Collected from all Simples that have virtue
Under the Moon, can fave the thing from death,
That is but scratch'd withal; I'll touch my point
With this contagion, that if I gall him flightly,
It may be death.

King. Let's farther think of this

Weigh, what convenience both of time and means
May fit us to our fhape. If this fhould fail,

And that our drift look through our bad performance,
'Twere better not affay'd; therefore this project
Should have a back, or fecond, that might hold,
If this should blaft in proof. Soft-let me fee
We'll make a folemn wager on your cunnings;
I ha't-when in your motion you are hot,
(As make your bouts more violent to that end)
And that he calls for Drink, I'll have prepar'd him
A Chalice for the nonce; whereon but fipping,
If he by chance escape your venom'd tuck,
Our purpose may hold there.

SCENE X.

Enter Queen.

How now, fweet Queen?

Queen. One woe doth tread upon another's heel, So faft they follow: your fifter's drown'd, Laertes. Laer. Drown'd! oh where ?

Queen." There is a willow grows aflant a Brook, "That fhews his hoar leaves in the glaffie ftream: "There with fantastick garlands did she come, "Of crow-flowers, nettles, daifies, and long purples, "(That liberal fhepherds give a groffer name to; "But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them ;)

"There on the pendant boughs, her coronet weeds "Clambring to hang, an envious fliver broke; "When down her weedy trophies and herself

"Fell

"Fell in the weeping brook; her cloaths fpread wide,

"And mermaid-like, a while they bore her up, "Which time fhe chaunted fnatches of old tunes, "As one incapable of her own distress; "Or like a creature native, and indued

"Unto that element: but long it could not be, 'Till that her garments, heavy with their drink, Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay To muddy death.

Laer. Alas then, fhe is drown'd!

Queen. Drown'd, drown'd.

Laer. Too much of water haft thou, poor Ophelia, And therefore I forbid my tears: but yet

It is our trick; Nature her custom holds,

Let Shame fay what it will; when these are gone,
The woman will be out: adieu, my lord!

I have a speech of fire, that fain would blaze,
But that this folly drowns it.

King. Follow, Gertrude:

How much had I to do to calm his rage!

Therefore, let's follow.

Now fear I, this will give it start again;

[Exit.

[Exeunt.

1 Which time he chaunted fnatches of old tunes,] Fletcher, in

his Scornful Lady, very invidiously ridicules this incident.

I will run mad firft, and if that get not pity,
I'll drown my felf to a moft difmal ditty.

АСТ

ACT V. SCENE I.

A CHURCH.

Enter two Clowns, with spades and mattocks.

I CLOWN.

S the to be buried in chriftian burial, that wilfully feeks her own falvation?

2 Clown. I tell thee, fhe is, therefore make her Grave ftraight; the crowner hath fate on her, and finds it chriftian burial,

I Clown. How can that be, unless fhe drowned herself in her own defence?

2 Clown. Why, tis found fo.

1 Clown. "It must be fe offendendo, it cannot be "elfe. For here lyes the point; if I drown my felf "wittingly, it argues an act; and an act hath three "branches; It is to act, to do, and to perform; argal, fhe drown'd herself wittingly.

66

2 Clown. Nay, but hear you, goodman Delver.

1 Clown. "Give me leave; here lies the water, "good: here ftands 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 wa<< ter come to him, and drown him, he drowns not "himself. Argal, he, that is not guilty of his own "death, fhortens not his own life."

2 Clown. But is this law?

1 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, fhe fhould have been buried out of chriftian burial.

I an act bath three branches ; it is to act, to do, and to perform Ridicule on fcholaftic divifions without diftinction and of di inctions without difference.

VOL. VIII.

R

* Clown.

1 Clown. Why, there thou fay'ft. And the more pity, that great folk fhould have countenance in this world to drown or hang themfelves, more than their even chriftian. Come, my fpade; there is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners, ditchers, and grave-makers; they hold up Adam's profeffion.

2 Clown. Was he a gentleman?

1 Clown. He was the firft, that ever bore arms. 2 Clown. Why he had none.

1 Clown. What, art a heathen? how doft thou understand the Scripture? the Scripture fays, Adam digg'd; could he dig without arms? I'll put another queftion to thee; if thou answerest me to the purpose, confefs thy felf

2 Clown. Go to.

1 Clown. What is he that builds ftronger than either the mason, the fhip-wright, or the carpenter? 2 Clown. The gallows-maker; for that frame outlives a thousand tenants.

1 Clown. I like thy wit well, in good faith; the gallows does well; but how does it well? it does well to thofe that do ill: now thou doft ill, to fay the gallows is built ftronger than the church; argal, the gallows may do well to thee. To't again, come. 2 Clown. Who builds ftronger than a mason, a fhipwright, or a carpenter?

1 Clown. Ay, tell me that, and unyoke.
2 Clown. Marry, now I can tell.

1 Clown. To't.

2 Clown. Mafs, I cannot tell.

Enter Hamlet and Horatio, at a distance.

1 Clown. Cudgel thy brains no more about it; for your dull afs will not mend his pace with beating; 2 their even chriftian.] So all the old books, and rightly. An old English expreffion for fellow-chriftians. Dr. Thirlby. 3 Ay, tell me that, and unyoke.] i. e. when you have done that, I'll trouble you no more with thefe riddles. The phrafe taken from husbandry.

and,

and, when you are ask'd this queftion next, fay a grave-maker. The houses,, he makes, laft 'till doomsday go, get thee to Youghan, and fetch me a ftoup of liquor. [Exit 2 Clown.

He digs, and fings.

In youth when I did love, did love,
Methought, it was very sweet;

To contract, ob, the time for, a, my behove,
Oh, methought, there was nothing fo meet.

Ham. Has this fellow no feeling of his bufinefs, that he fings at Grave-making?

Hor. Custom hath made it to him a property of eafinefs.

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

Clown fings.

But age, with his fealing steps,

Hath claw'd me in his clutch:
And bath fhipped me into his land,
As if I had never been fuch.

Ham. That fcull 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 first murther! this might be the pate of a politician, 5 which this afs

o'er

4 A politician,one that could circumvent God,] This character is finely touched. Our great historian has well explained it in an example, where fpeaking of the death of Cardinal Mazarine, at the time of the Reftoration, he fays, The Cardinal was probably ftruck with the wonder, if not the agony of that undream'd of profperity of our King's affairs; as if he had taken it ill, and laid it to heart that God Almighty would bring fuch a work to pass in Europe without his concurrence, and even against all his machinations. Hift. of the Rebellion, Book 16.

5 which this afs o'er-offices ;] The meaning is this. People in office, at that time, were fo overbearing, that Shakespear speaking