9

Farewel; my Bleffing feafon this in thee!

I

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 faid.

Oph. 'Tis in my mem❜ry lock't,'

2

And you yourself shall keep the key of it.

Laer. Farewel.

[Exit Laer.

Pol. What is't, Ophelio, he hath said 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 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,

9-my Bleffing feafon this in thee!] Seafon, for infuse. WARBURTON. It is more than to infufe, 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 first folio ; however I fufpect it to have been fubftituted by the players, who did not understand the term

1

which poffeffes the elder quarto's:
The time invests you;

i. e.
befieges, preffes upon you
on every fide. To invest a town,
is the military phrase from which
our author borrowed his meta-
phor.
THEOBALD.
2-yourself stall keep the key
of it.] That is, By think-
ing on you, I fhall think on your
leffons,

Unfifted

3 Unfifted in fuch perilous circumstance.

Do you believe his tenders, as you call them?

Opb. I do not know, my Lord, what I fhould think.

Pol. Marry, I'll teach you. Think yourself a

baby,

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

dearly;

4 Tender yourself more

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't: Go to, go to.
Oph. And hath giv'n count'nance to his speech, my
Lord,

With almost all the holy vows of heav'n.

Pol. Ay, fpringes to catch woodcocks. I do know,

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

mer.

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 loofe to
fuch improper liberty. But wrong-
ing feems to be more proper.

s fafhion you may call it :-]
She uses fashion for manner, and
he for a tranfient practice.

When

1

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 promise 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 fo much in him, that he is young;
And with a larger tether he may walk,

7

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 mere implorers of unholy fuits,

8

* 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 intreatmentsIntreatments here means company, converfation, from the French entrétien.

7-larger tether] A ftring to tye horfes. POPE. 8 Breathing like fanctified and pious Bonds.] On which the editor Mr. Theobald remarks, Tho' all the editions hve fwalloved this reading implicitly, it is certainly corrupt; and I have been furprised how 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 fanctified and pious, &c. But he was too hafty in framing ideas before he understood thofe already 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 those fanctified and pious vows [or bonds] made to heaven. And why should not this pass without fufpicion?

WARBURTON. Theobald for bonds fubftitutes bawds.

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

ment's leifure,] The hu mour 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's

3

Have you so flander any moment's leifure,
As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet.
Look to't, I charge you. Come your way.
Oph. I fhall obey, my Lord.

[Exeunt.

Enter Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus.

Ham.THE Air bites fhrewdly; it is very cold. Ham. Hor. It is a nipping and an eager air.

Ham. What hour now?

Hor. I think, it lacks of twelve.

Mar. No, it is ftruck.

Hor. I heard it not. It then draws near the feafon, Wherein the Spirit held his wont to walk.

[Noife of warlike mufick within.

What does this mean, my Lord?

Ham. The King doth wake to night, and takes his

roufe,

Keeps waffel, and the fwagg'ring up-fpring 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?

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.
2 This heavy-headed revel, eaft and weft,
Makes us traduc'd, and tax'd of other nations;
They clepe us drunkards, and with fwinish phrafe
Soil our addition; and, indeed, it takes

From our atchievements, though perform'd at height,
3 The pith and marrow of our attribute.
So, oft it chances in particular men,

That for fome vicious mole of nature in them,
As, in their birth, wherein they are not guilty,
Since nature cannot chufe bis origin,

4

By the o'ergrowth of fome complexion,

Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason;
Or by fome habit, that too much o'er-leavens
The form of plaufive manners; that these men
Carrying, Ifay, the stamp of one defect,
Being nature's livery, or 5 fortune's fear,
Their virtues elfe, be they as pure as grace,
• As infinite as man may undergo,
Shall in the general cenfure take corruption
From that particular fault. The dram of Bafe

Doth