Thus, for example, in the scene with Horatio and Marcellus,
after his interview with the ghost:--
_"Ham_. And now, good friends,
As you are friends, scholars, and soldiers,
Give me one poor request.
_Hor_. What is it, my lord? We will.
_Ham. Never make known what you have seen to-night."_
"Let him, if he likes," exclaimed a voice from the pit--"he'll never see
such a sight again."--Then, in his instructions to the players, his
delivery of them was accompanied by something like the following running
commentary:
"Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, (_that is
impossible!_) trippingly on the tongue: but if you mouth it, as many of
our players do, (_laughter_,) I had as lief the town-crier spoke my
lines. * * * Oh, it offends me to the soul, to hear a robustious,
periwig-pated fellow (_like yourself_) tear a passion to tatters, &c.--I
would have such a fellow whipped (_give it him, he deserves it_) for
o'erdoing Termagant. * * * Oh, there be players that I have seen play,
(_no, we see him,_) and heard others praise, and that highly, (_oh! oh!
oh!_) not to speak it profanely, that, having neither the accent of
Christians, (_ha! ha! ha!_) nor the gait of Christian, Pagan, nor man,
have so strutted (_bravo! little 'un!_) and bellowed, (_hit him again!_)
that I have thought some of nature's journeymen had made men, (_who made
you?_) and not made them well, (_no, you are a bad fit_,) they imitated
humanity so abominably.
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