A little more than kin, and less than kind.

 Hamlet: A little more than kin, and less than kind.

To thine own self be true

 And these few precepts in thy memory

Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,

Nor any unproportioned thought his act.

Be thou familiar but by no means vulgar.

Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,

Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel,

But do not dull thy palm with entertainment

Of each new-hatched, unfledged comrade. Beware

Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in,

Bear ’t that th’ opposèd may beware of thee.

Give every man thy ear but few thy voice.

Take each man’s censure but reserve thy judgment.

Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,

But not expressed in fancy—rich, not gaudy,

For the apparel oft proclaims the man,

And they in France of the best rank and station

Are of a most select and generous chief in that.

Neither a borrower nor a lender be,

For loan oft loses both itself and friend,

And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.

This above all: to thine own self be true,

And it must follow, as the night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to any man.

Hamlet

King Lear

 

Our Shakespeare Playlist

Romeo and Juliet

Favorite Scene:

Friar Laurence. Hold thy desperate hand: 

Art thou a man? thy form cries out thou art: 1990
Thy tears are womanish; thy wild acts denote 
The unreasonable fury of a beast: 
Unseemly woman in a seeming man! 
Or ill-beseeming beast in seeming both! 
Thou hast amazed me: by my holy order, 1995
I thought thy disposition better temper'd. 
Hast thou slain Tybalt? wilt thou slay thyself? 
And stay thy lady too that lives in thee, 
By doing damned hate upon thyself? 
Why rail'st thou on thy birth, the heaven, and earth? 2000
Since birth, and heaven, and earth, all three do meet 
In thee at once; which thou at once wouldst lose. 
Fie, fie, thou shamest thy shape, thy love, thy wit; 
Which, like a usurer, abound'st in all, 
And usest none in that true use indeed 2005
Which should bedeck thy shape, thy love, thy wit: 
Thy noble shape is but a form of wax, 
Digressing from the valour of a man; 
Thy dear love sworn but hollow perjury, 
Killing that love which thou hast vow'd to cherish; 2010
Thy wit, that ornament to shape and love, 
Misshapen in the conduct of them both, 
Like powder in a skitless soldier's flask, 
Is set afire by thine own ignorance, 
And thou dismember'd with thine own defence. 2015
What, rouse thee, man! thy Juliet is alive, 
For whose dear sake thou wast but lately dead; 
There art thou happy: Tybalt would kill thee, 
But thou slew'st Tybalt; there are thou happy too: 
The law that threaten'd death becomes thy friend 2020
And turns it to exile; there art thou happy: 
A pack of blessings lights up upon thy back; 
Happiness courts thee in her best array; 
But, like a misbehaved and sullen wench, 
Thou pout'st upon thy fortune and thy love: 2025
Take heed, take heed, for such die miserable. 

The Tempest

But Mercy is Above this Sceptered Sway

PORTIA The quality of mercy is not strained. 

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven 

Upon the place beneath. 

It is twice blessed: 

It blesseth him that gives and him that takes. 

'Tis mightiest in the mightiest. 

It becomes 

The thronèd monarch better than his crown. 

His scepter shows the force of temporal power, 

The attribute to awe and majesty 

Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings, 

But mercy is above this sceptered sway. 

It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings. 

It is an attribute to God himself. 

And earthly power doth then show likest God’s 

When mercy seasons justice. 

Therefore, Jew, 

Though justice be thy plea, consider this— 

That in the course of justice none of us 

Should see salvation. 

We do pray for mercy, 

And that same prayer doth teach us all to render 

The deeds of mercy. 

I have spoke thus much 

To mitigate the justice of thy plea, 

Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice 

Must needs give sentence 'gainst the merchant there.

Shakespeare in the Park: Pericles, Prince of Tyre

Shakespeare Midsummer Night's Dream and First Folio Exhibit

This was fun.

Break Time: Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale

Shakespeare Outdoor Festival: Love's Labor's Lost

Othello: The Moor of Venice