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Hor. 'Tis here

Mar. 'Tis gone.

We do it wrong, being fo majestical,
To offer it the fhew of violence;

For it is as the air, invulnerable,

[Exit Ghot.

And our vain blows, malicious mockery.
Ber. It was about to speak when the cock crew.
Hor. And then it started like a guilty thing
Upon a fearful Summons. I have heard,
The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,
Doth with his lofty and fhrill-founding throat
Awake the God of day; and, at his warning,
(9) Whether in fea or fire, in earth or air,
(1) Th' extravagant and erring Spirit hies
To his Confine: And of the truth herein
This present object made probation.

Mar. It faded on the crowing of the cock.
Some fay, that ever 'gainft that season comes
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
The bird of Dawning fingeth all night long :
And then, they fay, no Spirit (2) can walk abroad,
The nights are wholefome, then no planets strike,
(3) No fairy takes, no witch hath power to charm;
So hallow'd and fo gracious is the time.

Hor. So have I heard, and do in part believe it.
But look, the morn, in ruffet mantle clad,

(9) According to the pneumatology of that time, every element was inhabited by its peculiar order of fpirits, who had dif pofitions different, according to their various places of abode. The meaning therefore is, that all fpirits extravagant, wandering out of their element, whether aerial fpirits vifiting earth, or earthly fpirits ranging the air, return to their station, to their proper limits in which they are confined. We might read,

And at bis warning

Th' extravagant and erring Spirit bies

To bis Confine, whether in fea or air,

Or earth, or fire. And of, &c. But this change, tho' it would fmooth the construction, is not neceffary, and being unneceffary, fhould not be made against authority.

(1) Tb' extravagant.

(2) Dares ftir abroad.

]i. e. got out of its bounds.

WARBURTON.
Quarto.

(3) No fairy takes,- -] No fairy frikes, with lameness or

difeafes. This fenfe of take is frequent in this authour..

Walks

Walks o'er the dew of yon (4) high eastern hill.
Break we our watch up; and, by my advice,
Let us impart what we have feen to night
Unto young Hamlet; for, upon my life,
This Spirit, dumb to us, will fpeak to him
Do you confent, we fhall 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 fhall find him moft conveniently.

SCENE II.

Changes to the Palace.

[Exeunt.

Enter Claudius King of Denmark, Gertrude the Queen, Hamlet, Polonius, Laertes, Voltimand, Cornelius, Lords and Attendants.

King. Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's

death

tadbirl 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, t Together with remembrance of our felves. Therefore our fometime fifter, now our Queen, Th' imperial jointrefs of this warlike State, I Have we, as 'twere, with a defeated joy, Bood With one aufpicious, 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 fuppofal of our worth; Or thinking by our late dear brother's death Our State to be disjoint and out of frame ;

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(5) Colleagued with this dream of his advantage,
He hath not fail'd to pefter us with message
Importing the furrender of thofe Lands

Loft by his father, by 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 business is. We have here writ
To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras,
Who, impotent and bed-rid, fcarcely hears
Of this his nephew's purpose, to fupprefs
His further gate herein; in that the Levies,
The Lifts, and full Proportions are all made
Out of his Subjects; and we here dispatch
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 these dilated articles allows.

Farewel, and let your hafte commend your duty,
Vol. In that, and all things, will we fhew our duty.
King. We doubt it nothing. Heartily farewel.nord
[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'ft thou beg,
Laertes,

That shall not be my offer, not thy asking?

(6) The head is not more native to the heart, The hand more inftrumental to the mouth,

Than

(5) Colleagued with bis dream of bis 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.

(6) The HEAD is not more native to the beart, The band more inftrumental to the mouth,

Than is the Throne of Denmark to thy father.] This is a flagrant inftance of the firft Editor's ftupidity, in preferring found to fenfe. But bead, heart and band, he thought muft needs go together where an honeft man was the fubject of the encomium; tho' what he could mean by the bead's being NATIVE to the heart, I cannot conceive. The mouth indeed of an honeft man might, perhaps, in fome fenfe, be faid to be native, that is, allied to

the

Than to the throne of Denmark is thy father.
What wouldst thou have, Laertes ?

