HAM. How long will a man lie i' the earth ere he 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,) he will last you some eight year, or nine year: a tanner will last you nine year. HAM. Why he more than another? 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 dead body. Here's a scull now: this scull has lain in the earth three-andtwenty years. HAM. Whose was it? 1 CLO. A whoreson mad fellow's it was; Whose do you think it was? HAM. Nay, I know not. 1 CLO. A pestilence on him for a mad rogue! a poured a flagon of Rhenish on my head once. This same scull, sir; this same scull, sirb, was Yorick's scull, the king's jester. HAM. This? 1 CLO. E'en that. HAM. Let me see. [Takes the scull.] 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 my imagination 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 jeeringe? 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.-Prithee, 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? puh! HOR. E'en so, my lord. [Puts 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 bung-hole? HOR. T were 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 into 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? So the folio. The quartos read, "Here's a scull now hath lyen you i' the earth," &c. • Let me see, is not in the quartos. It supersedes the stage-direction of "takes the scull." 4 So the folio. The reading of the quarto (B) is, "and how abhorred in my imagination it is." Abhorred is used in the sense of disgusted. Jeering, in the folio; in the quartos, grinning. Imperiala Cæsar 28, dead and turn'd to clay, O, that that earth, which kept the world in awe, Enter Priests, &c., in procession; the corpse of OPHELIA, LAERTES and Mourners following; KING, QUEEN, their Trains, &c. The queen, the courtiers: Who is that they follow? Couch we a while, and mark. This is Laertes, A very noble youth: Mark. 1 PRIEST. Her obsequies have been as far enlarg'd [Retiring with HORATIO. Shards, flints, and pebbles, should be thrown on her, Her maiden strewments, and the bringing home LAER. Must there no more be done? Order-rule, canon, of ecclesiastical authority. • For charitable prayers-instead of charitable prayers. a Shards. A shard is a thing shared-divided. rubbish. Shards are therefore fragments of ware Rites. So the folio. The reading of the quarto, which is usually followed, is crants, which means garlands. But the "maiden strewments" are the flowers, the garlands, which piety scatters over the bier of the young and innocent. The rites included these, and "the bringing home of bell and burial"-with bell and burial. f Sage requiem, in the folio; in the quartos, a requiem. Sage is said to be used for grave, solemn We suspect some corruption. When thou liest howling. HAM. What, the fair Ophelia ! I hop'd thou shouldst have been my Hamlet's wife; LAER. O, treble woe HAM. [Advancing.] What is he, whose grief Bears such an emphasis? whose phrase of sorrow [Scattering flowers. [Leaps into the grave. [Leaps into the grave. [Grappling with him. [The Attendants part them, and they come out of the grave. HAM. Why, I will fight with him upon this theme, Until my eyelids will no longer wag. QUEEN. O my son! what theme? HAM. I lov'd Ophelia; forty thousand brothers Could not, with all their quantity of love, Make up my sum.-What wilt thou do for her? KING. O, he is mad, Laertes. QUEEN. For love of God, forbear him. HAM. Come, show me what thou 'lt do: Woul't weep? woul't fight? [woul't fast?] woul't tear thyself? a Something in me. So the folio; the quartos, in me something. Wiseness, in the folio; in the quartos, wisdom. Away, in the folio; in the quartos, hold off. In the folio, this entreaty is given to Horatio; and "Gentlemen" is ejaculated by All. I'll do 't. - Dost thou come here to whine? Make Ossa like a wart! I'll rant as well as thou. b QUEEN. Nay, an thou 'lt mouth, This is mere madness: And thus a while the fit will work on him; When that her golden couplets are disclos'd, HAM. Hear you, sir; I lov'd you ever: But it is no matter; The cat will mew, and dog will have his day. An hour of quiet shortly shall we see; Till then, in patience our proceeding be. [Exit. [Exit HORATIO. [TO LAERTES. [Exeunt. SCENE II.-A Hall in the Castle. Enter HAMLET and HORATIO. с HAM. So much for this, sir: now let me see the other; You do remember all the circumstance? HOR. Remember it, my lord? HAM. Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting, a Quick-alive. In the folio, this speech is given to the King; in the quartos, to the Queen. We think that the assignment in the folio of so beautiful and tender an image as that of "the female dove" to a man drawn by the poet as a coarse sensualist proceeds from a typographical error, which not unfrequently occurs. Let me, in the folio; in the quartos, shall you. d Mutines-mutineers. • Bilboes-a bar of iron with fetters attached to it. Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well, a When our dear plots do pall; and that should teach us, Rough-hew them how we will 31. HOR. HAM. Up from my cabin, That is most certain. My sea-gown scarf'd about me, in the dark Larded with many several sorts of reason, HOR. Is 't possible? HAM. Here's the commission; read it at more leisure. But wilt thou hear me how I did proceed? HOR. Ay, 'beseech you. HAM. Being thus benetted round with villains, Ere I could make a prologue to my brains, HOR. Ay, good my lord. HAM. An earnest conjuration from the king,— As England was his faithful tributary; As love between them as the palm should flourish; a Dear, in the folio; in the quartos, deep. Caldecott explains this-" continue the passage or intercourse of amity between them, and prevent the interposition of a period to it." |