The perfume and suppliance of a minute;
No more.

OPH. No more but so?

LAER.

Think it no more:

ΙΟ

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 cautel 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 this whole state;

20

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,
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 :

30

II Nature, crescent. "Growth," says Laertes, "is not a thing of the body only the soul and its aspirations have a natural expansiveness too." · αὐξανομένῳ τῷ σώματι συναύξονται καὶ αἱ ppéves," says Herodotus (iii. 134).

15 No soil nor cautel. No unchaste thought nor caution inspired by his rank. See Coriol. Gloss, 'cautel.'

36 The chariest maid. Chary is the German 'karg,' niggardly. The meaning conveyed by the superlative is 'a maid who is really far gone in chariness;' that is, 'one who is really chary.' In just the same way, at i. 2, 6, "wisest sorrow means 'a really

wise sorrow.'

The canker galls the infants of the spring,
Too oft before their buttons be disclosed,
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 ;
Whiles, like a puff'd and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
And recks not his own rede.

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! The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,

And you are stay'd for. There; my blessing with thee! And these few precepts in thy memory

40

50

See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportioned thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.

60

Those ends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd, unfledged comrade. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel, but, being in,

Bear't that the opposed may beware of thee.

49 'Puff'. Inflated. So we have 'puff'd Boreas,' 'puff'd with divine ambition,' &c.

52 I stay too long. Laertes seems to think that Ophelia's spirited reply is giving the conversation a needless and inconvenient turn; for that for sisters to lecture brothers is an inversion of the natural order of things.

59 No tongue. Do not disclose your immature thoughts ; and act upon them only when fully reasoned out. As Coleridge remarks, this implies the further precept that every well-proportioned thought should be acted upon.

62 Their adoption tried.

Nominative absolute. When you have friends and when their adoption has really been tried.

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;

70

And they in France of the best rank and station
Are of a most select and generous chief in that.
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,

68 Give every man thine ear. For a good listener is generally thought by the willing speaker to be a man of sound judgment. "Mr. Canning," says Sir E. Bulwer, "would often make a kind of lounging tour of the House, listening to the tone of the observations which the previous debate had excited; so that at last, when he rose to speak, he seemed to a large part of his audience to be merely giving a more striking form to their own thoughts."

71 Express'd in fancy. Not marked or singular in device; but with a quiet costliness suggestive of habitual self-respect.

74 A most select and generous chief. Are of a most noble device in this the 'chief' being the upper part of a heraldic shield. The passage, being differently given in Q, and Q2, has been sometimes altered needlessly. As regards the metre, the three first syllables of the line must be pronounced rapidly in the time of one, as in Macbeth, i. 5, we have:

"And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers."

76 Loses itself and friend. Who ever loves the creditor whom he cannot pay?

77 Dulls the edge of husbandry. Takes the edge off economy. Money borrowed, whether by individuals or nations, represents no saving or self-denial, and is therefore lightly parted with.

78 To thine ownself be true. As you inwardly resolve, so do: then faithfulness to others as well as yourself becomes the habit of your soul. So Wordsworth (v. 49) speaks of the same

steadfastness in

"The generous spirit who when brought Amongst the tasks of real life, has wrought

Upon the plan that pleased his childish thought."

Much of this advice is shown by Mr. Rushton to be suggested by hints in Lyly's Euphues, such as "Be not lavish of thy tongue, ," "Never fight without provoking, and when provoked

never. cease.

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!

LAER. Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord. POL. The time invites you; 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.

80

[Exit.

POL. What is 't, Ophelia, he hath said to you? [Hamlet. OPH. So please you, something touching the Lord 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,
You do not understand yourself so clearly
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! pooh! 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;
Or-not to crack the wind of the poor phrase,
Running it thus-you'll tender me a fool.

90

100

81 Season. May my blessing make these thoughts familiar to you.

86 Shall keep the key of it. I will not cease to regard your warnings till you yourself desire me to do so.

94 Put on me. Represented to me. See the note on ii. 2, 132. 106 Tenders for true pay. In the Dutch war of 1674, Pepys tells us that many English seamen fought on the enemy's side, and were heard during an action to cry, "Dollars now; no tickets," the latter being the only pay they had received in their own service. This seems to explain the opposition intended here between 'tenders' and 'true pay.'

109 Running it thus. The quartos read "wrong it thus." The

OPH. My lord, he hath importuned me with love ΠΟ In honourable fashion.

POL. Ay, fashion you may call it; go to, go to. OPH. And hath given countenance to his speech, my With almost all the holy vows of heaven. [lord, POL. 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 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, And with a larger tether may he walk

120

Than may be given you: in few, Ophelia,

Do not believe his vows; for they are brokers,

Not of that die which their investments show,
But mere implorators of unholy suits,

Breathing like sanctified and pious bonds,

130

simplest correction would be 'wronging;' the Cambridge editors and others prefer 'running,' as being more connected with the metaphor.

109 Tender me a fool. Esteem yourself at a higher rate, or else you'll esteem me a fool.

117 Vows. The strong irony on the word, which is pronounced with a laugh of contempt, makes it occupy the time of three syllables. Cp. iii. 1, 68. See As You Like It, iii. 5, 27, note. This is better than supposing, as some editors do, that 'daughter' is a trisyllable, even when vocative.

118 Extinct in both. These passions go out, as regards both light and heat, even in the very moment when the promise is being made. (The young man's wrath is like light straw a-fire.') 'A-making' is an abridgment of the gerund 'on making,' as 'fell asleep' is the same as 'fell on sleep in ' Acts xiii. 36.

128 Not of that die. Not of the real stamp which their vesture seems to shew.

130 Sanctified and pious bonds. Like law papers headed with religious formulæ. So policies of marine insurance began, until quite recently, with the words, "In the name of God, Amen," and stated that John Williams is "master (under God) for the present voyage" of the ship insured. Shakspere's bank