Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
And reakes not his own reade. a

LAER.

O fear me not.

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

Enter POLONIUS.

A double blessing is a double grace; b
Occasion smiles upon a second leave.

POL. Yet here, Laertes! aboard, aboard,* for a bord, a

shame;

The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,

bord. 4to.

aboord,

aboord.

And you are staid for: There, my blessing with 1623, 32.

you;

[Laying his Hand on LAERTES' Head.

And these few precepts in thy memory

Look thou character. (66) 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 (67) hoops of steel;
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 opposed may beware of thee,
Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judge-

ment.

Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,

reade] Counsel. The old proverb in the Two angry Women of Abington, 1599, is, " Take heed, is a good reed."

d

e

opposed] One of the quartos gives opposer.

• each man's censure] Sentiment, opinion.

STEEVENS.

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 most select and generous, chief in that. (69)
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,(70)
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell; my blessing season this in thee! (71)

LAER. Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord. POL, The time invites you(72), go, your servants tend.

LAER. Farewell, Ophelia; and remember well What I have said to you.

ОРН.

And

'Tis in my memory lock'd, you yourself shall keep the key of it." 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 boun

teous:

If it be so, (as so 'tis put on me,

с

And that in way of caution,) I must tell you,
You do not understand yourself so clearly,

yourself shall keep the key of it]

Thence it shall not be

dismissed, till you think it needless to retain it.

b Given private time to you] Spent his time in private visits to you.

as so 'tis put on me] Suggested to, impressed on.

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? puh! 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; (73)

Or (not to crack the wind of the poor phrase,
Roaming it thus,) (7) you'll tender me a fool.

OPH. My lord, he hath impórtun'd me with love,

In honourable fashion.

POL. Ay, fashion you may call it; go to, go to. I. O. C.

OPH. And hath given countenance to his speech,

my lord,

With almost all the holy vows of heaven.

с

POL. Ay, springes to catch woodcocks. I do L. o. C. 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,

с

is between] Has passed, intercourse had.

green girl,

Unsifted] Raw, unwinnowed or exercised. IV. 5. King.

woodcocks] Witless things. See M. ado, &c. V. 1. Claud.

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;
Teder. 4to. 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 (75) the eye. Not of that die* which their investments" show, But mere implorators of unholy suits,

1623, 32.

Breathing like sanctified and pious bonds, (76)
The better to beguile, This is for all,-
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.

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.(77)
HAM. What hour now?

scanter] More sparing.

bentreatments] Opportunities of entreating or parley. Johnson derives it from entretien, Fr.

с

larger tether] Rope or license.

d that die, which their investments show] Investments are covering or exterior. That die, instead of the eye, is the reading of the quartos.

slander any moment's leisure] Let in reproach upon.

HOR.

I think, it lacks of twelve.

MAR. No, it is struck."

HOR. Indeed? I heard it not; it then draws near the season,

Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk. (78)

[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, (79)

4to.

Keeps wassels and the swaggering up-spring reels; Wassel.
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 west,"

Makes us traduc'd, and tax'd of other nations;
They clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phrase
Soil our addition; and, indeed it takes

C

From our achievements, though perform'd at height,
The pith and marrow of our attribute.

So, oft it chances in particular men,

e

That, for some vicious mole of nature in them,

it is struck] See I. 1. Barn.

beast and west] Every where: from the rising to the setting sun.

с

• Clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phrase

Soil our addition] Disparage us by using as characteristic of us, terms that imply or impute swinish properties, that fix a swinish" addition" or title to our names. Clepe, clypian. Sax. to call.

at height] To the utmost, topping every thing.

mole of nature] Natural blemish.

"For marks descried in man's nativity

"Are nature's fault, not their own infamy."

Rape of Lucrece, MALONE.