What does Hamlet mean when he says this to Horatio: "No, faith, not a jot"?

Readers will recall that this scene takes place in a graveyard and that the queen is scattering flowers on Ophelia's grave. The expression "sweets to the sweet" has a much more somber meaning in its original context than the more romantically sentimental meaning that the expression has taken on today.

This insult underpins the main action of the scene so far: the clowns mock death as they dig graves in order to push thoughts of mortality away. The Second Clown cannot think of the answer to this riddle, even though he is in the process of digging graves, because his mind suspends thoughts of his own death.

One of the most famous moments in Shakespearian tragedy, Hamlet takes this encounter with Yorick's skull to contemplate fate and mortality — inescapable for kings and court jesters alike. Hamlet is disturbed by how the rotting skull contradicts the happy memories he has of Yorick. Critics have also noted that Yorick seems to be a surrogate father figure for Hamlet. Therefore, this moment serves as a reminder to Hamlet of his own immanent demise and the ephemerality of all things.

While the Priest refuses to say Christian burial rites for Ophelia because she appears to have committed suicide, Laertes is indignant, insisting that his sister's purity will turn her into an angel. A "ministering angel" is one thought to help individuals find salvation. With this rhetoric, Laertes swaps Ophelia and the Priest's roles: Ophelia will become an angel and save souls while the Priest howls in hell as punishment for his sins on earth. Ironically, this outburst of emotion calls attention to the reality that Ophelia would be the one "howling" in hell because of her suicide.

Here Claudius speaks in a confidential tone to Laertes, asking him to be patient with Hamlet for now and reminding him of what they conspired to do in Act IV, Scene VII. By putting the matter to the "present push," Claudius means that he will immediately arrange a fencing match between Hamlet and Laertes, in which Laertes will kill Hamlet with a foil dipped in poison.

Given that Gertrude was the last character to speak and that Hamlet has never loved either Claudius or Laertes at all, we can assume that Hamlet is actually speaking to God in these lines, asking God why He has treated Hamlet this way, not unlike Christ asking, "Why have you forsaken me?" Hamlet acts like a martyr even as he plots like a murderer, which underscores the changes he's gone through in the course of the play.

In this context, we should read "disclosed" as "hatched" or opened, as when the dove's chicks hatch from the egg and reveal their fluffy yellow (golden) feathers. Gertrude asks to be as patient as the dove that waits for her children to be born, suggesting that she herself has to wait until her son Hamlet returns, or is born again. He has become such a different person over the course of the play that she feels like she barely knows him anymore.

Mount Ossa, another mountain in Greece. Hamlet picks up on Laertes' allusion to Pelion by referring to the myth in which the Aloadaes, twin sons of Poseidon, attempted to overthrow Mount Olympus by piling Mount Pelion on top of Mount Ossa. Hamlet calls for gravediggers to bury them both until they're even taller than these mountains.

Remember that Laertes was technically at the graveside first and that Hamlet burst in to do the very same thing that he's accusing Laertes of doing: making a show of his grief. He does so rather cruelly, as if no one else is entitled to their emotions--indeed, as if no one else matters. His arrogance has reached new heights, and this rudeness at Ophelia's funeral prepares us for his inevitable fall.

Once again, Hamlet reacts to Horatio's polite suggestion to be quiet by becoming even louder, requiring that Gertrude stand between him and Laertes just as she stood between Claudius and Laertes. Unfortunately, Gertrude doesn't seem to notice this parallel or suspect that Claudius has manipulated Laertes into wanting to kill her son. Instead, she pleads with him the same way she did in Act III, as if he really is mad.

"Splenitive" means spleenful or hot-tempered, the spleen being the source of the yellow bile that's said to make one choleric and easily angered in the theory of Humorism. Hamlet implies that, unlike both Laertes and Claudius, who have been described as choleric, he isn't a rash person. However, he should still be feared because his anger is much colder and more deliberate.

