Ashes to ashes, and dust to dust !

ROSENCRANTZ

What have you done with the corpse, my lord?

HAMLET

I’ve gotten it dirty—ashes to ashes, and dust to dust.

ROSENCRANTZ

But tell us where it is, so we can take it to the chapel.

HAMLET

Don’t believe it.

ROSENCRANTZ

Believe what?

HAMLET

That I’d take your advice rather than keep my own secret. Besides, you’re a sponge! What is the son of a king supposed to say to a sponge?

ROSENCRANTZ

You think I’m a sponge, my lord?

HAMLET

Yes, sir, a sponge that soaks up the king’s approval, his rewards, and his decisions. Officers like that give the king the best service in the end. He keeps them in his mouth like an ape. First he moves them around, then he swallows them. When he needs what you have found out, he can just squeeze you like a sponge and you’ll be dry again.

ROSENCRANTZ

I don’t follow, my lord.

HAMLET

I’m glad about that. Sly words are never understood by fools.

ROSENCRANTZ

My lord, you have to tell us where the body is, and then go with us to see the king.

HAMLET

The body’s with the king, but the king’s not with the body. The king’s a thing …

GUILDENSTERN

A “thing,” my lord?

HAMLET

A thing of no importance. Take me to him. Ready or not, here I come!

Exeunt

William Shakespear, HAMLET (Act 4 - Scene 2)

Ben Harper, Ashes

Kansas, Dust in the Wind

The Do, Dust it off

Eruption du Mont Etna - 13 avril 2012

"Le tribut que la tendresse décerne à la cendre des autres, nous est garant de celui que les personnes que nous chérissons et qui nous chérissent, rendront à la nôtre ; et comme nous nous sommes flattés que, si nous venions à les perdre, nous ne les oublierions jamais, nous les accuserions volontiers d'ingratitude s'il nous venait en pensée qu'un jour nous en serions oubliés."

Essai sur les règnes de Claude et Néron, Denis Diderot.

Jean Simon BERTHELEMY, dessin du XVIIIe siècle.

La nourrice de Néron versant les cendres de ce prince dans le tombeau de ses ancêtres.

Besançon, musée des beaux-arts et d'archéologie.