The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Part 9

[Page 36]

Then the maine voyce of _Denmarke_ goes withall.

Then weigh what losse your Honour may sustaine, If with too credent eare you list his Songs; Or lose your Heart; or your chast Treasure open [Sidenote: Or loose]

To his vnmastred[1] importunity.

Feare it _Ophelia_, feare it my deare Sister, And keepe within the reare of your Affection;[2]

[Sidenote: keepe you in the]

Out of the shot and danger of Desire.

The chariest Maid is Prodigall enough, [Sidenote: The]

If she vnmaske her beauty to the Moone:[3]

Vertue it selfe scapes not calumnious stroakes, [Sidenote: Vertue]

The Canker Galls, the Infants of the Spring [Sidenote: The canker gaules the]

Too oft before the b.u.t.tons[6] be disclos'd, [Sidenote: their b.u.t.tons]

And in the Morne and liquid dew of Youth, Contagious blastments are most imminent.

Be wary then, best safety lies in feare; Youth to it selfe rebels, though none else neere.[6]

_Ophe_. I shall th'effect of this good Lesson keepe, As watchmen to my heart: but good my Brother [Sidenote: watchman]

Doe not as some vngracious Pastors doe, Shew me the steepe and th.o.r.n.y way to Heauen; Whilst like a puft and recklesse Libertine Himselfe, the Primrose path of dalliance treads, And reaks not his owne reade.[7][8][9]

_Laer_. Oh, feare me not.[10]

_Enter Polonius_.

I stay too long; but here my Father comes: A double blessing is a double grace; Occasion smiles vpon a second leaue.[11]

_Polon_. Yet heere _Laertes_? Aboord, aboord for shame, The winde sits in the shoulder of your saile, And you are staid for there: my blessing with you; [Sidenote: for, there my with thee]

[Footnote 1: Without a master; lawless.]

[Footnote 2: Do not go so far as inclination would lead you. Keep behind your liking. Do not go to the front with your impulse.]

[Footnote 3: --_but_ to the moon--which can show it so little.]

[Footnote 4: Opened but not closed quotations in the _Quarto_.]

[Footnote 5: The French _bouton_ is also both _b.u.t.ton_ and _bud_.]

[Footnote 6: 'Inclination is enough to have to deal with, let alone added temptation.' Like his father, Laertes is wise for another--a man of maxims, not behaviour. His morality is in his intellect and for self-ends, not in his will, and for the sake of truth and righteousness.]

[Footnote 7: _1st Q_.

But my deere brother, do not you Like to a cunning Sophister, Teach me the path and ready way to heauen, While you forgetting what is said to me, Your selfe, like to a carelesse libertine Doth giue his heart, his appet.i.te at ful, And little recks how that his honour dies.

'The primrose way to the everlasting bonfire.'

--_Macbeth_, ii. 3:

'The flowery way that leads to the broad gate and the great fire.'

_All's Well_, iv. 5.]

[Footnote 8: 'heeds not his own counsel.']

[Footnote 9: Here in Quarto, _Enter Polonius._]

[Footnote 10: With the fitting arrogance and impertinence of a libertine brother, he has read his sister a lecture on propriety of behaviour; but when she gently suggests that what is good for her is good for him too,--'Oh, fear me not!--I stay too long.']

[Footnote 11: 'A second leave-taking is a happy chance': the chance, or occasion, because it is happy, smiles. It does not mean that occasion smiles upon a second leave, but that, upon a second leave, occasion smiles. There should be a comma after _smiles_.]

[Footnote 12: As many of Polonius' aphorismic utterances as are given in the 1st Quarto have there inverted commas; but whether intended as gleanings from books or as fruits of experience, the light they throw on the character of him who speaks them is the same: they show it altogether selfish. He is a man of the world, wise in his generation, his principles the best of their bad sort. Of these his son is a fit recipient and retailer, pa.s.sing on to his sister their father's grand doctrine of self-protection. But, wise in maxim, Polonius is foolish in practice--not from senility, but from vanity.]

[Page 38]

And these few Precepts in thy memory,[1]

See thou Character.[2] Giue thy thoughts no tongue, [Sidenote: Looke thou]

Nor any vnproportion'd[3] thought his Act: Be thou familiar; but by no meanes vulgar:[4]

The friends thou hast, and their adoption tride,[5]

[Sidenote: Those friends]

Grapple them to thy Soule, with hoopes of Steele: [Sidenote: unto]

But doe not dull thy palme, with entertainment Of each vnhatch't, vnfledg'd Comrade.[6] Beware [Sidenote: each new hatcht unfledgd courage,]

Of entrance to a quarrell: but being in Bear't that th'opposed may beware of thee.

Giue euery man thine eare; but few thy voyce: [Sidenote: thy eare,]

Take each mans censure[7]; but reserue thy Judgement; Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy; But not exprest in fancie; rich, not gawdie: For the Apparell oft proclaimes the man.

And they in France of the best ranck and station, Are of a most select and generous[8] cheff in that.[10]

[Sidenote: Or of a generous, chiefe[9]]

Neither a borrower, nor a lender be; [Sidenote: lender boy,]

For lone oft loses both it selfe and friend: [Sidenote: loue]

And borrowing duls the edge of Husbandry.[11]

[Sidenote: dulleth edge]

This aboue all; to thine owne selfe be true: And it must follow, as the Night the Day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.[12]

Farewell: my Blessing season[13] this in thee.

_Laer_. Most humbly doe I take my leaue, my Lord.

_Polon_. The time inuites you, goe, your seruants tend.

[Sidenote: time inuests]

_Laer._ Farewell _Ophelia_, and remember well What I haue said to you.[14]

_Ophe_. Tis in my memory lockt, And you your selfe shall keepe the key of it,

_Laer_. Farewell. _Exit Laer_.

_Polon_. What ist _Ophelia_ he hath said to you?

[Footnote 1: He hurries him to go, yet immediately begins to prose.]

[Footnote 2: Engrave.]

[Footnote 3: Not settled into its true shape (?) or, out of proportion with its occasions (?)--I cannot say which.]

[Footnote 4: 'Cultivate close relations, but do not lie open to common access.' 'Have choice intimacies, but do not be _hail, fellow! well met_ with everybody.' What follows is an expansion of the lesson.]