"The wine cup...

Madhulk"The wine cup is the little silver well Magical vessel? Perhaps so. I have some recollection of a mythical well whose water enabled those who drank it to see the truth. The details escape me. It's most likely just a metaphor

MadhulkThe wine cup is the little silver well where truth, if truth there be, doth dwell.

Get a man drunk if you want to know what he's really like.

Shakespeare is picturing wine being served in a silver cup. well is metaphoric for anything deep from which something may be drawn up -- deep inside a person in this case. The truth

I can't be sure out of context, but mightn't this be a reference to good old "in vino veritas"?

Trying to find play now...

CalifJim, I'm sorry - for some reason I didn't see your post before I posted.

There is never any reason to be sorry for adding a post. In fact, you added the information about "In vino veritas" which I neglected to mention, so it's all good. (Or, given the context, should I say "All's well that ends well"?)

It ain't over till it's over. (I've added a few sorry ones in my time.)

I've searched via a couple of online Shakespeare search engines, which seem to be representing all his works (not just the plays) and this quote isn't turning up anywhere. The only place I see it is innumerable wine websites, where of course it's attributed to "William Shakespeare."

There's also some discussion of the quote in Smallville dialogue. Now we know where you got it, Madhulk

Oh my - it seems to be not Shakespeare at all, but from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Rub%C3%A1iy%C3%A1t of_Omar_Khayy%C3%A1m%28Le_Gallienne%29

That bad old internet! Somebody should write a quatrain or two about how false info

Must I add that to the list of things Shakespeare is accused of not writing? Thank *** it wasn't Francis Bacon.

DelmobileThere's also some discussion of the quote in Smallville dialogue. Now we know where you got it, Madhulk