Top 10 Shakespeare Misquotes
Published on September 15, 2008 - 55 Comments
There is no doubt that Shakespeare is the greatest English writer to have lived. It should come as no surprise to us then, that he is one of the misquoted writers as well. Whether it be from poor memory, or simply repeating what we have heard, most of the famous quotes we know of Shakespeare, are in fact distortions of what he actually wrote. This list will help to clear some of those errors up.
1. From “The Life and Death of King John”
Misquote: “Gild the lily”
Actual Quote: “To gild refined gold, to paint the lily”.
This is one of those odd misquotes in which the meaning remains essentially the same - though clearly Shakespeare’s actual quote is stronger due to the doubling up of the point.
2. From: “Macbeth”
Misquote: “Lead on, Macduff”
Actual Quote: “Lay on, Macduff, and damned be him who first cries ‘Hold! enough!’”
The misquote here suggests that Macbeth wants Macduff to begin moving in to fight. The actual quote is more emphatic and shows us that Macbeth wants Macduff to begin fighting immediately.
3. From: “Macbeth”
Misquote: “Bubble bubble, toil and trouble.”
Actual Quote: “Double, double toil and trouble.”
It should be noted that a film by Disney used the incorrect quote in this sense: “Bubble bubble toil and trouble, leave this island on the double” - it is possible that this is partly the reason for the misconception today. In fact, the witches are asking for “double” the trouble and toil.
4. From: “Hamlet”
Misquote: “Methinks the lady doth protest too much”
Actual Quote: “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”
This is another of the “same meaning” quotes. This is probably one of the most commonly heard misquotes of shakespeare.
5. From: “Hamlet”
Misquote: “Alas, poor Yorick. I knew him well.”
Actual Quote: “Alas, poor Yorick. I knew him, Horatio - a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy.”
6. From: “Hamlet”
Misquote: “The rest is science”
Actual Quote: “The rest is silence”
7. From: “Romeo and Juliet”
Misquote: “A rose by any other name smells just as sweet.”
Actual Quote: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet.”
8. From: “Richard III”
Misquote: “Now is the winter of our discontent.”
Actual Quote: “Now is the winter of our discontent / Made glorious summer by this sun of York.”
This is less a misquote than a misappropriation; when the second line is excluded from the quote it means “the winter of our discontent is happening now,” but when we add the second line, the true meaning of the quote is “the winter of our discontent has now become a glorious summer” - the opposite of what most people use the quote for.
9. From: “Falstaff”
Misquote: “Discretion is the better part of valour.”
Actual Quote: “The better part of valour is discretion”
10. From: “Hamlet”
Misquote: “To the manor born”
Actual Quote: “but to my mind,—though I am native here and to the manner born,—it is a custom more honour’d in the breach than the observance.” (referring to drunken carousing).
This misquote, whilst sounding the same, has a very different meaning - Hamlet is actually a reference to being excellent - so good that you appear to have been born with the skill.
Bonus. From: Romeo and Juliet
Quote: “Romeo, Romeo… Wherefore art thou Romeo?”
The problem here is not a misquote (though people do often add a comma directly after “thou”). The problem is that most people think this line means “Romeo, Romeo… Where are you Romeo?” - in fact, “wherefore” in this context means “why”. The correct interpretation is “Romeo, Romeo… Why are you Romeo?” Juliet is asking Romeo why he is a Montague and, therefore, an enemy of her family.
Related ListsTop 10 Famous Historic MisquotesTop 15 Film Misquotes Top 10 Greatest Shakespeare Plays Top 10 Books of All Time |
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1. ana - September 16th, 2008 at 2:26 am
nice list!
2. Miss Destiny - September 16th, 2008 at 2:29 am
Very nice. I enjoyed reading some of the works of the great William Shakespeare in school.
3. dangorironhide - September 16th, 2008 at 2:33 am
The one we got drilled into us by an English teacher was from ‘Merchant of Venice’. What we say as ‘all that glistens is not gold’, when what is actually said is ‘all that glisters is not gold’.
