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All Site ContentHamletAct 5Scene 1
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"fine"
Language
Act 5,
Scene 1
Lines 91-104

An explanation of the pun on “fine” in Act 5, Scene 1 of myShakespeare’s Hamlet.

Hamlet

There's another. Why may not that be the skull of 
a lawyer? Where be his quiddits now? His quillets? His
cases? His tenures, and his tricks? Why does he suffer this
rude 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 vouchers 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 hardly lie in this box, and must th' inheritor
himself have no more? Ha.

Try reading these lines this way: “Is this the fine (end result) of his fines (legal settlements) ... to have his fine pate (noble skull) full of fine dirt (dust)?”