To his unmaster'd importunity. Oph. I shall the effect of this good lesson keep As watchman to my heart: But, good my brother, Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven; Laer. I stay too long;-But here my O, fear me not. 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 staid for: There,-my blessing with you; [Laying his hand on Laertes' head. And these few precepts in thy memory Look thou charácter. Give thy thoughts no tongue, Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. Bear it that the opposer may beware of thee. Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice: Take each man's censure 20, but reserve thy judge ment. Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, 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, Laer. Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord. 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 Laertes. 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: And that in way of caution,) I must tell you, Oph. He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders Of his affection to me. Pol. Affection? puh! 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. 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, Wronging it thus,) you'll tender me a fool. Oph. My lord, he hath impórtun'd me with love, In honourable fashion. Pol. Ay, 21 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, Than a command to parley. For lord Hamlet, I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth, Look to't, I charge you; come your ways. Oph. I shall obey, my lord. [Exeunt. SCENE IV. The Platform. Enter HAMLET, HORATIO, and MARCELLUS. Ham. The air bites shrewdly; it is very cold. Hor. It is a nipping and an eager air. Ham. What hour now? Hor. Mar. No, it is struck. I think, it lacks of twelve. 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, 23 The king doth wake to-night, and takes his rouse, Keeps wassel, and the swaggering up-spring reels; 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 honour'd in the breach, than the observance. This heavy-headed revel, east and west, Makes us traduc'd, and tax'd of other nations: |