Something like that at least, it’s been 6 years since I read it…
4. jkjkjk - September 16th, 2008 at 3:39 am
I love quote lists.
Please keep ‘em coming
5. odorikakeru - September 16th, 2008 at 3:47 am
After all these years I still remember my old English teacher explaining to us how infuriating it was to him to hear people saying “Lay on, Macduff.”. Macbeth was one of his favourite plays. (he also, interesting enough, hated “reading” Shakespeare in class, and kept trying to get his bunch of angst-ridden and anarchic adolescents to stand stand up and act out every scene… with limited success).
Another point, Stephen Fry did a radio show a couple of weeks ago about quotes (amoung other things), wherein someone posited that a misquote which is repeated often enough and gains acceptence can become a bone fide quote in and of itself. I don’t know if anyone else caught that show, it’s probably floating around the internet somewhere and well worth a listen.
6. michael - September 16th, 2008 at 3:52 am
kind of a bit of a “slow day” type of list.
some quotes are paraphrased to make the meaning clear and for ease of use in language.
other’s like “…. science” instead of “… silence” are probably derived from deliberate plays on words used jokingly.
7. astraya - September 16th, 2008 at 5:10 am
I was going to mention this over at the grammar errors list: Willy would have failed every grammar exam ever. Stuff like “You are the cruelest she alive”, “Mantua’s laws are death to any he that utters them” and “This (is/was) the most unkindest cut of all”. Shakespeare! See me after class, please! Whack, whack, whack.
(I had a hard day at school. My Korean co-teacher did actually go whack after class. I’m not allowed to, which is just as well.)
8. iratewench - September 16th, 2008 at 5:28 am
Great list but #9 is slightly incorrect. “Falstaff” is not a play but rather a character. The quote comes from Henry IV Part 1.
9. Kiribub - September 16th, 2008 at 5:34 am
Meh. It was DeVere, anyway.
*runs*
10. mregan - September 16th, 2008 at 5:36 am
in re #10: “to the manner born”. Isn’t Hamlet just saying that he should be used to it and accept it inasmuchas he was born in Denmark, but nevertheless doesn’t approve of it?
11. SnowKid32 - September 16th, 2008 at 6:26 am
And to be or not to be?
12. bigski - September 16th, 2008 at 7:41 am
Kind of a skimpy list but alas i learned something.
13. segue - September 16th, 2008 at 7:45 am
Nice list. Always good to be reminded of the actual words, rather than the misquotes we hear float about us on a daily breeze.
Actually, my Shakespeare is pretty solid. Not only did I study him in Uni., my younger daughter, while in high school, had a weekly Shakespeare Club,which met at our house, during which the students read every one of his plays aloud.
I *know* my Shakespeare! But then, we’re a literary/arty family…I think it’s genetic. My brother and his kids are, too.
14. you-know-who - September 16th, 2008 at 8:41 am
Whilst (Elizabethan-talk!) you attributed other quotes to the plays they came from, you attributed number nine to the charcter who said it. The quote is from King Henry IV, Part I.
15. SonnyAngell - September 16th, 2008 at 8:47 am
Who gives a shit? just my opinion.. i love listverse but i dunno make another one about discontinued sodas or something
16. Kreachure - September 16th, 2008 at 9:04 am
Very nice! Although some are just trifles, the rest are misquotes that most people would swear are accurate.
I think the most important one is the “Romeo…” misquote. It definitely sounds a LOT less romantic when you ask your loved one why s/he is than where s/he is!
17. Blacknimbus - September 16th, 2008 at 9:27 am
IMO, the reason so many people find Shakespeare boring or pretentious is that they’ve only read the ’script’ in school and never seen these plays performed.
The true brilliance isn’t seen until it’s mouthed by actors on a stage. Then it clicks…for most people, anyway.
