Elizabethan literature  refers to bodies of work produced during the reign of Queen Elizabeth

I (1558–1603), and is one of the most splendid ages of English literature. During her reign a
London-centred culture, both courtly and popular, produced great poetry and drama. The arts,
including literature, and nationalism thrived during the Elizabethan Age. This was the time of
Queen Elizabeth I of England, and of Shakespeare. The Elizabethan Age can be identified by
the following characteristics:

 This was a time of great experimentation that resulted in wonderful new discoveries
and imposing failures that often became literary topics in both drama and prose.
Science, theology, and the geography were topics of poetry and literature in general.
 Literature in Elizabethan England was heavily influenced by that of Italy, and to a
lesser extent by that of Spain and France.
 Authors during this era came from all of the classes including distinguished courtiers
to poor poets who hung out in local taverns, but invariably all were male.
 Some of the most famous and prolific writers of this period include Sir Philip Sidney,
Edmund Spenser, Roger Ascham, Richard Hooker, Christopher Marlowe, and William
Shakespeare.

William Shakespeare was an actor, playwright, poet, and theatre entrepreneur in London

during the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean eras. He was baptised on 1564[a] in Stratford-
upon-Avon in Warwickshire, England. At age of 18 he married Anne Hathaway with whom
he had three children. He died in his home town of Stratford on 23 April 1616 at the age of
52.Shakespeare’s many works are about life, love, death, revenge, grief, jealousy, murder,
magic and mystery. Some of his most famous are Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Hamlet.

The Plays of William Shakespeare

(In Chronological Order) : 1 Two Gentlemen of Verona   2   Taming of the Shrew   3   Henry
VI,4HenryVI,part3  5   Titus Andronicus   6   Henry VI, part 2   7   Richard III   8   The
Comedy of Errors   9   Love's Labours Lost 10   A Midsummer Night's Dream 11   Romeo
and Juliet 12   Richard II 13   King John 14   The Merchant of Venice 15   Henry IV, part 1 16
The Merry Wives of Windsor 17   Henry IV, part 2 18   Much Ado About Nothing 19   Henry
V 20   Julius Caesar 21   As You Like It 22   Hamlet 23   Twelfth Night 24   Troilus and
Cressida 25   Measure for Measure26   Othello 27   All's Well That Ends Well 28   Timon of
Athens29   The Tragedy of King Lear 30   Macbeth 31   Anthony and Cleopatra 32   Pericles,
Prince of Tyre 33   Coriolanus 34   Winter's Tale 35   Cymbeline 36   The Tempest 37   Henry
VIII

Quotes are from Shakespeare's plays.

• My salad days, when I was green in judgment

      Antony and Cleopatra

• All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,

      As You Like It

      (Referenced in Elvis Presley's song "Are You Lonesome Tonight?")

• Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

• Murder most foul

• Neither a borrower nor a lender be.

• Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio,

  a fellow of infinite jest,

• The undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns.

• The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

• This above all; to thine own self be true.

• To be, or not to be: that is the question.

• O that this too too solid flesh would melt,

  Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!

• Thus conscience does make cowards of us all.

• perchance to dream

• Brevity is the soul of wit

• When we have shuffled off this mortal coil

• . . . The play's the thing

  wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.

• There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,

  than are dreamt of in your philosophy

• What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason.

      Hamlet
      "The Undiscovered Country" is the title of the sixth Star Trek movie.
      "Perchance To Dream" is the title of a "Twilight Zone" episode.
      "The Conscience of the King" is the title of a Star Trek episode.

• The better part of valour is discretion

• He will give the devil his due

      Henry IV - Part I

• He hath eaten me out of house and home

• Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

      Henry IV - Part II

• Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more

      Henry V
      Quoted in the movie "In Like Flint" (1967)

• By that sin fell the angels.

      Henry VIII

• It was Greek to me

• Cowards die many times before their deaths;

the valiant never taste of death but once.

• Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears

• The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves

• Beware the Ides of March

• Cry "havoc!" and let slip the dogs of war

• The evil that men do lives after them;

The good is oft interred with their bones.

      Julius Caesar
      ("The Evil That Men Do" is a 1984 film.)
      ("The Dogs of War" is a 1980 film.)
• How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child!

      King Lear

• Knock, knock! Who's there, in the other devil's name?

• If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well

It were done quickly

• Is this a dagger which I see before me?

• A dagger of the mind, a false creation

• And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

      Macbeth
      "The Sound and the Fury" is a novel by William Faulkner
      "All Our Yesterdays" is the title of a Star Trek episode
      "Dagger of the Mind" is the title of a Star Trek episode and a Columbo episode

• It is a wise father that knows his own child.

• All that glisters is not gold

• The quality of mercy is not strained.

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven

      Merchant of Venice

• Lord, what fools these mortals be!

      A Midsummer Night's Dream

• T'is neither here nor there

• O! Beware, my lord, of jealousy;
It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock
The meat it feeds on ...

      Othello

• ... let us sit upon the ground

And tell sad stories of the death of kings
      Quoted in the movie "In Like Flint" (1967)

• ... he is come to open

The purple testament of bleeding war
      "The Purple Testament" is the title of a "Twilight Zone" episode.

• This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle ...

This fortress built by Nature for herself...
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England
      Quoted in the movie "Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon" (1942)

      Richard II

• A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!

• Now is the winter of our discontent

      Richard III
      ("Winter Of Our Discontent" is also a novel by John Steinbeck)

• ... what light through yonder window breaks?

It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.

• Parting is such sweet sorrow

• She speaks, yet she says nothing

• What's in a name? That which we call a rose

by any other name would smell as sweet.
      Romeo and Juliet

• We are such stuff as dreams are made on

• O brave new world that has such people in it

      The Tempest
      "Brave New World" is the title of a novel by Aldous Huxley
      "The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of" is a song by Carly Simon
      and Humphrey Bogart states this quote in "The Maltese Falcon" (1941)

• If music be the food of love, play on

• Some are born great, some achieve greatness,

and some have greatness thrust upon them

      Twelfth Night

**************************************************************************

Well, you've just read some very familiar quotes and also have seen how some present-day
authors have "borrowed" from Shakespeare.
There have been many major motion pictures that have been based directly on Shakespeare's
plays:

• Romeo and Juliet (1936) (1954) (1966) (1968) (1996)

• Hamlet (1948) (1990) (1996)

and that is a listing that just barely scratches the surface.

There have also been many films based on Shakespearian plays:

• Manchurian Candidate (1961) - Hamlet

• West Side Story (1961) - Romeo and Juliet

• Forbidden Planet (1956) - The Tempest

• 10 Things I Hate About You (1999) - The Taming of the Shrew

• Men of Respect (1991) - Macbeth

Again, that lists a small part of all the films, television shows, books, etc based on
Shakespeare's plays.
Search the Internet and you'll find much more information.

Perhaps one of the more unusual references to Shakespeare is in the Beatles' song "I Am The
Walrus". Listen to the end of the song. What you will hear is a BBC presentation of "King
Lear" and the words are from Act 4 Scene 6 Lines 273 through 281:

If ever thou wilt thrive, bury my body;

And give the letters which thou find'st about me
To Edmund earl of Gloucester; seek him out
Upon the British party: O, untimely death!

I know thee well: a serviceable villain;

As duteous to the vices of thy mistress
As badness would desire.

What, is he dead?

Sit you down, father; rest you

Give it a try. Those particular lines were chosen randomly from a program that just happened
to be airing when the song was being recorded or when the song was in post-production.
Those lines and their references to death, give the ending of that song a certain creepiness.
It's well worth a listen.