Goes slow and stately by them. Thrice he walked,
By their oppressed and fear-surprised eyes,
Within his truncheon's length; whilst they, distilled1
Almost to jelly with the act of fear,

Stand dumb, and speak not to him. This to me
In dreadful secrecy impart they did;

And I, with them, the third night kept the watch;
Where, as they had delivered, both in time,

Form of the thing, each word made true and good,
The apparition comes. I knew your father;

These hands are not more like.

Ham.

But where was this?

Hor. My lord, upon the platform where we watched. Ham. Did you not speak to it?

Hor.

My lord, I did. But answer made it none; yet once, methought, It lifted up its head, and did address.

Itself to motion, like as it would speak;

But, even then, the morning cock crew loud;
And at the sound it shrunk in haste away,
And vanished from our sight.

Ham.

'Tis very strange.

Hor. As I do live, my honored lord, 'tis true; And we did think it writ down in our duty,

To let you know of it.

Ham. Indeed, indeed, sirs, but this troubles me. Hold you the watch to-night?

Hor. O yes, my lord; he wore his beaver2 up.

Ham. What, looked he frowningly?

Hor.

In sorrow than in anger.

1 The folio reads bestilled.

A countenance more

2 That part of the helmet which may be lifted up.

Ham.

Very like.

Staid it long?

Hor. While one with moderate haste might tell a

hundred.

Mar. Ber. Longer, longer.

Hor. Not when I saw it.

Ham.

His beard was grizzled? no?

Hor. It was as I have seen it in his life,

A sable silvered.

Ham.

I will watch to-night;

I warrant you it will.

Perchance 'twill walk again.
Hor.
Ham. If it assume my noble father's person,
I'll speak to it, though hell itself should gape,
And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all,

If

you have hitherto concealed this sight,
Let it be tenable1 in your silence still;
And whatsoever else shall hap to-night,
Give it an understanding, but no tongue;
I will requite your loves. So, fare you well.
Upon the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve,
I'll visit you.

All.
Our duty to your honor.
Ham. Your loves, as mine to you. Farewell.
[Exeunt HORATIO, MARCELLUS, and

BERNARDO.

My father's spirit in arms! all is not well;

I doubt some foul play. 'Would the night were come! Till then sit still, my soul. Foul deeds will rise, Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes.

[Exit.

1 The quarto of 1603 reads tenible; the other quartos, tenable; the folio of 1623, treble.

SCENE III. A Room in Polonius's House.

Enter LAERTES and OPHELIA.

Laer. My necessaries are embarked; farewell. And, sister, as the winds give benefit,

And convoy is assistant, do not sleep,

But let me hear from you.

Oph.

Do you doubt that?

Laer. For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favor
Hold it a fashion, and a toy in blood;

A violet in the youth of primy nature,
Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting,
The perfume and suppliance of a minute;
No more.

Oph. No more but so?
Laer.

2

Think it no more.

For nature, crescent, does not grow alone
In thews and bulk; but, as this temple waxes,
The inward service of the mind and soul

Grows wide withal. Perhaps he loves you now;
And now no soil, nor cautel3 doth besmirch
The virtue of his will; but, you must fear,
His greatness weighed, his will is not his own;
For he himself is subject to his birth.
He may not, as unvalued persons do,
Carve for himself; for on his choice depends
The safety and health of the whole state;
And therefore must his choice be circumscribed

4

1 This is the reading of the quarto copy. The folio has :

"The suppliance of a minute" should seem to mean, supplying or enduring only that short space of time; as transitory and evanescent.

2 i. e. sinews and muscular strength.

3 Cautel is cautious circumspection, subtlety, or deceit. Minsheu explains it, "A crafty way to deceive."

4 The safety and health of the whole state." Thus the quarto of 1604. In the folio, it is altered to "The sanctity," &c., supposing the metre defective. But safety is used as a trisyllable by Spenser and others.

Unto the voice and yielding of that body,

Whereof he is the head. Then if he says he loves you, It fits your wisdom so far to believe it,

As he in his particular act and place

May give his saying deed; which is no further,
Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal.
Then weigh what loss your honor may sustain,
If with too credent ear you list' his songs;

Or lose your heart; or your chaste treasure open
To his unmastered importunity.

3

2

Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister;
And keep you in the rear of your affection,
Out of the shot and danger of desire.
The chariest maid is prodigal enough,
If she unmask her beauty to the moon.
Virtue itself scapes not calumnious strokes;
The canker galls the infants of the spring,
Too oft before their buttons be disclosed ;
And in the morn and liquid dew of youth
Contagious blastments are most imminent.
Be wary, then; best safety lies in fear;
Youth to itself rebels, though none else near.

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,
Whilst, like a puffed and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
And recks not his own read.4

Laer.

O, fear me not. I stay too long;-but here my father comes.

Enter POLONIUS.

A double blessing is a double grace;
Occasion smiles upon a second leave.

1 "If with too credulous ear you listen to his songs."

2 Licentious.

3 i. e. the most cautious, the most discreet.

4 i. e. regards not his own lesson. In The Two Angry Women of Abingdon, 1599, we have :-"Take heed, is a good reed.”

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

1

Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportioned thought his act.

Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.

3

2

The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatched, unfledged comrade. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in,
Bear it that the opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,

4

But not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man;

5

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 self be true;
And it must follow, as the night the day,

1 i. e. mark, imprint, strongly infix.

2 The old copies read, " with hoops of steel."

3 This figurative expression means, " do not blunt thy feeling by taking every new acquaintance by the hand."

4 i. e. judgment, opinion.

5 The quarto of 1603 reads :—

The folio:

"Are of a most select and generall chief in this."

"Are of a most select and generous cheff, in that." The other quartos give the line:

"As of a most select and generous, cheefe in that.” "Or of a most select and generous, cheefe in that.' The simple emendation by omitting of a, and the proper punctuation of the line, make all clear. "The nobility of France are most select and high-minded (generous) chiefly in that;" chief being an adjective, used adverbially.