SCENE III.
An apartment in Polonius' house.
Enter Laertes, and Ophelia.
Laer.
My necessaries are embark'd; farewel:
And, sister, as the winds give benefit,
And convoy is assistant, do not sleep,
But let me hear from you.
Oph.
Do you doubt that?
Laer.
For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favour,
Hold it a fashion, and a toy in blood;
A violet in the youth of primy nature,
Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting,
5 note
The perfume and suppliance of a minute;
No more.
-- 198 --
Oph.
No more but so?
Laer.
Think it no more:
For nature, crescent, does not grow alone
In thews6 note, and bulk; but, as this temple waxes,
The inward service of the mind and soul
Grows wide withal. Perhaps, he loves you now;
7 note
And now no soil, nor cautel, doth besmirch
The virtue of his will: but, you must fear,
His greatness weigh'd, his will is not his own;
For he himself is subject to his birth:
He may not, as unvalued persons do,
Carve for himself; for on his choice depends
8 note
The safety and the health of the whole state;
And therefore must his choice be circumscrib'd
Unto the voice and yielding of that body,
-- 199 --
Whereof he is the head: Then if he says, he loves you,
It fits your wisdom so far to believe it,
As he in his particular act and place
May give his saying deed; which is no further,
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 9 noteunmaster'd importunity.
Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister;
And 1 notekeep you in the rear of your affection,
Out of the shot and danger of desire.
The chariest maid2 note 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 the effect of this good lesson keep,
As watchman to my heart: But, good my brother,
Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
Shew me the steep and thorny way to heaven;
3 note
Whilst, like a puft and reckless libertine,
-- 200 --
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
And 4 note
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;
-- 201 --
The wind sits in the 5 noteshoulder of your sail,
And you are staid for: There,—my blessings with you;
[Laying his hand on Laertes' head.
And these few precepts in thy memory
Look thou character. 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 try'd,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
6 note
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 it that the opposer may beware of thee.
Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice:
Take each man's censure7 note, 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,
8 note
Are 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.
-- 202 --
This above all,—To thine ownself be true;
9 note
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewel; 1 note
my blessing season this in thee!
Laer.
Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord.
-- 203 --
Pol.
2 note
The time invites you; go, your servants tend3 note.
Laer.
Farewel, Ophelia; and remember well
What I have said to you.
Oph.
'Tis in my memory lock'd,
And you 4 note
yourself shall keep the key of it.
Laer.
Farewel.
[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.
-- 204 --
Pol.
Affection? puh! you speak like a green girl,
5 noteUnsifted 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. 6 note
Tender yourself more dearly;
Or (not to crack the wind of the poor phrase)
Wronging it thus, you'll tender me a fool.
Oph.
My lord, he hath importun'd me with love,
In honourable fashion.
-- 205 --
Pol.
Ay, 7 notefashion 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 woodcocks8 note
. I do know,
When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul
Lends the tongue vows: These blazes, daughter,
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;
9 noteSet 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 1 note
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 dye which their investments shew,
But meer implorators of unholy suits,
2 note
Breathing like sanctified and pious bonds,
-- 206 --
The better to beguile. This is for all,—
3 note
I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth,
Have you so slander any moment's 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.
Samuel Johnson [1778], The plays of William Shakspeare. In ten volumes. With the corrections and illustrations of various commentators; to which are added notes by Samuel Johnson and George Steevens. The second edition, Revised and Augmented (Printed for C. Bathurst [and] W. Strahan [etc.], London) [word count] [S10901].
