# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
patrons theatre shakespeare england shakespeare's queen elizabeth bad manners daily life london

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
shakespeare education in elizabethan london

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Exploring Shakespeare's relationship with Queen Elizabeth.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
There are two competing ideas about Shakespeare's language that most of us will encounter. The first is that it is too hard to fully understand. The second is that it is so magnificent and meaningful that it has shaped the way we speak and even think.

The first argument isn't solely the complaint of listless school students, struggling through a syllabus of forsooths, ay marry is'ts, prithees and what means my lords? while itching for the wordless clarity of Snapchat.

Many people still confuse Juliet's "Wherefore art thou Romeo?" with a request for his location rather than a rhetorical inquiry into why he is so called. (Many more think that this takes place on a balcony; it does not.) Clarity and poetry, though, hardly ever go together hand in glove, and the migratory habits of language and meaning, over four centuries, have further obscured much of Shakespeare's voluminous wordplay.

So how much are we missing, and what would be a good return for our attention anyway? The totality or the gist?

Take a very familiar speech, such as Macbeth's early tormented meditation on murdering his sovereign, and see how its words mingle the accessible with the faintly alien:

If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well
It was done quickly; if th'assassination
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch
With his surcease success: that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all, here,
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,
We'd jump the life to come.

If your attention snags on the image of trammelling up consequences, or the sibilant grammatical flip of success brought by Duncan's surcease, the meaning of the line is brought home with the unimprovable pith of "the be-all and end-all", a phrase most of us will reach for at one time or another, even outside the occasion of a regicide.

But what does it mean that "bank and shoal" appear in the folio version as "Schoole", so the image has moved from a classroom to an island, or that "jump" here actually doubles for "risk"? Macbeth is heeding the lessons of damnation. He then moves on to consider his "poisoned chalice", now a reassuring cliche that faces every would-be usurper and incoming football manager.

There has been recent renewed energy towards "translating" Shakespeare into "modern English" - and understandable outcry against it. The Oregon Shakespeare Festival has commissioned 39 adaptations, and many theatres have undertaken to stage them. Earlier this year the artistic director of Shakespeare's Globe theatre, Emma Rice, was sanguine about rewording "the difficult bits" of Shakespeare as "pretty general practice". You too, Brutus?

But comprehension of Shakespeare, like comprehension of Sophocles, Joyce or Plath, need not be absolute to be worthwhile. In performance in particular it falls to each production to convey the sense through a rigorous understanding of the text. That's where you will still hear the first instance of all our curlicues of everyday speech: the dogs of war and method in madness; the wild-goose chases and salad days.

Even to "break the ice" and "catch a cold" were the innovations of a master stylist, so much a part of us that they seem like phrases without origin, something we have always known. What could the world have been before it was your oyster?

It's hard to separate Shakespeare's restless imagination from his hunger for inventive expression. He had an inordinately large vocabulary (close to 70,000 words), he coined many of them (about 3,000), and he was slow to repeat himself (31,534 unique mentions). Even Bernard Levin's famous Quoting Shakespeare, from 1983, can't be exhaustive: "If you have ever refused to budge an inch or suffered from green-eyed jealousy, if you have played fast and loose, if you have been tongue-tied, a tower of strength, hoodwinked or in a pickle, if you have knitted your brows, made a virtue of necessity, insisted on fair play, slept not one wink, stood on ceremony, danced attendance (on your lord and master), laughed yourself into stitches, had short shrift, cold comfort or too much of a good thing, if you have seen better days or lived in a fool's paradise - why, be that as it may, the more fool you, for it is a foregone conclusion that you are (as good luck would have it) quoting Shakespeare."

That sort of permanent presence in our vernacular, flowing as invisibly and usefully as fluoride through the water supply, is hard to explain away as simply a matter of custom or canon. Shakespeare put words to our most casual and critical situations. He minted the language to address inconceivable dilemmas, found a shape for our deepest woes and fullest joys, began the cliches that bail us out during small talk, found the choicest ways to woo or wound.

