This corrected number,
twenty-three, looks therefore like a real date of the death of a real
person. The words in the Quarto of 1604 are as follows:--
Hamlet, Act v, Scene i.
"[Grave digger called.] Clow[n] ... heer's a scull
now hath lyen you i' th' earth 23 yeeres ... this
same scull, sir, was, sir, Yorick's skull, the Kings
jester ...
_Ham_[_let_]. Alas poore _Yoricke_, I knew him
_Horatio_, a fellow of infinite iest, of most excellent
fancie, hee hath bore me on his backe a thousand
times ... Heere hung those lyppes that I haue
kist, I know not howe oft, where be your gibes now?
your gamboles, your songs, your flashes of merriment,
that were wont to set the table on a roare, not one
now to mocke your owne grinning...."
The King's Jester who died about 1580-1, just twenty-three years before
1604 (as stated in the play), was John Heywood, the last of the King's
Jesters. The words spoken by Hamlet exactly describe John Heywood, who
was wont to set the table in a roar with his jibes, his gambols, his
songs, and his flashes of merriment. He was a favourite at the English
Court during three if not four reigns, and it is recorded that Queen
Elizabeth as a Princess rewarded him.
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