Then weigh, what lofs your Honour may fuftain,

If with too credent ear you lift his fongs;

Or lose your heart, or your chafte treasure open
To his unmaster'd importunity.

4

Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister;
And keep within the rear of your affection,
Out of the shot and danger of defire.
The charieft maid is prodigal enough,
If the 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 difclos'd;
And in the morn and liquid dew of youth
Contagious blaftments are moft imminent.
Be wary then, beft fafety lies in fear;
Youth to itself rebels, though none else near.
Oph. I fhall th' effects of this good leffon keep
A's 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;
5 Whilft, like a puft and careless libertine,

4-keep within the rear, &c.] That is, do not advance fo far as your affection would lead you.

5 Whilft, LIKE a puft and carelefs libertine.] This reading gives us a fenfe to this effect, Do not you be like an ungracious preacher, who is like a careless libertine. And there we find, that he who is fo like a careles libertine, is the carelefs libertine himself. This could not come from Shakespear. The old quarto reads,

Whiles a puft and reckless li bertine, which directs us to the right reading,

Himfelf

Himfelf the primrose path of dalliance treads, drw + And recks not his own read.

6

Laer. Oh, fear me not.

SCENES VI.

Enter Polonius.

I ftay too long;but here my father comes:
A double bleffing is a double grace;
Occafion fmile's upon a fecond leave.

Pol. Yet here, Laertes! aboard, aboard for fhame; The wind fits in the fhoulder of your fail,

And you are ftaid for. There;

My Bleffing with you;

Best [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.

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 steel,
7 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,

1

7 But do not dull thy palm with

entertainment

Of cach new-batch'd, unfledg'd comrade.] The literal fenfe is, Do not make thy palm callous by

conclufive; we use the fame mode of fpeaking on many occafions. When I fay of one, be Squanders like a Spendthrift, of another, he robbed me like a thief, the phrafe produces no ambigui-haking every man by the hand. ty; it is understood that the one The figurative meaning may be, is a fpendthrift, and the other a. Do not by promifcuous converfation thief. make thy mind infenfible to the dif ference of characters.

recks not his own read.] That is, heeds not his own leffons. POPE.

Bear't

Bear't that th' oppofer 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 purfe 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 ftation
Are most select 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 Hufbandry.
This above all; to thine own felf be true;
* And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be falfe to any man,

And it must follow, as the NIGHT the Day.] The fenfe here requires, that the fimilitude fhould give an image not of two effects of different natures, that follow one another alternately, but of a cafe and effect, where the effe&t follows the cause by a phyfical neceffity. For the affertion is. Be true to thyfelf, and then thou must neceffarily be true to others. Truth to himself then was the caufe, truth to others, the effect. To illuftrate this neceflity, the fpeaker employs a fimilitude: But no fimilitude can illuftrate it but what prefents an image of a caufe and effect; and fuch a caufe as that, where the effect follows by a phyfical, not a moral neceffity; for if only, by a moral neceffity the thing illuftrating would not be more certain than the thing i luftrated; which would be a great

9

Farewel; my Bleffing feason this in thee!

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

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

Opb. 'Tis in my mem'ry lock't,

2

And you yourself fhall keep the key of it.

Laer. Farewel.

[Exit Laer.

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

Oph. So please 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 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,

9my Bleffing feafon this in thee!] Seafon, for infuse. WARBURTON. It is more than to infuse, it is to infix it in fuch a manner as that it never may wear out,

The time invites you ;] This reading is as old as the first folio ; however I fufpect it to have been fubftituted by the players, who did not understand the term

which poffeffes the elder quarto's:

The time invefts you; i.e. befieges, preffes upon you on every fide. To inveft a town, is the military phrase from which our author borrowed his metaphor. THEOBALD. 2-yourself fall keep the key of it.] That is, By thinking on you, I fhall think on your leffons,

Unfifted

Unfifted in fuch perilous circumftance.bs. I. 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 yourfelf a baby, usb

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 phrafe, b
7 A
Wronging it thus) you'll tender me a fool, HAST
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 heav'n.

Pol. Ay, fpringes to catch woodcocks. I do

know,