Polonius’ Top 10 Ways to
Behave While Away at College
• Act 1, Scene 3 could be seen as an advice
column. Polonius and Laertes both give
advice/rules to Ophelia; however, the scene
is most famous for Polonius’ conversation
with his son about how to act/behave when
he returns to France.
• You have been given a one of Polonius’ rules.
• Decide what you feel the “rule” means. Raise
your hand to see if you figured it out.
• Turn the rule into a funny sentence that
makes it like a line from a David Letterman
Top Ten.
Number 1
• 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.
Number 2
• Neither a borrower nor a
lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself
and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge
of husbandry.
Number 3
• Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express'd 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.
Number 4
• Take each man's censure*, but
reserve thy judgment.
• * Please look this word up in a
dictionary!!
Number 5
• Give every man thy ear, but few
thy voice;
Number 6
• Beware of entrance to a
quarrel, but being in, Bear't
that the opposed may beware
of thee.
Number 7
• Those 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-hatch'd, unfledged
comrade.
Number 8
• Those friends thou hast, and
their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with
hoops of steel;
Number 9
• Be thou familiar, but by no
means vulgar.
Number 10
• See thou character. Give thy
thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportioned
thought his act.
Why?
• It seems as if Polonius is extremely
worried about the way his children act;
however, the question we should consider
is:
– Is it for THEIR best interest or his best
interest that he is giving out these ‘rules?”
– What information from the text supports
your answer to this question?