Category: Not By Shakespeare

Shakespeare is widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the English language. His works, which include plays, sonnets, and poems, have been read, performed, and studied for centuries. However, it’s a well-known fact that many things on the internet are attributed to Shakespeare to improve their popularity, even though there is no evidence that Shakespeare was the original author.

While Shakespeare’s influence on English literature is undeniable, it’s important to remember that not everything on the internet that is attributed to him was actually written by him. Many works, including poems, quotes, and sayings, are falsely attributed to him in order to increase their popularity or perceived value. As with any information found on the internet, it’s important to do your own research and verify the sources before accepting something as true.

Love me or hate me, both are in my favor …

~ duane ~ 24 Comments

…If you love me, I’ll always be in your heart; if you hate me, I’ll always be in your mind.

This is another quote that falls victim to “Shakespeare said” syndrome, where somebody decides to tack those two magical words onto an otherwise unattributed quote to make it sound better.  And, of course, they stick.

I’d never heard this quote, and it doesn’t make particular sense to me (would you really want to be constantly on someone’s mind if they were just constantly relishing in the hatred they had for you?), but it’s apparently very popular on the SMS circuit.  I can’t tell you how many shorthanded, randomly spelled versions of it I saw when I went searching for an original.

No idea where it came from.  This is the sort of quote that could well have been written by some 13-year-old on MySpace who’d just broken up with her boyfriend.  We’ll never know.

Lastly do I vow, that my eyes desire you above all things

~ duane ~ Leave a comment

Original: Lastly do I make this vow, that mine eyes desire you above all things.

It’s easy to see where this might be confused with Shakespeare.  It’s actually from a very famous romantic letter written by Katharine of Aragon dated January 1536:

My most dear lord, king and husband,
The hour of my death now drawing on, the tender love I owe you forceth me, my case being such, to commend myself to you, and to put you in remembrance with a few words of the health and safeguard of your soul which you ought to prefer before all worldly matters, and before the care and pampering of your body, for the which you have cast me into many calamities and yourself into many troubles. For my part, I pardon you everything, and I wish to devoutly pray God that He will pardon you also. For the rest, I commend unto you our daughter Mary, beseeching you to be a good father unto her, as I have heretofore desired. I entreat you also, on behalf of my maids, to give them marriage portions, which is not much, they being but three. For all my other servants I solicit the wages due them, and a year more, lest they be unprovided for. Lastly, I make this vow, that mine eyes desire you above all things.
Katharine the Quene.

Katharine, of course, is a character in Shakespeare’s play about Henry VIII.  But even if Shakespeare did copy that quote directly into the play (and I can’t find evidence that he did), the real Katharine apparently said it first.

When I saw you I fell in love. And you smiled because you knew.

~ duane ~ 2 Comments

Status: Not by Shakespeare

Totally not Romeo and Juliet. But neither is this quote.

Although often attributed to Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare aficionados the world over can assure you that neither this line nor anything like it, appears in that play. It doesn’t even sound like Shakespeare. It is by Arrigo Boito, who does at least have a Shakespeare connection in that he’s written a number of operas based on Shakespeare’s work including Othello and Falstaff.

 
In fact, it’s precisely Falstaff where we can find the original quote (although it’s in Italian):
 
Come ti vidi
M’innamorai,
E tu sorridi
Perchè lo sai.
 
which Google Translate tells me is, “How I saw you I fell in love, And you smile Because you know it.”  Close enough, Google!
 
 
 
 
Hat tip to https://falsescribes.wordpress.com/2013/07/12/when-i-saw-you-boito/ pointing out that the text is from Falstaff, which at least gives us an excuse to make the Shakespearean connection?  I wonder if there are folks out there who know that’s the source and are just working backward, figuring that Shakespeare must have written it originally.
 
 
Nah.  All these quotes fall victim to that same “It sounds sappy and romantic, assume Shakespeare wrote it, it will get more likes on Instagram” logic.
 
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O que interessa mesmo não é a noite em si, são os sonhos.

~ duane ~ 1 Comment

Status: Lost in translation?

Looking for somebody’s help on this one.  This line, which Google tells me is Portuguese(?) gets translated automatically to:

‘What really matters is not the night itself, are dreams. ”

This line was re-Tweeted many times, and appeared at the top of my listings.  But I’m not quite sure what quote it’s supposed to be.  We are such stuff as dreams are made on? Something about A Midsummer Night’s Dream?

I can’t really say not by Shakespeare if the computer translation is just terrible.  But until then, it’s at least a contender.

An enterprise, when fairly once begun, should not be left till all that ought is won.

~ duane ~ 4 Comments

Status: Unlikely, but unknown.

I can not find this reference, or anything like it, in Shakespeare’s works.  The phrase “fairly once begun” in particular does not appear in my searches, and those three words seem fairly indicative of the spirit of the quote. In typical fashion, even though all the references on the web claim Shakespeare, not one of them cites the work in question.

I have no leads on a real source, however, so I have to leave this one in the “maybe” category.  Can somebody point to a version of this quote within the works that might have snuck under my radar?  Or, barring that, find a source that does not attribute it to Shakespeare?

Double extra interesting: Google Books shows references dating back as early as 1891 that claim Shakespeare as the author of this quote, which actually makes me think that I’m simply missing it.  But who knows?