[Footnote 6: Then Fortinbras _could_ have been but a few months younger
than Hamlet, and may have been older. Hamlet then, in the Quarto
passage, could not by _tender_ mean _young_.]
[Footnote 7: 'In what way strangely?'--_in what strange way_? Or the
_How_ may be _how much_, in retort to the _very_; but the intent would
be the same--a request for further information.]
[Footnote 8: Hamlet has asked on what ground or provocation, that is,
from what cause, Hamlet lost his wits; the sexton chooses to take the
word _ground_ materially.]
[Footnote 9: The Poet makes him say how long he had been sexton--but how
naturally and informally--by a stupid joke!--in order a second time, and
more certainly, to tell us Hamlet's age: he must have held it a point
necessary to the understanding of Hamlet.
Note Hamlet's question immediately following. It looks as if he had
first said to himself: 'Yes--I have been thirty years above ground!' and
_then_ said to the sexton, 'How long will a man lie i' th' earth ere he
rot?' We might enquire even too curiously as to the connecting links.]
[Page 236]
_Ham_. Why he, more then another?
_Clo_. Why sir, his hide is so tan'd with his Trade,
that he will keepe out water a great while. And [Sidenote: a will]
your water, is a sore Decayer of your horson dead
body. Heres a Scull now: this Scul, has laine in
[Sidenote: now hath iyen you i'th earth 23. yeeres.]
the earth three and twenty years.
_Ham_. Whose was it?
_Clo_. A whoreson mad Fellowes it was;
Whose doe you thinke it was?
_Ham_. Nay, I know not.
_Clo_. A pestlence on him for a mad Rogue, a
pou'rd a Flaggon of Renish on my head once.
This same Scull Sir, this same Scull sir, was _Yoricks_
[Sidenote: once; this same skull sir, was sir _Yoricks_]
Scull, the Kings Iester.
_Ham_. This?
_Clo_. E'ene that.
_Ham_. Let me see. Alas poore _Yorick_, I knew
[Sidenote: _Ham_. Alas poore]
him _Horatio_, a fellow of infinite Iest; of most excellent
fancy, he hath borne me on his backe a [Sidenote: bore]
thousand times: And how abhorred[1] my Imagination
[Sidenote: and now how | in my]
is, my gorge rises at it. Heere hung those [Sidenote: it is:]
lipps, that I haue kist I know not how oft. Where
be your Iibes now? Your Gambals? Your Songs?
Your flashes of Merriment that were wont to set
the Table on a Rore? No one[2] now to mock your [Sidenote: not one]
own Ieering? Quite chopfalne[3]? Now get you to
[Sidenote: owne grinning,]
my Ladies Chamber, and tell her, let her paint an
[Sidenote: Ladies table,]
inch thicke, to this fauour[4] she must come. Make
her laugh at that: prythee _Horatio_ tell me one
thing.
_Hor_. What's that my Lord?
_Ham_. Dost thou thinke _Alexander_ lookt o'this [Sidenote: a this]
fashion i'th' earth?
_Hor_. E'ene so.
_Ham_. And smelt so? Puh.
[Footnote 1: If this be the true reading, _abhorred_ must mean
_horrified_; but I incline to the _Quarto_.]
[Footnote 2: 'Not one jibe, not one flash of merriment now?']
[Footnote 3: --chop indeed quite fallen off!]
[Footnote 4: _to this look_--that of the skull.]
[Page 238]
_Hor_. E'ene so, my Lord.
_Ham_. To what base vses we may returne
_Horatio_. Why may not Imagination trace the
Noble dust of _Alexander_, till he[1] find it stopping a
[Sidenote: a find]
bunghole.
_Hor_. 'Twere to consider: to curiously to consider
[Sidenote: consider too curiously]
so.
_Ham_. No faith, not a iot. But to follow him
thether with modestie[2] enough, and likeliehood to
lead it; as thus. _Alexander_ died: _Alexander_ was
[Sidenote: lead it. _Alexander_]
buried: _Alexander_ returneth into dust; the dust is [Sidenote: to]
earth; of earth we make Lome, and why of that
Lome (whereto he was conuerted) might they not
stopp a Beere-barrell?[3]
Imperiall _Caesar_, dead and turn'd to clay, [Sidenote: Imperious]
Might stop a hole to keepe the winde away.
Oh, that that earth, which kept the world in awe,
Should patch a Wall, t'expell the winters flaw.[4]
[Sidenote: waters flaw.]
But soft, but soft, aside; heere comes the King.
[Sidenote: , but soft awhile, here]
_Enter King, Queene, Laertes, and a Coffin_,
[Sidenote: _Enter K. Q. Laertes and the corse._]
_with Lords attendant._
The Queene, the Courtiers. Who is that they follow,
[Sidenote: this they]
And with such maimed rites? This doth betoken,
The Coarse they follow, did with disperate hand,
Fore do it owne life; 'twas some Estate.[5] [Sidenote: twas of some[5]]
Couch[6] we a while, and mark.
