The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Part 67

_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 ma.s.sene with]

with a s.e.xtons 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_.]

[Page 232]

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 a.s.surance in that. I will speake to this fellow: whose Graue's this Sir? [Sidenote: this sirra?]

_Clo_. Mine Sir: [Sidenote: _Clow_. Mine sir, or a pit]

_O a Pit of Clay for to be made, for such a Guest is meete._[7]

_Ham_. I thinke it be thine indeed: for thou liest in't.

_Clo_. You lye out on't Sir, and therefore it is not [Sidenote: tis]

yours: for my part, I doe not lye in't; and yet it [Sidenote: in't, yet]

is mine.

_Ham_. Thou dost lye in't, to be in't and say 'tis [Sidenote: it is]

thine: 'tis for the dead, not for the quicke, therefore thou lyest.

_Clo_. Tis a quicke lye Sir, 'twill away againe from me to you.[8]

_Ham_. What man dost thou digge it for?

_Clo_. For no man Sir.

_Ham_. What woman then?

_Clo_. For none neither.

_Ham_. Who is to be buried in't?

_Clo_. One that was a woman Sir; but rest her Soule, shee's dead.

[Footnote 1: _From_ 'Is' _to_ 'Recoueries' _not in Q._]

[Footnote 2: the end.]

[Footnote 3: the property regained by his Recoveries.]

[Footnote 4: third and fourth meanings of the word _fine_.]

[Footnote 5: the skull.]

[Footnote 6: 'must the heir have no more either?'

_1st Q_.