I ha't:

When in your motion you are hot and dry

(As make your bouts more violent to that end),
And that he calls for drink, I'll have prepar'd him
A chalice for the nonce; whereon but sipping,
If he by chance escape your venom'd stuck,
Our purpose may hold there. But stay, what noise è

Enter the Queen.

How now, sweet queen ?

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Queen. One woe 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 brook, That shews 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,

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But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them :
There on the pendant 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, a while they bore her up:
Which time, she chaunted snatches of old tunes;
As one incapable of her own distress,

Or like a creature native and indu'd

Unto that element: but long it could not be,
'Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay

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To

To muddy death.

Laer. Alas then, is she drown'd?

Quéen. Drown'd, drown'd.

Laer. Too much of water hast 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!
I have a speech of fire, that fain would blaze,
But that this folly drowns it.

6go

[Exit.

King. Let's follow, Gertrude:

How much I had to do to calm his rage!
Now fear I, this will give it start again;

Therefore, let's follow.

[Exeunt.

ACT V. SCENE 1.

A Church-Yard. Enter two Clowns, with Spades, &c.

1 Clown.

Is she to be bury'd in Christian burial, that wilfully

seeks her own salvation?

2 Clown. I tell thee, she is; therefore, make her grave straight: the crowner hath sat on her, and finds it Christian burial.

1 Clown. How can that be, unless she drown'd herself in her own defence?

2 Clown. Why, 'tis found so.

1 Clown. It must be se offendendo; it cannot be else.

For

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 drown'd herself wittingly.

2 Clown. Nay, but hear you, goodman delver.

13

1 Clown. 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 Clown. But is this law?

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1 Clown. Ay, marry is't; crowner's-quest law. 2 Clown. Will you ha' the truth on't? If this had not been a gentlewoman, she should have been bury'd out of Christian burial.

1 Clown. Why, there thou say'st: And the more pity; that great folk should have countenance in this world to drown or hang themselves, more than their even Chrtistian. Come; my spade. There is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners, ditchers, and gravemakers; they hold up Adam's profession.

3 Clown. Was he a gentleman ?

1 Clown. He was the first that ever bore arms.

2 Clown. Why, he had none.

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1 Clown. What, art a heathen? How dost thou understand the scripture? The scripture says, Adam digg'd; Could he dig without arms? I'll put another question to thee: if thou answer'st me not to the purpose, confess thyself

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40

2 Clown.

2 Clown. Go to.

1 Clown. What is he, that builds stronger than either the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter?

2 Clown. The gallows-maker; for that frame outlives a thousand tenants.

:

1 Clown. 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 Clown. Who builds stronger than a mason, a shipwright, or a carpenter ?

1 Clown. Ay, tell me that, and unyoke.

2 Clown. Marry, now I can tell.

1 Clown. To't.

2 Clown. Mass, I cannot tell.

Enter HAMLET, and HORATIO, at

Distance

1 Clown. 'Cudgel thy brains no more about it; for your dull ass will not mend his pace with beating: and, when you are ask'd 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. ✓ 62

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.

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Ham. 'Tis e'en so: the hand of little employment hath the daintier sense.

Clown sings.

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.

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?

Hor. It might, my lord.

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Ham. Or of a courtier ; which could say, Goodmorrow, sweet lord! How dost thou, good lord? This might be my lord such-a-one, that prais'd my lord such-a-one's horse, when he meant to beg it; might it not?

Hor. Ay, my lord.

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Ham. Why, e'en so: and now my lady worm's; chapless, and knock'd 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,

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