Dictionary of Shakespeare Quotations

by G.F. Lamb (Editor)

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference, Shakespeare, Literature, Theatre

352 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1995

Reviews

[Olga · Rating 5 out of 5]

This dictionary consisting of 197 topic headings and comprising 2,160 Shakespeare quotations is 'a thesaurus of insight and wisdom from the Bard of Avon'.
While reading this excellent reference book I realized that reading Shakespeare in the original is quite feasible, so I will include his plays and sonnets in my TBR list (although I do not have one).

Let the great poet speak:

'Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?'
(Hamlet, Act III, Scene 1)
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'Beauty's princely majesty is such,
Confounds the tongue and makes the senses rough.'
(Henry VI, Act V, Scene 3)
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'Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.'
(The Tempest, Act II, Scene 2)
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'Comfort's in heaven, and we are on the earth,
Where nothing lives but crosses, cares, and grief.'
(Richard II, Act II, Scene 2)
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'Night's candles have burned out, and jocund day
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountaintops.
I must be gone'
(Romeo and Juliet, Act III, Scene 5)
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'A man can die but once; we owe God a death.'
(Henry IV, Act III, Scene 2)
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'I had rather have a fool to make me merry than experience to make me sad.'
(As You Like It, Act IV, Scene 1)
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'When we are born, we cry that we are come
To this great stage of fools.'
(King Lear, Act IV, Scene 6)
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'Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie,
Which we ascribe to heaven.
(All's Well that Ends Well, Act I, Scene 1)
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'I will despair, and be at enmity
With cozening hope; he is a flatterer.'
(Richard II, Act II, Scene 2)
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'Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale
Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man.'
(King John, Act III, Scene 4)
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'By medicine life may be prolong'd, but death
Will seize the doctor too.'
(Cymbeline, Act V, Scene 5)
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'As imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen
Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.'
(A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act V, Scene 1)
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'Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer.'
(Richard III, Act I, Scene 1)
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'When sorrows come, they come not single spies,
But in battalions.'
(Hamlet, Act IV, Scene 5)
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'Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back,
Wherein he puts alms for oblivion.'
(Troilus and Cressida, Act III, Scene 3)
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'Words pay no debts.'
(Troilus and Cressida, Act III, Scene 2)