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The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark LbNA #21389

Owner:PatrickandAmy
Plant date:Apr 13, 2006
Location:
City:???
County:New London
State:Connecticut
Boxes:1
Found by: ???
Last found:Feb 22, 2008
Status:FFFFFFFFa
Last edited:Apr 13, 2006
ACT V. SCENE I. A churchyard.
Enter two Clowns, with spades, & c

First Clown
1 Is she to be buried in Christian burial that
2 wilfully seeks her own salvation?

Second Clown
3 I tell thee she is: and therefore make her grave
4 straight: the crowner hath sat on her, and finds it
5 Christian burial.

First Clown
6 How can that be, unless she drowned herself in her
7 own defence?

Second Clown
8 Why, 'tis found so.

First Clown
9 It must be 'se offendendo;' it cannot be else. For
10 here lies the point: if I drown myself wittingly,
11 it argues an act: and an act hath three branches: it
12 is, to act, to do, to perform: argal, she drowned
13 herself wittingly.

Second Clown
14 Nay, but hear you, goodman delver,--

First Clown
15 Give me leave. Here lies the water; good: here
16 stands the man; good; if the man go to this water,
17 and drown himself, it is, will he, nill he, he
18 goes,--mark you that; but if the water come to him
19 and drown him, he drowns not himself: argal, he
20 that is not guilty of his own death shortens not his own life.

Second Clown
21 But is this law?

First Clown
22 Ay, marry, is't; crowner's quest law.

Second Clown
23 Will you ha' the truth on't? If this had not been
24 a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out o'
25 Christian burial.

First Clown
26 Why, there thou say'st: and the more pity that
27 great folk should have countenance in this world to
28 drown or hang themselves, more than their even
29 Christian. Come, my spade. There is no ancient
30 gentleman but gardeners, ditchers, and grave-makers:
31 they hold up Adam's profession.

Second Clown
32 Was he a gentleman?

First Clown
33 He was the first that ever bore arms.

Second Clown
34 Why, he had none.

First Clown
35 What, art a heathen? How dost thou understand the
36 Scripture? The Scripture says 'Adam digged:'
37 could he dig without arms? I'll put another
38 question to thee: if thou answerest me not to the
39 purpose, confess thyself--

Second Clown
40 Go to.

First Clown
41 What is he that builds stronger than either the
42 mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter?

Second Clown
43 The gallows-maker; for that frame outlives a
44 thousand tenants.

First Clown
45 I like thy wit well, in good faith: the gallows
46 does well; but how does it well? it does well to
47 those that do in: now thou dost ill to say the
48 gallows is built stronger than the church: argal,
49 the gallows may do well to thee. To't again, come.

Second Clown
41 'Who builds stronger than a mason, a shipwright, or
51 a carpenter?'

First Clown
52 Ay, tell me that, and unyoke.

Second Clown
53 Marry, now I can tell.

First Clown
54 To't.

Second Clown
55 Mass, I cannot tell.

Enter HAMLET and HORATIO, at a distance

First Clown
56 Cudgel thy brains no more about it, for your dull
57 ass will not mend his pace with beating; and, when
58 you are asked this question next, say 'a
59 grave-maker: 'the houses that he makes last till
60 doomsday. Go, get thee to Yaughan: fetch me a
61 stoup of liquor.

Exit Second Clown

[He digs and sings]

62 In youth, when I did love, did love,
63 Methought it was very sweet,
64 To contract, O, the time, for, ah, my behove,
65 O, methought, there was nothing meet.

HAMLET
66 Has this fellow no feeling of his business, that he
67 sings at grave-making?

HORATIO
68 Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness.

HAMLET
69 'Tis e'en so: the hand of little employment hath
70 the daintier sense.

First Clown [Sings]
71 But age, with his stealing steps,
72 Hath claw'd me in his clutch,
73 And hath shipped me intil the land,
74 As if I had never been such.
[Throws up a skull]

HAMLET
75 That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing once:
76 how the knave jowls it to the ground, as if it were
77 Cain's jaw-bone, that did the first murder! It
78 might be the pate of a politician, which this ass
79 now o'er-reaches; one that would circumvent God,
80 might it not?

HORATIO
81 It might, my lord.

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

HORATIO
86 Ay, my lord.

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

First Clown[Sings]
92 A pick-axe, and a spade, a spade,
93 For and a shrouding sheet:
94 O, a pit of clay for to be made
95 For such a guest is meet.
[Throws up another skull]

HAMLET
96 There's another: why may not that be the skull of a
97 lawyer? Where be his quiddities now, his quillets,
98 his cases, his tenures, and his tricks? why does he
99 suffer this rude knave now to knock him about the
32 sconce with a dirty shovel, and will not tell him of
101 his action of battery? Hum! This fellow might be
102 in's time a great buyer of land, with his statutes,
103 his recognizances, his fines, his double vouchers,
104 his recoveries: is this the fine of his fines, and
105 the recovery of his recoveries, to have his fine
106 pate full of fine dirt? will his vouchers vouch him
107 no more of his purchases, and double ones too, than
108 the length and breadth of a pair of indentures? The
109 very conveyances of his lands will hardly lie in
110 this box; and must the inheritor himself have no more, ha?

