ACT V.
Scene I.—A CHURCH YARD.
Enter two Clowns,1 with spades, &c. (L.H.U.E.)
1st Clo. (R.) Is she to be buried in christian burial that wilfully seeks her own salvation?
2nd Clo. (L.) I tell thee she is; therefore make her grave straight:2 the crowner3 hath set on her, and finds it christian burial.
1st Clo. How can that be, unless she drowned herself in her own defence?
2nd Clo. Why, ’tis found so.
1st Clo. It must be se offendendo;4 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:5 argal,6 she drowned herself wittingly.
2nd Clo. Nay, but hear you, goodman delver.7
1st 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,8 mark 88you 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.
2nd Clo. But is this law?
1st Clo. Ay, marry is’t; crowner’s-quest law.9
2nd Clo. Will you ha’ the truth on’t? If this had not been a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out of christian burial.
1st Clo. Why, there thou say’st:10 And the more pity that great folks should have countenance in this world to drown or hang themselves, more than their even christian.11 Come, my spade. There is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners, ditchers, and grave-makers: they hold up Adam’s profession.
2nd Clo. Was he a gentleman?12
1st Clo. He was the first that ever bore arms. I’ll put another question to thee: if thou answerest me not to the purpose, confess thyself——13
2nd Clo. Go to.
1st Clo. What is he that builds stronger than either the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter?
2nd Clo. The gallows-maker; for that frame outlives a thousand tenants.
1st 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.
2nd Clo. Who builds stronger than a mason, a shipwright, or a carpenter?
891st Clo. Ay, tell me that, and unyoke.14
2nd Clo. Marry, now I can tell.
1st Clo. To’t.
2nd Clo. Mass, I cannot tell.
1st Clo. Cudgel thy brains no more about it,15 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.16
[Exit 2nd Clown, L.H.U.E.]
Enter Hamlet and Horatio (L.H.U.E.)
First Clown digs and sings.
In youth, when I did love, did love,17
Methought, it was very sweet,
To contract, O, the time, for, ah, my behove
O, methought, there was nothing meet.
Ham. (Behind the grave.) Has this fellow no feeling of his business, he sings at grave-making?
Hor. (On Hamlet’s R.) Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness.
Ham. ‘Tis e’en so: the hand of little employment hath the daintier sense.18
1st Clo.
But age, with his stealing steps,
Hath clawed me in his clutch,
And hath shipped me into the land,
As if I had never been such.
[Throws up a skull.]
Ham. That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing 90once: 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 o’er-reaches; one that would circumvent Heaven, might it not?
Hor. It might, my lord.
[Gravedigger throws up bones.]
Ham. Did these bones cost no more the breeding, but to play at loggats with them?19 mine ache to think on’t.
1st Clo.
[Sings.]
A pick-axe and a spade, a spade,
For and a shrouding sheet:20
O, a pit of clay for to be made
For such a guest is meet.
[Throws up a skull.]
Ham. There’s another: Why may not that be the skull of a lawyer? Where be his quiddits now, his quillets,21 his cases, his tenures, and his tricks? Why does he suffer this rude knave now to knock him about the sconce22 with a dirty shovel, and will not tell him of his action of battery? I will speak to this fellow.—Whose grave’s this, sirrah?
1st Clo. Mine, sir.—
[Sings.]
O, a pit of clay for to be made
For such a guest is meet.
Ham. (R. of grave.) I think it be thine, indeed; for thou liest in’t.
1st Clo. You lie out on’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.
1st. Clo. ‘Tis a quick lie, sir; ’twill away again, from me to you.
91Ham. What man dost thou dig it for?
1st Clo. For no man, sir.
Ham. What woman, then?
1st Clo. For none, neither.
Ham. Who is to be buried in’t?
1st Clo. One that was a woman, sir; but, rest her soul, she’s dead.
Ham. How absolute the knave is!23 we must speak by the card,24 or equivocation will undo us, [To Horatio, R.] How long hast thou been a grave-maker?
1st 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?
1st Clo. Cannot you tell that? every fool can tell that: It was the very day that young Hamlet was born,25 he that is mad, and sent into England.
Ham. Ay, marry, why was he sent into England?
1st Clo. Why, because he was mad: he shall recover his wits there; or, if he do not, ’tis no great matter there.
Ham. Why?
