7 Let it be tenable in your filence ftill:
And whatfoever elfe fhall hap to-night,
Give it an understanding, but no tongue;
I will requite your loves. So fare ye well.
Upon the platform 'twixt eleven and twelve
I'll vifit you.

All. Our duty to your honour.

[Exeunt.

Ham. Your loves, as mine to you. Farewell. My father's fpirit in arms! all is not well;

I doubt fome foul play. Would the night were

come!

'Till then fit ftill, my foul. Foul deeds will rife, Tho' all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes.

An apartment in Polonius's boufe.
Enter Laertes and Ophelia.

Laer. My neceffaries are embark'd; farewell:
And, fifter, as the winds give benefit,

And convoy is affiftant, do not sleep,

But let me hear from you.

Oph. Do you doubt that?

[Exit.

Lar. 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; fweet, not lafting:
8 The perfume, and fuppliance of a minute:
No more.-

Oph.

7 Le: it be treble in your filence fill:] If treble be right, in propriety it should be read,

Let it be treble in your filence now:

- But the old quarto reads,

Let it be TENABLE in your filence fill.

And this is right. WARBURTON.

The perfume, and fappliance of a minute:] Thus the quarto: the folio has it,

-Savect, not lefling,
The fuppliance of a minute.

It

Oph. No more but fo?

Laer. Think it no more:

For nature, crefcent, does not grow alone
In thews, and bulk; but, as this temple waxes,
The inward fervice of the mind and foul

Grows wide withal. Perhaps, he loves you now;
9 And now no foil, nor cautel, doth befmerch
The virtue of his will: but, you must fear,
His greatnefs weigh'd, his will is not his own:
For he himself is fubject to his birth :
He may not, as unvalued perfons do,
Carve for himfelf; for on his choice depends
'The fanity and health of the whole ftate;
And therefore muft his choice be circumfcrib'd

It is plain that perfume is neceffary to exemplify the idea of fweet, net lafting. With the word juppliance I am not fatisfied, and yet dare har ly offer what I imagine to be right. I fufpect that fofance, or fome fuch word, formed from the Italian, was then used for the act of fumigating with fweet fcents. JOHNS. The perfume, and fuppliance of a minute; i. e. what is fupplied to us for a minute. The idea feems to be taken from the fhort duration of vegetable perfumes. STEEVENS.

And now no jail, NOR cautel,-] From cautela, which fignifies only a prudent forefight or caution; but, paffing thro' French hands, it loft its innocence, and now fignifies fraud, deceit. And fo he ufes the adjective in Julius Cæfar,

Swear priests and cowards and men cautelous.

But I believe Shakespeare wrote,

And now no foil or cautel

which the following words confirm, -doth befmerch

The virtue of his will:

For by virtue is meant the fimplicity of his will, not virtuous will and both this and befmerch refer only to foil, and to the foil of craft and infincerity. WARBURTON.

Virtue feems here to comprise both excellence and power, and may be explained the pure effect. JOHNSON.

The SANCTITY and health of the whole ftate :] What has the fanctity of the ftate to do with the prince's difproportioned marriage? We fhould read with the old quarto SAFETY. WARBURTON.

HANMER reads very rightly, fanity. Sanctity is elsewhere printed for fanity, in the old edition of this play. JOHNSON.

Unto

Unto the voice and yielding of that body,
Whereof he is the head. Then, if he fays, he loves

you,

It fits your wifdom fo far to believe it,
As he in his particular act and place

May give his faying deed; which is no further,
Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal.
Then weigh, what lofs
your honour may fustain,
If with too credent ear you lift his fongs;

Or lofe your heart; or your chafte treasure open
To his unmafter'd importunity.

Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear fifter;
And 3 keep you in the rear of your affection,
Out of the fhot and danger of defire.
The charieft maid is prodigal enough,
If the unmask her beauty to the moon:
Virtue itself 'scapes not calumnious strokes :
The canker galls the infants of the fpring,
Too oft before their buttons be difclos'd;
And in the morn and liquid dew of youth
Contagious blaftments are moft imminent.
Be wary then beft fafety lies in fear;
Youth to itself rebels, though none else near.

Oph. I fhall the effect of this good leffon keep, As watchman to my heart. But, good my brother, Do not, as fome ungracious pastors do,

Shew me the steep and thorny way to heaven;
Whilft, like a puft and reckless libertine,

Himself

2 —unmafter'd-] i. e. licentious. JOHNSON. 3 keep within the rear, &c.] That is, do not advance fo far as your affe&ion would lead you. JOHNSON.

4

Whilft, like a puft and careless libertine.] This reading give us a fenfe to this effect, Do not you be like an ungracious preacher, who is like a careless libertine. And there we find, that he who is fo like a careless libertine, is the careless libertine himfelf. This could not come from Shakespeare. The old quarto reads,

Whiles a puft and reckless libertine, which directs us to the right reading,

Whileft

Himself the primrofe path of dalliance treads,
And recks not his own read.

Laer. Oh, fear me not.

I ftay too long.

Enter Polonius.

-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 fhame; The wind fits in the shoulder of your fail,

And you are ftaid for. There!-my bleffing with you: [Laying his hand on Laertes's head.

And thefe few precepts in thy memory

Look 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,

Whileft HE, a puft and reckless libertine.

The first impreffion of thefe plays being taken from the playhoufe copies, and thofe, for the better direction of the actors, being written as they were pronounced, thefe circumftances have occafioned innumerable errors. So a for he every where.

for I warrant. This fhould be well attended to in correcting Shakespeare. WARBURTON.

The emendation is not amifs, but the reafon for it is very inconclufive; we ufe the fame mode of fpeaking on many occafions. When I fay of one, be fquanders like a spendthrift, of another, be robbed me like a thief, the phrafe produces no ambiguity; it is underftood that the one is a spendthrift, and the other a thief. JOHNSON.

S recks not his own read.] That is, heeds not his own leffons.

POPE.

Against a public reed."

So in Sir Tho. North's tranflation of Plutarch.

66

-Difpatch, I read you,

"for your enterprize is betray'd." STEEVENS.

-the shoulder of your fail,] This is a common fea phrase,

STEEVENS.

Grapple

Grapple them to thy foul with hooks of steel;
7 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,

Bear it that the oppofer may beware of thee,
Give every 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 select, 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 ownself be true;
• And it must follow, as the night the day,

But do not dull thy palm with entertainment

Thou

Of each new-batch'd, unfledg'd comrade.] The literal sense is, Do not make thy palm callous by shaking every man by the hand, The figurative meaning may be, Do not by promifcuous conver fation make thy mind infenfible to the difference of characters.

8

JOHNSON.

Are meft felect, and generous, chief in that.] I think the whole'defign of the precept fhews we should read,

Are moft felett, and generous chief, in that. Chief is an adjetive ufed adverbially, a practice common to our author. Chiefly generous. STEEVENS.

9 And it must follow, as the NIGHT the day.] The sense here requires, that the fimilitude fhould give an image not of two effets of different ratures, that follow one another alternately, but of a cafe and effect, where the effect follows the caufe by a phyfical neceffity. For the affertion is, Be true to thyself, and then thou must neceffarily be true to others. Truth to himself then was the caufe, truth to others the effect. To illuftrate this neceffity, the fpeaker employs a fimilitude: but no fimilitude can illuftrate it, but what prefents an image of a caufe and effect; and fuch a caufe as that, where the effect follows by a physical, not a moral neceffity for if only, by a moral neceffity the thing illuftrating would not be more certain than the thing illuftrated; which would be a great abfurdity. This being premifed, let us fee what the text fays,

And