Pol. Ay, fashion you may call it; go to, go to.
Oph. And hath given countenance to his speech, my lord,
With almost all the holy[a 1] vows of heaven.
Pol. Ay, springes to catch woodcocks.[b 1] I do know, 155
When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul
Lends[a 2] the tongue vows: these blazes, daughter,[b 2]
Giving more light than heat, extinct in both,[a 3]
Even in their promise, as it is a-making,
You must not take for fire. From this time[a 4] 120
Be somewhat[a 5] scanter of your maiden presence;
Set your entreatments[b 3] at a higher rate
Than a command to parley.[a 6] For Lord Hamlet,
Believe so much in him, that he is young,
And with a larger tether may he walk 125
Than may be given you: in few, Ophelia,
Do not believe his vows; for they are brokers,[b 4]
Not of that dye[a 7] which their investments show,[b 5]
But mere implorators of unholy suits,
- ↑ 115. woodcocks] birds supposed to be witless, easily taken in springes or snares. Clar. Press quotes from Gosson's Apologie for the Schoole of Abuse: "Cupid sets up a springe for woodcocks."
- ↑ 117.] To amend the verse Pope read "Oh, my daughter"; Capell, "gentle daughter" ; Nicholson conj. "havin blazes"; S. T. Coleridge, "Go to, these," or "daughter, mark you."
- ↑ 122. entreatments] Johnson explains as company, conversation, French entrétien Clar. Press, solicitations; Schmidt, invitations received; New Eng. Dict., conversation, interview, from the commoner meaning of negotiation, discussion.
- ↑ 127. brokers] middlemen in making bargains; used specially of panders, procurers. Furness quotes Cotgrave: "Maquinonner, To play the Broker, also to play the bawd."
- ↑ 128. dye . . . show] colour shown by their vesture or garb. F "the eye" may mean tint or hue, as in Tempest, II. i. 55.