The tangled web quote from this poem has made it into the realms of immortality, but while doing so, has left most of Scott’s very accomplished writing behind. It becomes chaotic and although Marmion appears to have won, by defeating Clara’s fiancé in a duel, Clara retires to a convent rather than endure his attentions. He and his mistress, a delinquent nun, Constance De Beverley, devise a scheme to implicate Clara’s fiancé in treason. It tells the tale of how one of Henry VIII’s courtiers, Lord Marmion, pursues his lust for a rich woman, Clara Clare. It’s an historical romance in verse, published in 1808.

The quote is from Scott’s epic poem, Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field. ‘Oh what a tangled web we weave/When first we practice to deceive’ means that when you lie or act dishonestly you are initiating problems and a domino structure of complications which eventually run out of control. Like so very many of Shakespeare’s lasting observations it’s a beautifully expressed aphorism that uses just a few words to describe one life experience so perfectly, and is so true, that it enters into the English language and becomes one of its most powerful idioms – one that will last forever. It comes from an early nineteenth century Scottish author, Sir Walter Scott, best selling writer of novels, plays, and poems. ‘Oh what a tangled web we weave/When first we practice to deceive,’ is a very ‘Shakespearean’ phrase, however, it is not from Shakespeare. Each Shakespeare’s play name links to a range of resources about each play: Character summaries, plot outlines, example essays and famous quotes, soliloquies and monologues: All’s Well That Ends Well Antony and Cleopatra As You Like It The Comedy of Errors Coriolanus Cymbeline Hamlet Henry IV Part 1 Henry IV Part 2 Henry VIII Henry VI Part 1 Henry VI Part 2 Henry VI Part 3 Henry V Julius Caesar King John King Lear Loves Labour’s Lost Macbeth Measure for Measure The Merchant of Venice The Merry Wives of Windsor A Midsummer Night’s Dream Much Ado About Nothing Othello Pericles Richard II Richard III Romeo & Juliet The Taming of the Shrew The Tempest Timon of Athens Titus Andronicus Troilus & Cressida Twelfth Night The Two Gentlemen of Verona The Winter’s Tale

This list of Shakespeare plays brings together all 38 plays in alphabetical order.

Plays It is believed that Shakespeare wrote 38 plays in total between 15.