I'll speak to it, though hell itself should gape
And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all,
If you have hitherto conceal'd this sight,
Let it be tenable in your silence still;
And whatsoever else shall hap to-night,
Give it an understanding, but no tongue;
well:
I will requite your loves. So, fare
Upon the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve, 250
I'll visit you.

All.

ye

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 !

[rise, Till then sit still, my soul: foul deeds will Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes.

[Exit.

SCENE III.-A Room in Polonius's

House.

Enter LAERTES and OPHELIA.

Laer. My necessaries are embark'd; fare.

well:

And, sister, as the winds give benefit

And convoy is assistant, do not sleep,

But let me hear from you.

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 pérfume and suppliance of a minute;
No more.

Oph.
Laer.

No more but so?

Think it no more: 10

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 weigh'd, his will is not his

own;

For he himself is subject to his birth :
He may not, as unvalued persons do,

Carve for himself; for on his choice depends 20
The safety and the health of the whole state;
And therefore must his choice be circum-

scribed

Unto the voice and yielding of that body Whereof he is the head. Then if he says he loves you,

[ther

It fits your wisdom so far to believe it,
As he in his particular act and place
May give his saying deed; which is no fur-
Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal.
Then weigh what loss your honor may sus-

tain,

If with too credent ear you list his songs.

30

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,
[brother,
As watchman to my heart. But, good my
Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven;
Whiles, like a puff'd and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads
And recks not his own rede.

Laer.

40

O, fear me not. 50 I stay too long;-but here my father comes.

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 stay'd for.

with thee!

There, my blessing

[Laying his hand on LAERTES' head.

And these few precepts in thy memory
See thou charácter. Give thy thoughts no
tongue,

Nor any unproportion'd thought his act. 60 Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. 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-hatch'd, 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,

70 But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy: 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. 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 ownself be true; And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. 8c 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 lock'd,
And you yourself shall keep the key of it.
Laer. Farewell.

[Exit.

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

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
bounteous:

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
As it behoves 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,

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.

[a baby, Pol. Marry, I'll teach you think yourself That you have ta'en these tenders for true pay, Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly;

90

100