Books
Yea, noise? then I'll be brief. O happy dagger! This is thy sheath; there rest, and let me die.
— William Shakespeare • Romeo and Juliet
Behind the line May contain spoilers.
Our reading
An editorial interpretation.
Hearing a noise, the speaker promises brevity and then addresses a dagger directly. Calling it happy gives the weapon an unsettling welcome, while the sheath metaphor presents the speaker's body as its destination. The compressed wording joins interruption, personification and an explicit wish to die.
Context reviewed