That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,

But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them :
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. Her clothes spread wide,
And mermaid-like a while they bore her up:
Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes,
As one incapable of her own distress,
Or like a creature native and indued

Unto that element: but long it could not be
Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay
To muddy death.

LAER.

Alas, then she is drown'd!

QUEEN. Drown'd, drown'd.

LAER. Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia, And therefore I forbid my tears: but yet

It is our trick; nature her custom holds,

Let shame say what it will: when these are gone,
The woman will be out. Adieu, my lord:

171 liberal] licentious.

174 sliver] slip, split branch.

178 tunes] Thus the First Quarto and the Folios. The other Quartos read laudes, i. e., psalms.

179 incapable] insensible.

180 native and indued] congenital and inured. Cf. I, ii, 47, supra:

"more native to the heart."

188 our trick] our habit.

189-190 when these are gone... out] When these tears are shed, I shall have overcome my womanish weakness. Cf. Hen. V, IV, vi, 31: "all my mother came into my eyes."

180

190

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

KING.

[Exit.

Let's follow, Gertrude:

How much I had to do to calm his rage!
Now fear I this will give it start again;
Therefore let's follow.

[Exeunt.

192 douts] extinguishes. Knight's emendation of the First Folio reading doubts. The Quartos and later Folios have drowns.

S SHE TO BE BURIED in Christian burial that wilfully seeks her own salvation?

SEC. CLO. I tell thee she is; and therefore make her grave straight: the crowner hath sat on her, and finds it Christian burial.

FIRST CLO. How can that be, unless she drowned herself in her own defence?

So.

SEC. CLO. Why, 't is found

FIRST CLO. It must be "se offendendo;" it cannot be else. For here lies the point: if I drown myself wittingly,

2 salvation] blunder for "damnation" or "destruction."

4 straight] immediately, without delay.

crowner] coroner.

it

argues an act: and an act hath three branches; it is, to act, to do, and to perform: argal, she drowned herself wittingly.

SEC. CLO. Nay, but hear you, goodman delver.

FIRST CLO. 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.

SEC. CLO. But is this law?

FIRST CLO. Ay, marry, is 't; crowner's quest law. SEC. CLO. Will you ha' the truth on 't? If this had not been a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out o' Christian burial.

FIRST CLO. Why, there thou say'st: and the more pity that great folk should have countenance in this world to drown or hang themselves, more than their even

9 se offendendo] blunder for "se defendendo," the jury's finding in justi fiable homicide.

12 argal] a colloquial perversion of "ergo," therefore. 22 crowner's quest law] the law governing coroner's inquests. The legal quibbling here has been held to parody a famous old case (Hales v. Petite, of 1561), fully reported in Plowden's contemporary Law Latin Reports, which investigated the conditions of the suicide, by drowning, of Sir James Hales, in which the act was subtly divided into three parts, and it was argued that "as Sir James Hales, being alive, caused Sir James Hales to die, therefore the act of the living man was the death of the dead man, for which the living man must be punished." The legal argument throughout is a "reductio ad absurdum."

26 there thou say'st] now you speak to the purpose.

28-29 even Christian] ordinary fellow Christian.

18

20

Christian. Come, my spade. There is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners, ditchers and grave-makers: they hold up Adam's profession.

SEC. CLO. Was he a gentleman ?

FIRST CLO. A' was the first that ever bore arms.
SEC. CLO. Why, he had none.

FIRST CLO. What, art a heathen? How dost thou understand the Scripture? The Scripture says Adam digged: could he dig without arms? I'll put another question to thee: if thou answerest me not to the purpose, confess thyself

SEC. CLO. Go to.

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

SEC. CLO. The gallows-maker; for that frame outlives a thousand tenants.

FIRST CLO. 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.

SEC. CLO. "Who builds stronger than a mason, a shipwright, or a carpenter?"

FIRST CLO. Ay, tell me that, and unyoke.
SEC. CLO. Marry, now I can tell.

FIRST CLO. To 't.

SEC. CLO. Mass, I cannot tell.

39 confess thyself] The first part of a vulgar catch phrase: "confess thyself and be hanged." Cf. Othello, IV, i, 38, 39: "confess and be hanged for his labour."

52 unyoke] unharness, finish your day's work.

31

40

49