The Frenchman gave you; bring you, in fine, together, And wager o'er your heads: he, being remiss, Laer. King. Let's further think of this; Weigh, what convenience, both of time and means, May fit us to our shape: if this should fail, And that our drift look through our bad perform ance, "Twere better not assay'd: therefore this project When in your motion you are hot and dry, How now, sweet queen? Queen. One wo doth tread upon another's heel, So fast they follow:-Your sister's drown'd, Laertes. Laer. Drown'd! O, where? Queen. There is a willow grows ascaunt the That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream; There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up: Unto that element: but long it could not be, Laer. Alas then, she is drown'd? Queen. Drown'd, drown'd. Laer. Too much of water has thou, poor Ophelia, And therefore I forbid my tears: But yet It is our trick; nature her custom holds, Let shame say what it will: when these are gone, The woman will be out."-Adieu, my Lord! (1) Not blunted as foils are. (2) Exercise. (3) As fire-arms sometimes burst in proving their strength. (4) Skill (5) Presented. (6) A cup for the purpose. (7) Thrust. SCENE I-A churchyard. Enter two Clowns, with spades, &c. 1 Clo. Is she to be buried in Christian burial, that wilfully seeks her own salvation? 2 Clo. I tell thee, she is; therefore make her grave straight:12 the crowner hath set on her, and finds it Christian burial. 1 Clo. How can that be, unless she drowned herself in her own defence? 2 Clo. Why, 'tis found so. 1 Clo. It must be 'se offendendo; it cannot be else. For here lies the point: If I drown myself wittingly, it argues an act; and an act hath three branches; it is, to act, to do, and to perform: Argal, she drowned herself wittingly. 2 Clo. Nay, but hear you, goodman delver. 1 Clo. Give me leave. Here lies the water; good: here stands the man; good: if the man go to this water, and drown himself, it is, will he, nill he, he goes; mark you that: but if the water come to him, and drown him, he drowns not himself: Argal, he, that is not guilty of his own death, shortens not his own life. 2 Clo. But is this law? 1 Clo. Ay, marry is't; crowner's-quest law. 2 Clo. Will you ha' the truth on't? If this had not been a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out of Christian burial. 1 Clo. Why, there thou say'st and the more pity; that great folks shall have countenance in this world to drown or hang themselves, more than their even Christian. Come, my spade. There is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners, ditchers, and grave-makers; they hold up Adam's profession. 2 Clo. Was he a gentleman? 1 Clo. He was the first that ever bore arms. 2 Clo. Why, he had none. 1 Clo. What, art a heathen? How dost thou understand the scripture? The scripture says, Adam digged; Could he dig without arms? I'll put another question to thee: if thou answerest me not to the purpose, confess thyself—-— 2 Clo. Go to. 1 Clo. What is he, that builds stronger than ei ther the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter? 2 Clo. The gallows-maker; for that frame outlives a thousand tenants. : 1 Clo. I like thy wit well, in good faith; the gallows does well: But how does it well? it does well to those that do ill now thou dost ill, to say, the gallows is built stronger than the church; argal, the gallows may do well to thee. To't again; come 2 Clo. Who builds stronger than a mason, a ship wright, or a carpenter? 1 Clo. Ay, tell me that, and unyoke.' 2 Clo. Mass, I cannot tell. Enter Hamlet and Horatio at a distance. : Hor. Not a jot more, my lord. Ham. Is not parchment made of sheep-skins? Hor. Ay, my lord, and of calf-skins too. 1 Clo. Cudgel thy brains no more about it; for Ham. They are sheep, and calves, which seek your du!! ass will not mend his pace with beating out assurance in that. I will speak to this fellow: and, when you are asked this question next, say, a-Whose grave's this, sirrah? grave-maker; the houses that he makes, last till 1 Clo. Mine, sir.doomsday. Go, get thee to Yaughan, and fetch me a stoup of liquor. [Exit Clown. Ham. 'Tis e'en so: the hand of little employment hath the daintier sense. 