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Hamlet: Act I, Scene 3

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Hamlet
Act I, Scene 3

Elsinore. A room in Polonius’ house.

  1. Enter Laertes and Ophelia, his sister.

Laertes

1 - 4
  1. My necessaries are inbark’d. Farewell.
  2. And, sister, as the winds give benefit
  3. And convey is assistant, do not sleep,
  4. But let me hear from you.

Ophelia

5
  1.                           Do you doubt that?

Laertes

6 - 11
  1. For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favor,
  2. Hold it a fashion and a toy in blood,
  3. A violet in the youth of primy nature,
  4. Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting,
  5. The perfume and suppliance of a minute
  6. No more.

Ophelia

12
  1.          No more but so?

Laertes

13 - 47
  1.                 Think it no more:
  2. For nature crescent does not grow alone
  3. In thews and bulk, but as this temple waxes,
  4. The inward service of the mind and soul
  5. Grows wide withal. Perhaps he loves you now,
  6. And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch
    Jul 17, 2019 Zyzigus
    deceit
  7. The virtue of his will, but you must fear,
  8. His greatness weigh’d, his will is not his own,
  9. For he himself is subject to his birth:
  10. He may not, as unvalued persons do,
  11. Carve for himself, for on his choice depends
  12. The safety and health of this whole state,
  13. And therefore must his choice be circumscrib’d
  14. Unto the voice and yielding of that body
  15. Whereof he is the head. Then if he says he loves you,
  16. It fits your wisdom so far to believe it
  17. As he in his particular act and place
  18. May give his saying deed, which is no further
  19. Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal.
  20. Then weigh what loss your honor may sustain
  21. If with too credent ear you list his songs,
  22. Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open
    Jul 17, 2019 Zyzigus
    virginity
  23. To his unmast’red importunity.
  24. Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister,
  25. And keep you in the rear of your affection,
  26. Out of the shot and danger of desire.
  27. The chariest maid is prodigal enough
    Jul 17, 2019 Zyzigus
    cautious
  28. If she unmask her beauty to the moon.
  29. Virtue itself scapes not calumnious strokes.
  30. The canker galls the infants of the spring
    Jul 17, 2019 Zyzigus
    The caterpillar destroys the blossoms of spring
  31. Too oft before their buttons be disclos’d,
  32. And in the morn and liquid dew of youth
  33. Contagious blastments are most imminent.
  34. Be wary then, best safety lies in fear:
  35. Youth to itself rebels, though none else near.

Ophelia

48 - 54
  1. I shall the effect of this good lesson keep
  2. As watchman to my heart. But, good my brother,
  3. Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
  4. Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven,
  5. Whiles, like a puff’d and reckless libertine,
  6. Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
  7. And recks not his own rede.
    Jul 17, 2019 Zyzigus
    does not practice what he preaches

Laertes

55 - 58
  1. O, fear me not.
  2. Enter Polonius.
  3. I stay too longbut here my father comes.
  4. A double blessing is a double grace,
  5. Occasion smiles upon a second leave.

Polonius

59 - 86
  1. Yet here, Laertes? Aboard, aboard, for shame!
  2. The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,
  3. And you are stay’d for. There
  4. Laying his hand on Laertes’ head.
  5. My blessing with thee!
  6. And these few precepts in thy memory
  7. Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
    Jul 17, 2019 Zyzigus
    write down
  8. Nor any unproportion’d thought his act.
  9. Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar:
  10. Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
  11. Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel,
  12. But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
  13. Of each new-hatch’d, unfledg’d courage. Beware
  14. Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in,
  15. Bear’t that th’ opposed may beware of thee.
  16. Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice,
  17. Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment.
  18. Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
  19. But not express’d in fancy, rich, not gaudy,
  20. For the apparel oft proclaims the man,
  21. And they in France of the best rank and station
  22. Are of a most select and generous chief in that.
  23. Neither a borrower nor a lender be,
  24. For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
  25. And borrowing dulleth th’ edge of husbandry.
    Jul 17, 2019 Zyzigus
    money management
  26. This above all: to thine own self be true,
  27. And it must follow, as the night the day,
  28. Thou canst not then be false to any man.
  29. Farewell, my blessing season this in thee!

Laertes

87
  1. Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord.

Polonius

88
  1. The time invests you, go, your servants tend.

Laertes

89 - 90
  1. Farewell, Ophelia, and remember well
  2. What I have said to you.

Ophelia

91 - 92
  1.                          ’Tis in my memory lock’d,
  2. And you yourself shall keep the key of it.

Laertes

93
  1. Farewell.
  1. Exit Laertes.

Polonius

94
  1. What is’t, Ophelia, he hath said to you?

Ophelia

95
  1. So please you, something touching the Lord Hamlet.

Polonius

96 - 104
  1. Marry, well bethought.
  2. ’Tis told me, he hath very oft of late
  3. Given private time to you, and you yourself
  4. Have of your audience been most free and bounteous.
  5. If it be soas so ’tis put on me,
  6. And that in way of cautionI must tell you,
  7. You do not understand yourself so clearly
  8. As it behooves my daughter and your honor.
  9. What is between you? Give me up the truth.

Ophelia

105 - 106
  1. He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders
  2. Of his affection to me.

Polonius

107 - 109
  1. Affection, puh! You speak like a green girl,
  2. Unsifted in such perilous circumstance.
  3. Do you believe his tenders, as you call them?

Ophelia

110
  1. I do not know, my lord, what I should think.

Polonius

111 - 115
  1. Marry, I will teach you: think yourself a baby
  2. That you have ta’en these tenders for true pay,
  3. Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly,
  4. Or (not to crack the wind of the poor phrase,
  5. Wringing it thus) you’ll tender me a fool.

Ophelia

116 - 117
  1. My lord, he hath importun’d me with love
  2. In honorable fashion.

Polonius

118
  1. Ay, fashion you may call it. Go to, go to.

Ophelia

119 - 120
  1. And hath given countenance to his speech, my lord,
  2. With almost all the holy vows of heaven.

Polonius

121 - 141
  1. Ay, springes to catch woodcocks. I do know,
  2. When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul
  3. Lends the tongue vows. These blazes, daughter,
  4. Giving more light than heat, extinct in both
  5. Even in their promise, as it is a-making,
  6. You must not take for fire. From this time
  7. Be something scanter of your maiden presence,
  8. Set your entreatments at a higher rate
  9. Than a command to parle. For Lord Hamlet,
  10. Believe so much in him, that he is young,
  11. And with a larger teder may he walk
  12. Than may be given you. In few, Ophelia,
  13. Do not believe his vows, for they are brokers,
  14. Not of that dye which their investments show,
  15. 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.
  16. Breathing like sanctified and pious bonds,
  17. The better to beguile. This is for all:
  18. I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth
  19. Have you so slander any moment leisure
  20. As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet.
  21. Look to’t, I charge you. Come your ways.

Ophelia

142
  1. I shall obey, my lord.
  1. Exeunt.
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