Questions tagged [william-shakespeare]
Questions about the workes of William Shakspeare, who writ many a famous plaie and poem. For questions about his plaies, may it please you to add a tag for the plaie (e.g. [hamlet]); for questions about his sonnets, may it please you to add the tag [poetry].
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Is there really a bawdy pun at the conclusion of Romeo and Juliet?
Romeo and Juliet is listed as one of Shakespeare's tragedies and, personally, I found it one of the more affecting ones. With that in mind I was gobsmacked to learn that there's apparently a dirty ...
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How have attitudes toward "plagiarism" in literature changed since the Elizabethan era?
It's generally well-known that many of Shakespeare's dramas were "inspired" by, "plagiarised" from or otherwise "copies" of existing works. I use these terms advisedly ...
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Is the "dear Brutus" speech ironic?
After reading Shakespeare I'm never certain if I've understood it correctly.
An example is the Dear Brutus speech in Julius Caesar.
Cassius: Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a ...
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What is the point of Feste’s final song?
The play Twelfth Night famously finishes with a rather melancholic song, sung by the character Feste. What is the significance of this song? Why end the comedy on a melancholic note? Why specifically ...
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Silence in Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale" and "The Tempest"
I'd like to know what silence means in those two plays, especially when performed by Leontes and Antonio. Does it have a particular meaning, is it a sign of redemption or regret?
(The Winter's Tale ...
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Where did this quote come from: "What is money / tis something tis nothing"
What is money
tis something tis nothing
tis mine tis yours
tis been a slave to thousands and will be a slave to thousands hence
He who takes my purse takes naught
He filches from me my good name ...
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Hamlet III.IV: "Then what I have to do will want true colour"
In Hamlet Act III Scene IV, Hamlet says to the Ghost,
Do not look upon me,
lest with this piteous action you convert
My stern effects. Then what I have to do
Will want true colour; tears perchance ...
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Role of Duke of Bedford in Shakespeare's "King Henry VI, Part I"?
In Shakespeare's play King Henry VI, Part I, the Duke of Bedford(or Bedford) is given the following role:
Duke of BEDFORD, the king’s uncle, and Regent of France
In other words, Bedford is the "...
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Can I trust that Shakespeare's sonnets will always be published with the same numbering system?
Can I trust that Shakespeare's sonnets will always be published using the same numbering system? Will Sonnet 30 always be published as Sonnet 30; sonnet 29 always as 29? Was the current order and ...
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Was the island in Shakespeare's play "The Tempest" inspired by any real islands?
In Shakespeare's play The Tempest, characters sailing from Tunis to Naples are shipwrecked on an island. Sycorax had been banished there from "Argier", which is an old name for Algiers.
Did ...
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Shakespeare's "Mrs" Anne Page
In The Merry Wives of Windsor, why is the unmarried daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Page referred to as Mrs. Anne Page? I have two editions using this term in 'PERSONS REPRESENTED', published by Springs ...
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Why would Henry want to close the breach?
Henry exhorts his men to attack the city of Harfleur (Henry V - Act 3, Scene 1)
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there's ...
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Literary devices in "Thou wouldst be great" et cetera in Macbeth
From Macbeth, Act I Scene V:
Lady Macbeth: Thou wouldst be great;
Art not without ambition, but without
The illness should attend it.
I understand what the quote means, but which literary devices ...
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Why does Shakespeare write "is" instead of "are" in this passage from Richard II
Each substance of grief hath twenty shadows,
Which shows like grief itself, but is not so;
For sorrow's eye, glazed with blinding tears,
Divides one thing entire to many objects:
Like perspectives ...
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Is this line from "Stalker" an allusion to Shakespeare?
In Tarkovsky's Stalker one character states:
Well done, citizen Shakespeare. It’s frightening to go forward; it’s a shame to go back.
This further reminded me of the passage from Hart Crane's ...
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Why does Georgia connect so well with the clown's song?
In Alice Oseman's Loveless, after several failed scenes where Georgia has difficulty acting romantic roles, Pip gets her to try being the clown in Twelfth Night. This goes swimmingly:
"Come away,...
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Would "most unkindest" have been considered poor grammar in Shakespeare's time?
One of the famous lines from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, describing Brutus's stab to Caesar, is:
This was the most unkindest cut of all
Nowadays, it would be considered incorrect grammar to combine ...
