1 Clo. Come; my spade. There is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners, ditchers and grave-makers; they hold up Adam's profession.
2 Clo. Was he a gentleman?
1 Clo. He was the first that ever bore arms.
This is undoubtedly in ridicule of heraldry. Gerard Leigh, one of the oldest writers on that subject, speaks of "Jesus Christ, a gentleman of great linage, and king of the Jewes." And again, "For that it might be known that even anon after the creation of Adam, there was both gentlenes, and ungentlenes, you shall understand that the second man that was born was a gentleman, whose name was Abell. I say a gentleman both of vertue and of lignage, with whose sacrifice God was much pleased. His brother Cain was ungentle, for he offered God the worst of his fruites," &c.—Accedence of armorie, 1591, 4to, fo. 13. Another morsel of satire against the above science lurks in the very ancient proverbial saying,
"When Adam delv'd and Eve span,
Where was then the gentleman?"
which is found in almost every European language. It was the text on which the rebel priest John Balle preached his sermon during the insurrection of Wat Tyler. Although the first clown afterwards explains why Adam bore arms, by means of a punning allusion to his digging with arms, there is still a concealed piece of wit with respect to the spade. Adam's spade is set down in some of the books of heraldry as the most ancient form of escutcheons: nor is it improbable that the lower part of this utensil suggested the well-known form of the old triangular shields; whilst from the spindle of Eve might have originated the lozenge-like escutcheon on which the arms of females are usually emblazoned.
Scene 1. Page 308.
Ham. ... the age is grown so picked, that the toe of the peasant, &c.
Mr. Malone's note, in exclusion of the others, is sufficiently satisfactory. The fashion of wearing pointed shoes, to which Hamlet had been supposed to allude, had ceased long before the time of Shakspeare; nor is it probable that he would have transferred it to the age of Hamlet. We still say a person treads close on the heels of another, in the same signification as in the text.
Scene 1. Page 310.