Faculty of English

HAMLET         No, faith, not a jot. But to follow him thither with modesty enough and likelihood to lead it: Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth to dust, the dust is earth, of earth we make loam, and why of that loam whereto he was converted might they not stop a beer-barrel?        Imperious Caesar, dead and […]

HAMLET         Prithee, Horatio, tell me one thing. HORATIO        What’s that, my lord? HAMLET         Dost thou think Alexander looked o’this fashion i’th’ earth? HORATIO        E’en so. HAMLET         And smelt so? Pah! HORATIO        E’en so, my lord. HAMLET         To what base uses we may return, Horatio! Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander till […]

HAMLET         Alas, poor Yorick. I knew him, Horatio. A fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath bore me on his back a thousand times, and now how abhorred in my imagination it is. My gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where […]

GRAVEDIGGER          Here’s a skull now hath lien you i’th’ earth three and twenty years. HAMLET         Whose was it? GRAVEDIGGER          A whoreson mad fellow’s it was. Whose do you think it was? HAMLET         Nay, I know not. GRAVEDIGGER          A pestilence on him for a mad rogue. ’A poured a flagon of Rhenish on my head once! […]

HAMLET         How long will a man lie i’th’ earth ere he rot? GRAVEDIGGER          Faith, if ’a be not rotten before ’a die (as we have many pocky corpses that will scarce hold the laying in) ’a will last you some eight year – or nine year – a tanner will last you nine year. HAMLET         […]

HAMLET         Ay, marry. Why was he sent into England? GRAVEDIGGER          Why, because ’a was mad. ’A shall recover his wits there. Or if ’a do not, ’tis no great matter there. HAMLET         Why? GRAVEDIGGER          ’Twill not be seen in him there. There the men are as mad as he. HAMLET         How came he mad? GRAVEDIGGER          […]

HAMLET         [to Horatio]    How absolute the knave is! We must speak by the card or equivocation will undo us. By the Lord, Horatio, this three years I have took note of it, the age is grown so picked that the toe of the peasant comes so near the heel of the courtier he galls his […]

HAMLET         What man dost thou dig it for? GRAVEDIGGER          For no man, sir. HAMLET         What woman, then? GRAVEDIGGER          For none, neither. HAMLET         Who is to be buried in’t? GRAVEDIGGER          One that was a woman, sir, but rest her soul she’s dead.   (5.1.122-128) More logic; Hamlet does actually want to know whose grave it is, although […]

HORATIO       Not a jot more, my lord. HAMLET         Is not parchment made of sheepskins? HORATIO       Ay, my lord, and of calves’ skins too. HAMLET         They are sheep and calves which seek out assurance in that. I will speak to this fellow. Whose grave’s this, sirrah? GRAVEDIGGER          Mine, sir, [Sings.]          O, a pit of clay for […]

HAMLET         There’s another! Why, may not that be the skull of a lawyer? Where be his quiddities now – his quillets, his cases, his tenures and his tricks? Why does he suffer this mad knave now to knock him about the sconce with a dirty shovel and will not tell him of his action of […]