Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it,
As needful in our loves, fitting our duty?

173

Mar. Let's do 't, I pray; and I this morning know Where we shall find him most conveniently.

Scene Two

[A Room of State in the Castle]

Exeunt.

Enter Claudius, King of Denmark, Gertrude the Queen, Hamlet, Polonius, Laertes and his sister, Ophelia, [and] Lords attendant.

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 so far hath discretion fought with nature
That we with wisest sorrow think on him,
Together with remembrance of ourselves.
Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen,
The imperial jointress of this war-like state,
Have we, as 'twere with a defeated joy,
With one auspicious and one dropping eye,
With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage,
In equal scale weighing delight and dole,
Taken to wife: nor have we herein barr'd
Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone
With this affair along: for all, our thanks.
Now follows, that you know, young Fortinbras,
Holding a weak supposal of our worth,
Or thinking by our late dear brother's death

12

16

4 brow of woe: aspect of woe 9 jointress: joint possessor, or, dowager

10 defeated: disfigured

13 dole: grief

11 auspicious: happy dropping: tearful

18 weak supposal: low opinion

20

20

Our state to be disjoint and out of frame,
Colleagued with the dream of his advantage,
He hath not fail'd to pester us with message,
Importing the surrender of those lands
Lost by his father, with all bands of law,
To our most valiant brother. So much for him.
Enter Voltimand and Cornelius.

Now for ourself and for this time of meeting.
Thus much the business 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 suppress
His further gait herein; in that the levies,
The lists and full proportions, are all made
Out of his subject; and we here dispatch
You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltimand,
For bearers of this greeting to old Norway,
Giving to you no further personal power
To business with the king more than the scope
Of these delated articles allow.

24

28

32

36

Farewell and let your haste commend your duty. [Cor.] In that and all things will we show our Vol.

}

duty.

King. We doubt it nothing: heartily farewell.

40

Exeunt Voltimand and Cornelius.

And now, Laertes, what's the news with you?
You told us of some suit; what is't, Laertes?
You cannot speak of reason to the Dane,

44

And lose your voice; what wouldst thou beg, Laertes, That shall not be my offer, not thy asking?

20 disjoint: at loose ends frame: order 21 Colleagued: allied

dream of his advantage: imaginary superiority 24 bands: agreements

23 Importing: bearing as its purport 31 gait: proceeding

38 delated: expressly stated

32 proportions: supplies, forces 44 the Dane: the king of Denmark

45 lose your voice: speak to no purpose

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.
What wouldst thou have, Laertes?

Laer.

48

Dread my lord,

Your leave and favour to return to France;

From whence though willingly I came to Denmark, 52 To show my duty in your coronation,

Yet now, I must confess, 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?

Polonius?

56

What says

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.

60

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. [Aside.] A little more than kin, and less than kind.

64

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

Seek for thy noble father in the dust:

47 native: closely and congenitally connected 48 instrumental: serviceable

68

50 Dread my lord: my dread lord

51 leave and favour: kind permission
56 leave and pardon: indulgence [to depart]
60 hard: given with difficulty

65 kin... kind; cf. n. 67 i' the sun; cf. n.

63 graces: virtues 70 vailed: down-cast

Thou know'st 'tis common; all that lives must die, 72 Passing through nature to eternity.

Ham. Ay, madam, it is common.

Queen.

If it be,

Why seems it so particular with thee?

Ham. Seems, madam! Nay, it is; I know not

'seems.'

'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,
Nor customary suits of solemn black,

Nor windy suspiration of forc'd breath,
No, nor the fruitful river in the

eye,

76

80

84

Nor the dejected haviour of the visage,
Together with all forms, moods, shows of grief,
That can denote me truly; these indeed seem,
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,

88

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

To do obsequious sorrow; but to persever
In obstinate condolement is a course

Of impious stubbornness; 'tis 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
the most vulgar thing to sense,

As

any

72 common: the common lot

79 windy suspiration: tempestuous sighing
81 haviour: behavior

80 fruitful: copious

92 obsequious: dutiful

99 vulgar thing: common experience

93

75 particular: personal forc'd: against one's will 83 denote: portray condolement: sorrowing

Why should we in our peevish opposition
Take it to heart? Fie! 'tis 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

100

104

108

Than that which dearest father bears his son

112

Do I impart toward 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.

116

Queen. Let not thy mother lose her prayers,
Hamlet:

I pray thee, stay with us; go not to Wittenberg.
Ham. I shall in all my best obey you, madam.
King. Why, 'tis a loving and a fair reply:
Be as ourself in Denmark. Madam, come;
This gentle and unforc'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 heavens shall bruit again,
Re-speaking earthly thunder. Come away.

105 corse: corpse

109 immediate: next in succession

113 Wittenberg; cf. n. 127 rouse: bumper

124

128

Exeunt [all except Hamlet.]

114 retrograde: contrary

115 bend: incline

bruit: echo