King. Why 'tis a louing, and a faire Reply,
Be as our selfe in Denmarke. Madam come,
This gentle and vnforc'd accord of Hamlet[5]
Sits smiling to my heart; in grace whereof,
No iocond health that Denmarke drinkes to day,
[Sidenote: 44] But the great Cannon to the Clowds shall tell,
[Footnote 1: Corpse.]
[Footnote 2: —seeking to propitiate him with the hope that his succession had been but postponed by his uncle's election.]
[Footnote 3: Note that Hamlet was educated in Germany—at Wittenberg, the university where in 1508 Luther was appointed professor of Philosophy. Compare 19. There was love of study as well as disgust with home in his desire to return to Schoole: this from what we know of him afterwards.]
[Footnote 4: Emphasis on obey. A light on the character of Hamlet.]
[Footnote 5: He takes it, or pretends to take it, for far more than it was. He desires friendly relations with Hamlet.]
[Page 24]
And the Kings Rouce,[1] the Heauens shall bruite againe, Respeaking earthly Thunder. Come away. Exeunt [Sidenote: Florish. Exeunt all but Hamlet.]
Manet Hamlet.
[2]Ham. Oh that this too too solid Flesh, would melt,
[Sidenote: sallied flesh[3]
Thaw, and resolue it selfe into a Dew:
[Sidenote: 125,247,260] Or that the Euerlasting had not fixt
[Sidenote: 121 bis] His Cannon 'gainst Selfe-slaughter. O God, O God!
[Sidenote: seale slaughter, o God, God,]
How weary, stale, flat, and vnprofitable [Sidenote: wary]
Seemes to me all the vses of this world? [Sidenote: seeme]
Fie on't? Oh fie, fie, 'tis an vnweeded Garden [Sidenote: ah fie,]
That growes to Seed: Things rank, and grosse in Nature
Possesse it meerely. That it should come to this:
[Sidenote: meerely that it should come thus]
But two months dead[4]: Nay, not so much; not two,
So excellent a King, that was to this
Hiperion to a Satyre: so louing to my Mother,
That he might not beteene the windes of heauen [Sidenote: beteeme[5]
Visit her face too roughly. Heauen and Earth
Must I remember: why she would hang on him, [Sidenote: should]
As if encrease of Appetite had growne
By what it fed on; and yet within a month?
Let me not thinke on't: Frailty, thy name is woman.[6]
A little Month, or ere those shooes were old,
With which she followed my poore Fathers body
Like Niobe, all teares. Why she, euen she.[7]
(O Heauen! A beast that wants discourse[8] of Reason [Sidenote: O God]
Would haue mourn'd longer) married with mine Vnkle, [Sidenote: my]