Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting,
The pérfume and suppliance of a minute 1;

No more.
Oph.

Laer.

No more but so?

Think it no more:

For nature, crescent, does not grow alone

In thews, and bulk; but, as this temple waxes,
The inward service of the mind and soul

Grows wide withal. Perhaps, he loves you now;
And now no soil, nor cautel3 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
The safety and health of the whole state 5;

This is the reading of the quarto copy. The folio has—
sweet, not lasting,

The suppliance of a minute.'

It is plain that perfume is necessary to exemplify the idea of sweet not lasting. The suppliance of a minute' should seem to mean supplying or enduring only that short space of time as transitory and evanescent. The simile is eminently beautiful: it is to be regretted that it should be obscured by an unusual word. 2 i. e. sinews and muscular strength. Vide note on the Second Part of King Henry IV. Act iii. Sc. 2.

3 Cautel is cautious circumspection, subtlety, or deceit. Minsheu explains it,' a crafty way to deceive.' Thus in a Lover's Complaint:

'In him a plenitude of subtle matter,

Applied to cautels, all strange forms receives."

And in Coriolanus:-
:-

be caught by cautelous baits and practice." The virtue of his will' means his virtuous intentions.

4 Besmirch is besmear, or sully.

5 The safety and health of the whole state.' Thus the quarto of 1604. In the folio it is altered to The sanctity,' &c. supposing the metre defective. But safety is used as a trisyllable by Spenser and others. Thus Hall in his first Satire, b. iii.:'Nor fish can dive so deep in yielding sea,

Though Thetis self should swear her safety.'

And therefore must his choice be circumscribed
Unto the voice and yielding of that body,
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 unmaster'd' importunity.

Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister;

your

And keep you in the rear of 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 the 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 9 libertine,

6 If with too credulous ear you listen to his songs.

7 Licentious.

8 i. e. the most cautious, the most discreet. In Green's Never too Late, 1616:-' Love requires not chastity, but that her soldiers be chary.' And again:-'She lives chastly enough that lives charily.' We have chariness in The Merry Wives of Windsor; and unchary in Twelfth Night, Act iii. Sc. 4.

9 Rechless, or negligent; Omissus animus.-Baret.

Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
And recks not his own read 10.

Laer.

I stay too long;—But here my

O fear me not.

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 staid for: There, my blessing with

you;

[Laying his Hand on LAERTES' Head.

And these few precepts in thy memory

Look thou charácter 11.

tongue,

Give thy thoughts no

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 hooks of steel12;
But do not dull thy palm 13 with entertainment

10 i. e. regards not his own lesson. In The Two Angry Women of Abington, 1599, we have:- Take heed, is a good reed.' And in Sternhold, Psalm i. :—

'Blest is the man that hath not lent

To wicked rede his ear.'

11 i. e. mark, imprint, strongly infix. In Shakspeare's 122d Sonnet:

thy tables are within my brain

Full character'd with lasting memory.'

And in The Two Gentlemen of Verona :

I do conjure thee,

Who art the table wherein all my thoughts
Are visibly character'd and engraved.'

12 The old copies read, with hoops of steel,'

13 But do not dull thy palm.' This figurative expression means, do not blunt thy feeling by taking every new acquaintance by the hand, or by admitting him to the intimacy of a friend.'

Beware

Of each new hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade.
Of entrance to a quarrel: but, being in,
Bear it that the opposer may beware of thee.

Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
And recks not his own read 10.