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Hamlet - swear on my sword part - why the sudden shift in tone?
So the text of Hamlet is here:
http://shakespeare.mit.edu/hamlet/full.html
This is during Act 1, Scene 5.
Hamlet, Horatio and Marcellus are running around swearing on the sword multiple times. I find ...
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Are there any literary techniques in the following quote from Othello other than metaphor?
Whilst re-reading Othello, I came across the following quote from Iago. I understand that there is metaphor within the quote, however, can anyone identify any more interesting techniques within the ...
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Meaning of "none so poor to do him reverence" in Shakespeare's "Julius Cæsar"
I am wondering about the meaning of the word "poor" in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Act III, Scene 2:
Antony But yesterday the word of Caesar might
Have stood against the world; now lies he ...
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What is the meaning of "Or feed upon such nice and waterish diet" and "Or breed itself so out of circumstances" in "Othello"?
In William Shakespeare's Othello, Act 3, Scene 3, Desdemona assures Cassio that Othello's anger at him is only dictated by wise policy and that Othello will restore him to his position in the future. ...
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Why could Banquo see the three witches?
If the three witches were a figment of Macbeth's own imagination, why was Banquo able to see them at the beginning of the play as well?
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How was the possessive used in Elizabethan literature?
I've been listening to a podcast called 'The History of English'. In the latest episode it touches on the use of the possessive.
In Chaucerian English the possessive was written with an '-es-' suffix, ...
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What is it called when the true villain of the story is revealed later on?
In Star Wars, the audience is meant to believe Darth Vader is the villain of the story, but later on it becomes apparent that the Emperor is the true villain of the saga. What is this called?
I really ...
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How were plays in Shakespeare's time advertised?
How were plays in Tudor or Jacobean England advertised (e.g. did they use posters, street-hawkers, etc.)? And how much information would these advertisements have contained?
Would an advertisement ...
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Shakespearean Sonnets within his plays
The prologue to Romeo and Juliet is a sonnet. Are there other moments, sections within the plays that are sonnets?
I'd like a list of Shakespearean sonnets which appear in his plays (not in the 154 ...
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"Sly frantic wretch, that holp'st to make me great" what is the meaning of "holp'st"?
The Twitter bot Willy Shakes tweeted these lines earlier today:
Sly frantic wretch, that holp'st to make me great,
In hope thyself should govern Rome and me.
[Enter AEMILIUS]
— Titus Andronicus
I ...
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Why does the prophecy imply Macbeth has to murder the king?
I’m reading Macbeth for the first time. The witches prophecize that Macbeth will become king. He and Lady Macbeth immediately jump to the conclusion that this means he has to assassinate Duncan, the ...
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Who is 'he' in 'He has no children?'
In Act 4, scene 3, Macduff is talking with Malcolm. He has just heard the news that his wife and children have been murdered by Macbeth's forces. Then he says,
He has no children.
Who is "he&...
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What does "royalty in nature" in Macbeth mean?
In Macbeth (Act 3, Scene 1), Macbeth says about Banquo:
in his royalty of nature
Reigns that which would be feared.
What does "royalty of nature" mean here? Surely, Banquo is no "king ...
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When did Macbeth kill Duncan's chamberlains?
In Macbeth, at the end of Act 2, Scene 3 Macbeth reveals that he killed Duncan's servants:
O, Yet I do repent me of fury
That I did kill them
However, doesn't this appear as a plot hole when we take ...
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Actual meaning of Shakespeare's sonnet 30
Sonnet 30 is commonly believed to be talking aboutt 'How Shakespeare's mood gets lifted when he thinks of his friend' (common believed to be fair youth).
So while reading on the topic I came across an ...
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The meaning of "to his love and tendance / All sorts of hearts" in Timon of Athens
In Shakespeare's Timon of Athens, I found a difficult passage in 1.1.57-60:
(Their services to Lord Timon): his large fortune,
Upon his good and gracious nature hanging,
Subdues and properties to his ...
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Why does "less than" mean "not" in "A little more than kin, and less than kind"?
In Act 1, Scene 2, Line 65, Hamlet
[Aside] "A little more than kin, and less than kind"
does less than mean not? If so, what semantic notions underlie less than and not? How did less than ...