Up until this line, we assumed that Hamlet was talking about Laertes, whose grief seems strong enough to make even the stars pay attention ("conjures" them and "makes them stand"). Now we see that he was actually speaking about himself, as if his grief could be deeper and stronger than her brother's grief. Again, Hamlet reveals himself to be arrogant and, in this case, myopic.

Pelion and Olympus are both mountains in Greece. In ancient Greek mythology, Pelion was the birthplace of Chiron, the wise centaur and tutor of heroes like Jason and Achilles, while Olympus was the home of the gods. Laertes wants Ophelia's grave to be an even greater mountain than these, if not in size than in its place in his heart.

Laertes thinks that this cursed head is Hamlet, but he doesn't have all the information. Had Claudius and Polonius refrained from spying on Hamlet, and had Claudius not killed King Hamlet in the first place, Hamlet would've had no reason to kill Polonius. Hamlet may have been the sword, but Claudius and Polonius himself were the force behind it and are as guilty as Hamlet is.

In this context, "treble" means triple. Laertes may refer to the triple woe of his father's murder, his sister's madness, and her subsequent death, or to the triple woe of Ophelia's madness, death, and "maimed" funeral rites. Recall that it was established in Act I, Scene III, that they were a very close family, and that these losses have affected him as much or possibly even more so than King Hamlet's murder affected Hamlet.

In the same way that we "deck" the halls at Christmas, so bride-beds are decked out with flowers and garlands on the night of a maiden's wedding. As queen, Gertrude would've had the responsibility to do so for her son's wife, but now feels obligated to do so at Ophelia's grave out of guilt for what's happened to her. This inversion emphasizes the suddenness of Ophelia's death and its unusual circumstances.

"For" meaning "instead of" or "in place of" in this context. The priest tells Laertes that Ophelia has already had more funeral rites than she deserves, given the questionable nature of her death. She should've been buried in unhallowed ground with sticks and stones instead of flowers and bells, but the king and queen gave a "great command" that she should get a proper burial. This was likely done because they felt guilty for her death, which could've been avoided had they not been spying on Hamlet.

Hamlet and Horatio are standing back and have yet to join the crowd at Ophelia's funeral. Hamlet whispers to Horatio that this is Laertes, who's asking the priest why he hasn't performed the whole ceremony (all the funeral rites). Hamlet doesn't know yet that this is Ophelia and likely thinks that Laertes has returned to bury Polonius, his father.

Though Ophelia will indeed receive a Christian burial, her funeral isn't as grand or as ostentatious as it would've been had she died in some other manner. The king and queen don't want to say outright that she killed herself, but can't in good conscience afford her the same funeral rites as other people. Hence, the "maimed" rites, which tell Hamlet everything he needs to know, except the corpse's identity.

Notice that Hamlet picks up an AABB rhyme scheme in these lines, making these lines seem sing-songy and immature by comparison. He appears to be doing this to make fun of Horatio, who criticized him for thinking too much about death. By speaking in such melodic, rhyming couplets, he attempts to appear logical and precise even as he speaks with a kind of manic intensity.

Horatio politely tells Hamlet that he's thinking too much (too curiously or deeply) about Alexander the Great's noble dust and about death in general. Notice that what follows is the single longest passage in this scene, and that Hamlet doesn't stop thinking about death, but dwells ever deeper on it, in defiance of Horatio's statement.

Alexander the Great, a student of Aristotle and commander of a great empire stretching from the Ionian Sea all the way to the Himalayas. In his time, Alexander the Great was the most powerful man in the world and is still considered one of history's greatest commanders. So one can imagine Hamlet's dismay in thinking that Alexander the Great would end up being just another skull.

Recall that in Act III, Scene I, Hamlet chided Ophelia in particular and women in general for using "paint" or makeup to attract men. He says it in such a way that makeup becomes in itself a "face" that hides the real one underneath, making the "paint" a kind of performance. Thus, this line reads, "You can pretend all you want, but no matter how much makeup you wear, you're still going to die."

