Reader's marks, annotations, and traces across centuries
April 23rd marks both Shakespeare's birth (1564) and death (1616).
His words have been underlined, memorized, and annotated for over four centuries...
"The course of true love never did run smooth"
— A Midsummer Night's Dream
"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players"
— As You Like It
"To be, or not to be: that is the question"
— Hamlet
"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so"
— Hamlet
"Brevity is the soul of wit"
— Hamlet
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet"
— Romeo and Juliet
"The better part of valor is discretion"
— Henry IV, Part 1
"We are such stuff as dreams are made on"
— The Tempest
"Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them"
— Twelfth Night
"If music be the food of love, play on"
— Twelfth Night
"The lady doth protest too much, methinks"
— Hamlet
"Though she be but little, she is fierce"
— A Midsummer Night's Dream
"Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none"
— All's Well That Ends Well
"This above all: to thine own self be true"
— Hamlet
"Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once"
— Julius Caesar
"How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child"
— King Lear
"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves"
— Julius Caesar
"Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow"
— Macbeth
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy"
— Hamlet
"Nothing will come of nothing"
— King Lear
The First Folio (1623) is among the most annotated books in history. Each surviving copy shows different patterns of wear, marking, and annotation from centuries of readers.
Scholar's marks, actor's cues, censor's deletions, student's exercises — the margins of Shakespeare's works contain multitudes.