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 comrade. Beware Of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in, Bear it, that the opposed may beware of thee.

Give every man thine 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.

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.

HELPS TO STUDY.

Notes and Questions.

"unproportioned"--not worthy or fitting the occasion.

"familiar"--courteous, friendly.

"vulgar"-unduly familiar.

"their adoption tried"--tested by long acquaintance.

"dull thy palm"--lose discrimination.

"censure"--opinion.

"expressed in fancy"--loud, ostentatious.

"husbandry"--thrift.

Put in your own words:

"Give thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any unproportioned thought his act."

"Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice."

"The apparel oft proclaims the man."

"Borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry."

Words and Phrases for Discussion.

"hoops of steel"

4. MAN

HAMLET, ACT II, SCENE 2.

What a piece of work is man!

How n.o.ble in reason! How infinite in faculties!

In form and movement, how express and admirable!

In action, how like an angel! In apprehension, how like a G.o.d!

The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals!

HELPS TO STUDY.

Words and Phrases for Discussion.

"express"

"paragon"

"infinite"

"apprehension"

5. HAMLET'S SOLILOQUY

HAMLET, ACT III, SCENE 1.

To be or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis n.o.bler in the mind, to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them. To die; to sleep; No more; and, by a sleep to say we end The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to. 'Tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep; To sleep? Perchance to dream! ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause: there's the respect That makes calamity of so long life; For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, The insolence of office and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiseover'd country, from whose bourn No traveler returns, puzzles the will And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pitch and moment, With this regard their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action.

HELPS TO STUDY.

Notes

"coil"--turmoil.

"respect"--consideration.

"fardels"--burdens.

Words and Phrases for Discussion.

"shuffled off this mortal coil"

"puzzles the will"

"native hue of resolution"

"pale cast of thought"

"great pitch and moment"

6. REPUTATION

OTh.e.l.lO, ACT III, SCENE 3.