And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry."
This above all,-To thine ownself be true;
And it must follow, as the night the day,3
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell; my blessing season this in thee!
LAER. Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord.
POL. The time invites you;5 go, your servants
tend.6

LAER. Farewell, Ophelia; and remember well What I have said to you.

ОРН.

'Tis in my memory lock'd, And you yourself shall keep the key of it."

Of chief, in the passage quoted from Bacon, is, I believe, a bald translation of the old French phrase-de chef, whatever, in the present instance, might be its intended meaning.

STEEVENS.

husbandry.] i. e. of thrift; œconomical prudence. See Vol. X. p. 93, n. 5. 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.

-my blessing season this in thee!] Season, for infuse.

WARBURTON.

It is more than to infuse, it is to infix it in such a manner as that it never may wear out. JOHNSON.

So, in the mock tragedy represented before the king:
- who in want a hollow friend doth try,
"Directly seasons him his enemy." STEEVENS.

* The time invites you;] So, in Macbeth:

"I go, and it is done, the bell invites me." STEEvens. Thus the folio. The quarto, 1604, reads-The time invests you: which Mr. Theobald preferred, supposing that it meant, "the time besieges, presses upon you on every side." But to invest, in Shakspeare's time, only signified, to clothe, or give possession. MALONE.

- your servants tend.] i. e. your servants are waiting for you. JOHNSON.

7 -yourself shall keep the key of it.] The meaning is,

LAER. Farewell.

[Exit LAERTES.

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

OPH. So please you, something 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 most free and boun

teous:

If it be so, (as so 'tis put on me,

And that in way of caution,) I must tell you,
You do not understand yourself so clearly,
As it behoves my daughter, and your honour:
What is between you? give me up the truth.
ОPH. He hath, my lord, of late, made many
tenders

Of his affection to me.

POL. Affection? puh! you speak like a green girl,

Unsifted in such perilous circumstance.

that your counsels are as sure of remaining locked up in my memory, as if yourself carried the key of it. So, in Northward Hoe, by Decker and Webster, 1607: "You shall close it up like a treasure of your own, and yourself shall keep the key of it." STEEVENS.

་

• Unsifted in such perilous circumstance.] Unsifted for untried. Untried signifies either not tempted, or not refined; unsifted signifies the latter only, though the sense requires the former. WArburton.

It means, I believe, one who has not sufficiently considered, or thoroughly sifted such matters. M. MASON.

I do not think that the sense requires us to understand untempted. "Unsifted in," &c. means, I think, one who has not nicely canvassed and examined the peril of her situation.

MALONE.

That sifted means tempted may be seen in the 31st verse of the 22d chapter of St. Luke's gospel. HARRIS.

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 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 wind of the poor phrase,
Wronging it thus,) you'll tender me a fool."

9

Tender yourself more dearly;

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

Wronging it thus,) you'll tender me a fool.] The parenthesis is closed at the wrong place; and we must have likewise a slight correction in the last verse. [Wringing it, &c.] Polonius is racking and playing on the word tender, till he thinks proper to correct himself for the licence; and then he would say-not farther to crack the wind of the phrase, by twisting it and contorting it, as I have done. WARBURTON.

I believe the word wronging has reference, not to the phrase, but to Ophelia; if you go on wronging it thus, that is, if you continue to go on thus wrong. This is a mode of speaking perhaps not very grammatical, but very common; nor have the best writers refused it.

"To sinner it or saint it,"

is in Pope. And Rowe,

66

Thus to coy it,

"With one who knows you too."

The folio has it-Roaming it thus. That is, letting yourself loose to such improper liberty. But wronging seems to be more proper. JOHNSON.

"See you do not coy it," is in Massinger's New Way to pay old Debts. STEEVENS.

I have followed the punctuation of the first quarto, 1604, where the parenthesis is extended to the word thus, to which word the context in my apprehension clearly shows it should be carried. "Or (not to crack the wind of the poor phrase, playing upon it, and abusing it thus,") &c. So, in The Rape of Lucrece: "To wrong the wronger, till he render right."

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

1

POL. Ay, fashion you may call it ;1 go to, go to. OPH. And hath given countenance to his speech, my lord,

With almost all the holy vows of heaven.

2

POL. Ay, springes to catch woodcocks. I do

know,

When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul
Lends the tongue vows: these blazes, daughter,3
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 somewhat scanter of your maiden presence;
Set your entreatments at a higher rate,

The quarto, by the mistake of the compositor, reads-Wrong it thus. The correction was made by Mr. Pope.

Tender yourself more dearly;] To tender is to regard with affection. So, in King Richard II:

And so betide me,

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

Again, in The Maydes Metamorphosis, by Lyly, 1601: if you account us for the same

1

"That tender thee, and love Apollo's name." Malone. fashion you may call it ;] She uses fashion for manner, and he for a transient practice. JOHNSON.

2

3

springes to catch woodcocks.] A proverbial saying, Every woman has a springe to catch a woodcock." STEEVENS. 3 — these blazes, daughter,] Some epithet to blazes was probably omitted, by the carelessness of the transcriber or compositor, in the first quarto, in consequence of which the metre is defective. MALONE.

Set your entreatments-]

Entreatments here mean company, conversation, from the French entrétien. JOHNSON.

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

"As if it some impartment did desire," &c. MALONE.

Than a command to parley. For lord Hamlet,
Believe so much in him, That he is young;
And with a larger tethers may he walk,
Than may be given you: In few, Ophelia,
Do not believe his vows: for they are brokers
Not of that die which their investments show,
But mere implorators of unholy suits,
Breathing like sanctified and pious bonds,"

larger tether-] A string to tie horses. POPE. Tether is that string by which an animal, set to graze in grounds uninclosed, is confined within the proper limits.

JOHNSON.

So, in Greene's Card of Fancy, 1601;- "To tye the ape and the bear in one tedder." Tether is a string by which any animal is fastened, whether for the sake of feeding or the air.

STEEVENS.

• Do not believe his vows, for they are brokers-] A broker in old English meant a bawd or pimp. See the Glossary to Gawin Douglass's translation of Virgil. So, in King John: "This bawd, this broker," &c. See also, Vol. XV. p. 478, n. 2. In our author's Lover's Complaint we again meet with the same expression, applied in the

same manner:

"Know, vows are ever brokers to defiling." MALOne. 7 Breathing like sanctified and pious bonds,] On which the editor, Mr. Theobald, remarks, Though all the editors have swallowed this reading implicitly, it is certainly corrupt; and I have been surprized how men of genius and learning could let it pass without some suspicion. What idea can we frame to ourselves of a breathing bond, or of its being sanctified and pious, &c. But he was too hasty in framing ideas before he understood those already framed by the poet, and expressed in very plain words. Do not believe (says Polonius to his daughter) Hamlet's amorous vows made to you; which pretend religion in them (the better to beguile) like those sanctified and pious vows [or bonds] made to heaven. And why should not this pass without suspicion? WARBURTON.

Theobald for bonds substitutes bawds. JOHNSON. Notwithstanding Warburton's elaborate explanation of this passage, I have not the least doubt but Theobald is right, and