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1'''[[center:Creator/WilliamShakespeare Did It First!]]'''
2
3He may not have been the TropeMaker, TropeNamer, TropeCodifier, or even the UrExample, but you can bet your bottom dollar that he did it before ''you!'' Whatever great invention, character or plot device you come up with, Shakespeare is always the guy who has already done it and done it better than you could ever hope to. Note that he wasn't the ''first'' to use a lot of these conventions, however he's ''the'' earliest writer most people know who used ''so many'' of them.
4
5His fans have been aware of this long before the Internet. Horace Walpole, widely recognised as the inventor of the GothicHorror genre, proudly admitted he borrowed most of the ingredients for the Gothic recipe from his idol. Yes, even ''realising that Shakespeare did it first'' is something that has already been done long ago.
6
7Shakespeare was not only the first to use many a trope, but the first troper. That is, the first to [[LampshadeHanging comment on it]]. Some examples:
8
9* AmbitionIsEvil: Theatre/JuliusCaesar discusses Cassius:
10-->''"Yond' Cassius has a lean and hungry look;\
11He thinks too much; such men are dangerous[...]\
12Such men as he be never at heart's ease\
13Whiles they behold a greater than themselves."''
14* BelligerentSexualTension: Benedick and Beatrice from ''Theatre/MuchAdoAboutNothing''.
15* TheBermudaTriangle: While the actual concept originated in 1960s pulp magazines, ''Theatre/TheTempest'' was [[https://www.exploreshakespearesworld.com/shakespeares-world-app/did-the-wreck-of-the-sea-venture-inspire-the-tempest/ partly inspired by a real shipwreck in Bermuda]] and is usually interpreted as set in the Caribbean or nearby. The overall plot— a ship is wrecked on an IslandOfMystery somewhere near Bermuda by a magical storm, with everyone onboard believed to be dead— certainly could be a modern Bermuda Triangle story.
16* BigBadSlippage: ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'' only gradually [[FaceHeelTurn becomes]] the VillainProtagonist of the play, initially uncomfortable with his desire to murder and usurp [[TheGoodKing King Duncan]] just to satisfy his ambition, but going through with it and discarding his conscience along the way.
17* BuffySpeak (and BreadEggsBreadedEggs):
18-->''"Come boy, come sir boy, come follow me sir boy!"'' (''Theatre/MuchAdoAboutNothing'')
19* CharacterShilling:
20-->''"No more, I pray thee. I am half afeard\
21Thou wilt say anon he is some kin to thee,\
22Thou spend'st such high-day wit in praising him!"'' (''Theatre/TheMerchantOfVenice'')
23* CountryMatters:
24-->'''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}:''' Lady, shall I lie in your lap?\
25'''Ophelia:''' No, my lord.\
26'''Hamlet:''' I mean, my head upon your lap?\
27'''Ophelia:''' Ay, my lord.\
28'''Hamlet:''' Do you think I meant [[TropeNamer country matters]]?
29* EverythingsDeaderWithZombies: Prospero in ''Theatre/TheTempest'' boasts about being able to make dead people walk:
30-->''"...graves at my command\
31Have waked their sleepers, oped and let 'em forth\
32By my so potent art."''
33* EyeScream:
34-->''"Out, vile jelly! Where is thy lustre now?"'' (''Theatre/KingLear'')
35* FatalFlaw:
36-->''"So, oft it chances in particular men,\
37That for some vicious mole of nature in them...\
38Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect,\
39Being nature's livery, or fortune's star,\
40Their virtues else (be they as pure as grace,\
41As infinite as man may undergo)\
42Shall in the general censure take corruption\
43From that particular fault."'' (''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'')
44* ForegoneConclusion: Shakespeare coined the phrase.
45-->''"But this denoted a foregone conclusion: 'Tis a shrewd doubt, though it be [[AllJustADream but a dream]]."'' (''Theatre/{{Othello}}'')
46* GoOutWithASmile: As Mercutio lies dying from a stab wound in ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet:''
47-->'Tis not as deep as a well, nor as wide as a barn door, but ... look for me tomorrow, and you shall find me [[{{Pun}} a grave man]].
