Shakespeare phrases you must know if you don’t want to appear ignorant

We don’t need a special day to remember William Shakespeare but there is something special about today that makes us miss him more. Some 455 years ago, the famous bard and playwright, was born on this day. Given limited time and space, it is not easy to write about the soulful sonnets, colourful characters and popular plays he brought to life with his words. His works are filled with phrases that celebrate the power words yield over our life and love. On his birthday, let’s re-read a few phrases from Shakespeare's works and test our knowledge about the great 15th century literary genius.
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There are perhaps very few instances of a grey character stealing the show from a hero or the protagonist, and Shylock is one such person. In the powerful soliloquy by the Jew in ‘Merchant of Venice’, he almost turned the table and moved the readers to tears when he spoke about how he has been wronged. “…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?...” This is a classic example of societal discrimination and how it existed for hundreds of years.

These words capture the anguish and dread of a powerless father who was once the most influential person. In Act III, Scene II of the play 'King Lear', the master playwright paints a sad picture of the wronged father who was thrown out of doors by his own daughters and in deep anguish, a helpless King Lear cries out, “…I am a man. More sinn'd against than sinning.”

We might have used this phrase many times without even realising that this was used by Shakespeare in the play Julius Caesar to draw a clever distinction between bravery and cowardice. The words, “Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once,” were spoken by Julius Caesar in Act II, Scene II of the play.

These words spoken by a depressed Hamlet, may not be well received by women today. But let’s not forget the many layers of human emotions that Shakespeare pumped into the play 'Hamlet'. Saddened by the death of his father and hurt by the hasty marriage of his mother to his uncle, Hamlet poured out the agony of his heart in his first soliloquy of which the line, “Frailty, thy name is woman!” is a part of.

Nothing perhaps expresses the sense of meaninglessness of life more than this line by Macbeth—“...It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing." Did you know an American author wrote a novel where he borrowed words from this famous line to name his work? It’s William Faulkner and the book is ‘Sound and Fury’.

Love is the central theme of many of Shakespeare’s plays, and 'Romeo and Juliet' is, perhaps, the one that most lovers can relate to. In Act II, Scene II of the same play, Juliet says, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose / By Any Other Name would smell as sweet”—by which the heroine was trying to imply that the family name of Romeo has nothing to do with their love. Love knows no bounds and no one knew it better than Shakespeare, right?

Most of us, at some point in our lives, might have compared the world to a stage and wondered if we are just mere players. But did you know that it was Shakespeare who had used this in one of his plays? The line, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely player” was spoken by the melancholic Jaques in Act II, Scene II of the pastoral comedy 'As You Like It'.