Brush Up Your Shakespeare!: An Infectious Tour Through the Most Famous and Quotable Words and Phrases from the Bard

From the doomed Othello, who first assumed a "foregone conclusion," to the impetuous Mercutio, who went off on the first "wild-goose chase," here are several hundred of the most famous lines and newly minted words from Shakespeare's canon. Each phrase is presented with background notes, explanations, and literary anecdotes that set it in its original context. With a new filmography of the finest Shakespeare movies, Brush Up Your Shakeapeare! is an accessible and entertaining guide for Bard aficionados and amateurs alike.

• The gargantuan Sir Falstaff was the first unwelcome guest to eat his hostess "out of house and home"

• Juliet thought that parting from her Young Romeo was "such sweet sorrow"

• Macbeth believed himself to be "a sorry sight"

• It was Rosalind who desired "too much of a good thing"

• Lady Macbeth realized that "what's done is done"

Michael Macrone is the author of nine entertaining guides to literary and intellectual history. His specialties include the Shakespeare canon, classical writings, mythology, the Bible, and great ideas. He lives in San Francisco, California.