Note to Hamlet, 5.1.106-107: "recoveries, fines"


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Hamlet,
Act 5, Scene 1, lines 106-107
Recoveries and fines are legal maneuvers for clearing an estate of financial obligations. —An estate which is free of all claims against it is said to be in "freehold." Ironically, this lawyer doesn't even have freehold on his grave; his skull is being evicted to make room for a new tenant.

gravediggers showing Hamlet and Horatio a skull

Hamlet at Yorick's Grave
by
Eugène Delacroix