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.

King. Let's further think of this :—
We'll make a solemn wager on your cunnings;
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 preferr'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? Enter QUEEN.

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 shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream;
There with fantastic garlands did she come
Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples;
There on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds
Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke;
When down her weedy trophies, and herself,
Fell in the weeping brook.

Laer. I forbid my tears: But yet
It is our trick; nature her custom holds,
Let shame say what it will.-
Adieu, my lord!

I have a speech of fire, that fain would blaze,
But that this folly drowns it.

[Exit LAERTES.

King. How much I had to do to calm his rage! Now fear I, this will give it start again. [Exeunt.

ACT THE FIFTH.

SCENE I.

A Churchyard.

Enter two GRAVEDIGGERS.

1. Graved. Is she to be buried in christian burial, that wilfully seeks her own salvation?

2 Graved. I tell thee, she is; therefore, make her grave straight: the crowner hath set on her, and finds it christian burial.

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

2 Graved. Why, 'tis found so.

1 Graved. 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 Graved. Nay, but hear you, goodman delver;— 1 Graved. 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 Graved. But is this law?

1 Graved. Ay, marry is't; crowner's-quest law.

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

2 Graved. Was he a gentleman?

1 Graved. He was the first that ever bore arms. I'll put a question to thee: if thou answer'st me not to the purpose, confess thyself

2 Graved. Go to.

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

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

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

i Graved. Ay, tell me that, and unyoke.
2 Graved. Marry, now I can tell.
1 Graved. To't.
2 Graved. Mass, I cannot tell.

Enter Hamlet and HORATIO, at a Distance.

1 Graved. 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 Second GRAVEDIGGER. The GRAVEDIGGER digs and sings.

In youth when I did love, did love,

Methought, it was very sweet,
To contract, 0, the time, for, ah, my belove,

O, methought, there was nothing meet.

Ham. Has this fellow no feeling of his business? He sings in grave-making.

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.

GRAVEDIGGER sings.

But age, with his stealing steps, ,

Hath claw'd me in his clutch,
And hath shipp'd me into the land,
As if I had never been such.

[Throws up a Scull.

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 over-reaches; one that would circumvent Heaven, might it not? [The GRAVEDIGGER throws

up

Bones. Hor. It might, my lord.

Ham. Did these bones cost no more the breeding, but to play at loggats with them? mine ache to think on't.

GRAVEDIGGER sings.

A pick-are and a spade, a spade,

For—and a shrouding sheet ; 0, a pit of clay for to be made For such a guest is meet.

[Throws up another Scull.

Ham. There's another: Why may not that be the scull of a lawyer ? Where be his quiddits now, his quillets, his cases, his tenures, and his tricks? why does he suffer this rude knave now to knock him about the sconce with a dirty shovel, and will not tell him of his action of battery!- I will speak to this fellow: -Whose grave's this, sirrah? Graved. Mine, sir,

Sings.
0, 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 it.

Graved. 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 dos't lie in't, to be in't, and say, it is thine: 'tis for the dead, not for the quick; therefore thou liest.

Graved. 'Tis a quick lie, sir; 'twill away again, from me to you.

Ham. What man dost thou dig it for?
Graced. For no man, sir.