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The woman will be out. Adieu, my lord.

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

King.

[Exit.

Let's follow, Gertrude:

How much I had to do to calm his rage!
Now fear I this will give it start again;
Therefore let's follow.

191

[Exeunt.

ACT V

SCENE I. A Churchyard

Enter two Clowns, with spades, etc.

First Clown. Is she to be buried in Christian burial that wilfully seeks her own salvation?

Second Clown. I tell thee she is; and therefore

make her grave straight.

The crowner hath sat on

her, and finds it Christian burial.

First Clown. How can that be, unless she drowned herself in her own defence?

Second Clown. Why, 'tis found so.

5

First Clown. It must be se 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 drowned herself wittingly.

13

Second Clown. Nay, but hear you, goodman delver, First 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.

Second Clown. But is this law?

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First Clown. Ay, marry, is't; crowner's quest law. Second Clown. Will you ha' the truth on't? If this had not been a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out o' Christian burial.

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First Clown. Why, there thou say'st°; and the more pity that great folk should have countenance in this world to drown or hang themselves, more than their even -Christian. Come, my spade. There is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners, ditchers, and grave-makers; they hold up Adam's profession.

Second Clown. Was he a gentleman?

First Clown. He was the first that ever bore arms. Second Clown. Why, he had none.

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First Clown. What, art a heathen? How dost thou

understand the Scripture? The Scripture says "Adam digged;" could he dig without arms? I'll put another question to thee. If thou answerest me not to the purpose, confess thyself -

Second Clown. Go to.

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First Clown. What is he that builds stronger than either the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter? Second Clown. The gallows-maker; for that frame outlives a thousand tenants.

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First 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 dost ill to say the gallows is built stronger than the church. Argal, the gallows may do well to thee. To't again, come.

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Second Clown. "Who builds stronger than a mason,

a shipwright, or a carpenter?"

First Clown. Ay, tell me that, and unyoke.°
Second Clown. Marry, now I can tell.

First Clown. To't.

Second Clown. Mass, I cannot tell.

Enter HAMLET and HORATIO, at a Distance

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First Clown. Cudge thy brains no more about it; for your dull ass will not mend his pace with beating; and, when you are asked this question next, say "a

grave-maker:" the houses that he makes last til doomsday. Go, get thee to Yaughan; fetch me a stoup of liquor.

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[Exit Second Clown.

[He digs, and sings.

In youth when I did love, did love,

Methought it was very sweet,

To contract, 0, the time, for, ah, my behove,
O, methought, there was nothing meet.

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Hamlet. Has this fellow no feeling of his business, that he sings at grave-making?

Horatio. Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness.

O

Hamlet. 'Tis e'en so.

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The hand of little employ

ment hath the daintier sense.

First Clown. [Sings]

Hamlet.

But age, with his stealing steps,
Hath caught me in his clutch,
And hath shipp'd me intil the land,
As if I had never been such.

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[Throws up a skull. That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing once. How the knave jowls it to the ground, as if it were Cain's jaw-bone, that did the first murder! It might be the pate of a politician, which this ass now

o'er-reaches; one that would circumvent God, might it not?

Horatio. It might, my lord.

82

Hamlet. Or of a courtier, which could say "Good morrow, sweet lord! How dost thou, good lord? This might be my lord such-a-one, that praised my lord such-a-one's horse, when he meant to beg it; might it not?

Horatio. Ay, my lord.

88

Hamlet. Why, e'en so; and now my Lady Worm's; chapless, and knocked about the mazzard° with a sexton's spade. Here's fine revolution, an we had the trick to see't. Did these bones cost no more the breeding, but to play at loggats with 'em? Mine ache to think on't.

First Clown. [Sings]

A pick-axe, and a spade, a spade,

For and a shrouding sheet;
O, a pit of clay for to be made

For such a guest is meet.

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[Throws up another skull. Hamlet. There's another. Why may not that be the skull 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

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