The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Part 68

and must The honor (_owner?_) lie there?]

[Footnote 7: _This line not in Q._]

[Footnote 8: He _gives_ the lie.]

[Page 234]

_Ham_. How absolute[1] the knaue is? wee must [Sidenote: 256] speake by the Carde,[2] or equiuocation will vndoe vs: by the Lord _Horatio_, these three yeares[3] I haue [Sidenote: this three]

taken note of it, the Age is growne so picked,[4] [Sidenote: tooke]

that the toe of the Pesant comes so neere the heeles of our Courtier, hee galls his Kibe.[5] How [Sidenote: the heele of the]

long hast thou been a Graue-maker? [Sidenote: been Graue-maker?]

_Clo_. Of all the dayes i'th'yeare, I came too't [Sidenote: Of the dayes]

that day[6] that our last King _Hamlet_ o'recame [Sidenote: ouercame]

_Fortinbras_.

_Ham_. How long is that since?

_Clo_. Cannot you tell that? euery foole can tell [Sidenote: 143] that: It was the very day,[6] that young _Hamlet_ was [Sidenote: was that very]

borne,[8] hee that was mad, and sent into England, [Sidenote: that is mad]

_Ham_. I marry, why was he sent into England?

_Clo_. Why, because he was mad; hee shall recouer [Sidenote: a was mad: a shall]

his wits there; or if he do not, it's no great [Sidenote: if a do tis]

matter there.

_Ham_. Why?

_Clo_. 'Twill not be scene in him, there the men [Sidenote: him there, there]

are as mad as he.

_Ham_. How came he mad?

_Clo_. Very strangely they say.

_Ham_. How strangely?[7]

_Clo_. Faith e'ene with loosing his wits.

_Ham_. Vpon what ground?

_Clo_. Why heere in Denmarke[8]: I haue bin sixeteene [Sidenote: s.e.xten]

[Sidenote: 142-3] heere, man and Boy thirty yeares.[9]

_Ham_. How long will a man lie 'ith' earth ere he rot?

_Clo_. Ifaith, if he be not rotten before he die (as [Sidenote: Fayth if a be not a die]

we haue many pocky Coa.r.s.es now adaies, that will [Sidenote: corses, that will]

scarce hold the laying in) he will last you some [Sidenote: a will]

eight yeare, or nine yeare. A Tanner will last you nine yeare.

[Footnote 1: 'How the knave insists on precision!']

[Footnote 2: chart: _Skeat's Etym. Dict._]

[Footnote 3: Can this indicate any point in the history of English society?]

[Footnote 4: so fastidious; so given to _picking_ and choosing; so choice.]

[Footnote 5: The word is to be found in any dictionary, but is not generally understood. Lord Byron, a very inaccurate writer, takes it to mean _heel_:

Devices quaint, and frolics ever new, Tread on each others' kibes:

_Childe Harold, Canto 1. St. 67._

It means a _chilblain_.]

[Footnote 6: Then Fortinbras _could_ have been but a few months younger than Hamlet, and may have been older. Hamlet then, in the Quarto pa.s.sage, could not by _tender_ mean _young_.]

[Footnote 7: 'In what way strangely?'--_in what strange way_? Or the _How_ may be _how much_, in retort to the _very_; but the intent would be the same--a request for further information.]

[Footnote 8: Hamlet has asked on what ground or provocation, that is, from what cause, Hamlet lost his wits; the s.e.xton chooses to take the word _ground_ materially.]

[Footnote 9: The Poet makes him say how long he had been s.e.xton--but how naturally and informally--by a stupid joke!--in order a second time, and more certainly, to tell us Hamlet's age: he must have held it a point necessary to the understanding of Hamlet.

Note Hamlet's question immediately following. It looks as if he had first said to himself: 'Yes--I have been thirty years above ground!' and _then_ said to the s.e.xton, 'How long will a man lie i' th' earth ere he rot?' We might enquire even too curiously as to the connecting links.]

[Page 236]

_Ham_. Why he, more then another?

_Clo_. Why sir, his hide is so tan'd with his Trade, that he will keepe out water a great while. And [Sidenote: a will]

your water, is a sore Decayer of your horson dead body. Heres a Scull now: this Scul, has laine in [Sidenote: now hath iyen you i'th earth 23. yeeres.]

the earth three and twenty years.

_Ham_. Whose was it?

_Clo_. A wh.o.r.eson mad Fellowes it was; Whose doe you thinke it was?

_Ham_. Nay, I know not.

_Clo_. A pestlence on him for a mad Rogue, a pou'rd a Flaggon of Renish on my head once.

This same Scull Sir, this same Scull sir, was _Yoricks_ [Sidenote: once; this same skull sir, was sir _Yoricks_]

Scull, the Kings Iester.

_Ham_. This?