{"id":95,"date":"2002-08-31T16:44:37","date_gmt":"2002-08-31T20:44:37","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=95"},"modified":"2006-07-06T12:32:21","modified_gmt":"2006-07-06T16:32:21","slug":"the-old-windbag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.godofthemachine.com\/?p=95","title":{"rendered":"The Old Windbag"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Hamlet<\/span> the pompous old windbag Polonius sends his son Laertes off with this speech:<\/p>\n

\n

And these few precepts in thy memory
\nLook thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
\nNor any unproportioned thought his act.
\nBe thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
\nThose friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
\nGrapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel,
\nBut do not dull thy palm with entertainment
\nOf each new-hatched unfledged comrade. Beware
\nOf entrance to a quarrel; but being in,
\nBear’t that th’opposed may beware of thee.
\nGive every man thy ear, but few thy voice:
\nTake each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgement.
\nCostly thy habir as thy purse can buy,
\nBut not expressed in fancy; rich, but not gaudy;
\nFor the apparel oft proclaims the man;
\nAnd they in France of the best rank and station
\nAre more select and generous in that.
\nNeither a borrower nor a lender be;
\nFor loan oft loses both itself and friend,
\nAnd borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
\nThis above all: to thine own self be true,
\nAnd it must follow, as the night the day,
\nThou canst not then be false to any man.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This speech consists wholly of platitudes, platitudes intended by Shakespeare as platitudes, platitudes then and platitudes now. It’s kitchen-sampler stuff. It is delivered by one of the least attractive characters in all of the plays, one who lacks the virtue to be a hero and the brio to be a villain and can’t even manage to snoop without getting himself stabbed. Yet after “To be or not to be” it is probably the most often-quoted speech in Shakespeare, and always seriously. This is not a happy reflection on the state of literary culture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Hamlet the pompous old windbag Polonius sends his son Laertes off with this speech: And these few precepts in thy memory 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 […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literature","category-10-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.godofthemachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.godofthemachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.godofthemachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.godofthemachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.godofthemachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=95"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.godofthemachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.godofthemachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=95"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.godofthemachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=95"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.godofthemachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=95"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}