1st Clo. ‘Twill not be seen in him there; there the men are as mad as he.
Ham. How came he mad?
1st Clo. Very strangely, they say.
Ham. How strangely?
1st Clo. ‘Faith, e’en with losing his wits.
Ham. Upon what ground?
1st Clo. Why, here in Denmark: I have been sexton here, man and boy, thirty years.
Ham. How long will a man lie i’the earth ere he rot?
1st Clo. ‘Faith, if he be not rotten before he die, he 92will last you some eight year or nine year: a tanner will last you nine year.
Ham. Why he more than another?
1st Clo. Why, sir, his hide is so tanned with his trade, that he will keep out water a great while; and your water is a sore decayer of your ill-begotten dead body. Here’s a skull now, hath lain in the earth three-and-twenty years.
Ham. Whose was it?
1st Clo. O, a mad fellow’s it was: Whose do you think it was?
Ham. Nay, I know not.
1st Clo. A pestilence on him for a mad rogue! he poured a flagon of Rhenish on my head once. This same skull, sir, was Yorick’s skull, the king’s jester.
Ham. This?
[Takes the skull.]
1st Clo. E’en that.
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. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! Where be your gibes now? your gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on 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 favour26 she must come; make her laugh at that. Prithee, Horatio, tell me one thing.
Hor. What’s that, my lord?
Ham. Dost thou think Alexander look’d o’this fashion i’the earth?
Hor. E’en so.
Ham. And smelt so? pah!
[Gives the skull to Horatio, who returns it to the grave-digger.]
Hor. E’en so, my lord.
Ham. To what base uses may we return, Horatio! Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander, till it find it stopping a bung-hole?
93Hor. ‘Twere to consider too curiously,27 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?
Imperial Cæsar,28 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!29
But soft! but soft! aside: Here comes the king,
The queen, the courtiers: Who is this they follow?
And with such maimèd rites?30 This doth betoken
The corse they follow did with desperate hand
Fordo its own life:31 ‘Twas of some estate.32
Couch we awhile, and mark.
[Retiring with Horatio, R.H.]
Enter Priests, &c., in procession; the corpse of Ophelia, Laertes and Mourners following; King, Queen, their Trains, &c.
Laer. (L. of the grave.) What ceremony else?
Ham. (R.)
That is Laertes,
A very noble youth.
1st Priest. (R. of the grave.) 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,33
She should in ground unsanctified have lodged
Till the last trumpet; for charitable prayers,
Shards,34 flints, and pebbles, should be thrown on her:
94Yet here she is allowed her virgin crants,35
Her maiden strewments, and the bringing home
Of bell and burial.36
Laer. Must there no more be done?
1st Priest.
No more be done:
We should profane the service of the dead
To sing a requiem,37 and such rest to her
As to peace-parted souls.
Laer. O, from her fair and unpolluted flesh
May violets spring! I tell thee, churlish priest,38
A ministering angel shall my sister be,
When thou liest howling.
Ham.
What, the fair Ophelia!
Queen. (Behind the grave, C. with the King.)
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 sense39
Depriv’d thee of!—Hold off the earth a while,
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’ertop old Pelion,40 or the skyish head
Of blue Olympus.
Ham. (Advancing.) What is he whose grief
Bears such an emphasis?—whose phrase of sorrow
95Conjures the wand’ring stars, and makes them stand
Like wonder-wounded hearers?—this is I,
Hamlet the Dane.
Laer. (L., leaping from the grave.) The devil take thy soul!
[Grappling with him.]
Ham. (R.C.) Thou pray’st not well.
I prithee, 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 off thy hand!
King. Pluck them asunder.
Queen. (C.)
Hamlet, Hamlet!
Ham. (R.C.) Why, I will fight with him upon this theme
Until my eyelids will no longer wag.
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?
Queen. O, he is mad, Laertes.
Ham. Come, show me what thou’lt do:
Wou’lt weep? wou’lt fight? wou’lt fast? wou’lt tear thyself?
I’ll do’t.—Dost thou come here to whine?
To outface me41 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,42
Singeing his pate against the burning zone,
Make Ossa43 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,44
His silence will sit drooping.
96Ham.
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,45 and dog will have his day.
[Exit, R.H.]
King. (C.) I pray thee, good Horatio, wait upon him.
[Exit Horatio, R.H.]
