Page:Hamlet - The Arden Shakespeare - 1899.djvu/143

Christian, pagan, nor man,^{[a 1][b 1]} have so strutted
and bellowed that I have thought some of
nature's journeymen had made men^{[a 2]} and not 40
made them well, they imitated humanity so
abominably.

First Play. I hope we have reformed that
indifferently^{[b 2]} with us, sir.^{[a 3]}

Ham. Oh, reform it altogether. And let those 45
that play your clowns^{[b 3]} speak no more than is
set down for them; for there be of them that
will themselves laugh, to set on some quantity
of barren spectators to laugh too, though in
the mean time some necessary question of 50
the play be then to be considered; that's
villanous, and shows a most pitiful ambition
in the fool that uses it Go, make you ready.—

[Exeunt Players.

Enter Polonius, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern.

How now, my lord! will the king hear this
piece of work? 55

Pol. And the queen too, and that presently.^{[b 4]}

Ham. Bid the players make haste.—

[Exit Polonius.^{[a 4]}

1. 38. nor man] Q, or Norman F, nor Turke Q 1.
2. 40. men] Q, F; them Theobald conj., Rann, Furness; the men, Farmer conj., Hudson.
3. 44. sir] F, omitted Q.
4. 56. Exit Polonius] F, omitted Q.

1. 38. nor man] Farmer needlessly conjectured "nor Mussulman"; see Q 1 reading.
2. 44. indifferently] see III. i. 123.
3. 46. clowns] The "extemporall wit" of Wilson and of Tarlton is praised by Stowe. In Q 1 examples of the clown's jests are given by Hamlet. Collier supposed that the passage in Q 1 might have been levelled at Kemp, "who about the date quitted the company of players to which Shakespeare had always belonged." See p. 232.
4. 56. presently] immediately, as in II, ii. 170.