Now follows, that you know, young Fortinbras,
Holding a weak supposal of our worth;
Or thinking, by our late dear brother's death,
Our state to be disjoint and out of frame,
Colleagued with the dream of his advantage,
He hath not fail'd to pester us with message,
Importing the surrender of those lands

Lost by his father, with all bonds of law,(34)
To our most valiant brother.-So much for him.
Now for ourself, and for this time of meeting.
Thus much the business is: We have here writ
To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras,-
Who, impotent and bed-rid,(35) scarcely hears
Of this his nephew's purpose, to suppress
His further gait (36) herein; in that the levies,
The lists, and full proportions, are all made
Out of his subject:-(37) and we here despatch
You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltimand,
For bearers of this greeting to old Norway;
Giving to you no further personal power

b

To business with the king, more than the scope
Of these dilated+ articles allow.(38)

Farewell; and let your haste commend your duty. 1603.

COR. VOL. In that, and all things, will we show

our duty.

KING. We doubt it nothing; heartily farewell.
[Exeunt VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS.

And now, Laertes, what's the news with you?
You told us of some suit; What is't, Laertes ?
You cannot speak of reason to the Dane,

And lose your voice: What wouldst thou beg, So 4tos.

Laertes,

That shall not be my offer, not thy asking?

The head is not more native to the heart,

a Colleagued with the dream] i. e. united with this wild

conceit.

b power to business] i. e. for the purpose of, commission to transact, business.

You cannot speak of reason to the Dane,

And lose your voice] i. e. of any matter fit to be brought

under discussion, and throw away your labour.

loose. 1623,32.

The hand more instrumental to the mouth,
Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father."
What wouldst thou have, Laertes ?

LAER.

Dread my lord, Your leave and favour to return to France;

From whence though willingly I came to Denmark, To show my duty in your coronation;

Yet now, I must confess, that duty done,

My thoughts and wishes bend again toward France, And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon. KING. Have you your father's leave? What says Polonius?

Poz. He hath, my lord, [wrung from me my slow leave,

By laboursome petition; and, at last,
Upon his will I seal'd my hard consent:]
I do beseech you, give him leave to go.

с

KING. Take thy fair hour, Laertes! time be thine! And thy best graces spend it at thy will !a But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son,

• The head is not more native, &c.] i. e. " the principal parts of the body are not more natural, instrumental, or necessary to each other, than is the throne natural to, and a machine acted upon and under the guidance of, your father."

b Your leave and favour to return

Bow to your gracious leave and pardon.] i. e. "the favour of your leave, the kind permission." Two substantives with a copulative being here, as is the frequent practise of our author, used for an adjective and substantive: an adjective sense is given to a substantive. See " Law and Heraldry," sc. 1. Horatio. And in a more compressed, in a short-hand, though very intelligible, style the same idea is conveyed in Ant. & Cl. II. 6. Oct. "Whereon, I begg'd

"His pardon for return." give me grace. Ib. III. 2. Th.

Upon his will I seal'd my hard consent] i. e.

earnest and importunate suit, I gave my full and final, though hardly obtained and reluctant, consent."

d Take thy fair hour! time be thine !

And thy best graces spend it at thy will!] i. e. " catch the auspicious moment! and may the exercise of thy fairest virtues fill up those its hours, that are wholly at your command!" e But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son] See " Capulet." Rom. & Jul. I. 5. Cap.

my cousin

HAM. A little more than kin, and less than

kind,(39)

[Aside. KING. How is it that the clouds still hang on you?

HAM. Not so, my lord, I am too much i'the

sun.(40)

QUEEN. Good Hamlet, cast thy nightly* colour nighted.

off,

And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark.

Do not, for ever, with thy vailed lids,"

Seek for thy noble father in the dust:

4tos.

Thou know'st, 'tis common; all that lives must + So 4tos.

die,

Passing through nature to eternity.

HAM. Ay, madam, it is common.
QUEEN.

If it be,

Why seems it so particular with thee?

HAM. Seems, madam! nay, it is; I know not

seems.

