SOME SHAKESPEARE’S THOUGHTS (PART ONE)

 

                SOME SHAKESPEARE’S THOUGHTS

                                                (PART ONE)

            The English poet and playwright William Shakespeare was born in Stratford –upon- Avon, a town in England, on 23 April 1564 and died there on the same date in 1616.

            He is known as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist.

            His writings are for all humanity and for all ages.

            According to the German polymath Johan Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) he is a great psychologist and whatever can be known of the heart of man may be found in his plays.

            Shakespeare authored 38 plays, 154 sonnets, and two narrative poems Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. Another poem is titled Passionate Pilgrim.

            Given below are some of his famous thoughts as Part One. More parts will follow.

 

1.     If the great gods be just, they shall assist the deeds of justest men, ---Antony and Cleopatra, Act 2.

 

2.     An act has three branches; it is, to act, to do, and to perform.---Hamlet, Act 4

 

3.     Sweet are the uses of adversity/ Which like the toad, ugly and venomous/ Wears yet a precious jewel in his head. ----As You Like It, Act 2.

 

4.     Men shut their doors against a setting sun.---Timon of Athens, Act 1.

 

5.     An old man is twice a child.---Hamlet, Act 2.

 

6.     Fling away ambition:/By that sin fell the angels: how can man then,/The image of his Maker, hope to win by it? ----Henry VIII, Act 3.

 

7.     Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.---Julius Caesar, Act 3.

 

8.     Men in rage strike those that wish them best.---Othello, Act 2.

 

9.     One may smile, and smile, and be a villain.---Hamlet, Act 1.

 

10.                         All that glitters is not gold;/Gilded tombs do worms unfold.---Merchant of Venice, Act 1.

 

11.                         Men should be what they seem, ----Othello, Act 2.

 

12.                         O place! O form! /How oft dost thou with thy case, thy habit,/Wrench awe from fools, and tie the wiser souls/To thy false seeming! Measure for Measure, Act 2.

 

13.                         Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold.---As You Like It, Act 1.

 

14.                         Beauty is but a vain and doubtful good;/A shining glass that vadeth suddenly:/A flower that dies when first it begins to bud;/ A brittle glass that is broken presently:/A doubtful good, a gloss, a glass, a flower,/Lost, vaded, broken, dead within an hour. ----Line 169, From the poem Passionate Pilgrim.

 

15.                         Let her beauty be her wedding-dower.---Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act 3.

                                                                        (TO BE CONTINUED)

 

G. R. Kanwal

20^th March 2026