When something is in the wind, it blows from the lips of Antipholus of Ephesus in “Comedy of Errors.” When someone won’t budge an inch, the role model is Christopher Sly in “The Taming of the Shrew.” The naked truth comes from the words of Armado in “Love’s Labours Lost.”
If something is Greek to you, you’re echoing the words of Casca in “Julius Caesar.” If you note that brevity is the soul of wit, if you proclaim “a plague on both your houses,” if you suit the action to the word, or if the world is your oyster, you’re borrowing from the bard. And you could keep the cliches rolling forever and a day, to quote Orlando in “As You Like It.”
“To the Manner,” Not “To the Manor
Some Shakespearean sayings are often honored in the breach, as Hamlet would say. For instance, what writer hasn’t wondered whether it was correct to say “to the manor born” or “to the manner born”? The two words are pronounced alike, but the spelling you choose will tell whether you’re up on your Shakespeare.
"To the manner born" is the way Hamlet put it in Shakespeare’s play. He meant that he was acquainted with the drinking habits exhibited by his ghostly father because they were part of the Danish culture into which he was born. But many a writer has penned “to the manor born.” Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage maintains that “to the manor born” implies that a person was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and notes approvingly that Reader’s Digest had used it in that sense.
“If someone intends a meaning that is not Shakespeare’s, why use Shakesperare’s spelling?” it reasons.
Hoist by One’s Own Petard
Many a writer has written that someone was “hoist by his own petard” without a clear understanding of what a petard is or how it hoists someone. A Scripps-Howard writer once described the Obama administration as being “hung by its own petard.”
It’s hard to imagine anyone being hung by a petard. A petard is an explosive device used in Medieval times to blast through doors and gates. If it malfunctioned, its user might be blown, or “hoisted” skyhigh. The original verb was “hoise,” and “hoist” was its past tense.
Hamlet used the expression to describe a scheme that backfired on the schemers: Two companions were accompanying him to England, carrying a letter that was actually Hamlet’s death warrant. Suspecting the plot, Hamlet secretly altered the letter so that the companions carried orders for their own executions. So “hoist by his own petard” came to mean “victimized by his own scheme to harm someone else.”
Nobody Holds a Candle to the Bard
Other Shakespearean expressions that populate our everyday speech and writing include “fight to the last gasp,” “off with his head!” “One for all, all for one,” “Love is blind,” “hold a candle to . . .,” “sink or swim,” “All’s well that ends well,” “much ado about nothing,” “the green-eyed monster” (jealousy), “the short and the long of it,” “one fell swoop,” and “salad days.”
Cliches are handy crutches for lazy writers who, in the words of Shakespeare’s Marc Antony, “have neither wit, nor words, nor worth.” But if you’re looking for a crafter of cliches to borrow from, nobody holds a candle to the Bard.
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