William Shakespeare was a famous English playwriter and poet. What’s not known about this famous writer is that Shakespeare was also an actor himself. William Shakespeare is widely recognized for his literary work, in fact, he is considered the greatest writer in English Literature history.
Shakespeare is England’s National Poet and he is also known as the “Bard of Avon”. This is because Shakespeare was raised in Stratford upon Avon, Warwickshire. This was also his birthplace. To this day Shakespeare’s work is taught in middle schools as a part of the curriculum. Are you ready to indulge in some of his literary greatness?
Shakespeare On Love
Absence from those we love is self from self-a deadly banishment.
Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs.
Love is not love that alters when it alteration finds.
Love is too young to know what conscience is.
My love is strengthened, though more weak in seeming; I love not less, though less the show appear; That love is merchandized, whose rich esteeming The owner’s tongue doth publish everywhere.
Sonnet 102: My Love Is Strengthened, Though More Weak In Seeming
Love is a babe; then might I not say so, To give full growth to that which still doth grow.
Sonnet 115: Those Lines That I Before Have Writ Do Lie
Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove.
Sonnet 116: Let Me Not To The Marriage Of True Minds
My love is as a fever, longing still For that which longer nurseth the disease, Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill, Th’ uncertain sickly appetite to please.
Sonnet 147: My Love Is As A Fever, Longing Still
Love is too young to know what conscience is; Yet who knows not conscience is born of love?
Sonnet 151: Love Is Too Young To Know What Conscience Is
O, let me, true in love, but truly write, And then, believe me, my love is as fair As any mother’s child, though not so bright As those gold candles fixed in heaven’s air.
Sonnet 21: So Is It Not With Me As With That Muse
O, none, unless this miracle have might, That in black ink my love may still shine bright.
Sonnet 65: Since Brass, Nor Stone, Nor Earth, Nor Boundless Sea
Love is a smoke rais’d with the fume of sighs; Being purg’d, a fire sparkling in lovers’ eyes; Being vex’d, a sea nourish’d with lovers’ tears.
The Tragedy Of Romeo And Juliet
Pardon me, Caesar, for my dear dear love To your proceeding bids me tell you this, And reason to my love is liable.
The Tragedy Of Julius Caesar
Now what my love is, proof hath made you know; And as my love is siz’d, my fear is so.
The Tragedy Of Hamlet, Prince Of Denmark
O my lord, if my duty be too bold, my love is too unmannerly.
The Tragedy Of Hamlet, Prince Of Denmark
Not that I think you did not love your father; But that I know love is begun by time, And that I see, in passages of proof, Time qualifies the spark and fire of it.
The Tragedy Of Hamlet, Prince Of Denmark
Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear; Where little fears grow great, great love grows there.
The Tragedy Of Hamlet, Prince Of Denmark
I pray, sir, tell me, is it possible That love should of a sudden take such hold?
The Taming Of The Shrew
Love is not so great, Hortensio, but we may blow our nails together, and fast it fairly out; our cake’s dough on both sides.
The Taming Of The Shrew
Yet they do wink and yield, as love is blind and enforces.
She was belov’d, she lov’d; she is, and doth; But still sweet love is food for fortune’s tooth.
The History Of Troilus And Cressida
When vice makes mercy, mercy’s so extended That for the fault’s love is th’ offender friended.
Measure For Measure
If lusty love should go in quest of beauty, Where should he find it fairer than in Blanch?
King John
If zealous love should go in search of virtue, Where should he find it purer than in Blanch?
King John
What good love may I perform for you?
King John
Her love is not the hare that I do hunt; Why writes she so to me?
As You Like It
Love is merely a madness; and, I tell you, deserves as well a dark house and a whip as madmen do; and the reason why they are not so punish’d and cured is that the lunacy is so ordinary that the whippers are in love too.
As You Like It
And therefore take the present time, With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, For love is crowned with the prime, In the spring time, &c.
