整理为自用，所以比较随性，有一些只注明出处，有一些补充了语境，有一些摘录了整段，还有一些补充了在现代生活中的使用，全部都是按自己的需要做的笔记，所以别人看起来或许也有些乱。豆瓣没法编辑格式所以显示不太好，不过想着自己用不如拿出来分享一下，万一有同好恰好也感兴趣的呢。
1. Cruel to be kind
Hamlet I do repent; but heaven hath pleas'd it so
To punish me with this, and this with me,
That I must be their scourge and minister.
I will bestow him, and will answer well
The death I gave him. So again good night.
I must be cruel only to be kind.
Thus bad begins and worse remains behind.
(Hamlet Act 3, scene 4)
NOTE: He (Hamlet) must be cruel to his mother, he explains, only to be kind to her—to save her from lapsing any further into sensuality and betrayal of her dead husband.
2. If truth were known
ANTIGONUS ［Aside］
To laughter, as I take it,
If the good truth were known.
(Winter's Tale Act 2, Scene 1)
3. Love is blind
Appears in several plays including Two Gentlemen of Verona, Henry Vand this example from The Merchant Of Venice. But was first found in Chaucer's Merchant's Tale.
4. Seen better days
Not Shakespeare's creation. But he did like the phrase and used it in several plays like Timon of Athens and As You Like It.
ORIGIN: When it was first coined this phrase referred to people who had fallen on hard times, having previously been wealthy. More recently, the phrase is more often used to describe objects which are worn-out than people who are impoverished.
EXAMPLE: My car has seen better days, but at least it's still running.
5. Salad days
CLEOPATRA: My salad days,
When I was green in judgment: cold in blood,
To say as I said then! But, come, away;
Get me ink and paper:
He shall have every day a several greeting,
Or I'll unpeople Egypt.
(Antony and Cleopatra Act 1, Scene 5)
6. All the world's a stage
JAQUES All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
(As You Like It Act 2, Scene 7)
7. The quality of mercy is not strained
PORTIA 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:
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
(Merchant of Venice Act 4, Scene 1)
ORIGIN: This phrase is taken from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. It occurs where Portia demands Shylock of being merciful, stating that “The quality of mercy is not strain’d, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven/Upon the place beneath” (Act-IV, Scene-I). In this way, she directly makes an appeal to Shylock to leave Antonio’s life saying that as we all pray and plead to God for mercy for being merciful and kind towards us, likewise he should be merciful and kind to him, and he will get reward from the heaven.
USAGE: Generally, we find the use of this quote by someone who means to insult or show offensiveness against someone that seems recalcitrant, stubborn and uninterested in social conventions and humanitarianism. Today this phrase has a little different meaning. In usual context, it is used to refute the claim of people to have acted generously or mercifully by telling them that actually they are short of choices other than to do what they have done. Hence, it is like an insult for those demonstrating mercy.
EXAMPLE: - Well, I gave two thousand pounds to charity last year. - Only because your accountant told you to pay it to avoid surtax. TQOMINS.
8. Such stuff as dreams are made on
Prospero We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
(The Tempest Act 4, Scene 1)
9. Off with his head
Appears many times in Shakespeare's plays like All's Well That Ends Well and Henry VI Part III.
MEANING:Literal meaning. That is, 'chop off his head'. It is now usually used humorously as a means of mildly reproaching someone.
10. This is the short and the long of it
From The Merry Wives of Windsor Act 2, Scene 2.
11. Brevity is the soul of wit
LORD POLONIUS This business is well ended.
My liege, and madam, to expostulate
What majesty should be, what duty is,
Why day is day, night night, and time is time,
Were nothing but to waste night, day and time.
Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
I will be brief: your noble son is mad:
Mad call I it; for, to define true madness,
What is't but to be nothing else but mad?
But let that go.
(Hamlet Act 2, Scene 2)
12. As good luck would have it
FALSTAFF You shall hear. As good luck would have it, comes in one Mistress Page; gives intelligence of Ford's approach; and, in her invention and Ford's wife's distraction, they conveyed me into a buck-basket.
(The Merry Wives of Windsor Act 3 Scene 5)
NOTE: The expression is now usually shortened to simply 'as luck would have it'.
13. Green-eyed monster
First appears in The Merchant of Venice in the form of "green-eyed jealousy". Then in Othello:
IAGO O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;
It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock
The meat it feeds on; that cuckold lives in bliss
Who, certain of his fate, loves not his wronger;
But, O, what damned minutes tells he o'er
Who dotes, yet doubts, suspects, yet strongly loves!
(Othello Act 3, Scene 3)
14. Stand on ceremony
[url=http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2015/02/expression-stand-ceremony-comes/]The detailed origin here.[/url]
Calpurnia Caesar, I never stood on ceremonies,
Yet now they fright me.
