Our purpofe may hold there. But stay, what noife? Or like a creature native and indu'd Enter Queen. How now, fweet queen ? Queen. One woe doth tread upon another's heel, Queen. There is a willow grows afcaunt'the brook, Unto that element: but long it could not be, Laer. Alas, then, is the drown'd? Laer. Too much of water haft thou, poor Ophelia Of crow-flowers, nettles, daifies, and long purples,It is our trick; nature her custom holds, But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them: Let fhame fay what it will: when these are gone, King. Let's follow, Gertrude : [Exit [Exeunt ACT V. more than their even chriftian 4. Come; my fpade. There is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners, ditchers, and grave-makers; they hold up Adam's profettion. 2 Clown. Was he a gentleman ? 1 Clown. He was the fuft that ever bore arms. 2 Clown. Why, he had none. 1 Clown. What, art a heathen? How doft thou understand the fcripture ?- -The fcripture fays, Adam digged; Could he dig without arms? I'll put another queftion to thee: if thou anfwer'ft me not to the purpose, confefs thyfelf 2 Clown. Go to. 1 Cloron. It must be fe offendendo; it cannot be elfe. For here lies the point: If I drown myfelf 1 Clown. What is he, that builds ftronger than wittingly, it argues an act: and an act hath three either the mafon, the shipwright, or the carpenbranches 3; it is, to act, to do, and to perform ::- ter? Augal, the drown'd herfelf wittingly. 2 Clown. The gallows-maker; for that frame out-lives a thousand tenants. 2 Clown. Nay, but hear you, goodman delver. 1 Clown. Give me leave. Here lies the water; 1 Clown. I like thy wit well, in good faith; the good: here ftands the man; good: If the man gallows does well: But how does it well? it does go to this water, and drown himself, it is, will he, well to thofe that do ill: now thou doft ill, to say, nill he, he goes; mark you that but if the wa-the gallows is built stronger than the church: argal, ter come to him, and drown him, he drowns not the gallows may do well to thee. himfelf: Argal, he, that is not guilty of his own come. death, fhortens not his own life. 2 Clorun. But is this law? 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, the should have been bury'd out of chriftian burial. 1 Clorun. Why, there thou fay'ft: And the more pity; that great folk fhould have counte To't again; 2 Clown. Who builds ftronger than a mason, a fhipwright, or a carpenter? 1 Clown. Ay, tell me that, and unyoke 5. 2 Clown. Marry, now I can tell. 1 Clown. To't. 2 Clown. Mafs, I cannot tell. Enter Hamler and Horatio, at a distance. 1 Clown. Cudgel thy brains no more about it nance in this world to drown or hang themfelves,[ for your dull afs will not mend his pace with beat 1. e. afide, fideways. 2 i. e. make her grave immediately. without diftinction; and of diftinctions without difference. for fellow-chriftians. 5 i. e. When you have done that, I'll The phrafe is taken from husbandry, 3 Ridicule on fcholaftic divifions 4 This is an old English expreffion trouble you no more with thefe riddles. ing; and, when you are afk'd this queftion next, fay, a grave-maker;, the houfes that he makes, lat 'till doorfday. Go, get thee to Youghan, and fetch me a ftoop of liquor. [Exit 2 Clown. He digs, and fings. In youth when I did love, did love, To contract, 0, the time, for, ah, my behove 4 Ham. There's another: Why may not that be the fcull of a lawyer? Where be his quiddits now, his quillets, his cafes, his tenures, and his tricks? why does he suffer this rude knave now to knock him about the fconce 5 with a dirty fhovel, and will not tell him of his action of battery? Hum! This fellow might be in's time a great buyer of land, with his ftatutes, his recognizances, his fines, 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 purchafes, and dou Hor. Cuttom hath made it in him a property ble ones too, than the length and breadth of a pair of eafinefs. of indentures? The very conveyances of his lands Ham. 