Hamlet
...act, and how he should act in public. This quotation comes at the end of a very long speech that Polonius gives to his son, Laertes. 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. (1.3. 78-80) Laertes takes after his father in his long winded moral preaching. Polonius looks very foolish in this regard. He is trying to get Laertes to leave and begone but then delays him by his standard moralizing. He tells him what he should and shouldn’t do and how he should act. He needed to be true to himself and to everyone else around him. He shouldn’t hide hide his feelings from anyone any longer and that was the only way to be a whole person inside. His advice to Laertes comprises one of the very well known passages in the play. Some early commentators took Lord Chamberlain’s words to be golden and as evidence of profound wisdom, the consensus is that the elderly Lord Chamberlain was merely parroting copybook maxims familiar to any Elizabethan schoolboy. The speech he gives reveals a vain and limited character and most of what he says relates to etiquette not ethics. This quote is the last lines of his speech and is ethical, not practical counseling towards his son. His change of tone during this can only be taken as ironic. This extremely well written speech does not reflect the wise fruits of a lifetime, as it is often held to do. It is shown by the fact that although he claims integrity to be the most important moral quality. He is himself t...