The Reactionary Utopian
                    February 22, 2007


FINE-FILED PHRASES
by Joe Sobran

     In 1598, Francis Meres praised "mellifluous and 
honey-tongued Shakespeare." He added, "The Muses would 
speak with Shakespeare's fine-filed phrase, if they would 
speak English."

     To celebrate my birthday this week, I've gathered a 
bouquet of Shakespeare's short phrases, hoping especially 
that young readers will fall in love with his astonishing 
inspiration, as I once did. (Notice how much he can say 
in ten words or fewer.)

     "Wherefore art thou Romeo?"; "My kingdom for a 
horse!"; "To be or not to be: that is the question"; 
"Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears"; "What 
fools these mortals be!"; "Shall I compare thee to a 
summer's day?"; "to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to 
nature"; "star-crossed lovers"; "There's a divinity that 
shapes our ends"; "murder most foul"; "the most unkindest 
cut of all"; "the thousand natural shocks that flesh is 
heir to."

     "There's beggary in the love that can be reckoned"; 
"flaming youth"; "remembrance of things past"; "We have 
scotched the snake, not killed it"; "a countenance more 
in sorrow than in anger"; "one fell swoop"; "The play's 
the thing"; "in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes"; 
"The rest is silence"; "I have supped full with horrors"; 
"I'll tent him to the quick."

     "I do believe her though I know she lies"; "These 
are but wild and whirling words"; "tongue-tied"; 
"nine-day wonder"; "to thine own self be true"; "One 
touch of nature makes the whole world kin"; "screw your 
courage to the sticking-place"; "honest Iago"; "more 
matter with less art"; "Out, damned spot!"; "a barefaced 
lie"; "the best of the cut-throats"; "Once more unto the 
breach"; "it was Greek to me"; "Uneasy lies the head that 
wears a crown"; "He jests at scars that never felt a 
wound."

     "I shall not look upon his like again"; "a lean and 
hungry look"; "the time is out of joint"; "cabined, 
cribbed, confined"; "one may smile, and smile, and be a 
villain"; "a fool's paradise"; "I must be cruel, only to 
be kind"; "my salad days, When I was green in judgment"; 
"I dare do all that may become a man."

     "Frailty, thy name is woman"; "the paragon of 
animals"; "wild-goose chase"; "the apparel oft proclaims 
the man"; "a pound of flesh"; "caviar to the general"; "I 
have Immortal longings in me"; "in my mind's eye"; "to 
the manner born"; "trumpet-tongued"; "one that loved not 
wisely, but too well"; "This was the noblest Roman of 
them all."

     "Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all"; "the 
demi-Atlas of the earth"; "It out-Herods Herod"; "bare 
ruined choirs where late the sweet birds sang"; "For 
Brutus is an honorable man"; "Something is rotten in the 
state of Denmark"; "What's in a name?" "Alas, poor 
Yorick"; "Et tu, Brute?" "The quality of mercy is not 
strained"; "the very witching time of night"; "Cry 
'Havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war."

     "What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba?" "more 
sinned against than sinning"; "tell truth and shame the 
devil"; "Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought"; 
"speak daggers to her"; "the marriage of true minds"; 
"Sweets to the sweet"; "the milk of human kindness"; "A 
plague o' both your houses"; "brevity is the soul of 
wit"; "Now is the winter of our discontent"; "I am but 
mad north-northwest."

     "The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose"; "A 
little more than kin, and less than kind"; "On horror's 
head horrors accumulate"; "make assurance double-sure"; 
"The lady doth protest too much, methinks"; "that way 
madness lies"; "Words, words, words"; "a dish fit for the 
gods"; "A king of shreds and patches"; "every inch a 
king"; "in my heart of heart"; "Hath not a Jew eyes?" 
"Make Ossa like a wart"; "We happy few, we band of 
brothers"; "a foregone conclusion"; "a very palpable 
hit"; "This royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle"; 
"The course of true love never did run smooth."

     "I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him"; "Lay on, 
Macduff"; "wear my heart upon my sleeve"; "Beware the 
Ides of March"; "a custom more honored in the breach than 
the observance"; "Parting is such sweet sorrow"; "the 
green-eyed monster"; "Nothing in his life Became him like 
the leaving it"; "O, for a muse of fire"; "All the 
world's a stage"; "Though this be madness, yet there is 
method in 't"; "If you have tears, prepare to shed them 
now"; "hoist by his own petard"; "Sweet are the uses of 
adversity"; "household words."

     It seems miraculous that one man could coin so many 
brilliant turns of phrase. No other author has ever been 
so fertile, versatile, and joyfully, inexhaustibly 
eloquent.

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