(Julius Caesar Act 2, Scene 2)
BONUS: “Let’s not stand on ceremony, here, Mr. Wayne.” (Bane, The Dark Knight Rises)
15. The Queen's English
ORIGIN: Shakespeare used the phrase in The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1600, but it was in common use before that. 'The King's English' is used when the United Kingdom has a king.
16. It's Greek to me
Probably not Shakespeare's own creation.
From Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.
BONUS: double Dutch (to English people)
17. Meat and drink to me
"It is meat and drinke to me to see a Clowne."
(As You Like It Act 5, Scene 1)
Also appears in Merry Wives of Windsor.
18. Infinite variety
DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS Never; he will not:
Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety: other women cloy
The appetites they feed: but she makes hungry
Where most she satisfies; for vilest things
Become themselves in her: that the holy priests
Bless her when she is riggish.
(Antony and Cleopatra Act 2, Scene 2)
19. Wild goose chase
Romeo: Switch and spurs, switch and spurs; or I'll cry a match.
Mercutio: Nay, if thy wits run the wild-goose chase, I have done, for thou hast more of the wild-goose in one of thy wits than, I am sure, I have in my whole five.
(Romeo and Juliet Act 2, Scene 4)
20. Too much of a good thing
ROSALIND: Why then, can one desire too much of a good thing?
Come, sister, you shall be the priest and marry us.
Give me your hand, Orlando. What do you say, sister?
(As You Like It Act 4, Scene 1)
MEANING: Excess may do you harm.
21. If music be the food of love, play on
DUKE ORSINO If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
That strain again! it had a dying fall:
O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound,
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour! Enough; no more:
'Tis not so sweet now as it was before.
O spirit of love! how quick and fresh art thou,
That, notwithstanding thy capacity
Receiveth as the sea, nought enters there,
Of what validity and pitch soe'er,
But falls into abatement and low price,
Even in a minute: so full of shapes is fancy
That it alone is high fantastical.
(Twelfth Night Act 1, Scene 1)
22. Et tu, Brute
Caesar: Doth not Brutus bootless kneel?
Casca: Speak, hands, for me! ［They stab Caesar.］
Caesar: Et tu, Brute? Then fall, Caesar! ［Dies.］
Cinna: Liberty! Freedom! Tyranny is dead!
(Julius Caesar Act 3, Scene 1)
USAGE: In today’s world, the phrase is extensively used to express one’s bewilderment when he is threatened or exploited by one of his close friends. The phrase is common to be heard in offices where seniors use this phrase in reply to the criticism of juniors. Parents can use this when their favorite child lets them down. Similarly, there are number of occasions where one can use this phrase to express that he was not expecting someone to do something.
23. Forever and a day
From The Taming of the Shrew.
24. Good riddance
From Troilus and Cressida.
MEANING: An expression of pleasure on being rid of some annoyance - usually an individual.
The phrase is often extended and emphasized as 'good riddance to bad rubbish' or, as that extended form was first coined, 'good riddance of bad rubbish'. Tobias Smollett used the phrase in a none too friendly comment, in The Critical Review, 1805:
But we are sorry ... to consider Mr. Pratt's writings as 'purely evil' ... we should really look upon this author's departure from the world of literature as a good riddance of bad rubbish.
25. Fair play
MIRANDA: Yes, for a score of kingdoms you should wrangle,
And I would call it, fair play.
(The Tempest Act 5, Scene 1)
26. As pure as the driven snow
'Driven snow' is snow that has blown into drifts and is untrodded and clean.
The complete phrase 'as pure as the driven snow' doesn't appear in Shakespeare's writing, but it almost does, and he used snow as a symbol for purity and whiteness in several plays, like The Winter's Tale and Macbeth.
27. High time
From Comedy of Errors.
28. Lie low
ANTONIO: If he could right himself with quarreling,
Some of us would lie low.
(Much Ado About Nothing Act 5, Scene 1)
29. Wherefore art thou Romeo
JULIET: O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name;
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I'll no longer be a Capulet.
(Romeo and Juliet Act 2, Scene 2)
USAGE: The purpose of this phrase is to criticize procedures that involve unnecessary complication.In general terms, people use it to criticize excessive terms and conditions for doing something (like getting loans or insurance papers signed). We find its usage in various areas of life like when courts, visa offices or government institutions reject someone’s case over documental flaws; the victims often utter the same phrase. Besides that, lovers use this when they anticipate their eventual failure in love.
BONUS: The word "Romeo" can be altered. As in one news title I've found, "Wherefore art thou climate change". So the half-quote is used to imply that the author is going to explain something that is not so pleasant, I guess.
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