both at the first, and now, was, and is, to hold, as 'twere the
mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her
own image, and the very age and body of the time, his form and
pressure. Now this, overdone, or come tardy off, though it make
the unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve; the
censure of which one, must, in your allowance, o'er-weigh a whole
theatre of others. O, there be players, that I have seen
play--and heard others praise, and that highly--not to speak it
profanely, that, neither having the accent of christians, nor the
gait of christian, pagan, nor man, have so strutted, and
bellowed, that I have thought some of nature's journeymen had
made men, and not made them well, they imitated humanity so
abominably."

[Side note: Avoid extremes]

It will be well to observe that throughout this advice the poet
is careful to warn us against extremes--neither to tear a passion
to rags nor to be too tame--he insists on moderation. Even in the
very tempest of passion one must not lose self-control nor make
extravagant use of the hands. The "overdone" and the "come tardy
off" are the two poles to be shunned.

"Speak the speech as I pronounced it." By placing the two words
"speak" and "pronounce" in contrast, Hamlet leads us to infer
that in reading the play over for the actors his principal care
was to give perfect articulation. "Speak the speech as I
_pronounced_ it."

"Trippingly on the tongue." Evidently the slow, thick utterance