Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,

And recks not his own read.

Laer. Oh, fear me not.

SCENE VI.

Enter Polonius.

I stay too long;-but here my father comes:
A double bleffing is a double grace;

Occafion fmiles upon a fecond leave.

Pol. Yet here, Laertes! aboard, aboard for shame The wind fits in the fhoulder of your fail,

And you are ftaid for. There;

My Bleffing with you;

[Laying his hand on Laertes's head. And these few precepts in thy memory

See 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 haft, and their adoption try'd,
Grapple them to thy foul with hooks of fteel,
'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,

conclufive; we use the fame mode of fpeaking on many occafions. When I fay of one, he Squanders like a Spendthrift, of another, he robbed me like a thief, the phrafe produces no ambiguity; it is understood that the one is a Spendthrift, and the other a thief.

-recks not his own read.] That is, heeds not his own lefLons. POPE.

is,

7 But do not dull thy palm with

entertainment

Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade.] The literal fenfe Do not make thy palm callous by baking every man by the hand. The figurative meaning may be, Do not by promifcuous conversation make thy mind infenfible to the dif ference of characters.

Bear't

Bear't that th' oppofer may beware of thee.
Give ev'ry man thine ear; but few thy voice.
Take each man's cenfure; but referve thy judgment.
Coftly thy habit as thy purse can buy,

But not expreft in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man,
And they in France of the best rank and station.
Are most felect and generous, chief in That.
Neither a borrower, nor a lender be;
For Loan oft lofes both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all; to thine own felf be true;
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be falfe to any man.

• And it must filio, os the

NIGHT the Day,] The fenfe here requires, that the fimilitude fhould give an image not of two effeas of different natures, that follow one another alternately, but of a caufe and effect, where the effect follows the caufe by a physical neceffity. For the affertion is. Be true to thyfelf, and then thou must neceffarily be true to others. Truth to himlelf then was the cafe, truth to others, the off. To illuftrate this neceffity, the speaker employs a fimilitude: But no fimilitude can illuftrate it but what prefents an image of a caufe and ffect; and fuch a caufe as that, where the effect follows by a phyhal, not a moral neceffity: for if only, by a moral neceffity, the thing illuftrating would not be more certain than the thing i Inftrated; which would be a great

abfurdity. This being premifed, let us tee what the text fays,

And it must follow as the night the Dy

In this we are fo far from being prefented with an effect following a cafe by a physical neceffi y, that there is no caufe at all: but only two different effects, proceeding from two different causes, and fucceeding one another alternately. Shakespear, therefore, without queftion wrote,

And it must follow as the

LIGHT the Day. As much as to fay, Truth to thy felf, and truth to others, are in feparable, the latter depending neceffarily on the former, as light difends u on the day! where it is to be obferved, that day is ufed figuratively for the Sun. I he ignorance of which, I suppose, contributed to mislead the editors.

WARBURTON.

Farewell;

Farewell; my Bleffing season this in thee!

1

Laer. Moft humbly do I take my leave, my lord. Pol. The time invites you; go, your fervants tend.

Laer. Farewel, Ophelia, and remember well What I have said.

Oph. 'Tis in my mem'ry lock't,

And you yourself fhall keep the key of it.

Laer. Farewel.

[Exit Laer.

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

Oph. So please you, fomething 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
Have of your audience been moft free and bounteous.
If it be fo, as fo 'tis put on me,

And that in way of caution, I must tell you,
You do not understand yourself fo 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 fpeak like a green girl,

9-my Bling feafon this in thee!] Seofor, for infufe. WARBURTON. It is more than to infuf, it is to infix it in fuch a manner as that it never may wear out.

The time invites you ;] This reading is as old as the firit folio; however I fufpect it to have been fubstituted by the players, who did not understand the term

which poffeffes the elder quarto's:

The time invells you; i. e. befieges, preffes upon you on every fide. To invest a town, is the milita y phrafe from which our author borrowed his metaphor. THEOBALD. 2-yourself shall keep the key of i] That is, By thinking on you, I fhall think on your leffons.

