Is the following line from one of Shakespeare's works? Quote: The moving finger writes; and, having writ, moves on: nor all thy piety nor wit shall lure it back to cancel half a line, nor all thy...
Is the following line from one of Shakespeare's works?
Quote: The moving finger writes; and, having writ, moves on: nor all thy piety nor wit shall lure it back to cancel half a line, nor all thy tears wash out a word of it.
2 Answers
pohnpei397 | College Teacher | (Level 3) Distinguished Educator
Although most quotes that you can think of tend to come from Shakespeare or the Bible, it turns out that this line is not from any Shakespeare work at all. You can use any of a number of Shakespeare sites where you can search all of his works and that line is not found.
Where this line actually does come from is the Rubaiyat, written by the poet Omar Khayyam. Omar Khayyam was a poet from what is now Iran but was then called Persia. Besides being a poet, he was a mathematician and scientist. The line you cite comes from Poem #545 in the Rubaiyat.
sra | Student, Grade 11 | (Level 1) eNoter
The following lines are not from Shakespeare but are from Rubaiyyat by Omar Khayyam