King. Have you your father's leave? What says Polonius?

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 spend it at thy will!
But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son,-
Ham. A little more than kin, and less than
kind.b

[Aside.

King. How is it that the clouds still hang on you ?

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

a The passage in brackets is found in quarto (B), but not In the folio.

b Caldecott interprets this passage thus:-"More than a common relation; having a confessedly accumulated title of relationship, you have less than benevolent, or less than even natural feeling." But surely Hamlet applies these words to himself. The king has called him, "my cousin Hamlet." He says, in a suppressed tone, "A little more than kin"-a little more than cousin. The king adds, "and my son." Hamlet says, "less than kind;"I am little of the same nature with you. Kind is constantly used in the sense of nature by Ben Jonson and other contemporaries of Shakspere.

e Farmer thinks that a quibble was intended between sun and son. Surely not. Hamlet says he is too much in the sun for clouds to hang over him; and his meaning is at once explained by an old proverb. In Grindal's Profitable Discourse.' 1555, we find this proverb; and the context clearly gives its meaning: "In very deed they were brought from the good to the bad, and from God's blessing, as the proverbe is, into a warme sonne, Raleigh has the same expression In his History of the World.

d Moods. So the follo and quartos. The modern reading is mode. Mood was sometimes used in the sense of mode; but it is, perhaps, here meant to signify something beyond the mere manner of grief-the manner as exhibited in the outward sadness. The forms are the ceremonials of grief.'he moods its prevailing sullenness;-the shows (shapes in the quartos) its fits of passion.

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

a

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

Of impious stubbornness; 't is unmanly grief:
It shows a will most incorrect to heaven;
A heart unfortified, a 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! 't is 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,
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. 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.

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, 't is a loving and a fair reply; Be as ourself in Denmark.-Madam, come; This gentle and unfore'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 rouse the heaven shall bruit again,

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 into a dew!

Obsequious sorrow-funereal sorrow,~from obsequées.

Would have mourn'd longer,-married with mine uncle,

2 Canon. In the old editions this word is spelt cannon; and thus the commentators think it necessary to prove that the levelling of a piece of artillery is not here meant. By a curious analogy ordnance in the old writers is spelt ordinance. A canon and an ordinance have the same sense; and yet, according to the received etymologies, the words have no common source. A canon and a cannon are each, it is said, derived from canna, a cane;-its straightness applied as a measure, rule, giving us canon; its length and hollowness, cannon. Ordinance, of course, is derived from ordinare; and the first French cannoneers being named Gendarmes de Ordonnances, the guns which they used came, it is affirmed, to be called ordnance. We are inclined to think that these etymologies, as applied to artillery, are somewhat fanciful. We have canon direct from the Anglo-Saxon, while in that language a cune is bune. Looking at the precision with which our greatest ordinance" are described by Harrison, their various names, weight of the shot, weight of powder used, &c., we are inclined to think that cannon and ordinance denoted such pieces of artillery as were made according to a strict technical rule, canon, or ordinance. In Harrison, cannon is spelt canon, showing the French derivation of the word.

b Beteem. Steevens brought back this word, which had been modernised into let e'en; the sentence was afterwards

changed to that he permitted not." To beteem, in this passage, mean to vouchsafe, to allow, to suffer. In Heywood's Britaine's Troy,' 1636, we have these lines:

They call'd him God on earth, and much esteem'd him; Much honour he receiv'd, which they beteem'd him.” c Discourse of reason. In Massinger we have:"It adds to my calamity that I have Discourse and reason."

Gifford thinks that this passage in Shakspere should also be discourse and reason." But a subsequent passage in this play explains the phrase, and shows that by discourse is not meant language:

"Sure he that made us with such large discourse,
Looking before and after."

The discourse of reason is the discursion of reason-the faculty of pursuing a train of thought, or of passing from one thought to another; the discoursing thought," as Sir John Davies expresses it.

Ham. Saw! who?

Hor. My lord, the king your father.
Ham.

