‘To Thine Own Self Be True’
Standing on the dockside with Laertes, who is eager to board ship for Paris, Polonius takes a moment to share some fatherly wisdom.
1600
Queen Elizabeth I 1558-1603
Standing on the dockside with Laertes, who is eager to board ship for Paris, Polonius takes a moment to share some fatherly wisdom.
1600
Queen Elizabeth I 1558-1603
Early in William Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet, probably written around 1599-1601, Laertes is due to leave Denmark for France; he had returned home only briefly for the coronation of King Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle and step-father. As Laertes goes aboard, his father Polonius gives him his affectionate blessing, and with it a generous helping of common sense.
GIVE thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportioned thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.*
The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm* with entertainment
Of each new-hatched, unfledged courage.* Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel; but being in,
Bear’t that th’opposèd may beware of thee.
Give every man thine ear; but few thine voice;
Take each man’s censure; but reserve thy judgment.*
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man;*
And they in France, of the best rank and station,
Are of a most select and generous chief in that.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For a loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all, to thine own self be true,*
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou can’st not then be false to any man.
From ‘Hamlet’, by William Shakespeare (1564-1616). Emended with reference to Hamlet: Prince of Denmark (The New Cambridge Shakespeare), edited by Philip Edwards, with an introduction by Heather Hirschfeld (3rd edn, 2019).
* ‘Vulgar’ here means ‘common’. When it comes to making friends, Polonius wants Laertes to be approachable but not indiscriminate.
* That is, do not numb or take the shine off one’s palm by frequently shaking hands; Polonius means that Laertes should not greet casual acquaintances with all the warmth of bosom friends.
* A ‘courage’ in this context is an archaic term for a young man of spirit, a bold fellow.
* See also Ralph Waldo Emerson on No Offence.
* That is, the clothes a man wears reveal his character.
* See also Samuel Smiles on Dare to Be Yourself.
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
He and his friends are very close. He does not have many.
See if you can include one or more of these words in your answer.
ICircle. IIIntimate. IIIThough.