TEXT:
HAMLET (continued)
Takes the skull
Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow
of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath
borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how
abhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rises at
it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know
not how oft. Where be your gibes now? Your
gambols? Your songs? Your flashes of merriment,
that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one
now, to mock your own grinning? Quite chap-fallen?
Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let
her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must
come; make her laugh at that. Prithee, Horatio, tell
me one thing.
HORATIO
What's that, my lord?
HAMLET
Dost thou think Alexander looked o' this fashion i'
the earth?
HORATIO
E'en so.
HAMLET
And smelt so? pah!
Puts down the skull
NOTES:
Alexander the Great
Alexander the Great - Alexander III of Macedon - lived from July 356 to June 323 BC. In the course of his short life he amassed an empire that stretched from Egypt to India, and was a paragon of military and political achievement. Shakespeare presumably read his depiction in the histories of Plutarch - he would have had them to hand while writing Julius Caesar, and indeed he shows up in Henry V too!
Cosmetics
As mentioned, the brilliant study by Dr. Farah Karim-Cooper can be found here.