<P> "What a piece of work is man!" is a phrase within a monologue by Hamlet in William Shakespeare's eponymous play . Hamlet is reflecting, at first admiringly, and then despairingly, on the human condition . </P> <P> The monologue, spoken in the play by Prince Hamlet to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in Act II, Scene 2, follows in its entirety . Rather than appearing in blank verse, the typical mode of composition of Shakespeare's plays, the speech appears in straight prose: </P>

Who says what a piece of work is man