The following is a partially complete list of titles of works taken from Shakespearean phrases. It is organized by type of work. Some titles appear in multiple categories and are marked with ++. Note that this is not the place to list film or television adaptations of Shakespeare's plays; the List of William Shakespeare screen adaptations exists for that purpose.
Drama
- Antony and Cleopatra
- Salad Days, musical by Julian Slade
- As You Like It
- All the World's a Grave: A New Play by William Shakespeare by John Reed (novelist)
- As You like It by Natyaguru Nurul Momen (The pioneer Bangla playwright)
- Hamlet:
- Perchance to Dream animation by Lauren Kimball
- Perchance to Dream musical by Ivor Novello (III.i)
- The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie (III.ii)
- Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard (V.ii)
- Cue for Passion by Elmer Rice (II.ii)
- Much Ado About Nothing
- Sigh No More, musical revue by Noël Coward and others (II.iii)
- Othello
- Journey's End by R. C. Sherriff (V.ii) (also occurs in Twelfth Night (II.iii))
- Passing Strange, musical by Stew (I.iii)
- The Sonnets
- Fortune and Men's Eyes (two different plays) (XXIX)
- The Tempest
- The Isle Is Full of Noises by Derek Walcott (III.ii)
- Twelfth Night
- Present Laughter by Noël Coward (II.iii)
- Improbable Fiction by Alan Ayckbourn (II.iii)
Film
- As You Like It:
- Under the Greenwood Tree, 1918 film (II.v)
- Under the Greenwood Tree, 1929 film
- All the World's a Stooge, 1941 short by The Three Stooges (play on âAll the worldâs a stage...â, II.vii)
- Hamlet
- Murder Most Foul, 1964 film with Agatha Christie's Miss Marple (I.v)
- Leave Her to Heaven, 1945 20th Century Fox adaptation of Williams novel with Gene Tierney (I.v)
- North by Northwest, 1959 film by Alfred Hitchcock (II.ii)
- To Be or Not to Be, 1942 film (remade in 1983 by Mel Brooks). (III.i)
- Outrageous Fortune, 1987 film written by Leslie Dixon (III.i)
- What Dreams May Come, 1998 adaptation of Matheson novel (III.i)
- The Undiscovered Country, 1991 Star Trek film (III.i)
- Alas! Poor Yorick!, 1913 film starring Fatty Arbuckle (V.i)
- Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, 1990 adaptation of Stoppard play (V.ii)
- The Rest Is Silence, 1959 film (V.ii)
- The Rest Is Silence, 2007 film
- Henry IV, Part 2
- Chimes at Midnight, 1965 film by Orson Welles (III.ii)
- Julius Caesar
- Cry 'Havoc', 1943 MGM film with Margaret Sullavan (III.i)
- The Dogs of War, 1980 film (III.iii)
- The Evil That Men Do (film) (III.ii)
- The Serpent's Egg (film)++ (II.i)
- The Ides of March (film)
- King John
- Twice-Told Tales, 1963 film (III.iv)
- Macbeth
- Mortal Thoughts, 1991 film (I.v)
- Something Wicked This Way Comes, 1983 film (IV.i)
- The Sound and the Fury, 1959 film (V.v)
- The Merchant of Venice
- The Quality of Mercy (Hasenjagd â" Vor lauter Feigheit gibt es kein Erbarmen), 1994 Austrian film
- The Quality of Mercy 2002 film, starring Mary-Louise Parker
- A Midsummer Night's Dream
- Ill Met by Moonlight, 1957 film by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (II.i)
- Ill Met by Moonlight, 1994 film by S. P. Somtow (II.i)
- Richard II
- The Demi-Paradise, 1943 film with Laurence Olivier (II.i)
- Richard III
- The Winter of Our Discontent, 1983 TV movie of Steinbeck novel. (I.i)
