Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread

wide;

And, mermaid-like, awhile 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:

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

[Exit.

KING. 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.

ACT THE FIFTH.

SCENE I.

A churchyard.

Enter two Clowns, with spades, etc.

FIRST CLO. Is 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?

SEC. CLO. Why, 'tis found so.

FIRST 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, 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

K

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 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. He was the first that ever bore arms. SEC. CLO. Why, he had none.

How dost

FIRST CLO. What, art a heathen? 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.

Enter HAMLET and HORATIO, at a distance.

FIRST 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: fetch me a stoup of liquor. [Exit Sec. Clown. [He 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,

that 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.

FIRST CLO. [Sings]

But age, with his stealing steps,
Hath clan'd me in his clutch,

And hath shipped me intil the land,
As if I had never been such.

[Throws up a skull. HAM. That skull 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! It might be the pate of a politician, which this ass now o'er-reaches; one that would circumvent God, might it not?

HOR. It might, my lord.

HAM. Or of a courtier; which could say Good morrow, sweet lord! How dost thou, good lord? This might be my lord such-a-one, that praised my lord such-a-one's horse, when he meant to beg it; might it not?

HOR. Ay, my lord.

HAM. Why, e'en so: and now my Lady Worm's ; chapless, and knocked about the mazzard with a sexton's spade: here's fine revolution, an we had the trick to see't. Did these bones cost no more the breeding, but to play at loggats with 'em? mine ache to think on 't.

FIRST CLO. [Sings]

A pick-axe, and a spade, a spade
For and a shrouding sheet:
O, a pit of clay for to be made

For such a guest is meet.

[Throws up another skull. HAM. There's another: why may not that be the skull of a lawyer? Where be his quiddities now, his quillets, his cases, his tenures, and his tricks? why does he suffer this rude knave now to knock him about the sconce with a dirty shovel, and will not tell him of his action of battery? Hum! This fellow might be in's time a great buyer of land, with his statutes, his recognizances, his fines, his double vouchers, his recoveries: 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