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Wikipedia

William Shakespeare wrote a lot of great plays, but he also coined and popularized a lot of words and phrases that we still use to this day.

We put together a list of our 21 favorites. Check them out:

"Then put up your pipes in your bag, for I'll away. Go; vanish into air; away!" (Othello)
How Shakespeare uses it: The Clown says this to the musicians in "Othello" to make them go away.

But some have also suggested that there is a darker underlying meaning. Act 3 in Othello is the final act that suggests that all of this might have a happy ending. It gets pretty dark starting in Act 4. So the Clown might be symbolically asking musicians and all happy things to "vanish into thin air" because there's no more room for them in the play.

A similar phrase is also found in "The Tempest."

Modern definition: To disappear without a trace.
Sources: "Othello," Act 3, Scene 1, "The Tempest," Act 4, Scene 1

"Though this be madness, yet there is method in 't. Will you walk out of the air, my lord?"
How Shakespeare uses it: Polonius says it in "Hamlet," basically suggesting that there is reason behind apparent chaos.

Modern definition: The meaning is the same nowadays, although the language is a bit updated into modern terms. It is also a Bee Gees song.
Source: "Hamlet," Act 2, Scene 2

"What hempen home-spuns have we swaggering here,
So near the cradle of the fairy queen?
What, a play toward! I'll be the auditor;
An actor too, perhaps, if I see cause."
How Shakespeare uses it: Puck, a mischievous sprite, uses the term "swagger" to mean " insolent." It might have been a frequentative form of "swag," which means "to sway."

The word is also found in " Henry IV: Part 2" where Mistress Quickly gives a speech about super-aggressive men who visit her tavern, where the meaning of swagger suggests the meaning of boasting or bragging.

Additionally, the term is also found in "King Lear," where it most closely means " blustering." Although, here it is spelled "zwaggered."

Modern definition: Jay Z used "swagger" and "swag" in several songs back in the early 2000s. Soulja Boy also used the word - " she likes my swag." Since then, it has been often used in modern song lyrics.
Sources: "A Midsummer Night's Dream," Act 3, Scene 1, "Henry IV: Part 2," Act 2, Scene 4, "King Lear, Act 4, Scene 6

"I pray, sir, tell me, is it possible
That love should of a sodaine take such hold?"
How Shakespeare uses it: Apparently, Shakespeare might have thought that "all of a sudden" was a more poetic way of saying "suddenly" so he had the character Tranio in "The Taming of the Shrew" say it that way.

Although, Shakespeare wasn't the first to use "sudden" - John Greenwood used it in 1590.

Modern definition: The meaning is the same, although we now spell it "sudden" rather than "sodaine." The word is spelled in the modern way in newer printings of "The Taming of the Shrew."
Source: "The Taming of the Shrew," Act 1, Scene 1

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21 everyday phrases that come straight from Shakespeare's plays

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He coined and popularized a lot of words and phrases that we still use to this day. We put together a list of our 21 favorites.

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" Nay, an I tell you that, I'll ne'er look you i' th' face again: but those that understood him smiled at one another and shook their heads; but, for mine own part, it was Greek to me."
-Casca, Julius Caesar

William Shakespeare died more than 400 years ago. Yet, high school and university students are still required to study his plays and sonnets. I was one of those students who in 12th grade was lost reading all of the "thou"s, "thy"s and "doth"s. At the time, I found analyzing Shakespeare's work complicated and irrelevant to my life. What I didn't realize was just how wrong I was. Et tu?

Despite the collective scholarly agreement that Shakespeare's work itself adapted and borrowed from history, mythology, the Bible and even his contemporaries, people are still fascinated with his writing. Why? Maybe because his timeless storylines continue to speak to us through reinventions and new interpretations in popular culture, such as the musical West Side Story and teen flicks 10 Things I Hate About You and Mean Girls. As a teenager, I might not have been able to appreciate the insights of early 17th-century William Shakespeare, but that doesn't mean what he wrote is irrelevant to life in current times.

Quite the contrary. Shakespeare instructor Maggie Trapp explains the Bard's literary longevity and the cultural importance of studying his writing from yesteryear in today's context.

