Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Act 1 - Scene 3
Elsinore. A room in the house of Polonius.
Laertes : My necessaries are embark'd. Farewell.
[p]And, sister, as the winds
give benefit
[p]And convoy is assistant, do not sleep,
[p]But let me
hear from you.
Ophelia : Do you doubt that?
Laertes : For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favour,
[p]Hold it a fashion, and
a toy in blood;
[p]A violet in the youth of primy nature,
[p]Forward,
not permanent- sweet, not lasting;
[p]The perfume and suppliance of a
minute;
[p]No more.
Ophelia : No more but so?
Laertes : Think it no more.
[p]For nature crescent does not grow alone
[p]In
thews and bulk; but as this temple waxes,
[p]The inward service of the
mind and soul
[p]Grows wide withal. Perhaps he loves you now,
[p]And
now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch
[p]The virtue of his will; but
you must fear,
[p]His greatness weigh'd, his will is not his
own;
[p]For he himself is subject to his birth.
[p]He may not, as
unvalued persons do,
[p]Carve for himself, for on his choice
depends
[p]The safety and health of this whole state,
[p]And therefore
must his choice be circumscrib'd
[p]Unto the voice and yielding of
that body
[p]Whereof he is the head. Then if he says he loves
you,
[p]It fits your wisdom so far to believe it
[p]As he in his
particular act and place
[p]May give his saying deed; which is no
further
[p]Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal.
[p]Then weigh
what loss your honour may sustain
[p]If with too credent ear you list
his songs,
[p]Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open
[p]To
his unmast'red importunity.
[p]Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear
sister,
[p]And keep you in the rear of your affection,
[p]Out of the
shot and danger of desire.
[p]The chariest maid is prodigal
enough
[p]If she unmask her beauty to the moon.
[p]Virtue itself
scopes not calumnious strokes.
[p]The canker galls the infants of the
spring
[p]Too oft before their buttons be disclos'd,
[p]And in the
morn and liquid dew of youth
[p]Contagious blastments are most
imminent.
[p]Be wary then; best safety lies in fear.
[p]Youth to
itself rebels, though none else near.
Ophelia : I shall th' effect of this good lesson keep
[p]As watchman to my
heart. But, good my brother,
[p]Do not as some ungracious pastors
do,
[p]Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven,
[p]Whiles, like a
puff'd and reckless libertine,
[p]Himself the primrose path of
dalliance treads
[p]And recks not his own rede.
Laertes : O, fear me not!
[p][Enter Polonius. ]
[p]I stay too long. But here my
father comes.
[p]A double blessing is a double grace;
[p]Occasion
smiles upon a second leave.
Polonius : Yet here, Laertes? Aboard, aboard, for shame!
[p]The wind sits in the
shoulder of your sail,
[p]And you are stay'd for. There- my blessing
with thee!
[p]And these few precepts in thy memory
[p]Look thou
character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
[p]Nor any unproportion'd
thought his act.
[p]Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar:
[p]Those
friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
[p]Grapple them unto thy
soul with hoops of steel;
[p]But do not dull thy palm with
entertainment
[p]Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade. Beware
[p]Of
entrance to a quarrel; but being in,
[p]Bear't that th' opposed may
beware of thee.
[p]Give every man thine ear, but few thy
voice;
[p]Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.
[p]Costly
thy habit as thy purse can buy,
[p]But not express'd in fancy; rich,
not gaudy;
[p]For the apparel oft proclaims the man,
[p]And they in
France of the best rank and station
[p]Are most select and generous,
chief in that.
[p]Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
[p]For loan oft
loses both itself and friend,
[p]And borrowing dulls the edge of
husbandry.
[p]This above all- to thine own self be true,
[p]And it
must follow, as the night the day,
[p]Thou canst not then be false to
any man.
[p]Farewell. My blessing season this in thee!
Laertes : Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord.
Polonius : The time invites you. Go, your servants tend.
Laertes : Farewell, Ophelia, and remember well
[p]What I have said to you.
Ophelia : 'Tis in my memory lock'd,
[p]And you yourself shall keep the key of
it.
Laertes : Farewell. Exit.
Polonius : What is't, Ophelia, he hath said to you?
Ophelia : So please you, something touching the Lord Hamlet.
Polonius : Marry, well bethought!
[p]'Tis told me he hath very oft of
late
[p]Given private time to you, and you yourself
[p]Have of your
audience been most free and bounteous.
[p]If it be so- as so 'tis put
on me,
[p]And that in way of caution- I must tell you
[p]You do not
understand yourself so clearly
[p]As it behooves my daughter and your
honour.
[p]What is between you? Give me up the truth.
Ophelia : He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders
[p]Of his affection to
me.
Polonius : Affection? Pooh! You speak like a green girl,
[p]Unsifted in such
perilous circumstance.
[p]Do you believe his tenders, as you call
them?
Ophelia : I do not know, my lord, what I should think,
Polonius : Marry, I will teach you! Think yourself a baby
[p]That you have ta'en
these tenders for true pay,
[p]Which are not sterling. Tender yourself
more dearly,
[p]Or (not to crack the wind of the poor
phrase,
[p]Running it thus) you'll tender me a fool.
Ophelia : My lord, he hath importun'd me with love
[p]In honourable fashion.
Polonius : Ay, fashion you may call it. Go to, go to!
Ophelia : And hath given countenance to his speech, my lord,
[p]With almost all
the holy vows of heaven.
Polonius : Ay, springes to catch woodcocks! I do know,
[p]When the blood burns,
how prodigal the soul
[p]Lends the tongue vows. These blazes,
daughter,
[p]Giving more light than heat, extinct in both
[p]Even in
their promise, as it is a-making,
[p]You must not take for fire. From
this time
[p]Be something scanter of your maiden presence.
[p]Set your
entreatments at a higher rate
[p]Than a command to parley. For Lord
Hamlet,
[p]Believe so much in him, that he is young,
[p]And with a
larger tether may he walk
[p]Than may be given you. In few,
Ophelia,
[p]Do not believe his vows; for they are brokers,
[p]Not of
that dye which their investments show,
[p]But mere implorators of
unholy suits,
[p]Breathing like sanctified and pious bawds,
[p]The
better to beguile. This is for all:
[p]I would not, in plain terms,
from this time forth
[p]Have you so slander any moment leisure
[p]As
to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet.
[p]Look to't, I charge
you. Come your ways.
Ophelia : I shall obey, my lord.
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