48* TheGrotesque:
49-->''"Deformed, unfinished, sent before my time\
50Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,\
51And that so lamely and unfashionable\
52That dogs bark at me as I halt by them—\
53Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,\
54Have no delight to pass away the time,\
55Unless to see my shadow in the sun\
56And descant on mine own deformity."'' (''Theatre/RichardIII'')
57* [[MilkingTheGiantCow Hamming It Up]]:
58-->''"Nor do not saw the air too much with your hands, but suit the action to the word, the word to the action."'' (''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'')
59* IBangedYourMom[=/=]YourMom [[note]]Yes, Shakespeare [[DoubleEntendre did your mom first.]][[/note]]:
60-->'''Demetrius:''' Villain, what hast thou done?\
61'''Aaron:''' That which thou canst not undo.\
62'''Chiron:''' Thou hast undone our mother.\
63'''Aaron:''' Villain, I have ''done'' thy mother. (''Theatre/TitusAndronicus'')\
64\
65'''Painter:''' Y'are a dog.\
66 '''Apemantus:''' Thy mother's of my generation. What's she, if I be a dog? (''Theatre/TimonOfAthens'')
67* LeaningOnTheFourthWall
68-->''"If this were acted upon the stage I would condemn it as an improbable fiction."'' (''Theatre/TwelfthNight'')\
69\
70''"How many ages hence shall this our lofty scene be acted over in states unborn and accents yet unknown!"'' (''Theatre/JuliusCaesar'')
71* MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter: In ''Theatre/TheTempest'' Miranda is the beautiful but sheltered daughter of an eccentric wizard who causes a shipwreck on his IslandOfMystery.
72* MajorInjuryUnderreaction: Claudius, after being run through with a poisoned sword in ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'':
73--> "O, yet defend me, friends; I am but hurt."
74* ManlyFacialHair:
75-->''"He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man;"''
76* ManlyTears: Lampshaded by Macduff in ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}''.
77-->'''Macduff:''' [[DespairEventHorizon All my pretty ones? Did you say all? O hell-kite! All? What, all my pretty chickens and their dam at one fell swoop?]]\
78'''Malcolm:''' Dispute it like a man!\
79'''Macduff:''' I shall do so; but I must also ''feel'' it as a man!
80* {{Minimalism}}: Doubles as HypocriticalHumor when Polonius, whose major character trait is making overly-long speeches, makes the famous remark:
81-->''"Brevity is the soul of wit"'' (''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'')
82* {{MST}}: The [[ShowWithinAShow play within a play]] of ''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream'' is repeatedly interrupted by the audience's riffing.
83* {{MST3K Mantra}}:
84-->''"Do not infest your mind with beating on\
85The strangeness of this business"'' (''Theatre/TheTempest'')
86* NaughtyNuns in ''Theatre/MeasureForMeasure''
87* NoManOfWomanBorn: The TropeNamer, in ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}''.
88* NoYou: Theatre/{{Hamlet}} does this to his mother.
89-->'''Queen Gertrude:''' Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.\
90'''Hamlet:''' Mother, you have my father much offended.
91* ObfuscatingInsanity:
92** Hamlet again, in (duh) ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}.''
93** Where ''Hamlet'' went for making it ambiguous if Hamlet is playing at being insane or playing up his ''actual'' insanity, ''Theatre/TitusAndronicus'' makes clear that Titus ''is'' insane... but has him pretend to be ''differently'' insane in a way seemingly more easy to fool or play tricks on -- giving him an opportunity to set his revenge in motion.
94* PreAssKickingOneLiner
95-->'''Macduff:''' Turn, hell-hound, turn! (''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'')
96* {{Pun}}: Far, far too many to count.
97-->'''Olivia:''' Dost thou live by thy tabour? [[note]]She's asking if he makes a living by playing drums.[[/note]]\
98'''Fool:''' No sir, I live by the church.\
99'''Olivia:''' Art thou a churchman?\
100'''Fool:''' No such matter, sir. I do live by the church; for I do live at my house, and my house doth stand by the church. (''Theatre/TwelfthNight'')
101* ProphecyTwist: Two in ''Macbeth:'' He is told that he will be safe until Birnham Wood come to Dunsindane (it turns out to be enemy soldiers using forest camoflauge), and that he will never be killed by "[[NoManOfWomanBorn any man of woman born]]." Unfortunately, Macduff was born by caesarean section.
102** Henry IV is told he will only die in Jerusalem. He dies in the Jerusalem Chamber of his palace.
103* RealityIsUnrealistic:
104-->''"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as improbable fiction."'' (''Theatre/TwelfthNight'')
105* RefugeInAudacity:
106-->''"If we shadows have offended\
107Think but this, and all is mended\
108That you have but slumbered here\
109While these visions did appear\
110And this weak and idle theme,\
111no more yielding, but a dream\
112[...] Give me your hands, if we be friends\
113and Robin shall restore amend."''' (''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream'')
114** Also counts as DelusionConclusion.
