Neither a borrower nor a lender be.....For the loan oft loses both itself & friend?

Question

What Shakespeare play contains that line?? Who says it and to whom?? And what is the context and background in which this wonderful piece of advice is given???

Answer 1

It's from Hamlet, Act 3 scene 1:

..........."Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel*;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new hatch'd unfledged comrade. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in,
Bear't that the opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thy ear, but few thy 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 loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all, to thine ownself be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man,
Farewell; my blessing season this in thee."

It has been argued that the passage bears a number of similarities to the precepts that Lord Cecil Burghley gave to his son, and on the basis of this (and much other evidence) the authorship of the plays has been ascribed to Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford - a view which I share.

The corresponding passage in Burghley's version runs as follows:

"Beware of suretyship for thy best friends. He that payeth another man's debts seeketh his own decay. But if thou canst not otherwise chose, rather lend thy money thyself upon good bonds, although thou borrow it. So shalt thou secure thyself, and pleasure thy friend. Neither borrow of a neighbour or of a friend, but of a stranger, whose paying for it thou shalt hear no more of it."

Answer 2

Yes, it is a wonderful piece of advice. I said it many times to my children as they were growing up, mostly when they wanted to borrow things from their friends. I also explained to them that if they lent anything to their friends that they should be willing to not get it back or to get it back broken and to realize that could be one of the consequences of lending something.

The line is from Shakespeare's Hamlet. Here is a link that shows it. Lord Polonius says it to Laertes, along with many other well known gems of advice as Laertes is about to set sail. Shakespeare's work is wonderful stuff that has withstood the test of time.

Answer 3

It is from The Merchant of Venice. Shylock says it to someone else. Part of the play revolves around a loan for which Shylock asks for security in the form of a pound of flesh (where that saying comes from too), thinking that this will be impossible to perform. The incredibly intelligent woman in the play, I think she is called Portia, states that he asks for a pound of flesh, not skin or blood or anything else, and therefore gets out of repaying the interest on the loan that way.

I think that this is correct. I did it for O-level English about 25 years ago!

Answer 4

Hamlet - Polonious giving advice to his son Laertes - before he travels overseas to his studies. The growth of Laertes as a character (he is a contemporary of Hamlet) is contrastable with Hamlet ) -Laertes is a man of action and Hamlet a man of thought. What is particularly pertinent is Polonious's "to thine own self be true" - something which Hamlet would do well to heed.

Answer 5

there you go

it is from Hamlet

Polonius, a garrulous old man, gives this advice to his son

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/254800.html

Answer 6

i think its from the merchant of venice