Shakespeare An Idioms

Shakespearean idioms
Iva Matić
March 2007
Phrases not coined by Shakespeare
 A fool's paradise
first recorded in the Paston Letters, 1462
 Shakespeare later used it in Romeo and Juliet.
 Nurse:
but first let me tell ye, if ye should lead her into
a fool's paradise, as they say, it were a very
gross
kind of behavior, as they say: for the
gentlewoman
is young
 All that glitters is not gold
The 12th century French thelogian Alain de Lille wrote "Do

not hold everything gold that shines like gold".
 Shakespeare is the bestl-known user of the idea. The

original Shakespeare editions of The Merchant of Venice,
1596, have the line as 'all that glisters is not gold'.
'Glister' is now usually replaced by the more commonly
used 'glitter', which has the same meaning
 MOROCCO:
O hell! what have we
here?
A carrion Death, within
whose empty eye
There is a written scroll!
I'll read the writing.
All that glitters is not
gold;
Often have you heard
that told:
 As dead as a doornail
 This is old - at least 14th
century. There's a
reference to it in print in
1350:
"For but ich haue bote of mi
bale I am ded as
dorenail."
 Shakespeare used it in
King Henry VI, 1590
 Shakespeare may have been the first to
use it in English, although a version of it
appears in Rabelais' Gargantua and
Pantagruel, circa 1532. This was
translated into English by Thomas
Urquhart and published posthumously
around 1693
 Beast with two backs
 This modern-sounding phrase is in fact at

least as early as Shakespeare. He used it
in Othello, 1604:
 Iago:
"I am one, sir, that comes to tell you your
daughter and the Moor are now making
the beast with two backs."
 But, for my own part, it was Gr
eek to me
 From Shakespeare's Julius

Caesar, 1601:
 CASSIUS Did Cicero say any
thing?
CASCA Ay, he spoke Greek.
CASSIUS To what effect?
CASCA Nay, an I tell you that,
Ill ne'er look you i' the
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
 Other authors used a similar phrase
around the same time, so it can't be said
that Shakespeare coined it. There is also a
mediaeval Latin phrase which translates as
'It is Greek; it cannot be read', which is
earlier and could be said to be the origin
of the term.
 Come what come may
From Shakespeare's Macbeth. Usually used
just as 'come what may'.
A version of this was known in France as
early as 1375
The Spanish "que sera sera" - "what will be,
will be" is also old and predates
Shakespeare's "come what come may".
 High time
From the Bible, Romans 13.11 (
King James Version):
Shakespeare also used it in his Comedy of
Errors
'High times' comes from the same root as
'high days and holidays', i.e. days of
religious note and festivals
 I have not slept one wink
 The notion has been in the language since
the 14th century. Robert Manning of
Brunne, in his work Handlyng synne,
1303, records the phrase in Old English:
 "Ne mete ete, ne drank drynke, Ne slepte
onely a-lepy wynke."
 In a pickle
This alludes to the pickling
liquid made from brines
and vinegar which is used
to preserve food
There are a few references
to ill pickles and this
pickle etc. in print in the
late 16th century, but
Shakespeare appears to
be the first to use in a
pickle, in The Tempest,
1611:
 Woe is me
This occurs in the Bible,
Job 10:15 (
King James Version)
in the form 'woe unto
me'.
Shakespeare also used
it in Hamlet,
Phrases coined by Shakespeare
 A sea change
 From Shakespeare's The Tempest, 1610:
 ARIEL [sings]:
Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell
 A sorry sight
From Shakespeare's Macbeth, 1605:
MACBETH:
This is a sorry sight.
[Looking on his hands]
 As cold as any stone
From Shakespeare's Henry V.:
“ I put my
hand into the bed and felt them, and they were
as
cold as any stone; “
Shakespeare used various 'as cold as' similes,
including 'as cold as a snowball' and 'as cold as if
I had swallowed snowballs'.
 Eaten out of house an
d home
From Henry IV Part II,

1597
He hath eaten me out
of house and home;
he hath put all my
substance into that
fat belly of his
 Fair play
The Tempest
MIRANDA:
Yes, for a score of
kingdoms you should
wrangle,
And I would call it,
fair play.
 Green eyed
monster
The Merchant of
Venice, 1600
 Love is blind
From Shakespeare's The Merchant Of Venice.
 My salad days
 From Shakespeare's
Anthony and Cleopatra,
1606:
 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.
 Short shrift
Shakespeare was the
first to write it down,
in Richard III, 1594.
RATCLIFF:
Dispatch, my lord; the
duke would be at
dinner:
Make a short shrift;
he longs to see your
head.
 Wild goose chase
Romeo and Juliet, 1592
"Nay, if our wits run the Wild-Goose chase, I am done: For
thou hast more of the Wild-Goose in one of thy wits,
then I am sure I have in my whole five."

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Shakespearean idioms

The 12th century French thelogian Alain de Lille wrote "Do

 Shakespeare is the bestl-known user of the idea. The

 This modern-sounding phrase is in fact at

 From Shakespeare's Julius

From Henry IV Part II,

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