The Project Gutenberg EBook of Familiar Quotations, by John Bartlett This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: Familiar Quotations A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs Traced to Their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature Author: John Bartlett Release Date: January 25, 2009 [EBook #27889] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAMILIAR QUOTATIONS *** Produced by Melissa Er-Raqabi, Aldarondo, the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net and the booksmiths at http://www.eBookForge.net
[ii]
"I have gathered a posie of other men's flowers, and nothing but the
thread that binds them is mine own."
[iii]
[iv]
[v]
"Out of the old fieldes cometh al this new corne fro yere to yere,"
And out of the fresh woodes cometh al these new flowres here.
The small thin volume, the first to bear the title of this collection, after passing through eight editions, each enlarged, now culminates in its ninth,—and with it, closes its tentative life.
This extract from the Preface of the fourth edition is applicable to the present one:—
"It is not easy to determine in all cases the degree of familiarity that may belong to phrases and sentences which present themselves for admission; for what is familiar to one class of readers may be quite new to another. Many maxims of the most famous writers of our language, and numberless curious and happy turns from orators and poets, have knocked at the door, and it was hard to deny them. But to admit these simply on their own merits, without assurance that the general reader would readily recognize them as old friends, was aside from the purpose of this collection. Still, it has been thought better to incur the risk of erring on the side of fulness."
With the many additions to the English writers, the present edition contains selections from the French, and from the wit and wisdom of the ancients. A few passages have been admitted without a claim to familiarity, but solely on the ground of coincidence of thought.
[vi]I am under great obligations to M. H. Morgan, Ph. D., of Harvard University, for the translation of Marcus Aurelius, and for the translation and selections from the Greek tragic writers. I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Daniel W. Wilder, of Kansas, for the quotations from Pilpay, with contributions from Diogenes Laertius, Montaigne, Burton, and Pope's Homer; to Dr. William J. Rolfe for quotations from Robert Browning; to Mr. James W. McIntyre for quotations from Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, Mrs. Browning, Robert Browning, and Tennyson. And I have incurred other obligations to friends for here a little and there a little.
It gives me pleasure to acknowledge the great assistance I have received from Mr. A. W. Stevens, the accomplished reader of the University Press, as this work was passing through the press.
In withdrawing from this very agreeable pursuit, I beg to offer my sincere thanks to all who have assisted me either in the way of suggestions or by contributions; and especially to those lovers of this subsidiary literature for their kind appreciation of former editions.
Accepted by scholars as an authoritative book of reference, it has grown with its growth in public estimation with each reissue. Of the last two editions forty thousand copies were printed, apart from the English reprints. The present enlargement of text equals three hundred and fifty pages of the previous edition, and the index is increased with upwards of ten thousand lines.
Cambridge, March, 1891.
[vii]
[xv]
Page | |
Annals of Sporting | 855 |
Biographia Britannica, note | 282 |
Biographia Dramatica, note | 347 |
Book of Common Prayer | 850 |
British Princes | 685 |
Cupid's Whirligig, note | 446 |
Deutsche Rechts Alterthümer | 858 |
Drunken Barnaby's Four Journeys | 856 |
Encyclopædia Britannica, note | 784 |
Gesta Romanorum | 802 |
Health to the Gentle Profession of Serving-men, note | 360 |
History of the Family of Courtenay, note | 802 |
Letters of Junius | 688 |
Marriage of Wit and Wisdom | 859 |
Menagiana, note | 793 |
New England Primer | 687 |
Pierre Patelin, note | 771 |
Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum, note | 293 |
Return from Parnassus | 684 |
Spectator | 857 |
The Bible | 812 |
The Examiner, May 31, 1829, note | 313 |
The Mock Romance, note | 217 |
The Nation, note | 532 |
The Skylark | 854 |
Wheeler's Magazine, note | 690 |
[1]
(From the text of Tyrwhitt.)
Whanne that April with his shoures sote
The droughte of March hath perced to the rote.
Canterbury Tales. Prologue. Line 1.
And smale foules maken melodie,
That slepen alle night with open eye,
So priketh hem nature in hir corages;
Than longen folk to gon on pilgrimages.
Canterbury Tales. Prologue. Line 9.
And of his port as meke as is a mayde.
Canterbury Tales. Prologue. Line 69.
He was a veray parfit gentil knight.
Canterbury Tales. Prologue. Line 72.
He coude songes make, and wel endite.
Canterbury Tales. Prologue. Line 95.
Ful wel she sange the service devine,
Entuned in hire nose ful swetely;
And Frenche she spake ful fayre and fetisly,
After the scole of Stratford atte bowe,
For Frenche of Paris was to hire unknowe.
Canterbury Tales. Prologue. Line 122.
A Clerk ther was of Oxenforde also.
Canterbury Tales. Prologue. Line 287.
For him was lever han at his beddes hed
A twenty bokes, clothed in black or red,
Of Aristotle, and his philosophie,
Than robes riche, or fidel, or sautrie.
But all be that he was a philosophre,
Yet hadde he but litel gold in cofre.
Canterbury Tales. Prologue. Line 295.
[2]
And gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche.
Canterbury Tales. Prologue. Line 310.
Nowher so besy a man as he ther n' as,
And yet he semed besier than he was.
Canterbury Tales. Prologue. Line 323.
His studie was but litel on the Bible.
Canterbury Tales. Prologue. Line 440.
For gold in phisike is a cordial;
Therefore he loved gold in special.
Canterbury Tales. Prologue. Line 445.
Wide was his parish, and houses fer asonder.
Canterbury Tales. Prologue. Line 493.
This noble ensample to his shepe he yaf,—
That first he wrought, and afterwards he taught.
Canterbury Tales. Prologue. Line 498.
But Cristes lore, and his apostles twelve,
He taught; but first he folwed it himselve.
Canterbury Tales. Prologue. Line 529.
And yet he had a thomb of gold parde.[2:1]
Canterbury Tales. Prologue. Line 565.
Who so shall telle a tale after a man,
He moste reherse, as neighe as ever he can,
Everich word, if it be in his charge,
All speke he never so rudely and so large;
Or elles he moste tellen his tale untrewe,
Or feinen thinges, or finden wordes newe.
Canterbury Tales. Prologue. Line 733.
For May wol have no slogardie a-night.
The seson priketh every gentil herte,
And maketh him out of his slepe to sterte.
Canterbury Tales. The Knightes Tale. Line 1044.
That field hath eyen, and the wood hath ears.[2:2]
Canterbury Tales. The Knightes Tale. Line 1524.
Up rose the sonne, and up rose Emelie.
Canterbury Tales. The Knightes Tale. Line 2275.
[3]
Min be the travaille, and thin be the glorie.
Canterbury Tales. The Knightes Tale. Line 2408.
To maken vertue of necessite.[3:1]
Canterbury Tales. The Knightes Tale. Line 3044.
And brought of mighty ale a large quart.
Canterbury Tales. The Milleres Tale. Line 3497.
Yet in our ashen cold is fire yreken.[3:4]
Canterbury Tales. The Reves Prologue. Line 3880.
The gretest clerkes ben not the wisest men.
Canterbury Tales. The Reves Tale. Line 4051.
So was hire joly whistle wel ywette.
Canterbury Tales. The Reves Tale. Line 4153.
In his owen grese I made him frie.[3:5]
Canterbury Tales. The Reves Tale. Line 6069.
And for to see, and eek for to be seie.[3:6]
Canterbury Tales. The Wif of Bathes Prologue. Line 6134.
[4]
I hold a mouses wit not worth a leke,
That hath but on hole for to sterten to.[4:1]
Canterbury Tales. The Wif of Bathes Prologue. Line 6154.
Loke who that is most vertuous alway,
Prive and apert, and most entendeth ay
To do the gentil dedes that he can,
And take him for the gretest gentilman.
Canterbury Tales. The Wif of Bathes Tale. Line 6695.
That he is gentil that doth gentil dedis.[4:2]
Canterbury Tales. The Wif of Bathes Tale. Line 6752.
This flour of wifly patience.
Canterbury Tales. The Clerkes Tale. Part v. Line 8797.
They demen gladly to the badder end.
Canterbury Tales. The Squieres Tale. Line 10538.
Therefore behoveth him a ful long spone,
That shall eat with a fend.[4:3]
Canterbury Tales. The Squieres Tale. Line 10916.
Fie on possession,
But if a man be vertuous withal.
Canterbury Tales. The Frankeleines Prologue. Line 10998.
Truth is the highest thing that man may keep.
Canterbury Tales. The Frankeleines Tale. Line 11789.
Full wise is he that can himselven knowe.[4:4]
Canterbury Tales. The Monkes Tale. Line 1449.
[5]
Mordre wol out, that see we day by day.[5:1]
Canterbury Tales. The Nonnes Preestes Tale. Line 15058.
But all thing which that shineth as the gold
Ne is no gold, as I have herd it told.[5:2]
Canterbury Tales. The Chanones Yemannes Tale. Line 16430.
The firste vertue, sone, if thou wilt lere,
Is to restreine and kepen wel thy tonge.
Canterbury Tales. The Manciples Tale. Line 17281.
The proverbe saith that many a smale maketh a grate.[5:3]
Canterbury Tales. Persones Tale.
Of harmes two the lesse is for to cheese.[5:4]
Troilus and Creseide. Book ii. Line 470.
Right as an aspen lefe she gan to quake.
Troilus and Creseide. Book ii. Line 1201.
For of fortunes sharpe adversite,
The worst kind of infortune is this,—
A man that hath been in prosperite,
And it remember whan it passed is.
Troilus and Creseide. Book iii. Line 1625.
[6]
He helde about him alway, out of drede,
A world of folke.
Troilus and Creseide. Book iii. Line 1721.
One eare it heard, at the other out it went.[6:1]
Troilus and Creseide. Book iv. Line 435.
Eke wonder last but nine deies never in toun.[6:2]
Troilus and Creseide. Book iv. Line 525.
I am right sorry for your heavinesse.
Troilus and Creseide. Book v. Line 146.
Go, little booke! go, my little tragedie!
Troilus and Creseide. Book v. Line 1798.
Your duty is, as ferre as I can gesse.
The Court of Love. Line 178.
The lyfe so short, the craft so long to lerne,[6:3]
Th' assay so hard, so sharpe the conquering.
The Assembly of Fowles. Line 1.
For out of the old fieldes, as men saithe,
Cometh al this new corne fro yere to yere;
And out of old bookes, in good faithe,
Cometh al this new science that men lere.
The Assembly of Fowles. Line 22.
Nature, the vicar of the Almightie Lord.
The Assembly of Fowles. Line 379.
O little booke, thou art so unconning,
How darst thou put thy-self in prees for drede?
The Flower and the Leaf. Line 59.
Of all the floures in the mede,
Than love I most these floures white and rede,
Soch that men callen daisies in our toun.
Prologue of the Legend of Good Women. Line 41.
That well by reason men it call may
The daisie, or els the eye of the day,
The emprise, and floure of floures all.
Prologue of the Legend of Good Women. Line 183.
For iii may keep a counsel if twain be away.[6:4]
The Ten Commandments of Love.
[2:1] In allusion to the proverb, "Every honest miller has a golden thumb."
[2:2] Fieldes have eies and woodes have eares.—Heywood: Proverbes, part ii. chap. v.
Wode has erys, felde has sigt.—King Edward and the Shepard, MS. Circa 1300.
Walls have ears.—Hazlitt: English Proverbs, etc. (ed. 1869) p. 446.
[3:1] Also in Troilus and Cresseide, line 1587.
To make a virtue of necessity.—Shakespeare: Two Gentlemen of Verona, act iv. sc. 2. Matthew Henry: Comm. on Ps. xxxvii. Dryden: Palamon and Arcite.
In the additions of Hadrianus Julius to the Adages of Erasmus, he remarks, under the head of Necessitatem edere, that a very familiar proverb was current among his countrymen,—"Necessitatem in virtutem commutare" (To make necessity a virtue).
Laudem virtutis necessitati damus (We give to necessity the praise of virtue).—Quintilian: Inst. Orat. i. 8. 14.
[3:2] Haste makes waste.—Heywood: Proverbs, part i. chap. ii.
Nothing can be done at once hastily and prudently.—Publius Syrus: Maxim 357.
[3:3] Ease and speed in doing a thing do not give the work lasting solidity or exactness of beauty.—Plutarch: Life of Pericles.
[3:4] E'en in our ashes live their wonted fires.—Gray: Elegy, Stanza 23.
[3:5] Frieth in her own grease.—Heywood: Proverbs, part i. chap. xi.
[3:6] To see and to be seen.—Ben Jonson: Epithalamion, st. iii. line 4. Goldsmith: Citizen of the World, letter 71.
Spectatum veniunt, veniunt spectentur ut ipsæ (They come to see; they come that they themselves may be seen).—Ovid: The Art of Love, i. 99.
[4:1] Consider the little mouse, how sagacious an animal it is which never entrusts his life to one hole only.—Plautus: Truculentus, act iv. sc. 4.
The mouse that always trusts to one poor hole
Can never be a mouse of any soul.
Pope: Paraphrase of the Prologue, line 298.
[4:2] Handsome is that handsome does.—Goldsmith: Vicar of Wakefield, chap. i.
[4:3] Hee must have a long spoon, shall eat with the devill.—Heywood: Proverbes, part ii. chap. v.
He must have a long spoon that must eat with the devil.—Shakespeare: Comedy of Errors, act iv. sc. 3.
[4:4] Thales was asked what was very difficult; he said, "To know one's self."—Diogenes Laertius: Thales, ix.
Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;
The proper study of mankind is man.
Pope: Epistle ii. line 1.
Murder, though it have no tongue, will speak
With most miraculous organ.
Shakespeare: Hamlet, act ii. sc. 2.
[5:2] Tyrwhitt says this is taken from the Parabolae of Alanus de Insulis, who died in 1294,—Non teneas aurum totum quod splendet ut aurum (Do not hold everything as gold which shines like gold).
All is not golde that outward shewith bright.—Lydgate: On the Mutability of Human Affairs.
Gold all is not that doth golden seem.—Spenser: Faerie Queene, book ii. canto viii. st. 14.
All that glisters is not gold.—Shakespeare: Merchant of Venice, act ii. sc. 7. Googe: Eglogs, etc., 1563. Herbert: Jacula Prudentum.
All is not gold that glisteneth.—Middleton: A Fair Quarrel, verse 1.
All, as they say, that glitters is not gold.—Dryden: The Hind and the Panther.
Que tout n'est pas or c'on voit luire (Everything is not gold that one sees shining).—Li Diz de freire Denise Cordelier, circa 1300.
[5:3] Many small make a great.—Heywood: Proverbes. part i. chap. xi.
[5:4] Of two evils the less is always to be chosen.—Thomas à Kempis: Imitation of Christ, book ii. chap. xii. Hooker: Polity, book v. chap. lxxxi.
Of two evils I have chose the least.—Prior: Imitation of Horace.
E duobus malis minimum eligendum (Of two evils, the least should be chosen).—Erasmus: Adages. Cicero: De Officiis, iii. 1.
[6:1] Went in at the tone eare and out at the tother.—Heywood: Proverbes, part ii. chap. ix.
[6:2] This wonder lasted nine daies.—Heywood: Proverbes, part ii. chap. i.
[6:3] Ars longa, vita brevis (Art is long: life is brief).—Hippocrates: Aphorism i.
[6:4] Three may keepe counsayle, if two be away.—Heywood: Proverbes, part ii. chap. v.
[7]
Man proposes, but God disposes.[7:1]
Imitation of Christ. Book i. Chap. 19.
And when he is out of sight, quickly also is he out of mind.[7:2]
Imitation of Christ. Book i. Chap. 23.
Of two evils, the less is always to be chosen.[7:3]
Imitation of Christ. Book iii. Chap. 12.
[7:1] This expression is of much greater antiquity. It appears in the Chronicle of Battel Abbey, p. 27 (Lower's translation), and in The Vision of Piers Ploughman, line 13994. ed. 1550.
A man's heart deviseth his way; but the Lord directeth his steps.—Proverbs xvi. 9.
[7:2] Out of syght, out of mynd.—Googe: Eglogs. 1563.
And out of mind as soon as out of sight.
Lord Brooke: Sonnet lvi.
Fer from eze, fer from herte,
Quoth Hendyng.
Hendyng: Proverbs, MSS. Circa 1320.
I do perceive that the old proverbis be not alwaies trew, for I do finde that the absence of my Nath. doth breede in me the more continuall remembrance of him.—Anne Lady Bacon to Jane Lady Cornwallis, 1613.
On page 19 of The Private Correspondence of Lady Cornwallis, Sir Nathaniel Bacon speaks of the owlde proverbe, "Out of sighte, out of mynde."
Moche Crye and no Wull.[7:4]
De Laudibus Leg. Angliæ. Chap. x.
Comparisons are odious.[7:5]
De Laudibus Leg. Angliæ. Chap. xix.
[7:4] All cry and no wool.—Butler: Hudibras, part i. canto i. line 852.
[7:5] Cervantes: Don Quixote (Lockhart's ed.), part ii. chap. i. Lyly: Euphues, 1580. Marlowe: Lust's Dominion, act iii. sc. 4. Burton: Anatomy of Melancholy, part iii. sec. 3. Thomas Heywood: A Woman killed with Kindness (first ed. in 1607), act i. sc. 1. Donne: Elegy, viii. Herbert: Jacula Prudentum. Grange: Golden Aphrodite.
Comparisons are odorous.—Shakespeare: Much Ado about Nothing, act iii. sc. 5.
[8]
There is nothynge that more dyspleaseth God,
Than from theyr children to spare the rod.[8:1]
Magnyfycence. Line 1954.
He ruleth all the roste.[8:2]
Why Come ye not to Courte. Line 198.
In the spight of his teeth.[8:3]
Colyn Cloute. Line 939.
He knew what is what.[8:4]
Colyn Cloute. Line 1106.
By hoke ne by croke.[8:5]
Colyn Cloute. Line 1240.
The wolfe from the dore.
Colyn Cloute. Line 1531.
[8:1] He that spareth the rod hateth his son.—Proverbs xiii. 24.
They spare the rod and spoyl the child.—Ralph Venning: Mysteries and Revelations (second ed.), p. 5. 1649.
Spare the rod and spoil the child.—Butler: Hudibras, pt. ii. c. i. l. 843.
[8:2] Rule the rost.—Heywood: Proverbes, part i. chap. v.
Her that ruled the rost.—Thomas Heywood: History of Women.
Rules the roast.—Jonson, Chapman, Marston: Eastward Ho, act ii. sc. 1. Shakespeare: 2 Henry VI. act i. sc. 1.
[8:3] In spite of my teeth.—Middleton: A Trick to catch the Old One, act i. sc. 2. Fielding: Eurydice Hissed.
[8:4] He knew what 's what.—Butler: Hudibras, part i. canto i. line 149.
[8:5] In hope her to attain by hook or crook.—Spenser: Faerie Queene, book iii. canto i. st. 17.
[8:6] It is a foule byrd that fyleth his owne nest.—Heywood: Proverbes, part ii. chap. v.
The loss of wealth is loss of dirt,
As sages in all times assert;
The happy man 's without a shirt.
Be Merry Friends.
[9]
Let the world slide,[9:1] let the world go;
A fig for care, and a fig for woe!
If I can't pay, why I can owe,
And death makes equal the high and low.
Be Merry Friends.
All a green willow, willow,
All a green willow is my garland.
The Green Willow.
Haste maketh waste.
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. ii.
Beware of, Had I wist.[9:2]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. ii.
Good to be merie and wise.[9:3]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. ii.
Beaten with his owne rod.[9:4]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. ii.
Look ere ye leape.[9:5]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. ii.
The fat is in the fire.[9:7]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. iii.
[10]
When the sunne shineth, make hay.
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. iii.
When the iron is hot, strike.[10:1]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. iii.
The tide tarrieth no man.[10:2]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. iii.
Than catch and hold while I may, fast binde, fast finde.[10:3]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. iii.
And while I at length debate and beate the bush,
There shall steppe in other men and catch the burdes.[10:4]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. iii.
While betweene two stooles my taile goe to the ground.[10:5]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. iii.
So many heads so many wits.[10:6]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. iii.
[11]
Happy man, happy dole.[11:1]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. iii.
God never sends th' mouth but he sendeth meat.
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. iv.
Like will to like.
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. iv.
A hard beginning maketh a good ending.
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. iv.
When the skie falth we shall have Larkes.[11:2]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. iv.
More frayd then hurt.
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. iv.
Feare may force a man to cast beyond the moone.[11:3]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. iv.
Nothing is impossible to a willing hart.
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. iv.
The wise man sayth, store is no sore.
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. v.
Rule the rost.[11:6]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. v.
Hold their noses to grinstone.[11:7]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. v.
Better to give then to take.[11:8]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. v.
When all candles bee out, all cats be gray.
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. v.
No man ought to looke a given horse in the mouth.[11:9]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. v.
[12]
I perfectly feele even at my fingers end.[12:1]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. vi.
A sleveless errand.[12:2]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. vii.
We both be at our wittes end.[12:3]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. viii.
Reckeners without their host must recken twice.
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. viii.
A day after the faire.[12:4]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. viii.
Cut my cote after my cloth.[12:5]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. viii.
The neer to the church, the further from God.[12:6]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. ix.
Now for good lucke, cast an old shooe after me.
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. ix.
Better is to bow then breake.[12:7]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. ix.
It hurteth not the toung to give faire words.[12:8]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. ix.
Two heads are better then one.
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. ix.
A short horse is soone currid.[12:9]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. x.
To tell tales out of schoole.
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. x.
To hold with the hare and run with the hound.[12:10]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. x.
[13]
She is nether fish nor flesh, nor good red herring.[13:1]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. x.
All is well that endes well.[13:2]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. x.
Of a good beginning cometh a good end.[13:3]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. x.
Shee had seene far in a milstone.[13:4]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. x.
Better late than never.[13:5]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. x.
When the steede is stolne, shut the stable durre.[13:6]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. x.
Pryde will have a fall;
For pryde goeth before and shame commeth after.[13:7]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. x.
She looketh as butter would not melt in her mouth.[13:8]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. x.
The still sowe eats up all the draffe.[13:9]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. x.
Ill weede growth fast.[13:10]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. x.
[14]
Beggars should be no choosers.[14:2]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. x.
Every cocke is proud on his owne dunghill.[14:3]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.
The rolling stone never gathereth mosse.[14:4]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.
To robbe Peter and pay Poule.[14:5]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.
A man may well bring a horse to the water,
But he cannot make him drinke without he will.
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.
Men say, kinde will creepe where it may not goe.[14:6]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.
The cat would eate fish, and would not wet her feete.[14:7]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.
While the grasse groweth the horse starveth.[14:8]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.
[15]
Better one byrde in hand than ten in the wood.[15:1]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.
Rome was not built in one day.
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.
Yee have many strings to your bowe.[15:2]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.
Many small make a great.[15:3]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.
Children learne to creepe ere they can learne to goe.
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.
Better is halfe a lofe than no bread.
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.
Nought venter nought have.[15:4]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.
Children and fooles cannot lye.[15:5]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.
Set all at sixe and seven.[15:6]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.
All is fish that comth to net.[15:7]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.
Who is worse shod than the shoemaker's wife?[15:8]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.
One good turne asketh another.
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.
By hooke or crooke.[15:9]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.
[16]
She frieth in her owne grease.[16:1]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.
Who waite for dead men shall goe long barefoote.
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.
I pray thee let me and my fellow have
A haire of the dog that bit us last night.[16:2]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.
But in deede,
A friend is never knowne till a man have neede.
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.
This wonder (as wonders last) lasted nine daies.[16:3]
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. i.
New brome swepth cleene.[16:4]
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. i.
All thing is the woorse for the wearing.
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. i.
Burnt child fire dredth.[16:5]
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. ii.
All is not Gospell that thou doest speake.[16:6]
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. ii.
Love me litle, love me long.[16:7]
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. ii.
A fooles bolt is soone shot.[16:8]
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. iii.
A woman hath nine lives like a cat.[16:9]
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. iv.
A peny for your thought.[16:10]
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. iv.
[17]
You stand in your owne light.
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. iv.
Though chaunge be no robbry.
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. iv.
Might have gone further and have fared worse.
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. iv.
The grey mare is the better horse.[17:1]
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. iv.
Three may keepe counsayle, if two be away.[17:2]
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. v.
Small pitchers have wyde eares.[17:3]
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. v.
Many hands make light warke.
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. v.
The greatest Clerkes be not the wisest men.[17:4]
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. v.
Out of Gods blessing into the warme Sunne.[17:5]
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. v.
There is no fire without some smoke.[17:6]
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. v.
One swallow maketh not summer.[17:7]
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. v.
Fieldes have eies and woods have eares.[17:8]
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. v.
A cat may looke on a King.
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. v.
[18]
It is a foule byrd that fyleth his owne nest.[18:1]
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. v.
Have yee him on the hip.[18:2]
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. v.
Hee must have a long spoone, shall eat with the devill.[18:3]
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. v.
It had need to bee
A wylie mouse that should breed in the cats eare.[18:4]
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. v.
Leape out of the frying pan into the fyre.[18:5]
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. v.
Time trieth troth in every doubt.[18:6]
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. v.
Mad as a march hare.[18:7]
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. v.
He must needes goe whom the devill doth drive.[18:9]
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. vii.
Set the cart before the horse.[18:10]
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. vii.
[19]
The moe the merrier.[19:1]
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. vii.
To th' end of a shot and beginning of a fray.[19:2]
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. vii.
It is better to be
An old man's derling than a yong man's werling.
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. vii.
Be the day never so long,
Evermore at last they ring to evensong.[19:3]
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. vii.
The moone is made of a greene cheese.[19:4]
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. vii.
I know on which side my bread is buttred.
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. vii.
It will not out of the flesh that is bred in the bone.[19:5]
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. viii.
Who is so deafe or so blinde as is hee
That wilfully will neither heare nor see?[19:6]
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. ix.
The wrong sow by th' eare.[19:7]
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. ix.
Went in at the tone eare and out at the tother.[19:8]
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. ix.
Love me, love my dog.[19:9]
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. ix.
[20]
An ill winde that bloweth no man to good.[20:1]
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. ix.
For when I gave you an inch, you tooke an ell.[20:2]
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. ix.
Would yee both eat your cake and have your cake?[20:3]
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. ix.
Every man for himselfe and God for us all.[20:4]
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. ix.
Though he love not to buy the pig in the poke.[20:5]
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. ix.
This hitteth the naile on the hed.[20:6]
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. xi.
Enough is as good as a feast.[20:7]
Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. xi.
[8:7] The Proverbes of John Heywood is the earliest collection of English colloquial sayings. It was first printed in 1546. The title of the edition of 1562 is, John Heywoodes Woorkes. A Dialogue conteyning the number of the effectuall proverbes in the English tounge, compact in a matter concernynge two maner of Maryages, etc. The selection here given is from the edition of 1874 (a reprint of 1598), edited by Julian Sharman.
[9:1] Let the world slide.—Towneley Mysteries, p. 101 (1420). Shakespeare: Taming of the Shrew, induc. 1. Beaumont and Fletcher: Wit without Money, act v. sc. 2.
[9:2] A common exclamation of regret occurring in Spenser, Harrington, and the older writers. An earlier instance of the phrase occurs in the Towneley Mysteries.
[9:3] 'T is good to be merry and wise.—Jonson, Chapman, Marston: Eastward Ho, act i. sc. 1. Burns: Here 's a health to them that 's awa'.
don fust
C'on kint souvent est-on batu.
(By his own stick the prudent one is often beaten.)
Roman du Renart, circa 1300.
[9:5] Look ere thou leap.—In Tottel's Miscellany, 1557; and in Tusser's Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry. Of Wiving and Thriving. 1573.
Thou shouldst have looked before thou hadst leapt.—Jonson, Chapman, Marston: Eastward Ho, act v. sc. 1.
Look before you ere you leap.—Butler: Hudibras, pt. ii. c. ii. l. 502.
He that will not when he may,
When he will he shall have nay.
Burton: Anatomy of Melancholy, pt. iii. sec. 2, mem. 5, subs. 5.
He that wold not when he might,
He shall not when he wolda.
The Baffled Knight. Percy: Reliques.
[9:7] All the fatt 's in the fire.—Marston: What You Will. 1607.
[10:1] You should hammer your iron when it is glowing hot.—Publius Syrus: Maxim 262.
Strike whilst the iron is hot.—Rabelais: book ii. chap. xxxi. Webster: Westward Hoe. Tom A'Lincolne. Farquhar: The Beaux' Stratagem, iv. 1.
Hoist up saile while gale doth last,
Tide and wind stay no man's pleasure.
Robert Southwell: St. Peter's Complaint. 1595.
Nae man can tether time or tide.—Burns: Tam O' Shanter.
Fast bind, fast find;
A proverb never stale in thrifty mind.
Shakespeare: Merchant of Venice, act ii. sc. 5.
Also in Jests of Scogin. 1565.
[10:4] It is this proverb which Henry V. is reported to have uttered at the siege of Orleans. "Shall I beat the bush and another take the bird?" said King Henry.
[10:5] Entre deux arcouns chet cul à terre (Between two stools one sits on the ground).—Les Proverbes del Vilain, MS. Bodleian. Circa 1303.
S'asseoir entre deux selles le cul à terre (One falls to the ground in trying to sit on two stools).—Rabelais: book i. chap. ii.
[10:6] As many men, so many minds.—Terence: Phormio, ii. 3.
As the saying is, So many heades, so many wittes.—Queen Elizabeth: Godly Meditacyon of the Christian Sowle. 1548.
So many men so many mindes.—Gascoigne: Glass of Government.
[10:7] Hanging and wiving go by destiny.—The Schole-hous for Women. 1541. Shakespeare: Merchant of Venice, act 2. sc. 9.
Marriage and hanging go by destiny; matches are made in heaven.—Burton: Anatomy of Melancholy, part iii. sec. 2, mem. 5, subs. 5.
[11:1] Happy man be his dole—Shakespeare: Merry Wives, act iii. sc. 4; Winter's Tale, act i. sc. 2. Butler: Hudibras, part i. canto iii. line 168.
[11:2] Si les nues tomboyent esperoyt prendre les alouettes (If the skies fall, one may hope to catch larks).—Rabelais: book i. chap. xi.
[11:3] To cast beyond the moon, is a phrase in frequent use by the old writers. Lyly: Euphues, p. 78. Thomas Heywood: A Woman Killed with Kindness.
[11:4] Let the world slide.—Shakespeare: Taming of the Shrew, ind. 1; and, Let the world slip, ind. 2.
[11:5] Shall I not take mine ease in mine inn?—Shakespeare: 1 Henry IV. act iii. sc. 2.
[11:6] See Skelton, page 8. Shakespeare: 2 Henry VI. act i. sc. 1. Thomas Heywood: History of Women.
[11:7] Hold their noses to the grindstone.—Middleton: Blurt, Master-Constable, act iii. sc. 3.
[11:8] It is more blessed to give than to receive.—John xx. 35.
[11:9] This proverb occurs in Rabelais, book i. chap. xi.; in Vulgaria Stambrigi, circa 1510; in Butler, part i. canto i. line 490. Archbishop Trench says this proverb is certainly as old as Jerome of the fourth century, who, when some found fault with certain writings of his, replied that they were free-will offerings, and that it did not behove to look a gift horse in the mouth.
[12:1] Rabelais: book iv. chap. liv. At my fingers' ends.—Shakespeare: Twelfth Night, act i. sc. 3.
[12:2] The origin of the word "sleveless," in the sense of unprofitable, has defied the most careful research. It is frequently found allied to other substantives. Bishop Hall speaks of the "sleveless tale of transubstantiation," and Milton writes of a "sleveless reason." Chaucer uses it in the Testament of Love.—Sharman.
[12:3] At their wit's end.—Psalm cvii. 27.
[12:4] Thomas Heywood: If you know not me, etc., 1605. Tarlton: Jests, 1611.
[12:5] A relic of the Sumptuary Laws. One of the earliest instances occurs, 1530, in the interlude of Godly Queene Hester.
[12:6] Qui est près de l'église est souvent loin de Dieu (He who is near the Church is often far from God).—Les Proverbes Communs. Circa 1500.
Rather to bowe than breke is profitable;
Humylite is a thing commendable.
The Morale Proverbs of Cristyne; translated from the French (1390) by Earl Rivers, and printed by Caxton in 1478.
[12:8] Fair words never hurt the tongue.—Jonson, Chapman, Marston: Eastward Ho, act iv. sc. 1.
[12:9] Fletcher: Valentinian, act ii. sc. 1.
[12:10] Humphrey Robert: Complaint for Reformation, 1572. Lyly: Euphues, 1579 (Arber's reprint), p. 107.
[13:1] Neither fish nor flesh, nor good red herring.—Sir H. Sheres: Satyr on the Sea Officers. Tom Brown: Æneus Sylvius's Letter. Dryden: Epilogue to the Duke of Guise.
[13:2] Si finis bonus est, totum bonum erit (If the end be well, all will be well).—Gestæ Romanorum. Tale lxvii.
Who that well his warke beginneth,
The rather a good ende he winneth.
Gower: Confessio Amantis.
[13:4] Lyly: Euphues (Arber's reprint), p. 288.
[13:5] Tusser: Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, An Habitation Enforced. Bunyan: Pilgrim's Progress. Mathew Henry: Commentaries, Matthew xxi. Murphy: The School for Guardians.
Potius sero quam nunquam (Rather late than never).—Livy: iv. ii. 11.
[13:6] Quant le cheval est emblé dounke ferme fols l'estable (When the horse has been stolen, the fool shuts the stable).—Les Proverbes del Vilain.
[13:7] Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.—Proverbs xvi. 18.
Pryde goeth before, and shame cometh behynde.—Treatise of a Gallant. Circa 1510.
[13:8] She looks as if butter would not melt in her mouth.—Swift: Polite Conversation.
[13:9] 'T is old, but true, still swine eat all the draff.—Shakespeare: Merry Wives of Windsor, act iv. sc. 2.
[13:10] Ewyl weed ys sone y-growe.—MS. Harleian, circa 1490.
An ill weed grows apace.—Chapman: An Humorous Day's Mirth.
Great weeds do grow apace.—Shakespeare: Richard III. act ii. sc. 4. Beaumont and Fletcher: The Coxcomb, act iv. sc. 4.
[14:1] God knows thou art a collop of my flesh.—Shakespeare: 1 Henry VI. act v. sc. 4.
[14:2] Beggars must be no choosers.—Beaumont and Fletcher: The Scornful Lady, act v. sc. 3.
[14:3] Þet coc is kene on his owne mixenne.—Þe Ancren Riwle. Circa 1250.
[14:4] The stone that is rolling can gather no moss.—Tusser: Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry.
A rolling stone gathers no moss.—Publius Syrus: Maxim 524. Gosson: Ephemerides of Phialo. Marston: The Fawn.
Pierre volage ne queult mousse (A rolling stone gathers no moss).—De l'hermite qui se désespéra pour le larron que ala en paradis avant que lui, 13th century.
[14:5] To rob Peter and pay Paul is said to have derived its origin when, in the reign of Edward VI., the lands of St. Peter at Westminster were appropriated to raise money for the repair of St. Paul's in London.
You know that love
Will creep in service when it cannot go.
Shakespeare: Two Gentlemen of Verona, act iv. sc. 2.
[14:7] Shakespeare alludes to this proverb in Macbeth:—
Letting I dare not wait upon I would,
Like the poor cat i' the adage.
Cat lufat visch, ac he nele his feth wete.—MS. Trinity College, Cambridge, circa 1250.
[14:8] Whylst grass doth grow, oft sterves the seely steede.—Whetstone: Promos and Cassandra. 1578.
While the grass grows—
The proverb is something musty.
Shakespeare: Hamlet, act iii. sc. 4.
[15:1] An earlier instance occurs in Heywood, in his "Dialogue on Wit and Folly," circa 1530.
[15:2] Two strings to his bow.—Hooker: Polity, book v. chap. lxxx. Chapman: D'Ambois, act ii. sc. 3. Butler: Hudibras, part iii. canto i. line 1. Churchill: The Ghost, book iv. Fielding: Love in Several Masques, sc. 13.
[15:4] Naught venture naught have.—Tusser: Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry. October Abstract.
[15:5] 'T is an old saw, Children and fooles speake true.—Lyly: Endymion.
[15:6] Set all on sex and seven.—Chaucer: Troilus and Cresseide, book iv. line 623; also Towneley Mysteries.
At six and seven.—Shakespeare: Richard II. act ii. sc. 2.
[15:7] All 's fish they get that cometh to net.—Tusser: Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry. February Abstract.
Where all is fish that cometh to net.—Gascoigne: Steele Glas. 1575.
[15:8] Him that makes shoes go barefoot himself.—Burton: Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
[15:9] This phrase derives its origin from the custom of certain manors where tenants are authorized to take fire-bote by hook or by crook; that is, so much of the underwood as many be cut with a crook, and so much of the loose timber as may be collected from the boughs by means of a hook. One of the earliest citations of this proverb occurs in John Wycliffe's Controversial Tracts, circa 1370.—See Skelton, page 8. Rabelais: book v. chap. xiii. Du Bartas: The Map of Man. Spenser: Faerie Queene, book iii. canto i. st. 17. Beaumont and Fletcher: Women Pleased, act. i. sc. 3.
[16:2] In old receipt books we find it invariably advised that an inebriate should drink sparingly in the morning some of the same liquor which he had drunk to excess over-night.
[16:4] Ah, well I wot that a new broome sweepeth cleane—Lyly: Euphues (Arber's reprint), p. 89.
Brend child fur dredth,
Quoth Hendyng.
Proverbs of Hendyng. MSS.
A burnt child dreadeth the fire.—Lyly: Euphues (Arber's reprint), p. 319.
[16:6] You do not speak gospel.—Rabelais: book i. chap. xiii.
[16:7] Marlowe: Jew of Malta, act iv. sc. 6. Bacon: Formularies.
[16:8] Sottes bolt is sone shote.—Proverbs of Hendyng. MSS.
[16:9] It has been the Providence of Nature to give this creature nine lives instead of one.—Pilpay: The Greedy and Ambitious Cat, fable iii. b. c.
[16:10] Lyly: Euphues (Arber's reprint), p. 80.
[17:1] Pryde and Abuse of Women. 1550. The Marriage of True Wit and Science. Butler: Hudibras, part ii. canto i. line 698. Fielding: The Grub Street Opera, act ii. sc. 4. Prior: Epilogue to Lucius.
Lord Macaulay (History of England, vol. i. chap. iii.) thinks that this proverb originated in the preference generally given to the gray mares of Flanders over the finest coach-horses of England. Macaulay, however, is writing of the latter half of the seventeenth century, while the proverb was used a century earlier.
Two may keep counsel when the third 's away.—Shakespeare: Titus Andronicus, act iv. sc. 2.
[17:3] Pitchers have ears.—Shakespeare: Richard III. act ii. sc. 4.
[17:5] Thou shalt come out of a warme sunne into Gods blessing.—Lyly: Euphues.
Thou out of Heaven's benediction comest
To the warm sun.
Shakespeare: Lear, act ii. sc. 2.
[17:6] Ther can no great smoke arise, but there must be some fire.—Lyly: Euphues (Arber's reprint), p. 153.
[17:7] One swallowe prouveth not that summer is neare.—Northbrooke: Treatise against Dancing. 1577.
[18:2] I have thee on the hip.—Shakespeare: Merchant of Venice, act iv. sc. 1; Othello, act ii. sc. 7.
A hardy mouse that is bold to breede
In cattis eeris.
Order of Foles. MS. circa 1450.
[18:5] The same in Don Quixote (Lockhart's ed.), part i. book iii. chap. iv. Bunyan: Pilgrim's Progress. Fletcher: The Wild-Goose Chase, act iv. sc. 3.
[18:6] Time trieth truth.—Tottel's Miscellany, reprint 1867, p. 221.
Time tries the troth in everything.—Tusser: Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry. Author's Epistle, chap. i.
[18:7] I saye, thou madde March hare.—Skelton: Replycation against certayne yong scolers.
More water glideth by the mill
Than wots the miller of.
Shakespeare: Titus Andronicus, act ii. sc. 7.
[18:9] An earlier instance of this proverb occurs in Heywood's Johan the Husbande. 1533.
