Comments on: Top 10 Shakespeare Misquotes

By: Andie=)

Andie=) — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 15:58:58 +0000

yeah. me too.

By: TheGuyWhoIsn'tHere

TheGuyWhoIsn'tHere — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 00:11:53 +0000

I’ve never heard anybody say ‘the rest is science.’

By: Clay

Clay — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 16:13:59 +0000

What about “therein lies the rub” for “ay, there’s the rub” from Hamlet? This is the Shakespeare misquote that I hear the most.

By: Snake

Snake — Tue, 18 May 2010 03:01:02 +0000

I would say the Richard the Third quote works as people use it. The speech is said by Richard in the beginning as a foreshadowing of his discontent with the outcome of the war and then the play is his attempts to undermine and take over as king. So the winter of his discontent is happening now for the character. You could also argue the speech is extremely sarcastic so the intent of the sentence was to proclaim the winter is far from over.

By: opusxgeek

opusxgeek — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 04:56:05 +0000

Another is “The quick and the dead” from Hamlet.
This is both often misquoted and misinterpreted. The quote from Act V, Scene 1 is “Tis for the dead, not for the quick, therefore thou liest.” The phrase “The quick and the dead” is from the King James Bible, 2 Timothy 4:1.

Additionally, “Quick” did not mean rapid or smart as it does in the modern idiom, but in Elizabethan English meant “Alive,” which makes more sense in the context of the play.

By: last crusader

last crusader — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 02:22:16 +0000

a lot of the “misquotes” are actually paraphrases. That means that we change the words on purpose because Shakspeare’s wording was in a language that just sounds wierd to modern ears.
Honestly if you want to talk about Shakespeare being misused look at how we force young people to read works that were never meant to be read by most people. The only people who should be reading a play are the people involved in the production. For the rest of us watching and listening are the best way to enjoy it and being forced to read it will likely make us hate it.

By: jreddy666

jreddy666 — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 03:41:37 +0000

“Double, double, toil and trouble.”
Oh, I’m so happy, I can correct my old all-knowing English teacher!!
Thanks, JFrater!

By: jenny

jenny — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 19:03:44 +0000

I’d add “A plague o’ both your houses!” Often misquoted as, “A pox on both your houses!” (Mercutio’s dying words.)

By: Fiona

Fiona — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:05:23 +0000

I have one!

“Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind”

This one gets quoted at weddings and such, because people think that it means that Love recognizes that true beauty is within. But when you look at the rest of the quote, she’s actually saying that Love is stupid because it fails to see the reality right before its eyes, and instead transforms things that are actually “base and vile” to things of “form and dignity”.

By: Me

Me — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 18:13:10 +0000

I appreciate this list. However, you’ve built it on the assumption that there is only one version of Shakespeare’s plays. Actually, there is much debate over the right way to edit a Shakespeare play since more than one version of many plays are available (Folio and Quarto editions). This is one of the big issues (and fascinating) of Shakespeare scholarship. A Quarto version of Hamlet’s soliloquy says: “To be or not to be; ay, there’s the point.To die, to sleep: is that all? Ay, all.” but the Folio of 1623 says: “To be or not to be; that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune…” The difference is staggering, no? You might be tempted to think only one version is true. That’s fine. But I think it’s more exciting to consider the possibility that Shakespeare revised his work and we have at our disposal the process of literary revision of one of the greatest playwrights.