Questions tagged [shakespeare]
Questions relating to William Shakespeare, an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist.
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Shakespeare, Sonnet 104 [migrated]
To me, fair friend, you never can be old,
For as you were when first your eye I ey’d,
Such seems your beauty still. Three winters cold
Have from the forests shook three summers’ pride,
Three beauteous ...
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How did "nothing" come to be slang for female genitalia in Elizabethan English?
I am reading Hamlet for school right now and recently started looking at Act 3 Scene 2. As I was working on my annotations I looked for some of those "translations" you can find online to ...
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Shakespearean grammar: "hath" and "has" in the same sentence
In Macbeth, Act I, Scene iii, after the encounter with the three witches, Banquo says,
The earth hath bubbles as the water has, and these are of them.
What is the grammatical distinction between ...
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Shakespeare and his syntax: "we hunt not, we"
Titus Andronicus, act II, scene II
Chiron, we hunt not, we, with horse nor hound, But hope to pluck a dainty doe to ground.
Context:
Chiron is a character's name. It's his brother addressing him, ...
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What are the symbols used in First Folio of Coriolanus? ("A?tus Primus" / "?with") [closed]
In the image below, taken from https://firstfolio.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/text/619 there are two symbols that made me curious.
The first symbol is obviously "c" but is it just a stylized "c&...
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What is “were’t”?
What is were’t in “Were’t ought to me I bore the canopy” from Shakespeare's sonnet 125?
Is it the same as weren't?
Were’t aught to me I bore the canopy,
With my extern the outward honouring,
Or laid ...
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What is the name of this literary pattern used by Shakespeare? [duplicate]
In the balcony scene from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Juliet says:
O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?
This is an almost identical structure to this line from Richard III:
A horse, a ...
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In Shakespeare, besides "ponderous and marble jaws," are there any similarly structured phrases?
There are better ways to word this question, I'm sure, but I can't think of any for some reason: my apologies.
In Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 4, the lead character speaks as follows:
Let me not burst in ...
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What does "an eater of broken meats" mean from this Shakespeare play?
In the clip below from King Lear, what does "an eater of broken meats" mean, what does he mean by that. I know it is derogatory and is most likely meant to refer to an awful person. ...
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What does "make the Iacke go" mean?
The introduction to the first folio has the phrase "make the Iacke go." The I is almost certainly a J, but I don't recognise the word/name Jacke. What could it mean?
The text is given here ...
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Which work of Shakespeare "oftentimes better than a master of one" appears in if it it accredited to him? [duplicate]
A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one is apparently accredited to William Shakespeare.
Just to clarify - I mean the FULL quote, not just 'Jack of all ...
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Seeking origin and original wording of a quotation attributed to Shakespeare
During a Pub quiz early this week a Shakespeare quote emerged in German translation, and I am keen to know the original wording and the work it stems from, or if it is possibly part of his notes.
As ...
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Meaning of "bring them away" in Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure" (Act2, scene1)?
In act II, scene 1, of Measure for Measure, Elbow says:
Elbow. Come, bring them away: if these be good people in a Common-weale, that doe nothing but vse their abuses in common houses, I know no law :...
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Meaning of "Bore many gentlemen" in Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure"? [closed]
In act I, scene 5, of Measure for Measure, Lucio says:
Lucio. This is the point.
The Duke is very strangely gone from hence;
Bore many gentlemen (my selfe being one)
In hand, and hope of action: but ...
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Meaning of 'Thou shalt be pinched As thick as honeycomb, […].' in The Tempest
The Tempest, Act I, scene 2, lines 326-331:
For this, be sure, tonight thou shalt have cramps,
Side-stitches that shall pen thy breath up. Urchins
Shall forth at vast of night that they may work
All ...
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