Alas, poor Yorick. I knew him, Horatio
“Alas, poor Yorick. I knew him, Horatio – a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy.” First, Hamlet is speaking to Horatio, not to the skull of Yorick directly. Second, he doesn’t say he knew he well, but beyond splitting hairs, what’s imporant about the latter addition is its symbolic connection. As a man of “infinite jest” and “excellent fancy” (or fantasy, in the old parlance), Yorick was like Hamlet, too distracted by his own vision of the world to see the truth. It’s more poignant than it first appears.