Help translating Shakespeare.?

Question

Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander, till he find it stopping a bung-hole?

Answer 1

A "bunghole" in Shakespeare's time was not what Beavis and Butthead call a bunghole. At that time a bunghole was a hole carved into a barrel so that a cork (or "bung) could be placed into it for plugging up the hole.

Hamlet has just encountered the skull of Yorick, the King's jester and starts wondering about the horrors of death and decay...how death ends even a powerful and historically potent life such as Alexander the Great, brings him to nothingness. In death, Alexander is not important anymore. Hamlet is asking Clown to "Think back to Alexander, even he ended up a dead body, like a cork in a barrel".

I hope this helps.

Answer 2

Whither thinkst though comes thy power of thought?
If not through thy bunghole clamped?
Keep thy sphincter firm and tight!
Lest thy find in pantaloons a clump!