PLAYER          I hope we have reformed that indifferently with us.

HAMLET         O, reform it altogether, and let those that play your clowns speak no more than is set down for them. For there be of them that will themselves laugh to set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too, though in the meantime some necessary question of the play be then to be considered. – That’s villainous and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it. Go, make you ready.

[Exeunt Players.]        (3.2.35-43)

The Player could be forgiven for being a bit stiff in his reply, affronted even, or else indulgent of this pompously-opinionated theatre-lover: I hope we have reformed that indifferently with us, that our little company here isn’t guilty of all that sort of thing, or at least not to any great degree? O, reform it altogether, replies Hamlet, stamp it out, all the shouting and strutting and arm-waving! And just one more thing (the Player and his company might sigh, look at a watch; they know the time for the performance is fast approaching and this guy just won’t shut up, stop telling them how to do their jobs!): let those that play your clowns speak no more than is set down for them. This could be directed at the company clown, if it’s obvious who that is (although there’s no obvious role for a clown in the play that’s about to be performed); it could, in that case, be affectionate, mock admonitory. Stop the clown from improvising and turning everything into a stand-up routine! Stick to the script! (As editors point out, the Chamberlain’s Men may have been between clowns at this point, following the departure of Will Kemp, who was indeed notorious for improvisation, and before the arrival of Robert Armin.) It’s really annoying and disruptive and self-indulgent, for there be of them that will themselves laugh to set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too. It’s just a game to them, they think it’s good fun to have the crowd roaring along, who don’t know any better. But it’s dangerous! Because in the meantime some necessary question of the play be then to be considered: clowning holds up the action of the play, it can even disrupt the plot. That’s villainous and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it. So selfish, that kind of scene-stealing, letting down the rest of the company, putting the actor’s own ambition above the show and the collective. (Hamlet is a great scene-stealer; it’s almost always all about him.) Go, make you ready! Hurry, what are you waiting for? You’ve got a show to do! And the players leave, probably quite relieved—although it’s a relief (and a distraction) to see Hamlet so engaged, so passionate, so preoccupied with relatively trivial things (he has a hobby! outside interests!) after the pain and darkness of the previous scene.