To give these mourning duties to your father:
But, you must know, your father lost a father,
That father lost, lost[a 1] his; and the survivor bound 90
In filial obligation for some term
To do obsequious[b 1] sorrow; but to persever[b 2]
In obstinate condolement is a course
Of impious stubbornness; 'tis unmanly grief;
It shows a will most incorrect to heaven, 95
A heart unfortified, a mind[a 2] impatient,
An understanding simple and unschool'd:
For what we know must be and is as common
As any the most vulgar thing to sense,
Why should we in our peevish opposition 100
Take it to heart? Fie! 'tis a fault to heaven,
A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,
To reason most absurd, whose common theme
Is death of fathers, and who still hath cried,
From the first corse till he that died to-day, 105
"This must be so." We pray you, throw to earth
This unprevailing[a 3][b 3] woe, and think of us
As of a father; for let the world take note,
You are the most immediate[b 4] to our throne;
And with no less nobility of love 110
- ↑ 92. obsequious] Suitable to obsequies, as in Titus Andronicus, V. iii. 152: "obsequious tears." See also Sonnets, xxxi. 5.
- ↑ 92. persever] Always accented by Shakespeare on the second syllable (Clar. Press).
- ↑ 107. unprevailing] unavailing. So "prevail" in Romeo and Juliet, III. iii. 60. Dryden, Essay on Dramatic Poetry: "He may often prevail himself of the same advantages."
- ↑ 109. immediate] The throne of Denmark was elective; see V. ii. 65; but Hamlet was the probable successor to Claudius.
