The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Part 10

[Footnote 5: 'The friends thou hast--and the choice of them justified by trial--'_equal to_: 'provided their choice be justified &c.']

[Footnote 6: 'Do not make the palm hard, and dull its touch of discrimination, by shaking hands in welcome with every one that turns up.']

[Footnote 7: judgment, opinion.]

[Footnote 8: _Generosus_, of good breed, a gentleman.]

[Footnote 9: _1st Q_. 'generall chiefe.']

[Footnote 10: No doubt the omission of _of a_ gives the right number of syllables to the verse, and makes room for the interpretation which a dash between _generous_ and _chief_ renders clearer: 'Are most select and generous--chief in that,'--'are most choice and well-bred--chief, indeed--at the head or top, in the matter of dress.' But without _necessity_ or _authority_--one of the two, I would not throw away a word; and suggest therefore that Shakspere had here the French idiom _de son chef_ in his mind, and qualifies the noun in it with adjectives of his own. The Academy Dictionary gives _de son propre mouvement_ as one interpretation of the phrase. The meaning would be, 'they are of a most choice and developed instinct in dress.' _Cheff_ or _chief_ suggests the upper third of the heraldic s.h.i.+eld, but I cannot persuade the suggestion to further development. The hypercatalectic syllables _of a_, swiftly spoken, matter little to the verse, especially as it is _dramatic_.]

[Footnote 11: Those that borrow, having to pay, lose heart for saving.

'There's husbandry in heaven; Their candles are all out.'--_Macbeth_, ii. 1.]

[Footnote 12: Certainly a man cannot be true to himself without being true to others; neither can he be true to others without being true to himself; but if a man make himself the centre for the birth of action, it will follow, '_as the night the day_,' that he will be true neither to himself nor to any other man. In this regard note the history of Laertes, developed in the play.]

[Footnote 13: --as salt, to make the counsel keep.]

[Footnote 14: See _note 9, page 37_.]

[Page 40]

_Ophe._ So please you, somthing touching the L. _Hamlet._

_Polon._ Marry, well bethought: Tis told me he hath very oft of late Giuen priuate time to you; and you your selfe Haue of your audience beene most free and bounteous.[1]

If it be so, as so tis put on me;[2]

And that in way of caution: I must tell you, You doe not vnderstand your selfe so cleerely, As it behoues my Daughter, and your Honour What is betweene you, giue me vp the truth?

_Ophe._ He hath my Lord of late, made many tenders Of his affection to me.

_Polon._ Affection, puh. You speake like a greene Girle, Vnsifted in such perillous Circ.u.mstance.

Doe you beleeue his tenders, as you call them?

_Ophe._ I do not know, my Lord, what I should thinke.

_Polon._ Marry Ile teach you; thinke your self a Baby, [Sidenote: I will]

That you haue tane his tenders for true pay, [Sidenote: tane these]

Which are not starling. Tender your selfe more dearly; [Sidenote: sterling]

Or not to crack the winde of the poore Phrase, [Sidenote: (not ... &c.]

Roaming it[3] thus, you'l tender me a foole.[4]

[Sidenote: Wrong it thus]

_Ophe._ My Lord, he hath importun'd me with loue, In honourable fas.h.i.+on.

_Polon._ I, fas.h.i.+on you may call it, go too, go too.

_Ophe._ And hath giuen countenance to his speech, My Lord, with all the vowes of Heauen.

[Sidenote: with almost all the holy vowes of]

[Footnote 1: There had then been a good deal of intercourse between Hamlet and Ophelia: she had heartily encouraged him.]

[Footnote 2: 'as so I am informed, and that by way of caution,']

[Footnote 3: --making it, 'the poor phrase' _tenders_, gallop wildly about--as one might _roam_ a horse; _larking it_.]

[Footnote 4: 'you will in your own person present me a fool.']

[Page 42]

_Polon_. I, Springes to catch Woodc.o.c.ks.[1] I doe know [Sidenote: springs]

When the Bloud burnes, how Prodigall the Soule[2]

Giues the tongue vowes: these blazes, Daughter, [Sidenote: Lends the]

Giuing more light then heate; extinct in both,[3]

Euen in their promise, as it is a making; You must not take for fire. For this time Daughter,[4]

[Sidenote: fire, from this]

Be somewhat scanter of your Maiden presence; [Sidenote: something]

Set your entreatments[5] at a higher rate, Then a command to parley. For Lord _Hamlet_, [Sidenote: parle;]

Beleeue so much in him, that he is young, And with a larger tether may he walke, [Sidenote: tider]

Then may be giuen you. In few,[6] _Ophelia_, Doe not beleeue his vowes; for they are Broakers, Not of the eye,[7] which their Inuestments show: [Sidenote: of that die]

But meere implorators of vnholy Sutes, [Sidenote: imploratators]

Breathing like sanctified and pious bonds, The better to beguile. This is for all:[8] [Sidenote: beguide]

I would not, in plaine tearmes, from this time forth, Haue you so slander any moment leisure,[9]

[Sidenote: 70, 82] As to giue words or talke with the Lord _Hamlet_:[10]

Looke too't, I charge you; come your wayes.

_Ophe_. I shall obey my Lord.[11] _Exeunt_.

_Enter Hamlet, Horatio, Marcellus._ [Sidenote: _and Marcellus_]

[Sidenote: 2] _Ham_. [12]The Ayre bites shrewdly: is it very cold?[13]

_Hor_. It is a nipping and an eager ayre.

_Ham_. What hower now?

_Hor_. I thinke it lacks of twelue.

_Mar_. No, it is strooke.

_Hor_. Indeed I heard it not: then it drawes neere the season, [Sidenote: it then]

Wherein the Spirit held his wont to walke.

What does this meane my Lord? [14]

[Sidenote: _A flourish of trumpets and 2 peeces goes of._[14]]

[Footnote 1: Woodc.o.c.ks were understood to have no brains.]

[Footnote 2: _1st Q_. 'How prodigall the tongue lends the heart vowes.'