Good Gertrude, set some watch over your son,
[Exit Queen, attended, R.H.]
Strengthen your patience in our last night’s speech;46
[To Laertes.]
We’ll put the matter to the present push.—
This grave shall have a living monument:47
An hour of quiet shortly shall we see;
Till then, in patience our proceeding be.
[The characters group round the grave.]
Scene II.—HALL IN THE CASTLE.
Enter Hamlet and Horatio (R.H.)
Ham. But I am very sorry, good Horatio,
That to Laertes I forgot myself;
For by the image of my cause,48 I see
The portraiture of his.
Hor.
Peace! who comes here?
Enter Osric (L.H.)
Osr. Your lordship is right welcome back to Denmark.
97Ham. (C.) I humbly thank you, sir.—Dost know this water-fly?49
Hor. (R.) No, my good lord.
Ham. Thy state is the more gracious; for ’tis a vice to know him.
Osr. (L.) Sweet lord, if your lordship were at leisure, I should impart a thing to you from his majesty.
Ham. I will receive it, sir, with all diligence of spirit.50 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,51 for my complexion,—
Osr. Exceedingly, my lord; it is very sultry, as ’twere,—I cannot tell how.—But, my lord, his majesty bade me signify to you, that he has laid a great wager on your head: Sir, this is the matter,—
Ham. I beseech you, remember——
[Hamlet moves him to put on his hat.]
Osr. Nay, good my lord; for mine ease, in good faith.52 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:53 Indeed, to speak feelingly of him,54 he is the card or calendar of gentry,55 98for you shall find in him the continent of what part a gentleman would see.56
Ham. What imports the nomination of this gentleman?57
Osr. Of Laertes?
Ham. Of him, sir.
Osr. Sir, 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.58
Osr. I mean, sir, for his weapon.
Ham. What is 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 imponed,59 as I take it, six French rapiers and poignards, with their assigns, as girdle, hangers,60 or 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.61
Ham. What call you the carriages?
Osr. The carriages, sir, are the hangers.
99Ham. The phrase would be more german62 to the matter, if we could carry cannon by our sides.
Osr. The king, sir, hath laid, that in a dozen passes between yourself and him, he shall not exceed you three hits; and it would come to immediate trial, if your lordship would vouchsafe the answer.63
Ham. How if I answer no?64
Osr. I mean, my lord, the opposition of your person in trial.
Ham. Sir, 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, L.H.]
Hor. (R.) You will lose this wager, my lord.
Ham. (C.) I do not think so; since he went into France, I have been in continual practice; I shall win at the odds.65 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,66 as would, perhaps, trouble a woman.
Hor. If your mind dislike any thing, obey it:67 I will forestall their repair hither, and say, you are not fit.
Ham. Not a whit, we defy augury: there is a special providence in the fall of a sparrow.
[Exeunt, L.H.]
100
Scene III.—ROOM IN THE CASTLE.
King and Queen, on a dais, Laertes (R.), Lords (R.), Ladies (L.), Osric (R.) and Attendants, with Foils, &c., discovered (R.H.); Tables (R. and L.)—Flourish of Trumpets.
Enter Hamlet and Horatio (L.H.)
King. Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me.
Ham. (offering his hand to Laertes)
Give me your pardon, sir: I have done you wrong;
But pardon it, as you are a gentleman.
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. (R.)
I am satisfied in nature,
Whose motive, in this case, should stir me most
To my revenge.
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.
Laer.
Come, one for me.
Ham. I’ll be your foil, Laertes: in mine ignorance
Your skill shall, like a star i’the darkest night,
Stick fiery off indeed.68
Laer.
You mock me, sir.
Ham. No, by this hand.
King. Give them the foils, young Osric. Cousin Hamlet,
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,69 we have therefore odds.
101Laer. This is too heavy, let me see another.
Ham. This likes me well. These foils have all a length?
Osr. Ay, my good lord.
King. Set me the stoups of wine70 upon that table.—
[Pages exeunt R. and L.]
If Hamlet give the first or second hit,
Or quit71 in answer to 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,72
Richer than that which four successive kings
In Denmark’s crown have worn.
Pages return with wine.
Give me the cup;
And let the kettle73 to the trumpet speak,
The trumpet to the cannoneer without,
The cannons to the heavens, the heaven to earth,
Now the king drinks to Hamlet.—Come, begin;
And you, the judges, bear a wary eye.
