Coming now to the fifth act, the stage-direction for Ophelia's burial, both in the Globe and acting-editions, is as follows: "_Enter_ Priests, _etc., in Procession, the corpse of_ Ophelia, Laertes, _and_ Mourners _following_, King, Queen, _their Trains, etc._" This direction is hardly consistent with Hamlet's description, "Such maimed rites." I should prefer the direction in the first quarto: "_Enter_ King _and_ Queen, Laertes _and other_ Lords, _with a_ Priest _after the coffin_." The absence of religious ceremony should attract the attention of the audience as much as it does Hamlet's. I should like to see only _one_ Priest present, and the coffin borne by soldiers or villagers, not by monks or nuns. It is often the stage practice for the Priest to stand over the grave with a book in his hand and intone his lines (replies to Laertes' questions) as if they were part of the burial service. A rather erroneous conception of Shakespeare's churlish Priest, who objects to the funeral taking place on sacred ground, and refuses even to approach the grave. In the first quarto, at the words "What's he that conjures so," is written the stage-direction, "Hamlet _leaps in after_ Laertes," and I find that Oxberry's edition has the same direction, only inserted a little lower down. I presume, therefore, that the elder Kean did actually leap into the grave. Our modern Hamlets would object to this business as undignified, and perhaps it is; but, at the same time, Hamlet's public apology to Laertes in the last scene requires some marked movement of his in this scene. He owns himself that he was in a towering passion. Laertes may handle Hamlet roughly, but not till Hamlet has interfered with him. None of our stage Hamlets appear in the churchyard in any change of costume. From the familiar way in which the clown talks to Hamlet, and Hamlet's declaration, "Behold, 'tis I, Hamlet, the Dane," I imagine that Shakespeare intended Hamlet to be dressed in some disguise in this scene. When Hamlet, writing to the King, says, "Naked and alone," he may not only mean unarmed, but stripped of his fine clothes, so that it would not be inappropriate for him to appear at the grave in some common sailor's dress. In the second scene in this act Hamlet says, "With my sea-gown scarf'd about me," a line that also would furnish some excuse for change of costume. Both in the first quarto and the folio the lines, "This is mere madness," etc., are spoken by the King. The acting-edition follows the second quarto, and gives the lines to the Queen. The King had good reason to impress upon others the belief that Hamlet is mad; and when the villagers hear the taunt they should shun the lunatic.