Page:Hamlet - The Arden Shakespeare - 1899.djvu/62

Hold it a fashion, and a toy in blood,^{[b 1]}
A violet in the youth of primy^{[b 2]} nature,
Forward,^{[a 1]} not permanent, sweet, not^{[a 2]} lasting,^{[b 3]}
The perfume^{[a 3]} and suppliance^{[b 4]} of a minute;
No more.

Oph. No more but so?^{[a 4][b 5]}

Laer. Think it no more: 10
For nature crescent does not grow alone
In thews and bulk;^{[a 5]} but, as this^{[a 6]} temple waxes,
The inward service^{[b 6]} of the mind and soul
Grows wide withal. Perhaps he loves you now;
And now no soil nor cautel^{[b 7]} doth besmirch 15
The virtue of his will;^{[a 7]} but you must fear,
His greatness weigh'd, his will is not his own;
For he himself is subject to his birth;^{[a 8]}
He may not, as unvalued persons do,
Carve^{[a 9]} for himself,^{[b 8]} for on his choice depends 20

1. 8. Forward] Q, Ff 3, 4; Froward F.
2. 8. sweet, not] tho' sweet, not Rowe, sweet, but not Capell.
3. 9. perfume and] Q, omitted F.
4. 10. so?] Rowe, so. Q, F.
5. 12. bulk] F, bulkes Q.
6. 12. this] Q, his F.
7. 16. will] Q, feare F.
8. 18.] Omitted in Q.
9. 20. Carve] Crave Qq 4–6.

1. 6. fashion, and a toy in blood] a mode of youth, that he should serve a mistress, and a play of amorous temperament.
2. 7. primy] of the spring-time.
3. 8. No metrical emendation is necessary; the speaker dwells on "sweet," as if to draw out its meaning, and pauses slightly.
4. 9. suppliance] Mason explains "an amusement to fill up a vacant moment."
5. 10. so?] Corson prefers the "so." of Q, F; Ophelia does not question but submits.
6. 13. service] Suggested, in the sense of religious service, by "temple."
7. 15. cautel] craft, deceit. Used by Shakespeare only here and in A Lover's Complaint, 303. Cotgrave's French Dict. gives "Cautelle, a wile, cautell, deceit."
8. 20. Carve for himself] Rushton quotes from Swinburn's Treatise on Wills, 1590: "it is not lawful for legataries to carve for themselves, taking their legacies at their own pleasure."