And gave you such a masterly report,
For art and exercise in your defence,
And for your rapier most especial,

That he cried out, 'twould be a sight indeed,
If one could match you :

This report of his

Did Hamlet so envenom with his envy,

That he could nothing do, but wish and beg
Your sudden coming o'er, to play with you.
Now, out of this,-

Laer. What out of this, my lord?

King. Laertes, was your father dear to you?
Or are you like the painting of a sorrow,
A face without a heart?

Laer. Why ask you this?

King. Hamlet comes back-what would you
undertake,

To shew yourself in deed your father's son
More than in words?

Laer. To cut his throat i' the church.

King. No place, indeed, should murder sanctuarise. Hamlet, return'd, shall know you are come home: We'll put on those shall praise your excellence, And set a double varnish on the fame

The Frenchman gave you; bring you, in fine, to gether,

And wager o'er your
heads: he, being remiss,
Most generous, and free from all contriving,
Will not peruse the foils; so that, with ease,
Or with a little shuffling, you may choose
A sword unbated, and, in a pass of practice,
Requite him for your father.

Laer. I will do't:

And, for the purpose, I'll anoint my sword.
I bought an unction of a mountebank,
So mortal, that, but dip a knife in it,
Where it draws blood, no cataplasm so rare,

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.

[Exeunt.

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

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 sat 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 has 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 would 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 gentleman 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 ine 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 asked 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 2d 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 behove,
O methought there was nothing so 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 bcen 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.