18. MzFly - September 16th, 2008 at 9:32 am
Nice list. Interesting to see how quotes get twisted.
I always though it was “Double, bubble toil and trouble” LoL
19. A - September 16th, 2008 at 9:55 am
Yeah! I hate it about the #1. It makes it so much more beautiful by its true meaning. Damn those families.
20. A - September 16th, 2008 at 9:55 am
Yeah! I hate it about the #1. It makes it so much more beautiful by its true meaning.
21. modelpenguin - September 16th, 2008 at 10:01 am
great list! =)
22. DK - September 16th, 2008 at 10:15 am
@ SonnyAngell (15) Obviously a bunch of us give a shit. Jamie does his best to make sure there is a HUGE variety of lists, so not everybody will like every list, but most people will like most of the lists. If you don’t care about a topic, don’t read it.
I personally think it was a fun list today, neat for me to see which ones I already knew.
23. Burst and Bloom - September 16th, 2008 at 10:33 am
Fantastic list!
Funny how things are distorted and lose meaning.
24. kris - September 16th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Very nice informative list…. I that seems to me like my English class
(oh! how I miss the school life)
25. JayArr - September 16th, 2008 at 11:04 am
Dear author,
Please change your introductory paragraph to the following:
There is little doubt that Shakespeare is the greatest English writer to have lived. It should come as no surprise then, that he is one of the most misquoted writers as well. Whether from poor memory, or simple repetition of what we have heard, most of Shakespeare’s famous quotes that we utter are in fact distortions of what he actually wrote. This list may help us clear up some of those errors.
I had to grit my teeth the entire way through what I originally read… I tried hard not to mess TOOOOO much with the style, but freely admin my bias and fastidious retentiveness.
26. schiesl - September 16th, 2008 at 11:50 am
I think if you put on the Romeo line “To be or not to be” should be on here too. i love shakespeare, i have done tons of his work, so awesome list overall.
27. JayArr - September 16th, 2008 at 11:53 am
Gah… *admit* not ‘admin’… curse work, it’s even in my subliminal typing…
28. schiesl - September 16th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Another one you should throw on is from Macbeth. “Out, Out Damn Spot!” is acutally just one “Out” at the beginning. The Actual Quote is “Out damn spot, Out!”
29. Carol - September 16th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
And I was taught that he invented the word “bubble”! Well, maybe he did, but not here in this quote…
30. segue - September 16th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
16. Kreachure
I think the most important one is the “Romeo…” misquote. It definitely sounds a LOT less romantic when you ask your loved one why s/he is than where s/he is!
****
No! No! No!
You miss the point entirely! Juliet is distraught because her love, Romeo is a Montague, a sworn enemy of her family, and not some other, harmless family.
She adores him anyway, but sees the problems up ahead for her, a Capulet, and him, a Montague.
Neither family will allow this love, so she is asking Romeo “why?”
“Why did you have to be a Montague of all the families in the world, why that one?”
Pretty romantic to me.
31. Kreachure - September 16th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
segue: Yes, yes, I know what the real quote means. In fact, it’s interesting to see how that single quote represents pretty much the entire theme of R&J.
I was just saying that the quote sounds much less romantic to people when quoted correctly, even though when you get what it’s talking about, it’s much MUCH more romantic than that other bastardized quote!
“The course of true love never did run smooth”, indeed…
32. JustMe - September 16th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Quote: “Romeo, Romeo… Wherefore art thou Romeo?”
In danish “why” is pronounced and spelled almost like wherefore, so we dont have a problem with old English at all.
Regards
33. Byron - September 16th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Actual Quote: “The better part of valour is discretion”
that is one I like to quote correctly. There is another smaller list site that has Shakespeare villains on it that fans of this list might like. http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-.....llains.php
34. TheOddball - September 16th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
I was in a Shakespeare play once!
I was Osric!!!
Only like, 5 lines in the scene I played.