"Words, words, words," says the prince when asked what he is reading. Shakespeare said it best.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Hoodwinked, tongue-tied, fair play: Everyday phrases Shakespeare gave us

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
There are two competing ideas about Shakespeare's language that most of us will encounter. The first is that it is too hard to fully understand. The second is that it is so magnificent and meaningful that it has shaped the way we speak and even think.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
NOTE: This list (including some of the errors I originally made) is found in several other places online. That's fine, but I've asked that folks who want this on their own sites mention that I am the original compiler.

For many English-speakers, the following phrases are familiar enough to be considered common expressions, proverbs, and/or clichés. All of them originated with or were popularized by Shakespeare.

I compiled these from multiple sources online in 2003. Each of these words and compounds supposedly is not known to have appeared in print prior to the publication of Shakespeare's works. For this reason, people claim that Shakespeare invented these words.

How many of these are true coinages by "the Bard", and how many are simply the earliest written attestations of a word or words already in use, I can't tell you. The ones that seem real are new forms of words already in the language. Words like "advertising", "assassination", "bedazzled", "consanguineous", "dishearten", "enmesh", "eventful", "eyesore", "lackluster", "moonbeam", outbreak", "quarrelsome", "radiance", "reclusive", "seamy-side", "stealthy", "submerge", "time-honored", "undervalued", "unmitigated", "unreal", "well-read", "watchdog", and "whirligig" would have been meaningful to the audience.

A few words are first attested in Shakespeare and seem to have caused extra problems for the typesetters. This suggests they are really coined by Shakespeare. One example is "denote".

The popular book Coined by Shakespeare acknowledges that it is presenting first attestations rather than certain inventions. For example, "alligator" appeared for the first time in print as an English word in "Romeo and Juliet", but it has Spanish antecedents, and only the terminal "-r" seems to be new with Shakespeare. "Puke" appears as a vulgar term for vomiting in the near-contemporary "Duchess of Malfi", and it seems well-known; so Shakespeare's use in "As You Like It" seems more likely just a first attestation. The region of Dalmatia is as old as the Roman Empire, and obviously Shakespeare did not coin the adjectival form.

Words like "anchovy", "bandit", and "zany" are just first attestations of loan-words. By contrast, in "Troilus and Cressida", Shakespeare seems to have been having fun introducing new forms of old words, even though "orgulous" and "deracinate" never did catch on.

Right now I'm in the process of referencing these. I would like to hear from anyone who knows for certain about any item on this page.

I stand corrected; one of my sources misattributed "fool's paradise" to Romeo and Juliet though it appears in Tyndale's Bible and probably earlier.

abstemious (The Tempest -- a Latin word that meant "to abstain from alcoholic drink" was generalized to sexual behavior as well)

academe (Love's Labour's Lost; this is just an English form of "Academy", the Greek for Plato's grove)

accommodation (Othello)

accused (n.) (Richard II -- first known use as a noun, meaning person accused of a crime)

addiction (Henry V / Othello)

admirable (several; seems unlikely)

advertising (adj.)(Measure for Measure; in context, means "being attentive"; the noun was already in use)

aerial (Othello)

alligator (Romeo and Juliet; Spanish "aligarto" was already in use in English)

amazement (13 instances; first known use as a noun)

anchovy (I Henry IV; first attestation in English of the Spanish word for dried edible fish)

apostrophe ("apostrophas")(Love's Labour's Lost; seems to be a well-known word already)

arch-villain (Measure for Measure / Timon of Athens)

to arouse (2 Henry VI / Hamlet; "rouse" was the usual form)

assassination (Macbeth; "assassin" was already in use and derives from "hashish eater")

auspicious (several; "auspice" was a Roman practice of fortune-telling by bird flight)

bachelorship (I Henry VI)

backing (I Henry VI; this is just a pun on a known word)

bandit (II Henry VI, actually "bandetto", the first attestation in English of a familiar Italian word for people "banned", i.e., outlaws)

barefaced (in the sense of "barefaced power") (Macbeth)

baseless (in the sense of fantasy without grounding in fact) (The Tempest)

beached (several, merely means "possessing a beach")

bedazzled (The Taming of the Shrew)

bedroom (A Midsummer Night's Dream, merely means a place to sleep on the ground)

belongings (Measure for Measure)

to besmirch (Henry V)

birthplace (Coriolanus; first attestation)

to blanket (King Lear; first use as a verb)

bloodstained (I Henry IV)

blusterer (A Lover's Complaint)

