PHRASES FIRST INVENTED OR POPULARIZED BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

‘A fool’s paradise’ (Romeo and Juliet)

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‘A tower of strength’ (Richard III)

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‘Breathe one’s last’ (Henry VI, Part 3)

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‘Come full circle’ (King Lear)

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‘Dead as a doornail’ (Henry VI, Part 2)

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‘Eaten me out of house and home’ (Henry IV, Part 2)

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‘Elbow room’ (King John)

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‘Give the devil his due’ (Henry IV, Part 1)

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‘Hoist with his own petard’ (Hamlet)

‘Let slip the dogs of war’ (Julius Caesar)

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‘Love is blind’ (The Merchant of Venice)

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‘Milk of human kindness’ (Macbeth)

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‘My own flesh and blood’ (The Merchant of Venice)

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‘Neither a borrower nor a lender be’ (Hamlet)

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‘Once more unto the breach’ (Henry V)

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‘One fell swoop’ (Macbeth)

‘Murder most foul’ (Hamlet)

‘Play fast and loose’ (Love’s Labour’s Lost)

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‘Something in the wind’ (The Comedy of Errors)

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‘Stood on ceremonies’ (Julius Caesar)

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‘Strange bedfellows’ (The Tempest)

‘The be-all and the end-all’ (Macbeth)

‘The course of true love never did run smooth’ (A Midsummer Night’s Dream)

‘The naked truth’ (Love’s Labour’s Lost)

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‘The world’s mine oyster’ (The Merry Wives of Windsor)

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‘’Tis neither here nor there’ (Othello)

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‘To make a virtue of necessity’ (The Two Gentlemen of Verona)

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‘Too much of a good thing’ (As You Like It)

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‘We are such stuff as dreams are made on’ (The Tempest)

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‘Wear my heart on my sleeve’ (Othello)

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‘What the dickens’ (The Merry Wives of Windsor)

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‘What’s in a name?’ (Romeo and Juliet)