ACT I SCENE III� Setting: A room in Polonius' house.
[Enter�LAERTES and OPHELIA]
| LAERTES |
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. |
|
| OPHELIA |
Do you doubt that? |
|
| LAERTES |
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, |
|
|
The perfume and suppliance of a minute; No more. |
|
| OPHELIA |
No more but so? |
|
| LAERTES |
Think it no more; |
10 |
|
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 |
20 |
|
The safety and health of this whole state; |
|
|
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, |
30 |
|
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 disclosed, |
40 |
|
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. |
|
| OPHELIA |
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, |
50 |
|
And recks not his own rede. |
|
| LAERTES |
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. |
|
| LORD POLONIUS |
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 |
|
|
See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue, |
|
|
Nor any unproportioned thought his act. |
60 |
|
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. |
|
|
Those friends 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. |
|
|
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, |
70 |
|
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 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, |
|
|
And it must follow, as the night the day, |
|
|
Thou canst not then be false to any man. |
80 |
|
Farewell: my blessing season this in thee! |
|
| LAERTES |
Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord. |
|
| LORD POLONIUS |
The time invites you; go; your servants tend. |
|
| LAERTES |
Farewell, Ophelia; and remember well |
|
|
What I have said to you. |
|
| OPHELIA |
'Tis in my memory lock'd, |
|
|
And you yourself shall keep the key of it. |
|
| LAERTES |
Farewell. |
|
| [Exit] |
|
|
| LORD POLONIUS |
What is't, Ophelia, be hath said to you? |
|
| OPHELIA |
So please you, something touching the Lord Hamlet. |
|
| LORD POLONIUS |
Marry, well bethought: |
90 |
|
'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. |
|
| OPHELIA |
He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders |
|
|
Of his affection to me. |
100 |
| LORD POLONIUS |
Affection! pooh! you speak like a green girl, |
|
|
Unsifted in such perilous circumstance. |
|
|
Do you believe his tenders, as you call them? |
|
| OPHELIA |
I do not know, my lord, what I should think. |
|
| LORD POLONIUS |
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. |
|
| OPHELIA |
My lord, he hath importuned me with love |
|
|
In honourable fashion. |
110 |
| LORD POLONIUS |
Ay, fashion you may call it; go to, go to. |
|
| OPHELIA |
And hath given countenance to his speech, my lord, |
|
|
With almost all the holy vows of heaven. |
|
| LORD POLONIUS |
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 |
120 |
|
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 |
|
|
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, |
130 |
|
The better to beguile. This is for all: |
|
|
I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth, |
|
|
Have you so slander any moment leisure, |
|
|
As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet. |
|
|
Look to't, I charge you: come your ways. |
|
| OPHELIA |
I shall obey, my lord. |
|
| [Exeunt] |
|
|
