And convoy is assistant, do not sleep,
But let me hear from you.

OPH.

Do you

doubt that?

LAER. For Hamlet, and the triflinga of his fa

vours,

Hold it a fashion, and a toy in blood;

A violet in the youth of primy nature,

с

* Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting,
The [pérfume and] suppliance of a minute;
No more.

OPH. No more but so?

LAER.

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. (62) Perhaps, he loves you now;
And now no soil, nor cautel, doth besmirch
The virtue of his will: (63) 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 sanctity and health of the whole state;
And therefore must his choice be circumscrib'd.
Unto the voice and yielding' of that body,

a

b

trifling of his favours] Gay and thoughtless intimation.

primy] Springtide, youthy.

e Forward, not permanent] Early, ripe before due season, and thence having in it the principles of premature decay. This is so plainly the sense, that we have not hesitated to adopt the reading of the quartos, forward.

d suppliance] The means of filling up the vacancy. Mr. Steevens finds the word in Chapman's Iliad, IX. "By my suppliance given."

thews] Sinews, muscular strength. II. H. IV. Falst. III. 2. ' circumscrib'd unto the voice and yielding] Confined to the sense expressed, and limited to the inclination.

• Froward. 1623, 32.

* fear. 1623, 32.

⚫ Safety and health of this. 4tos.

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 sect and force

a

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;
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, (65)
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 libertine,

As he in his particular sect and force

May give his saying deed] As he in that peculiar rank and class that he fills in the state, and the power and means thereto annexed, may enable him to give his professions effect. "The deed of saying." Tim. V. 1. Painter. "Speaking in deeds." Tr. & Cr. IV. 5. Ulyss. For sect and force the quartos have act and place.

с

unmaster'd importunity] Unruly, unrestrained.

keep you in the rear of your affection] Front not the peril: withdraw or check every warm emotion: advance not, as Johnson says, so far as your affection would lead you.

d puff'd and reckless libertine] Bloated and swoln, the effect of excess; and heedless and indifferent to consequences. "Ignavus, inefficax, rechelesse." Ortus Vocab. 4to. 1514.

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 (68) 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."

с

d

grace] Benefit.

unproportion'd thought] Irregular, disorderly.

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.

'Tis in my memory lock'd, And 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

b

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.

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,)() 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 I. 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,

C

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.