Shakespeare was a master of the English language, and we owe to him over 1,700 new words, which were either entirely invented by him (for example, “lonely”), combined existing words in novel ways (“bedroom”), added prefixes or suffixes to existing words (“dauntless”), or simply changed the function of the traditional part of speech (“elbow” as a verb).
Even personal names were invented by him—the name Jessica, for example, is recorded as first appearing in “The Merchant of Venice.” This incredible linguistic fluency was, of course, one of the reasons why he was, and is, considered such a great poet, and why he remains the most widely quoted writer in the English language (though the Bible remains the most quoted source). It is easy, therefore, to quote ringing passages from his plays or poems.
