Enter Hamlet and Horatio, at a distance.
FIRST 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, say ‘a grave-maker’. The houses he makes last till doomsday. Go, get thee to Yaughan; fetch me a stoup of liquor.
[Exit Second Clown.]
[Digs and sings.]
In youth when I did love, did love,
Methought it was very sweet;
To contract, O, the time for, a, my behove,
O methought there was nothing meet.
HAMLET.
Has this fellow no feeling of his business, that he sings at grave-making?
HORATIO.
Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness.
HAMLET.
’Tis e’en so; the hand of little employment hath the daintier sense.
FIRST CLOWN.
[Sings.]
But age with his stealing steps
Hath claw’d me in his clutch,
And hath shipp’d me into the land,
As if I had never been such.
[Throws up a skull.]