←

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3

Ophelia is forbidden to see Hamlet · William Shakespeare
Every note, for your class

Previously, in Act 1, Scene 2

Claudius addresses the court as Denmark's new king, defends his marriage to Gertrude, and sends envoys to restrain Fortinbras. Hamlet rejects the court's calls to end his mourning and privately laments his father's death and his mother's swift remarriage. Horatio, Marcellus, and Bernardo tell Hamlet about the ghost, and he resolves to join their watch that night.

SCENE III. A room in Polonius’s house.

Enter Laertes and Ophelia.
LAERTES
My necessaries are embark’d. Farewell.And, sister, as the winds give benefitAnd convoy is assistant, do not sleep,But let me hear from you.
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 primyyouthful, vigorous, and in the first bloom of life. nature,Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting;The perfume and suppliancesomething supplying a temporary need or gratification. of a minute;No more.
OPHELIA
No more but so?
LAERTES
Think it no more.For nature crescent does not grow aloneIn thews and bulk; but as this temple waxes,The inward service of the mind and soulGrows wide withal. Perhaps he loves you now,And now no soil nor cautelA deceitful precaution, trick, or crafty design. doth besmirchThe virtue of his will; but you must fear,His greatness weigh’d, his will is not his own;For he himself is subject to his birth:He may not, as unvalu’d persons do,Carve for himself; for on his choice dependsThe sanctity and health of this whole state;And therefore must his choice be circumscrib’dUnto the voice and yielding of that bodyWhereof he is the head. Then if he says he loves you,It fits your wisdom so far to believe itAs he in his particular act and placeMay give his saying deed; which is no furtherThan the main voice of Denmark goes withal.Then weigh what loss your honour may sustainIf with too credent ear you list his songs,Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure openTo his unmaster’d 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 enoughIf she unmask her beauty to the moon.Virtue itself ’scapes not calumnious strokes:The canker galls the infants of the springToo oft before their buttons be disclos’d,And in the morn and liquid dew of youthContagious blastmentsA blighting or destructive influence. 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 keepAs watchman to my heart. But good my brother,Do not as some ungracious pastors do,Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven;Whilst like a puff’d and reckless libertineHimself the primrose path of dalliance treads,And recks not his own redeTo advise or counsel..
LAERTES
O, fear me not.I stay too long. But here my father comes.
Enter Polonius.
LAERTES
A double blessing is a double grace;Occasion smiles upon a second leave.
POLONIUS
Yet here, Laertes? Aboard, aboard, for shame.The wind sits in the shoulderthe part or quarter of a sail against which the wind bears. of your sail,And you are stay’d for. There, my blessing with you.
Laying his hand on Laertes’s head.
POLONIUS
And these few precepts in thy memoryLook thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,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 entertainmentOf each new-hatch’d, unfledg’d comrade. BewareOf 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 judgement.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 stationAre of a most select and generous chief in that.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 it must follow, as the night the day,Thou canst not then be false to any man.Farewell: my blessing season this in thee.
LAERTES
Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord.
POLONIUS
The time invites you; go, your servants tend.
LAERTES
Farewell, Ophelia, and remember wellWhat I have said to you.
OPHELIA
’Tis in my memory lock’d,And you yourself shall keep the key of it.
LAERTES
Farewell.
Exit.
POLONIUS
What is’t, Ophelia, he hath said to you?
OPHELIA
So please you, something touching the Lord Hamlet.
POLONIUS
Marry, well bethought:’Tis told me he hath very oft of lateGiven private time to you; and you yourselfHave of your audience been most free and bounteous.If it be so,—as so ’tis put on me,And that in way of caution,—I must tell youYou do not understand yourself so clearlyAs it behoves my daughter and your honour.What is between you? Give me up the truth.
OPHELIA
He hath, my lord, of late made many tendersOf his affection to me.
POLONIUS
Affection! Pooh! You speak like a green girl,Unsifted in such perilous circumstance.Do you believe his tenders, as you call them?
OPHELIA
I do not know, my lord, what I should think.
POLONIUS
Marry, I’ll teach you; think yourself a baby;That you have ta’en these tenders for true pay,Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly;Or,—not to crack the windto overstrain or damage the breath or lungs through exertion. of the poor phrase,Running it thus,—you’ll tender me a fool.
OPHELIA
My lord, he hath importun’d me with loveIn honourable fashion.
POLONIUS
Ay, fashion you may call it; go to, go to.
OPHELIA
And hath given countenance to his speech, my lord,With almost all the holy vows of heaven.
POLONIUS
Ay, springesa snare for catching birds or small animals. to catch woodcocks. I do know,When the blood burns, how prodigal the soulLends the tongue vows: these blazes, daughter,Giving more light than heat, extinct in both,Even in their promise, as it is a-making,You must not take for fire. From this timeBe something scanter of your maiden presence;Set your entreatments at a higher rateThan a command to parley. For Lord Hamlet,Believe so much in him that he is young;And with a larger tether may he walkThan may be given you. In few, Ophelia,Do not believe his vows; for they are brokers,Not of that dye which their investments show,But mere imploratorsA person who implores; a supplicant. of unholy suits,Breathing like sanctified and pious bawds,The better to beguile. This is for all:I would not, in plain terms, from this time forthHave you so slander any moment leisureAs to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet.Look to’t, I charge you; come your ways.
OPHELIA
I shall obey, my lord.
Exeunt.