Bit of bard

[stickygirl]

Ian McKellen's Thomas More speech has been hitting the headlines and I've now seen it several times. One line jumped out at me that I think is brilliant and I wish it was something what I did wrote.
"You sit as kings in your desires"

Got a favourite Shakespeare line?

 

[dutifulrose]

A line, a line! O torment most divine, to choose but one fair line!

This one always pulls at me (not sure why - perhaps, the inherent resolution or fatalism) - even though it was delivered by the traitor - Brutus:

"If we do meet again, why, we shall smile;
If not, why, then this parting was well made." Julius Caesar, Act V, Scene I

 

[EmilyMiller]

By the worst means the worst. For mine own good,
All causes shall give way. I am in blood
Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o’er.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Second fav:

Romeo and Juliet…
They never felt this way I bet

 

[EmilyMiller]

Third:

He is no less than a stuffed man: but for the stuffing,—well, we are all mortal

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

ooh, tough one. I think the answer to this is very mood dependent. Right now its:
A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!

 

[Comshaw]

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet."


Comshaw

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Caliban:
Be not afeard. The isle is full of noises,
Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight, and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices,
That if I then had waked after long sleep
Will make me sleep again; and then in dreaming
The clouds methought would open and show riches
Ready to drop upon me, that when I waked
I cried to dream again.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

You will find me a grave man.

*Proceeds to die.*

 

[TheRedChamber]

Someone's bound to do it, so lets get it out of the way

"Villain, I have done thy mother"

 

[IWroteThis]

I find myself using this one fairly often:

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks." - Queen Gertrude in Hamlet, by William Shakespeare.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Someone's bound to do it, so lets get it out of the way

"Villain, I have done thy mother"

Call of Duty lobbies on the 00s be like.

 

[12oclocktales]

"How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
To have a thankless child." King Lear

(My kids are sick of hearing it, however.)

 

[caleb35]

Ian McKellen's Thomas More speech has been hitting the headlines and I've now seen it several times. One line jumped out at me that I think is brilliant and I wish it was something what I did wrote.
"You sit as kings in your desires"

Got a favourite Shakespeare line?

It's a really good monologue, made all the better by Sir Ian's delivery. I have several favorite Shakespearean quotes, many from Macbeth (favorite performance, again, by Sir Ian) but let's stay with today's topic for our quote:

Imagine ... that you sit as kings in your desires, authority quite silenced by your brawl, and you in ruff of your opinions clothed; what had you got? I'll tell you: you had taught how insolence and strong hands should prevail, how order should be quelled; and by this pattern not one of you should live an aged man, for other ruffians, as their fancies wrought, with self-same hands, self-reason, and self-right, would shark on you and men like ravenous fishes feed on one another.

 

[caleb35]

You will find me a grave man.

*Proceeds to die.*

They say Mercutio had to die lest he steal the play

 

[Rob_Royale]

“Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade.”​

Hamlet

 

[EmilyMiller]

Caliban:
Be not afeard. The isle is full of noises,
Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight, and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices,
That if I then had waked after long sleep
Will make me sleep again; and then in dreaming
The clouds methought would open and show riches
Ready to drop upon me, that when I waked
I cried to dream again.

They had LSD in Shakespeare’s time, right?

 

[AlinaX]

O sir, I will not be so hard-hearted. I will give out divers schedules of my beauty. It shall be inventoried, and every particle and utensil labeled to my will: as, item, two lips indifferent red; item, two grey eyes, with lids to them; item, one neck, one chin, and so forth.

 

[THBGato]

Got a favourite Shakespeare line?

Only one?

A line, a line! O torment most divine, to choose but one fair line!

Well, quite!

"The sweetest honey is loathesome in it's own deliciousness." Friar Laurence, Romeo & Juliet

I like it because it reminds me, when writing HEA stories, that they can't be too sweet, and that a few sour notes help off set the honey tones.

 

[StrentWriter]

​

O God, that I were a man! I would eat his heart in the market-place.

Beatrice in “Much ado about nothing” has some great lines. It’s one of the plays where the relative position of women in society is really scrutinised.

I have no idea whether Shakespeare himself was genuinely feminist, and obviously the women within this play still have to retain their places in society, but the fact it is questioned, and you have this strong, cerebral woman lashing out in frustration at the limitations of her position due (unsaid) to the patriarchal nature of society, had to have been something of a moment for society at that time.


Bearing in mind Elizabeth 1st was on the throne during Shakespeare’s lifetime - maybe this contributed to some genuine change - I don’t know - but this particular part of Beatrice’s speech has always stood out to me.​

 

[stickygirl]

These are great. I admit in looking for a couple of lines I discovered I had mis-remembered one of two. Here's one I've borrowed a few times in everyday speech...
'He uses his folly like a stalking-horse, and under the presentation of that he shoots his wit'

 

[BeechLeaf]

Of those mentioned above, 'Be not afeard' is most magical, and I recently used 'Item, two lips indifferent red' in a story. How to choose another, though? Well, I've always had a weakness for this old villain, and this gloat:

Was ever woman in this humour wooed? Was ever woman in this humour won?

 

[stickygirl]

This one was quoted to me by a girl I loved at an age I cannot mention

'The quality of mercy is not strain'd.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.'

 

[HordHolm]

The end.

Ok, I jest... but only a little. Shakespeare tormented my school days. I believe he's taught appallingly for the most part, and from talking to many colleagues of different nationalities, in the main non-English teaching of Shakespeare is far superior to the crap us natives get. We're supposed to 'get' Shakespeare by fucking osmosis, which is just useless for a bunch of thirteen-year-olds, as my class were when we had Macbeth plopped down on our desks in front of us. And despite studying 'The Scottish Play' for two semesters, it took another decade before I realised that the Bard put a five minute break in the middle for the Porter to tell toilet jokes. Why my dumbass teacher didn't lead with that escapes me to this day...

 

[stickygirl]

The end.

Ok, I jest... but only a little. Shakespeare tormented my school days. I believe he's taught appallingly for the most part, and from talking to many colleagues of different nationalities, in the main non-English teaching of Shakespeare is far superior to the crap us natives get. We're supposed to 'get' Shakespeare by fucking osmosis, which is just useless for a bunch of thirteen-year-olds, as my class were when we had Macbeth plopped down on our desks in front of us. And despite studying 'The Scottish Play' for two semesters, it took another decade before I realised that the Bard put a five minute break in the middle for the Porter to tell toilet jokes. Why my dumbass teacher didn't lead with that escapes me to this day...

I agree that at school we don't have lived experience to understand the emotions of what is being said ( let alone the complex language ) BUT I'm so grateful I had to spend a year studying Jane Austen's P&P because I'd never have had patience to wade through her work either. We 'did' As You Like It ( or what you will ) as well.