Act 2, Scene 1

A room in Polonius's house.

[Enter Polonius and Reynaldo.]
Polonius
914 Give him this money and these notes, Reynaldo.
Reynaldo
915 I will, my lord.
Polonius
916 You shall do marvellous wisely, good Reynaldo,
917 Before You visit him, to make inquiry
918 Of his behaviour.
Reynaldo
919 My lord, I did intend it.
Polonius
920 Marry, well said; very well said. Look you, sir,
921 Enquire me first what Danskers are in Paris;
922 And how, and who, what means, and where they keep,
923 What company, at what expense; and finding,
924 By this encompassment and drift of question,
925 That they do know my son, come you more nearer
926 Than your particular demands will touch it:
927 Take you, as 'twere, some distant knowledge of him;
928 As thus, 'I know his father and his friends,
929 And in part hi; m;—do you mark this, Reynaldo?
Reynaldo
930 Ay, very well, my lord.
Polonius
931 'And in part him;—but,' you may say, 'not well:
932 But if't be he I mean, he's very wild;
933 Addicted so and so;' and there put on him
934 What forgeries you please; marry, none so rank
935 As may dishonour him; take heed of that;
936 But, sir, such wanton, wild, and usual slips
937 As are companions noted and most known
938 To youth and liberty.
Reynaldo
939 As gaming, my lord.
Polonius
940 Ay, or drinking, fencing, swearing, quarrelling,
941 Drabbing:—you may go so far.
Reynaldo
942 My lord, that would dishonour him.
Polonius
943 Faith, no; as you may season it in the charge.
944 You must not put another scandal on him,
945 That he is open to incontinency;
946 That's not my meaning: but breathe his faults so quaintly
947 That they may seem the taints of liberty;
948 The flash and outbreak of a fiery mind;
949 A savageness in unreclaimed blood,
950 Of general assault.
Reynaldo
951 But, my good lord,—
Polonius
952 Wherefore should you do this?
Reynaldo
953 Ay, my lord,
954 I would know that.
Polonius
955 Marry, sir, here's my drift;
956 And I believe it is a fetch of warrant:
957 You laying these slight sullies on my son
958 As 'twere a thing a little soil'd i' the working,
959 Mark you,
960 Your party in converse, him you would sound,
961 Having ever seen in the prenominate crimes
962 The youth you breathe of guilty, be assur'd
963 He closes with you in this consequence;
964 'Good sir,' or so; or 'friend,' or 'gentleman'—
965 According to the phrase or the addition
966 Of man and country.
Reynaldo
967 Very good, my lord.
Polonius
968 And then, sir, does he this,—he does—What was I about to say?—
969 By the mass, I was about to say something:—Where did I leave?
Reynaldo
970 At 'closes in the consequence,' at 'friend or so,' and
971 gentleman.'
Polonius
972 At—closes in the consequence'—ay, marry!
973 He closes with you thus:—'I know the gentleman;
974 I saw him yesterday, or t'other day,
975 Or then, or then; with such, or such; and, as you say,
976 There was he gaming; there o'ertook in's rouse;
977 There falling out at tennis': or perchance,
978 'I saw him enter such a house of sale,'—
979 Videlicet, a brothel,—or so forth.—
980 See you now;
981 Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth:
982 And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,
983 With windlaces, and with assays of bias,
984 By indirections find directions out:
985 So, by my former lecture and advice,
986 Shall you my son. You have me, have you not?
Reynaldo
987 My lord, I have.
Polonius
988 God b' wi' you, fare you well.
Reynaldo
989 Good my lord!
Polonius
990 Observe his inclination in yourself.
Reynaldo
991 I shall, my lord.
Polonius
992 And let him ply his music.
Reynaldo
993 Well, my lord.
Polonius
994 Farewell!
[Exit Reynaldo.]
[Enter Ophelia.]