Current work we love is reinvented from his adaptations.
From The Lion King's plot being loosely based on that of Hamlet, to the fictional band the Weird Sisters in the Harry Potter series being based on the three witches in Macbeth, Shakespearean influence and references continue to pop up in modern-day entertainment.

"Shakespeare's plays have an openness to them," says Trapp. "They inspire thought, and his capacious works invite reinvention. The plots we think of as quintessentially Shakespearean- Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Hamlet and King Lear, among others-are based on old stories, histories and myths that he reworked into his own material. Shakespeare was a masterly adapter, and his work is largely based on borrowing and interpretation. It's only fitting that his plays have in turn been reworked endlessly."

It's not just movie storylines that rework Shakespeare's plots. More and more television shows, including Game of Thrones, have been influenced by Shakespearean culture, and in turn, they have become their own popular culture phenomena. Part of the reason for that could be seeing Shakespearean-inspired drama performed on screen-the modern equivalent of the stage from The Bard's own time. Being able to see his work performed live-albeit pre-recorded and on TV-makes us appreciate his work from a different perspective.

"As George R.R. Martin noted in a Rolling Stone interview, Shakespeare borrowed almost all of his plots from others," explains Trapp. "And Martin himself makes no bones about the fact that his hugely popular story (both the books and TV series) is taken from others' stories-Shakespeare among others. Fans of Game of Thrones readily see traces of Lady Macbeth in Cersei, Falstaff in Robert Baratheon, Iago in Littlefinger-the list could go on. The characters that populate Game of Thrones are complex, multifaceted and vivid. They resemble the rich, layered characters we find in Shakespeare, and these characters are so real that they have practically become types over the centuries-we know a Portia or a Henry V or a Banquo or a King Lear or a Richard III when we see them, no matter what the context. These recognizable characters could become shopworn and stale over time, but in both Shakespeare's and Martin's hands, they are fresh and real, rich and memorable."

Current books also reimagine the world of Shakespeare for modern times. "The Hogarth Shakespeare project is a wonderful new series of books in which Margaret Atwood, Jeanette Winterson, Anne Tyler and Gillian Flynn, among others, have reinterpreted and reimagined one of Shakespeare's plays in light of modern sensibilities," Trapp says. "In Atwood's take on The Tempest, for example, an aging and (wrongfully) disgraced Shakespeare producer winds up staging Shakespeare's play in a prison as part of an elaborate revenge plot against his former theater colleagues. Another amazing adaptation of Shakespeare is Jane Smiley's novel A Thousand Acres. In it, Smiley takes the King Lear plot and turns it inside out to spectacular effect."

Shakespeare's work is pertinent, no matter when it is read.
"Shakespeare's contemporary Ben Jonson wrote that Shakespeare's work was 'not of an age but for all time,' which has proven to be prescient," says Trapp. "There's something about the plays that makes them more than topical, more than of their own time. They can teach us about the politics and the psychology of our current moment, about the intricacies of hubris and the fluidity of desire, the perils of blind ambition and the satisfactions of true connection. These plays have managed to speak complicated truths to all manner of audiences and readers for hundreds of years.

"We can perceive our postmodern predicament in Richard III's power plays; our culture's grappling with gender binary can be discerned in Twelfth Night 's probing of gender roles and expectations," Trapp explains. "Shakespeare most likely did not imagine that his works would be so integral to our culture 400 years after his death."

"We look to Shakespeare to make meaning of our experiences."

His characters and themes live within each of us.
"Shakespeare's plays and poems still matter to us because his plots still resonate, his characters still leave their mark, his language still moves and startles," says Trapp. "His characters are ones we identify with. We understand Hamlet's despondency; we recognize Othello's envy; we feel Lear's decline. These characters are, at once, types and revelations. Shakespeare's characters are familiar, and at the same time they surprise us out of our complacency-and in this way they are endlessly fascinating."

We can all relate to the feelings evoked by his stories, too. "Shakespeare's language is gorgeous, his characters complex and the themes-love, honor, betrayal, envy, jealousy, fear, pride, lust, grief-are all issues that matter to us today," adds Trapp. "We look to Shakespeare to make meaning of our experiences. And our experiences-concerning everything from gender, family and political intrigue to fame, race and class-are nimbly and memorably explored in these plays. Shakespeare's characters and plots are both of his time and for all time. His plays allow us to see ourselves anew."

