_Ham_. Or of a Courtier, which could say, Good Morrow sweet Lord: how dost thou, good Lord?
[Sidenote: thou sweet lord?]
this might be my Lord such a one, that prais"d my Lord such a ones Horse, when he meant to begge [Sidenote: when a went to]
it; might it not?[1]
_Hor_. I, my Lord.
_Ham_. Why ee"n so: and now my Lady Wormes,[2] Chaplesse,[3] and knockt about the Mazard[4]
[Sidenote: Choplesthe ma.s.sene with]
with a s.e.xtons Spade; heere"s fine Reuolution, if [Sidenote: and we had]
wee had the tricke to see"t. Did these bones cost no more the breeding, but to play at Loggets[5] with "em? mine ake to thinke on"t. [Sidenote: them]
_Clowne sings._[6]
_A Pickhaxe and a Spade, a Spade_, [Sidenote: _Clow. Song._]
_for and a shrowding-Sheete: O a Pit of Clay for to be made, for such a Guest is meete_.
_Ham_. There"s another: why might not that bee the Scull of of a Lawyer? where be his [Sidenote: skull of a]
Quiddits[7] now? his Quillets[7]? his Cases? his [Sidenote: quiddities]
Tenures, and his Tricks? why doe"s he suffer this rude knaue now to knocke him about the Sconce[8]
[Sidenote: this madde knaue]
with a dirty Shouell, and will not tell him of his Action of Battery? hum. This fellow might be in"s time a great buyer of Land, with his Statutes, his Recognizances, his Fines, his double
[Footnote 1: To feel the full force of this, we must call up the expression on the face of "such a one" as he begged the horse--probably imitated by Hamlet--and contrast it with the look on the face of the skull.]
[Footnote 2: "now the property of my Lady Worm."]
[Footnote 3: the lower jaw gone.]
[Footnote 4: _the upper jaw_, I think--not _the head_.]
[Footnote 5: a game in which pins of wood, called loggats, nearly two feet long, were half thrown, half slid, towards a bowl. _Blount_: Johnson and Steevens.]
[Footnote 6: _Not in Quarto._]
[Footnote 7: a lawyer"s quirks and quibbles. See _Johnson and Steevens_.
_1st Q._
now where is your Quirkes and quillets now,]
[Footnote 8: Humorous, or slang word for _the head_. "A fort--a head-piece--the head": _Webster"s Dict_.]
[Page 232]
Vouchers, his Recoueries: [1] Is this the fine[2] of his Fines, and the recouery[3] of his Recoueries,[1] to haue his fine[4] Pate full of fine[4] Dirt? will his Vouchers [Sidenote: will vouchers]
vouch him no more of his Purchases, and double [Sidenote: purchases & doubles then]
ones too, then the length and breadth of a paire of Indentures? the very Conueyances of his Lands will hardly lye in this Boxe[5]; and must the Inheritor [Sidenote: scarcely iye;th"]
himselfe haue no more?[6] ha?
_Hor_. Not a iot more, my Lord.
_Ham_. Is not Parchment made of Sheep-skinnes?
_Hor_. I my Lord, and of Calue-skinnes too.
[Sidenote: Calues-skinnes to]
_Ham_. They are Sheepe and Calues that seek [Sidenote: which seek]
out a.s.surance in that. I will speake to this fellow: whose Graue"s this Sir? [Sidenote: this sirra?]
_Clo_. Mine Sir: [Sidenote: _Clow_. Mine sir, or a pit]
_O a Pit of Clay for to be made, for such a Guest is meete._[7]
_Ham_. I thinke it be thine indeed: for thou liest in"t.
_Clo_. You lye out on"t Sir, and therefore it is not [Sidenote: tis]
yours: for my part, I doe not lye in"t; and yet it [Sidenote: in"t, yet]
is mine.
_Ham_. Thou dost lye in"t, to be in"t and say "tis [Sidenote: it is]
thine: "tis for the dead, not for the quicke, therefore thou lyest.
_Clo_. Tis a quicke lye Sir, "twill away againe from me to you.[8]
_Ham_. What man dost thou digge it for?
_Clo_. For no man Sir.
_Ham_. What woman then?
_Clo_. For none neither.
_Ham_. Who is to be buried in"t?
_Clo_. One that was a woman Sir; but rest her Soule, shee"s dead.
[Footnote 1: _From_ "Is" _to_ "Recoueries" _not in Q._]
[Footnote 2: the end.]
[Footnote 3: the property regained by his Recoveries.]
[Footnote 4: third and fourth meanings of the word _fine_.]
[Footnote 5: the skull.]
[Footnote 6: "must the heir have no more either?"
_1st Q_.