Alas, Poor Horatio, I Knew Him Well

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Ham: Alas! poor Horatio. I knew him, my friend; a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy; he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, 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 chapfallen? 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, what say you?

Yor: This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.

Ham: But what then of sweet Horatio? Is that his nature, to bear others upon his back, as the night follows the day? For then when is his day?

Yor: He is to liv’st; to report you and your cause aright
To the unsatisfied.

Ham: Only to speak to the yet unknowing world? Has that antique Roman not his own cause? Now cracks my noble heart.

-- undiscovered early draft of Hamlet, wherein Hamlet and Yorick discuss Hamlet's friend Horatio.

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Wasn't there an even earlier draft in which Horatio's name was Phil? In fact, I think it was Phil Atio.

And, by the way, in this draft, does Yorick have flesh or is he the lovable skull we have all come to love?

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