'Tis e'en fo: the hand of little employ- will hardly lie in this box; and must the inheritor ment hath the daintier fenfe. Hor. It might, my lord. himfelf have no more? ha? Hor. Not a jot more, my lord. Ham. Is not parchment made of sheep-skins? Ham. Or of a courtier; which could fay, Good-| Clown. You lie out on't, fir, and therefore it is morrow, fweet lord! How doft thou, good lord?' not yours: for my part, I do not lie in't, yet it This might be my lord fuch-a-one, that prais'd my lord fuch-a-one's horfe, when he meant to beg it might it not? Hor. Ay, my lord. :| Ham. Why, e'en fo: and now my lady worm's | chaplefs, and knock'd about the mazzard with a fexton's fpade: Here's fine revolution, an we had the trick to fee't. Did thefe bones coft no more the breeding, but to play at loggats 3 with them? mine ache to think on't. Clown fings. A pick-axe, and a spade, a spade, is mine. Ham. Thou doft lie in't, to be in't, and say it is thine: 'tis for the dead, not for the quick; therefore thou ly'ft. Clown. 'Tis a quick lye, fir; 'twill away again, Ham. What man doft thou dig it for? Ham. What woman, then? Clown. For none neither. Ham. Who is to be buried in't ? Cloton. One that was a woman, fir; but, reft her foul, fhe's dead. Ham. How abfolute the knave is! we must fpeak by the card 7, or equivocation will undo us. By the lord, Horatio, these three years I have We The three flanzas, fung here by the grave-digger, are extracted, with a flight variation, from a little poein, called The agid Lover renounceth Love, written by Henry Howard, earl of Surrey, who flourished in the reign of King Henry VIII. and who was beheaded in 1547, on a ftrained accvftion of treafon. The entire long is published by Dr. Percy, in the first volume of his Reliques of Antient English Poetry. 2. e. The fcull that was my lord Such-a-one's, is now my lady Worm's. 3 Dr. Johnton fays, this is a play, in which pins are fet up to be beaten down with a bowl. have been informed, however, that the reverfe is true: that the bowl is the mark, and the pins are pitched at it; and that the game is well known in the neighbourhood of Norwich. Mr. Steevens obferves, that "this is a game played in feveral parts of England even at this time.A flake is fixed into the ground; thofe who play throw loggats at it, and he that is nearest the ftake wins: I have feen it played in different counties at their fhrep-fhearing featts, where the winner was entitled to a black fleece, which he afterwards prefented to the farmer's maid to fpin for the purpose of making a petticoat, and on condition that the knelt down on the fleece to be kiffed by all the ruflicks prefent." 4 i. e. fubtilties. 5 i. e. the head. A quibhk is intended. Decd's, which are ufually written on parchment, are called the common affurances of the kingdom. 7 The card is the paper on which the different points of the compals were defcribed. To do any thing by the card, is, to do it with mice obfervation. taken taken note of it; the age is grown fo picked', that your flashes of merriment, that were wont to fet 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 Clown. Of all the days i' the year, I came to't an inch thick, to this favour the maft come; that day that our laft king Hamlet overcame For-make her laugh at that.-Pr'ythee, Horatio, tell me one thing.. tinbras. Hor. What's that, my lord? Ham. Doft thou think, Alexander look'd o' this fashion i' the earth? Hor. E'en fo. Ham. And fmelt fo? pah! Ham. To what bafe ufes we may return, Ho ratio! Why may not imagination trace the noble duft of Alexander, till he find it stopping a bunghole? Hor. It were to confider too curiously to confider fo. Ham. No, 'faith, not a jot; but to follow him thither with modeity enough, and likelihood to lead it: As thus; Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth to duft; the duft is earth; of earth we make loam; And why of Clown. Why, here in Denmark: I have been that loam, whereto he was converted, might they fexton here, man, and boy, thirty years. Han. How long will a man lie i' the earth ere he rot? Chen. 'Faith, if he be not rotten before he die, (as we have many pocky corfes now-a-days, that will fearce hold the laying in) he will laft you fome eight year, or nine year: a tanner will laft you nine year. Ham. Why he more than another? not ftop a beer-barrel? Imperial Cæfar, dead, and turn'd to clay, The queen, the courtiers: Who is this they follow? Clown. Why, fir, his hide is fo tann'd with Ham. Nay, I know not. Clown. A peftilence on him for a mad rogue! he pour'd a flaggon of Rhenith on my head once. This fame fcull, fir, was Yorick's fcull, the king's jetter. Ham. This ? Laer. What ceremony else? Prieft. Her obfequies have been as far enlarg'd Laer. Muit there no more be done? Ham. Alas, poor Yorick !