POLONIUS      Ay, springes to catch woodcocks – I do know

When the blood burns how prodigal the soul

Lends 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 time

Be something scanter of your maiden presence;

Set your entreatments at a higher rate

Than a command to parle.    (1.3.114-122)

Those vows Hamlet’s making to you? springes to catch woodcocks, snares to catch bird-brains, bird-lime for lightweights. It’s all a delusion; you’re allowing yourself to be caught up in it. Look, I was a young man once: I do know when the blood burns how prodigal the soul lends the tongue vows. Young men will say anything when they’re on fire with passion, swear anything, promise anything to get what they want (and they only want One Thing, is implicit). But these blazes, daughter, giving more light than heat, these flashes of eloquence (and oh yes, I know that Hamlet can talk, can charm the birds from the trees), which burn out as quickly as they’re spoken, which are extinct in both light and heat even in their promise as it is a-making you must not take for fire. It’s not the real thing; it’s a passing fancy, a flash in the pan—it’s like gunpowder, it’s dangerous too! What Hamlet’s offering you is fireworks, not a proper warming hearth. (Compare Friar Lawrence on violent delights having violent ends in Romeo and Juliet.)

So: from this time be something scanter of your maiden presence. Don’t see so much of him! (Is there an element here of, play hard to get? Probably not. Polonius, like Laertes, thinks that Hamlet is well out of Ophelia’s league.) Set your entreatments at a higher rate than a command to parle. He can’t just see you whenever he wants, he can’t get away with saying, whenever he feels like it, hey, want to hang out? Have a bit more self-respect!