Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father. LIER. 7 My dread lord, Your leave and favour to return to France; mark, To thow my duty in your coronation; KING. Have you your father's leave? What says Poz. He hath, my lord, [wrang from me my flow leave, By labourfome petition; and, at last, Kiss. Take thy fair hour, Laertes; time be thine, And thy best graces: fpend it at thy will. The head এ পান কারে হত্যice in the beant. Then is the theme of Dernere The fenfe feems to be this: The head is not formed to be more afetal 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, he may command me to the utmeid, he may do what he picales with my kingly authority. STEEVENS. By naties in the buzet Dr. Johnion undentands, " natural and congenial to it, bem with it, and co-operating with it." Formerly the heart was ferpeted the fear of wom; and hence the poet forks of the close connexion between the heart and head. See Vol. XII. p. 12.m.9. MALONE. woe. following lines are omitted in the follo, Trek words and the two Manos E. And the both grader Jonat The fense is, - You have my kave to ge, Laertes; make the third you please of your time, and fpend it at your will with the faired graces you are maker ch TRECHAL 1 But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my fon, HAM. A little more than kin, and less than kind.* and bear the inventory [Afide. "Of your best graces in your mind. STEEVENS. I rather think this line is in want of emendation. I read : time is thine, And my best 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 cousin and fon, which the king had given him, that he was fomewhat more than cousin, and less than fon. JOHNSON. In this line, with which Shakspeare introduces Hamlet, Dr. Johnfon 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 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 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 occafion for such a reflection." " A jingle of the fame fort is found in Mother Bombie, 1594, and seems 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 be." once: 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 incest, Our author's Julius Cæfar, 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. fc. the laft: "Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain." Dr. Farmer, however, observes that kin, is still used for confi in the midland counties. STEEVENS. Hamlet does not, I think, mean to say, 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 sun. QUEEN. Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off, And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark. Thou know'st, 'tis common; all, that live, must die,s Passing 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 cousin Hamlet, and my fon." - His reply, therefore, is," I am a little more than thy kinfman, [for I am thy stepson;] 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-fon; being such, I am less near to thee than thy natural offspring, and therefore not entitled to the appellation of fon, which you have now given me. MALONE. 3 too much i'the fun.) He perhaps alludes to the proverb, "Out of heaven's blessing into the warm fun." JOHNSON. too much i'the fun.) Meaning probably his being fent for from his studies 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. 4vailed lids-] With lowering eyes, cast down eyes. JOHNSON. So, in The Merchant of Venice: 5 Thou know'st, 'tis common; all, that live, muft die,] Perhaps the femicolon placed in this line, is improper. The sense, elliptically expressed, is, Thou knowest it is common that all that live, muit die. The first that is omitted for the fake of metre, a practice often followed by Shakspeare. STEEVENS. QUEEN. Why seems it so particular with thee? If it be, HAM. Seems, madam! nay, it is; I know not feems. 'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother, KING. 'Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet, To give these mourning duties to your father: shows of grief,] Thus the folio. The first quarto readschapes-I suppose for shapes. STEEVENS. But I have that within, which passeth show; These, but the trappings and the fuits of woe.) So, in King Richard II: 8 -my grief lies all within; "And these external manners of lament "Are merely shadows to the unfeen grief "That fwells with filence in the tortur'd foul." - your father lost a father; MALONE. That father loft, loft bis ;) Mr. Pope judicioufly corrected the faulty copies thus: your father lost a father; That father, bis;. On which the editor Mr. Theobald thus defcants :-This supposed refinement is from Mr. Pope, but all the editions elfe, that I have met with, old and modern, read, That father lost, loft bis; The reduplication of which word bere gives an energy and an 2 In filial obligation, for some term 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, 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 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 loft a father, i. e. your grandfather, which loft grandfather, also loft his father. The metre, however, in my opinion, shows that Mr. Pope's correction should be adopted. pressed, will still be the fame. 9- obsequious forrow:] funeral ceremonies. JOHNSON. So, in Titus Andronicus: "To shed obfequious tears upon his trunk." See Vol. X. p. 471, n. 2. STEEVENS. 2 In obftinate condolement,] Condolement, for forroru. 3 WARBURTON. WARBURTON. - a will most incorrect) Incorrect, for untutor'd. Incorret does not mean untutored, as Warburton explains it; but ill-regulated, not fufficiently fubdued. M. MASON. Not fufficiently regulated by a sense of duty and fubmission to the difpenfations of providence. MALONE. |