Documented
ASTROLOGY
quotes by Shakespeare
- selections by Ove von Spaeth
Edition by: ”THE
OVE
VON SPAETH PAPERS
- on History and Science:
Rediscovery, Insight, Renewal”
Copyright © 2015 by: Ove
von Spaeth
Astrology related quotations by Shakespeare,
as documented in his “The First Folio” (1623).
The Shakespearean works contain hundreds of references
to the stars and astrology, also indirectly: -
* In the play "Comedy of
Errors”, a place called Centaur Inn is mentioned several times. A
‘centaur’ can contextually be identical with the zodiac’s 9th sector,
the Sagittarius constellation (not to be confused with the centaur
Chiron). - In Act I, Scene2, where some gold (a possible sun-reference)
must be routed to the inn, it informs us about time: the sun is in the
west, and “in the same hour” that was “dinner-time” (which in
Elizabethan times was not “supper” but a meal in the early
afternoon hours 1-2 p.m.), thus consistent with the Sagittarius sector
of a diurnal scale. -
* Or in “Hamlet”, Act I Scene
2, when King Claudius uses an astronomy term by saying that Hamlet's
wanderlust is “retrograde” to what this king wants. -
* In “The Merchant of Venice”
the Jewish protagonist is named Shylock which is not a common
name of Jewish descent. It is a fictitious personal name - in fact,
‘Shyloch’ is the Hebrew and Arabic name for the main star in the
constellation Lyra in the sky, the upper pole of the World-axis.
-
* In many parts of
Shakespearean texts, influence can be recognized from hermetic
teachings. For example, in the play "As You Like It", Act II Scene 7,
there is a description of “the seven ages of life” in which there are
embedded astrological characteristics of the seven planets - even though
the planets are not themselves mentioned by name. In the Shakespearean
works there are alchemical and astrological concepts that may often have
been forgotten in our time but can still be rediscovered here. -
* In modernized and translated
editions of the Shakespearean works it can often be seen that ‘planets’
have been replaced with the term ‘stars’. Or when Shakespeare makes puns
based on a comet, as this word is Greek meaning a "hairy
star", often this concept, however, is not being perceived in the
translated or modernized editions.
-
/Ove von Spaeth
The text line placement numbers are set as in “The First Folio”,
Shakespeare The Complete Works, 1623, - reprinted as: The Tudor
Edition of William Shakespeare The Complete Works, London and
Glasgow (Collins, 1951), 2nd reprint 1954. In other published editions
such numbers might vary slightly or different. /OvS
Shakespeare astrology quotes
TITUS ANDRONICUS
(Aaron:) Madam, though Venus govern your
desires, Saturn is dominator over mine.
- William Shakespeare, -
“Titus Andronicus”,
Act II, Scene 3. lines no.29-39.
- (1588-1593).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#01)
* * *
(Marcus:) If I do dream, would all my welth
would wake me ! If I do wake, some planet strike
me down, that in my slumber an eternal sleep !
- William Shakespeare, -
“Titus Andronicus”,
Act II, Scene 4. lines 14-15.
- (1588-1593).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#02)
* * *
THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA
(Julia:) Base men, that use them to so base
effect ! But truer stars did govern Proteus' birth ; His
words are bonds, his oaths are oracles, … His heart as far from
fraud as heaven from earth.
- William Shakespeare, -
“The Two Gentlemen Of Verona”,
Act II, Sc.7. lines 73-78. (1589-92).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#03)
* * *
(Chorus/prologue:) From ancient grudge break to
new mutiny, where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From
forth the fatal loins of these two foes ; a pair of star-crossed
lovers take their life ; whose misadventured piteous overthrows doth
with their death bury their parents' strife. The fearful passage
of their death-marked love, and the continuance of their parents' rage,
- William Shakespeare, -
“Romeo And Juliet”,
Chorus. lines 2-10.
