William Shakespeare
People note exceptional verbal wit, psychological depth, and emotional range of English playwright and poet William Shakespeare, who included such historical works as
Richard II
, comedies like
Much Ado about Nothing
, and such tragedies as
Hamlet
,
Othello
, and
King Lear
and also composed 154 sonnets before people published posthumously
First Folio
, which collected and contained edition of 36 plays in 1623.
He and Anne Hathaway, his wife, married in 1582.
Forest of Arden, a formerly very extensive wooded area, north of Stratford-upon-Avon of central England provided the setting for
As You Like It
of Shakespeare.
People widely regard William Shakespeare (baptized 26 April 1564) as the greatest writer in the language and the pre-eminent dramatist of the world. They often call him simply the national "bard of Avon." Surviving writings consist of 38 dramas, two long narratives, and several other books. People translate them into every major living language and performed them most often.
Anne bore him Susanna Shakespeare, and twins Hamnet Shakespeare and Judith Shakespeare. Between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner of the Lord Chamberlain's Men, the company, later known as the King's Men.
Shakespeare wrote throughout the span of his life. He started writing in 1589 and afterward averaged 1.5 dramas a year. From 1590, Shakespeare produced most of his known literature. He early mainly raised genres to the peak of sophistication and artistry before 1601. Next, he wrote mainly Macbeth and similar dramas, considered some of the finest examples in the language, until 1608. In his last phase, he wrote also known romances and collaborated until 1613.
He apparently retired to Stratford around 1613, where he died three years later on day of Saint George, his 52nd birthday. Few records of private life of Shakespeare survive with considerable speculation about such matters as his sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether he wrote all attributed literature.
People inscribed many books of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime, and in 1623, two of his former theatrical colleagues issued all but two now recognized dramas of Shakespeare. Shakespeare, the great master of language and literature authentically wrote not all that people attribute.
People respected Shakespeare in his own day, but his reputation rose to its present heights not until the nineteenth century. The romantics in particular acclaimed genius of Shakespeare, and the Victorians hero-worshiped him with a reverence that George Bernard Shaw called "bardolatry." In the 20th century, new movements in scholarship and performance repeatedly adopted and rediscovered his dramas. People consistently perform and reinterpret his highly popular dramas today in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world.
“Why, as men do a-land; the great ones eat up thelittle ones: I can compare our rich misers tonothing so fitly as to a whale; a' plays andtumbles, driving the poor fry before him, and atlast devours them all at a mouthful:”
“Fair thoughts and happy hours attend on you.”
“The stroke of death is as a lover's pinchWhich hurts and is desired.”
“So thou being rich in Will add to thy WillOne will of mine to make thy large Will more.Let no unkind, no fair beseechers kill;Think all but one, and me in that one, Will”
“With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.”
“We all are men, in our own natures frail, and capable of our flesh; few are angels.”
“There is no darkness but ignorance.”
“But she makes hungryWhere she most satisfies...”
“In thy face I see the map of honour, truth and loyalty.”
“More fools know Jack Fool than Jack Fool knows.”
“Women speak two languages - one of which is verbal.”
“Old Titme the clock-settter, that bald sexton,Time.”
“O time, thou must untangle this, not I.It is too hard a knot for me t'untie.”
“If I be waspish, best beware my sting.”
“I'll go find a shadow, and sigh till he come"(Phebe)”
“This feather stirs; she lives! if it be so, it is a chance which does redeem all sorrows that ever I have felt.”
“Cordelia! stay a little. Ha! What is't thou say'st? Her voice was ever soft.”
“The evil that men do lives after them;The good is oft interred with their bones.”
“My soul is in the sky.”
“Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.”
“If her breath were as terrible as her terminations, there were no living near her, she would infect to the north star!”
“What, my dear Lady Disdain! are you yet living?Beatrice: Is it possible disdain should die while she hathsuch meet food to feed it as Signior Benedick?”
“Oh, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!It seems she hangs upon the cheek of nightLike a rich jewel in an Ethiope’s ear,Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear.So shows a snowy dove trooping with crowsAs yonder lady o'er her fellows shows.The measure done, I’ll watch her place of stand,And, touching hers, make blessèd my rude hand.Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight!For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.”
“Zounds, sir, you are one of those that will not serve God if the devil bid you...I am one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter and the Moor are making the beast with two backs.”
“Eternity was in our lips and eyes.”
“What a piece of work is a 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? Man delights not me; no, nor Woman neither; though by your smiling you seem to say so.”
“And since you know you cannot see yourself,so well as by reflection, I, your glass,will modestly discover to yourself,that of yourself which you yet know not of.”
“Kneel not to me.The pow'r that I have on you is to spare you;The malice towards you to forgive you. Live,And deal with others better.”
“Finish, good lady; the bright day is done, And we are for the Dark.”
“life is like theater”
“Words without thoughts never to heaven go.”
“Deep malice makes too deep incision. Forget, forgive, conclude and be agreed.”
“The breaking of so great a thing should makeA greater crack: the round worldShould have shook lions into civil streets,And citizens to their dens.”
“A good leg will fall, a straight back will stoop, a black beard will turn white, a curled pate will grow bald, a fair face will wither, a full eye will wax hollow. But a good heart...is the sun and moon...for it shines bright and never changes, but keeps its course truly.”
“Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks.”
“And keep you in the rear of your affection,Out of the shot and danger of desire,The chariest maid is prodigal enoughIf she unmasks her beauty to the moon.”
“Look here upon this picture, and on this...”
“thou art the best o' the cut-throats”
“A gross hagAnd, lozel, thou art worthy to be hang'd, That wilt not stay her tongue.ANTIGONUS ~ Hang all the husbandsThat cannot do that feat, you'll leave yourself Hardly one subject.”
“If one good deed in all my life I did, I do repent it from my very soul.”
“Come what come may, time and the hour run through the roughest day.”
“Lady, you are the cruel'st she aliveIf you will lead these graces to the graveAnd leave the world no copy.”
“Conversation should be pleasant without scurrility, witty without affectation, free without indecency, learned without conceitedness, novel without falsehood.”
“Give me that man that is not passion's slave, and I will wear him in my heart's core, in my heart of heart, as I do thee.”
“The robb'd that smiles, steals something from the thief; He robs himself that spends a bootless grief.”
“Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.”
“O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, / That I am meek and gentle with these butchers!”
“Let us not burthen our remembrance withA heaviness that's gone.”
“In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes, For they in thee a thousand errors note; But 'tis my heart that loves what they despise, Who in despite of view is pleased to dote; Nor are mine ears with thy tongue's tune delighted, Nor tender feeling, to base touches prone, Nor taste, nor smell, desire to be invited To any sensual feast* with thee alone*: But my five wits* nor my five senses can Dissuade one foolish heart from serving thee, Who leaves unsway'd the likeness of a man*, Thy proud hearts slave and vassal wretch to be: Only my plague thus far I count my gain, That she that makes me sin awards me pain.”
“When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see,For all the day they view things unrespected;But when I sleep, in dreams they look on thee,And darkly bright are bright in dark directed.Then thou, whose shadow shadows doth make bright,How would thy shadow's form form happy showTo the clear day with thy much clearer light,When to unseeing eyes thy shade shines so!How would, I say, mine eyes be blessed madeBy looking on thee in the living day,When in dead night thy fair imperfect shadeThrough heavy sleep on sightless eyes doth stay!All days are nights to see till I see thee,And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me.”