Hamlet
Act I, Scene 3
Elsinore. A room in Polonius’ house.
Ophelia
Heinrich Hans Schlimarski, circa 1913
- Enter Laertes and Ophelia, his sister.
Laertes
1 - 4- My necessaries are inbark’d. Farewell.
- And, sister, as the winds give benefit
- And convey is assistant, do not sleep,
- But let me hear from you.
Ophelia
5- Do you doubt that?
Laertes
6 - 11- 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
12- No more but so?
Laertes
13 - 47- 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 cautel doth besmirch
Jul 17, 2019 Zyzigus deceit - The virtue of his will, but you must fear,
- His greatness weigh’d, 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 this whole state,
- And therefore must his choice be circumscrib’d
- 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
Jul 17, 2019 Zyzigus virginity - To his unmast’red 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 enough
Jul 17, 2019 Zyzigus cautious - If she unmask her beauty to the moon.
- Virtue itself scapes not calumnious strokes.
-
The canker galls the infants of the spring
Jul 17, 2019 Zyzigus The caterpillar destroys the blossoms of spring - Too oft before their buttons be disclos’d,
- 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
48 - 54- 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,
- Whiles, like a puff’d and reckless libertine,
- Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
-
And recks not his own rede.
Jul 17, 2019 Zyzigus does not practice what he preaches
From: Selwyn & Blount edition of Hamlet
John Austen, 1922
Laertes
55 - 58- O, fear me not.
- Enter Polonius.
- I stay too long—but here my father comes.
- A double blessing is a double grace,
- Occasion smiles upon a second leave.
Polonius
59 - 86- Yet here, Laertes? Aboard, aboard, for shame!
- The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,
- And you are stay’d for. There—
- Laying his hand on Laertes’ head.
- My blessing with thee!
- And these few precepts in thy memory
-
Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Jul 17, 2019 Zyzigus write down - Nor any unproportion’d 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 entertainment
- Of each new-hatch’d, unfledg’d courage. Beware
- Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in,
- Bear’t that th’ opposed 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 express’d in fancy, rich, not gaudy,
- For the apparel oft proclaims the man,
- And they in France of the best rank and station
- Are 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 dulleth th’ edge of husbandry.
Jul 17, 2019 Zyzigus money management - 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
87- Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord.
Polonius
88- The time invests you, go, your servants tend.
Laertes
89 - 90- Farewell, Ophelia, and remember well
- What I have said to you.
Ophelia
91 - 92- ’Tis in my memory lock’d,
- And you yourself shall keep the key of it.
Laertes
93- Farewell.
- Exit Laertes.
Polonius
94- What is’t, Ophelia, he hath said to you?
Ophelia
95- So please you, something touching the Lord Hamlet.
Polonius
96 - 104- 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.
- 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 clearly
- As it behooves my daughter and your honor.
- What is between you? Give me up the truth.
Fred Terry as Laertes
Frederick Henry Townsend, circa 1895
Ophelia
105 - 106- He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders
- Of his affection to me.
Polonius
107 - 109- Affection, puh! You speak like a green girl,
- Unsifted in such perilous circumstance.
- Do you believe his tenders, as you call them?
Ophelia
110- I do not know, my lord, what I should think.
Polonius
111 - 115- Marry, I will 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,
- Wringing it thus) you’ll tender me a fool.
Ophelia
116 - 117- My lord, he hath importun’d me with love
- In honorable fashion.
Polonius
118- Ay, fashion you may call it. Go to, go to.
Ophelia
119 - 120- And hath given countenance to his speech, my lord,
- With almost all the holy vows of heaven.
Polonius
121 - 141- Ay, springes to catch woodcocks. I do know,
- When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul
- Lends the tongue vows. These blazes, daughter,
- Giving more light than heat, extinct in both
- Even in their promise, as it is a-making,
- You must not take for fire. From this time
- Be something scanter of your maiden presence,
- Set your entreatments at a higher rate
- Than a command to parle. For Lord Hamlet,
- Believe so much in him, that he is young,
- And with a larger teder may he walk
- Than may be given you. In few, Ophelia,
- Do not believe his vows, for they are brokers,
- Not of that dye which their investments show,
-
But mere implorators of unholy suits,
Feb 15, 2019 Miko That is, Hamlet's vows are not the real thing, but are merely go-betweens (brokers) between him and real holy vows. Polonius is basically saying that Hamlet's vows are lies. - Breathing like sanctified and pious bonds,
- 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
142- I shall obey, my lord.
- Exeunt.
Polonius
Blackie & Son, circa 1889