5. 第五墓第一场   墓地

Hamlet

What man dost thou dig it for?   （ it 照应 grave ）
First Clown  

For no man, sir.         (for 前面省略 I dig it )
Hamlet

What woman, then?   （ woman 后省略 dost thou dig it for ）
  First Clown

For none , neither.    （同第二句）
Hamlet

Who is to be buried in’t? （ it 照应 grave ）
First Clown

One that was a woman, sir; but, rest her soul, she’s dead.

（用过去时态表示“曾经是个女人”， her 和 she 照应 a woman ）
Hamlet

How absolute the knave is! We must speak by the card. Or equivocation will undo us. By the Lord, Horatio, these three years I have taken a note of it; the age is grown so picked that the toe of the peasant comes so near the heel of the courtier, the gaffs his kibe. How long hast thou been a grave-maker?  （ it 照应下面划线那句话）
First Clown

Of all the days I’the year, I came to’t that day that our last king Hamlet overcame Fortinbras.
Hamlet

How long is that since?
First Clown  

Cannot you tell that? Every fool can tell that: it was the very day that young Hamlet was born; he that is mad, and sent into England  

（三种时态分别表示不同时期的事情， sent 前面省略 was ）
Hamlet

Ay, marry, why was he sent into England ？
First Clown

Why, because he was mad: he shall recover his wits there ； or, if he do not, it’s no great matter there.

（连着五个 he 都是照应哈姆雷特，本句两个 there 和接下去两个 there 都是指 England ， do not 后省略 recover his wits there ）
Hamlet

Why?
First Clown

‘Twill, a not be seen in him there; there the men are as mad as he.

Hamlet

 How came he mad?
First Clown

Very strangely, the say.    （ Very 前省略 he came mad. ）
Hamlet

How strangely?          （后省略 came he mad ）
First Clown

Faith, e’en with losing his wits.
Hamlet

Upon what ground?
First Clown

Why, here in Denmark : I have been sexton here, man and boy, thirty years.

这一段哈姆雷特与掘墓小丑甲的对白可谓不合逻辑，甚至有些地方答非所问，理解上似乎有困难，仔细分析之下，这段对话中仍然存在一个中心话题，即哈姆雷特问小丑甲“做着掘墓的营生有多久了”。有趣的是，小丑甲起初不正面回答，却引出老国王作战胜利、哈姆雷特出生和发疯的事情，最后当哈姆雷特问“王子的疯病哪来的”，小丑甲却回答成“我是丹麦本地来的”，然后才说出自己掘墓已经“ 30 年了”（实际上就是哈姆雷特的年龄）。看似错乱的回答实际上是精心设计的，换种顺序也许使得对话流畅，却失了戏剧情节的起伏和艺术魅力。