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even291 and direct with me whether you were sent for or no?
Aside to Guildenstern?
ROSENCRANTZ What say you?
Aside?
HAMLET Nay, then, I have an eye of293 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 prevent296
your discovery, and your secrecy to the king and queen
moult no feather298. I have of late -- but wherefore I know not
-- lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercise299; and
indeed it goes so heavily300 with my disposition that this goodly
frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory301, this most
excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave302 o'erhanging
firmament, this majestical roof fretted303 with golden fire, why,
it appears 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 faculty, in form and
moving how express307 and admirable, in action how like an
angel, in apprehension308 how like a god! The beauty of the
world, the paragon of animals -- and yet, to me, what is this
quintessence310 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 when I said 'Man delights not
me'?
ROSENCRANTZ To think, my lord, if you delight not in man,
what Lenten entertainment316 the players shall receive from
you: we coted317 them on the way, and hither are they coming
to offer you service.
