ShmoopTube

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Words, Words, Words, a la Shmoop. Ever wonder why so many people consider Shakespeare

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to be the greatest writer of the English language?

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It wasn't because he was so prolific, producing comic, tragic, and historical plays, as well

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as poetry.

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It wasn't because his works deal with the full spectrum of human emotions.

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It wasn't because he authored plays where characters drop like flies.

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Nope. The reason why every English department in the country has a shrine dedicated to Shakespeare…

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…is because the Bard of Avon had a gift for words.

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Words, words, words. Shakespeare knew them backwards and forwards, and he used them in

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a variety of ways.

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For instance, he was famous for giving his characters dramatic speeches.

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There’s the Saint Crispin's Day Speech in Henry V, where the title character rouses

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his tired troops to kick French butt and take French names at the Battle of Agincourt.<<adj-in-court>>

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Shakespeare’s sonnets, too, contain beautiful, poetic language that has appealed to romantics

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for centuries.

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His Sonnet 116, where he writes that “love is not love which alters when its alteration

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finds”…

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…was a central piece of dialogue in the 1995 film adaptation of Sense and Sensibility,

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starring… Severus Snape and Professor Trelawney. Most incredibly, Shakespeare's gift for words

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allowed him to create thousands of words and phrases that we still use today.

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Now, we know what you're thinking: anyone can come up with a new word or phrase.

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Didn't American soldiers during World War Two add FUBAR, SNAFU, and TARFU to the lexicon?

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Didn't a BBC political satire invent the word “omnishambles?”

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While it's true that new words and phrases regularly make their way into the English

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language, the sheer number of Shakespeare's contributions is incredible.

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Have you ever been “critical” or even a little “obscene”?

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Have you ever thought that your “manager” wasn't very “fashionable?”

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All Shakespeare words. That guy really knew how to string letters together.

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Phrases, too, were a Shakespearean specialty, and you've probably used many of his creations

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in everyday conversation.

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Have you ever played “fast and loose” with the truth, like the time you told your

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math teacher that the dog ate your homework?

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Do you eat Thanksgiving dinner with your “flesh and blood”? Hopefully you don't eat them

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for Thanksgiving. There are laws about that sort of thing.

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“Fast and loose”, “flesh and blood”, “green-eyed jealousy”, “devil incarnate”,

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“foul play”, and “one fell swoop”… all coined by Shakespeare.

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So next time you think your Shakespeare-loving English teacher is living in a “fool's paradise”...

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...think again. It's pretty much a “foregone conclusion” that you're quoting Shakespeare,

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and that's… “the long and short of it”.

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