William Shakespeare Quotes
Be stirring as the time; be fire with fire. Threaten the threat'ner, and outface the brow Of bragging horror. So shall inferior eyes, That borrow their behaviors from the great, Grow great by your example and put on The dauntless spirit of resolution.
Shakespeare, William. King John. The Riverside Shakespeare, edited by G. Blakemore Evans, Houghton Mifflin, 1974, p. 789.
He was quoting Thomas Gage, 1721-1787, English General and Royal Governor of Massachusetts and British Military Commander in North America who had used the line earlier. As with many historical quotations, the original was not of very great import, but when the king of England wrote this to his prime minister, it was policy and produced attitudes and policies that affected the American Revolution.
William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's greatest dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. They also continue to be studied and reinterpreted.