- Where Eagles Dare, 1967 film (I.iii)
- The Sonnets
- Fortune and Men's Eyes, 1971 adaptation of John Herbert's play (XXIX)
- The Tempest
- Full Fathom Five, 1990 film (I.ii)
- Rough Magic, 1995 film with Russell Crowe and Bridget Fonda
- Rich and Strange, 1931 film by Alfred Hitchcock (I.ii)
- Troilus and Cressida
- Good Riddance, 1979 film (II.i)
- The Winter's Tale:
- Fresh Horses, 1988 film by David Anspaugh
- Other
- The Passionate Pilgrim,1984 film with Eric Morecambe (from The Passionate Pilgrim, the title of a 16th-century anthology attributed to Shakespeare)
Music
- Anthony and Cleopatra
- Salad Days, album by Adrian Belew
- Salad Days, EP by Minor Threat
- As You Like It
- As You Like It, album by Friedrich Gulda
- All the World's a Stage, album by Rush (II.vii)
- Hamlet
- What a Piece of Work Is Man, song in the musical Hair (II.ii)
- Infinite Jest, album by We Are The Fury (V.i)
- The Rest Is Silence, 1996 album by Randy (V.ii)
- This Mortal Coil, a project led by Ivo Watts-Russell (III.i)
- Henry V
- Band of Brothers, 2009 album by Only Men Aloud! (IV.iii)
- Band of Brothers, 2012 album by Hellyeah (IV.iii)
- Julius Caesar
- "The Dogs of War", song by Pink Floyd (III.i)
- Dogs of War, album by Saxon (III.i)
- "Beware the Ides of March", song by Colosseum
- Macbeth
- The Moon is Down, album by Further Seems Forever (II.i)
- Something Wicked This Way Comes, album by Iced Earth (IV.i)
- Something Wicked This Way Comes, album by The Herbaliser
- "Something Wicked (This Way Comes)", a song by Siouxsie & the Banshees from the B-side of The Killing Jar
- Something Bitchin' This Way Comes, album by Lock Up
- Something Green and Leafy This Way Comes, album by SNFU
- "Something Wicked", song by 2Pac from album 2pacalypse Now.
- Something Wicked, album by Nuclear Assault
- The Merchant of Venice
- The Quality of Mercy, album by Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel.
- "The Quality of Mercy is not Strnen" album by The Mekons.
- "Quality of Mercy", song by Michelle Shocked.
- Much Ado About Nothing
- Sigh No More, album by Dog Age (II.iii)
- Sigh No More, album by Gamma Ray
- Sigh No More, album by Mumford and Sons
- Othello
- The Beast with Two Backs, album by Inkubus Sukkubus (I.i)
- Pomp and Circumstance Marches by Edward Elgar++ (III.iii)
- Richard III
- Now Is The Winter Of Our Discothèque, album by Princess Superstar (parody of "Now is the winter of our discontent...", I.i)
- Where Eagles Dare, song by Iron Maiden (I.iii)
- Romeo and Juliet
- A Rose by Any Other Name, 1975 album by Ronnie Milsap (II.ii)
- The Sonnets
- ...Nothing Like the Sun, album by Sting (CXXX)
- The Tempest
- Full Fathom Five, album by Clutch (I.ii)
- Hell Is Empty and All the Devils Are Here, album by Anaal Nathrakh (I.ii)
- Sea Change, album by Beck (I.ii)
- Troilus and Cressida
- "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)", song by Green Day (II.i)
Novels, short stories and nonfiction
- A Midsummer Night's Dream
- A Midsummer Night's Gene by Andrew Harman (title)
- Ill Met by Moonlight by W. Stanley Moss (II.i)
- Zettels Traum ("Bottom's Dream") by Arno Schmidt (IV,i)
- Antony and Cleopatra
- Her Infinite Variety by Louis Auchincloss (II.ii)
- Music Ho! by Constant Lambert (II.v)