He must needs go whom the devil drives.—Shakespeare: All's Well that Ends Well, act i. sc. 3. Cervantes: Don Quixote, part i. book iv. chap. iv. Gosson: Ephemerides of Phialo. Peele: Edward I.
[18:10] Others set carts before the horses.—Rabelais: book v. chap. xxii.
[19:1] Gascoigne: Roses, 1575. Title of a Book of Epigrams, 1608. Beaumont and Fletcher: The Scornful Lady, act i. sc. 1; The Sea Voyage, act i. sc. 2.
[19:2] To the latter end of a fray and the beginning of a feast.—Shakespeare: 2 Henry IV. act iv. sc. 2.
Be the day short or never so long,
At length it ringeth to even song.
Quoted at the Stake by George Tankerfield (1555).
Fox: Book of Martyrs, chap. vii. p. 346.
[19:4] Jack Jugler, p. 46. Rabelais: book i. chap. xi. Blackloch: Hatchet of Heresies, 1565. Butler: Hudibras, part ii. canto iii. line 263.
[19:5] What is bred in the bone will never come out of the flesh.—Pilpay: The Two Fishermen, fable xiv.
It will never out of the flesh that 's bred in the bone.—Jonson: Every Man in his Humour, act i. sc. 1.
[19:6] None so deaf as those that will not hear.—Mathew Henry: Commentaries. Psalm lviii.
[19:7] He has the wrong sow by the ear.—Jonson: Every Man in his Humour, act ii. sc. 1.
[19:9] Chapman: Widow's Tears, 1612.
A proverb in the time of Saint Bernard was, Qui me amat, amet et canem meum (Who loves me will love my dog also).—Sermo Primus.
God sendeth and giveth both mouth and the meat.[20:8]
Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry.
Except wind stands as never it stood,
It is an ill wind turns none to good.
Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry. A Description of the Properties of Wind.
At Christmas play and make good cheer,
For Christmas comes but once a year.
Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry. The Farmer's Daily Diet.
[21]
Such, mistress, such Nan,
Such master, such man.[21:1]
Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry. April's Abstract.
Who goeth a borrowing
Goeth a sorrowing.
Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry. June's Abstract.
'T is merry in hall
Where beards wag all.[21:2]
Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry. August's Abstract.
Naught venture naught have.[21:3]
Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry. October's Abstract.
Falstaff. What wind blew you hither, Pistol?
Pistol. Not the ill wind which blows no man to good.
Shakespeare: 2 Henry IV. act v. sc. 3.
[20:2] Give an inch, he 'll take an ell.—Webster: Sir Thomas Wyatt.
[20:3] Wouldst thou both eat thy cake and have it?—Herbert: The Size.
[20:4] Every man for himself, his own ends, the devil for all.—Burton: Anatomy of Melancholy, part iii. sec. i. mem. iii.
[20:5] For buying or selling of pig in a poke.—Tusser: Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry. September Abstract.
[20:6] You have there hit the nail on the head.—Rabelais: bk. iii. ch. xxxi.
[20:7] Dives and Pauper, 1493. Gascoigne: Poesies, 1575. Pope: Horace, book i. Ep. vii. line 24. Fielding: Covent Garden Tragedy, act v. sc. 1. Bickerstaff: Love in a Village, act iii. sc. 1.
[20:8] God sends meat, and the Devil sends cooks.—John Taylor: Works, vol. ii. p. 85 (1630). Ray: Proverbs. Garrick: Epigram on Goldsmith's Retaliation.
[21:1] On the authority of M. Cimber, of the Bibliothèque Royale, we owe this proverb to Chevalier Bayard: "Tel maître, tel valet."
Merry swithe it is in halle,
When the beards waveth alle.
Life of Alexander, 1312.
This has been wrongly attributed to Adam Davie. There the line runs,—
Swithe mury hit is in halle,
When burdes waiven alle.
The fallyng out of faithfull frends is the renuyng of loue.[21:5]
The Paradise of Dainty Devices.
[21:5] The anger of lovers renews the strength of love.—Publius Syrus: Maxim 24.
Let the falling out of friends be a renewing of affection.—Lyly: Euphues.
The falling out of lovers is the renewing of love.—Burton: Anatomy of Melancholy, part iii. sec. 2.
Amantium iræ amoris integratiost (The quarrels of lovers are the renewal of love).—Terence: Andria, act iii. sc. 5.
[22]
My mind to me a kingdom is;
Such present joys therein I find,
That it excels all other bliss
That earth affords or grows by kind:
Though much I want which most would have,
Yet still my mind forbids to crave.
MS. Rawl. 85, p. 17.[22:1]
Some have too much, yet still do crave;
I little have, and seek no more:
They are but poor, though much they have,
And I am rich with little store:
They poor, I rich; they beg, I give;
They lack, I have; they pine, I live.
MS. Rawl. 85, p. 17.
[22:1] There is a very similar but anonymous copy in the British Museum. Additional MS. 15225, p. 85. And there is an imitation in J. Sylvester's Works, p. 651.—Hannah: Courtly Poets.
My mind to me a kingdom is;
Such perfect joy therein I find,
As far exceeds all earthly bliss
That God and Nature hath assigned.
Though much I want that most would have,
Yet still my mind forbids to crave.
Byrd: Psalmes, Sonnets, etc. 1588.
My mind to me an empire is,
While grace affordeth health.
Robert Southwell (1560-1595): Loo Home.
Mens regnum bona possidet (A good mind possesses a kingdom).—Seneca: Thyestes, ii. 380.
I cannot eat but little meat,
My stomach is not good;
But sure I think that I can drink
With him that wears a hood.
Gammer Gurton's Needle.[22:2] Act ii.
[23]
Back and side go bare, go bare,
Both foot and hand go cold;
But, belly, God send thee good ale enough,
Whether it be new or old.
Gammer Gurton's Needle. Act ii.
[22:2] Stated by Dyce to be from a MS. of older date than Gammer Gurton's Needle. See Skelton's Works (Dyce's ed.), vol. i. pp. vii-x, note.
The Lord descended from above
And bow'd the heavens high;
And underneath his feet he cast
The darkness of the sky.
On cherubs and on cherubims
Full royally he rode;
And on the wings of all the winds
Came flying all abroad.
A Metrical Version of Psalm civ.
A sweet attractive kinde of grace,
A full assurance given by lookes,
Continuall comfort in a face
The lineaments of Gospell bookes.
An Elegie; or Friend's Passion for his Astrophill.[23:1]
Was never eie did see that face,
Was never eare did heare that tong,
Was never minde did minde his grace,
That ever thought the travell long;
But eies and eares and ev'ry thought
Were with his sweete perfections caught.
An Elegie; or Friend's Passion for his Astrophill.
[23:1] This piece (ascribed to Spenser) was printed in The Phœnix' Nest, 4to, 1593, where it is anonymous. Todd has shown that it was written by Mathew Roydon.
[24]
The gladsome light of jurisprudence.
First Institute.
Reason is the life of the law; nay, the common law itself is nothing else but reason. . . . The law, which is perfection of reason.[24:1]
First Institute.
For a man's house is his castle, et domus sua cuique tutissimum refugium.[24:2]
Third Institute. Page 162.
The house of every one is to him as his castle and fortress, as well for his defence against injury and violence as for his repose.
Semayne's Case, 5 Rep. 91.
They (corporations) cannot commit treason, nor be outlawed nor excommunicate, for they have no souls.
Case of Sutton's Hospital, 10 Rep. 32.
Magna Charta is such a fellow that he will have no sovereign.
Debate in the Commons, May 17, 1628.
Six hours in sleep, in law's grave study six,
Four spend in prayer, the rest on Nature fix.[24:3]
Translation of lines quoted by Coke.
[24:1] Let us consider the reason of the case. For nothing is law that is not reason.—Sir John Powell: Coggs vs. Bernard, 2 Ld. Raym. Rep. p. 911.
[24:2] Pandects, lib. ii. tit. iv. De in Jus vocando.
Seven hours to law, to soothing slumber seven;
Ten to the world allot, and all to heaven.
Sir William Jones.
His golden locks time hath to silver turned;
O time too swift! Oh swiftness never ceasing!
His youth 'gainst time and age hath ever spurned,
But spurned in vain; youth waneth by encreasing.
Sonnet. Polyhymnia.
[25]
His helmet now shall make a hive for bees,
And lovers' songs be turned to holy psalms;
A man-at-arms must now serve on his knees,
And feed on prayers, which are old age's alms.
Sonnet. Polyhymnia.
My merry, merry, merry roundelay
Concludes with Cupid's curse:
They that do change old love for new,
Pray gods, they change for worse!
Cupid's Curse.
If all the world and love were young,
And truth in every shepherd's tongue,
These pretty pleasures might me move
To live with thee, and be thy love.
The Nymph's Reply to the Passionate Shepherd.
Fain would I, but I dare not; I dare, and yet I may not;
I may, although I care not, for pleasure when I play not.
Fain Would I.
Passions are likened best to floods and streams:
The shallow murmur, but the deep are dumb.[25:1]
The Silent Lover.
Silence in love bewrays more woe
Than words, though ne'er so witty:
A beggar that is dumb, you know,
May challenge double pity.
The Silent Lover.
Go, Soul, the body's guest,
Upon a thankless arrant:
Fear not to touch the best,
The truth shall be thy warrant:
Go, since I needs must die,
And give the world the lie.
The Lie.
[26]
Methought I saw the grave where Laura lay.[26:1]
Verses to Edmund Spenser.
Cowards [may] fear to die; but courage stout,
Rather than live in snuff, will be put out.
On the snuff of a candle the night before he died.—Raleigh's Remains, p. 258, ed. 1661.
Even such is time, that takes in trust
Our youth, our joys, our all we have,
And pays us but with age and dust;
Who in the dark and silent grave,
When we have wandered all our ways,
Shuts up the story of our days.
But from this earth, this grave, this dust,
My God shall raise me up, I trust!
Written the night before his death.—Found in his Bible in the Gate-house at Westminster.
Shall I, like an hermit, dwell
On a rock or in a cell?
Poem.
If she seem not chaste to me,
What care I how chaste she be?
Poem.
Fain would I climb, yet fear I to fall.[26:3]
[History] hath triumphed over time, which besides it nothing but eternity hath triumphed over.
Historie of the World. Preface.
O eloquent, just, and mightie Death! whom none could advise, thou hast perswaded; what none hath dared, thou hast done; and whom all the world hath flattered, [27]thou only hast cast out of the world and despised. Thou hast drawne together all the farre stretchèd greatnesse, all the pride, crueltie, and ambition of man, and covered it all over with these two narrow words, Hic jacet!
Historie of the World. Book v. Part 1.
[25:1] Altissima quæque flumina minimo sono labi (The deepest rivers flow with the least sound).—Q. Curtius, vii. 4. 13.
Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep.—Shakespeare: 2 Henry VI. act iii. sc. i.
[26:1] Methought I saw my late espoused saint.—Milton: Sonnet xxiii.
Methought I saw the footsteps of a throne.—Wordsworth: Sonnet.
If she be not so to me,
What care I how fair she be?
George Wither: The Shepherd's Resolution.
[26:3] Written in a glass window obvious to the Queen's eye. "Her Majesty, either espying or being shown it, did under-write, 'If thy heart fails thee, climb not at all.'"—Fuller: Worthies of England, vol. i. p. 419.
Fierce warres and faithful loves shall moralize my song.[27:1]
Faerie Queene. Introduction. St. 1.
A gentle knight was pricking on the plaine.
Faerie Queene. Book i. Canto i. St. 1.
O happy earth,
Whereon thy innocent feet doe ever tread!
Faerie Queene. Book i. Canto i. St. 9.
The noblest mind the best contentment has.
Faerie Queene. Book i. Canto i. St. 35.
A bold bad man.[27:2]
Faerie Queene. Book i. Canto i. St. 37.
Her angels face,
As the great eye of heaven, shyned bright,
And made a sunshine in the shady place.
Faerie Queene. Book i. Canto iii. St. 4.
Ay me, how many perils doe enfold
The righteous man, to make him daily fall![27:3]
Faerie Queene. Book i. Canto viii. St. 1.
As when in Cymbrian plaine
An heard of bulles, whom kindly rage doth sting,
Doe for the milky mothers want complaine,[27:4]
And fill the fieldes with troublous bellowing.
Faerie Queene. Book i. Canto viii. St. 11.
Entire affection hateth nicer hands.
Faerie Queene. Book i. Canto viii. St. 40.
[28]
That darksome cave they enter, where they find
That cursed man, low sitting on the ground,
Musing full sadly in his sullein mind.
Faerie Queene. Book i. Canto ix. St. 35.
No daintie flowre or herbe that growes on grownd,
No arborett with painted blossoms drest
And smelling sweete, but there it might be fownd
To bud out faire, and throwe her sweete smels al arownd.
Faerie Queene. Book ii. Canto vi. St. 12.
And is there care in Heaven? And is there love
In heavenly spirits to these Creatures bace?
Faerie Queene. Book ii. Canto viii. St. 1.
How oft do they their silver bowers leave
To come to succour us that succour want!
Faerie Queene. Book ii. Canto viii. St. 2.
Eftsoones they heard a most melodious sound.
Faerie Queene. Book ii. Canto xii. St. 70.
Her berth was of the wombe of morning dew,[28:3]
And her conception of the joyous Prime.
Faerie Queene. Book iii. Canto vi. St. 3.
Roses red and violets blew,
And all the sweetest flowres that in the forrest grew.
Faerie Queene. Book iii. Canto vi. St. 6.
Be bolde, Be bolde, and everywhere, Be bold.[28:4]
Faerie Queene. Book iii. Canto xi. St. 54.
Dan Chaucer, well of English undefyled,
On Fame's eternall beadroll worthie to be fyled.
Faerie Queene. Book iv. Canto ii. St. 32.
[29]
For all that Nature by her mother-wit[29:1]
Could frame in earth.
Faerie Queene. Book iv. Canto x. St. 21.
Ill can he rule the great that cannot reach the small.
Faerie Queene. Book v. Canto ii. St. 43.
Who will not mercie unto others show,
How can he mercy ever hope to have?[29:2]
Faerie Queene. Book v. Canto ii. St. 42.
The gentle minde by gentle deeds is knowne;
For a man by nothing is so well bewrayed
As by his manners.
Faerie Queene. Book vi. Canto iii. St. 1.
For we by conquest, of our soveraine might,
And by eternall doome of Fate's decree,
Have wonne the Empire of the Heavens bright.
Faerie Queene. Book vii. Canto xi. St. 33.
For of the soule the bodie forme doth take;
For soule is forme, and doth the bodie make.
An Hymne in Honour of Beautie. Line 132.
For all that faire is, is by nature good;[29:3]
That is a signe to know the gentle blood.
An Hymne in Honour of Beautie. Line 139.
To kerke the narre from God more farre,[29:4]
Has bene an old-sayd sawe;
And he that strives to touche a starre
Oft stombles at a strawe.
The Shepheardes Calender. July. Line 97.
Full little knowest thou that hast not tride,
What hell it is in suing long to bide:
To loose good dayes, that might be better spent;
To wast long nights in pensive discontent;
To speed to-day, to be put back to-morrow;
To feed on hope, to pine with feare and sorrow.
. . . . . . . . .
[30]To fret thy soule with crosses and with cares;
To eate thy heart through comfortlesse dispaires;[30:1]
To fawne, to crowche, to waite, to ride, to ronne,
To spend, to give, to want, to be undonne.
Unhappie wight, borne to desastrous end,
That doth his life in so long tendance spend!
Mother Hubberds Tale. Line 895.
What more felicitie can fall to creature
Than to enjoy delight with libertie,
And to be lord of all the workes of Nature,
To raine in th' aire from earth to highest skie,
To feed on flowres and weeds of glorious feature.
Muiopotmos: or, The Fate of the Butterflie. Line 209.
I hate the day, because it lendeth light
To see all things, but not my love to see.
Daphnaida, v. 407.
Tell her the joyous Time will not be staid,
Unlesse she doe him by the forelock take.[30:2]
Amoretti, lxx.
[31]
Behold, whiles she before the altar stands,
Hearing the holy priest that to her speakes,
And blesseth her with his two happy hands.
Epithalamion. Line 223.
[27:1] And moralized his song.—Pope: Epistle to Arbuthnot. Line 340.
[27:2] This bold bad man.—Shakespeare: Henry VIII. act ii. sc. 2. Massinger: A New Way to Pay Old Debts, act iv. sc. 2.
Ay me! what perils do environ
The man that meddles with cold iron!
Butler: Hudibras, part i. canto iii. line 1.
[27:4] "Milky Mothers,"—Pope: The Dunciad, book ii. line 247. Scott: The Monastery, chap. xxviii.
[28:1] Through thick and thin.—Drayton: Nymphidiæ. Middleton: The Roaring Girl, act iv. sc. 2. Kemp: Nine Days' Wonder. Butler: Hudibras, part i. canto ii. line 370. Dryden: Absalom and Achitophel, part ii. line 414. Pope: Dunciad, book ii. Cowper: John Gilpin.
[28:3] The dew of thy birth is of the womb of the morning.—Psalm cx. 3, Book of Common Prayer.
[28:4] De l'audace, encore de l'audace, et toujours de l'audace (Boldness, again boldness, and ever boldness).—Danton: Speech in the Legislative Assembly, 1792.
[29:1] Mother wit.—Marlowe: Prologue to Tamberlaine the Great, part i. Middleton: Your Five Gallants, act i. sc. 1. Shakespeare: Taming of the Shrew, act ii. sc. 1.
[29:2] Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.—Matthew v. 7.
[29:3] The hand that hath made you fair hath made you good.—Shakespeare: Measure for Measure, act iii. sc. 1.
[30:1] Eat not thy heart; which forbids to afflict our souls, and waste them with vexatious cares.—Plutarch: Of the Training of Children.
But suffered idleness
To eat his heart away.
Bryant: Homer's Iliad, book i. line 319.
[30:2] Take Time by the forelock.—Thales (of Miletus). 636-546 b. c.
[30:3] Rhyme nor reason.—Pierre Patelin, quoted by Tyndale in 1530. Farce du Vendeur des Lieures, sixteenth century. Peele: Edward I. Shakespeare: As You Like It, act iii. sc. 2; Merry Wives of Windsor, act v. sc. 5; Comedy of Errors, act ii. sc. 2.
Sir Thomas More advised an author, who had sent him his manuscript to read, "to put it in rhyme." Which being done, Sir Thomas said, "Yea, marry, now it is somewhat, for now it is rhyme; before it was neither rhyme nor reason."
[30:4] Fuller: Worthies of England, vol. ii. p. 379.
Of Law there can be no less acknowledged than that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world. All things in heaven and earth do her homage,—the very least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempted from her power.
Ecclesiastical Polity. Book i.
That to live by one man's will became the cause of all men's misery.
Ecclesiastical Polity. Book i.
Cupid and my Campaspe play'd
At cards for kisses: Cupid paid.
He stakes his quiver, bow, and arrows,
His mother's doves, and team of sparrows:
Loses them too. Then down he throws
The coral of his lip, the rose
Growing on 's cheek (but none knows how);
With these, the crystal of his brow,
And then the dimple on his chin:
All these did my Campaspe win.
At last he set her both his eyes:
She won, and Cupid blind did rise.
O Love! has she done this to thee?
What shall, alas! become of me?
Cupid and Campaspe. Act iii. Sc. 5.
[32]
How at heaven's gates she claps her wings,
The morne not waking til she sings.[32:1]
Cupid and Campaspe. Act v. Sc. 1.
Be valyaunt, but not too venturous. Let thy attyre bee comely, but not costly.[32:2]
Euphues, 1579 (Arber's reprint), page 39.
Though the Camomill, the more it is trodden and pressed downe the more it spreadeth.[32:3]
Euphues, 1579 (Arber's reprint), page 46.
The finest edge is made with the blunt whetstone.
Euphues, 1579 (Arber's reprint), page 47.
I cast before the Moone.[32:4]
Euphues, 1579 (Arber's reprint), page 78.
It seems to me (said she) that you are in some brown study.[32:5]
Euphues, 1579 (Arber's reprint), page 80.
The soft droppes of rain perce the hard marble;[32:6] many strokes overthrow the tallest oaks.[32:7]
Euphues, 1579 (Arber's reprint), page 81.
He reckoneth without his Hostesse.[32:8] Love knoweth no lawes.
Euphues, 1579 (Arber's reprint), page 84.
Did not Jupiter transforme himselfe into the shape of Amphitrio to embrace Alcmæna; into the form of a swan to enjoy Leda; into a Bull to beguile Io; into a showre of gold to win Danae?[32:9]
Euphues, 1579 (Arber's reprint), page 93.
[33]
Lette me stande to the maine chance.[33:1]
Euphues, 1579 (Arber's reprint), page 104.
I mean not to run with the Hare and holde with the Hounde.[33:2]
Euphues, 1579 (Arber's reprint), page 107.
It is a world to see.[33:3]
Euphues, 1579 (Arber's reprint), page 116.
There can no great smoke arise, but there must be some fire.[33:4]
Euphues and his Euphœbus, page 153.
A clere conscience is a sure carde.[33:5]
Euphues, page 207.
As lyke as one pease is to another.
Euphues, page 215.
Goe to bed with the Lambe, and rise with the Larke.[33:6]
Euphues and his England, page 229.
A comely olde man as busie as a bee.
Euphues and his England, page 252.
Maydens, be they never so foolyshe, yet beeing fayre they are commonly fortunate.
Euphues and his England, page 279.
Where the streame runneth smoothest, the water is deepest.[33:7]
Euphues and his England, page 287.
Your eyes are so sharpe that you cannot onely looke through a Milstone, but cleane through the minde.
Euphues and his England, page 289.
I am glad that my Adonis hath a sweete tooth in his head.
Euphues and his England, page 308.
A Rose is sweeter in the budde than full blowne.[33:8]
Euphues and his England, page 314.
Hark, hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings,
And Phœbus 'gins arise.
Shakespeare: Cymbeline, act ii. sc. 3.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy.
Shakespeare: Hamlet, act i. sc. 3.
[32:3] The camomile, the more it is trodden on the faster it grows.—Shakespeare: 1 Henry IV. act ii. sc. 4.
[32:5] A brown study.—Swift: Polite Conversation.
[32:6] Water continually dropping will wear hard rocks hollow.—Plutarch: Of the Training of Children.
Stillicidi casus lapidem cavat (Continual dropping wears away a stone). Lucretius: i. 314.
Many strokes, though with a little axe,
Hew down and fell the hardest-timber'd oak.
Shakespeare: 3 Henry VI. act ii. sc. 1.
[32:9] Jupiter himself was turned into a satyr, a shepherd, a bull, a swan, a golden shower, and what not for love.—Burton: Anatomy of Melancholy, part iii. sec. ii. mem. i. subs. 1.
[33:1] The main chance.—Shakespeare: 1 Henry VI. act i. sc. 1. Butler: Hudibras, part ii. canto ii. Dryden: Persius, satire vi.
[33:3] 'T is a world to see.—Shakespeare: Taming of the Shrew, act ii. sc. 1.
[33:5] This is a sure card.—Thersytes, circa 1550.
[33:6] To rise with the lark and go to bed with the lamb.—Breton: Court and Country, 1618 (reprint, page 182).
Rise with the lark, and with the lark to bed.—Hurdis: The Village Curate.
[33:8] The rose is fairest when 't is budding new.—Scott: Lady of the Lake, canto iii. st. 1.
[34]
Sweet food of sweetly uttered knowledge.
Defence of Poesy.
He cometh unto you with a tale which holdeth children from play, and old men from the chimney-corner.
Defence of Poesy.
I never heard the old song of Percy and Douglas that I found not my heart moved more than with a trumpet.
Defence of Poesy.
High-erected thoughts seated in the heart of courtesy.[34:1]
Arcadia. Book i.
They are never alone that are accompanied with noble thoughts.[34:2]
Arcadia. Book i.
Many-headed multitude.[34:3]
Arcadia. Book ii.
My dear, my better half.
Arcadia. Book iii.
Fool! said my muse to me, look in thy heart, and write.[34:4]
Astrophel and Stella, i.
Have I caught my heav'nly jewel.[34:5]
Astrophel and Stella, i. Second Song.
[34:1] Great thoughts come from the heart.—Vauvenargues: Maxim cxxvii.
[34:2] He never is alone that is accompanied with noble thoughts.—Fletcher: Love's Cure, act iii. sc. 3.
[34:3] Many-headed multitude.—Shakespeare: Coriolanus, act ii. sc. 3.
This many-headed monster, Multitude.—Daniel: History of the Civil War, book ii. st. 13.
[34:4] Look, then, into thine heart and write.—Longfellow: Voices of the Night. Prelude.
[34:5] Quoted by Shakespeare in Merry Wives of Windsor.
A drunkard clasp his teeth and not undo 'em,
To suffer wet damnation to run through 'em.[34:6]
The Revenger's Tragedy. Act iii. Sc. 1.
[34:6] Distilled damnation.—Robert Hall (in Gregory's "Life of Hall").
[35]
O wearisome condition of humanity!
Mustapha. Act v. Sc. 4.
And out of mind as soon as out of sight.[35:1]
Sonnet lvi.
None ever loved but at first sight they loved.[35:2]
The Blind Beggar of Alexandria.
An ill weed grows apace.[35:3]
An Humorous Day's Mirth.
Black is a pearl in a woman's eye.[35:4]
An Humorous Day's Mirth.
Exceeding fair she was not; and yet fair
In that she never studied to be fairer
Than Nature made her; beauty cost her nothing,
Her virtues were so rare.
All Fools. Act i. Sc. 1.
I tell thee Love is Nature's second sun,
Causing a spring of virtues where he shines.
All Fools. Act i. Sc. 1.
Cornelia. What flowers are these?
Gazetta. The pansy this.
Cor. Oh, that 's for lovers' thoughts.[35:5]
All Fools. Act ii. Sc. 1.
Fortune, the great commandress of the world,
Hath divers ways to advance her followers:
To some she gives honour without deserving,
To other some, deserving without honour.[35:6]
All Fools. Act v. Sc. 1.
[36]
Young men think old men are fools; but old men know young men are fools.[36:1]
All Fools. Act v. Sc. 1.
Virtue is not malicious; wrong done her
Is righted even when men grant they err.
Monsieur D'Olive. Act i. Sc. 1.
For one heat, all know, doth drive out another,
One passion doth expel another still.[36:2]
Monsieur D'Olive. Act v. Sc. 1.
Let no man value at a little price
A virtuous woman's counsel; her wing'd spirit
Is feather'd oftentimes with heavenly words.
The Gentleman Usher. Act iv. Sc. 1.
To put a girdle round about the world.[36:3]
Bussy D'Ambois. Act i. Sc. 1.
His deeds inimitable, like the sea
That shuts still as it opes, and leaves no tracts
Nor prints of precedent for poor men's facts.
Bussy D'Ambois. Act i. Sc. 1.
So our lives
In acts exemplary, not only win
Ourselves good names, but doth to others give
Matter for virtuous deeds, by which we live.[36:4]
Bussy D'Ambois. Act i. Sc. 1.
Who to himself is law no law doth need,
Offends no law, and is a king indeed.
Bussy D'Ambois. Act ii. Sc. 1.
Each natural agent works but to this end,—
To render that it works on like itself.
Bussy D'Ambois. Act iii. Sc. 1.
[37]
'T is immortality to die aspiring,
As if a man were taken quick to heaven.
Conspiracy of Charles, Duke of Byron. Act i. Sc. 1.
Give me a spirit that on this life's rough sea
Loves t' have his sails fill'd with a lusty wind,
Even till his sail-yards tremble, his masts crack,
And his rapt ship run on her side so low
That she drinks water, and her keel plows air.
Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron. Act iii. Sc. 1.
He is at no end of his actions blest
Whose ends will make him greatest, and not best.
Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron. Act v. Sc. 1.
Words writ in waters.[37:1]
Revenge for Honour. Act v. Sc. 2.
They 're only truly great who are truly good.[37:2]
Revenge for Honour. Act v. Sc. 2.
Keep thy shop, and thy shop will keep thee.[37:3] Light gains make heavy purses. 'T is good to be merry and wise.[37:4]
Eastward Ho.[37:5] Act i. Sc. 1.
Make ducks and drakes with shillings.
Eastward Ho.[37:5] Act i. Sc. 1.
Only a few industrious Scots perhaps, who indeed are dispersed over the face of the whole earth. But as for them, there are no greater friends to Englishmen and England, when they are out on 't, in the world, than they are. And for my own part, I would a hundred thousand of them were there [Virginia]; for we are all one countrymen now, ye know, and we should find ten times more comfort of them there than we do here.[37:6]
Eastward Ho. Act iii. Sc. 2.
[38]
Enough 's as good as a feast.[38:1]
Eastward Ho. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Fair words never hurt the tongue.[38:2]
Eastward Ho. Act iv. Sc. 1.
Let pride go afore, shame will follow after.[38:3]
Eastward Ho. Act iv. Sc. 1.
I will neither yield to the song of the siren nor the voice of the hyena, the tears of the crocodile nor the howling of the wolf.
Eastward Ho. Act v. Sc. 1.
As night the life-inclining stars best shows,
So lives obscure the starriest souls disclose.
Epilogue to Translations.
Promise is most given when the least is said.
Musæus of Hero and Leander.
[35:2] Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?—Marlowe: Hero and Leander.
I saw and loved.—Gibbon: Memoirs, vol. i. p. 106.
[35:4] Black men are pearls in beauteous ladies' eyes.—Shakespeare: Two Gentlemen of Verona, act v. sc. 2.
[35:5] There is pansies, that 's for thoughts.—Shakespeare: Hamlet, act iv. sc. 5.
[35:6] Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em.—Shakespeare: Twelfth Night, act ii. sc. 5.
[36:1] Quoted by Camden as a saying of one Dr. Metcalf. It is now in many peoples' mouths, and likely to pass into a proverb.—Ray: Proverbs (Bohn ed.), p. 145.
One fire burns out another's burning,
One pain is lessened by another's anguish.
Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet, act i. sc. 2.
[36:3] I 'll put a girdle round about the earth.—Shakespeare: Midsummer Night's Dream, act ii. sc. 1.
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime.
Longfellow: A Psalm of Life.
[37:1] Here lies one whose name was writ in water.—Keats's own Epitaph.
[37:2] To be noble we 'll be good.—Winifreda (Percy's Reliques).
'T is only noble to be good.—Tennyson: Lady Clara Vere de Vere, stanza 7.
[37:3] The same in Franklin's Poor Richard.
[37:5] By Chapman, Jonson, and Marston.
[37:6] This is the famous passage that gave offence to James I., and caused the imprisonment of the authors. The leaves containing it were cancelled and reprinted, and it only occurs in a few of the original copies.—Richard Herne Shepherd.
With that she dasht her on the lippes,
So dyed double red:
Hard was the heart that gave the blow,
Soft were those lips that bled.
Albion's England. Book viii. chap. xli. stanza 53.
We thinke no greater blisse then such
To be as be we would,
When blessed none but such as be
The same as be they should.
Albion's England. Book x. chap. lix. stanza 68.
[38:4] The allegorical poem of The Howlat was composed about the middle of the fifteenth century. Of the personal history of the author no kind of information has been discovered. Printed by the Bannatyne Club, 1823.
[39]
Treason doth never prosper: what 's the reason?
Why, if it prosper, none dare call it treason.[39:1]
Epigrams. Book iv. Ep. 5.
Prosperum ac felix scelus
Virtus vocatur
(Successful and fortunate crime is called virtue).
Seneca: Herc. Furens, ii. 250.
As that the walls worn thin, permit the mind
To look out thorough, and his frailty find.[39:2]
History of the Civil War. Book iv. Stanza 84.
Sacred religion! mother of form and fear.
Musophilus. Stanza 57.
And for the few that only lend their ear,
That few is all the world.
Musophilus. Stanza 97.
This is the thing that I was born to do.
Musophilus. Stanza 100.
And who (in time) knows whither we may vent
The treasure of our tongue? To what strange shores
This gain of our best glory shall be sent
T' enrich unknowing nations with our stores?
What worlds in the yet unformed Occident
May come refin'd with th' accents that are ours?[39:3]
Musophilus. Stanza 163.
Unless above himself he can
Erect himself, how poor a thing is man!
To the Countess of Cumberland. Stanza 12.
Care-charmer Sleep, son of the sable Night,
Brother to Death, in silent darkness born.
To Delia. Sonnet 51.
The soul's dark cottage, batter'd and decay'd,
Lets in new light through chinks that Time has made.
Waller: Verses upon his Divine Poesy.
[39:3] Westward the course of empire takes its way.—Berkeley: On the Prospect of Planting Arts and Learning in America.
[40]
Had in him those brave translunary things
That the first poets had.
(Said of Marlowe.) To Henry Reynolds, of Poets and Poesy.
For that fine madness still he did retain
Which rightly should possess a poet's brain.
(Said of Marlowe.) To Henry Reynolds, of Poets and Poesy.
The coast was clear.[40:1]
Nymphidia.
When faith is kneeling by his bed of death,
And innocence is closing up his eyes,
Now if thou wouldst, when all have given him over,
From death to life thou might'st him yet recover.
Ideas. An Allusion to the Eaglets. lxi.
[40:1] Somerville: The Night-Walker.
Comparisons are odious.[40:2]
Lust's Dominion. Act iii. Sc. 4.
I 'm armed with more than complete steel,—
The justice of my quarrel.[40:3]
Lust's Dominion. Act iii. Sc. 4.
Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?[40:4]
Hero and Leander.
Come live with me, and be my love;
And we will all the pleasures prove
That hills and valleys, dales and fields,
Woods or steepy mountain yields.
The Passionate Shepherd to his Love.
[41]
By shallow rivers, to whose falls[41:1]
Melodious birds sing madrigals.
The Passionate Shepherd to his Love.
And I will make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant posies.
The Passionate Shepherd to his Love.
Infinite riches in a little room.
The Jew of Malta. Act i.
Excess of wealth is cause of covetousness.
The Jew of Malta. Act i.
Now will I show myself to have more of the serpent than the dove;[41:2] that is, more knave than fool.
The Jew of Malta. Act ii.
Love me little, love me long.[41:3]
The Jew of Malta. Act iv.
When all the world dissolves,
And every creature shall be purified,
All places shall be hell that are not heaven.
Faustus.
Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships,
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?
Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss!
Her lips suck forth my soul:[41:4] see, where it flies!
Faustus.
O, thou art fairer than the evening air
Clad in the beauty of a thousand stars.
Faustus.
Cut is the branch that might have grown full straight,
And burnèd is Apollo's laurel bough,[41:5]
That sometime grew within this learnèd man.
Faustus.
Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just,
And he but naked, though locked up in steel,
Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted.
Shakespeare: Henry VI. act iii. sc. 2.
[40:4] The same in Shakespeare's As You Like It. Compare Chapman, page 35.
To shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sings madrigals;
There will we make our peds of roses,
And a thousand fragrant posies.
Shakespeare: Merry Wives of Windsor, act iii. sc. i. (Sung by Evans).
[41:2] Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.—Matthew x. 16.
Once he drew
With one long kiss my whole soul through
My lips.
Tennyson: Fatima, stanza 3.
O, withered is the garland of the war!
The soldier's pole is fallen.
Shakespeare: Antony and Cleopatra, act iv. sc. 13.
[42]
(From the text of Clark and Wright.)
I would fain die a dry death.
The Tempest. Act i. Sc. 1.
Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground.
The Tempest. Act i. Sc. 1.
What seest thou else
In the dark backward and abysm of time?
The Tempest. Act i. Sc. 2.
I, thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated
To closeness and the bettering of my mind.
The Tempest. Act i. Sc. 2.
Like one
Who having into truth, by telling of it,
Made such a sinner of his memory,
To credit his own lie.
The Tempest. Act i. Sc. 2.
My library
Was dukedom large enough.
The Tempest. Act i. Sc. 2.
Knowing I lov'd my books, he furnish'd me
From mine own library with volumes that
I prize above my dukedom.
The Tempest. Act i. Sc. 2.
From the still-vexed Bermoothes.
The Tempest. Act i. Sc. 2.
I will be correspondent to command,
And do my spiriting gently.
The Tempest. Act i. Sc. 2.
Fill all thy bones with aches.
The Tempest. Act i. Sc. 2.
Come unto these yellow sands,
And then take hands:
Courtsied when you have, and kiss'd
The wild waves whist.
The Tempest. Act i. Sc. 2.
Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
The Tempest. Act i. Sc. 2.
[43]
The fringed curtains of thine eye advance.
The Tempest. Act i. Sc. 2.
There 's nothing ill can dwell in such a temple:
If the ill spirit have so fair a house,
Good things will strive to dwell with 't.
The Tempest. Act i. Sc. 2.
Gon. Here is everything advantageous to life.
Ant. True; save means to live.
The Tempest. Act ii. Sc. 1.
A very ancient and fish-like smell.
The Tempest. Act ii. Sc. 2.
Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.
The Tempest. Act ii. Sc. 2.
Fer. Here 's my hand.
Mir. And mine, with my heart in 't.
The Tempest. Act iii. Sc. 1.
He that dies pays all debts.
The Tempest. Act iii. Sc. 2.
A kind
Of excellent dumb discourse.
The Tempest. Act iii. Sc. 3.
Deeper than e'er plummet sounded.
The Tempest. Act iii. Sc. 3.
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
The Tempest. Act iv. Sc. 1.
With foreheads villanous low.
The Tempest. Act iv. Sc. 1.
Deeper than did ever plummet sound
I 'll drown my book.
The Tempest. Act v. Sc. 1.
Where the bee sucks, there suck I;
In a cowslip's bell I lie.
The Tempest. Act v. Sc. 1.
Merrily, merrily shall I live now,
Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.
The Tempest. Act v. Sc. 1.
[44]
Home-keeping youth have ever homely wits.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act i. Sc. 1.
I have no other but a woman's reason:
I think him so, because I think him so.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act i. Sc. 2.
O, how this spring of love resembleth
The uncertain glory of an April day!
The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act i. Sc. 3.
And if it please you, so; if not, why, so.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act ii. Sc. 1.
O jest unseen, inscrutable, invisible,
As a nose on a man's face,[44:1] or a weathercock on a steeple.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act ii. Sc. 1.
She is mine own,
And I as rich in having such a jewel
As twenty seas, if all their sand were pearl,
The water nectar, and the rocks pure gold.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act ii. Sc. 4.
He makes sweet music with th' enamell'd stones,
Giving a gentle kiss to every sedge
He overtaketh in his pilgrimage.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act ii. Sc. 7.
That man that hath a tongue, I say, is no man,
If with his tongue he cannot win a woman.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act iii. Sc. 1.
Except I be by Sylvia in the night,
There is no music in the nightingale.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act iii. Sc. 1.
A man I am, cross'd with adversity.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act iv. Sc. 1.
Is she not passing fair?
The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act iv. Sc. 4.
How use doth breed a habit in a man![44:2]
The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act v. Sc. 4.
O heaven! were man
But constant, he were perfect.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act v. Sc. 4.
Come not within the measure of my wrath.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act v. Sc. 4.
I will make a Star-chamber matter of it.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act i. Sc. 1.
All his successors gone before him have done 't; and all his ancestors that come after him may.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act i. Sc. 1.
[45]
It is a familiar beast to man, and signifies love.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act i. Sc. 1.
Seven hundred pounds and possibilities is good gifts.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act i. Sc. 1.
Mine host of the Garter.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act i. Sc. 1.
I had rather than forty shillings I had my Book of Songs and Sonnets here.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act i. Sc. 1.
If there be no great love in the beginning, yet heaven may decrease it upon better acquaintance, when we are married and have more occasion to know one another: I hope, upon familiarity will grow more contempt.[45:1]
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act i. Sc. 1.
O base Hungarian wight! wilt thou the spigot wield?
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act i. Sc. 3.
"Convey," the wise it call. "Steal!" foh! a fico for the phrase!
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act i. Sc. 3.
Sail like my pinnace to these golden shores.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act i. Sc. 3.
Tester I 'll have in pouch, when thou shalt lack,
Base Phrygian Turk!
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act i. Sc. 3.
Thou art the Mars of malcontents.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act i. Sc. 3.
Here will be an old abusing of God's patience and the king's English.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act i. Sc. 4.
We burn daylight.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act ii. Sc. 1.
There 's the humour of it.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act ii. Sc. 1.
