HAM/THELLO: the moor of denmark
                                                         copyright © 2006 Jeff Goode


                              ACT III - The Play-Within-The-Play

           SCENE 1 - A room in the castle.
                  Enter HAMLET, HORATIO and MARCELLUS.  HAMLET idly toys with his new-found
                  handkerchief.
           HAMLET
              I have of late--but wherefore I know not--lost all my mirth, man delights not me: no, nor
              woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so.
           MARCELLUS 
              My lord, there was no such stuff in my thoughts.
           HAMLET
              Why did you laugh then when I said 'man delights not me'?
           MARCELLUS 
              To think, my lord, if you delight not in man, what lenten entertainment the players shall
              receive from you: Iago 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 target; the lover shall not sigh gratis; the
              humourous man shall end his part in peace; the clown shall make those laugh whose lungs
              are tickled o' the sere; and the lady shall say her mind freely, or the blank verse shall halt
              for't. What players are they?
           MARCELLUS 
              Even those you were wont to take delight in, the tragedians of the city.
           HAMLET 
              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.
                                                        Flourish of trumpets within
           MARCELLUS 
              There are the players.
           HORATIO 
                                              Snatches HAMLET's handkerchief  from him
              Lord Hamlet, whence came this? 
                                                Tosses the handkerchief to MARCELLUS
           MARCELLUS 
              This is some token from a newer friend.
           HORATIO 
              Is't come to this? Well, well.
           HAMLET  
                                    Go to, go to!
                                                       Takes back his handkerchief.
              Throw your vile guesses in the devil's teeth, 
              From whence you have them. You are jealous now 
              That this is from some mistress.
           MARCELLUS 
              Why, whose is it?
           HAMLET 
              I know not, sir: I found it in my chamber. 
              I like the work well: ere it be demanded-- 
              As like enough it will--I'ld have it copied.
           HORATIO 
              A likely piece of work, that you should find it in your chamber, and not know who left it
              there! 
                  Enter IAGO
           IAGO 
              The actors are come hither, my lord.
                  Enter four or five PLAYERS, among them, BIANCA as the PLAYER QUEEN
           HAMLET
              You are welcome, masters; welcome, all. I am glad to see thee well. Welcome, good friends.
              O, my old friend! thy face is valenced since I saw thee last: comest thou to beard me in
              Denmark? What, my young lady and mistress! By'r lady, your ladyship is nearer to heaven
              than when I saw you last, by the altitude of a chopine. Pray God, your voice, like a piece of
              uncurrent gold, be not cracked within the ring. Masters, you are all welcome. 
              Good my lord, will you see the players well bestowed? Do you hear, let them be well used;
              for they are the abstract and brief chronicles of the time: after your death you were better have
              a bad epitaph than their ill report while you live.
           IAGO 
              Come, sirs.
           HAMLET
              Follow him, friends: we'll hear a play to-morrow. 
                                            Exit IAGO with all the PLAYERS but the FIRST
              Dost thou hear me, old friend; can you play the Murder of Gonzago?
           FIRST PLAYER
              Ay, my lord.
           HAMLET
              We'll ha't to-morrow night. You could, for a need, study a speech of some dozen or sixteen
              lines, which I would set down and insert in't, could you not? 
           FIRST PLAYER
              Ay, my lord.
           HAMLET
              Very well. Follow that lord; and look you mock him not.
                                                            Exit FIRST PLAYER
              I have heard
              That guilty creatures sitting at a play
              Have by the very cunning of the scene
              Been struck so to the soul that presently
              They have proclaim'd their malefactions;
              For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak
              With most miraculous organ. I'll have these players 
              Play something like the murder of my father
              Before Othello: I'll observe his looks;
              I'll tent him to the quick: if he but blench,
              I know my course. The spirit that I have seen
              May be the devil: and the devil hath power
              To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps
              Out of my weakness and my melancholy,
              As he is very potent with such spirits,
              Abuses me to damn me: I'll have grounds
              More relative than this: the play 's the thing
              Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.
                                                                     Exit

Forth!