Happy birthday Shakespeare! Our favorite sayings, and some that missed the mark

USA Today

23-04-2025

Happy birthday Shakespeare! Our favorite sayings, and some that missed the mark
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Why the Ides of March is so significant in history
You've likely heard the phrase 'beware the Ides of March,' but what exactly is an Ides, and why the warning?
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There have been a lot of writers since the 16th century. But there's only one Bard.
William Shakespeare, who was born one of eight children 461 years ago on April 23, 1564, lived just 52 years. But in those years, Shakespeare would produce a bounty of plays, sonnets and poems that have been studied, modernized, adapted, saturized and lionized for decades.
And his words − the countless words, coined phrases and twists of the tongue − continue to shape literature and language. You might even be surprised by how much of Shakespeare still saturates everyday vernacular (To name a few: wild goose chase, heart of gold, break the ice, the world is your oyster, for goodness sake.)
On the occasion of his birth, here are some of Shakespeare's most enduring turns of phrase. And, because not all that glitters (or glisters) is gold, we are including some that missed the mark.
'Hamlet': A father's wisdom, a friend's final farewell
Some of Shakespeare's best-known and most-performed plays also account for a lot of his most well-worn expressions.
In "Hamlet," Polonius advises his son Laertes with gems like "Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice," "Neither a borrower nor a lender be, for loan oft loses both itself and friend," and perhaps the best advice any parent can give their child, "This above all, to thine own self be true."
Polonius also reminds us that "brevity is the soul of wit," and that "though this be madness, yet there is method in't."
But Polonius isn't the only character with memorable lines. Marcellus was the first but certainly not the last to observe that "something is rotten in the state of Denmark," and Gertrude, that faithless queen mother, observes, "The lady protests too much, methinks."
Hamlet, gaslighting his love Ophelia and feigning madness, waxes existentialist, famously wondering, "To be, or not to be, that is the question." He tells his best friend, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in our philosophy." He mulls his old jester's remains: "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: A fellow of infinite jest."
And, spoiler alert for a 420-some-year-old drama: Almost everyone is dead by the end, and, as Hamlet's dying words indicate, "The rest is silence."
Except it isn't: Loyal Horatio is left, and he says goodbye to his ill-fated friend, "Goodnight, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!"
'Julius Caesar': Should have stayed home on March 15
Shakespeare's characters often ignore advice they should heed, and the Roman emperor Caesar probably should have listened to the soothsayer who tells him, "Beware the Ides of March." Cassius tells Brutus, who has to decide whether he loves his liege or his land more, "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves."
Casca is puzzled by another's words and says, "It was Greek to me," in case you wondered why any indecipherable words are described that way.
The tragedy includes some of Shakespeare's most vivid imagery, with Brutus suggesting, "Let's carve him as a dish fit for the gods," Caesar reminding his men that "Cowards die many times before their deaths, the valiant never taste of death but once," and Antony exclaiming, "Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war."
Antony, talking of Brutus' treachery in taking part in Caesar's assassination, calls it "the most unkindest cut of all."
'Romeo and Juliet': Teenage codependency and more death
Ah, the original "star-crossed lovers"! That's how the prologue introduces us to literature's most codependent couple, and a play full of love, death, family dysfunction and ... did we mention death?
But, soft: "Romeo and Juliet" also gave us some of Shakespeare's most memorable love lines: "What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun."
Run, girl, is what we in the audience want to say to the young maiden. But like any lovestruck teen, she ignores the voices of adult reason: "O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo?" she wonders. Later, on learning her love is part of a rival family, she observes, "That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet."
Speaking of sweetness, Juliet also spoke this famous line: "Parting is such sweet sorrow."
But it's hard not to love Mercutio, the manic, wise-cracking, pun-dispensing BFF to Romeo. He even manages to crack jokes as he dies from a stab wound and is the only character to place the blame squarely where it belongs: "A plague o' both your houses!" he tells the Capulets and the Montagues.
Some of the best from some of the rest
Shakespeare gifted modern English with a host of other memorable lines, even if not all of his plays were as well known as the three big tragedies.
In "MacBeth," he gives some of the best lines to a group of witches: "fair is foul and foul is fair," "double, double, toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble" and "by the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes."
Great lines are spread throughout "The Merchant of Venice," including Jessica's observation that "love is blind," and Morocco noting that "all that glisters (note: not a typo!) is not gold." But Shylock, the Jewish moneylender, utters the most poignant lines: "If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?"
Iago, the duplicitous villain of "Othello," drops this famous phrase: "I will wear my heart upon my sleeve," and compares jealousy to a "green-eyed monster."
That's not the only quick turn of phrase in Shakespeare's lesser-known works: He also gave us "salad days" ("Antony and Cleopatra"); "a motley fool" and "forever and a day" ("As You Like It"); "I have not slept one wink" and "Play judge and executioner all himself" ("Cymbeline"); "tell the truth and shame the devil" ("Henry IV Part I"); "eaten me out of house and home" and "uneasy lies the head that wears a crown" ("Henry IV Part II"); and "Now is the winter of our discontent" and "A horse! a horse! My kingdom for a horse!" ("Richard III").
Not even Shakespeare can always be Shakespearean
But for all his brilliance, the Bard threw in a lot of lines that didn't quite catch on.
Can you imagine calling someone a "sodden-witted lord" who "hast no more brain than I have in mine elbows" ("Troilus and Cressida")?
Or saying to a hapless woman, "there's no more faith in thee than in a stewed prune" ("Henry IV Part I")? Have any of us ever insulted someone by calling them "You Banberry cheese! ("Merry Wives of Windsor")?
Of course, in "Titus Andronicus," the title character says, "Villain, I have done thy mother." And while it doesn't exactly roll off the modern tongue, it might have been the first "Your mom" joke to be immortalized in verse.
Do you want to share a slice of Americana with USA TODAY? Contact Phaedra Trethan by email at [e-mail], on X (formerly Twitter) @wordsbyphaedra, on BlueSky @byphaedra, or on Threads @by_phaedra