Suggested Reading at Talking People http://www.talkingpeople.net/
Bits of poetry by Shakespeare
By michelle
Source: http://www.talkingpeople.net/tp/literature/shakespeare/shakespeare.html
Audios on Shakespeare’s work: http://wiredforbooks.org/shakespeare/index.html
Hamlet’s "To be or not to be"
Soliloquy in act III, scene 1, of William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.
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, or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing, end them? To die, to sleep--
No more--and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to. 'Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep--
To sleep--perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub
People picked this phrase “There’s the rub” to express
Hamlet, in contemplating the nature of action, characteristically waxes existential, and it is this quality— the sense that here we have Shakespeare's own ideas on the meaning of life and death—that has made the speech so quotable. Whether or not Shakespeare endorsed Hamlet's sentiments, he rose to the occasion with a very great speech on the very great topic of human "being." (source: http://www.enotes.com/shakespeare-quotes/not-that-question )
We say "there's the rub" and think we communicate perfectly well—but do we? I mean "there's the catch" while you might think "there's the essence"—the meanings can be close, yet they're not identical.
Shakespeare implies both senses, but calls up a concrete picture which would have been familiar to his audience. "Rub" is the sportsman's name for an obstacle which, in the game of bowls, diverts a ball from its true course. The Bard was obviously fond of the sport (he played on lawns, not lanes): he uses bowling analogies frequently and expertly. to read an analysis of this monologue, check out: http://www.enotes.com/shakespeare-quotes/not-that-question
Margaret Atwood, Canadian writer, wrote a short story, “Gertrude Talks Back” based on
Hamlet. http://www.talkingpeople.net/tp/literature/atwood/atwood.html
Audio interview: http://wiredforbooks.org/margaretatwood/
Macbeth's "Life's but a walking shadow"
Soliloquy in act 5, scene 5, of William Shakespeare's play Macbeth.
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing...

Suggested Reading at Talking People http://www.talkingpeople.net/
William Faulkner, US American writer of The Lost Generation, picked this phrase “sound and fury” and wrote “The Sound and the Fury”. http://www.talkingpeople.net/tp/literature/faulkner/faulkner.html
More language coming from Shakespeare and used nowadays:
Vanish into thin air (Othello)
In the twinkling of an eye (The Merchant Of Venice)
Fair play (The Tempest)
Bastard:
According to the fair play of the world,
Let me have audience.
King John Act 5, scene 2, 118–119
(Your friends have you) In stitches (Twelfth Night)
In a pickle (The Tempest)
Shakespeare Quotes http://www.enotes.com/shakespeare-quotes/what-s-name-that-which-we-call-rose
Juliet:
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."
Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)
Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet meet and fall in love in Shakespeare's lyrical tale of "starcross'd" lovers. They are doomed from the start as members of two warring families. Here Juliet tells Romeo that a name is an artificial and meaningless convention, and that she loves the person who is called "Montague", not the Montague name and not the Montague family. Romeo, out of his passion for Juliet, rejects his family name and vows, as Juliet asks, to "deny (his) father" and instead be "new baptized" as Juliet's lover. This one short line encapsulates the central struggle and tragedy of the play.
Gertrude Stein, the US American experimental writer, wrote: A rose is a rose is a rose.
Hair, the movie, put music to this monologue:
Hamlet Act 2, scene 2, 303–312 Hamlet:
What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, 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— nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so.

Suggested Reading at Talking People http://www.talkingpeople.net/
Juliet:
'Tis almost morning, I would have thee gone—
And yet no farther than a wan-ton's bird,
That lets it hop a little from his hand,
Like a poor prisoner in his twisted gyves,
And with a silken thread plucks it back again,
So loving-jealous of his liberty.
Romeo:
I would I were thy bird.
Juliet:
Sweet, so would I,
Yet I should kill thee with much cherishing.
Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow,
That I shall say good night till it be morrow. [ Exit above ]
Romeo And Juliet Act 2, scene 2, 176–185
Prospero:
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd tow'rs, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
The Tempest Act 4, scene 1, 148–158
Take note that Prospero says "made on," not "made of," despite Humphrey Bogart's famous last line in the 1941 film The Maltese Falcon: "The stuff that dreams are made of." (Bogart suggested the

Suggested Reading at Talking People http://www.talkingpeople.net/ line to director John Huston, but neither seems to have brushed up his Shakespeare.) Film buffs may think "made of" is the authentic phrase, but they're only dreaming.
Miranda:
O wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world
That has such people in't!
Prospero:
'Tis new to thee.
The Tempest Act 5, scene 1, 181–184
The phrase "brave new world" was your ordinary, not-terribly-quotable Shakespeareanism until
Aldous Huxley put it on the map with his 1932 novel, Brave New World .
More: http://www.enotes.com/shakespeare-quotes/brave-new-world http://www.enotes.com/shakespeare-quotes/wild-goose-chase