What Shakespeare had to say about debt?
A would-be wit once sought to diminish Shakespeare’s reputation by proclaiming that his literary greatness was tarnished only by the volume of clichés he employed in his writing.
For the rest of us ‘what oft was thought but ne’er so well expressed’ is the very kernel of the bard’s literary output and the true measure of his genius. So what had he to say about debt?
Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
For those of us who dined at the table of plenty financed by easy personal borrowing which we are now struggling and failing to repay, what can we say but ‘I wish!’ We had no Shakespeare to guide us in avoiding the trap of our indebtedness or to assist us in dealing with the inevitable consequences of our profligacy. How would Shakespeare advise us now?
I guess he would advise us to seek counsel in order to obtain advice on financial solutions to our personal indebtedness and might well recommend that we contact an Insolvency Practitioner. While we may not encounter another Shakespeare, we can learn that through an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) or other financial solution we can overcome financial adversity and, to quote Shakespeare again, find that ‘All’s well that ends well’.