35. segue - September 16th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
31. Kreachure, I apologize for misunderstanding your post re: R&J. Your intellect is common knowledge around here, so the misunderstanding flummoxed me.
Now I know why. There was no misunderstanding!
36. jhoyce07 - September 16th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
it’s good..i hope to see another list/s of bizarre/weird things or people..intrigues me..ü
37. Lammy - September 16th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
When I saw this list I just knew the Yorick quote would be on it. That’s probably the most misquoted.
38. Damo - September 16th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
When I saw the title I thought for sure that ‘all that glisters is not gold’ from the Merchant of Venice would surely be on the list. You hear that line misquoted (with ‘glitters’ in place of ‘glisters’) very often.
39. Panic! - September 16th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
Shakespeare is quite brilliant.
Good job with the list correcting his misquotes.
*applause*
40. b - September 16th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
re: Hamlet’s “to the manner born”
since the lines were meant to be heard on stage and not read from the book, this play on words can be taken “manner” or “manor” that’s part of the fun of shakespeare isn’t it?
41. goof_ball - September 16th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
hhhmmm… interesting
42. jajdude - September 16th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
tight list, g. nice guns re: hamlet man
43. Mortivore - September 16th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
Heh. I’ve heard a lot of these quotes and didn’t even realize they were quotes, much less Shakespeare. Shows you how much I know about good literature, eh? XD
My favorite one is “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.” I’d heard it thousands of times, and even used it a few times. Never realized it was Shakespeare. It’s pretty witty to use in a conversation, though. XD
Overall, even though I can’t stand most of the works of Shakespeare, at least now I have somewhat of a better understanding of him. I always thought he threw in too many “thee”’s and “thou”’s. XD
44. Tom Wang - September 16th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
In response to the person who brought up the fact the students are more or less turned off to Shakespeare due to the lack of a performance in school.
I believe the best film for Shakespeare fans that’s not a play has to be ‘Renaissance Man’ with Danny DeVito. It’s funny, but very informative and explains Macbeth better than a semester of AP english.
45. segue - September 17th, 2008 at 7:21 am
#39. Panic!
*applause*
****
I can never see this word without thinking *applesauce*!
46. henry o - September 17th, 2008 at 7:59 am
How about ‘There’s method in his madness’? Common rewording of Polonius’s aside about Hamlet’s erratic behaviour: ‘Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.’
47. rushfan - September 19th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
segue ~ me, too!
vera lynn ~ hi there! why don’t you come to the forums? I’m bored.
48. rushfan - September 19th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
wow. how does it do that?
49. Vera Lynn - September 19th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
Et tu Who?
50. Vera Lynn - September 19th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
Hi rushfan. Thanks for the invite. IDK how. Im not tech savvy. Pretty pathetic actually. I don’t even know if im registered with ‘Verse.
51. rushfan - September 19th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
Vera Lynn ~ DO NOT feel bad, it took me weeks to get into the forums, but now I’m addicted. Get in, it’s worth it. Go to the forums. Register. You’ll get a confirmation email. If you don’t (I didn’t) either 1)open up a free hotmail account or 2)email fray a user name and password and he’ll do it for you.
Come to the forums! I’m so ronery! 
52. rushfan - September 19th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
okay, to clarify…fray = JFray. Open up Hotmail account because the confirmation email won’t come thru if you have, say, AOL like me, but I had no prob with the hotmail account my hubby set up for me…
53. SonnyAngell - September 25th, 2008 at 10:30 am
DK: Waaaaah waaah my mom didnt make me breakfast this morning
54. philippa - December 2nd, 2008 at 6:36 pm
I feel pressed to state this since you discussed “Romeo Romeo”s misuse –
“The lady doth protest too much, methinks.” does NOT mean, “The lady is protesting because it’s true.” The queen says it about the player queen in Hamlet’s play, who is swearing that she (player queen) could never love another after her husband dies. She says this of course, because she (real queen) married her husband’s brother very soon after her husband died.
Still, I am oddly attached to the misuse of the quote.