"The friends thou hast, and their adoption try'd, / Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;"
— Combe, William (1742 -1823)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Published by R. Ackerman [etc.]
Date
1817
Metaphor
"The friends thou hast, and their adoption try'd, / Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;"
Metaphor in Context
------ "My blessing's with You,
And these few precepts in thy memory
Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportioned thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
The friends thou hast, and their adoption try'd,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd unfledg'd comrade. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in,
Bear it that the opposer may beware of thee.
Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice:
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgement.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gawdy:
For the apparel oft proclaims the man.
Neither a lender nor a borrower be,
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
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.
Farewel, my blessing season this in thee."
Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 3.
And these few precepts in thy memory
Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportioned thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
The friends thou hast, and their adoption try'd,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd unfledg'd comrade. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in,
Bear it that the opposer may beware of thee.
Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice:
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgement.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gawdy:
For the apparel oft proclaims the man.
Neither a lender nor a borrower be,
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
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.
Farewel, my blessing season this in thee."
Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 3.
Categories
Provenance
Searching "soul" and "steel" in HDIS (Poetry)
Date of Entry
06/12/2005