115* RussianReversal:
116-->''"I wasted time, and now doth time waste me."'' (''Theatre/RichardII'')
117* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Osric speaks like this, which is promptly mocked and lampshaded in ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}.''
118-->'''Hamlet:''' Sir, his definement suffers no perdition in you; though, I know, to divide him inventorially would dizzy the arithmetic of memory, and yet but yaw neither, in respect of his quick sail. But, in the verity of extolment, I take him to be a soul of great article; and his infusion of such dearth and rareness, as, to make true diction of him, his semblable is his mirror; and who else would trace him, his umbrage, nothing more.
119* ShapedLikeItself:
120-->'''Lepidus:''' What manner o' thing is your crocodile?\
121'''Antony:''' It is shap'd, sir, like itself, and it is as broad as it hath breadth; it is just as high as it is, and moves with its own organs. It lives by that which nourisheth it, and the elements once out of it, it transmigrates.\
122'''Lepidus:''' What color is it of?\
123'''Antony:''' Of its own color too.\
124'''Lepidus:''' 'Tis a strange serpent.\
125'''Antony:''' 'Tis so. And the tears of it are wet.
126-->-- ''Theatre/AntonyAndCleopatra'', Act 2, Scene 7
127%%
128* ShowWithinAShow: Many times, most notably in ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' and ''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream''.
129* ShutUpKiss:
130-->''"Peace, I will stop your mouth."'' (''Theatre/MuchAdoAboutNothing'')
131* SnarkToSnarkCombat: Benedick and Beatrice of ''Much Ado About Nothing''.
132* SweetPollyOliver: The Bard had ''five'' plays that made use of this plot - ''Theatre/AsYouLikeIt'', ''Theatre/TwoGentlemenOfVerona'', ''Theatre/TwelfthNight'', ''Theatre/TheMerchantOfVenice'', ''Theatre/{{Cymbeline}}'' - long before the TropeNamer was written. (Because women were not allowed to act in his time, feminine-looking men played all the female roles; thus the joke was that they were men pretending to be women pretending to be men.)
133* TeenDrama: ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet''.
134* TeenyWeenie:
135-->'''Sampson:''' I am a pretty piece of flesh!\
136'''Gregory:''' 'Tis well thou art not fish; if thou hadst, thou hadst been poor John[[note]]a tiny, pathetic dried fish[[/note]]. (''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'')
137* TheSecretOfLongPorkPies: One RoaringRampageOfRevenge that comes with a free sample-platter is ''Theatre/TitusAndronicus''. Eat your heart out, Theatre/SweeneyTodd.[[note]] To be clear, this was meant metaphorically, okay?[[/note]]
138* VillainousValour:
139-->'''Macbeth:''' I will not yield,\
140To kiss the ground before Young Malcolm's feet,\
141And to be baited with the rabble's curse.\
142Though Birnam Wood be come to Dunsinane,\
143And thou opposed, being of no woman born,\
144Yet I will try the last. Before my body\
145I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff;\
146And damned be him that first cries: "Hold, enough!" (Theatre/{{Macbeth}})
147* VillainProtagonist[=/=]ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}.'' Or, ''Theatre/RichardIII'' if you like them blacker than black from the start.
148* WallBangHer: Discussed in this exchange at the beginning of ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'':
149-->'''Sampson:''' A dog of that house shall move me to stand: I will take the wall of any man or maid of Montague's.\
150'''Gregory:''' That shows thee a weak slave, for the weakest goes to the wall.\
151'''Sampson:''' 'Tis true, and therefore women being the weaker vessels are ever thrust to the wall: therefore I will push Montague's men from the wall, and ''thrust his maids to the wall''.
152* WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief: InvokedTrope in the Prologue of ''Theatre/HenryV'', where the Chorus admits that it would be nigh impossible to recreate a field of battle full of soldiers and horses, but asks the audience to play along anyway.
153
154Quite possibly the ultimate proof of the truth of this law: Shakespeare has an example of a SockPuppet in ''Theatre/JuliusCaesar''. Yes, a character uses a made-up persona in a play set in ancient Rome and written in Elizabethan England. It's also used as an early example of [[AstroTurf Astroturfing]].
155
156For virtually all other professions, an appropriate substitution would be 'Creator/LeonardoDaVinci did it first'. Seriously, look the guy up. He did just about everything you can do except being an accomplished author or famous rock star, and that was just because getting a decent scribe to take down his lengthy fictional masterpieces for him would have been quite expensive in 15th-Century Italy.
157
158Has nothing to do with ZerothLawRebellion.
159
160Dedicated in memory of TV Tropes founder William Shakespeare, who [[BlatantLies started every page on this site]].

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