Famous Shakespeare Examples

Discover the art of translation between modern English and Shakespearean style. See how contemporary language transforms into the eloquent, poetic voice of the Bard.

Modern English

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the heart.

Shakespearean Style

Love beholdeth not with the eyes, but with the heart.

Modern English

Parting is such sweet sorrow.

Shakespearean Style

Parting is such a sweet sorrow.

Modern English

The world is a stage, and we all are actors.

Shakespearean Style

The world's a stage, and we all players upon it.

Modern English

All that glitters is not gold.

Shakespearean Style

All that glistereth is not gold.

Modern English

The course of true love never runs smooth.

Shakespearean Style

The course of true love never did run smooth.

Modern English

To be, or not to be, that is the question: whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles.

Shakespearean Style

To be, or not to be: that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles.

Modern English

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, and summer's lease hath all too short a date.

Shakespearean Style

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date.

Modern English

If music be the food of love, play on, give me excess of it; that, surfeiting, the appetite may sicken, and so die.

Shakespearean Style

If music be the food of love, play on; give me excess of it, that surfeiting, the appetite may sicken, and so die.

Modern English

O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name; or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, and I'll no longer be a Capulet.

Shakespearean Style

O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name; Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, And I'll no longer be a Capulet.

Modern English

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.

Shakespearean Style

Good friends, sweet Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interrèd with their bones.