Is, the great love the general gender1 bear him: Laer. And so have I a noble father lost; That we are made of stuff so flat and dull, And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine,— Mess. Enter a Messenger. Letters, my lord, from Hamlet: This to your majesty; this to the queen. King. From Hamlet! who brought them? Mess. Sailors, my lord, they say: saw them not; They were given me by Claudio; he receiv'd them Of him that brought them. King. Leave us. Laertes, you shall hear them:[Exit Messenger. [Reads.] High and mighty, you shall know, am set naked on your kingdom. To-morrow shall I beg leave to see your kingly eyes; when I shall, first asking your pardon thereunto, recount the occasion my sudden and more strange return. Hamlet. As did that one; and that, in my regard, Of the unworthiest siege.4 Laer. What part is that, my lord? King. A very ribband in the cap of youth, Yet needful too; for youth no less becomes 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, I have seen myself, and serv'd against, the French, Laer. King. A Norman. Laer. King. A Norman, was't? Upon my life, Lamord. The very same. Laer. I know him well: he is the brooch,5 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.6 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, He swore, had neither motion, guard, nor eye, 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, face without a heart? What should this mean? Are all the rest come back? Laer. I am lost in it, my lord. But let him come; As how should it be so? how otherwise?Will you be rul'd by me? Laer. Ay, my lord; As checking at his voyage, and that he means Laer. King. Laer. But that I know, love is begun by time; And hath abatements and delays as many, arize: Revenge should have no bounds. But, good Laertes, Will you do this, keep close within your chamber: Hamlet, return'd, shall know you are come home: We'll put on those shall praise your excellence, And set a double varnish on the fame The Frenchman gave you; bring you, in fine, to-I have a speech of fire, that fain would blaze, gether, But that this folly drowns it. generous, And wager o'er your heads: he, being remiss, Laer. I will do't: And, for the purpose, I'll anoint my sword. I bought an unction of a mountebank, So mortal, that but dip a knife in it, Where it draws blood no cataplasm so rare, 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. "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 brook, That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream; There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds And, mermaid-like, a while they bore her up: Unto that element: but long it could not be, Alas then, she is 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.11-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. [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. ACT V. [Exeunt. 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 even13 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 either 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 shipwright, or a carpenter? I Clo. Ay, tell me that, and unyoke.14 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,1 To contract, O, the time, for, ah, my behove, 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, Hath claw'd me in his clutch, 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? Ham. 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 [Throws up a scull.soul, she's dead. 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. Ham. Or of a courtier; which would say, Goodmorrow, sweet lord! How 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 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 loggats2 with them? mine ache to think on't. 1 Clo. A pick-axe, and a spade, a spade, [Sings. For-and a shrouding sheet: 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 is 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 men are as mad as he. 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 he rot? O, a pit of clay for to be made For such a guest is meet. [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,4 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 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 1 Clo. Why, sir, his hide is so tanned with his him no more of his purchases, and double ones trade, that he will keep out water a great while; too, than the length and breadth of a pair of in-and your water is a sore decayer of your whoreson dentures? The very conveyances of his lands will dead body. Here's a scull now hath lain you i'the hardly lie in this box; and must the inheritor him-earth three-and-twenty years. self 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. 1 Clo. 'Faith, if he be not rotten before he die (as we have many pocky corses now-a-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? Ham. Whose was it? 1 Clo. A pestilence on him for a mad rogue! he poured a flagon of Rhenish on my head once. This same scull, sir, was Yorick's scull, the king's jester. Ham. This? 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 kiss'd 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? | We should profane the service of the dead, Laer. Lay her i'the earth;— Ham. 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? Imperious2 Cæsar, dead, and turn'd to clay, The queen, the courtiers: Who is this they follow? [Retiring with Horatio. A very noble youth: Mark. Laer. What ceremony else? That is Laertes, [Leaps into the grave. Now pile your dust upon the quick 10 and dead; Till of this flat a mountain you have made 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; All. Gentlemen,- Hamlet, Hamlet! Good my lord, be quiet. [The Attendants part them, and they come 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? (9) A mass for the dead. This is mere madness: (10) Living. (11) Eisel is vinegar; but Mr. Steevens conjectures the word should be Weisel, a river which falls into the Baltic ocean, Hear you, sir; [Exit. King. I pray thee, good Horatio, wait upon We'll put the matter to the present push.- let and Horatio. Enter Ham 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 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. upon? He 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. 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, 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; Peace; who comes here? Osr. Your lordship is right welcome back to Denmark. Ham. I humbly thank you, sir.-Dost know this water-fly ?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;17 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. |