HAMLET
 

ACT II
 
 

SCENE I A room in POLONIUS' house.
 

        [Enter POLONIUS and REYNALDO]

LORD POLONIUS   Give him this money and these notes, Reynaldo.

REYNALDO        I will, my lord.

LORD POLONIUS   You shall do marvellous wisely, good Reynaldo,
        Before you visit him, to make inquire
        Of his behavior.

REYNALDO                          My lord, I did intend it.

LORD POLONIUS   Marry, well said; very well said. Look you, sir,
        Inquire me first what Danskers are in Paris;
        And how, and who, what means, and where they keep,
        What company, at what expense; and finding
        By this encompassment and drift of question
        That they do know my son, come you more nearer
        Than your particular demands will touch it:
        Take you, as 'twere, some distant knowledge of him;
        As thus, 'I know his father and his friends,
        And in part him: ' do you mark this, Reynaldo?

REYNALDO        Ay, very well, my lord.

LORD POLONIUS   'And in part him; but' you may say 'not well:
        But, if't be he I mean, he's very wild;
        Addicted so and so:' and there put on him
        What forgeries you please; marry, none so rank
        As may dishonour him; take heed of that;
        But, sir, such wanton, wild and usual slips
        As are companions noted and most known
        To youth and liberty.

REYNALDO        As gaming, my lord.

LORD POLONIUS   Ay, or drinking, fencing, swearing, quarrelling,
        Drabbing: you may go so far.

REYNALDO        My lord, that would dishonour him.

LORD POLONIUS   'Faith, no; as you may season it in the charge
        You must not put another scandal on him,
        That he is open to incontinency;
        That's not my meaning: but breathe his faults so quaintly
        That they may seem the taints of liberty,
        The flash and outbreak of a fiery mind,
        A savageness in unreclaimed blood,
        Of general assault.

REYNALDO        But, my good lord,--

LORD POLONIUS   Wherefore should you do this?

REYNALDO        Ay, my lord,
        I would know that.

LORD POLONIUS                     Marry, sir, here's my drift;
        And I believe, it is a fetch of wit:
        You laying these slight sullies on my son,
        As 'twere a thing a little soil'd i' the working, Mark you,
        Your party in converse, him you would sound,
        Having ever seen in the prenominate crimes
        The youth you breathe of guilty, be assured