How many quotes by Shakespeare do you know?

English as a Second Language What do you want to talk about?
1

It just occurred to me that most of us seem to know quite a few quotes by Shakespeare but we often are not aware of their origin. In his essay Fancy Free Alan mentions some of them. For example, do you know what your “salad days” are?

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TOEIC listening, talks: A traffic report is being given on the radio[YSaerTTEW443543]

2

Oh, Shakespeare… I’ve been studied Shakespeare at the University and I must say that learning sonnets was my favourite thing. And I’ve never mused about quotes in Shakespeare’s works. So after reading Alan’s essay I understood that gained some interesting and useful information :).

Now I’d like to ask if the word “beguile” (I mean he meaning when somebody’s busy and you’re taking his time) is used much in English and what synonyms it has. Thanks and have a good day!

Maryann

P.S. If you see any mistakes here, please, point them out for me not to make them in future.

3

Hi Maryann,

‘Beguile’ has the sense of bewitching and enchanting and charming. For me it is most often used in its adjectival function as ‘beguiling’. This can describe a human characteristic as well as abstract and inanimate objects. Storytellers can beguile you/Landscapes can beguile you. It is a wonderful mixture of magic, enchantment and charm.

Alan

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Or deceived - you can be beguiled by an impostor (swindler) as well. Exercise due care!

5

Thank you very and very much for explanations, Alan and Ralf :).

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hello mr Alan . thank u for give all of this information and iam realy enjoiy by it . for shakespear story i heard by thes man many times .also i knew he is fame man
there are arabic copy for his story . i will try to find one of his nice copy
thank you all

7

‘Such were Sara’s salad days – a time when he was young, innocent and happy before she took on the duties of work, a wife and a mother’.

"a time when HE was young, " should be written as "a time when SHE was young, "

8

Hi Alan,
i would like to tell you that your messages were very helpful,thank you for your efforts to make us understand, speak English appropriately.

Wifek.

9

Hi, Mr. Alan, Mr.Torsten and everyone!
Thanks for explanation of the quote" salad days". I love Shakespeare very much, I know his sonnets in my native language(in azeri) , but I want to learn them in English of course. I enjoy from reading and especially I think profoundly, when I read the last couplets in each (every) sonnet. I’d like to learn more quotes by Shakespeare. Thanks in advance.
in each sonnet or in every sonnet? Please can you correct my mistakes?
Thanks in advance. I love this forum very much, because I learn a lot of from it. Because there are a lot of books, a lot of tests, a lot of books at my home, a lot of English sites,but I dont know from which book to begin, but in this forum systematically I learn, and when I do test I learn and know my mistakes. Thanks so much!
Samira

10

Hi everyone,

Thanks Allan, it was an interesting article we can learn from. To be honest, despite of my major as a translator, I did not read any novel for Shakespeare or watch a movie for him not even once: oops: But, I will read for him in the near future hopefully because I like reading but I have a bad taste in choosing the proper books and novels. Any way, there was an expression in the article I did not understand which is “he is quite incapable of hiding how he feels because he always wears his heart upon his sleeve .” I do not think there is an explanation for it.

Thanks,

Meera

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Hi Meera,

Glad you liked the article.

The heart is regarded as the source of emotion and feelings. This expression suggests that you show your feelings publicly because you are wearing this heart where everbody can see you.

Alan

12

Hi Mr. Allen

I have been studying Shakespeare’s plays over a long time. I admired Hamlet which was the cornerstone of our graduation final exam. I got an excellent mark, still Hamlet’s philosophy exerted my nerves. In brief, I liked his girl friends solilquy about the death of her evil father.

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Please listen to my recording and respond with a voice message too. Many thanks.

14

Hi Alexandran,

Thank you for your message. It’s great that you can quote from Shakespeare and have read some of his plays. I can appreciate the problems you have in understanding the language of the 16th century. I’m certainly not laughing at you. On the contrary I admire you for recording the message and also for successfully reading the plays of Shakespeare. Looking forward to hearing form you soon.

Alan

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Good morning Alexandranow and Alan. I am embarrassed, and a little ashamed, to say that I have never read any of Shakespeare’s works.
Dickens was my preferred storyteller, although again, I never read any of his stories, opting instead to watch the filmed versions of the stories.

My particular favourite will remain, “Scrooge,” starring that great master of the silver screen Alastair Sim.

youtube.com/watch?v=YGGohTPuOeQ

Alan, I hope that you will forgive my posting this lengthy clip from the film. It is more than worthy of being shown to our Forum readers, for it portrays acting at its very best.

Kitos.

16

Please listen to my recording and respond with a voice message too. Many thanks.

17

Please listen to my recording and respond with a voice message too. Many thanks.

18

Please listen to my recording and respond with a voice message too. Many thanks.

19

'Such were Sara’s salad days – a time when he was young, innocent and happy

use she instead of he

Thanks very much

20

Good morrow
Hi everybody
Thank you very much Mr.Alan for this essay. I have studied about 4 plays for Shakespeare . They are really interesting. Iknow some of his quotes like ‘‘I must be cruel, only to be kind ‘’ , ‘’ in my mind’s eyes’’ and this quote i use very often. Also the famous quote ‘’ To be or not to be: that is the question’’
Thank you again
best regardes
May Allah be with you