bold-faced (I Henry VI)

bottled (Richard III)

bump (Romeo and Juliet; first attestation of onomopoeic word)

buzzer (Hamlet; means gossipper)

to cake (Timon of Athens, first attestation as a verb)

to castigate (Timon of Athens)

to cater (As You Like It; from coetous, a buyer of provisions)

clangor (3 Henry VI / 2 Henry IV)

to champion (Macbeth; first attestation as a verb, and in an older sense of "to challenge"; though the noun was familiar as someone who would fight for another)

circumstantial (As You Like It / Cymbeline; first attestation in the sense of "indirect")

cold-blooded (King John; first use to mean "lack of emotion")

coldhearted (Antony and Cleopatra)

compact (several; seems to have been a common word)

to comply (Othello)

to compromise (The Merchant of Venice, several of the histories; seems to have been already in use)

to cow (Macbeth; first use in English of a Scandinavian verb)

consanguineous (Twelfth Night; "consanguinity" was already in use)

control (n.) (Twelfth Night)

countless (Titus Andronicus / Pericles)

courtship (several, seems unikely)

critic (Love's Labour's Lost; Latin term)

critical (not in today's sense) (Othello, A Midsummer Night's Dream)

cruelhearted (The Two Gentlemen of Verona)

Dalmatians (Cymbeline)

dauntless (Macbeth)

dawn (I Henry IV, King John; first use as a noun, the standard had been "dawning")

day's work (several, must have been a common expression)

deafening (II Henry IV; in the sense of a noise that is loud but does not produce real deafness)

to denote (several; already a word in Latin)

depository (???)

discontent (Richard III / Titus Andronicus; the verb was in use but this is the first attestation as a noun)

design (several, seems unlikely)

dexterously (Twelfth Night)

dialogue (several, seems already familiar)

disgraceful (I Henry VI; means "not graceful")

dishearten (Henry V)

to dislocate (King Lear, refers to anatomy)

distasteful (Timon of Athens)

distracted (Hamlet / Measure for Measure; seems possible)

divest (Henry V / King Lear; probably already in use as referring to a royal title)

domineering (Love's Labour's Lost; from a Dutch word)

downstairs (I Henry IV, supposedly first use as an adjective)

droplet (Timon of Athens)

to drug (Macbeth; first use as a verb)

to dwindle (I Henry IV / Macbeth, seems already familiar as a term for body wasting)

to educate (Love's Labour's Lost)

to elbow (King Lear; first use as a verb)

embrace (I Henry VI; first use as a noun)

employer (Much Ado about Nothing)

employment (several, obviously familiar)

engagement (several, seems simply the first attestation)

to enmesh (Othello)

to ensnare (Othello)

enrapt (Troilus and Cressida)

enthroned (Antony and Cleopatra)

epileptic (King Lear; first use as an adjective, though the noun was old)

equivocal (Othello / All's Well that Ends Well; first use as adjective, though the verb "to equivocate" was familiar)

eventful (As You Like It)

excitement (Hamlet / Troilus and Cressida; both times as plural; first use as a noun)

expedience (several, supposedly first use as noun)

exposure (several, supposedly first use as noun)

eyeball (The Tempest)

eyedrops (II Henry IV; means "tears")

eyesore (The Taming of the Shrew)

fanged (Hamlet, first attestation)

farmhouse (The Merry Wives of Windsor; first known use of the compound)

far-off (several, seems already familiar)

fashionable (Timon of Athens / Troilus and Cressida)

fathomless (not today's sense) (Troilus and Cressida)

fitful (Macbeth)

fixture (not current sense) (Merry Wives of Windsor / Winter's Tale)

flawed (King Lear; first use as an adjective)

flowery (A Midsummer Night's Dream)

foppish (King Lear)

fortune-teller (The Comedy of Errors)

to forward (I Henry IV; first use as a verb)

foul-mouthed (several, seems already familiar)

freezing (Cymbeline)

frugal (several; "frugality" was already in common use)

full-grown (Pericles)

gallantry (Troilus and Cressida)

generous (several, obviously already known)

gloomy (several, "to gloom" was a verb)

glow (several; the word had originally meant red-and-warm)

gnarled (Measure for Measure; alteration of knurled which was a standard word for bumpy)

