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

Let's hope that people don't end up speaking Shakespeare as badly as that. Tis a sad thing to see good literature and plays ruined by somebody speaking the lines wrong.

That was what my imagination spit out when I gave it...

Keanu Reeves + Shakespeare = ?

Not that I would ever wish for such an atrocity, Rose.

I'll bet you did! Boy, I would've loved to have watched you!

I like to speak in Shakespearean English at times. It shows you who among you is cultured enough to speak that way.

From the First Quarto, Act III, Scene i :

To be, or not to be, there's the point,
To Die, to sleepe, is that all? I all:
No, to sleepe, to dreame, I mary there it goes,
For in that dreame of death, when wee awake,
And born before an euerlasting Iudge,
From whence no passenger euer retur'nd,
The vndiscouered country, at whose sight
The happy smile, and the accursed damn'd.
But for this, the ioyfull hope of this,
Whol'd beare the scornes and flattery of the world,
Scorned by the right rich, the rich curssed of the poore?
The widow being oppressed, the orphan wrong'd,
The taste of hunger, or a tirants raigne,
And thousand more calamities besides,
To grunt and sweate vnder this weary life,
When that he may his full Quietus make,
With a bare bodkin, who would this indure,
But for a hope of something after death?
Which pusles the braine, and doth confound the sence,
Which makes vs rather beare those euilles we haue,
Than flie to others that we know not of.
I that, O this conscience makes cowardes of vs all,
Lady in thy orizons, be all my sinnes remembred.

Ok wait....cause I know that's from Hamlet.

Am I missing a joke here angel?
To be, or not to be, there's the point.....

I have to be missing a joke or a refrence or something....




help....... ......... ...............

Re-read...

It's from the first quarto.

The Hamlet we know and love today was taken from 2 Folios (The First Folio is where the famous "To be or not to be, that is the question" comes from) And Four Quartos... this being from the first one. Once you think about it... there are 6 versions.

And this is one. If you had READ my post fully, you would have realized I said...

It's just a different version. I can also post a very unknown scene that is in the First (I believe) Quarto that is not in the First Folio. It's between the Queen and Horatio. It's after Hamlet has returned safely from his trip.

Shakespeare is truly fascinating... I have MANY MANY versions... and I found them on the internet, thanks to a guest speaker in my English class.

If you care to know the address... I've found Romeo and Juliet interesting... so many changes...

And notice the changing of the "u" and "v"... Close to Latin.

It's no joke. It's a true version and a practised version. Just a different one.

Cool. Never read the Foilos. But then my study of Shakespeare is much different than most people. While I was in High School we read the standards...Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet. But the vast majority of my knowledge of Shakespeare is 6 years of Renaissance fair with people who could and would recite entire acts, and a Theater degree. But while I did study Shakespeare extensively in college, I was looking at him from the back stage...where I was, building the sets and props.

It's a shame really. I like his stuff...no doubt. My problem is I just CAN'T read him. Drives me crazy. I have to watch it to be able to understand it. If I sit down and try to just read his plays I get totally lost, bogged down in the language. It doesn't really have to be staged, and I assure you I can tell a good performance from a bad one, but I just have to have it read aloud, preferably while I'm not involved.



Just so you know angel…sometimes when people ask for help…they aren’t insulting you, they’re just asking for help


*ponders her latest sacrilege*
*Shrugs it off and walks away.*

Anyone read A Thousand Acres, by Jane Smilie? It's an updated, contemporary take on the King Lear story, told from the two elder daughters' point of view and utilising the theories that Lear committted incest with them and that's why they hate him so much. It's well worth a read, especially if you read King Lear and think they're just a nasty pair of bitches.

Sorry if I came off as crass and a little harsh. But you asked if it was a joke, meaning that you hadn't researched the piece that I had posted and didn't take my post seriously. Regardless, I am sorry.

It's no big thing.

But here's a thought. Why would I go out on the internet to research something when I can just ask you? Especially since you seem to know sooooooo much about the subject and research on the web takes soooooo much time.

I get the response though. I've noticed that people around here are quick to flame, though to be fair people are also quick to take offence.

Reminds me of life.

Now you are stepping over the line into sarcasm and personal attack. It's not needed. I apologized, I was in the wrong and you still continue?

Sorry If I'm wrong here but are you intending to fight?