- (1591-1595).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#04)
* * *
ROMEO AND JULIET
(Romeo:) Some
consequence yet hanging in the stars, shall bitterly begin his fearful
date
- William Shakespeare, - “Romeo And Juliet”, Act I,
Scene 4. lines 106-108. -
(1591-1595).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#05)
* * *
(Romeo:) Oh, here Will I set
up my everlasting rest, and shake the yoke of inauspicious stars from
this world-wearied flesh.
- William Shakespeare, -
“Romeo And Juliet”,
Act V, Scene 3. lines 109-111.
- (1591-1595).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#06)
* * *
KING RICHARD III
(King Richard:) Heaven and fortune bar me happy
hours ! day, yield me not thy light ; nor, night, thy rest !
Be opposite all planets of good luck to my proceedings ! -
- William Shakespeare, -
“King Richard III”,
Act IV, Scene 4. lines 399-403.
- (1592).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#07)
* * *
1ST PART OF, KING HENRY THE SIXTH
(Bedford:) Comets, importing change of time and
states, brandish your crystal tresses in the sky and with them scourge
the bad revolting stars that have consented unto Henry’s death !
- William Shakespeare, -
“1st part of, King Henry The Sixth”,
Act I, Sc.1. lin.2-6. -
(1589-1592).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#08)
* * *
(Exeter:) What ! shall we curse the
planets of mishap that plottet thus our glory’s overthrow ? Or
shall we think on the subtle-witted French conjurers and sorceres that,
afraid of him, by magic verses have contrived his end ?
- William Shakespeare, -
“1st part of, King Henry The Sixth”,
Act I, Sc.1. lin.23-24. -
(1592).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#09)
* * *
(Bedford:) Combat with adverse
planets in the heavens. A far more glorious star thy soul will
make than Julius Caesar or bright - -
- William Shakespeare, -
“1st part of, King Henry The Sixth”,
Act I, Sc.1. lin.54-56. (1589-1592).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#10)
* * *
(Charles:) Mars, his true moving, even as in
the heavens so in the earth, to this day is not known.
Late did he shine on the English side ; now we are victors, upon
us he smiles.
- William Shakespeare, -
“1st part of, King Henry The Sixth”,
Act I, Sc.2. lin.1-4. -
(1589-1592).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#11)
* * *
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF KING JOHN
(Constance:) Been sworn my soldier, bidding me
depend Upon thy stars, thy fortune and thy
strength, And dost thou now fall over to my foes
?
- William Shakespeare, -
“The Life And Death Of King John”,
Act III, Sc.1. lin.136-139. - (1596).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#12)
* * *
(Philip the Bastard:) Now, now, you stars that
move in your right spheres, Where be your powers ?
Show now your mended faiths, and instantly return with me again to push
destruction and perpetual shame out of the weak door of our fainting
land.
- William Shakespeare, -
“The Life And Death Of King John”,
Act V, Sc.7. lines 82-86. -
(1596).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#13)
* * *
(Don John:) I wonder that thou, being, as you
sayest thou art, born under Saturn, goest about to apply a moral
medicine to a mortifying mischief.
- William Shakespeare, - “Much Ado about Nothing”,
Act I, Sc.3. lines 7-10. -
(1598-1599).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#14)
* * *
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
(Margaret:) No, I was not born under a
rhyming planet, nor I cannot woo in festival terms.
- William Shakespeare, - “Much Ado about Nothing”,
Act V, Sc.2. lines 36-37. - (1598-1599).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#15)
* * *
HAMLET
(Bernardo:) Last night of all, when yond same
star that's westward from the pole had made his course to illume that
part of heaven where now it burns, Marcellus and myself, the bell then
beating one,
[! the pole, i.e. the Pole star]
- William Shakespeare, -
“Hamlet”,
Act I, Scene 1. lines 35-38.
- (1599).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#16)
* * *
(Horatio:) As stars with trains of fire and
dews of blood, disasters in the sun ; and the moist star upon
whose influence Neptune’s empire stands was sick almost to doomsday with
eclipse ; and even the like precurse of feared events, as
harbingers preceding still the fates, and prologue to the omen coming on
have heaven and earth together demonstrated unto our climatures and
countrymen.
[!
the
moist star, i.e. the moon]
- William Shakespeare, -
“Hamlet”,
Act I, Scene 1. lines no. ca.117-125.