go-between (several, seems familiar)

to gossip (The Comedy of Errors; first use as a verb; "gossip" was one's familiar friends)

gust (III Henry VI, seems already familiar and was an Old Norse word)

half-blooded (King Lear)

hint (Othello, first use in today's sense)

hob-nails (I Henry IV, alleged; seems already familiar)

hobnob (Twelfth Night; older term was "hab, nab", and not in today's sense)

homely (several, seems already familiar)

honey-tongued (Love's Labour's Lost)

hoodwinked (already known from falconry)

hostile (several, seems like a word that is already familiar)

hot-blooded (The Merry Wives of Windsor / King Lear)

housekeeping (The Taming of the Shrew; seems unlikely)

howl (several, clearly familiar)

to humor (Love's Labour's Lost, first attestation as a verb)

hunchbacked (can't find)

to hurry (Comedy of Errors, first attestation as verb)

ill-tempered (can't find)

immediacy (King Lear, first use as noun)

impartial (2 Henry IV)

to impede (Macbeth, first use as verb, though "impediment" was already widely used)

import (several, and not used in the modern sense)

immediacy (King Lear, first attestation as a noun)

importantly (Cymbeline, first attestation as an adverb)

inaudible (All's Well that Ends Well; "audible" was already in use)

inauspicious (Romeo and Juliet)

indistinguishable (not in today's sense)(Troilus and Cressida)

inducement (several, seems unlikely)

investment (II Henry IV, not in present sense)

invitation (The Merry Wives of Windsor; signifies "flirting")

invulnerable King John / Hamlet / The Tempest; first attestation for the negative; Coriolanus has unvulnerable)

jaded (several, seems already a term of contempt)

Judgement Day (I Henry VI; usual term had been "Day of Judgement")

juiced (Merry Wives of Windsor; first attestation as an adjective)

kissing (several, first attestation of the participle, though surely not its first use)

lackluster (As You Like It)

ladybird (Romeo and Juliet)

to lament (several, seems already familiare)

to lapse (several, first attestation as a verb, though already familiar as a noun)

to launder (first use as a verb; "laundress" was in common use)

laughable (The Merchant of Venice)

leaky (Antony and Cleopatra / The Tempest)

leapfrog (Henry V; first attestation but seems unlikely as a coinage)

lonely (several, seems unlikely)

long-legged (can't find)

love letter (can't find)

to lower (several, seems already known)

luggage (first use as noun)

lustrous (Twelfth Night / All's Well that Ends Well)

madcap (several, attestation as adjective; the noun had become popular just before)

majestic (several, first use as adjective)

majestically (I Henry IV; first attestation as adverb)

malignancy (Twelfth Night, seems possible)

manager (Love's Labour's Lost / Midsummer Night's Dream; first attestation as noun)

marketable (As You Like It; first use as adjective)

militarist (All's Well that Ends Well)

mimic (Midsummer Night's Dream)

misgiving (Julius Caesar; first use as noun, though "to misgive" was in common use)

misplaced (several, seems unlikely)

to misquote (1 Henry IV; not in the present sense)

money's worth (Love's Labours Lost)

monumental (several, seems unlikely)

moonbeam (A Midsummer Night's Dream)

mortifying (Merchant of Venice / Much Ado About Nothing)

motionless (Henry V)

mountaineer (Cymbeline; the sense is "hillbilly")

multitudinous (Macbeth)

neglect (several, obviously already known)

to negotiate (Much Ado about Nothing / Twelfth Night; verb from the Latin)

new-fallen (Venus and Adonis / I Henry IV)

new-fangled (Love's Labour's Lost / As You Like It)

nimble-footed (several, seems already a familiar expression)

noiseless (King Lear / All's Well that Ends Well)

to numb (King Lear, first attestation as a transitive verb)

obscene (several; straight from Latin)

obsequiously (first use of the adverb; comes from "obsequies", or funeral rites)

outbreak (Hamlet, first attestation as a noun)

to outdare (I Henry IV)

to outgrow (can't find)

to outweigh (can't find)

over-cool (II Henry IV)

overgrowth (can't find)

over-ripened (II Henry VI ;first-use of the familiar compound)

over-weathered The Merchant of Venice)

overview (can't find)

pageantry (Pericles Prince of Tyre)

pale-faced (A Midsummer Night's Dream)

to pander (several; was already a proverb)

pedant (several, seems already in common use for a stuffy teacher)

perplex (King John / Cymbeline)

perusal (Sonnets / Hamlet; first use as a noun)

to petition (Antony and Cleopatra / Coriolanus; first use as a verb)

pious (several, seems very unlikely)

posture (several, seems known)

premeditated (several; first attestation of the adjective, though the noun was in use)

priceless (???)

