2 MAN Who builds stronger than a mason, a shipwright or a carpenter? GRAVEDIGGER           Ay, tell me that and unyoke. 2 MAN Marry, now I can tell. GRAVEDIGGER           To’t! 2 MAN Mass, I cannot tell. GRAVEDIGGER           Cudgel thy brains no more about it, for your dull ass will not mend his pace with beating. And […]

GRAVEDIGGER           What is he that builds stronger than either the mason, the shipwright or the carpenter? 2 MAN The gallows-maker, for that outlives a thousand tenants. GRAVEDIGGER           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 […]

2 MAN Will you ha’ the truth on’t? If this had not been a gentlewoman she should have been buried out o’ Christian burial. GRAVEDIGGER           Why, there thou sayst, and the more pity that great folk should have countenance in this world to drown or hang themselves more than their even-Christen. Come, my spade. There […]

2 MAN Nay, but hear you, goodman delver. GRAVEDIGGER           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, willy-nilly, he goes. Mark you that. But if the water come to him and drown him, he drowns not […]

CW: suicide Enter two Clowns [a GRAVEDIGGER and a SECOND MAN]. GRAVEDIGGER           Is she to be buried in Christian burial, when she wilfully seeks her own salvation? 2 MAN I tell thee she is. Therefore make her grave straight. The crowner hath sat on her and finds it Christian burial. GRAVEDIGGER           How can that be […]

LAERTES        Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia, And therefore I forbid my tears. But yet It is our trick – nature her custom holds Let shame say what it will. When these are gone The woman will be out. Adieu, my lord, I have a speech o’fire that fain would blaze But that this folly drowns it. (Exit.) CLAUDIUS                  Let’s follow, Gertrude. How much I had to do […]

GERTRUDE                Her clothes spread wide And mermaid–like awhile they bore her up, Which time she chanted snatches of old lauds As one incapable of her own distress, Or like a creature native and endued Unto that element. But long it could not be Till that her garments, heavy with their drink, Pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay To muddy death. LAERTES                    Alas, then she is drowned . GERTRUDE    Drowned, drowned.  […]

GERTRUDE    There is a willow grows askant the brook That shows his hoary leaves in the glassy stream. Therewith fantastic garlands did she make Of crowflowers, nettles, daisies and long purples, That liberal shepherds give a grosser name But our cold maids do dead men’s fingers call them. There on the pendent boughs her crownet weeds Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke, When down her weedy trophies and herself Fell in the weeping brook.    (4.7.164-173) It’s the strangest speech, and in many ways I think the obvious, […]

CLAUDIUS                  But stay, what noise? Enter GERTRUDE. GERTRUDE    One woe doth tread upon another’s heel, So fast they follow. Your sister’s drowned, Laertes. LAERTES        Drowned! O, where? (4.7.160-163) It’s one of the best jump cuts, needle-scratches anywhere: but stay, what noise? Screaming, crying, from Gertrude, from someone else? Crackling radios, sirens? Do Claudius’s goons try to stop her coming in? Just when […]

CLAUDIUS                  Let’s further think of this, Weigh what convenience both of time and means May fit us to our shape. If this should fail And that our drift look through our bad performance ’Twere better not essayed. Therefore this project Should have a back or second that might hold If this did blast in proof. Soft, let me see: We’ll make a solemn wager on your cunnings – I ha’t! […]