…do third graders often incorporate Shakespeare references into their taunts?
Every semiliterate Anglophone knows “protest too much”.
tbarrie said:
When they are quotes from Shakespeare that are so famous as to have been absorbed into the common lexicon, i.e. become slang catch-phrases, then yes.
How now, brown cow?
Come on people… open your eyes! The conspiracy is much much larger than you may be able to grasp and it has been perpetuated since the dawn of man!
It’s the moon that’s the hoax!
Er…that’s not Shakespeare!
And most literate Anglophones know the line from Hamlet as “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.” I’m not sure if using only “they protest too much” even qualifies as a Shakespearean reference.
Sparky812 said:
Okay, not that complete phrase, but “how now” is used as a greeting numerous times in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. That was what I misremembered.