Shakespeare Wine Quotes

It’s unlikely that any one person has had so much effect on the way we speak as William Shakespeare.  Even those who might read The Bard’s iambic tongue and say ‘it’s Greek to me!’ are using one of his own invented phrases.  Even if your ‘salad days’ had you running like ‘the Dickens’ from his work, you see, you can never hide from his words.

Alas, poor reader, you may be wondering what any of this has to do with wine.  Well, Shakespeare had quite an affinity for the stuff, and his work is filled with wine references, some of which I’ve collected for you here.  So, you see, ‘there’s method in my madness!’…

A man cannot make him laugh – but
that’s no marvel; he drinks no wine
- Henry IV Part 2

Give me a bowl of wine:
I have not that alacrity of spirit,
nor cheer of mind, that I was wont to have
- The Tragedy of King Richard the Third

O thou invisible
spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by,
let us call thee devil!
– Othello, the Moor of Venice

Give me a bowl of wine.
In this I bury all unkindness
- Julius Caesar

Come, come, good wine is a good familiar creature
if it be well used; exclaim no more against it
– Othello, the Moor of Venice

I am falser than vows made in wine
- As You Like It

The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees
Is left this vault to brag of
- Macbeth

Good wine needs no bush
– As You Like It

Come, thou monarch of the vine,
Plumpy Bacchus with pink eye
– Antony and Cleopatra

The wine-cup is the little silver well,
Where truth, if truth there be, doth dwell

Give me some wine, fill full.
I drink to the whole table
- Macbeth