Ham. Come on, sir.
Laer.
Come, my lord.
[They play.]
Ham.
One.
Laer.
No.
Ham.
Judgment.
Osr. A hit, a very palpable hit.
Laer.
Well:—again.
King. Stay; give me drink. Hamlet, this pearl is thine;
[Drops poison into the goblet.]
Here’s to thy health.
[Pretends to drink.]
[Trumpets sound; and cannon shot off within.]
Give him the cup.
102Ham. I’ll play this bout first; set it by awhile.
[Page places the goblet on table, L.]
Come.
Another hit; What say you?
[They play.]
Laer. A touch, a touch, I do confess.
King. Our son shall win.
Queen. The Queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet.74
Ham. Good madam!——
[Trumpets sound.]
King.
Gertrude, do not drink.
Queen. I have, my lord; I pray you, pardon me.
King. It is the poison’d cup; it is too late.
[Aside.]
Laer. I’ll hit him now
And yet it is almost against my conscience.
[Aside.]
Ham. Come, for the third, Laertes: You do but dally;
I pray you, pass with your best violence;
I am afeard you make a wanton of me.75
Laer. Say you so? come on.
[They play.]
[Laertes wounds Hamlet; then, in scuffling they change Rapiers, and Hamlet wounds Laertes.]
King.
Part them; they are incensed.
Ham. Nay, come, again.
[The Queen falls back in her chair.]
Osr. (Supporting Laertes, R.) Look to the queen there, ho!
Hor. (Supporting Hamlet, L.) How is it, my lord?
Osr. How is’t, Laertes?
Laer. Why, as a woodcock to my own springe,76 Osric;
I am justly killed with mine own treachery.
Ham. How does the queen?
King.
She swoons to see them bleed.
Queen. No, no, the drink, the drink,—O, my dear Hamlet,—
The drink, the drink! I am poison’d.
[The Queen is conveyed off the stage by her attendant Ladies, in a dying state, L.H.U.E.]
103Ham. O villainy! Ho! let the doors be lock’d:
Treachery! seek it out.
[Laertes falls.]
Laer. (R.) It is here, Hamlet: Hamlet, thou art slain;
No medicine in the world can do thee good,
In thee there is not half an hour’s life;
The treacherous instrument is in thy hand,
Unbated and envenom’d:77 the foul practice78
Hath turn’d itself on me; lo, here I lie,
Never to rise again: Thy mother’s poison’d:
I can no more: the king, the king’s to blame.
Ham. The point
Envenom’d too! Then, venom, to thy work.
Here, thou incestuous, murd’rous, damnèd Dane,
Follow my mother.
[Stabs the King, who is borne away by his attendants, mortally wounded, R.H.U.E.]
Laer.
He is justly serv’d;
Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet:
Mine and my father’s death come not upon thee,
Nor thine on me!
[Dies.]
Ham. (C.) Heaven make thee free of it! I follow thee.
You that look pale and tremble at this chance,
That are but mutes or audience to this act,
Had I but time (as this fell sergeant, death,79
Is strict in his arrest), O, I could tell you,—
But let it be. Horatio,
Report me and my cause aright
To the unsatisfied.
Hor. (L.)
Never believe it:
I am more an antique Roman than a Dane:
Here’s yet some liquor left.
[Seizing the goblet on table, L.]
Ham.
As thou’rt a man,—
Give me the cup: let go; by heaven, I’ll have it.
[Dashes the goblet away.]
O good Horatio, what a wounded name,
104Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me!80
If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart,
Absènt thee from felicity awhile,
And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain,
To tell my story.—
O, I die, Horatio;
The potent poison quite o’er-crows my spirit;81
The rest is silence.
[Dies, C., Osric on his R., and Horatio on his L.]
Dead March afar off.
Curtain slowly descends.
THE END.
Notes
Act V
V.1 Enter two Clowns,] These characters are not in the original story, but are introduced by Shakespeare.
V.2 Make her grave straight:] i.e., straightways, forthwith.
V.3 The crowner] A corruption of coroner.
V.4 It must be se offendendo;] A confusion of things as well as of terms: used for se defendendo, a finding of the jury in justifiable homicide.
V.5 To act, to do, and to perform:] Warburton says, this is ridicule on scholastic divisions without distinction, and of distinctions without difference.
