Shakespearean allusions
Research to find the answers to the following questions. You are assigned quote number ___ and you may
choose another quote to research a total of two.
Sources/websites used (list them):
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Assigned quote number ____
1. Which Shakespeare play is this quote from?
Choice quote number ____
1. Which Shakespeare play is this quote from?
2. Which character speaks this line?
2. Which character speaks this line?
3. What is the general context of this quotation in
the Shakespeare play?
3. What is the general context of this quotation in
the Shakespeare play?
4. How does the Savage use the quote in Brave New
World? Does he take the quote out of context? If so,
how?
4. How does the Savage use the quote in Brave New
World? Does he take the quote out of context? If so,
how?
6 When in Doubt, It’s from Shakespeare…
Writers use what is common in a culture as a kind of shorthand. Shakespeare is pervasive,
so he is frequently echoed.See plays as a pattern, either in plot or theme or both. Examples:
i. Hamlet: heroic character, revenge, indecision, melancholy nature
ii. Henry IV—a young man who must grow up to become king, take on his responsibilities
iii. Othello—jealousy
iv. Merchant of Venice—justice vs. mercy
v. King Lear—aging parent, greedy children, a wise fool
Shakespearean allusions
Quote #1, pg. 131
“Nay, but to live
In the rank sweat of an
enseamed bed,
Stew’d in corruption, honeying
and making love
Over the nasty sty…”
Quote #2 pg. 133
“When he is drunk asleep, or in
his rage
Or in the incestuous pleasure of
his bed…”
Quote #3, pg. 139
“How many goodly creatures
are there here! How beauteous
mankind is!
O, brave new world, that has
such people in’t!”
Quote #4 Pg. 144
“Her eyes, her hair, her cheek,
her gait, her voice;
Handlest in thy discourse O!
that her hand,
In whose comparison all whites
are ink
Writing their own reproach; to
whose soft seizure
The cygnet’s down is harsh…”
Quote #5, pg. 178
“Oh! She doth teach the
torches to burn bright.
It seems she hangs upon the
cheek of night,
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s
ear;
Beauty too rich for use, for
earth too dear…”
Quote #6, pg. 183
“Let the bird of loudest lay
On the sole Arabian tree,
Herald sad and trumpet be…”
Quote #7, pg 184
“Is there no pity sitting in the
clouds,
That sees into the bottom of
my grief?
O sweet my mother, cast me
not away:
Delay this marriage for a
month, a week;
Or, if you do not, make the
bridal bed
In that dim monument where
Tybalt lies…”
Quote #8, pg. 192
“The murkiest den, the most
opportune place, the strongest
suggestion our
worser genius can, shall never
melt mine honour into lust.”
Quote #9, pg. 195
“O thou weed, who are so
lovely fair and smell’st so sweet
that the sense
aches at thee. Was this most
goodly book made to write
‘whore’ upon?
Heaven stops the nose at it…”
Quote 10, page 218
“Sometimes a thousand
twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and
sometime voices”
Quote #11, pg. 235
“The gods are just and of our
pleasant vices make
instruments to plague us;
the dark and vicious place
where thee he got cost him his
eyes.”
Quote 12, page 238
“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?"
Quote 13, page 238
“If after every tempest came
such calms, may the winds
blow till they have
wakened death.”
Common Core Standards addressed:
ELACC12RL6: Analyze a case in which grasping
point of view requires distinguishing what is
directly stated in a text from what is really
meant (e.g., satire, sarcasm, irony, or
understatement). ELACC12SL1: Initiate and
participate effectively in a range of
collaborative discussions(one-on-one, in
groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners,
building on others’ ideas and expressing their
own clearly and persuasively. ELACC12RL4:
Determine the meaning of words and phrases
as they are used in the text, including figurative
and connotative meanings; analyze the impact
of specific word choices on meaning and tone,
including words with multiple meanings or
language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or
beautiful. (Include Shakespeare as well as other
authors.)