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All Site ContentHamletAct 1Scene 3
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"suits"
Wordplay
Act 1,
Scene 3
Lines 126-134

An explanation of the “suits” wordplay in Act 1, Scene 3 in myShakespeare’s Hamlet.

 

Polonius 

Than may be given you. In few, Ophelia, 
Do not believe his vows, for they are brokers
Not of that dye which their investments show,
But mere implorators of unholy suits,
Breathing like sanctified and pious bawds
The better to beguile. This is for all —
I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth
Have you so slander any moment leisure
As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet.     

Here, “suits” can refer to two things:

  • pursuits to obtain something (Hamlet’s pursuit of sex)
  • suits of clothes (Hamlet’s promises are disguised in priest’s clothes, but they are really behaving more like pimps than priests)