turn. the occasion of my sudden and móre strange reHamlet. What should this mean! Are all the rest come back? Or is it some abuse, and no such thing? King. 'Tis Hamlet's character. Naked,And in a postscript here, he says, alone: Can you advise me? Laer. I am lost in it, my lord. But let him come; It warms the very sickness in my heart, King. If it be so, Laertes, As how should it be so? how otherwise?- Laer. Ay, my lord; So you will not o'errule me to a peace. King. To thine own peace. If he be now return'd, As checking at his voyage, and that he means No more to undertake it,-I will work him To an exploit, now ripe in my device, Under the which he shall not choose but fall: And for his death no wind of blame shall breathe; [tice, If you oppos'd them; Sir, this report of his Did Hamlet so envenom with his envy, That he could nothing do, but wish and beg Your sudden coming o'er, to play with you. Now, out of this, Laer. What out of this, my lord? King. Laertes, was your father dear to you? Or are you like the painting of a sorrow, A face without a heart? Luer. Why ask you this? King. Not that I think, you did not love your father; But that I know, love is begun by time; And hath abatements and delays as many, As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents; And then this should is like a spendthrift sigh, That hurts by easing. But, to the quick o'the ulcer: [dertake, Hamlet comes back; What would you un But even his mother shall uncharge the prac-To show yourself in deed your father's son And call it, accident. Laer. My lord, I will be rul'd; The rather, if you could devise it so, That I might be the organ. King. It falls right. You have been talk'd of since your travel much, And that in Hamlet's hearing, for a quality Wherein, they say, you shine: your sum of parts Did not together pluck such envy from him, As did that one; and that, in my regard, Of the unworthiest siege.t Laer. What part is that, my lord? King. A very ribband in the cap of youth, Yet needful too; for youth no less becoines The light and careless livery that it wears, Than settled age his sables, and his weeds, Importing health and graveness. Two months since, Here was a gentleman of Normandy,- [lant And they can well on horseback: out this gal- That I, in forgery of shapes and tricks, Laer. A Norman, was't? King. A Norman. Laer. Upon my life, Lamord. King. The very same. Laer. I know him well, he is the brooch,t indeed, And gem of all the nation. King. He made confession of you: And gave you such a masterly report, For art and exercise in your defence, And for your rapier most especial, That he cried out, 'twould be a sight indeed, If one could match you: the scrimers of their nation, [eye, He swore, had neither motion, guard, nor * Objecting to. + Place. Science of defence, i. e. fencing ↑ Ornament. Il Fencers. bought an unction of a mountebank, And, for the purpose, I'll anoint my sword. Where it draws blood no cataplasm so rare, So mortal, that but dip a knife in it, Collected from all simples that have virtue Under the moon, can save the thing from death, That is but scratch'd withal: I'll touch my point With this contagion; that, if I gall him slightly, It may be death. King. Let's further think of this; Weigh, what convenience, both of time and And that he calls for drink, I'll have preferr'd* | good: here stands the man; good: If the man him How now, sweet queen? Queen. One woe doth tread upon another's heel, [Laertes, So fast they follow:-Your sister's drown'd, Laer. Drown'd! O, where? Queen. There is a willow grows ascant the brook, That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream; Therewith fantastic garlands did she make Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples, That liberal shepherds give a grosser name, But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them: There on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke; When down her weedy trophies, and herself, Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide; And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up: Which time, she chanted snatches of old tunes; As one incapable of her own distress, Laer. Álas then, she is drown'd? Luer. Too much of water hast thou, poor And therefore I forbid my tears: But yet SCENE 1.-A Church-Yard. 1 Clo. Is she to be buried in Christian burial, that wilfully seeks her own salvation? 2 Clo. I tell thce, she is; therefore make her grave straight:tt 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; 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 thy self 2 Clo. Go to. 1 Clo. What is he, that builds stronger than either the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter? 2 Clo. The gallows-maker; for that frame out-lives 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 shipwright, or a carpenter? 