Faculty of English

POLONIUS      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 entertainment Of each new-hatched, unfledged courage. Beware Of entrance to a quarrel but, being in, Bear’t that th’opposed may beware of thee. Give every man thy ear but few thy voice; Take each man’s censure but reserve thy […]

Enter Polonius. LAERTES                    But here my father comes. 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 shoulder of your sail And you are stayed for. There, my blessing with thee, And these few precepts in thy memory Look thou character: give thy thoughts no tongue Nor […]

OPHELIA        I shall the effect of this good lesson keep As watchman to my heart. But, good my brother, Do not as some ungracious pastors do Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven Whiles, a puffed and reckless libertine, Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads And recks not his own rede. LAERTES                                O fear me not. I stay too long.           (1.3.44-51) Ophelia’s quite polite, at least initially, although she can be just […]

LAERTES        The chariest maid is prodigal enough If she unmask her beauty to the moon. Virtue itself scapes not calumnious strokes. The canker galls the infants of the spring Too oft before their buttons be disclosed, And in the morn and liquid dew of youth Contagious blastments are most imminent. Be wary then: best safety lies in fear, Youth to itself rebels, though none else near.         (1.3.35-43) After a small outburst of apparently genuine […]

LAERTES        Then weigh what loss your honour may sustain If with too credent ear you list his songs Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open To his unmastered 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.          (1.3.28-34) And another thing—and my sense is that, in performance, this is […]

LAERTES        He may not, as unvalued persons do, Carve for himself, for on his choice depends The safety and health of this whole state, And therefore must his choice be circumscribed Unto the voice and yielding of that body Where of he is the head. Then if he says he loves you It fits your wisdom so far to believe it As he in his particular act […]

LAERTES                    Think it no more. For nature crescent does not grow alone In thews and bulks, but as this temple waxes The inward service of the mind and soul Grows wide withal. Perhaps he loves you now, And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch The virtue of his will; but you must fear, His greatness weighed, his will is not his own.      (1.2.10-17) Laertes is just getting started in his advice […]

LAERTES        My necessaries are embarked; farewell. And sister, as the winds give benefit And convey 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 primy nature, Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting, The perfume and suppliance of a minute, No […]

HORATIO / BARNARDO / MARCELLUS      Our duty to your honour. HAMLET         Your loves, as mine to you, farewell. (Exeunt [all but Hamlet].) My father’s spirit – in arms! All is not well; I doubt some foul play. Would the night were come. Till then sit still my soul – foul deeds will rise Though all the earth o’erwhelm them to men’s eyes.        Exit.    (1.2.251-6) Our […]

HAMLET         If it assume my noble father’s person I’ll speak to it, though hell itself should gape And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all, If you have hitherto concealed this sight Let it be tenable in your silence still And whatsomever else shall hap tonight Give it an understanding but no tongue, I will requite your loves. So, fare you well. Upon the platform […]