Recall that in Act III, Scene IV, Hamlet used the line, "Which madness/ would gambol from" to mean that madness would appear to gambol or make exaggerated leaps during his conversation with Gertrude. Here, Hamlet aligns his performance of madness and its gambols with the jester's gambols, unwittingly making himself a jester, like the First Clown.

In this context, "gorge" means the contents of one's stomach, which "rises" in revulsion and disgust when he looks at Yorick's skull. Taken literally, Hamlet is saying that he's going to throw up, but in general, he's expressing his disgust, rage, and resentment that Yorick died, even though Hamlet loved him well. He's channeling his anger over his father's death into this scene with Yorick's skull, expressing feelings he has never been able to express openly before.

The First Clown uses "your" here not to refer to Hamlet but to your typical dead body. A "whoreson," unsurprisingly, is the son of a whore or the bastard of a man who likely had another family and didn't want to claim an illegitimate son in order to preserve his estate. The body of such a whoreson would decay slower because it was particularly vile or abominable.

A "pocky" or pocked corpse was one afflicted with the pox, or, in this case, the Bubonic plague, which killed millions of people in Europe and decimated Denmark's population. This might explain Hamlet's line about the age being "picked," meaning that people had been picked off in droves by the plague.

Hamlet asks the First Clown about this because he's curious what the public has been told about his trip to England. He doesn't think they know about Claudius' plot to kill him, but given how beloved he's said to be, it's not unreasonable for him to want to see where he stands with the public if he does attempt a coup.

Hamlet has noticed a trend in the last few years of peasants becoming so witty that they can hold their own while bantering with nobles. Hamlet, as a Prince, would likely not have had a lot of contact with the common people. For the gravedigger to be "absolute" means that he is relying purely on the literal. Hamlet, in a show of both frustration and respect, indicates to Horatio that they too must "speak by the card" or else the gravedigger will continue to talk circles around them.

A "kibe" is a sore on the heel of the foot, where an unbroken-in shoe would rub the skin raw. For a peasant to "gall" or make this kibe worse by agitating the sore, he'd have to be right on the courtier's heels or, in other words, coming up behind him in terms wit.

The idiom "to speak by the card" means to speak with an authority based on facts and information, not just puns and innuendos. Hamlet has grown tired of kidding around with the First Clown and wants to know whose grave this is. Note that he's just returned from his aborted trip to England and doesn't yet know of Ophelia's death.

Hamlet puns on the word "lie," which means in this context both "to lie in" and to lie or tell lies in the grave. In the next lines, the First Clown either doesn't understand or deliberately misinterprets Hamlet's pun, which should regardless be taken as a threat, as in: "This will be your grave, because you just lied to me." Hamlet would normally just make fun of a man like this, but he's grown violent in his "madness" and isn't above killing this clown.

The First Clown makes an insightful joke here, stating that the grave he's digging is his own because he'll be working as a gravedigger until he dies. This use of gallows humor showcases his wit and the coping mechanisms one would have to develop when working so closely with death.

In this context, "indentures" doesn't refer to indents or notches but rather to contracts drawn up between two parties, which are now null and void because of one party's death. In the wake of his death, his possessions would've been split up. His land would have been fought over and his estate would have been in crisis until his heirs could draw up contracts or "vouchers" of their own to preserve what was left. Death thus undoes a man's work and makes his life seem meaningless.

Hamlet puns on the French "fin," meaning end, and the English "fine," meaning in this context either a fine he exacts on his tenants as a great landowner or his fine qualities as a man, which are no longer relevant now that he's dead. Hamlet has already made this point several times. The fact that he continues to discuss it implies that he's having a hard time wrapping his head around it (perhaps because he's afraid).

"Quiddities" and "quilets" are both subtleties in a lawyer's argument, whereas his "tenures" would be his various positions and his "tricks" the ones he uses in court in order to win his cases. These five things encompass the whole of a lawyer's work and, by extension, his self, but have been stripped of him in death. Hamlet sees this loss of self as a great tragedy, and may be thinking specifically of his father and Ophelia in this passage.

