1. Of the twenty-eight expressions given here that were fi rst spoken in a Shakespearean play, count how many you have used or have heard other people use.
as dead as a doornail all’s well that ends well a foregone conclusion a laughing stock a wild goose chase a sorry sight cruel to be kind
eaten out of house and home fair play
fl esh and blood green-eyed monster high time
I have not slept one wink in stitches
what’s done is done off with his head
wear your heart on your sleeve heart of gold
lie low more fool you
neither here nor there vanish into thin air the game is up who’s in, who’s out a tower of strength brave new world break the ice
for goodness’ sake 2. Try to match the Shakespearean line with a modern translation.
Shakespearean Line 1. All’s well that ends well.
2. There’s daggers in men’s smiles.
3. Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice.
4. We are such stuff as dreams are made on/and our little life is rounded on a sleep.
5. I like not fair terms and a villain’s mind.
6. Let me be that I am and seek not to alter me.
7. Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind.
8. I have touched the highest point of all my greatness;/ I haste now to my setting: I shall fall/ Like a bright exhalation in the evening.
9. What’s the matter,/ That you have such a February face?
10. The evil that men do lives after them/ The good is oft interred with their bones.
Modern Translation
A. Don’t try to change me. I want to be myself.
B. Guilty people always feel watched.
C. I was a famous star, but I will soon be a forgotten nobody.
D. Do more listening than talking.
E. People seem to be all charm, but behind it they are planning evil.
F. I’m very suspicious when a sly person seems to be offering a good deal.
G. No matter what happened before, if it ends OK then all is OK.
H. People remember the awful things that someone did, they often forget the good.
I. What’s wrong, why are you looking so cold and angry?