HORATIO
111 Not a jot more, my lord.

HAMLET
112 Is not parchment made of sheepskins?

HORATIO
113 Ay, my lord, and of calf-skins too.

HAMLET
114 They are sheep and calves which seek out assurance
115 in that. I will speak to this fellow. Whose
116 grave's this, sirrah?

First Clown
117 Mine, sir.
[Sings]
118 O, a pit of clay for to be made
119 For such a guest is meet.

HAMLET
120 I think it be thine, indeed; for thou liest in't.

First Clown
121 You lie out on't, sir, and therefore it is not
122 yours: for my part, I do not lie in't, and yet it is mine.

HAMLET
123 'Thou dost lie in't, to be in't and say it is thine:
124'tis for the dead, not for the quick; therefore thou liest.

First Clown
125 'Tis a quick lie, sir; 'twill away gain, from me to
126 you.

HAMLET
127 What man dost thou dig it for?

First Clown
128 For no man, sir.

HAMLET
129 What woman, then?

First Clown
130 For none, neither.

HAMLET
131 Who is to be buried in't?

First Clown
132 One that was a woman, sir; but, rest her soul, she's dead.

HAMLET
133 How absolute the knave is! we must speak by the
134 card, or equivocation will undo us. By the Lord,
135 Horatio, these three years I have taken a note of
136 it; the age is grown so picked that the toe of the
137 peasant comes so near the heel of the courtier, he
138 gaffs his kibe. How long hast thou been a
139 grave-maker?

First Clown
140 Of all the days i' the year, I came to't that day
141 that our last king Hamlet overcame Fortinbras.

HAMLET
142 How long is that since?

First Clown
143 Cannot you tell that? every fool can tell that: it
144 was the very day that young Hamlet was born; he that
145 is mad, and sent into England.

HAMLET
146 Ay, marry, why was he sent into England?

First Clown
147 Why, because he was mad: he shall recover his wits
148 there; or, if he do not, it's no great matter there.

HAMLET
149 Why?

First Clown
802 'Twill, a not be seen in him there; there the men
151 are as mad as he.

HAMLET
152 How came he mad?

First Clown
153 Very strangely, they say.

HAMLET
154 How strangely?

First Clown
155 Faith, e'en with losing his wits.

HAMLET
156 Upon what ground?

First Clown
157 Why, here in Denmark: I have been sexton here, man
158 and boy, thirty years.

HAMLET
159 How long will a man lie i' the earth ere he rot?

First Clown
160 I' faith, if he be not rotten before he die--as we
161 have many pocky corses now-a-days, that will scarce
162 hold the laying in--he will last you some eight year
163 or nine year: a tanner will last you nine year.

HAMLET
164 Why he more than another?

First Clown
165 Why, sir, his hide is so tanned with his trade, that
166 he will keep out water a great while; and your water
167 is a sore decayer of your whoreson dead body.
168 Here's a skull now; this skull has lain in the earth
169 three and twenty years.

HAMLET
170 Whose was it?

First Clown
171 A whoreson mad fellow's it was: whose do you think it was?

HAMLET
172 Nay, I know not.

First Clown
173 A pestilence on him for a mad rogue! a' poured a
174 flagon of Rhenish on my head once. This same skull,
175 sir, was Yorick's skull, the king's jester.

HAMLET
176 This?

First Clown
177 E'en that.

HAMLET
178 Let me see.
[Takes the skull]
179 Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow
180 of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath
181 borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how
182 abhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rims at
183 it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know
184 not how oft. Where be your gibes now? your
185 gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment,
186 that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one
187 now, to mock your own grinning? quite chap-fallen?
188 Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let
189 her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must
190 come; make her laugh at that. Prithee, Horatio, tell
191 me one thing.

HORATIO
192 What's that, my lord?

HAMLET
193 Dost thou think Alexander looked o' this fashion i'
194 the earth?

HORATIO
195 E'en so.

HAMLET
196 And smelt so? pah!
[Puts down the skull]

HORATIO
197 E'en so, my lord.

HAMLET
198 To what base uses we may return, Horatio! Why may
199 not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander,
72 till he find it stopping a bung-hole?

HORATIO
201 'Twere to consider too curiously, to consider so.

