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This category is for English phrases which were invented by Shakespeare, and older phrases which were notably used in his works. The main article for this category is William Shakespeare . Pages in category "Shakespearean phrases"
Shakespeare introduced or invented countless words in his plays, with estimates of the number in the several thousands. Warren King clarifies by saying that, "In all of his work – the plays, the sonnets and the narrative poems – Shakespeare uses 17,677 words: Of those, 1,700 were first used by Shakespeare."
Shakespeare's writing features extensive wordplay of double entendres and clever rhetorical flourishes. [27] Humour is a key element in all of Shakespeare's plays. His works have been considered controversial through the centuries for his use of bawdy punning, [ 28 ] to the extent that "virtually every play is shot through with sexual puns."
Shakespeare added hundreds of new words to the English language, including many commonly used words and colorful expressions that we still use today.
William Shakespeare's play Hamlet has contributed many phrases to common English, from the famous "To be, or not to be" to a few less known, but still in everyday English. Some also occur elsewhere (e.g. in the Bible) or are proverbial. All quotations are second quarto except as noted:
The Chandos portrait, believed to be Shakespeare, held in the National Portrait Gallery, London. William Shakespeare (1564–1616) [1] was an English poet and playwright. He wrote approximately 39 plays and 154 sonnets, as well as a variety of other poems. [note 1]
14 August 1600 – Shakespeare's play The Chronicle History of Henry the fifth is entered into the Register of the Stationers' Company. The spoken epilogue is written in the form of a sonnet. [51] 20 May 1609 – The entry in the Stationers' Register announces Shakespeare's Sonnets. The contents include a collection of 154 sonnets followed by ...
Shakespeare himself refers to these wits several times, in Romeo and Juliet (Act I, scene 4, and Act II, scene iv), King Lear (Act III, scene iv), Much Ado About Nothing (Act I, scene i, 55), and Twelfth Night (Act IV, scene ii, 92). [3] He distinguished between the five wits and the five senses, as can be seen from Sonnet 141. [3] [9] [10]