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ACT

II.

SCENE I.

A Room in Polonius's House.

Enter POLONIUS and REYNALDO9.

Pol. Give him this money, and these notes, Reynaldo. Rey. I will, my lord.

Pol. You fhall do marvellous wifely, good Reynaldo, Before you vifit him, to make inquiry

Of his behaviour.

Rey. My lord, I did intend it.

Pol. Marry, well faid: very well faid. Look you, fir, Inquire me firft what Danskers' are in Paris;

And how, and who, what means, and where they keep,
What company, at what expence; and finding,
By this encompaffment and drift of question,
That they do know my son, come you more nearer
Than your particular demands will touch it2:
Take you, as 'twere some distant knowledge of him;
As thus,-I know his father, and his friends,
And, in part, him ;-Do you mark this, Reynaldo?
Rey. Ay, very well, my lord.

Pol. And, in part, him ; but, you may say,—not well: But, if't be he I mean, he's very wild;

Addicted fo and fo;-and there put on him

What forgeries you pleafe; marry, none fo rank
As may difhonour him ; take heed of that;

But, fir, fuch wanton, wild, and usual slips,

9 The quartos read, Enter old Polonius with his man or two. STEEV. -Danfkers- Danske (in Warner's Albions England) is the ancient name of Denmark. STEEVENS.

2

come you more nearer

Than your particular demands will touch it:] The late editions read, and point, thus:

come you more nearer;

Then your particular demands will touch it:

Throughout the old copies the word which we now write-than, is conftantly written then. I have therefore here printed than, which the context seems to me to require, though the old copies have then. There is no point after the word nearer, either in the original quarto, 1604, or the folio. MALONE.

As

As are companions noted and most known
To youth and liberty.

Rey. As gaming, my lord.

Pol. Ay, or drinking, fencing, fwearing 3, quarrelling; Drabbing: You may go fo far.

Rey. My lord, that would difhonour him.

Pol. 'Faith, no; as you may feason it in the charge*. You must not put another scandal on him3,

That he is open to incontinency;

That's not my meaning: but breathe his faults fo quaintly, That they may feem the taints of liberty:

The flash and out-break of a firy mind;

A favagenefs in unreclaimed blood,
Of general affault 7.

Rey. But, my good lord,

Pol. Wherefore fhould you do this?
Rey. Ay, my lord,

I would know that.

Pol. Marry, fir, here's my drift;

And, I believe, it is a fetch of warrant3:

You laying thefe flight fullies on my fon,

As 'twere a thing a little foil'd i' the working,

3-drinking, fencing, fwearing,] I fuppofe by fencing is meant a too diligent frequentation of the fencing-fchool, a refort of violent and lawless young men. JOHNSON.

Fencing, I fuppofe, means, piquing himself on his skill in the use of the fword, and quarrelling and brawlling, in confequence of that skill. "The cunning of fencers, fays Goffon in his Schoole of Abufe, 1579, is now applied to quarrelling: they thinke themselves no men, if, for ftirring of a straw, they prove not their valure uppon fome bodies flefhe." MALONE.

4 'Faith, no; as you may seafon it, &c.] The quarto reads-Faith, as you may feafon it in the charge. MALONE.

5 You must not put another fcandal on him,] i. e. a very different and more fcandalous failing, namely habitual incontinency, Mr. Theobald in his Shakspeare Reftored propofed to read-an utter fcandal on him; but did not admit the emendation into his edition. MALONE.

6 A favagenefs-] Savagenefs, for wildness. WARBURTON. 1 Of general assault.] i. e. fuch as youth in general is liable to. WARBURTON.

8 And, I believe, it is a fetch of warrant:] So the folio. quarto reads, a fetch of wit. STEEVENS. R

VOL. IX.

The

Mark

Mark you,

Your party in converse, him you would found,
Having ever feen, in the prenominate crimes,
The youth, you breathe of, guilty, be affur'd,
He closes with you in this confequence;
Good fir, or fo; or friend, or gentleman,-
According to the phrafe, or the addition,
Of man, and country.

Rey. Very good, my lord.

Pol. And then, fir, does he this,-He does-What was I about to say?-By the mafs, I was about to say some thing:-Where did I leave?

Rey. At, clofes in the consequence 2.

Pol. At, clofes in the confequence,-Ay, marry;
He closes with you thus :-I know the gentleman ;
I faw him yesterday, or t'other day,

Or then, or then; with fuch, or fuch; and, as you fay
There was he gaming; there o'ertook in his rouse ;
There falling out at tennis: or, perchance,
I faw him enter fuch a boufe of fjale,

(Videlicet, a brothel) or fo forth.-See you now;
Your bait of falfehood takes this carp of truth:
And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,

With windlaces, and with affays of bias,
By indirections find directions out;

So, by my former lecture and advice,

Shall you my fon: You have me, have you not?
Rey. My lord, I have.

