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It’s worth remembering that Shakespeare puts the most unambiguously wise words of the play into the mouth of this “old fool”:
> ‘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.’
His entire speech to Laertes was clear and actionable advice. And his advice to Ophelia was likely necessary for the time. Had no clue people thought him a fool until today.
The advice might sound sensible in isolation. But immediately after, Polonus hires a spy to report on Laertes conduct in Paris, and literally instructs the spy to slander Laertes in order to trick people into revealing if these slanders are correct. All this from the man who in the previous scene said "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."
Shakespeare quotes should not be considered in isolation, they are always part of a larger context. Taking Polonious advice at face value is like the people taking the "greed is good" or "coffee is for losers" speeches at face value.
Because of the length of the play, the scene with the spy is often cut, since it doesn't directly concern Hamlet and doesn't really lead anywhere (we never hear from the spy again). But without this scene, Polonius advice to Laertes stands alone and is taken in earnest. The scene with the spy shows it is all dishonest bullshit which plays into the larger themes of the play, e.g. Polonius later using his daughter as bait and spying on Hamlet.
As advice, it's fine. The humor comes from the context. He's dumping this mountain of adages on his son, a full-grown man, in lieu of a goodbye.
I don't buy the article author's contention that these are "dad jokes" or that Polonius is self-aware. He may be the best parent in the play (a low bar), but he's still a deliberately comic figure.
I think this view has changed over time. Polonius’ advice was my late father’s favourite passage in Shakespeare. I was surprised, at university for a degree in Literature, to hear that it was thought of as a bunch of passé rambling.
And nowadays I agree 100% with my dad - it’s great advice.
Lionel Trilling gives a really good account of this change in Sincerity and Authenticity; near the beginning of the essay he makes special reference to Polonius's speech: http://www3.nccu.edu.tw/~kangchan/translations/Trilling_Sinc...
Like a motivational quote, it sounds profound but what does it actually mean?
To be true to oneself means that one must not lie to others?
Dang. I had hoped this was about the new borrow checker in Rust.
neither a borrower nor a lender be.
I thought leverage was important? Guess I better move to all cash
My high school English teacher said the speech was parental cliches. (Which supports the interpretation that it's showing the hypocrisy of all the adults around troubled Hamlet).
"Those 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-hatch'd, unfledged comrade..."
http://shakespeare.mit.edu/hamlet/hamlet.1.3.html
But maybe I'm just influenced by childhood memories of that Gilligan's Island episode where the castaways all stage an opera of Hamlet. (Where Polonius is played as a doddering parent by the Skipper...)
Polonius is considered a buffoon because that it how Hamlet sees him, and Hamlet is such a compelling character it is easy to get sucked into his point of view. I like Branaghs Hamlet where Polonius is not played as a fool at all, but rater as a cynical manipulator.
He is literally the king's spymaster. It would be hard to imagine a more cynical manipulator.
He was undoubtedly meant to poke fun at contemporary presumed courtiers who dabbled in spycraft.