"Tender" in Hamlet

As we read through Shakespeare’s Hamlet in class and watch segments of the film versions, I have come to appreciate Shakespeare’s sense of style, language, characterization, and plot in a way that I never have before, even though I have already read Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, and a few others. Before this year’s AP Literature class, I never before really understood the verbal wordplay that Shakespeare employs, hiding numerous double, triple, and quadruple meanings in a single word that can potentially increase the significance of a statement to extreme importance.
One of my favorite quotes from Act I is, of course, a Polonius monologue. His buffoonish arrogance is definitely an amusing high point in the play so far and I look forward to such tidbits as, “Marry, I will teach you. Think yourself a baby / That you have ta’en these tenders for true pay, / Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly, / Or (not to crack the wind of a poor phrase, / Running it thus) you’ll tender me a fool.” The moment takes place after Ophelia admits to harboring a love for Hamlet, so Polonius, believing that Hamlet is only toying with his daughter’s affections and does not plan to marry a woman so far below his station, orders his daughter to stay away from Hamlet. A reader could analyze this quotation for hours simply in terms of word usage before even delving into the significance of the passage in terms of the rest of the play or its implications for various characters’ relationships.
The word “tender,” which Shakespeare repeats three times in these few lines, has *many* meanings according to dictionary.com, including “soft or delicate in substance,” “weak,” “young/immature,” “soft in quality,” “delicate or gentle,” “easily moved to sympathy,” “affectionate,” “considerate,” “acutely or painfully sensitive,” “easily distressed,” “yielding readily to force or pressure,” “of a delicate nature,” “nautical,” “a ship,” “a person who tends,” “money,” and “other offerings.” Shakespeare, having chosen such a broadly used word to repeat, was clearly playing with diction. His speech manages to contain several of the novel’s index-able ideas, including that of youth, of money exchange, of seem versus is, and of duty. Polonius engages “tender” as a word descriptive of youth after calling his daughter a baby, and criticizes her naiveté by remarking that Hamlets sweet words of devotion will not pay off- they are TENDER tender- weak money, in other words. It’s a wonderful way to say that Hamlet will not follow through with his affections, and perfectly suited to the character of Polonius, who takes way too long to say something simple because he loves to hear himself talk. After remarking that Hamlet seems to love Ophelia but probably has ulterior motives, Polonius proceeds to warn his daughter to value herself more highly (and preserve her honor) and invokes her duty as his daughter to obey his wishes, insinuating that she will pay back his fatherly love by screwing him over and ruining her life with Hamlet.