What did you enact?

POL. I did enact Julius Caesar. I was kill'd i' th' Capitol; Brutus kill'd me.

HAM. It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf there. Be the players ready?

ROS. Ay, my lord, they stay upon your patience.

QUEEN. Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me.

HAM. No, good mother, here's metal more attractive.

 

[Lying down at Ophelia's feet.]

 

POL [To the King.] O ho, do you mark that?

HAM. Lady, shall I lie in your lap?

OPH. No, my lord.

[HAM. I mean, my head upon your lap?

OPH. Ay, my lord.]

HAM. Do you think I meant country matters?

OPH. I think nothing, my lord.

HAM. That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs.

OPH. What is, my lord?

HAM. Nothing.

OPH. You are merry, my lord.

HAM. Who, I?

OPH. Ay, my lord.

HAM. O God, your only jig-maker. What should a man do but be merry, for look you how cheerfully my mother looks, and my father died within 's two hours.

OPH. Nay, 'tis twice two months, my lord.

HAM. So long? Nay then let the dev'l wear black, for I'll have a suit of sables. O heavens, die two months ago, and not forgotten yet? Then there's hope a great man's memory may outlive his life half a year, but, by'r lady, 'a must build churches then, or else shall 'a suffer not thinking on, with the hobby-horse, whose epitaph is, »For O, for O, the hobby-horse is forgot.«

 

The trumpets sounds. Dumb show follows.

 

Enter a King and a Queen [very lovingly], the Queen embracing him and he her. [She kneels and makes show of protestation unto him.] He takes her up and declines his head upon her neck. He lies him down upon a bank of flowers. She, seeing him asleep, leaves him. Anon come in another man, takes off his crown, kisses it, pours poison in the sleeper's ears, and leaves him.