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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 ownfelf be true;
And it must follow, as the night the day",
Thou canst not then be falfe to any man.
Farewell; my bleffing feafon this in thee!

Laer. Moft humbly do I take my leave, my lord.
Pol. The time invites you; go, your fervants tendʼ.
Laer. Farewell, Ophelia; and remember well

What I have faid to you.

Oph. 'Tis in my memory lock'd,

And you yourself fhall keep the key of it".

Laer. Farewel.

[Exit LAERTES.

Pol. What is't, Ophelia, he hath said to you?

tempted fome other correction. That not having been done, I have adhered to the old copies.

Our poet from various paffages in his works, appears to have been accurately acquainted with all the terms of heraldry. MALONE. oof husbandry.] i. e. of thrift; economical prudence. See Vol. IV. p. 315, n. 8. MALONE.

↑ And it must follow, as the night the day,] So, in the 145th Sonnet of Shakspeare:

That follow'd it as gentle day

"Doth follow night," &c.

STEEVENS.

8 - my bleffing feafon this in thee!] Infix it in fuch a manner as that it may never wear out. JOHNSON.

So, in the mock tragedy represented before the king:

"who in want a hollow friend doth try,

"Directly feafons him his enemy." STEEVENS.

9 The time invites you ;-] Thus the folio. The quarto, 1604, reads-The time invests you: which Mr. Theobald preferred, fuppofing that it meant," the time befieges, preffes upon you on every hide." But to inveft, in Shakspeare's time, only fignified, to clothe, or to give poffeffion. MALONE.

Either reading may ferve. Macbeth fays,

1

"I go, and it is done; the bell invites me." STEEVENS. - your fervants tend.] i. e. your fervants are waiting for you. JOHNSON. 2-yourself fhall keep the key of it.] The meaning is, that your counfels are as fure of remaining locked up in my memory, as if you yourself carried the key of it. So, in Northward Hoe, by Decker and Webster, 1607: "You shall close it up like treasure of your own, and yourself shall keep the key of it."

STEEVENS.

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Oph. So pleafe you, fomething touching the lord

Hamlet.

Pol. Marry, well bethought:

'Tis told me, he hath very oft of late

Given private time to you; and you yourself

Have of your audience been moft free and bounteous:
If it be fo, (as fo 'tis put on me,

And that in way of caution,) I must tell you,
You do not understand yourself fo clearly,

As it behoves my daughter, and your honour:
What is between you? give me up the truth.

Oph. He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders
Of his affection to me.

Pol. Affection? puh! you speak like a green girl,
Unfifted in fuch perilous circumstance 3.

Do

you believe his tenders, as you call them?

Oph. I do not know, my lord, what I should think.
Pol. Marry, I'll teach you: think yourfelf 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 wind of the poor phrafe,
Wronging it thus,) you'll tender me a fool +.

Oph.

3 Unfifted in fuch perilous circumstance.] Unfifted, for untried. Untried fignifies either not tempted, or not refined; unfifted fignifies the latter only, though the fenfe requires the former. WARBURTON.

I do not think that the fenfe requires us to understand untempted. "Unfifted in," &c, means, I think, one who has not nicely canvaffed and examined the peril of her fituation. MALONE.

4-Tender yourself more dearly;

Or (not to crack the wind of the poor phrase,

Wronging it thus,) you'll tender me a fool.] I have followed the punctuation of the first quarto, 1604, where the parenthefis is extended to the word thus, to which word the context in my apprehenfion clearly fhews it fhould be carried. "Or (not to crack the wind of the poor phrafe, playing upon it, and abufing it thus,") &c. So, in The Rape of Lucrece:

"To wrong the wronger, till he render right."

The quarto, by the mistake of the compofitor, reads-Wrong it thus. The folio, Roaming it thus. The correction was made by Mr. Pope. MALONE.

I believe the word wronging has reference, not to the phrafe, but to Ophelia: if you go on wronging it thus, that is, if you continue to

go

Oph. My lord, he hath impórtun'd me with love, In honourable fashion.

Pol. Ay, fashion you may call it; go to, go to3. Oph. And hath given countenance to his speech, my lord,

With almost all the holy vows of heaven.

Pol. Ay, fpringes to catch woodcocks. I do know, When the blood burns, how prodigal the foul Lends the tongue vows: these blazes, daughter', Giving more light than heat,-extinct in both, Even in their promife, as it is a making,You must not take for fire. From this time, Be fomewhat fcanter of your maiden prefence; Set your entreatments at a higher rate, Than a command to parley. For lord Hamlet, Believe fo much in him, That he is young;

go on thus wrong. This is a mode of fpeaking perhaps not very grammatical, but very common; nor have the best writers refufed it.

To finner it or faint it,

is in Pope. And Rowe,

Thus to coy it,

With one who knows you too.

The folio has it,-roaming it thus,—That is, letting yourself loose, to fuch improper liberty. But wronging feems to be more proper.

JOHNSON.

• Tender your felf more dearly;] To tender is to regard with affection. So in King Richard III.

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And fo betide me,

"As well I tender you and all of yours."