Polonius
995 How now, Ophelia! what's the matter?
Ophelia
996 Alas, my lord, I have been so affrighted!
Polonius
997 With what, i' the name of God?
Ophelia
998 My lord, as I was sewing in my chamber,
999 Lord Hamlet,—with his doublet all unbrac'd;
1000 No hat upon his head; his stockings foul'd,
1001 Ungart'red, and down-gyved to his ankle;
1002 Pale as his shirt; his knees knocking each other;
1003 And with a look so piteous in purport
1004 As if he had been loosed out of hell
1005 To speak of horrors,—he comes before me.
Polonius
1006 Mad for thy love?
Ophelia
1007 My lord, I do not know;
1008 But truly I do fear it.
Polonius
1009 What said he?
Ophelia
1010 He took me by the wrist, and held me hard;
1011 Then goes he to the length of all his arm;
1012 And with his other hand thus o'er his brow,
1013 He falls to such perusal of my face
1014 As he would draw it. Long stay'd he so;
1015 At last,—a little shaking of mine arm,
1016 And thrice his head thus waving up and down,—
1017 He rais'd a sigh so piteous and profound
1018 As it did seem to shatter all his bulk
1019 And end his being: that done, he lets me go:
1020 And, with his head over his shoulder turn'd
1021 He seem'd to find his way without his eyes;
1022 For out o' doors he went without their help,
1023 And to the last bended their light on me.
Polonius
1024 Come, go with me: I will go seek the king.
1025 This is the very ecstasy of love;
1026 Whose violent property fordoes itself,
1027 And leads the will to desperate undertakings,
1028 As oft as any passion under heaven
1029 That does afflict our natures. I am sorry,—
1030 What, have you given him any hard words of late?
Ophelia
1031 No, my good lord; but, as you did command,
1032 I did repel his letters and denied
1033 His access to me.
Polonius
1034 That hath made him mad.
1035 I am sorry that with better heed and judgment
1036 I had not quoted him: I fear'd he did but trifle,
1037 And meant to wreck thee; but beshrew my jealousy!
1038 It seems it as proper to our age
1039 To cast beyond ourselves in our opinions
1040 As it is common for the younger sort
1041 To lack discretion. Come, go we to the king:
1042 This must be known; which, being kept close, might move
1043 More grief to hide than hate to utter love.
[Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 921archaic vocab
“Danskers”
Danskers = Danes. An archaic English rendering of the Danish word 'Dansker' (a Dane). Polonius wants Reynaldo to first locate Danish expatriates in Paris who might know Laertes.
TLN 924archaic vocab
“encompassment and drift of question”
Encompassment = a circling, roundabout approach; drift = the gradual tendency or direction of a conversation. Polonius instructs Reynaldo to gather information by talking around the subject rather than asking directly.
TLN 934archaic vocab
“forgeries”
Forgeries here means invented fabrications — made-up stories or false accusations — not counterfeit documents. Polonius is telling Reynaldo to make up minor vices and attribute them to Laertes in order to fish for confirming gossip.
TLN 941archaic vocab
“Drabbing”
Drabbing = consorting with prostitutes ('drabs'). It sits in a list of typical young-man vices (gaming, drinking, fencing, swearing, quarrelling) that Reynaldo can allege without fully dishonouring Laertes.
TLN 956archaic vocab
“a fetch of warrant”
A fetch of warrant = a justified or warranted stratagem; a trick that has a sound reason behind it. Polonius is reassuring Reynaldo that this devious plan is not dishonest but sensible. 'Fetch' (a cunning trick or device) and 'warrant' (authorization, justification) together make a legal-flavored idiom.
TLN 979archaic vocab
“Videlicet”
Videlicet is Latin for 'namely' or 'that is to say,' usually abbreviated 'viz.' in legal and scholarly writing. Polonius uses it as a mock-learned gloss on his own euphemism ('a house of sale'), puncturing any pretense: he means a brothel.
TLN 983cultural context
“windlaces, and with assays of bias”
Both images come from Elizabethan sports. A windlace (or 'windlass') in hunting was a curving detour made downwind to approach prey without being scented. 'Assays of bias' comes from the game of bowls: a bowl is weighted on one side (its 'bias') so it curves toward the target rather than rolling straight. Together they reinforce Polonius's point that indirect routes reach the truth better than a straight approach.
TLN 999cultural context
“doublet all unbrac'd”
A doublet was the close-fitting jacket worn over the shirt by Elizabethan men. 'Unbrac'd' means unlaced and hanging open — the equivalent of walking around with your shirt untucked and unbuttoned. In an age when proper dress was a sign of mental order and social rank, appearing with one's doublet undone announced public disorder; it was a recognized visual sign of love-madness or extreme grief.
TLN 1001archaic vocab
“down-gyved to his ankle”
Gyves (rhymes with 'jives') are fetters or shackles, usually worn around the ankles of prisoners. His stockings have slipped down and gathered around his ankles like a prisoner's leg-irons. The image — chosen by Ophelia, not Polonius — makes Hamlet look not just dishevelled but captive, as though love (or grief) has imprisoned him.
TLN 1025archaic vocab
“the very ecstasy of love”
Ecstasy did not primarily mean joy or delight in Shakespeare's time; it meant being outside (Greek: ek-stasis) or beside oneself — a state of mental derangement or frenzy. 'The ecstasy of love' was a recognized medical category in Elizabethan humoral theory: unrequited love was thought to disturb the humors and drive a man literally mad. Polonius is diagnosing Hamlet with love-madness, not euphoria.
TLN 1037archaic vocab
“beshrew my jealousy”
'Beshrew' is a mild oath meaning 'a curse on' or 'shame on.' 'Jealousy' here means suspicion or anxious mistrust, not the jealousy of a romantic rival. Polonius is cursing his own overly suspicious nature — he had thought Hamlet was just trifling with Ophelia, but now fears his suspicion was wrong and has caused real harm.