The "_dumb-show_" is omitted in all the stage-versions, and is not represented on the stage, but I think the play-scene is imperfectly realized by leaving it out. The Queen's reply to Hamlet's question, "Madame, how like you the play?" and the King's inquiry, "Have you heard the argument? Is there no offence in it?" would have a deeper significance with it represented; for evidently the poisoning in the "_dumb show_" has made no impression on the Queen, but a very marked one on the King, and Hamlet's reply, "poison in jest," assumes quite a different meaning. Besides, Hamlet's words, "The croaking raven doth bellow for revenge," shows that he already has become convinced of the King's guilt before the appearance of Lucianus--and how, except by means of the "_dumb show_"? I believe, too, that if it were represented, then the mistake many actors fall into of making a climax at the lines, "He poisons him in the garden," etc., and speaking them to the King, and not to his courtiers, would be corrected. There seems no justification for Hamlet making a climax of these lines. It is anticipating the King's exit, which is the last thing Hamlet would wish for. He tells the court that it shall see "_anon_" how the murderer will marry the wife of Gonzago, and the King defeats his nephew's purpose by stopping the play. Hamlet's most dramatic line in this scene, one at which a point might be legitimately made, is cut out in the acting-version. Ophelia says, "The King rises." Then Hamlet exclaims, "What! frighted with _false_ fire!" Also the Queen's remark to her husband, "How fares my lord?" has been omitted. The words have some value as evidence of the Queen's ignorance of the King's crime. If she knew of it the question was unnecessary. "_Exit Horatio_" is the stage-direction in the acting-edition, after Hamlet's words, "Come, some music;" but there is no similar stage-direction in either the second quarto or folio. Later on, in the acting-edition, comes the direction: "_Enter_ Horatio _with_ Recorders." In the second quarto it is, "_Enter the Players with recorders_," and in the folio, "_Enter one with a recorder_." It seems just possible that Hamlet's lines-- "Ah! ha! come, some music; come, the recorders. For if the King like not the tragedy, Why, then, belike he likes it not, perdy"--