And thy best graces spend it at thy will.'— Seek for thy noble father in the dust. Thou know'st 'tis common; all that live must die, Ham. Ay, madam, it is common. Why seems it so particular with thee? If it be, 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 forced breath, Together with all forms, modes, shows of grief, 1 In the first quarto this passage stands thus: 66 King. With all our heart, Laertes, fare thee well. [Exit." The king's speech may be thus explained :-" Take an auspicious hour, Laertes; be your time your own, and thy best virtues guide thee in spending of it at thy will." Johnson thought that we should read, " And my best graces." 2 A little more than kin has been rightly said to allude to the double relationship of the king to Hamlet, as uncle and step-father; his kindred by blood and kindred by marriage. By less than kind, Hamlet means degenerate and base. Dr. Johnson says that kind is the Teutonic word for child; that Hamlet means that he was something more than cousin, and less than son. 3 i. e. with eyes cast down. To give these mourning duties to your father. 1 To do obsequious sorrow. But to perséver Of impious stubbornness; 'tis unmanly grief: 6 Than that which dearest father bears his son, It is most retrograde to our desire; And, we beseech you, bend you to remain Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son. I Queen. Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet; 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; 1 The first quarto reads, "That father dead, lost his." 2 Obsequious is used with an allusion to obsequies, or funeral rites. 3 Condolement for grief. 4 Unprevailing was used in the sense of unavailing, as late as Dryden's time. 5 This was a common form of figurative expression. 6 i. e. dispense, bestow. Be as ourself in Denmark.-Madam, come; [Exeunt King, Queen, Lords, &c., POLO- Ham. O that this too, too solid flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve 2 itself into a dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fixed 3 His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! O God! That grows to seed; things rank, and gross in nature, 6 Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother, By what it fed on. And yet, within a month,— 1 The quarto of 1603 reads: "The rouse the king shall drink unto the prince." A rouse appears to have been a deep draught to the health of any one; it may be only an abridgment of carouse. 2 To resolve had anciently the same meaning as to dissolve. 3 The old copy reads, cannon; but this was the old spelling of canon, a law or decree. 4 i. e. solely, wholly. 5 Hyperion, or Apollo, always represented as a model of beauty. 6 i. e. deign to allow. Steevens had the merit of pointing out the passage in Golding's Ovid, which settles the meaning of the word: Yet could he not beteeme The shape of any other bird than egle for to seeme.” ulla tamen alite verti Dignatur, nisi quæ possit sua fulmine ferre." A little month; or ere those shoes were old, O Heaven! a beast, that wants discourse of reason,1 But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue! Enter HORATIO, Bernardo, and MARCELLUS. Hor. Hail to your lordship am glad to see you well; Ham. Horatio, or I do forget myself. Hor. The same, my lord, and your poor servant ever. Ham. Sir, my good friend; I'll change that name with you. And what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio?— Marcellus? Mar. My good lord, Ham. I am very glad to see you; good even, sir. But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg? Hor. A truant disposition, good my lord. Ham. I would not hear your enemy say so; Nor shall you do mine ear that violence, 1 "Discourse of reason' was the phraseology of Shakspeare's time; and, indeed, the Poet again uses the same language in Troilus and Cressida, Act ii. Sc. 2: In the language of the schools, "Discourse is that rational act of the mind by which we deduce or infer one thing from another." Discourse of reason, therefore, may mean ratiocination. Brutes have not this reasoning faculty, though they have what has been called instinct and memory. The first quarto reads, "a beast devoid of reason." 2 i. e. what do you? VOL. VII. 34 To make it truster of your own report Against yourself: I know you are no truant. We'll teach you to drink deep ere you depart. Hor. Indeed, my lord, it followed hard upon. meats Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables. Hor. My lord? Ham. In my mind's eye, Horatio. Oh where, Hor. I saw him once; he was a goodly king. I shall not look upon his like again. Hor. My lord, I think I saw him yesternight. Hor. My lord, the king, your father. Ham. The king, my father? Hor. Season your admiration for a while Ham. For God's love, let me hear. Hor. Two nights together had these gentlemen, Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch, In the dead waste and middle of the night,2 Been thus encountered: A figure like your father, Appears before them, and, with solemn march, 1 This is the reading of the quarto of 1604. The first quarto and the folio read, "Ere I had ever." 2 The first quarto, 1603, has : "In the dead vast and middle of the night." We have "that vast of night” in The Tempest, Act i. Sc. 2. |