—I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jeft, of moft excellent fancy: he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorr'd in my imagination it is! my gorge rifes at it. Here hung thofe lips, We should profane the service of the dead, that I have kiss'd I know not how oft. Where To sing a requiem 3, and fuch reft to her be your gibes now? your gambols? your fongs? As to peace-parted fouls. 2 Winter's 1 So Smart. fo fharp fays Hanmer, very properly; but there was, Dr. Johnson thinks, about that time, a picked thoe, that is, a fhoe with a long pointed toe, in fathion, to which the allufion feems likewife to be made. Every man now is fmart; and every man now is a man of fashion. Whip. 3 i. c. imperfect obfequics. To fordo, is to undo, to destroy. 5 i. e. fome perfon of high rank. 6 Crants is the German word for garlands, and it was probably retained by us from the Saxons. To carry garlands before the bier of a maiden, and to hang them over her grave, is ftill the practice in rural parishes. 7 Burial, here, fignifics interment in confecrated ground. Requiem is a mafs performed in Popish churches for the rest of the foul of a perfon deceased. 8 A Laer. Laer. Lay her i' the earth ; And from her fair and unpolluted flesh Ham. I lov'd Ophelia; forty thousand brothers May violets fpring!-I tell thee, churlish prieft, Make up my fum.-What wilt thou do for her? A miniftring angel fhall my fifter be, When thou lieft howling, Ham. What, the fair Ophelia ! Queen. Sweets to the fweet: Farewe!! [Scattering flowers. I hop'd, thou shouldft have been my Hamlet's wife; I thought thy bride-bed to have deck'd, fweet maid, And not have ftrew'd thy grave. Laer. O, treble woe Fall ten times treble on that curfed head, Ham. [advancino] What is he, whofe grief Hamlet the Dane. [Grappling with him. Which let thy wifdom fear: Hold off thy hand. All. Gentlemen, Hor. Good my lord, be quiet. [The attendants part them. Ham. Why, I will fight with him upon this theme, Until my eye-lids will no longer wag. King. O, he is mad, Laertes. Queen. For love of God, forbear him. Ham. Shew me what thou'lt do: Woo't weep? woo't fight? woo't faft? woo't Won't drink up Efil? eat a crocodile ? Queen. This is mere madness : And thus a while the fit will work on him: Ham. Hear you, fir; What is the reafon that you use me thus ? [Exit We'll put the matter to the prefent push.- 'Till then in patience our proceeding be. [Exezat, Mr. Theobald comments on this paffage thus: "This word has through all the editions been diftinguifhed by Italick characters, as if it were the proper name of fome river; and fo, I dare fay, all the editors have from time to time understood it to be. But then this must be fome river in Denmark; and there is none there fo called; nor is there any near it in name, that I know of, but gel, from which the province of Overyffel derives its title in the German Flanders. Befides, Hamlet is not propofing any impoffibilities to Laertes, as the drinking up a river would be: but he rather feems to mean, wilt thou refolve to do things the moft fhocking and diftafteful to human nature? and, behold, I am as refolute. The poet wrote: Wilt drink up Eifel? eat a crocodile? i. e. wilt thou fwallow down large draughts of vinegar? The propofition, indeed, is not very grand: but the doing it might be as diftafteful and unfavory, as eating the flesh of a crocodile." On this comment Mr. Steevens remarks as follows: "Hamlet certainly meant (for he fays he will rant) to dare Laertes to attempt any thing, however difficult or unnatural; and might fafely promife to follow the example his antagonift was to fet, in draining the channel of a river, or trying his teeth on an animal whofe fcales are fuppofed to be impenetrable. Had Shakspeare meant to make Hamlet fay-Wilt thou drink vinegar? he probably would not have used the term drink up; which means totally to exhauft; neither is that challenge very magnificent, which only provokes an adversary to hazard a fit of the heart-burn or the cholic. The commentator's Yffel would ferve Hamlet's turn or mine. In an old Latin account of Denmark and the neighbouring provinces I find the names of feveral rivers little differing from Efil, or Elfill, in fpelling or pronunciation. Such are the Effa, the Oct, and fome others." 