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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 night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell; my blessing season this in thee!

Laer. Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord. Pol. The time invites you; go, your servants tend. Laer. Farewell, Ophelia, and remember well What I have said to you.

Oph.

'Tis in my memory locked,

And you yourself shall keep the key of it.

Laer. Farewell.

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

[Exit

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 boun

teous:

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

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As it behooves my daughter and your honor:
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! pooh! you speak like a green girl, 100 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 these tenders for true pay, Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly; Or not to crack the wind of the poor phrase, Running it thus - you'll tender me a fool.

Oph. My lord, he hath impórtuned me with love In honorable fashion.

110 Pol. Ay, fashion you may call it; go to, go to. Oph. And hath given countenance 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, daughter,
Giving more light than heat, extinct in both,
Even in their promise, as it is a-making,
You must not take for fire. From this time

Be somewhat scanter of your maiden presence;
Set your entreatments 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 may he walk
Than may be given you: in few, Ophelia,

Do not believe his vows; for they are brokers, —
Not of that dye which their investments show,
But mere implorators of unholy suits,

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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 ways.
Oph. I shall obey, my lord.

SCENE IV

The Platform

[Exeunt

Enter HAMLET, HORATIO, and MARCELLUS

Ham. The air bites shrewdly. It is very
Hor. It is a nipping and an eager air.

Ham. What hour now?

Hor.

Mar. No, it is struck.

cold.

I think it lacks of twelve.

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Hor. Indeed? I heard it not; it then draws near

the season

Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk.

[A flourish of trumpets, and ordnance shot off, within

What does this mean, my lord?

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

Keeps wassail, and the swaggering up-spring reels; 10 And, as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down, The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out The triumph of his pledge.

Hor.

Ham. Ay, marry, is❜t :

Is it a custom?

But to my mind, though I am native here

And to the manner born, it is a custom

More honored in the breach than the observance.

This heavy-headed revel east and west

Makes us traduced and taxed of other nations:

They clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phrase

20 Soil our addition; and, indeed, it takes

From our achievements, though performed 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 choose his origin—
By the o'ergrowth of some complexion,
Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason;
Or by some habit that too much o'er-leavens
The form of plausive manners; · - that these men,-
Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect,

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Being nature's livery, or fortune's star, —
Their virtues else 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 e'il
Doth all the noble substance ever dout,

To his own scandal.

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Hor.

Enter Ghost

Look, my lord, it comes.

Ham. Angels and ministers of grace defend us!

Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned,

Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell,

Be thy intents wicked or charitable,

Thou comest in such a questionable shape

That I will speak to thee: I'll call thee Hamlet,

King, father; royal Dane, O, answer me!

Let me not burst in ignorance; but tell

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