If he steal aught the whilst this play is playing,
And 'scape detecting,[a 1] I will pay the theft.
Ham. They are coming to the play; I must be idle:[b 1]
Get you a place.
Danish March. A Flourish. Enter King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and other Lords attendant, with the Guard, carrying torches.[a 2]
King. How fares our cousin Hamlet? 100
Ham. Excellent, i' faith; of the chameleon's dish:[b 2]
I eat the air, promise-crammed; you cannot
feed capons so.
King. I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet;
these words are not mine. 105
Ham. No, nor mine now.[a 3]—[To Polonius.] My
lord, you played once i' the university,[b 3] you
say?
Pol. That did I,[a 4] my lord, and was accounted a good
actor. 110
Ham. And what[a 5] did you enact?
- ↑ 97. detecting] F, detected Q.
- ↑ Danish March . . . torches] substantially from F. Enter Trumpets and Kettle Drummes, King, Queene, Polonius, Ophelia Q after line 97.
- ↑ 106. mine now. My lord,] Johnson, mine now my lord, Q, mine. Now my lord, F.
- ↑ 109. did I] Q, I did F.
- ↑ 111. And what] F, What Q.
- ↑ 98. idle] crazy. In Q 1 Hamlet's mother, in the interview after the play, bids him forget these "idle fits"; he replies:
"Idle! no mother, my pulse doth beate like yours;
It is not madness that possesseth Hamlet."
Perhaps, however, it means here no more than unoccupied with any affair. - ↑ 101. chameleon's dish] So Rowlands, Lett. Humours Blood, 1600: "Can men feede like camelions on the ayer?" In Browne's Vulgar Errors the matter is discussed.
- ↑ 107. university] University plays, in Latin or in English, form an important group of our elder drama. The title-page of Hamlet, Q 1, states that it was acted "in the two Universities of Cambridge and Oxford."
