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.