I love both autumn and spring, but since April is dancing just outside my door, I will focus my attention upon this fresh, new season. In our rapidly changing climate, spring seems shorter, and the long, hot summers seem…well, longer and hotter, so we must celebrate Spring’s fragile and transient beauty while we can.
This fourth month of the year gives birth to tender green leaves emerging from ancient trees. It’s a time of birth and rebirth, and it’s the month in which William Shakespeare was born. (It is my birth month, as well!)
As I ruminated upon Shakespeare‘s contribution to the literary world, I was reminded that even the most Shakespeare-averse person probably quotes the bard on a regular basis without even knowing it. I ran across websites that list well over one hundred Shakespearean phrases that we use today. I’ve listed fifty of them and their sources below. (One thing I noticed as I researched this subject is that a great many of them come from one play—Macbeth.)
When we use these phrases, we become time travelers of a sort, with one foot in the 21st century and one in Shakespeare’s 17th century. (In the image above, I couldn’t resist seeing myself as a contemporary of Will Shakespeare! LOL)
1-A sea change: The Tempest
2-A sorry sight: Macbeth
3-All that glitters is not gold: The Merchant of Venice (“glisters”)
4-All’s well that ends well: All’s Well that Ends Well
5-A dish fit for the gods: Julius Caesar
6-A foregone conclusion: Othello
7-As (good) luck would have it: The Merry Wives of Windsor
8-At one fell swoop: Macbeth
9-Bated breath: Merchant of Venice
10-Be all and end all: Macbeth
11-Brave New World: The Tempest
12-Break the Ice: The Taming of the Shrew
13-Brevity is the soul of wit: Hamlet
14-But, for my own part, it was Greek to me: Julius Caesar
15-Come what (come) may: Macbeth
16-Discretion is the better part of valor: Henry IV
17-Fair play: The Tempest (and two others)
18-Fancy free: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
19-Good riddance: Troilus and Cressida
20-Green-eyed monster: Othello
21-Heart’s content: Henry’s VI
22-High time: The Comedy of Errors
23-Hot-blooded: The Merry Wives of Windsor
24-A charmed life: Macbeth
25-I have not slept a wink: Macbeth
26- I will wear my heart upon my sleeve: Othello
27-In stitches: Twelfth Night
28-Laughing stock: The Merry Wives of Windsor
29-Like the Dickens: The Merry Wives of Windsor
30-Lily-livered: Macbeth
31-Love is blind: The Merchant of Venice
32-Make an ass of yourself: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
33-Make your hair stand on end: Hamlet
34-Milk of human kindness: Macbeth
35-Strange bedfellows: The Tempest
36-Naked truth: Love’s Labour’s Lost
37-Neither a borrower nor a lender be: Hamlet
38-Out of the jaws of death: Twelfth Night
39-Rhyme nor reason: Comedy of Errors
40-Seen better days: As You Like It
41-Send him packing: Henry IV
42-Short shrift: Richard III
43-There’s method in my madness: Hamlet
44-Melted into thin air: The Tempest
45-Too much of a good thing: As You Like It
46-Truth will out: The Merchant of Venice
47-We have seen better days: As You Like It
48-Which is which: Macbeth
49-Wild goose chase: Romeo and Juliet
50-Woe is me: Hamlet
So, there you have it. Now you know how often you quote William Shakespeare!
Thanks for stopping by. Y’all come back now! (And may you have a “fancy free” Spring!)
Kathryn