For he himself is fubject to his birth;

He may not, as unvalued perfons do,
Carve for himself; for on his choice depends
The fanctity and health of the whole state:
And therefore muft his choice be circumfcribed.
Unto the voice and yielding of that body
Whereof he's dead. Then, if he says he loves you,
It fits your wisdom so far to believe it,
As he in his peculiar act and place

May give his faying deed; which is no further,
Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal.
Then weigh what lofs your honour may sustain,
If with too credent ear you lift his fongs;

Or lofe your heart, or your chafte treasure open
To his unmastered importunity.

Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear fister;
And keep within the rear of your affection,
Out of the fhot and danger of defire.
The charieft maid is prodigal enough,
If fhe unmask her beauty to the moon:
Virtue itself 'fcapes not calumnious ftrokes;
The canker galls the infants of the spring,
Too oft before their buttons be difclofed;
And in the morn and liquid dew of youth
Contagious blaftments are most imminent.
Be wary then, beft fafety lyes in fear;
Youth to itself rebels, though none else near.
Oph. I fhall th' effects of this good leflon keep,
As watchman to my heart. But, good my brother,·
Do not, as fome ungracious paftors do,

Shew me the steep and thorny way to heav'n;
Whilft, like a puft and careless libertine,

Himfelf the primrose path of dalliance treads,
And recks not his own reed.

Enter POLONIUS.

I ftay too long ;---but here my father comes:
A double bleffing is a double grace;

Occafion smiles upon a second leave.

Pol. Yet here, Laertes! aboard, aboard for shame; The wind fits in the fhoulder of your fail, (11) And you are staid for. There ;------

My bleffing with you;

[Laying bis hand on Laertes' head. And these few precepts in thy memory

See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportioned thought his act :

Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar;
The friends thou hait, and their adoption try'd,
Grapple them to thy foul with hooks of steel:
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatched, unfledged comrade. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel: but, being in,
Bear't that the oppofed may beware of thee.
Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice.
Take each man's cenfure; but referve thy judgment.
(11) The wind fits in the fhoulder of your fail,

And you are faid for there. My bleffing, &c.] There where in the shoulder of his fail? For to that must this local adverb relate, as 'tis fituated. Befides, it is a dragging idle expletive, and feems of no uie but to fupport the meafure of the verse. But when we come to point this paffage right, and to the Poet's intention in it, we fhall find it neither unneceffary, nor improper, in its place. In the speech immediately preceding this, Laertes taxes himself for ftaying too long; but feeing his father approach, he is willing to ftay for a fecond bleffing, and kneels down for that end; Polonius accordingly lays his hand on his head, and gives him the fecond bleffing. The manner in which a comic actor behaved upon this occafion, was fure to raise a laugh of pleasure in the audience; and the oldeft Quartos, in the pointing, are a confirmation that thus the Poet intended it, and thus the ftage expreffed it.

Coftly thy habit as thy parfe can buy,
But not exprefs'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy:
For the apparel oft proclaims the man,
And they in France of the best rank and ftation
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 must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canit not then be falfe to any man.
Farewel; my blefling feason this in thee!

Laer. Moit humbly do I take my leave, my Lord. Pol. The time invefts you; go, your fervants tend. (12)

Laer. Farewel, Ophelia, and remember well What I have faid.

Oph. 'Tis in my memory lock'd,

And you yourfelf fhall keep the key of it.

Laer. Farewel.

[Exit Laer.

Pol. What is't, Ophelia, he hath faid to you? Oph. So please you, fomething touching the Lord Pol. Marry, well bethought!

'Tis told me, he hath very oft of late

[Hamlet.

Given private time to you; and you yourself Have of your audience been molt free and bounIf it be fo, (as fo 'tis put on me,

[teous.. And that in way of caution,) I must tell you, You do not understand yourself fo clearly,

(12) The time invites you;-] This reading is as old as the firft Folio; however I fufpe&t it to have been fubftitued by the players, who did not underftand the term which poffeffes the elder Quartos ;

The time invests you,

i. e. befieges, preffes upon you on every fide. To invest a town is a military phrafe, from which our Author borrowed his metaphor.

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 ten-
Of his affection to me.
[ders
Pol. Affection! puh! you fpeak like a green gif,
Unfifted in fuch perilous circumstance.

Do you believe his tenders, as you call them?
Oph. I do not know, my Lord, what I fhould 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; (13)

Or (not to crack the wind of the poor phrafe,
Wringing it thus) you'll tender me a fool.

Oph. My Lord, he hath importuned me with In honourable fashion.

[love, Pol. Ay, fafhion you may call't: go to. go to. Oph. And hath given countenance to his speech, 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 their promife as it is a-making,

You must not take for fire.

From this time,

Be fomewhat fcanter of your maiden prefence,

(13) Tender yourself more dearly;

Or (not to crack the wind of the poor phrafe)

Wronging it thus, you'll tender me a fool.] The parenthesis is clofed at the wrong place, and we must make likewife a flight correction in the laft verfe. Polonius is racking and playing on the word tender, till he thinks proper to correct himself for the licence; and then he would fay-not farther to crack the wind of the phrafe by twisting and contorting it, as I have done, &c. Mr Warburton.

Set your intreatments 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 may he walk,
Than may be given you. In few, Ophelia,
Do not believe his vows; for they are brokers, (14)

(14) Do not believe his vows, for they are brokers;

Breathing like fan&tified and pious bonds,
The better to beguile.]

To the fame purpose our Author, fpeaking of vows, expreffes himself in his poem called the Lover's Complaint: Saw how deceits were gilded in his fmiling;

Knew vows were ever brokers to defiling.

But to the paffage in queftion; though all the editors have fwallowed it implicitly, it is certainly corrupt; and I have been furprised how men of genius and learning could let it pafs without fome fufpicion. What idea can we form to ourfelves of a breathing bond, or of its being fanctified and pious? The only tolerable way of reconciling it to a meaning without a change, is to fuppofe that the Poet intends by the word bonds, verbal obligations, proteftations: and then, indeed, these bonds may, in fome fenfe, be faid to have breath. But this is to make him guilty of over-ftraining the word and allufion; and it will hardly bear that interpretation, at least not without much obfcurity. As he juft before is calling amo rous vows brokers, and implorers of unholy fuits, I think a 'continuation of the plain and natural fenfe directs to an eafy emendation, which makes the whole thought of a piece, and gives it a turn not unworthy of our Poet.

Breathing, like fanctified and pious bawds,
The better to beguile.

Broker, 'tis to be obferved, our Author perpetually ufes as the more modeft fynonymous term for bawd. Befides, what ftrengthens my correction, and makes this emendation the more neceffary and probable, is the words with which the Pact winds up his thought," the better to beguile." It is the fly attifice and cuftom of bawds to put on an air and form of fanctity, to betray the virtue of young ladies, by drawing them first into a kind opinion of them, from their exteriour and diffembled goodness. And bawds in their office of treachery are likewife properly brokers; and the implorers and