since the middle grade novel i have out on submission revolves around shakespeare (& sequins, because i’m me!), i set out on a quest to read all of shakespeare’s known canon of plays and poems.

i made it half-way through in 2025, and so far in 2026? i’ve read five more!

so below, find favourite quotes from each play (i always try to pick ones people don’t quote a lot; or quotes you can quote and no one would guess it was shakespseare; bahahaha! impress your friends at parties!)…

and the ONE quote from each play i handlettered in my “brush up your shakespeare” quote notebook!

you can see my quote picks and notebook letterings from 2025 in blog posts HERE, HERE, and HERE!

happy bard*ing! :D

xo,

*hallie :)

*ink and various gellyroll pens in my 8x8” archer & olive dot grid notebook.*

"joy be the consequence!"

~ bassanio, THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, act III, scene 2

i've seen this shakespeare play twice. (well, once and a half. i was jet-lagged the first time i was presented with this tale upon the stage and can't promise i was awake for all of it.)

all the same, upon this re-read, i was reminded once again HOW OFTEN shakespeare's male actors playing the female parts then had to disguise themselves as MEN! (three women in this play do this; for love, for justice, and for girl power.)

the other motif is how two seemingly unrelated plots twist together by the end of it. (something i tend to love in modern comedy, i.e. seinfeld. or very clever book.)

here are a few rando quotes from MERCHANT i marked on this recent re-read...

"good sentences, and well pronounced."
~ portia, act I, scene 2

"he will fence with his own shadow."
~ portia, I.2.

"i like not fair terms and a villain's mind."
~ bassanio, I.3.

"but we will visit you at supper time."
~ gratiano, II.2.

"i must needs tell thee all."
~ lorenzo, II.4.

"more of this hereafter."
~ salarino, II.6.

"oh, hell! what have we here?"
~ morocco, II.7.

"madam, you have bereft me of all words."
~ bassanio, III.2.

"i wish you all the joy that you can wish."
~ gratiano, III.2.

"i go with all convenient speed."
~ balthazar, III.4.

*ink, gellyroll pens, and metallic color sheen ooly markers in my 8x8” archer & olive notebook.*

"i will smite his noddles."

~ sir hugh, act III, scene 1, shakespeare's THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR

this play is silly.

falstaff sends the same "love letter" to two married women, hoping to be the side piece that gets access to their husband's fortunes. the women conspire to make a fool of such an oaf, even as one of their husbands disguises himself and hires the same oaf to woo his wife and see if she's cheating on him. antics ensue. oh, and there's a single lady all the dudes are in love with and all of their plans to marry her, too-- including one guy marrying a "lad" because he was told the wrong costume she's be in at the masquerade.

as ever, here are some of my fave quotes i found while reading this play that i should like to add to my everyday lexicon:

"it is an old coat."
~ shallow, act I, scene 1

"young ravens must have food."
~ pisol, I.3.

"i thank thee for that humor."
~ nym [aside to pistol], I. 3.

"i am glad he is so quiet."
~ mistress quickly [aside to simple], I.4.

"you may be gone."
~ doctor caius, I.4.

"i be sworn on a book she loves you."
~ mistress quickly, I.4.

"how shall i be revenged on him? for revenged i will be, as sure as his guts are made of puddings."
~ mistress page, II.1

"we burn daylight. here, read, read."
~mistress ford, II.1.

"well, i will find you twenty lascivious turtles ere one chaste man."
~mistress page, II.1.

"o, odious is the name!"
~ pistol, II.1.

"vat is the clock, jack?"
~ doctor casius, II.3.

"how melancholies i am!"
~ sir hugh, III.1.

"'tis in his buttons he will carry 't."
~ host [to page], III.2.

"remember you your cue."
"if i do not act it, hiss me."
~ mistress ford & mistress page, III.3.

"as you may know by my size that i have a kind of alacrity in sinking."
~ falstaff, III.5.

"but mark the sequel."
~ falstaff, III.5.

"what is your plot?"
~ page, IV.4.

"let the sky rain potatoes."
~ falstaff, V.5.

"i smell a man of middle earth."
~ sir hugh, V.5.

"who hath the right anne?"
~ ford, V.5.

*ink and gellyroll pens (incl. gold and silver liners!) in my 8x8” archer & olive dot grid notebook*

"my heart unto yours is knit."

~ lysander, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, act II, scene 2

a perennial fave since i read it in high school, AMND is love triangles and unrequited love and faerie mischief and rebelling against laws (and parents) against true love and pining and a very silly play within a play by amateur actors and i just LOVE it for all the swoony AND mostly sillly reasons. (as well as the debate on love potions!)

here are a few of my (many) fave quotes i happened to mark on this most recent read-through:

"i swear to thee by cupid's strongest bow"
~ hermia, act I, scene 1

"and therefore is winged cupid painted blind."
~ helena, I.1.