Unfifted

Unfifted in fuch perilous circumstance.

Do you believe his tenders, as you call them?

Oph. I do not know, my Lord, what I should

think.

Pol. Marry, I'll teach you.

baby,

Think yourself a

That you have ta'en his tenders for true pay,
Which are not sterling.

dearly;

• Tender yourself more

Or (not to crack the wind of the poor phrase,
Wronging it thus) you'll tender me a fool.

Opb. My Lord, he hath importun'd me with love, In honourable fashion.

Pol. Ay, fafhion you may call't: Go to, go to. Opb. And hath giv'n count'nance to his fpeech, my

Lord,

With almost all the holy vows of heav'n.
Pol. Ay, fpringes to catch woodcocks.
know,

3 Unfifted in fuch perilous circumftance.] Unfifted, for untried. Untried fignifies either not tempted, or not refined; unfifted, fignifies the latter only, though the fenfe requires the for

mer.

WARBURTON. 4-Tender yourself more dearly; Or (not to crack the wind of the poor phrafe) Wronging it thus, you'll tender me a fool] The parenthefis is clos'd at the wrong place; and we must have likewife a flight correction in the laft verfe. Polenius is racking and playing on the word tender, 'till he thinks proper to correct himself for the licence; and then he would fay -not farther to crack the wind of the phrafe, by tavifting and contorting it, as I have done. WARBURTON.

I do

I believe the word wronging has reference, not to the phrafe, but to Ophelia; if you go on wronging it thus, that is, if you continue to go on thus wrong. This is a mode of fpeaking perhaps not very grammatical, but very common, nor have the best writers refused it.

To finner it or faint it,
is in Pope. And Rowe,
-Thus to coy it,

To one who knows you too.
The folio has it,

-roaming it thus,—
That is, letting yourself loose to
fuck improper liberty. But wrong-
ing feems to be more proper.

s-fafhion you may call't:-]

She ufes fashion for manner,
he for a tranfient practice.

and

When

When the blood burns, how prodigal the foul
Lends the tongue vows. Thefe blazes, oh my
daughter,

Giving more light than heat, extinct in both,
Ev'n in their promife as it is a making,
You must not take for fire. From this time,
Be fomewhat scanter of thy maiden-prefence,
'Set your intreatments at a higher rate,

Than a command to parley. For Lord Hamlet,
Believe so much in him, that he is young;

7

And with a larger tether he may walk,

Than may be given you. In few, Ophelia,
Do not believe his vows; for they are brokers,
Not of that Die which their investments fhew,
But meer implorers of unholy fuits,

Breathing like fanctified and pious Bonds,
The better to beguile. This is for all:

'I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth,

6 Set your intreatments- ] Intreatments here means company, converfation, from the French entrétien.

? larger tether] A Atring to tye horses. РОРЕ. Breathing like fanctified and pious Bonds,] On which the editor Mr. Theobald remarks, Tho' all the editions have fwallowed this reading implicitly, it is certainly corrupt and I have been furprised bow men of genius and learning could let it pass without fome fufpicion. What ideas can we frame to ourselves of a breathing bond, or of its being fan&ified and pious, &c. But he was too hafty in framing ideas before he understood thofe alrea dy framed by the poet, and ex

Have

preffed in very plain words. Do not believe (fays Polonius to his Daughter) Hamlet's amorous vows made to you; which pretend religion in them, (the better to beguile,) like thofe fanctified and picus vows [or bonds] made to heaven. And why fhould not this pofs without fufticion?

WARBURTON.

Theobald for bonds fubftitutes bards.

9 I would not, in plain terms,
from this time forth,
Have you f flander any mo-

ment's leifure,] The humour of this is fine. The fpeaker's character is all affectation. At laft he fays he will speak plain, and yet cannot for his life; his plain fpeech of flandering a mo

ment':