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Oph.

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
If 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,
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
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.

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,
Whiles a puff'd, and reckless libertine,

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

you,

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Laer.

Pol.

Laer.

Oph.

Laer.

Pol.

The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,

And

you are stay'd for. There; my blessing with thee! [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.

Beware

Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar;
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel,
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd unfledg'd comrade.
Of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in,
Bear't that th'opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man's censure, 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,
Are oft most select and generous, chief in that.
Neither a borrower, nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulleth th'edge of husbandry.
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell my blessing season this in thee.
Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord.
The time invites you; go, your servants tend.

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

And

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

Farewell.

What is't, Ophelia, he hath said to you?

[Exit Laertes]

Oph.

Pol.

Oph.

Pol.

Oph. Pol.

Oph.

Pol.
Oph.

Pol.

So please you, something touching the Lord Hamlet.
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,

you,

And that in way of caution-I must tell
You do not understand yourself so clearly
As it behoves my daughter, and your honour.
What is between you? give me up the truth.

He hath, my lord, of late, made many tenders
Of his affection to me.

Affection! pooh, you speak like a green girl,
Unsifted in such perilous circumstance.
Do you believe his tenders, as you call them?
I do not know, my lord, what I should think.

Marry, I will teach you think yourself a baby,
That you have ta'en these tenders for true pay,
Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly;
Or, (not to crack the wind of the poor phrase,
Running it thus) you'll tender me a fool.

My lord, he hath importun'd me with love,
In honourable fashion.

Ay, fashion you may call it; go to, go to.

And hath given countenance to his speech, my lord,
With almost all the holy vows of heaven.

Ay, springes to catch woodcocks. 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 something scanter of your maiden presence;
Set your entreatments at a higher rate

Than a command to parley. For Lord Hamlet,

Oph.

Believe so much in him, that he is young,
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,
Not of that dye which their investments show,
But mere implorators of unholy suits,
Breathing like sanctified and pious bawds,
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.
Ophelia, receive none of his letters,

(For lovers' lines are snares to entrap the heart)
Refuse his tokens; both of them are keys
To unlock chastity unto desire:

Come in Ophelia, such men often prove,
Great in their words, but little in their love:
Look to't, I charge you; come your ways.
I shall obey, my lord.

[Exeunt Polonius and Ophelia]

SCENE IV ELSINORE

THE CASTLE PLATFORM

Enter HAMLET, HORATIO, and MARCELLUS

The air bites shrewdly; it is very cold.
It is nipping, and an eager air.

What hour now?

Ham.

Hor. Ham.

Hor.

I think it lacks of twelve.

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Hor.

Indeed? I heard it not it then draws near the season,
Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk.

[A flourish of trumpets, and ordnance shot off within]

What does this mean, my lord?

Ham.

Hor.

Ham.

O, the king doth wake to-night and takes his rouse,
Keeps wassail, and the swaggering up-spring reels ;
And as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down,
The kettle-drum, and trumpet, thus bray out
The triumph of his pledge.

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

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

So, oft it chances in particular men,

That for some vicious mole of nature in them,
As, in their birth, wherein they are not guilty,
(Since nature cannot choose his origin)
By their o'ergrowth of some complexion,
Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason,
Or by some habit, that too much o'er-leavens
The form of plausive manners; that these men,
Carrying (I say) the stamp of one defect,
Being nature's livery, or fortune's star,
Their virtues else-be they as pure as grace,
As infinite as man may undergo-

Shall in the general censure take corruption
From that particular fault: the dream of evil,
Doth all the noble substance, oft doubt,
To his own scandal.

Hor.

Ham.

Angels and ministers of

Enter GHOST

Look, my lord, it comes ! grace defend us

Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damn'd,

Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blasts from hell,

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