Brevity Is The Soul Of Wit

Spoken by Polonius in Act II, Scene 2 of Hamlet (c. 1600–1601), the line is deeply ironic: Polonius — the most verbose and long-winded character in the play — pronounces it just before launching into a meandering speech to convince Claudius and Gertrude that Hamlet is mad. Queen Gertrude's response, "More matter with less art," underscores the joke. Shakespeare uses Polonius to embody the very opposite of brevity, making the line a self-aware piece of comedy while simultaneously coining one of the English language's most durable proverbs.