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HAM. How came he mad?

1. CLO. Very strangely, they fay.

HAM. How ftrangely?

1. CLO. 'Faith, e'en with lofing his wits. HAM. Upon what ground?

1. CLO. Why, here in Denmark; I have been fexton here, man, and boy, thirty years.

HAM. How long will a man lie i'the earth ere he rot?

1. CLO. 'Faith, if he be not rotten before he die, (as we have many pocky corfes now-a-days,' that will scarce hold the laying in,) he will last you fome eight year, or nine year: a tanner will last you nine year.

HAM. Why he more than another?

1. CLO. Why, fir, his hide is fo tann'd with his trade, that he will keep out water a great while; and your water is a fore decayer of your whorefon dead body. Here's a fcull now hath lain you i'the earth three-and-twenty years.

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HAM. Whofe was it?

1. CLO. A whorefon mad fellow's it was; Whose you think it was?

HAм. Nay, I know not.

1. CLO. A peftilence on him for a mad rogue! he pour'd a flaggon of Rhenifh on my head once. This fame fcull, fir, was Yorick's scull, the king's jester.

HAM. This?

[Takes the fcull.

7 ·now a-days,] Omitted in the quarto. MALONE. 8-Yorick's feull,] Thus the folio.-The quarto reads-Sir Yorick's fcull. MALONE.

1. CLO. E'en that.

HAM. Alas, poor Yorick!-I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jeft, of moft excellent fancy: he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorr'd in my imagination it is! my gorge rifes at it. Here hung thofe lips, that I have kifs'd I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? your gambols? your fongs? your flashes of merriment, that were wont to fet 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 favour' fhe muft come; make her laugh at that.-Pr'ythee, Horatio, tell me one thing.

HOR. What's that, my lord?

HAM. Doft thou think, Alexander look'd o' this fashion i'the earth?

HOR. E'en fo.

HAM. And fmelt fo? pah!

HOR. E'en fo, my lord.

[Throws down the scull.

HAM. To what base uses we may return, Horatio! Why may not imagination trace the noble duft of Alexander, till he find it ftopping a bung-hole?

9

-your own grinning?] Thus the quarto, 1604. The folio reads your own jeering. In that copy, after this word, and chapfallen, there is a note of interrogation, which all the editors have adopted. I doubt concerning its propriety. MALONE.

2

my lady's chamber,] Thus the folio. The quartos read— my lady's table, meaning, I fuppose, her dressing-table. STEEVENS.

3

—to this favour-] i. e. to this countenance or complexion. See Vol, V. p. 16, n. 5; and Vol. XII. p. 269, n. 5. MALONE.

HOR. 'Twere to confider too curiously, to confider fo.

HAM. No, faith, not a jot; but to follow him thither with modefty enough, and likelihood to lead it: As thus; Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth to duft; the duft is earth; of earth we make loam: And why of that loam, whereto he was converted, might they not ftop a beer-barrel?

Imperious Cæfar, dead, and turn'd to clay,
Might stop a hole to keep the wind away:

O, that that earth, which kept the world in awe, Should patch a wall to expel the winter's flaw!" But foft! but foft! afide;-Here comes the king,

Enter Priests, &c. in proceffion; the corpfe of OPHELIA, LAERTES and Mourners following it; King, Queen, their Trains, &c.

The queen, the courtiers: Who is this they follow?

4 Imperious Cæfar,] Thus the quarto, 1604. The editor of the folio fubftituted imperial, not knowing that imperious was used in the fame fenfe. See Vol. XI. p. 391, n. 3; and Vol. XIII. p. 152, n. 2. There are other inftances in the folio of a familiar term being fubftituted in the room of a more ancient word. See P. 314, n. 4. MALONE.

5

winter's flaw!] Winter's blaft. JOHNSON.

So, in Marius and Sylla, 1594:

66

no doubt, this ftormy flaw,

"That Neptune fent to caft us on this fhore."