Faith, thou hast some crotchets in thy head now.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act ii. Sc. 1.
Why, then the world 's mine oyster,
Which I with sword will open.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act ii. Sc. 2.
This is the short and the long of it.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act ii. Sc. 2.
Unless experience be a jewel.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act ii. Sc. 2.
Like a fair house, built on another man's ground.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act ii. Sc. 2.
We have some salt of our youth in us.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act ii. Sc. 3.
[46]
I cannot tell what the dickens his name is.[46:1]
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act iii. Sc. 2.
What a taking was he in when your husband asked who was in the basket!
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act iii. Sc. 3.
O, what a world of vile ill-favour'd faults
Looks handsome in three hundred pounds a year!
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act iii. Sc. 4.
Happy man be his dole!
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act iii. Sc. 4.
I have a kind of alacrity in sinking.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act iii. Sc. 5.
As good luck would have it.[46:2]
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act iii. Sc. 5.
The rankest compound of villanous smell that ever offended nostril.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act iii. Sc. 5.
A man of my kidney.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act iii. Sc. 5.
Think of that, Master Brook.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act iii. Sc. 5.
Your hearts are mighty, your skins are whole.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act iv. Sc. 1.
In his old lunes again.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act iv. Sc. 2.
So curses all Eve's daughters, of what complexion soever.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act iv. Sc. 2.
This is the third time; I hope good luck lies in odd numbers. . . . There is divinity in odd numbers, either in nativity, chance, or death.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act v. Sc. 1.
Thyself and thy belongings
Are not thine own so proper as to waste
Thyself upon thy virtues, they on thee.
Heaven doth with us as we with torches do,
Not light them for themselves; for if our virtues
Did not go forth of us, 't were all alike
As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touch'd
But to fine issues, nor Nature never lends
The smallest scruple of her excellence
But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines
Herself the glory of a creditor,
Both thanks and use.
Measure for Measure. Act i. Sc. 1.
[47]
He was ever precise in promise-keeping.
Measure for Measure. Act i. Sc. 2.
Who may, in the ambush of my name, strike home.
Measure for Measure. Act i. Sc. 3.[47:1]
I hold you as a thing ensky'd and sainted.
Measure for Measure. Act i. Sc. 4.[47:1]
A man whose blood
Is very snow-broth; one who never feels
The wanton stings and motions of the sense.
Measure for Measure. Act i. Sc. 4.[47:1]
He arrests him on it;
And follows close the rigour of the statute,
To make him an example.
Measure for Measure. Act i. Sc. 4.[47:1]
Our doubts are traitors,
And make us lose the good we oft might win
By fearing to attempt.
Measure for Measure. Act i. Sc. 4.[47:1]
The jury, passing on the prisoner's life,
May in the sworn twelve have a thief or two
Guiltier than him they try.
Measure for Measure. Act ii. Sc. 1.
Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.
Measure for Measure. Act ii. Sc. 1.
This will last out a night in Russia,
When nights are longest there.
Measure for Measure. Act ii. Sc. 1.
Condemn the fault, and not the actor of it?
Measure for Measure. Act ii. Sc. 2.
No ceremony that to great ones 'longs,
Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword,
The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe,
Become them with one half so good a grace
As mercy does.[47:2]
Measure for Measure. Act ii. Sc. 2.
Why, all the souls that were, were forfeit once;
And He that might the vantage best have took
Found out the remedy. How would you be,
If He, which is the top of judgment, should
But judge you as you are?
Measure for Measure. Act ii. Sc. 2.
[48]
The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept.
Measure for Measure. Act ii. Sc. 2.
O, it is excellent
To have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous
To use it like a giant.
Measure for Measure. Act ii. Sc. 2.
But man, proud man,
Drest in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he 's most assured,
His glassy essence, like an angry ape,
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven
As make the angels weep.
Measure for Measure. Act ii. Sc. 2.
That in the captain 's but a choleric word
Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy.
Measure for Measure. Act ii. Sc. 2.
Our compell'd sins
Stand more for number than for accompt.
Measure for Measure. Act ii. Sc. 4.
The miserable have no other medicine,
But only hope.
Measure for Measure. Act iii. Sc. 1.
A breath thou art,
Servile to all the skyey influences.
Measure for Measure. Act iii. Sc. 1.
Palsied eld.
Measure for Measure. Act iii. Sc. 1.
The sense of death is most in apprehension;
And the poor beetle, that we tread upon,
In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great
As when a giant dies.
Measure for Measure. Act iii. Sc. 1.
The cunning livery of hell.
Measure for Measure. Act iii. Sc. 1.
Ay, but to die, and go we know not where;
To lie in cold obstruction and to rot;
This sensible warm motion to become
A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit
To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside
In thrilling region of thick-ribbed ice;
To be imprison'd in the viewless winds,
And blown with restless violence round about
The pendent world.
Measure for Measure. Act iii. Sc. 1.
[49]
The weariest and most loathed worldly life
That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment
Can lay on nature, is a paradise
To what we fear of death.
Measure for Measure. Act iii. Sc. 1.
The hand that hath made you fair hath made you good.[49:1]
Measure for Measure. Act iii. Sc. 1.
Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful.
Measure for Measure. Act iii. Sc. 1.
There, at the moated grange, resides this dejected Mariana.[49:2]
Measure for Measure. Act iii. Sc. 1.
O, what may man within him hide,
Though angel on the outward side!
Measure for Measure. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Take, O, take those lips away,
That so sweetly were forsworn;
And those eyes, the break of day,
Lights that do mislead the morn:
But my kisses bring again, bring again;
Seals of love, but sealed in vain, sealed in vain.[49:3]
Measure for Measure. Act iv. Sc. 1.
Every true man's apparel fits your thief.
Measure for Measure. Act iv. Sc. 2.
We would, and we would not.
Measure for Measure. Act iv. Sc. 4.
A forted residence 'gainst the tooth of time
And razure of oblivion.
Measure for Measure. Act v. Sc. 1.
Truth is truth
To the end of reckoning.
Measure for Measure. Act v. Sc. 1.
My business in this state
Made me a looker on here in Vienna.
Measure for Measure. Act v. Sc. 1.
[50]
They say, best men are moulded out of faults,
And, for the most, become much more the better
For being a little bad.
Measure for Measure. Act v. Sc. 1.
What 's mine is yours, and what is yours is mine.
Measure for Measure. Act v. Sc. 1.
The pleasing punishment that women bear.
The Comedy of Errors. Act i. Sc. 1.
A wretched soul, bruised with adversity.
The Comedy of Errors. Act ii. Sc. 1.
Every why hath a wherefore.[50:1]
The Comedy of Errors. Act ii. Sc. 2.
Small cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast.
The Comedy of Errors. Act iii. Sc. 1.
One Pinch, a hungry lean-faced villain,
A mere anatomy.
The Comedy of Errors. Act v. Sc. 1.
A needy, hollow-eyed, sharp-looking wretch,
A living-dead man.
The Comedy of Errors. Act v. Sc. 1.
Let 's go hand in hand, not one before another.
The Comedy of Errors. Act v. Sc. 1.
He hath indeed better bettered expectation.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act i. Sc. 1.
A very valiant trencher-man.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act i. Sc. 1.
He wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act i. Sc. 1.
What, my dear Lady Disdain! are you yet living?
Much Ado about Nothing. Act i. Sc. 1.
There 's a skirmish of wit between them.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act i. Sc. 1.
The gentleman is not in your books.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act i. Sc. 1.
Shall I never see a bachelor of threescore again?
Much Ado about Nothing. Act i. Sc. 1.
Benedick the married man.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act i. Sc. 1.
He is of a very melancholy disposition.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act i. Sc. 1.
He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act ii. Sc. 1.
As merry as the day is long.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act ii. Sc. 1.
I have a good eye, uncle; I can see a church by daylight.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act ii. Sc. 1.
[51]
Speak low if you speak love.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act ii. Sc. 1.
Friendship is constant in all other things
Save in the office and affairs of love:
Therefore all hearts in love use their own tongues;
Let every eye negotiate for itself
And trust no agent.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act ii. Sc. 1.
Silence is the perfectest herald of joy: I were but little happy, if I could say how much.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act ii. Sc. 1.
Lie ten nights awake, carving the fashion of a new doublet. He was wont to speak plain and to the purpose.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act ii. Sc. 3.
Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,
Men were deceivers ever,—
One foot in sea and one on shore,
To one thing constant never.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act ii. Sc. 3.
Sits the wind in that corner?
Much Ado about Nothing. Act ii. Sc. 3.
Shall quips and sentences and these paper bullets of the brain awe a man from the career of his humour? No, the world must be peopled. When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act ii. Sc. 3.
Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act iii. Sc. 1.
From the crown of his head to the sole of his foot,[51:1] he is all mirth.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Every one can master a grief but he that has it.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Are you good men and true?
Much Ado about Nothing. Act iii. Sc. 3.
To be a well-favoured man is the gift of fortune; but to write and read comes by nature.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act iii. Sc. 3.
The most senseless and fit man.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act iii. Sc. 3.
[52]
You shall comprehend all vagrom men.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act iii. Sc. 3.
2 Watch. How if a' will not stand?
Dogb. Why, then, take no note of him, but let him go; and presently call the rest of the watch together, and thank God you are rid of a knave.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act iii. Sc. 3.
Is most tolerable, and not to be endured.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act iii. Sc. 3.
If they make you not then the better answer, you may say they are not the men you took them for.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act iii. Sc. 3.
The most peaceable way for you if you do take a thief, is to let him show himself what he is and steal out of your company.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act iii. Sc. 3.
I know that Deformed.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act iii. Sc. 3.
The fashion wears out more apparel than the man.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act iii. Sc. 3.
I thank God I am as honest as any man living that is an old man and no honester than I.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act iii. Sc. 3.
Comparisons are odorous.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act iii. Sc. 5.
If I were as tedious as a king, I could find it in my heart to bestow it all of your worship.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act iii. Sc. 5.
A good old man, sir; he will be talking: as they say, When the age is in the wit is out.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act iii. Sc. 5.
O, what men dare do! what men may do! what men daily do, not knowing what they do!
Much Ado about Nothing. Act iv. Sc. 1.
O, what authority and show of truth
Can cunning sin cover itself withal!
Much Ado about Nothing. Act iv. Sc. 1.
I never tempted her with word too large,
But, as a brother to his sister, show'd
Bashful sincerity and comely love.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act iv. Sc. 1.
I have mark'd
A thousand blushing apparitions
To start into her face, a thousand innocent shames
In angel whiteness beat away those blushes.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act iv. Sc. 1.
[53]
For it so falls out
That what we have we prize not to the worth
Whiles we enjoy it, but being lack'd and lost,
Why, then we rack the value; then we find
The virtue that possession would not show us
Whiles it was ours.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act iv. Sc. 1.
The idea of her life shall sweetly creep
Into his study of imagination,
And every lovely organ of her life,
Shall come apparell'd in more precious habit,
More moving-delicate and full of life
Into the eye and prospect of his soul.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act iv. Sc. 1.
Masters, it is proved already that you are little better than false knaves; and it will go near to be thought so shortly.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act iv. Sc. 2.
The eftest way.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act iv. Sc. 2.
Flat burglary as ever was committed.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act iv. Sc. 2.
Condemned into everlasting redemption.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act iv. Sc. 2.
O, that he were here to write me down an ass!
Much Ado about Nothing. Act iv. Sc. 2.
A fellow that hath had losses, and one that hath two gowns and every thing handsome about him.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act iv. Sc. 2.
Patch grief with proverbs.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act v. Sc. 1.
Men
Can counsel and speak comfort to that grief
Which they themselves not feel.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act v. Sc. 1.
Charm ache with air, and agony with words.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act v. Sc. 1.
'T is all men's office to speak patience
To those that wring under the load of sorrow,
But no man's virtue nor sufficiency
To be so moral when he shall endure
The like himself.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act v. Sc. 1.
For there was never yet philosopher
That could endure the toothache patiently.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act v. Sc. 1.
[54]
Some of us will smart for it.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act v. Sc. 1.
I was not born under a rhyming planet.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act v. Sc. 2.
Done to death by slanderous tongues.
Much Ado about Nothing. Act v. Sc. 3.
Or, having sworn too hard a keeping oath,
Study to break it and not break my troth.
Love's Labour's Lost. Act i. Sc. 1.
Light seeking light doth light of light beguile.
Love's Labour's Lost. Act i. Sc. 1.
Small have continual plodders ever won
Save base authority from others' books.
These earthly godfathers of heaven's lights
That give a name to every fixed star
Have no more profit of their shining nights
Than those that walk and wot not what they are.
Love's Labour's Lost. Act i. Sc. 1.
At Christmas I no more desire a rose
Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled mirth;[54:1]
But like of each thing that in season grows.
Love's Labour's Lost. Act i. Sc. 1.
A man in all the world's new fashion planted,
That hath a mint of phrases in his brain.
Love's Labour's Lost. Act i. Sc. 1.
A high hope for a low heaven.
Love's Labour's Lost. Act i. Sc. 1.
And men sit down to that nourishment which is called supper.
Love's Labour's Lost. Act i. Sc. 1.
That unlettered small-knowing soul.
Love's Labour's Lost. Act i. Sc. 1.
A child of our grandmother Eve, a female; or, for thy more sweet understanding, a woman.
Love's Labour's Lost. Act i. Sc. 1.
Affliction may one day smile again; and till then, sit thee down, sorrow!
Love's Labour's Lost. Act i. Sc. 1.
The world was very guilty of such a ballad some three ages since; but I think now 't is not to be found.
Love's Labour's Lost. Act i. Sc. 2.
The rational hind Costard.
Love's Labour's Lost. Act i. Sc. 2.
[55]
Devise, wit; write, pen; for I am for whole volumes in folio.
Love's Labour's Lost. Act i. Sc. 2.
A man of sovereign parts he is esteem'd;
Well fitted in arts, glorious in arms:
Nothing becomes him ill that he would well.
Love's Labour's Lost. Act ii. Sc. 1.
A merrier man,
Within the limit of becoming mirth,
I never spent an hour's talk withal.
Love's Labour's Lost. Act ii. Sc. 1.
Delivers in such apt and gracious words
That aged ears play truant at his tales,
And younger hearings are quite ravished;
So sweet and voluble is his discourse.
Love's Labour's Lost. Act ii. Sc. 1.
By my penny of observation.
Love's Labour's Lost. Act iii. Sc. 1.
The boy hath sold him a bargain,—a goose.
Love's Labour's Lost. Act iii. Sc. 1.
To sell a bargain well is as cunning as fast and loose.
Love's Labour's Lost. Act iii. Sc. 1.
A very beadle to a humorous sigh.
Love's Labour's Lost. Act iii. Sc. 1.
This senior-junior, giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid;
Regent of love-rhymes, lord of folded arms,
The anointed sovereign of sighs and groans,
Liege of all loiterers and malcontents.
Love's Labour's Lost. Act iii. Sc. 1.
A buck of the first head.
Love's Labour's Lost. Act iv. Sc. 2.
He hath never fed of the dainties that are bred in a book; he hath not eat paper, as it were; he hath not drunk ink.
Love's Labour's Lost. Act iv. Sc. 2.
Many can brook the weather that love not the wind.
Love's Labour's Lost. Act iv. Sc. 2.
You two are book-men.
Love's Labour's Lost. Act iv. Sc. 2.
Dictynna, goodman Dull.
Love's Labour's Lost. Act iv. Sc. 2.
These are begot in the ventricle of memory, nourished in the womb of pia mater, and delivered upon the mellowing of occasion.
Love's Labour's Lost. Act iv. Sc. 2.
For where is any author in the world
Teaches such beauty as a woman's eye?
Learning is but an adjunct to ourself.
Love's Labour's Lost. Act iv. Sc. 3.
[56]
It adds a precious seeing to the eye.
Love's Labour's Lost. Act iv. Sc. 3.
As sweet and musical
As bright Apollo's lute, strung with his hair;[56:1]
And when Love speaks, the voice of all the gods
Makes heaven drowsy with the harmony.
Love's Labour's Lost. Act iv. Sc. 3.
From women's eyes this doctrine I derive:
They sparkle still the right Promethean fire;
They are the books, the arts, the academes,
That show, contain, and nourish all the world.
Love's Labour's Lost. Act iv. Sc. 3.
He draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than the staple of his argument.
Love's Labour's Lost. Act v. Sc. 1.
Priscian! a little scratched, 't will serve.
Love's Labour's Lost. Act v. Sc. 1.
They have been at a great feast of languages, and stolen the scraps.
Love's Labour's Lost. Act v. Sc. 1.
In the posteriors of this day, which the rude multitude call the afternoon.
Love's Labour's Lost. Act v. Sc. 1.
They have measured many a mile
To tread a measure with you on this grass.
Love's Labour's Lost. Act v. Sc. 2.
Let me take you a button-hole lower.
Love's Labour's Lost. Act v. Sc. 2.
I have seen the day of wrong through the little hole of discretion.
Love's Labour's Lost. Act v. Sc. 2.
A jest's prosperity lies in the ear
Of him that hears it, never in the tongue
Of him that makes it.
Love's Labour's Lost. Act v. Sc. 2.
When daisies pied and violets blue,
And lady-smocks all silver-white,
And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue
Do paint the meadows with delight,
The cuckoo then, on every tree,
Mocks married men.
Love's Labour's Lost. Act v. Sc. 2.
[57]
The words of Mercury are harsh after the songs of Apollo.
Love's Labour's Lost. Act v. Sc. 2.
But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd
Than that which withering on the virgin thorn[57:1]
Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness.
A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act i. Sc. 1.
For aught that I could ever read,[57:2]
Could ever hear by tale or history,
The course of true love never did run smooth.
A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act i. Sc. 1.
O, hell! to choose love by another's eyes.
A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act i. Sc. 1.
Swift as a shadow, short as any dream;
Brief as the lightning in the collied night,
That in a spleen unfolds both heaven and earth,
And ere a man hath power to say, "Behold!"
The jaws of darkness do devour it up:
So quick bright things come to confusion.
A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act i. Sc. 1.
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.
A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act i. Sc. 1.
Masters, spread yourselves.
A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act i. Sc. 2.
This is Ercles' vein.
A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act i. Sc. 2.
I'll speak in a monstrous little voice.
A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act i. Sc. 2.
I am slow of study.
A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act i. Sc. 2.
That would hang us, every mother's son.
A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act i. Sc. 2.
I will roar you as gently as any sucking dove; I will roar you, an 't were any nightingale.
A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act i. Sc. 2.
A proper man, as one shall see in a summer's day.
A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act i. Sc. 2.
The human mortals.
A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act ii. Sc. 1.[57:3]
The rude sea grew civil at her song,
And certain stars shot madly from their spheres
To hear the sea-maid's music.
A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act ii. Sc. 1.
[58]
And the imperial votaress passed on,
In maiden meditation, fancy-free.
Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell:
It fell upon a little western flower,
Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound,
And maidens call it love-in-idleness.
A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act ii. Sc. 1.[58:1]
I 'll put a girdle round about the earth
In forty minutes.[58:2]
A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act ii. Sc. 1.
I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine.
A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act ii. Sc. 1.
A lion among ladies is a most dreadful thing.
A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act iii. Sc. 1.
Bless thee, Bottom! bless thee! thou art translated.
A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act iii. Sc. 1.
Lord, what fools these mortals be!
A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act iii. Sc. 2.
So we grew together,
Like to a double cherry, seeming parted,
But yet an union in partition.
A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Two lovely berries moulded on one stem.
A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act iii. Sc. 2.
I have an exposition of sleep come upon me.
A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act iv. Sc. 1.
I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what dream it was.
A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act iv. Sc. 1.
The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen,[58:5] man's hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream was.
A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act iv. Sc. 1.
[59]
The lunatic, the lover, and the poet
Are of imagination all compact:
One sees more devils than vast hell can hold,
That is, the madman: the lover, all as frantic,
Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt:
The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;
And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.
Such tricks hath strong imagination,
That if it would but apprehend some joy,
It comprehends some bringer of that joy;
Or in the night, imagining some fear,
How easy is a bush supposed a bear!
A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act v. Sc. 1.
For never anything can be amiss,
When simpleness and duty tender it.
A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act v. Sc. 1.
The true beginning of our end.[59:1]
A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act v. Sc. 1.
The best in this kind are but shadows.
A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act v. Sc. 1.
A very gentle beast, and of a good conscience.
A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act v. Sc. 1.
This passion, and the death of a dear friend, would go near to make a man look sad.
A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act v. Sc. 1.
The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve.
A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act v. Sc. 1.
My ventures are not in one bottom trusted,
Nor to one place.
The Merchant of Venice. Act i. Sc. 1.
Now, by two-headed Janus,
Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time.
The Merchant of Venice. Act i. Sc. 1.
Though Nestor swear the jest be laughable.
The Merchant of Venice. Act i. Sc. 1.
You have too much respect upon the world:
They lose it that do buy it with much care.
The Merchant of Venice. Act i. Sc. 1.
[60]
I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano,—
A stage, where every man must play a part;
And mine a sad one.
The Merchant of Venice. Act i. Sc. 1.
Why should a man, whose blood is warm within,
Sit like his grandsire cut in alabaster?
The Merchant of Venice. Act i. Sc. 1.
There are a sort of men whose visages
Do cream and mantle like a standing pond.
The Merchant of Venice. Act i. Sc. 1.
I am Sir Oracle,
And when I ope my lips, let no dog bark!
The Merchant of Venice. Act i. Sc. 1.
I do know of these
That therefore only are reputed wise
For saying nothing.
The Merchant of Venice. Act i. Sc. 1.
Fish not, with this melancholy bait,
For this fool gudgeon, this opinion.
The Merchant of Venice. Act i. Sc. 1.
Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing, more than any man in all Venice. His reasons are as two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff: you shall seek all day ere you find them, and when you have them, they are not worth the search.
The Merchant of Venice. Act i. Sc. 1.
In my school-days, when I had lost one shaft,
I shot his fellow of the selfsame flight
The selfsame way, with more advised watch,
To find the other forth; and by adventuring both,
I oft found both.
The Merchant of Venice. Act i. Sc. 1.
They are as sick that surfeit with too much, as they that starve with nothing.
The Merchant of Venice. Act i. Sc. 2.
Superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but competency lives longer.
The Merchant of Venice. Act i. Sc. 2.
If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' palaces.[60:1]
The Merchant of Venice. Act i. Sc. 2.
[61]
The brain may devise laws for the blood, but a hot temper leaps o'er a cold decree.
The Merchant of Venice. Act i. Sc. 2.
He doth nothing but talk of his horse.
The Merchant of Venice. Act i. Sc. 2.
God, made him, and therefore let him pass for a man.
The Merchant of Venice. Act i. Sc. 2.
When he is best, he is a little worse than a man; and when he is worst, he is little better than a beast.
The Merchant of Venice. Act i. Sc. 2.
I dote on his very absence.
The Merchant of Venice. Act i. Sc. 2.
My meaning in saying he is a good man, is to have you understand me that he is sufficient.
The Merchant of Venice. Act i. Sc. 3.
Ships are but boards, sailors but men: there be land-rats and water-rats, water-thieves and land-thieves.
The Merchant of Venice. Act i. Sc. 3.
I will buy with you, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so following; but I will not eat with you, drink with you, nor pray with you. What news on the Rialto?
The Merchant of Venice. Act i. Sc. 3.
I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him.
He hates our sacred nation, and he rails,
Even there where merchants most do congregate.
The Merchant of Venice. Act i. Sc. 3.
The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
The Merchant of Venice. Act i. Sc. 3.
A goodly apple rotten at the heart:
O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!
The Merchant of Venice. Act i. Sc. 3.
Many a time and oft
In the Rialto you have rated me.
The Merchant of Venice. Act i. Sc. 3.
For sufferance is the badge of all our tribe.
The Merchant of Venice. Act i. Sc. 3.
You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog,
And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine.
The Merchant of Venice. Act i. Sc. 3.
Shall I bend low, and in a bondman's key,
With bated breath and whispering humbleness.
The Merchant of Venice. Act i. Sc. 3.
For when did friendship take
A breed for barren metal of his friend?
The Merchant of Venice. Act i. Sc. 3.
[62]
O Father Abram! what these Christians are,
Whose own hard dealings teaches them suspect
The thoughts of others!
The Merchant of Venice. Act i. Sc. 3.
Mislike me not for my complexion,
The shadow'd livery of the burnish'd sun.
The Merchant of Venice. Act ii. Sc. 1.
The young gentleman, according to Fates and Destinies and such odd sayings, the Sisters Three and such branches of learning, is indeed deceased; or, as you would say in plain terms, gone to heaven.
The Merchant of Venice. Act ii. Sc. 2.
The very staff of my age, my very prop.
The Merchant of Venice. Act ii. Sc. 2.
It is a wise father that knows his own child.
The Merchant of Venice. Act ii. Sc. 2.
An honest exceeding poor man.
The Merchant of Venice. Act ii. Sc. 2.
Truth will come to sight; murder cannot be hid long.
The Merchant of Venice. Act ii. Sc. 2.
In the twinkling of an eye.
The Merchant of Venice. Act ii. Sc. 2.
And the vile squeaking of the wry-necked fife.
The Merchant of Venice. Act ii. Sc. 5.
All things that are,
Are with more spirit chased than enjoy'd.
How like a younker or a prodigal
The scarfed bark puts from her native bay,
Hugg'd and embraced by the strumpet wind!
How like the prodigal doth she return,
With over-weather'd ribs and ragged sails,
Lean, rent, and beggar'd by the strumpet wind!
The Merchant of Venice. Act ii. Sc. 6.
Must I hold a candle to my shames?
The Merchant of Venice. Act ii. Sc. 6.
But love is blind, and lovers cannot see
The pretty follies that themselves commit.
The Merchant of Venice. Act ii. Sc. 6.
All that glisters is not gold.[62:1]
The Merchant of Venice. Act ii. Sc. 7.
Young in limbs, in judgment old.
The Merchant of Venice. Act ii. Sc. 7.
Even in the force and road of casualty.
The Merchant of Venice. Act ii. Sc. 9.
[63]
Hanging and wiving goes by destiny.[63:1]
The Merchant of Venice. Act ii. Sc. 9.
If my gossip Report be an honest woman of her word.
The Merchant of Venice. Act iii. Sc. 1.
If it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge.
The Merchant of Venice. Act iii. Sc. 1.
I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?
The Merchant of Venice. Act iii. Sc. 1.
The villany you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard, but I will better the instruction.
The Merchant of Venice. Act iii. Sc. 1.
Tell me where is fancy bred,
Or in the heart or in the head?
How begot, how nourished?
Reply, Reply.
The Merchant of Venice. Act iii. Sc. 2.
In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt
But being season'd with a gracious voice
Obscures the show of evil?
The Merchant of Venice. Act iii. Sc. 2.
There is no vice so simple but assumes
Some mark of virtue in his outward parts.
The Merchant of Venice. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Thus ornament is but the guiled shore
To a most dangerous sea.
The Merchant of Venice. Act iii. Sc. 2.
The seeming truth which cunning times put on
To entrap the wisest.
The Merchant of Venice. Act iii. Sc. 2.
[64]
An unlesson'd girl, unschool'd, unpractised;
Happy in this, she is not yet so old
But she may learn.[64:1]
The Merchant of Venice. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Here are a few of the unpleasant'st words
That ever blotted paper!
The Merchant of Venice. Act iii. Sc. 2.
The kindest man,
The best-condition'd and unwearied spirit
In doing courtesies.
The Merchant of Venice. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Thus when I shun Scylla, your father, I fall into Charybdis, your mother.[64:2]
The Merchant of Venice. Act iii. Sc. 5.
Let it serve for table-talk.
The Merchant of Venice. Act iii. Sc. 5.
A harmless necessary cat.
The Merchant of Venice. Act iv. Sc. 1.
What! wouldst thou have a serpent sting thee twice?
The Merchant of Venice. Act iv. Sc. 1.
I am a tainted wether of the flock,
Meetest for death: the weakest kind of fruit
Drops earliest to the ground.
The Merchant of Venice. Act iv. Sc. 1.
I never knew so young a body with so old a head.
The Merchant of Venice. Act iv. Sc. 1.
The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
'T is mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway,
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's,
[65]When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That in the course of justice none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy.
The Merchant of Venice. Act iv. Sc. 1.
A Daniel come to judgment! yea, a Daniel!
The Merchant of Venice. Act iv. Sc. 1.
Is it so nominated in the bond?[65:1]
The Merchant of Venice. Act iv. Sc. 1.
'T is not in the bond.
The Merchant of Venice. Act iv. Sc. 1.
Speak me fair in death.
The Merchant of Venice. Act iv. Sc. 1.
An upright judge, a learned judge!
The Merchant of Venice. Act iv. Sc. 1.
A second Daniel, a Daniel, Jew!
Now, infidel, I have you on the hip.
The Merchant of Venice. Act iv. Sc. 1.
I thank thee, Jew, for teaching me that word.
The Merchant of Venice. Act iv. Sc. 1.
You take my house when you do take the prop
That doth sustain my house; you take my life
When you do take the means whereby I live.
The Merchant of Venice. Act iv. Sc. 1.
He is well paid that is well satisfied.
The Merchant of Venice. Act iv. Sc. 1.
How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!
Here we will sit and let the sounds of music
Creep in our ears: soft stillness and the night
Become the touches of sweet harmony.
Sit, Jessica. Look how the floor of heaven
Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold:
There 's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st
But in his motion like an angel sings,
Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins.
Such harmony is in immortal souls;
But whilst this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.
The Merchant of Venice. Act v. Sc. 1.
I am never merry when I hear sweet music.
The Merchant of Venice. Act v. Sc. 1.
[66]
The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils;
The motions of his spirit are dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus.
Let no such man be trusted.
The Merchant of Venice. Act v. Sc. 1.
How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
The Merchant of Venice. Act v. Sc. 1.
How many things by season season'd are
To their right praise and true perfection!
The Merchant of Venice. Act v. Sc. 1.
This night methinks is but the daylight sick.
The Merchant of Venice. Act v. Sc. 1.
These blessed candles of the night.
The Merchant of Venice. Act v. Sc. 1.
Fair ladies, you drop manna in the way
Of starved people.
The Merchant of Venice. Act v. Sc. 1.
We will answer all things faithfully.
The Merchant of Venice. Act v. Sc. 1.
Fortune reigns in gifts of the world.
As You Like It. Act i. Sc. 2.
The little foolery that wise men have makes a great show.
As You Like It. Act i. Sc. 2.
Well said: that was laid on with a trowel.
As You Like It. Act i. Sc. 2.
Your heart's desires be with you!
As You Like It. Act i. Sc. 2.
One out of suits with fortune.
As You Like It. Act i. Sc. 2.
Hereafter, in a better world than this,
I shall desire more love and knowledge of you.
As You Like It. Act i. Sc. 2.
My pride fell with my fortunes.
As You Like It. Act i. Sc. 2.
Cel. Not a word?
Ros. Not one to throw at a dog.
As You Like It. Act i. Sc. 3.
O, how full of briers is this working-day world!
As You Like It. Act i. Sc. 3.
Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold.
As You Like It. Act i. Sc. 3.
We 'll have a swashing and a martial outside,
As many other mannish cowards have.
As You Like It. Act i. Sc. 3.
[67]
Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in every thing.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 1.
The big round tears
Coursed one another down his innocent nose
In piteous chase.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 1.
"Poor deer," quoth he, "thou makest a testament
As worldlings do, giving thy sum of more
To that which had too much."
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 1.
Sweep on, you fat and greasy citizens.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 1.
And He that doth the ravens feed,
Yea, providently caters for the sparrow,
Be comfort to my age!
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 3.
For in my youth I never did apply
Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 3.
Therefore my age is as a lusty winter,
Frosty, but kindly.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 3.
O, good old man, how well in thee appears
The constant service of the antique world,
When service sweat for duty, not for meed!
Thou art not for the fashion of these times,
Where none will sweat but for promotion.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 3.
Ay, now am I in Arden: the more fool I. When I was at home I was in a better place; but travellers must be content.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 4.
I shall ne'er be ware of mine own wit till I break my shins against it.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 4.
Under the greenwood tree
Who loves to lie with me.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 5.
I met a fool i' the forest,
A motley fool.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 7.
[68]
And rail'd on Lady Fortune in good terms,
In good set terms.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 7.
And then he drew a dial from his poke,
And looking on it with lack-lustre eye,
Says very wisely, "It is ten o'clock:
Thus we may see," quoth he, "how the world wags."
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 7.
And so from hour to hour we ripe and ripe,
And then from hour to hour we rot and rot;
And thereby hangs a tale.[68:1]
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 7.
My lungs began to crow like chanticleer,
That fools should be so deep-contemplative;
And I did laugh sans intermission
An hour by his dial.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 7.
Motley 's the only wear.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 7.
If ladies be but young and fair,
They have the gift to know it; and in his brain,
Which is as dry as the remainder biscuit
After a voyage, he hath strange places cramm'd
With observation, the which he vents
In mangled forms.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 7.
I must have liberty
Withal, as large a charter as the wind,
To blow on whom I please.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 7.
The "why" is plain as way to parish church.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 7.
Under the shade of melancholy boughs,
Lose and neglect the creeping hours of time;
If ever you have look'd on better days,
If ever been where bells have knoll'd to church,
If ever sat at any good man's feast.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 7.
True is it that we have seen better days.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 7.
[69]
And wiped our eyes
Of drops that sacred pity hath engender'd.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 7.
Oppress'd with two weak evils, age and hunger.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 7.
All the world 's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players.[69:1]
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard;
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 7.
[70]
Blow, blow, thou winter wind!
Thou art not so unkind
As man's ingratitude.
As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 7.
The fair, the chaste, and unexpressive she.
As You Like It. Act iii. Sc. 2.
It goes much against my stomach. Hast any philosophy in thee, shepherd?
As You Like It. Act iii. Sc. 2.
He that wants money, means, and content is without three good friends.
As You Like It. Act iii. Sc. 2.
This is the very false gallop of verses.
As You Like It. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Let us make an honourable retreat.
As You Like It. Act iii. Sc. 2.
With bag and baggage.
As You Like It. Act iii. Sc. 2.
O, wonderful, wonderful, and most wonderful wonderful! and yet again wonderful, and after that out of all hooping.
As You Like It. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Answer me in one word.
As You Like It. Act iii. Sc. 2.
I do desire we may be better strangers.
As You Like It. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Time travels in divers paces with divers persons. I 'll tell you who Time ambles withal, who Time trots withal, who Time gallops withal, and who he stands still withal.
As You Like It. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Every one fault seeming monstrous till his fellow-fault came to match it.
As You Like It. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Neither rhyme nor reason.[70:1]
As You Like It. Act iii. Sc. 2.
I would the gods had made thee poetical.
As You Like It. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Down on your knees,
And thank Heaven, fasting, for a good man's love.
As You Like It. Act iii. Sc. 5.
It is a melancholy of mine own, compounded of many simples, extracted from many objects, and indeed the sundry contemplation of my travels, in which my often rumination wraps me in a most humorous sadness.
As You Like It. Act iv. Sc. 1.
I have gained my experience.
As You Like It. Act iv. Sc. 1.
[71]
I had rather have a fool to make me merry than experience to make me sad.
As You Like it. Act iv. Sc. 1.
I will scarce think you have swam in a gondola.
As You Like It. Act iv. Sc. 1.
I 'll warrant him heart-whole.
As You Like It. Act iv. Sc. 1.
Good orators, when they are out, they will spit.
As You Like It. Act iv. Sc. 1.
Men have died from time to time, and worms have eaten them,—but not for love.
As You Like It. Act iv. Sc. 1.
Can one desire too much of a good thing?[71:1]
As You Like It. Act iv. Sc. 1.
For ever and a day.
As You Like It. Act iv. Sc. 1.
Men are April when they woo, December when they wed: maids are May when they are maids, but the sky changes when they are wives.
As You Like It. Act iv. Sc. 1.
The horn, the horn, the lusty horn
Is not a thing to laugh to scorn.
As You Like It. Act iv. Sc. 2.
Chewing the food[71:2] of sweet and bitter fancy.
As You Like It. Act iv. Sc. 3.
It is meat and drink to me.
As You Like It. Act v. Sc. 1.
"So so" is good, very good, very excellent good; and yet it is not; it is but so so.
As You Like It. Act v. Sc. 1.
The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.
As You Like It. Act v. Sc. 1.
I will kill thee a hundred and fifty ways.
As You Like It. Act v. Sc. 1.
No sooner met but they looked; no sooner looked but they loved; no sooner loved but they sighed; no sooner sighed but they asked one another the reason; no sooner knew the reason but they sought the remedy.
As You Like It. Act v. Sc. 2.
How bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man's eyes!
As You Like It. Act v. Sc. 2.
Here comes a pair of very strange beasts, which in all tongues are called fools.
As You Like It. Act v. Sc. 4.
[72]
An ill-favoured thing, sir, but mine own.
As You Like It. Act v. Sc. 4.
Rich honesty dwells like a miser, sir, in a poor house; as your pearl in your foul oyster.
As You Like It. Act v. Sc. 4.
The Retort Courteous; . . . the Quip Modest; . . . the Reply Churlish; . . . the Reproof Valiant; . . . the Countercheck Quarrelsome; . . . the Lie with Circumstance; . . . the Lie Direct.
As You Like It. Act v. Sc. 4.
Your If is the only peacemaker; much virtue in If.
As You Like It. Act v. Sc. 4.
Good wine needs no bush.[72:1]
As You Like It. Epilogue.
What a case am I in.
As You Like It. Epilogue.
Look in the chronicles; we came in with Richard Conqueror.
The Taming of the Shrew. Induc. Sc. 1.
Let the world slide.[72:2]
The Taming of the Shrew. Induc. Sc. 1.
I 'll not budge an inch.
The Taming of the Shrew. Induc. Sc. 1.
As Stephen Sly and old John Naps of Greece,
And Peter Turph and Henry Pimpernell,
And twenty more such names and men as these
Which never were, nor no man ever saw.
The Taming of the Shrew. Induc. Sc. 2.
No profit grows where is no pleasure ta'en;
In brief, sir, study what you most affect.
The Taming of the Shrew. Act i. Sc. 1.
There 's small choice in rotten apples.
The Taming of the Shrew. Act i. Sc. 1.
Nothing comes amiss; so money comes withal.
The Taming of the Shrew. Act i. Sc. 2.
Tush! tush! fear boys with bugs.
The Taming of the Shrew. Act i. Sc. 2.
And do as adversaries do in law,—
Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends.
The Taming of the Shrew. Act i. Sc. 2.
Who wooed in haste, and means to wed at leisure.[72:3]
The Taming of the Shrew. Act iii. Sc. 2.
[73]
And thereby hangs a tale.
The Taming of the Shrew. Act iv. Sc. 1.
My cake is dough.
The Taming of the Shrew. Act v. Sc. 1.
A woman moved is like a fountain troubled,—
Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty.
The Taming of the Shrew. Act v. Sc. 2.
Such duty as the subject owes the prince,
Even such a woman oweth to her husband.
The Taming of the Shrew. Act v. Sc. 2.
'T were all one
That I should love a bright particular star,
And think to wed it.
All's Well that Ends Well. Act i. Sc. 1.
The hind that would be mated by the lion
Must die for love.
All's Well that Ends Well. Act i. Sc. 1.
Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie,
Which we ascribe to Heaven.
All's Well that Ends Well. Act i. Sc. 1.
Service is no heritage.
All's Well that Ends Well. Act i. Sc. 3.
He must needs go that the devil drives.[73:1]
All's Well that Ends Well. Act i. Sc. 3.
My friends were poor but honest.
All's Well that Ends Well. Act i. Sc. 3.
Oft expectation fails, and most oft there
Where most it promises.
All's Well that Ends Well. Act ii. Sc. 1.
I will show myself highly fed and lowly taught.
All's Well that Ends Well. Act ii. Sc. 2.
From lowest place when virtuous things proceed,
The place is dignified by the doer's deed.
All's Well that Ends Well. Act ii. Sc. 3.
They say miracles are past.
All's Well that Ends Well. Act ii. Sc. 3.
All the learned and authentic fellows.
All's Well that Ends Well. Act ii. Sc. 3.
A young man married is a man that 's marr'd.
All's Well that Ends Well. Act ii. Sc. 3.
Make the coming hour o'erflow with joy,
And pleasure drown the brim.
