I wonder how many students happened to realize that today is when we observe Shakespeare's birthday. I also wonder how many will wander onto my blog expecting an entry. For those few, I would not want to dissapoint...I have tried to explain my completely normal appreciation for The Bard before, but on what many historians believe to be his birthday I shall try again. I have this quotation on a poster in my classroom (which sadly falls down all the time - how did the builders not realize that nothing sticks to cement block?!). It is taken from a memoir called Will & Me by Dominic Dromgoole, a theatre director. I added a few items in parentheses to help illuminate his point:
Shakespeare stains every surface of English life. He is woven into our history, our most private selves, even our landscape. Since our primary tool for understanding and expressing all these is our language, and since he dominates that language so completely, it is foolish to underestimate his influence.
Many of the words we use he invented (monumental); Many of the cliches we fall back on were his new minted truths (eaten me out of house and home); and many of the sentiments we live by he first thought (for goodness sake!)...
Shakespeare's great volcanic eruption of words (1700 invented words & phrases) carved out the verbal landscape within which we have lived ever since. Other languages and cultures have vitalized and reinvigorated that wordscape, but, thus far, they are only pitching their tents on Shakespeare's broad plain.
If that does not sell you on the importance of Shakespeare, here is a condensed list of phrases we use now (400 years after his death) every day. Some of these we use so often you might even be surprised that one man gets the credit for inventing them!
A fool's paradise—Romeo and Juliet
A foregone conclusion—Othello
A tower of strength—Richard III
All the world's a stage—As You Like It
An eye-sore—The Taming of the Shrew
Beware the Ides of March—Julius Caesar
Breathe one’s last—Henry VI, part 3
Budge an inch—The Taming of the Shrew
Come full circle—King Lear
Come what may—Macbeth
Cowards die many times before their deaths—Julius Caesar
Crack of doom—Macbeth
Dead as a doornail—Henry VI, part 2
Devil incarnate—Henry V
Dish fit for the gods—Julius Caesar
Dog will have its day—Hamlet
Done to death—Much Ado About Nothing
Double, double, toil and trouble; fire burn, and cauldron bubble—Macbeth
Eaten me out of house and home—Henry IV, part 2
Elbow room— King John
Et tu, Brute! –Julius Caesar
Every inch a king—King Lear
Fair is foul, and foul is fair—Macbeth
For goodness sake—Henry VIII
Foregone conclusion—Othello
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears—Julius Caesar
Give the devil his due—Henry IV (In the song "The Devil Went Down to Georgia")
Good riddance—Troilus and Cressida
Green-eyed monster—Othello
I have not slept one wink—Cymbeline
In my heart of hearts—Hamlet
In my mind's eye—Hamlet
Into thin air—The Tempest
It was Greek to me—Julius Caesar
Kill ... with kindness—The Taming of the Shrew
Laughing-stock—The Merry Wives of Windsor
Lean and hungry look—Julius Caesar
Lend me your ears—Julius Caesar
Lord, what fools these mortals be!—A Midsummer Night's Dream
Love is blind—The Merchant of Venice
Merry as the day is long—Much Ado About Nothing
My own flesh and blood—The Merchant of Venice
Not a mouse stirring—Hamlet
Now is the winter of our discontent—Richard III
O, Brave new world—The Tempest
One fell swoop—Macbeth
Out, out, brief candle—Macbeth
Parting is such sweet sorrow—Romeo and Juliet
Pomp and Circumstance—Othello (Think graduation song)
Sorry sight—Macbeth
Star-crossed lovers—Romeo and Juliet
The be-all and the end-all—Macbeth
The course of true love never did run smooth—A Midsummer Night's Dream
The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers—Henry VI, part 2
The naked truth—Love's Labour's Lost
The play’s the thing—Hamlet
The lady doth protest too much, methinks—Hamlet
The world's mine oyster—The Merry Wives of Windsor
Though this be madness, yet there is method in't—Hamlet (we say: method in the madness)
'Tis neither here nor there—--Othello
To be, or not to be: that is the question—Hamlet
To thine own self be true—Hamlet
Too much of a good thing—As You Like It
We are such stuff as dreams are made on--The Tempest
We have seen better days—As You Like It
Wear my heart on my sleeve—Othello
What’s done is done—Macbeth
What's in a name?—Romeo and Juliet
A foregone conclusion—Othello
A tower of strength—Richard III
All the world's a stage—As You Like It
An eye-sore—The Taming of the Shrew
Beware the Ides of March—Julius Caesar
Breathe one’s last—Henry VI, part 3
Budge an inch—The Taming of the Shrew
Come full circle—King Lear
Come what may—Macbeth
Cowards die many times before their deaths—Julius Caesar
Crack of doom—Macbeth
Dead as a doornail—Henry VI, part 2
Devil incarnate—Henry V
Dish fit for the gods—Julius Caesar
Dog will have its day—Hamlet
Done to death—Much Ado About Nothing
Double, double, toil and trouble; fire burn, and cauldron bubble—Macbeth
Eaten me out of house and home—Henry IV, part 2
Elbow room— King John
Et tu, Brute! –Julius Caesar
Every inch a king—King Lear
Fair is foul, and foul is fair—Macbeth
For goodness sake—Henry VIII
Foregone conclusion—Othello
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears—Julius Caesar
Give the devil his due—Henry IV (In the song "The Devil Went Down to Georgia")
Good riddance—Troilus and Cressida
Green-eyed monster—Othello
I have not slept one wink—Cymbeline
In my heart of hearts—Hamlet
In my mind's eye—Hamlet
Into thin air—The Tempest
It was Greek to me—Julius Caesar
Kill ... with kindness—The Taming of the Shrew
Laughing-stock—The Merry Wives of Windsor
Lean and hungry look—Julius Caesar
Lend me your ears—Julius Caesar
Lord, what fools these mortals be!—A Midsummer Night's Dream
Love is blind—The Merchant of Venice
Merry as the day is long—Much Ado About Nothing
My own flesh and blood—The Merchant of Venice
Not a mouse stirring—Hamlet
Now is the winter of our discontent—Richard III
O, Brave new world—The Tempest
One fell swoop—Macbeth
Out, out, brief candle—Macbeth
Parting is such sweet sorrow—Romeo and Juliet
Pomp and Circumstance—Othello (Think graduation song)
Sorry sight—Macbeth
Star-crossed lovers—Romeo and Juliet
The be-all and the end-all—Macbeth
The course of true love never did run smooth—A Midsummer Night's Dream
The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers—Henry VI, part 2
The naked truth—Love's Labour's Lost
The play’s the thing—Hamlet
The lady doth protest too much, methinks—Hamlet
The world's mine oyster—The Merry Wives of Windsor
Though this be madness, yet there is method in't—Hamlet (we say: method in the madness)
'Tis neither here nor there—--Othello
To be, or not to be: that is the question—Hamlet
To thine own self be true—Hamlet
Too much of a good thing—As You Like It
We are such stuff as dreams are made on--The Tempest
We have seen better days—As You Like It
Wear my heart on my sleeve—Othello
What’s done is done—Macbeth
What's in a name?—Romeo and Juliet
Happy Shakespeare's Birthday! Celebrate by renting a movie based on his work like: '10 Things I Hate About You' or 'O' or 'Loser.'
1 comment:
Miss M; That's a staggering contribution to the language and I am happy to see such a wonderful list. Boo, the 14 year old in my life, is beginning to fall hard for your Bard (I can only partially claim him - yours is more substantial and dare I say extensive one) after really getting into Romeo and Juliet. Now I am trying to get her to sit still long enough to watch Shakespeare in Love with me.
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