HAMLET
202 No, faith, not a jot; but to follow him thither with
203 modesty enough, and likelihood to lead it: as
204 thus: Alexander died, Alexander was buried,
205 Alexander returneth into dust; the dust is earth; of
206 earth we make loam; and why of that loam, whereto he
207 was converted, might they not stop a beer-barrel?
208 Imperious Caesar, dead and turn'd to clay,
209 Might stop a hole to keep the wind away:
210 O, that that earth, which kept the world in awe,
211 Should patch a wall to expel the winter flaw!
212 But soft! but soft! aside: here comes the king.
[Enter Priest, & c. in procession; the Corpse of OPHELIA, LAERTES and Mourners following; KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, their trains, & c]
213 The queen, the courtiers: who is this they follow?
214 And with such maimed rites? This doth betoken
215 The corse they follow did with desperate hand
216 Fordo its own life: 'twas of some estate.
217 Couch we awhile, and mark.
[Retiring with HORATIO]

LAERTES
218 What ceremony else?

HAMLET
219 That is Laertes,
220 A very noble youth: mark.

LAERTES
221 What ceremony else?

First Priest
222 Her obsequies have been as far enlarged
223 As we have warrantise: her death was doubtful;
224 And, but that great command o'ersways the order,
225 She should in ground unsanctified have lodged
226 Till the last trumpet: for charitable prayers,
227 Shards, flints and pebbles should be thrown on her;
228 Yet here she is allow'd her virgin crants,
229 Her maiden strewments and the bringing home
230 Of bell and burial.

LAERTES
231 Must there no more be done?

First Priest
232 No more be done:
233 We should profane the service of the dead
234 To sing a requiem and such rest to her
235 As to peace-parted souls.

LAERTES
236 Lay her i' the earth:
237 And from her fair and unpolluted flesh
238 May violets spring! I tell thee, churlish priest,
239 A ministering angel shall my sister be,
240 When thou liest howling.

HAMLET
241 What, the fair Ophelia!

QUEEN GERTRUDE
242 Sweets to the sweet: farewell!
[Scattering flowers]
243 I hoped thou shouldst have been my Hamlet's wife;
244 I thought thy bride-bed to have deck'd, sweet maid,
245 And not have strew'd thy grave.

LAERTES
246 O, treble woe
247 Fall ten times treble on that cursed head,
248 Whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense
249 Deprived thee of! Hold off the earth awhile,
03 Till I have caught her once more in mine arms:
[Leaps into the grave]
251 Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead,
252 Till of this flat a mountain you have made,
253 To o'ertop old Pelion, or the skyish head
254 Of blue Olympus.

HAMLET
255 [Advancing] What is he whose grief
256 Bears such an emphasis? whose phrase of sorrow
257 Conjures the wandering stars, and makes them stand
258 Like wonder-wounded hearers? This is I,
259 Hamlet the Dane.
[Leaps into the grave]

LAERTES
260 The devil take thy soul!
[Grappling with him]

HAMLET
261 Thou pray'st not well.
262 I prithee, take thy fingers from my throat;
263 For, though I am not splenitive and rash,
264 Yet have I something in me dangerous,
265 Which let thy wiseness fear: hold off thy hand.

KING CLAUDIUS
266 Pluck them asunder.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
267 Hamlet, Hamlet!

All
268 Gentlemen,--

HORATIO
269 Good my lord, be quiet.
[The Attendants part them, and they come out of the grave]

HAMLET
270 Why I will fight with him upon this theme
271 Until my eyelids will no longer wag.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
272 O my son, what theme?

HAMLET
273 I loved Ophelia: forty thousand brothers
274 Could not, with all their quantity of love,
275 Make up my sum. What wilt thou do for her?

KING CLAUDIUS
276 O, he is mad, Laertes.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
277 For love of God, forbear him.

HAMLET
278 'Swounds, show me what thou'lt do:
279 Woo't weep? woo't fight? woo't fast? woo't tear thyself?
280 Woo't drink up eisel? eat a crocodile?
281 I'll do't. Dost thou come here to whine?
282 To outface me with leaping in her grave?
283 Be buried quick with her, and so will I:
284 And, if thou prate of mountains, let them throw
285 Millions of acres on us, till our ground,
286 Singeing his pate against the burning zone,
287 Make Ossa like a wart! Nay, an thou'lt mouth,
288 I'll rant as well as thou.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
289 This is mere madness:
290 And thus awhile the fit will work on him;
291 Anon, as patient as the female dove,
292 When that her golden couplets are disclosed,
293 His silence will sit drooping.

HAMLET
294 Hear you, sir;
295 What is the reason that you use me thus?
296 I loved you ever: but it is no matter;
297 Let Hercules himself do what he may,
298 The cat will mew and dog will have his day.
[Exit]

KING CLAUDIUS
299 I pray you, good Horatio, wait upon him.
[Exit HORATIO]
[To LAERTES]
105 Strengthen your patience in our last night's speech;
301 We'll put the matter to the present push.
302Good Gertrude, set some watch over your son.
303 This grave shall have a living monument:
304 An hour of quiet shortly shall we see;
305 Till then, in patience our proceeding be.
[Exeunt]

Back to back with the crucifix, 14 steps to stump and fallen tree. Back side of stump under bark.