The chariest maid is prodigal enough, 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; 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 staid for: There, my blessing with you; [Laying his Hand on LAERTES' Head. And these few precepts in thy memory Look thou charácter. Give thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any unproportion'd thought his act. Most cautious. 9 Careless. 1 Regards not his own lessons. 2 Write. Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. Bear it that the opposer may beware of thee. ment. Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy: And they in France, of the best rank and station, For loan oft loses both itself and friend; Laer. Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord. Pol. The time invites you; go, your servants tend.9 Laer. Farewell, Ophelia; and remember well What I have said to you. Oph. And you yourself shall keep the key of it. 'Tis in my memory lock'd, 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 Given private time to you: and you yourself ous: 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 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? you Oph. I do not know, my lord, what I should think. Pol. Marry, I'll teach you: think yourself a baby; That 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, Wronging it thus,) you'll tender me a fool. Oph. My lord, he hath impórtun'd me with love, In honourable fashion.2 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 Then may be given you: In few, Ophelia, I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth, [Exeunt. SCENE IV. «The Platform. Enter HAMLET, HORATIO, and MARCELLUS. 3 Company. horse fastened by a string to a stake, is tethered. 4 Longer line; Hor. It is a nipping and an eager air. Ham. What hour now? Hor. Mar. No, it is struck. I think, it lacks of twelve. Hor. Indeed? I heard it not; it then draws near the season, Wherein the spirit held is wont to walk. [A Flourish of Trumpets, and Ordnance shot off, within. What does this mean, my lord? Ham. The king doth wake to-night, and takes his Keeps wassel, 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. Hor. Ham. 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 traduc'd, and tax'd of other nations: 2 They clepe us, drunkards, and with swinish phrase From our achievements, though perform'd at height, That, for some vicious mole of nature in them, 7 Sharp. 8 Jovial draught. 9 Jollity. A dance. 2 Call. |