...mention,— if possible, to describe,- the ancier those," he says, " that play your clowns, speak no nor down for them; for there be of them that will themselves...set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh t mean time some necessary question of the play be u sidered." This requires some explanation. ^^ Few...

...1599. And he even shares a measure of Jonsons anxiety when he has Hamlet urge the traveling actors to "let those that play your clowns speak no more than is set down for them," since unscripted improvisation prompts "barren spectators" to laugh when "some necessary question of...

...him, of his idle jests as well as of his scurrilous jigs, often used to conclude a performance: '5 And let those that play your clowns speak no more...some necessary question of the play be then to be consider'd. That's villainous and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it. (3.2.38-45)...

...abominably. F1RST PLAYER I hope we have reformed that indifferently with us, sir. HAMLET O, reform it altogether! And let those that play your clowns speak...quantity of barren spectators to laugh too, though w in the meantime some necessary question of the play be then to be considered. That's villainous,...

...abominably. First Player 35 I hope we have reformed that indifferently with us. Hamlet O reform it altogether. And let those that play your clowns speak...quantity of barren spectators to laugh too, though 40 in the meantime some necessary question of the play be then to be considered. That's villainous,...

...complains that the clowns sometimes improvised and stole the audience's attention from the other actors, 'though in the mean time some necessary question of the play be then to be consider'd' (Hamlet 3.2.42-3). In an elegant reading of / Henry I\', James Calderwood argues that Falstaff...

...HAMLET: O reforme it altogether. And let those that play your Clownes, speake no more then is set downe for them. For there be of them, that will themselves laugh, to set on some quantme of barten Specrators to laugh too, though in the meane time, some necessary Question of the...

...insertions or substitutions are not of the earth-shaking variety. Hamlet lectures the players that "those that play your clowns speak no more than is set down for them" (3.2.38-4o), but then or now opportunities to gain some short-term effect are hard to resist. In the...

...theaters, hut the emergence of an author's theater. in uhich a plavwright might plausihly insist that "those that play your clowns speak no more than is set down for them." in which. moreover. players and primers had hegun to compete for access to scripts would have suhstamially...

..."unauthorized" additions to or deletions from them. Thus Shakespeare has Hamlet insist that clowns should "speak no more than is set down for them, for there...the mean time some necessary question of the play is then to be consider'd" (3.2.39-^.3). And a number of dramatic quartos and folios contain statements...