Page images
PDF
EPUB

Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father.
What would it thou have, Laertes?

LAER.

My dread lord,

Your leave and favour to return to France;

From whence though willingly I came to Denmark,

To how my duty in your coronation;

Yet now, I must confefs, that duty done,

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

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

By labourfome petition; and, at laft,

Upon his will I feal'd my hard confent:]
I do beteech you, give him leave to go.

Kiyo. Take thy fair hour, Laertes; time be thine, And thy beit graces: fpend it at thy will.

The bead & mi mrre notice in the bear,

The bend more in frumenta, to the minib,

Than a the throne 1o Dernert a the tabed) The fenfe feems to be this: The head is not formed to be more ofeful to the heart, the hand is not more at the service of the mouth, than my power is at your father's fervice. That is, be may command me to the utmed, he may do what he picales with my kingly authority. STEEVENS.

Ey make n the beart Dr. Jobafon undertanda, “natural and congenial to it, born with it, and co-epenting with it"

Formerly the beart was foppeted the seat of wildim; and hence the poet perks of the clotè connexion between the heart and head. See Vol. Xll. p. 12, n. MALONT.

Suthep them me minute. The words and the two following lines are omitted in the $30 MALONE.

• Tote the fame buze, L my time be that,

The ink is,—You

have my kave to go, Laertes; make the third se vou please of your time, and feed it at your will with the fired graces you are

[ocr errors]

But now, my coufin Hamlet, and my son,—
HAM. A little more than kin, and lefs than kind."

[blocks in formation]

“ Of your best graces in your mind. STEEVENS.

[Afide.

I rather think this line is in want of emendation. I read:

time is thine,

And my beft graces: Spend it at thy will. JOHNSON.

Ham. A little more than kin, and less than kind.] Kind is the Teutonick word for child. Hamlet therefore answers with propriety, to the titles of coufin and fon, which the king had given him, that he was fomewhat more than coufin, and less than fon.

JOHNSON.

In this line, with which Shakspeare introduces Hamlet, Dr. Johnfon has perhaps pointed out a nicer diftinction than it can juftly boaft of. To establish the fenfe contended for, it should have been proved that kind was ever used by any English writer for child. A little more than kin, is a little more than a common relation. The king was certainly fomething less than kind, by having betrayed the mother of Hamlet into an indecent and incestuous marriage, and obtained the crown by means which he fufpects to be unjustifiable. In the fifth act, the prince accufes his uncle of having popp'd in between the election and his hopes, which obviates Dr. Warburton's objection to the old reading, viz. that "the king had given no occafion for fuch a reflection."

A jingle of the fame fort is found in Mother Bombie, 1594, and feems to have been proverbial, as I have met with it more than once: "the nearer we are in blood, the further we must be from love; the greater the kindred is, the less the kindness must be."

Again, in Gorboduc, a tragedy, 1561:

“In kinde a father, but not kindelyness.”

As kind, however, fignifies nature, Hamlet may mean that his relationship was become an unnatural one, as it was partly founded upon inceft, Our author's Julius Cæfar, Antony and Cleopatra, King Richard II. and Titus Andronicus, exhibit inftances of kind being used for nature; and fo too in this play of Hamlet, A&t II. fc. the laft:

"Remorfelefs, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain.” Dr. Farmer, however, obferves that kin, is ftill used for confi in the midland counties. STEEVENS.

Hamlet does not, I think, mean to fay, as Mr. Steevens supposes,

KING. How is it that the clouds still hang on

you?

HAM. Not fo, my lord, I am too much i'the fun.3 QUEEN. Good Hamlet, caft thy nighted colour

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 duft:

Thou know'ft, 'tis common; all, that live, must die,'

Paffing through nature to eternity.

HAM. Ay, madam, it is common.

that his uncle is a little more than kin, &c. The King had called the prince" My coufin Hamlet, and my fon."-His reply, therefore, is,"I am a little more than thy kinfman, [for I am thy ftepfon;] and somewhat lefs than kind to thee, [for I hate thee, as being the perfon who has entered into an incestuous marriage with my mother]. Or, if we understand kind in its ancient fenfe, then the meaning will be,-I am more than thy kinfman, for I am thy ftep-fon; being fuch, I am lefs near to thee than thy natural offspring, and therefore not entitled to the appellation of son, which you have now given me. MALONE.

