Neither a borrower nor a lender be - eNotes Shakespeare Quotes Neither a borrower nor a lender be Polonius: Neither a borrower nor a lender be, For loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. Read on Owl Eyes This eText is now on Owl Eyes. Clicking this link will open a new window. Old Polonius counsels his hotheaded son Laertes, who is about to embark for Paris for his gentleman's education [see THE PRIMROSE PATH ]. While he still has the chance, Polonius wholesales a stockroom of aphorisms, the most famous of which is "Neither a borrower nor a lender be." On Polonius's terms, there is little to argue with in his perhaps ungenerous advice. His logic is thus: lending money to friends is risky, because hitching debt onto personal relationships can cause resentment and, in the case of default, loses the lender both his money and his friend. Borrowing invites more private dangers: it supplants domestic thrift ("husbandry")—in Polonius's eyes, an important gentlemanly value.

Incidentally, in the days when Hamlet was first staged, borrowing was epidemic among the gentry, who sometimes neglected husbandry to the point where they were selling off their estates piece by piece to maintain an ostentatious lifestyle in London. No Fear Shakespeare: Hamlet: Act 1, Scene 3, Page 3 No Fear Shakespeare Home → No Fear Shakespeare → Hamlet → Act 1, Scene 3, Page 3 Hamlet Yet here, Laertes? Aboard, aboard, for shame! The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail And you are stayed for. There, my blessing with thee. And these few precepts in thy memory Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any unproportioned thought his act. Be thou familiar but by no means vulgar. Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel, But do not dull thy palm with entertainment Of each new-hatched, unfledged comrade. Beware Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in, Bear ’t that th' opposèd may beware of thee. Give every man thy ear but few thy voice. Take each man’s censure but reserve thy judgment.

Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not expressed in fancy—rich, not gaudy, For the apparel oft proclaims the man, And they in France of the best rank and station Are of a most select and generous chief in that. Neither a borrower nor a lender be, For loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. Farewell. My blessing season this in thee. POLONIUS You’re still here? Shame on you—get on board! The wind is filling your ship’s sail, and they’re waiting for you. Here, I give you my blessing again. And just try to remember a few rules of life. Don’t say what you’re thinking, and don’t be too quick to act on what you think. Be friendly to people but don’t overdo it. Once you’ve tested out your friends and found them trustworthy, hold onto them. But don’t waste your time shaking hands with every new guy you meet.

Don’t be quick to pick a fight, but once you’re in one, hold your own. Listen to many people, but talk to few. Hear everyone’s opinion, but reserve your judgment. Spend all you can afford on clothes, but make sure they’re quality, not flashy, since clothes make the man—which is doubly true in France. Don’t borrow money and don’t lend it, since when you lend to a friend, you often lose the friendship as well as the money, and borrowing turns a person into a spendthrift. And, above all, be true to yourself. Then you won’t be false to anybody else. Good-bye, son. I hope my blessing will help you absorb what I’ve said. LAERTES Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord. LAERTES I humbly say good-bye to you, father. POLONIUS The time invites you. Go. Your servants tend. POLONIUS Now go, the time is right. Your servants are waiting. 85 Farewell, Ophelia, and remember well What I have said to you.

LAERTES Hamlet: Top 8 Quotes Explained | Study Help | CliffsNotes Top 8 Quotes Explained Bookmark this page Manage My Reading List "That it should come to this!" (Act I, Scene II) What does it mean? Just after speaking to his mother Gertrude and uncle (and step-father) King Claudius, Hamlet has his first of five soliloquies. When Hamlet exclaims, "[t]hat it should come to this," he'd just finished describing how the world has gone to fodder. Then Hamlet goes on to say how he cannot believe his mother would marry his father's brother (i.e., Hamlet's uncle). This quote shows Hamlet's fury and shock at his mother's remarriage. In Hamlet's mind, the world is in chaos and the remarriage is the apex of things spiraling out of control. Soliloquies allow the audience to see into a character's inner thoughts. The soliloquy as a whole belays the reasons for Hamlet's initial deep melancholy and confusion that persists for much of the play. "Frailty, thy name is woman!" (Act I, Scene II) What does it mean?

Hamlet is still speaking in his first of five soliloquies. The "woman" he specifically refers to is his mother. Hamlet felt she was weak, or not strong enough to mourn his father longer. Hamlet goes on further to say that not even an animal or beast, who has no reasoning skills, would have abandoned the mourning so quickly. All in all, this shows how angry and confused Hamlet is by his mother's remarriage. "Neither a borrower nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend, and borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry." (Act I, Scene III) What does it mean? Here Polonius is giving his son, Laertes , sound advice before Laertes returns to Paris. Polonius is really saying loaning money to other people is dangerous. Often, people don't pay you back and you use a friend because of the failed transaction. On the flip side, it is distasteful to borrow money because it is impolite and usually indicates you are living outside of your means. "This above all: to thine own self be true." (Act I, Scene III) What does it mean?

Again, Polonius is doling out sage advice to his son, Laertes. Simply put, Polonius is telling his son "be yourself." In the context of the play, Polonius is also telling Laertes to be a gentleman and not "false to any man" (line 80). Overall, Polonius's advice helps reveals a theme of irony that threads throughout the play. Neither Polonius nor Laertes heeds the advice that Polonius gives in this scene, and both perish due to their lack of adherence. "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark." (Act I, Scene IV) What does it mean? At the end of Scene IV, a guard, Marcellus, says these famous words to Horatio . After Hamlet follows the ghost, Marcellus and Horatio know they have to follow as well, because Hamlet is acting so impulsively. Marcellus's words are remarking on how something evil and vile is afoot. This moment could be interpreted as foreshadowing of the impending deaths of most of the principle characters. "Though this be madness, yet there is method in't." (Act II, Scene II) What does it mean?

At this point of the play, Hamlet and Polonius are interacting onstage, but this quote is technically spoken by Polonius to the audience, in an aside. What Polonius is saying is that, even though Hamlet is talking crazy, it actually makes sense, or it has a "method." Polonius's assertion is ironic because he is right and wrong. Polonius believes Hamlet is acting "mad" because Hamlet's love of Ophelia has driven him to such. While Polonius is correct to think that there is reason behind Hamlet's actions, he is incorrect as to the cause. Hamlet is purposefully acting mad to disguise his true mission to avenge his father's murder. "To be, or not to be: that is the question." (Act III, Scene I) What does it mean? As one of Shakespeare 's all-time famous quotes, Hamlet's words have stood the test of time and are often quoted even today in both academia and pop culture. In the beginning of his fourth, and best known, soliloquy Hamlet muses about the conundrum of suicide. He wonders if one route is "nobler" than the next.

At this point in the play, Hamlet has been unable to act upon his motives for personal revenge, and this frustrates him. Which is better, suffering as he has been or ending it all? The tone of Hamlet's soliloquy is more meditative than angry, but he does seriously consider suicide. He relates his personal struggle to the struggles that all of mankind shares. Given that you don't know what happens after you die, Hamlet realizes that death wouldn't be the ideal escape he craves. "The lady doth protest too much, methinks." (Act III, Scene II) What does it mean? Hamlet's mother, Queen Gertrude, says this famous line while watching The Mousetrap. Gertrude is talking about the queen in the play. She feels that the play-queen seems insincere because she repeats so dramatically that she'll never remarry due to her undying love of her husband. The play-queen, in fact, does remarry. It is unclear whether Gertrude recognizes the parallel between herself and the play-queen; Hamlet certainly feels that way. This moment has an irony that is shown throughout the play.

Neither a borrower or lender be Neither a borrower or lender be William Shakespeare Quotes Home "Neither a borrower or lender be" - A Famous Quote by William Shakespeare This famous quote originated in the play by William Shakespeare. This section provides answers to the following questions about this famous Shakespeare quote: Who said that? Which play the quote come from? What was the name of the speaker? In which Act or Scene can the whole quote, or saying, be found? Shakespeare Quote - "Neither a borrower or lender be" Polonius: Neither a borrower nor a lender be, For loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. Hamlet Act 1, Scene 3 Famous Shakespeare Quote Although set in different times many of the most famous quotes about life and love by William Shakespeare are still relevant today. Did you know that William Shakespeare is credited by the Oxford English Dictionary with the introduction of nearly 3,000 words into the language. It's no wonder that expressions from his works in literature, including the "Neither a borrower or lender be" quote, are an 'anonymous' part of the English language.

Many people continue to use this "Neither a borrower or lender be" quote by William Shakespeare in famous quotes about life. "Neither a borrower or lender be" "Neither a borrower or lender be" Who said that? Which play did the quote come from? What was the name of the speaker? In which Act or Scene can the whole quote, or saying, be found? Short Famous Quotes about life from Famous Shakespeare Quotes Neither a borrower or lender be Neither a borrower or lender be - Famous Shakespeare Quote - Book - Speaker - Play - Line - Lines - Quote - Qoute - William Shakespeare - Act - Scene - Soliloquy - Origin - Saying - Name - Meaning - Quotation - Phrase - Book - Speaker - Play - Line - Lines - Book - Speaker - Play - Line - Lines - Quote - Qoute - William Shakespeare - Act - Scene - Soliloquy - Origin - Saying - Name - Meaning - Quotation - Phrase - Book - Speaker - Play - Line - Lines - Neither a borrower or lender be - Written By Linda Alchin Famous Shakespeare Quotes: Top 50 Shakespeare Quotes Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.

( Twelfth Night ) Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once. ( Julius Caesar ) Full fathom five thy father lies, of his bones are coral made. Those are pearls that were his eyes. Nothing of him that doth fade, but doth suffer a sea-change into something rich and strange. (The Tempest) A man can die but once. (Henry IV, Part 2) How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child! (King Lear) By heaven, methinks it were an easy leap to pluck bright honor from the pale-faced moon, or dive into the bottom of the deep, where fathom-line could never touch the ground, and pluck up drowned honour by the locks. (Henry IV Part 1) If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? (The Merchant of Venice) I am one who loved not wisely but too well.

(Othello) If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men’s cottage princes’ palaces. (The Merchant of Venice) We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep. (The Tempest) 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. ( Macbeth ) Beware the Ides of March. ( Julius Caesar ) Get thee to a nunnery. ( Hamlet ) If music be the food of love play on. ( Twelfth Night ) As merry as the day is long. ( Much Ado about Nothing ) To thine own self be true. ( Hamlet ) All that glisters is not gold. (The Merchant of Venice) Nothing will come of nothing. (King Lear) The course of true love never did run smooth. (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) Lord, what fools these mortals be! (A Midsummer Night’s dream) Whoever loved that loved not at first sight?

(As You Like It) There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. ( Hamlet ) A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse! (Richard III) Come what come may, time and the hour runs through the roughest day. (Macbeth) Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind. (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) The fault, dear Brutus, lies not within the stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings. (Julius Caesar) Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? (Sonnet 18) Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments. (Sonnet 116) He doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus; and we petty men walk under his huge legs, and peep about to find ourselves dishonourable graves. (Julius Caesar) But, for my own part, it was Greek to me. (Julius Caesar) Neither a borrower nor a lender be; for loan oft loses both itself and friend, and borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.

( Hamlet ) The barge she sat in, like a burnish’d throne, burn’d on the water. (Antony and Cleopatra) Off with his head! (Richard III) Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. (Henry IV, Part 2) Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows. ( The Tempest ) This is very midsummer madness. (Twelfth Night) Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps. (Much Ado about Nothing) I cannot tell what the dickens his name is. (The Merry Wives of Windsor) We have seen better days. ( Timon of Athens ) I am a man more sinned against than sinning. ( King Lear ) Golden lads and girls all must, as chimney-sweepers, come to dust. ( Cymbeline ) This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle…This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England. ( Richard II ) William Shakespeare - Wikiquote William Shakespeare Jump to: navigation , search All the world 's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts...

William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 ( baptised ) – 23 April 1616 ) was an English poet , playwright , and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. See also: and more works on Wikiquote. Contents With the help of your good hands . Gentle breath of yours my sails Must fill, or else my project fails, Which was to please. Now I want And my ending is despair , Unless I be reliev'd by prayer , Which pierces so that it assaults Mercy itself, and frees all faults. As you from crimes would pardon'd be, Let your indulgence set me free . To unmask falsehood , and bring truth to light . Blese be the man that spares these stones And curst be he that moves my bones Beauty itself doth of itself persuade The eyes of men without an orator. Time 's glory is to calm contending kings, To unmask falsehood, and bring truth to light . The Rape of Lucrece. That deep torture may be called a hell, When more is felt than one hath power to tell. The Rape of Lucrece.

On a day — alack the day! — Love , whose month is ever May, Spied a blossom passing fair Playing in the wanton air Sonnets to Sundry Notes of Music, II. Not to be confused with The Sonnets ; this poem is not a sonnet Crabbed age and youth cannot live together: Youth is full of pleasure, age is full of care The Passionate Pilgrim: A Madrigal; there is some doubt about the authorship of this. I gyve unto my wief my second best bed with the furniture Good frend for Jesus sake forbeare To digg the dust encloased heare Blese be the man that spares these stones And curst be he that moves my bones Shakespeare's epitaph Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this sun of York. Richard, Act I, scene i. Off with his head! Richard, Act III, scene iv. A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse! Richard, Act V, scene iv. What light through yonder window breaks? Romeo, Act II, scene ii. What's in a name? That which we call a rose, By any other name would smell as sweet.

Juliet, Act II, scene ii. O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo? Juliet, Act II, scene ii. The course of true love never did run smooth. Lysander, Act I, scene i. Lord, what fools these mortals be! Puck, Act III, scene ii. Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind. Helena, Act I, scene i. If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men’s cottages princes’ palaces. Portia, Act I, scene ii. All that glisters is not gold. Prince of Morocco, reading Portia's note, Act II, scene vii; this is the source of the popular paraphrase " All that glitters is not gold ." I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, heal'd by the same means, warm'd and cool'd by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is?

If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? Shylock, Act III, scene i. A man can die but once. Feeble, Act III, scene ii. Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. King Henry, Act III, scene i. As merry as the day is long. Beatrice, Act II, scene i. Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more, Men were deceivers ever; One foot in sea, and one on shore, To one thing constant never. Balthazar, Act II, scene iii. Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps. Hero, Act III, scene i. Men at some time are masters of their fates: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings. Cassius, Act I, scene ii. Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once. Caesar, Act II, scene ii.

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones. Antony, Act III, scene ii. All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts. Jaques, Act II, scene vii. Neither a borrower nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry . 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. Polonius, Act I, scene iii. Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice. Polonius, Act I, scene iii. The time is out of joint: O cursed spite, That ever I was born to set it right! Hamlet, Act I, scene v. There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. Hamlet, Act II, scene ii. What a piece of work is a man!

How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god! Hamlet, Act II, scene ii. To be or not to be, that is the question. Hamlet, Act III, scene i. If music be the food of love, play on. Orsino, Act I, scene i. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em. Malvolio, Act II, scene v. Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit and lost without deserving. Iago, Act II, scene iii. Of one that lov'd not wisely but too well. Othello, Act V, scene ii. We have seen better days. Flavius, Act IV, scene ii. Nothing can come of nothing. Lear, Act I, scene i. How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is To have a thankless child! Lear, Act I, scene iv. I am a man, More sinn'd against than sinning. Lear, Act III, scene ii.

The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne, Burnt on the water. Time and the hour runs through the roughest day. Macbeth, Act I, scene iii. Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Macbeth, Act II, scene i. Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! 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. Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date XVIII So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. XVIII Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments.

Golden lads and girls all must, As chimney-sweepers, come to dust. Guiderius, Act IV, scene ii. Full fathom five thy father lies; Of his bones are coral made; Those are pearls that were his eyes; Nothing of him that doth fade, But doth suffer a sea-change Into something rich and strange. Ariel, Act I, scene ii. Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows. Trinculo, Act II, scene ii. We are such stuff As dreams are made on; and our little life Is rounded with a sleep. Prospero, Act IV, scene i. Misattributed[ edit ] Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. The saying goes you live by the sword you shall die by the sword...It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry.

Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar. This statement by an unknown author has also been wrongly attributed to Julius Caesar , as well as to Shakespeare's play on his assassination and its aftermath, but there are no records of it prior to late 2000. It has been debunked at Snopes.com Nothing is more common than the wish to be remarkable. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. , The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (1858), ch. XII : Nothing is so common-place as to wish to be remarkable. Children wish fathers looked but with their eyes; fathers that children with their judgment looked; and either may be wrong. Derived from A Midsummer Night's Dream on p.

269, Aphorisms from Shakespeare (1812), Capel Lofft, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, a book which rewrites in aphoristic form Shakespeare quotations, in this case the exchange between Hermia and Theseus: "I would my father look'd but with my eyes", "Rather your eyes must with his judgment look". However wickedness outstrips men, it has no wings to fly from God . Derived from a longer quote in Henry V , reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 283. He who has injured thee was either stronger or weaker than thee. If weaker, spare him; if stronger, spare thyself. Truly from Seneca the Younger , in De Ira, Book III, Chapter V: Aut potentior te aut inbecillior laesit: si inbecillior, parce illi, si potentior, tibi. The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.

Not by Shakespeare, but from Finding Your Strength in Difficult Times: A Book of Meditations, a 1993 self-help book by David S. Viscott. [1] Quotes about Shakespeare[ edit ] Shakespear's Magick could not copy'd be, Within that Circle none durst walk but he. ~ John Dryden The remarkable thing about Shakespeare is that he is really very good — in spite of all the people who say he is very good. ~ Robert Graves Shakespeare led a life of Allegory; his works are the comments on it. ~ John Keats Alphabetized by author Shakespeare one gets acquainted with without knowing how. It is a part of an Englishman's constitution. His thoughts and beauties are so spread abroad that one touches them every where, one is intimate with him by instinct. There, Shakespeare, on whose forehead climb The crowns o' the world . Elizabeth Barrett Browning , A Vision of Poets (1844). Shakespeare's drama, where ideal women walk in worship, and the baser sort find sympathy. Robert Bridges , The Testament of Beauty (1929), Book III, line 921.

Shakespeare's name, you may depend upon it, stands absurdly too high and will go down. He had no invention as to stories, none whatever. He took all his plots from old novels, and threw their stories into dramatic shape... That he threw over whatever he did write some flashes of genius, nobody can deny; but this was all. Lord Byron , letter to James Hogg (24 March 1814), as quoted in Chambers Dictionary of Quotations (1997), p. 221. Consider now, if they asked us, Will you give up your Indian Empire or your Shakespeare, you English: never have had any Shakespeare? Really it were a grave question. Official persons would an swer doubtless in official language: but we, for our part too, should not be forced, to answer: Indian Empire, or no Indian Empire we cannot do with out Shakespeare! Thomas Carlyle , "On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History" (1841), Lecture 3. The Hero as Poet. Dante; Shakespeare. The souls most fed with Shakespeare's flame Still sat unconquered in a ring, Remembering him like anything. G. K.

Chesterton , "Shakespeare Memorial" (1915). He is of no age — nor, I may add, of any religion, or party, or profession. The body and substance of his works came out of the unfathomable depths of his own oceanic mind. Samuel Taylor Coleridge , Specimens of the Table Talk of the Late Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Vol. II (1835), p. 301. The true description of us is the complex, ever-changing pattern of interactions of billions of them [neurons]... The abbreviated and approximate shorthand that we employ every day to describe human behavior is a smudged caricature of our true selves. "What a piece of work is a man!" said Shakespeare. Had he been living today he might have given us the poetry we so sorely need to celebrate all these remarkable discoveries. Francis Crick , The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul (1994) I have tried lately to read Shakespeare, and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me. Charles Darwin , The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, Vol.

I (1860), as quoted in Webster's New World Dictionary of Quotations (2005), p. 253. 'I'm always ill after Shakespeare,' said Mrs Wititterly. 'I scarcely exist the next day; I find the reaction so very great after a tragedy, my lord, and Shakespeare is such a delicious creature.' Charles Dickens , Nicholas Nickleby (1838–1839), Ch. 27. But Shakespear's Magick could not copy'd be, Within that Circle none durst walk but he. John Dryden , The Tempest (1667), Prologue. To begin then with Shakespeare; he was the man who of all Modern, and perhaps Ancient Poets, had the largest and most comprehensive soul. All the Images of Nature were still present to him, and he drew them not laboriously, but luckily: when he describes any thing, you more than see it, you feel it too. Those who accuse him to have wanted learning, give him the greater commendation: he was naturally learn'd; he needed not the spectacles of Books to read Nature; he look'd inwards, and found her there.

I cannot say he is every where alike; were he so, I should do him injury to compare him with the greatest of Mankind. He is many times flat, insipid; his comic wit degenerating into clenches; his serious swelling into Bombast. But he is always great, when some great occasion is presented to him: no man can say he ever had a fit subject for his wit, and did not then raise himself as high above the rest of the poets. John Dryden , An Essay of Dramatic Poesy (1668), "Shakespeare and Ben Jonson Compared". If I would compare him [ Jonson ] with Shakespeare, I must acknowledge him the more correct poet, but Shakespeare the greater wit. John Dryden , An Essay of Dramatic Poesy (1668), "Shakespeare and Ben Jonson Compared". Shakespeare was the Homer , or father of our dramatic poets; Jonson was the Virgil , the pattern of elaborate writing. I admire him, but I love Shakespeare. John Dryden , An Essay of Dramatic Poesy (1668), "Shakespeare and Ben Jonson Compared".

Dante and Shakespeare divide the modern world between them; there is no third. T. S. Eliot , "Dante" (1929), from Selected Essays (1932). What point of morals , of manners , of economy , of philosophy , of religion , of taste , of the conduct of life, has he not settled? What mystery has he not signified his knowledge of? What office, or function, or district of man's work, has he not remembered? What king has he not taught state, as Talma taught Napoleon ? What maiden has not found him finer than her delicacy? What lover has he not outloved? What sage has he not outseen? What gentleman has he not instructed in the rudeness of his behavior? Ralph Waldo Emerson , Representative Men (1850), Shakespeare. England's genius filled all measure Of heart and soul, of strength and pleasure, Gave to the mind its emperor, And life was larger than before: Nor sequent centuries could hit Orbit and sum of Shakespeare's wit. The men who lived with him became Poets, for the air was fame.

Ralph Waldo Emerson , "Solution," lines 35–42, Poems (1918), p. 222. These lines are inscribed above the fireplace in the old reading room of the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C. The passages of Shakespeare that we most prize were never quoted until within this century. Ralph Waldo Emerson , Letters and Social Aims (1876), Quotation and Originality. Ultimately, Anthony Burgess 's emphasis on the multiplicity of meanings latent in the text of Shakespeare's life foregrounds his own appropriation of Shakespeare … Clearly this is not an inconsistency on Burgess's part but a deliberate pointer at the inevitability of appropriating any given text, particularly that most irresistible one of Shakespeare's life. Paul Franssen, on Burgess's use of Shakespeare's " Dark Lady " of the Sonnets in Nothing Like the Sun: A Story of Shakespeare's Love Life , in "The Bard, the Bible and the Desert Island" in ‪The Author as Character : Representing Historical Writers in Western Literature‬ (1999) edited by Paul Franssen and A. J. Hoenselaars, p. 115.

If Shakespeare required a word and had not met it in civilized discourse, he unhesitatingly made it up. Anthony Burgess , The Dictionary Makers [1] Do you know how they are going to decide the Shakespeare- Bacon dispute? They are going to dig up Shakespeare and dig up Bacon; they are going to set their coffins side by side, and they are going to get Tree to recite Hamlet to them. And the one who turns in his coffin will be the author of the play. W. S. Gilbert , letter quoted in Chambers Dictionary of Quotations (1997), p. 426. But my God , how beautiful Shakespeare is, who else is as mysterious as he is; his language and method are like a brush trembling with excitement and ecstasy. But one must learn to read, just as one must learn to see and learn to live. Note: Alternate spelling used.

I'm thinking "Great English wordsmith," my enemies and crew are thinking: "Shake…spear!" "Captain Shakespeare" on the origins of his nom de guerre, in Stardust (2007) , screenplay written by Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn , based on the novel by Neil Gaiman The remarkable thing about Shakespeare is that he is really very good — in spite of all the people who say he is very good. Robert Graves , in The Observer, "Sayings of the Week", (6 December 1964). Far from the sun and summer-gale, In thy green lap was Nature's Darling laid. Thomas Gray , The Progress of Poesy (1754), lines 83-84. For there is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tygers hart wrapt in a Players hyde, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blanke verse as the best of you: and beeing an absolute Johannes fac totum, is in his owne conceit the onely Shake-scene in a countrey. Robert Greene , Groats-worth of Witte (1592).

This figure that thou here seest put, It was for gentle Shakespeare cut, Wherein the graver had a strife With Nature, to out-do the life: O could he but have drawn his wit As well in brass, as he has hit His face; the print would then surpass All that was ever writ in brass: But since he cannot, reader, look Not on his picture, but his book. Ben Jonson , on the Portrait of Shakespeare, from Mr William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies (1623), "To the Reader", as quoted in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (1999), p. 420. Soul of the Age! The applause, delight, the wonder of our stage! My Shakespeare... Thou art a monument, without a tomb, And art alive still while thy book doth live, And we have wits to read, and praise to give. Ben Jonson , To the Memory of my Beloved, the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare (1623) He was not of an age, but for all time! Ben Jonson , To the Memory of my Beloved, the Author, Mr.

William Shakespeare (1623) I remember the players have often mentioned it as an honor to Shakespeare, that in his writing, whatsoever he penned, he never blotted out a line. My answer hath been, "Would he had blotted a thousand". Ben Jonson , Timber: or Discoveries made upon Men and Matter (1640) There was ever more in him to be praised than to be pardoned. Ben Jonson , Timber: or Discoveries made upon Men and Matter (1640) He that tries to recommend him by select Quotations, will succeed like the Pedant in Hierocles, who, when he offered his House to Sale, carried a Brick in his Pocket as a Specimen. Samuel Johnson , The plays of William Shakespeare, Vol. I (1765), Preface. Shakespeare has united the powers of exciting laughter and sorrow not only in one mind but in one composition. Almost all his plays are divided between serious and Ludicrous characters and they sometimes produce sorrow and sometimes laughter. That this is a practice contrary to the rules of criticism will be readily allowed; but there is always an appeal open from criticism to nature. Samuel Johnson , The plays of William Shakespeare, Vol.

I (1765), Preface. Yet it must be at last confessed, that as we owe every thing to him [Shakespeare], he owes something to us; that, if much of his praise is paid by perception and judgment, much is likewise given by custom and veneration. We fix our eyes upon his graces, and turn them from his deformities, and endure in him what we should in another loath or despise. Samuel Johnson , The plays of William Shakespeare, Vol. I (1765), Preface. And so sepulchr'd, in such pomp dost lie, That kings for such a tomb would wish to die. John Milton , "On Shakespeare" (1630). I never quite despair and I read Shakspeare — indeed I shall I think never read any other Book much [...] I am very near Agreeing with Hazlit that Shakspeare is enough for us. John Keats , in a letter to Benjamin Robert Haydon (11 May 1817). He has left nothing to say about nothing or any thing. John Keats , in a letter to John Hamilton Reynolds (22 November 1817).

At once it struck me, what quality went to form a Man of Achievement especially in Literature & which Shakespeare posessed so enormously — I mean Negative Capability , that is when man is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact & reason. John Keats , in a letter to George and Tom Keats ([21/27?] December 1817). Shakespeare led a life of Allegory; his works are the comments on it. John Keats , in a letter to George and Georgiana Keats (19 February 1819). Shakespeare is not our poet, but the world's; Therefore on him no speech! Walter Savage Landor , "To Robert Browning," published in The Morning Chronicle (22 November 1845); reprinted in The Works of Walter Savage Landor (1846), vol. II. When I read Shakespeare I am struck with wonder That such trivial people should muse and thunder In such lovely language. D. H. Lawrence , "When I read Shakespeare," from Pansies (1929). EDMUND (sits down opposite his father - contemptuously).

Yes, facts don't mean a thing, do they? What you want to believe, that's the only truth! (Derisively.) Shakespeare was an Irish Catholic, for example. TYRONE (stubbornly). So he was. The proof is in his plays. Eugene O'Neill , Long Day's Journey Into Night (1956), Act IV. When we speak of the aim and Art observable in Shakespeare's works, we must not forget that Art belongs to Nature ; that it is, so to speak, self-viewing, self-imitating, self-fashioning Nature. The Art of a well-developed genius is far different from the Artfulness of the Understanding , of the merely reasoning mind. Shakspeare was no calculator, no learned thinker; he was a mighty, many-gifted soul , whose feelings and works, like products of Nature, bear the stamp of the same spirit ; and in which the last and deepest of observers will still find new harmonies with the infinite structure of the Universe ; concurrences with later ideas, affinities with the higher powers and senses of man.

They are emblematic, have many meanings, are simple and inexhaustible, like products of Nature; and nothing more unsuitable could be said of them than that they are works of Art, in that narrow mechanical acceptation of the word. Novalis , as quoted in "Novalis" (1829) by Thomas Carlyle Children are made to learn bits of Shakespeare by heart, with the result that ever after they associate him with pedantic boredom. If they could meet him in the flesh, full of jollity and ale, they would be astonished, and if they had never heard of him before they might be led by his jollity to see what he had written. But if at school they had been inoculated against him, they will never be able to enjoy him. [...] Shakespeare did not write with a view to boring school-children; he wrote with a view to delighting his audiences. If he does not give you delight, you had better ignore him. Bertrand Russell , New Hopes for a Changing World (1951), p. 201. On this planet the reputation of Shakespeare is secure.

When life is discovered elsewhere in the universe and some interplanetary traveler brings to this new world the fruits of our terrestrial culture, who can imagine anything but that among the first books carried to the curious strangers will be a Bible and the works of WIlliam Shakespeare. Louis Marder, in His Exits and his Entrances : The Story of Shakespeare's Reputation (1963), p. 362. The verbal poetical texture of Shakespeare is the greatest the world has known, and is immensely superior to the structure of his plays as plays. Vladimir Nabokov , quoted in interview with Alfred Appel, Jr. (September 1966), printed in Wisconsin Studies in Contemporary Literature 8 (1967); republished in Nabokov's Strong Opinions (1973). Dolt & ass that I am I have lived more than 29 years, & until a few days ago, never made close acquaintance with the divine William. Ah, he's full of sermons-on-the-mount, and gentle, aye, almost as Jesus. I take such men to be inspired. I fancy that this moment Shakespeare in heaven ranks with Gabriel, Raphael and Michael.

And if another Messiah ever comes twill be in Shakespeare's person. Herman Melville , Letter to Evert Augustus Duyckinck (24 February 1849); published in The Letters of Herman Melville (1960) edited by Merrell R. Davis and William H. Gilman, p. 77. Shakespeare — the nearest thing in incarnation to the eye of God. Laurence Olivier , quoted in Kenneth Harris, "Sir Laurence Olivier," from Kenneth Harris Talking To... (1971). I sent for some dinner and there dined, Mrs. Margaret Pen being by, to whom I had spoke to go along with us to a play this afternoon, and then to the King's Theatre, where we saw 'Midsummer's Night's Dream', which I had never seen before, nor shall ever again, for it is the most insipid ridiculous play that ever I saw in my life. Samuel Pepys , diary for 29 September 1662. Shakespearean language is a bizarre super-tongue, alien and plastic, twisting, turning, and forever escaping.

It is untranslatable, since it knocks Anglo-Saxon root words against Norman and Greco-Roman importations sweetly or harshly, kicking us up and down rhetorical levels with witty abruptness. No one in real life ever spoke like Shakespeare's characters. His language does not "make sense," especially in the greatest plays. Anywhere from a third to a half of every Shakespearean play, I conservatively estimate, will always remain under an interpretive cloud. Unfortunately, this fact is obscured by the encrustations of footnotes in modern texts, which imply to the poor cowed student that if only he knew what the savants do, all would be as clear as day. Every time I open Hamlet, I am stunned by its hostile virtuosity, its elusiveness and impenetrability. Shakespeare uses language to darken. He suspends the traditional compass points of rhetoric, still quite firm in Marlowe , normally regarded as Shakespeare's main influence. Shakespeare's words have "aura." This he got from Spenser , not Marlowe. Camille Paglia , Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson, p. 195.

He is not so much an imitator, as an instrument, of nature; and 'tis not so just to say that he speaks from her as that she speaks through him. Alexander Pope , Preface to the Works of Shakespeare (1725) had all the speeches been printed without the very names of the persons, I believe one might have applied them with certainty to every speaker. Alexander Pope , Preface to the Works of Shakespeare (1725). Compare Addison on Homer: "there is scarce a speech or action in the Iliad, which the reader may not ascribe to the person who speaks or acts, without seeing his name at the head of it." in The Spectator , No. 273 (12 January 1711–12). 'tis plain he had much reading at least, if they will not call it learning. Nor is it any great matter, if a man has knowledge, whether he has it from one language or from another. Alexander Pope , Preface to the Works of Shakespeare (1725) The shape of the Globe gives words power, but you're the wordsmith! The one true genius; the only one clever enough to do it. … Trust yourself.

When you're locked away in your room, the words just come, don't they, like magic. Words, the right sound, the right shape, the right rhythm, words that last forever. That's what you do, Will. You choose perfect words. Do it. Improvise! The two main Pillars of our Civilization, Jesus and Shakespeare said: "Nothing shall be impossible to Humans" (Jesus) "Impossibility is only seemingly impossible" (Shak.) B. B. Stoller, Biologizing the Universe (1983) Æschylus is above all things the poet of righteousness. "But in any wise, I say unto thee, revere thou the altar of righteousness": this is the crowning admonition of his doctrine, as its crowning prospect is the reconciliation or atonement of the principle of retribution with the principle of redemption, of the powers of the mystery of darkness with the coeternal forces of the spirit of wisdom, of the lord of inspiration and of light. The doctrine of Shakespeare, where it is not vaguer, is darker in its implication of injustice, in its acceptance of accident, than the impression of the doctrine of Æschylus.

Fate, irreversible and inscrutable, is the only force of which we feel the impact, of which we trace the sign, in the upshot of Othello or King Lear . The last step into the darkness remained to be taken by "the most tragic" of all English poets. With Shakespeare — and assuredly not with Æschylus — righteousness itself seems subject and subordinate to the masterdom of fate: but fate itself, in the tragic world of Webster , seems merely the servant or the synonym of chance. When Brasse and Marble fade, shall make thee looke Fresh to all Ages. Commendatory Verses prefixed to the folio of Shakespeare (1623). This was Shakespeare's form; Who walked in every path of human life, Felt every passion; and to all mankind Doth now, will ever, that experience yield Which his own genius only could acquire. Others abide our question. Thou art free. We ask and ask—Thou smilest and art still, Out-topping knowledge. Renowned Spenser, lie a thought more nigh To learned Chaucer, and rare Beaumont lie A little nearer Spenser, to make room For Shakespeare in your threefold, fourfold tomb.

Shakespeare unlocked his heart," once more! Did Shakespeare? If so, the less Shakespeare he! Robert Browning , House, X. If I say that Shakespeare is the greatest of intellects, I have said all concerning him. But there is more in Shakespeare's intellect than we have yet seen. It is what I call an unconscious intellect; there is more virtue in it than he himself is aware of. Thomas Carlyle , Essays, Characteristics of Shakespeare. Voltaire and Shakespeare! He was all The other feigned to be. The flippant Frenchman speaks: I weep; And Shakespeare weeps with me. Matthias Claudius , A Comparison. Our myriad-minded Shakespeare. Samuel Taylor Coleridge , Biographia Literaria, Chapter XV. Borrowed from a Greek monk who applied it to a Patriarch of Constantinople. When great poets sing, Into the night new constellations spring, With music in the air that dulls the craft Of rhetoric. So when Shakespeare sang or laughed The world with long, sweet Alpine echoes thrilled Voiceless to scholars' tongues no muse had filled With melody divine.

Now you who rhyme, and I who rhyme, Have not we sworn it, many a time, That we no more our verse would scrawl, For Shakespeare he had said it all! R. W. Gilder , The Modern Rhymer. If we wish to know the force of human genius we should read Shakespeare. If we wish to see the insignificance of human learning we may study his commentators. William Hazlitt , Table Talk, On the Ignorance of the Learned. Mellifluous Shakespeare, whose enchanting Quill Commandeth Mirth or Passion, was but Will. Thomas Heywood , Hierarchie of the Blessed Angels. The stream of Time, which is continually washing the dissoluble fabrics of other poets, passes without injury by the adamant of Shakspere. Samuel Johnson , Preface to Works of Shakspere. I remember, the players have often mentioned it as an honour to Shakespeare, that in his writing (whatsoever he penned) he never blotted out a line. My answer hath been, would he had blotted a thousand. Ben Jonson , Discoveries, De Shakespeare nostrat.

Then to the well-trod stage anon If Jonson's learned sock be on, Or sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy's child, Warble his native woodnotes wild. John Milton , L'Allegro, line 131. What needs my Shakespeare for his honored bones The labors of an age in piled stones? Or that his hallowed reliques should be hid Under a starre-y-pointing pyramid? Dear son of Memory, great heir of fame, What need'st thou such weak witness of thy name? Thou in our wonder and astonishment Hath built thyself a livelong monument. John Milton , An Epitaph. Similar phrases in the entire epitaph are found in the epitaph on Sir Thomas Stanley, supposed to have been written by Shakespeare. Also, same ideas found in Crashaw. Shakspeare (whom you and every playhouse bill Style the divine! the matchless! what you will), For gain, not glory, wing'd his roving flight, And grew immortal in his own despite. Alexander Pope , Imitations of Horace, Epistle I, Book II, line 69.

Few of the university pen plaies well, they smell too much of that writer Ovid and that writer Metamorphosis and talk too much of Proserpina and Jupiter. Why, here's our fellow Shakespeare puts them all down. Aye, and Ben Jonson too. O that B. J. is a pestilent fellow, he brought up Horace giving the poets a pill, but our fellow, Shakespeare, hath given him a purge that made him beray his credit. The Return from Parnassus; or, The Scourge of Simony, Act IV, scene 3. Shikspur, Shikspur! Who wrote it? No, I never read Shikspur. Then you have an immense pleasure to come. James Townley High Life Below Stairs, Act II, scene 1 (Ed. 1759). Scorn not the Sonnet. Critic, you have frowned, Mindless of its just honours; with this key Shakespeare unlocked his heart.

"Ridiculous KJV Bible Corrections: Psalm 46, Shakespeare in the KJV?" by John Hinton Over the past two centuries, there has hardly been an author, certainly in the English-speaking world, who has commanded greater reverence than Shakespeare. … There is only one text in the English language that carries comparable prestige to the works of Shakespeare: the Bible, in particular in its most renowned version, the King James Bible, otherwise known as the Authorized Version, of 1611. … In view of the persistent juxtaposition of these two Anglophone cultural icons … it is hardly surprising that they also feature together in a number of fictions of Shakespeare's life, in the form of the fantasy of the Bard as co-translator of the Authorized Version. The originator of this motif seems to have been Rudyard Kipling . In his story "Proofs of Holy Writ," Kipling imagines Shakespeare in the process of revising parts of the Authorized Version with the help of Ben Jonson .

Paul Franssen, on Kipling, in his 1934 short story, as the probable originator of the idea that Shakespeare had worked on the King James version of the Bible, in "The Bard, the Bible and the Desert Island" in ‪The Author as Character : Representing Historical Writers in Western Literature‬ (1999) edited by Paul Franssen and A. J. Hoenselaars, p. 106. Burgess 's Shakespeare is not a patient empire builder or visionary, but rather an unhappy man caught in an unenviable position, at the midlife crisis age of forty-six. … Burgess's point may well be that literary quality is not always recognized during one's lifetime … due to an ill-advised display of his wit in the presence of the king, Shakespeare is currently out of favor. … Particularly ingenious in Burgess's story is the way Shakepeare even hides his name in the text of the psalm.

As he is forty-six years of age, he chooses Psalm 46; he counts to the forty-sixth word, replaces it by "shake"' then he starts at the end, counts forty-six words backwards (leaving out of the account the cadential " selah "), and changes that word into "speare." The surprising thing is, that the evidence shoring up this highly unlikely scenario is in itself authentic: in Psalm 46 AV, the forty-sixth word really is "shake", the forty-sixth word from the end (not counting "selah") being spear. Although Burgess's Shakespeare revises the psalm for wholly selfish ends, out of defiance and sinful pride, he does not thereby lose our sympathy. Unlike Kiping's self-confident sahib, he is not a superman that can lead nations; rather, in his everyday struggle with political realities, an unhappy marriage, and uncomprehending neighbors, he is a modern antihero whom we cannot begrudge his one moment of triumph. … For Burgess, art is the result of suffering between the hammer of what is and the anvil of what should be.

He projects that vision on Shakespeare, whose drive for self-realization, impeded by his surroundings, finds an outlet in this act of creativity. Paul Franssen, on the use Shakespeare by Anthony Burgess in "Will and Testament" in Enderby's Dark Lady, or No End to Enderby (1984) in "The Bard, the Bible and the Desert Island" in ‪The Author as Character : Representing Historical Writers in Western Literature‬ (1999) edited by Paul Franssen and A. J. Hoenselaars, p. 111. SparkNotes: Hamlet: Important Quotations Explained Important Quotations Explained O that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d His canon ’gainst self-slaughter! O God! O God! How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable Seem to me all the uses of this world! Fie on’t! O fie! ’tis an unweeded garden, That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature Possess it merely. That it should come to this!

But two months dead!—nay, not so much, not two: So excellent a king; that was, to this, Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother, That he might not beteem the winds of heaven Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth! Must I remember? Why, she would hang on him As if increase of appetite had grown By what it fed on: and yet, within a month,— Let me not think on’t,—Frailty, thy name is woman!— A little month; or ere those shoes were old With which she followed my poor father’s body Like Niobe, all tears;—why she, even she,— O God! a beast that wants discourse of reason, Would have mourn’d longer,—married with mine uncle, My father’s brother; but no more like my father Than I to Hercules: within a month; Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears Had left the flushing in her galled eyes, She married:— O, most wicked speed, to post With such dexterity to incestuous sheets! It is not, nor it cannot come to good; But break my heart,—for I must hold my tongue.

This quotation, Hamlet’s first important soliloquy, occurs in Act I, scene ii (129–158). Hamlet speaks these lines after enduring the unpleasant scene at Claudius and Gertrude’s court, then being asked by his mother and stepfather not to return to his studies at Wittenberg but to remain in Denmark, presumably against his wishes. Here, Hamlet thinks for the first time about suicide (desiring his flesh to “melt,” and wishing that God had not made “self-slaughter” a sin), saying that the world is “weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable.” In other words, suicide seems like a desirable alternative to life in a painful world, but Hamlet feels that the option of suicide is closed to him because it is forbidden by religion. Hamlet then goes on to describe the causes of his pain, specifically his intense disgust at his mother’s marriage to Claudius. He describes the haste of their marriage, noting that the shoes his mother wore to his father’s funeral were not worn out before her marriage to Claudius. He compares Claudius to his father (his father was “so excellent a king” while Claudius is a bestial “satyr”).

As he runs through his description of their marriage, he touches upon the important motifs of misogyny, crying, “Frailty, thy name is woman”; incest, commenting that his mother moved “[w]ith such dexterity to incestuous sheets”; and the ominous omen the marriage represents for Denmark, that “[i]t is not nor it cannot come to good.” Each of these motifs recurs throughout the play. 2. Give thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any unproportion’d thought his act. Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel; But do not dull thy palm with entertainment Of each new-hatch’d, unfledg’d comrade. Beware Of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in, Bear’t that the opposed may beware of thee. Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice: Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment. Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not express’d in fancy; rich, not gaudy: For the apparel oft proclaims the man; And they in France of the best rank and station Are most select and generous chief in that.

Neither a borrower nor a lender be: For loan oft loses both itself and friend; And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. This above all,—to thine own self be true; And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. This famous bit of fatherly advice is spoken by Polonius to Laertes shortly before Laertes leaves for France, in Act I, scene iii (59–80). Polonius, who is bidding Laertes farewell, gives him this list of instructions about how to behave before he sends him on his way. His advice amounts to a list of clichés. Keep your thoughts to yourself; do not act rashly; treat people with familiarity but not excessively so; hold on to old friends and be slow to trust new friends; avoid fighting but fight boldly if it is unavoidable; be a good listener; accept criticism but do not be judgmental; maintain a proper appearance; do not borrow or lend money; and be true to yourself.

This long list of quite normal fatherly advice emphasizes the regularity of Laertes’ family life compared to Hamlet’s, as well as contributing a somewhat stereotypical father-son encounter in the play’s exploration of family relationships. It seems to indicate that Polonius loves his son, though that idea is complicated later in the play when he sends Reynaldo to spy on him. 3. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. This line is spoken by Marcellus in Act I, scene iv (67), as he and Horatio debate whether or not to follow Hamlet and the ghost into the dark night. The line refers both to the idea that the ghost is an ominous omen for Denmark and to the larger theme of the connection between the moral legitimacy of a ruler and the health of the state as a whole. The ghost is a visible symptom of the rottenness of Denmark created by Claudius’s crime. 4.

I have of late,—but wherefore I know not,—lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises; and indeed, it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o’erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire,—why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving, how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? In these lines, Hamlet speaks to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in Act II, scene ii (287–298), explaining the melancholy that has afflicted him since his father’s death.

Perhaps moved by the presence of his former university companions, Hamlet essentially engages in a rhetorical exercise, building up an elaborate and glorified picture of the earth and humanity before declaring it all merely a “quintessence of dust.” He examines the earth, the air, and the sun, and rejects them as “a sterile promontory” and “a foul and pestilent congregation of vapors.” He then describes human beings from several perspectives, each one adding to his glorification of them. Human beings’ reason is noble, their faculties infinite, their forms and movements fast and admirable, their actions angelic, and their understanding godlike. But, to Hamlet, humankind is merely dust. This motif, an expression of his obsession with the physicality of death, recurs throughout the play, reaching its height in his speech over Yorick’s skull. Finally, it is also telling that Hamlet makes humankind more impressive in “apprehension” (meaning understanding) than in “action.” Hamlet himself is more prone to apprehension than to action, which is why he delays so long before seeking his revenge on Claudius. 5.

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 wish’d. 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, The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely, The pangs of despis’d love, the law’s delay, The insolence of office, and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin?

who would these fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death,— The undiscover’d country, from whose bourn No traveller 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 pith and moment, With this regard, their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action. This soliloquy, probably the most famous speech in the English language, is spoken by Hamlet in Act III, scene i (58–90). His most logical and powerful examination of the theme of the moral legitimacy of suicide in an unbearably painful world, it touches on several of the other important themes of the play. Hamlet poses the problem of whether to commit suicide as a logical question: “To be, or not to be,” that is, to live or not to live. He then weighs the moral ramifications of living and dying.

Is it nobler to suffer life, “[t]he slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” passively or to actively seek to end one’s suffering? He compares death to sleep and thinks of the end to suffering, pain, and uncertainty it might bring, “[t]he heartache, and the thousand natural shocks / That flesh is heir to.” Based on this metaphor, he decides that suicide is a desirable course of action, “a consummation / Devoutly to be wished.” But, as the religious word “devoutly” signifies, there is more to the question, namely, what will happen in the afterlife. Hamlet immediately realizes as much, and he reconfigures his metaphor of sleep to include the possibility of dreaming; he says that the dreams that may come in the sleep of death are daunting, that they “must give us pause.” He then decides that the uncertainty of the afterlife, which is intimately related to the theme of the difficulty of attaining truth in a spiritually ambiguous world, is essentially what prevents all of humanity from committing suicide to end the pain of life.

He outlines a long list of the miseries of experience, ranging from lovesickness to hard work to political oppression, and asks who would choose to bear those miseries if he could bring himself peace with a knife, “[w]hen he himself might his quietus make / With a bare bodkin?” He answers himself again, saying no one would choose to live, except that “the dread of something after death” makes people submit to the suffering of their lives rather than go to another state of existence which might be even more miserable. The dread of the afterlife, Hamlet concludes, leads to excessive moral sensitivity that makes action impossible: “conscience does make cowards of us all . . . thus the native hue of resolution / Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought.” In this way, this speech connects many of the play’s main themes, including the idea of suicide and death, the difficulty of knowing the truth in a spiritually ambiguous universe, and the connection between thought and action. In addition to its crucial thematic content, this speech is important for what it reveals about the quality of Hamlet’s mind. His deeply passionate nature is complemented by a relentlessly logical intellect, which works furiously to find a solution to his misery.

He has turned to religion and found it inadequate to help him either kill himself or resolve to kill Claudius. Here, he turns to a logical philosophical inquiry and finds it equally frustrating. More Help To thine own self be true - eNotes Shakespeare Quotes To thine own self be true Polonius: This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. Farewell, my blessing season this in thee! Laertes: Read on Owl Eyes This eText is now on Owl Eyes. Clicking this link will open a new window. "To thine own self be true" is Polonius's last piece of advice to his son Laertes, who is in a hurry to get on the next boat to Paris, where he'll be safe from his father's long-winded speeches [see NEITHER A BORROWER NOR A LENDER BE ]. Polonius has in mind something much more Elizabethan than the New Age self-knowledge that the phrase now suggests.

As Polonius sees it, borrowing money, loaning money, carousing with women of dubious character, and other intemperate pursuits are "false" to the self. By "false" Polonius seems to mean "disadvantageous" or "detrimental to your image"; by "true" he means "loyal to your own best interests." Take care of yourself first, he counsels, and that way you'll be in a position to take care of others. There is wisdom in the old man's warnings, of course; but he repeats orthodox platitudes with unwonted self-satisfaction. Polonius, who is deeply impressed with his wordliness, has perfected the arts of protecting his interests and of projecting seeming virtues, his method of being "true" to others. Never mind that this includes spying on Hamlet for King Claudius. Never mind, as well, that many of Polonius's haughty, if not trite, kernels of wisdom are now taken as Shakespeare's own wise pronouncements on living a proper life.

Quotations from Shakespeare's Hamlet Hamlet (5.2) Gertrude's startling description of her son is not quite what we modern readers have in mind when envisioning the brooding young Prince Hamlet. But how can we explain the Queen's frank words? There is evidence to believe that Shakespeare had to work around the rotund stature of his good friend Richard Burbage , the first actor to play Hamlet. "As he was a portly man of large physique, it was natural that the strenuous exertion bring out the fact that he was fat or out of training, as well as scant of breath....He was the first and the last fat Hamlet" (Blackmore, Riddles of Hamlet). An elegy written upon Burbage's death in 1619 convincingly ties "King Dick", as he was affectionately called by his fellow actors, to the line in question: No more young Hamlet, though but scant of breath, Shall cry Revenge! for his dear father's death. (A Funeral Elegy) It is natural to wonder why the death of Burbage was a national tragedy, while the passing of Shakespeare himself just three years earlier received such little attention.

There seems, however, to be a simple answer. Read on... _____

Question: In which Shakespeare play does the quotation "neither a borrower nor a lender be" appear?
Answer: Hamlet