42 Of The Most Brilliant Shakespeare Quotes From The Play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”
“William Shakespeare, the Chandos Portrait, 1610“, by Royal Opera House Covent Garden, is licensed under Public Domain
William Shakespeare was a renowned English poet, playwright, and actor born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon. He has become the most famous and influential author in English literature. Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England’s national poet and nicknamed the Bard of Avon. Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. He wrote about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, of which the authorship of some is uncertain. Shakespeare’s writing developed and evolved throughout his career. Scholars often divide his work into periods based on different aspects of his writing style.
He died within a month of signing his will, a document which he begins by describing himself as being in “perfect health”. In his will, Shakespeare left the bulk of his large estate to his elder daughter Susanna. Shakespeare was buried in the chancel of the Holy Trinity Church two days after his death. He retired from writing in 1613 and died three years later at the age of fifty-two. Most of his works were published posthumously in 1623. Shakespeare’s plays remain highly popular today and are constantly studied, performed, and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream Quotes
“For aught that I could ever read,
Could ever hear by tale or history,
The course of true love never did run smooth.”
A Midsummer-Night’s Dream [1595-1596], I, i, 132
“A calendar, a calendar! look in the almanack; find out moonshine.”
A Midsummer-Night’s Dream [1595-1596], III, i, 55
“And there the snake throws her enamelled skin,
Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in.”
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595–6) act 2, sc. 1, l. 255
“The fold stands empty in the drowned field,
And crows are fatted with the murrain flock;
The nine men’s morris is filled up with mud.”
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595–6) act 2, sc. 1, l. 96
“With the help of a surgeon, he might yet recover, and prove an ass.”
“With the help of a surgeon, he might yet recover, and prove an ass.”
“God shield us!—a lion among ladies, is a most dreadful thing; for there is not a more fearful wild-fowl than your lion living.”
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595–6) act 3, sc. 1, l. [32]
“The most lamentable comedy, and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisby.”
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595–6) act 1, sc. 2, l. [11]
“Come, trusty sword,
Come, blade, my breast imbrue!”
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595)
“Truly, a peck of provender: I could munch your good dry oats. Methinks I have a great desire to a bottle of hay: good hay, sweet hay, hath no fellow.”
A Midsummer-Night’s Dream [1595-1596], IV, i, 36
“To live a barren sister all your life,
Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon.”
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595–6) act 1, sc. 1, l. 72
“Lovers and madmen have such seething brains Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend More than cool reason ever comprehends.”
A Midsummer Nights Dream: Side by Sides (ed. Prestwick House Inc, 2003) – ISBN: 9781580495141
“What hempen home-spuns have we swaggering here,
So near the cradle of the fairy queen?”
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595–6) act 3, sc. 1, l. [82]
“I never heard
So musical a discord, such sweet thunder.”
A Midsummer-Night’s Dream [1595-1596], IV, i, 123
“My Oberon! what visions have I seen!
Methought I was enamoured of an ass.”
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595–6) act 4, sc. 1, l. [82]
“I could play Ercles rarely, or a part to tear a cat in, to make all split.”
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595–6) act 1, sc. 2, l. [31]
“Jack shall have Jill;
Nought shall go ill;
The man shall have his mare again,
And all shall be well.”
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595–6) act 3, sc. 2, l. 461
“Bless thee, Bottom! bless thee! thou art translated.”
A Midsummer-Night’s Dream [1595-1596], III, i, 124
“This passion, and the death of a dear friend, would go near to make a man look sad.”
A Midsummer-Night’s Dream, V, i, 295
“I’ll put a girdle round about the earth
In forty minutes.”
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595–6) act 2, sc. 1, l. 175
“The clamorous owl, that nightly hoots, and wonders At our quaint spirits.”
A Midsummer-Night’s Dream [1595-1596], II, ii, 6
“Night and silence! who is here?
Weeds of Athens he doth wear.”
A Midsummer-Night’s Dream [1595-1596], II, ii, 70
“Pyramus is a sweet-faced man; a proper man, as one shall see in a summer’s day.”
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595–6) act 1, sc. 2, l. [89]
“I have a reasonable good ear in music: let us have the tongs and the bones.”
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595–6)
“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.”
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595–6) act 1, sc. 1, l. 234
“A proper man, as one shall see in a summer’s day; a most lovely, gentleman-like man.”
A Midsummer-Night’s Dream [1595-1596], I, ii, 89
“Nay, faith, let me not play a woman; I have a beard coming.”
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595–6) act 1, sc. 2, l. [50]
“I have an exposition of sleep come upon me.”
A Midsummer-Night’s Dream [1595-1596], IV, i, 44
“Merry and tragical! tedious and brief!
That is, hot ice and wondrous strange snow.”
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595–6) act 5, sc. 1, l. 58
“The best in this kind are but shadows, and the worst are no worse, if imagination amend them.”
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595–6) act 5, sc. 1, l. [215]0
“Or in the night, imagining some fear,
How easy is a bush supposed a bear!”
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595–6) act 5, sc. 1, l. 21
“Follow? Nay, I’ll go with thee, cheek by jowl.”
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595)
“Thus I die. Thus, thus, thus. Now I am dead, Now I am fled, My soul is in the sky. Tongue, lose thy light. Moon take thy flight. Now die, die, die, die.”
A Midsummer Nights Dream: Side by Sides (ed. Prestwick House Inc, 2003) – ISBN: 9781580495141
You can also read 50 Exceptional William Shakespeare Quotes from Othello.