All's Well that Ends Well. Act ii. Sc. 4.
No legacy is so rich as honesty.
All's Well that Ends Well. Act iii. Sc. 5.
[74]
The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together.
All's Well that Ends Well. Act iv. Sc. 3.
Whose words all ears took captive.
All's Well that Ends Well. Act v. Sc. 3.
Praising what is lost
Makes the remembrance dear.
All's Well that Ends Well. Act v. Sc. 3.
The inaudible and noiseless foot of Time.[74:1]
All's Well that Ends Well. Act v. Sc. 3.
All impediments in fancy's course
Are motives of more fancy.
All's Well that Ends Well. Act v. Sc. 3.
The bitter past, more welcome is the sweet.
All's Well that Ends Well. Act v. Sc. 3.
If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
That strain again! it had a dying fall:
O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound[74:2]
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour!
Twelfth Night. Act i. Sc. 1.
I am sure care 's an enemy to life.
Twelfth Night. Act i. Sc. 3.
At my fingers' ends.[74:3]
Twelfth Night. Act i. Sc. 3.
Wherefore are these things hid?
Twelfth Night. Act i. Sc. 3.
Is it a world to hide virtues in?
Twelfth Night. Act i. Sc. 3.
One draught above heat makes him a fool; the second mads him; and a third drowns him.
Twelfth Night. Act i. Sc. 5.
We will draw the curtain and show you the picture.
Twelfth Night. Act i. Sc. 5.
'T is beauty truly blent, whose red and white
Nature's own sweet and cunning hand laid on:
Lady, you are the cruell'st she alive
If you will lead these graces to the grave
And leave the world no copy.
Twelfth Night. Act i. Sc. 5.
[75]
Halloo your name to the reverberate hills,
And make the babbling gossip of the air
Cry out.
Twelfth Night. Act i. Sc. 5.
Journeys end in lovers meeting,
Every wise man's son doth know.
Twelfth Night. Act ii. Sc. 3.
Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty.
Twelfth Night. Act ii. Sc. 3.
He does it with a better grace, but I do it more natural.
Twelfth Night. Act ii. Sc. 3.
Is there no respect of place, parsons, nor time in you?
Twelfth Night. Act ii. Sc. 3.
Sir To. Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?
Clo. Yes, by Saint Anne, and ginger shall be hot i' the mouth too.
Twelfth Night. Act ii. Sc. 3.
My purpose is, indeed, a horse of that colour.
Twelfth Night. Act ii. Sc. 3.
These most brisk and giddy-paced times.
Twelfth Night. Act ii. Sc. 4.
Let still the woman take
An elder than herself: so wears she to him,
So sways she level in her husband's heart:
For, boy, however we do praise ourselves,
Our fancies are more giddy and unfirm,
More longing, wavering, sooner lost and worn,
Than women's are.
Twelfth Night. Act ii. Sc. 4.
Then let thy love be younger than thyself,
Or thy affection cannot hold the bent.
Twelfth Night. Act ii. Sc. 4.
The spinsters and the knitters in the sun
And the free maids that weave their thread with bones
Do use to chant it: it is silly sooth,
And dallies with the innocence of love,
Like the old age.
Twelfth Night. Act ii. Sc. 4.
Duke. And what 's her history?
Vio. A blank, my lord. She never told her love,
But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud,
[76]Feed on her damask cheek: she pined in thought,
And with a green and yellow melancholy
She sat like patience on a monument,
Smiling at grief.
Twelfth Night. Act ii. Sc. 4.
I am all the daughters of my father's house,
And all the brothers too.
Twelfth Night. Act ii. Sc. 4.
An you had any eye behind you, you might see more detraction at your heels than fortunes before you.
Twelfth Night. Act ii. Sc. 5.
Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em.
Twelfth Night. Act ii. Sc. 5.
Foolery, sir, does walk about the orb like the sun; it shines everywhere.
Twelfth Night. Act iii. Sc. 1.
Oh, what a deal of scorn looks beautiful
In the contempt and anger of his lip!
Twelfth Night. Act iii. Sc. 1.
Love sought is good, but given unsought is better.
Twelfth Night. Act iii. Sc. 1.
Let there be gall enough in thy ink; though thou write with a goose-pen, no matter.
Twelfth Night. Act iii. Sc. 2.
I think we do know the sweet Roman hand.
Twelfth Night. Act iii. Sc. 4.
Put thyself into the trick of singularity.
Twelfth Night. Act iii. Sc. 4.
'T is not for gravity to play at cherry-pit with Satan.
Twelfth Night. Act iii. Sc. 4.
This is very midsummer madness.
Twelfth Night. Act iii. Sc. 4.
What, man! defy the Devil: consider, he is an enemy to mankind.
Twelfth Night. Act iii. Sc. 4.
If this were played upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction.
Twelfth Night. Act iii. Sc. 4.
More matter for a May morning.
Twelfth Night. Act iii. Sc. 4.
Still you keep o' the windy side of the law.
Twelfth Night. Act iii. Sc. 4.
An I thought he had been valiant and so cunning in fence, I 'ld have seen him damned ere I 'ld have challenged him.
Twelfth Night. Act iii. Sc. 4.[76:1]
[77]
As the old hermit of Prague, that never saw pen and ink, very wittily said to a niece of King Gorboduc, That that is, is.
Twelfth Night. Act iv. Sc. 2.
Clo. What is the opinion of Pythagoras concerning wild fowl?
Mal. That the soul of our grandam might haply inhabit a bird.
Twelfth Night. Act iv. Sc. 2.
Thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges.
Twelfth Night. Act v. Sc. 1.
For the rain it raineth every day.
Twelfth Night. Act v. Sc. 1.
They say we are
Almost as like as eggs.
The Winter's Tale. Act i. Sc. 2.
What 's gone and what 's past help
Should be past grief.
The Winter's Tale. Act iii. Sc. 2.
A snapper-up of unconsidered trifles.
The Winter's Tale. Act iv. Sc. 3.[77:3]
A merry heart goes all the day,
Your sad tires in a mile-a.
The Winter's Tale. Act iv. Sc. 3.
O Proserpina,
For the flowers now, that frighted thou let'st fall
From Dis's waggon! daffodils,
That come before the swallow dares, and take
The winds of March with beauty; violets dim,
But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes
Or Cytherea's breath; pale primroses,
That die unmarried, ere they can behold
Bright Phœbus in his strength,—a malady
[78]Most incident to maids; bold oxlips and
The crown imperial; lilies of all kinds,
The flower-de-luce being one.
The Winter's Tale. Act iv. Sc. 4.[78:1]
When you do dance, I wish you
A wave o' the sea,[78:2] that you might ever do
Nothing but that.
The Winter's Tale. Act iv. Sc. 4.
I love a ballad in print o' life, for then we are sure they are true.
The Winter's Tale. Act iv. Sc. 4.
To unpathed waters, undreamed shores.
The Winter's Tale. Act iv. Sc. 4.
Lord of thy presence and no land beside.
King John. Act i. Sc. 1.
And if his name be George, I 'll call him Peter;
For new-made honour doth forget men's names.
King John. Act i. Sc. 1.
For he is but a bastard to the time
That doth not smack of observation.
King John. Act i. Sc. 1.
Sweet, sweet, sweet poison for the age's tooth.
King John. Act i. Sc. 1.
For courage mounteth with occasion.
King John. Act ii. Sc. 1.
I would that I were low laid in my grave:
I am not worth this coil that 's made for me.
King John. Act ii. Sc. 1.
Saint George, that swinged the dragon, and e'er since
Sits on his horse back at mine hostess' door.
King John. Act ii. Sc. 1.
He is the half part of a blessed man,
Left to be finished by such as she;
And she a fair divided excellence,
Whose fulness of perfection lies in him.
King John. Act ii. Sc. 1.
Talks as familiarly of roaring lions
As maids of thirteen do of puppy-dogs!
King John. Act ii. Sc. 1.[78:3]
Zounds! I was never so bethump'd with words
Since I first call'd my brother's father dad.
King John. Act ii. Sc. 2.[78:3]
[79]
I will instruct my sorrows to be proud;
For grief is proud, and makes his owner stoop.
King John. Act iii. Sc. 1.[79:1]
Here I and sorrows sit;
Here is my throne, bid kings come bow to it.
King John. Act iii. Sc. 1.[79:1]
Thou slave, thou wretch, thou coward!
Thou little valiant, great in villany!
Thou ever strong upon the stronger side!
Thou Fortune's champion that dost never fight
But when her humorous ladyship is by
To teach thee safety.
King John. Act iii. Sc. 1.
Thou wear a lion's hide! doff it for shame,
And hang a calf's-skin on those recreant limbs.
King John. Act iii. Sc. 1.
That no Italian priest
Shall tithe or toll in our dominions.
King John. Act iii. Sc. 1.
Grief fills the room up of my absent child,
Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me,
Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words,
Remembers me of all his gracious parts,
Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form.
King John. Act iii. Sc. 4.
Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale
Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man.
King John. Act iii. Sc. 4.
When Fortune means to men most good,
She looks upon them with a threatening eye.[79:2]
King John. Act iii. Sc. 4.
And he that stands upon a slippery place.
Makes nice of no vile hold to stay him up.
King John. Act iii. Sc. 4.
How now, foolish rheum!
King John. Act iv. Sc. 1.
To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
To throw a perfume on the violet,
To smooth the ice, or add another hue
Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light
To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish,
Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.
King John. Act iv. Sc. 2.
[80]
And oftentimes excusing of a fault
Doth make the fault the worse by the excuse.[80:1]
King John. Act iv. Sc. 2.
We cannot hold mortality's strong hand.
King John. Act iv. Sc. 2.
Make haste; the better foot before.
King John. Act iv. Sc. 2.
I saw a smith stand with his hammer, thus,
The whilst his iron did on the anvil cool,
With open mouth swallowing a tailor's news.
King John. Act iv. Sc. 2.
Another lean unwashed artificer.
King John. Act iv. Sc. 2.
How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds
Make deeds ill done!
King John. Act iv. Sc. 2.
Mocking the air with colours idly spread.
King John. Act v. Sc. 1.
'T is strange that death should sing.
I am the cygnet to this pale faint swan,
Who chants a doleful hymn to his own death,[80:2]
And from the organ-pipe of frailty sings
His soul and body to their lasting rest.
King John. Act v. Sc. 7.
Now my soul hath elbow-room.
King John. Act v. Sc. 7.
This England never did, nor never shall,
Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror.
King John. Act v. Sc. 7.
Come the three corners of the world in arms,
And we shall shock them. Nought shall make us rue,
If England to itself do rest but true.
King John. Act v. Sc. 7.
Old John of Gaunt, time-honoured Lancaster.
King Richard II. Act i. Sc. 1.
In rage deaf as the sea, hasty as fire.
King Richard II. Act i. Sc. 1.
The daintiest last, to make the end most sweet.
King Richard II. Act i. Sc. 3.
Truth hath a quiet breast.
King Richard II. Act i. Sc. 3.
All places that the eye of heaven visits
Are to a wise man ports and happy havens.
King Richard II. Act i. Sc. 3.
[81]
O, who can hold a fire in his hand
By thinking on the frosty Caucasus?
Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite
By bare imagination of a feast?
Or wallow naked in December snow
By thinking on fantastic summer's heat?
O, no! the apprehension of the good
Gives but the greater feeling to the worse.
King Richard II. Act i. Sc. 3.
The tongues of dying men
Enforce attention like deep harmony.
King Richard II. Act ii. Sc. 1.
The setting sun, and music at the close,
As the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last,
Writ in remembrance more than things long past.
King Richard II. Act ii. Sc. 1.
This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,—
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.
King Richard II. Act ii. Sc. 1.
The ripest fruit first falls.
King Richard II. Act ii. Sc. 1.
Evermore thanks, the exchequer of the poor.
King Richard II. Act ii. Sc. 3.
Eating the bitter bread of banishment.
King Richard II. Act iii. Sc. 1.
Fires the proud tops of the eastern pines.
King Richard II. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Not all the water in the rough rude sea
Can wash the balm off from an anointed king.
King Richard II. Act iii. Sc. 2.
O, call back yesterday, bid time return!
King Richard II. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Let 's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs.
King Richard II. Act iii. Sc. 2.
[82]
And nothing can we call our own but death
And that small model of the barren earth
Which serves as paste and cover to our bones.
For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground
And tell sad stories of the death of kings.
King Richard II. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Comes at the last, and with a little pin
Bores through his castle wall—and farewell king!
King Richard II. Act iii. Sc. 2.
He is come to open
The purple testament of bleeding war.
King Richard II. Act iii. Sc. 3.
And my large kingdom for a little grave,
A little little grave, an obscure grave.
King Richard II. Act iii. Sc. 3.
Gave
His body to that pleasant country's earth,
And his pure soul unto his captain Christ,
Under whose colours he had fought so long.
King Richard II. Act iv. Sc. 1.
A mockery king of snow.
King Richard II. Act iv. Sc. 1.
As in a theatre, the eyes of men,
After a well-graced actor leaves the stage,
Are idly bent on him that enters next,
Thinking his prattle to be tedious.
King Richard II. Act v. Sc. 2.
So shaken as we are, so wan with care.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 1.
In those holy fields
Over whose acres walked those blessed feet
Which fourteen hundred years ago were nail'd
For our advantage on the bitter cross.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 1.
Diana's foresters, gentlemen of the shade, minions of the moon.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 2.
Old father antic the law.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 2.
[83]
I would to God thou and I knew where a commodity of good names were to be bought.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 2.
Thou hast damnable iteration, and art indeed able to corrupt a saint.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 2.
And now am I, if a man should speak truly, little better than one of the wicked.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 2.
'T is my vocation, Hal; 't is no sin for a man to labour in his vocation.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 2.
He will give the devil his due.[83:1]
King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 2.
There 's neither honesty, manhood, nor good fellowship in thee.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 2.
If all the year were playing holidays,
To sport would be as tedious as to work.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 2.
Fresh as a bridegroom; and his chin new reap'd
Showed like a stubble-land at harvest-home;
He was perfumed like a milliner,
And 'twixt his finger and his thumb he held
A pouncet-box, which ever and anon
He gave his nose and took 't away again.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 3.
And as the soldiers bore dead bodies by,
He called the untaught knaves, unmannerly,
To bring a slovenly unhandsome corse
Betwixt the wind and his nobility.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 3.
God save the mark.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 3.
And telling me, the sovereign'st thing on earth
Was parmaceti for an inward bruise;
And that it was great pity, so it was,
This villanous saltpetre should be digg'd
Out of the bowels of the harmless earth,
Which many a good tall fellow had destroy'd
So cowardly; and but for these vile guns,
He would himself have been a soldier.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 3.
[84]
The blood more stirs
To rouse a lion than to start a hare!
King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 3.
By heaven, methinks it were an easy leap
To pluck bright honour from the pale-faced moon,
Or dive into the bottom of the deep,
Where fathom-line could never touch the ground,
And pluck up drowned honour by the locks.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 3.
I know a trick worth two of that.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 1.
If the rascal have not given me medicines to make me love him, I 'll be hanged.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 2.
It would be argument for a week, laughter for a month, and a good jest for ever.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 2.
Falstaff sweats to death,
And lards the lean earth as he walks along.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 2.
Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 3.
Brain him with his lady's fan.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 3.
A Corinthian, a lad of mettle, a good boy.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.
A plague of all cowards, I say.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.
There live not three good men unhanged in England; and one of them is fat and grows old.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.
Call you that backing of your friends? A plague upon such backing!
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.
I am a Jew else, an Ebrew Jew.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.
I have peppered two of them: two I am sure I have paid, two rogues in buckram suits. I tell thee what, Hal, if I tell thee a lie, spit in my face; call me horse. Thou knowest my old ward: here I lay, and thus I bore my point. Four rogues in buckram let drive at me—
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.
Three misbegotten knaves in Kendal green.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.
[85]
Give you a reason on compulsion! If reasons were as plentiful as blackberries, I would give no man a reason upon compulsion, I.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.
Mark now, how a plain tale shall put you down.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.
I was now a coward on instinct.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.
No more of that, Hal, an thou lovest me!
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.
What doth gravity out of his bed at midnight?
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.
A plague of sighing and grief! It blows a man up like a bladder.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.
In King Cambyses' vein.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.
That reverend vice, that grey iniquity, that father ruffian, that vanity in years.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.
Banish plump Jack, and banish all the world.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.
Play out the play.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.
O, monstrous! but one half-pennyworth of bread to this intolerable deal of sack!
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.
Diseased Nature oftentimes breaks forth
In strange eruptions.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 1.
I am not in the roll of common men.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 1.
Glen. I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
Hot. Why, so can I, or so can any man;
But will they come when you do call for them?
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 1.
While you live, tell truth and shame the devil![85:1]
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 1.
I had rather be a kitten and cry mew
Than one of these same metre ballad-mongers.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 1.
But in the way of bargain, mark ye me,
I 'll cavil on the ninth part of a hair.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 1.
A deal of skimble-skamble stuff.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 1.
[86]
Exceedingly well read.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 1.
A good mouth-filling oath.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 1.
A fellow of no mark nor likelihood.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 2.
To loathe the taste of sweetness, whereof a little
More than a little is by much too much.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 2.
An I have not forgotten what the inside of a church is made of, I am a pepper-corn.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 3.
Company, villanous company, hath been the spoil of me.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 3.
Shall I not take mine ease in mine inn?
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 3.
Rob me the exchequer.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 3.
This sickness doth infect
The very life-blood of our enterprise.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iv. Sc. 1.
That daffed the world aside,
And bid it pass.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iv. Sc. 1.
All plumed like estridges that with the wind
Baited like eagles having lately bathed;
Glittering in golden coats, like images;
As full of spirit as the month of May,
And gorgeous as the sun at midsummer.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iv. Sc. 1.
I saw young Harry, with his beaver on,
His cuisses on his thighs, gallantly arm'd,
Rise from the ground like feather'd Mercury,
And vaulted with such ease into his seat
As if an angel dropp'd down from the clouds,
To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus
And witch the world with noble horsemanship.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iv. Sc. 1.
The cankers of a calm world and a long peace.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iv. Sc. 2.
A mad fellow met me on the way and told me I had unloaded all the gibbets and pressed the dead bodies. No eye hath seen such scarecrows. I 'll not march through Coventry with them, that 's flat: nay, and the [87]villains march wide betwixt the legs, as if they had gyves on; for indeed I had the most of them out of prison. There 's but a shirt and a half in all my company; and the half-shirt is two napkins tacked together and thrown over the shoulders like an herald's coat without sleeves.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iv. Sc. 2.
Food for powder, food for powder; they 'll fill a pit as well as better.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iv. 2.
To the latter end of a fray and the beginning of a feast[87:1]
Fits a dull fighter and a keen guest.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iv. 2.
I would 't were bedtime, Hal, and all well.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act v. Sc. 1.
Honour pricks me on. Yea, but how if honour prick me off when I come on,—how then? Can honour set to a leg? no: or an arm? no: or take away the grief of a wound? no. Honour hath no skill in surgery, then? no. What is honour? a word. What is in that word honour; what is that honour? air. A trim reckoning! Who hath it? he that died o' Wednesday. Doth he feel it? no. Doth he hear it? no. 'T is insensible, then? yea, to the dead. But will it not live with the living? no. Why? detraction will not suffer it. Therefore I 'll none of it. Honour is a mere scutcheon. And so ends my catechism.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act v. Sc. 1.
Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act v. Sc. 4.
This earth that bears thee dead
Bears not alive so stout a gentleman.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act v. Sc. 4.
Thy ignominy sleep with thee in the grave,
But not remember'd in thy epitaph!
King Henry IV. Part I. Act v. Sc. 4.
I could have better spared a better man.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act v. Sc. 4.
The better part of valour is discretion.[87:2]
King Henry IV. Part I. Act v. Sc. 4.
Full bravely hast thou fleshed
Thy maiden sword.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act v. Sc. 4.
[88]
Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying! I grant you I was down and out of breath; and so was he. But we rose both at an instant, and fought a long hour by Shrewsbury clock.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act v. Sc. 4.
I 'll purge, and leave sack, and live cleanly.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act v. Sc. 4.
Even such a man, so faint, so spiritless,
So dull, so dead in look, so woe-begone,
Drew Priam's curtain in the dead of night,
And would have told him half his Troy was burnt.
King Henry IV. Part II. Act i. Sc. 1.
Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news
Hath but a losing office, and his tongue
Sounds ever after as a sullen bell,
Remember'd tolling a departing friend.
King Henry IV. Part II. Act i. Sc. 1.
I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other men.
King Henry IV. Part II. Act i. Sc. 2.
A rascally yea-forsooth knave.
King Henry IV. Part II. Act i. Sc. 2.
Some smack of age in you, some relish of the saltness of time.
King Henry IV. Part II. Act i. Sc. 2.
We that are in the vaward of our youth.
King Henry IV. Part II. Act i. Sc. 2.
For my voice, I have lost it with halloing and singing of anthems.
King Henry IV. Part II. Act i. Sc. 2.
It was alway yet the trick of our English nation, if they have a good thing to make it too common.
King Henry IV. Part II. Act i. Sc. 2.
I were better to be eaten to death with a rust than to be scoured to nothing with perpetual motion.
King Henry IV. Part II. Act i. Sc. 2.
If I do, fillip me with a three-man beetle.
King Henry IV. Part II. Act i. Sc. 2.
Who lined himself with hope,
Eating the air on promise of supply.
King Henry IV. Part II. Act i. Sc. 2.
When we mean to build,
We first survey the plot, then draw the model;
And when we see the figure of the house,
Then must we rate the cost of the erection.[88:1]
King Henry IV. Part II. Act i. Sc. 3.
[89]
An habitation giddy and unsure
Hath he that buildeth on the vulgar heart.
King Henry IV. Part II. Act i. Sc. 3.
Past and to come seems best; things present worst.
King Henry IV. Part II. Act i. Sc. 3.
A poor lone woman.
King Henry IV. Part II. Act ii. Sc. 1.
I 'll tickle your catastrophe.
King Henry IV. Part II. Act ii. Sc. 1.
He hath eaten me out of house and home.
King Henry IV. Part II. Act ii. Sc. 1.
Thou didst swear to me upon a parcel-gilt goblet, sitting in my Dolphin-chamber, at the round table, by a sea-coal fire, upon Wednesday in Wheeson week.
King Henry IV. Part II. Act ii. Sc. 1.
I do now remember the poor creature, small beer.
King Henry IV. Part II. Act ii. Sc. 2.
Let the end try the man.
King Henry IV. Part II. Act ii. Sc. 2.
Thus we play the fools with the time, and the spirits of the wise sit in the clouds and mock us.
King Henry IV. Part II. Act ii. Sc. 2.
He was indeed the glass
Wherein the noble youth did dress themselves.
King Henry IV. Part II. Act ii. Sc. 3.
Aggravate your choler.
King Henry IV. Part II. Act ii. Sc. 4.
O sleep, O gentle sleep,
Nature's soft nurse! how have I frighted thee,
That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down
And steep my senses in forgetfulness?
King Henry IV. Part II. Act iii. Sc. 1.
With all appliances and means to boot.
King Henry IV. Part II. Act iii. Sc. 1.
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.
King Henry IV. Part II. Act iii. Sc. 1.
Death, as the Psalmist saith, is certain to all; all shall die. How a good yoke of bullocks at Stamford fair?
King Henry IV. Part II. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Accommodated; that is, when a man is, as they say, accommodated; or when a man is, being, whereby a' may be thought to be accommodated,—which is an excellent thing.
King Henry IV. Part II. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Most forcible Feeble.
King Henry IV. Part II. Act iii. Sc. 2.
[90]
We have heard the chimes at midnight.
King Henry IV. Part II. Act iii. Sc. 2.
A man can die but once.
King Henry IV. Part II. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Like a man made after supper of a cheese-paring: when a' was naked, he was, for all the world, like a forked radish, with a head fantastically carved upon it with a knife.
King Henry IV. Part II. Act iii. Sc. 2.
We are ready to try our fortunes
To the last man.
King Henry IV. Part II. Act iv. Sc. 2.
I may justly say, with the hook-nosed fellow of Rome, "I came, saw, and overcame."
King Henry IV. Part II. Act iv. Sc. 3.
He hath a tear for pity, and a hand
Open as day for melting charity.
King Henry IV. Part II. Act iv. Sc. 4.
Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought.
King Henry IV. Part II. Act iv. Sc. 5.[90:1]
A joint of mutton, and any pretty little tiny kickshaws, tell William cook.
King Henry IV. Part II. Act v. Sc. 1.
His cares are now all ended.
King Henry IV. Part II. Act v. Sc. 2.
Falstaff. What wind blew you hither, Pistol?
Pistol. Not the ill wind which blows no man to good.[90:2]
King Henry IV. Part II. Act v. Sc. 3.
A foutre for the world and worldlings base!
I speak of Africa and golden joys.
King Henry IV. Part II. Act v. Sc. 3.
Under which king, Bezonian? speak, or die!
King Henry IV. Part II. Act v. Sc. 3.
O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention!
King Henry V. Prologue.
Consideration, like an angel, came
And whipped the offending Adam out of him.
King Henry V. Act i. Sc. 1.
[91]
Turn him to any cause of policy,
The Gordian knot of it he will unloose,
Familiar as his garter: that when he speaks,
The air, a chartered libertine, is still.
King Henry V. Act i. Sc. 1.
Base is the slave that pays.
King Henry V. Act ii. Sc. 1.
Even at the turning o' the tide.
King Henry V. Act ii. Sc. 3.
His nose was as sharp as a pen, and a' babbled of green fields.
King Henry V. Act ii. Sc. 3.
As cold as any stone.
King Henry V. Act ii. Sc. 3.
Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin
As self-neglecting.
King Henry V. Act ii. Sc. 4.
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more,
Or close the wall up with our English dead!
In peace there 's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility;
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger:
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood.
King Henry V. Act iii. Sc. 1.
And sheathed their swords for lack of argument.
King Henry V. Act iii. Sc. 1.
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start.
King Henry V. Act iii. Sc. 1.
I would give all my fame for a pot of ale and safety.
King Henry V. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Men of few words are the best men.
King Henry V. Act iii. Sc. 2.
I thought upon one pair of English legs
Did march three Frenchmen.
King Henry V. Act iii. Sc. 6.
You may as well say, that 's a valiant flea that dare eat his breakfast on the lip of a lion.
King Henry V. Act iii. Sc. 7.[91:1]
The hum of either army stilly sounds,
That the fixed sentinels almost receive
The secret whispers of each other's watch;
[92]Fire answers fire, and through their paly flames
Each battle sees the other's umbered face;
Steed threatens steed, in high and boastful neighs
Piercing the night's dull ear, and from the tents
The armourers, accomplishing the knights,
With busy hammers closing rivets up,[92:1]
Give dreadful note of preparation.
King Henry V. Act iv. Prologue.
There is some soul of goodness in things evil,
Would men observingly distil it out.
King Henry V. Act iv. Sc. 1.
Every subject's duty is the king's; but every subject's soul is his own.
King Henry V. Act iv. Sc. 1.
That 's a perilous shot out of an elder-gun.
King Henry V. Act iv. Sc. 1.
Who with a body filled and vacant mind
Gets him to rest, crammed with distressful bread.
King Henry V. Act iv. Sc. 1.
Winding up days with toil and nights with sleep.
King Henry V. Act iv. Sc. 1.
But if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.
King Henry V. Act iv. Sc. 3.
This day is called the feast of Crispian:
He that outlives this day and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
King Henry V. Act iv. Sc. 3.
Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth[92:2] as household words,—
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,—
Be in their flowing cups freshly remembered.
King Henry V. Act iv. Sc. 3.
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.
King Henry V. Act iv. Sc. 3.
There is a river in Macedon; and there is also moreover a river at Monmouth; . . . and there is salmons in both.
King Henry V. Act iv. Sc. 7.
[93]
An arrant traitor as any is in the universal world, or in France, or in England!
King Henry V. Act iv. Sc. 8.
There is occasions and causes why and wherefore in all things.
King Henry V. Act v. Sc. 1.
By this leek, I will most horribly revenge: I eat and eat, I swear.
King Henry V. Act v. Sc. 1.
All hell shall stir for this.
King Henry V. Act v. Sc. 1.
If he be not fellow with the best king, thou shalt find the best king of good fellows.
King Henry V. Act v. Sc. 2.
Hung be the heavens with black, yield day to night!
King Henry VI. Part I. Act i. Sc. 1.
Halcyon days.
King Henry VI. Part I. Act i. Sc. 2.
Between two hawks, which flies the higher pitch;
Between two dogs, which hath the deeper mouth;
Between two blades, which bears the better temper;
Between two horses, which doth bear him best;
Between two girls, which hath the merriest eye,—
I have perhaps some shallow spirit of judgment;
But in these nice sharp quillets of the law,
Good faith, I am no wiser than a daw.
King Henry VI. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.
Delays have dangerous ends.[93:1]
King Henry VI. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 2.
She 's beautiful, and therefore to be wooed;
She is a woman, therefore to be won.
King Henry VI. Part I. Act v. Sc. 3.
Main chance.[93:2]
King Henry VI. Part II. Act i. Sc. 1.
Could I come near your beauty with my nails,
I'd set my ten commandments in your face.
King Henry VI. Part II. Act i. Sc. 3.
Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep.[93:3]
King Henry VI. Part II. Act iii. Sc. 1.
[94]
What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted!
Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just,
And he but naked, though locked up in steel,
Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted.[94:1]
King Henry VI. Part II. Act iii. Sc. 2.
He dies, and makes no sign.
King Henry VI. Part II. Act iii. Sc. 3.
Close up his eyes and draw the curtain close;
And let us all to meditation.
King Henry VI. Part II. Act iii. Sc. 3.
The gaudy, blabbing, and remorseful day
Is crept into the bosom of the sea.
King Henry VI. Part II. Act iv. Sc. 1.
There shall be in England seven halfpenny loaves sold for a penny; the three-hooped pot shall have ten hoops; and I will make it felony to drink small beer.
King Henry VI. Part II. Act iv. Sc. 2.
Is not this a lamentable thing, that of the skin of an innocent lamb should be made parchment? that parchment, being scribbled o'er, should undo a man?
King Henry VI. Part II. Act iv. Sc. 2.
Sir, he made a chimney in my father's house, and the bricks are alive at this day to testify it.
King Henry VI. Part II. Act iv. Sc. 2.
Thou hast most traitorously corrupted the youth of the realm in erecting a grammar-school; and whereas, before, our forefathers had no other books but the score and the tally, thou hast caused printing to be used, and, contrary to the king, his crown and dignity, thou hast built a paper-mill.
King Henry VI. Part II. Act iv. Sc. 7.
How sweet a thing it is to wear a crown,
Within whose circuit is Elysium
And all that poets feign of bliss and joy!
King Henry VI. Part III. Act i. Sc. 2.
And many strokes, though with a little axe,
Hew down and fell the hardest-timbered oak.
King Henry VI. Part III. Act ii. Sc. 1.
[95]
The smallest worm will turn, being trodden on.
King Henry VI. Part III. Act ii. Sc. 2.
Didst thou never hear
That things ill got had ever bad success?
And happy always was it for that son
Whose father for his hoarding went to hell?
King Henry VI. Part III. Act ii. Sc. 2.
Warwick, peace,
Proud setter up and puller down of kings!
King Henry VI. Part III. Act iii. Sc. 3.
A little fire is quickly trodden out;
Which, being suffered, rivers cannot quench.
King Henry VI. Part III. Act iv. Sc. 8.
Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind;
The thief doth fear each bush an officer.
King Henry VI. Part III. Act v. Sc. 6.
Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York,
And all the clouds that loured upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths,
Our bruised arms hung up for monuments,
Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings,
Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.
Grim-visaged war hath smoothed his wrinkled front;
And now, instead of mounting barbed steeds
To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,
He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber
To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.
But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks,
Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass;
I, that am rudely stamped, and want love's majesty
To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;
I, that am curtailed of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,
Deformed, unfinished, sent before my time
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,
And that so lamely and unfashionable
That dogs bark at me as I halt by them,—
[96]Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,
Have no delight to pass away the time,
Unless to spy my shadow in the sun.
King Richard III. Act i. Sc. 1.
To leave this keen encounter of our wits.
King Richard III. Act i. Sc. 2.
Was ever woman in this humour wooed?
Was ever woman in this humour won?
King Richard III. Act i. Sc. 2.
Framed in the prodigality of nature.
King Richard III. Act i. Sc. 2.
The world is grown so bad,
That wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch.[96:1]
King Richard III. Act i. Sc. 3.
And thus I clothe my naked villany
With old odd ends stolen out of[96:2] holy writ,
And seem a saint when most I play the devil.
King Richard III. Act i. Sc. 3.
O, I have passed a miserable night,
So full of ugly sights, of ghastly dreams,
That, as I am a Christian faithful man,
I would not spend another such a night,
Though 't were to buy a world of happy days.
King Richard III. Act i. Sc. 4.
Lord, Lord! methought, what pain it was to drown!
What dreadful noise of waters in mine ears!
What ugly sights of death within mine eyes!
Methought I saw a thousand fearful wrecks,
Ten thousand men that fishes gnawed upon,
Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl,
Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels,
All scattered in the bottom of the sea:
Some lay in dead men's skulls; and in those holes
Where eyes did once inhabit, there were crept,
As 't were in scorn of eyes, reflecting gems.
King Richard III. Act i. Sc. 4.
A parlous boy.
King Richard III. Act ii. Sc. 4.
[97]
So wise so young, they say, do never live long.[97:1]
King Richard III. Act iii. Sc. 1.
Off with his head![97:2]
King Richard III. Act iii. Sc. 4.
Lives like a drunken sailor on a mast,
Ready with every nod to tumble down.
King Richard III. Act iii. Sc. 4.
Even in the afternoon of her best days.
King Richard III. Act iii. Sc. 7.
Thou troublest me; I am not in the vein.
King Richard III. Act iv. Sc. 2.
Their lips were four red roses on a stalk.
King Richard III. Act iv. Sc. 3.
The sons of Edward sleep in Abraham's bosom.
King Richard III. Act iv. Sc. 3.
Let not the heavens hear these tell-tale women
Rail on the Lord's anointed.
King Richard III. Act iv. Sc. 4.
Tetchy and wayward.
King Richard III. Act iv. Sc. 4.
An honest tale speeds best, being plainly told.
King Richard III. Act iv. Sc. 4.
Thus far into the bowels of the land
Have we marched on without impediment.
King Richard III. Act v. Sc. 2.
True hope is swift, and flies with swallow's wings;
Kings it makes gods, and meaner creatures kings.
King Richard III. Act v. Sc. 2.
The king's name is a tower of strength.
King Richard III. Act v. Sc. 3.
Give me another horse: bind up my wounds.
King Richard III. Act v. Sc. 3.
O coward conscience, how dost thou afflict me!
King Richard III. Act v. Sc. 3.
My conscience hath a thousand several tongues,
And every tongue brings in a several tale,
And every tale condemns me for a villain.
King Richard III. Act v. Sc. 3.
The early village cock
Hath twice done salutation to the morn.
King Richard III. Act v. Sc. 3.
By the apostle Paul, shadows to-night
Have struck more terror to the soul of Richard
Than can the substance of ten thousand soldiers.
King Richard III. Act v. Sc. 3.
[98]
The selfsame heaven
That frowns on me looks sadly upon him.
King Richard III. Act v. Sc. 3.
A thing devised by the enemy.[98:1]
King Richard III. Act v. Sc. 3.
I have set my life upon a cast,
And I will stand the hazard of the die:
I think there be six Richmonds in the field.
King Richard III. Act v. Sc. 4.
A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!
King Richard III. Act v. Sc. 4.
Order gave each thing view.
King Henry VIII. Act i. Sc. 1.
No man's pie is freed
From his ambitious finger.
King Henry VIII. Act i. Sc. 1.
Anger is like
A full-hot horse, who being allow'd his way,
Self-mettle tires him.
King Henry VIII. Act i. Sc. 1.
Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot
That it do singe yourself.
King Henry VIII. Act i. Sc. 1.
'T is but the fate of place, and the rough brake
That virtue must go through.
King Henry VIII. Act i. Sc. 2.
The mirror of all courtesy.
King Henry VIII. Act ii. Sc. 1.
This bold bad man.[98:2]
King Henry VIII. Act ii. Sc. 2.
'T is better to be lowly born,
And range with humble livers in content,
Than to be perked up in a glistering grief,
And wear a golden sorrow.
King Henry VIII. Act ii. Sc. 3.
Orpheus with his lute made trees,
And the mountain-tops that freeze,
Bow themselves when he did sing.
King Henry VIII. Act iii. Sc. 1.
'T is well said again,
And 't is a kind of good deed to say well:
And yet words are no deeds.
King Henry VIII. Act iii. Sc. 2.
[99]
And then to breakfast with
What appetite you have.
King Henry VIII. Act iii. Sc. 2.
I have touched the highest point of all my greatness;
And from that full meridian of my glory
I haste now to my setting: I shall fall
Like a bright exhalation in the evening,
And no man see me more.
King Henry VIII. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Press not a falling man too far!
King Henry VIII. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Farewell! a long farewell, to all my greatness!
This is the state of man: to-day he puts forth
The tender leaves of hopes; to-morrow blossoms,
And bears his blushing honours thick upon him;
The third day comes a frost, a killing frost,
And when he thinks, good easy man, full surely
His greatness is a-ripening, nips his root,
And then he falls, as I do. I have ventured,
Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders,
This many summers in a sea of glory,
But far beyond my depth: my high-blown pride
At length broke under me and now has left me,
Weary and old with service, to the mercy
Of a rude stream, that must forever hide me.
Vain pomp and glory of this world, I hate ye:
I feel my heart new opened. O, how wretched
Is that poor man that hangs on princes' favours!
There is betwixt that smile we would aspire to,
That sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin,
More pangs and fears than wars or women have:
And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer,
Never to hope again.
King Henry VIII. Act iii. Sc. 2.
A peace above all earthly dignities,
A still and quiet conscience.
King Henry VIII. Act iii. Sc. 2.
A load would sink a navy.
King Henry VIII. Act iii. Sc. 2.
And sleep in dull cold marble.
King Henry VIII. Act iii. Sc. 2.
[100]
Say, Wolsey, that once trod the ways of glory,
And sounded all the depths and shoals of honour,
Found thee a way, out of his wreck, to rise in;
A sure and safe one, though thy master missed it.
King Henry VIII. Act iii. Sc. 2.
I charge thee, fling away ambition:
By that sin fell the angels.
King Henry VIII. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Love thyself last: cherish those hearts that hate thee;
Corruption wins not more than honesty.
Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace,
To silence envious tongues. Be just, and fear not:
Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's,
Thy God's, and truth's; then if thou fall'st, O Cromwell,
Thou fall'st a blessed martyr!
King Henry VIII. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Had I but served my God with half the zeal
I served my king, he would not in mine age
Have left me naked to mine enemies.
King Henry VIII. Act iii. Sc. 2.
A royal train, believe me.
King Henry VIII. Act iv. Sc. 1.
An old man, broken with the storms of state,
Is come to lay his weary bones among ye:
Give him a little earth for charity!
King Henry VIII. Act iv. Sc. 2.
He gave his honours to the world again,
His blessed part to heaven, and slept in peace.
King Henry VIII. Act iv. Sc. 2.
So may he rest; his faults lie gently on him!
King Henry VIII. Act iv. Sc. 2.
He was a man
Of an unbounded stomach.
King Henry VIII. Act iv. Sc. 2.
Men's evil manners live in brass; their virtues
We write in water.[100:1]
King Henry VIII. Act iv. Sc. 2.
[101]
He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one;
Exceeding wise, fair-spoken, and persuading;
Lofty and sour to them that loved him not,
But to those men that sought him sweet as summer.
King Henry VIII. Act iv. Sc. 2.
Yet in bestowing, madam,
He was most princely.
King Henry VIII. Act iv. Sc. 2.
After my death I wish no other herald,
No other speaker of my living actions,
To keep mine honour from corruption,
But such an honest chronicler as Griffith.
King Henry VIII. Act iv. Sc. 2.
To dance attendance on their lordships' pleasures.
King Henry VIII. Act v. Sc. 2.
You were ever good at sudden commendations.
King Henry VIII. Act v. Sc. 3.[101:1]
They are too thin and bare to hide offences.