- Beds in the East by Anthony Burgess (II.vi)
- Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers (III.xiii)
- As You Like It
- Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy (II.v)
- And All the Stars a Stage by James Blish (from "All the world's a stage", II.vii)
- The Lie Direct by Sara Woods (V.iv)
- Coriolanus
- The Exile Kiss by George Alec Effinger (from "O! a kiss / Long as my exile", V:iii)
- Hamlet
- Too, Too Solid Flesh by Nick O'Donohoe (I.ii)
- This Above All by Eric Knight (I.iii)
- Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde (I.iv)
- The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton; Edmund Crispin (I.iv)
- There are More Things by Jorge Luis Borges (I.v)
- More Things in Heaven by John Brunner (I.v)
- And Be a Villain by Rex Stout (I.v)
- The Celestial Bed by Irving Wallace (I.v)
- Time Out of Joint by Philip K. Dick (I.v)
- Murder Most Foul used by several different mystery writers (I.v)
- Leave Her to Heaven by Ben Ames Williams (I.v)
- Method â" Or Madness? by Robert Lewis (II.ii)
- How Like an Angel by Margaret Millar (II.ii)
- How Like a God by Brenda Clough (II.ii)
- Her Privates We by Frederic Manning (II.ii); also published as The Middle Parts of Fortune: Somme and Ancre, 1916, referring to the same section of II.ii: 'On fortune's cap we are not the very button ...Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of her favours?' [1]
- "2BR02B" by Kurt Vonnegut (III.i)
- What Dreams May Come by Richard Matheson (III.i)
- This Mortal Coil by Cynthia Asquith (III.i)
- Mortal Coils by Aldous Huxley and Immortal Coil by Jeffrey Lang (III.i)
- Perchance to Dream by Robert B. Parker, Howard Weinstein (Star Trek: The Next Generation novel) and Perforce to Dream by John Wyndham [2] (III.i)
- With a bare bodkin by Cyril Hare (III.i)
- The Name of Action by Graham Greene (III.i)
- All My Sins Remembered by Joe Haldeman (III.i)
- Single Spies by Alan Bennett (IV.v)
- Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace (V.i)
- Put on by Cunning by Ruth Rendell (V.ii)
- Henry IV, part 1
- Tarry and Be Hanged by Sara Woods (I.ii)
- Time Must Have a Stop by Aldous Huxley (V.iv)
- Henry V
- So Vile a Sin by Ben Aaronovitch & Kate Orman (II.iv)
- Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose (IV.iii)
- Henry VIII
- The Long Divorce by Edmund Crispin (II.i)
- Julius Caesar
- The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (from "The fault, dear Brutus is not in our stars", I.ii)
- This Little Measure by Sara Woods (III.i)
- The Dogs of War by Frederick Forsyth (III.i)
- The Evil that Men Do by Nancy Holder++ (III.ii)
- There is a Tide by Agatha Christie (also known as Taken at the Flood) (IV.iii)
- On Such a Full Sea by Chang-Rae Lee (IV.iii)
- King John
- Twice-Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne (III.iv)
- England Have My Bones by T.H. White (from "Heaven take my soul, and England keep my bones", IV.iii)
- King Lear
- "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" by Robert Browning (III.iv)
- The Lake of Darkness by Ruth Rendell (III.v)
- Every Inch a King by Harry Turtledove (IV.vi)
- Speak What We Feel (Not What We Ought To Say) by Frederick Buechner (V.iii)
- Macbeth
- Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett (I.iii, etc.)