Audiences today can connect onstage and with his words on the page.
Because his themes are universal and timeless, interpretations of Shakespeare's work appeal to various audiences. Andrew Dickson, author of Worlds Elsewhere: Journeys Around Shakespeare's Globe, explores how the same Shakespeare play is able to please different audiences: "One afternoon Shakespeare would find his work being performed for the royal court; the following day the same piece would be played before the groundlings of Blackfriars."

"In Shakespeare's time, audiences were much more attuned to words and aurality," says Trapp. "They experienced the plays live; they would have very rarely read the plays. On the other hand, today we more often experience these plays in our own minds in a solitary act of reading. We ascribe much to the generative power of the words on the page, whereas Shakespeare's audience-who were primed for his language and allusions in a way that we no longer are-was more invested in the live moment of entertainment being enacted in front of them."

That disconnect between live performance and "in our mind's eye" performance can make studying The Bard's work even harder. But teaching his work in a way that is relatable to today's current events can bring his fascinating work to life-and make it easier to understand.

"Shakespeare wanted his audience to react in the moment; he welcomed a physical connection to his work," says Trapp. "He wrote for live audiences, and his plays were made to be performed. The plays also provide ample material for analysis in a classroom setting, but our experience of his work should also include watching the plays performed. In class, we weave in discussions of the plays' plots, characters and themes with attention to the plays as performance, and we encourage students to see live performances of these works whenever possible."

Watching live performances of Shakespeare's plays isn't always an option when you are taking a course. Trapp says, "By incorporating videos of local Berkeley Shakespeare actors, dramaturges, academics and other specialists who dig deep into specific staging issues, plot points, and language choices in the plays, students learn how to respond to these recordings through mini-essays of their own, commenting on how the ideas they hear can be put to work in new viewings of the plays." This is just one way Trapp's Shakespeare course makes the subject matter relevant to each of her students. Trapp continues, "Students also can draw from their own experiences as high school students who watched the plays. We explore what these previous viewings mean in light of what they're learning now, or how they can see the issues raised in these recordings in terms of how we view politics and political machinations in our own time (for example, this comes to light when we read the Richard plays and students compare those plays' plots to Trump or House of Cards)."

Through Shakespeare's plays, we can learn about ourselves and connect with others via the comedy and drama of everyday life. Still think reading and understanding Shakespeare isn't valuable or relevant today?

We cite Shakespeare even when we don't realize it.
Have you ever said "with bated breath," that something is the "be-all and the end-all" or that you wanted to "break the ice"? Have you asked, "Knock, knock! Who's there?" If so, you have quoted Shakespeare.

"If for no other reason, students today should study Shakespeare simply to appreciate how much of our daily discourse we owe to his wordsmithery," Trapp asserts. "If you've ever said 'green-eyed monster,' 'in a pickle,' 'tongue-tied,' 'standing on ceremony,' 'wild goose chase,' 'cruel to be kind,' 'hoodwinked,' 'to wear one's heart on one's sleeve,' 'it's Greek to me,' 'the clothes make the man,' 'forever and a day,' or any of these other now-common sayings, you've cited Shakespeare. His turns of phrase were unconventional and ingenious, and today they've entered so fully into the English language that they seem to be beyond coinage. We're so steeped in Shakespeare that we're not even aware of it anymore. He was a deft crafter of the English language, and his metaphors have made each of us all the richer as readers and writers."

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"Nay, an I tell you that, I'll ne'er look you i' th' face again: but those that understood him smiled at one another and shook their heads; but, for mine own part, it was Greek to me." -Casca, Julius Caesar

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You probably don't often hear Shakespeare and Cardi B come up in the same sentence. If you do, let me know because we should talk. Shakespeare was a English playwright who lived from 1564 to 1616 (He may not be the author of the works of Shakespeare but we're not going to get into that). You probably know him from reading Romeo and Juliet in ninth grade language arts. Cardi B is a rapper from the Bronx who you probably know for topping the Billboard Top 100. They're pretty different people. But, both use the English language, especially meter, in fascinating ways to add depth to their plays and their music.

