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.

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;
Whilst, like a puff'd and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
And recks not his own read."

Laer.

O fear me not.

I stay too long;-But here my father comes.

Enter POLONIUS.C

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 character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.

b recks not his own read.] That is, heeds not his own lessons.-POPE. c Enter Polonius.] Polonius is a man bred in courts, exercised in business, stored with observation, confident in his knowledge, proud of his eloquence, and declining into dotage. His mode of oratory is truly represented as designed to ridicule the practice of those times, of prefaces that made no introduction, and of method that embarrassed rather than explained. This part of his character is accidental, the rest is natural. Such a man is positive and confident, because he knows his mind was once strong, and knows not that it is become weak. Such a man excels in general principles, but fails in the particular application. He is knowing in retrospect, and ignorant in foresight. While he depends upon his memory, and can draw from his repositories of knowledge, he utters weighty sentences, and gives useful counsel; but as the mind in its enfeebled state cannot be kept long busy and intent, the old man is subject to sudden dereliction of his faculties, he loses the order of his ideas, and entangles himself in his own thoughts, till he recovers the leading principle, and falls again into his former train. This idea of dotage encroaching upon wisdom, will solve all the phænomena of the character of Polonius.— JOHNSON.

d

e

the shoulder of your sail,] This is a common sea phrase.-STEEVENS. character.] i. e. Write, strongly imprint.

Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel:
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel: but, being in,

Bear it that the opposer may beware of thee.
Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice:
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgement.
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 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.
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.

Oph.

'Tis in my memory lock'd,

And you yourself shall keep the key of it.

Laer. Farewell.

[Exit LAERTES.

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

f But do not dull thy palm with entertainment

Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade.] The literal sense is, Do not make thy palm callous by shaking every man by the hand. The figurative meaning may be, Do not by promiscuous conversation make thy mind insensible to the difference of characters.-JOHNSON.

- censure,] i. e. Opinion.

h

chief-] For chiefly.

husbandry.] i. e. Of thrift; economical prudence.

k -season this in thee!] Infix it in such a manner as that it never may wear out.-JOHNSON.

tend.] i.e. Are waiting.

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? puh! 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, Wronging it thus,) you'll tender me a fool.

Oph. My lord, he hath impórtun'd me with love, 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,

Unsifted-] Unsifted for untried. Untried signifies either not tempted, or not refined; unsifted signifies the latter only, though the sense requires the former.-WARBURTON.

n

Tender] i. e. Regard with affection.

- fashion you may call it ;] She uses fashion for manner, and he for a transient practice.-JOHNSON.

p springes to catch woodcocks.] This saying was proverbial.-STEEVENS. entreatments-] i. e. Entertainment, conversation.

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,'
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.
Look to't, I charge you; come your ways.
Oph. I shall obey, my lord.

SCENE IV.

The Platform.

[Exeunt.

Enter HAMLET, HORATIO, and MARCELLUS. Ham. The air bites shrewdly; it is very cold. 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 his 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 rouse, 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?

Do not believe his vows: for they are brokers,] A broker in old English meant a buwd or pimp.-MALONE.

bonds,] i. e. Engagements of love. Theobald reads bawds, but without any authority.

eager] i.e. Sharp, aigre, Fr.

wassel,] i. e. Festivity, intemperance.

the swaggering up-spring-] The blustering upstart.-JOHNSON.

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:
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 the 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 dram of base
Doth all the noble substance often dout,'
To his own scandal.

Hor.

Enter Ghost.

Look, my lord, it comes !

Ham. Angels and ministers of grace defend us!—

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

addition;] i. e. Title.

The pith and murrow of our attribute.] The best and most valuable part of the praise that would be otherwise attributed to us.-JOHNSON.

a

complexion,] i. e. Humour: as sanguine, melancholy, phlegmatick, &c.-WARBURTON.

b

that too much o'er-leavens

The form of plausive manners;] That intermingles too much with their manners; infects and corrupts them. Plausive, in our poet's age, signified gracious, pleasing, popular.-MALONE.

star,-]i. e. Scar. It is a term of farriery: the white star or mark so common on the forehead of a dark coloured horse, is usually produced by making a scar on the place.-RITSON.

d As infinite as man may undergo,)] As large as can be accumulated upon man.-JOHNSON.