"Loggets" was a game played in England where players threw pieces of wood at a stake driven into the ground. It's anachronistic of Hamlet to refer to this game, because he wasn't likely to have played it, but Shakespeare uses it to emphasize that the bones of nobility aren't treated any better than those with lesser breeding or social station. Hamlet's probably thinking of his own death and shuddering to think what will happen to his body when he dies.

Shakespeare's use of the conjunction "and" indicates that Hamlet has picked up another skull, presumably a woman's, that appears to have a worm inside it. The skull itself is "chapless" (has lost its jaw) and has been knocked on the head ("mazard") by a spade or shovel belonging to an officer of the parish ("sexton"). This is all to say that the bones of a noblewoman lose some of their grace once they're buried.

In this context, "to beg it" doesn't mean to beg for but rather to beg pardon of, or to ask forgiveness from Lord Such-a-one's horse. That the Lord praises the horse instead of begging its pardon suggests that he rode it much too harshly, and that, even though it performed well, he shouldn't have done so in the first place.

Notice that Hamlet calls the First Clown an "ass" mere lines after the First Clown called the Second Clown the same thing. Thus, we can see the hierarchy inherent in the play: nobles, then goodmen, then the supposedly less intelligent rank of men who work for or with the goodmen without themselves being considered of that class. This makes Hamlet's opinion of the First Clown the final opinion.

In the Bible, Cain killed his brother Abel because he was jealous that God preferred Abel's offering over his. Cain thus became the first murderer, according to Christian mythology, and an often reviled figure. That the First Clown "jowls" or dashes the skull against the ground underscores both the carelessness with which he works and the gruesome nature of the job.

Hamlet speaks both generally and personally: people who don't work approach jobs like grave digging very seriously, whereas people who actually have those jobs take it in stride and don't see any reason not to sing while they're working. Hamlet himself, we know, has this "daintier" sense, having spent so much time at Wittenberg. Whether he's happy about this, however, remains unclear.

Though its exact meaning has been lost over time, "Yaughan" likely refers to a nearby inn or innkeeper from whom the Second Clown can procure the First Clown a "stoup" (a bucket, or perhaps a large jar) of alcohol. We can see from this exchange that the First Clown isn't just the first to speak but also higher in rank, making the Second Clown a helper or lackey.

A stupid donkey ("dull ass") won't move any faster when you beat it in the way the Second Clown racks or beats (cudgels) his own brain to find the answer to the First Clown's question. The First Clown has, in effect, called the Second Clown stupid.

To "unyoke" means to relieve one's self of one's yoke or burden. In the context of this scene, that burden means his shovels and digging tools, with which the Second Clown will help dig Ophelia's grave. Shakespeare uses this command like stage direction to inform the Second Clown and the audience alike of where Ophelia will be buried.

In this context, "mass" is an abbreviation of the phrase "by the mass," an oath that suggests the speaker's ignorance. The Second Clown thought he'd found the right answer to the question, but lost it at the last second, embarrassing himself in front of the First Clown. Throughout this conversation, he's proven himself to be the more gullible of the two clowns, which accounts for his inability to counter the First Clown's logic.

In its first use, the phrase "does well" means "a good answer," which, though unexpectedly witty, isn't correct. In its second appearance, "does well" means "is successful," which for a gallows means to be often used. Finally, "does well" means to give someone who does ill what they deserve, or to bring them to justice. The First Clown praises the Second Clown for his answer while also illustrating how crass of an answer it was on the part of the Second Clown.

The right to "bear arms" means the right to carry a weapon. The First Clown uses this phrase to mean that Adam was the first man to have arms, but the Second Clown understandably interprets this to mean that Adam carried weapons. This comedic misunderstanding serves to lighten the mood after Ophelia's death.

Adam from the Genesis story in the Bible. God appointed Adam the caretaker of the Garden of Eden, where he was to oversee the plants and animals, not unlike the gardeners and ditchers of which the First Clown speaks. The First Clown uses the word "gentleman" to mean a good or godly person, not a noble, as the Second Clown interprets it.

