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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, fhe fhould have been buried out of Chriftian burial..

1 Clown. Why, there thou fayest. And the more pity, that great folk fhould have countenance in this world to drown or hang themfelves, more than other Christians. (66) Come, my fpade; there is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners, ditchers, and grave-makers; they hold up Adam's profeffion.

2 Clown. Was he a gentleman?

1 Clown. He was the first 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 digged; could he dig without arms? I'll put another question to thee; if thou answerest me not to the purpofe, confefs thy felf------

2 Clown. Go to.

1 Clown. What is he that builds ftronger than either the mafon, the fhip-wright, or the carpenter?

(66) -more than other Chriftians.] All the old books read, as Doctor Thirlby accurately observes to me, their even chruten, i. e. their fellow chriftians' This was the language of those days, when we retained a good portion of the idiom received from our Saxon ancestors. Emne chrifler.] Frater in Chrifto. Saxoinicum; quod male intelligentes, even christian proferunt; atque ità editur in oratione Henrici VIII. ad part, men•; tum An. regn. 37. Sed recé in L. L. Fdouardi confeff. ca. 36. fratrem luum, quod Angli diunt emne chirftes. Spelman in his gloffary, The Doctor thinks this learned antiquary mistaken, in making even a corruption of emne; for that even or ofen and eme are Saxon words of the fame import and fignification. I'll fubjoin, in confirmation of the Doctor's opinion, what Somner fays upon this head. Open, Equus, æqualis, par, juftus, even equal, alike, &c. Emne, Equus, juftus, æqualis, par, even, juft, equal. Emne-fcolefe, condifcipulus, a school fellow.

2 Clown. The gallows-maker; for that frame outlives a thousand tenants.

Clown. I like thy wit well, in good faith; the gallows does well; but how does it well? it does well to thofe that do ill: now thou doft ill, to fay 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 fhip-wright, or a carpenter ?----

1 Clown. Ay, tell me that, and unyoke. 2 Clown. Marry, now I can tell.

1 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 ass will not mend his pace with beating; and when you are asked this question next, fay, a gravemaker. The houfes he makes laft till dooms-day: 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, (67)
Methought it was very sweet;

"To contract, oh, the time for, a, my behove, "Oh, methought, there was nothing meet." Ham. Has this fellow no feeling of his bufinefs, that he fings at grave-making?

(67) In youth, when I did love, &c.] The three stanzas, fung here by the grave-digger, are extracted, with a flight variation, from a little poem called The Aged Lover renounceth Love; written by Henry Howard Earl of Surrey, who flourished in the reign of King Henry VIII. and who was beheaded in 1547, on a strained accufation of treafon.

VOL. XII.

N

Hor. Cuftom hath made it to him a property eafinefs.

of

Ham. 'Tis even fo; the hand of little employment hath the daintier fenfe.

Clown fings.

"But age with his stealing steps
"Hath clawed me in his clutch:
"And hath fhipped me into the land,
"As if I had never been fuch."

Ham. That skull 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 first murder! this might be the pate of a politician, which this afs o'er-offices; one that would circumvent God, might it not?

Hor. It might, my Lord.

6

Ham. Or of a courtier, which could fay, Good 'morrow, fweet Lord; how doft thou, good Lord?" this might be my Lord Such-a-one, that praised my Lord Such-a-one's horfe, when he meant to beg it; might it not?

Hor. Ay, my Lord.

Ham. Why, even fo: and now my Lady Worm's chapless, and knocked 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 them? mine ake to think on't. (68)

(68) Did these bones coft no more the breeding, but to play at Joggers with them?] I have reftored, from the old copies, the true word, loggats. We meet with it again in Ben Johnfon;

Now are they toffing of his legs and arms
Like loggats at a pear-tree.

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A Tale of a Tub.

66

Clown fings.

"A pick-axe and a spade, a spade, For,---and a shrouding fheet! "O, a pit of clay for to be made

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For fuch a guest is meet.”

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 fuffer this rude knave now to knock him about the fconce with a dirty fhovel, 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 vouchers, his recoveries. Is this the fine of his fines, and the recovery of his recoveries, to have his fine pate full of fine dirt? will his vouchers vouch him no more of his purchases, and double ones too, than the length and breadth of a pair of indentures? the very conveyances of his lands will hardly ly in this box; and must the inheritor himfelf have no more? ha?

Hor. Not a jot more, my Lord.

Ham. Is not parchment made of sheep-fkins? Hor. Ay, my Lord, and calve-skins too.

Ham. They are theep and calves that seek out affurance in that. I will speak to this fellow: Whofe grave's this, firrah?

Clown. Mine, Sir――

"O, a pit of clay for to be made
"For fuch a guest is meet."

What fort of fport this was, I confefs, I do not know; but I find it in the lift of unlawful games, prohibited by a statute 33 Henry VIII. cap. 1. fect. 16.

Ham I think it be thine indeed, for thou lyest in't. Clown. You ly out on't, Sir, and therefore it is not yours; for my part, I do not ly in't, yet it

is mine.

Ham. Thou doft lie in't, to be in't, and say, 'tis thine: 'tis for the dead, not for the quick, therefore thou lyeft.

Clown. 'Tis a quick lie, Sir, 'twill away again from me to you.

Ham. What man doft thou dig it for?
Clown. For no man, Sir.

Ham. What woman then?

Clown. For none neither.

Ham. Who's to be buried in't?

Clown. One that was a woman, Sir; but, reft her foul, fhe's dead.

Ham. How abfolute the knave is! we must speak by the card, or equivocation will undo us. By the Lord, Horatio, these three years I have taken note of it, the age is grown fo picked, that the toe of the peafant comes fo near the heel of our courtier, that he galls his kibe. How long hast thou been a grave-maker?

Ham. Of all the days i' th' year, I came to't that day that our last King Hamlet o'ercame Fortinbras.

Ham. How long is that fince?

Clown. Cannot you tell that? every fool can tell that it was that very day that young Hamlet was born, he that was mad, and fent into England.

Ham. Ay, marry, why was he fent into England? Clown. Why, because he was mad; he fhall recover his wits there; or, if he do not, it's no great matter there.

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