Ham. Your loves, as mine to you: Farewell. [Exeunt HORATIO, MARCELLUS, and BERNARDO, My father's spirit in arms! all is not well; I doubt some foul play: 'would the night were come! SCENE III-A Room in POLONIUS' House. Enter LAERTES and OPHELIA. Laer. My necessaries are embark'd; farewell: 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, Oph. No more but so? Laer. Think it no more: For nature, crescent, does not grow alone Grows wide withal. Perhaps, he loves you now; Carve for himself; for on his choice depends And therefore must his choice be circumscribed Whereof he is the head: Then if he says he loves you, As he in his particular act and place May give his saying deed; which is no further, Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister; Licentious. [Exit Listen to. The canker galls the infants of the spring, Too oft before their buttons be disclosed; And in the morn and liquid dew of youth Come Contagious blastments are most imminent. Be wary then: best safety lies in fear; ETE Youth to itself rebels, though none else near. Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven; 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; And you are staid for: There, my blessing with you; Look thou charácter.† Give thy thoughts no tongue, Bear it that the opposer may beware of thee. Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice: Take each man's censure, § but reserve thy judgment. 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, For loan oft loses both itself and friend; And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.** Laer. Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord. Pol. The time invites you; go, your servants tend.‡‡ * Regards not his own lessons. Do not be too ready to shake hands. I Noble. ¶ Chiefly. ** Economy. + Impress. § Opinion. tt Infix. Wait. 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. Laer. Farewell. Pol. What is't, Ophelia, he hath said to you? [Exit LAERTES. 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, Oph. He hath, my lord, of late, made many tenders 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. Which are not sterling. Tendert yourself more dearly; Oph. My lord he hath impórtuned 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 I would not in plain terms, from this time forth, * Untempted. Line. + Esteem. Favours entreated. Have you so slander any moment's leisure, 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. I think, it lacks of twelve. Mar. No, it is struck. [Exeunt, Hor. Indeed? I heard it not; it then draws near the season, Wherein the spirit held is wont to walk. [4 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 upspring reels; § And, as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down, The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out The triumph of his pledge. Hor. 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. Makes us traduced, and tax'd of other nations: From our achievements, though perform'd at height, So, oft it chances in particular men, That, for some vicious mode of nature in them, By the o'ergrowth of some complexion,** Shall in the general censure take corruption To his own scandal. • Sharp. Upstart revels. The most valuable part of what should be attributed to us. Enter GHOST. Hor. Look, my lord, it comes! Ham. Angels and ministers of grace defend us !- Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blasts from hell, Thou com'st in such a questionable shape, That I will speak to thee; I'll call thee, Hamlet, With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls? As if it some impartment did desire To you alone. Mar. Look, with what courteous action It waves you to a more removed ground: But do not go with it. Hor. No, by no means. Ham. It will not speak; then I will follow it. Hor. Do not, my lord. Ham. Why, what should be the fear? I do not set my life at a pin's fee; § And, for my soul, what can it do to that, Being a thing immortal as itself? It waves me forth again;-I'll follow it. Hor. What, if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord, Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff, That beetles o'er his base into the sea? And there assume some other horrible form, Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason, And draw you into madness? think of it: The very place puts toys of desperation, Ham. It waves me still:- Mar. You shall not go, my lord. * Conversable. † Frame. + Remote. Value. Whims. |