Shakespeare Quotes: Meaning, Speaker, Context & Modern English

Quote studies

• “To be, or not to be, that is the question,” — Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1; spoken by Hamlet.
• “More relative than this: the play 's the thing” — Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2; spoken by Hamlet.
• “Let me not think on't--Frailty, thy name is woman!--” — Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2; spoken by Hamlet.
• “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,” — Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 5; spoken by Hamlet.
• “Fair is foul, and foul is fair:” — Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 1; spoken by All.
• “Is this a dagger which I see before me,” — Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 1; spoken by Macbeth.
• “Out, damned spot! out, I say!--One: two: why,” — Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 1; spoken by Lady Macbeth.
• “To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,” — Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5; spoken by Macbeth.
• “Double, double toil and trouble;” — Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 1; spoken by All.
• “O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?” — Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2; spoken by Juliet.
• “What's in a name? that which we call a rose” — Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2; spoken by Juliet.
• “A plague o' both your houses! I am sped.” — Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 1; spoken by Mercutio.
• “Good night, good night! parting is such sweet sorrow,” — Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2; spoken by Juliet.
• “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;” — Julius Caesar, Act 3, Scene 2; spoken by Antony.
• “Et tu, Brute! Then fall, Caesar.” — Julius Caesar, Act 3, Scene 1; spoken by Caesar.
• “Cowards die many times before their deaths;” — Julius Caesar, Act 2, Scene 2; spoken by Caesar.
• “Beware the ides of March.” — Julius Caesar, Act 1, Scene 2; spoken by Soothsayer.
• “O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;” — Othello, Act 3, Scene 3; spoken by Iago.
• “I kiss'd thee ere I kill'd thee: no way but this;” — Othello, Act 5, Scene 2; spoken by Othello.
• “The course of true love never did run smooth;” — A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 1, Scene 1; spoken by Lysander.
• “Lord, what fools these mortals be!” — A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 3, Scene 2; spoken by Puck.
• “All the world's a stage,” — As You Like It, Act 2, Scene 7; spoken by Jaques.
• “We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life” — The Tempest, Act 4, Scene 1; spoken by Prospero.
• “The quality of mercy is not strain'd,” — The Merchant of Venice, Act 4, Scene 1; spoken by Portia.
• “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;” — Henry V, Act 3, Scene 1; spoken by King Henry V.