TEXT:
ROSENCRANTZ [Aside to GUILDENSTERN]
What say you?
HAMLET [Aside]
Nay, then, I have an eye of 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
prevent your discovery, and your secrecy to the king
and queen moult no feather. I have of late - but
wherefore I know not - lost all my mirth, forgone all
custom of exercises, and indeed it goes so heavily
with my disposition that this goodly frame, the
earth, seems to me a sterile promontory, this most
excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave
o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted
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
express and admirable! in action how like an angel!
in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the
world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me,
what is this quintessence of dust? man delights not
me.
NOTES:
The Globe
As promised, here is a cutaway image of The Globe wherein you can see the stage platform (frame), the canopy (the heavens) and the proximity of how close the groundlings would have been. It must indeed have felt like a promontory, jutting out into a sea of listening faces.
