September 24, 2009: Issue 307
We use William Shakespeare’s words daily, often without knowing it. You’re quoting him when you say “elbowroom,” “cold comfort,” “heart’s desire,” “seen better days,” or “one fell swoop.”
But we often misuse Shakespeare’s words, too. A soothsayer warned Julius Caesar to “beware the ides of March.” We’ll warn you to beware these common mistakes:
Wherefore does not mean where. It means why. Juliet isn’t trying to locate Romeo. She’s asking why he must be Romeo, a Montague, and therefore the sworn enemy of her family. This is the same scene where she asks “What’s in a name?”
“To sleep, perchance to dream” is not a happy bedtime sentiment. When Hamlet says this, he’s contemplating suicide but worrying that, even in death, nightmares could still haunt him. The sleep he’s considering is permanent, so this phrase doesn’t belong in a story about bedspreads. (Be similarly careful with “to be or not to be.” It’s from the same soliloquy, and Hamlet is asking whether he should kill himself.)
We wait with “bated breath,” as Shylock says in The Merchant of Venice, not “baited breath.” Bated means restrained or reduced, from the same root as abate. Shylock is waiting breathlessly—not with worms in his mouth.
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