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 indu'd
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,

4.9

SCENE I. A CHURCH-YARD.

Enter two clowns, with spades, &c.

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

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

1 Clo. How can that be, unless she drowned herself in her own defence?

2 Clo. Why, 'tis found so.

1 Clo. 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 Clo. Nay, but hear you, goodman delver. 1 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.

2 Clo. But is this law?

1 Clo. Ay, marry is't, crowner's-quest law. 2 Clo. Will you ha' the truth on't? If this had not been a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out of Christian burial.

1 Clo. Why, there thou say'st: and the more pity; that great folks shall 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 grave-makers; they hold up Adam's profession. 2 Clo. Was he a gentleman?

1 Clo. He was the first that ever bore arms. 2 Clo. Why he had none.

1 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— 2 Clo. Go to.

1 Clo. What is he, that builds stronger than either the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter? 2 Clo. The gallows-maker; for that frame outlives a thousand tenants.

1 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.

2 Clo. Mass, I cannot tell.

Enter Hamlet and Horatio, at a distance.

1 Clo. 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 2 Clown.

1 Clown digs, and sings.
In youth, when I did love, did love,
Methought, it was very sweet,

To contract, O, the time, for, ah, my behove,
O, methought, there was nothing meet.

Ham. Has this fellow no feeling of his business? he sings at 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.

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

1 Clo. You lie out ou'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.

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

Ham. 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.

Ham. How absolute the knave is! we must speak by the card, or equivocation will undo us. By the lord, Horatio, these three years I have taken note of it; the age is grown so picked, that the toe of the peasant comes so near the heel of the courtier, he galls his kibe.-How long hast thou been a grave-maker?

1 Clo. 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 born; he that is mad, and sent to England.

Ham. Ay, marry, why was he sent into England? 1 Clo. Why, because he was mad he shall recover his wits there; or, if he do not, 'tis no great Ham. Why? [matter there.

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 Clo. 'Faith, e'en with losing his wits.
Ham. Upon what ground?

1 Clo. Why, here in Denmark; I have been sexton here, man and boy, thirty years. [rot? Ham. How long will a man lie i'the earth ere he

and your water is a sore decayer of your whoreson dead body. Here's a scull now hath lain you i'the earth three-and-twenty years. Ham. Whose was it?

1 Clo. A whoreson mad fellow's it was. Whose do you think it was?

Where

Ham. 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 in my imagination it is my gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips, that I have kissed I know not how oft. be your gibes now? your gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table in a roar? Not one now, to mock your own grinning? 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.-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! [throws down the scull. Hor. E'en so, my lord.

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. '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?

Imperious 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! But soft! but soft! aside.-Here comes the king, Enter Priests, &c. in procession; the corpse of Ophelia; Laertes and mourners following King, Queen, their trains, &c.

The queen, the courtiers. Who is this they follow? And with such maimed rites! This doth betoken, The corse, they follow, did with desperate hand Foredo its own life. 'Twas of some estate Couch we a while and mark. [retiring with Horatio.

Laer. What ceremony else? Ham. That is Laertes, A very noble youth.-Mark.

Laer. What ceremony else?

1 Priest. Her obsequies have been as far enlarg'd As we have warranty: her death was doubtful; And, but that great command o'ersways the order; She should in ground unsanctified have lodg'd, Till the last trumpet; for charitable prayers, Shards, flints, and pebbles, should be thrown on Yet here she is allow'd her virgin crants, [her: Her maiden strewments, and the bringing home Of bell and burial.

Laer. Must there no more be done?
1 Priest. No more be done!

We should profane the service of the dead,
To sing a requiem, and such rest to her
As to peace-parted souls.

Laer. Lay her i'the earth;

And from her fair and unpolluted flesh,
May violets spring!-I tell thee, churlish priest,
A minist'ring angel shall my sister be,
When thou liest howling.

Ham. What, the fair Ophelia!
Queen. Sweets to the sweet. Farewell!

[scattering flowers.

I hop'd, thou shouldst have been my Hamlet's wife; I thought, thy bride-bed to have deck'd, sweet maid, And not have strew'd thy grave.

Laer. O, treble woe

Fall ten times treble on that cursed head,
Whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense
Depriv'd thee of! Hold off the earth awhile,
Till I have caught her once more in mine arms :
[leaps into the grave.
Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead;
Till of this flat a mountain you have made
To o'er-top old Pelion, or the skyish head
Of blue Olympus.