The most famous meter for formal poetry in English is iambic pentameter, which puts emphasis on the second syllable with five pairs of syllables per line. Most of Shakespeare's works are in iambic pentameter, and the sonnet, which spans most European poetry, follows this form. A sonnet is kind of like a rap track: it's always the same length and the same basic rhythm and the poet fits their verses into this preexisting structure. Take the first lines of one of Shakespeare's most famous sonnets:

Each line is five pairs of syllables, with the emphasis on the second syllable, and while rap has sixteen bars to a verse (typically), sonnets have fourteen.

Knowing the forms, and conforming to them, is just the start though. If an audience has expectations for a work, it allows artists to break them in unexpected ways. For example, on Kendrick Lamar's track Untitled 2, the second verse feels like it's coming to a conclusion after 16 bars, as expected, but Kendrick says he's not done and goes for another 16 bars. Listening to it for the first time, I was completely caught off guard by the extended verse, and it was awesome.

In Macbeth, Shakespeare is constantly breaking our expectations for meter. An important theme in Macbeth is reversals. The three witches begin the play stating how the moral world of Macbeth is turned on its head.

And brilliantly, they speak not in iambic meter, but trochaic meter, which places the emphasis on the first syllable in a pair. So not only are they saying that everything is the opposite of what it should be, the way the speak is the opposite of the way people in Shakespearean plays normally speak. Shakespeare does other inversions of expectations of meter to build on themes, such as have Macbeth use feminine meter and Lady Macbeth use masculine meter, but we're going to turn now to Cardi B, and her breakout hit, Bodak Yellow.

Bodak Yellow is a classic example of braggadocio rap. Which, according to legendary rapper Jay-Z, is a structure, like a sonnet, which artists build their bars around: "Taking on such a familiar subject and writing about it in a set structure forced sonnet writers to find every nook and cranny in the subject and challenged them to invent new language for saying old things. It's the same with braggadocio rap. When we take the most familiar subject in the history of rap- why I'm dope - and frame it within the sixteen-bar structure of a rap verse, synced to the specific rhythm and feel of the track, more than anything it's a test of creativity and wit." Cardi B meets this challenge of creativity and wit by mixing up her flow.

Meter in poetry is essentially the beat in hip-hop, it's how you structure the emphasis. For example, in DNA, a braggadocio rap track by Kendrick Lamar:

In poetry terms, DNA is a form of in iambic tetrameter, the emphasis is on beats two and four and there are four pairs per line. And like a lot of hip-hop music, it emphasizes the backbeats.

Cardi B knows that a backbeat is the typical emphasis for hip hop music and breaks that expectation to stand out. Bodak Yellow switches up its flow a couple times throughout the song. In the second verse she switches from a triplet flow to the rapid trochaic meter where each beat is split into two parts with the emphasis on the first part of each beat:

She switches to this same flow on I Like It, which also went to number one on the charts. I Like It starts with a swinging backbeat flow, switches to this rapid trochees, then to a more Migos type triplet flow:

There are a number of things that make Cardi B's music feel new, but these different flows are definitely part of it. Instead of settling into a flow, she's shift to something that completely reverses the rhythmic scheme, and before you can settle into the new meter, she changes again. What Shakespeare uses to emphasis the otherworldliness of the weird sisters, Cardi B uses to keep us in anticipation for what she's going to do next

I don't know if Cardi B is intentionally rapping in a way that reflects the witches of Macbeth, but now I can only hear the witches in Cardi B's voice. And just like the witches are indicating that the world is turned upside down, Cardi B and this trochaic meter have taken over the hip-hop scene in recent years, carrying on the legacy of switching meter in poetry to prove that something new is happening.

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Cardi B and Shakespeare - Boundary Effects

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Shakespeare and Cardi B, on the surface couldn't be more different, but they have more in common than just being two names you've probably heard of, particularly in terms of their use of rhythm and meter.

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William Shakespeare was a renowned English poet, playwright, and actor born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon. His birthday is most commonly celebrated on 23 April (see When was Shakespeare born), which is also believed to be the date he died in 1616.

Shakespeare was a prolific writer during the Elizabethan and Jacobean ages of British theatre (sometimes called the English Renaissance or the Early Modern Period). Shakespeare's plays are perhaps his most enduring legacy, but they are not all he wrote. Shakespeare's poems also remain popular to this day.