The First Clown seems to be using the word "countenance" to mean acceptable or permissible rather than to refer to facial expression or look (as it is most commonly used). The Second Clown noted that Ophelia likely would not have been given a Christian burial if she were not a "gentlewoman." The First Clown replies that it is pity that nobles are more easily able to commit suicide than commoner Christians, since nobles can pay for a proper burial but commoner families cannot afford to do so.

Notice how the First Clown prevaricates here: in his mind, someone who goes to the water and drowns has ended their own life. In order for it to be considered an accident, the water would have to come to the person or the person would have had to make an effort to stop their death. The phrase "will he, nill he, he goes" means that whether the person drowning likes it or not, they are "guilty" of their own death since either way they allowed it to happen.

"Goodman" is a title or form of address for a man of the working class, such as a "delver" (traditionally a tiller of the ground, but in this case a gravedigger). The Second Clown uses this form of address to show respect for the First Clown before he contradicts him, pointing out the fallacies in his argument.

The First Clown butchers "ergo" by pronouncing it "argal." He's trying to examine Ophelia's death logically, stating that she drowned herself wittingly (or in her right mind). To him, an act such as suicide requires three things to have been done wittingly: to act, to do, and to perform. Note that these all essentially have the same meaning.

A butchered version of the Spanish "se defendendo," meaning "in self-defense." The First Clown insists that Ophelia drowned herself, but that it had to have been in self-defense. It's unclear from whom she would've been defending herself, but the First Clown appears to know enough to suspect that Ophelia was in danger simply by virtue of staying in the castle.

Shakespeare appears to have been the first person to use the word "crowner" to mean "coroner," or someone who examines bodies for the cause of death. This exchange is especially important, because it establishes that (for the purposes of the burial) the "crowner" and, by extension, the royal court, have deemed Ophelia's death an accident and not a suicide. Had it been suicide, a mortal sin, she wouldn't have been allowed a Christian burial.

Hamlet deliberately antagonizes Laertes by addressing him as if he were a small, petulant child. He asks, "Would it weep? would it fight?" the way a bully might taunt a crying victim. Recall that he has seen Laertes by Ophelia's grave, clutching his sister's body, and has likely seen him crying. These questions then become especially insulting because they're spoken over Ophelia's grave.

Why is it important that we know that Ophelia is getting a Christian burial: "The crowner hath sat on her, and finds it Christian burial"?

Ophelia will lie in her last home at the sound of the church bell, which traditionally only rang for the godly people given a proper Christian burial. If they were able to say with certainty that Ophelia had killed herself, she wouldn't be allowed this privilege, but since they can't be sure, the bell will ring for her, anyway, and God will decide what to do with her soul.

Some of the most iconic lines in the play. When we think of Hamlet, we tend to think of him holding up Yorick's skull, musing on life and death. It's grim to see Hamlet address his old playfellow this way and it cements the idea that Hamlet has not only lost his father over the course of his life, but also every other meaningful relationship he has ever had except Horatio.

Claudius intends to remain at Ophelia's grave for a while, like a stone statue installed as a permanent memorial. In the next line, we learn that he only intends to stay an hour, but for a king this exaggerated form of mourning would've been enough, even at an hour, to make up for the funeral service being so meager and ignominious. He may appear to be kind in this thought, but he's most likely staying to plot further against Hamlet and cement Laertes' trust.

Hamlet indulges in hyperbole, stating that Laertes' love for Ophelia is no match for his. Hamlet has been repressing this love for so long, focusing so intently on avenging his father's death, that he can't hold his love in any longer now that Ophelia's dead. Being unaccustomed to expressing his emotions this way, he does so in an over the top way that's out of character for him.

This makes Hamlet thirty years old. The First Clown says he became sexton thirty years before, on "that day [their] last king overcame Fortinbras," which he's already established to be "the very day that young Hamlet was born." Thus, we can assume that Hamlet is thirty years old, which is certainly old enough to take the throne and not be considered a child or a youth.