Wee'le make a folemne wager on your cunnings,
I hau't*, when in your motion you are hote and dry,
As make your bouts more violent to that end,
And that he calls for drinke, Ile haue preferd him
A challice for the once t, whercon but fipping,
If he by chance escape your venom'd stucke,
Our purpose may hold there; but ftay, what noyfe?

Enter queene..

Quee. One woe doth tread vpon anothers heele, So faft they follow; your fifters drownd Laertes. Laer. Drown'd, O where?

Quee. There is a willow growes afcaunt the brooke,
That showes his hoary leaues in the glaffy streame,
There with fantaftique garlands did the make

Of crowflowers, nettles, dafies, and long purples
That liberall fhepheards giue a groffer name,

But our cull-cold maydes doe dead mens fingers call them.
There on the pendant boughes her coronet weeds
Clambring to hang, an enuious fluer broke,
When down her weedy trophes and her felfe,

Fell in the weeping brooke, her clothes fpred wide,
And mermaide-like a while they bore her vp,
Which time the chaunted fnatches of old laudes,
As one incapable of her owne diftreffe.

Or like a creature, natiue and indewed
Vnto that element, but long it could not be
Till that her garments heauy with their drinke,
Puld the poore wench § from her melodious lay
To muddy death.

Laer. Alas then is fhe drownd.

Quee. Drownd, drownd.

*bate.

nonce.

cronet. § wretch.

Lar.

1

Lar. Too much of water haft thou poorc Ophelia, And therefore I forbid my teares; but yet

It is our tricke, nature her custome holds,

Let fhame fay what it will, when these are gone,
The woman will be out. Adiew my lord,

I haue a speech a fire that faine would blase,
But that this folly drownes it.

King. Lets follow Gertrard.

How much I had to doe to calme his

Exit.

rage,

Exeunt.

Now feare I this will giue it ftart againe.
Therefore lets follow.

Enter two clownes.

Clowne. Is fhe to be buried in christian buriall, when she wilfully feekes her owne faluation?

Other. I tell thee fhe is, therfore make her graue ftraight, the crowner hath fate on her, and finds it christian buriall. Clow. How can that be, vnleffe fhe drown'd herselfe in her owne defence.

Oth. Why tis found fo.

Clow. It must be fo offended, it cannot be elfe, for heere lyes the poynt, if I drowne my felfe wittingly, it argues an act, and an act hath three branches, it is to act, to doe, to performe, or all; fhe drownd her felfe wittingly.

Oth. Nay, but heare you good man deluer.

Clow. Giue me leaue, here lies the water, good, here stands the man, good, if the man goe to this water and drowne himfelfe, it is will he, nill he, he goes, marke you that, but if the water come to him, and drowne him, he drownes not himfelfe, argall, he that is not guilty of his owne death, fhortens not his owne life.

Oth. But is this law?

Clow. I marry i'ft, crowners queft law.

Qth.

Oth. Will you ha the truth an't, if this had not beene a gentlewoman, fhe fhould haue bin buried out a chriftian buriall.

Clow. Why there thou fayft, and the more pitty that great folke fhould haue countenance in this world to drown or hang themfelues, more then their euen chriften: come my fpade, there is no ancient gentlemen but gardners, ditchers, and graue-makers, they hold vp Adams profeffion.

Oth. Was he a gentleman?

Clow. A was the firft that euer bore armes.

Ile put another question to thee, if thou answereft me not to the purpose, confeffe thy felfe.

Oth Goe to.

Clow. What is he that builds stronger then either the ma fon, the fhipwright, or the carpenter.

Oth. The gallowes-maker, for that out-liues a thousand

tennants.

Clow. I like thy wit well in good faith, the gallowes dooes well, but how dooes it well? it dooes well to thofe that do ill, now thou dooft ill to say the gallowes is built stronger then the church, argal, the gallowes may doe well to thee. Too't againe, come.

Other. Who buildes ftronger then a mason, a fhipwright, or a carpenter.

Clow. I, tell me that and vnyoke.

Oth. Marry now I can tell.

Oth. Too't.

Clow. Maffe I cannot tell.

Clow. Cudgell thy braines no more about it, for your đulj asse will not mend his pace with beating, and when you are afkt this question next, fay a graue-maker, the houses he makes laft tell doomesday.

Goe get thee in and fetch me a foope of liquer.

SONG.

SONG.

In youth when I did loue did loue,
Me thought it was very sweet

To contract O the time for a my behoue,

O me thought there a was nothing a meet.

Enter Hamlet and Horatio..

Ham. Has this fellow no feeling of his bufines? a fings in graue-making.

Hora. Cuftome hath made it in him a property of eafines. Ha. Tis een fo, the hand of little imploiment hath the daintier fence.

SONG.

Clow. But age with his stealing steppes
Hath clawed mee in his clutch,
And hath fhipped me into the land,

As if I had neuer beene fuch.

Ham. That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing once, how the knaue iowles it to the ground, as if twere Caines iawbone, that did the firft murder: this might be the pate of a polliticia, which this affe now ore-reaches, one that would circumuent God, might it not?

Hora. It might my lord.

Ham. Or of a courtier, which could fay good morrow my lord: how dost thou fweet lord? this might be my lord fuch a one, that praised my lord fuch a ones horfe whe a ment † to beg it might it not?

Hora. I my lord.

Ham. Why een fo, and now my lady wormes choples, and knockt about the mazer § with a fextens fpade; heer's fine reuolution and we had the trick to fee't, did these bones coft no more the breeding, but to play at loggits with them: mine ake to thinke ont. Smalene.

* fweet. event.

SONG.

SONG.

Clow. A pickax and a spade a spade, for and a fhrowding sheet,

Or a pit of clay for to be made

for fuch a gueft is meet.

Ham. There's another, why may not that be the skull of a lawyer? where be his quiddities now, his quillities, his cafes, his tenurs, and his trickes? why dooes he fuffer this mad knaue now to knock him about the fconce with a durty fhouell, 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 recognifances, his fines, his double vouchers, his recoueries, to haue his fine pate full of fine durt: will vouchers vouch him no more of his purchases and doubles then the length and breadth of a payre of indentures? the vety conueyances of his lands will fcarcely lye in this box, and muft th'inheritor himfelfe haue no more? ha.

Hora. Not a iot more my lord.

Ham. Is not parchment made of fheepe-fkinnes?
Hora. I my lord, and of calue-fkinnes too.

Ham. They are sheepe and calues which feeke out affurance in that, I will fpeake to this fellow. Whose graue's this firra?

Clow. Mine fir, or a pit of clay for to be made.

Ham. I thinke it be thine indeede for thou lyeft in't. Clow. You lye out ont fir, and therefore tis not yours; for my part I doe not lye in't, yet it is mine.

Ham. Thou doft lye in't to be in't and fay it is thine, tis for the dead, not for the quicke, therefore thou lyeft.

Clow. Tis a quicke lye fir, twill away againe from me to you. Ham. What man doft thou digge it for?

Clow. For no man fir.

Ham.