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Phrases From Hamlet In Common English
William Shakespeare's play ''Hamlet'' has contributed many phrases to common English, from the famous "To be, or not to be" to a few less known, but still in everyday English. Also, some occur elsewhere, such as the Bible, or are proverbial. A few, listed out (''Note: all are second quarto except as noted''): Act I, scene 1: :''As the mote is to trouble the mind's eye'' ("Mind's eye," though it did not originate as a phrase in this play, was popularized by Shakespeare's use of it.) Act I, scene 2: :''... all that lives must die,'' :''Passing through nature to eternity.'' :''Frailty, thy name is woman!'' Act I, scene 3: :''...the primrose path...'' :''Neither a borrower nor a lender be;'' :''For the apparel oft proclaims the man'' :''This above all: to thine ownself be true,'' :''Giving more light than heat,...'' Act I, scene 4: :''And to the manner born, ...'' (i.e., predisposed to the practice. This phrase is sometimes mistakenly rendered as "to the ''mano ...
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William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the " Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. He remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted. Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an ...
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Robin Williams
Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian. Known for his improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters he created on the spur of the moment and portrayed on film, in dramas and comedies alike, he is regarded as one of the greatest comedians of all time. Williams began performing stand-up comedy in San Francisco and Los Angeles during the mid-1970s, and rose to fame playing the alien Mork in the ABC sitcom ''Mork & Mindy'' (1978–1982). After his first leading film role in ''Popeye'' (1980), he starred in several critically and commercially successful films, including '' The World According to Garp'' (1982), ''Moscow on the Hudson'' (1984), ''Good Morning, Vietnam'' (1987), ''Dead Poets Society'' (1989), ''Awakenings'' (1990), ''The Fisher King'' (1991), '' Patch Adams'' (1998), '' One Hour Photo'' (2002), and ''World's Greatest Dad'' (2009). He also starred in box office successes such as ''Hook'' (1991), '' Aladd ...
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Horatio (character)
Horatio is a character in William Shakespeare's tragedy ''Hamlet''. He was present on the field when King Hamlet (Hamlet's father) defeated Fortinbras (the king of Norway), and he has travelled to court from the University of Wittenberg (where he was familiar with Prince Hamlet) for the funeral of King Hamlet. Hamlet is glad to see him, and Horatio remains at court without official appointment, simply as "Hamlet's friend". He is on relatively familiar terms with other characters. For example, when Gertrude (the queen) is reluctant to admit the "distract" Ophelia, she changes her mind following Horatio's advice. Hamlet has departed for England by this point, and is not supposed to return. Horatio is not directly involved in any intrigue at the court, but he makes a good foil and sounding board for Hamlet. Being from Wittenberg, a university that defined the institutional switch from theology to humanism, Horatio epitomizes the early modern fusion of Stoic and Protestant rationalit ...
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Prince Hamlet
A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The female equivalent is a princess. The English word derives, via the French word ''prince'', from the Latin noun , from (first) and (head), meaning "the first, foremost, the chief, most distinguished, noble ruler, prince". Historical background The Latin word (older Latin *prīsmo-kaps, literally "the one who takes the first lace/position), became the usual title of the informal leader of the Roman senate some centuries before the transition to empire, the ''princeps senatus''. Emperor Augustus established the formal position of monarch on the basis of principate, not dominion. He also tasked his grandsons as summer rulers of the city when most of the government were on holiday in the country or attending religious rituals, and, ...
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Laertes (character)
Laertes is a character in William Shakespeare's c. 1600 play ''Hamlet''. Laertes is the son of Polonius and the brother of Ophelia. In the final scene, he mortally stabs Hamlet with a poison-tipped sword to avenge the deaths of his father and sister, for which he blamed Hamlet. While dying of the same poison, he implicates King Claudius. The Laertes character is thought to be originated by Shakespeare, as there is no equivalent character in any of the known sources for the play. His name is taken from Laërtes, father of Odysseus in Homer's ''Odyssey''. Role in the play In the first act, Laertes is warning Ophelia against Hamlet's romantic pursuit of her, saying Hamlet will soon lose his desire for her, and that it is not Hamlet's own choice but the king's as to whom he will marry. Before Laertes returns to France from Denmark, returning to Denmark only to attend the coronation of King Claudius, his father, Polonius, gives him advice to behave himself in France. During Laert ...
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List Of Famous Misquotations
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: People * List (surname) Organizations * List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America * SC Germania List, German rugby union club Other uses * Angle of list, the leaning to either port or starboard of a ship * List (information), an ordered collection of pieces of information ** List (abstract data type), a method to organize data in computer science * List on Sylt, previously called List, the northernmost village in Germany, on the island of Sylt * ''List'', an alternative term for ''roll'' in flight dynamics * To ''list'' a building, etc., in the UK it means to designate it a listed building that may not be altered without permission * Lists (jousting), the barriers used to designate the tournament area where medieval knights jousted * ''The Book of Lists'', an American series of books with unusual lists See also * The List (other) * Listing (d ...
