Page 213 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

By laboursome petition, and at last
Upon his will I seal’d my hard consent. [60]
I do beseech you give him leave to go.

KING
Take thy fair hour, Laertes, time be thine,
And thy best graces spend it at thy will.

But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son −

HAMLET
A little more than kin, and less than kind. [65]

KING
How is it that the clouds still hang on you?

HAMLET
Not so, my lord, I am too much in the sun.

QUEEN
Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off,

And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark.
Do not for ever with thy vailed lids [70]
Seek for thy noble father in the dust.
Thou know’st’tis common: all that lives must die,
Passing through nature to eternity.

HAMLET
Ay, madam, it is common.

QUEEN
If it be,
Why seems it so particular with thee? [75]

HAMLET
Seems, madam? Nay, it is. I know not ‘seems’.
’Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,

Nor customary suits of solemn black,