Page:Hamlet (1917) Yale.djvu/145

Prince of Denmark, V. i

[First] Clo. Why, sir, his hide is so tanned

with his trade that he will keep out water a great

while, and your water is a sore decayer of your

whoreson dead body. Here's a skull now; this

skull hath lain you i' the earth three-and-twenty

years.

Ham. Whose was it?

[First] Clo. A whoreson mad fellow's it was:

whose do you think it was?

Ham. Nay, I know not.

[First] Clo. A pestilence on him for a mad

rogue! a' poured a flagon of Rhenish on my

head once. This same skull, sir, was Yorick's

skull, the king's jester.

Ham. This!

[First] Clo. E'en that.

Ham. Let me see.—[Takes the skull.]—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; and

now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! my

gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I

have kissed I know not how oft. 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 chapfallen? Now get you

to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint

an inch thick, to this favour she must come;

make her laugh at that. Prithee, Horatio, tell

me one thing.

Hor. What's that, my lord?

 189 sore: grievous

190 whoreson: plagued

215 favour: appearance