King Henry VIII. Act v. Sc. 3.[101:1]
Those about her
From her shall read the perfect ways of honour.
King Henry VIII. Act v. Sc. 5.[101:2]
Wherever the bright sun of heaven shall shine,
His honour and the greatness of his name
Shall be, and make new nations.
King Henry VIII. Act v. Sc. 5.
A most unspotted lily shall she pass
To the ground, and all the world shall mourn her.
King Henry VIII. Act v. Sc. 5.
I have had my labour for my travail.[101:3]
Troilus and Cressida. Act i. Sc. 1.
[102]
Take but degree away, untune that string,
And, hark, what discord follows! each thing meets
In mere oppugnancy.[102:1]
Troilus and Cressida. Act i. Sc. 3.
The baby figure of the giant mass
Of things to come.
Troilus and Cressida. Act i. Sc. 3.
Modest doubt is call'd
The beacon of the wise, the tent that searches
To the bottom of the worst.
Troilus and Cressida. Act ii. Sc. 2.
The common curse of mankind,—folly and ignorance.
Troilus and Cressida. Act ii. Sc. 3.
All lovers swear more performance than they are able, and yet reserve an ability that they never perform; vowing more than the perfection of ten, and discharging less than the tenth part of one.
Troilus and Cressida. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Welcome ever smiles,
And farewell goes out sighing.
Troilus and Cressida. Act iii. Sc. 3.
One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.
Troilus and Cressida. Act iii. Sc. 3.
And give to dust that is a little gilt
More laud than gilt o'er-dusted.
Troilus and Cressida. Act iii. Sc. 3.
And like a dew-drop from the lion's mane,
Be shook to air.
Troilus and Cressida. Act iii. Sc. 3.
His heart and hand both open and both free;
For what he has he gives, what thinks he shows;
Yet gives he not till judgment guide his bounty.
Troilus and Cressida. Act iv. Sc. 5.
The end crowns all,
And that old common arbitrator, Time,
Will one day end it.
Troilus and Cressida. Act iv. Sc. 5.
Had I a dozen sons, each in my love alike and none less dear than thine and my good Marcius, I had rather eleven die nobly for their country than one voluptuously surfeit out of action.
Coriolanus. Act i. Sc. 3.
[103]
Nature teaches beasts to know their friends.
Coriolanus. Act ii. Sc. 1.
A cup of hot wine with not a drop of allaying Tiber in 't.[103:1]
Coriolanus. Act ii. Sc. 1.
Many-headed multitude.[103:2]
Coriolanus. Act ii. Sc. 3.
I thank you for your voices: thank you:
Your most sweet voices.
Coriolanus. Act ii. Sc. 3.
Hear you this Triton of the minnows? Mark you
His absolute "shall"?
Coriolanus. Act iii. Sc. 1.
Enough, with over-measure.
Coriolanus. Act iii. Sc. 1.
His nature is too noble for the world:
He would not flatter Neptune for his trident,
Or Jove for 's power to thunder.
Coriolanus. Act iii. Sc. 1.
That it shall hold companionship in peace
With honour, as in war.
Coriolanus. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Serv. Where dwellest thou?
Cor. Under the canopy.
Coriolanus. Act iv. Sc. 5.
A name unmusical to the Volscians' ears,
And harsh in sound to thine.
Coriolanus. Act iv. Sc. 5.
Chaste as the icicle
That 's curdied by the frost from purest snow
And hangs on Dian's temple.
Coriolanus. Act v. Sc. 3.
If you have writ your annals true, 't is there
That, like an eagle in a dove-cote, I
Flutter'd your Volscians in Corioli:
Alone I did it. Boy!
Coriolanus. Act v. Sc. 6.[103:3]
Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge.
Titus Andronicus. Act i. Sc. 2.
[104]
She is a woman, therefore may be woo'd;
She is a woman, therefore may be won;
She is Lavinia, therefore must be loved.
What, man! more water glideth by the mill
Than wots the miller of;[104:1] and easy it is
Of a cut loaf to steal a shive.
Titus Andronicus. Act ii. Sc. 1.
The eagle suffers little birds to sing.
Titus Andronicus. Act iv. Sc. 4.
The weakest goes to the wall.
Romeo and Juliet. Act i. Sc. 1.
Gregory, remember thy swashing blow.
Romeo and Juliet. Act i. Sc. 1.
An hour before the worshipp'd sun
Peered forth the golden window of the east.
Romeo and Juliet. Act i. Sc. 1.
As is the bud bit with an envious worm
Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air,
Or dedicate his beauty to the sun.
Romeo and Juliet. Act i. Sc. 1.
Saint-seducing gold.
Romeo and Juliet. Act i. Sc. 1.
He that is strucken blind cannot forget
The precious treasure of his eyesight lost.
Romeo and Juliet. Act i. Sc. 1.
One fire burns out another's burning,
One pain is lessen'd by another's anguish.[104:2]
Romeo and Juliet. Act i. Sc. 2.
That book in many's eyes doth share the glory
That in gold clasps locks in the golden story.
Romeo and Juliet. Act i. Sc. 3.
For I am proverb'd with a grandsire phrase.
Romeo and Juliet. Act i. Sc. 4.
O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you!
She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
On the fore-finger of an alderman,
Drawn with a team of little atomies
Athwart men's noses as they lie asleep.
Romeo and Juliet. Act i. Sc. 4.
Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub,
Time out o' mind the fairies' coachmakers.
Romeo and Juliet. Act i. Sc. 4.
[105]
Sometime she driveth o'er a soldier's neck,
And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats,
Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades,
Of healths five-fathom deep; and then anon
Drums in his ear, at which he starts and wakes,
And being thus frighted swears a prayer or two
And sleeps again.
Romeo and Juliet. Act i. Sc. 4.
True, I talk of dreams,
Which are the children of an idle brain,
Begot of nothing but vain fantasy.
Romeo and Juliet. Act i. Sc. 4.
For you and I are past our dancing days.[105:1]
Romeo and Juliet. Act i. Sc. 5.
It seems she hangs[105:2] upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear.
Romeo and Juliet. Act i. Sc. 5.
Shall have the chinks.
Romeo and Juliet. Act i. Sc. 5.
Too early seen unknown, and known too late!
Romeo and Juliet. Act i. Sc. 5.
Young Adam Cupid, he that shot so trim,
When King Cophetua loved the beggar maid!
Romeo and Juliet. Act ii. Sc. 1.
He jests at scars that never felt a wound.
But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Romeo and Juliet. Act ii. Sc. 2.[105:3]
See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand!
O that I were a glove upon that hand,
That I might touch that cheek!
Romeo and Juliet. Act ii. Sc. 2.[105:4]
O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?
Romeo and Juliet. Act ii. Sc. 2.[105:4]
What 's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.
Romeo and Juliet. Act ii. Sc. 2.[105:4]
For stony limits cannot hold love out.
Romeo and Juliet. Act ii. Sc. 2.[105:4]
Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye
Than twenty of their swords.
Romeo and Juliet. Act ii. Sc. 2.[105:4]
[106]
Rom. Lady, by yonder blessed moon I swear,
That tips with silver all these fruit-tree tops—
Jul. O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon,
That monthly changes in her circled orb,
Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.
Romeo and Juliet. Act ii. Sc. 2.[106:2]
The god of my idolatry.
Romeo and Juliet. Act ii. Sc. 2.[106:2]
Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be
Ere one can say, "It lightens."
Romeo and Juliet. Act ii. Sc. 2.[106:2]
This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath,
May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.
Romeo and Juliet. Act ii. Sc. 2.[106:2]
How silver-sweet sound lovers' tongues by night,
Like softest music to attending ears!
Romeo and Juliet. Act ii. Sc. 2.[106:2]
Good night, good night! parting is such sweet sorrow,
That I shall say good night till it be morrow.
Romeo and Juliet. Act ii. Sc. 2.[106:2]
O, mickle is the powerful grace that lies
In herbs, plants, stones, and their true qualities:
For nought so vile that on the earth doth live
But to the earth some special good doth give,
Nor aught so good but strain'd from that fair use
Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse:
Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied;
And vice sometimes by action dignified.
Romeo and Juliet. Act ii. Sc. 3.
Care keeps his watch in every old man's eye,
And where care lodges, sleep will never lie.
Romeo and Juliet. Act ii. Sc. 3.
Thy old groans ring yet in my ancient ears.
Romeo and Juliet. Act ii. Sc. 3.
Stabbed with a white wench's black eye.
Romeo and Juliet. Act ii. Sc. 4.
The courageous captain of complements.
Romeo and Juliet. Act ii. Sc. 4.
[107]
One, two, and the third in your bosom.
Romeo and Juliet. Act ii. Sc. 4.
O flesh, flesh, how art thou fishified!
Romeo and Juliet. Act ii. Sc. 4.
I am the very pink of courtesy.
Romeo and Juliet. Act ii. Sc. 4.
A gentleman, nurse, that loves to hear himself talk, and will speak more in a minute than he will stand to in a month.
Romeo and Juliet. Act ii. Sc. 4.
My man 's as true as steel.[107:1]
Romeo and Juliet. Act ii. Sc. 4.
These violent delights have violent ends.
Romeo and Juliet. Act ii. Sc. 6.
Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.
Romeo and Juliet. Act ii. Sc. 6.
Here comes the lady! O, so light a foot
Will ne'er wear out the everlasting flint.
Romeo and Juliet. Act ii. Sc. 6.
Thy head is as full of quarrels as an egg is full of meat.
Romeo and Juliet. Act iii. Sc. 1.
A word and a blow.[107:2]
Romeo and Juliet. Act iii. Sc. 1.
A plague o' both your houses!
Romeo and Juliet. Act iii. Sc. 1.
Rom. Courage, man; the hurt cannot be much.
Mer. No, 't is not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church-door; but 't is enough, 't will serve.
Romeo and Juliet. Act iii. Sc. 1.
When he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night,
And pay no worship to the garish sun.
Romeo and Juliet. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Beautiful tyrant! fiend angelical!
Romeo and Juliet. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Was ever book containing such vile matter
So fairly bound? O, that deceit should dwell
In such a gorgeous palace!
Romeo and Juliet. Act iii. Sc. 2.
[108]
Thou cutt'st my head off with a golden axe.
Romeo and Juliet. Act iii. Sc. 3.
They may seize
On the white wonder of dear Juliet's hand
And steal immortal blessing from her lips,
Who, even in pure and vestal modesty,
Still blush, as thinking their own kisses sin.
Romeo and Juliet. Act iii. Sc. 3.
The damned use that word in hell.
Romeo and Juliet. Act iii. Sc. 3.
Adversity's sweet milk, philosophy.
Romeo and Juliet. Act iii. Sc. 3.
Taking the measure of an unmade grave.
Romeo and Juliet. Act iii. Sc. 3.
Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain-tops.
Romeo and Juliet. Act iii. Sc. 5.
Straining harsh discords and unpleasing sharps.
Romeo and Juliet. Act iii. Sc. 5.
All these woes shall serve
For sweet discourses in our time to come.
Romeo and Juliet. Act iii. Sc. 5.
Villain and he be many miles asunder.
Romeo and Juliet. Act iii. Sc. 5.
Thank me no thanks, nor proud me no prouds.
Romeo and Juliet. Act iii. Sc. 5.
Not stepping o'er the bounds of modesty.
Romeo and Juliet. Act iv. Sc. 2.
My bosom's lord sits lightly in his throne.
Romeo and Juliet. Act v. Sc. 1.
I do remember an apothecary,—
And hereabouts he dwells.
Romeo and Juliet. Act v. Sc. 1.
Meagre were his looks,
Sharp misery had worn him to the bones.
Romeo and Juliet. Act v. Sc. 1.
A beggarly account of empty boxes.
Romeo and Juliet. Act v. Sc. 1.
Famine is in thy cheeks.
Romeo and Juliet. Act v. Sc. 1.
The world is not thy friend nor the world's law.
Romeo and Juliet. Act v. Sc. 1.
Ap. My poverty, but not my will, consents.
Rom. I pay thy poverty, and not thy will.
Romeo and Juliet. Act v. Sc. 1.
The strength
Of twenty men.
Romeo and Juliet. Act v. Sc. 1.
One writ with me in sour misfortune's book.
Romeo and Juliet. Act v. Sc. 3.
[109]
Her beauty makes
This vault a feasting presence full of light.
Romeo and Juliet, Act v. Sc. 3.
Beauty's ensign yet
Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks,
And death's pale flag is not advanced there.
Romeo and Juliet, Act v. Sc. 3.
Eyes, look your last!
Arms, take your last embrace!
Romeo and Juliet, Act v. Sc. 3.
But flies an eagle flight, bold and forth on,
Leaving no tract behind.
Timon of Athens. Act i. Sc. 1.
Here 's that which is too weak to be a sinner,—honest water, which ne'er left man i' the mire.
Timon of Athens. Act i. Sc. 2.
Immortal gods, I crave no pelf;
I pray for no man but myself;
Grant I may never prove so fond,
To trust man on his oath or bond.
Timon of Athens. Act i. Sc. 2.
Men shut their doors against a setting sun.
Timon of Athens. Act i. Sc. 2.
Every room
Hath blazed with lights and bray'd with minstrelsy.
Timon of Athens. Act ii. Sc. 2.
'T is lack of kindly warmth.
Timon of Athens. Act ii. Sc. 2.
Every man has his fault, and honesty is his.
Timon of Athens. Act iii. Sc. 1.
Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy.
Timon of Athens. Act iii. Sc. 5.
We have seen better days.
Timon of Athens. Act iv. Sc. 2.
Are not within the leaf of pity writ.
Timon of Athens. Act iv. Sc. 3.
I 'll example you with thievery:
The sun 's a thief, and with his great attraction
Robs the vast sea; the moon 's an arrant thief,
And her pale fire she snatches from the sun;
The sea 's a thief, whose liquid surge resolves
The moon into salt tears; the earth 's a thief,
That feeds and breeds by a composture stolen
From general excrement: each thing 's a thief.
Timon of Athens. Act iv. Sc. 3.
Life's uncertain voyage.
Timon of Athens. Act v. Sc. 1.
[110]
As proper men as ever trod upon neat's leather.
Julius Cæsar. Act i. Sc. 1.
The live-long day.
Julius Cæsar. Act i. Sc. 1.
Beware the ides of March.
Julius Cæsar. Act i. Sc. 2.
Well, honour is the subject of my story.
I cannot tell what you and other men
Think of this life; but, for my single self,
I had as lief not be as live to be
In awe of such a thing as I myself.
Julius Cæsar. Act i. Sc. 2.
"Darest thou, Cassius, now
Leap in with me into this angry flood,
And swim to yonder point?" Upon the word,
Accoutred as I was, I plunged in
And bade him follow.
Julius Cæsar. Act i. Sc. 2.
Help me, Cassius, or I sink!
Julius Cæsar. Act i. Sc. 2.
Ye gods, it doth amaze me
A man of such a feeble temper should
So get the start of the majestic world
And bear the palm alone.
Julius Cæsar. Act i. Sc. 2.
Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus, and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonourable graves.
Men at some time are masters of their fates:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
Julius Cæsar. Act i. Sc. 2.
Conjure with 'em,—
Brutus will start a spirit as soon as Cæsar.
Now, in the names of all the gods at once,
Upon what meat doth this our Cæsar feed,
That he is grown so great? Age, thou art shamed!
Rome, thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods!
Julius Cæsar. Act i. Sc. 2.
There was a Brutus once that would have brook'd
The eternal devil to keep his state in Rome
As easily as a king.
Julius Cæsar. Act i. Sc. 2.
[111]
Let me have men about me that are fat,
Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights:
Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.
Julius Cæsar. Act i. Sc. 2.
He reads much;
He is a great observer, and he looks
Quite through the deeds of men.
Julius Cæsar. Act i. Sc. 2.
Seldom he smiles, and smiles in such a sort
As if he mock'd himself, and scorn'd his spirit
That could be moved to smile at anything.
Julius Cæsar. Act i. Sc. 2.
But, for my own part, it was Greek to me.
Julius Cæsar. Act i. Sc. 2.
'T is a common proof,
That lowliness is young ambition's ladder,
Whereto the climber-upward turns his face;
But when he once attains the upmost[111:1] round,
He then unto the ladder turns his back,
Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees
By which he did ascend.
Julius Cæsar. Act ii. Sc. 1.
Between the acting of a dreadful thing
And the first motion, all the interim is
Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream:
The Genius and the mortal instruments
Are then in council; and the state of man,
Like to a little kingdom, suffers then
The nature of an insurrection.
Julius Cæsar. Act ii. Sc. 1.
A dish fit for the gods.
Julius Cæsar. Act ii. Sc. 1.
But when I tell him he hates flatterers,
He says he does, being then most flattered.
Julius Cæsar. Act ii. Sc. 1.
Boy! Lucius! Fast asleep? It is no matter;
Enjoy the honey-heavy dew of slumber:
Thou hast no figures nor no fantasies,
Which busy care draws in the brains of men;
Therefore thou sleep'st so sound.
Julius Cæsar. Act ii. Sc. 1.
[112]
With an angry wafture of your hand,
Gave sign for me to leave you.
Julius Cæsar. Act ii. Sc. 1.
You are my true and honourable wife,
As dear to me as are the ruddy drops[112:1]
That visit my sad heart.
Julius Cæsar. Act ii. Sc. 1.
Think you I am no stronger than my sex,
Being so father'd and so husbanded?
Julius Cæsar. Act ii. Sc. 1.
Fierce fiery warriors fought upon the clouds,
In ranks and squadrons and right form of war,
Which drizzled blood upon the Capitol.
Julius Cæsar. Act ii. Sc. 2.
These things are beyond all use,
And I do fear them.
Julius Cæsar. Act ii. Sc. 2.
When beggars die, there are no comets seen;
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.
Julius Cæsar. Act ii. Sc. 2.
Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear;
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.
Julius Cæsar. Act ii. Sc. 2.
Cæs. The ides of March are come.
Sooth. Ay, Cæsar; but not gone.
Julius Cæsar. Act iii. Sc. 1.
But I am constant as the northern star,
Of whose true-fix'd and resting quality
There is no fellow in the firmament.
Julius Cæsar. Act iii. Sc. 1.
Et tu, Brute!
Julius Cæsar. Act iii. Sc. 1.
How many ages hence
Shall this our lofty scene be acted over
In states unborn and accents yet unknown!
Julius Cæsar. Act iii. Sc. 1.
The choice and master spirits of this age.
Julius Cæsar. Act iii. Sc. 1.
[113]
Though last, not least in love.[113:1]
Julius Cæsar. Act iii. Sc. 1.
O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth,
That I am meek and gentle with these butchers!
Thou art the ruins of the noblest man
That ever lived in the tide of times.
Julius Cæsar. Act iii. Sc. 1.
Cry "Havoc," and let slip the dogs of war.
Julius Cæsar. Act iii. Sc. 1.
Romans, countrymen, and lovers! hear me for my cause, and be silent that you may hear.
Julius Cæsar. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Not that I loved Cæsar less, but that I loved Rome more.
Julius Cæsar. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Who is here so base that would be a bondman?
Julius Cæsar. Act iii. Sc. 2.
If any, speak; for him have I offended. I pause for a reply.
Julius Cæsar. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Cæsar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones.
Julius Cæsar. Act iii. Sc. 2.
For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all, all honourable men.
Julius Cæsar. Act iii. Sc. 2.
When that the poor have cried, Cæsar hath wept:
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.
Julius Cæsar. Act iii. Sc. 2.
O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.
Julius Cæsar. Act iii. Sc. 2.
But yesterday the word of Cæsar might
Have stood against the world; now lies he there,
And none so poor to do him reverence.
Julius Cæsar. Act iii. Sc. 2.
If you have tears, prepare to shed them now.
Julius Cæsar. Act iii. Sc. 2.
See what a rent the envious Casca made.
Julius Cæsar. Act iii. Sc. 2.
This was the most unkindest cut of all.
Julius Cæsar. Act iii. Sc. 2.
[114]
Great Cæsar fell.
O, what a fall was there, my countrymen!
Then I, and you, and all of us fell down,
Whilst bloody treason flourish'd over us.
Julius Cæsar. Act iii. Sc. 2.
What private griefs they have, alas, I know not.
Julius Cæsar. Act iii. Sc. 2.
I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts:
I am no orator, as Brutus is;
But, as you know me all, a plain blunt man.
Julius Cæsar. Act iii. Sc. 2.
I only speak right on.
Julius Cæsar. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Put a tongue
In every wound of Cæsar that should move
The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny.
Julius Cæsar. Act iii. Sc. 2.
When love begins to sicken and decay,
It useth an enforced ceremony.
There are no tricks in plain and simple faith.
Julius Cæsar. Act iv. Sc. 2.
You yourself
Are much condemn'd to have an itching palm.
Julius Cæsar. Act iv. Sc. 3.
The foremost man of all this world.
Julius Cæsar. Act iv. Sc. 3.
I had rather be a dog, and bay the moon,
Than such a Roman.
Julius Cæsar. Act iv. Sc. 3.
I said, an elder soldier, not a better:
Did I say "better"?
Julius Cæsar. Act iv. Sc. 3.
There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats,
For I am arm'd so strong in honesty
That they pass by me as the idle wind,
Which I respect not.
Julius Cæsar. Act iv. Sc. 3.
Should I have answer'd Caius Cassius so?
When Marcus Brutus grows so covetous,
To lock such rascal counters from his friends,
Be ready, gods, with all your thunderbolts:
Dash him to pieces!
Julius Cæsar. Act iv. Sc. 3.
A friend should bear his friend's infirmities,
But Brutus makes mine greater than they are.
Julius Cæsar. Act iv. Sc. 3.
[115]
All his faults observed,
Set in a note-book, learn'd, and conn'd by rote.
Julius Cæsar. Act iv. Sc. 3.
There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
Julius Cæsar. Act iv. Sc. 3.
We must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.
Julius Cæsar. Act iv. Sc. 3.
The deep of night is crept upon our talk,
And nature must obey necessity.
Julius Cæsar. Act iv. Sc. 3.
Brutus. Then I shall see thee again?
Ghost. Ay, at Philippi.
Brutus. Why, I will see thee at Philippi, then.
Julius Cæsar. Act iv. Sc. 3.
But for your words, they rob the Hybla bees,
And leave them honeyless.
Julius Cæsar. Act v. Sc. 1.
Forever, and forever, farewell, Cassius!
If we do meet again, why, we shall smile;
If not, why then this parting was well made.
Julius Cæsar. Act v. Sc. 1.
O, that a man might know
The end of this day's business ere it come!
Julius Cæsar. Act v. Sc. 1.
The last of all the Romans, fare thee well!
Julius Cæsar. Act v. Sc. 3.
This was the noblest Roman of them all.
Julius Cæsar. Act v. Sc. 5.
His life was gentle, and the elements
So mix'd in him, that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world, "This was a man!"
Julius Cæsar. Act v. Sc. 5.
1 W. When shall we three meet again
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
2 W. When the hurlyburly 's done,
When the battle 's lost and won.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 1.
Fair is foul, and foul is fair.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 1.
Banners flout the sky.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 2.
[116]
Sleep shall neither night nor day
Hang upon his pent-house lid.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 3.
Dwindle, peak, and pine.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 3.
What are these
So wither'd and so wild in their attire,
That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth,
And yet are on 't?
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 3.
If you can look into the seeds of time,
And say which grain will grow and which will not.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 3.
Stands not within the prospect of belief.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 3.
The earth hath bubbles as the water has,
And these are of them.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 3.
The insane root
That takes the reason prisoner.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 3.
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray 's
In deepest consequence.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 3.
Two truths are told,
As happy prologues to the swelling act
Of the imperial theme.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 3.
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs,
Against the use of nature. Present fears
Are less than horrible imaginings.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 3.
Nothing is
But what is not.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 3.
If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 3.
Come what come may,
Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 3.
[117]
Nothing in his life
Became him like the leaving it; he died
As one that had been studied in his death
To throw away the dearest thing he owed,
As 't were a careless trifle.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 4.
There 's no art
To find the mind's construction in the face.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 4.
More is thy due than more than all can pay.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 4.
Yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o' the milk of human kindness.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 5.
What thou wouldst highly,
That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false,
And yet wouldst wrongly win.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 5.
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 5.
Your face, my thane, is as a book where men
May read strange matters. To beguile the time,
Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,
Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower,
But be the serpent under 't.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 5.
Which shall to all our nights and days to come
Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 5.
This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air
Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
Unto our gentle senses.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 6.
The heaven's breath
Smells wooingly here: no jutty, frieze,
Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird
Hath made his pendent bed and procreant cradle:
Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed,
The air is delicate.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 6.
If it were done when 't is done, then 't were well
It were done quickly: if the assassination
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch
[118]With his surcease success; that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all here,
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,
We 'ld jump the life to come. But in these cases
We still have judgment here; that we but teach
Bloody instructions, which being taught, return
To plague the inventor: this even-handed justice
Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice
To our own lips.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 7.
Besides, this Duncan
Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
So clear in his great office, that his virtues
Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against
The deep damnation of his taking-off;
And pity, like a naked new-born babe,
Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, horsed
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,
That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself,
And falls on the other.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 7.
I have bought
Golden opinions from all sorts of people.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 7.
Letting "I dare not" wait upon "I would,"
Like the poor cat i' the adage.[118:1]
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 7.
I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more is none.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 7.
Nor time nor place
Did then adhere.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 7.
Macb. If we should fail?
Lady M. We fail!
But screw your courage to the sticking-place,
And we 'll not fail.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 7.
[119]
Memory, the warder of the brain.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 7.
There 's husbandry in heaven;
Their candles are all out.
Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 1.
Shut up
In measureless content.
Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 1.
Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 1.
Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going.
Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 1.
Now o'er the one half-world
Nature seems dead.
Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 1.
Thou sure and firm-set earth,
Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
Thy very stones prate of my whereabout.
Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 1.
The bell invites me.
Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell
That summons thee to heaven or to hell.
Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 1.
It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman,
Which gives the stern'st good-night.
Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 2.[119:1]
Methought I heard a voice cry, "Sleep no more!
Macbeth does murder sleep!" the innocent sleep,
Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care,
[120]The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
Chief nourisher in life's feast.
Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 2.[120:1]
Infirm of purpose!
Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 2.[120:1]
Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red.
Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 2.[120:1]
The labour we delight in physics pain.
Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 3.[120:2]
Confusion now hath made his masterpiece!
Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope
The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence
The life o' the building!
Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 3.[120:2]
The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees
Is left this vault to brag of.
Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 3.[120:2]
Who can be wise, amazed, temperate and furious,
Loyal and neutral, in a moment?
Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 3.[120:2]
There 's daggers in men's smiles.
Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 3.[120:2]
A falcon, towering in her pride of place,
Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd.
Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 4.[120:3]
Thriftless ambition, that wilt ravin up
Thine own life's means!
Macbeth. Act ii. Sc. 4.
I must become a borrower of the night
For a dark hour or twain.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 1.
[121]
Let every man be master of his time
Till seven at night.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 1.
Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown,
And put a barren sceptre in my gripe,
Thence to be wrench'd with an unlineal hand,
No son of mine succeeding.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 1.
Mur. We are men, my liege.
Mac. Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 1.
I am one, my liege,
Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world
Have so incensed that I am reckless what
I do to spite the world.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 1.
So weary with disasters, tugg'd with fortune,
That I would set my life on any chance,
To mend it, or be rid on 't.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 1.
Things without all remedy
Should be without regard; what 's done is done.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 2.
We have scotch'd the snake, not kill'd it.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Better be with the dead,
Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace,
Than on the torture of the mind to lie
In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave;
After life's fitful fever he sleeps well:
Treason has done his worst; nor steel, nor poison,
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing,
Can touch him further.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 2.
In them Nature's copy 's not eterne.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 2.
A deed of dreadful note.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,
Till thou applaud the deed.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Now spurs the lated traveller apace
To gain the timely inn.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 3.
[122]
But now I am cabin'd, cribb'd, confined, bound in
To saucy doubts and fears.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 4.
Now, good digestion wait on appetite,
And health on both!
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 4.
Thou canst not say I did it; never shake
Thy gory locks at me.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 4.
The air-drawn dagger.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 4.
The time has been,
That when the brains were out the man would die,
And there an end; but now they rise again,
With twenty mortal murders on their crowns,
And push us from our stools.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 4.
I drink to the general joy o' the whole table.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 4.
Thou hast no speculation in those eyes
Which thou dost glare with!
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 4.
A thing of custom,—'t is no other;
Only it spoils the pleasure of the time.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 4.
What man dare, I dare:
Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,
The arm'd rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger,—
Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves
Shall never tremble.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 4.
Hence, horrible shadow!
Unreal mockery, hence!
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 4.
You have displac'd the mirth, broke the good meeting,
With most admir'd disorder.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 4.
Can such things be,
And overcome us like a summer's cloud,
Without our special wonder?
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 4.
Stand not upon the order of your going,
But go at once.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 4.
[123]
Macb. What is the night?
L. Macb. Almost at odds with morning, which is which.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 4.
I am in blood
Stepp'd in so far that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o'er.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 4.
My little spirit, see,
Sits in a foggy cloud, and stays for me.
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 5.
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
Macbeth. Act iv. Sc. 1.
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog.
Macbeth. Act iv. Sc. 1.
By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.
Open, locks,
Whoever knocks!
Macbeth. Act iv. Sc. 1.
How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags!
Macbeth. Act iv. Sc. 1.
A deed without a name.
Macbeth. Act iv. Sc. 1.
I 'll make assurance double sure,
And take a bond of fate.
Macbeth. Act iv. Sc. 1.
Show his eyes, and grieve his heart;
Come like shadows, so depart!
Macbeth. Act iv. Sc. 1.
What, will the line stretch out to the crack of doom?
Macbeth. Act iv. Sc. 1.
I 'll charm the air to give a sound,
While you perform your antic round.[123:1]
Macbeth. Act iv. Sc. 1.
The weird sisters.
Macbeth. Act iv. Sc. 1.
The flighty purpose never is o'ertook,
Unless the deed go with it.
Macbeth. Act iv. Sc. 1.
When our actions do not,
Our fears do make us traitors.
Macbeth. Act iv. Sc. 2.
[124]
Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell.
Macbeth. Act iv. Sc. 3.
Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell,
Uproar the universal peace, confound
All unity on earth.
Macbeth. Act iv. Sc. 3.
Stands Scotland where it did?
Macbeth. Act iv. Sc. 3.
Give sorrow words: the grief that does not speak
Whispers the o'er-fraught heart and bids it break.
Macbeth. Act iv. Sc. 3.
What, all my pretty chickens and their dam
At one fell swoop?
Macbeth. Act iv. Sc. 3.
I cannot but remember such things were,
That were most precious to me.
Macbeth. Act iv. Sc. 3.
O, I could play the woman with mine eyes
And braggart with my tongue.
Macbeth. Act iv. Sc. 3.
The night is long that never finds the day.
Macbeth. Act iv. Sc. 3.
Out, damned spot! out, I say!
Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 1.
Fie, my lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard?
Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 1.
Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?
Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 1.
All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.
Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 1.
Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane,
I cannot taint with fear.
Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 3.
My way of life
Is fall'n into the sere, the yellow leaf;
And that which should accompany old age,
As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends,
I must not look to have; but in their stead
Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath,
Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not.
Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 3.
[125]
Doct. Not so sick, my lord,
As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies,
That keep her from her rest.
Macb. Cure her of that.
Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas'd,
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
Raze out the written troubles of the brain,
And with some sweet oblivious antidote
Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff
Which weighs upon the heart?
Doct. Therein the patient
Must minister to himself.
Macb. Throw physic to the dogs: I 'll none of it.
Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 3.
I would applaud thee to the very echo,
That should applaud again.
Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 3.
Hang out our banners on the outward walls;
The cry is still, "They come!" our castle's strength
Will laugh a siege to scorn.
Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 5.
My fell of hair
Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir
As life were in 't: I have supp'd full with horrors.
Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 5.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life 's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 5.
I pull in resolution, and begin
To doubt the equivocation of the fiend
That lies like truth: "Fear not, till Birnam wood
Do come to Dunsinane."
Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 5.
[126]
I gin to be aweary of the sun.
Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 5.
Blow, wind! come, wrack!
At least we 'll die with harness on our back.
Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 5.
Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death.
Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 6.
I bear a charmed life.
Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 8.[126:1]
And be these juggling fiends no more believ'd,
That palter with us in a double sense:
That keep the word of promise to our ear
And break it to our hope.
Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 8.[126:1]
Live to be the show and gaze o' the time.
Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 8.[126:1]
For this relief much thanks: 't is bitter cold,
And I am sick at heart.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 1.
But in the gross and scope of my opinion,
This bodes some strange eruption to our state.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 1.
Whose sore task
Does not divide the Sunday from the week.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 1.
This sweaty haste
Doth make the night joint-labourer with the day.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 1.
In the most high and palmy state of Rome,
A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,
The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead
Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 1.
And then it started like a guilty thing
Upon a fearful summons.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 1.
Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,
The extravagant and erring spirit hies
To his confine.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 1.
[127]
It faded on the crowing of the cock.
Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
The bird of dawning singeth all night long:
And then, they say, no spirit dares stir[127:1] abroad;
The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,
So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 1.
So have I heard, and do in part believe it.
But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad,
Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastward hill.[127:2]
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 1.
The memory be green.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 2.
With an auspicious and a dropping eye,[127:3]
With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage,
In equal scale weighing delight and dole.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 2.
The head is not more native to the heart.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 2.
A little more than kin, and less than kind.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 2.
All that lives must die,
Passing through nature to eternity.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 2.
Seems, madam! nay, it is; I know not "seems."
'T is not alone my inky cloak, good mother,
Nor customary suits of solemn black.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 2.
But I have that within which passeth show;
These but the trappings and the suits of woe.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 2.
'T is a fault to Heaven,
A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,
To reason most absurd.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 2.
O, that this too too solid flesh would melt,
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!
Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd
[128]His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 2.
That it should come to this!
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 2.
Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother,
That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
Visit her face too roughly.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 2.
Why, she would hang on him,
As if increase of appetite had grown
By what it fed on.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 2.
Frailty, thy name is woman!
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 2.
A little month.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 2.
Like Niobe, all tears.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 2.
A beast, that wants discourse of reason.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 2.
My father's brother, but no more like my father
Than I to Hercules.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 2.
It is not nor it cannot come to good.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 2.
Thrift, thrift, Horatio! the funeral baked meats
Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.
Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven
Or ever I had seen that day.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 2.
In my mind's eye, Horatio.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 2.
He was a man, take him for all in all,
I shall not look upon his like again.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 2.
Season your admiration for a while.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 2.
In the dead vast and middle of the night.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 2.
Arm'd at point exactly, cap-a-pe.[128:1]
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 2.
A countenance more in sorrow than in anger.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 2.
[129]
While one with moderate haste might tell a hundred.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 2.
Ham. His beard was grizzled,—no?
Hor. It was, as I have seen it in his life,
A sable silver'd.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 2.
Let it be tenable in your silence still.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 2.
Gave it an understanding, but no tongue.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 2.
Upon the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 2.
Foul deeds will rise,
Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 2.
A violet in the youth of primy nature,
Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting,
The perfume and suppliance of a minute.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 3.
The chariest maid is prodigal enough,
If she unmask her beauty to the moon:
Virtue itself 'scapes not calumnious strokes:
The canker galls the infants of the spring
Too oft before their buttons be disclosed,
And in the morn and liquid dew of youth
Contagious blastments are most imminent.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 3.
Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven;
Whiles, like a puff'd and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
And recks not his own rede.[129:1]
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 3.
Give thy thoughts no tongue.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 3.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops[129:2] of steel.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 3.
[130]
Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel; but being in,
Bear 't that the opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 3.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 3.
Springes to catch woodcocks.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 3.
When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul
Lends the tongue vows.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 3.
Be somewhat scanter of your maiden presence.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 3.
Ham. The air bites shrewdly; it is very cold.
Hor. It is a nipping and an eager air.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 4.
But to my mind, though I am native here
And to the manner born, it is a custom
More honoured in the breach than the observance.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 4.
Angels and ministers of grace, defend us!
Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damn'd,
Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell,
Be thy intents wicked or charitable,
Thou comest in such a questionable shape
That I will speak to thee: I 'll call thee Hamlet,
King, father, royal Dane: O, answer me!
Let me not burst in ignorance, but tell
Why thy canonized bones, hearsed in death,
Have burst their cerements; why the sepulchre,
Wherein we saw thee quietly inurn'd,
[131]Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws
To cast thee up again. What may this mean,
That thou, dead corse, again in complete steel
Revisit'st thus the glimpses of the moon,
Making night hideous,[131:1] and we fools of nature
So horridly to shake our disposition
With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls?
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 4.
I do not set my life at a pin's fee.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 4.
My fate cries out,
And makes each petty artery in this body
As hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 4.
Unhand me, gentlemen.
By heaven, I 'll make a ghost of him that lets me!
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 4.
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 4.
I am thy father's spirit,
Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night,
And for the day confin'd to fast in fires,[131:2]
Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature
Are burnt and purg'd away. But that I am forbid
To tell the secrets of my prison-house,
I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word
Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,
Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres,
Thy knotted and combined locks to part
And each particular hair to stand an end,
Like quills upon the fretful porpentine:[131:3]
But this eternal blazon must not be
To ears of flesh and blood. List, list, O, list!
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 5.
And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed
That roots itself[131:4] in ease on Lethe wharf.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 5.
[132]
O my prophetic soul!
My uncle!
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 5.
O Hamlet, what a falling-off was there!
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 5.
But, soft! methinks I scent the morning air;
Brief let me be. Sleeping within my orchard,
My custom always of the afternoon.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 5.
Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin,
Unhousell'd, disappointed, unaneled,
No reckoning made, but sent to my account
With all my imperfections on my head.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 5.
Leave her to heaven
And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge,
To prick and sting her.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 5.
The glow-worm shows the matin to be near,
And 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 5.
While memory holds a seat
In this distracted globe. Remember thee!
Yea, from the table of my memory
I 'll wipe away all trivial fond records.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 5.
Within the book and volume of my brain.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 5.
O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!
My tables,—meet it is I set it down,
That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain:
At least I 'm sure it may be so in Denmark.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 5.
Ham. There 's ne'er a villain dwelling in all Denmark
But he 's an arrant knave.
Hor. There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave
To tell us this.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 5.
Every man has business and desire,
Such as it is.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 5.
Art thou there, truepenny?
Come on—you hear this fellow in the cellarage.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 5.
[133]
O day and night, but this is wondrous strange!
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 5.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 5.
Rest, rest, perturbed spirit!
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 5.
The time is out of joint: O cursed spite,
That ever I was born to set it right!
Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 5.
The flash and outbreak of a fiery mind,
A savageness in unreclaimed blood.
Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 1.
This is the very ecstasy of love.
Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 1.
Brevity is the soul of wit.[133:1]
Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.
More matter, with less art.
Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.
That he is mad, 't is true: 't is true 't is pity;
And pity 't is 't is true.
Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.
Find out the cause of this effect,
Or rather say, the cause of this defect,
For this effect defective comes by cause.
Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.
Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.
Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.
To be honest as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.
Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.
Still harping on my daughter.
Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.
Pol. What do you read, my lord?
Ham. Words, words, words.
Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.
They have a plentiful lack of wit.
Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.
Though this be madness, yet there is method in 't.
Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.
On fortune's cap we are not the very button.
Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.
[134]
There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.
A dream itself is but a shadow.
Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.
Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks.
Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.
This goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god!
Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.
Man delights not me: no, nor woman neither.
Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.
There is something in this more than natural, if philosophy could find it out.
Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.
I know a hawk from a handsaw.
Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.
O Jephthah, judge of Israel, what a treasure hadst thou!
Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.
One fair daughter and no more,
The which he loved passing well.
Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.
Come, give us a taste of your quality.
Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.
The play, I remember, pleased not the million; 't was caviare to the general.
Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.
They are the abstract and brief chronicles of the time: after your death you were better have a bad epitaph than their ill report while you live.
Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.
Use every man after his desert, and who should 'scape whipping?
Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.
What 's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,
That he should weep for her?
Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.
[135]
Unpack my heart with words,
And fall a-cursing, like a very drab.
Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.
For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak
With most miraculous organ.[135:1]
Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.
The devil hath power
To assume a pleasing shape.
Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.
Abuses me to damn me.
Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.
The play 's the thing
Wherein I 'll catch the conscience of the king.
Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.
With devotion's visage
And pious action we do sugar o'er
The devil himself.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 1.
