of land, with his statutes,(14) his recognizances, his fines, his double vouchers, his recoveries:(15) 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 purchases, and double ones too, than the length and breadth of a pair of indentures? The very conveyances of his lands will hardly lie in this box; and must the inheritor himself have no more? ha? HOR. Not a jot more, my lord. HAM. Is not parchment made of sheep-skins? HAM. They are sheep, and calves, which seek out assurance(16) in that. I will speak to this fellow :(17)— Whose grave's this, sir ?+ 1 Czo. Mine, sir. 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. a is this the fine of his fines] i. e. the end of, or utmost attained by, the operation of all this legal machinery. b vouch him no more] i. e. answer for, or assure him. c I think it be thine] Lowth here pronounces the use of the auxiliary verb in this time and mode "wholly obsolete." Gram. p. 55. 1763. It is however at this hour the vulgar tongue, and Hamlet was familiarly conversing with those of that class in their own dialect: neither is it ungrammatical: as it is conceived, that that understood makes it the subjunctive mode. must the honor lie there? 1603. + sirra. 4tos. 1 Czo. 'Tis a quick lie, sir; 'twill away again, from me to you. HÂм. What man dost thou dig it for? 1 CLO. For no man, sir. 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 soul, she's dead. a HAM. How absolute the knave is! we must speak by the card, (18) or equivocation will undo us. By the lord, Horatio, these three years I have taken note of it; the age is grown so picked,(19) that the toe of the peasant comes so near the heel So 4tos. of the courtier, he galls his kibe.-How long hast thou been a grave-maker? & 1603. our. 1623, 32. 1 Czo. 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 + So 4tos. born :(20) he that is mad, and sent into England. Hлм. Ay, marry, why was he sent into Eng that's mad. 1603. was. 1623, 32. land? 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. HAM. How strangely? 1 Czo. 'Faith, e'en with losing his wits. a How absolute the knave is] i. e. peremptory, strictly and tyrannously precise. HAM. Upon what ground? 1 CLO. Why, here in Denmark. I have been sexton here, man and boy, thirty years. * So 4tos. sixeteene. HAM, How long will a man lie i'the earth ere he 1623. rot? 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),(21) he will last you some eight year, or nine year: a tanner will last you nine year. HAM. Why he more than other? sexestone. 1632. 1 CLO. Why, sir, his hide is so tanned with his trade, that he will keep out water a great while ; and your water is a sore decayer of your whoreson + a parlous dead body. Here's a scull now: this scull has lain devourer of in the earth three-and-twenty years. (22) do HAM. Whose was it? 1 CLO. A whoreson mad fellow's it was; Whose you think it was? HAM. Nay, I know not. 1 Czo. A pestilence on him for a mad rogue! (23) 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. -a great soaker. 1603. + So 4tos. and to see, now they abhorre how ab tion is. HAM. Let me see.-Alas, poor Yorick! I knew (his lips) him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jest, of most me. 4to. excellent fancy: he hath borne me on his back a 1603. and thousand times; and [now] how abhorred in my horred my imagination it is! my gorge rises at it.(24) Here imaginahung those lips, that I have kissed I know not how 1623, 32. oft. Where be your gibes now? your gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment, that were So 4tos. wont to set the table on a roar? Not § one now, to 32. mock your own jeering? || quite chap-fallen? Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her grinning. L No. 1623, 4tos. Imperious. 4tos. & 1603. 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? HAM. Dost thou think, Alexander looked o'this fashion i'the earth? HOR. E'en so. HAM. And smelt so? pah! HOR. E'en so, my lord. [Throws down the Scull. 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? 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? Imperial Cæsar, dead, and turn'd to clay, Might stop a hole to keep the wind away: O, that the earth, which kept the world in awe, Should patch a wall to expel the winter's flaw!(25) + awhile. But soft! but soft! aside; Here comes the king, 4tos. favour] i. e. features or character of countenance, and that graceful or pleasing; being rendered "beauty" by Baret. Alv. We cannot trace it from any other origin than the Latin, favor, i. e. grace or countenance; and are confirmed in this by Minshieu, who says, a favour or countenance, a Lat. favore, qui ex vultu facile cognoscitur." We may observe also, that in few of our own early dictionaries is it to be found in this sense, and in Skinner not at all. "I doubt not to call him father, the child favours him so much." Pemble's Brief Introduct. to Geography. To the reader. 4to. 1630. See M. N. Dr. I. 1. Helena. b 'Twere to consider too curiously] i. e. be pressing the argument with too much critical nicety, to dwell upon mere possibilities. See Tam. of Shr. IV. 4. Pedant. Enter Priests, &c. in Procession; the Corpse of 1632 is't, that. The queen, the courtiers: Who is that they follow? this. 4tos. [Retiring with HORATIO. LAER. What ceremony else? HAM. A very noble youth: Mark. LAER. What ceremony else? That is Laertes, 1 PRIEST. Her obsequies have been as far en- As we have warranties: Her death was doubtful Yet here she is allowed her virgin rites,(27) a maimed rites] i. e. curtailed, imperfect. b Fordo its own life] i. e. destroy: more strictly, it is overcome, overwhelm. As M. N. Dr. V. 2. Puck: but see III. H. VI. II. 3. Warw. For is intensive. Tyrwh. Gloss. to Chaucer, and according to Skinner ultra or præter. Steevens cites Acolastus, 1549. "Wold to God it might be leful for me to fordoo myself, or to make an end of me." 'Twas some estate] i. e. high personage, of rank or station. As, "your greatness and this noble state." Tr. and Cr. I. 3. Patrocl. d command o'ersways the order] i. e. the course, which ecclesiastical rules prescribe. maiden strewments-bringing home of bell and burial] i. e. conveying to her last home with these accustomed forms of the + was of. 4tos. |