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What is the underlying reason for Macbeth to write the letter?
Macbeth wrote a letter to Lady Macbeth. Duncan suddenly wants to have a feast or celebration at Macbeth's castle, without prior notice as Lady Macbeth said. From this, we know that it's all within a ...
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What does Regan mean by "square of sense" in King Lear?
The exact meaning of the following phrase in bold is not clear to me. In the first scene of King Lear, Regan utters these words to her father with flattery. I'm not sure but I think I read somewhere ...
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What does the word "seem" mean in these lines of Shakespeare?
In Shakespeare's Othello 3.1.26, the Clown answers Cassio:
She is stirring, sir; if she will stir hither, I shall seem to notify unto her.
where the verb "seem" makes me confused.
The ...
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Which adaptation of Richard II the John of Gaunt's speech played in Tom Hiddleston's Jaguar Commercial at the beginning comes from?
Starring Tom Hiddleston, at the beginning of this Jaguar advertisement: Art Of Villainy With Tom Hiddleston - Jaguar Ad, a recording of John of Gaunt's speech (This royal throne of kings, this scepter’...
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Shakespeare King Henry IV Part 1: What is the "money joke" in these lines?
In Act 2 Scene 4, Prince Hal takes interest in a noble man as a "joke about money". My text (Cambridge) explains that a noble was worth one third of £1 sterling and a royal worth half of £1.
...
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Are there collections of pre-20th-century Shakespeare criticism, esp. focusing on individual plays?
Are there any good, comprehensive primary source readers for criticism of Shakespeare and his individual plays, where the criticism is from before the 20th century?
The introductions of most modern ...
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What are the indications that in writing his plays Shakespeare sometimes thought of the special abilities of the actors?
Many of Shakespeare's plays were written to be performed by a specific group of actors, the Lord Chamberlain's Men (later called the King's Men), with the result that several famous roles in different ...
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Romeo and Juliet: Why is honey loathsome in its deliciousness?
Romeo and Juliet Act 2 Scene 6:
...The sweetest honey
Is loathsome in its own deliciousness.
And in the taste confounds the appetite
Most interpretations online seem to suggest that honey is bad for ...
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Is this part of Mark Antony's speech to the conspirators in the play "Julius Caesar" meant to be honest?
In Act III, Scene I of the play Julius Caesar, when the conspirators are approached by Mark Antony after they have assassinated Caesar, they assure him that they do not wish to kill him and ask him to ...
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"Which dreams, indeed, are ambition" in Hamlet Act 2, Scene 2
I am reading Hamlet; Act 2 Scene 2 contains the following exchange:
Hamlet: O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a
king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.
...
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Why did Hamlet tell Ophelia: "Get thee to a nunnery!"?
In Hamlet [III, 1], Hamlet tells Ophelia (lines 1814,27,34):
Get thee to a nunnery! […] Go thy ways to a nunnery. […] Get thee to a nunnery. […] To a nunnery, go; and quickly too. […] To a nunnery, ...
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"Marry, in her buttocks: I found it out by the bogs."
From The Comedy of Errors, Act III Scene II:
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE: No longer from head to foot than from hip to hip: she is spherical, like a globe; I could find out countries in her.
ANTIPHOLUS OF ...
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Julius Caesar: "If it be aught toward the general good, Set honor in one eye and death i’ th’ other..."
From Act I Scene II of the play Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare:
BRUTUS
I would not, Cassius, yet I love him well.
But wherefore do you hold me here so long?
What is it that you would impart to ...
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When/where was "Mem and Zin" first compared to "Romeo and Juliet"?
Mem and Zin is
a Kurdish classic love story written down in 1692
and
is based on a true story, laid down from generation to generation through oral tradition.
It appears to be often compared to ...
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Do we have any solid evidence for how much material Middleton contributed to Macbeth?
In verbose's question How close to actual incantations are the witches' spells in Macbeth? he says
It is worth mentioning that the latter [the witches' incantation from Act IV scene i] was possibly ...
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Do contemporary neo-pagan practices such as Wicca regard the portrayal of witchcraft in Shakespeare and Middleton as reliable sources?
A recent question asks whether the portrayal of witchcraft in Macbeth can be related to actual practices of those professing to be witches during Shakespeare's day. This companion question asks about ...
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