- The Seeds of Time by John Wyndham (I.iii)
- Fatal Vision by Joe McGinniss (II.i)
- The Moon is Down by John Steinbeck (II.i)
- Wash This Blood Clean from My Hand by Fred Vargas (II:ii)
- A Heart So White by Javier MarÃas (II.ii)
- Light Thickens by Ngaio Marsh (III.ii)
- Let It Come Down by Paul Bowles (III.iii)
- Fire, Burn! by John Dickson Carr (IV.i)
- Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble by H. P. Mallory (IV.i)
- A Charm of Powerful Trouble by Joanne Horniman (IV.i)
- By the Pricking of My Thumbs by Agatha Christie (IV.i)
- Something Wicked this Way Comes by Ray Bradbury (IV.i)
- Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Charles Sheffield (V.v)
- "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" by Kurt Vonnegut (V.v)
- All My Yesterdays by Cecil Lewis++ (from "all our yesterdays", V.v)
- Brief Candles by Aldous Huxley (from "Out, out, brief candle!", V.v)
- The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner (from "it is a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing.", V.v)
- Taste of Fears by Margaret Millar (V.v)
- The Way to Dusty Death by Alistair MacLean (V.v)
- Tutti i nostri ieri (All Our Yesterdays) or A Light for Fools (American title) by Natalia Ginzburg (V.v)
- The Merchant of Venice
- The Quality of Mercy autobiography of Mercedes McCambridge, and others (IV.i)
- "A Pound of Flesh" by Thane Rosenbaum (chapter from Rosenbaum's book The Myth of Moral Justice)
- The Serpent of Venice by Christopher Moore
- Othello
- Passing Strange by Catherine Aird (I.iii)
- Nothing if Not Critical by Robert Hughes (II.i)
- Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve (III.iii)
- Mortal Engines by StanisÅaw Lem (III.iii)
- Pomp and Circumstance by Noël Coward++ (III.iii)
- Richer Than All His Tribe by Nicholas Monsarrat (V.ii)
- Richard II
- Bid Time Return by Richard Matheson (III.ii)
- This Blessed Plot by Hugo Young
- Richard III
- The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck (I.i)
- Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me by Javier MarÃas (V:iii)
- Romeo and Juliet
- What's in a Name? by Isaac Asimov (II.ii)
- Inconstant Moon by Larry Niven (II.ii)
- The Sonnets
- The Darling Buds of May by H. E. Bates++ (XVIII)
- Chronicles of Wasted Time by Malcolm Muggeridge (CVI)
- The Pebbled Shore by Elizabeth Longford (LX)
- Summer's Lease by John Mortimer (XVIII)
- Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust (only in English translation) (XXX)
- Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm (LXXIII)
- Absent in the Spring by Agatha Christie (XCVIII)
- Nothing Like the Sun by Anthony Burgess (CXXX)
- No More Dying Then by Ruth Rendell (CXXXXVI)
- The Tempest
- Sea Change by Richard Armstrong (I.ii)
- Sea Change by Robert B. Parker
- Sea Change by James Powlik
- Something Rich and Strange by Patricia A. McKillip (I.ii)
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (V.i)
- This Rough Magic by Mary Stewart (V.i)
- Every Third Thought by John Barth (V.i)
- Timon of Athens
- Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov (IV.iii)
- Twelfth Night
- Cakes and Ale by William Somerset Maugham (II.iii)
- Sad Cypress by Agatha Christie (II.iii)
- To Play the Fool by Laurie R. King (III.i)
Poetry
- Hamlet
- "Very Like A Whale" by Ogden Nash (III.ii)
- Julius Caesar
- "The Hollow Men" by T. S. Eliot (IV.ii)
- King Lear
- "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" by Robert Browning (III.iv)
- Macbeth
- "Out, Outâ"" by Robert Frost (V.i)
- The Tempest
- "Full Fathom Five" by Sylvia Plath (I.ii)
- "Full Fathom Five" by Samuel Menashe (I.ii)
- "Pearls That Were" by J. H. Prynne (I.ii)
Television
- Antony and Cleopatra
- Sam Peckinpah's "Salad Days", episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus
- As You Like It
- "All the World's a Stage", Ugly Betty episode (II.vii)
- Hamlet
- Less Than Kind, 2008 television series (I.ii)
- "Thine Own Self", 1994 Star Trek: The Next Generation episode (I.iii)
- To the Manor Born, 1979â"81 television series (a play on "to the manner born", I.iv)
- "Remember Me", 1990 Star Trek: The Next Generation episode (I.v)
- "The Conscience of the King", 1966 Star Trek episode (II.ii)
- "The Paragon of Animals", 1998 Babylon 5 episode (II.ii)
- "Perchance to Dream", 1959 The Twilight Zone episode (III.i)
- "Perchance to Dean", 2009 The Venture Bros. episode
- Slings & Arrows, 2003 Showcase Original Series. (III.i)
- Outrageous Fortune, 2005â"10 television series (III.i)
- "Mortal Coil", 1997 Star Trek: Voyager episode (III.i)
- Henry V
- "Once More Unto the Breach", Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode (III.i)
- Band of Brothers, miniseries based on book (IV.iii)
- Henry VI, Part 2
- The Main Chance, 1969â"75 television series (I.i)
- Julius Caesar
- "Not to Praise Him", The Bill
- "The Dogs of War", Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode (III.i)
- "The Dogs of War", The West Wing Season 5 episode (III.i)
- King Lear
- "How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth", Star Trek animated episode (I.iv)
- Macbeth
- "Dagger of the Mind", Star Trek episode (II.i)
- "All Our Yesterdays", Star Trek episode ++ (V.v)
- All Our Yesterdays, UK Television historical news programme of the 1960sâ"70s (V.v)
- "The Birnam Wood", The West Wing Episode Season 6 (IV.i etc.)
- "Something Wicked This Way Comes", Ugly Betty episode
- "Something Wall-Mart This Way Comes", South Park episode
- "Something Wicca This Way Comes", Charmed episode
- "Something Wicked", Supernatural episode
- The Merchant of Venice
- "The Quality of Mercy", Babylon 5 episode (IV.i)
- "Quality of Mercy", The Outer Limits (I.xiv)
- A Quality of Mercy, The Twilight Zone episode (III.xv)
- "The Quality of Mercy", Early Edition episode
- A Midsummer Night's Dream
- "Ill Met by Moonlight", 1996 episode of Gargoyles (II.i)
- Othello
- Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs (from "The Beast with Two Backs", II.i)
- A Beast With Two Backs, 1968 television play by Dennis Potter
- "Journey's End" (Star Trek: The Next Generation) (V.ii)
- "Journey's End", 2008 Doctor Who episode
- Richard II
- The Hollow Crown, 2012 television adaptation of the Henriad (III.ii)
- Richard III
- My Kingdom for a Horse, 1988 BBC TV series starring Sean Bean (V.iv)
- Romeo and Juliet
- "By Any Other Name" (Star Trek episode) (II.ii)
- What's in a Name? (Hercules: The Legendary Journeys) (II.ii)
- The Sonnets
- The Darling Buds of May, UK TV comedy based on H. E. Batesâ novel.++ (XVIII)
- A Waste of Shame, 2005 drama (CXXIX)
- The Tempest
- "Sea Change" (Transformers episode) (I.ii)
Other
- Antony and Cleopatra
- Salad Days (manga)
- Hamlet
- The Mortal Coil, an Adventures in Odyssey two-part radio episode (III.i)
- The King of Shreds and Patches (Interactive Fiction by Jimmy Maher inspired by H.P. Lovecraft) (III.iv)
- Henry V
- Household Words (magazine) (IV.iii)
- Julius Caesar
- Dogs of War (comic book series) (III.i)
- Dogs of War: Battle on Primus IV (computer game) (III.i)
- The Merchant of Venice
- A Pound of Flesh for 50p, 2014 artwork by Alex Chinneck (a play on "pound of flesh", III.iii et passim)
- The Tempest
- Full Fathom Five (painting by Jackson Pollock) (I.ii)
- Doctor Who Unbound: Full Fathom Five, 2003 Big Finish Productions Doctor Who audio story (I.ii)
- Come Unto These Yellow Sands (painting by Richard Dadd) (I.ii)
References
External links
- A more comprehensive list of book and play titles which are Shakespearean quotations