V.6 Argal,] A corruption of the Latin word, ergo, therefore.
V.7 Delver.] i.e., a digger, one that opens the ground with a spade.
V.8 If the man go to this water,—it is, will he, nill he, he goes,] Still floundering and confounding himself. He means to represent it as a wilful act, and of course without any mixture of nill or nolens in it. Had he gone, as stated, whether he would or not, it would not have been of his own accord, or his act.
V.9 Crowner’s-quest law.] Crowner’s-quest is a vulgar corruption of coroner’s inquest.
V.10 Why, there thou say’st] Say’st something, speak’st to the purpose.
V.11 More than their even christian.] An old English expression for fellow-christian.
V.12 Was he a gentleman?] Mr. Douce says this is intended as a ridicule upon heraldry.
V.13 Confess thyself——] Admit, or by acknowledgment pass sentence upon thyself, as a simpleton? “Confess, and be hanged,” was a proverbial sentence.
V.14 Tell me that, and unyoke.] Unravel this, and your day’s work is done, your team may then unharness.
V.15 Cudgel thy brains no more about it;] i.e., beat about thy brains no more.
V.16 A stoup of liquor.] A stoup is a jug.
V.17 In youth, when I did love, did love.] The three stanzas sung here by the Grave-Digger, are extracted, with a slight variation, from a little poem called The Aged Lover renounceth Love, written by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, who was beheaded in 1547. The song is to be found in Dr. Percy’s Reliques of Ancient English Poetry.
V.18 The hand of little employment hath the daintier sense.] i.e., its “palm less dulled or staled.”
V.19 But to play at loggats with them?] A loggat is a small log, or piece of wood; a diminutive from log. Hence loggats, as the name of an old game among the common people, and one of those forbidden by a statute of the 33rd of Henry VIII. A stake was fixed into the ground, and those who played threw loggats at it.
V.20 For and a shrouding sheet:] For and is an ancient expression, answering to and eke, and likewise.
V.21 Where be his quiddits now, his quillets,] Quiddits are subtilties; quillets are nice and frivolous distinctions.
V.22 Knock him about the sconce] i.e., head.
V.23 How absolute the knave is!] Peremptory, strictly and tyrannously precise.
V.24 We must speak by the card,] The card is the mariner’s compass. Properly the paper on which the points of the wind are marked. Hence, to speak by the card, meant to speak with great exactness; true to a point.
V.25 The very day that young Hamlet was born,] It would appear by this that Hamlet was thirty years old, and knew Yorick well, who had been dead twenty-two years.
V.26 Favour] Feature, countenance, or complexion.
V.27 ‘Twere to consider too curiously,] Be pressing the argument with too much critical nicety, to dwell upon mere possibilities.
V.28 Imperial Cæsar,] In some edition it is imperious Cæsar. Imperious was a more ancient term, signifying the same as imperial.
V.29 The winter’s flaw!] i.e., winter’s blast.
V.30 Maimèd rites?] Curtailed, imperfect.
V.31 Fordo its own life:] Destroy.
V.32 ‘Twas of some estate.] i.e., of rank or station.
V.33 Command o’ersways the order,] The course which ecclesiastical rules prescribe.
V.34 Shards,] i.e., broken pots or tiles.
V.35 Virgin crants,] i.e., virgin garlands. Nares, in his Glossary, says that crants is a German word, and probably Icelandic.
V.36 Bringing home of bell and burial,] Conveying to her last home with these accustomed forms of the church, and this sepulture in consecrated ground.
V.37 A requiem,] A mass performed in Popish churches for the rest of the soul of a person deceased.
V.38 Churlish priest,] Churlish is, figuratively, ill-humoured, ill-bred, uncourtly, “rustic and rude.”
V.39 Ingenious sense] Life and sense.
V.40 To o’ertop old Pelion,] Pelion is one of a lofty range of mountains in Thessaly. The giants, in their war with the gods, are said to have attempted to heap Ossa and Olympus on Pelion, in order to scale Heaven.
V.41 Outface me] i.e., brave me.
V.42 Our ground,] The earth about us.
V.43 Ossa] A celebrated mountain in Thessaly, connected with Pelion, and in the neighbourhood of Mount Olympus.
V.44 Her golden couplets are disclos’d,] To disclose, was anciently used for to hatch. A pigeon never lays more than two eggs.
