sconce[22] with a dirty shovel, and will not tell him of
his action of battery? I will speak to this fellow.--Whose grave's
this, sirrah?

_1st Clo._ Mine, sir.--

[_Sings._]

_O, a pit of clay for to be made_
_For such a guest is meet._

_Ham._ (R. _of grave._) I think it be thine, indeed; for thou liest
in't.

_1st Clo._ You lie out on't, sir, and therefore it is not yours: for
my part, I do not lie in't, yet it is mine.

_Ham._ Thou dost lie in't, to be in't, and say it is thine: 'tis for
the dead, not for the quick; therefore thou liest.

_1st. Clo._ 'Tis a quick lie, sir; 'twill away again, from me to you.

_Ham._ What man dost thou dig it for?

_1st Clo._ For no man, sir.

_Ham._ What woman, then?

_1st Clo._ For none, neither.

_Ham._ Who is to be buried in't?

_1st Clo._ One that was a woman, sir; but, rest her soul, she's dead.

_Ham._ How absolute the knave is![23] we must speak by the card,[24]
or equivocation will undo us,

[_To_ HORATIO, R.]

How long hast thou been a grave-maker?

_1st Clo._ Of all the days i'the year, I came to't that day that our
last king Hamlet overcame Fortinbras.

_Ham._ How long's that since?

_1st Clo._ Cannot you tell that? every fool can tell that: It was the
very day that young Hamlet was born,[25] he that is mad, and sent
into England.

_Ham._ Ay, marry, why was he sent into England?

_1st Clo._ Why, because he was mad: he shall recover his wits there;
or, if he do not, 'tis no great matter there.

_Ham._ Why?

_1st Clo._ 'Twill not be seen in him there; there the men are as mad
as he.

_Ham._ How came he mad?

_1st Clo._ Very strangely, they say.

_Ham._ How strangely?

_1st Clo._ 'Faith, e'en with losing his wits.

_Ham._ Upon what ground?

_1st Clo._ Why, here in Denmark: I have been sexton here, man and
boy, thirty years.

_Ham._ How long will a man lie i'the earth ere he rot?

_1st Clo._ 'Faith, if he be not rotten before he die, he will last
you some eight year or nine year: a tanner will last you nine year.

_Ham._ Why he more than another?

_1st 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 ill-begotten dead body. Here's a skull now, hath lain in the
earth three-and-twenty years.

_Ham._ Whose was it?

_1st Clo._ O, a mad fellow's it was: Whose do you think
it was?

_Ham._ Nay, I know not.

_1st Clo._ A pestilence o