1st Clo. Mine, sir.

Sings.

O, a pit of clay for to be made

For such a guest is meet.

Ham. I think it be thine, indeed; for thou liest in 't.

1st Clo. You lie out on 't, sir, and therefore it is not yours: for my part, I do not lie in 't, yet it

1st Clo. 'Faith e'en with losing his wits.
Ham. Upon what ground?

1st 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?

1st 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 and Ham. Thou dost lie in 't, to be in 't, last it say year. is thine: 't is for the dead, and not for the quick; therefore thou liest.

is mine.

you

nine

Ham. Why he more than another?

1st Clo. Why, sir, his hide is so tanned with

1st Clo. 'Tis a quick lie, sir; 't will away again, his trade, that he will keep out water a great

from me to you.

Ham. What man dost thou dig it for?

1st Clo. For no man, sir.

Ham. What woman then?

1st Clo. For none, neither.

Ham. Who is to be buried in 't?

1st 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 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?

1st Clo. Of all the days i' the year, I came to 't that day that our last king Hamlet overcame For

tinbras.

Ham. How long is that since?

while; and your water is a sore decayer of your whoreson dead body. Here's a skull now hath lain you i' the earth three-and-twenty years.

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 chapfaln? Now get you to

1st 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 Eng- my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint an land?

1st Clo. Why, because he was mad: he shall recover his wits there; or if he do not, 't is no great matter there.

Ham. Why?

inch thick, to this favor she must come: make her laugh at that.-Pr'y thee, Horatio, tell me one thing.

Hor. What's that, my lord?

Ham. Dost thou think Alexander looked o' this

1st Clo. 'T will not be seen in him there; there fashion i' the earth?

the men are as mad as he.

Ham. How came he mad?

1st Clo. Very strangely they say.

Ham. How strangely?

Hor. E'en so.

Ham. And smelt so? pah!

Hor. E'en so, my lord.

[Throws down the skull.

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?

And from her fair and unpolluted flesh
May violets spring!—I tell thee, churlish priest,
A ministering angel shall my sister be,

Hor. 'T were to consider too curiously, to con- When thou liest howling.
sider so.
Ham.

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?

Imperial Cæsar, dead, and turned to clay,
Might stop a hole to keep the wind away :
O, that that earth which kept the world in awe,
Should patch a wall to expel the winter's flaw!
But soft; but soft! aside:- here comes the king,

Enter Priests, &c., in procession; the corpse of
OPHELIA; LAERTES, and Mourners, following;
KING, QUEEN, their Trains, &c.

The
queen, the courtiers who is this they follow?
And with such maiméd rites! This doth betoken,
The corse they follow did with desperate hand
Foredo its own life. 'T was of some estate:
Couch we awhile, and mark.

What, the fair Ophelia !

Queen. Sweets to the sweet: farewell!

[Scattering flowers.

Fall ten times treble on that curséd head
Whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense
Deprived thee of! - Hold off the earth awhile,
Till I have caught her once more in mine arms:
[Leaps into the grave.

Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead;
Till of this flat a mountain you have made
To o'ertop old Pelion, or the skyish head
Of blue Olympus.

Ham. [advancing]. What is he whose grief
Bears such an emphasis? whose phrase of sorrow
Conjures the wondering stars, and makes them
stand

Like wonder-wounded hearers? This is I,
[Retiring with Horatio. Hamlet the Dane.
Laer.

Laer. What ceremony else?
Ham.

That is Laertes,

A very noble youth mark.

Laer. What ceremony else?

[Leaps into the grave. The devil take thy soul! [Grappling with him.

Ham. Thou pray'st not well.

I pr' thee take thy fingers from my throat;

1st Priest. Her obsequies have been as far en- For though I am not splenetive and rash,

larged

As we have warranty: her death was doubtful;
And, but that great command o'ersways the order,
She should in ground unsanctified have lodged
Till the last trumpet; for charitable prayers,
Shards, flints, and pebbles, should be thrown on
her;

Yet here she is allowed her virgin crants,
Her maiden strewments, and the bringing home
Of bell and buriai.

Laer. Must there no more be done?
1st Priest. No more be done!

