Hamlet act 1 scene 3

Laertes My necessaries are embarked. Farewell.And, sister, as the winds give benefitAnd convey is assistant, do not sleep,But let me hear from you.
Ophelia Do you doubt that?
Laertes 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.
Ophelia No more but so?
Laertes Think it no more.For nature, crescent, does not grow aloneIn thews and bulk, but, as this temple waxes,The inward service of the mind and soulGrows wide withal. Perhaps he loves you now,And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirchThe 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 dependsThe safety and health of this whole state.And therefore must his choice be circumscribedUnto the voice and yielding of that bodyWhereof he is the head. Then if he says he loves you, It fits your wisdom so far to believe itAs he in his particular act and placeMay give his saying deed, which is no furtherThan the main voice of Denmark goes withal.Then weigh what loss your honor may sustainIf with too credent ear you list his songs,Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure openTo his unmastered importunity.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 enoughIf she unmask her beauty to the moon.Virtue itself ‘scapes not calumnious strokes.The canker galls the infants of the springToo 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.
Ophelia I shall the effect of this good lesson keepAs watchman to my heart. But, good my brother,Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,Show me the steep and thorny way to heavenWhiles, like a puffed and reckless libertine,Himself the primrose path of dalliance treadsAnd recks not his own rede.
Laertes O, fear me not.
Laertes I stay too long. But here my father comes.A double blessing is a double grace.Occasion smiles upon a second leave.
Polonius Yet here, Laertes? Aboard, aboard, for shame!The wind sits in the shoulder of your sailAnd you are stayed for. There, my blessing with thee.And these few precepts in thy memoryLook thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,Nor any unproportioned thought his act.Be thou familiar but by no means vulgar.Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel,But do not dull thy palm with entertainmentOf each new-hatched, unfledged comrade. BewareOf entrance to a quarrel, but being in,Bear ‘t that th’ opposèd may beware of thee.Give every man thy ear but few thy voice.Take each man’s censure but reserve thy judgment.Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,But not expressed in fancy—rich, not gaudy,For the apparel oft proclaims the man,And they in France of the best rank and stationAre of a 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,Thou canst not then be false to any man.Farewell. My blessing season this in thee.
Laertes Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord.
Polonius The time invites you. Go. Your servants tend.
Laertes Farewell, Ophelia, and remember wellWhat I have said to you.
Ophelia Tis in my memory locked,And you yourself shall keep the key of it.
Laertes Farewell
Polonius What is ‘t, Ophelia, he hath said to you?
Ophelia So please you, something touching the Lord Hamlet.
Polonius Marry, well bethought.’Tis told me he hath very oft of lateGiven private time to you, and you yourselfHave of your audience been most free and bounteous.If it be so as so ’tis put on me—And that in way of caution—I must tell you,You do not understand yourself so clearlyAs it behooves my daughter and your honor.What is between you? Give me up the truth.
Ophelia He hath, my lord, of late made many tendersOf his affection to me.
Polonius Affection! Pooh, you speak like a green girl,Unsifted in such perilous circumstance.Do you believe his “tenders,” as you call them?
Ophelia I do not know, my lord, what I should think.
Polonius Marry, I’ll teach you. Think yourself a babyThat 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,Running it thus—you’ll tender me a fool.
Ophelia My lord, he hath importuned me with loveIn honorable fashion.
Polonius Ay, “fashion” you may call it. Go to, go to.
Ophelia And hath given countenance to his speech, my lord,With almost all the holy vows of heaven.
Polonius Ay, springes to catch woodcocks. I do know,When the blood burns, how prodigal the soulLends the tongue vows. These blazes, daughter,Giving more light than heat, extinct in bothEven in their promise as it is a-making,You must not take for fire. From this timeBe somewhat scanter of your maiden presence.Set your entreatments at a higher rateThan a command to parley. For Lord Hamlet,Believe so much in him that he is young,And with a larger tether may he walkThan may be given you. In few, Ophelia,Do not believe his vows, for they are brokersNot of that dye which their investments show,But mere implorators of unholy suits,Breathing like sanctified and pious bawds,The better to beguile. This is for all:I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth,Have you so slander any moment leisure,As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet.Look to ‘t, I charge you. Come your ways.
Ophelia I shall obey, my lord.
Shakespeare Enter Polonius
About Hamlet May give his saying deed, which no further than the main voice of Denmark Goes withal.
About Ophelia And keep you in the rear of your affection, out of the shot of danger and desire.
September 9, 2019