. Now gather, and surmise.
[Reads] the letter.]
'To the celestial, and my soul's idol, the most beautified Ophelia,'- 1205
That's an ill phrase, a vile phrase; 'beautified' is a vile phrase.
But you shall hear. Thus:
[Reads.]
'In her excellent white bosom, these, &c.'

Gertrude. Came this from Hamlet to her? 1210

Polonius. Good madam, stay awhile. I will be faithful. [Reads.]
'Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love. 1215
'O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers; I have not art to
reckon my groans; but that I love thee best, O most best, believe
it. Adieu.
'Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst this machine is to
him, HAMLET.' 1220
This, in obedience, hath my daughter shown me;
And more above, hath his solicitings,
As they fell out by time, by means, and place,
All given to mine ear.

Claudius. But how hath she 1225
Receiv'd his love?

Polonius. What do you think of me?

Claudius. As of a man faithful and honourable.

Polonius. I would fain prove so. But what might you think,
When I had seen this hot love on the wing 1230
(As I perceiv'd it, I must tell you that,
Before my daughter told me), what might you,
Or my dear Majesty your queen here, think,
If I had play'd the desk or table book,
Or given my heart a winking, mute and dumb, 1235
Or look'd upon this love with idle sight?
What might you think? No, I went round to work
And my young mistress thus I did bespeak:
'Lord Hamlet is a prince, out of thy star.
This must not be.' And then I prescripts gave her, 1240
That she should lock herself from his resort,
Admit no messengers, receive no tokens.
Which done, she took the fruits of my advice,
And he, repulsed, a short tale to make,
Fell into a sadness, then into a fast, 1245
Thence to a watch, thence into a weakness,
Thence to a lightness, and, by this declension,
Into the madness wherein now he raves,
And all we mourn for.

Claudius. Do you think 'tis this? 1250

Gertrude. it may be, very like.

Polonius. Hath there been such a time- I would fain know that-
That I have Positively said 'Tis so,'
When it prov'd otherwise.?

Claudius. Not that I know. 1255

Polonius. [points to his head and shoulder] Take this from this, if this be otherwise.
If circumstances lead me, I will find
Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed
Within the centre.

Claudius. How may we try it further? 1260

Polonius. You know sometimes he walks for hours together
Here in the lobby.

Gertrude. So he does indeed.

Polonius. At such a time I'll loose my daughter to him.
Be you and I behind an arras then. 1265
Mark the encounter. If he love her not,
And he not from his reason fall'n thereon
Let me be no assistant for a state,
But keep a farm and carters.

Claudius. We will try it. 1270

Enter Hamlet, reading on a book.

Gertrude. But look where sadly the poor wretch comes reading.

Polonius. Away, I do beseech you, both away
I'll board him presently. O, give me leave.
[Exeunt King and Queen, [with Attendants].] 1275
How does my good Lord Hamlet?

Hamlet. Well, God-a-mercy.

Polonius. Do you know me, my lord?

Hamlet. Excellent well. You are a fishmonger.

Polonius. Not I, my lord. 1280

Hamlet. Then I would you were so honest a man.

Polonius. Honest, my lord?

Hamlet. Ay, sir. To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man
pick'd out of ten thousand.

Polonius. That's very true, my lord. 1285

Hamlet. For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a god
kissing carrion- Have you a daughter?

Polonius. I have, my lord.

Hamlet. Let her not walk i' th' sun. Conception is a blessing, but not
as your daughter may conceive. Friend, look to't. 1290

Polonius. [aside] How say you by that? Still harping on my daughter. Yet
he knew me not at first. He said I was a fishmonger. He is far
gone, far gone! And truly in my youth I suff'red much extremity
for love- very near this. I'll speak to him again.- What do you
read, my lord? 1295

Hamlet. Words, words, words.

Polonius. What is the matter, my lord?

Hamlet. Between who?

Polonius. I mean, the matter that you read, my lord.

Hamlet. Slanders, sir; for the satirical rogue says here that old men 1300
have grey beards; that their faces are wrinkled; their eyes
purging thick amber and plum-tree gum; and that they have a
plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams. All which,
sir, though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it
not honesty to have it thus set down; for you yourself, sir, 1305
should be old as I am if, like a crab, you could go backward.

Polonius. [aside] Though this be madness, yet there is a method in't.-
Will You walk out of the air, my lord?

Hamlet. Into my grave?

Polonius. Indeed, that is out o' th' air. [Aside] How pregnant sometimes 1310
his replies are! a happiness that often madness hits on, which
reason and sanity could not so prosperously be delivered of. I
will leave him and suddenly contrive the means of meeting between
him and my daughter.- My honourable lord, I will most humbly take
my leave of you. 1315

Hamlet. You cannot, sir, take from me anything that I will more
willingly part withal- except my life, except my life, except my
life,

Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Polonius. Fare you well, my lord. 1320

Hamlet. These tedious old fools!

Polonius. You go to seek the Lord Hamlet. There he is.

Rosencrantz. [to Polonius] God save you, sir!

Exit [Polonius].

Guildenstern. My honour'd lord! 1325

Rosencrantz. My most dear lord!

Hamlet. My excellent good friends! How dost thou, Guildenstern? Ah,
Rosencrantz! Good lads, how do ye both?

Rosencrantz. As the indifferent children of the earth.

Guildenstern. Happy in that we are not over-happy. 1330
On Fortune's cap we are not the very button.

