Who Dis?

Act 5, Scene 1, lines 100-119

Hamlet:  There's another.  Why may not that be the
skull of a lawyer?  Where be his quiddities now, his
quillities, his cases, his tenures, and his tricks?  Why
does he suffer this mad knave now to knock him
about the sconce with a dirty shovel and will not tell
him of his action of battery?  Hum, this fellow might
be in 's time a great buyer of land, with his statutes,
his recognizances, his fines, his double vouchers,
his recoveries.  <Is this the fine of his fines and the
recovery of his recoveries,> to have his fine pate full
of fine dirt?  Will <his> wouchers vouch him no more
of his purchases, and <double ones too,> than the
length and breadth of a pair of indentures?  The very
conveyances of his lands will scarcely lie in this box,
and must th' inheritor himself have no more, ha?

Horatio:  Not a jot more, my lord.

Hamlet:  Is not parchment made of sheepskins?

Horatio:  Ay, my lord, and of calves' skins too.

Hamlet:  They are sheep and calves which seek out
assurance in that.



Hamlet contemplates who this skull belonged to in another life, thinking that it could have plausibly belonged to a lawyer or a land owner.  This may have very well been the case, but more likely it was someone of lesser importance, someone like a chef, a farmer, or a laborer.  The skull could have belonged to anyone, and Hamlet knows this.  He contemplates the futility of the lawyer or land owner's actions during their lifetime; that whether or not their decisions and behavior affected the world in any way past their passing.  Hamlet does not quite come up with a concrete answer, but he does hint that the skull's actions mean nothing now that the person once living inside it is dead.

A person may have been someone important in the law or the land, but both return to the earth at some point.  Once again, their actions during their lifetime may or may not still hold significance now that they are six feet under.  The possible lawyer is without "his quiddities now, his quillities" (lines 101-102) and the land owner without "his fines, his double vouchers" (line 107), leaving them with nothing but worms and dirt.  Everyone ends up this way, and what they leave behind may or may not stick in the world.  It all depends on how useful their legacy is to the living.

Humans serve another purpose after death, just like all living beings.  While the purpose each creature serves is slightly different, all dead things may be used in some way or another by a different, living creature.  Humans provide meal for worms and insects to decompose and return to soil.  Humans use dead animals as food, clothing, and stationary.  Hamlet and Horatio comment on the use of sheep and calf skin, from deceased animals, for parchment.  We all ultimately serve an ulterior purpose to that of when we were alive.