V.45 The cat will mew, and dog, &c.] “Things have their appointed course; nor have we power to divert it,” may be the sense here conveyed.
V.46 Strengthen your patience in our last night’s speech;] Let the consideration of the topics then urged, confirm your resolution taken of quietly waiting events a little longer.
V.47 This grave shall have a living monument:] There is an ambiguity in this phrase. It either means an endurable monument such as will outlive time, or it darkly hints at the impending fate of Hamlet.
V.48 Image of my cause,] Representation or character.
V.49 Dost know this water-fly?] Dr. Johnson remarks that a water-fly skips up and down upon the surface of the water, without any apparent purpose or reason, and is thence the proper emblem of a busy trifler.
V.50 All diligence of spirit.] “With the whole bent of my mind.” A happy phraseology; in ridicule, at the same time that it was in conformity with the style of the airy, affected insect that was playing round him.
V.51 Very sultry and hot,] Hamlet is here playing over the same farce with Osric which he had formerly done with Polonius. The idea of this scene is evidently suggested by Juvenal.
V.52 For mine ease, in good faith.] From contemporary authors this appears to have been the ordinary language of courtesy in our author’s own time.
V.53 An absolute—a great showing:] A finished gentleman, full of various accomplishments, of gentle manners, and very imposing appearance.
V.54 To speak feelingly of him,] With insight and intelligence.
V.55 Card or calendar of gentry,] The card by which a gentleman is to direct his course; the calendar by which he is to choose his time, that what he does may be both excellent and seasonable.
V.56 The continent of what part a gentleman would see.] The word continent in this sense is frequently used by Shakespeare; i.e., you shall find him containing and comprising every quality which a gentleman would desire to contemplate for imitation.
V.57 What imports the nomination, &c.] What is the object of the introduction of this gentleman’s name?
V.58 I dare not—lest I should compare—were to know himself.] No one can have a perfect conception of the measure of another’s excellence, unless he shall himself come up to that standard. Dr. Johnson says, I dare not pretend to know him, lest I should pretend to an equality: no man can completely know another, but by knowing himself, which is the utmost extent of human wisdom.
V.59 He has imponed,] i.e., to lay down as a stake or wager. Impono.
V.60 Hangers,] That part of the girdle or belt by which the swords were suspended was, in our poet’s time, called the hangers.
V.61 Very dear to fancy—very liberal conceit.] Of exquisite invention, well adapted to their hilts, and in their conception rich and high fashioned.
V.62 More german] More a-kin.
V.63 Vouchsafe the answer.] Condescend to answer, or meet his wishes.
V.64 How if I answer, no?] Reply.
V.65 I shall win at the odds.] I shall succeed with the advantage that I am allowed.
V.66 Gain-giving,] Misgiving.
V.67 If your mind, &c.] If you have any presentiment of evil, yield to its suggestion.
V.68 Like a star i’the darkest night, stick fiery off] Be made by the strongest relief to stand brightly prominent.
V.69 Better’d,] He stands higher in estimation.
V.70 Stoups of wine] Flagons of wine.
V.71 Quit in answer] Make the wager quit, or so far drawn.
V.72 An union shall he throw,] i.e., a fine pearl. To swallow a pearl in a draught seems to have been equally common to royal and mercantile prodigality. It may be observed that pearls were supposed to possess an exhilarating quality. It was generally thrown into the drink as a compliment to some distinguished guest, and the King in this scene, under the pretence of throwing a pearl into the cup, drops some poisonous drug into the wine.
V.73 Kettle] i.e., kettle drum.
V.74 The Queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet.] i.e., drinks to your success.
V.75 You make a wanton of me.] i.e., you trifle with me as if you were playing with a child.
V.76 As a woodcock to my own springe.] I have run into a springe like a woodcock, and into such a noose or trap as a fool only would have fallen into; one of my own setting.
V.77 Unbated, and envenom’d:] i.e., having a sharp point envenomed with poison.
V.78 The foul practice] i.e., the wicked trick which I have practised.
V.79 Fell sergeant, death,] i.e., cruel sergeant—sergeant being an officer of the law.
V.80 Live behind me!] Survive me.
V.81 Quite o’ercrows my spirit;] Overpowers, exults over; no doubt an image taken from the lofty carriage of a victorious cock.
