I CLOWN. 'S the to be buried in christian burial, that wilfully

I obnr

2 Clown. I tell thee, he is, therefore make her grave Atraight; the crowner hath fate on her, and finds it chriftian burial.

1 Clown. How can that be, unless the drowned herself in her own defence ?

2 Clown. Why, 'tis found so.

i Clozun. It must be fe offendendo, 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 ; argal, she drown'd herself wittingly. 2 Clown. Nay, but hear you, goodman Delver.

Clown. 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 ; mark you 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.

2 Clown. But is this law ?
i Clown. Ay, marry is't, crowner's queft-law.

2 Clown. Will you ha' the truth on't ? if this had not been a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out of christian burial.

i Clown. Why, there thou say’ft. And the more pity, that great folk should have countenance in this world to drown or hang themselves, more than other

christians.

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christians (65). Come, my spade ; there is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners, ditchers, and grave-makers ; they hold up A ani's profession.

¿ Clozu). Was he a gentleman ?
i Cioun. He was the first, that ever bore arms.
2 Cloun. Why, he had none.

I Clicum. What, art a heathen ? ho v dost thou underfand the Scripture ? the Scripture says, adam digg'd; could he dig without armis ? I'll put another question to thee ; if thou answerest ine not to the purpose, confess thyself-

2 Clown. Go to.

i Cown. What is he that builds stronger than either the mason, the ship-wrighi, or the carpenter :

2 Clown. The gallows-maker; for that frame outlives a thousand tenants.

i Clown. 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 doft ill, to say the gallows is built stronger than the church ;, arga', the gallows may do well to thee.

To't again, come. ż Clozen. Who builds stronger than a mafon, a shipwright, or a carpenter ? --

i Ciowr. Ay, tell me that, and unyoke.
2 Covn. Ivarry, now I can tell.
i Clorun. To'i.
2 Clown. Mass, I cannct tell.

(66) more ikan cther christians.] All old tooks read, as Dodor Tbirlty accurately oblerves to me, their even cbriften, i. e, their fillow christians. This was the language of those diys, when we 1!tain'd a good portion of ihe idiom receiv'd !rom our Saxon ancestors. Enrechr ;). 11.) Fraler in Christo. Suxonicum; quod malè intelligentes, li'in ibor:Pian p:oferunt: atque ità editur in cratione Henrici Vill, ad parlarrentum An, regn. 37. Sed reciè in L.L. Edouordi confèff, ca. 36. Fratrcm fuum, quo. Angli dicun' enne Cnisten. Spelman in I s Glöjlary. The Doctor thinks this learned antiquary mistaken, in making even, a corrup:ion of Enne ; for that even or efen, and @ne are S xen words of the same import and signification. I'll tudjoin, in confirmation of he Doctor's opinion, what SOMNER says upon this head. Eren, Æquus, æqualis, par, jusus, cher, qual, alik, &c Enne, Æquus, juftis, æqualis, event, filit, igual. enne.j'co'ere, condiscipulus, a lchoo fellow.

Enter

Enter Hamlet ad Horatio, at a difiance. i Clowr. Cudgel thy brains no more about it; for your dull ass will not mend his

pace with beating; anila when you are ak'd this queition next, fay, a grave, maker. The hou.es, he makes, lait 'till dooms-day : go, get thee to l'augta?, and fetch me a stoup of liquor,

[Lxit 2 Clown.
He digs, and sings.
In youth when I did isve, did love, (67)

Methou: bi, it was very sweet;
Ti contraci, ob, the time yo., a, my behore,

Oh, meth0:1; bt, there was no!hing meit. Ham. Has this fellow no feeling of his business, that he sings at Grave-making?

Hori Custom hath made it to him a property of easie ness.

Ham. 'Tis e'en fo; the hand of little employment hath the daintier fense.

