_Ros._ My lord, you once did love me. _Ham._ So I do still, by these pickers and stealers.[1336] 320 _Ros._ Good my lord, what is your cause of distemper? you do surely bar the door upon your own liberty, if you[1337] deny your griefs to your friend. _Ham._ Sir, I lack advancement. _Ros._ How can that be, when you have the voice of the 325 king himself for your succession in Denmark? _Ham._ Ay, sir, but 'while the grass grows,'--the proverb[1338] is something musty. _Re-enter_ Players _with recorders_.[1339] O, the recorders! let me see one. To withdraw with you:--[1340] why do you go about to recover the wind of me, as if you 330 would drive me into a toil? _Guil._ O, my lord, if my duty be too bold, my love is[1341] too unmannerly.[1341] _Ham._ I do not well understand that. Will you play upon this pipe? 335 _Guil._ My lord, I cannot.[1342] _Ham._ I pray you. _Guil._ Believe me, I cannot. _Ham._ I do beseech you.[1343] _Guil._ I know no touch of it, my lord.[1344] 340 _Ham._ It is as easy as lying: govern these ventages[1345] with your fingers and thumb, give it breath with your[1346] mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent music. Look[1347] you, these are the stops. _Guil._ But these cannot I command to any utterance 345 of harmony; I have not the skill. _Ham._ Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me! You would play upon me; you would seem[1348] to know my stops; you would pluck out the heart of my mystery; you would sound me from my lowest note to the[1349] 350 top of my compass: and there is much music, excellent[1349] voice, in this little organ; yet cannot you make it speak.[1350] 'Sblood, do you think I am easier to be played on than a[1351] pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can[1352] fret me, yet you cannot play upon me.[1352][1353] 355 _Enter_ POLONIUS.[1354] God bless you, sir![1355] _Pol._ My lord, the queen would speak with you, and presently. _Ham._ Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape[1356][1357] of a camel?[1357][1358][1359] 360 _Pol._ By the mass, and 'tis like a camel, indeed.[1360][1359] _Ham._ Methinks it is like a weasel.[1361] _Pol._ It is backed like a weasel.[1361][1362] _Ham._ Or like a whale?[1363] _Pol._ Very like a whale. 365 _Ham._ Then I will come to my mother by and by.[1364] They fool me to the top of my bent. I will come by and[1365][1366] by.[1366] _Pol._ I will say so. [_Exit Polonius._[1366][1367] _Ham._ 'By and by' is easily said. Leave me, friends.[1366] 370