Page:Hamlet - The Arden Shakespeare - 1899.djvu/119

 welcome. We'll e'en to 't like French falconers, fly at any thing we see: we'll have a speech straight; come, give us a taste of your quality; come, a passionate speech.

First Play. What speech, my good lord?

Ham. I heard thee speak me a speech once, but it was never acted; or, if it was, not above once; for the play, I remember, pleased not the million; 'twas caviare to the general; but it was,—as I received it, and others, whose judgments in such matters cried in the top of mine, —an excellent play, well digested in the scenes, set down with as much modesty as cunning. I remember, one said there were no sallets in the lines to make the matter savoury, nor no matter in the phrase that might indict the author of affection; but called it an honest method, as wholesome as sweet, and by very much more handsome than fine.