QUOTING SHAKESPEARE

 

          QUOTING  SHAKESPEARE

The British poet-playwright William Shakespeare was born at Stratford-on-Avon on 23 April 1564 and died on the same date in 1616.

His father was a prosperous citizen but later on fell upon evil days. Except that he attended the grammar school of the town, Shakespeare had no formal education.

He was eighteen years old when he married a local woman Anne Hathaway eight years older than himself.     

          He left Stratford in 1584 because of falling into trouble as a poacher. After arriving in London he worked at a theatre in some minor capacity, and gradually became an actor as also a playwright.

A born literary genius, when he retired to his native town, he had gained the most enviable reputation as a poet and playwright.

 

            Look this quote from the poem titled “Shakespeare” written by the English poet Matthew Arnold (1822-88):            

 

Others abide our question. Thou art free.

We ask and ask: Thou smilest and art still,

Out-topping knowledge. For the loftiest hill

That to the stars uncrowns his majesty,

Planting his steadfast footsteps in the sea.

                                    ……

Self-schooled, self-scanned , self-honour’d, self-secure,

Didst tread on earth unguesse’d at. Better so!

All pains the immortal spirit must endure,

All weakness that impairs, all griefs that bow,

Find their sole voice in that victorious brow.

 

            The following quotes are taken from Shakespeare’s plays:

 

i).The lunatic, the lover, and the poet,

Are of imagination all compact.  

ii).How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is

To have a thankless child!  

 

iii).The web of our life is of 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 virtues.

 

iv). Out, out, brief candle!

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more; it is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

 

v). What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! 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!

 

vi). An earthly power doth then show likest God’s

When mercy seasons justice.

 

vii). If music be the food of love, play on;

Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,

The appetite may sicken, and so die.

 

viii). We are such stuff

As dreams are made on, and our little life

Is rounded with sleep.

                                                            *******

G.R.Kanwal

23 April 2025