_Ham._ Let me see. [_Takes the skull._] Alas, poor[2061] Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath borne me on his back a[2062] 175 thousand times; and now how abhorred in my imagination[2063][2064] it is! my gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I[2064] have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? your gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment,[2065] that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one[2066] 180 now, to mock your own grinning? quite chop-fallen? Now[2067] get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint[2068] an inch thick, to this favour she must come; make her[2069] laugh at that. Prithee, Horatio, tell me one thing. _Hor._ What's that, my lord? 185 _Ham._ Dost thou think Alexander looked o' this fashion[2070] i' the earth? _Hor._ E'en so. _Ham._ And smelt so? pah! [_Puts down the skull._[2071] _Hor._ E'en so, my lord. 190 _Ham._ To what base uses we may return, Horatio![2072] Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander, till he find it stopping a bung-hole?[2073] _Hor._ 'Twere to consider too curiously, to consider so. _Ham._ No, faith, not a jot; but to follow him thither[2074] 195 with modesty enough and likelihood to lead it: as thus:[2075] Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth[2076] into dust; the dust is earth; of earth we make loam;[2077] and why of that loam, whereto he was converted, might[2078] they not stop a beer-barrel? 200 Imperious Cæsar, dead and turn'd to clay,[2079] Might stop a hole to keep the wind away: O, that that earth, which kept the world in awe, Should patch a wall to expel the winter's flaw![2080] But soft! but soft! aside: here comes the king. 205 _Enter_ Priests, _&c. in procession; the Corpse of Ophelia_, LAERTES _and_ Mourners _following_; KING, QUEEN, _their trains, &c._[2081] The queen, the courtiers: who is this they follow?[2082] And with such maimed rites? This doth betoken[2083] The corse they follow did with desperate hand Fordo its own life: 'twas of some estate.[2084] Couch we awhile, and mark. [_Retiring with Horatio._[2085] 210 _Laer._ What ceremony else?[2086] _Ham._ That is Laertes, a very noble youth: mark.[2087] _Laer._ What ceremony else?