Posted on 09/17/2011 8:57:46 PM PDT by Mountain Bike Vomit Carnage
As a self-proclaimed loser word nerd, my absolute favorite class in college was Shakespeare. Regardless if the dude even existed or not, I feel intimidated writing about him using my own pathetically limited vocabulary, as I am that enthralled and marveled by his English language skillz (sorry, Will).
That's why I was so stoked to see the newest Tumblr hit sweeping the Internet world: "Things We Say Today Which We Owe to Shakespeare." There are so many things! I remember reading through his plays late at night for class, coming across phrases and sayings and having the light bulb in my head go off: So that's where that came from.
A 20-year-old from London named Becky scribbled down a bunch of these sayings in her notebook and posted it to Tumblr. And people love it! Who'da thunk it ... I mean, o, wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is!
I guess this is proof that Shakespeare and technology actually can get along. Here are just eight of the best from the wonderment that is Becky's list:
Love is blind: "But love is blind, and lovers cannot see/The petty follies that themselves commit." -- Jessica, The Merchant of Venice (this phrase appears in Two Gentlemen of Verona and Henry V)
Knock knock! Who's there?: "Knock, knock, knock! Who's there, i' th' name of Beelzebub? Here's a farmer that hanged himself on the expectation of plenty. Come in time, have napkins enough about you, here you'll sweat for 't." -- Drunk or hungover porter, Macbeth
Green-eyed monster: "O, beware, my lord, of jealousy!/It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock/The meat it feeds on." -- Iago, Othello
The world is my oyster: "Why then the world's mine oyster/Which I with sword will open." -- Pistol, The Merry Wives of Windsor
Wild goose chase: "Nay, if our wits run the wild-goose chase, I am done; for thou hast more of the wild goose in one of thy wits than, I am sure, I have in my whole five." -- Mercutio, Romeo & Juliet
In a pickle: "And Trinculo is reeling ripe: where should they find this grand liquor that hath gilded 'em? How camest thou in this pickle?" -- Alonso, The Tempest
Break the ice: "And if you break the ice and do this feat/Achieve the elder, set the younger free/For our access, whose hap shall be to have her/Will not so graceless be to be ingrate." -- Tranio, The Taming of the Shrew
Hair stand on end: "Thy knotted and combinèd locks to part/And each particular hair to stand on end/Like quills upon the fearful porpentine." -- Ghost, Hamlet
Did you know we had Shakespeare to thank for these phrases? I didn't!
Thereby hangs a tail!
Whereby hangs a tale?
Marry sir, by many a wind instrument that I know!
What ho!?
Wipe out?
I think this was the first documented wipe out:
2 Kings 21:13 And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab: and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down.
Actually “set you teeth on edge” is found in the Old testament. More specifically: “The sins of the father have set the teeth of the sons on edge”
“A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool”
Borrowed from multiple verses in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.
“pound of flesh. . .” from the Merchant of Venice.
Wouldn’t that be office assistant Snoop Dog?
1. (Insert the name of person who is not liberal) is Hitler.
2. The rich must pay their fair share.
3. It's time for change.
Definitely from Julius Ceasar, as in
“Et tu, Brute?”
“Fo shizzle ma nizzle”. (for sure, my ni****)
Shakespeare was way ahead of his time in his Ebonics writing style.
What’s past is prologue
he that is Queen of Tunis; she that dwells
Ten leagues beyond man’s life; she that from Naples
Can have no note, unless the sun were post—
The Man i’ th’ Moon’s too slow—till new-born chins
Be rough and razorable; she that from whom
We all were sea-swallow’d, though some cast again
(And by that destiny) to perform an act
Whereof what’s past is prologue; what to come,
In yours and my discharge.
The Tempest Act 2, scene 1, 245–254
Love your tag line
They came for me and mine
and now whose turn?
‘Tis thine
(Shakespeared it up;)
It’s a little bit of snarky fun for me when I hear my atheist acquaintances say something like “the skin of my teeth” or “apple of my eye.” Little do they know that they have just quoted the Bible.
“I entereth the discourse ere the zotte.”
“To us, belongeth all thou base.”
"Ah, but the bible is a work of man, not of god" said the "snarky" atheist.
Brush up your Shakespeare:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSmZfnax1yw
Not nearly as good as the orginal 3D movie, “Kiss Me, Kate!”
I recall one day my wife decided she wanted to have a fight, over what, I never cleary understood. Her eyes were glowing bright red, there was light coming out of her blood red ears and fire from her nostrils. She beat upon my chest with her tiny little fists, yelling, “What do you say to that? What do you say to that?”
I took her shoulders gently in my arms, stared into her face, smiling and said, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more temperate and more fair.” Game, set and match to Lonesome. Great make up sex. I never figured out what the issue was, though.
Actually I did not know WS had any input. But it is part of my personal history nontheless.
“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out.” - Bishop Martin Niemaller, German Protestant Theologian
In the hair-standing-on-end one, that’s “fretful porpentine”, not “fearful”.
“Band Of Brothers”
“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he today that sheds his blood with me,
Shall be my brother.” - Henry V
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