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All Site ContentHamletAct 3Scene 2
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"jig-maker"
Allusion
Act 3,
Scene 2
Lines 115-120

An explanation of the “jig-maker” allusion in Act 3, Scene 2 of myShakespeare’s Hamlet.

Ophelia

You are merry, my lord.

Hamlet   

Who, I?

Ophelia

Ay, my lord.

Hamlet

Oh, God, your only jig-maker. What should a man do    
but be merry? For look you how cheerfully my mother
looks, and my father died within's two hours.

It was typical in Shakespeare’s day that after the play was over, one of the actors (usually the company’s best comic one) performed a jig—a lively, and usually bawdy, song and dance routine.

(English Elizabethan Clown, Will Kempe Dancing a Jig, unknown artist, c. 1600)