Shakespeare's Family Life

Records survive relating to William Shakespeare's family that offer an understanding of the context of Shakespeare's early life and the lives of his family members. John Shakespeare married Mary Arden, and together they had eight children. John and Mary lost two daughters as infants, so William became their eldest child. John Shakespeare worked as a glove-maker, but he also became an important figure in the town of Stratford by fulfilling civic positions. His elevated status meant that he was even more likely to have sent his children, including William, to the local grammar school.

William Shakespeare would have lived with his family in their house on Henley Street until he turned eighteen. When he was eighteen, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, who was twenty-six. It was a rushed marriage because Anne was already pregnant at the time of the ceremony. Together they had three children. Their first daughter, Susanna, was born six months after the wedding and was later followed by twins Hamnet and Judith. Hamnet died when he was just 11 years old.

Shakespeare in London

Shakespeare's career jump-started in London, but when did he go there? We know Shakespeare's twins were baptised in 1585, and that by 1592 his reputation was established in London, but the intervening years are considered a mystery. Scholars generally refer to these years as ' The Lost Years '.

During his time in London, Shakespeare's first printed works were published. They were two long poems, 'Venus and Adonis' (1593) and 'The Rape of Lucrece' (1594). He also became a founding member of The Lord Chamberlain's Men, a company of actors. Shakespeare was the company's regular dramatist, producing on average two plays a year, for almost twenty years.

He remained with the company for the rest of his career, during which time it evolved into The King's Men under the patronage of King James I (from 1603). During his time in the company Shakespeare wrote many of his most famous tragedies, such as King Lear and Macbeth, as well as great romances, like The Winter's Tale and The Tempest.

Shakespeare's Works

Altogether Shakespeare's works include 38 plays, 2 narrative poems, 154 sonnets, and a variety of other poems. No original manuscripts of Shakespeare's plays are known to exist today. It is actually thanks to a group of actors from Shakespeare's company that we have about half of the plays at all. They collected them for publication after Shakespeare died, preserving the plays. These writings were brought together in what is known as the First Folio ('Folio' refers to the size of the paper used). It contained 36 of his plays, but none of his poetry.

Shakespeare's legacy is as rich and diverse as his work; his plays have spawned countless adaptations across multiple genres and cultures. His plays have had an enduring presence on stage and film. His writings have been compiled in various iterations of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, which include all of his plays, sonnets, and other poems. William Shakespeare continues to be one of the most important literary figures of the English language.

New Place; a home in Stratford-upon-Avon

Shakespeare's success in the London theatres made him considerably wealthy, and by 1597 he was able to purchase New Place,the largest house in the borough of Stratford-upon-Avon. Although his professional career was spent in London, he maintained close links with his native town.

Recent archaeological evidence discovered on the site of Shakespeare's New Place shows that Shakespeare was only ever an intermittent lodger in London. This suggests he divided his time between Stratford and London (a two or three-day commute). In his later years, he may have spent more time in Stratford-upon-Avon than scholars previously thought.

Watch our video for more about Shakespeare as a literary commuter:

On his father's death in 1601, William Shakespeare inherited the old family home in Henley Street part of which was then leased to tenants. Further property investments in Stratford followed, including the purchase of 107 acres of land in 1602.

Shakespeare died in Stratford-upon-Avon on 23 April 1616 at the age of 52. He is buried in the sanctuary of the parish church, Holy Trinity.

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William Shakespeare was a renowned English poet, playwright, and actor born in 1564. Read about his life and works.

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'Make a copy' and submit to Google Classroom when finished.

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Shakespeare Introduction Summary & Quickwrite

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'Make a copy' and submit to Google Classroom when finished.

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'Make a copy' and submit to Google Classroom when finished

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'Make a copy' and submit to Google Classroom when finished.

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Macbeth, Act One, Scenes I and II- Comp Check

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Act II Vocabulary Translation Assignment-15pts

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Act II Vocabulary Translation Assignment-15pts

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Macbeth Comprehension Check & Rising/Falling Action

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Argument Essay Brainstorm Activity- 20pts

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Argument Essay Brainstorm Activity- 20pts

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Hip-Hop & Shakespeare? Akala at TEDxAldeburgh

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5 Reasons to study British Literature- 10pts

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5 Reasons to study British Literature- 10pts

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'Make a copy' of the Doc. Submit in Google Classroom when finished.

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Frankenstein Cultural Representation Reflection 