* Th' extravagant and erring Spirit hies To his Confine: And of the truth herein This prefent object made probation.

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

.

2

Hor. So have I heard, and do in part believe it. But look, the morn, in ruffet 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 feen to night Unto young Hamlet; for, upon my life, This Spirit, dumb to us, will speak 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. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.

Changes to the palace.

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

King.TH

Hough 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 fo far hath Difcretion fought with Nature,
That we with wifeft forrow think on him,
Together with remembrance of our felves."
Therefore our fometime fifter, now our Queen,
T'imperial jointrefs of this warlike State,
Have we, as 'twere, with a defeated joy,
With one aufpicious, and one dropping eye,
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, He hath not fail'd to pefter us with meffage

5 Colleagued with this dream of his advantage,] The meaning is, He goes to war fo indifcreetly, and unprepared,

that he has no allies to support him but a Dream, with which he is colleagued or confederated.

WARBURTON.
Importing

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 bufinefs is. We have here writ
To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras,
Who, impotent and bed-rid, fcarcely hears
Of this his nephew's purpofe, to fuppress
His further gate herein; in that the Levies,
The Lifts, and full Proportions are all made
Out of his Subjects; and we here difpatch
You, good Cornelius, and you Voltimand,
For bearers of this Greeting to old Norway;
Giving to you no further perfonal power
To bufinefs with the King, more than the scope
Of these dilated articles allows.

Farewel, and let you hafte commend your duty.
Vol. In that, and all things, will we fhew our duty.
King. We doubt in nothing. Heartily farewel.

[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 Reafon to the Dane,

And lofe your voice, What would't thou beg,

Laertes,

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

Laer. My

a flagrant inftance of the first Editor's ftupidity, in preferring found to fenfe. But head, heart and band, he thought muft needs go together where an honeft man was the fubject of the encomi

um;

Laer. My dread lord,

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'rd France: And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon. King. Have you your father's leave? what fays Polonius?

Pol. He hath, my lord, by labourfome petition, Wrung from me my flow leave; and, at the last, Upon his will I feal'd my hard confent:

I do befeech you, give him leave to go.

King. 7 Take thy fair hour, Laertes, time be thine; And thy best Graces spend it at thy Will.

But

ratory where that vital liquor is digefted, diftributed, and (when weakened and debilitated) again reflored to the vigour neceflary for the difcharge of its functions.

WARBURTON.

Part of this emendation I have received, but cannot difcern why the bead is not as much native to the heart, 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 preferved, the Counsellor being to the King as the bead to the beart.

7 Take thy fair hour, 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 clofe of the fentence miferably flatten'd. The pointing, I have restored, is that of the beft copies; and the fenfe, this: "You have my leave to

But now, my coufin Hamlet, and my fon

8

Ham. A little more than kin, and less than kind.

[Afide.
King. How is it, that the clouds ftill hang on you?
Ham. Not fo, my lord, I am 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 dust;

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

66 go, Laertes; make the fairest "use you please of your time, "and spend it at your will with "the faireft graces you are maf"ter of." THEOBALD.

I rather think this line is in want of emendation. I read, Time is thine,

And my best graces; spend it at thy will.

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

A little more than kin,

i. e. A little more than coufin; because, by marrying his mother, he was become the King's fon-in-law; So far is easy. 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 fift line thus,

But now, my coufin Hamlet.KIND my foni. e. But now let us turn to you,

coufin Hamlet. Kind my fon, (or
as we now fay, Good my fon) lay
afide this clouded look. For thus
he was going to expoftulate gen-
tly with him for his melancholy,
when Hamlet cut him fhort by re-
flecting on the titles he gave him;

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

than kind.] It is not un-
reasonable to fuppofe that this
was a proverbial expreffion,
known in former times for a re-
lation 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 fin, which the King had given him, that he was fomewhat more than coufin, and lefs than fon.

9too much i' th' Sun.] He perhaps alludes to the proverb, Out of heaven's blessing into the warm fun.

Queen.

"