No fairy takes 29, nor witch hath power to charm, So hallow'd and so gracious 30 is the time. Hor. So have I heard, and do in part believe it. But, look, the morn 31, in russet mantle clad, Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill: Break we our watch up; and, by my advice, Let us impart what we have seen to-night Unto young Hamlet: for, upon my life, This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him: Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it, As needful in our loves, fitting our duty? Mar. Let's do't, I pray; and I this morning know Where we shall find him most convenient. [Exeunt. SCENE II. The same. A Room of State in the same. 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 Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature, 29 i. e. No fairy blasts, or strikes. Thus in the Merry Wives of Windsor, Act iv. Sc. 4 : And there he blasts the tree and takes the cattle.' See note on that passage. 30 It has already been observed that gracious is sometimes used by Shakspeare for graced, favoured. Vide note on As You Like It, Aot i. Sc. 2. 31 First quarto,‘sun.' The imperial jointress of this warlike state, Holding a weak supposal of our worth; 3 4 Lost by his father, with all bands of law, 1 Thus the folio. The quarto reads: With an auspicious and a dropping eye.' The same thought occurs in The Winter's Tale :- She had one eye declined for the loss of her husband, another elevated that the oracle was fulfilled.' There is an old proverbial phrase, To laugh with one eye, and cry with the other.' 2 i. e. grief. 3 i. e. united to this strange fancy of, &c. 4 The folio reads, bonds; but bands and bonds signified the same thing in the poet's time. 5 Gait here signifies course, progress. Gait for road, way, path, is still in use in the north. We have this word again in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act v. Sc. 2: Every fairy takes his guit.' Out of his subject:—and we here despatch To business with the king, more than the scope Farewell; and let your haste 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 some suit; What is't, Laertes? You cannot speak of reason to the Dane, And lose your voice: What would'st thou beg, Laertes, That shall not be my offer, not thy asking? The head is not more native to the heart, The hand more instrumental to the mouth, 6 The folio reads, More than the scope of these dilated articles allow.' I have not scrupled to read related, upon the authority of the first quarto, as more intelligible. Malone says, the poet should have written allows;' but the grammar and practice of Shakspeare's age was not strict in the concordance of plural and singular in noun and verb; and numerous examples might be adduced from his cotemporaries to prove this. The question is, Are the writers of that time to be tried by modern rules of grammar, with which they were not acquainted? Steevens, with a sweeping assertion, which no one conversant with MSS. of the time will allow, would atttribute all such inaccuracies to illiterate transcribers or printers. We have Malone's assertion, that such errors are to be met with in almost every page of the first folio. The first quarto reads: no further personal power To business with the king Than those related articles do shew.' 7 The various parts of the body enumerated are not more allied, more necessary to each other, than the throne of Denmark (i. e. the king) is bound to your father to do him service. Laer. My dread lord, Your leave and favour to return to France; 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? What says Polonius? Pol. He hath, my lord, [wrung from me my slow leave, By laboursome petition; and, at last, King. Take thy fair hour, Laertes; time be thine, [Aside. In the first quarto this passage stands thus:'King. With all our heart, Laertes, fare thee well. Laert. I in all love and dutie take my leave. [Exit.' The king's speech may be thus explained: :- Take an auspicious hour, Laertes; be your time your own, and thy best virtues guide thee in spending of it at thy will.' Johnson thought that we should read, ' And my best graces.' The editors had rendered this passage doubly obscure by erroneously placing a colon at graces. 9 A little more than kin, and less than kind.' This passage has baffled the commentators, who are at issue about its meaning; but have none of them rightly explained it. A cotemporary of the poet will lead us to its true meaning. A little more than kin has been rightly said to allude to the double relationship of the king to Hamlet, as uncle and step-father, his kindred by blood and kindred by marriage. By less than kind Hamlet means degenerate and base. Going out of kinde (says Baret), which goeth out of kinde, which dothe or worketh dishonour to his kinred. Degener; forlignant.'-ALVEARIE, K. 59. Forligner (says Cotgrave), to degenerate, to grow out of kind, to differ in conditions with his ancestors.' That less than kind and out of kind have the same meaning who can doubt? 10 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 11 Seek for thy noble father in the dust: Thou know'st, 'tis common; all, that live, must die, Ham. Ay, madam, it is common. 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, To give these mourning duties to your father: 12 10 It is probable that a quibble is intended between sun and The old spelling is sonne. son. 11 i. e. with eyes cast down. 12 Upon a wrong'd, I'd fain have said a maid.' Vail your regard Measure for Measure, vol. i. My grief lies all within; And these external manners of lament Are merely shadows to the unseen grief, That swells with silence in the tortur'd soul.' King Richard II. |