Po. The time invites you: go; your servants tend. Laer. Farewell, Ophelia; and remember well What I have said to you. Oph. 'Tis in my memory lock'd, [Exit Laertes. And you yourself shall keep the key of it. Laer. Farewell. Po. What is 't, Ophelia, he hath said to you? Oph. So please you, something touching the lord Hamlet. Po. 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. Po. 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. 1 Inexperienced. Po. 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, Oph. My lord, he hath importuned me with love In honorable fashion. Po. Ay, 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. Po. Ay, springes to catch woodcocks. I do know, When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul But mere implorators 1 of unholy suits, I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth, [Exeunt. SCENE IV. The platform. Enter HAMLEt, horatio, and MARCELLUS. Ham. The air bites shrewdly; it is very cold., Ham. What hour now? Ho. Mar. No, it is struck. I think, it lacks of twelve. Ho. Indeed? I heard it not: it then draws near the season, Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk. [a florish of trumpets and ordnance shot off within. What does this mean, my lord? Ham. The king doth wake to-night, and takes his rouse,3 Keeps wassel, and the swaggering up-spring 5 reels; 1 Implorers. 2 Keen. 3 Jovial draught. 5 A dance. 4 A convivial entertainment. And, as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down, Hɔ. Ham. Ay, marry, is 't: Is it a custom? But to my mind,—though I am native here, More honor'd in the breach than the observance. This heavy-headed-revel, east and west, Makes us traduced, and tax'd of other nations: 1 They clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phrase From our achievements, though perform'd at height, That, for some vicious mole of nature in them, Shall in the general censure take corruption Doth all the noble substance of a doubt, To his own scandal.1 Enter GHOST. Ho. Look, my lord, it comes! Ham. Angels and ministers of grace defend us !Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damn'd, Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell, Be thy intents wicked or charitable, Thou comest in such a questionable shape, Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws, With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls? 1 Commentators have hitherto failed to discover any satisfactory elucidation of this corrupt passage. Conversable. 3 For frame. |