1. Clown. A pick-axe, and a spade, a spade, For-and a fhrouding sheet: O, a pit of clay for to be made [fings. For fuch a guest is meet. [throws np a scull. Ham. There's another: Why may not that be the fcull of a lawyer? Where be his quiddits now, his quillets, his cafes, his tenures, and his tricks? why does he fuffer this rude knave now to knock him about the sconce' with a dirty fhovel, and will not tell him of his action of battery? Humph! This fellow might be in's time a great buyer of land, with his ftatutes 2, his recognizances, his fines, his double vouchers, his recoveries: Is this the fine of his fines, and the recovery of his recoveries 3, to have his fine pate full of fine dirt? will his vouchers vouch him no more of his purchases, and double ones too, than the length and breadth of a pair of indentures? The very conveyances of his lands and lighter end, and fling them towards the bowl, and in such a manner that the pins may once turn round in the air, and slide with the thinner extremity foremoft towards the bowl. The pins are about one or two and twenty inches long. BLOUNT, 7 For fuch a gueft is meet.] Thus in the original. And eke a forowding fbeet; STEEVENS. -quiddits, &c.] i. e. fubtleties. So, in Soliman and Perfeda; I am wife, but quiddits will not answer death." STEEVENS. Again, in Drayton's Ówle, 4to, 1604: "By fome ftrange quiddit, or fome wrefted claufe, "To find him guiltie of the breach of lawes," MALONE. 9- his quillets,] Quillets are nice and frivolous distinctions. The word is rendered by Coles in his Latin Dictionary, 1679, res frivola. MALONE. 1- the fconce] i. e. the head. STEEVENS. See Vol. II. p. 143, n. 8. MALONE. bis ftatutes,] By a statute is here meant, not an act of parliament, but a species of fecurity for money, affecting real property; whereby the lands of the debtor are conveyed to the creditor, till out of the rents and profits of them his debt may be satisfied. MALONE. 3 Is this the fine of bis fines, and the recovery of his recoveries,] Omitted in the quartos. STEEVENS, will hardly lie in this box; and must the inheritor himfelf have no more? ha? Hor. Not a jot more, my lord. Ham. Is not parchment made of sheep-skins? Hor. Ay, my lord, and of calves-skins too. Ham. They are fheep, and calves, which feek out affurance in that. I will fpeak to this fellow :-Whose grave's this, firrah? 1. Clown. Mine, fir. O, a pit of clay for to be made For fuch a gueft is meet. [fings. Ham. I think it be thine, indeed; for thou ly'ft in't. 1. Clown. You lie out on't, fir, and therefore it is not yours for my part, I do not lie in't, yet it is mine. Ham. Thou doft lie in't, to be in't, and say it is thine : 'tis for the dead, not for the quick; therefore thou ly'ft. 1. Clown. 'Tis a quick lie, fir; 'twill away again, from me to you. Ham. What man doft thou dig it for? 1. Clown. For none neither. Ham. Who is to be buried in't? 1. Clown. One, that was a woman, fir; but, reft her foul, the's dead. Ham. How abfolute the knave is! we the cards, or equivocation will undo us. must speak by By the lord, - affurance in that.] A quibble is intended. Deeds, which are ufually written on parchment, are called the common assurances of the kingdom. MALONE. 5-by the card,-] i. e. we must speak with the fame precìfion and accuracy as is obferved in marking the true diftances of coafts, the heights, courfes, &c. in a fea-cbart, which in our poet's time was called a card. So in The Commonwealth and Government of Venice, 4to, 1599, p. 177: "Sebaftian Munster in his carde of Venice-." Again, in Bacon's Elays, p. 326. edit. 1740: "Let him carry with him alfo fome card, or book, defcribing the country where he travelleth." In 1589 was published in 4to, A briefe Difcourfe of Mappes and Cardes, and of their Ufes.-The "fhipman's card" in Macbeth, is the paper on which the different points of the compass are described. C c 4 MALONE. Horatio, Horatio, these three years I have taken note of it; the age is grown fo picked, that the toe of the peasant comes fo near the heel of the courtier, he galls his kibe. -How long haft thou been a grave-maker? 1. Clown. Of all the days i' the year, I came to't that day that our last king Hamlet overcame Fortinbras. Ham. How long's that fince? 1. Clown. Cannot you tell that? every fool can tell that: It was that very day that young Hamlet was born; he that is mad, and fent into England. Ham. Ay, marry, why was he fent into England? 