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I've just finished reading Shakespeare's all-time greatest hit Hamlet in my English class and it has now become clear to me that a great many phrases from this work have entered our language, especially on this board. I've seen such expressions as "there's the rub", "mortal coil" and "a hit, a very palpable hit" multiple times on this board. It's nice now knowing whence these sayings are.
Aside from this just being a point I wanted to make, what other immortal expressions have we cut from the folios of great tomes of literature and pasted into our own lexicons?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Jazz inquired Aside from this just being a point I wanted to make, what other immortal expressions have we cut from the folios of great tomes of literature and pasted into our own lexicons?
Jazz, where to start? There are so many, directly and indirectly quoted. My mother, who's dead at the moment, used to call three old women who lived together in one house up the street from us "the three bitches of Cawdor" because they were so rude. So there was me, misquoting Shakespeare from about age 3. Fortunately, I grew up to misuse Shakespeare in my own ways.
I stage-managed two productions for my school (Hamlet and MacBeth). I've never really liked Hamlet as a play that much, although I always supported Hammy-boy for stabbing Polonius in the arras. I hope it hurt and gave him piles!
You should rent the video "Shakespeare in Love". About half the script by Tom Stoppard comes from various of the balding bard's plays. When I went to see the premiere here in Hutt City, there were times when I was completely creased up because of the misquotes in the script, and I realised that I was the only one laughing! Very embarrassing. Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter indeed.
It's also worth watching because Gwynneth Paltrow is worth looking at, although she can't sing for nuts, cruisin' or anything else. And you do get to see a lot of her ... oh, you're only 17, aren't you? Oops.
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Pooh-Bah
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Jazz, a dear old Auntie of mine, many years ago, confessed to me that she, "... didn't like Shakespeare so very much, my dear - it is so full of quotations."  It has been said - rightly or wrongly, I know not - that over 75% of quotations used in the English language are from either the bible or Shakespeare. (Mind you, it is a well known fact that 87.2% of all statistics quoted in casual conversation are made up on the spot  )
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Pooh-Bah
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CK says You should rent the video "Shakespeare in Love". About half the script by Tom Stoppard comes from various of the balding bard's plays.
I would also recommend Rosencrantz and Guidenstern are dead from the same pen and for the same reason - especially as you are now well-up on Hamlet - you will find it hilarious, I believe.
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go, Jazz, go. Indulge this reading habit a bit more, and you'll find the payoff is exponential, as you will start to make your own links and patterns between these texts and others. I've just been given as a present a copy of a wonderful book called Shakespeare's Language by Frank Kermode (the Penguin Press, http://www.penguin.com). He makes the point in his Preface that he is addressing a non-professional audience not well served by modern critics: "(He) was an accomplished non-dramatic poet, but his eminence depends on his work for the theatre... in the end, you can't get rid of Shakespeare without abolishing the very notion of literature... ...a true acquaintance with Shakespeare is as necessary to our culture as an understanding, however partial, of the greatness of Mozart or Cézanne. All these artists are, admittedly, dead white males, and that, for some, is enough to discredit in advance arguments in their favour... " Don't forget I posted a few Shakespeare on the net links in another thread, if you feel like dipping into the wider pool. You may be stunned to see how many other now stock phrases and images come from the sonnets, for example. Good luck in your travels - above all, I wish you enjoyment in the sheer poetry and invention of his use of language.
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Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Tired, hot and sticky and fresh from the hay ...
The work in the sun passeth as does time hard
And it's all just made worse when you're bald as the bard.
And the other ten lines, not made up on the spot, would constitute a sonnet - NOT!
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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>Tired, hot and sticky and fresh from the hay ... Darn it, you spelled lei wrong! 
TEd
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Darn it, you spelled lei wrong!
So I did. Woe. Consider the ashes thrown over my head. With mournful dirges which (a) mean something and (b) are properly set out in pure iambic pentameter ...
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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It's probably not the norm for one my age, but I do enjoy Shakespeare. Aside from just Shakespeare, there are many works that I'm anxious to read, mainly because of this board. (I've actually used this board as the subject for a college essay because it's inspired so much curiosity.) As for being 17, in the US, we're allowed to see R-rated movies at 17. And the main problem I see in your sonnet is that it's the wrong rhyme scheme.
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Jazzo replied: It's probably not the norm for one my age, but I do enjoy Shakespeare. Aside from just Shakespeare, there are many works that I'm anxious to read, mainly because of this board. (I've actually used this board as the subject for a college essay because it's inspired so much curiosity.) As for being 17, in the US, we're allowed to see R-rated movies at 17.
I don't know its rating here in New Zealand, never mind in the US! I was joking - it's really quite innocuous in comparison with the things that you see on TV every night.
And the main problem I see in your sonnet is that it's the wrong rhyme scheme
Yup. Except for the first line of course, which was Willy the Wordsmith's, not mine. Read Billy the Balding Bard's sonnets, Jazz. Try to project yourself back to England under Lizzy the Wizzy I and get a feeling for what might have motivated him to write the way he did.
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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