The king my father!
Hor. Season your admiration for a while
With an attent ear; till I may deliver,
Upon the witness of these gentlemen,
This marvel to you.

Ham.

For heaven's love, let me hear.

Hor. Two nights together had these gentlemen,

Marcellus and Bernardo, on their waten,
In the dead waste and middle of the night,
Been thus encounter'd. A figure like your father,
Arm'd at all points, exactly, cap-à-pé,
Appears before them, and, with solemn march,
Goes slow and stately by them: thrice he walk'd,
By their oppress'd and fear-surprized eyes,
Within his truncheon's length; whilst they,
bestill'd

Almost to jelly with the act of fear,

Stand dumb, and speak not to him. This to me
In dreadful secresy impart they did;
And I with them the third night kept the watch:
Where, as they had deliver'd, both in time,

Form of the thing, cach word made true and

• Dead waste. This was ordinarily printed "dead waist." The quarto of 1603, which was unknown to Steevens and Malone, reads, "dead vast." In the Tempest we find east of night," which Steevens explains thus :-"The vast of night, means the night which is naturally empty and deserted, without action; or, when all things lying in sleep and silence, makes the world appear one great uninhabited waste."

Bestill'd, in the folio; the quartos, distill'd. To still, is to fall in drops;-they were dissolved-separated drop by drop, "Almost to jolly, by the act of fear."

Ham.
Perchance, 't will walk again.

I will watch to-night;

Hor. I warrant it will. Ilum. If it assume my noble father's person, I'll speak to it, though hell itself should gape, And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all, If you have hitherto conceal'd this sight, Let it be tenable in your silence still;

This passage is sometimes read and acted, as if "Arm'd, say you?" applied to the manner in which Horatio and Marcellus prepared to hold their watch; and we have somewhere seen a criticism which notes "Then saw you not his face?" as a memorable example of the force of an abrupt transition. "Arm 'd, say you?" without doubt, is asked with reference to the Ghost, who has been described by Horatio as

"Arm'd at all points exactly, cap-à-pé." Hamlet, with his mind full of this description, anticipates the re-appearance of the figure, when he asks,

"Hold you the watch to-night?"

and proceeds to those minute questions which carry forward the deep impressions of truth and reality with which everything connected with the supernatural appearance of Hamlet's father is invested.

b See Illustrations to Henry IV., Part II., Act IV. Sc. c Tanable in quarto (B). in tolio it is treble.

Hold it a fashion, and a toy in blood;

A violet in the youth of primy nature,
Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting,
The [perfume and suppliance of a minute;
No more.

Oph. No more but so?
Laer.

Think it no more:
For nature, crescent, does not grow alone
In thews, and bulk; but, as this temple waxes,
The inward service of the mind and soul
Grows wide withal. Perhaps, he loves you now;
And now no soil, nor cautel, doth besmirch"
The virtue of his will: but, you must fear,
His greatness weigh'd, his will is not his own;
For he himself is subject to his birth:
He may not, as unvalued persons do,
Carve for himself; for on his choice depends
The sanctity and health of the whole state;
And therefore must his choice be circumscrib'd
Unto the voice and yielding of that body,
Whereof he is the head: Then if he says, he
loves you,

It fits your wisdom so far to believe it,
As he in his peculiar sect and force®
May give his saying deed; which is no further,
Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal.

Soil, is a spot; cautel. a crafty way to deceive; besmirch, to sully.

b Sanctity. So the fallo; the quartos, sufetu.

c Peculiar sect and force. So the folio; the quarto (B), particular act and place.

Then weigh what loss your honour may sustain,
If with too credent car you list his songs;
Or lose your heart; or your chaste treasure oper
To his unmaster'd importunity.

Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister;
And keep within the rear of your affection,
Out of the shot and langer of desire.
The chariest maid s prodigal enough,
If she unmask her beauty to the moon:
Virtue itself scapes not calumnious strokes:
The canker galls the infants of the spring,b
Too oft before their buttons be disclos'd;
And in the morn and liquid dew of youth
Contagious blastments are most imminent.
Be wary then: best saftey lies in fear;
Youth to itself reoels, though none else near.

