First Clo. [Sings] But age, with his stealing steps,[1998][1999]
Hath claw'd me in his clutch,[1999][2000] 70
And hath shipped me intil the land,[1999][2001]
As if I had never been such.[2002]
[Throws up a skull.
Ham. That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing
once: how the knave jowls it to the ground, as if it were[2003]
Cain's jaw-bone, that did the first murder! It might be[2004] 75
the pate of a politician, which this ass now o'er-reaches;[2005]
one that would circumvent God, might it not?[2006]
Hor. It might, my lord.
Ham. Or of a courtier, which could say 'Good morrow,
sweet lord! How dost thou, sweet lord?' This might[2007] 80
be my lord such-a-one, that praised my lord such-a-one's[2008]
horse, when he meant to beg it; might it not?[2009]
Hor. Ay, my lord.
Ham. Why, e'en so: and now my Lady Worm's;[2010]
chapless, and knocked about the mazzard with a sexton's[2011] 85
spade: here's fine revolution, an we had the trick to see't.[2012]
Did these bones cost no more the breeding, but to play at
loggats with 'em? mine ache to think on't.[2013]
First Clo. [Sings] A pick-axe, and a spade, a spade,[1998]
For and a shrouding sheet:[2014] 90
O, a pit of clay for to be made
For such a guest is meet.
[Throws up another skull.[2015]
Ham. There's another: why may not that be the skull[2016]
of a lawyer? Where be his quiddities now, his quillets, his[2017]
cases, his tenures, and his tricks? why does he suffer this 95
rude knave now to knock him about the sconce with a dirty[2018]
shovel, and will not tell him of his action of battery? Hum![2019]
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[2020] 100
of his recoveries, to have his fine pate full of fine dirt? will[2020][2021]
his vouchers vouch him no more of his purchases, and double[2022][2023]
ones too, than the length and breadth of a pair of indentures?[2023]
The very conveyances of his lands will hardly lie in[2024]
this box; and must the inheritor himself have no more, ha? 105