The lady doth protest too much


A line from the play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, spoken by Gertrude, Hamlet's mother. She is watching a play, and a character in it swears never to remarry if her husband dies. The play is making Hamlet's mother uncomfortable, because she herself remarried almost immediately after the murder of her first husband.

Words Nearby The lady doth protest too much

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.