Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven,
Whiles, like a puff'd and reckless libertine, 49
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
And recks not his own rede.
Laer. O! fear me not.
Enter Polonius.
I stay too long; but here my father comes. 52
A double blessing is a double grace;
Occasion smiles upon a second leave.
Pol. Yet here, Laertes! aboard, aboard, for shame!
The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail, 56
And you are stay'd for. There, my blessing with thee!
And these few precepts in thy memory
Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportion'd thought his act. 60
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar;
The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment 64
Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel, but, being in,
Bear 't that th' opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice; 68
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man, 72
49 puff'd: bloated from excess
50 primrose path: path of pleasure
51 recks: heeds
rede: counsel
53 double; cf. n.
54 Occasion: opportunity
56 wind . . . of; cf. n.
58 precepts; cf. n.
59 character: inscribe
60 unproportion'd: inordinate
61 familiar: friendly
64 dull thy palm: make thy palm less sensitive to true hospitality
65 unfleg'd: immature
69 censure: opinion
71 express'd in fancy: singular in design
