The extravagant and erring spirit hies
To his confine: and of the truth herein
This present object made probation.

Mar. It faded on the crowing of the cock.
Some say, that ever 'gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
This bird of dawning singeth all night long:
And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad;
The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,
So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.

Hor. So have I heard, and do in part believe it.
But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad,
Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill:
Break we our watch up; and, by my advice,
Let us impart what we have seen to-night
Unto young Hamlet: for, upon my life,
This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him:
Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it,
As needful in our loves, fitting our duty?

Mar. Let's do't, I pray; and I this morning know
Where we shall find him most conveniently."

SCENE II.

The same. A Room of State in the same.

[Exeunt.

Enter the King, Queen, HAMLET, POLONIUS, LAertes, VOLTIMAND, CORNELIUS, Lords, and Attendants.

King. Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death The memory be green; and that it us befitted

To bear our hearts in grief, and our whole kingdom
To be contracted in one brow of woe;

Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature,
That we with wisest sorrow think on him,

extravagant and erring-] Extravagant means here, having got beyond his bounds; erring is wandering.-WARBURTON and STEEVENS.

f

takes,] i.e. Strikes with lameness or diseases. This sense of take is frequent in this author.-JOHNSON.

conveniently.] So quarto, 1603.

Together with remembrance of ourselves.
Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen,
The imperial jointress of this warlike state,
Have we, as 'twere, with a defeated joy,—
With one auspicious, and one dropping eye;
With mirth in funeral, and with dirge in marriage,
In equal scale weighing delight and dole,"——
Taken to wife: nor have we herein barr'd
Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone
With this affair along :-For all, our thanks.

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 this dream of his advantage,i
He hath not fail'd to pester us with message,
Importing the surrender of those lands
Lost by his father, with all bands of law,
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, scarcely hears
Of this his nephew's purpose,-to suppress
His further gait herein; in that the levies,
The lists, and full proportions, are all made
Out of his subject :-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
To business with the king, more than the scope'
Of these dilated articles" allow.

Farewell; and let your haste commend your duty.
h dole,] i. e. Lamentation.

Colleagued with this dream of his advantage,] i. e. The imaginary advantage, which Fortinbras hoped to derive from the unsettled state of the kingdom.-M. MASON.

k

- gait-] i. e. Proceeding, passage; from the A. S. verb gae. A gate for a path, passage, or street, is still current in the north.-PERCY.

more than the scope-] More is comprized in the general design of these articles, which you may explain in a more diffused and dilated style.JOHNSON.

- dilated articles, &c.] i. e. The articles when dilated.

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 would'st thou beg, Laertes,
That shall not be my offer, not thy asking?
The head is not more native to the heart,
The hand more instrumental to the mouth,
Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father."
What would'st thou have, Laertes?

Laer.

My dread 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?

Polonius?

What says

Pol. 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.

King. Take thy fair hour, Laertes; time be thine,
And thy best graces :P spend it at thy will.-
But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son,-

Ham. A little more than kin, and less than kind."

[Aside. King. How is it that the clouds still hang on you? Ham. Not so, my lord, I am too much i'the sun. Queen. Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off,

"Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father.] i. e. He may do what he pleases with my kingly authority.-STEEVENS.

• These lines between crotchets are omitted in the folio.

P And thy best graces:] Johnson proposes to read, and my best graces. 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 cousin and son, which the king had given him, that he was something more than cousin, and less than son.-JOHNSON.

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:

Thou know'st, 'tis common; all, that live, must die,
Passing through nature to eternity.

Ham. Ay, madam, it is common.
Queen.

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 forc'd breath,
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;
These, but the trappings and the suits of woe.
King. 'Tis sweet and commendable in your nature,
Hamlet,

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,
vailed lids-] i. e. With downcast eyes.

obsequious] i. e. Funereal; from obsequies.
condolement,] For sorrow.

incorrect-i. e. Ill-regulated, not sufficiently regulated by a sense of

duty and submission to the dispensations of Providence.-MALONE.

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,
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 toward you. 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, But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell; And the king's roused the heaven shall bruit again, Re-speaking earthly thunder. Come away.

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

* To reason most absurd ;] Reason is here used in its common sense, for the faculty by which we form conclusions from arguments.-JOHNSON.

— nobility of love,] i. e. Eminence and distinction of love.-HEATH. Do I impart toward you.] I believe impart is impart myself, communicate whatever I can bestow.-JOHNSON.

-Wittenberg,] In Shakspeare's time there was a university at Wit tenberg; which, however, was not founded till 1502, consequently did not exist in the time to which this play is referred.-MALONE.

b

bend you to remain-] i. e. Subdue your inclination to go from hence, and remain, &c.-STEEVENS.

e No jocund health,] The king's intemperance is very strongly impressed; every thing that happens to him gives him occasion to drink.-JOHNSON.

rouse-] Rouse and carouse, like vye and revye, are but the reciprocation of the same action. A rouse was a large glass ("not past a pint," as Lago says), in which a health was given, the drinking of which by the rest of the company formed a carouse.-GIFFORD's Massinger, vol. i. 239.