Page 341 - Hamlet: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

234 N O T E S 5.1.

version of Vaux's 'The Aged Lover renounceth Love'
from Tottel's Miscellany, a volume which Slender in
M.W.W. possessed. The relevant verses, which are apt
for a grave-digger, run in Arber's reprint:
I lothe that I did loue,
In youth that I thought swete:
As time requires for my behoue
Methinkes they are not mete.
My lustes they do me leaue,
My fansies all are fleddet
And tract of time begins to weaus
Gray heares upon my hedde.
For age -with stelyng steppes,
Hath clawed me with his crowch:
And lusty life away she leapes,
As there had bene none such.

A pikeax and a spade
And eke a shrowdyng shete
A house of claye for to be made 7
For such a gest most mete.
Me thinkes I heare the clarke,
That knols the carefull knell:
And bids me leue my wofull warke
Er nature me compell.

Loe here the bared scull,
By whose bald signe I know:
That stoupyng age away shall pull
What youthfull yeres did sowe.
For beauty with her bande
These croked cares hath wrought:
And shipped me into the lande
From whence I first was broughtt
And ye that bide behinde
Haue ye no other trust:
As ye of claye were cast by klnde
So shall ye waste to dust.