That shall not be my offer, not thy asking? LAER. My dread lord, To show my duty in your coronation; My thoughts and wishes bend again toward France, Poz. He hath, my lord, [wrung from me my slow leave,3 By laboursome petition; and, at last, KING. Take thy fair hour, Laertes; time be thine, 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.] The sense seems to be this: The head is not formed to be more useful to the heart, the hand is not more at the service of the mouth, than my power is at your father's service. That is, he may command me to the utmost, he may do what he pleases with my kingly authority. STEEVENS. By native to the heart Dr. Johnson understands, "natural and congenial to it, born with it, and co-operating with it." Formerly the heart was supposed the seat of wisdom; and hence the poet speaks of the close connection between the heart and head. See Vol. XVI. p. 12, n. 7. MALONE. 3 ·wrung from me my slow leave,] These words and the two following lines are omitted in the folio. MALOne. And thy best graces: spend it at thy will. Take thy fair hour, Laertes; time be thine, And thy best graces: spend it at thy will.] The sense is,— You have my leave to go, Laertes; make the fairest use you please of your time, and spend it at your will with the fairest graces you are master of. THEOBALD. So, in King Henry VIII: 66 and bear the inventory "Of your best graces in your mind." STEEVENS. I rather think this line is in want of emendation. -time is thine, I read : And my best graces: spend it at thy will. JOHNSON. 5 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 somewhat more than cousin, and less than son. JOHNSON. In this line, with which Shakspeare introduces Hamlet, Dr. Johnson has perhaps pointed out a nicer distinction than it can justly boast of. To establish the sense 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 something less than kind, by having betrayed the mother of Hamlet into an indecent and incestuous marriage, and obtained the crown by means which he suspects to be unjustifiable. In the fifth Act, the prince accuses 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 occasion for such a reflection." A jingle of the same sort is found in Mother Bombie, 1594, and seems 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.' In the Battle of Alcazar, 1594, Muly Mahomet is called "Traitor to kinne and kinde." As kind, however, signifies nature, Hamlet may mean that KING. How is it that the clouds still hang on you? 6 HAM. Not so, my lord, I am too much i'the sun." QUEEN. Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off, And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark. Do not, for ever, with thy vailed lids' his relationship was become an unnatural one, as it was partly founded upon incest. Our author's Julius Cæsar, Antony and Cleopatra, King Richard II. and Titus Andronicus, exhibit instances of kind being used for nature; and so too in this play of Hamlet, Act II. sc. the last : "Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain." Dr. Farmer, however, observes that kin is still used for cousin in the midland counties. STEEVENS. Hamlet does not, I think, mean to say, as Mr. Steevens supposes, that his uncle is a little more than kin, &c. The King had called the Prince-" My cousin Hamlet, and my son."His reply, therefore, is," I am a little more than thy kinsman, [for I am thy step-son;] and somewhat less than kind to thee, [for I hate thee, as being the person who has entered into an incestuous marriage with my mother.]" Or, if we understand kind in its ancient sense, then the meaning will be,-I am more than thy kinsman, for I am thy step-son; being such, I am less near to thee than thy natural offspring, and therefore not entitled to the appellation of son, which you have now given me. MALONE. 6 too much i' the sun.] He perhaps alludes to the proverb, "Out of heaven's blessing into the warm sun." JOHNSON. Meaning probably his being sent for from his studies to be exposed at his uncle's marriage as his chiefest courtier, &c. STEEVENS. I question whether a quibble between sun and son be not here intended. FARMER. 7 vailed lids-] With lowering eyes, cast down eyes. So, in The Merchant of Venice: "Vailing her high-top lower than her ribs." JOHNSON. See Vol. XII. p. 17, n. 9. MALONE. STEEVENS. Seek for thy noble father in the dust: Thou know'st, 'tis common; all, that live, must die,8 Passing through nature to eternity. 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, • Thou know'st, 'tis common; all, that live, must die,] Perhaps the semicolon placed in this line, is improper. The sense, elliptically expressed, is,-Thou knowest it is common that all that live, must die.-The first that is omitted for the sake of metre, a practice often followed by Shakspeare. STEEVENs. 9 shows of grief,] Thus the folio. The first quarto reads-chapes-I suppose, for shapes. STEEVENS. 1 But I have that within, which passeth show; These, but the trappings and the suits of woe.] So, in King Richard II: 66 my grief lies all within; "And these external manners of lament "Are merely shadows to the unseen grief "That swells with silence in the tortur'd soul." VOL. XVIII. D MALONE. To give these mourning duties to your father: To do obsequious sorrow :3 But to perséver Of impious stubbornness; 'tis unmanly grief: -your father lost a father; That father lost, lost his ;] Mr. Pope judiciously corrected the faulty copies thus: your father lost a father; That father, his ;—• On which the editor Mr. Theobald thus descants:-This supposed refinement is from Mr. Pope, but all the editions else, that I have met with, old and modern, read: That father lost, lost his; The reduplication of which word here gives an energy and an elegance, WHICH IS MUCH EASIER TO BE CONCEIVED THAN EXPLAINED IN TERMS. I believe so: for when explained in terms it comes to this:-That father after he had lost himself, lost 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 so much of our author's manner, that I find no temptation to recede from the old copies. JOHNSON. The meaning of the passage is no more than this,-Your father lost a father, i. e. your grandfather, which lost grandfather, also lost his father. The metre, however, in my opinion, shows that Mr. Pope's correction should be adopted. The sense, though elliptically expressed, will still be the same. STEEVENS. 3obsequious sorrow:] Obsequious is here from obsequies, or funeral ceremonies. JOHNSON. So, in Titus Andronicus: "To shed obsequious tears upon his trunk." See Vol. XIV. p. 282, n. 4. STEEVENS. In obstinate condolement,] Condolement, for sorrow. WARBURTON. a will most incorrect-] Incorrect, for untutored. WARBURTON. |