1 Clo. Ay, tell me that, and unyoke.t 2 Clo. Marry, now I can tell. 1 Clo. To't. 2 Clo. Mass, I cannot tell. Enter HAMLET and HORATIO, at a distance. 1 Clo. Cudgel thy brains no more about it; for your dull ass will not mend his pace with beating: and, when you are asked this question next, say, a grave-maker; the houses, that he makes, last till doomsday. Go, get thee to Yaughan, and fetch me a stoup of liquor. [Exit 2 CLOWN. 1 CLOWN digs, and sings. In youth, when I did love, did love, To contract, O, the time, for, ah, my behove O, methought, there was nothing meet. Ham. Has this fellow no feeling of his business? he sings at grave-making. Hor. Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness. Ham. "Tis e'en so: the hand of little employment hath the daintier sense. 1 Clo. But age, with his stealing steps, . Fellow. [Throws up a Scull. + Give over. + The song entire is printed in Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, Vol. 1. It was written by Lord Vaux. Ham. That scull had a tongue in it, and near the heel of the courtier, he galls his could sing once: How the knave jowls it to kibe.-How long hast thou been a grave the ground, as if it were Cain's jaw-bone, that maker? 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? Hor. It might, my lord. Ham. Or of a courtier; which would say, Good-morrow, sweet lord! Now dost thou, good lord? This might be my lord such-a-one, that praised my lord such-a-one's horse, when he meant to beg it; might it not? Hor. Ay, my lord. Ham. Why, e'en so: and now my lady Worm's; 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. 1 Clo. A pick-axe, and a spade, a spade, [Sings. [Throws up a scull. 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 sconces with a dirty shovel, and will not tell him of his action of battery? Humph! This fellow might be in's time a great buyer of land, with his statutes, his recognizances, his fiues, his double vouchers, his recoveries: Is this the fine of his fines, and the recovery of his recoveries, to have 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? Hor. Not a jot more, my lord. Ham. Is not parchment made of sheep-skins? O, a pit of clay for to be made [Sings. Ham. I think it be thine, indeed; for thou liest in't. 1 Clo. You lie out on't, Sir, and therefore it is not yours: for my part, I do not lie in't, yet it is mine. Ham. Thou dost lie in't, to be in't, and say it is thine: 'tis for the dead, not for the quick; therefore thou liest. 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. Hum. What woman then? 1 Clo. For none neither. 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 1 have taken note of it; the age is grown so picked,¶ that the toe of the peasant comes so 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 inatter there. Ham. Why? 1 Clo. 'Twill not be seen in him there; the men are as mad as he. Ham. How came he mad? 1 Clo. Very strangely, they say. Ham. How strangely? 1 Clo. 'Faith, e'en with losing his wits. Ham. Upon what ground? there 1 Clo. Why, here in Denmark; I have been sexton here, man and boy, thirty years. ere he rot? Ham. How long will a man lie i'the earth die, (as we have many pocky corses bow-21 Clo 'Faith, if he be not rotten before he days, that will scarce hold the laying in,) he will last you some eight year, or nine year: a tanner will last you nine year. Ham. Why he more than another? his trade, that he will keep out water a great 1 Clo. Why, Sir, bis hide is so tanned with while; and your water is a sore decayer of your whoreson dead body. Here's a scull now hath lain you i'the earth three-and-twenty years. Ham. Whose was it? Whose do you think it was? Ham. Nay, I know not. 1 Clo. A pestilence on him for a mad rogue! he poured a flagon of Rhenish on my head scull, the king's jester. This same scull, Sir, was Yorick's Ham. This? once. 1 Clo. E'en that. [Takes the Scull. Ham. Alas! poor Yorick!-I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips, that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? your gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now, to mock your own grinning? quite chap-fallen? Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must come; make her laugh at that.-Pr'ythee, Horatio, tell me one thing. Hor. What's that, my lord? Ham. Dost thou think, Alexander looked o'this 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 bunghole? * Countenance, complexion. Hor. "Twere to consider too curiously, to consider so. Hum. 