Ham. [advancing.] What is he, whose grief
Bears such an emphasis? whose phrase of sorrow
Conjures the wand'ring stars, and makes them stand
Like wonder-wounded hearers? this is I,
Hamlet the Dane.

[leaps into the grave. Laer. The devil take thy soul! [grappling with Ham. Thou pray'st not well. [him.

I pr'ythee, take thy fingers from my throat:
For, though I am not splenetive and rash,
Yet have I in me something dangerous,
Which let thy wisdom fear. Hold ff thy hand.
King. Pluck them asunder.
Queen. Hamlet, Hamlet!

[the attendants part them, and they come out of the Ham. Why, I will fight with him upon this Until my eyelids will no longer wag. [theme, 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. 'Zounds, show me what thou'lt do:-Woul't weep? woul't fight? woul't fast? woul't tear thyself?

Woul't drink up Esil? eat a crocodile ?
I'll do't.-Dost thou come here to whine?
To outface me with leaping in her grave?
Be buried quick with her, and so will I
And, if thou prate of mountains, let them throw
Millions of acres on us; till our ground,
Singeing his pate against the burning zone,
Make Ossa like a wart!-Nay, an thou'lt mouth.
I'll rant as well as thou.

Queen. This is mere madness:

And thus a while the fit will work on him;
Anon, as patient as the female dove,
When that her golden couplets are disclos'd,
His silence will sit drooping.

Ham. Hear you, sir;

What is the reason that you use me thus? I lov'd you ever: but it is no matter; Let Hercules himself do what he may, The cat will mew, and dog will have his day. [eric. King. I pray thee, good Horatio, wait upon [exit Horatio. Strengthen your patience in our last night's speech; [to Laertes.

him.

We'll put the matter to the present push.-
Good Gertrude, set some watch over your son.
This grave shall have a living monument:
An hour of quiet shortly shall we see

Till then, in patience our proceeding be. [exeunt.

SCENE II. A HALL IN THE CASTLE.

Enter Hamlet and Horatio. Ham. So much for this, sir: now shall you see the other;

You do remember all the circumstance?
Hor. Remember it, my lord!

[fighting,

Ham. Sir, in my heart there was a kind of That would not let me sleep; methought, I lay Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Rashly, And prais'd be rashness for it,-let us know Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well, When our deep plots do pall: and that should teach There's a divinity that shapes our ends Rough-hew them how we will. Hor. That is most certain. Ham. Up from my cabin,

[us,

My sea-gown scarf'd about me, in the dark
Grop'd I to find out them: had my desire;
Finger'd their packet; and, in fine, withdrew
To mine own room again: making so bold,
My fears forgetting manners, to unseal
Their grand commission; where I found, Horatio,
A royal knavery; an exact command,-
Larded with many several sorts of reasons,
Importing Denmark's health, and England's too
With ho! such bugs and goblins in my life,-
That, on the supervise, no leisure bated,
No, not to stay the grinding of the axe,
My head should be struck off.

Hor. Is't possible?

[leisure.

Ham. Here's the commission; read it at more But wilt thou hear now how I did proceed? Hor. Ay, 'beseech you.

Ham. Being thus benetted round with villanier Or I could make a prologue to my brains, They had begun the play:-I sat me down; Devis'd a new commission; wrote it fair: I once did hold it, as our statists do,

of spirit.

A baseness to write fair, and labour'd much
How to forget that learning; but, sir, now
It did me yeoman's service. Wilt thou know
The effect of what I wrote ?

Hor. Ay, good my lord.

Ham. An earnest conjuration from the king,As England was his faithful tributary;

As love between them, like the palm, might flourish;
As peace should still her wheaten garland wear,
And stand a comma 'tween their amities;
And many such like as`s of great charge,—
That, on the view and knowing of these contents,
Without debatement further, more or less,
He should the bearers put to sudden death,
Not shriving-time allow'd.

Hor. How was this seal'd?

Ham. Why, even in that was heaven ordinant; I had my father's signet in my purse, Which was the model of that Danish seal: Folded the writ up in form of the other; Subscrib'd it; gave't the impression; plac'd it safely, The changeling never known. Now, the next day Was our sea-fight; and what to this was sequent Thou know'st already.

