alas, poor yorick! i knew him, horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. he hath bore me on his back a thousand times, and now how abhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rises at it. here hung those lips that i have kissed i know not how oft. where be your gibes now? your gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment that were wont to set the table on a roar? not one now to mock your own grinning? quite chapfallen? now get you to my lady's chamber and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favor she must come. make her laugh at that. from hamlet, act five, scene one.

The pigpen cipher is easily remembered by drawing a tic-tac-toe board (or a pigpen) and an X, then writing the letters in as shown below. Each letter is then represented by its position in the diagram; the second letter in each spot is represented by that position and a dot.