In scene 2 Polonius is talking to the king and queen, Claudius and Gertrude, and says: “My liege, and madam, to expostulate In other words, being brief is the essence of intelligence. ‘Brevity’ is the soul of wit’ means that one can say a lot more by using the minimum of language to convey something. In those senses we get to what the word actually means, which is about how brainy one is and how one uses language as a reflection of that. But we also say things like, ‘she has her wits about her,’ which means that she’s pretty bright, and although we are not allowed to say ‘ half-witted’ about anyone, people still use the term. In modern times we talk about someone as being witty, and by that we mean a person who uses language to say something funny or amusing. It is spoken by Polonius, in act 2, scene 2 of Hamlet. ‘Brevity is the soul of wit’ is a Shakespeare quote that has become one of his most enduring idioms. Each Shakespeare’s play name links to a range of resources about each play: Character summaries, plot outlines, example essays and famous quotes, soliloquies and monologues: All’s Well That Ends Well Antony and Cleopatra As You Like It The Comedy of Errors Coriolanus Cymbeline Hamlet Henry IV Part 1 Henry IV Part 2 Henry VIII Henry VI Part 1 Henry VI Part 2 Henry VI Part 3 Henry V Julius Caesar King John King Lear Loves Labour’s Lost Macbeth Measure for Measure The Merchant of Venice The Merry Wives of Windsor A Midsummer Night’s Dream Much Ado About Nothing Othello Pericles Richard II Richard III Romeo & Juliet The Taming of the Shrew The Tempest Timon of Athens Titus Andronicus Troilus & Cressida Twelfth Night The Two Gentlemen of Verona The Winter’s Tale This list of Shakespeare plays brings together all 38 plays in alphabetical order. Plays It is believed that Shakespeare wrote 38 plays in total between 15.
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