- (1599).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#17)
* * *
(Claudius:) For your intent in going back to
school in Wittenberg, it is most retrograde to our desire ;
- William Shakespeare, -
“Hamlet”,
Act I, Scene 2. lines 112-124.
- (1599).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#18)
* * *
(Claudius:) As the star moves not but in his
[Hamlet's] sphere,
- William Shakespeare, -
“Hamlet”,
Act IV, Scene 7. line 15.
- (1599).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#19)
* * *
(Hamlet:)
What is he whose grief bears such an emphasis? whose phrase
of sorrow conjures the wandering stars, and makes them stand like
wonder-wounded hearers ? This is I, Hamlet the Dane.
[!
wandering stars, i.e. planets]
- William Shakespeare, -
“Hamlet”,
Act V, Scene 1. lines 250-251.
- (1599).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#20)
* * *
JULIUS CAESAR
(Cassius:) Men at some time are masters of
their fates : The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
but in ourselves, that we are underlings.
- William Shakespeare, - “Julius Caesar”, Act I,
Scene 2.
lines 139-141. -
(1599).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#21)
* * *
(Calpurnia:) When beggars die there are no
comets seen : The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of
princes.
- William Shakespeare, -
“Julius Caesar”,
Act II, Scene 2. lines 30-31.
- (1599).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#22)
* * *
TWELFTH NIGHT
(Sir Toby Belch:) Were we not born under
Taurus? - (Sir Andrew:) Taurus! That's sides
and heart. - (Sir Toby Belch:) No, sir;
it is legs and thighs. Let me see thee caper.
[! actually, Taurus is associated with neck and
throat, but also with 'music and dance']
- William Shakespeare, - “Twelfth Night”, Act I,
Scene 3. line 147. -
(1601-1602).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#23)
* * *
(Sebastian:) My stars shine darkly over me ;
the malignancy of my fate might perhaps distemper
yours ; therefore I shall crave of you your leave that I may bear
my evils alone. It were a bad recompense for your love to lay any
of them on you.
- William Shakespeare, -
“Twelfth Night”,
Act II, Scene 1. lines 3-7.
- (1601-1602).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#24)
* * *
(Malvolio:) In my stars I am above thee ;
but be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve
greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. - … I thank my
stars I am happy. I will be strange, stout, in yellow stockings, and
cross-gartered, even with the swiftness of putting on. Jove and my
stars be praised !
[!
Jove, i.e. Jupiter]
- William Shakespeare, -
“Twelfth Night”,
Act II, Sc.5. lines 127-137 & 154-157.
- (1601-02).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#25)
* * *
ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL
(Helena:) That we, the poorer born, whose
baser stars do shut us up in wishes, might with effects of them follow
our friends …
- William Shakespeare, - “All’s well that Ends Well”,
Act I, Sc. 1. lines 169-172 - (1603-1604).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#26)
* * *
(Helena:) You were born under charitable star.
- (Parolles:) Under Mars, I. - (Helena:)
I especially think, under Mars. - (Parolles:)
Why under Mars? - (Helena:) The wars have
so kept you under that you must needs be born under Mars. -
(Parolles:) When he was predominant. - (Helena:)
When he was retrograde, I think rather. - (Parolles:)
Why think you so ? - (Helena:) You go so much backward
when you fight.
- William Shakespeare, - “All’s well that Ends
Well”, Act I, Sc.1. lines 179-188. - (1603-1604).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#27)
* * *
OTHELLO
(Othello:) It is the cause, it is the cause, my
soul - let me not name it to you, you chaste stars - it is the cause.
- William Shakespeare, - “Othello”, Act V, Scene 2.
lines 1-3. - (1604).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#28)
* * *
(Othello:) Oh, insupportable ! Oh, heavy
hour ! Methinks it should be now a huge eclipse of
sun and moon, and that the affrighted globe did yawn at alteration.
- William Shakespeare, - “Othello”, Act V, Scene 2.
lines 101-103. - (1604).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#29)
* * *
(Othello:) It is the very error of the moon ;
she sometimes comes more nearer earth than she was wont, and makes men
mad.
