I was surprised to see this one attributed to Shakespeare, but there’s even an Ask Yahoo where somebody says “Is this really Shakespeare?” so apparently it’s out there as being by him.  What’s funny is the “best answer” is “Yes it’s by Shakespeare but I don’t know which play.”

That’s because it’s not by Shakespeare, it’s by Andy Warhol a few hundred years after the fact.

I swear I did not see this article on 20 Classic Closing Lines from Literature when I posted Best Ending Lines.  Who knows, maybe they stole my idea? 🙂 Anyway, what’s interesting about this article is that Mr. Shakespeare *does* appear on the list for a change.  Before looking, anybody want to guess? Because you’ll never guess.  I never would have.  I still don’t understand why they picked the one they did. (True story, I read The Old Man and the Sea when I was in second grade.  I was in the hospital for a period of time, and a well-meaning aunt knew I liked to read. So she brought me some books.  One of them happened to be Hemingway.  <shrug>  Not claiming I understood it, just that I read it.  Guy goes fishing, and it takes him so long and out so far to get the actual fish that by the time he gets home all the other fish have eaten it, right? Something like that. ;))

When we read a play, it’s easy to forget how much knowledge this grants us.  One big example is the names of the characters.  The script may say “Enter Iago” and then Iago begins speaking, but how and when does the audience realize that this guy who just walked onstage is named Iago? It’s not Shakespeare’s problem, it’s every playwright’s problem.  Arguably it’s the problem of every writer of fiction, except for those I suppose that write their story from the perspective of an all-knowing third party (what’s that called, again?) What I’m wondering is, what tricks did Shakespeare use to accomplish this?  How long can you find between the time a character appears on stage, and is given a name?  Spear-carriers don’t count, of course. I thought of this while watching Othello.  Enter Roderigo, who on his second like addresses Iago directly.  But then Roderigo is not called by name until several exchanges later.  If the audience misses it the first time they’re given the pretty obvious one when he shouts to Brabantio, “Do you know my voice? It’s me, Roderigo!” In Hamlet it takes Francisco and Bernardo all of 7 lines to call each other by name.  Bernardo then tells the audience that Horatio and Marcellus should be around any moment, and then they enter. Romeo and Juliet’s interesting – Gregory is called by name in the opening line (by Sampson), but Sampson is actually never referred to by name at all. You get the idea, I hope, of what I’m getting at.  As a playwright do you think Shakespeare consciously thought, “Ok, how and when will I communicate the name of this character to the audience?” or did it just sort of fall out naturally, and however it happened that’s what stuck? We speak so often of him as an immortal poetic genius who planned out every beat of every meter, but what about the more trivial but necessary stuff?

UPDATED September, 2010 – My new book, Hear My Soul Speak : Wedding Quotations from Shakespeare, is available now!

While working on my wedding book I’ve compiled and organized something like 150 “love quotes” by Shakespeare.  This was harder than it might seem, especially if you google the appropriate terms and discover dozens upon dozens of quote databases dedicated to the subject.  The problem is that most of them simply search the works for words like “love” and then say “Aha, a love quote!”
That’s not really good enough, is it?  I don’t expect that people searching for love quotes want to see something like “The course of true love never did run smooth.”  True, it’s a love quote. By Shakespeare.  But it’s not exactly romantic.
To balance out this trend I’d like to anchor some “love quotes” here, compiled by we fans of the bard who’ll pick only the best of the best.  Quality, people.  Not quantity.
Personally I like those quotes that are in a form where someone could say it to someone else.  The romantic stuff. Like these:

“I will swear I love thee infinitely.”  – Henry IV Part 1
“I will live in thy heart, die in thy lap, and be buried in thy eyes.” – Much Ado About Nothing
“I would not wish any companion in the world but you.” – The Tempest
“Sweet, above thought I love thee.” – Troilus and Cressida
“I do love nothing in the world so well as you.” – Much Ado About Nothing

(Long time fans will know that I had that first one engraved on an infinity bracelet for my wife).  I particularly like that Tempest one because the word love is nowhere to be found. So simple text searching won’t do it, you actually have to pay attention to what’s being said.
On the topic of love in general, there’s a couple I like just as well:

“If music be the food of love, play on.” – Twelfth Night
“Love is a spirit all compact of fire.” – Venus and Adonis

Anybody else got some favorites?