102
HAMLET
[ACT III.
Ham. I humbly thank you; well, well, well.[a 1]
Oph. My lord, I have remembrances of yours,
That I have longed long to re-deliver;
I pray you now,[a 2] receive them.
Ham. No, not I;[a 3] 95
I never gave you aught.[b 1]
Oph. My honoured lord, you know[a 4] right well you did;
And, with them, words of so sweet breath composed
As made the things[a 5] more rich; their perfume[b 2] lost,[a 6]
Take these again; for to the noble mind 100
Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.[b 3]
There, my lord.
Ham. Ha, ha! are you honest?[b 4]
Oph. My lord?
Ham. Are you fair? 105
Oph. What means your lordship?
- ↑ 92. you; well, well, well.] F you well. Q.
- ↑ 95. you now,] F, you now Q, you, now Theobald and other editors.
- ↑ 95. No, not I] Q, No, no F.
- ↑ 97. you know] Q, I know F and many editors.
- ↑ 99. the things] F, these things Q.
- ↑ 99. rich; their perfume lost] Q, rich, then perfume left: F, rich, than perfume left F 4.
- ↑ 96. aught] For a moment Hamlet has been touched by the sight of Ophelia with her book of prayers, Yet there is estrangement in the word "Nymph." She inquires for his health (having seen him yesterday); he answers as to a stranger; formally, as he does to Osric, v. ii. 82; and with some impatience; he will tell her nothing. She produces his gifts; he has been sent for by the King; Ophelia, like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, has doubtless also been sent for; he falls back on his accustomed method of baffling half-truths. These toys were the gift of another flamlet to another Ophelia—not his.
- ↑ 99. their perfume] the perfume of the gifts, derived from the sweet words.
- ↑ 101. unkind] The sententious generalisation, couched in rhyme, has an air of having been prepared. And whence this false accusation of unkindness? Has she not rehearsed her part to Polonius?
- ↑ 103. honest] a word which covers both truthfulness and chastity. For the meaning "chaste" Staunton quotes an apt example from Shirley, The Royal Master, IV. i. Withals' Dictionarie (1608), p. 73: "She is faire, that is honest: est alma sancta."
