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Laer. Q, 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.

Pol. Yet here, Laertes! aboard, aboard, for shame; The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,

And you are staid for: There, my blessings with [Laying his hand on LAERTES' head.

you;

And these few precepts in thy memory

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Look 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 hast, and their adoption try'd,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd unfledg'd comrade. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in,

Bear it that the opposer may beware of thee.
Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice:

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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 inan;

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.

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This above all,-To thine ownself be true;

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And it must follow, as the night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewel; my blessing season this in thee!

Laer. Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord. Pol. The time invites you; go, your servants tend. Laer. Farewel, Ophelia; and remember well What I have said to you.

Oph. 'Tis in my memory lock'd,

And you yourself shall keep the key of it.

Laer. Farewel:

[Exit LAERTES.

Pol. What is't, Ophelia, he hath said to you?

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

Pol. Marry, well bethought:

'Tis told me, he hath very oft of late

Given private time to you; and you yourself

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Have of your audience been most free and bounteous; If it be so (as so 'tis put on me,

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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.
Oph. He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders
Of his affection to me.

Pol. 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.

Pol.

Pol. 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 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 it; go to, go to.

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Oph. And hath given countenance to his speech, my lord,

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With almost all the holy vows of heaven.

Pol. 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, 591
Even in their promise, as it is a making,—
You must not take for fire. From this time,
Be somewhat scanter of your maiden presence;
Set your entreatments at a higher rate,
Than a command to parley. For lord Hamlet,
Believe so much in him, That he is young;
And with a larger tether 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 shew,
But mere implorators of unholy suits,
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's leisure,

Ciij

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As

As to give words or talk with the lord Hamlet.
Look to't, I charge you, come your ways.

Oph. I shall obey, my lord.

SCENE IV.

[Exeunt.

The Platform.

Enter HAMLET, HORATIO, and
MARCELLUS.

Ham. The air bites shrewdly; it is very cold. 610
Hor. It is a nipping and an eager air.

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Hor. Indeed? I heard it not: it then draws near

the season,

Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk.

[Noise of musick within.

What does this mean, my lord?

Ham. The king doth wake to-night, and takes his

rouse,

Keeps wassel, and the swaggering up-spring reels; And, as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down, The kettle-drum, and trumpet, thus bray out

The triumph of his pledge.

Hor. Is it a custom?

Ham. Ay marry, is't:

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But, to my mind,--though I am native here,
And to the manner born,-it is a custom

More honour'd in the breach, than the observance..

This heavy-headed revel, east and west,

Makes us traduc'd, and tax'd of other nations:

They clepe us, drunkards, and with swinish phrase Soil our addition; and, indeed, it takes

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From our atchievements, though perform'd at height, The pith and marrow of our attribute.

So, oft it chances in particular men,

That, for some vicious mole of nature in them,
As, in their birth (wherein they are not guilty,
Since nature cannot chuse his origin),

By the o'er-growth of some complexion,
Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason;
Or by some habit, that too much o'er-leavens 640
The form of plausive manners;that these men,—
Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect;
Being nature's livery, or fortune's star,—
Their virtues else (be they as pure as grace,
As infinite as man may undergo)
Shall in the general censure take corruption
From that particular fault: The dram of base
Doth all the noble substance of worth out,

To his own scandal.

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Enter Ghost.

Hor. Look, my lord, it comes!

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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 com'st in such a questionable shape,

That

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