1 Clo. But age, with his stealing steps, Hath claw'd me in his clutch, And hath shipped me into the land, As if I had never been such. [Throws up a scull. Ham. That scull had a tongue in it, and could sing once: How the knave jowls it to the ground, as if it were Cain's jaw-bone, that did the first murder! This might be the pate of a politician, which this ass now o'er-reaches; one that would circumvent God, might it not? Ham. Why, e'en so: and now my lady Worms; chapless, and knocked about the mazzard with a sexton's spade: Here's fine revolution, an we had the trick to see't. Did these bones cost no more the breeding, but to play at loggats with them? mine ache to think on't. O, a pit of clay for to be made [Sings. 1 Clo. 'Tis a quick lie, sir ; 'twill away again, from me to you. Ham. What man dost thou dig it for? 1 Clo. For no man, sir. Ham. What woman then? 1 Clo. For none either. Ham. Who is to be buried in't? 1 Clo. One, that was a woman, sir; but, rest her soul, she's dead. Ham. How absolute the knave is! we must speak by the card, or equivocation will undo us. By the lord, Horatio, these three years I have taken note of it; the age has grown so picked," that the toe of the peasant comes so near the heel of the courtier, he galls his kibe.-How long hast thou been a grave-maker? 1 Clo. Of all the days i' the year, I came to't that day that our last king Hamlet overcame Fortinbras. Ham. How long's that since? 1 Clo. Cannot you tell that? every fool can tell that: It was that very day that young Hamlet was born: he that is mad, and sent into England. Ham. Ay, marry, why was he sent into England? 1 Clo. Why, because he was mad: he shall recover his wits there; or, if he do not, 'tis no great matter there. Ham. Why? 1 Clo. Twill not be seen in him there; there the 1 Clo. A pick-axe, and a spade, a spade, [Sings. men are as mad as he. For-and a shrouding sheet: O, a pit of clay for to be made [Throws up a scull. Ham. How came he mad? 1 Clo. Very strangely, they say. 1 Clo. Faith, e'en with losing his wits. 1 Clo. Why, here in Denmark; I have been sexton here, man and boy, thirty years. Ham. How long will a man lie i'the earth ere Ham. There's another: Why may not that be the scull of a lawyer? Where be his quiddits now, his quillets, his cases, his tenures, and his tricks? why does he suffer this rude knave now to knock him about the sconce with a dirty shovel, and will he rot? not tell him of his action of battery? Humph! This 1 Clo. 'Faith, if he be not rotten before he die (as fellow might be in's time a great buyer of land, we have many pocky corses now-a-days, that will with his statutes, his recognizances, his fines, his scarce hold the laying in,) he will last you some double vouchers, his recoveries: Is this the fine of eight year, or nine year: a tanner will last you his fines, and the recovery of his recoveries, to have nine year. his fine pate full of fine dirt? will his vouchers vouch him no more of his purchases, and double ones too, than the length and breadth of a pair of indentures? The very conveyances of his lands will hardly lie in this box; and must the inheritor himself have no more? ha ? (1) The song entire is printed in Percy's Reliques of ancient English Poetry, vol. i. It was written by Lord Vaux. (2) An ancient game, played as quoits are at present. Ham. Why he more than another? 1 Clo. Why, sir, his hide is so tanned with his trade, that he will keep out water a great while; and your water is a sore decayer of your whoreson dead body. Here's a scull now hath lain you 'the earth three-and-twenty years. Ham. Whose was it? 1 Clo. A whoreson mad fellow's it was; Whose | Yet here she is allowed her virgin crants, do you think it was? [Takes the scull. 8 Her maiden strewments, and the bringing home Laer. Must there no more be done? No more be done! 1 Clo. E'en that. Lay her i'the earth :Ham. Alas! poor Yorick!-I knew him, Hora- And from her fair and unpolluted flesh, tio; a fellow of infinite jest; of most excellent May violets spring!-I tell thee, churlish priest fancy he hath borne me on his back a thousand A minist'ring angel shall my sister be, times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination When thou liest howling. it is! my gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips, Ham. What, the fair Ophelia. that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be Queen. Sweets to the sweet: Farewell! your gibes now? your gambols? your songs? your [Scattering flowers. flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table I hop'd, thou should'st have been my Hamlet's wife; on a roar? Not one now, to mock your own grin- I thought, thy bride-bed to have deck'd, sweet maid, ning? quite chap-fallen? Now get you to my lady's And not have strew'd thy grave. chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to Laer. O, treble wo this favour' she must come; make her laugh at that. Fall ten times treble on that cursed head, Pr'ythee, Horatio, tell me one thing. Whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense Hor. What's that, my Lord? Depriv'd thee of!