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And you are flaid for. There, my bleffing 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 act :

Beware

Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar;
The friends thou haft, and their Adoption try'd,
Grapple them to thy foul with hooks of fteel:
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade.
Of Entrance to a quarrel: but being in."
Bear't that the oppofed may beware of thee.
Give ev'ry Man, thine ear; but few thy voice.
Take each man's cenfure; but referve 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 beft rank and flation
Are molt felect and generous, chief in That.
Neither a borrower, nor a lender be;
For Loan oft lofes both itself and friend:
And Borrowing dulls the edge of Husbandry.
This above all; to thine own felf be true;
*And it muft follow, as the light the Day,
Thou canst not then be falfe to any man.
Farewel; my Bleffing feafon this in thee!

Laer. Moft humbly do I take my leave, my lord.
Pol. The time invefts you; go, your fervants tend.
Laer. Farewel, Ophelia, and remember well
What I have faid.

And it must follow, as the night the Day,] The Senfe here requires, that the Similitude fhould give an Image not of two Effects of Different Natures, that follow one another alternately, but of a Cause and Effect, where the Effect follows the Caufe by a phyfical Neceffity. For the Affertion is, Be true to thyself, and then thou must neceffarily be true to others. Shakespear, without Queftion wrote, And it must follow as the Light the Day As much as to fay, Truth to thyfelf, and Truth to others, are inseparable, the latter depending neceffarily on the former, as Light depends upon the Day! where it is to be obferved, that Day is used figuratively to the Sun

Oph.

Oph. 'Tis in my mem'ry lockt,

And you yourself fhall keep the key of it.
Laer. Farewel.

[Exit. Laer.

Pol. What is't, Ophelia, he hath faid to you?

Oph. So pleafe you, fomething 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 moft free and bounteous.
If it be fo, (as fo 'tis put on me,

And that in way of caution,) I must tell you,
You do not underftand yourself fo 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. Affections! puh! you speak like a green girl, Unfifted in fuch 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 have ta'en his tenders for true pay,

you

Which are not fterling. Tender yourfelf 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 fpeech, my lord.

With almost all the holy vows of heaven.

Pol. Ay, fpringes to catch woodcocks. I do know, When the blood burns, how prodigal the foul, Lends the tongue vows. These blazes, oh my daughter, Giving more light than heat, extinct in both, Ev'n in the promife as it is a making,

You must not take for fire. From this time,

Be fomewhat fcanter of your maiden-prefence,
Set your intraitments at a higher rate,
Than a command to parley. For lord Hamlet,
Believe fo much in him, that he is young;

And with a larger tether he may walk,
In few, Ophelia,

Than may be given you.

Do not believe his vows; for they are brokers,
Not of that Die which their investments fhew,
But mere implorers of unholy fuits,

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 fo flander any moment's leifure,

As to give words or talk with the lord Hamlet.
Look to't, I charge you, come your way.
Oph. I fhall obey, my lord.

Ham.

[blocks in formation]

Changes to the Platform before the Palace.
Enter Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus.

TH

[Exeunt.

HE Air bites fhrewdly; it is very cold. Hor. It is a nipping and an eager air. Ham. What hour now ?

Hor. I think, it lacks of twelve.

Mar. No, it is ftruck.

Hor. I heard it not: it then draws near the fseason,

Wherein the Spirit held his wont to walk.

[Noife of warlike mufic within.

What does this mean, my lord?

Ham. The King doth wake to-night, and takes his rouse,

Keeps waffel, and the fwagg'ring up-fpring reels ;
And as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down,
The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out

The triumph of his pledge.

Hor. Is it a custom?

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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 obfervance. This heavy-headed revel eaft and weft,

Makes us traduc'd, and tax'd of other nations;
They clepe us drunkards, and with fwinish 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 fome vicious mole of nature in them,
As, in their birth, (wherein they are not guilty,
Since nature cannot chufe his origin)

By the o'ergrowth of fome complexion.

Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reafon ;
Or by fome habit, that too much o'er leavens
The form of plaufive manners; that these men
Carrying, I fay, the ftamp of one defect,
(Being nature's livery, or fortune's fcar)
Their virtues elfe, be they as pure as grace,
As infinite as man may undergo,

Shall in the general cenfure take corruption
From that particular fault. The dram of Bafe
Doth all the noble substance of Worth out,
To his own fcandal.

Enter Ghoft.

Hor. Look, my lord, it comes !

Ham. Angels and minifters of grace defend us! Be thou a Spirit of health, or Goblin damn'd, Bring with thee airs from heav'n, or blafts from hell, * Be thy advent wicked or charitable,

Thou com'ft in fuch a queftionable shape,

Be thy intents wicked or charitable,] Some of the old Editions read Events; from whence I fufpe&t 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 burft in ignorance; but tell,
*Why thy canoniz'd bones, hearfed in Earth,
Have burft their cearments? why the fepulchre,
Wherein we saw thee quietly in-urn'd,

Hath op'd his ponderous and marble jaws,
To caft thee up again? What may this mean?"
That thou, dead coarfe, again, in complete fteel,
Revifit'ft thus the glimpfes of the moon,
Making night hideous, and us fools of nature
So horribly to shake our difpofition

With thoughts beyond the reaches of our fouls?
Say, why is this? wherefore? what should we do?

[Ghoft beckons Hamlet.

Hor. It beckons you to go away with it, As if it fome impartment did defire

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, my lord.

Ham. Why, what fhould be the fear?

I do not fet my life at a pin's fee;

And, for my foul, 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 tempt you tow'rd the flood, my

lord ?

Or to the dreadful fummit of the cliff,

That beetles o'er his Bafe into the fea;

And there affume fome other horrible form,

Which might deprave your fov'reignty of reafon,
And draw you into madness? think of it.

Why thy canoniz'd bones, hearfed in death,] We fhould read,
Why thy canoniz'd Bones hearfed in Earth.

The

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