To Thine Own Self Be True Poem by gershon hepner

TO THINE OWN SELF BE TRUE


"To thine own self be true, " Polonius said,
though being untrue to himself was his métier,
serving Claudius, having served the dead
king Claudius murdered. Like Polonius, we all say
the right words, but are false to everyone,
above all those with whom we share a platitude.
Polonius even told Laertes, "Don't have fun, "
though at Laertes' age his moral attitude
would not have steered him from the primrose path,
as he attempts to steer away Ophelia too.
Toward Polonii we don't feel wrath
because we know that to ourselves we are not true.
We, like Polonius, may be caught behind the arras,
fine measure for the measures which our selves embarrass.
However short we fall of the advices
we give to others, we are all are Polonii,
telling others to avoid our vices,
while we observe our conduct with a phony eye

Ben Brantley ("On the Stage, Old Worlds Are Reborn, " NYT,1/1/11) discusses a production of Hamlet by the National Theater in London, with Rory Kinnear playing the title role and a memorable Polonius, played by David Calder:

In the title role, Mr. Kinnear has the royal share of those words, and he kept surprising me with his spontaneous-seeming shadings of them. Even "To be or not to be" (delivered in the muddled, meditative manner of a man truly trying to sort out his thoughts) and "Alas, poor Yorick" sounded newly minted. And everything that the fabulous Clare Higgins says as Gertrude in the second half of her third-act bedroom scene with Hamlet had an unexpected spin. That's because, in this version, you suspect that Gertrude has (contrary to the usual interpretation) seen the same ghost that Hamlet sees, though she may deny it.
And remember that oft-quoted saw of Polonius's "To thine own self be true? " It's cited out of context all the time as a pearl of genuine wisdom, but in the playing it's traditionally rendered as just one of the many aphorisms spouted by an old gasbag. Here, after Mr. Calder says it, he falls into silence, with an expression on his face that is close to shame. It is as if Polonius had fully heard what he was saying and had realized how untrue he had been to his own self, in acting as the usurping Claudius's right hand (and spy) . And with that one sentence, or the pause thereafter, a fatuous fool suddenly registers as a figure of pained self-awareness.

6/11/12 #10476