1. Clown. Why, becaufe he was mad: he fhall recover his wits there; or, if he do not, 'tis no great matter there. Ham. Why? 1. Clown. "Twill not be feen in him there; there the men are as mad as he. Ham. How came he mad? 1. Clown. Very strangely, they fay. Ham. How ftrangely? 1. Clown. 'Faith, e'en with lofing his wits. 1. Clown. 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. Clown. 'Faith, if he be not rotten before he die, (as we have many pocky corfes now-a-days, that will fcarce hold the laying in,) he will laft you fome eight year, or nine year: a tanner will last you nine year. 6-the age is grown fo picked,-] i. e. fo fpruce, fo quaint, fo affected. See Vol. II. p. 393, n. 4, and Vol. IV. p. 546, n. 2. There is, I think, no allufion to picked or pointed fhoes, as has been fuppofed. Picked was a common word of Shakspeare's age, in the fenfe above given, and is found in Mintheu's Dictionary, 1617, with its original fignification: "Trimm'd or dreft fprucely." It is here used metaphorically. MALONE. 7that young Hamlet was born;] By this fcene it appears that Hamlet was then thirty years old, and knew Yorick well, who had been dead twenty-two years. And yet in the beginning of the play he is fpoken of as a very young man, one that defigned to go back to fchool, i. e. to the university of Wittenberg. The poet in the fifth act had forgot what he wrote in the first. BLACKSTONE. 8 now-a-days,] Omitted in the quarto, MALONE. Ham. Ham. Why he more than another? 1. Clown. 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 whorfon dead body. Here's a fcull now hath lain you i'the earth three-andtwenty years. Ham. Whofe was it? 1. Clown. A whorefon mad fellow's it was; Whofe do you think it was? Ham. Nay, I know not. 1. Clown. A peftilence on him for a mad rogue! he pour'd a flaggon of Rhenish on my head once. This fame fcull, fir, was Yorick's fcull, the king's jefter. Ham. This ? [takes the fcull. 1. Clown. 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 she must 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 so ? pah! 9 [throws down the fcull. -Yorick's feull,-]. Thus the folio.-The quarto reads-Sir Yorick's fcull. MALONE. - your own grinning?] Thus the quarto, 1604. The folio reads your own jeering. In that copy, after this word, and chap-fallen, there is a note of interrogation, which all the editors have adopted. I doubt concerning its propriety. MALONE. 1 my lady's chamber,] Thus the folio. The quartos read-my lady's table, meaning, I fuppofe, her dreffing-table. STEEVENS. 2 to this favour-] i. e. to this countenance or complexion. See Vol. II, p. 499, n. 6, and Vol. VII. p. 328, n. 3. MALONE. Hor. Hor. E'en fo, my lord. Ham. To what base uses we may return, Horatio! Why may not imagination trace the noble duft of Alexander, till he find it stopping a bung-hole? Hor. "Twere to confider too curiously, to confider fo. Ham. No, faith, not a jot; but to follow him thither with modesty enough, and likelihood to lead it: As thus; Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth to dust; the dust is earth; of earth we make loam: And why of that loam, whereto he was converted, might they not ftop a beer-barrel ? Imperious Cæfar3, dead, and turn'd to clay, Enter Priests, &c. in procession; the corpfe of OPHELIA, LAERTES and Mourners following it; King, Queen, their Trains, &c. The queen, the courtiers: Who is this they follow? 3 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. VIII. p. 264, n. *, and p. 412, n. *. There are other inftances in the folio of a familiar term being fubftituted in the room of a more ancient word. See p. 395, note 9. MALONE. - winter's flaw !] Winter's blaft. JOHNSON. The quartos read to expel the water's flaw. STEEVENS. See Vol. VI. p. 177. n. 8. 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 went, a guft or flaw of wind." MALONE. 5-maimed rites!-] Imperfect obfequies. JOHNSON. Fordo its own life. To fordo, is to undo, to destroy. So, in Otbello : "this is the night "That either makes me, or fordoes me quite." Again, in Acolaftus, a comedy, 1540: 11 wolde to God it might be leful for me to fordoo myself, or to make an end of me!" STEEVENS. 7-fome eftate:] Some perfon of high rank. JOHNSON. See Vol. VIII. p. 202, n. 8. MALONE. Couch |