Hamlet. Nor the soles of her shoe?

Rosencrantz. Neither, my lord.

Hamlet. Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of her
favours? 1335

Guildenstern. Faith, her privates we.

Hamlet. In the secret parts of Fortune? O! most true! she is a
strumpet. What news ?

Rosencrantz. None, my lord, but that the world's grown honest.

Hamlet. Then is doomsday near! But your news is not true. Let me 1340
question more in particular. What have you, my good friends,
deserved at the hands of Fortune that she sends you to prison
hither?

Guildenstern. Prison, my lord?

Hamlet. Denmark's a prison. 1345

Rosencrantz. Then is the world one.

Hamlet. A goodly one; in which there are many confines, wards, and
dungeons, Denmark being one o' th' worst.

Rosencrantz. We think not so, my lord.

Hamlet. Why, then 'tis none to you; for there is nothing either good 1350
or bad but thinking makes it so. To me it is a prison.

Rosencrantz. Why, then your ambition makes it one. 'Tis too narrow for your
mind.

Hamlet. O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a
king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams. 1355

Guildenstern. Which dreams indeed are ambition; for the very substance of
the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.

Hamlet. A dream itself is but a shadow.

Rosencrantz. Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality that
it is but a shadow's shadow. 1360

Hamlet. Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs and outstretch'd
heroes the beggars' shadows. Shall we to th' court? for, by my
fay, I cannot reason.

Rosencrantz. [with Guildenstern] We'll wait upon you.

Hamlet. No such matter! I will not sort you with the rest of my 1365
servants; for, to speak to you like an honest man, I am most
dreadfully attended. But in the beaten way of friendship, what
make you at Elsinore?

Rosencrantz. To visit you, my lord; no other occasion.

Hamlet. Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks; but I thank you; 1370
and sure, dear friends, my thanks are too dear a halfpenny. Were
you not sent for? Is it your own inclining? Is it a free
visitation? Come, deal justly with me. Come, come! Nay, speak.

Guildenstern. What should we say, my lord?

Hamlet. Why, anything- but to th' purpose. You were sent for; and 1375
there is a kind of confession in your looks, which your modesties
have not craft enough to colour. I know the good King and Queen
have sent for you.

Rosencrantz. To what end, my lord?

Hamlet. That you must teach me. But let me conjure you by the rights 1380
of our fellowship, by the consonancy of our youth, by the
obligation of our ever-preserved love, and by what more dear a
better proposer could charge you withal, be even and direct with
me, whether you were sent for or no.

Rosencrantz. [aside to Guildenstern] What say you? 1385

Hamlet. [aside] Nay then, I have an eye of 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 prevent your
discovery, and your secrecy to the King and Queen moult no 1390
feather. I have of late- but wherefore I know not- lost all my
mirth, forgone all custom of exercises; and indeed, it goes so
heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth,
seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the
air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical 1395
roof fretted with golden fire- why, it appeareth 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
faculties! in form and moving how express and admirable! in
action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the 1400
beauty of the world, the paragon of animals! And yet to me what
is this quintessence 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 then, when I said 'Man delights not me'? 1405

Rosencrantz. To think, my lord, if you delight not in man, what lenten
entertainment the players shall receive from you. We coted them
on the way, and hither are they coming to offer you service.

Hamlet. He that plays the king shall be welcome- his Majesty shall
have tribute of me; the adventurous knight shall use his foil and 1410
target; the lover shall not sigh gratis; the humorous man shall
end his part in peace; the clown shall make those laugh whose
lungs are tickle o' th' sere; and the lady shall say her mind
freely, or the blank verse shall halt for't. What players are
they? 1415

Rosencrantz. Even those you were wont to take such delight in, the
tragedians of the city.

Hamlet. How chances it they travel? Their residence, both in
reputation and profit, was better both ways.

Rosencrantz. I think their inhibition comes by the means of the late 1420
innovation.

Hamlet. Do they hold the same estimation they did when I was in the
city? Are they so follow'd?

Rosencrantz. No indeed are they not.

Hamlet. How comes it? Do they grow rusty? 1425

Rosencrantz. Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace; but there is,
sir, an eyrie of children, little eyases, that cry out on the top
of question and are most tyrannically clapp'd for't. These are now
the fashion, and so berattle the common stages (so they call
them) that many wearing rapiers are afraid of goosequills and 1430
dare scarce come thither.

Hamlet. What, are they children? Who maintains 'em? How are they
escoted? Will they pursue the quality no longer than they can
sing? Will they not say afterwards, if they should grow
themselves to common players (as it is most like, if their means 1435
are no better), their writers do them wrong to make them exclaim
against their own succession.

Rosencrantz. Faith, there has been much to do on both sides; and the nation
holds it no sin to tarre them to controversy. There was, for a
while, no money bid for argument unless the poet and the player 1440
went to cuffs in the question.

Hamlet. Is't possible?

Guildenstern. O, there has been much throwing about of brains.

Hamlet. Do the boys carry it away?

Rosencrantz. Ay, that they do, my lord- Hercules and his load too. 1445

Hamlet. It is not very strange; for my uncle is King of Denmark, and
those that would make mows at him while my father lived give
twenty, forty, fifty, a hundred ducats apiece for his picture in
little. 'Sblood, there is something in this more than natural, if
philosophy could find it out. 1450

Flourish for the Players. 

Questions:

Why do you think that hamlet pretends that he is mad? Explain why you think this is (or is NOT) an effective strategy.