Promethean (Othello / Love's Labour's Lost)

protester (not today's sense) (Julius Caesar)

published (2 Henry VI)

puking (As You Like It)

puppy-dog (King John / Henry V)

on purpose (several; seems very unlikely)

quarrelsome (As You Like It / Taming of the Shrew)

questing (As You Like It; first use of the gerund)

in question (several, seems already in use)

radiance (several; first use as noun)

to rant (The Merry Wives of Windsor / Hamlet; loan-word from Dutch or previously-unattested English word?)

rancorous (2 Henry VI, Comedy of Errors, Richard III, all early plays, seems unlikely)

raw-boned (I Henry VI)

reclusive (Much Ado about Nothing; first use as adjective)

reinforcement (Troilus and Cressida / Coriolanus; seems already in use)

reliance (???)

remorseless (several, first attestation of this form)

reprieve (several, obviously already in use)

resolve (several, obviously already in use)

restoration (King Lear)

restraint (several, seems already familiar)

retirement (II Henry IV; refers to military retreat; first use as noun)

revolting (several, obviously already familiar)

to rival (King Lear; first attestation as verb; noun was well-known)

rival (Midsummer Night's Dream; first attestation as adjective, noun was well-known)

roadway (II Henry IV; first attestation of the compound)

rumination (As You Like It; first use as noun)

sacrificial (Timon of Athens; not today's usage)

sanctimonious (Measure for Measure / Tempest)

satisfying (Othello / Cymbeline)

savage (several; the word was obviously already in use)

savagery (King John / Henry V; first use as this form)

schoolboy (Julius Caesar / Much Ado about Nothing)

scrubbed (The Merchant of Venice)

scuffle (Antony and Cleopatra; first use as noun, though the verb was familiar)

seamy-side (Othello)

to secure (II Henry VI; first use as a verb; the adjective was well-known)

shipwrecked (Pericles Prince of Tyre, seems unlikely)

shooting star (Richard II; first known use of the phrase)

shudder (Timon of Athens; first use as a noun; verb already well-known)

silk (alleged; obviously not Shakespeare's)

stocking (obviously not Shakespeare's)

silliness (Othello)

skim milk (I Henry IV; first use of the familiar term)

to sneak (Measure for Measure; supposed first use of the verb)

soft-hearted (2 Henry VI / 3 Henry VI; first use of the familiar phrase)

spectacled (Coriolanus; not in today's sense)

splitting (II Henry VI; first use as adjective)

sportive (Richard III / Comedy of Errors / All's Well that Ends Well; supposed first use)

to squabble (Othello; supposed first use, as with "to swagger")

stealthy (Macbeth; first use as adjective)

stillborn (can't find, obviously not Shakespeare's)

to submerge (Antony and Cleopatra)

successful (Titus Andronicus, seems dubious)

suffocating (Othello; supposed first use as a descriptor)

to sully (I Henry VI)

superscript (Love's Labour's Lost)

to supervise (Love's Labour's Lost; also Hamlet but not in today's sense)

to swagger (II Henry IV, others; in context this seems to be already a well-known word)

switch (first use to mean "twig")

tardily (All's Well that Ends Well; first use of adverb)

tardiness (King Lear; "tardy" as adjective was well-known)

threateningly (All's Well that Ends Well; first use of the adverb)

tightly (The Merry Wives of Windsor; first use as an adverb)

time-honored (Richard II)

title page (can't find; seems unlikely)

to torture (several; first use as a verb)

traditional (Richard III; first use as adjective)

tranquil (Othello; "tranquility" was an old word)

transcendence (All's Well that Ends Well; first attestation of the noun)

tongue-tied (III Henry VI / Julius Caesar / Troilus and Cressida; seems first attestation of a phrase already in use)

unaccommodated (King Lear)

unaware (Venus and Adonis; first use as an adverb; the adjective was not yet in use)

to unclog (Coriolanus, first use as a negative)

unappeased (Titus Andronicus)

unchanging (The Merchant of Venice)

unclaimed (As You Like It; not in today's sense)

uncomfortable (Romeo and Juliet)

to uncurl (???)

