Essay

Shakespeare, the financial adviser

By Jackie Hoffart

I got some of my earliest financial advice from an unlikely source: the character Polonius, from Shakespeare's Hamlet.

"Neither a borrower nor a lender be;

For loan oft loses both itself and friend,

And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry."

Or in plain English: "Don't borrow or lend money to friends, because loans often result in the loss of the loan and the friend, and borrowing is just poor budgeting."

Unfortunately, I don't remember much else from the play — the most famous play in the English language — but that nugget of wisdom stuck with me.

Instinctively, I think we all struggle with the decision to lend money to friends. We want to be generous, to help our friends in need, but it's also sound to worry about the risks — especially in these times of economic distress. If the friend can't pay you back, maybe never pays you back, it could threaten the friendship more than refusing to lend money would.

Though mildly unpopular, deciding not to lend someone money is easy enough. But when you are on the other side of the equation — in need of a loan from a friend — Polonius' advice is harder to abide. Sometimes we really do need to borrow money from friends, especially in Japan where automated banking machines mysteriously "close" at the end of the day (and on holidays!).

This is where the word "beholden" is useful to know. It's not a very common word, but it's still part of the proper English lexicon. To be beholden to someone means to owe someone something, to be obligated, either morally or financially. For example, I am beholden to the government of Canada to pay back my student loans. Or, if my friend lends me 10,000 yen at 11 p.m. on a Friday night because the bank machine is closed, I am beholden to him for that 10,000 yen. (Be careful: "beholden" is an adjective and has nothing to do with the verb "behold," which means "to see, or to look upon.")

It is said that Hamlet was written during a time of excessive borrowing, where people were living beyond their means and had to sell off their estates to pay their debts. Sounds a bit like our times, too.

It's difficult to overstate the importance of Shakespeare's influence on the English language, it's really biblical in proportion. His collected works are a kind of secular bible because he seems to have spoken a kind of truth we can all connect with. The fact that Polonius' financial advice still applies more than 400 years after it was written, speaks to its relevance.

By far the most popular quotation from Hamlet is: "To be or not to be — that is the question."

But in my case, to (be) beholden or not to (be) beholden — that is really the question I struggle with.

Shukan ST: August 27, 2010

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