Category: Not By Shakespeare

Shakespeare is widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the English language. His works, which include plays, sonnets, and poems, have been read, performed, and studied for centuries. However, it’s a well-known fact that many things on the internet are attributed to Shakespeare to improve their popularity, even though there is no evidence that Shakespeare was the original author.

While Shakespeare’s influence on English literature is undeniable, it’s important to remember that not everything on the internet that is attributed to him was actually written by him. Many works, including poems, quotes, and sayings, are falsely attributed to him in order to increase their popularity or perceived value. As with any information found on the internet, it’s important to do your own research and verify the sources before accepting something as true.

The earth has music for those who listen.

~ duane ~ 9 Comments

Also “The earth has music for those who will listen,” “The earth has its music for those who listen,” and so on.

This one is easily mistaken as Shakespeare because the words remind us of “If music be the food of love play on” while the sentiment closely echoes Caliban’s “Be not afeard, the isle is full of noises, sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.”


However, this one is George Santayana:

“The earth has its music for those who will listen,
Its bright variations forever abound;
With all the wonders that God has bequeathed us,
There is nothing that thrills like the magic of sound.”

Thanks to “That’s Not Shakespeare,” who looks to be as upset about misattributed Shakespeare as I am 🙂

UPDATED September 8, 2014: I was asked to provide a citation that this is Santayana. And you know what? I can’t. It’s quite possible that this quote has fallen victim to that same logic that gets us so many “Not by Shakespeare” quotes, where you find a couple of blogs saying something so it must be true.  I can’t speak for the entirety of Santayana’s work but I can safely say that it’s definitely not in Shakespeare’s work. If anybody can cite exactly where it occurs, we’d all be very grateful!

UPDATED August 2018:  Several commenters below point us to Reginald Holmes in his collection “Fireside Fancies”.  Have we finally solved it??

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When a father gives to his son, both laugh; when a son gives to his father, both cry.

~ duane ~ 2 Comments

As I work on ShakeShare, my Shakespeare Quotes app for the iPhone, I’m constantly scanning for new quotes. It is, as you might imagine, very important to me to cite every quote correctly. How could I look myself in the mirror if I let a Not By Shakespeare slip in there?

Today I found this one. Honestly I don’t even understand it. And I am a father to a son. 🙂

All I can find are references to this one as a “Jewish proverb.” Anybody got a definitive database of those??

How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count The Ways

~ duane ~ 8 Comments

I admit that a long time ago I thought this was from Shakespeare, alongside “Tis better to have loved and lost…”  Now I know better, but that doesn’t mean that word has spread.

No, this is not by William Shakespeare.  It is in fact Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnets from the Portuguese – Sonnet 43, in fact:

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,—I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!—and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

[Source]

This is actually a nice reminder that the art of the sonnet neither began nor ended with Mr. Shakespeare.  Others were pretty good at it, too.

 

I Would Challenge You To A Battle Of Wits But I See You Are Unarmed

~ duane ~ 8 Comments

When I spotted this “battle of wits” quote as attributed to Shakespeare, I immediately thought of the closest thing I could remember, Beatrice’s zinger in Benedick’s general direction in Much Ado About Nothing:

Beatrice
  1. Alas! he gets nothing by that. In our last
  2. conflict four of his five wits went halting off, and
  3. now is the whole man governed with one: so that if
  4. he have wit enough to keep himself warm, let him
  5. bear it for a difference between himself and his
  6. horse; for it is all the wealth that he hath left,
  7. to be known a reasonable creature. Who is his
  8. companion now? He hath every month a new sworn brother.

[Citation :  Much Ado about Nothing – Act 1, Scene 1. Lines: 56 ]

This ends up pretty close.  Roughly translated, “In our last battle of wits he lost most of his, and now he’s only left with one, so I’m going to let him keep it so people can tell the difference between him and his horse.”

Is it even possible to give proper attribution to the quote in question, though?  It seems like the generic sort of thing that many people have thought of over the years.

The best answer, I think, came from the ChaCha board.  Every now and then, for one of these quotes, I’ll see someone who has asked, “What play is that from?”  Because, as a general rule, if the quote always says “Shakespeare” but never says the play?  That means he never said it.  Anyway, somebody asks what play this wits quote is from.  The answer that came back was, and I’m not making this up, “It’s not in a play.  William Shakespeare the person said it.”

Oh.  Dear ChaCha answerer, if you have access to documents written by Mr. Shakespeare that the rest of us don’t know about, please share!  You could be a very, very rich person.

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