-Hold off the earth a while, Ham. Dost thou think, Alexander looked o'this Till I have caught her once more in mine arms: fashion i'the earth? Hor. E'en so. Ham. And smelt so? pah! [Throws down the scull. Hor. E'en so, my lord. Ham. To what base uses we may return, Horatio! Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander, till he find it stopping a bung-hole? Hor. 'Twere to consider too curiously, to consider so. Ham. No, faith, not a jot; but to follow him thither with modesty enough, and likelihood to lead it: As thus; Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth to dust; the dust is earth; of earth we make loam: And why of that loam, whereto he was converted, might they not stop a beer-barrel ? Imperious Cæsar, dead, and turn'd to clay, The queen, the courtiers: Who is this they follow? [Retiring with Horatio. Laer. What ceremony else? Laer. What ceremony else? That is Laertes, 1 Priest. Her obsequies have been as far enlarg'd As we have warranty: Her death was doubtful; And, but that great command o'ersways the order, She should in ground unsanctified have lodg'd, Till the last trumpet; for charitable prayers, Shards, flints, and pebbles, should be thrown on her; [Leaps into the grave. Ham. [Advancing.] What is he, whose grief Like wonder-wounded hearers? this is I, [Leaps into the grave. Ham. Thou pray'st not well. I pr'ythee, take thy fingers from my throat Hamlet, Hamlet! Good my lord, be quiet. Until my eyelids will no longer wag. Queen. O my son! what theme? Ham. I lov'd Ophelia; forty thousand brothers Queen. For love of God, forbear him. Woul't drink up Esil ?" eat a crocodile ? This is mere madness: What is the reason that you use me thus ? [Exit. King. I pray thee, good Horatio, wait upon We'll put the matter to the present push.- and Horatio. As England was his faithful tributary; Hor. How was this seal'd? Hor. So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to't. They are not near my conscience; their defeat Ham. So much for this, sir: now shall you see Does by their own insinuation grow: the other ; You do remember all the circumstance? Hor. Remember it, my lord! Ham. Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fight- That would not let me sleep: methought, I lay There's a divinity that shapes our ends, 'Tis dangerous, when the baser nature comes Hor. Why, what a king is this! Ham. Does it not, think thee, stand me now upon? Te that hath kill'd my king, and whor'd my mother; To let this canker of our nature come That is most certain. In further evil? Ham. Up from my cabin, Hor. But wilt thou hear now how I did proceed? Hor. Ay, 'beseech you. Kam. Being thus benetted round with villanies, A baseness to write fair, and labour'd much Hor. Hor. It must be shortly known to him from What is the issue of the business there. Ham. It will be short: the interim is mine, The portraiture of his: I'll count' his favours: Peace; who comes here? Osr. Your lordship is right welcome back to Denmark. Ham. I humbly thank you, sir.-Dost know this water-flv?16 Hor. No, my good lord. Ham Thy state is the more gracious; for 'tis a vice to know him: He hath much land, and fertile: let a beast be lord of beasts, and his crib shall stand at the king's mess: 'Tis a chough; but, as I say, spacious in the possession of dirt. Osr. Sweet lord, if your lordship were at leisure, I should impart a thing to you from his majesty. Ham. I will receive it, sir, with all diligence of spirit: Your bonnet to his right use; 'tis for the head. Osr. I thank your lordship, 'tis very hot. Ham. No, believe me, 'tis very cold; the wind is northerly. Osr. It is indifferent cold, my lord, indeed. Ham. The phrase would be more german'2 to the Ham. But yet, methinks it is very sultry and matter, if we could carry a cannon by our sides; I hot; or my complexion-would it might be hangers till then. But on: Six Osr. Exceedingly, my lord; it is very sultry,-Barbary horses against six French swords, their asas 'twere,-I cannot tell how-My lord, his majesty bade me signify to you, that he has laid a great wager on your head: Sir, this is the matter,Ham. I beseech you, remember- signs, and three liberal-conceited carriages; that's the French bet against the Danish: Why is this impawned, as you call it? Osr. The