Hamlet

Summary Act V

Additional characters: 1st Clown--gravedigger who dares to banter with Prince Hamlet; 2nd Clown--another gravedigger; 1st Priest--he who performs Ophelia's funeral rites the sparseness of which Horatio vehemently objects to

Two clowns are digging a grave when the 1st Clown objects to the work that they are doing, arguing that the body for which that they are digging the grave for had drowned itself when alive. Consequently, he argues, as befitting Christian law, consecration should be denied the drowned body. The 2nd Clown is doubtful at first, but then he too finds the objection valid, conceding that people of rank and status (Ophelia is referred to as a gentlewoman) can get away with things that normal folks could only dream of doing. They console themselves with a bit of sophistry that