_Laer_. What Cerimony else?
_Ham_. That is _Laertes_, a very Noble youth:[7]
Marke.
_Laer_. What Cerimony else?[8]
_Priest_. Her Obsequies haue bin as farre inlarg'd, [Sidenote: _Doct_.]
As we haue warrantis,[9] her death was doubtfull,[10]
[Sidenote: warrantie,]
And but that great Command, o're-swaies the order,[11]
[Footnote 1: Imagination personified.]
[Footnote 2: moderation.]
[Footnote 3: 'Loam, Lome--grafting clay. Mortar made of Clay and Straw;
also a sort of Plaister used by Chymists to stop up their
Vessels.'--_Bailey's Dict._]
[Footnote 4: a sudden puff or blast of wind.
Hamlet here makes a solemn epigram. For the right understanding of the
whole scene, the student must remember that Hamlet is
philosophizing--following things out, curiously or otherwise--on the
brink of a grave, concerning the tenant for which he has enquired--'what
woman then?'--but received no answer.]
[Footnote 5: 'the corpse was of some position.']
[Footnote 6: 'let us lie down'--behind a grave or stone.]
[Footnote 7: Hamlet was quite in the dark as to Laertes' character; he
had seen next to nothing of him.]
[Footnote 8: The priest making no answer, Laertes repeats the question.]
[Footnote 9: _warrantise_.]
[Footnote 10: This casts discredit on the queen's story, 222. The
priest believes she died by suicide, only calls her death doubtful to
excuse their granting her so many of the rites of burial.]
[Footnote 11: 'settled mode of proceeding.'--_Schmidt's Sh. Lex._--But
is it not rather _the order_ of the church?]
[Page 240]
She should in ground vnsanctified haue lodg'd,
[Sidenote: vnsanctified been lodged]
Till the last Trumpet. For charitable praier, [Sidenote: prayers,]
Shardes,[1] Flints, and Peebles, should be throwne on her:
Yet heere she is allowed her Virgin Rites,
[Sidenote: virgin Crants,[2]]
Her Maiden strewments,[3] and the bringing home
Of Bell and Buriall.[4]
_Laer_. Must there no more be done?
_Priest_. No more be done:[5] [Sidenote: _Doct._]
We should prophane the seruice of the dead,
To sing sage[6] _Requiem_, and such rest to her
[Sidenote: sing a Requiem]
As to peace-parted Soules.
_Laer_. Lay her i'th' earth,
And from her faire and vnpolluted flesh,
May Violets spring. I tell thee (churlish Priest)
A Ministring Angell shall my Sister be,
When thou liest howling?
_Ham_. What, the faire _Ophelia_?[7]
_Queene_. Sweets, to the sweet farewell.[8]
[Sidenote: 118] I hop'd thou should'st haue bin my _Hamlets_ wife:
I thought thy Bride-bed to haue deckt (sweet Maid)
And not t'haue strew'd thy Graue. [Sidenote: not haue]
_Laer_. Oh terrible woer,[9] [Sidenote: O treble woe]
Fall ten times trebble, on that cursed head [Sidenote: times double on]
Whose wicked deed, thy most Ingenioussence
Depriu'd thee of. Hold off the earth a while,
Till I haue caught her once more in mine armes:
_Leaps in the graue._[10]
Now pile your dust, vpon the quicke, and dead,
Till of this flat a Mountaine you haue made,
To o're top old _Pelion_, or the skyish head [Sidenote: To'retop]
Of blew _Olympus_.[11]
_Ham_.[12] What is he, whose griefes [Sidenote: griefe]
Beares such an Emphasis? whose phrase of Sorrow
[Footnote 1: 'Shardes' _not in Quarto._ It means _potsherds_.]
[Footnote 2: chaplet--_German_ krantz, used even for virginity itself.]
[Footnote 3: strewments with _white_ flowers. (?)]
[Footnote 4: the burial service.]
[Footnote 5: as an exclamation, I think.]
[Footnote 6: Is the word _sage_ used as representing the unfitness of a
requiem to her state of mind? or is it only from its kindred with
_solemn_? It was because she was not 'peace-parted' that they could not
sing _rest_ to her.]
[Footnote 7: _Everything_ here depends on the actor.]
[Footnote 8: I am not sure the queen is not _apostrophizing_ the flowers
she is throwing into or upon the coffin: 'Sweets, be my farewell to the
sweet.']
[Footnote 9: The Folio _may_ be right here:--'Oh terrible wooer!--May
ten times treble thy misfortunes fall' &c.]
[Footnote 10: This stage-direction is not in the _Quarto_.