Note to Hamlet, 5.1.61-97: The gravedigger's song


The gravedigger's song consists of garbled bits and pieces from a popular poem of Shakespeare's time, which is reprinted below.
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Hamlet,
Act 5, Scene 1, line 61

The Aged Lover Renounceth Love


by
Thomas Vaux, 2nd Baron Vaux of Harrowden (1509-1556)


I loathe that I did love,
that I did love: those I used to love.

     In youth that I thought sweet,
that: those that.

As time requires for my behove,
     Methinks they are not meet.
As ... meet: i.e., because the passage of time requires what is appropriate for my age, I think those loves are inappropriate.


My lusts they do me leave,
lusts: pleasures.

     My fancies all be fled,
fancies: romantic crushes.

And tract of time begins to weave
tract of time: passage of time.

     Grey hairs upon my head,

For age with stealing steps
     Hath clawed me with his crutch,
And lusty life away she leaps
     As there had been none such.

My Muse doth not delight
     Me as she did before;
My hand and pen are not in plight,
in plight: dedicated to love.

     As they have been of yore.

For reason me denies
     This youthly idle rhyme;
And day by day to me she cries,
     "Leave off these toys in time."
Leave off these toys in time: i.e. it's time for you to leave off these idle whims.


The wrinkles in my brow,
     The furrows in my face,
Say, limping age will lodge him now
     Where youth must give him place.

The harbinger of death,
     To me I see him ride,
The cough, the cold, the gasping breath
     Doth bid me provide

A pickaxe and a spade,
     And eke a shrouding sheet,
A house of clay for to be made
A house of clay: i.e. a grave.

     For such a guest most meet.

Methinks I hear the clark
clark: clerk, priest.

     That knolls the careful knell,
knolls the careful bell: i.e., rings the warning bell.

And bids me leave my woeful wark,
wark: pain; i.e., love-longing.

     Ere nature me compel.

My keepers knit the knot
My keepers knit the knot: my sick-bed attendants marry me to death. (??)

     That youth did laugh to scorn,
Of me that clean shall be forgot
     As I had not been born.

Thus must I youth give up,
     Whose badge I long did wear;
To them I yield the wanton cup
     That better may it bear.

Lo, here the barèd skull,
barèd skull: i.e. bald head.

     By whose bald sign I know
bald: i.e. obvious, blunt.

That stooping age away shall pull
stooping ... sow: i.e. stooping age will steal away everything that I planted as a youth.

     Which youthful years did sow.

For beauty with her band
     These crooked cares hath wrought,
For beauty ... wrought: i.e. the pursuit of beauty and pleasure has made me stooped and full of woe. (??)

And shippèd me into the land
     From whence I first was brought.

And ye that bide behind,
     Have ye none other trust:
As ye of clay were cast by kind,
     So shall ye waste to dust.
Have ... dust: i.e. don't think you can dodge your fate: as you were formed of clay like all other humans, so you shall crumble into dust.