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 't is nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep:
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to,—'t is a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there 's the rub:
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there 's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
[136]With a bare bodkin? who would fardels[136:1] bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 1.
Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember'd.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 1.
Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 1.
I am myself indifferent honest.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 1.
Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery, go.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 1.
I have heard of your paintings too, well enough; God has given you one face, and you make yourselves another.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 1.
O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!
The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's eye, tongue, sword.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 1.
The expectancy and rose of the fair state,
The glass of fashion and the mould of form,
The observed of all observers!
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 1.
Now see that noble and most sovereign reason,
Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 1.
O, woe is me,
To have seen what I have seen, see what I see!
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 1.
[137]
Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness. Oh, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb-shows and noise. I would have such a fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant; it out-herods Herod.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Suit the action to the word, the word to the action; with this special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.
To hold, as 't were, the mirror up to nature.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.
The very age and body of the time his form and pressure.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Though it make the unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Not to speak it profanely.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.
I have thought some of Nature's journeymen had made men and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.
First Play. We have reformed that indifferently with us, sir.
Ham. O, reform it altogether.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man
As e'er my conversation coped withal.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.
No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp,
And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee
Where thrift may follow fawning.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.
A man that fortune's buffets and rewards
Hast ta'en with equal thanks.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.
[138]
They are not a pipe for fortune's finger
To sound what stop she please. Give me that man
That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him
In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart,
As I do thee.—Something too much of this.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.
And my imaginations are as foul
As Vulcan's stithy.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Here 's metal more attractive.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Nay, then, let the devil wear black, for I 'll have a suit of sables.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.
There 's hope a great man's memory may outlive his life half a year.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.
For, O, for, O, the hobby-horse is forgot.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.
This is miching mallecho; it means mischief.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Ham. Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring?
Oph. 'T is brief, my lord.
Ham. As woman's love.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Our wills and fates do so contrary run
That our devices still are overthrown.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.
The lady doth protest[138:1] too much, methinks.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Let the galled jade wince, our withers are unwrung.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.
The story is extant, and writ in choice Italian.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Why, let the stricken deer go weep,
The hart ungalled play;
For some must watch, while some must sleep:
So runs the world away.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.
'T is as easy as lying.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.
It will discourse most eloquent music.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.
[139]
Pluck out the heart of my mystery.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe?
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Ham. Do you see yonder cloud that 's almost in shape of a camel?
Pol. By the mass, and 't is like a camel, indeed.
Ham. Methinks it is like a weasel.
Pol. It is backed like a weasel.
Ham. Or like a whale?
Pol. Very like a whale.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.
They fool me to the top of my bent.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.
By and by is easily said.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.
'T is now the very witching time of night,
When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out
Contagion to this world.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.
I will speak daggers to her, but use none.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.
O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven;
It hath the primal eldest curse upon 't,
A brother's murder.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 3.
Like a man to double business bound,
I stand in pause where I shall first begin,
And both neglect.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 3.
'T is not so above;
There is no shuffling, there the action lies
In his true nature.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 3.
O limed soul, that, struggling to be free,
Art more engag'd! Help, angels! Make assay!
Bow, stubborn knees; and, heart with strings of steel,
Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe!
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 3.
With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 3.
About some act
That has no relish of salvation in 't.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 3.
[140]
My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:
Words without thoughts never to heaven go.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 3.
Dead, for a ducat, dead!
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 4.
And let me wring your heart; for so I shall,
If it be made of penetrable stuff.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 4.
Such an act
That blurs the grace and blush of modesty.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 4.
False as dicers' oaths.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 4.
A rhapsody of words.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 4.
What act
That roars so loud, and thunders in the index?
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 4.
Look here, upon this picture, and on this,
The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.
See, what a grace was seated on this brow:
Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself;
An eye like Mars, to threaten and command;
A station like the herald Mercury
New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill,—
A combination and a form indeed,
Where every god did seem to set his seal,
To give the world assurance of a man.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 4.
At your age
The hey-day in the blood is tame, it 's humble.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 4.
O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellions hell,
If thou canst mutine in a matron's bones,
To flaming youth let virtue be as wax,
And melt in her own fire: proclaim no shame
When the compulsive ardour gives the charge,
Since frost itself as actively doth burn,
And reason panders will.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 4.
A cutpurse of the empire and the rule,
That from a shelf the precious diadem stole,
And put it in his pocket!
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 4.
[141]
A king of shreds and patches.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 4.
Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 4.
How is 't with you,
That you do bend your eye on vacancy?
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 4.
This is the very coinage of your brain:
This bodiless creation ecstasy
Is very cunning in.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 4.
Bring me to the test,
And I the matter will re-word; which madness
Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace,
Lay not that flattering unction to your soul.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 4.
Confess yourself to heaven;
Repent what 's past; avoid what is to come.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 4.
Assume a virtue, if you have it not.
That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat,
Of habits devil, is angel yet in this.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 4.
Refrain to-night,
And that shall lend a kind of easiness
To the next abstinence: the next more easy;
For use almost can change the stamp of nature.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 4.
I must be cruel, only to be kind:
Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 4.
For 't is the sport to have the enginer
Hoist with his own petar.
Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 4.
Diseases desperate grown
By desperate appliance are relieved,
Or not at all.[141:1]
Hamlet. Act iv. Sc. 3.
A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.
Hamlet. Act iv. Sc. 3.
[142]
Sure, he that made us with such large discourse,
Looking before and after, gave us not
That capability and godlike reason
To fust in us unused.
Hamlet. Act iv. Sc. 4.
Rightly to be great
Is not to stir without great argument,
But greatly to find quarrel in a straw
When honour 's at the stake.
Hamlet. Act iv. Sc. 4.
So full of artless jealousy is guilt,
It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.
Hamlet. Act iv. Sc. 5.
We know what we are, but know not what we may be.
Hamlet. Act iv. Sc. 5.
To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day,
All in the morning betime.
Hamlet. Act iv. Sc. 5.
Then up he rose, and donn'd his clothes.
Hamlet. Act iv. Sc. 5.
Come, my coach! Good night, sweet ladies; good night.
Hamlet. Act iv. Sc. 5.
When sorrows come, they come not single spies,
But in battalions.
Hamlet. Act iv. Sc. 5.
There 's such divinity doth hedge a king,
That treason can but peep to what it would.
Hamlet. Act iv. Sc. 5.
Nature is fine in love, and where 't is fine,
It sends some precious instance of itself
After the thing it loves.
Hamlet. Act iv. Sc. 5.
There 's rosemary, that 's for remembrance; . . . and there is pansies, that 's for thoughts.
Hamlet. Act iv. Sc. 5.
You must wear your rue with a difference. There 's a daisy; I would give you some violets, but they withered.
Hamlet. Act iv. Sc. 5.
His beard was as white as snow,
All flaxen was his poll.
Hamlet. Act iv. Sc. 5.
A very riband in the cap of youth.
Hamlet. Act iv. Sc. 7.
That we would do,
We should do when we would.
Hamlet. Act iv. Sc. 7.
[143]
Nature her custom holds,
Let shame say what it will.
Hamlet. Act iv. Sc. 7.
1 Clo. Argal, he that is not guilty of his own death shortens not his own life.
2 Clo. But is this law?
1 Clo. Ay, marry, is 't; crowner's quest law.
Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 1.
There is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners.
Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 1.
Cudgel thy brains no more about it.
Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 1.
Has this fellow no feeling of his business?
Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 1.
Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness.
Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 1.
The hand of little employment hath the daintier sense.
Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 1.
A politician, . . . one that would circumvent God.
Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 1.
Why may not that be the skull of a lawyer? Where be his quiddities now, his quillets, his cases, his tenures, and his tricks?
Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 1.
One that was a woman, sir; but, rest her soul, she 's dead.
Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 1.
How absolute the knave is! we must speak by the card, or equivocation will undo us.
Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 1.
The age is grown so picked that the toe of the peasant comes so near the heel of the courtier, he galls his kibe.
Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 1.
[144]
Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now; your gambols, your songs? your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now, to mock your own grinning? Quite chap-fallen? Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must come.
Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 1.
To what base uses we may return, Horatio! Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander, till we find it stopping a bung-hole?
Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 1.
'T were to consider too curiously, to consider so.
Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 1.
Imperious Cæsar, dead and turn'd to clay,
Might stop a hole to keep the wind away.
Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 1.
Lay her i' the earth:
And from her fair and unpolluted flesh
May violets spring![144:1]
Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 1.
A ministering angel shall my sister be.[144:2]
Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 1.
Sweets to the sweet: farewell!
Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 1.
I thought thy bride-bed to have deck'd, sweet maid,
And not have strew'd thy grave.
Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 1.
Though I am not splenitive and rash,
Yet have I something in me dangerous.
Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 1.
Forty thousand brothers
Could not, with all their quantity of love,
Make up my sum.
Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 1.
[145]
Nay, an thou 'lt mouth,
I 'll rant as well as thou.
Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 1.
Let Hercules himself do what he may,
The cat will mew and dog will have his day.
Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 1.
I once did hold it, as our statists do,
A baseness to write fair.
Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 2.
It did me yeoman's service.
Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 2.
The bravery of his grief did put me
Into a towering passion.
Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 2.
What imports the nomination of this gentleman?
Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 2.
The phrase would be more german to the matter, if we could carry cannon by our sides.
Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 2.
'T is the breathing time of day with me.
Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 2.
There 's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 't is not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all. Since no man has aught of what he leaves, what is 't to leave betimes?
Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 2.
I have shot mine arrow o'er the house,
And hurt my brother.
Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 2.
Now the king drinks to Hamlet.
Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 2.
A hit, a very palpable hit.
Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 2.
This fell sergeant, death,
Is strict in his arrest.
Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 2.
Report me and my cause aright.
Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 2.
[146]
I am more an antique Roman than a Dane.
Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 2.
Absent thee from felicity awhile.
Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 2.
The rest is silence.
Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 2.
Although the last, not least.
King Lear. Act i. Sc. 1.
Nothing will come of nothing.
King Lear. Act i. Sc. 1.
Mend your speech a little,
Lest it may mar your fortunes.
King Lear. Act i. Sc. 1.
I want that glib and oily art,
To speak and purpose not.
King Lear. Act i. Sc. 1.
A still-soliciting eye, and such a tongue
As I am glad I have not.
King Lear. Act i. Sc. 1.
Time shall unfold what plaited cunning hides.
King Lear. Act i. Sc. 1.
As if we were villains by necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion.
King Lear. Act i. Sc. 2.
That which ordinary men are fit for, I am qualified in; and the best of me is diligence.
King Lear. Act i. Sc. 4.
Ingratitude, thou marble-hearted fiend!
King Lear. Act i. Sc. 4.
How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
To have a thankless child!
King Lear. Act i. Sc. 4.
Striving to better, oft we mar what 's well.
King Lear. Act i. Sc. 4.
Hysterica passio, down, thou climbing sorrow,
Thy element 's below.
King Lear. Act ii. Sc. 4.
Nature in you stands on the very verge
Of her confine.
King Lear. Act ii. Sc. 4.
Necessity's sharp pinch!
King Lear. Act ii. Sc. 4.
Let not women's weapons, water-drops,
Stain my man's cheeks!
King Lear. Act ii. Sc. 4.
Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!
King Lear. Act iii. Sc. 2.
I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness.
King Lear. Act iii. Sc. 2.
[147]
A poor, infirm, weak, and despised old man.
King Lear. Act iii. Sc. 2.
There was never yet fair woman but she made mouths in a glass.
King Lear. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Tremble, thou wretch,
That hast within thee undivulged crimes,
Unwhipp'd of justice.
King Lear. Act iii. Sc. 2.
I am a man
More sinn'd against than sinning.
King Lear. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Oh, that way madness lies; let me shun that.
King Lear. Act iii. Sc. 4.
Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are,
That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,
How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,
Your looped and windowed raggedness, defend you
From seasons such as these?
King Lear. Act iii. Sc. 4.
Take physic, pomp;
Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel.
King Lear. Act iii. Sc. 4.
Out-paramoured the Turk.
King Lear. Act iii. Sc. 4.
'T is a naughty night to swim in.
King Lear. Act iii. Sc. 4.
The green mantle of the standing pool.
King Lear. Act iii. Sc. 4.
But mice and rats, and such small deer,
Have been Tom's food for seven long year.
King Lear. Act iii. Sc. 4.
The prince of darkness is a gentleman.[147:1]
King Lear. Act iii. Sc. 4.
Poor Tom 's a-cold.
King Lear. Act iii. Sc. 4.
I 'll talk a word with this same learned Theban.
King Lear. Act iii. Sc. 4.
Child Rowland to the dark tower came,
His word was still,—Fie, foh, and fum,
I smell the blood of a British man.
King Lear. Act iii. Sc. 4.
The little dogs and all,
Tray, Blanch, and Sweetheart, see, they bark at me.
King Lear. Act iii. Sc. 6.
[148]
Mastiff, greyhound, mongrel grim,
Hound or spaniel, brach or lym,
Or bobtail tike or trundle-tail.
King Lear. Act iii. Sc. 6.
I am tied to the stake, and I must stand the course.
King Lear. Act iii. Sc. 7.
The lowest and most dejected thing of fortune.
King Lear. Act iv. Sc. 1.
The worst is not
So long as we can say, "This is the worst."
King Lear. Act iv. Sc. 1.
Patience and sorrow strove
Who should express her goodliest.
King Lear. Act iv. Sc. 3.
Half way down
Hangs one that gathers samphire, dreadful trade!
Methinks he seems no bigger than his head:
The fishermen that walk upon the beach
Appear like mice.
King Lear. Act iv. Sc. 6.
Nature 's above art in that respect.
King Lear. Act iv. Sc. 6.
Ay, every inch a king.
King Lear. Act iv. Sc. 6.
Give me an ounce of civet, good apothecary, to sweeten my imagination.
King Lear. Act iv. Sc. 6.
A man may see how this world goes with no eyes. Look with thine ears: see how yond justice rails upon yond simple thief. Hark, in thine ear: change places; and, handy-dandy, which is the justice, which is the thief?
King Lear. Act iv. Sc. 6.
Through tatter'd clothes small vices do appear;
Robes and furr'd gowns hide all.
King Lear. Act iv. Sc. 6.
Mine enemy's dog,
Though he had bit me, should have stood that night
Against my fire.
King Lear. Act iv. Sc. 7.
Pray you now, forget and forgive.
King Lear. Act iv. Sc. 7.
Upon such sacrifices, my Cordelia,
The gods themselves throw incense.
King Lear. Act v. Sc. 3.
[149]
The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices
Make instruments to plague us.
King Lear. Act v. Sc. 3.
Her voice was ever soft,
Gentle, and low,—an excellent thing in woman.
King Lear. Act v. Sc. 3.
Vex not his ghost: O, let him pass! he hates him much
That would upon the rack of this tough world
Stretch him out longer.
King Lear. Act v. Sc. 3.
That never set a squadron in the field,
Nor the division of a battle knows.
Othello. Act i. Sc. 1.
The bookish theoric.
Othello. Act i. Sc. 1.
'T is the curse of service,
Preferment goes by letter and affection,
And not by old gradation, where each second
Stood heir to the first.
Othello. Act i. Sc. 1.
We cannot all be masters, nor all masters
Cannot be truly follow'd.
Othello. Act i. Sc. 1.
Whip me such honest knaves.
Othello. Act i. Sc. 1.
I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
For daws to peck at.
Othello. Act i. Sc. 1.
You are one of those that will not serve God, if the devil bid you.
Othello. Act i. Sc. 1.
The wealthy curled darlings of our nation.
Othello. Act i. Sc. 2.
Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors,
My very noble and approv'd good masters,
That I have ta'en away this old man's daughter,
It is most true; true, I have married her:
The very head and front of my offending
Hath this extent, no more. Rude am I in my speech,[149:1]
And little bless'd with the soft phrase of peace:
For since these arms of mine had seven years' pith,
Till now some nine moons wasted, they have used
[150]Their dearest action in the tented field,
And little of this great world can I speak,
More than pertains to feats of broil and battle,
And therefore little shall I grace my cause
In speaking for myself. Yet, by your gracious patience,
I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver
Of my whole course of love.
Othello. Act i. Sc. 3.
Her father loved me; oft invited me;
Still question'd me the story of my life,
From year to year, the battles, sieges, fortunes,
That I have passed.
I ran it through, even from my boyish days,
To the very moment that he bade me tell it:
Wherein I spake of most disastrous chances,
Of moving accidents by flood and field,
Of hair-breadth 'scapes i' the imminent deadly breach,
Of being taken by the insolent foe
And sold to slavery, of my redemption thence
And portance in my travels' history;
Wherein of antres vast and deserts idle,
Rough quarries, rocks and hills whose heads touch heaven,
It was my hint to speak,—such was the process;
And of the Cannibals that each other eat,
The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders. This to hear[150:1]
Would Desdemona seriously incline.
Othello. Act i. Sc. 3.
And often did beguile her of her tears,
When I did speak of some distressful stroke
That my youth suffer'd. My story being done,
She gave me for my pains a world of sighs;
She swore, in faith, 't was strange, 't was passing strange.
'T was pitiful, 't was wondrous pitiful;
She wish'd she had not heard it, yet she wish'd
That Heaven had made her such a man; she thank'd me,
And bade me, if I had a friend that loved her,
[151]I should but teach him how to tell my story,
And that would woo her. Upon this hint I spake:
She loved me for the dangers I had pass'd,
And I loved her that she did pity them.
This only is the witchcraft I have used.
Othello. Act i. Sc. 3.
I do perceive here a divided duty.
Othello. Act i. Sc. 3.
The robb'd that smiles, steals something from the thief.
Othello. Act i. Sc. 3.
The tyrant custom, most grave senators,
Hath made the flinty and steel couch of war
My thrice-driven bed of down.
Othello. Act i. Sc. 3.
I saw Othello's visage in his mind.
Othello. Act i. Sc. 3.
Put money in thy purse.
Othello. Act i. Sc. 3.
The food that to him now is as luscious as locusts, shall be to him shortly as bitter as coloquintida.
Othello. Act i. Sc. 3.
Framed to make women false.
Othello. Act i. Sc. 3.
One that excels the quirks of blazoning pens.
Othello. Act ii. Sc. 1.
For I am nothing, if not critical.
Othello. Act ii. Sc. 1.
I am not merry; but I do beguile
The thing I am, by seeming otherwise.
Othello. Act ii. Sc. 1.
She that was ever fair and never proud,
Had tongue at will, and yet was never loud.
Othello. Act ii. Sc. 1.
She was a wight, if ever such wight were,—
Des. To do what?
Iago. To suckle fools and chronicle small beer.
Des. O most lame and impotent conclusion!
Othello. Act ii. Sc. 1.
You may relish him more in the soldier than in the scholar.
Othello. Act ii. Sc. 1.
If after every tempest come such calms,
May the winds blow till they have waken'd death!
Othello. Act ii. Sc. 1.
[152]
Egregiously an ass.
Othello. Act ii. Sc. 1.
I have very poor and unhappy brains for drinking.
Othello. Act ii. Sc. 3.
Potations pottle-deep.
Othello. Act ii. Sc. 3.
King Stephen was a worthy peer,
His breeches cost him but a crown;
He held them sixpence all too dear,—
With that he called the tailor lown.[152:1]
Othello. Act ii. Sc. 3.
Silence that dreadful bell: it frights the isle
From her propriety.
Othello. Act ii. Sc. 3.
Your name is great
In mouths of wisest censure.
Othello. Act ii. Sc. 3.
Thy honesty and love doth mince this matter.
Othello. Act ii. Sc. 3.
Cassio, I love thee;
But never more be officer of mine.
Othello. Act ii. Sc. 3.
Iago. What, are you hurt, lieutenant?
Cas. Ay, past all surgery.
Othello. Act ii. Sc. 3.
Reputation, reputation, reputation! Oh, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial.
Othello. Act ii. Sc. 3.
O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee devil!
Othello. Act ii. Sc. 3.
O God, that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains!
Othello. Act ii. Sc. 3.
Cas. Every inordinate cup is unbless'd, and the ingredient is a devil.
Iago. Come, come, good wine is a good familiar creature, if it be well used.
Othello. Act ii. Sc. 3.
How poor are they that have not patience!
Othello. Act ii. Sc. 3.
[153]
Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul,
But I do love thee! and when I love thee not,
Chaos is come again.[153:1]
Othello. Act iii. Sc. 3.
Speak to me as to thy thinkings,
As thou dost ruminate, and give thy worst of thoughts
The worst of words.
Othello. Act iii. Sc. 3.
Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls:
Who steals my purse steals trash; 't is something, nothing;
'T was mine, 't is his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him
And makes me poor indeed.
Othello. Act iii. Sc. 3.
O, beware, my lord, of jealousy!
It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock
The meat it feeds on.
Othello. Act iii. Sc. 3.
But, O, what damned minutes tells he o'er
Who dotes, yet doubts, suspects, yet strongly[153:2] loves!
Othello. Act iii. Sc. 3.
Poor and content is rich and rich enough.
Othello. Act iii. Sc. 3.
To be once in doubt
Is once to be resolv'd.
Othello. Act iii. Sc. 3.
If I do prove her haggard,
Though that her jesses were my dear heart-strings,
I 'ld whistle her off and let her down the wind,
To prey at fortune.
Othello. Act iii. Sc. 3.
I am declined
Into the vale of years.
Othello. Act iii. Sc. 3.
[154]
O curse of marriage,
That we can call these delicate creatures ours,
And not their appetites! I had rather be a toad,
And live upon the vapour of a dungeon,
Than keep a corner in the thing I love
For others' uses.
Othello. Act iii. Sc. 3.
Trifles light as air
Are to the jealous confirmations strong
As proofs of holy writ.
Othello. Act iii. Sc. 3.
Not poppy, nor mandragora,
Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world,
Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep
Which thou owedst yesterday.
Othello. Act iii. Sc. 3.
I swear 't is better to be much abused
Than but to know 't a little.
Othello. Act iii. Sc. 3.
He that is robb'd, not wanting what is stolen,
Let him not know 't, and he 's not robb'd at all.
Othello. Act iii. Sc. 3.
O, now, for ever
Farewell the tranquil mind! farewell content!
Farewell the plumed troop and the big wars
That make ambition virtue! O, farewell!
Farewell the neighing steed and the shrill trump,
The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife,
The royal banner, and all quality,
Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war!
And, O you mortal engines, whose rude throats
The immortal Jove's dread clamours counterfeit,
Farewell! Othello's occupation 's gone!
Othello. Act iii. Sc. 3.
Be sure of it; give me the ocular proof.
Othello. Act iii. Sc. 3.
No hinge nor loop
To hang a doubt on.
Othello. Act iii. Sc. 3.
On horror's head horrors accumulate.
Othello. Act iii. Sc. 3.
Take note, take note, O world,
To be direct and honest is not safe.
Othello. Act iii. Sc. 3.
[155]
But this denoted a foregone conclusion.
Othello. Act iii. Sc. 3.
Swell, bosom, with thy fraught,
For 't is of aspics' tongues!
Othello. Act iii. Sc. 3.
Like to the Pontic sea,
Whose icy current and compulsive course
Ne'er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on
To the Propontic and the Hellespont,
Even so my bloody thoughts, with violent pace,
Shall ne'er look back, ne'er ebb to humble love,
Till that a capable and wide revenge
Swallow them up.
Othello. Act iii. Sc. 3.
Our new heraldry is hands, not hearts.
Othello. Act iii. Sc. 4.
To beguile many, and be beguil'd by one.
Othello. Act iv. Sc. 1.
They laugh that win.[155:1]
Othello. Act iv. Sc. 1.
But yet the pity of it, Iago! O Iago, the pity of it, Iago!
Othello. Act iv. Sc. 1.
I understand a fury in your words,
But not the words.
Othello. Act iv. Sc. 2.
Steep'd me in poverty to the very lips.
Othello. Act iv. Sc. 2.
But, alas, to make me
A fixed figure for the time of scorn
To point his slow unmoving finger[155:2] at!
Othello. Act iv. Sc. 2.
Patience, thou young and rose-lipp'd cherubin.
Othello. Act iv. Sc. 2.
O thou weed,
Who art so lovely fair and smell'st so sweet
That the sense aches at thee, would thou hadst ne'er been born.
Othello. Act iv. Sc. 2.
O Heaven, that such companions thou 'ldst unfold,
And put in every honest hand a whip
To lash the rascals naked through the world!
Othello. Act iv. Sc. 2.
[156]
'T is neither here nor there.
Othello. Act iv. Sc. 3.
It makes us or it mars us.
Othello. Act v. Sc. 1.
Every way makes my gain.
Othello. Act v. Sc. 1.
He hath a daily beauty in his life.
Othello. Act v. Sc. 1.
This is the night
That either makes me or fordoes me quite.
Othello. Act v. Sc. 1.
And smooth as monumental alabaster.
Othello. Act v. Sc. 2.
Put out the light, and then put out the light:
If I quench thee, thou flaming minister,
I can again thy former light restore
Should I repent me; but once put out thy light,
Thou cunning'st pattern of excelling nature,
I know not where is that Promethean heat
That can thy light relume.
Othello. Act v. Sc. 2.
So sweet was ne'er so fatal.
Othello. Act v. Sc. 2.
Had all his hairs been lives, my great revenge
Had stomach for them all.
Othello. Act v. Sc. 2.
One entire and perfect chrysolite.
Othello. Act v. Sc. 2.
Curse his better angel from his side,
And fall to reprobation.
Othello. Act v. Sc. 2.
Every puny whipster.
Othello. Act v. Sc. 2.
Man but a rush against Othello's breast,
And he retires.
Othello. Act v. Sc. 2.
I have done the state some service, and they know 't.
No more of that. I pray you, in your letters,
When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,
Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate,
Nor set down aught in malice. Then, must you speak
Of one that loved not wisely but too well;
Of one not easily jealous, but being wrought
Perplex'd in the extreme; of one whose hand,
Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away
[157]Richer than all his tribe; of one whose subdued eyes,
Albeit unused to the melting mood,
Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees
Their medicinal gum.
Othello. Act v. Sc. 2.
I took by the throat the circumcised dog,
And smote him, thus.
Othello. Act v. Sc. 2.
There 's beggary in the love that can be reckon'd.
Antony and Cleopatra. Act i. Sc. 1.
On the sudden
A Roman thought hath struck him.
Antony and Cleopatra. Act i. Sc. 2.
This grief is crowned with consolation.
Antony and Cleopatra. Act i. Sc. 2.
Give me to drink mandragora.
Antony and Cleopatra. Act i. Sc. 5.
Where 's my serpent of old Nile?
Antony and Cleopatra. Act i. Sc. 5.
A morsel for a monarch.
Antony and Cleopatra. Act i. Sc. 5.
My salad days,
When I was green in judgment.
Antony and Cleopatra. Act i. Sc. 5.
Epicurean cooks
Sharpen with cloyless sauce his appetite.
Antony and Cleopatra. Act ii. Sc. 1.
Small to greater matters must give way.
Antony and Cleopatra. Act ii. Sc. 2.
The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne,
Burn'd on the water; the poop was beaten gold;
Purple the sails, and so perfumed that
The winds were love-sick with them; the oars were silver,
Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made
The water which they beat to follow faster,
As amorous of their strokes. For her own person,
It beggar'd all description.
Antony and Cleopatra. Act ii. Sc. 2.
Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety.
Antony and Cleopatra. Act ii. Sc. 2.
I have not kept my square; but that to come
Shall all be done by the rule.
Antony and Cleopatra. Act ii. Sc. 3.
[158]
'T was merry when
You wager'd on your angling; when your diver
Did hang a salt-fish on his hook, which he
With fervency drew up.
Antony and Cleopatra. Act ii. Sc. 5.
Come, thou monarch of the vine,
Plumpy Bacchus with pink eyne!
Antony and Cleopatra. Act ii. Sc. 7.
Who does i' the wars more than his captain can
Becomes his captain's captain; and ambition,
The soldier's virtue, rather makes choice of loss,
Than gain which darkens him.
Antony and Cleopatra. Act iii. Sc. 1.
He wears the rose
Of youth upon him.
Antony and Cleopatra. Act iii. Sc. 13.
Men's judgments are
A parcel of their fortunes; and things outward
Do draw the inward quality after them,
To suffer all alike.
Antony and Cleopatra. Act iii. Sc. 13.
To business that we love we rise betime,
And go to 't with delight.
Antony and Cleopatra. Act iv. Sc. 4.
This morning, like the spirit of a youth
That means to be of note, begins betimes.
Antony and Cleopatra. Act iv. Sc. 4.
The shirt of Nessus is upon me.
Antony and Cleopatra. Act iv. Sc. 12.
Sometime we see a cloud that 's dragonish;
A vapour sometime like a bear or lion,
A tower'd citadel, a pendent rock,
A forked mountain, or blue promontory
With trees upon 't.
Antony and Cleopatra. Act iv. Sc. 14.
That which is now a horse, even with a thought
The rack dislimns, and makes it indistinct,
As water is in water.
Antony and Cleopatra. Act iv. Sc. 14.
Since Cleopatra died,
I have liv'd in such dishonour that the gods
Detest my baseness.
Antony and Cleopatra. Act iv. Sc. 14.
I am dying, Egypt, dying.
Antony and Cleopatra. Act iv. Sc. 15.
[159]
O, wither'd is the garland of the war,
The soldier's pole is fallen.[159:1]
Antony and Cleopatra. Act iv. Sc. 15.
Let 's do it after the high Roman fashion.
Antony and Cleopatra. Act iv. Sc. 15.
For his bounty,
There was no winter in 't; an autumn 't was
That grew the more by reaping.
Antony and Cleopatra. Act v. Sc. 2.
If there be, or ever were, one such,
It 's past the size of dreaming.
Antony and Cleopatra. Act v. Sc. 2.
Mechanic slaves
With greasy aprons, rules, and hammers.
Antony and Cleopatra. Act v. Sc. 2.
I have
Immortal longings in me.
Antony and Cleopatra. Act v. Sc. 2.
Lest the bargain should catch cold and starve.
Cymbeline. Act i. Sc. 4.
Hath his bellyful of fighting.
Cymbeline. Act ii. Sc. 1.
How bravely thou becomest thy bed, fresh lily.
Cymbeline. Act ii. Sc. 2.
The most patient man in loss, the most coldest that ever turned up ace.
Cymbeline. Act ii. Sc. 3.
Hark, hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings,
And Phœbus 'gins arise,[159:2]
His steeds to water at those springs
On chaliced flowers that lies;
And winking Mary-buds begin
To ope their golden eyes:
With everything that pretty is,
My lady sweet, arise.
Cymbeline. Act ii. Sc. 3.
As chaste as unsunn'd snow.
Cymbeline. Act ii. Sc. 5.
Some griefs are medicinable.
Cymbeline. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Prouder than rustling in unpaid-for silk.
Cymbeline. Act iii. Sc. 3.
[160]
So slippery that
The fear 's as bad as falling.
Cymbeline. Act iii. Sc. 3.
The game is up.
Cymbeline. Act iii. Sc. 3.
No, 't is slander,
Whose edge is sharper than the sword, whose tongue
Outvenoms all the worms of Nile, whose breath
Rides on the posting winds, and doth belie
All corners of the world.
Cymbeline. Act iii. Sc. 4.
Some jay of Italy,
Whose mother was her painting, hath betray'd him:
Poor I am stale, a garment out of fashion.
Cymbeline. Act iii. Sc. 4.
It is no act of common passage, but
A strain of rareness.
Cymbeline. Act iii. Sc. 4.
I have not slept one wink.
Cymbeline. Act iii. Sc. 4.
Thou art all the comfort
The gods will diet me with.
Cymbeline. Act iii. Sc. 4.
Weariness
Can snore upon the flint, when resty sloth
Finds the down pillow hard.
Cymbeline. Act iii. Sc. 6.
An angel! or, if not,
An earthly paragon!
Cymbeline. Act iii. Sc. 6.
Triumphs for nothing and lamenting toys
Is jollity for apes and grief for boys.
Cymbeline. Act iv. Sc. 2.
And put
My clouted brogues from off my feet.
Cymbeline. Act iv. Sc. 2.
Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.
Cymbeline. Act iv. Sc. 2.
O, never say hereafter
But I am truest speaker. You call'd me brother
When I was but your sister.
Cymbeline. Act v. Sc. 5.
[161]
Like an arrow shot
From a well-experienc'd archer hits the mark
His eye doth level at.
Pericles. Act i. Sc. 1.
3 Fish. Master, I marvel how the fishes live in the sea.
1 Fish. Why, as men do a-land: the great ones eat up the little ones.
Pericles. Act ii. Sc. 1.
Bid me discourse, I will enchant thine ear.
Venus and Adonis. Line 145.
For he being dead, with him is beauty slain,
And, beauty dead, black chaos comes again.
Venus and Adonis. Line 1019.
The grass stoops not, she treads on it so light.
Venus and Adonis. Line 1027.
For greatest scandal waits on greatest state.
Lucrece. Line 1006.
Thou art thy mother's glass, and she in thee
Calls back the lovely April of her prime.
Sonnet iii.
And stretched metre of an antique song.
Sonnet xvii.
But thy eternal summer shall not fade.
Sonnet xviii.
The painful warrior famoused for fight,[161:1]
After a thousand victories, once foil'd,
Is from the books of honour razed quite,
And all the rest forgot for which he toil'd.
Sonnet xxv.
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste.
Sonnet xxx.
Full many a glorious morning have I seen.
Sonnet xxxiii.
My grief lies onward and my joy behind.
Sonnet l.
[162]
Like stones of worth, they thinly placed are,
Or captain jewels in the carcanet.
Sonnet lii.
The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem
For that sweet odour which doth in it live.
Sonnet liv.
Not marble, nor the gilded monuments
Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme.
Sonnet lv.
Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea,
But sad mortality o'ersways their power,
How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea,
Whose action is no stronger than a flower?
Sonnet lxv.
And art made tongue-tied by authority.
Sonnet lxvi.
And simple truth miscall'd simplicity,
And captive good attending captain ill.
Sonnet lxvi.
The ornament of beauty is suspect,
A crow that flies in heaven's sweetest air.
Sonnet lxx.
That time of year thou may'st in me behold,
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,—
Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
Sonnet lxxiii.
Your monument shall be my gentle verse,
Which eyes not yet created shall o'er-read,
And tongues to be your being shall rehearse
When all the breathers of this world are dead;
You still shall live—such virtue hath my pen—
Where breath most breathes, even in the mouths of men.
Sonnet lxxxi.
Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing.
Sonnet lxxxvii.
Do not drop in for an after-loss.
Ah, do not, when my heart hath 'scap'd this sorrow,
Come in the rearward of a conquer'd woe;
Give not a windy night a rainy morrow,
To linger out a purpos'd overthrow.
Sonnet xc.
[163]
When proud-pied April, dress'd in all his trim,
Hath put a spirit of youth in everything.
Sonnet xcviii.
Still constant is a wondrous excellence.
Sonnet cv.
And beauty, making beautiful old rhyme.
Sonnet cvi.
My nature is subdu'd
To what it works in, like the dyer's hand.
Sonnet cxi.
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments: love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds.
Sonnet cxvi.
'T is better to be vile than vile esteem'd,
When not to be receives reproach of being;
And the just pleasure lost which is so deem'd,
Not by our feeling, but by others' seeing.
Sonnet cxxi.
No, I am that I am, and they that level
At my abuses reckon up their own.
Sonnet cxxi.
That full star that ushers in the even.
Sonnet cxxxii.
So on the tip of his subduing tongue
All kinds of arguments and questions deep,
All replication prompt, and reason strong,
For his advantage still did wake and sleep.
To make the weeper laugh, the laugher weep,
He had the dialect and different skill,
Catching all passion in his craft of will.
A Lover's Complaint. Line 120.
O father, what a hell of witchcraft lies
In the small orb of one particular tear.
A Lover's Complaint. Line 288.
Bad in the best, though excellent in neither.
The Passionate Pilgrim. iii.
Crabbed age and youth
Cannot live together.
The Passionate Pilgrim. viii.
Have you not heard it said full oft,
A woman's nay doth stand for naught?
The Passionate Pilgrim. xiv.
Cursed be he that moves my bones.
Shakespeare's Epitaph.
[44:1] As clear and as manifest as the nose in a man's face.—Burton: Anatomy of Melancholy, part iii. sect. 3, memb. 4, subsect. 1.
[44:2] Custom is almost second nature.—Plutarch: Preservation of Health.
[45:1] Familiarity breeds contempt.—Publius Syrus: Maxim 640.
[46:1] What the dickens!—Thomas Heywood: Edward IV. act iii. sc. 1.
[46:2] As ill luck would have it.—Cervantes: Don Quixote, pt. i. bk. i. ch. ii.
[47:1] Act i. Sc. 5, in White, Singer, and Knight.
[47:2] Compare Portia's words in Merchant of Venice, act iv. sc. 1.
[49:2] "Mariana in the moated grange,"—the motto used by Tennyson for the poem "Mariana."
[49:3] This song occurs in Act v. Sc. 2 of Beaumont and Fletcher's Bloody Brother, with the following additional stanza:—
Hide, O, hide those hills of snow,
Which thy frozen bosom bears,
On whose tops the pinks that grow
Are of those that April wears!
But first set my poor heart free,
Bound in those icy chains by thee.
[50:1] For every why he had a wherefore.—Butler: Hudibras, part i. canto i. line 132.
[51:1] From the crown of his head to the sole of the foot.—Pliny: Natural History, book vii. chap. xvii. Beaumont and Fletcher: The Honest Man's Fortune, act ii. sc. 2. Middleton: A Mad World, etc.
[54:1] For "mirth," White reads shews; Singer, shows.
[56:1] Musical as is Apollo's lute.—Milton: Comus, line 78.
[57:1] Maidens withering on the stalk.—Wordsworth: Personal Talk, stanza 1.
[57:2] "Ever I could read,"—Dyce, Knight, Singer, and White.
[57:3] Act ii. sc. 2 in Singer and Knight.
[58:1] Act ii. sc. 2 in Singer and Knight.
[58:3] Trew as steele.—Chaucer: Troilus and Cresseide, book v. line 831.
[58:4] Act ii. sc. 2 in Singer and Knight.
[58:5] Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard.—1 Corinthians, ii. 9.
[59:1] I see the beginning of my end.—Massinger: The Virgin Martyr act iii. sc. 3.
[60:1] For the good that I would I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do.—Romans vii. 19.
[63:2] I will play the swan and die in music.—Othello, act v. sc. 2.
I am the cygnet to this pale faint swan,
Who chants a doleful hymn to his own death.
King John, act v. sc. 7.
There, swan-like, let me sing and die.—Byron: Don Juan, canto iii. st. 86.
You think that upon the score of fore-knowledge and divining I am infinitely inferior to the swans. When they perceive approaching death they sing more merrily than before, because of the joy they have in going to the God they serve.—Socrates: In Phaedo, 77.
[64:1] It is better to learn late than never.—Publius Syrus: Maxim 864.
[64:2] Incidis in Scyllam cupiens vitare Charybdim (One falls into Scylla in seeking to avoid Charybdis).—Phillippe Gualtier: Alexandreis, book v. line 301. Circa 1300.
[65:1] "It is not nominated in the bond."—White.
[68:1] The same in The Taming of the Shrew, act iv. sc. 1; in Othello, act iii. sc. 1; in The Merry Wives of Windsor, act i. sc. 4; and in As You Like It, act ii. sc. 7. Rabelais: book v. chap. iv.
The world 's a theatre, the earth a stage,
Which God and Nature do with actors fill.
Thomas Heywood: Apology for Actors. 1612.
A noble farce, wherein kings, republics, and emperors have for so many ages played their parts, and to which the whole vast universe serves for a theatre.—Montaigne: Of the most Excellent Men.
[71:1] Too much of a good thing.—Cervantes: Don Quixote, part i. book i. chap. vi.
[71:2] "Cud" in Dyce and Staunton.
[72:1] You need not hang up the ivy branch over the wine that will sell.—Publius Syrus: Maxim 968.
[72:3] Married in haste, we may repent at leisure.—Congreve: The Old Bachelor, act v. sc. 1.
[74:1] How noiseless falls the foot of time!—W. R. Spencer: Lines to Lady A. Hamilton.
[74:2] "Like the sweet south" in Dyce and Singer. This change was made at the suggestion of Pope.
[76:1] Act iii. Sc. 5 in Dyce.
