The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by George MacDonald (big ebook reader TXT) 📕

of the Clown give us, lies partly in the undercurrent of sense, so disguised by stupidity in the utterance; and partly in the wit which mainly succeeds in its end by the failure of its means.]

[Footnote 3: equal , that is fellow Christian.]

[Footnote 4: From 'Other' to 'Armes' not in Quarto. ]

[Page 228]

Clo . I like thy wit well in good faith, the Gallowes does well; but how does it well? it does well to those that doe ill: now, thou dost ill to say the Gallowes is built stronger then the Church: Argall, the Gallowes may doe well to thee. Too't againe, Come.

Other . Who builds stronger then a Mason, a Shipwright, or a Carpenter?

Clo . I, tell me that, and vnyoake.[1]

Other . Marry, now I can tell.

Clo . Too't.

Other . Masse, I cannot tell.

Enter Hamlet and Horatio a farre off. [2]

Clo . Cudgell thy braines no more about it; for your dull Asse will not mend his pace with beating, and when you are ask't this question next, say a Graue-maker: the Houses that he makes, lasts
[Sidenote: houses hee makes] till Doomesday: go, get thee to Yaughan ,[3] fetch
[Sidenote: thee in, and fetch mee a soope of] me a stoupe of Liquor.

Sings. [4]

In youth when I did loue, did loue , [Sidenote: Song. ]
me thought it was very sweete: To contract O the time for a my behoue,
O me thought there was nothing meete[5]
[Sidenote: there a was nothing a meet.]

[Sidenote: Enter Hamlet & Horatio ]

Ham . Ha's this fellow no feeling of his businesse,
[Sidenote: busines? a sings in graue-making.] that he sings at Graue-making?[6]

Hor . Custome hath made it in him a property[7] of easinesse.

Ham . 'Tis ee'n so; the hand of little Imployment hath the daintier sense.

Clowne sings. [8]

But Age with his stealing steps [Sidenote Clow. Song. ]
hath caught me in his clutch : [Sidenote: hath clawed me]

[Footnote 1: 'unyoke your team'-as having earned his rest.]

[Footnote 2: Not in Quarto. ]

[Footnote 3: Whether this is the name of a place, or the name of an innkeeper, or is merely an inexplicable corruption-some take it for a stage-direction to yawn-I cannot tell. See Q. reading.

It is said to have been discovered that a foreigner named Johan sold ale next door to the Globe.]

[Footnote 4: Not in Quarto. ]

[Footnote 5: A song ascribed to Lord Vaux is in this and the following stanzas made nonsense of.]

[Footnote 6: Note Hamlet's mood throughout what follows. He has entered the shadow of death.]

[Footnote 7: Property is what specially belongs to the individual; here it is his peculiar work , or personal calling : 'custom has made it with him an easy duty.']

[Footnote 8: Not in Quarto. ]

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And hath shipped me intill the Land , [Sidenote: into]
as if I had neuer beene such .

Ham . That Scull had a tongue in it, and could sing once: how the knaue iowles it to th' grownd, [Sidenote: the] as if it were Caines Iaw-bone, that did the first [Sidenote: twere] murther: It might be the Pate of a Polititian which
[Sidenote: murder, this might] this Asse o're Offices: one that could circumuent
[Sidenote: asse now ore-reaches; one that would] 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?
[Sidenote: thou sweet lord?] this might be my Lord such a one, that prais'd my Lord such a ones Horse, when he meant to begge
[Sidenote: when a went to] it; might it not?[1]

Hor . I, my Lord.

Ham . Why ee'n so: and now my Lady Wormes,[2] Chaplesse,[3] and knockt about the Mazard[4]
[Sidenote: Choples | the massene with] with a Sextons Spade; heere's fine Reuolution, if
[Sidenote: and we had] wee had the tricke to see't. Did these bones cost no more the breeding, but to play at Loggets[5] with 'em? mine ake to thinke on't. [Sidenote: them]

Clowne sings. [6]

A Pickhaxe and a Spade, a Spade , [Sidenote: Clow. Song. ]
for and a shrowding-Sheete: O a Pit of Clay for to be made,
for such a Guest is meete .

Ham . There's another: why might not that bee the Scull of of a Lawyer? where be his [Sidenote: skull of a] Quiddits[7] now? his Quillets[7]? his Cases? his [Sidenote: quiddities] Tenures, and his Tricks? why doe's he suffer this rude knaue now to knocke him about the Sconce[8]
[Sidenote: this madde knaue] with a dirty Shouell, 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

[Footnote 1: To feel the full force of this, we must call up the expression on the face of 'such a one' as he begged the horse-probably imitated by Hamlet-and contrast it with the look on the face of the skull.]

[Footnote 2: 'now the property of my Lady Worm.']

[Footnote 3: the lower jaw gone.]

[Footnote 4: the upper jaw , I think-not the head .]

[Footnote 5: a game in which pins of wood, called loggats, nearly two feet long, were half thrown, half slid, towards a bowl. Blount : Johnson and Steevens.]

[Footnote 6: Not in Quarto. ]

[Footnote 7: a lawyer's quirks and quibbles. See Johnson and Steevens .

1st Q.

now where is your
Quirkes and quillets now,]

[Footnote 8: Humorous, or slang word for the head . 'A fort-a head-piece-the head': Webster's Dict .]

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Vouchers, his Recoueries: [1] Is this the fine[2] of his Fines, and the recouery[3] of his Recoueries,[1] to haue his fine[4] Pate full of fine[4] Dirt? will his Vouchers
[Sidenote: will vouchers] vouch him no more of his Purchases, and double
[Sidenote: purchases & doubles then] ones too, then the length and breadth of a paire of Indentures? the very Conueyances of his Lands will hardly lye in this Boxe[5]; and must the Inheritor
[Sidenote: scarcely iye; | th'] himselfe haue no more?[6] ha?

Hor . Not a iot more, my Lord.

Ham . Is not Parchment made of Sheep-skinnes?

Hor . I my Lord, and of Calue-skinnes too.
[Sidenote: Calues-skinnes to]

Ham . They are Sheepe and Calues that seek [Sidenote: which seek] out assurance in that. I will speake to this fellow: whose Graue's this Sir?