TEXT:
CLAUDIUS (continued)
But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son,--
HAMLET
[Aside] A little more than kin, and less than kind.
KING CLAUDIUS
How is it that the clouds still hang on you?
HAMLET
Not so, my lord; I am too much i' the sun.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
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
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 GERTRUDE
If it be,
Why seems it so particular with thee?
HAMLET
Seems, madam! nay it is; I know not 'seems.'
'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,
Nor customary suits of solemn black,
Nor windy suspiration of forced breath,
No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,
Nor the dejected 'havior of the visage,
Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief,
That can denote me truly: these indeed seem,
For they are actions that a man might play:
But I have that within which passeth show;
These but the trappings and the suits of woe.
NOTES:
GOOD MOTHER
There aren't a great deal of notes to share for this episode, but it's interesting that in various texts of the play the world 'good' is also transmitted as cold, and even cooled. Each of these various words has its merits - depending on how snarky Hamlet is to be with his mother.
ASIDE
I don't think it's really necessary to explain what an aside is, obviously, but I didn't quite manage to put into the main text of the episode the fact that sometimes in performance this first aside from Hamlet isn't actually played as one. If Hamlet says it directly to Claudius, it's even more startling as a first line, and indeed it necessitates even more handling from Gertrude. The play has an infinity of possibilities!