'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,

Nor customary suits of solemn black,
Nor windy suspiration of forc'd breath,(41)
No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,
Nor the dejected haviour of the visage,
Together with all forms, modes, shows of grief,
That can denote me truly: These, indeed, seem,
For they are actions that a man might play:
But I have that within, which passeth show; (42)
These, but the trappings and the suits of woe.
KING. "Tis sweet and commendable in your na-
ture, Hamlet,

a

d

nightly colour] The quartos read nighted: and in Lear, IV. 5, Regan speaks of the "nighted life," of " the dark and blinded Gloster."

b vailed lids] i. e. cast down. See M. of V. I. 1. Salar. & L. L. L. V. 2. Boyet.

Ay, madam, it is common] Similar examples of frailty, connected with such an event, are the things or occurrences, that, he would have it inferred, were common.

d trappings] Trappings are furnishings,' as in Lear, III. 1.

Kent.

and 1623. live. 1632.

↑ shapes. 4tos.

To give these mourning duties to your father:
But, you must know, your father lost a father;
That father lost, lost his; and the survivor bound
In filial obligation, for some term

To do obsequious sorrow: But to perséver
In obstinate condolement, is a course

Of impious stubbornness; 'tis unmanly grief:
It shows a will most incorrect to heaven;
A heart unfortified, or mind impatient;
An understanding simple and unschool'd.
For what, we know, must be, and is as common
As any the most vulgar thing to sense,
Why should we, in our peevish opposition,
Take it to heart? Fye! 'tis a fault to heaven,
A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,
To reason most absurd; whose common theme
Is death of fathers, and who still hath cried,
From the first corse, till he that died to-day,
This must be so. We pray you, throw to earth
This unprevailing' woe; and think of us
As of a father: for let the world take note,

• That father lost, lost his] i. e. " that lost father (of your father, i. e. your grandfather) or father so lost, lost his."

b do obsequious sorrow] i. e. " follow with becoming and ceremonious observance the memory of the deceased." See III. H. VI. II. 5. Father. & M. W. of W. IV. 2. Falst. We have "Shed obsequious tears upon his trunk."

Tit. Andr. V. 3. Luc.

c obstinate condolement] i. e. ceaseless and unremitted ex

pression of grief.

d incorrect to heaven] i. e.

"

contumacious towards."

as common

"ad

As any the most vulgar thing to sense] To sense is as dressed to sense; in every hour's occurrence offering itself to our observation and feelings."

"Most sure and vulgar." Lear, IV. 6. Gent.

funprevailing] i. e. fruitless, unprofitable, or more directly rendered, unavailing. Such is Dryden's use of the word: "He may often prevail himself of the same advantages in English." Essay on dramatic Poetry.

"Prevail yourself of what occasion gives." Abs. & Achit. This use of the word seems to have been borrowed immediately from the French ' se prévaloir.'

a

You are the most immediate to our throne;
And, with no less nobility of love,

Than that which dearest father bears his son,
Do I impart towards you.(43) For your intent
In going back to school in Wittenberg,
It is most retrograde to our desire:
And, we beseech you, bend you to remain
Here, in the cheer and comfort of our eye,
Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.

QUEEN. Let not thy mother lose her prayers,
Hamlet;

I pray thee, stay with us, go not to Wittenberg.
HAM. I shall in all my best obey you, madam.
KING. Why, 'tis a loving and a fair reply;
Be as ourself in Denmark.-Madam, come;
This gentle and unforc'd accord of Hamlet
Sits smiling to my heart: in grace whereof,
No jocund health, that Denmark drinks to-day,(44)
But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell;
And the king's rouse the heaven shall bruit again,(45)
Re-speaking earthly thunder. Come away.

[Exeunt King, Queen, Lords, &c. POLONIUS,
and LAERTES.

HAM. O, that this too too solid flesh would melt,
Thaw, and resolve itself(46) into a dew!

Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd

His canon (47) 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! O God!
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable

Seems to me all the uses of this world!

Fye on't! O fye! 'tis an unweeded garden,

toward. 4tos.

+ seem. 4tos.

So 4tos. fye, fye.

That grows to seed; things rank, and gross in nature, 1623, 32.
Possess it merely. That it should come to this!
But two months dead!-nay, not so much, not two:

a immediate] In Lear, IV. 3. Reg. he uses immediately for union the most direct and scarce divisible.

b bend you] i. e. dispose, incline.

Sits smiling to my heart] i. e. gladdens to is at.

d in grace whereof] i. e. respectful regard or honour. To

grace which, would here be the prose reading.

e

merely] i. e. wholly. See Temp. I. 1. Anton.

с