2554 cruel to be kind] Steevens (ed. 1793): “This sentiment resembles the —facto pius, et sceleratus eodem, of Ovid’s Metamorphosis, B. III. It is thus translated by Golding: ‘For which he might both justly kinde, and cruel called bee.’ Steevens.”

2554 Chedworth (1805, p. 356): “The Emperor Septimius Severus having put to death forty-one senators, lamented that to be mild it was necessary that he should first be cruel. Gibbon’s Roman History, c. v. Vol. I. (p. 124, 1st.edit.).”

2554 Chedworth (apud Seymour 1805, p. 190): “The Emperor Septimius Severus, having put to death forty-one senators, lamented, that to be mild, it was necessary he should first be cruel. Gibbon’s Rom. His. Ch. V. Vol. I. First Ed. Lord Chedoworth.”

2554-5 Becket (1815, 1: 60-1): <p.60> “It does not appear to me that cruelty and kindness are here meant to be set in opposition; though this, I believe, is generally understood of the passage. It were, however, too derogatory from the character of Hamlet, and after what we had just before observed of his state of mind, to suppose that he should at once be given to quibbling; that his wit or understanding should be represented as, ‘See-saw, between that and this, And he himself one vile antithesis.’ With respect to ‘begins’ it is not the verb which is employed, but the substantive. Begins for beginnings—often thus set down in the earlier writers. ‘Let there be bad beginnings, and worse will soon follow;’ by which he would say, crime is progressive. Thus Juvenal, ‘Nemo repente fuit turpissimus: And thus the old proverb, Bad begins Lead to sins.’

“The sense of the lines—in which it must yet be owned there is a conceit—I believe to be this—[kind is contracted of kindred.] ‘I must be cruel in order to be kindred: in order to show that I am of the same blood with the King and Queen.’ The particular meaning of Hamlet, however, and as it attaches to his relatives, is—(‘thus bad begins’) ‘thus my conduct towards my mother, and as far as language goes, may be termed cruel: it is in truth a bad beginning (‘but worse remains behind,’) but worse will come—I shall not rest here.’ By which he intimates the probable fall of the parties concerned in the murder of his father.”

2554-5 Ulrici (1846, pp. 215-6): “See 2413-5.”

2554-5 Delius (ed. 1854): “Diese beiden Verse, deren erster das plötzlich veränderte Benehmen Hamlet’s gegen seine Mutter und die folgenden “grausamen” Reden erklärt, müssen als aside gesprochen, gefasst werden.” [Both these lines, of which the first explains Hamlet’s suddenly changed behavior toward his mother, and the following his cruel speeches, must be understood as spoken aside.]

2554 Fiebig (ed. 1857): “This idea resembles an expression in Ovid’s Metam. III, 5, where Agenor, sending his son Codrus abroad in search of his sister Europe ‘—poenam, si non invenerit, addit, Exilium, facto pius et sceleratus eodem,’ i.e. for which he might be called both pious and wicked, or kind and cruel, as Golding has translated these words.”

2554-5 Hackett (1863, p. 162-5): <p.162> “A most thoughtless but outrageous license with Shakespeare seems to have become invariable with the actors of Hamlet in the application of the lines—[quotes lines]. This couplet in every stage-edition of the play is arranged to conclude the closet-scene, and every actor of Hamlet whom I have seen, has more or less perverted the bard’s true meaning and more in </p.162><p.163> ignorance than cunning, as I hope, joined in casting a moral blot upon the character of Hamlet, totally unwarranted by the text or context; the atrocity consists in the reigning fashion of rendering this couplet upon the stage, which is as follows:—After the termination of the dialogue between Hamlet and his mother, as it is abridged and arranged for representation, when Hamlet utters the words—’So again, good night!’ the Queen is required to approach Hamlet and to offer a parting embrace, at which Hamlet, seems shocked, and shudders, and shrinks back with averted palms, and pharisee-like refuses to allow her; the Queen then seems convulsed, bursts into tears, and rushes off one way whilst Hamlet goes in the opposite direction, expressing first as an apparent excuse for such unrelenting hard-heartedness the couplet [quotes lines]. Whereas, if we carefully examine the original scene and the order of Shakespeare’s language we find that this same couplet does not come in next after the last time of Hamlet’s saying—’Good night, mother!’ but, in the midst of his advice, reflections, and varied expostulations with his mother, and when the Ghost of his father . . . </p.163><p.164> had been dispelled by some sprinkling of cool patience, and his reasoning faculties had again resumed their sway. . . . </p.164><p.165> From the foregoing context . . . the obvious meaning of “I must be cruel only to be kind’ is ‘I must “wring your heart,” as I premised to you at the opening of this interview would be necessary when I peremptorily bade you so “let me,” and added—[quotes 3.4.18-19 (2397-2400)] ‘this seeming cruelty of mine, in ripping up and exposing to your own censure your conduct, must be committed in order to prove to you by its effect the essential kindness of my ulterior object, which is your reformation; when I began and put it to you roundly you became alarmed, and cried out for ‘Help!’ and I—mistaking the voice behind the arras for that of another person—slew Polonius unintentionally’: ‘This bad begins and worse remains behind,’ id est, ‘Thus, you should perceive, your own bad or wicked beginning, in being won to the shameful lust of your husband’s brother, my uncle, ended in worse consequence, to wit: my uncle’s murder of my father.’”</p.165>

2554-5 Furness (ed. 1877): “Delius: These two lines, of which the first explains Hamlet’s sudden change of bearing towards his mother and his cruel speeches after it, should be spoken as an Aside.”

2554 MacDonald (ed. 1885): “—omitting or refusing to embrace her.”

2554-5 Dowden (ed. 1899): “Delius supposes that the lines are spoken aside.”

2554 Salvini (1907, Putnam’s Monthly, p. 354): “In the closet, after seeing the ghost, what a change there should be in him! He should be sorry for his outburst and gently appeal to her, begging her to repent. All this is sufficient to make us understand that Hamlet does not wish to be his mother’s judge. We know that he still loves her, when he utters from the bottom of his soul, ‘I must be cruel, only to be kind.’”

2554-5 I must . . . behind] Wilson (ed. 1934): “The couplet sums up the scene: the first line referring to his treatment of the Queen, the second to the death of Pol.”

2554 cruell] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “Hamlet’s harsh treatment of his mother still troubles him.”

2554 I must be cruell] Rylands (ed. 1947): “This couplet completes the secondary theme [‘Frailty, thy name is woman’] and Hamlet is about to leave her, but he returns with fresh injunctions and the plot goes forward with his ‘I must to England’ [3.4.199 (2576)] and his warning that he will hoist his schoolfellows with their own petard [3.4.207 (2577+6)].”

2554 only to be kinde] Spencer (ed. 1980): “(purely to fulfil my filial love for my father and to effect a reformation of character in you).”

2554 Dash (1997, pp. 120-2) points out that "most productions end with the mild “I must be cruel only to be kind [2554]”; therefore in many performances “audiences never heard Hamlet draw the vow of secrecy from his mother: ’Be thou assur’d . . . . hast said to me’ [2573-5].”

2554-5 Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “As Edwards notes, this is a reflective couplet, almost an aside, like his couplet at the end of Act 1 (1.5.186-7 [886-7]).”