Hor. So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to't. Ham. Why, man, they did make love to this employment;

They are not near my conscience; their defeat
Does by their own insinuation grow:

Tis dangerous, when the baser nature comes
Between the pass and fell incensed points
Of mighty opposites.

Hor. Why, what a king is this! [upon? Ham. Does it not, think thee, stand me now He that hath kill'd my king, and whor'd my mother; Popp'd in between the election and my hopes; Thrown out his angle for my proper life, [science, And with such cozenage; is't not perfect conTo quit him with this arm? and is't not to be To let this canker of our nature come [damn'd, In further evil?

Hor. It must be shortly known to him from
England,

What is the issue of the business there.

Ham. It will be short: the interim is mine;
And a man's life no more than to say, one.
But I am very sorry, good Horatio,
That to Laertes I forgot myself;
For by the image of my cause, I see

The portraiture of his: I'll count his favours:
But, sure, the bravery of his grief did put me
Into a towering passion.

Hor. Peace; who comes here?
Enter Osric.

Osr. Your lordship is right welcome back to Denmark.

Ham. I humbly thank you, sir.-Dost know this water-fly?

Ham. I will receive it, sir, with all diligence Your bonnet to his right use: 'tis for

the head.

Osr. I thank your lordship, 'tis very hot. Ham. No, believe me, 'tis very cold; the wind is northerly.

Osr. It is indifferent cold, my lord, indeed.

Ham. But, yet, methinks, it is very sultry and hot; or my complexion-

Osr. Exceedingly, my lord; it is very sultry,— as 'twere, I cannot tell how. My lord, his majesty bade me signify to you, that he has laid a great wager on your head.-Sir, this is the mat

ter

Ham. I beseech you, remember.

[Hamlet moves him to put on his hat. Osr. Nay, good, my lord; for my ease, in good faith. Sir, here is newly come to court, Laertes: believe me, an absolute gentleman, full of most excellent differences, of very soft society, and great showing: indeed, to speak feelingly of him, he is the card or calendar of gentry, for you shall find in him the continent of what part a gentleman would see.

Ham. Sir, his definement suffers no perdition in you;-though, I know, to divide him inventorially, would dizzy the arithmetic of memory; and yet but raw neither, in respect of his quick sail. But, in the verity of extolment, I take him to be a soul of great article; and his infusion of such dearth and rareness, as, to make true diction of him, his semblable is his mirror; and, who else would trace him, his umbrage, nothing more.

Osr. Your lordship speaks most infallibly of him. Ham. The concernancy, sir? why do we wrap the gentleman in our more rawer breath? Osr. Sir?

Hor. Is't not possible to understand in another tongue? You will do't, sir, really

Ham. What imports the nomination of this Osr. Of Laertes? [gentleman?

Hor. His purse is empty already; all his golden words are spent.

Ham. Of him, sir.

Osr. I know, you are not ignorant

Ham. I would you did, sir; yet, in faith, if you did, it would not much approve me ;-well, sir. Osr. You are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is

Ham. I dare not confess that, lest I should compare with him in excellence; but, to know a man well, were to know himself.

Osr. I mean, sir, for his weapon; but, in the imputation laid on him by them, in his meed, he is unfellowed.

Ham. What's his weapon?
Osr. Rapier and dagger.

Ham. That's two of his weapons: but, well. Osr. The king, sir, hath wagered with him six Barbary horses: against the which he has impawned, as I take it, six French rapiers and poniards, with their assigns, as girdle, hangers, and so: three of the carriages, in faith, are very dear to fancy, very responsive to the hilts, most delicate carriages, and of very liberal conceit.

Ham. What call you the carriages?

Hor. I knew, you must be edified by the marent, ere you had done.

Osr. The carriages, sir, are the hangers. Ham. The phrase would be more german to the matter, if we could carry a cannon by our sides; I would it might be hangers till then. But, on: six Barbary horses against six French swords, their assigns, and three liberal conceited carriages; that's the French bet against the Danish: why is this impawned, as you call it?

Osr. The king, sir, hath laid, that in a dozen passes between yourself and him, he shall not exceed you three hits; he hath laid, on twelve for nine; and it would come to immediate trial, if your lordship would vouchsafe the answer.