Laer. My dear lord,

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Your leave and favour to return to France;
From whence, though willingly I came to Denmark
To fhew my duty in your Coronation,

Yet now I must confefs, that duty done,

My thoughts and wishes bend again tow'id France :
And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon,
King Have you your father's leave? what fays Po-
lonius P

Pol. He hath, my Lord, by labour fome petition,
Wrung from me my flow leave; and, at the laft,
Upon his will 1 feal'd my hard confent.

I do beseech you, give him leave to go. King (7) Take thy fair hour, Lag thine;

And thy beft Graces spend it at thy Will

time be

But

the heart. But the fpeaker is here talking not of a moral, but a phyfical alliance. And the force of what is faid is fupported only by that distinction. I fuppofe, then, that Shakespeare wrote, The BLOOD is not more native to the heart,

Than to the Throne of Denmark is thy father,

This makes the fentiment juft and pertinent. As the blood is formed and fuftained by the labour of the heart, the mouth fupplied by the office of the hand, fo is the throne of Denmark by your father, &c. The expreffion too of the blood's being native to the beart, is extremely fine. For the heart is the laboratory where that vital liquor is digefted, diftributed, and (when weakened and debilitated) again reftored to the vigour neceffary for the discharge of its functions. WARBURTON.

Part of this emendation I have received, but cannot difcern why the bead is not as much native to the beart, as the blood, that is, natural and congenial to it, born with it, and co-operating with it. The relation is likewife by this reading better preserved, the Counfeilor being to the King as the bead to the heart.

(7) Take tby fair bour, Laertes, time be thine,

And thy fair graces; spend it at thy will.] This is the pointing in both Mr. Pope's editions; but the Poet's meaning is loft by it, and the close of the fentence miferably flatten'd. The pointing, I have restored, is that of the best copies; and the fenfe, this: "You "have my leave to go, Laertes; make the fairest use you please "of your time, and spend it at your will with the fairest graces you áre mafter of." THEOP ALD. I ra

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But now, my coufin Hamlet, and my fon
Ham. (8) A little more than kin, and lefs than kind.
[Afide.
King. How is it, that the clouds ftill hang on you?
Ham. Not fo, my Lord, I am (9) too much i' th'
Sun.

Queen. Good Hamlet, caft thy nighted colour off,.
And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark.
Do not, for ever, with thy veiled lids,
Seek for thy noble father in the duft;

Thou know'ft, 'tis common: all, that live, muft die; Paffing through nature to eternity.

Ham. Ay, Madam, it is common.

Queen. If it be,

Why feems it fo particular with thee?

I rather thi

his line is in want of emendation. I read,

Time is bine,

And my best graces; spend it at thy willi

(8) Ham. A little more than kin, and less than kind.] The King had called him, coufin Hamlet, therefore Hamlet replies,

A little more than kin,

i. e. A little more than coufin; becaufe, by marrying his mother,. he was become the King's fon-in-law; So far is eafy. But what: means the latter part,

and less than kind ?.

The King, in the prefent reading, gives no occafion for this reflection, which is fufficient to fhew it to be faulty, and that we fhould read and point the firft line thus,

But now, my cousin Hamlet.

SKIND my fon

i.. But now let us turn to you, coufin Hamlet. Kind my fen, (or as we now fay, Good my fon) lay afide this clouded look. For thus he was going to expoftulate gently with him for his melancholy, when Hamlet cut him fhort by reflecting on the titles he gave him;

A little more than kin, and lefs than kind, which we now fee is a pertinent reply.

WARBURTON..

A ittle more than kin, and lefs than kind.] It is not unreasonable to fuppofe that this was a proverbial expreflion, known in former times for a relation fo confufed and blended, that it was hard to define it. HANMER.

Kind is the Teutonick word for Child. Hamlet therefore answers with propriety, to the titles of coufin and fun, which the King had given him, that he was fomewhat more than ecufin, and lefs than Jon.

(9) too much i tb Sun.] He perhaps alludes to the pro-verb, Out of beaven's bleffing into the warm fun..

Ham..

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