In human languages proverbs constitute a very important aspect of language use. Thus, they have been a subject of varying attention from different specialists: linguists and language users in general. Shakespeare is described as the most adroit user of proverbs in literature; therefore, his plays have been the subject of numerous scientific investigations, whereby from a linguistic point of view the focus has primarily been aimed at vocabulary and grammar. On the one hand, attention has been paid regularly to lexical items because Shakespeare is supposed to have been a great innovator of words due to his coinage of new lexemes and his usage of several unknown expressions. Linguistic studies have also been concerned with grammatical constructions which are typical of the English at Shakespeare’s time. Many writers employ proverbs in their works but Shakespeare is different in the way he employs proverbs which are used to serve different functions and to achieve different illocutionary acts. These proverbs are embedded in the flow of conversations and they may flout one or more than one of Grice‘s maxims. The present study aims at analyzing proverbs and explaining how far Grice’s cooperative principles (maxims) are abided by in Shakespeare’s proverbs as specified in the data. Proverbs are sometimes said to mean something else in addition to what is explicitly stated. Words may mean something beyond those intended by the speaker or the writer. These extra meanings might achieve or refer to different illocutionary acts. The study explores whether or not these illocutionary acts share certain structural features. In order to achieve the aims of the research, the following hypotheses have been proposed: Grice’s cooperative principle is frequently flouted in Shakespeare’s proverbs. The maxim of Quality seems to be flouted more than the other maxims. This maxim is mainly flouted by the use of metaphor. Shakespeare’s proverbs are also characterized by the use of the speech