Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal.
Then, weigh what loss your honour may sustain,
If with too credent ear you list his songs,
Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open
To his unmaster'd importunity.
Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister;
And keep you in the rear of your affection,
Out of the shot and danger of desire.
The chariest maid is prodigal enough,
If she unmask her beauty to the moon.
Virtue itself scapes not calumnious strokes :
The canker galls the infants of the spring,
Too oft before their buttons be disclos'd;
And in the morn and liquid dew of youth
Contagious blastments are most imminent.
Be wary, then; best safety lies in fear:
Youth to itself rebels, though none else near.

Oph. I shall th' effect of this good lesson keep,
As watchman to my heart. But, good my brother,
Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven,
Whilst, like a puff'd and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,

And recks not his own read'.

Laer.

O! fear me not.

I stay too long ;-but here my father comes.

Enter POLONIUS.

A double blessing is a double grace;

Occasion smiles upon a second leave.

Pol. Yet here, Laertes? aboard, aboard, for shame!

The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,

And you are stay'd for. There, -my blessing with you; [Laying his Hand on LAERTES' Head.

And these few precepts in thy memory

"And RECKS not his own READ.] i. e. And cares not for his own counsel or advice. "Read" was used of old both as a substantive and a verb.

Look thou characters. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.

Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar:
The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steelo;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in,
Bear't, that th' opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy:
For the apparel oft proclaims the man;
And they in France, of the best rank and station,
Are of a most select and generous chief in that'.
Neither a borrower, nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all, -to thine ownself be true;
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell: my blessing season this in thee!

Laer. Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord.
Pol. The time invites you2: go; your servants tend.
Laer. Farewell, Ophelia; and remember well

What I have said to you.

Oph.

'Tis in my memory lock'd,

And you yourself shall keep the key of it.

* Look thou CHARACTER:] i. e. Look thou imprint, as in characters. The folio has, " See thou character."

9

with HOOPS of steel ;) Malone would substitute hooks for "hoops," without any authority. The oldest quarto has, "with a hoop of steel," and all the others, and the folios, "with hoops of steel." Lower down the quartos have courage for "comrade," and the folio unhatch'd for "new-hatch'd."

Laer. Farewell.

[Exit LAERTES.

Pol. What is't, Ophelia, he hath said to you?

Oph. So please you, something touching the lord

Hamlet.

Pol. Marry, well bethought:

'Tis told me, he hath very oft of late

Given private time to you; and you yourself

Have of your audience been most free and bounteous.
If it be so, (as so 'tis put on me,

And that in way of caution) I must tell you,
You do not understand yourself so clearly,
As it behoves my daughter, and your honour.
What is between you? give me up the truth.

Oph. He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders Of his affection to me.

Pol. Affection? pooh! you speak like a green girl, Unsifted in such perilous circumstance. Do you believe his tenders, as you call them?

Oph. I do not know, my lord, what I should think. Pol. Marry, I'll teach you: think yourself a baby; That you have ta'en these tenders for true pay, Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly; Or, not to crack the wind of the poor phrase, Wronging it thus3, you'll tender me a fool.

Oph. My lord, he hath importun'd me with love,
In honourable fashion.

Pol. Ay, fashion you may call it; go to, go to.
Oph. And hath given countenance to his speech, my

lord,

With almost all the holy vows of heaven.

Pol. Ay, springes to catch woodcocks. I do know,

When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul
Lends the tongue vows: these blazes, daughters,
Giving more light than heat, -extinct in both,
Even in their promise, as it is a making,-
You must not take for fire. From this time,
Be somewhat scanter of your maiden presence:
Set your entreatments at a higher rate,
Than a command to parley. For lord Hamlet,
Believe so much in him, that he is young;
And with a larger tether may he walk,
Than may be given you. In few, Ophelia,
Do not believe his vows, for they are brokers
Not of that die' which their investments show,
But mere implorators of unholy suits,
Breathing like sanctified and pious bonds,
The better to beguile. This is for all,-
I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth,
Have you so slander any moment leisure,
As to give words or talk with the lord Hamlet.
Look to't, I charge you; come your ways.
Oph. I shall obey, my lord.

[Exeunt.

5 LENDS the tongue vows: these blazes, daughter,] The folio has Gires for "Lends" of all the quartos: the last is to be preferred, if on no other account, because the next line begins with "Giving." Coleridge did not doubt (Lit. Rem. vol. ii. p. 217) " that a spondee had dropped out in this line," but we have had many previous examples of eight-syllable lines, and the old copies are uniform in the text.

* FROM this time,] So the quartos, 1604, &c. "Fire" is to be read as a dissyllable: the folio has, "For this time, daughter,” which is clearly wrong.

7 Not of THAT DIE-] So every quarto but that of 1603, which does not contain the passage. The folios, "Not of the eye," probably a mere misprint : the " die" has reference to the " investments," or restments.

8

- and pious BONDS,] Theobald, with great plausibility, and with reference to "brokers" just above, read bands for "bonds;" but as the text is intelligible without alteration, we make none.

9

any moment leisure,] i. e. any leisure moment. The old copies, quarto and foho, are uniform in this text, and modern editors uniform in varying from it. At the same time it is to be admitted, that "any moment's leisure" would not be objectionable, if change were required.

SCENE IV.

The Platform.

Enter HAMLET, HORATIO, and MARCELLUS. Ham. The air bites shrewdly; it is very cold.

Hor. It is a nipping, and an eager air.

Ham. What hour now?

Hor.

Mar. No, it is struck.

I think, it lacks of twelve.

Hor. Indeed? I heard it not: it then draws near the

season,

Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk.

[A Flourish of Trumpets, and Ordnance shot off,

within'.

What does this mean, my lord?

Ham. The king doth wake to-night, and takes his

rouse,

Keeps wassel, and the swaggering up-spring reels;
And as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down,
The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out

The triumph of his pledge.

Hor.

Ham. Ay, marry, is't:

Is it a custom?

But to my mind, though I am native here,
And to the manner born,-it is a custom
More honour'd in the breach, than the observance.
This heavy-headed revel, east and west2