to undervalue (The Merchant of Venice)

to undress (The Taming of the Shrew; seems unlikely)

unearthly (Winter's Tale)

uneducated (Love's Labour's Lost, seems possible)

ungoverned (Richard III / King Lear)

to unhand (Hamlet)

unmitigated (Much Ado about Nothing)

unpublished (King Lear; in the sense of "still unknown")

unreal (Macbeth, first use of the negative)

unsolicited (Titus Andronicus / Henry VIII; supposed first use of the form)

unswayed (Richard III; not in today's sense, but "is the sword unswung?")

unwillingness (Richard III / Richard II)

upstairs (I Henry IV; supposedly first use as an adjective)

urging (Richard III / Comedy of Errors; first attestation as a noun

useful (several, seems already familiar)

varied (Love's Labour's Lost, others)

vastly (Rape of Lucrece, not present sense)

viewless (Measure for Measure; means "invisible")

vulnerable (Macbeth; used in today's sense)

watchdog (The Tempest; first use of the phrase)

well-behaved (The Merry Wives of Windsor; first known use of the compound)

well-bred (II Henry IV; first use of the familiar compound)

well-read (I Henry IV)

whirligig (Twelfth Night)

to widen (???)

widowed (Sonnet 97 / Coriolanus; first use as an adjective)

worn out (Romeo and Juliet / 2 Henry IV; seems unlikely)

worthless (III Henry VI, several others; seems just a first attestation)

yelping (I Henry VI; first attestation of this adjectival form)

zany (Love's Labour Lost; simply a loan-word from Italian commedia dell'arte)

Click here for some words which Shakespeare evidently coined but which did NOT pass into common use. They include "affined", "to articulate" (in the sense of "to negotiate"), "attasked", "cadent" (in the sense of "dripping"), "to beetle", "bubukles", "co-marts", "co-mates", "congreeing", "conspectuities", "crants" (a borrowing for "flower crowns"), "credent", "dispunge", "enactures", "to force" (meaning "to reinforce"), "fracted", "to friend" (thanks to social media, now a mainstream word again! -- there ar earlier attestations), "germins", "immediacy" (meaning immediate authority from), "immoment", "impair" (adjective for impure), "incarnadine", "incorpsed" (incorporated), "indigest" (disordered), "intrenchant" (incapable of being cut), "irregulous", "jointing", "mered", "mirable", "mistempered", "operant", "oppugnancy", "palmy", "out-crafted", "out-villained", "out-tongued", "plantage", "primogenitive", "primy", "propugnation", "relume", "reprobance", "rigol", "rooky", "roted", "rubious", "smilets", "to stell", "stellèd", "supplyment", "unsisting", and "virgined" (held securely).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
NOTE: This list (including some of the errors I originally made) is found in several other places online. That's fine, but I've asked that folks who want this on their own sites mention that I am the original compiler. For many English-speakers, the following phrases are familiar enough to be considered common expressions, proverbs, and/or clichés.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
April 23rd is generally considered to be a good day to celebrate the birth of England's greatest poet and playwright, William Shakespeare. This is partly because there are no records of his birth-although he was baptized on April 26-and partly because he died on April 23 (and April 23 is St. George's day, patron saint of England), so there is a pleasing, almost poetic symmetry about the way the dates line up.

Today is the 450th anniversary of the day Shakespeare was (possibly) born, and in tribute to his astonishing contribution to the English language, it's time to for a challenge. One that will suit all comers, faint-hearted (1) or not.

Below there are 45 common expressions that were either coined by Shakespeare or popularized by him (at this vertiginous historical remove, it's hard to be certain what was created and what was pinched from his immediate surroundings). All you have to do, if you truly love the Bard, is work just five of them into your everyday conversations throughout this live-long day (2).

That's all, just five and then you'll be fancy free (3). And because brevity is the soul of wit (4), we've stuck to the short ones.

