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 dotis]
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 nota 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?