A Conversation for The Plays of William Shakespeare
Things you often hear in day-to-day modern English
Spiff Started conversation Jul 1, 2004
Shakespeare is packed with phrases that sound so familiar to us today because they have become part and parcel of the English language.
Of course, there are classic little adages such as Polonius' "Neither a borrower nor a lender be", but I am also thinking of more mundane formulations such as 'the be all and end all' and, as I discovered in Macbeth just today, 'Come what come may' (usually heard as just 'Come what may' today).
No doubt many of these are not so much 'poetic inventions' of the bard as common stock phrases of Elizabethan English, but I feel sure that many of them have remained in that archaic form primarily as a result of Shakespeare's popularity, and his skill at using them, of course.
well, just a few thoughts
spiff
Things you often hear in day-to-day modern English
Steve K. Posted Jul 1, 2004
"A pox on both your houses!"
I hear this one these days regarding the US political "system", which resembles two elementary school children in a food fight. 
Things you often hear in day-to-day modern English
Spiff Posted Jul 1, 2004
This is a great example of what I mean; who hasn't heard the phrase 'at one fell swoop'?
Well, Macbeth, Act IV, scene iii, Macduff's reaction to the news that Macbeth has had his entire family murdered:
"What! All my pretty chickens and their dam at one fell swoop?"
the phrase has a power that has led it to be repeated over and over in all kinds of different contexts, and that, I think, is one of the signs of the greatness of WS's writing.
spiff
Things you often hear in day-to-day modern English
Sho - employed again! Posted Jul 2, 2004
I keep seeing this, and variations on it (some of which are better than others) "I am a man more sinned against than sinning" (hope I got that right) from Lear
Politicians love it. For some reason 
Things you often hear in day-to-day modern English
Severa Posted Jul 4, 2004
Here in the danish "colonies", 'There's something rotten in the state of Denmark' is a favorite.
Things you often hear in day-to-day modern English
icelight Posted Jul 5, 2004
One problem with Shkespeare is that it is hard to know whether the 'proverbs' you see in his work are created by him or simply used.
However, Bragg in A History Of English lists a few:
MWOW: 'What the dickens'. 'As good luck would have it'
AAC: 'salad days'
Hamlet: 'in my mind's eye'; 'the play's the thing'; 'though this be madness yet there is method in it'; 'cruel only to be kind'
amongst many more. go read the book.
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