.]
But soft, but soft, aside; heere comes the King.
[Sidenote: , but soft awhile, here]

_Enter King, Queene, Laertes, and a Coffin_,
[Sidenote: _Enter K. Q. Laertes and the corse._]
_with Lords attendant._

The Queene, the Courtiers. Who is that they follow,
[Sidenote: this they]
And with such maimed rites? This doth betoken,
The Coarse they follow, did with disperate hand,
Fore do it owne life; 'twas some Estate.[5] [Sidenote: twas of some[5]]
Couch[6] we a while, and mark.

_Laer_. What Cerimony else?

_Ham_. That is _Laertes_, a very Noble youth:[7]
Marke.

_Laer_. What Cerimony else?[8]

_Priest_. Her Obsequies haue bin as farre inlarg'd, [Sidenote: _Doct_.]
As we haue warrantis,[9] her death was doubtfull,[10]
[Sidenote: warrantie,]
And but that great Command, o're-swaies the order,[11]

[Footnote 1: Imagination personified.]

[Footnote 2: moderation.]

[Footnote 3: 'Loam, Lome--grafting clay. Mortar made of Clay and Straw;
also a sort of Plaister used by Chymists to stop up their
Vessels.'--_Bailey's Dict._]

[Footnote 4: a sudden puff or blast of wind.

Hamlet here makes a solemn epigram. For the right understanding of the
whole scene, the student must remember that Hamlet is
philosophizing--following things out, curiously or otherwise--on the
brink of a grave, concerning the tenant for which he has enquired--'what
woman then?'--but received no answer.]

[Footnote 5: 'the corpse was of some position.']

[Footnote 6: 'let us lie down'--behind a grave or stone.]

[Footnote 7: Hamlet was quite in the dark as to Laertes' character; he
had seen next to nothing of him.]

[Footnote 8: The priest making no answer, Laertes repeats the question.]

[Footnote 9: _warrantise_.]

[Footnote 10: This casts discredit on the queen's story, 222. The
priest believes she died by suicide, only calls her death doubtful to
excuse their granting her so many of the rites of burial.]

[Footnote 11: 'settled mode of proceeding.'--_Schmidt's Sh. Lex._--But
is it not rather _the order_ of the church?]

[Page 240]

She should in ground vnsanctified haue lodg'd,
[Sidenote: vnsanctified been lodged]
Till the last Trumpet. For charitable praier, [Sidenote: prayers,]
Shardes,[1] Flints, and Peebles, should be