http://www.word-detective.com/2012/02/oyster-the-world-is-ones/ Semper Ubi Sub Ubi Fri, 01 Oct 2021 20:35:38 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.1 http://www.word-detective.com/2012/02/oyster-the-world-is-ones/comment-page-1/#comment-166408 Tue, 08 Sep 2015 04:36:01 +0000 http://www.word-detective.com/?p=6361#comment-166408 In Shakespeare’s play The Merry Wives of Windsor, how important is the second part of the line “Why then the world’s mine oyster. Which I, with sword will open.”
Without a knife, an oyster is almost impossible to open; but with it almost effortless. Therefore I see the reference to the sword as very significant to the meaning of this phrase. I think the “sword” is a metaphor for some kind of means or ability.
When the original line is not regarded as a whole, the meaning could be easily have a different interpretation.

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