- William Shakespeare, - “Othello”, Act V, Scene 2.
lines 111-113. - (1604).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#30)
* * *
KING LEAR
(Gloucester:) These late eclipses in the sun
and moon portend no good to us. Though the wisdom of nature can
reason it thus and thus, yet nature finds itself scourged by the sequent
effects : love cools, friendship falls off, brothers divide ;
in cities mutinies ; in countries discord ; in
palaces treason ; and the bond cracked ’twixt son and father. This
villain of mine comes under the prediction : there’s son
against father.
- William Shakespeare, -
“King Lear”,
Act I, Scene2. lines
100-106. - (1605-1606).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#31)
* * *
(Edmund:) This is the excellent foppery of the world
that when we are sick in fortune - often the surfeit of our own behavior
- we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars ;
as if we were villains by necessity ; fools by heavenly
compulsion, knaves, thieves, and treachers by spherical predominance ;
drunkards, liars, and adulterers by an enforced obedience of planetary
influence ; and all that we are evil in by a divine
thrusting on - an admirable evasion of whoremaster man, to lay his
goatish disposition to the charge of a star ! My father
compounded with my mother under the Dragon’s tail and my nativity
was under Ursa Major, so that it follows I am rough and
lecherous. Fut, I should have been that I am, had the
maidenliest star in the firmament twinkled on my bastardizing.
[! Dragon's tail is the ecliptic node at the setting
moon orbit, - & Ursa Major is the Great Bear constellation]
- William Shakespeare, -
“King Lear”,
Act I, Scene2. lines
118-133. - (1605-1606).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#32)
* * *
(Kent:) It is the stars The stars
above us, govern our conditions ; else one self mate and make
could not beget such different issues.
-
William Shakespeare,
-
“King Lear”,
Act IV, Scene3. lines
32-34. - (1605-1606).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#33)
* * *
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA
(Ulysses:) The heavens themselves, the planets and this centre,
observe degree, priority, and Place, insisture, course, proportion,
season, form, office and custom, in all line of order ; and
therefore is the glorious planet Sol in noble eminence enthroned and
sphered amidst the other, whose medicinable eye corrects the ill aspects
of planets evil, and posts, like the commandment of a king, sans cheque,
to good and bad. But when the planets in evil mixture to disorder
wander, what plagues and what portents, what mutiny, what raging of the
sea, shaking of earth, commotion in the winds !
- William Shakespeare, -
“Troilus And Cressida”,
Act I, Scene 3. lines 84-98.
- (1605-1608).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#34)
* * *
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
(Antony:) When my good stars, that were my former
guides, have empty left their orbs …
- William Shakespeare, -
“Antony And Cleopatra”,
Act III, Sc.13. lin.144-146. -
(1606-1607).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#35)
* * *
(Caesar:) - That our stars, unreconcilable,
should divide our equalness to this.
- William Shakespeare, -
“Antony And Cleopatra”,
Act V, Scene 1. lines
46-48. - (1606-1607).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#36)
* * *
PERICLES
(Pericles:) Until our stars that frown lend us
a smile.
- William Shakespeare, -
“Pericles”,
Act I, Scene 4. lines
10-11. - (1606-1608).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#37)
* * *
CYMBELINE, KING OF BRITAIN
(Imogen:) His foot Mercurial, his Martial thigh, The brawns
of Hercules ; but his Jovial face - -
[i.e. as these planets …Mercury, & … Mars, & …Jupiter]
- William Shakespeare, -
“Cymbeline, King of Britain”,
Act IV, Scene 2. ca.308-310. -
(1609).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#38)
* * *
(Jupiter:) Our jovial star reigned at his birth.
[! jovial star, i.e. the planet Jupiter]
- William Shakespeare, - “Cymbeline, King of Britain”,
Act V, Scene 4. ca.110-111. - (1609).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#39)
* * *
SONNET, 14
Not from the stars do I my judgment pluck and yet methinks I have
astronomy but not to tell of good or evil luck of plagues, of dearths,
or seasons' quality; nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell ;
… Or say with princes if it shall go well by oft predict that I in
heaven find.
