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 5
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 jointrefs of this warlike state,
Have we, as 'twere, with a defeated joy,-
With one aufpicious, and one dropping eye;"

5 and that it us befitted-] Perhaps our author elliptically

With one aufpicious, and one dropping eye;] 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 depreffed or caft downwards: an interpretation which is ftrongly fupported by the

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,7
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 moft 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, scarcely hears
Of this his nephew's purpose,-to fupprefs

paffage already quoted from The Winter's Tale. It may, however, fignify weeping. "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, Svo. 1616.

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

7 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, proposed to readcollogued, but in his edition very properly adhered to the ancient copies. MALONE.

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

His further gait herein; in that the levies,
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.

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 speak of reason to the Dane, And lofe your voice: What would'st thou beg, Laertes,

to fupprefs

His further gait herein,] Gate or gait is here used in the northern fenfe, for proceeding, paffage; from the A. S. verb gae. A gate for a path, paffage, or ftreet, is ftill current in the north. PERCY.

So, in A Midfummer-Night's Dream, A&t V. fc. ii:

"Every fairy take his gait." HARRIS.

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

I

dilated.

thefe dilated articles, &c.] i. e. the articles when 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 obferve in a note on a controverted paffage in Love's Labour Loft. So, in Julius Cæfar:

"The pofture of your blows are yet unknown." Again, in Cymbeline:" and the approbation of thofe are wonderfully to extend him," &c. MALONE.

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

That shall not be my offer, not thy afking?
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.
What would'ft 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 muft confefs, that duty done,

My thoughts and wifhes bend again toward France, And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon.

KING. Have you your father's leave? What fays Polonius?

Poz. He hath, my lord, [wrung from me my flow leave,3

By labourfome petition; and, at last,
Upon his will I feal'd my hard confent :]
I do beseech you, give him leave to go.

KING. Take thy fair hour, Laertes; time be thine,

2 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 feems 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 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 underftands, "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 speaks of the clofe connection between the heart and head. See Vol. XVI. p. 12. n. 7. MALONE.

3

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

And thy beft graces: fpend it at thy will.4—
But now, my coufin Hamlet, and my fon,

HAM. A little more than kin, and lefs than kind.5 [Afide.

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 fairest graces you are mafter of. THEOBALD.

and bear the inventory

"Of your best graces in your mind." STEEVENS.

Į rather think this line is in want of emendation. I read: time is thine,

And my beft 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 anfwers with propriety, to the titles of coufin and fon, which the king had given him, that he was fomewhat more than coufin, and less than Jon. 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 eftablish 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 inceftuous 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 fuch 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 once: "the nearer we are in blood, the further we muft be from love; the greater the kindred is, the lefs the kindness muft be."

Again, in Gorboduc, a tragedy, 1561:

"In kinde a father, but not kindelynefs."

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

As kind, however, fignifies nature, Hamlet may mean that