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Then weigh, what lofs your Honour may sustain,
If with too credent ear you lift his fongs;
Or lofe your heart, or your chafte treasure open
To his unmafter'd importunity.

Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear fifter;

4

And keep within the rear of your affection,
Out of the fhot and danger of desire.
The charieft maid is prodigal enough,
If fhe unmask her beauty to the moon :
Virtue itfelf 'fcapes not calumnious strokes;
The canker galls the Infants of the Spring,
Too oft before their buttons be difclos'd;
And in the morn and liquid dew of youth
Contagious blaftments are most imminent.
Be wary then, beft fafety lies in fear;
Youth to itself rebels, though none else near.
Oph. I fhall th' effects of this good leffon keep
As watchman to my heart. But, good my brother,
Do not, as fome ungracious paftors do,

Shew me the fteep and thorny way to heav'n;
5 Whilft, like a puft and carelefs libertine,

-keep within the rear, &c.] That is, do not advance fo far as your affection would lead

you.

5 Whilft, LIKE a puft and carelefs libertine.] This reading gives us a fenfe to this effect, Do not you be like an ungracious preacher, who is like a careless libertine. And there we find, that he who is fo like a careles libertine, is the careless libertine himself. This could not come from Shakespear. The old quarto reads,

Whiles a puft and recklefs li bertine, which directs us to the right reading,

Himfelf

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Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
Andrecks not his own read.

Laer. Oh, fear me not.

SCEN E. VI.

Enter Polonius.

I stay too long;—but here my father comes:
A double bleffing is a double grace;
Occafion fmiles upon a fecond leave.

Pol. Yet here, Laertes! aboard, aboard for fhame; The wind fits in the fhoulder of your fail,

And you are staid for.

My Bleffing with you;

There;

[Laying his hand on Laertes's head. And these few precepts in thy memory

See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar;
The friends thou haft, and their adoption try'd,
Grapple them to thy foul with hooks of steel,
7 But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade.
Of Entrance to a quarrel, but being in,

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Beware

7 But do not dull thy falm with

entertainment

Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd

comrade.] The literal sense is, Do not make thy palm callous by Jhaking every men by the hand. The figurative meaning may be, Do not by promifcuous converfation make thy mind infenfible to the difference of characters.

Bear't

Bear't that th' oppofer may beware of thee.
Give ev'ry man thine ear; but few thy voice.
Take each man's cenfure; but referve thy judgment.
Coftly thy habit as thy purfe can buy,

But not expreft in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man,
And they in France of the best rank and station
Are most select and generous, chief in That.
Neither a borrower, nor a lender be;
For Loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of Husbandry.
This above all; to thine own felf be true;
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be falfe to any man.

8 And it must follow, as the

NIGHT the Day.] The fenfe bere requires, that the fimilitude fhould give an image not of two effes of different natures, that follow one another alternately, but of a cafe and effect, where the effect follows the cause by a phyfical neceffity. For the affertion is. Be true to thy felf, and then thou must neceffarily be true to others. Truth to himself then was the caufe, truth to others, the effect. To illuftrate this neceffity, the speaker employs a fimilitude: But no fimiJitude can illuftrate it but what prefents an image of a caufe and effect; and fuch a caufe as that, where the effect follows by a phyfical, not a moral neceffity for if only, by a moral neceffity the thing illuftrating would not be more certain than the thing i luftrated; which would be a great

:

abfurdity. This being premifed, let us fee what the text fays,

And it must follow as the night the Day.

In this we are fo far from being prefented with an effe following a caufe by a physical neceffity, that there is no caufe at all: but only two different effects, proceeding from two different causes, and fucceeding one another alternately. Shakespear, therefore, without question wrote,

And it must follow as the

LIGHT the Day. As much as to fay, Truth to thy felf, and truth to others, are infeparable, the latter depending neceffarily on the former, as light depends upon the day! where it is to be obferved, that day is used figuratively for the Sun. The ignorance of which, I fuppofe, contributed to mislead the editors. WARBURTON.

Farewel;

Farewel; my Bleffing season this in thee!

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Laer. Moft humbly do I take my leave, my lord. Pol. The time invites you; go, your fervants tend.

Laer. Farewel, Ophelia, and remember well What I have said.

Opb. 'Tis in my mem❜ry lock't,

And you yourself fhall keep the key of it.

Laer. Farewel.

[Exit Laer.

Pol. What is't, Ophelio, he hath faid to you?

Oph. So please you, fomething touching the lord Hamlet.

Pol. Marry, well bethought!

'Tis told me, he hath very oft of late

Given private time to you; and you yourfelf
Have of your audience been moft free and bounteous,
If it be fo, as fo 'tis put on me,

And that in way of caution, I must tell you,
You do not understand yourself so clearly,
As it behoves my daughter, and your honour.
What is between you? Give me up the truth.
Opb. He hath, my Lord, of late, made many
tenders

Of his Affection to me.

Pol. Affection! puh! you speak like a green girl,

9-my Bleffing feafon this in thee!] Seafon, for infuse. WARBURTON. It is more than to infufe, it is to infix it in fuch a manner as that it never may wear out.

The time invites you ;] This reading is as old as the first folio; however I fufpect it to have been fubftituted by the players, who did not understand the term

which poffeffes the elder quarto's:

The time invefts you; i. e. befieges, preffes upon you on every fide. To invest a town, is the military phrafe from which our author borrowed his metaphor. THEOBALD. -yourself stall keep the key of it.] That is, By thinking on you, I fhall think on your leffons.

Unfifted

3 Unfifted in fuch perilous circumstance.

Do you believe his tenders, as you call them?
Oph. I do not know, my Lord, what I fhould

think.

Pol. Marry, I'll teach you.

baby,

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Think yourself a

That you have ta'en his tenders for true pay,
Which are not sterling.

dearly;

4.Tender yourself more

Or (not to crack the wind of the poor phrase,
Wronging it thus) you'll tender me a fool.

Oph. My Lord, he hath importun'd me with love, In honourable fashion.

Pol. Ay, fashion you may call't: Go to, go to. Oph. And hath giv'n count'nance to his speech, my Lord,

With almost all the holy vows of heav'n.

Pol. Ay, fpringes to catch woodcocks. I do know,

3 Unfifted in fuch perilous circumftance.] Unfifted, for untried. Untried fignifies either not tempted, or not refined; unfified, fignifies the latter only, though the fenfe requires the forWARBURTON. 4-Tender yourself more dearly; Or (not to crack the wind of the poor phrafe) Wronging it thus, you'll tender

mer.

me a fool.] The parenthesis is clos'd at the wrong place; and we must make likewife a flight correction in the last verfe. Po

lonius 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.

WARBURTON.

I believe the word wronging has reference, not to the phrafe, but to Ophelia; if you go on wronging it thus, that is, if you continue to on go thus wrong. This

is a mode of fpeaking perhaps not very grammatical, but very common, nor have the best writers refused it.

To finner it or faint it,
is in Pope. And Rowe,
Thus to coy it,

To one who knows jou toe.
The folio has it,

-roaming it thus,
That is, letting yourself lcofe to
Juch improper liberty. But wrong-
ing feems to be more proper,

5 fashion you may call it :-] She uses fashion for manner, and he for a tranfient practice.

When

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