As You Like It
Love is your master, for he masters you; And he that is so yoked by a fool, Methinks, should not be chronicled for wise.
The Two Gentlemen Of Verona
And so suppose am I; for in his grave Assure thyself my love is buried.
The Two Gentlemen Of Verona
Tis pity love should be so contrary; And thinking on it makes me cry ‘Alas!
The Two Gentlemen Of Verona
And, that my love may appear plain and free, All that was mine in Silvia I give thee.
The Two Gentlemen Of Verona
Alas, their love may be call’d appetite- No motion of the liver, but the palate- That suffer surfeit, cloyment, and revolt; But mine is all as hungry as the sea, And can digest as much.
Twelfth Night
But do thy worst to steal thy self away, For term of life thou art assurèd mine, And life no longer than thy love will stay, For it depends upon that love of thine.
Sonnet 92: But Do Thy Worst To Steal Thy Self Away
In many’s looks, the false heart’s history Is writ in moods and frowns and wrinkles strange, But heaven in thy creation did decree That in thy face sweet love should ever dwell; Whate’er thy thoughts, or thy heart’s workings be, Thy looks should nothing thence but sweetness tell.
Sonnet 93: So Shall I Live, Supposing Thou Art True
O, lest your true love may seem false in this, That you for love speak well of me untrue, My name be buried where my body is, And live no more to shame nor me nor you.
O, Lest The World Should Task You To Recite
Thy love is better than high birth to me, Richer than wealth, prouder than garments’ costs, Of more delight than hawks and horses be; And having thee, of all men’s pride I boast- Wretched in this alone, that thou mayst take, All this away and me most wretched make.
Some Glory In Their Birth, Some In Their Skill
Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds.
Love is … a madness most discreet.
Love is a smoke rais’d by the fume of sighs.
ROSALIND But are you so much in love as your rhymes speak ORLANDO Neither rhyme nor reason can express how much. ROSALIND Love is merely a madness, and, I tell you, deserves as well a dark house and a whip as madmen do and the reason why they are not so punished and cured is, that the lunacy is so ordinary that the whippers are in love too.
They are but beggars that can count their worth, But my true love is grown to such excess, I cannot sum up half my sum of wealth.
What gone without a word Ay, so true love should do it cannot speak, for truth hath better deeds, than words, to grace it.
Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear When little fears grow great, great love grows there.
She marking them begins a wailing note And sings extemporally a woeful ditty How love makes young men thrall and old men dote How love is wise in folly, foolish-witty Her heavy anthem still concludes in woe, And still the choir of echoes answer so.
If you love her, you cannot see her . . . because love is blind.
But love is blind, and lovers cannot see What petty follies they themselves commit
But love is blind, and lovers cannot see The pretty follies that themselves commit, For if they could, Cupid himself would blush To see me thus transformed to a boy
Love is merely madness…
Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate, Hate of my sin, grounded on sinful loving
Love is merely a madness, and, I tell you, deserves as well a dark house and a whip as madmen do.
Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs. Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers eyes. Being vexed, a sea nourished with lovers tears. What is it else A madness most discreet, a choking gall and a preserving sweet.
Love comforteth like sunshine after rain, But lust’s effect is tempest after sun Love’s gentle spring doth always fresh remain, Lust’s winter comes ere summer half be done Love surfeit’s not, Lust like a glutton dies, Love is all truth, Lust full
Quotes On Kindness
Unkindness may do much, And his unkindness may defeat my life, But never taint my love.
The Tragedy Of Othello, Moor Of Venice
Quotes On Life
Life is as tedious as twice-told tale, vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man.
There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.
This life is most jolly.
Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind
I will tell you-he beat me grievously in the shape of a woman; for in the shape of man, Master Brook, I fear not Goliath with a weaver’s beam; because I know also life is a shuttle.
The Merry Wives Of Windsor
That life is better life, past fearing death, Than that which lives to fear.
Measure For Measure
Mine honour is my life; both grow in one; Take honour from me, and my life is done: Then, dear my liege, mine honour let me try; In that I live, and for that will I die.
