‘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 Man in Sixteenth-Century Costume’, by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770). “Apparel oft proclaims the man” Polonius tells his son Laertes, as a reminder not to be either too showy or too shabby in his dress. Laertes is on his way back to Paris, and Polonius suggests taking the French gentleman as a model of good taste and moderation.
Introduction
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.