Pol. God be wi'you; fare you well.

Rey. Good my lord,

Pol. Obferve his inclination in yourself 3.

9-prenominate crimes,] i. e. crimes already named. STEEVENS.

Good fir, or fo;] I fulpect, (with Mr. Tyrwhitt,) that the poet wrote-Good fir, or fir, or friend, &c. In the last act of this play, fo is ufed for fo forth: "fix French rapiers and poniards, with their afligns, as girdle, hanger, and fo." MALONE.

2 At, clofes in the confequence.] Thus the quarto. The folio addsAt friend, or fo, or gentleman. MALONE.

3-in yourfelf.] Hanmer reads, c'en yourself, and is followed by Dr. Warburton; but perhaps in yourself means, in your own perfon, not by fpies. JOHNSON.

Rey.

Rey. I fhall, my lord.

Pol. And let him ply his mufick.

Rey. Well, my lord.

Enter OPHELIA.

[Exit.

Pol. Farewel!-How now, Ophelia ? what's the mat

ter?

Oph. O, my lord, my lord, I have been fo affrighted!
Pol. With what, in the name of heaven ?

Oph. My lord, as I was fewing in my closet,
Lord Hamlet,—with his doublet all unbrac'd;
No hat upon his head; his ftockings foul'd,
Ungarter'd, and down-gyved to his ancle +;
Pale as his fhirt; his knees knocking each other;
And with a look fo piteous in purport,

As if he had been loofed out of hell,

To speak of horrors, -he comes before me.
Pol. Mad for thy love?

Oph. My lord, I do not know;

But, truly, I do fear it.

Pol. What faid he?

Oph. He took me by the wrift, and held me hard; Then goes he to the length of all his arm;

And, with his other hand thus o'er his brow,

'He falls to fuch perufal of my face,

As he would draw it. Long ftay'd he fo;

At laft, a little fhaking of mine arm,

And thrice his head thus waving up and down,-
He rais'd a figh fo piteous and profound,

As it did feem to fhatter all his bulk 5,
And end his being: That done, he lets me go:
And, with his head over his fhoulder turn'd,

4 Ungarter'd, and down-gyved to bis ancle;] Down-gyved means hanging down like the loose cincture which confines the fetters round the ancles. STEEVENS.

Thus the quartos 1604, and 1605, and the folio. In the quarto of 1611, the word gyved was changed to gyred. MALONE.

5 — all bis bulk,] i. e. all his body. So, in The Rape of Lucrece: " her heart

"Beating her bulk, that his hand shakes withal."

See Vol. VI. p. 488, n. 3.

MALONE.

He feem'd to find his way without his eyes;
For out o'doors he went without their helps,
And, to the laft, bended their light on me.

Pol. Come, go with me; I will go seek the king This is the very ecstasy of love;

Whofe violent property foredoes itself",

And leads the will to defperate undertakings,
As oft as any paffion under heaven,
That does afflict our natures.

I am forry,

What, have you given him any hard words of late?

Oph. No, my good lord; but, as you did command, I did repel his letters, and deny'd

His access to me.

Pol. That hath made him mad.

I am forry, that with better heed, and judgment,
I had not quoted him 7: I fear'd he did but trifle,
And meant to wreck thee; but, befhrew my jealousy!
It seems, it is as proper to our age

To caft beyond ourselves in our opinions,
As it is common for the younger fort

To lack difcretion. Come, go we to the king:

This

foredoes itfelf,] To foredo is to deftroy. So, in Othello:
"That either makes me, or foredoes me quite." STEEVENS.

7 I bad not quoted him:] I had not marked or obferved him. So, in The Rape of Lucrece:

"Yea, the illiterate.

"Will quote my loathed trefpaís in my looks."

In this pafiage, in the original edition of 1594, the word is written cote, as it is in the quarto copy of this play. It is merely the old or corrupt fpelling of the word. See Vol. II. p. 378, n. 6, and p. 431, n. 6; Vol. III. p. 471, n. 6, and Vol. IV. p. 537, n. 6. In Minfheu's Dict. 1617, we find, "To quote, mark, or note, à quotus. Numeris enim fcribentes fententias fuas notunt et diftinguunt." See allo Cotgrave's Dict. 1611: "Quoter. To quote or marke in the mar gent; to note by the way." MALONE.

8

it is as proper to our age

To caft beyond ourselves in our opinions,

As it is common for the younger fort

To lack difcretion.] This is not the remark of a weak man. The vice of age is too much fufpicion. Men long accustomed to the wiles of

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