For he himself is fubject to his birth; May give his faying deed; which is no further, Or lofe your heart, or your chafte treasure open Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister; Shew me the fteep and thorny way to heav'n; Laer. Oh, fear me not, Enter POLONIUS. Itay too long;---but here my father comes : Pol. Yet here, Laertes! aboard, aboard for fhame; The wind fits in the fhoulder of your fail, (11) And you are ftaid for. There ;------- My bleffing with you; [Laying his hand on Laertes' head. And these few precepts in thy memory See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue. Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar; And you are ftaid for there. My bieffing, &c.] There-where in the fhoulder of his fail? For to that must this local adverb relate, as 'tis situated. Befides, it is a dragging idle expletive, and feems of no use but to fupport the meafare of the verfe. But when we come to point this paffage right, and to the Poet's intention in it, we fhall find it neither unneceffary, nor improper, in its place. In the fpeech immediately preceding this, Laertes taxes himfelf for itaying too long; but feeing his father approach, he is willing to stay for a fecond blessing, and kneels down for that end; Polonius accordingly lays his hand on his head, and gives him the fecond blefling. The manner in which a comic actor behaved upon this occafion, was fure to raise a laugh of pleasure in the audience; and the oldest Quartos, in the pointing, are a confirmation that thus the Poet intended it, and thus the ftage expreffed it. Coftly thy habit as thy purse can buy, Laer. Molt humbly do I take my leave, my Lord. Pol. The time invefts you; go, your fervants tend. (12) Laer. Farewel, Ophelia, and remember well. What I have faid. Oph. 'Tis in my memory lock'd, And you yourself fhall keep the key of it. Laer. Farewel [Exit Laer. Pol. What is't, Ophelia, he hath faid to you? Oph. So pleafe you, fomething touching the Lord Pal. Marry, well bethought! 'Tis told me, he hath very oft of late [Hamlet. Given private time to you; and you yourself Have of your audience been moft free and bounIf it be fo, (as fo 'tis put on me, [teous. And that in way of caution,) I must tell you, You do not understand yourself so clearly, (12) The time invites you;-] This reading is as old as the frit Folio; however I fufpect it to have been fubftitued by the players, who did not understand the term which poffeffes the elder Quartos; The time invests you, i. e. befieges, preffes upon you on every fide. To invest a town is a military phrafe, from which our Author borrowed his metaphor. As it behoves my daughter, and your honour. Oph. He hath, my Lord, of late, made many ten- Do you believe his tenders, as you call them? Or (not to crack the wind of the poor phrafe, Oph. My Lord, he hath importuned me with In honourable fashion. [love, Pol. Ay, fafhion you may call't: go to go to. Oph. And hath given countenance to his speech, my Lord, With almost all the holy vows of Heaven. Pol. Ay, fpringes to catch woodcocks. I do know, When the blood burns, how prodigal the foul Lends the tongue vows. Thefe blazes, oh my daughter, Giving more light than heat, extinct in both, You must not take for fire. From this time, (13) Tender yourself more dearly; Or (not to crack the wind of the poor phrase) Wronging it thus, you'il tender me a fool.] The parenthesis is clofed at the wrong place, and we must make likewife a flight correction in the last verfe. Polonius is racking and playing on the word tender, till he thinks proper to correct himself for the licence; and then he would fay-not farther to crack the wind of the phrafe by twisting and contorting it, as I have done, &c. Mr Warburton. Set your intreatments at a higher rate, Than a command to parley. For Lord Hamlet, Believe fo much in him, that he is young; And with a larger tether may he walk, Than may be given you. In few, Ophelia, Do not believe his vows; for they are brokers, (14) (14) Do not believe his vows, for they are brokers; Breathing like fanctified and pious bonds, The better to beguile.] To the fame purpose our Author, fpeaking of vows, expreffes himself in his poem called the Lover's Complaint: Saw how deceits were gilded in his failing; Knew vows were ever brokers to defiling. But to the paffage in queftion; though all the editors have fwallowed it implicitly, it is certainly corrupt; and I have been furprised how men of genius and learning could let it pafs without fome fufpicion. What idea can we form to ourfelves of a breathing bond, or of its being fantified and pious? The only tolerable way of reconciling it to a meaning without a change, is to fuppofe that the Poet intends by the word bonds, verbal obligations, proteftations: and then, indeed, thefe bonds may, in fome fenfe, be faid to have breath. But this is to make him guilty of over-ftraining the word and allufion; and it will hardly bear that interpretation, at least not without much obfcurity. As he juft before is calling amo rous vows brokers, and implorers of unholy fuits, I think as continuation of the plain and natural fenfe directs to an eafy emendation, which makes the whole thought of a piece, and gives it a turn not unworthy of our Poet. Breathing, like fanctified and pious bawds, Braker, 'tis to be obferved, our Author perpetually uses as the more modeft fynonymous term for bowd. Befides, what ftrengthens my correction, and makes this emendation the more neceffary and probable, is the words with which the Poet winds up his thought, "the better to beguile." It is the fly artifice and cuftom of bawds to put on an air and form of fanctity, to betray the virtue of young ladies, by drawing them first into a kind opinion of them, from their exteriour and diffembled goodnefs. And bawds in their office of treachery are likewife properly brokers; and the implorers and |