'Off with his head' - often associated with Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, this phrase can be found as far back as 1591 in Henry VI Part III, spoken by Queen Margaret, and is repeated in Richard III. 'Night owl' - this used to just be another way to refer to owls, but Shakespeare can be credited with the first written use of it in relation to people who prefer to be active at night, from his poem The Rape of Lucrece. Now we use it more generally to describe staying aloof and separate from other people. 'Keep your distance' - first written by Shakespeare in All's Well That Ends Well, as a way of reminding people to know their place in society and not to get too close to their social betters. Despite this appearance in 1602, the idea of being in stitches has only really become popular in the last century. 'In stitches' - if you're laughing so hard it hurts, you may find yourself using this phrase from Twelfth Night. The phrase is first found in The Merry Wives of Windsor and uses 'dickens' as a more polite version of 'devil'. 'What the dickens' - nothing to do with Victorian author Charles Dickens. "Edgar in his pretence of madness sings scraps of song, Ophelia does like-wise, and it is in the scene where Hamlet confirms in the mind of Polonius the belief in his madness that Hamlet repeats, or as I think more likely, sings, a line or two of an old song.For instance, you're referencing The Tempest whenever you comment on 'fair play', while you can thank A Midsummer Night's Dream next time you're feeling 'fancy free'. O, stay and hear your true love's coming, Under the blossom that hangs on the bough. This is a scurvy tune too: but here's my comfort.įreedom, hey-day! hey-day, freedom! freedom, Yet a tailor might scratch her where'er she did itch: She loved not the savour of tar nor of pitch, The master, the swabber, the boatswain and I, This is a very scurvy tune to sing at a man'sįuneral: well, here's my comfort.
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( The Tempest, 2.1.334-39), Ariel to Gonzalo Let nobody blame him his scorn I approve,. Sing all a green willow must be my garland. Her salt tears fell from her, and soften'd the stones. The fresh streams ran by her, and murmur'd her moans.
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Her hand on her bosom, her head on her knee, The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree, ( Much Ado About Nothing, 5.2.22-25), Benedick (from Christopher Marlowe's The Passionate Shepherd to his Love.)įalstaff (quoting a lyric from Sir Philip Sidney's Astrophel and Stella.) ( The Merry Wives of Windsor, 3.1.17-20), Evans Then nightly sings the staring owl, Tu-whit Mocks married men for thus sings he, Cuckoo. ( 2 Henry IV, 5.3.28-32), Silence to Falstaff and Shallow To contract, O, the time, for-ah, my behove, O, how the wheel becomes it! It is the false steward, You must sing 'a-down a-down, and you call him a-down-a'. Hark, hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings, Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly: Heigh-ho! sing heigh-ho! unto the green holly: (5.1.91-7)Įnjoy the following selection of songs from Shakespeare's works. The motions of his spirit are dull as night Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, Lorenzo summarizes the importance of music and song in The Merchant of Venice: Shakespeare's characters are a reflection of his times and they too depend on music for moments of comedy and poignancy, whether it be a drunken sing-along at a crowded table, or a gloomy rhyme borne out of love's disillusionment. London publishers were constantly producing broadside ballads, madrigals, and consort pieces, and most educated people could read music and play a tune on a recorder, lute, or viola da gamba. It's no wonder this soliloquy is universally admired: The themes are crucial to all people and the phrasing of his opening question is stark and original. Hamlet ponders life, death, and the merits and risks of suicide in one of the most famous passages in the history of literature. Music was an integral part of Elizabethan life, as it is today. 'To be, or not to be: that is the question.' 'Hamlet'. Not surprisingly, Shakespeare alludes to or includes the text of well over one hundred songs in his works. Shakespeare's Songs: Music in Shakespeare's Plays