3 too much i'the fun.] He perhaps alludes to the proverb, "Out of heaven's bleffing into the warm fun." JOHNSON.

too much i'the fun.] Meaning probably his being sent for from his ftudies to be expofed at his uncle's marriage as his chiefeft courtier, &c. STEEVENS.

I question whether a quibble between fun and fon be not here intended. FARMER.

―vailed lids-] With lowering eyes, caft down eyes. JOHNSON.

So, in The Merchant of Venice:

66

Vailing her high-top lower than her ribs." STEEVENS,

See Vol. IX. p. 17, n. 4. MALONE.

5 Thou know', 'tis common; all, that live, muft die,] Perhaps the femicolon placed in this line, is improper. The fenfe, elliptically expreffed, is, Thou knoweft it is common that all that live, muit die.-The firft that is omitted for the fake of metre, a practice often followed by Shakspeare. STEEVENS.

QUEEN.

Why feems it fo particular with thee?

If it be,

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

feems.

'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,
Nor customary fuits of folemn black,
Nor windy fufpiration of forc'd breath,
No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,
Nor the dejected haviour of the vifage,
Together with all forms, modes, fhows of grief,
That can denote me truly: Thefe, indeed, feem,
For they are actions that a man might play:
But I have that within, which paffeth fhow;
Thefe, but the trappings and the fuits of woe."
KING. 'Tis fweet and commendable in your na-
ture, Hamlet,

To give thefe mourning duties to your father:
But, you must know, your father loft a father;
That father loft, loft his; and the furvivor bound

8

fhows of grief,] Thus the folio. The first quarto reads

chapes-I fuppofe for jhapes. STEEVENS.

↑ But I have that within, which passeth show;

Thefe, but the trappings and the fuits of avoc.] So, in King Richard II:

66

my grief lies all within ;

"And these external manners of lament

"Are merely fhadows to the unfeen grief

"That fwells with filence in the tortur'd foul."

- your father left a father;

MALONE.

That father left, left his ;] Mr. Pope judiciously corrected the faulty copies thus:

your father left a father;

That father, his ;

On which the editor Mr. Theobald thus defcants :-This fuppofed refinement is from Mr. Pope, but all the editions elfe, that I have met with, old and modern, read,

That father loft, loft his;

The reduplication of which word here gives an energy and an

In filial obligation, for fome term

To do obfequious forrow:" But to perféver
In obftinate condolement, is a courfe
Of impious ftubbornnefs; 'tis unmanly grief:
It shows a will most incorrect' to heaven;
A heart unfortified, or mind impatient;
An understanding fimple and unfchool'd:
For what, we know, muft be, and is as common
As any the most vulgar thing to fenfe,
Why should we, in our peevish opposition,
Take it to heart? Fie! 'tis a fault to heaven,
A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,

elegance, WHICH IS MUCH EASIER TO BE CONCEIVED THAN EXPLAINED IN TERMS. I believe fo: for when explained in terms it comes to this:-That father after he had loft himself, loft his father. But the reading is ex fide codicis, and that is enough. WARBURTON.

I do not admire the repetition of the word, but it has fo much. of our author's manner, that I find no temptation to recede from the old copies. JOHNSON.

The meaning of the paffage is no more than this,-Your father loft a father, i. e. your grandfather, which loft grandfather, also loft

his father.

The metre, however, in my opinion, fhows that Mr. Pope's correction fhould be adopted. The fenfe, though elliptically expreffed, will ftill be the fame. STEEVENS.

9 — obfequious forrow:] funeral ceremonies. JOHNSON. So, in Titus Andronicus:

Obfequious is here from obfequies, or

"To fhed obfequious tears upon his trunk."

See Vol. X. p. 471, n. 2. STEEVENS.

2 In obftinate condolement,] Condolement, for forrorv.

WARBURTON.

3—a will most incorrect-] Incorrect, for untutor'd.

WARBURTON.

Incorrect does not mean untutored, as Warburton explains it; but ill-regulated, not sufficiently fubdued. M. MASON.

Not fufficiently regulated by a sense of duty and submission to the difpenfations of providence. MALONE.

« PreviousContinue »