Death, a necessary end, will come when it will come
— Julius Caesar
William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. Born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, he built a career in London as an actor, writer and part-owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men.
His works include some 39 plays, 154 sonnets and 3 long narrative poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. He is often called England's national poet, or simply the Bard. Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and Macbeth are among his most quoted works in our library.
His works include some 39 plays, 154 sonnets and 3 long narrative poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. He is often called England's national poet, or simply the Bard. Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and Macbeth are among his most quoted works in our library.
This feather stirs; she lives! if it be so, it is a chance which does redeem all sorrows that ever I have felt.
— King Lear
But thoughts the slave of life, and life, Time’s fool, And Time, that takes survey of all the world, Must have a stop.
— King Henry IV, Part 1
Under the greenwood tree, Who loves to lie with meAnd tune his merry note, Unto the sweet bird's throat; Come hither, come hither, come hither. Here shall he see / No enemy / But winter and rough weather.
— As You Like It
All days are nights to see till I see thee, And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me.
— Shakespeare's Sonnets
I take thee at thy word: Call me but love, and I'll be new baptized; Henceforth I never will be Romeo.
— Romeo and Juliet
To be a well-favoured man is the gift of fortune but to write and read comes by nature.
— Much Ado About Nothing
We, ignorant of ourselves, Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers / Deny us for our good; so find we profit / By losing of our prayers.
— Antony and Cleopatra
Modest doubt is call'd the beacon of the wise.
— Troilus and Cressida
Come on then, I will swear to study so / To know the thing I am forbid to know- Berowne
— Love's Labour's Lost
O teach me how I should forget to think
— Romeo and Juliet
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly.
— As You Like It
Master, go on, and I will follow thee / To the last gasp with truth and loyalty.
— As You Like It
Glendower: I can call the spirits from the vasty deep. Hotspur: Why, so can I, or so can any man; But will they come, when you do call for them?
— King Henry IV, Part 1
In time we hate that which we often fear.
— Antony and Cleopatra
Tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus. Our bodies are our gardens to the which our wills are gardeners.
— Othello
— Julius Caesar
O hell! to choose love by another's eye.
— A Midsummer Night's Dream
MARCUS ANDRONICUS: Now is a time to storm; why art thou still?TITUS ANDRONICUS: Ha, ha, ha!MARCUS ANDRONICUS: Why dost thou laugh? it fits not with this hour.TITUS ANDRONICUS: Why, I have not another tear to shed:
— Titus Andronicus
There is thy gold, worse poison to men's souls, Doing more murder in this loathsome world, Than these poor compounds that thou mayst not sell.
— Romeo and Juliet
As I am an honest man, I thought you had received some bodily wound. There is more sense in that than in reputation. Reputation is an idle and most false imposition, oft got without merit and lost without deserving.
— Othello
My brain I'll prove the female to my soul; my soul the father: and these two beget a generation of still-breeding thoughts, and these same thoughts people this little world.
— Richard II
Have not we affections and desires for sport, and frailty, as men have?
— Othello
Refrain to-night; And that shall lend a kind of easiness / To the next abstinence, the next more easy; For use almost can change the stamp of nature, And either master the devil or throw him out / With wondrous potency.
— Hamlet