n him for a mad rogue! he poured a flagon of
Rhenish on my head once. This same skull, sir, was Yorick's skull,
the king's jester.

_Ham._ This?

[_Takes the skull._]

_1st Clo._ E'en that.

_Ham._ Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite
jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath borne me on his back a
thousand times. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not
how oft; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! Where be your
gibes now? your gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment, that
were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now, to mock your own
grinning? Quite chap-fallen? Now get you to my lady's chamber, and
tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favour[26] she must
come; make her laugh at that. Prithee, Horatio, tell me one thing.

_Hor._ What's that, my lord?

_Ham._ Dost thou think Alexander look'd o'this fashion i'the earth?

_Hor._ E'en so.

_Ham._ And smelt so? pah!

[_Gives the skull to HORATIO, who returns it to the grave-digger._]

_Hor._ E'en so, my lord.

_Ham._ To what base uses may we return, Horatio! Why may not
imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander, till it find it
stopping a bung-hole?

_Hor._ 'Twere to consider too curiously,[27] to consider so.

_Ham._ No, faith, not a jot; but to follow him thither with modesty
enough, and likelihood to lead it: As thus; 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?

Imperial Caesar,[28] dead and turn'd to clay,
Might stop a hole to keep the wind away:
O, that the earth, which kept the world in awe,
Should patch a wall to expel the winter's flaw![29]

But soft! but soft! aside: Here comes the king,
The queen, the courtiers: Who is this they follow?
And with such maimed rites?[30] This doth betoken
The corse they follow did with desperate hand
Fordo its own life:[31] 'Twas of some estate.[32]
Couch we awhile, and mark.

[_Retiring with_ HORATIO, R.H.]

_Enter_ Priests, &c., _in procession; the corpse of_ OPHELIA,
LAERTES _and_ Mourners _following_; KING, QUEEN, _their_
Trains, _&c._

_Laer._

(L. _of the grave._)

What ceremony else?

_Ham._ (R.) That is Laertes,
A very noble youth.

_1st Priest._

(R. _of the grave._)

Her obsequies have been as far enlarg'd