KING. How is it that the clouds ftill hang on you? HAM. Not fo, my lord, I am too much i'the fun." off, And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark. Seek for thy noble father in the duft: Thou know'ft, 'tis common; all, that live, must die,' Paffing 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 coufin Hamlet, and my fon."-His reply, therefore, is," I am a little more than thy kinfman, [for I am thy ftepfon;] and fomewhat less than kind to thee, [for I hate thee, as being the perfon who has entered into an inceftuous marriage with my mother]. Or, if we understand kind in its ancient fenfe, then the meaning will be,-I am more than thy kinfman, for I am thy ftep-fon; being fuch, I am lefs 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 blefling into the warm fun." JOHNSON. 100-much-i-ska-fum Meaning probably his being sent for from his ftudies 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. 4 —vailed lids-] With lowering eyes, caft down eyes. So, in The Merchant of Venice: JOHNSON. "Vailing her high-top lower than her ribs." STEEVENS. See Vol. IX. p. 17, n. 4. MALONE. Thou know'ft, 'tis common; all, that live, muft die,] Perhaps the femicolon placed in this line, is improper. The fenfe, elliptically expreffed, is, Thou knoweft it is common that all that live, muft die.-The firft that is omitted for the fake of metre, a practice often followed by Shakspeare. STEEVENS, QUEEN. Why feems it fo particular with thee?" If it be, HAM. Seems, madam! nay, it is; I know not 'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother, To give these mourning duties to your father: 6 8 fhows of grief,] Thus the folio. The firft quarto readschapes-I fuppofe for shapes. STEEVENS. 1 But I have that within, which passeth show; Thefe, but the trappings and the fuits of voe.] So, in King Richard II: my grief lies all within ; "And these external manners of lament "Are merely fhadows to the unfeen grief "That fwells with filence in the tortur'd foul," your father loft a father; MALONE. That father loft, loft his;] Mr. Pope judiciously corrected the faulty copies thus: -your father loft a father; That father, his;— On which the editor Mr. Theobald thus defcants :-This fuppofed refinement is from Mr. Pope, but all the editions elje, that I have met with, old and modern, read, That father loft, loft his; The reduplication of which word here gives an energy and an In filial obligation, for fome term To do obfequious forrow: But to perféver ur/ Of impious stubbornnefs; 'tis unmanly grief: ^ elegance, WHICH IS MUCH EASIER TO BE CONCEIVED THAN EXPLAINED IN TERMS. I believe fo: for when explained in terms it comes to this:-That father after he had loft 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 fo much of our author's manner, that I find no temptation to recede from the old copies. JOHNSON. The meaning of the paffage 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, fhows that Mr. Pope's correction should be adopted. The fenfe, though elliptically expreffed, will ftill be the fame. STEEVENS. 9 —— obfequious forrow:] funeral ceremonies. JOHNSON, So, in Titus Andronicus : Obfequious is here from obfequies, or "To fhed obfequious tears upon his trunk." See Vol. X. p. 471, n. 2. STEEVENS. In obftinate condolement,] Condolement, for forrow. WARBURTON. 3 a will moft incorrect-] Incorrect, for untutor’d. WARBURTON. Incorrect does not mean untutored, as Warburton explains it; but ill-regulated, not sufficiently subdued. M. MASON. Not fufficiently regulated by a fenfe of duty and fubmiffion to the difpenfations of providence.. MALONE. To reafon moft abfurd; whofe common theme To reafon most abfurd;] Reafon is here ufed in its common fenfe, for the faculty by which we form conclufions from arguments. JOHNSON. 5 And, with no less nobility of love,] Nobility, for magnitude. WARBURTON, Nobility is rather generofity. JOHNSON. By nobility of love, Mr. Heath understands, eminence and dif tinction of love. MALONE. So, afterwards, the Ghoft, defcribing his affection for the Queen: "To me, whofe love was that of dignity" &c. STEEVENS. 6 Do I impart toward you.] I believe impart is, impart myself, communicate whatever I can bestow. JOHNSON. The crown of Denmark was elective. So, in Sir Clyomon Knight of the Golden Shield, &c. 1 1599: "And me poffefs for fpoufed wife, who in election am "To have the crown of Denmark here, as heir unto the fame." The king means, that as Hamlet ftands the fairest chance to be next elected, he will strive with as much love to enfure the crown to him, as a father would fhow in the continuance of heirdom to a fon. STEEVENS. I agree with Mr. Steevens, that the crown of Denmark (as in moft of the Gothick kingdoms) was elective, and not hereditary; though it might be cuftomary, in elections, to pay fome attention to the royal blood, which by degrees produced hereditary fucceffion. Why then do the reft of the commentators so often treat Claudius as an ufurper, who had deprived young Hamlet of his right by heirship to his father's crown? Hamlet calls him drunkard, murderer, and villain; one who had carried the election by low and mean practices; had Popp'd in between the election and my hopes-" D ie/ In going back to school in Wittenberg," QUEEN. Let not thy mother lose her prayers, I pray thee, stay with us, go not to Wittenberg. had "From a fhelf the precious diadem stole, "And put it in his pocket:" but never hints at his being an ufurper. His difcontent arose from his uncle's being preferred before him, not from any legal right which he pretended to fet up to the crown. Some regard was probably had to the recommendation of the preceding prince, in electing the fucceffor. And therefore young Hamlet had "the voice of the king himself for his fucceffion in Denmark;" and he at his own death prophecies that "the election would light on Fortinbras, who had his dying voice," conceiving that by the death of his uncle, he himself had been king for an inftant, and had therefore a right to recommend. When, in the fourth act, the rabble wished to choose Laertes king, I understand that antiquity was forgot, and cuftom violated, by electing a new king in the life-time of the old one, and perhaps alfo by the calling in a ftranger to the royal blood. BLACKSTONE. 7 to School in Wittenberg,] In Shakspeare's time there was an univerfity at Wittenberg, to which he has made Hamlet propose to return. The university of Wittenberg was not founded till 1502, confequently did not exist in the time to which this play is referred. MALONE. Our author may have derived his knowledge of this famous. univerfity from The Life of Iacke Wilton, 1594, or The Hiftory of Doctor Fauftus, of whom the fecond report (printed in the fame year) is faid to be "written by an English gentleman, ftudent in Wittenberg, an University of Germany in Saxony.' RITSON. 8 -bend you to remain-] i. e. fubdue your inclination to go from hence, and remain, &c. STEEVENS. |