Page:Hamlet (1917) Yale.djvu/36

24

Hor. Is it a custom?

Ham. Ay, marry, is 't:

But to my mind,—though I am native here

And to the manner born,—it is a custom

More honour'd in the breach than the observance.

[This heavy-headed revel east and west

Makes us traduc'd and tax'd of other nations;

They clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phrase

Soil our addition; and indeed it takes

From our achievements, though perform'd at height,

The pith and marrow of our attribute.

So, oft it chances in particular men,

That for some vicious mole of nature in them,

As, in their birth,—wherein they are not guilty,

Since nature cannot choose his origin,—

By the o'ergrowth of some complexion,

Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason,

Or by some habit that too much o'er-leavens

The form of plausive manners; that these men,

Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect,

Being nature's livery, or fortune's star,

Their virtues else, be they as pure as grace,

As infinite as man may undergo,

Shall in the general censure take corruption

From that particular fault: the dram of eale

Doth all the noble substance of a doubt,

To his own scandal.]

 18 traduc'd and tax'd: defamed and censured

19 clepe: call

swinish: gross

20 Soil our addition: blemish our good name

22 attribute: reputation

24 mole: blemish

26 his; cf. n.

27 complexion: natural tendency

28 pales: palings

29 o'er-leavens: makes too light

30 plausive: pleasing

32 nature's livery: natural attributes

fortune's star: the position in which one is placed by fortune

34 undergo: bear the weight of

36 dram of eale; cf. n.

