A Hamlet timeline – chronicle of events
Setting the Timeline – considerations
Claudius – planning my foul murder
King Hamlet's funeral – where was Hamlet?
Gertrude & Claudius – adultery or not?
Horatio – Hamlet's friend?
Horatio – is he passion's slave?
Polonius – the evil that men do
Ophelia's love? – did she love Hamlet?
Ophelia closetted – Polonius on love
O help xxx ....... – Olivier's version
Ophelia's change – is Hamlet suspicious?
Hamlet feigns madness – protective "cover"
Is Hamlet mad? – Polonius's opinion
The Trial of Claudius – Hamlet's prosecution
Hamlet kills Polonius – stabs the "Voice"
Laertes v Hamlet – poisoned foil
Ophelia's death – a recipe
Hamlet's age – digging up the past
Yorick – something rotting in Denmark
Betting on Hamlet – the fencing match
Hamlet's fencing skill – better than Laertes
Hamlet's revenge – the rest is silence
Yorick — something rotting in the state of Denmark
O, a pit of clay for to be made
When the Clown, who is a gravedigger, has to dig a grave for Ophelia he does not dig it in new earth but chooses to open Yorick's grave. As well as Yorick, two other bodies are buried in this grave. There must be a reason for this practice. Contemplating the history of this grave will prove that the skull, said to be Yorick's, is not Yorick's.
The gravedigger is smart when it comes to digging graves. It is hard work to dig damp, clay earth that has never been dug before and so he only digs it out to a depth of about 18 inches. Occasionally he has to dig a deeper grave but he is smart about that, too. Firstly, he finds a grave that is eight or more years old. It needs to be at least eight years because that is how long it takes a body to rot.
Hamlet: How long will a man lie i' the earth ere he rot?
Clown: — he will last you some eight year or nine year:
Because the soil has been dug out previously, it is easy work to dig the grave down to its original depth – including throwing out the skeleton. He then needs to dig into the hard earth but again, only to a depth of 18 inches. The new body is then buried and then the old skeleton is thrown into the grave and reburied. Every eight years he can return to the original grave and dig down another 18 inches. So, some simple mathematics apply: Only reuse a grave after 8, 16, 24, etc., years. If the grave is reused after 23 years there will be a problem – the last body buried will not have had time to rot.
| Yorick buried 23 years ago. Clown: Here's a skull now; this skull has lain in the earth three and twenty years. |
|
| 8 years later, ie, 15 years ago, a new body needed to be buried. Yorick's grave was
opened and his skeleton thrown out. The new body was buried and then Yorick was tossed in and reburied. |
| 8 years later, ie, 7 years ago, another body needed to be buried.
Yorick's grave was opened again and his skeleton thrown out. Then the other skeleton
was thrown out. After the new body was buried, the process was reversed, the second skeleton was thrown in and reburied and then Yorick was tossed in and reburied. |
| When Ophelia died, Yorick's grave was reopened once again and his skeleton thrown out Clown: [Sings.] and then the second skeleton was thrown out O, a pit of clay for to be made and finally the third skeleton. Clown: Here's a skull now; this skull hath lain in the
earth three-and-twenty years. |
| This last skeleton has only been in the ground 7 years and therefore has not finished rotting! It lies on the top of the heap and it is the skull of this skeleton, and not Yorick's skull, that Hamlet picks up and is revolted by the stench of its rotting flesh. |
