Skip to content

William Shakespeare on Music

1564–1616 England

← All quotes by William Shakespeare

25 quotes

If music be the food of love, play on.

Twelfth Night (1601)

I am advised to give her music o' mornings; they say it will penetrate.

Cymbeline (1611)

And it will discourse most eloquent music.

If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken and so die.

Though music oft hath such a charm
To make bad good, and good provoke to harm.

Measure for Measure (1603)

Preposterous ass, that never read so far
To know the cause why music was ordain'd!
Was it not to refresh the mind of man,
After his studies or his usual pain?

The setting sun, and music at the close,
At the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last.

Richard II (1595)

Let music sound while he doth make his choice;
Then, if he lose, he makes a swan-like end,
Fading in music.

List his discourse of war, and you shall hear
A fearful battle render'd you in music.

Henry V (1599)

One whom the music of his own vain tongue
Doth ravish like enchanting harmony.

Take but degree away, untune that string,
And, hark, what discord follows!

Troilus and Cressida (1602)

How irksome is this music to my heart!
When such strings jar, what hope of harmony?

Give me some music; music, moody food
Of us that trade in love.

This music crept by me upon the waters,
Allaying both their fury and my passion
With its sweet air.

The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils.

You would play upon me; you would seem to know my stops; you would pluck out the heart of my mystery; you would sound me from my lowest note to the top of my compass.

Wilt thou have music? hark! Apollo plays
And twenty caged nightingales do sing.

The choir,
With all the choicest music of the kingdom,
Together sung Te Deum.

Henry VIII (1613)

Therefore the poet
Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones and floods;
Since nought so stockish, hard and full of rage,
But music for the time doth change his nature.

Everything that heard him play,
Even the billows of the sea,
Hung their heads, and then lay by;
In sweet music is such art:
Killing care and grief of heart
Fall asleep, or, hearing, die.

Henry VIII (1613)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: William Shakespeare (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.