A Robustious Periwig-pated Fellow

-Act III, scene 2-

Scene: A hall in the castle.

            Hamlet and the Player

Hamlet:

Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to 

you, trippingly on the tongue: but if you mouth it,

as many of your players do, I had as lief the

town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air

too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently;

for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say,

the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget

a temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it

offends me to the soul to hear a robustious

periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to 

very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who

for the most part are capable of nothing but

inexplicable dumbshows and noise: I would have such

a fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant; it

out-herods Herod: pray you, avoid it.


First Player:
I warrant your honour. 

"Speak the speech" is a famous speech from Shakespeare's Hamlet (1601). In it, Hamlet offers directions and advice to a group of actors whom he has enlisted to play for the court of Denmark. We found very interesting the way the author uses this word in this speech and since Hamlet is one of the greatest works ever written by Shakespeare we wanted to share.