King Richard The Second
Blow, blow, thou winter wind, Thou art not so unkind As mans ingratitude Thy tooth is not so keen, Because thou art not seen, Although thy breath be rude. Heigh-ho sing, heigh-ho unto the green holly Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly. Then heigh-ho the holly This life is most jolly. Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky, That dost not bite so nigh As benefits forgot Though thou the waters warp, Thy sting is not so sharp As friend rememberd not.
By medicine life may be prolonged, yet death Will seize the doctor too.
Mine honor is my life both grow in one Take honor from me and my life is done.
O gentlemen the time of life is short To spend that shortness basely were too long, If life did ride upon a dials point, Still ending at the arrival of an hour.
Our life is short, but to expand that span to vast eternity is virtue’s work.
The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together our virtues would be proud if our faults whipped them not and our crimes would despair if they were not cherished by our own virtues.
There’s nothing in this world can make me joy Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man And bitter shame hath spoil’d the sweet world’s taste That it yields nought but shame and bitternes
We are such stuff As dreams are made of, And our little life Is rounded with a sleep.
We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep.
All is but toys renown, and grace, is dead The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees Is left this vault to brag of
I have lived long enough. My way of life is to fall into the sere, the yellow leaf, and that which should accompany old age, as honor, love, obedience, troops of friends I must not look to have.
Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale.
Quotes On Death
The stroke of death is as a lover’s pinch, which hurts and is desired.
Therefore should every soldier in the wars do as every sick man in his bed- wash every mote out of his conscience; and dying so, death is to him advantage; or not dying, the time was blessedly lost wherein such preparation was gained; and in him that escapes it were not sin to think that, making God so free an offer, He let him outlive that day to see His greatness, and to teach others how they should prepare.
The Life Of King Henry The Fifth
Death is the fairest cover for her shame That may be wish’d for
Much Ado About Nothing
Death is a fearful thing.
Measure For Measure
It is silliness to live when to live is torment, and then have we a prescription to die when death is our physician.
The Tragedy Of Othello, Moor Of Venice
Make haste; the hour of death is expiate.
King Richard III
Now she unweaves the web that she hath wrought; Adonis lives, and Death is not to blame; It was not she that call’d him all to naught: Now she adds honours to his hateful name; She clepes him king of graves and grave for kings, Imperious supreme of all mortal things.
Venus And Adonis
By medicine life may be prolonged, yet death Will seize the doctor too.
The worst is death, and death will have his day.
Shakespeare’s Quotes On Honesty
That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should admit no discourse to your beauty.
The Tragedy Of Hamlet, Prince Of Denmark
Honesty is the best policy. If I lose mine honor, I lose myself.
Quotes On Fear
Now what my love is, proof hath made you know; And as my love is siz’d, my fear is so.
The Tragedy Of Hamlet, Prince Of Denmark
None that I know will be, much that I fear may chance.
The Tragedy Of Julius Caesar
Of all base passions, fear is most accursed.
Of all base passions, fear is the most accursed.
Quotes On Learning
Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear, Thy dial how thy precious minutes waste; These vacant leaves thy mind’s imprint will bear, And of this book, this learning mayst thou taste.
Thy Glass Will Show Thee How Thy Beauties Wear
Quotes On Knowledge
Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.
Quotes On God
God has given you one face, and you make yourself another.
Write down that they hope they serve God; and write God first, for God defend but God should go before such villains!
Much Ado About Nothing
Recap
On 23rd April 1616, Shakespear passed away at the age of 52. Just a month before he passed away, Shakespear signed his will in which he mentioned that he was in perfect health. Nobody was able to explain his death.
Another fact is that Shakespear passed away on the day of his birthday. After almost half a century passed to the death of Shakespear, John Ward, who was the vicar of Stratford mentioned in his diary the events which took place before the death of Shakespeare. He wrote:
“Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting and, it seems, drank too hard, for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted”
