HAMLET PRINCE OF DENMARK

Act 1 Scene 3

(Enter Laertes and Ophelia, his sister)
l1l	Laertes	 My necessaries are inbarqued. Farewell.
l2l		And, sister, as the winds give benefit
l3l		And convoy is assistant, do not sleep
l4l		But let me hear from you.
	Ophelia	Do you doubt that?
l5l	Laertes	For Hamlet and the trifling of his favour,
l6l		Hold it a fashion and a toy in blood,
l7l		A violet in the youth of primy nature,
l8l		Forward not permanent, sweet not lasting,
l9l		The perfume and suppliance of a minute,
l10l		No more.
	Ophelia	No more but so?
	Laertes	Think it no more.
l11l		For nature crescent does not grow alone
l12l		In thews and bulk, but as his temple waxes
l13l		The inward service of the mind and soul
l14l		Grows wide withal. Perhaps he loves you now,
l15l		And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch
l16l		The virtue of his will# but you must fear,
l17l		His greatness weighed, his will is not his own,
l18l		For he himself is subject to his birth.
l19l		He may not, as unvalued persons do,
l20l		Carve for himself, for on his choice depends
l21l		The sanity and health of the whole state#
l22l		And therefore must his choice be circumscribed
l23l		Unto the voice and yielding of that body
l24l		Whereof he is the head. Then if he says he loves you,
l25l		It fits your wisdom so far to believe it
l26l		As he in his peculiar sect and force
l27l		May give his saying deed, which is no further
l28l		Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal.
l29l		Then weigh what loss your honour may sustain
l30l		If with too credent ear you list his songs,
l31l		Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open
l32l		To his unmastered importunity.
l33l		Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister,
l34l		And keep within the rear of your affection,
l35l		Out of the shot and danger of desire.
l36l		The chariest maid is prodigal enough
l37l		If she unmask her beauty to the moon.
l38l		Virtue itself scapes not calumnious strokes.
l39l		The canker galls the infants of the spring
l40l		Too oft before their buttons be disclosed,
l41l		And in the morn and liquid dew of youth
l42l		Contagious blastments are most imminent.
l43l		Be wary then# best safety lies in fear#
l44l		Youth to itself rebels, though none else near.
l45l	Ophelia	I shall th’ effect of this good lesson keep
l46l		As watchman to my heart# but, good my brother,
l47l		Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
l48l		Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven
l49l		Whilst like a puffed and reckless libertine
l50l		Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads
l51l		And recks not his own rede.
	Laertes	O fear me not.
		(Enter Polonius)
l52l		I stay too long—but here my father comes.
l53l		A double blessing is a double grace#
l54l		Occasion smiles upon a second leave.
l55l	Polonius	Yet here, Laertes? Aboard, aboard, for shame!
l56l		The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,
l57l		And you are stayed for. There—my blessing with thee,
l58l		And these few precepts in thy memory
l59l		See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
l60l		Nor any unproportioned thought his act.
l61l		Be thou familiar but by no means vulgar.
l62l		The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
l63l		Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel,
l64l		But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
l65l		Of each new-hatched unfledged comrade. Beware
l66l		Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in,
l67l		Bear ’t that th’ opposèd may beware of thee.
l68l		Give every man thine ear but few thy voice.
l69l		Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgement.
l70l		Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
l71l		But not expressed in fancy# rich not gaudy#
l72l		For the apparel oft proclaims the man,
l73l		And they in France of the best rank and station
l74l		Are of all most select and generous chief in that.
l75l		Neither a borrower nor a lender be,
l76l		For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
l77l		And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
l78l		This above all—to thine own self be true,
l79l		And it must follow, as the night the day,
l80l		Thou canst not then be false to any man.
l81l		Farewell—my blessing season this in thee.
l82l	Laertes	Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord.
l83l	Polonius	The time invites you. Go# your servants tend.
l84l	Laertes	Farewell, Ophelia, and remember well
l85l		What I have said to you.
	Ophelia	’Tis in my memory locked,
l86l		And you yourself shall keep the key of it.
l87l	Laertes	Farewell.
		(Exit)
l88l	Polonius	 What is ’t, Ophelia, he hath said to you?
l89l	Ophelia	So please you, something touching the Lord Hamlet.
l90l	Polonius	Marry, well bethought.
l91l		’Tis told me he hath very oft of late
l92l		Given private time to you, and you yourself
l93l		Have of your audience been most free and bounteous.
l94l		If it be so—as so ’tis put on me,
l95l		And that in way of caution—I must tell you
l96l		You do not understand yourself so clearly
l97l		As it behoves my daughter and your honour.
l98l		What is between you? Give me up the truth.
l99l	Ophelia	He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders
l100l		Of his affection to me.
l101l	Polonius	Affection, pooh! You speak like a green girl
l102l		Unsifted in such perilous circumstance.
l103l		Do you believe his “tenders” as you call them?
l104l	Ophelia	I do not know, my lord, what I should think.
l105l	Polonius	Marry, I’ll teach you: think yourself a baby
l106l		That you have ta’en his tenders for true pay,
l107l		Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly,
l108l		Or—not to crack the wind of the poor phrase,
l109l		Running it thus—you’ll tender me a fool.
l110l	Ophelia	My lord, he hath importuned me with love
l111l		In honourable fashion—
l112l	Polonius	Ay, fashion you may call it. Go to, go to.
l113l	Ophelia	And hath given countenance to his speech, my lord,
l114l		With all the vows of heaven.
l115l	Polonius	Ay, springes to catch woodcocks. I do know
l116l		When the blood burns how prodigal the soul
l117l		Lends the tongue vows. These blazes, daughter,
l118l		Giving more light than heat, extinct in both
l119l		Even in their promise as it is a-making,
l120l		You must not take for fire. From this time, daughter,
l121l		Be somewhat scanter of your maiden presence.
l122l		Set your entreatments at a higher rate
l123l		Than a command to parley. For Lord Hamlet,
l124l		Believe so much in him, that he is young,
l125l		And with a larger tether may he walk
l126l		Than may be given you. In few, Ophelia,
l127l		Do not believe his vows, for they are brokers,
l128l		Not of the dye which their investments show,
l129l		But mere imploratators of unholy suits,
l130l		Breathing like sanctified and pious bawds
l131l		The better to beguile. This is for all—
l132l		I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth
l133l		Have you so slander any moment leisure
l134l		As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet.
l135l		Look to ’t, I charge you. Come your ways.
l136l	Ophelia	I shall obey, my lord.
		(Exeunt)