Yes, I know, it’s been awhile. Those who have long followed my ramblings may have guessed why. To my new followers I can only offer my sincerest apologies and say it is never my intention to disappear. Health issues sometimes derail me but never fear, I am not usually gone long.
Heart has been on my mind for the last two weeks so I thought I would share a few of my favorite Shakespeare heart quotes. As I studied the word and what it meant in Shakespeare’s day it became obvious that the idea of love, as emotion, sits in our heart was just as true then as it is now. Of all the phrases Shakespeare uses it appears that “with all my heart” is one that is uttered most often.
All’s Well That Ends Well
The remembrance of her father never approaches
her heart but the tyranny of her sorrows takes all
livelihood from her cheek.
I find my tongue is too foolhardy; but my heart hath the
fear of Mars before it and of his creatures, not
daring the reports of my tongue.
Antony and Cleopatra
Choose your own company, and command what cost
Your heart has mind to.
Coriolanus
With a proud heart he wore his humble weeds.
Henry IV Part I
O Lord, sir, I’ll be sworn upon all the books in
England, I could find in my heart.
Henry IV Part 2
By my troth, I kiss thee with a most constant heart.
A cup of wine that’s brisk and fine,
And drink unto the leman mine;
And a merry heart lives long-a.
Love’s Labor’s Lost
A man, if I live; and this, by, in, and without, upon
the instant: by heart you love her, because your
heart cannot come by her; in heart you love her,
because your heart is in love with her; and out of
heart you love her, being out of heart that you
cannot enjoy her.
Macbeth
My hands are of your colour; but I shame
To wear a heart so white.
Much Ado about Nothing
I gave him use for it, a double heart for his single one:
marry, once before he won it of me with false dice,
therefore your grace may well say I have lost it.
God give me joy to wear it! For my heart is exceeding heavy.
I’ll be back with a list in a couple of day. I cross my heart.
The View From Sari's World 
Lovely! Just surprised you didn’t entitle your post I ♥ Shakespeare! But I suppose that would’ve been a bit naff … 🙂
At the back of my mind I have a niggling memory that the liber used to be the seat of the emotions in ancient times. If so, I wonder when the shift to the heart occurred?
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Sorry I meant ‘liver’ of course!
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Okay, how did you manage to get that cute star to show up? Love it! I thought about using a I heart Shakespeare photo for the post but when I saw the Othello quote I changed my mind.
Yes, didn’t Galen talk about the liver as seat of emotions? I kinda remember learning about this in Philosophy 101. If memory serves, Aristotle thought the heart was the seat of all emotion and not the brain. We still metaphorically speaking, consider the heart the emotionally organ and the brain the rational organ.
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Ah, it comes up as a star? I used a heart sign from my Samsung mobile’s keyboard so clearly there’s a mismatch in the transfer.
Thanks for the reminder that it was Galen not another (comes of skim-reading in my youth).
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Did I say star? Oh my, I must have tired. Yes, it is a cute heart. 🙂
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