I ACT V. SCENE I. A CHURCH. Enter two Clowns, with Spades and mattocks. I CLOWN. 3. fhe to be buried in chriftian burial, that wilfully feeks her own falvation? 2 Clown. I tell thee, fhe is, therefore 3 make her Grave ftraight. The crowner hath fate on her, and finds it chriftian burial. 1 Clown. How can that be, unless fhe drowned her felf in her own defence? 2 Clown. Why, 'tis found fo. 1 Clown. It must be fe offendendo, it cannot be elfe. For here lies 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 drown'd herfelf wittingly. man; Good. If the man 2 Clown. Nay, but hear you, goodman Delver. 1 Clown. Give me leave. Clown, here lies the water; Good: here ftands the go to this water, and drown himfelf, 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. 3 make her Grave ftraight.] Make her grave from eaft to welt in a direct line parallel to the church; not from north to fouth, athwart the regular line. This, I think, is meant. 4an & lath three branches; it is to act, to do, and to 1e form;} kidicule on fcholaftic divifions without distinction; and of diftinctions without difference. WARBURTON. Argal, Argal, he, that is not guilty of his own death, shortens 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 a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out of chriftian burial. - 1 Clown. Why, there thou fay'ft. And the more pity, that great folk fhould have countenance in this world to drown or hang themselves, more than their even chriftian. Come. My fpade. There is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners, ditchers, and grave makers; they hold up Adam's profeffion. 66 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 fays, Adam digg'd; could he dig without arms?" I'll put another question to thee; if thou anfwereft me not to the purpose, confefs thyfelf 2 Clown. Go to. 1 Clown. What is he that builds ftronger than either the mafon, the fhipwright, or the carpenter? 2 Clown. The gallows-maker; for that frame outlives a thousand tenants. 1 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 fhipwright, or a carpenter? 5 their even chriftian.] So all old English expreffion for fellowthe old books, and rightly. An chriftians. Dr. THIRLBY. 6 1 Clown. Ay, tell me that, and unyoke: 2 Clown. Marry, now I can tell. I Clown. To't. 2 Clown. Mafs, 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 afk'd this question next, fay, a grave-maker. The houses, he makes, laft 'till doomsday. 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, To contract, oh, the time for, a, my behove, ४ Ob, methought, there was nothing fo meet. Ham. Has this fellow no feeling of his business, that he fings at Grave-making? Hor. Custom hath made it to him a property of eafinefs. Ham. 'Tis e'en fo. hath the daintier sense. The hand of little imployment Clown fings. • But age, with his ftealing steps, Ham. That fcull had a tongue in it, and could fing once; how the knave jowles it to the ground, as if it were Cain's jaw-bone, that did the firft murder! This might be the pate of a politician, of a politician, which this afs o'er he had taken it ill, and laid it to heart that God Almighty would bring fuch a work to pass in Europe without his concurrence, and even against all his machinations. Hift. of the Rebellion, Book 16. WARBURTON. 2 which this afs o'er-offices;] The meaning is this. People in office, at that time, were so overbearing, that Shakespear speaking of infolence at the height, calls it Infolence in office. And Donne fays, Who is be Can write in jeftSat. Alluding to this character of minifters and politicians, the speaker obferves, that this in.lent of ficer is now o'er-officer'd by the Sexton, who, knocking his fcull about with his fpade, appears to be as infolent in his office as they were in theirs. This is faid with much humour. is, WARB. In the quarto, for over-offices over-reaches, which agrees better o'er-offices; one that would circumvent God, might it not? Hor. It might, my Lord. Ham. Or of a courtier, which could fay, good"morrow, fweet Lord; how doft thou, good Lord ?" This might be my Lord fuch a-one's, that prais'd my Lord fuch-a-one's horfe, when he meant to beg it; might it not? Hor. Ay, my Lord. Ham. Why, e'en fo; 3 and now my lady Worm's; chaplefs, and knockt about the mazzard with a fexton's fpade. Here's a fine revolution, if we had the trick to fee't. Did these bones coft no more the breeding, but to play at loggats with 'em? mine ake to think on't. Clown fings. A pick-axe and a fpade, a fpade, Ham. There's another. Why may not that be the fcull of a lawyer? where be his quiddits now? his quillets? his cafes his tenures, and his tricks? Why does he better with the fentence: It is a Arong exaggeration to remark, that an A can over-reach him who would once have tried to circumvent. I believe both the words were Shakefteare's. An authour in revifing his work, when his original ideas have faded from his mind, and new obfervations have produced new fentiments, cafily introduces more images which have been mo newly impreffèd upon him, without obferving their want of congruity to the general texture of his original defign. 3 and now my lady Worm's; } The fcull that was my lord fuch a one's, is now my lady Worm's. 4 play at loggats] A play, in which pins are set up to be beaten down with a bowl. fuffer |