HAMLET         I will tell you why. So shall my anticipation prevent your discovery and your secrecy to the King and Queen moult no feather. I have of late, but wherefore I know not, lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises and, indeed, it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame the earth seems to me a sterile promontory, this most excellent canopy the air, look you, this brave o’erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why it appeareth nothing to me but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. (2.2.259-269)

I will tell you why you’re here, says Hamlet, and he is suddenly deadly serious, or seems to be, unable to keep up the bitterly barbed banter any longer. (Or it can be just another performance.) So shall my anticipation prevent your discovery—I’ll get in first, so you won’t have to confess—and your secrecy to the King and Queen moult no feather. Your secret will be safe, you won’t have betrayed any confidences! You won’t get in trouble at all!

Pose or not, it’s a devastating account of depression. I have of late, but wherefore I know not, lost all my mirth. I just feel sad all the time, I don’t know why, like I’ll never be happy again. I have forgone all custom of exercises: nothing shifts it, can’t train, can barely move or get out of bed. (The exercises could also be spiritual: I can’t even pray.) And, indeed, it goes so heavily with my disposition, I’m so, so low, so down, rock-bottom, that this goodly frame the earth seems to me a sterile promontory. It’s like being stuck on a cliff, barren, blasted, desolate. And this most excellent canopy the air, look you, this brave o’erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire—the sky, its stars and sunbeams, its gorgeous sunrises and sunsets (and yes, the gilded theatre roof, jutting out over the stage, the heavens indeed): I can’t see it, it’s all dark, oppressive, full of disease and foreboding. It appeareth nothing to me but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. I can’t see any beauty in the world anymore. It stinks.