We should profane the service of the dead,
To sing a requiem, and such rest to her
As to peace-parted souls.

I'll do 't: I'll do 't. - Dost thou come here to Rough-hew them how we will.

-- whine?

To outface me with leaping in her grave?

Be buried quick with her, and so will I:
And, if thou prate of mountains, let them throw
Millions of acres upon us; till our ground,
Singeing his pate against the burning zone,

Hor.

That is most certain.

Ham. Up from my cabin,

My sea-gown scarfed about me, in the dark
Groped I to find out them: had my desire;
Fingered their packet; and, in fine, withdrew
To mine own room again: making so bold,

Make Ossa like a wart!-Nay, an thou 'lt My fears forgetting manners, to unseal

What is the reason that you use me thus?
I loved you ever.
But it is no matter;

Let Hercules himself do what he may,
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 push.
Good Gertrude, set some watch over your son.—
This grave shall have a living monument:
An hour of quiet shortly shall we see;

Till then, in patience our proceeding be. [Exeunt.

SCENE II. A Hall in the Castle.

Enter HAMLET and HORATIO.

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,
Ere I could make a prologue to my brains,
They had begun the play :—I sat me down;
Devised a new commission; wrote it fair:
I once did hold it, as our statists do,
A baseness to write fair, and labored much
How to forget that learning; but, sir, now
It did me yeoman's service. Wilt thou know
The effect of what I wrote?

Ham. An earnest conjuration from the king, As England was his faithful tributary;

As love between them like the palm might flourish;

Ham. So much for this, sir: now shall you see As peace should still her wheaten garland wear,

the other;

You do remember all the circumstance?

Hor. Remember it, my lord?

And stand a comma 'tween their amities;
And many such like "As's" of great charge,
That, on the view and knowing of these contents,

Ham. Sir, in my heart there was a kind of Without debatement further, more or less,

fighting,

That would not let me sleep: methought I lay

He should the bearers put to sudden death,

Not shriving-time allowed.

Subscribed it; gav 't the impression; placed it fertile: let a beast be lord of beasts, and his crib safely, shall stand at the king's mess. 'Tis a chough;

The changeling never known. Now, the next but, as I say, spacious in the possession of dirt.

day

Was our sea-fight: and what to this was sequent
Thou know'st already.

Hor. So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to 't.
Ham. Why, man, they did make love to this
employment,

They are not near my conscience; their defeat
Does by their own insinuation grow:

"T is dangerous, when the baser nature comes
Between the pass and fell incensed poins

Of mighty opposites.

Hor.

Why, what a king is this!

Ham. Does it not, think thee, stand me now upon?

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; 't is for the head.

Osr. I thank your lordship, 't is very hot. Ham. No, believe me, 't is 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 sultry,as 't were, I cannot tell how. My lord, his He, that hath killed my king, and whored my majesty bade me signify to you, that he has laid

mother;

Popped in between the election and my hopes;
Thrown out his angle for my proper life,
And with such cozenage; is 't not perfect con-
science

a great wager on your head: sir, this is the mat

ter,

Ham. I beseech you, remember ·

[HAMLET moves him to put on his hat. Osr. Nay, good my lord; for my ease, in good

To quit him with this arm? and is 't not to be faith. Sir, here is newly come to court, Laertes :

damned,

To let this canker of our nature come

In further evil?

believe me, an absolute gentleman, full of most excellent differences, of very soft society, and great showing: indeed, to speak freely of him, he

Hor. It must be shortly known to him from is the card or calendar of gentry, for you shall find in him the continent of what part a gentleman would see.

England

What is the issue of the business there.

Ham. It will be short: the interim is mine;
And a man's life 's 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 favors:
But sure the bravery of his grief did put me
Into a towering passion.
Hor.

who comes here?

Peace;

Enter OSRIC.

-

Ham, Sir, his 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 is 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

Osr. Your lordship is right welcome back to the gentleman in our more rawer breath? Denmark.

Osr. Sir?

Ham. What imports the nomination of this with me: let the foils be brought, the gentleman gentleman?

willing, and the king hold his purpose, I will win for him, if I can; if not, I will gain nothing but

Hor. His purse is empty already; all his my shame, and the odd hits.