Enter Laertes and Ophelia, his sister.LAERTES My necessaries are embarked. Farewell. And, sister, as the winds give benefit And convey ⟨is⟩ assistant, do not sleep, But let me hear from you.OPHELIA 5 Do you doubt that?LAERTES For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favor, Hold it a fashion and a toy in blood, A violet in the youth of primy nature, Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting,10 The perfume and suppliance of a minute, No more.OPHELIA No more but so?LAERTES Think it no more.
For nature, crescent, does not grow alone15 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,20 His greatness weighed, 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 ⌜the⌝ health of this whole state.25 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 it30 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 honor may sustain If with too credent ear you list his songs35 Or lose your heart or your chaste treasure open To his unmastered 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.40 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,45 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
50 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 puffed and reckless libertine, Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads55 And recks not his own rede.LAERTES O, fear me not.Enter Polonius. I stay too long. But here my father comes. A double blessing is a double grace. Occasion smiles upon a second leave.POLONIUS 60 Yet here, Laertes? Aboard, aboard, for shame! The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail, And you are stayed for. There, my blessing with thee. And these few precepts in thy memory65 Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any unproportioned thought his act. 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,70 But do not dull thy palm with entertainment Of each new-hatched, unfledged courage. Beware Of entrance to a quarrel, but, being in, Bear ’t that th’ opposèd may beware of thee. Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.75 Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment. Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not expressed in fancy (rich, not gaudy), For the apparel oft proclaims the man, And they in France of the best rank and station80 ⟨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 own self be true,85 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.LAERTES Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord.POLONIUS The time invests you. Go, your servants tend.LAERTES 90 Farewell, Ophelia, and remember well What I have said to you.OPHELIA ’Tis in my memory locked, And you yourself shall keep the key of it.LAERTES Farewell.Laertes exits.POLONIUS 95 What is ’t, Ophelia, he hath said to you?OPHELIA So please you, something touching the Lord Hamlet.POLONIUS Marry, well bethought. ’Tis told me he hath very oft of late100 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 you105 You do not understand yourself so clearly As it behooves my daughter and your honor. What is between you? Give me up the truth.OPHELIA He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders Of his affection to me.POLONIUS 110 Affection, puh! 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.POLONIUS Marry, I will teach you. Think yourself a baby115 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 love120 In honorable fashion—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.POLONIUS Ay, ⟨springes⟩ to catch woodcocks. I do know,125 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 time130 Be something scanter of your maiden presence. Set your entreatments at a higher rate Than a command to parle. For Lord Hamlet, Believe so much in him that he is young, And with a larger ⟨tether⟩ may he walk135 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⌝140 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 145I shall obey, my lord.They exit.
Hamlet
