Punning, Hamlet says that the king is doubly "kin," as the king is both his uncle and his stepfather, but not "kind," that is, not his kind of person or one for whom he feels any real kinship. The king justifies his quick marriage to his brother's widow by saying that he and all of his countrymen both celebrate a marriage and grieve a deathĪ little more than kin, and less than kind. In equal scale weighing delight and dole, With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage, The king acknowledges that he is aware that the memory of the death of his brother, King Hamlet, is still fresh, and that it's appropriate for himself ("us") and the entire kingdom to be in a state of deep grief, but then goes on to say that he is taking the wisest course in getting on with business of taking care of his people and his country ("ourselves"). Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature To bear our hearts in grief and our whole kingdom The memory be green and that it us befitted Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death The bitterly cold night of the Ghost ends with a metaphorical dash of warm color. Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastward hill . . . . As with Horatio's comment, there is an implication that the Ghost is somehow a "guilty thing."īut, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad, Marcellus also comments on the Ghost's disappearance at dawn, saying that during Christmastime the rooster ("the bird of dawning") crows all night long, so spirits (including fairies or witches) cannot appear because the time is too holy. No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, The nights are wholesome then no planets strike, The bird of dawning singeth all night long:Īnd then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad Wherein our Savior's birth is celebrated, Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes The moon was darkened for a scary length of time, so that people thought doomsday was upon them.Īfter the Ghost disappears for the second time, Horatio observes that it was startled by the rooster crowing at dawn. Horatio continues to compare the ghost's appearance to the portents of Caesar's assassination, which included strange behavior of the sun and the moon (which is the "moist star" because it rules the tides). Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse. Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands, Horatio compares the ghost's appearance to the irritation of having something in your eye (your mind's eye) and goes on to compare the ghost's presence to the horrifying clamor made by the undead in Rome just before Julius Caesar was assassinated.ĭisasters in the sun and the moist star, The graves stood tenantless and the sheeted deadĭid squeak and gibber in the Roman streets. In the most high and palmy state of Rome, Weapons of war are being imported daily, shipbuilders are working around the clock, and Marcellus wants to know what all this haste means. What might be toward, that this sweaty hasteĭoth make the night joint-laborer with the day: Horatio tells Marcellus and Barnardo that he's pretty sure that the appearance of the ghost in the form of their previous king signals that something is seriously wrong in their country. This bodes some strange eruption to our state.
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