Friday, January 20, 2006

Polonius' Advice


"Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportioned thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them unto 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 thy ear, but few thy voice.
Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment.
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 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 canst not then be false to any man."


- Excerpt from Hamlet, The Prince of Denmark (William Shakespeare).

Something that I found rather instructive and intriguing. Tell me what you thought of it.

3 Comments:

Blogger Sthupit Girl said...

awesome... i've never read the full thing at one time. i've heard excerpts here and there.

"this above all: to thine own self be true, and it must followe, as night the day thou canst not then be false to any man."

... what better way is there to say everything that needs to be said??


thnaks for posting it! u made my day.

10:08 PM  
Blogger Saranya said...

The first time I've really read Shakespeare....
And a nice excerpt to get introduced with..:)

10:28 AM  
Blogger ram_einstein said...

Nice! An excerpt from Hamlet eh? I can't imagine how hard it will be to read Hamlet itself. I had to read this three times before I understood it fully, just like my unix manuals! Shakespeare has packed a lot into this one.

2:14 PM  

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