Eggs in Shakespeare

Easter is fast approaching––and normally at this time every year children are getting ready to dye eggs and parents to hide them for an annual Easter Egg Hunt. Although Shakespeare does not write about eggs very often, each time he does, it is pretty funny. Please enjoy the best Shakespeare quotes about eggs!

Perhaps the most famous reference to an egg in Shakespeare appears in Act IV, Scene 2 of Macbeth. The First Murderer calls out to Macduff’s son “What, you egg!” (IV.2) and then stabs him. This quote has proved very amusing to students everywhere who read Macbeth, and has spawned countless memes online because the quality of the insult is so odd and absurd. So the next time you see your archenemy, call them an egg and see what happens.

Another bizarre use of eggs appears in King Lear, when the Third Servant exits to “fetch some flax and whites of eggs/To apply to his [Cornwall’s] bleeding face.” (III.7) In the mid-1500s, a Frenchman named Ambroise Paré used an ointment made of egg yolk, oil of roses, and turpentine to treat soldier’s wounds. However, it seems that either this remedy mysteriously evolved to include just the whites, or that Shakespeare or the character made a mistake. Modern-day scientists have actually found that both flax seeds and eggs do promote healing, however for severe burns––not for stab wounds like those of Cornwall.

The third major reference to eggs in Shakespeare appears in both As You Like It and in Henry V. In As You Like It, Jacques states that “I suck melancholy out of a song as a weasel sucks eggs” (II.5) and in Henry V (I.2), Westmoreland compares Scotland to the sneaky and dangerous weasel in the metaphor, “the weasel Scot/Comes sneaking and so sucks her [England’s] princely eggs.” These phrases echo the widespread belief at the time that a weasel would suck the yolks from bird’s eggs, leaving only the empty shell. Turns out that weasels do not actually suck eggs––although the belief pervades to this day.

Wishing you happy holidays and safety during this crisis!

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