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 Cesar, dead, and turn'd to clay, Might stop a hole to keep the wind away: O, that the earth, which kept the world in [flaw!t Should patch a wall to expel the winter's But soft! but soft! aside:-Here comes the king. awe, Enter PRIESTS, &c. in Procession; the Corpse of The queen, the courtiers: Who is this they [token, And with such maimed rites! This doth beThe corse, they follow, did with desperate hand Fordos its own life. 'Twas of some estate :// [Retiring with HORATIO. 1 Priest. Her obsequies have been as far en- She should in ground unsanctified have lodg'd, Yet here she is allow'd her virgin crants,** home [Grappling with him. Ham. Thou pray'st not well." I pr'ythee, take thy fingers from my throat; Hor. Good my lord, be quiet. [The Attendants purt them, and they come out of the Grave. Ham. Why, I will fight with him upon this Until my eye-lids will no longer wag. Ham. I lov'd Ophelia; forty thousand bro thers Could not, with all their quantity of love, Queen. For love of God, forbear him. Woul't drink up Esil?* eat a crocodile? And thus awhile the fit will work on him; Ham. Hear you, Sir; What is the reason that you use me thus? The cat will mew, and dog will have his day. [Exit. King. I pray thee, good Horatio, wait upon him.[Exit HORATIO. Strengthen your patience in our last night's speech; [TO LAERTES. We'll put the matter to the present pushGood Gertrude, set some watch over your son. This grave shall have a living monument: [Exeunt. SCENE II-A Hall in the Castle. Enter HAMLET and HORATIO. Ham. So much for this, Sir: now shall you Ham. Sir, in my heart there was a kind of That would not let me sleep: methought, I lay Eisel is vinegar; but Mr. Steevens conjectures the word should be Weisel, a river which falls into the Baltic ↑ Hatched. ocean. Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Rashly, And prais'd be rashness for it,-Let us know, There's a divinity that shapes our ends, Hor. That is most certain. Ham. Up from my cabin, My sea-gown scarf'd about me, in the dark A royal knavery; an exact command,- With, ho! such bugs|| and goblins in my life,- Hor. Is't possible? Ham. Here's the commission; read it at more leisure. But wilt thou hear now how I did proceed? Hor. Ay, beseech you. Ham. Being thus benetted round with villanies, Or** I could make a prologue to my brains, Hor. Ay, good my lord. They are not near my conscience; their defeat Hor. Why, what a king is this! Ham. Does it not, think thee, stand me now upon? He that hath kill'd my king, and whor'd my mother, Popp'd in between the election and my hopes; To quit him with this arm? and is't not to be damn'd, To let this cauker of our nature come 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; And a man's life no more than to say, one. But I am very sorry, good Horatio, That to Laertes I forgot myself; For, by the image of my cause, I see The portraiture of his : I'll count+ his favours: But, sure, the bravery of his grief did put me Into a towering passion. Hor. Peace; who comes here? Enter OSRIC. Osr. Your lordship is right welcome back to Denmark. Ham. I humbly thank you, Sir.- Dost know this waterfly ?t 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 Ham. An earnest conjuration from the chough; but, as I say, spacious in the pos king, As England was his faithful tributary; As love between them like the palm might flourish; As peace should still her wheaten garland Without debatement further, more, or less, He should the bearers put to sudden death, Not shriving-time allow'd. Hor. How was this seal'd? session of dirt. Osr. Sweet lord, if your lordship were at leisure, I should impart a thing to you from his majesty. Hum. I will receive it, Sir, with all diligence of spirit: Your bonnet to its 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. But yet, methinks, it is very sultry and hot; or my complexion Osr. Exceedingly, my lord; it is very sul Ham. Why, even in that was heaven ordi- try,-as '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 [HAMLET moves him to put on his Hat. Osr. Nay, good my lord; for my ease, in good faith. Sir, here is newly come to court, Laertes: believe me, an absolute gentleman, full of most excellent differences,¶ of very soft society, and great showing: Indeed, to speak feelingly of him, he is the card** or calendar of gentry, for you shall find in him the continenttt of what part a gentleman would see. Ham. Sir, this definement suffers no perdition in you;-though, I know, to divide him * Requite. **Compass or chart. ++ The country and pattern for imitation. |