Desire Avenue

While surfing, I found this website about him.
http://www.nosweatshakespeare.com/shake ... hrases.htm


Those words were first used by Shakespeare, and they are used daily!
It's amazing to discover how a single person changed the english language!



accommodation

aerial

amazement

apostrophe

assassination

auspicious

baseless

bloody

bump

castigate

changeful

clangor

control (noun)

countless

courtship

critic

critical

dexterously

dishearten

dislocate

dwindle

eventful

exposure

fitful

frugal

generous

gloomy

gnarled

hurry

impartial

inauspicious

indistinguishable

invulnerable

lapse

laughable

lonely

majestic

misplaced

monumental

multitudinous

obscene

palmy

perusal

pious

premeditated

radiance

reliance

road

sanctimonious

seamy

sportive

submerge

suspicious

alx5962 wrote:While surfing, I found this website about him.
http://www.nosweatshakespeare.com/shake ... hrases.htm


Those words were first used by Shakespeare, and they are used daily!
It's amazing to discover how a single person changed the english language!

Not to mention all the idioms and maxims in current use, still. People are always surprised when you tell them something they've said was originated by Shakespeare.

I'd be very surprised to find that those words were 'first used' by Shakespeare.I think maybe 'first used in a piece of literature' might be more accurate.
But no taking away from the primacy of the Bard.It's the way he used those words for poetic and meaningful ways to mirror the varied experiences of humanity that makes him so great.eg:-

'I have of late--but wherefore I know not--lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises; and indeed it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory, this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours.
What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? man delights not me: no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so.'

Hamlet,Act 2,Scene 2

Shall we have a fave Shakespeare thread?

When I did my A'Levels 78,000 years ago, we had to do Hamlet, and our very femminist tutor Ms Walker (no relation) despised Ophelia so much that she insisted on reading her part during tutorial, so she could add a pathetic fey voice to the woman she regarded as a 'stupid b!tc#!'

She thought she was a disgrace to womankind...

hehe she obviously felt very strongly about the matter

blue wrote:Shall we have a fave Shakespeare thread?

Would it fit the whole of 'King Lear' and 'The Tempest' in?

Bloomin Shakespeare the most over rated individual in world history, (the quality of mercy is not strained my arse) can we have a most over-rated individual in history thread instead.

I will(no pun intended) start:

Shakespeare, William esquire

d.a.walker wrote:When I did my A'Levels 78,000 years ago, we had to do Hamlet, and our very femminist tutor Ms Walker (no relation) despised Ophelia so much that she insisted on reading her part during tutorial, so she could add a pathetic fey voice to the woman she regarded as a 'stupid b!tc#!'

She thought she was a disgrace to womankind...

hehe she obviously felt very strongly about the matter

Which sort of illustrates my own long-held theory that there's common-ground between some brands of 'feminist' and all brands of misogynist - they both hate women who aren't what they've decided a woman should be.

I love Ophelia, I think Shakespeare actually did something rather extraordinary with her, which was to compress and amplify an experience that's common enough to most women for it be almost a female rite-of-passage; that moment when, for the first devastating time, you see the mask of charm fall off a man to reveal a depth of deceit and cowardice underneath. The first time it happens to you, which is invariably when you're first embarking on relationships, the psychological shock is enormous, because it's so unexpected and has such terrifying implications for future interaction with men. It's this shock and the dreadful realisation it brings that disturbs Ophelia's mind, to the point where she decides she simply can't live in this world. Given the character is written by a man, I think it's actually a very compassionate expression. He's observed something about the human condition and given us Ophelia to make us see it.

gerryuk wrote:Bloomin Shakespeare the most over rated individual in world history, (the quality of mercy is not strained my arse) can we have a most over-rated individual in history thread instead.

I will(no pun intended) start:

Shakespeare, William esquire

the man doth protest too much methinks

Are you saying you've changed your mind about the great man, gerry, or just lamenting the fact that no-one shares your opinion of him?

Why do you think he's over-rated, I'm puzzled by that? I can absolutely understand someone just finding Shakespeare too difficult or too boring or obscure, I think many people feel that way, but I don't think I've come across anyone who thinks he's over-rated before.

Well it's nice to be different .


I think the problem is way too much attention is taken up with Shakespeare to the detriment of other great writers and poets, I would take Plath or Keats, Dostoyevesky or Faulkner over Uncle Bill any day.

Ah right, got you. I know there's been a debate for some time about the merits of teaching Shakespeare in schools to kids who find it too difficult and would benefit more from studying modern literature. I can see the argument, to be honest, but I would hope kids would still get some exposure to Shakespeare as a normal part of their education.