Romeo And Juliet.
Mercutio:
Without his roe, like a dried herring. O flesh, flesh, how art thou fishified! Now is he for the numbers that Petrarch flowed in. Laura, to his lady, was a kitchen wench. Dido a dowdy, Cleopatra a gipsy, Helen and Hero hildings and harlots, Thisbe a grey eye or so, but not to the purpose.
₪ ₪ ₪
Juliet:
Wash they his wounds with tears? Mine shall be spent
When theirs are dry, for Romeo's banishment.
Take up those cords. Poor ropes, you are beguiled.
Both you and I, for Romeo is exiled.
He made you for a highway to my bed.
But I, a maid, die maiden-widowed.
Come, cords; come Nurse; I'll to my wedding bed, and death, not Romeo, take my maidenhead.
₪ ₪ ₪
Romeo:
Being but heavy, I will bear the light.

One of my personal favorites is not from Shaekspeare, but rather inspired by him. It froms from the play: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, by Tom Stoppard.

The Player: We're more of the love, blood, and rhetoric school. Well, we can do you blood and love without the rhetoric, and we can do you blood and rhetoric without the love, and we can do you all three concurrent or consecutive. But we can't give you love and rhetoric without the blood. Blood is compulsory. They're all blood, you see.
Guildenstern: Is that what people want?
The Player: It's what we do.

There is also this from the same play:

Rosencrantz: Do you want to play questions?
Guildenstern: How do you play that?
Rosencrantz: You have to ask a question.
Guildenstern: Statement. One - Love.
Rosencrantz: Cheating.
Guildenstern: How?
Rosencrantz: I haven't started yet.
Guildenstern: Statement. Two - Love.
Rosencrantz: Are you counting that?
Guildenstern: What?
Rosencrantz: Are you counting that?
Guildenstern: Foul. No repetition. Three - Love and game.
Rosencrantz: I'm not going to play if you're going to be like that.


- Wolve

To be or not to be – that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And, by opposing, end them. To die, to sleep
No more – and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to – ‘tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep
To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
Th’ oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns

That patient merit of th’ unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country from whose bourn

No traveler returns, puzzles the will

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment

With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action

(Small disagreements like does/doth, pitch/pith etc. have been raging in said article. I didn't have the original in my favourites' section, so I took it from Wikipedia.)

This is my favourite one of the ones' I heard or read.
I love it so much that I memorized it all once.

Did anyone see the Royal Shakespeare Co's Hamlet with David Tennant yesterday? Absolutely fucking brilliant. He's perhaps a bit old for the role in my mind, but he really was excellent.

The one where he wears a orange t-shirt? Brilliant, but the man does need to learn how to stand still from time to time.

Well, going slowly insane needn't mean going slowly. At least he didn't do the Doctor-esque cuts to shouts and yelps of varying volume (though I must confess I was almost expecting them at points).

All in all, I thought the caged tiger pacing (and occasional shadow-boxing) worked wonderfully in his depiction of a person climbing the walls of his own mind. He did a truly fantastic job. If only he were ten years younger I think I might pronounce the whole thing virtually flawless.

I was out so I recorded it and just finished watching now - was very impressed. I didn't find him too old; he had just the right energy. Patrick Stewart was a pretty sensational Claudius as well.

Agreed, his performance was almost faultless. Hamlet's youth is a requirement of the text rather than a flaw in DT's delivery - think about how many times the word youth, or derivatives thereof, are uttered during the play (most frequently with reference to the eponymous Hamlet). It's a major theme which is so often overlooked in analysis, and even more so in performance. Still, as criticisms go, it's fairly minor here.

Ah right, OK - I didn't think of that because so many older guys have played Hamlet, haha.

I don't remember any Shakespearean quotes, just Poe.

You're not wrong, but given that Hamlet would have been aged anywhere between 23 and 30, it's not like they picked a 30 yr old man to play Romeo or some shit.

I'll have to try to download this version. I'd imagine Tennant at his best would make a pretty cool Hamlet, and it's not often you go this googly-eyed over something. (Admittedly, you managed to manufacture a practically non-existent fault our of sheer pedantry, but I know you see it as a point of honor to find fault with everything ever made........ so the triviality of your criticism is pretty much a ringing endorsement in itself. ;] )

A winking smiley? Do you want some Kleenex to clean up the spunk on your screen?

He's trying to make his statement suggestive.

"I want to put my penis in your vagina... *WINK*... GET IT?"

He's trying to make his boring advances seem witty and risqué, unfortunately it's painfully clear that Judge has no room in her heart for any man other than me.