[77:1] Act iii. sc. 5 in Dyce.
[77:2] Into the jaws of death.—Tennyson: The Charge of the Light Brigade, stanza 3.
In the jaws of death.—Du Bartas: Divine Weekes and Workes, second week, first day, part iv.
[77:3] Act iv. sc. 2 in Dyce, Knight, Singer, Staunton, and White.
[78:1] Act iv. Sc. 3 in Dyce, Knight, Singer, Staunton, and White.
[78:2] Like a wave of the sea.—James i. 6.
[78:3] Act ii. Sc. 2 in Singer, Staunton, and Knight.
[79:1] Act ii. Sc. 2 in White.
[79:2] When fortune flatters, she does it to betray.—Publius Syrus: Maxim 278.
[80:1] Qui s'excuse, s'accuse (He who excuses himself accuses himself).—Gabriel Meurier: Trésor des Sentences. 1530-1601.
[80:2] See page 63, note 2.
[82:1] It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.—Matt. xix. 24.
[83:1] Thomas Nash: Have with you to Saffron Walden. Dryden: Epilogue to the Duke of Guise.
[85:1] Beaumont and Fletcher: Wit without Money, act iv. sc. 1. Swift: Mary the Cookmaid's Letter.
[87:2] It show'd discretion the best part of valour.—Beaumont and Fletcher: A King and no King, act ii. sc. 3.
[88:1] Which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?—Luke xiv. 28.
[90:1] Act. iv. Sc. 4 in Dyce, Singer, Staunton, and White.
Ill blows the wind that profits nobody.—Henry VI. part iii. act ii. sc. 5.
[91:1] Act iii. Sc. 6 in Dyce.
[92:1] With clink of hammers closing rivets up.—Cibber: Richard III. Altered, act v. sc. 3.
[92:2] "In their mouths" in Dyce, Singer, Staunton, and White.
[93:1] All delays are dangerous in war.—Dryden: Tyrannic Love, act i. sc. 1.
[93:2] Have a care o' th' main chance.—Butler: Hudibras, part ii. canto ii.
Be careful still of the main chance.—Dryden: Persius, satire vi.
[96:1] For fools rush in where angels fear to tread.—Pope: Essay on Criticism, part iii. line 66.
[96:2] "Stolen forth" in White and Knight.
[97:1] A little too wise, they say, do ne'er live long.—Middleton: The Phœnix, act i. sc. 1.
[97:2] Off with his head! so much for Buckingham!—Cibber: Richard III. (altered), act iv. sc. 3.
[98:1] A weak invention of the enemy.—Cibber: Richard III. (altered), act v. sc. 3.
[100:1] For men use, if they have an evil tourne, to write it in marble: and whoso doth us a good tourne we write it in duste.—Sir Thomas More: Richard III. and his miserable End.
All your better deeds
Shall be in water writ, but this in marble.
Beaumont and Fletcher: Philaster, act v. sc. 3.
L'injure se grave en métal; et le bienfait s'escrit en l'onde.
(An injury graves itself in metal, but a benefit writes itself in water.)
Jean Bertaut. Circa 1611.
[101:1] Act v. Sc. 2 in Dyce, Singer, Staunton, and White.
[101:2] Act v. Sc. 4 in Dyce, Singer, Staunton, and White.
[101:3] Labour for his pains.—Edward Moore: The Boy and his Rainbow.
Labour for their pains.—Cervantes: Don Quixote, The Author's Preface.
[102:1] Unless degree is preserved, the first place is safe for no one.—Publius Syrus: Maxim 1042.
When flowing cups pass swiftly round
With no allaying Thames.
Richard Lovelace: To Althea from Prison, ii.
[103:3] Act v. sc. 5 in Singer and Knight.
[105:1] My dancing days are done.—Beaumont and Fletcher: The Scornful Lady, act v. sc. 3.
[105:2] Dyce, Knight, and White read, "Her beauty hangs."
[105:3] Act ii. sc. 1 in White.
[105:4] Act ii. sc. 1. in White.
[106:1] Perjuria ridet amantum Jupiter (Jupiter laughs at the perjuries of lovers).—Tibullus: iii. 6, 49.
[106:2] Act ii. sc. 1 in White.
[107:1] True as steel.—Chaucer: Troilus and Creseide, book v. Compare Troilus and Cressida, act iii. sc. 2.
[107:2] Word and a blow.—Dryden: Amphitryon, act i. sc. 1. Bunyan: Pilgrim's Progress, part i.
[111:1] "Utmost" in Singer.
[112:1] Dear as the ruddy drops that warm my heart.—Gray: The Bard, i. 3, line 12.
[113:1] Though last not least.—Spenser: Colin Clout, line 444.
[119:1] Act. ii. sc. 1 in Dyce, Staunton, and White.
[120:1] Act ii. sc. 1 in Dyce, Staunton, White.
[120:2] Act ii. sc. 1 in Dyce and White; Act ii. sc. 2 in Staunton.
[120:3] Act ii. sc. 2 in Dyce and White; Act ii. sc. 3 in Staunton.
Let the air strike our tune,
Whilst we show reverence to yond peeping moon.
Middleton: The Witch, act. v. sc. 2.
[126:1] Act v. Sc. 7 in Singer and White.
[127:1] "Can walk" in White.
[127:2] "Eastern hill" in Dyce, Singer, Staunton, and White.
[127:3] "One auspicious and one dropping eye" in Dyce, Singer, and Staunton.
[128:1] "Armed at all points" in Singer and White.
And may you better reck the rede,
Than ever did the adviser.
Burns: Epistle to a Young Friend.
[129:2] "Hooks" in Singer.
[131:1] And makes night hideous.—Pope: The Dunciad, book iii. line 166.
[131:2] "To lasting fires" in Singer.
[131:3] "Porcupine" in Singer and Staunton.
[131:4] "Rots itself" in Staunton.
[133:1] A short saying oft contains much wisdom.—Sophocles: Aletes, frag. 99.
[136:1] "Who would these fardels" in White.
[138:1] "Protests" in Dyce, Singer, and Staunton.
[141:1] Extreme remedies are very appropriate for extreme diseases.—Hippocrates: Aphorism i.
[143:1] Thus woe succeeds a woe, as wave a wave.—Herrick: Sorrows Succeed.
Woes cluster; rare are solitary woes;
They love a train, they tread each other's heel.
Young: Night Thoughts, night iii. line 63.
And woe succeeds to woe.—Pope: The Iliad, book xvi. line 139.
And from his ashes may be made
The violet of his native land.
Tennyson: In Memoriam, xviii.
[144:2] A ministering angel thou.—Scott: Marmion, canto vi. st. 30.
But they that are above
Have ends in everything.
Beaumont and Fletcher: The Maid's Tragedy act v. sc. 4.
[147:1] The prince of darkness is a gentleman.—Suckling: The Goblins.
[149:1] Though I be rude in speech.—2 Cor. xi. 6.
[150:1] "These things to hear" in Singer.
[152:1] Though these lines are from an old ballad given in Percy's Reliques, they are much altered by Shakespeare, and it is his version we sing in the nursery.
For he being dead, with him is beauty slain,
And, beauty dead, black chaos comes again.
Venus and Adonis.
[153:2] "Fondly" in Singer and White; "soundly" in Staunton.
[155:1] Cervantes: Don Quixote, part ii. chap. i.
[155:2] "His slow and moving finger" in Knight and Staunton.
[161:1] "Worth" in White.
[164]
(Works: Spedding and Ellis).
I hold every man a debtor to his profession; from the which as men of course do seek to receive countenance and profit, so ought they of duty to endeavour themselves by way of amends to be a help and ornament thereunto.
Maxims of the Law. Preface.
Come home to men's business and bosoms.
Dedication to the Essays, Edition 1625.
No pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage-ground of truth.
Of Truth.
Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other.
Of Death.
Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.
Of Revenge.
It was a high speech of Seneca (after the manner of the Stoics), that "The good things which belong to prosperity are to be wished, but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired."
Of Adversity.
It is yet a higher speech of his than the other, "It is true greatness to have in one the frailty of a man and the security of a god."
Of Adversity.
Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New.
Of Adversity.
Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes.
Of Adversity.
[165]
Virtue is like precious odours,—most fragrant when they are incensed or crushed.[165:1]
Of Adversity.
He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief.
Of Marriage and Single Life.
Wives are young men's mistresses, companions for middle age, and old men's nurses.[165:2]
Of Marriage and Single Life.
Men in great place are thrice servants,—servants of the sovereign or state, servants of fame, and servants of business.
Of Great Place.
Mahomet made the people believe that he would call a hill to him, and from the top of it offer up his prayers for the observers of his law. The people assembled. Mahomet called the hill to come to him, again and again; and when the hill stood still he was never a whit abashed, but said, "If the hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the hill."
Of Boldness.
The desire of power in excess caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge in excess caused man to fall.[165:3]
Of Goodness.
The remedy is worse than the disease.[165:4]
Of Seditions.
[166]
I had rather believe all the fables in the legends and the Talmud and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a mind.
Of Atheism.
A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion.[166:1]
Of Atheism.
Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience. He that travelleth into a country before he hath some entrance into the language, goeth to school, and not to travel.
Of Travel.
Princes are like to heavenly bodies, which cause good or evil times, and which have much veneration but no rest.[166:2]
Of Empire.
In things that a man would not be seen in himself, it is a point of cunning to borrow the name of the world; as to say, "The world says," or "There is a speech abroad."
Of Cunning.
There is a cunning which we in England call "the turning of the cat in the pan;" which is, when that which a man says to another, he lays it as if another had said it to him.
Of Cunning.
It is a good point of cunning for a man to shape the answer he would have in his own words and propositions, for it makes the other party stick the less.
Of Cunning.
It hath been an opinion that the French are wiser than they seem, and the Spaniards seem wiser than they are; but howsoever it be between nations, certainly it is so between man and man.
Of Seeming Wise.
[167]
There is a wisdom in this beyond the rules of physic. A man's own observation, what he finds good of and what he finds hurt of, is the best physic to preserve health.
Of Regimen of Health.
Discretion of speech is more than eloquence; and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal is more than to speak in good words or in good order.
Of Discourse.
Men's thoughts are much according to their inclination,[167:1] their discourse and speeches according to their learning and infused opinions.
Of Custom and Education.
Chiefly the mould of a man's fortune is in his own hands.[167:2]
Of Fortune.
If a man look sharply and attentively, he shall see Fortune; for though she is blind, she is not invisible.[167:3]
Of Fortune.
Young men are fitter to invent than to judge, fitter for execution than for counsel, and fitter for new projects than for settled business.
Of Youth and Age.
Virtue is like a rich stone,—best plain set.
Of Beauty.
God Almighty first planted a garden.[167:4]
Of Gardens.
And because the breath of flowers is far sweeter in the air (where it comes and goes, like the warbling of music) than in the hand, therefore nothing is more fit for that delight than to know what be the flowers and plants that do best perfume the air.
Of Gardens.
[168]
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.
Of Studies.
Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.
Of Studies.
Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtile; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.
Of Studies.
The greatest vicissitude of things amongst men is the vicissitude of sects and religions.[168:1]
Of Vicissitude of Things.
Books must follow sciences, and not sciences books.
Proposition touching Amendment of Laws.
Knowledge is power.—Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est.[168:2]
Meditationes Sacræ. De Hæresibus.
Whence we see spiders, flies, or ants entombed and preserved forever in amber, a more than royal tomb.[168:3]
Historia Vitæ et Mortis; Sylva Sylvarum, Cent. i. Exper. 100.
When you wander, as you often delight to do, you wander indeed, and give never such satisfaction as the curious time requires. This is not caused by any natural defect, but first for want of election, when you, having a large and fruitful mind, should not so much labour what to speak as to find what to leave unspoken. Rich soils are often to be weeded.
Letter of Expostulation to Coke.
[169]
"Antiquitas sæculi juventus mundi." These times are the ancient times, when the world is ancient, and not those which we account ancient ordine retrogrado, by a computation backward from ourselves.[169:1]
Advancement of Learning. Book i. (1605.)
For the glory of the Creator and the relief of man's estate.
Advancement of Learning. Book i.
The sun, which passeth through pollutions and itself remains as pure as before.[169:2]
Advancement of Learning. Book ii.
It [Poesy] was ever thought to have some participation of divineness, because it doth raise and erect the mind by submitting the shews of things to the desires of the mind.
Advancement of Learning. Book ii.
[170]
Sacred and inspired divinity, the sabaoth and port of all men's labours and peregrinations.
Advancement of Learning. Book ii.
Cleanness of body was ever deemed to proceed from a due reverence to God.[170:1]
Advancement of Learning. Book ii.
States as great engines move slowly.
Advancement of Learning. Book ii.
Who then to frail mortality shall trust
But limns on water, or but writes in dust.
The World.
What then remains but that we still should cry
For being born, and, being born, to die?[170:3]
The World.
For my name and memory, I leave it to men's charitable speeches, to foreign nations, and to the next ages.
From his Will.
My Lord St. Albans said that Nature did never put her precious jewels into a garret four stories high, and therefore that exceeding tall men had ever very empty heads.[170:4]
Apothegms. No. 17.
[171]
Like the strawberry wives, that laid two or three great strawberries at the mouth of their pot, and all the rest were little ones.[171:1]
Apothegms. No. 54.
Sir Henry Wotton used to say that critics are like brushers of noblemen's clothes.
Apothegms. No. 64.
Sir Amice Pawlet, when he saw too much haste made in any matter, was wont to say, "Stay a while, that we may make an end the sooner."
Apothegms. No. 76.
Alonso of Aragon was wont to say in commendation of age, that age appears to be best in four things,—old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.[171:2]
Apothegms. No. 97.
Pyrrhus, when his friends congratulated to him his victory over the Romans under Fabricius, but with great slaughter of his own side, said to them, "Yes; but if we have such another victory, we are undone."[171:3]
Apothegms. No. 193.
Cosmus, Duke of Florence, was wont to say of perfidious friends, that "We read that we ought to forgive our enemies; but we do not read that we ought to forgive our friends."
Apothegms. No. 206.
Cato said the best way to keep good acts in memory was to refresh them with new.
Apothegms. No. 247.
As aromatic plants bestow
No spicy fragrance while they grow;
But crushed or trodden to the ground,
Diffuse their balmy sweets around.
Goldsmith: The Captivity, act i.
The good are better made by ill,
As odours crushed are sweeter still.
Rogers: Jacqueline, stanza 3.
[165:2] Burton (quoted): Anatomy of Melancholy, part iii. sect. 2, memb. 5, subsect. 5.
Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes;
Men would be angels, angels would be gods.
Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell,
Aspiring to be angels, men rebel.
Pope: Essay on Man, ep. i. line 125.
[165:4] There are some remedies worse than the disease.—Publius Syrus: Maxim 301.
[166:1] Who are a little wise the best fools be.—Donne: Triple Fool.
A little skill in antiquity inclines a man to Popery; but depth in that study brings him about again to our religion.—Fuller: The Holy State. The True Church Antiquary.
A little learning is a dangerous thing.—Pope: Essay on Criticism, part ii. line 15.
Kings are like stars: they rise and set; they have
The worship of the world, but no repose.
Shelley: Hellas.
[167:1] Of similar meaning, "Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought." See Shakespeare, page 90.
[167:2] Every man is the architect of his own fortune.—Pseudo-Sallust: Epist. de Rep. Ordin. ii. 1.
His own character is the arbiter of every one's fortune.—Publius Syrus: Maxim 283.
[167:3] Fortune is painted blind, with a muffler afore her eyes, to signify to you that Fortune is blind.—Shakespeare: Henry V. act iii. sc. 6.
God the first garden made, and the first city Cain.
Cowley: The Garden, Essay v.
God made the country, and man made the town.
Cowper: The Task, book i. line 749.
Divina natura dedit agros, ars humana ædificavit urbes (Divine Nature gave the fields, human art built the cities).—Varro: De Re Rustica, iii. 1.
[168:1] The vicissitude of things.—Sterne: Sermon xvi. Gifford: Contemplation.
[168:2] A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth strength.—Proverbs xxiv. 5.
Knowledge is more than equivalent to force.—Johnson: Rasselas, chap. xiii.
The bee enclosed and through the amber shown,
Seems buried in the juice which was his own.
Martial: book iv. 32, vi. 15 (Hay's translation).
I saw a flie within a beade
Of amber cleanly buried.
Herrick: On a Fly buried in Amber.
Pretty! in amber to observe the forms
Of hairs, or straws, or dirt, or grubs, or worms.
Pope: Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, line 169.
[169:1] As in the little, so in the great world, reason will tell you that old age or antiquity is to be accounted by the farther distance from the beginning and the nearer approach to the end,—the times wherein we now live being in propriety of speech the most ancient since the world's creation.—George Hakewill: An Apologie or Declaration of the Power and Providence of God in the Government of the World. London, 1627.
For as old age is that period of life most remote from infancy, who does not see that old age in this universal man ought not to be sought in the times nearest his birth, but in those most remote from it?—Pascal: Preface to the Treatise on Vacuum.
It is worthy of remark that a thought which is often quoted from Francis Bacon occurs in [Giordano] Bruno's "Cena di Cenere," published in 1584: I mean the notion that the later times are more aged than the earlier.—Whewell: Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, vol. ii. p. 198. London, 1847.
We are Ancients of the earth,
And in the morning of the times.
Tennyson: The Day Dream. (L' Envoi.)
[169:2] The sun, though it passes through dirty places, yet remains as pure as before.—Advancement of Learning (ed. Dewey).
The sun, too, shines into cesspools and is not polluted.—Diogenes Laertius: Lib. vi. sect. 63.
Spiritalis enim virtus sacramenti ita est ut lux: etsi per immundos transeat, non inquinatur (The spiritual virtue of a sacrament is like light: although it passes among the impure, it is not polluted).—Saint Augustine: Works, vol. iii., In Johannis Evang. cap. i. tr. v. sect. 15.
The sun shineth upon the dunghill, and is not corrupted.—Lyly: Euphues, The Anatomy of Wit (Arber's reprint), p. 43.
The sun reflecting upon the mud of strands and shores is unpolluted in his beam.—Taylor: Holy Living, chap. i. p. 3.
Truth is as impossible to be soiled by any outward touch as the sunbeam.—Milton: The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce.
[170:1] Cleanliness is indeed next to godliness.—John Wesley (quoted): Journal, Feb. 12, 1772.
According to Dr. A. S. Bettelheim, rabbi, this is found in the Hebrew fathers. He cites Phinehas ben Yair, as follows: "The doctrines of religion are resolved into carefulness; carefulness into vigorousness; vigorousness into guiltlessness; guiltlessness into abstemiousness; abstemiousness into cleanliness; cleanliness into godliness,"—literally, next to godliness.
[170:2] Whose life is a bubble, and in length a span.—Browne: Pastoral ii.
Our life is but a span.—New England Primer.
[170:3] This line frequently occurs in almost exactly the same shape among the minor poems of the time: "Not to be born, or, being born, to die."—Drummond: Poems, p. 44. Bishop King: Poems, etc. (1657), p. 145.
[170:4] Tall men are like houses of four stories, wherein commonly the uppermost room is worst furnished.—Howell (quoted): Letter i. book i. sect. ii. (1621.)
Often the cockloft is empty in those whom Nature hath built many stories high.—Fuller: Andronicus, sect. vi. par. 18, 1.
Such as take lodgings in a head
That 's to be let unfurnished.
Butler: Hudibras, part i. canto i. line 161.
[171:1] The custom is not altogether obsolete in the U. S. A.
[171:2] Is not old wine wholesomest, old pippins toothsomest, old wood burns brightest, old linen wash whitest? Old soldiers, sweetheart, are surest, and old lovers are soundest.—Webster: Westward Hoe, act ii. sc. 2.
Old friends are best. King James used to call for his old shoes; they were easiest for his feet.—Selden: Table Talk. Friends.
Old wood to burn! Old wine to drink! Old friends to trust! Old authors to read!—Alonso of Aragon was wont to say in commendation of age, that age appeared to be best in these four things.—Melchior: Floresta Española de Apothegmas o sentencias, etc., ii. 1, 20.
What find you better or more honourable than age? Take the preheminence of it in everything,—in an old friend, in old wine, in an old pedigree.—Shakerley Marmion (1602-1639): The Antiquary.
I love everything that 's old,—old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wine.—Goldsmith: She Stoops to Conquer, act i.
[171:3] There are some defeats more triumphant than victories.—Montaigne: Of Cannibals, chap. xxx.
[172]
As the case stands.[172:1]
The Old Law. Act ii. Sc. 1.
On his last legs.
The Old Law. Act v. Sc. 1.
Hold their noses to the grindstone.[172:2]
Blurt, Master-Constable. Act iii. Sc. 3.
I smell a rat.[172:3]
Blurt, Master-Constable. Act iii. Sc. 3.
A little too wise, they say, do ne'er live long.[172:4]
The Phœnix. Act i. Sc. 1.
The better day, the better deed.[172:5]
The Phœnix. Act iii. Sc. 1.
The worst comes to the worst.[172:6]
The Phœnix. Act iii. Sc. 1.
'T is slight, not strength, that gives the greatest lift.[172:7]
Michaelmas Term. Act iv. Sc. 1.
From thousands of our undone widows
One may derive some wit.[172:8]
A Trick to catch the Old One. Act i. Sc. 2.
Ground not upon dreams; you know they are ever contrary.[172:9]
The Family of Love. Act iv. Sc. 3.
Spick and span new.[172:10]
The Family of Love. Act iv. Sc. 3.
A flat case as plain as a pack-staff.[172:11]
The Family of Love. Act v. Sc. 3.
[173]
Have you summoned your wits from wool-gathering?
The Family of Love. Act v. Sc. 3.
As true as I live.
The Family of Love. Act v. Sc. 3.
From the crown of our head to the sole of our foot.[173:1]
A Mad World, my Masters. Act i. Sc. 3.
Beat all your feathers as flat down as pancakes.
The Roaring Girl. Act i. Sc. 1.
There is no hate lost between us.[173:3]
The Witch. Act iv. Sc. 3.
Let the air strike our tune,
Whilst we show reverence to yond peeping moon.[173:4]
The Witch. Act v. Sc. 2.
Black spirits and white, red spirits and gray,
Mingle, mingle, mingle, you that mingle may.[173:5]
The Witch. Act v. Sc. 2.
All is not gold that glisteneth.[173:6]
A Fair Quarrel. Act v. Sc. 1.
As old Chaucer was wont to say, that broad famous English poet.
More Dissemblers besides Women. Act i. Sc. 4.
'T is a stinger.[173:7]
More Dissemblers besides Women. Act iii. Sc. 2.
The world 's a stage on which all parts are played.[173:8]
A Game at Chess. Act v. Sc. 1.
[174]
Turn over a new leaf.[174:1]
Anything for a Quiet Life. Act iii. Sc. 3.
This was a good week's labour.
Anything for a Quiet Life. Act v. Sc. 3.
How many honest words have suffered corruption since Chaucer's days!
No Wit, no Help, like a Woman's. Act ii. Sc. 1.
By many a happy accident.[174:3]
No Wit, no Help, like a Woman's. Act ii. Sc. 2.
[172:1] As the case stands.—Mathew Henry: Commentaries, Psalm cxix.
[172:3] I smell a rat.—Ben Jonson: Tale of a Tub, act iv. Sc. 3. Butler: Hudibras, part i. canto i. line 281.
I begin to smell a rat.—Cervantes: Don Quixote, book iv. chap. x.
[172:5] The better day, the worse deed.—Henry: Commentaries, Genesis iii.
[172:6] Worst comes to the worst.—Cervantes: Don Quixote, part i. book iii. chap. v. Marston: The Dutch Courtezan, act iii. sc. 1.
[172:7] It is not strength, but art, obtains the prize.—Pope: The Iliad, book xxiii. line 383.
[172:8] Some undone widow sits upon mine arm.—Massinger: A New Way to pay Old Debts, act v. sc. 1.
[172:9] For drames always go by contraries.—Lover: The Angel's Whisper.
[172:10] Spick and span new.—Ford: The Lover's Melancholy, act i. sc. 1. Farquhar: Preface to his Works.
[172:11] Plain as a pike-staff.—Terence in English (1641). Buckingham: Speech in the House of Lords, 1675. Gil Blas (Smollett's translation), book xii. chap. viii. Byrom: Epistle to a Friend.
So for a good old gentlemanly vice,
I think I must take up with avarice.
Byron: Don Juan, canto i. stanza 216.
[173:3] There is no love lost between us.—Cervantes: Don Quixote, book iv. chap. xxiii. Goldsmith: She Stoops to Conquer, act iv. Garrick: Correspondence, 1759. Fielding: The Grub Street Opera, act i. sc. 4.
[173:5] These lines are introduced into Macbeth, act iv. sc. 1. According to Steevens, "the song was, in all probability, a traditional one." Collier says, "Doubtless it does not belong to Middleton more than to Shakespeare." Dyce says, "There seems to be little doubt that 'Macbeth' is of an earlier date than 'The Witch.'"
[173:7] He 'as had a stinger.—Beaumont and Fletcher: Wit without Money, act iv. sc. 1.
[174:1] A Health to the Gentlemanly Profession of Servingmen (1598). Turn over a new leaf.—Dekker: The Honest Whore, part ii. act i. sc. 2. Burke: Letter to Mrs. Haviland.
[174:3] A happy accident.—Madame de Staël: L' Allemagne, chap. xvi. Cervantes: Don Quixote, book iv. part ii. chap. lvii.
How happy is he born or taught,
That serveth not another's will;
Whose armour is his honest thought,
And simple truth his utmost skill!
The Character of a Happy Life.
Who God doth late and early pray
More of his grace than gifts to lend;
And entertains the harmless day
With a religious book or friend.
The Character of a Happy Life.
Lord of himself, though not of lands;
And having nothing, yet hath all.[174:4]
The Character of a Happy Life.
[175]
He first deceased; she for a little tried
To live without him, liked it not, and died.
Upon the Death of Sir Albert Morton's Wife.
I am but a gatherer and disposer of other men's stuff.
Preface to the Elements of Architecture.
Hanging was the worst use a man could be put to.
The Disparity between Buckingham and Essex.
An ambassador is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the commonwealth.[175:1]
Reliquiæ Wottonianæ.
The itch of disputing will prove the scab of churches.[175:2]
A Panegyric to King Charles.
[174:4] As having nothing, and yet possessing all things.—2 Corinth. vi. 10.
[174:5] "Sun" in Reliquiæ Wottonianæ (eds. 1651, 1654, 1672, 1685).
[174:6] This was printed with music as early as 1624, in Est's "Sixth Set of Books," etc., and is found in many MSS.—Hannah: The Courtly Poets.
[175:1] In a letter to Velserus, 1612, Wotton says, "This merry definition of an ambassador I had chanced to set down at my friend's, Mr. Christopher Fleckamore, in his Album."
[175:2] He directed the stone over his grave to be inscribed:—
Hic jacet hujus sententiæ primus author:
Disputandi pruritus ecclesiarum scabies.
Nomen alias quære
(Here lies the author of this phrase: "The itch for disputing is the sore of churches." Seek his name elsewhere).
Walton: Life of Wotton.
As it fell upon a day
In the merry month of May,
Sitting in a pleasant shade
Which a grove of myrtles made.
Address to the Nightingale.[175:3]
[175:3] This song, often attributed to Shakespeare, is now confidently assigned to Barnfield; it is found in his collection of "Poems in Divers Humours," published in 1598.—Ellis: Specimens, vol. ii. p. 316.
Wedlock, indeed, hath oft compared been
To public feasts, where meet a public rout,—
Where they that are without would fain go in,
And they that are within would fain go out.[176:2]
Contention betwixt a Wife, etc.
Our souls sit close and silently within,
And their own webs from their own entrails spin;
And when eyes meet far off, our sense is such
That, spider-like, we feel the tenderest touch.
Dryden: Mariage à la Mode, act ii. sc. 1.
The spider's touch—how exquisitely fine!—
Feels at each thread, and lives along the line.
Pope: Epistle i. line 217.
[176:2] 'T is just like a summer bird-cage in a garden: the birds that are without despair to get in, and the birds that are within despair and are in a consumption for fear they shall never get out.—Webster: The White Devil, act i. sc. 2.
Le mariage est comme une forteresse assiégée: ceux qui sont dehors veulent y entrer, et ceux qui sont dedans veulent en sortir (Marriage is like a beleaguered fortress: those who are outside want to get in, and those inside want to get out).—Quitard: Études sur les Proverbes Français, p. 102.
It happens as with cages: the birds without despair to get in, and those within despair of getting out.—Montaigne: Upon some Verses of Virgil, chap. v.
Is not marriage an open question, when it is alleged, from the beginning of the world, that such as are in the institution wish to get out, and such as are out wish to get in?—Emerson: Representative Men: Montaigne.
Ye gentlemen of England
That live at home at ease,
Ah! little do you think upon
The dangers of the seas.
Song.
When the stormy winds do blow.[176:3]
Song.
When the battle rages loud and long,
And the stormy winds do blow.
Campbell: Ye Mariners of England.
[177]
He was the Word, that spake it:
He took the bread and brake it;
And what that Word did make it,
I do believe and take it.[177:1]
Divine Poems. On the Sacrament.
We understood
Her by her sight; her pure and eloquent blood
Spoke in her cheeks, and so distinctly wrought
That one might almost say her body thought.
Funeral Elegies. On the Death of Mistress Drury.
She and comparisons are odious.[177:2]
Elegy 8. The Comparison.
Who are a little wise the best fools be.[177:3]
The Triple Fool.
[177:1] Attributed by many writers to the Princess Elizabeth. It is not in the original edition of Donne, but first appears in the edition of 1654, p. 352.
It was a mighty while ago.
Every Man in his Humour. Act i. Sc. 3.
Hang sorrow! care 'll kill a cat.[177:5]
Every Man in his Humour. Act i. Sc. 3.
As he brews, so shall he drink.
Every Man in his Humour. Act ii. Sc. 1.
Get money; still get money, boy,
No matter by what means.[177:6]
Every Man in his Humour. Act ii. Sc. 3.
[178]
Have paid scot and lot there any time this eighteen years.
Every Man in his Humour. Act iii. Sc. 3.
It must be done like lightning.
Every Man in his Humour. Act iv. Sc. v.
There shall be no love lost.[178:1]
Every Man out of his Humour. Act ii. Sc. 1.
Still to be neat, still to be drest,
As you were going to a feast.[178:2]
Epicœne; Or, the Silent Woman. Act i. Sc. 1.
Give me a look, give me a face,
That makes simplicity a grace;
Robes loosely flowing, hair as free,—
Such sweet neglect more taketh me
Than all the adulteries of art:
They strike mine eyes, but not my heart.
Epicœne; Or, the Silent Woman. Act i. Sc. 1.
That old bald cheater, Time.
The Poetaster. Act i. Sc. 1.
The world knows only two,—that 's Rome and I.
Sejanus. Act v. Sc. 1.
Preserving the sweetness of proportion and expressing itself beyond expression.
The Masque of Hymen.
Courses even with the sun
Doth her mighty brother run.
The Gipsies Metamorphosed.
Underneath this stone doth lie
As much beauty as could die;
Which in life did harbour give
To more virtue than doth live.
Epitaph on Elizabeth, L. H.
Whilst that for which all virtue now is sold,
And almost every vice,—almighty gold.[178:3]
Epistle to Elizabeth, Countess of Rutland.
[179]
Drink to me only with thine eyes,
And I will pledge with mine;
Or leave a kiss but in the cup,
And I 'll not look for wine.[179:1]
The Forest. To Celia.
Soul of the age,
The applause, delight, the wonder of our stage,
My Shakespeare, rise! I will not lodge thee by
Chaucer or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lie
A little further, to make thee a room.[179:2]
To the Memory of Shakespeare.
Marlowe's mighty line.
To the Memory of Shakespeare.
Small Latin, and less Greek.
To the Memory of Shakespeare.
He was not of an age, but for all time.
To the Memory of Shakespeare.
For a good poet 's made as well as born.
To the Memory of Shakespeare.
Sweet swan of Avon!
To the Memory of Shakespeare.
Underneath this sable hearse
Lies the subject of all verse,—
Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother.
Death, ere thou hast slain another,
Learn'd and fair and good as she,
Time shall throw a dart at thee.
Epitaph on the Countess of Pembroke.[179:3]
[180]
Let those that merely talk and never think,
That live in the wild anarchy of drink.[180:1]
Underwoods. An Epistle, answering to One that asked to be sealed of the Tribe of Ben.
Still may syllabes jar with time,
Still may reason war with rhyme,
Resting never!
Underwoods. Fit of Rhyme against Rhyme.
In small proportions we just beauties see,
And in short measures life may perfect be.
Underwoods. To the immortal Memory of Sir Lucius Cary and Sir Henry Morison. III.
What gentle ghost, besprent with April dew,
Hails me so solemnly to yonder yew?[180:2]
Elegy on the Lady Jane Pawlet.
[177:4] O rare Ben Jonson!—Sir John Young: Epitaph.
[177:5] Hang sorrow! care will kill a cat.—Wither: Poem on Christmas.
Get place and wealth,—if possible, with grace;
If not, by any means get wealth and place.
Pope: Horace, book i. epistle i. line 103.
[178:1] There is no love lost between us.—Cervantes: Don Quixote, part ii. chap. xxxiii.
[178:2] A translation from Bonnefonius.
[178:3] The flattering, mighty, nay, almighty gold.—Wolcot: To Kien Long, Ode iv.
Almighty dollar.—Irving: The Creole Village.
[179:1] Ἐμοὶ δὲ μόνοις πρόπινε τοῖς ὄμμασιν. . . . Εἰ δὲ βούλει, τοῖς χείλεσι προσφέρουσα, πλήρου φιλημάτων τὸ ἔκπωμα, κaὶ οὕτως δίδου
(Drink to me with your eyes alone. . . . And if you will, take the cup to your lips and fill it with kisses, and give it so to me).
Philostratus: Letter xxiv.
Renowned Spenser, lie a thought more nigh
To learned Chaucer, and rare Beaumont lie
A little nearer Spenser, to make room
For Shakespeare in your threefold, fourfold tomb.
Basse: On Shakespeare.
[179:3] This epitaph is generally ascribed to Ben Jonson. It appears in the editions of his Works; but in a manuscript collection of Browne's poems preserved amongst the Lansdowne MS. No. 777, in the British Museum, it is ascribed to Browne, and awarded to him by Sir Egerton Brydges in his edition of Browne's poems.
They never taste who always drink;
They always talk who never think.
Prior: Upon a passage in the Scaligerana.
What beckoning ghost along the moonlight shade
Invites my steps, and points to yonder glade?
Pope: To the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady.
I know death hath ten thousand several doors
For men to take their exit.[180:3]
Duchess of Malfi. Act iv. Sc. 2.
'T is just like a summer bird-cage in a garden,—the birds that are without despair to get in, and the birds that are within despair and are in a consumption for fear they shall never get out.[180:4]
The White Devil. Act i. Sc. 2.
Condemn you me for that the duke did love me?
So may you blame some fair and crystal river
For that some melancholic, distracted man
Hath drown'd himself in 't.
The White Devil. Act iii. Sc. 2.
[181]
Glories, like glow-worms, afar off shine bright,
But look'd too near have neither heat nor light.[181:1]
The White Devil. Act iv. Sc. 4.
Call for the robin-redbreast and the wren,
Since o'er shady groves they hover,
And with leaves and flowers do cover
The friendless bodies of unburied men.
The White Devil. Act. v. Sc. 2.
Is not old wine wholesomest, old pippins toothsomest, old wood burns brightest, old linen wash whitest? Old soldiers, sweetheart, are surest, and old lovers are soundest.[181:2]
Westward Hoe. Act ii. Sc. 2.
I saw him now going the way of all flesh.
Westward Hoe. Act ii. Sc. 2.
[180:3] Death hath so many doors to let out life.—Beaumont and Fletcher: The Customs of the Country, act ii. sc. 2.
[181:1] The mountains, too, at a distance appear airy masses and smooth, but when beheld close they are rough.—Diogenes Laertius: Pyrrho.
Love is like a landscape which doth stand
Smooth at a distance, rough at hand.
Robert Hegge: On Love.
We 're charm'd with distant views of happiness,
But near approaches make the prospect less.
Yalden: Against Enjoyment.
As distant prospects please us, but when near
We find but desert rocks and fleeting air.
Garth: The Dispensatory, canto iii. line 27.
'T is distance lends enchantment to the view,
And robes the mountain in its azure hue.
Campbell: Pleasures of Hope, part i. line 7.
A wise man poor
Is like a sacred book that 's never read,—
To himself he lives, and to all else seems dead.
This age thinks better of a gilded fool
Than of a threadbare saint in wisdom's school.
Old Fortunatus.
And though mine arm should conquer twenty worlds,
There 's a lean fellow beats all conquerors.
Old Fortunatus.
[182]
The best of men
That e'er wore earth about him was a sufferer;
A soft, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit,
The first true gentleman that ever breathed.[182:1]
The Honest Whore. Part i. Act i. Sc. 12.
I was ne'er so thrummed since I was a gentleman.[182:2]
The Honest Whore. Part i. Act iv. Sc. 2.
This principle is old, but true as fate,—
Kings may love treason, but the traitor hate.[182:3]
The Honest Whore. Part i. Act iv. Sc. 4.
We are ne'er like angels till our passion dies.
The Honest Whore. Part ii. Act i. Sc. 2.
Turn over a new leaf.[182:4]
The Honest Whore. Part ii. Act ii. Sc. 1.
To add to golden numbers golden numbers.
Patient Grissell. Act i. Sc. 1.
Honest labour bears a lovely face.
Patient Grissell. Act i. Sc. 1.
[182:1] Of the offspring of the gentilman Jafeth come Habraham, Moyses, Aron, and the profettys; also the Kyng of the right lyne of Mary, of whom that gentilman Jhesus was borne.—Juliana Berners: Heraldic Blazonry.
[182:3] Cæsar said he loved the treason, but hated the traitor.—Plutarch: Life of Romulus.
Moderation is the silken string running through the pearl chain of all virtues.
Christian Moderation. Introduction.
Death borders upon our birth, and our cradle stands in the grave.[182:5]
Epistles. Dec. iii. Ep. 2.
There is many a rich stone laid up in the bowels of the earth, many a fair pearl laid up in the bosom of the sea, that never was seen, nor never shall be.[182:6]
Contemplations. Book iv. The veil of Moses.
And cradles rock us nearer to the tomb.
Our birth is nothing but our death begun.
Young: Night Thoughts, night v. line 718.
Full many a gem of purest ray serene
The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear.
Gray: Elegy, stanza 14.
[183]
Man is his own star; and the soul that can
Render an honest and a perfect man
Commands all light, all influence, all fate.
Nothing to him falls early, or too late.
Our acts our angels are, or good or ill,[183:1]
Our fatal shadows that walk by us still.
Upon an "Honest Man's Fortune."
All things that are
Made for our general uses are at war,—
Even we among ourselves.
Upon an "Honest Man's Fortune."
Man is his own star; and that soul that can
Be honest is the only perfect man.[183:2]
Upon an "Honest Man's Fortune."
Weep no more, nor sigh, nor groan,
Sorrow calls no time that 's gone;
Violets plucked, the sweetest rain
Makes not fresh nor grow again.[183:3]
The Queen of Corinth. Act iii. Sc. 2.
O woman, perfect woman! what distraction
Was meant to mankind when thou wast made a devil!
Monsieur Thomas. Act iii. Sc. 1.
Let us do or die.[183:4]
The Island Princess. Act ii. Sc. 4.
Hit the nail on the head.
Love's Cure. Act ii. Sc. 1.
[184]
I find the medicine worse than the malady.[184:1]
Love's Cure. Act iii. Sc. 2.
He went away with a flea in 's ear.
Love's Cure. Act iii. Sc. 3.
There 's naught in this life sweet,
If man were wise to see 't,
But only melancholy;
O sweetest Melancholy![184:2]
The Nice Valour. Act iii. Sc. 3.
Fountain heads and pathless groves,
Places which pale passion loves.
The Nice Valour. Act iii. Sc. 3.
Drink to-day, and drown all sorrow;
You shall perhaps not do 't to-morrow.
The Bloody Brother. Act ii. Sc. 2.
And he that will to bed go sober
Falls with the leaf still in October.[184:3]
The Bloody Brother. Act ii. Sc. 2.
