The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark - A Study with the Text of the Folio of 1623 | Page 8

limit them.]
[Footnote 9: idea of duty.]
[Page 18]
_Volt._ In that, and all things, will we shew our duty.
_King._ We doubt it nothing, heartily farewell.
[Sidenote: 74] [1]_Exit Voltemand and Cornelius._
And now _Laertes_, what's the newes with you? You told vs of some
suite. What is't _Laertes_? You cannot speake of Reason to the Dane,
And loose your voyce. What would'st thou beg _Laertes_, That shall
not be my Offer, not thy Asking?[2] The Head is not more Natiue to
the Heart, The Hand more Instrumentall to the Mouth, Then is the
Throne of Denmarke to thy Father.[3] What would'st thou haue
_Laertes_?
_Laer._ Dread my Lord, [Sidenote: My dread] Your leaue and fauour to
returne to France, From whence, though willingly I came to Denmarke
To shew my duty in your Coronation, Yet now I must confesse, that
duty done, [Sidenote: 22] My thoughts and wishes bend againe towards
toward France,[4] And bow them to your gracious leaue and pardon.
_King._ Haue you your Fathers leaue? What sayes _Pollonius_?
[A] _Pol._ He hath my Lord: I do beseech you giue him leaue to go.
_King._ Take thy faire houre _Laertes_, time be thine, And thy best
graces spend it at thy will: But now my Cosin _Hamlet_, and my
Sonne?
[Footnote A: _In the Quarto_:--
_Polo._ Hath[5] my Lord wroung from me my slowe leaue By
laboursome petition, and at last Vpon his will I seald my hard

consent,[6] I doe beseech you giue him leaue to goe.]
[Footnote 1: _Not in Q._]
[Footnote 2: 'Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet
speaking, I will hear.'--_Isaiah_, lxv. 24.]
[Footnote 3: The villain king courts his courtiers.]
[Footnote 4: He had been educated there. Compare 23. But it would
seem rather to the court than the university he desired to return. See his
father's instructions, 38.]
[Footnote 5: _H'ath_--a contraction for He hath.]
[Footnote 6: A play upon the act of sealing a will with wax.]
[Page 20]
_Ham._ A little more then kin, and lesse then kinde.[1]
_King._ How is it that the Clouds still hang on you?
_Ham._ Not so my Lord, I am too much i'th'Sun.[2] [Sidenote: so much
my ... in the sonne.]
_Queen._ Good Hamlet cast thy nightly colour off,[4] [Sidenote:
nighted[3]] And let thine eye looke like a Friend on Denmarke. Do not
for euer with thy veyled[5] lids [Sidenote: vailed] Seeke for thy Noble
Father in the dust; Thou know'st 'tis common, all that liues must dye,
Passing through Nature, to Eternity.
_Ham._ I Madam, it is common.[6]
_Queen._ If it be; Why seemes it so particular with thee.
_Ham._ Seemes Madam? Nay, it is: I know not Seemes:[7] 'Tis not
alone my Inky Cloake (good Mother) [Sidenote: cloake coold mother
[8]] Nor Customary suites of solemne Blacke, Nor windy suspiration of

forc'd breath, No, nor the fruitfull Riuer in the Eye, Nor the deiected
hauiour of the Visage, Together with all Formes, Moods, shewes of
Griefe, [Sidenote: moodes, chapes of] That can denote me truly. These
indeed Seeme,[9] [Sidenote: deuote] For they are actions that a man
might[10] play: But I haue that Within, which passeth show; [Sidenote:
passes] These, but the Trappings, and the Suites of woe.
_King._ 'Tis sweet and commendable In your Nature _Hamlet_, To
giue these mourning duties to your Father:[11] But you must know,
your Father lost a Father, That Father lost, lost his, and the Suruiuer
bound In filiall Obligation, for some terme To do obsequious[12]
Sorrow. But to perseuer In obstinate Condolement, is a course
[Footnote 1: An aside. Hamlet's first utterance is of dislike to his uncle.
He is more than kin through his unwelcome marriage--less than kind by
the difference in their natures. To be kind is to behave as one kinned or
related. But the word here is the noun, and means _nature_, or sort by
birth.]
[Footnote 2: A word-play may be here intended between sun and _son_:
_a little more than kin--too much i' th' Son_. So George Herbert:
For when he sees my ways, I die; But I have got his _Son_, and he hath
none;
and Dr. Donne:
at my death thy Son Shall shine, as he shines now and heretofore.]
[Footnote 3: 'Wintred garments'--_As You Like It_, iii. 2.]
[Footnote 4: He is the only one who has not for the wedding put off his
mourning.]
[Footnote 5: _lowered_, or cast down: _Fr. avaler_, to lower.]
[Footnote 6: 'Plainly you treat it as a common matter--a thing of no
significance!' I is constantly used for _ay_, yes.]

[Footnote 7: He pounces on the word seems.]
[Footnote 8: Not unfrequently the type would appear to have been set
up from dictation.]
[Footnote 9: They are things of the outside, and must _seem_, for they