- William Shakespeare, - “Sonnet, [No.] 14”.
- (1609).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#40)
* * *
The Winter's Tale
(Prospero:) And by my prescience I find my
zenith doth depend upon a most auspicious star, whose influence if now I
court not, but omit, my fortunes will ever after droop.
- William Shakespeare, -
“The Tempest”,
Act I, Scene 2. lines 179-185.
- (1610-1611).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#41)
* * *
(Leontes:) It is a bawdy planet, that will strike where ‘tis
predominant - and ‘tis powerful, think it - from east, west, north, and
south. Be it concluded,
- William Shakespeare, -
“The Winther’s Tale”,
Act I, Sc.2. lin.201-203. -
(1610-1611, 1623).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#42)
* * *
(Hermione:) There’s some ill planets
reigns. I must be patient till the heavens look with an aspect
more favourable.
- William Shakespeare, -
“The Winther’s Tale”,
Act II, Scene 1. lin.105-107. -
(1610-1611, 1623).
(sha-ast-spaeth-q6600EN#43)
* * *
Titus
Andronicus
- (1588-1593).
The Two Gentlemen Of Verona - (1589-1592).
Romeo And Juliet - (1591-1595).
King Richard III - (1592).
1st part of, King Henry The Sixth -
(1589-1592).
The Life And Death Of King John - (1596).
Much Ado about Nothing - (1598-1599).
Hamlet - (1599).
Julius Caesar - (1599).
Twelfth Night - (1601-1602).
All’s well that Ends Well - (1603-1604).
Othello - (1604).
King Lear - (1605-1606).
Troilus And Cressida - (1605-1608).
Antony And Cleopatra - (1606-1607).
Pericles - (1609).
“Sonnet, [no.] 14 - (1609).
The Tempest - (1610-1611).
The Winter's Tale - (1610-1611, 1623).
* * *
Bibligraphy -
orientating
Allen, Don Cameron: The Star-crossed Renaissance: the Quarrel
about Astrology and its Influence in
England, Duke University Press, USA, 1941; repr. New York
(Octagon Books/
Routledge) 1966.
Aston, Margaret E.: The Fiery Trigon Conjunction. An Elizabethan
Astrological Prediction, Isis, Vol.61, 1970,
pp. 159-187.
Buckley, G.T.: What Star Was
Westward from the Pole?, Notes and Queries, Volume 208, (New Series
10), Published by: Oxford University Press, London, November,
1963, pp.412-413.
Camden, Carroll, Jr.: Astrology in
Shakespeare’s Day, ISIS, XIX, 1933, pp.26-70.
- - : Elizabethan Almanacs and
Prognostications, The Library, 4.Series, XII, 1931-32, pp.83-108,
194-207.
Gingerich, Owen: Great
Conjunctions, Tycho, and Shakespeare, Sky & Telescope, May 1981,
pp.394-395.
Rusche, Harry: Edmund's Conception and Nativity in King
Lear, Shakespeare Quarterly 20:2, 1969,
pp.161-164.
Sondheim, Moriz: Shakespeare and the Astrology of His Time,
Journal of the Warburg Institute, Vol.2, No.3,
Article DOI: 10.2307/750101, Published by The Warburg
Institute, Jan., 1939, pp. 243-259.
Spaeth, Ove von:
Tycho Brahe og Shakespeares stjernekode,
Zenith e-book 6200DA -
www.moses-egypt.net
- ISBN 978-87-89171-67-8 - Copenhagen 2013.
* * *
Quotes gathered by
”THE
OVE VON SPAETH PAPERS
on
History and Science:
Rediscovery, Insight, Renewal”
* *
*
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documented QUOTATIONS by
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Ove von Spaeth
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astrology are presented in
OVE VON SPAETH’s books ”Regents,
Admirals - and the Royal Astrologers”
- and in “The
Basilisk, the Kings, and the Stellar World”
:
http://www.moses-egypt.net/zenith-files_en/e-books_group1_en.asp
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