Clown Sings.
But age, with his stealing Aeps,

Hath claw'd me in his cutch:
And hath shipped me into the land,

A; if I had never been such. Ham. That skull had a tongue in it, and could fing once; how the knave jowles it to the ground, as if it were Cain's jaw bone, that did the firit murder!. this might be the pate of a politician, which this ass o'eroffices; one that would circumvent God, might it not?

Hor. It might, my Lord.
Ham. Or of a courtier, which could say, " Good

(67) In youth, when I did love, &c.] The three fianza's, sung here by the grave-digger, are extracted, with a flight variation, from a little poem, called, The Aged Lover renouncerb Love: written by Henry Howard earl of Surrey, who flourish'd in the reign of King Henry VIII, and who was tebeaded in 1547, on a strain'd accusation of !, treason,

morrow,

1

morrow, sweet Lord; how dost thou, good Lord :" this might be my Lord fuch-a-one, that prais'd my Lord fuch-a-one's horse, when he meant to beg it; might it not ?

Hor. Ay, my Lord.

Ham. Why, e'en fo: and now my lady Wom's chapless, and knockt about the mazzard with a sexton's fpade. Here's a fine revolution, if we had the trick to see't. Did these bones cost no more the breeding, but to play at loggats with 'em ? mine ake to think on't. (68)

Clown fings.
A pick-axe and a spade, a spade,

For,--and a shrouding sheet!
0, a pit of clay for to be made

For such a guest is meet. Ham. There's another: why may not that be the scull of a lawyer? where be his quiddits now? his quillets ? his cases? his tenures, and his tricks? why does he suffer this rude knave now to knock him about the sconce with a dirty shovel, 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 vouchers, his recoveries. Is this the fine of his fines, and the recovery of his recoveries, to have his fine pate full of fine dirt ? will his vouchers vouch him no more of his purchases, and double ones too, then the length and breadth of a pair of indentures ? the very conveyances of his lands will hardly lie in this box; and must the inheritor himself have no more? ha?

(68) Did these bones cost no more obe breeding, but to play at loggers witb ibem ? ] I have restor’d, from the old copies, the true word, loggars. We meet with it again in Ben Johnson :

Now are they toffing of his legs and arms
Like loggats at a pear-tree,

A Tale of a Tub. What sore of Iport this was, I confess, I do not know, but I find it in the list of unlawful games, prohibited by a statute 33 Henry VIII, cap. ix. $ 16.

Hor.

Hor. Not a jot more, my

Lord.
Ham. Is not parchment made of sheep-skins.
Hor. Ay, my Lord, and of calve-kins too.

Ham. They are sheep and calves that seek out assu.
rance in that. I will speak to this fellow : Whose
Grave's this, Sirrah ?
Clown. Mine, Sir

O, a fit of clay for to be made

For such a Guest is meet.
Ham. I think, it be thine, indeed, for thou left in't.

Clown. You lye 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 doft lye in't, to be in't, and say, 'tis thine : 'tis for the dead, not for the quick, therefore thou ly'ft.

Cloun. 'Tis a quick lie, Sir, 'twill away again from me to you.

Ham. What man dost thou dig it for ?
Clown. For no man, Sir.
Ham. What woman then?
Clown. For none neither,
Ham. Who is to be buried in't ?

C'own, One that was a woman, Sir ; but, reft her foul, she's dead.

Ham. How absolute the knave is ? we must speak by the card or equivocation will undo us. By the Lord, Horatio, these three years I have taken note of it, the age

is

grown fo picked, that the toe of the peasant comes so near the heel of our courtier, he galls his kibe. How long hast thou been a grave-maker?

Clown, Of all the days i'th' year, I came to't that day
that our last King Hamlet o’ercame Fortinbras.
Ham. How long is that fince
Clown, Cannot you tell that? every

fool can

tell that: it was that very day that young Hamlet was born, he that was mad, and sent into England,

Ham. Ay, marry, why was he sent into England ?
Clown, Why, because he was mad; he shall recover

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his