The quartos read-to expel the water's flaw. STEEVENS.

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See Vol. X. p. 90, n. 9. A flaw meant a fudden gust of wind. So, in Florio's Italian Dictionary, 1598: Groppo, a flaw, or berrie of wind." See alfo Cotgrave's Dictionary, 1611: « Lis de vent, a guft or flaw of wind." MALONE.

And with fuch maimed rites!" This doth betoken,
The corfe, they follow, did with desperate hand
Fordo its own life." 'Twas of fome eftate:
Couch we a while, and mark.

8

[Retiring with HORATIO.

LAER. What ceremony elfe?
Нам.

A very noble youth: Mark.
LAER. What ceremony elfe?

That is Laertes,

1. PRIEST. Her obfequies have been as far enlarg'd

As we have warranty: Her death was doubtful;
And, but that great command o'erfways the order,
She fhould in ground unfanctify'd have lodg'd
Till the laft trumpet; for charitable prayers,
Shards,' flints, and pebbles, fhould be thrown on
her:

6 -maimed rites!] Imperfect obfequies. JOHNSON. 7 Fordo its own life.] To fordo is to undo, to destroy. So, in

Othello:

-this is the night

"That either makes me, or fordoes me quite." Again, in Acolaftus, a comedy, 1529: "wolde to God it might be leful for me to fordeo myself, or to make an ende of me!" STEEVENS,

8 fome eftate:] Some perfon of high rank. JOHNSON. See Vol. XI. p. 300, n. 4. MALONE.

91. Prieft.] This Prieft in the old quarto is called Doctor.

Her obfequies have been as far enlarg'd

STEEVENS,

As we have warranty:] Is there any allufion here to the coroner's warrant, directed to the minifter and church-wardens of a parish, and permitting the body of a perfon, who comes to an untimely end, to receive christian burial? WHALLEY.

3 Shards,] i. e. broken pots or tiles, called pot-herds, tile-fherds. Sa, in Job, ii. 8: "And he took him a pot/herd, (i. e. a piece of a broken pot,) to scrape himself withal." RITSON.

Yet here fhe is allow'd her virgin crants,"

Her maiden ftrewments, and the bringing home Of bell and burial."

LAER. Muft there no more be done?

1. PRIEST.

No more be done!

We should profane the service of the dead,
To fing a requiem," and such reft to her
As to peace-parted fouls.

LAER.

Lay her i'the earth ;

4 allow'd her virgin crants,] Evidently corrupted from chants, which is the true word. A specific rather than a generic term being here required to answer to maiden firewments. WARBURTON.

-allow'd her virgin crants,] Thus the quarto, 1604. For this unusual word the editor of the first folio fubstituted rites. By a more attentive examination and comparison of the quarto copies and the folio, Dr. Johnfon, I have no doubt, would have been convinced that this and many other changes in the folio were not made by Shakspeare, as is fuggefted in the following note.

MALONE.

I have been informed by an anonymous correfpondent, that crants is the German word for garlands, and I fuppofe it was retained by us from the Saxons. To carry garlands before the bier of a maiden, and to hang them over her grave, is still the practice in rural parishes.

Grants therefore was the original word, which the author, difcovering it to be provincial, and perhaps not understood, changed to a term more intelligible, but lefs proper. Maiden rites give no certain or definite image. He might have put maiden wreaths, or maiden garlands, but he perhaps bestowed no thought upon it; and neither genius nor practice will always fupply a hafty writer with the most proper diction. JOHNSON.

In Minfheu's Dictionary, fee Beades, where roofen krants means fertum rofarium; and fuch is the name of a character in this play.

TOLLET.

5 Of bell and burial.] Burial, here fignifies interment in confecrated ground. WARBURTON.

6 To fing a requiem,] A requiem, is a mafs performed in Popish churches for the rest of the foul of a perfon deceased. The folio reads-fing fage requiem. STEEVENS,

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