To thew yourself your father's fon indeed
More than in words?

Laer. To cut his throat i' th' church.

Trize,

King. No place, indeed, fhould murder fanctuaRevenge fhould have no bounds; but good Laertes, Will you do this? keep clofe within your chamber; Hamlet returned, fhall know you are come home;. We'll put on thofe fhall praife your excellence, And fet a double varnish on the fame [gether, The Frenchman gave you; bring you, in fine, toAnd wager on your heads. He being remifs,

Moft generous, and free from all contriving,.
Will not perufe the foils; fo that with ease,
Or with a little fhuffling you may chufe
A fword unbated, and in a pafs of practice
Requite him for your father.

Laer. I will do't;

And for the purpofe I'll anoint my

fword:

I bought an unction of a mountebank,
So mortal, that but dip a knife in it,

Where it draws blood, no cataplafm fo rare,.
Collected from all fimples that have virtue

Under the moon, can fave the thing from death
That is but fcratched 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 perform-

ance,

'Twere better not affayed; therefore this project Should have a back, or fecond, that might hold, If this fhould blaft in proof.---Soft, let me feeWe'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 venomed tuck,
Our purpose may hold there.

Enter Queen.

How now, fweet Queen?

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

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

There on the pendant boughs, her coronet weeds
Clambering to hang, an envious fliver broke;
When down her widow trophies and herself
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 endued
Unto that element; but long it could not be,
'Till that her garments heavy with their drink,
Pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay
To muddy death.

Laer. Alas then, fhe is drowned!

Queen. Drowned, drowned.

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 fpeech 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!

[Exit.

Now fear I, this will give it ftart again;

Therefore let's follow.

[Exeunt.

ACT V.

SCENE, A Church.

Enter two Clowns, with Spades and Mattocks.

1 CLOWN.

S fhe to be buried in Chriftian burial, that wilfully fecks her own falvation?

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

1 Clown. How can that be, unlefs 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 myfelf wittingly, it argues an act; and an act hath three branches; it is to act, to do, and to perform; argal, fhe drowned herself wittingly.

2 Clown. Nay, but hear you, goodman Delver. I Clown. Give me leave: here lyes 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 water 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 gentlewoman, the fhould have been buried out of Chriftian burial.

1 Clown. Why, there thou fayest. And the more pity, that great folk fhould have countenance in this world to drown or hang themfelves, more than other Chriftians. (66) 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 says, Adan digged; could he dig without arms? I'll put another queftion to thee; if thou answerest me not to the purpofe, confefs thyfeif

2 Clown. Go to.

1 Clown. What is he that builds fronger than either the mafon, the fhip-wright, or the carpenter?

(66) more than other Chriftians.] All the old books read, as Doctor Thirlby accurately obferves to me, their even chriften, i. e their fellow chriftians This was the language of thofe days, when we retained a good portion of the idiom received from our Saxon ancellors. Emne chriften.] Frater in Chrifto. Saxoinicum; qued male intelligentes, even chriftian proferunt; atque ità editur in oratione Henrici VIII. ad parlamen tum An regn. 37. Sed reféin L. L. Edouardi confeff. ca. 36. fratrem tuum, quod Angli dicunt emne chirften. Spelman in his gloffary. The Doctor thinks this learned antiquary mistaken, in making even a corruption of emne; for that even or ofen and eme are Saxon words of the fame import and fignification. I'll fubjoin, in confirmation of the Doctor's opinion, what Somner fays upon this head. Open, Hquus, aqualis, par, justus, even equal, alike, &c. Emne, Æqaus, jufius, æqualis, par, even, juft, equal. Emne fcolefe, condifcipulus, a school fellow.

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

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 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 fhip-wright, or a carpenter ?----

i Clown. Ay, tell me that, and unyoke.

2 Clown. Marry, now I can tell.

1 Clown. To't.

2 Clown. Mass, 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; and when you are asked this question next, fay, a gravemaker. The houfes he makes laft till dooms-day go, get thee to Yaughan, and fetch me a ftoup of liquor. [Exit 2 Clown.

:

[He digs and fings.]

"In youth when I did love, did love, (67) Methought it was very fweet;

"To contract, oh, the time for, a, my behove, "Oh, methought, there was nothing meet." Ham. Has this fellow no feeling of his business, that he fings at grave-making?

(67) In youth, when I did love, &c.] The three ftanzas, fung here by the grave digger, are extracted, with a flight variation, from a little poem called The Aged Lover renounceth Love; written by Henry Howard Earl of Surrey, who flourished in the reign of King Henry VIII. and who was beheaded in 1547, on a strained accufation of treafon. N

VOL. XII.