Again, in The Maydes Metamorphofis by Lily, 1601:

66 if you account us for the fame

"That tender thee, and love Apollo's name." MALONE. 5-fashion you may call it:-] She uses fashion for manner, and he for a tranfient practice. JOHNSON.

6 -Springes to catch woodcocks.] A proverbial saying.

"Every woman has a springe to catch a woodcock." STEEV. 7 Thefe blazes, daughter,] Some epithet to blazes was probably omitted, by the carelefinefs of the tranfcriber or compofitor, in the first quarto, in confequence of which the metre is defective. MALONE.

8 Set your entreatments-] Entreatments here means company, converJation, from the French entrétien. JOHNSON.

Entreatments, I rather think, means the objects of entreaty; the favours for which lovers fue. In the next fcene we have a word of a Gmilar formation :

"As if it fome impartment did defire," &c. MALONE.

And

And with a larger tether may he walk,
Than may be given you: In few, Ophelia,
Do not believe his vows: for they are brokers
Not of that dye which their investments shew,
But mere implorators of unholy fuits,
Breathing like fanétified and pious bonds",
The better to beguile. This is for all,-

9 - larger tether-] Tether is that ftring by which an animal, fet to graze in grounds uninclofed, is confined within the proper limits. JOHNSON. So, in Green's Card of Fancy, 1601: "To tye the ape and the bear in one tedder." Tetber is a string by which any animal is faftened, whether for the fake of feeding or the air. STEEVENS.

Do not believe bis vows, for they are brokers,] A broker in old English meant a bawd or pimp. See the Gloffary to Gawin Douglaffes tranflation of Virgil. So, in King John:

"This bawd, this broker," &c.

See alfo Vol. VIII. p. 304, n. 9. In our authour's Lovers Complaint we again meet with the fame expreffion, applied in the fame manner:

"Know, vows are ever brokers to defiling." MALUNE.

2 Breathing, like fanctified and pious bonds,] For bonds Mr. Theobald fubftituted bards; but the old reading is undoubtedly the true one. Do not, fays Polonius, believe his vows, for they are merely uttered for the purpose of perfuading you to yield to a criminal paffion, though they appear only the genuine effufions of a pure and lawful affection, and affume the femblance of thofe facred engagements entered into at the altar of wedlock. The bonds here in our poet's thoughts were bonds of love. So, in his 14zd Sonnet:

66

thofe lips of thine,

"That have profan'd their fearlet ornaments,
"And feal'd falle bonds of love, as oft as mine."

Again, in The Merebant of Venice:

O, ten times fafter Venus pigeons fly,

To feal love's bonds new made, than they are wont "To keep obliged faith unforfeited."

"Sanctified and pious bonds," are the true bonds of love, or, as our poet has elsewhere expreffed it,

"A contract and eternal bond of love."

Dr. Warburton certainly mifunderstood this paffage. His comment, which has been received in all the late editions is this: "Do not believe, (fays Polonius,) Hamlet's amorous vows made to you; which pretend religion in them, (the better to beguile,) like thofe fanctified and pious vows made to beaven." And why, he triumphantly asks, "may not this pafs without fufpicion ?" If he means his own comment, the answer is, because it is not perfectly accurate. MALONE.

I would

I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth,
Have you so flander any moment's leisure 3,
As to give words or talk with the lord Hamlet.
Look to't, I charge you; come your ways.
Oph. I fhall obey, my lord.

SCENE IV.

The Platform.

[Exeunt.

Enter HAMLET, HORATIO, and MARCELLUS. Ham. The air bites fhrewdly; it is very cold. Hor. It is a nipping and an eager air +.

Ham. What hour now?

Hor. I think, it lacks of twelve.

Mar. No, it is ftruck.

Hor. Indeed? I heard it not; it then draws near the season,

Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk.

[A flourish of trumpets, and ordnance fhot off, within. What does this mean, my lord?

Ham. The king doth wake to-night, and takes his

roufes,

Keeps waffel, and the fwaggering up-fpring reels;
And, as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down,

3 I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth,

The

Have you fo flander any moment's leifure,] Polonius fays, in plain terms, that is, not in language lefs elevated or embellished than before, but in terms that cannot be misunderflood: I would not bave you so difgrace your most idle moments, as not to find better employment for them than lord Hamlet's converfation. JOHNSON.

4- an eager air.] That is, a fharp air, aigre, Fr. So, in a fubfequent scene:

"And curd, like eager droppings into milk." MALONE. 5- - takes bis roufe,] A roufe is a large dofe of liquor, a debauch. So, in Othello: ""- they have given me a roufe already."

It should seem from the following paffage in Decker's Gul's Hornbook, 1609, that the word roufe was of Danish extraction. "Teach me, thou foveraigne fkinker, how to take the German's upfy freeze, the Danish roufer, the Switzer's ftoop of rhenish," &c. STEEVENS. 6 Keeps waffel, -] Devotes the night to intemperance. See Vol. II. p. 411, n. 9, and Vol. IV. p. 311, n. 2. MALONE.

7 the fwaggering up-fpring-] The blustering upstart. JOHNSON.

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