king, sir, hath laid, that in a dozen [Hamlet moves him to put on his hat. passes between yourself and him, he shall not exOsr. Nay, good my lord; for my ease, in good ceed you three hits; he hath laid, on twelve for faith. Sir, here is newly come to court, Laertes: nine; and it would come to immediate trial, if your believe me, an absolute gentleman, full of most ex-lordship would vouchsafe the answer. cellent differences,2 of very soft society, and great showing: Indeed, to speak feciingly of him, he is the card' or calendar of gentry, for you shall find in him the continent of what part a gentleman would see. Ham. Sir, this definement suffers no perdition in you-though, I know, to divide him inventorially, would dizzy the arithmetic of memory; and yet but raw neither, in respect of his quick sail. But, in the verity of extolment, I take him to be a soul of great article; and his infusion of such dearth and rareness, as, to make true diction of him, his semblable his mirror; and, who else would trace him, his umbrage, nothing more." Osr. Your lordship speaks most infallibly of him. Ham. The concernancy, sir? why do we wrap the gentleman in our more rawer breath? Osr. Sir? Hor. Is't not possible to understand in another tongue? you will do't, sir, really. Ham. What imports the nomination of this gentleman? Osr. Of Laertes ? Ham. How, if I answer, no? Osr. I mean, my lord, the opposition of your person in trial. Ham. Sir, I will walk here in the hall: If it please his majesty, it is the breathing time of day with me: let the foils be brought, the gentleman willing, and the king hold his purpose, I will win for him, if I can; if not, I will gain nothing but my shame, and the odd hits. Osr. Shall I deliver you so? Ham. To this effect, sir; after what flourish your nature will. Osr. I commend my duty to your lordship. [Exil. Ham. Yours, yours.-He does well to commend it himself; there are no tongues else for's turn. Hor. This lapwing13 runs away with the shell on his head. Ham. He did comply with his dug before he sucked it. Thus has he (and many more of the same breed, that, I know, the drossy' age dotes on,) only got the tune of the time, and outward habit of encounter; a kind of yesty: collection, which car Hor. His purse is empty already; all his golden ries them through and through the most fond and words are spent. Ham. Of him, sir. Osr. I know, you are not ignorant Ham. I would you did, sir; yet, in faith, if you did, it would not much approve" me;-Well, sir. Ósr. You are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is Ham. I dare not confess that, lest I should compare with him in excellence; but, to know a man well, were to know himself. winnowed opinions; and do but blow them to their trial, the bubbles are out. Enter a Lord. Lord. My lord, his majesty commended him to you by young Osric, who brings back to him, that you attend him in the hall: He sends to know, if your pleasure hoid to play with Laertes, or that you will take longer time. Ham. I am constant to my purposes, they follow Osr. I mean, sir, for his weapon; but in the im-the king's pleasure: if his fitness speaks, mine is putation laid on him by them, in his meed he's un-ready; now, or whensoever, provided I be so able fellowed. Ham. What's his weapon? Osr. Rapier and dagger. Ham. That's two of his weapons: but, well. as now. Lord. The king, and queen, and all are coming down. Ham. In happy time. Lord. The queen desires you, to use some gentle Barbary horses: against the which he has impawn-entertainment to Laertes, before you fall to play. ed, as I take it, six French rapiers and poniards, with their assigns, as girdle, hangers, 10 and so: Three of the carriages, in faith, are very dear to fancy, very responsive to the hilts, most delicate carriages, and of very liberal conceit. Ham. What call you the carriages? Ham. She well instructs me. [Exit Lord. Hor. You will lose this wager, my lord. Ham. I do not think so; since he went into France, I have been in continual practice; I shall win at the odds. But thou would'st not think, how ill all's here about my heart: but it is no Hor. I knew, you must be edified by the mar-matter. ,"ere you had done. gent, Osr. The carriages, sir, are the hangers. Hor. Nay, good my lord, Ham. It is but foolery; but it is such a kind of, gain-giving, as would, perhaps, trouble a woman. Hor. If your mind dislike any thing, obey it: I (11) Margin of a book which contains explana tory notes. (12) Akin. (13) A bird which runs about immediately as it hatched. |