Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

And that he calls for drink, I 'll have prepared him
A chalice for the nonce; whereon but sipping,
If he by chance escape your venomed stuck,
Our purpose may hold there.

Queen.

[Enter Queen L.

One woe doth tread upon another's heel,

So fast they follow :-your sister's drowned, Laertes.

Drowned! O, where ?

Laertes.

Queen.

There is a willow grows aslant a brook,

That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream ;
There with fantastic garlands did she come

Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples.
There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds
Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke;
When down her weedy trophies and herself
Fell in the weeping brook.

I forbid my tears: but yet

Laer.

It is our trick; nature her custom holds,
Let shame say what it will.

Adieu, my lord:

I have a speech of fire, that fain would blaze,
But that this folly drowns it.

CURTAIN.

[Exit.

Scene First.{

Act Fifth.

A CHURCHYARD. Two GRAVE-Diggers,

WITH SPADES, ETC., DISCOVERED.

First G. D.

Is she to be buried in Christian burial that wilfully seeks her own salvation ?

Second G. D.

I tell thee she is; and therefore make her grave straight: the crowner hath sat on her, and finds it Christian burial.

First G. D.

How can that be, unless she drowned herself in her own defence?

Why, 't is found so.

Second G. D.

First G. D.

For here

It must be se offendendo; it cannot be else. lies the point: if I drown myself wittingly, it argues an act: and an act hath three branches; it is, to act, to do, and to perform: argal, she drowned herself wittingly.

Second G. D.

Nay, but hear you, goodman delver,

First G. D.

but

Give me leave. Here lies the water; good: here stands the man; good: if the man go to this water, and drown himself, it is, will he, nill he, he goes,―mark you that; if the water come to him, and drown him, he drowns not himself: argal, he that is not guilty of his own death shortens not his own life.

But is this law?

Second G. D.

First G. D.

Ay, marry, is 't; crowner's-quest law

Second G. D.

Will you ha' the truth on 't? If this had not been a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out of Christian burial.

First G. D.

Why, there thou sayst: and the more pity that great folk should have countenance in this world to drown or hang themselves, more than their even Christian.— Come, my spade. There is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners, ditchers, and grave-makers: they hold up Adam's profession. Second G. D.

Was he a gentleman ?

First G. D.

He was the first that ever bore arms.

Second G. D.

Why, he had none.

First G. D.

What! art a heathen? How dost thou understand the Scripture? The Scripture says, Adam digged: could he dig without arms? I'll put another question to thee: if thou answerest me not to the purpose, confess thyself—

Go to.

Second G. D.

First G. D.

What is he that builds stronger than either the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter ?

Second G. D.

The gallows-maker; for that frame outlives a thousand

tenants.

« ZurückWeiter »