Green with envy

Shakespeare was the first to form an association between jealousy and the colour green in The Merchant of Venice (1596) Act III, Scene II when he described jealousy as ‘green-eyed’. Again, in Othello (1604) Act III, Scene III, he describes jealousy as a ‘green-eyed monster’ and in Antony and Cleopatra Act III, Scene II he calls jealousy ‘the green sickness’. No one is quite sure why Shakespeare had this seeming fascination with the colour green and jealousy but, having used it in three famous plays, the association stuck. The actual phrase green with envy made its appearance in 1853 in a novel by Henry William Herbert.