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Seven quotes from Shakespeare for the Royal Baby

With the arrival of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s baby, here are seven fitting quotations from William Shakespeare on parenting, youth and monarchy

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

And dare me to the desert with thy sword;
If trembling I inhabit then, protest me
The baby of a girl.
(Macbeth, Macbeth)

It is a wise father that knows his own child.
(Launcelot, The Merchant of Venice)

The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart
Goes all decorum.
(Vincentio, Measure for Measure)

I would my father looked but with my eyes.
(Hermia, A Midsummer Night’s Dream)

How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is
To have a thankless child!
(King Lear, King Lear)

Your children were vexation to your youth,
But mine shall be a comfort to your age.
(Richard III, Richard III)

This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,
This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings,
Fear’d by their breed, and famous by their birth.
(John of Gaunt, Richard II)