William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare – 23 April 1616) was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet, and the "Bard of Avon". His extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPlaywright
Date of Birth23 April 1564
I have of late--but wherefore I know not--lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercise.
Is man no more than this? Consider him well. Thou ow'st the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume. Here's three on's are sophisticated. Thou art the thing itself; unaccommodated man is no more than such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art.
They told me I was everything. 'Tis a lie, I am not ague-proof.
But we have reason to cool our raging motions, our carnal stings, our unbitted lusts; whereof I take this that you call love to bea sect or scion.... It is merely a lust of the blood and a permission of the will.
What should such fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven?
A very little little let us do And all is done.
I have heard it said There is an art which in their piedness shares With great creating nature.
The blood weeps from my heart when I do shape, In forms imaginary, th' unguided days And rotten times that you shall look upon When I am sleeping with my ancestors.
A good sherris-sack hath a twofold operation in it. It ascends me into the brain,... makes it apprehensive, quick, forgetive, full of nimble, fiery, and delectable shapes.
My endeavors Have ever come too short of my desires. Yet filed with my abilities.
I have been long a sleeper; but I trust My absence doth neglect no great design Which by my presence might have been concluded.
I heard a bustling rumor like a fray, And the wind blows it from the Capitol.
I am disgraced, impeached, and baffled here, Pierced to the soul with slander's venomed spear.
I do the wrong, and first begin to brawl. The secret mischiefs that I set abroach I lay unto the grievous charge of others.