Ham. How, if I answer, no? [person in trial. Osr. I mean, my lord, the opposition of your Ham. Sir, I will walk here in the hall: if it please his majesty, it is the breathing time of day with me: let the foils be brought, the gentleman willing, and the king hold his purpose, I will win for him, if I can; if not, I will gain nothing but my shame, and the odd hits.

Osr. Shall I deliver you so?

Ham. To this effect, sir; after what flourish your nature will.

Osr. I commend my duty to your lordship. [exit. Ham. Yours, yours. He does well, to commend it himself; there are no tongues else for's turn. Hor. This lapwing runs away with the shell on his head.

Ham. He did comply with his dug, before he sucked it. Thus has he (and many more of the same breed, that, I know, the drossy age dotes on), only got the tune of the time, and outward habit of encounter; a kind of yesty collection, which carries them through and through the most fond and winnowed opinions; and do but blow them to their trial, the bubbles are out.

Enter a Lord.

Lord. My lord, his majesty commended him to you by young Osric, who brings back to him, that you attend him in the hall: he sends to know, if your pleasure hold to play with Laertes, or that you will take longer time.

Ham. I am constant to my purposes, they follow the king's pleasure: if his fitness speaks, mine is ready; now, or whensoever, provided I be so able as now.

Lord. The king, and queen, and all are coming Ham. In happy time. [down. Lord. The queen desires you, to use some gentle entertainment to Laertes, before you fall to play. Ham. She well instructs me. [exit Lord. Hor. You will lose this wager, my lord. Ham. I do not think so; since he went into France, I have been in continual practice; I shall win at the odds. But thou wouldst not think, how ill all's here about my heart: but it is no

matter.

Hor. Nay, good my lord,

Ham. It is but foolery; but it is such a kind of gain-giving, as would, perhaps, trouble a woman. Hor. If your mind dislike any thing, obey it: I will forestal their repair hither, and say, you are not fit.

If it

Ham. Not a whit, we defy augury; there is a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come : the readiness is all: since no man, of aught he leaves, knows, what is't to leave betimes? Let be. Enter King, Queen, Laertes, Lords, Osric, and Attendants, with foils, &c.

King. Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me.

[the King puts the hand of Laertes into that of Hamlet.

Ham. Give me your pardon, sir: I have done you But pardon it, as you are a gentleman. [wrong; This presence knows, and you must needs have How I am punish'd with a sore distraction. [heard, What I have done,

That might your nature, honour, and exception,
Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness.
Was't Hamlet wrong'd Laertes? Never, Hamlet:
If Hamlet from himself be ta'en away,
And, when he's not himself, does wrong Laertes,
Then Hamlet does it not, Hamlet denies it.
Who does it then? His madness: if't be so
Hamlet is of the faction that is wrong'd;
His madness is poor Hamlet's enemy.
Sir, in this audience,

Let my disclaiming from a purpos'd evil
Free me so far in your most generous thoughts,
That I have shot my arrow o'er the house,
And hurt my brother.

Laer. I am satisfied in nature,
Whose motive, in this case, should stir me most
To my revenge: but in my terms of honour,
I stand aloof; and will no reconcilement,
Till by some elder masters, of known honour,
I have a voice and precedent of peace,
To keep my name ungor'd: but till that time,
I do receive your offer'd love like love,
And will not wrong it.

Ham. I embrace it freely;
And will this brother's wager frankly play.—
Give us the foils; come on.

Laer. Come, one for me.

[ance

Ham. I'll be your foil, Laertes: in more ignorYour skill shall, like a star i'the darkest night, Stick fiery off indeed.

[Hamlet,

Laer. You mock me, sir. Ham. No, by this hand. King. Give them the foils, young Osric.--Cousin You know the wager?

Ham. Very well, my lord;

Your grace hath laid the odds o'the weaker side,

King. I do not fear it: I have seen you both: But since he's better'd, we have therefore odds. Laer. This is too heavy, let me see another. Ham. This likes me well. These foils have all a length? [they prepare to play. Osr. Ay, my good lord. [table:King. Set me the stoups of wine upon that If Hamlet give the first or second hit, Or quit in answer of the third exchange, Let all the battlements their ordnance fire; The king shall drink to Hamlet's better breath; And in the cup an union shall he throw, Richer than that which four successive kings [cups; In Denmark's crown have worn. Give me the