SCENE II.

The fame. A Room of State in the fame.

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 fo far hath difcretion fought with nature,
That we with wifeft forrow think on him,
Together with remembrance of ourselves.
Therefore our fometime fifter, now our queen,
The imperial jointress of this warlike state,
Have we, as 'twere, with a defeated joy,—
With one aufpicious, and one dropping eye;

9 and that it us befitted-] Perhaps our author elliptically wrote,

and us befitted.

i. e. and that it befitted us.

STEEVENS,

2 With one aufpicious, and one dropping eyes] Thus the folio. The quarto, with fomewhat lefs of quaintnefs:

With an aufpicious, and a dropping eye.

The fame thought, however, occurs in The Winter's Tale: "She had one eye declined for the lofs of her husband; another elevated that the oracle was fulfilled.”

After all, perhaps, we have here only the ancient proverbial phrafe To cry with one eye and laugh with the other," buckram'd by our author for the fervice of tragedy. See Ray's Collection, edit. 1768, p. 188. STEEVENS.

Dropping in this line probably means depressed or caft downwards: an interpretation which is ftrongly fupported by the paffage already quoted from The Winter's Tale. It may, however, fignify weeping.

With mirth in funeral, and with dirge in marriage,
In equal fcale weighing delight and dole,—
Taken to wife: nor have we herein barr'd
Your better wifdoms, which have freely gone
With this affair along :-For all, our thanks.

Now follows, that you know, young Fortinbras,-
Holding a weak fuppofal 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,'
He hath not fail'd to pefter us with meffage,
Importing the furrender of those lands
Loft 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 bufinefs is: We have here writ
To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras,-
Who, impotent and bed-rid, fcarcely hears
Of this his nephew's purpofe,-to fupprefs
His further gait herein; in that the levies,

"Dropping of the eyes" was a technical expreffion in our author's time." If the fpring be wet with much fouth wind,—the next fummer will happen agues and blearnefs, dropping of the eyes, and pains of the bowels." Hopton's Concordance of years, 8vo. 1616.

Again, in Montaigne's Effaies, 1603: "- -they never faw any man there with eyes dropping, or crooked and stooping through age." MALONE.

3 Colleagued with this dream of his advantage,] The meaning is,-He goes to war fo indifcreetly, and unprepared, that he has no allies to fupport him but a dream, with which he is colleagued or confederated. WARBURTON.

Mr. Theobald, in his Shakspeare Reftored, propofed to readcollegued, but in his edition very properly adhered to the ancient copies. MALONE.

This dream of his advantage (as Mr. M. Mafon obferves) means only" this imaginary advantage, which Fortinbras hoped to derive from the unfettled ftate of the kingdom." STEEVENS.

4

to fuppress

His further gait herein,] Gate or gait is here ufed in the

The lifts, and full proportions, are all made
Out of his fubject:-and we here despatch
You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltimand,
For bearers of this greeting to old Norway;
Giving to you no further perfonal power
To business with the king, more than the scope'
Of thefe dilated articles allow.

6

Farewell; and let your hafte commend your duty. 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 fome fuit; What is't, Laertes? You cannot fpeak of reafon to the Dane,

And lofe your voice: What would'st thou beg,
Laertes,

That fhall not be my offer, not thy asking?
The head is not more native to the heart,
The hand more inftrumental to the mouth,

northern fenfe, for proceeding, paffage; from the A. S. verb gae, A gate for a path, paffage, or street, is ftill current in the north.

--

PERCY,

-more than the scope —] More is comprized in the general defign of these articles, which you may explain in a more diffuse and dilated ftyle. JOHNSON.

6

thefe dilated articles &c.] i. e, the articles when dilated. MUSGRAVE,

The poet fhould have written allows. Many writers fall into this error, when a plural noun immediately precedes the verb; as I have had occafion to observe in a note on a controverted paffage in Love's Labour's Loft. So, in Julius Cæfar:

"The pofture of your blows are yet unknown."

Again, in Cymbeline: " and the approbation of those are wonderfully to extend him," &c. MALONE.

Surely, all fuch defects in our author, were merely the errors of illiterate tranfcribers or printers. STEEVENS,

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 fhow my duty in your coronation;
Yet now, I must confefs, 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? What says
Polonius?

POL. He hath, my lord, [wrung from me my flow leave,8

By labourfome petition; and, at laft,

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

KING. Take thy fair hour, Laertes ; time be thine, And thy best graces: fpend it at thy will."

7 The head is not more native to the heart,

The hand more inftrumental to the mouth,

Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father.] The fenfe seems to be this: The head is not formed to be more useful to the heart, the hand is not more at the fervice of the mouth, than my power is at your father's fervice. That is, he may command me to the utmoft, he may do what he pleases with my kingly authority.

STEEVENS,

By native to the heart Dr. Johnfon understands," natural and congenial to it, born with it, and co-operating with it."

Formerly the heart was fuppofed the feat of wisdom; and hence the poet fpeaks of the clofe connexion between the heart and head, See Vol. XII. p. 12, n. 9. MALONE,

8

[wrung from me my flow leave,] These words and the two following lines are omitted in the folio. MALONE.

9 Take thy fair hour, Laertes; time be thine,

And thy beft graces: Spend it at thy will.] The fenfe is,-You have my leave to go, Laertes; make the faireft ufe you please of your time, and fpend it at your will with the faircft graces you are mafter of." THEOBALD,

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

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 anfwers with propriety, to the titles of coufin and fon, which the king had given him, that he was fomewhat more than confin, and lefs than fon.

JOHNSON.

In this line, with which Shakspeare introduces Hamlet, Dr. Johnfon has perhaps pointed out a nicer diftinction than it can justly 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 unjuftifiable. 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 such 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 the nearer we are in blood, the further we must be from love; the greater the kindred is, the less the kindness must

once: "

be."

Again, in Gorboduc, a tragedy, 1561:

"In kinde a father, but not kindelynefs."K

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& II.

fc. the laft:

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

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

In the Battle of Alcazar, 1594. Muly Mahomet is lled " Traitor to kinne and kinde!"

Лад