Phrases coined by Shakespeare – Hamlet
A list of the phrases and sayings that first saw the light of day, or were made popular by, Shakespeare’s play Hamlet:
A countenance more in sorrow than in anger
A ministering angel shall my sister be
Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio
His beard was as white as snow
More honoured in the breach than in the observance
Neither a borrower nor a lender be
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
To be or not to be, that is the question
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub
When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions
