A room in Polonius’s house.
[Enter Polonius and Reynaldo.]
POLON. Give him this money and these notes, Reynaldo.
REYNA. I will, my lord.
POLON. You shall do marvellous wisely, good Reynaldo,
Before you visit him, to make inquire
Of his behavior.
REYNA. My lord, I did intend it.
POLON. 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: edo you mark this, Reynaldo?’
REYNA. Ay, very well, my lord.
POLON. ‘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.
REYNA. As gaming, my lord.
POLON. Ay, or drinking, fencing, swearing, quarrelling,
Drabbing: you may go so far.
REYNA. My lord, that would dishonour him.
POLON. 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.
REYNA. But, my good lord, –
POLON. Wherefore should you do this?
REYNA. Ay, my lord,
I would know that.
POLON. Marry, sir, here’s my drift;
And I believe, it is a fetch of wit: