invite 43Ters to share favorite quotes from Shakespeare's plays and sonnets

Dance on the sands, and yet no footing seen:

Love is a spirit all compact of fire,

Not gross to sink, but light, and will aspire.

My love’s more richer than my tongue

You see me here, you gods, a poor old man,
As full of grief as age; wretched in both!
If it be you that stir these daughters’ hearts
Against their father, fool me not so much
To bear it tamely; touch me with noble anger,
And let not women’s weapons, water-drops,
Stain my man’s cheeks! No, you unnatural hags,
I will have such revenges on you both,
That all the world shall – I will do such things –
What they are, yet I know not: but they shall be
The terrors of the earth. You think I’ll weep
No, I’ll not weep:
I have full cause of weeping; but this heart
Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws,
Or ere I’ll weep. O fool, I shall go mad!

cartoon…

“Most dangerous is that temptation that doth goad us on to sin in loving virtue.”

So true…so true

I believe once you take the time to read a few plays and begin to learn the old lingo, you can really start appreciating Shakespeare’s writing.

There are so many scenes and quotes that I find fascinating. Here is one:

From Cymbeline, Act IV
(Cloten and Guiderius are about to have a fight.)

Guiderius: What’s thy name?

Cloten: Cloten, thou villain.

Guiderius: Cloten, thou double villain, be thy name. I cannot tremble at it. Were it Toad, or Adder, Spider, ‘Twould move me sooner.

Cloten: To my further fear, Nay, to they mere confusion, thou shalt know I am son to th’Queen.

Guiderius: I am sorry for’t; not seeming So worthy as thy birth.

Cloten: Art not afeard?

Guiderius: Those that I reverence, those I fear – the wise; At fools I laugh, not fear them.
Cloten: Die the DEATH! When I have slain thee with my proper hand, I’ll follow those that even now fled hence And on the gates of Lud’s town set your heads. Yield, rustic mountaineer.

when, these days, do you see such a dramatic and poetic dialouge before a fight?