Shakespearean quotations
 

Since I'm assuming the majority of everyone here has read at least one play by Shakespeare, that drives me to ask...what are everyone's favourite Shakespearean quotes?

Two that I can think of so far that I like are:
"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet" Romeo and Juliet. (*sniffle* so romantic)
"....wool of bat..." Part of the witches chant from Macbeth (hmmm, I can just imagine having a bat's wool jumper for some reason, probably cheaper than a sheep's wool one)

We just started reading Romeo and Juliet in English. I am reading the parts of Lord Montague.

Romeo
She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste,
For beauty starved with her severity
Cuts beauty off from all posterity.

the St. Crispan's day Speech in King Henry the eighth

"This day is called the feast of Crispian:
He that outlives this day and comes
safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbors,
And say "Tomorrow is Saint Crispian":
Then will he strip his sleeve and
show his scars.
And say "These wounds I had on Crispin's day."
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day: then shall
our names.
Familiar in his mouth as household words
Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he today that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gently his condition:
And gentlemen in England now abed
Shall think themselves accursed they were
not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles
any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day."

makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside

I'm with Simple: "this thing of darkness I acknowledge mine". Damn straight, motherfucker.

I studied "The Merchant of Venice" and "Hamlet", and I read "Much Ado About Nothing" myself after I saw the film with Kenneth Branagh etc.

From Hamlet, Polonius gives a lot of advice to his son, Laertes, amongst which are some gems...

"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....
...This above all: to thine ownself be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man."

Much Ado About Nothing.

I had rather be a canker in a hedge than a rose in
his grace, and it better fits my blood to be
disdained of all than to fashion a carriage to rob
love from any: in this, though I cannot be said to
be a flattering honest man, it must not be denied
but I am a plain-dealing villain. I am trusted with
a muzzle and enfranchised with a clog; therefore I
have decreed not to sing in my cage. If I had my
mouth, I would bite; if I had my liberty, I would do
my liking: in the meantime let me be that I am and
seek not to alter me.

etc.

Unfortunately Keanu Reeves ruined that for me :(

Keanu Reeves in..?

I like that one...I used it in a report once.

He says that?

Macbeth

"Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."

No, sorry, I got an attack of sarcastica malicia this morning.

If you click on the link that is embedded in the text "the Matrix..." it will bring up the IMDB entry for the film "Much Ado About Nothing", where Keanu Reeves plays Don John.

Wow, I didn't even know there was such a film. How disappointing, I can't imagine him being in a Shakespeare play movie thingamajig.

I love the whole "Get thee to a nunnery" speech from Hamlet. It's so gloriously bitter and vicious, attacking the girl he so clearly adores.

"If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for thy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery. Go, farewell. Or if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool. For wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go, and quickly too. farewell."

Oh, how I want to play Hamlet...

Yes, I know I'm female, but that hasn't meant much so far. I was Launcelot Gobbo in Merchant of Venice, Snout in Midsummer Night's Dream and a Dromio in Comedy of Errors. Only once have I ever played a female - Charmian in Antony and Cleopatra (or Carry On Cleo as my hubby indelicately calls it). I wanted to do Macbeth eleven years ago, but it would have clashed with my honeymoon, so....


Anyway, fave quote, fave play - gotta be Hamlet.

As much as I love Shakespeare, and am probably going to go on to teach it, I can't stand Romeo and Juliet. It's terrible, and don't ask me why; I just hate it. But two that really stand out to me right now are Antony's soliloquy from Julius Caesar:

and Richard III:

Fucking brilliant. If you haven't seen it yet, go watch Sir Ian McKellan's performance of Richard III. It kicks some serious ass. Hamlet's soliloquy is pretty great too, but everyone knows that - or should.

Fans of Shakespeare should read Wise Children by Angela Carter. I never miss a chance to plug that book. 'Cause it's fucking brilliant.

Taming of the Shrew has to be one of my favorites:

Act II Scene I:

"PETRUCHIO: Come, come, you wasp; i' faith, you are too angry.
KATHARINA: If I be waspish, best beware my sting.
PETRUCHIO: My remedy is then, to pluck it out.
KATHARINA: Ay, if the fool could find it where it lies,
PETRUCHIO: Who knows not where a wasp does
wear his sting? In his tail.
KATHARINA: In his tongue.
PETRUCHIO: Whose tongue?
KATHARINA: Yours, if you talk of tails: and so farewell.
PETRUCHIO: What, with my tongue in your tail? nay, come again, Good Kate; I am a gentleman.
KATHARINA: That I'll try. "

I had far, far too much fun playing as Kat :D

Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Ye all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.

Prospero -- The Tempest




Or

If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber'd here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend:
if you pardon, we will mend:
And, as I am an honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck
Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,
We will make amends ere long;
Else the Puck a liar call;
So, good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.

Puck -- Midsummer Night's Dream

I'll let you know after I take a Shakespeare class in the second summer semester. ^^

My favorite is when Caesar says:
Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange men should fear;
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.

Mmm.. ya... he is as wooden as a beaver's crap...

"Like, alas poor Yorick, I knew him well, dude."

lol