Oph. I shall the effect of this good lesson
keep,

As watchman to my heart: But, good my brother,
Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven;
Whilst, like a puff'd and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
And recks not his own read.

Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judg

ment.

Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy:
For the apparel oft proclaims the man;

And they in France of the best rank and station
Are of a most select and generous chief in that."
Neither a borrower, nor a lender be:
For loan oft loses both itself and friend;
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all,-To thine ownself be true;
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell; my blessing season this in thee!
Laer. Most humbly do I take my leave, my
lord.

Pol. The time invites you; go, your servants

tend.

Laer. Farewell, Ophelia; and remember well What I have said to you.

Oph. 'Tis in my memory lock'd, And you yourself shall keep the key of it. Laer. Farewell. [Exit LAERTES.

Pol. What is 't, Ophelia, he hath said to you?

Oph. So please you, something touching the lord Hamlet.

Pol. Marry, well bethought:

'Tis told me, he hath very oft of late Given private time to you: and you yourself Have of your audience been most free and boun

So stands the line in the follo, and in the quartos, including that of 160. "Of a" has been rejected by most editors, except Malone; who deems chief, chiefe, or chef, to be a substantive, having a meaning derived from heraldry. It is scarcely necessary to go to heraldry for an explanation of the word: we have it in composition, as in mischief, and the now obsolete bonchief. Chef, literally the head, here signifies eminence, superiority. Those of the best rank and station are of a more select and generous superiority in the indication of their dignity by their apparel.

b It has been objected to these maxims of Polenius, that their good sense ill accords with his general character, his tediousness, his babbling vanity. It is remarkable that in the quarto of 1603, the "precepts" are printed with inverted cominas, as if they were taken from some known source: or. at any rate, as if Polonius had delivered them by an effort of memory alone.

Oph. I do not know, my lord, what I should

think.

Pol. Marry, I'll teach you: think yourself a baby;

That you have ta'en his tenders for true pay, Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly;

Or, (not to crack the wind of the poor phrase,
Roaming it thus,) you'll tender me a fool.
Oph. My lyd, he hath importun'd me with
love,

In honourable fashion.

Pol. Ay, fashion you may call it; go to, go to. Oph. And hath given countenance to his speech, my lord,

With all the vows of heaven.b

Pol. Ay, springes to catch woodcocks. I do know,

When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul
Gives the tongue vows: these blazes, daughter,
Giving more light than heat,-extinct in both,
Even in their promise, as it is a making,-
You must not take for fire. From this time,
daughter,4

Be somewhat scanter of your maiden presence;
Set your entreatments at a higher rate,
Than a command to parley. For lord IIamlet,
Believe so much in him, that he is young;
And with a larger tether may he walk,
Than may be given you: In few, Ophelia,
Do not believe his vows; for they are brokers ;-
Not of the eye which their investments show,
But mere implorators of unholy suits,
Breathing like sanctified and pious bonds,
The better to beguile. This is for all,——
I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth,
Ilave you so slander any moment's leisure,
As to give words or talk with the lord Hamlet.
Look to 't, I charge you; come your ways.
Oph. I shall obey, my lord.

[Excunt.

SCENE IV.-The Platform. Enter HAMLET, HORATIO, and MARCELL Ham. The air bites shrewdly. It is very cold.

Roaming. So the folio; a common reading is wronging. Mr. Collier has running. Roaming it thus," applies to the various senses in which Polonius has used the word "tender." b So the line stands in the tolio. In quarto (b).~ "With almost all the holy vows of heaven."

c Gives, in folio; quartos, lends.

An ey

4 In the quartos, daughter is here wanting. The eye. So the folio; the quartos, that die. was used to express a slight tint, as in the Tempest: "Ant. The ground indeed is tawny. Seb. With an eye of green in 't." It is here metaphorically put for character. f The quartos read, "It is very cold." In the folio wa have distinctly, "Is it very cold!" with a note of interro gation.