2 Mr.Steevens fays, to difclofe was anciently used for to hatch. To exclude is the tech nical term at prefent. During three days after the pigeon has hatched her couplets (for the lays no more than two eggs), fhe never quits her nett, except for a few moments in queft of a little food for her felf; as all her young require in that early ftate, is to be kept warm, an office which the never entrusts to You the male. You do remember all the circumstance ? Hor. Remember it, my lord! Devis'd a new commission; wrote it fair : Ham. Sir, in my heart there was a kind of A bafeness to write fair, and labour'd much fighting, Rafhly, That would not let me fleep; methought, I lay How to forget that learning; but, fir, now It did me yeoman's fervice 7: Wilt thou know Hor. Ay, good my lord. Ham. An earnest conjuration from the king, When our deep plots do fail: and that should As England was his faithful tributary; teach us, There's a divinity that fhapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will 2. Her. That is moft certain. Ham. Up from my cabin, My fea-gown fearf'd about me, in the dark Importing Denmark's health, and England's too, Hor. Is't poflible? Ham. Here's the commiffion; read it at more But wilt thou hear now how I did proceed? Ham. Being thus benetted round with villanies, As love between then like the palm might flourish, Hor. How was this feal'd? Ham. Why, even in that was heaven ordinant; Was our fea-fight; and what to this was fequent Hor. So Guildenstern and Rofencrantz go to 't. They are not near my confcience; their defeat 1 Mutines, the French word for feditious or difobedient fellows in an army or fleet. Bilboes, the fhip's prifon. Mr. Steevens adds, that "the bilboes is a bar of iron with fetters annexed to it, by which mutinous or diforderly failors were anciently linked together. The word is derived from Bitboa, a place in Spain where inftruments of feel were fabricated in the utmolt perfection. To underftand Shakspeare's allufion completely, it fhould be known, that as these fetters connect the legs of the offenders very clofe together, their attempts to reft must be as fruitlefs as thofe of Hamlet, in whofe mind there was a kind of fighting that would not let him fleep. Every motion of one must disturb his partner in confinement. 2 Dr. Johnfon comments on this paffage thus: "Hamlet deli vering an account of his efcape, begins with faying. That he rafhly and then is carried into a reflection upon the weaknefs of human wifdom. I rafhly-praifed be rafhnefs for it-Let us not think thefe events cafual; but let us know, that is, take notice and remember, that we fometimes fucceed by indifcretion, when we fail by deep plots, and infer the perpetual fuperintendance and agency of the Divinity. The obfervation is juft, and will be allowed by every human being who fhall reflect on the courfe of his own life." 3 A bug was no lefs a terrific being than a goblin. We call it at prefent a bugbear. 4 Bated, for allowed. To abate fignifies to deduct; this deduction, when applied to the perion in whofe favour it is made, is called an allowance. Hence our author takes the liberty of using bated for allowed. 5 Dr. Johnfon explains the following lines thus: "Hamlet is telling how luckily every thing fell out; he groped out their commiflion in the dark without waking them; he found himfelf doomed to immediate deftruction. Something was to be done for his prefervation. An expedient occurred, not produced by the comparison of one method with another, or by a regular deduction of confequences, but before he could make a prologue to his brains, they had begun the play. Before he could fummon his faculties, and propofe to himfelf what fhould be done, a complete fcheme of action prefented itself to him. His mind operated before he had excited it." ftatift is a flatefman. 1. e. did me eminent fervice." 8 Dr. Johnfon explains this expreffion thus: "The comma is the note of connection and continuity of fentences; the period is the note of abruption and disjunction. Shakspeare had it perhaps in his mind to write, That unless England complied with the mandate, war fhould put a period to their amity; he altered his mode of diction, and thought that, in an oppofite fenfe, he might put, that Peace fhould ftand a comma between their amities. This (he adds) is not an eafy file; but is it not the ftile of Shakspeare ?" 9 A changing is a child which the fairies are fuppofed to leave in the room of that which they steal. 10 Inhauation, for corruptly obtruding themfelves into his fervice. 7 |