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Nick Lowe
Nicholas Drain Lowe (born 24 March 1949) is an English singer-songwriter, musician and producer. A noted figure in power pop and new wave,Cruel to be kind of old
"The man originally known as one of the architects of the new wave sound of the '70s – having served as house producer for the legendary Stiff Records, as a pioneer of neo-power pop in his solo albums" New York Daily News 17 June 2007
Lowe has recorded a string of well-reviewed solo albums. Along with vocals, Lowe plays guitar, bass guitar, piano and harmonica. He is best known for the songs "



Cruel To Be Kind
"Cruel to Be Kind" is a song by Nick Lowe, co-written by Lowe and his former Brinsley Schwarz bandmate Ian Gomm. Written by Lowe and Gomm while the pair were in Brinsley Schwarz, the song was saved on a demo until Columbia Records convinced Lowe to release it. Musically, the song was inspired by "The Love I Lost" by Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, an influence reflected in more recent performances of the song. Released as a single in 1979, the song peaked at number 12 in Australia, Canada, the UK and US charts. In the US, where it is one of Lowe's most well-known works, it remains his only single to hit the top 40, whereas in the UK "I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass" remains his biggest hit having reached number 7 a year earlier. The song was accompanied by a music video featuring Lowe's marriage to Carlene Carter. Background "Cruel to Be Kind" was originally written by Nick Lowe and Ian Gomm while in Brinsley Schwarz, having been recorded as a demo during this period. Lowe ...
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Hoist With His Own Petard
"Hoist with his own petard" is a phrase from a speech in William Shakespeare's play ''Hamlet'' that has become proverbial. The phrase's meaning is that a bomb-maker is blown ("hoist") off the ground by his own bomb (a "petard" is a small explosive device), and indicates an ironic reversal, or poetic justice. Context The phrase occurs in ''Hamlet'' Act 3, Scene 4, as a part of one of Hamlet's speeches in the Closet Scene. Hamlet has been acting mad to throw off suspicion that he is aware that his uncle, Claudius, has murdered his father and married his mother, Queen Gertrude, in order to usurp the throne. In the Closet Scene, Polonius, at Claudius' behest, has hidden himself behind an arras in Gertrude's chambers to listen in as Gertrude scolds Hamlet for his mad antics, hoping to determine whether he is truly mad or merely pretending. On revealing his presence, Hamlet kills him thinking him to be Claudius. Hamlet then accuses Gertrude of complicity in his father's murder, bu ...
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The Lady Doth Protest Too Much, Methinks
"The lady doth protest too much, methinks" is a line from the play ''Hamlet'' by William Shakespeare. It is spoken by Queen Gertrude in response to the insincere overacting of a character in the play within a play created by Prince Hamlet to prove his uncle's guilt in the murder of his father, the King of Denmark. The phrase is used in everyday speech to indicate doubt of someone's sincerity, especially regarding the truth of a strong denial. A common misquotation places ''methinks'' first, as in "methinks the lady doth protest too much". In ''Hamlet'' The line, like most of Shakespeare's works, is in iambic pentameter. It is found in Act III, Scene II of ''Hamlet'', where it is spoken by Queen Gertrude, Hamlet's mother. Hamlet believes that his father, the king, was murdered by his uncle Claudius (who then married Gertrude). Hamlet decides to stage a play, the ''Murder of Gonzago'', that follows a similar sequence of events, in order to test whether viewing it will trigger a ...
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Speak The Speech
"Speak the speech" is a famous speech from Shakespeare's ''Hamlet'' (1601). In it, Hamlet offers directions and advice to a group of actors whom he has enlisted to play for the court of Denmark. The speech itself has played two important roles independent of the play. It has been analyzed as a historical document for clues about the nature of early modern acting practices and it has also been used as a contemporary guide to the performance of Shakespearean drama. While there is some justification for each of these approaches, they should be distinguished from other, far less valid assertions: on the one hand, that Hamlet expresses the opinions of Shakespeare on the art of acting in a straightforward and unproblematic way; on the other, that the speech offers a proto- Stanislavskian view of the art of acting. The first elides the difference between author and character, while the second ignores the historical specificity of the discourses and meanings attached to theatrical perform ...
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Mortal Coil
"Mortal coil" is a poetic term for the troubles of daily life and the strife and suffering of the world. It is used in the sense of a burden to be carried or abandoned. To "shuffle off this mortal coil" is to die, exemplified in the "To be, or not to be" soliloquy in Shakespeare's ''Hamlet''. Derivation Derived from 16th-century English, "coil" refers to tumults or troubles. Used idiomatically, the phrase means "the bustle and turmoil of this mortal life". "Coil" has an unusual etymological history. It was coined repeatedly; at various times people have used it as a verb to mean "to cull", "to thrash", "to lie in rings or spirals", "to turn", "to mound hay" and "to stir". As a noun it has meant "a selection", "a spiral", "the breech of a gun", "a mound of hay", "a pen for hens", and "noisy disturbance, fuss, ado".Oxford English Dictionary 1979 edition It is in this last sense, which became popular in the 16th century, that Shakespeare used the word. "Mortal coil"—along with "th ...
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