And you are staid for. There, my blessing with you;

[Laying his hand on Laertes's head.
And these few precepts in thy memory
See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportion'd thought his a&t :
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar;
The friends thou hast, and their Adoption try'd,
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'ı that the opposed may beware of thee.
Give ev'ry Man, thine ear; but few thy voice.
Take each man's censure ; but reserve thy judgment,
Coftly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not expreft 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 own self be true ;
* And it must follow, as the light the Day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewel; my Blefling season this in thee!

Laer. Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord.
Pol. The time inveits you; go, your

servants tend. Laer. Farewel, Ophelia, and remember well What I have said.

* And it must follow, as the night the Day,] The Sense here requires, that the Similitude should give an Image not of two Effects of Different Natures, that follow one another alternately, but of a Cause and Effect, where the Effe& follows the Cause by a physical Neceffity. For the Assertion is, Be true to thyself, and then thou must necessarily be true to others. Shakespear, without Question wrote, And it must follow as the Light the Day As much as to say, Truth to thyself, and Truth to others, are inseparable, the latter depending necessarily on the former, as Light depends upon the Day! where it is to be obferved, that Day is used figurativ cly to the Sun

oph.

Oph. 'Tis in my mem'ry lockt;
And you yourself shall keep the key of it.
Laer. Farewel.

[Exit. Laer. 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 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 behoveš 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. Affections ! 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 his tenders for true pay, Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly; Or (not to crack the wind of the poor phrase, Wringing it thus) you'll tender me a fool.

Oph. My lord, he hath importun'd me with love, In honourable fashion.

Pol. Ay, fashion you may call’t: go to, go to. Oph. And hath giv'n count'nance 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, Lends the tongue vows. These blazes, oh my daughter, Giving more light than heat, extinct in both, Ey'n in the promise as it is a making, You must not take for fire. From this time,

Be somewhat scanter of your maiden-presence,
Set your intraitments 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 he may walk, Than may be given you.

In few, Ophelia, Do not believe his vows; for they are brokers, Not of that Die which their investments shew, But mere implorers of unholy suits, Breathing like fanctified 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 way. Oph. I shall obey, my lord.

Exeunt.

Ham. Ther. It is a nipping and an eager air.

SCENE VII.
Changes to the Platform before the Palace.
Enter Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus.
CHE Air bites shrewdly ; it is very cold.

.
Ham. What hour now?
Hor. I think, it lacks of twelve.
Mar. No, it is struck.

Hor. I heard it not : it then draws near the season, Wherein the Spirit held his wont to walk.

(Noise of warlike music within. What does this mean, my lord ? Ham. The King doth wake to-night, and takes his

roufe, Keeps wassel, and the swagg‘ring up-spring reels ; And as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down, The kettle drum and trumpet thus bray out The triumph of bis pledge. Hor. Is it a custom ?

Ham. .

Ham. Ay, marry, is't:
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 eait and west,
Makes us iraduc'd, and tax'd of other nations;
They clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phrase
Soil our addition, and, indeed, it takes
From our atchievements, 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 chuse his origin)
By the o'ergrowth of some complexion.
Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason;
Or by some habit, that ioo 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 scar)
Their virtues elfe, 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 of Worth out,
To his own scandal,

1

Enter Ghost.
Hor. Look, my lord, it comes !

Ham. Angels and ministers of grace defend us !
Be thou a Spirit of health, or Goblin damn'd.
Bring with thee airs from heav'n, or blasts from hell,
* Be thy advent wicked or charitable,
Thou com'ft in such a questionable shape,

* Be thy intents wicked or charitable,] Some of the old Editions read Events; from whence I suspeå that Shakespear wrote,

Be thy Advent wicked or charitable. i. e. thy coming

Warb.

That

That I will speak to thee. I'll call thee Hamlet,
King, Father, Royal Dane: oh! answer me ;
Let me not burst in ignorance; but tell,
* Why thy canoniz'd bones, hearsed in Earth,
Have burft their cearments ? why the sepulchre,
Wherein we saw thee quietly in-urn'd,
Hath op'd his ponderous and marble jaws,
To cast thee up again? What may this mean?'
That thou, dead coarse, again, in complete steel,
Revisit'st thus the glimpses of the moon,
Making night hideous, and us fools of nature
So horribly to ihake our disposition
With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls ?
Say, why is this? wherefore ? what should we do?

(Ghost beckons Hamlet.
Hor. It beckons you to go away with it,
As if it some impartment did desire
To you alone.

.
Mar. Look, with what courteous action
It waves you to a more removed ground:
But do not go with it.
Hor. No, by no means.

(Holding Hamlet.
Ham. It will not speak; then I will follow it.
Hor. Do not, iny lord.

Ham. Why, what should be the fear?
I do not set my life at a pin's fee ;
And, for my soul, what can it do to That,
Being a thing immortal as itself?
It waves me forth again. I'll follow it-
Hor. What if it iempt you tow'rd the flood, my

lord ?
Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff,
That beetles o'er his Base into the sea ;
And there assume some other horrible form,
Which might deprave your sov'reignty of reason,
And draw you into madness? think of it.
* Why thy canoniz'd bones, hearsed in death,] We should read,
Why thy canoniz'd Bones hearsed in Earth,

The