The American Spectator

p> BARD MESSAGES br> Re: Francis X. Rocca’s Where Did That Come From? /p> p>My personal favorite misuse of a quote from Shakespeare is the observation in Hamlet that firing the cannons after the King drains his goblet is “a custom more honored in the breach than the observance.” I have often heard it used to refer to a custom that is infrequently or carelessly observed; in fact, it means that it would be more honorable not to observe the custom, indicating that it is a shameful practice. br> — Tom Boudreau /p>

Francis X. Rocca writes: “Neither a borrower nor a lender be? Your dad probably told you the same; and, like the rest of Polonius’s speech, it’s not bad advice as far as it goes.”

“So what then does it mean that Shakespeare puts those words in the mouth of a pompous old fool….”

In this case, Shakespeare borrowed it from Elizabeth I’s counselor, Lord Burleigh (Wm. Cecil). One of his “ten precepts” being:

p>”5. Beware of suretyship for thy best friends. He that payeth another man’s debts seeketh his own decay. But if thou canst not otherwise choose, 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.” br> — Patrick R. Sullivan