"love is said to be a child
because in choice he is so oft beguiled."
~helena, I.1.

"have you the lion's part written?"
"you may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring."
~ snug & quince, I.2.

"i am invisible,
and i will overhear their conference."
~ oberon, II.1.

"the story shall be changed"
~ helena, II.1.

"thy love ne'er alter till thy sweet life end!"
~ hermia, II.2.

"night and silence!"
~ robin [goodfellow, i.e. puck], II.2.

"do not haunt me thus."
~ demetrius, II.2.

"o monstrous! o strange! we are haunted."
~ quince, III.1.

"you thief of love!"
~ hermia, III.2.

(DAN IN REAL LIFE, anyone? "you are a murderer of love!" bahahaha.)

"cupid is a knavish lad
thus to make poor females mad."
~ robin, III.2.

"this is hot ice and wondrous strange snow!"
~ theseus, V.1.

"the wall, methinks, being sensible, should
curse again."
~ thesesus, V.1.

"well roared, lion."
"well shone, moon."
~ demetrius & hippolyta, V.1.

"she will find him by starlight."
~ theseus, V.1.

"let your epilogue alone."
~ theseus, V.1.

"'tis almost fairy time."
~ theseus, V.1.

*ooly rainbow sparkle glitter markers and white gellyroll pens in my 8x8” archer & olive dot grid notebook*

"a star danced, and under that was i born."

~ beatrice, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, act II, scene 1

a well-known comedy that is the basis for all enemies-to-lovers romcoms that exist today. (okay, maybe not all, but the earliest in the english language's memory, at least?)

here's a few quotes i marked up on this most recent read*through (there were oooodles more, but i tried to leave out the more familiar ones!):

"a kind overflow of kindness."
~ leonato, act I, scene 1

"i see, lady, the gentleman is not in your books."
~ messenger, I.1.

"are you come to meet your trouble?"
~ prince, I.1.

"i would my horse had the speed of your tongue"
~ benedick, I.1.

"sigh away sundays"
~ benedick, I.1.

"i have a good eye, uncle"
~ beatrice, II.1.

"God match me with a good dancer."
~ margaret, II.1.

"no more words."
~ balthazar, II.1.

"note this before my notes;
there's not a note of mine that's worth the noting."
~ balthazar, II.3.

"now you talk of a sheet of paper."
~ claudio, II.3.

"dinner is ready."
~ leonato, II.3.

"some cupid kills with arrows, others with traps."
~ hero, III.2.

"o mischief strangely thwarting!"
~ claudio, III.3.

"why she, o she, is fall'n
into a pit of ink"
~ leonato, IV.1.

"which is the villain?"
~ leonato, V.1.

"i was not born under a rhyming planet"
~ benedick, V.2.

*black and maroon micron pn pens, micron 12 pen, and ooly color sheen marker in 8x8” dot grid archer & olive notebook*

“call up all my people.”

~ brabantio, othello, act I, scene 1

mean people make me want to scream and this shakespeare play has no shortage of villainy. and that's all i say about that. so here are a few of the many, many quotes i marked in this most recent read*through.

"i am not what i am."
~ iago, act I, scene 1

"what, have you lost your wits?"
~ brabantio, I.1.

"i have charged thee not to haunt about my doors."
~ brabantio, I.1.

"you have been hotly called for."
~ cassio, I.2.

"let's to the seaside, ho!"
~ montano, II.1.

"i am nothing if not critical."
~ iago, II.1.

"let us to the castle."
~ othello, II.1.

"she is indeed perfection."
~ cassio, II.3.

"and squabble? swagger? swear?"
~ cassio, II.3.

"go, vanish into air, away!"
~ clown, III.1.

"therefore i will attempt the doing it."
~ clown, III.4.

"there's magic in the web of it."
~ othello, III.4.

"an unauthorized kiss!"
~ othello, iv.1.

"what do you mean by this haunting of me?"
~ cassio, iv.1.

"that's strange."
~ othello, iv.2.

"the moon winks"
~ othello, iv.2.

"'tis neither here nor there."
~ emilia, iv.3.

"you must tell 's another tale."
~ iago, v.2.

"it is the very error of the moon."
~ othello, v.2.

that’s all for now! :D

see more of my handlettering on my illustration portfolio page (i’m available for author sticker swag and book cover lettering), and here’s to the next shakespearean reads! (up next: pericles, which i’ve seen but never read! and then ‘the phoenix and the turtle’ which shakespearen scholar emma smith says is a poem “we don’t yet understand!” amazing!) ;D