Happy Birthday and R.I.P., William Shakespeare
Today marks the anniversary of the birth of William Shakespeare in 1564 and his death in 1616. I remember watching Mel Gibson's movie version of Hamlet several years ago and rolling my eyes at all the cliches...until I realized that this is where those cliches came from!
In fact, our language is rife with phrases that if not coined by the bard himself, were made popular through his works. Here are just a few...and I mean just a few cliches we can trace back to Shakespeare:
love is blind
a fool's paradise
....hold a candle to...
foregone conclusion
Off with his head!
sea change
One for all, all for one. (Betcha thought that was Dumas!)
a sorry sight
the long and the short of it
all of a sudden
one fell swoop
dead as a doornail
my salad days
as luck would have it
it's Greek to me
Brevity is the soul of wit.
vanished into thin air
eaten out of house and home
play fast and loose
fancy free
short shrift
high time
cold comfort
slept not a wink
fair play
foul play
fight fire with fire
green-eyed monster
household word
The truth will out.
Give the devil his due
in stitches
in a pickle
without rhyme or reason
wild goose chase
like the dickens
too much of a good thing