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- HAMLET PRINCE OF DENMARK
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- Act 1 Scene 3
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- (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 thÆ 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 longùbut 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. Thereùmy 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 Æt that thÆ opposΦd may beware of thee.
- l68l Give every man thine ear but few thy voice.
- l69l Take each manÆs 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 allùto 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 Farewellùmy 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 ÆTis in my memory locked,
- l86l And you yourself shall keep the key of it.
- l87l Laertes Farewell.
- (Exit)
- l88l Polonius What is Æt, Ophelia, he hath said to you?
- l89l Ophelia So please you, something touching the Lord Hamlet.
- l90l Polonius Marry, well bethought.
- l91l ÆTis 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 soùas so Ætis put on me,
- l95l And that in way of cautionùI 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 ôtendersö as you call them?
- l104l Ophelia I do not know, my lord, what I should think.
- l105l Polonius Marry, IÆll teach you: think yourself a baby
- l106l That you have taÆen his tenders for true pay,
- l107l Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly,
- l108l Orùnot to crack the wind of the poor phrase,
- l109l Running it thusùyouÆll tender me a fool.
- l110l Ophelia My lord, he hath importuned me with love
- l111l In honourable fashionù
- 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 allù
- 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 Æt, I charge you. Come your ways.
- l136l Ophelia I shall obey, my lord.
- (Exeunt)
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