Tender yourself mere dearly;
Or (not to crack the wind of the poor phrase)
Wronging it thus, you'll tender me a fool]
I believe the word _wronging_ has reference, not to the phrase, but to
Ophelia; if you go on _wronging it thus_, that is, _if you continue to
go on thus wrong_. This is a mode of speaking perhaps not very
grammatical, but very common, nor have the best writers refused it.
_To sinner it or saint it_,
is in Pope. And Rowe,
--_Thus to_ coy it,
_To one who knows you too._
The folio has it,
--_roaming it thus_,--
That is, _letting yourself loose to such improper liberty_. But
_wronging_ seems to be more proper.
I.iii.112 (175,7) fashion you may call it] She uses _fashion_ for
_manner_, and he for a _transient practice_.
I.iii.122 (175,8) Set your intreatments] _Intreatments_ here means
_company, conversation_, from the French _entrétien_.
I.iii.125 (175,9) larger tether] _Tether_ is that string by which an
animal, set to graze in grounds uninclosed, is confined within the
proper limits. (1773)
I.iii.132 (176,2) I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth,/
Have you so slander any moment's leisure] [The humour of this is fine.
WARBURTON.] Here is another _fine_ passage, of which I take the beauty
to be only imaginary. Polonius says, _in plain terms_, that is, not in
language less elevated or embellished than before, but _in terms that
cannot be misunderstood_: _I would not have you so disgrace your most
idle moments, as not to find better employment for them than lord
Hamlet's conversation_.
I.iv.9 (177,3) the swaggering up-spring] The blustering upstart.
I.iv.17 (177,4) This heavy-headed revel, east and west] I should not
have suspected this passage of ambiguity or obscurity, had I not found
my opinion of it differing from that of the learned critic [Warburton].
I construe it thus, _This heavy-headed revel makes us traduced east and
west, and taxed of other nations_.
I.iv.22 (178,5) The pith and marrow of our attribute] The best and most
valuable part of the praise that would be otherwise attributed to us.