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Shakespeare’s Last Words

Think you’re a Bard aficionado? See if you can you name Shakespeare’s plays by their last lines!

1. “And I am sure, as many as have good beards, or good faces, or sweet breaths will for my kind offer, when I make curtsy, bid me farewell.”
   • All’s Well That Ends Well
   • A Midsummer Night’s Dream
   • As You Like It
   • The Taming of the Shrew

   As You Like It

   Spoken by Rosalind

   Bard Bit: As You Like It also contains one of Shakespeare’s most often-quoted passages, spoken by Jacques in Act II, Scene 7:

   “All the world’s a stage

   And all the men and women merely players;

   They have their exits and their entrances,

   And one man in his time plays many parts.”

2. “Well, while I live I’ll fear no other thing so sore as keeping safe Nerissa’s ring.”
   • The Merchant of Venice
   • Two Gentlemen of Verona
   • Titus Andronicus
   • Richard III

   The Merchant of Venice

   Spoken by Graziano

   Bard Bit: The Merchant of Venice was originally classified as a comedy in the First Folio of Shakespeare’s works, but is most remembered for the dramatic scene in which Shylock gives his “Hath not a Jew eyes?” speech.

3. “Nay, Tarry, Sly, for I’ll go home with thee and hear the rest that thou hast dreamt tonight.”
   • A Midsummer Night’s Dream
   • The Taming of the Shrew
   • Much Ado About Nothing
   • A Winter’s Tale

   The Taming of the Shrew

   Spoken by Tapster

   Bard Bit: The Taming of the Shrew has been adapted several times, including Cole Porter’s musical, Kiss Me, Kate, and the film 10 Things I Hate About You.

4. “You that way, we this way.”
   • Julius Caesar
   • All’s Well That Ends Well
   • Troilus and Cressida
   • Love’s Labour’s Lost

   Love’s Labour’s Lost

   Spoken by Armado

   Bard Bit: The first performance of Love’s Labour’s Lost after Shakespeare’s era wasn’t until a Covent Garden version in 1839.

5. “Grace my mournings here in weeping after this untimely bier.”
   • King Lear
   • Richard II
   • Henry IV
   • Henry V

   Richard II

   Spoken by King Henry IV

   Bard Bit: Perhaps the strangest performance of Richard II was given on September 30, 1607, when the play was performed by the crew of Captain William Keeling aboard the British East India Company ship The Red Dragon.

6. “One feast, one house, one mutual happiness.”
   • The Taming of the Shrew
   • Romeo and Juliet
   • Coriolanus
   • Two Gentlemen of Verona

   Two Gentlemen of Verona

   Spoken by Valentine

   Bard Bit: Two Gentlemen of Verona is the only Shakespeare play to have a specific role for an animal—that of Crab, the dog owned by the clownish servant Proteus. The role of Crab is consider by many to be the most scene-stealing non-speaking role in Shakespeare’s canon.

7. “Go, bid the soldiers shoot.”
   • Hamlet
   • Richard III
   • Antony and Cleopatra
   • Henry V

   Hamlet

   Spoken by Fortinbras

   Bard Bit: The first film version of Hamlet was in 1900; the title character was played by a woman—the legendary actress Sarah Bernhardt.

8. “So thanks to all at once, and to each one, whome we invite to see us crowned at Scone.”
   • Othello
   • King Lear
   • Macbeth
   • Cymbeline

   Macbeth

   Spoken by Malcolm

   Bard Bit: In the theater world, many believe Macbeth is cursed and that speaking the name of the play in the theater will bring bad luck. The reason for this is that Shakespeare is said to have used the spells of real witches in the text, which angered witches and caused them to curse the play.

9. “Give me your hands, if we be friends, and Robin shall restore amends.”
   • The Winter’s Tale
   • A Midsummer Night’s Dream
   • As You Like It
   • The Comedy of Errors

   A Midsummer Night’s Dream

   Spoken by Robin Goodfellow

   Bard Bit: British Astronomer William Herschel named the two moons of Uranus he discovered in 1787 after Oberon and Titania, two of the characters in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

10. “Come, Dolabella, see high order in this great solemnity.”
    • Troilus and Cressida
    • Pericles, Prince of Tyre
    • Timon of Athens
    • Antony and Cleopatra

    Antony and Cleopatra

    Spoken by Octavius Caesar

    Bard Bit: Shakespeare’s main source for Antony and Cleopatra is Plutarch’s Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans Compared Together. The work was translated by Sir Thomas North in 1579, and in fact many passages in the play are taken verbatim from North’s prose.

11. “A great while ago the world begun, with hey, ho, the wind and the rain, but that’s all one, our play is done, and we’ll strive to please you every day.”
    • Twelfth Night
    • The Tempest
    • Much Ado About Nothing
    • The Comedy of Errors

    Twelfth Night

    Spoken by Feste

    Bard Bit: The full title of the play is Twelfth Night; or, What You Will. Shakespeare intended the title to just be What You Will, but when a play with that same title premiered while he was still writing his, he added the foretitle which now has become the title by which the play is best known.

12. “Nay, then thus: We came into the world like brother and brother, and now let’s go hand in hand, not one before another.”
    • Measure for Measure
    • The Two Noble Kinsmen
    • The Comedy of Errors
    • Troilus and Cressida

    The Comedy of Errors

    Spoken by Dromio of Ephesus

    Bard Bit: The Comedy of Errors includes a monologue that, at 421 words, is the longest piece of pure exposition in Shakespeare’s entire canon. The monologue, spoken by Egeon in the first act, explains how the two sets of twins were separated at an early age.

13. “As you from crimes would pardoned be, let your indulgence set me free.”
    • Pericles, Prince of Tyre
    • The Tempest
    • King John
    • The Merry Wives of Windsor

    The Tempest

    Spoken by Prospero

    Bard Bit: Magic was a controversial subject during Shakespeare’s time; in Italy people were being burned at the stake for studying the occult. Magic was also considered taboo in England, but Shakespeare gets around the taboo by making the distinction that Prospero is a rational magician, not an occultist.

14. “Never was a war did cease, ere bloody hands were washed, with such a peace.”
    • Cymbeline
    • Henry V
    • Henry VIII
    • King John

    Cymbeline

    Spoken by Cymbeline

    Bard Bit: Cymbeline, a play based on the legends of the early Celtic British King Cunobelinus, was originally categorized a tragedy, but modernists now classify it as a romance.

15. “Her life was beastly and devoid of pity, and being dead, let birds on her take pity.”
    • Macbeth
    • Antony and Cleopatra
    • Coriolanus
    • Titus Andronicus

    Titus Andronicus

    Spoken by Lucius

    Bard Bit: Although Titus Andronicus was popular in its day—primarily due to it bloody, graphic violence—over the course of the next few hundred years it became Shakespeare’s most maligned play. One of the most famous criticisms came in 1678, in an introduction to the play. Edward Ravenscroft wrote, “Tis the most incorrect and indigested piece in all his works. It seems rather a heap of rubbish than a structure.”