The game is afoot (5! See? Easy.):

"All our yesterdays"- ( Macbeth)

"As good luck would have it" - ( The Merry Wives of Windsor)

"As merry as the day is long" - ( Much Ado About Nothing / King John)

"Bated breath" - ( The Merchant of Venice)

"Be-all and the end-all" - ( Macbeth)

"Neither a borrower nor a lender be" - ( Hamlet)

"Brave new world" - ( The Tempest)

"Break the ice" - ( The Taming of the Shrew)

"Brevity is the soul of wit" - ( Hamlet)

"Refuse to budge an inch" - ( Measure for Measure / The Taming of the Shrew)

"Cold comfort" - ( The Taming of the Shrew / King John)

"Conscience does make cowards of us all" - ( Hamlet)

"Crack of doom" - ( Macbeth)

"Dead as a doornail" - ( Henry VI Part II)

"A dish fit for the gods" - ( Julius Caesar)

"Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war" - ( Julius Caesar)

"Devil incarnate" - ( Titus Andronicus / Henry V)

"Eaten me out of house and home" - ( Henry IV Part II)

"Faint hearted" - ( Henry VI Part I)

"Fancy-free" - ( A Midsummer Night's Dream)

"Forever and a day" - ( As You Like It)

"For goodness' sake" - ( Henry VIII)

"Foregone conclusion" - ( Othello)

"Full circle" - ( King Lear)

"The game is afoot" - ( Henry IV Part I)

"Give the devil his due" - ( Henry IV Part I)

"Good riddance" - ( Troilus and Cressida)

"Jealousy is the green-eyed monster" - ( Othello)

"Heart of gold" - ( Henry V)

"Hoist with his own petard" - ( Hamlet)

"Ill wind which blows no man to good" - ( Henry IV Part II)

"In my heart of hearts" - ( Hamlet)

"In my mind's eye" - ( Hamlet)

"Kill with kindness" - ( The Taming of the Shrew)

"Knock knock! Who's there?" - ( Macbeth)

"Laughing stock" - ( The Merry Wives of Windsor)

"Live long day" - ( Julius Caesar)

"Love is blind" - ( The Merchant of Venice)

"Milk of human kindness" - ( Macbeth)

"More sinned against than sinning" - ( King Lear)

"One fell swoop" - ( Macbeth)

"Play fast and loose" - ( King John)

"Set my teeth on edge" - ( Henry IV Part I)

"Wear my heart upon my sleeve" - ( Othello)

"Wild-goose chase" - ( Romeo and Juliet)

See more:
Fraser's Phrases: "What The Dickens"
10 Old British Slang Terms That Deserve A Revival
Five Tiny U.S. Phrases With Opposite Meanings In The U.K.
10 Irish Slang Terms Americans Should Adopt

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
45 Everyday Phrases Coined By Shakespeare | BBC America

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
April 23rd is generally considered to be a good day to celebrate the birth of England's greatest poet and playwright, William Shakespeare. This is partly because there are no records of his birth-although he was baptized on April 26-and partly because he died on April 23 (and April 23 is St.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
word search mask definition crossword crossword online

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Free Crossword Assistant Online - Crossword Puzzles

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Assistant to the crossword man: search words by mask, and definition, assistant cruciverbalist, online dictionary crossword. Free crosswords puzzles.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
word search mask definition crossword crossword online

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Free Crossword Assistant Online - Crossword Puzzles

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Assistant to the crossword man: search words by mask, and definition, assistant cruciverbalist, online dictionary crossword. Free crosswords puzzles.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
William Shakespeare, often called England’s national poet, is considered the greatest dramatist of all time. His works are loved throughout the world, but Shakespeare’s personal life is shrouded in mystery.

# data[].attributes.headline
Words or phrases Shakespeare made popular/coined

# data[].attributes.subject
Words or phrases Shakespeare made popular/coined

# data[].attributes.headline
Elizbethian Theater: the globe and why it's unique, the Queen's influence on the theat

# data[].attributes.subject
Elizbethian Theater: the globe and why it's unique, the Queen's influence on the theat

# data[].attributes.headline
Shakespeare's Biology: birthplace, home life, parents, marriage, family life, death

# data[].attributes.subject
Shakespeare's Biology: birthplace, home life, parents, marriage, family life, death