Ham. Armed say you?

Mar., Ber.

Ham.

Armed, my lord.

From top to toe?

230

240

Mar., Ber. My lord, from head to foot.

Ham. Then saw you not his face?

Hor. O, yes, my lord; he wore his beaver up.
Ham. What, looked he frowningly?

Hor. A countenance more in sorrow than in anger.

Ham.

Hor. Nay, very pale.

Ham.

Hor. Most constantly.

Ham.

Pale, or red?

And fixed his eyes upon you?

I would I had been there.

Hor. It would have much amazed you.

Ham. Very like, very like. Stayed it long?

Hor. While one with moderate haste might tell a hundred.

Mar., Ber. Longer, longer.

Hor. Not when I saw't.

Ham.

His beard was grizzled? no?

Hor. It was, as I have seen it in his life,

Ham. If it assume my noble father's person,
I'll speak to it, though hell itself should gape
And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all,
If you have hitherto concealed this sight,
Let it be tenable in your silence still;
And whatsoever else shall hap to-night
Give it an understanding, but no tongue;
I will requite your loves. So fare you well:
Upon the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve,
I'll visit you.

All.

Our duty to your honor.

Ham. Your loves, as mine to you: farewell.

[Exeunt HOR., MAR., and BER.

My father's spirit in arms! all is not well;

I doubt some foul play: would the night were come! Till then sit still, my soul: foul deeds will rise, Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes.

SCENE III

A Room in POLONIUS'S House

Enter LAERTES and OPHELIA

Laer. My necessaries are embarked; farewell:

And, sister, as the winds give benefit

And convoy is assistant, do not sleep,

But let me hear from you.

[Exit

250

Oph.

Do you

doubt that?

Laer. For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favor,
Hold it a fashion, and a toy in blood,

A violet in the youth of primy nature,
Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting,
The perfume and suppliance of a minute;
No more.

Oph.

10

Laer.

No more but so?

Think it no more:

For nature, crescent, does not grow alone
In thews and bulk; but, as this temple waxes,
The inward service of the mind and soul
Grows wide withal. Perhaps he loves you now;
And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch
The virtue of his will; but you must fear,
His greatness weighed, his will is not his own;
For he himself is subject to his birth;
He may not, as unvalued persons do,

20 Carve for himself, for on his choice depends
The safety and the health of this whole state;
And therefore must his choice be circumscribed
Unto the voice and yielding of that body

Whereof he is the head. Then if he says he loves you, s your wisdom so far to believe it,

In his particular act and place

May give his saying deed; which is no further
Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal.
Then weigh what loss your honor may sustain,
If with too credent ear you list his songs.
Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister,
And keep within the rear of your affection,
Out of the shot and danger of desire.
The chariest maid is prodigal enough,
If she 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 disclosed,
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,
Whiles, like a puffed and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads
And recks not his own rede.

Laer.

O, fear me not.

I stay too long;—but here my father comes.

309

40

Enter POLONIUS

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 stayed for. There; my blessing with thee! [Laying his hand on LAERTES' head

And these few precepts in thy memory

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

Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
60 The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops 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 opposèd may beware of thee.
Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice:
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,

But not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy;

70 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.