Hamlet. William Shakespeare

the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve,

      I'll visit you.

      All. Our duty to your honour.

      Hamlet. Your loves, as mine to you. Farewell.

      [Exeunt [all but Hamlet].] 475

      My father's spirit- in arms? All is not well.

      I doubt some foul play. Would the night were come!

      Till then sit still, my soul. Foul deeds will rise,

      Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes.

      Exit.

      Act I, Scene 3.

      Elsinore. A room in the house of Polonius.

      Enter Laertes and Ophelia.

      Laertes. My necessaries are embark'd. Farewell.

      And, sister, as the winds give benefit

      And convoy is assistant, do not sleep,

      But let me hear from you. 485

      Ophelia. Do you doubt that?

      Laertes. For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favour,

      Hold it a fashion, and a toy in blood;

      A violet in the youth of primy nature,

      Forward, not permanent- sweet, not lasting; 490

      The perfume and suppliance of a minute;

      No more.

      Ophelia. No more but so?

      Laertes. Think it no more.

      For nature crescent does not grow alone 495

      In thews and bulk; but as this temple waxes,

      The inward service of the mind and soul

      Grows wide withal. Perhaps he loves you now,

      And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch

      The virtue of his will; but you must fear, 500

      His greatness weigh'd, his will is not his own;

      For he himself is subject to his birth.

      He may not, as unvalued persons do,

      Carve for himself, for on his choice depends

      The safety and health of this whole state, 505

      And therefore must his choice be circumscrib'd

      Unto the voice and yielding of that body

      Whereof he is the head. Then if he says he loves you,

      It fits your wisdom so far to believe it

      As he in his particular act and place 510

      May give his saying deed; which is no further

      Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal.

      Then weigh what loss your honour may sustain

      If with too credent ear you list his songs,

      Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open 515

      To his unmast'red importunity.

      Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister,

      And keep you in the rear of your affection,

      Out of the shot and danger of desire.

      The chariest maid is prodigal enough 520

      If she unmask her beauty to the moon.

      Virtue itself scopes not calumnious strokes.

      The canker galls the infants of the spring

      Too oft before their buttons be disclos'd,

      And in the morn and liquid dew of youth 525

      Contagious blastments are most imminent.

      Be wary then; best safety lies in fear.

      Youth to itself rebels, though none else near.

      Ophelia. I shall th' effect of this good lesson keep

      As watchman to my heart. But, good my brother, 530

      Do not as some ungracious pastors do,

      Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven,

      Whiles, like a puff'd and reckless libertine,

      Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads

      And recks not his own rede. 535

      Laertes. O, fear me not!

      [Enter Polonius. ]

      I stay too long. But here my father comes.

      A double blessing is a double grace;

      Occasion smiles upon a second leave. 540

      Polonius. Yet here, Laertes? Aboard, aboard, for shame!

      The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,

      And you are stay'd for. There- my blessing with thee!

      And these few precepts in thy memory

      Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue, 545

      Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.

      Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar:

      Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,

      Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel;

      But do not dull thy palm with entertainment 550

      Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade. Beware

      Of entrance to a quarrel; but being in,

      Bear't that th' opposed may beware of thee.

      Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice;

      Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment. 555

      Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,

      But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy;

      For the apparel oft proclaims the man,

      And they in France of the best rank and station

      Are most select and generous, chief in that. 560

      Neither a borrower nor a lender be;

      For loan oft loses both itself and friend,

      And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.

      This above all- to thine own self be true,

      And