Three merry boys, and three merry boys,
And three merry boys are we,[184:4]
As ever did sing in a hempen string
Under the gallows-tree.
The Bloody Brother. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Hide, oh, hide those hills of snow
Which thy frozen bosom bears,
On whose tops the pinks that grow
Are of those that April wears!
But first set my poor heart free,
Bound in those icy chains by thee.[184:5]
The Bloody Brother. Act v. Sc. 2.
[185]
Something given that way.
The Lover's Progress. Act i. Sc. 1.
Deeds, not words.[185:1]
The Lover's Progress. Act iii. Sc. 4.
[183:1] Every man hath a good and a bad angel attending him in particular all his life long.—Burton: Anatomy of Melancholy, part i. sect. 2, memb. 1, subsect. 2. Burton also quotes Anthony Rusca in this connection, v. xviii.
[183:2] An honest man's the noblest work of God.—Pope: Essay on Man, epistle iv. line 248. Burns: The Cotter's Saturday Night.
Weep no more, Lady! weep no more,
Thy sorrow is in vain;
For violets plucked, the sweetest showers
Will ne'er make grow again.
Percy: Reliques. The Friar of Orders Gray.
[183:4] Let us do or die.—Burns: Bannockburn. Campbell: Gertrude of Wyoming, part iii. stanza 37.
Scott says, "This expression is a kind of common property, being the motto, we believe, of a Scottish family."—Review of Gertrude, Scott's Miscellanies, vol. i. p. 153.
[184:2] Naught so sweet as melancholy.—Burton: Anatomy of Melancholy. Author's Abstract.
[184:3] The following well-known catch, or glee, is formed on this song:—
He who goes to bed, and goes to bed sober,
Falls as the leaves do, and dies in October;
But he who goes to bed, and goes to bed mellow,
Lives as he ought to do, and dies an honest fellow.
[184:4] Three merry men be we.—Peele: Old Wives' Tale, 1595. Webster (quoted): Westward Hoe, 1607.
[185:1] Deeds, not words.—Butler: Hudibras, part i. canto i. line 867.
I would help others, out of a fellow-feeling.[185:4]
Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
They lard their lean books with the fat of others' works.[185:5]
Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
We can say nothing but what hath been said.[185:6] Our poets steal from Homer. . . . Our story-dressers do as much; he that comes last is commonly best.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
I say with Didacus Stella, a dwarf standing on the shoulders of a giant may see farther than a giant himself.[185:7]
Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
[186]
It is most true, stylus virum arguit,—our style bewrays us.[186:1]
Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
I had not time to lick it into form, as a bear doth her young ones.[186:2]
Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
As that great captain, Ziska, would have a drum made of his skin when he was dead, because he thought the very noise of it would put his enemies to flight.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
Like the watermen that row one way and look another.[186:3]
Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
Smile with an intent to do mischief, or cozen him whom he salutes.[186:4]
Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
Him that makes shoes go barefoot himself.[186:5]
Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
Rob Peter, and pay Paul.[186:6]
Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
Penny wise, pound foolish.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
Women wear the breeches.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
Like Æsop's fox, when he had lost his tail, would have all his fellow foxes cut off theirs.[186:7]
Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
Our wrangling lawyers . . . are so litigious and busy here on earth, that I think they will plead their clients' causes hereafter,—some of them in hell.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
Hannibal, as he had mighty virtues, so had he many vices; he had two distinct persons in him.[186:8]
Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
[187]
Carcasses bleed at the sight of the murderer.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 1, Memb. 2, Subsect. 5.
Every man hath a good and a bad angel attending on him in particular, all his life long.[187:1]
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 1, Subsect. 2.
[Witches] steal young children out of their cradles, ministerio dæmonum, and put deformed in their rooms, which we call changelings.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 1, Subsect. 3.
Can build castles in the air.[187:2]
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 1, Subsect. 3.
Joh. Mayor, in the first book of his "History of Scotland," contends much for the wholesomeness of oaten bread; it was objected to him, then living at Paris, that his countrymen fed on oats and base grain. . . . And yet Wecker out of Galen calls it horse-meat, and fitter juments than men to feed on.[187:3]
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 2, Subsect. 1.
Cookery is become an art, a noble science; cooks are gentlemen.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 2, Subsect. 2.
As much valour is to be found in feasting as in fighting, and some of our city captains and carpet knights will make this good, and prove it.[187:4]
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 2, Subsect. 2.
No rule is so general, which admits not some exception.[187:5]
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 2, Subsect. 3.
Idleness is an appendix to nobility.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 2, Subsect. 6.
Why doth one man's yawning make another yawn?
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 3, Subsect. 2.
[188]
A nightingale dies for shame if another bird sings better.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 3, Subsect. 6.
They do not live but linger.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 3, Subsect. 10.
[Diseases] crucify the soul of man, attenuate our bodies, dry them, wither them, shrivel them up like old apples, make them so many anatomies.[188:1]
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 3, Subsect. 10.
[Desire] is a perpetual rack, or horsemill, according to Austin, still going round as in a ring.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 3, Subsect. 11.
[The rich] are indeed rather possessed by their money than possessors.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 3, Subsect. 12.
Like a hog, or dog in the manger, he doth only keep it because it shall do nobody else good, hurting himself and others.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 3, Subsect. 12.
Were it not that they are loath to lay out money on a rope, they would be hanged forthwith, and sometimes die to save charges.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 3, Subsect. 12.
A mere madness, to live like a wretch and die rich.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 3, Subsect. 12.
I may not here omit those two main plagues and common dotages of human kind, wine and women, which have infatuated and besotted myriads of people; they go commonly together.[188:2]
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 3, Subsect. 13.
All our geese are swans.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 3, Subsect. 14.
Though they [philosophers] write contemptu gloriæ, yet as Hieron observes, they will put their names to their books.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 3, Subsect. 14.
They are proud in humility; proud in that they are not proud.[188:3]
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 3, Subsect. 14.
[189]
We can make majors and officers every year, but not scholars; kings can invest knights and barons, as Sigismund the emperor confessed.[189:1]
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 3, Subsect. 15.
Hinc quam sic calamus sævior ense, patet. The pen worse than the sword.[189:2]
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 4, Subsect. 4.
Homer himself must beg if he want means, and as by report sometimes he did "go from door to door and sing ballads, with a company of boys about him."[189:3]
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 4, Subsect. 6.
See one promontory (said Socrates of old), one mountain, one sea, one river, and see all.[189:4]
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 4, Subsect. 7.
Felix Plater notes of some young physicians, that study to cure diseases, catch them themselves, will be sick, and appropriate all symptoms they find related of others to their own persons.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 3, Memb. 1, Subsect. 2.
Aristotle said melancholy men of all others are most witty.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 3, Memb. 1, Subsect. 3.
Like him in Æsop, he whipped his horses withal, and put his shoulder to the wheel.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part ii. Sect. 1, Memb. 2.
Fabricius finds certain spots and clouds in the sun.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part ii. Sect. 2, Memb. 3.
[190]
Seneca thinks the gods are well pleased when they see great men contending with adversity.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part ii. Sect. 2, Memb. 1, Subsect. 1.
Machiavel says virtue and riches seldom settle on one man.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part ii. Sect. 2, Memb. 2.
Almost in every kingdom the most ancient families have been at first princes' bastards; their worthiest captains, best wits, greatest scholars, bravest spirits in all our annals, have been base [born].
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part ii. Sect. 2, Memb. 2.
As he said in Machiavel, omnes eodem patre nati, Adam's sons, conceived all and born in sin, etc. "We are by nature all as one, all alike, if you see us naked; let us wear theirs and they our clothes, and what is the difference?"
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part ii. Sect. 2, Memb. 2.
Set a beggar on horseback and he will ride a gallop.[190:1]
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part ii. Sect. 2, Memb. 2.
Christ himself was poor. . . . And as he was himself, so he informed his apostles and disciples, they were all poor, prophets poor, apostles poor.[190:2]
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part ii. Sect. 2, Memb. 3.
Who cannot give good counsel? 'T is cheap, it costs them nothing.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part ii. Sect. 2, Memb. 3.
Many things happen between the cup and the lip.[190:3]
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part ii. Sect. 2, Memb. 3.
What can't be cured must be endured.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part ii. Sect. 2, Memb. 3.
Everything, saith Epictetus, hath two handles,—the one to be held by, the other not.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part ii. Sect. 2, Memb. 3.
All places are distant from heaven alike.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part ii. Sect. 2, Memb. 4.
[191]
The commonwealth of Venice in their armoury have this inscription: "Happy is that city which in time of peace thinks of war."
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part ii. Sect. 2, Memb. 6.
"Let me not live," saith Aretine's Antonia, "if I had not rather hear thy discourse than see a play."
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 1, Memb. 1, Subsect. 1.
Every schoolboy hath that famous testament of Grunnius Corocotta Porcellus at his fingers' end.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 1, Memb. 1, Subsect. 1.
Birds of a feather will gather together.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 1, Memb. 1, Subsect. 2.
And this is that Homer's golden chain, which reacheth down from heaven to earth, by which every creature is annexed, and depends on his Creator.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 1, Memb. 2, Subsect. 1.
And hold one another's noses to the grindstone hard.[191:1]
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 1, Memb. 3.
Every man for himself, his own ends, the Devil for all.[191:2]
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 1, Memb. 3.
No cord nor cable can so forcibly draw, or hold so fast, as love can do with a twined thread.[191:3]
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 2, Memb. 1, Subsect. 2.
To enlarge or illustrate this power and effect of love is to set a candle in the sun.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 2, Memb. 1, Subsect. 2.
He is only fantastical that is not in fashion.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 2, Memb. 2, Subsect. 3.
[192]
[Quoting Seneca] Cornelia kept her in talk till her children came from school, "and these," said she, "are my jewels."
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 2, Memb. 2, Subsect. 3.
To these crocodile tears they will add sobs, fiery sighs, and sorrowful countenance.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 2, Memb. 2, Subsect. 4.
Marriage and hanging go by destiny; matches are made in heaven.[192:1]
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 2, Memb. 2, Subsect. 5.
Diogenes struck the father when the son swore.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 2, Memb. 2, Subsect. 5.
Though it rain daggers with their points downward.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 2, Memb. 3.
Going as if he trod upon eggs.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 2, Memb. 3.
I light my candle from their torches.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 2, Memb. 5, Subsect. 1.
England is a paradise for women and hell for horses; Italy a paradise for horses, hell for women, as the diverb goes.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 3, Memb. 1, Subsect. 2.
The miller sees not all the water that goes by his mill.[192:2]
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 3, Memb. 4, Subsect. 1.
As clear and as manifest as the nose in a man's face.[192:3]
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 3, Memb. 4, Subsect. 1.
Make a virtue of necessity.[192:4]
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 3, Memb. 4, Subsect. 1.
Where God hath a temple, the Devil will have a chapel.[192:5]
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 4, Memb. 1, Subsect. 1.
If the world will be gulled, let it be gulled.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 4, Memb. 1, Subsect. 2.
[193]
For "ignorance is the mother of devotion," as all the world knows.[193:1]
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 4, Memb. 1, Subsect. 2.
The fear of some divine and supreme powers keeps men in obedience.[193:2]
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 4, Memb. 1, Subsect. 2.
Out of too much learning become mad.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 4, Memb. 1, Subsect. 2.
The Devil himself, which is the author of confusion and lies.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 4, Memb. 1, Subsect. 3.
Isocrates adviseth Demonicus, when he came to a strange city, to worship by all means the gods of the place.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 4, Memb. 1, Subsect. 5.
When they are at Rome, they do there as they see done.[193:3]
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 4, Memb. 2, Subsect. 1.
One religion is as true as another.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 4, Memb. 2, Subsect. 1.
They have cheveril consciences that will stretch.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 4, Memb. 2, Subsect. 3.
[185:2] See Fletcher, page 184.
There 's not a string attuned to mirth
But has its chord in melancholy.
Hood: Ode to Melancholy.
[185:3] Dr. Johnson said Burton's "Anatomy of Melancholy" was the only book that ever took him out of bed two hours sooner than he wished to rise. And Byron said, "If the reader has patience to go through his volumes, he will be more improved for literary conversation than by the perusal of any twenty other works with which I am acquainted."—Works, vol. i. p. 144.
[185:4] A fellow-feeling makes one wondrous kind.—Garrick: Prologue on quitting the stage.
Non ignara mali, miseris succurrere disco (Being not unacquainted with woe, I learn to help the unfortunate).—Virgil: Æneid, lib. i. 630.
[185:6] Nihil dictum quod non dictum prius (There is nothing said which has not been said before).—Terence: Eunuchus. Prol. 10.
[185:7] A dwarf on a giant's shoulders sees farther of the two.—Herbert: Jacula Prudentum.
A dwarf sees farther than the giant when he has the giant's shoulders to mount on.—Coleridge: The Friend, sect. i. essay viii.
Pigmæi gigantum humeris impositi plusquam ipsi gigantes vident (Pigmies placed on the shoulders of giants see more than the giants themselves).—Didacus Stella in Lucan, 10, tom. ii.
[186:1] Le style est l'homme même (The style is the man himself).—Buffon: Discours de Réception (Recueil de l'Académie, 1750).
[186:2] Arts and sciences are not cast in a mould, but are formed and perfected by degrees, by often handling and polishing, as bears leisurely lick their cubs into form.—Montaigne: Apology for Raimond Sebond, book ii. chap. xii.
[186:3] Like watermen who look astern while they row the boat ahead.—Plutarch: Whether 't was rightfully said, Live concealed.
Like rowers, who advance backward.—Montaigne: Of Profit and Honour, book iii. chap. i.
[186:7] Æsop: Fables, book v. fable v.
He left a corsair's name to other times,
Link'd with one virtue and a thousand crimes.
Byron: The Corsair, canto iii. stanza 24.
[187:2] "Castles in the air,"—Montaigne, Sir Philip Sidney, Massinger, Sir Thomas Browne, Giles Fletcher, George Herbert, Dean Swift, Broome, Fielding, Cibber, Churchill, Shenstone, and Lloyd.
[187:3] Oats,—a grain which is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.—Samuel Johnson: Dictionary of the English Language.
[187:4] Carpet knights are men who are by the prince's grace and favour made knights at home. . . . They are called carpet knights because they receive their honours in the court and upon carpets.—Markham: Booke of Honour (1625).
"Carpet knights,"—Du Bartas (ed. 1621), p. 311.
[187:5] The exception proves the rule.
Qui vino indulget, quemque alea decoquit, ille
In venerem putret
(He who is given to drink, and he whom the dice are despoiling, is the one who rots away in sexual vice).—Persius: Satires, satire v.
His favourite sin
Is pride that apes humility.
Southey: The Devil's Walk.
[189:1] When Abraham Lincoln heard of the death of a private, he said he was sorry it was not a general: "I could make more of them."
[189:2] Tant la plume a eu sous le roi d'avantage sur l'épée (So far had the pen under the king the superiority over the sword).—Saint Simon: Mémoires, vol. iii. p. 517 (1702), ed. 1856.
The pen is mightier than the sword.—Bulwer Lytton: Richelieu, act ii. sc. 2.
Seven wealthy towns contend for Homer dead,
Through which the living Homer begged his bread.
Anonymous.
Great Homer's birthplace seven rival cities claim,
Too mighty such monopoly of Fame.
Thomas Seward: On Shakespeare's Monument at Stratford-upon-Avon.
Seven cities warred for Homer being dead;
Who living had no roofe to shrowd his head.
Thomas Heywood: Hierarchie of the Blessed Angells.
[189:4] A blade of grass is always a blade of grass, whether in one country or another.—Johnson: Piazzi, 52.
[190:1] Set a beggar on horseback, and he 'll outride the Devil.—Bohn: Foreign Proverbs (German).
[190:3] There is many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip.—Hazlitt: English Proverbs.
Though men determine, the gods doo dispose; and oft times many things fall out betweene the cup and the lip.—Greene: Perimedes the Blacksmith (1588).
Those curious locks so aptly twin'd,
Whose every hair a soul doth bind.
Carew: Think not 'cause men flattering say.
One hair of a woman can draw more than a hundred pair of oxen.—Howell: Letters, book ii. iv. (1621).
She knows her man, and when you rant and swear,
Can draw you to her with a single hair.
Dryden: Persius, satire v. line 246.
Beauty draws us with a single hair.—Pope: The Rape of the Lock, canto ii. line 27.
And from that luckless hour my tyrant fair
Has led and turned me by a single hair.
Bland: Anthology, p. 20 (edition 1813).
[192:5] For where God built a church, there the Devil would also build a chapel.—Martin Luther: Table Talk, lxvii.
God never had a church but there, men say,
The Devil a chapel hath raised by some wyles.
Drummond: Posthumous Poems.
No sooner is a temple build to God but the Devil builds a chapel hard by.—Herbert: Jacula Prudentum.
Wherever God erects a house of prayer,
The Devil always builds a chapel there.
Defoe: The True-born Englishman, part i. line 1.
[193:1] Ignorance is the mother of devotion.—Jeremy Taylor: To a Person newly Converted (1657).
Your ignorance is the mother of your devotion to me.—Dryden: The Maiden Queen, act i. sc. 2.
The fear o' hell 's a hangman's whip
To haud the wretch in order.
Burns: Epistle to a Young Friend.
[193:3] Saint Augustine was in the habit of dining upon Saturday as upon Sunday; but being puzzled with the different practices then prevailing (for they had begun to fast at Rome on Saturday), consulted Saint Ambrose on the subject. Now at Milan they did not fast on Saturday, and the answer of the Milan saint was this: "Quando hic sum, non jejuno Sabbato; quando Romæ sum, jejuno Sabbato" (When I am here, I do not fast on Saturday; when at Rome, I do fast on Saturday).—Epistle xxxvi. to Casulanus.
In part to blame is she,
Which hath without consent bin only tride:
He comes to neere that comes to be denide.[193:4]
A Wife. St. 36.
In part she is to blame that has been tried:
He comes too late that comes to be denied.
Mary W. Montagu: The Lady's Resolve.
[194]
Some undone widow sits upon mine arm,
And takes away the use of it;[194:1] and my sword,
Glued to my scabbard with wronged orphans' tears,
Will not be drawn.
A New Way to pay Old Debts. Act v. Sc. 1.
Death hath a thousand doors to let out life.[194:2]
A Very Woman. Act v. Sc. 4.
This many-headed monster.[194:3]
The Roman Actor. Act iii. Sc. 2.
Grim death.[194:4]
The Roman Actor. Act iv. Sc. 2.
[194:2] Death hath so many doors to let out life.—Beaumont and Fletcher: The Custom of the Country, act ii. sc. 2.
The thousand doors that lead to death.—Browne: Religio Medici, part i. sect. xliv.
[194:4] Grim death, my son and foe.—Milton: Paradise Lost, book ii. line 804.
The world 's a theatre, the earth a stage
Which God and Nature do with actors fill.[194:5]
Apology for Actors (1612).
I hold he loves me best that calls me Tom.
Hierarchie of the Blessed Angells.
Seven cities warred for Homer being dead,
Who living had no roofe to shrowd his head.[194:6]
Hierarchie of the Blessed Angells.
Her that ruled the rost in the kitchen.[194:7]
History of Women (ed. 1624). Page 286.
Equity is a roguish thing. For Law we have a measure, know what to trust to; Equity is according to the [195]conscience of him that is Chancellor, and as that is larger or narrower, so is Equity. 'T is all one as if they should make the standard for the measure we call a "foot" a Chancellor's foot; what an uncertain measure would this be! One Chancellor has a long foot, another a short foot, a third an indifferent foot. 'T is the same thing in the Chancellor's conscience.
Table Talk. Equity.
Old friends are best. King James used to call for his old shoes; they were easiest for his feet.[195:1]
Table Talk. Friends.
Humility is a virtue all preach, none practise; and yet everybody is content to hear.
Table Talk. Humility.
'T is not the drinking that is to be blamed, but the excess.
Table Talk. Humility.
Commonly we say a judgment falls upon a man for something in him we cannot abide.
Table Talk. Judgments.
Ignorance of the law excuses no man; not that all men know the law, but because 't is an excuse every man will plead, and no man can tell how to refute him.
Table Talk. Law.
No man is the wiser for his learning.
Table Talk. Learning.
Wit and wisdom are born with a man.
Table Talk. Learning.
Few men make themselves masters of the things they write or speak.
Table Talk. Learning.
Take a straw and throw it up into the air,—you may see by that which way the wind is.
Table Talk. Libels.
Philosophy is nothing but discretion.
Table Talk. Philosophy.
Marriage is a desperate thing.
Table Talk. Marriage.
Thou little thinkest what a little foolery governs the world.[195:2]
Table Talk. Pope.
[196]
They that govern the most make the least noise.
Table Talk. Power.
Syllables govern the world.
Table Talk. Power.
Never king dropped out of the clouds.
Table Talk. Power.
Never tell your resolution beforehand.
Table Talk. Wisdom.
Wise men say nothing in dangerous times.
Table Talk. Wisdom.
[195:2] Behold, my son, with how little wisdom the world is governed.—Oxenstiern (1583-1654).
God never had a church but there, men say,
The Devil a chapel hath raised by some wyles.[196:1]
I doubted of this saw, till on a day
I westward spied great Edinburgh's Saint Gyles.
Posthumous Poems.
What things have we seen
Done at the Mermaid! heard words that have been
So nimble and so full of subtile flame
As if that every one from whence they came
Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest,
And resolved to live a fool the rest
Of his dull life.
Letter to Ben Jonson.
Here are sands, ignoble things,
Dropt from the ruined sides of kings.
On the Tombs of Westminster Abbey.
It is always good
When a man has two irons in the fire.
The Faithful Friends. Act i. Sc. 2.
[197]
Upon my burned body lie lightly, gentle earth.
The Maid's Tragedy. Act i. Sc. 2.
A soul as white as heaven.
The Maid's Tragedy. Act iv. Sc. 1.
It shew'd discretion, the best part of valour.[197:3]
A King and No King. Act iv. Sc. 3.
There is a method in man's wickedness,—
It grows up by degrees.[197:4]
A King and No King. Act v. Sc. 4.
As cold as cucumbers.
Cupid's Revenge. Act i. Sc. 1.
Calamity is man's true touchstone.[197:5]
Four Plays in One: The Triumph of Honour. Sc. 1.
Kiss till the cow comes home.
Scornful Lady. Act iii. Sc. 1.
Beggars must be no choosers.[197:7]
Scornful Lady. Act v. Sc. 3.
No better than you should be.[197:8]
The Coxcomb. Act iv. Sc. 3.
[198]
From the crown of the head to the sole of the foot.[198:1]
The Honest Man's Fortune. Act ii. Sc. 2.
One foot in the grave.[198:2]
The Little French Lawyer. Act i. Sc. 1.
Go to grass.
The Little French Lawyer. Act iv. Sc. 7.
There is no jesting with edge tools.[198:3]
The Little French Lawyer. Act iv. Sc. 7.
Though I say it that should not say it.
Wit at Several Weapons. Act ii. Sc. 2.
I name no parties.[198:4]
Wit at Several Weapons. Act ii. Sc. 3.
Whistle, and she'll come to you.[198:5]
Wit Without Money. Act iv. Sc. 4.
Let the world slide.[198:6]
Wit Without Money. Act v. Sc. 2.
The fit 's upon me now!
Come quickly, gentle lady;
The fit 's upon me now.
Wit Without Money. Act v. Sc. 4.
He comes not in my books.[198:7]
The Widow. Act i. Sc. 1.
Death hath so many doors to let out life.[198:8]
The Customs of the Country. Act ii. Sc. 2.
Of all the paths [that] lead to a woman's love
Pity 's the straightest.[198:9]
The Knight of Malta. Act i. Sc. 1.
Nothing can cover his high fame but heaven;
No pyramids set off his memories,
But the eternal substance of his greatness,—
To which I leave him.
The False One. Act ii. Sc. 1.
[199]
Thou wilt scarce be a man before thy mother.[199:1]
Love's Cure. Act ii. Sc. 2.
Primrose, first-born child of Ver,
Merry springtime's harbinger.
The Two Noble Kinsmen. Act i. Sc. 1.
O great corrector of enormous times,
Shaker of o'er-rank states, thou grand decider
Of dusty and old titles, that healest with blood
The earth when it is sick, and curest the world
O' the pleurisy of people!
The Two Noble Kinsmen. Act v. Sc. 1.
[197:4] Nemo repente fuit turpissimus (No man ever became extremely wicked all at once).—Juvenal: ii. 83.
Ainsi que la vertu, le crime a ses degrés (As virtue has its degrees, so has vice).—Racine: Phédre, act iv. sc. 2.
[197:5] Ignis aurum probat, miseria fortes viros (Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men).—Seneca: De Providentia, v. 9.
[197:6] Then he will talk—good gods! how he will talk!—Lee: Alexander the Great, act i. sc. 3.
[197:8] She is no better than she should be.—Fielding: The Temple Beau, act iv. sc. 3.
[198:2] An old doting fool, with one foot already in the grave.—Plutarch: On the Training of Children.
[198:3] It is no jesting with edge tools.—The True Tragedy of Richard III. (1594.)
[198:4] The use of "party" in the sense of "person" occurs in the Book of Common Prayer, More's "Utopia," Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Fuller, and other old English writers.
[198:5] Whistle, and I'll come to ye.—Burns: Whistle, etc.
[198:9] Pity 's akin to love.—Southerne: Oroonoka, act ii. sc. 1.
Pity swells the tide of love.—Young: Night Thoughts, night iii. line 107.
[199:1] But strive still to be a man before your mother.—Cowper: Connoisseur. Motto of No. iii.
[199:2] Quod ali cibus est aliis fuat acre venenum (What is food to one may be fierce poison to others).—Lucretius: iv. 637.
Shall I, wasting in despair,
Die because a woman's fair?
Or make pale my cheeks with care,
'Cause another's rosy are?
Be she fairer than the day,
Or the flowery meads in May,
If she be not so to me,
What care I how fair she be?[199:3]
The Shepherd's Resolution.
Jack shall pipe and Gill shall dance.
Poem on Christmas.
[200]
Though I am young, I scorn to flit
On the wings of borrowed wit.
The Shepherd's Hunting.
And I oft have heard defended,—
Little said is soonest mended.
The Shepherd's Hunting.
And he that gives us in these days
New Lords may give us new laws.
Contented Man's Morrice.
For words are wise men's counters,—they do but reckon by them; but they are the money of fools.
The Leviathan. Part i. Chap. iv.
No arts, no letters, no society, and which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death, and the life of man solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
The Leviathan. Part i. Chap. xviii.
He that loves a rosy cheek,
Or a coral lip admires,
Or from star-like eyes doth seek
Fuel to maintain his fires,—
As old Time makes these decay,
So his flames must waste away.
Disdain Returned.
Then fly betimes, for only they
Conquer Love that run away.
Conquest by Flight.
An untimely grave.[200:1]
On the Duke of Buckingham.
The magic of a face.
Epitaph on the Lady S——.
[200:1] An untimely grave.—Tate and Brady: Psalm vii.
[201]
Whose life is a bubble, and in length a span.[201:1]
Britannia's Pastorals. Book i. Song 2.
Did therewith bury in oblivion.
Britannia's Pastorals. Book ii. Song 2.
Well-languaged Daniel.
Britannia's Pastorals. Book ii. Song 2.
Cherry ripe, ripe, ripe, I cry,
Full and fair ones,—come and buy!
If so be you ask me where
They do grow, I answer, there,
Where my Julia's lips do smile,—
There 's the land, or cherry-isle.
Cherry Ripe.
Some asked me where the rubies grew,
And nothing I did say;
But with my finger pointed to
The lips of Julia.
The Rock of Rubies, and the Quarrie of Pearls.
Some asked how pearls did grow, and where?
Then spoke I to my girl
To part her lips, and showed them there
The quarelets of pearl.
The Rock of Rubies, and the Quarrie of Pearls.
A sweet disorder in the dress
Kindles in clothes a wantonness.
Delight in Disorder.
A winning wave, deserving note,
In the tempestuous petticoat;
A careless shoe-string, in whose tie
I see a wild civility,—
Do more bewitch me than when art
Is too precise in every part.
Delight in Disorder.
[202]
You say to me-wards your affection 's strong;
Pray love me little, so you love me long.[202:1]
Love me Little, Love me Long.
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying,
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying.[202:2]
To the Virgins to make much of Time.
Fall on me like a silent dew,
Or like those maiden showers
Which, by the peep of day, do strew
A baptism o'er the flowers.
To Music, to becalm his Fever.
Fair daffadills, we weep to see
You haste away so soon:
As yet the early rising sun
Has not attained his noon.
To Daffadills.
Thus woe succeeds a woe, as wave a wave.[202:3]
Sorrows Succeed.
Her pretty feet, like snails, did creep
A little out, and then,[202:4]
As if they played at bo-peep,
Did soon draw in again.
To Mistress Susanna Southwell.
Her eyes the glow-worm lend thee,
The shooting-stars attend thee;
And the elves also,
Whose little eyes glow
Like the sparks of fire, befriend thee.
The Night Piece to Julia.
[203]
Thus times do shift,—each thing his turn does hold;
New things succeed, as former things grow old.
Ceremonies for Candlemas Eve.
Out-did the meat, out-did the frolick wine.
Ode for Ben Jonson.
Attempt the end, and never stand to doubt;
Nothing 's so hard but search will find it out.[203:2]
Seek and Find.
But ne'er the rose without the thorn.[203:3]
The Rose.
[202:2] Let us crown ourselves with rose-buds, before they be withered.—Wisdom of Solomon, ii. 8.
Gather the rose of love whilest yet is time.—Spenser: The Faerie Queene, book ii. canto xii. stanza 75.
Her feet beneath her petticoat
Like little mice stole in and out.
Suckling: Ballad upon a Wedding.
[203:2] Nil tam difficilest quin quærendo investigari possiet (Nothing is so difficult but that it may be found out by seeking).—Terence: Heautontimoroumenos, iv. 2, 8.
[203:3] Flowers of all hue, and without thorn the rose.—Milton: Paradise Lost, book iv. line 256.
Sweet Phosphor, bring the day
Whose conquering ray
May chase these fogs;
Sweet Phosphor, bring the day!
Sweet Phosphor, bring the day!
Light will repay
The wrongs of night;
Sweet Phosphor, bring the day!
Emblems. Book i. Emblem 14.
Be wisely worldly, be not worldly wise.
Emblems. Book ii. Emblem 2.
[204]
This house is to be let for life or years;
Her rent is sorrow, and her income tears.
Cupid, 't has long stood void; her bills make known,
She must be dearly let, or let alone.
Emblems. Book ii. Emblem 10, Ep. 10.
The slender debt to Nature 's quickly paid,[204:1]
Discharged, perchance, with greater ease than made.
Emblems. Book ii. Emblem 13.
The next way home 's the farthest way about.[204:2]
Emblems. Book iv. Emblem 2, Ep. 2.
It is the lot of man but once to die.
Emblems. Book v. Emblem 7.
[203:4] Death loves a shining mark, a signal blow.—Young: Night Thoughts, night v. line 1011.
[204:1] To die is a debt we must all of us discharge.—Euripides: Alcestis, line 418.
[204:2] The longest way round is the shortest way home.—Bohn: Foreign Proverbs (Italian).
To write a verse or two is all the praise
That I can raise.
Praise.
Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright,
The bridal of the earth and sky.
Virtue.
Sweet spring, full of sweet days and roses,
A box where sweets compacted lie.
Virtue.
Only a sweet and virtuous soul,
Like seasoned timber, never gives.
Virtue.
Like summer friends,
Flies of estate and sunneshine.
The Answer.
A servant with this clause
Makes drudgery divine;
Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws
Makes that and th' action fine.
The Elixir.
A verse may find him who a sermon flies,
And turn delight into a sacrifice.
The Church Porch.
[205]
Dare to be true: nothing can need a lie;
A fault which needs it most, grows two thereby.[205:1]
The Church Porch.
Chase brave employment with a naked sword
Throughout the world.
The Church Porch.
Sundays observe; think when the bells do chime,
'T is angels' music.
The Church Porch.
The worst speak something good; if all want sense,
God takes a text, and preacheth Pa-ti-ence.
The Church Porch.
Bibles laid open, millions of surprises.
Sin.
Religion stands on tiptoe in our land,
Ready to pass to the American strand.
The Church Militant.
Man is one world, and hath
Another to attend him.
Man.
If goodness lead him not, yet weariness
May toss him to my breast.
The Pulley.
The fineness which a hymn or psalm affords
If when the soul unto the lines accords.
A True Hymn.
Wouldst thou both eat thy cake and have it?[205:2]
The Size.
Do well and right, and let the world sink.[205:3]
Country Parson. Chap. xxix.
His bark is worse than his bite.
Jacula Prudentum.
After death the doctor.[205:4]
Jacula Prudentum.
Hell is full of good meanings and wishings.[205:5]
Jacula Prudentum.
[206]
No sooner is a temple built to God, but the Devil builds a chapel hard by.[206:1]
Jacula Prudentum.
God's mill grinds slow, but sure.[206:2]
Jacula Prudentum.
The offender never pardons.[206:3]
Jacula Prudentum.
It is a poor sport that is not worth the candle.
Jacula Prudentum.
To a close-shorn sheep God gives wind by measure.[206:4]
Jacula Prudentum.
The lion is not so fierce as they paint him.[206:5]
Jacula Prudentum.
Help thyself, and God will help thee.[206:6]
Jacula Prudentum.
Words are women, deeds are men.[206:7]
Jacula Prudentum.
The mouse that hath but one hole is quickly taken.[206:8]
Jacula Prudentum.
A dwarf on a giant's shoulders sees farther of the two.[206:9]
Jacula Prudentum.
And he that does one fault at first,
And lies to hide it, makes it two.
Watts: Song xv.
[205:3] Ruat cœlum, fiat voluntas tua (Though the sky fall, let Thy will be done).—Sir T. Browne: Religio Medici, part ii. sect. xi.
[205:4] After the war, aid.—Greek proverb.
After me the deluge.—Madame de Pompadour.
[205:5] Hell is paved with good intentions.—Dr. Johnson (Boswell's Life of Johnson, Annus 1775.)
[206:2] Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small.—F. Von Logau (1614-1655): Retribution (translation).
[206:3] They ne'er pardon who have done the wrong.—Dryden: The Conquest of Grenada.
[206:4] God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb.—Sterne: Sentimental Journey.
[206:5] The lion is not so fierce as painted.—Fuller: Expecting Preferment.
[206:6] God helps those who help themselves.—Sidney: Discourses on Government, sect. xxiii. Franklin: Poor Richard's Almanac.
[206:7] Words are men's daughters, but God's sons are things.—Dr. Madden: Boulter's Monument (supposed to have been inserted by Dr. Johnson, 1745).
Of which, if thou be a severe, sour-complexioned man, then I here disallow thee to be a competent judge.
The Complete Angler. Author's Preface.
Angling may be said to be so like the mathematics that it can never be fully learnt.
The Complete Angler. Author's Preface.
As no man is born an artist, so no man is born an angler.
The Complete Angler. Author's Preface.
[207]
I shall stay him no longer than to wish him a rainy evening to read this following discourse; and that if he be an honest angler, the east wind may never blow when he goes a fishing.
The Complete Angler. Author's Preface.
As the Italians say, Good company in a journey makes the way to seem the shorter.
The Complete Angler. Part i. Chap. 1.
I am, sir, a Brother of the Angle.
The Complete Angler. Part i. Chap. 1.
It [angling] deserves commendations; . . . it is an art worthy the knowledge and practice of a wise man.
The Complete Angler. Part i. Chap. 1.
Angling is somewhat like poetry,—men are to be born so.
The Complete Angler. Part i. Chap. 1.
Doubt not but angling will prove to be so pleasant that it will prove to be, like virtue, a reward to itself.[207:1]
The Complete Angler. Part i. Chap. 1.
Sir Henry Wotton was a most dear lover and a frequent practiser of the Art of Angling; of which he would say, "'T was an employment for his idle time, which was then not idly spent, a rest to his mind, a cheerer of his spirits, a diverter of sadness, a calmer of unquiet thoughts, a moderator of passions, a procurer of contentedness;" and "that it begat habits of peace and patience in those that professed and practised it."
The Complete Angler. Part i. Chap. 1.
You will find angling to be like the virtue of humility, which has a calmness of spirit and a world of other blessings attending upon it.
The Complete Angler. Part i. Chap. 1.
I remember that a wise friend of mine did usually say, "That which is everybody's business is nobody's business."
The Complete Angler. Part i. Chap. ii.
[208]
Good company and good discourse are the very sinews of virtue.
The Complete Angler. Part i. Chap. ii.
An excellent angler, and now with God.
The Complete Angler. Part i. Chap. iv.
Old-fashioned poetry, but choicely good.
The Complete Angler. Part i. Chap. iv.
No man can lose what he never had.
The Complete Angler. Part i. Chap. v.
We may say of angling as Dr. Boteler[208:1] said of strawberries: "Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did;" and so, if I might be judge, God never did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling.
The Complete Angler. Part i. Chap. v.
Thus use your frog: put your hook—I mean the arming wire—through his mouth and out at his gills, and then with a fine needle and silk sew the upper part of his leg with only one stitch to the arming wire of your hook, or tie the frog's leg above the upper joint to the armed wire; and in so doing use him as though you loved him.
The Complete Angler. Part i. Chap. 8.
This dish of meat is too good for any but anglers, or very honest men.
The Complete Angler. Part i. Chap. 8.
Health is the second blessing that we mortals are capable of,—a blessing that money cannot buy.
The Complete Angler. Part i. Chap. 21.
And upon all that are lovers of virtue, and dare trust in his Providence, and be quiet and go a-angling.
The Complete Angler. Part i. Chap. 21.
But God, who is able to prevail, wrestled with him; marked him for his own.[208:2]
Life of Donne.
The great secretary of Nature,—Sir Francis Bacon.[208:3]
Life of Herbert.
[209]
Oh, the gallant fisher's life!
It is the best of any;
'T is full of pleasure, void of strife,
And 't is beloved by many.
The Angler. (John Chalkhill.)[209:1]
[207:1] Virtue is her own reward.—Dryden: Tyrannic Love, act iii. sc. 1.
Virtue is to herself the best reward.—Henry More: Cupid's Conflict.
Virtue is its own reward.—Prior: Imitations of Horace, book iii. ode 2. Gay: Epistle to Methuen. Home: Douglas, act iii. sc. 1.
Virtue was sufficient of herself for happiness.—Diogenes Laertius: Plato, xlii.
Ipsa quidem virtus sibimet pulcherrima merces (Virtue herself is her own fairest reward).—Silius Italicus (25?-99): Punica, lib. xiii. line 663.
[208:1] William Butler, styled by Dr. Fuller in his "Worthies" (Suffolk) the "Æsculapius of our age." He died in 1621. This first appeared in the second edition of "The Angler," 1655. Roger Williams, in his "Key into the Language of America," 1643, p. 98, says: "One of the chiefest doctors of England was wont to say, that God could have made, but God never did make, a better berry."
[208:2] Melancholy marked him for her own.—Gray: The Epitaph.
[208:3] Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates are secretaries of Nature.—Howell: Letters, book ii. letter xi.
[209:1] In 1683, the year in which he died, Walton prefixed a preface to a work edited by him: "Thealma and Clearchus, a Pastoral History, in smooth and easy verse: written long since by John Chalkhill Esq., an aquaintant and friend of Edmund Spenser."
Chalkhill,—a name unappropriated, a verbal phantom, a shadow of a shade. Chalkhill is no other than our old piscatory friend incognito.—Zouch: Life of Walton.
The glories of our blood and state
Are shadows, not substantial things;
There is no armour against fate;
Death lays his icy hands on kings.
Contention of Ajax and Ulysses. Sc. 3.
Death calls ye to the crowd of common men.
Cupid and Death.
The sweet remembrance of the just
Shall flourish when he sleeps in dust.
Tate and Brady: Psalm cxxii. 6.
[209:3] "Their dust" in Works edited by Dyce.
And pulpit, drum ecclesiastick,
Was beat with fist instead of a stick.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 11.
We grant, although he had much wit,
He was very shy of using it.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 45.
[210]
Beside, 't is known he could speak Greek
As naturally as pigs squeak;[210:1]
That Latin was no more difficile
Than to a blackbird 't is to whistle.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 51.
He could distinguish and divide
A hair 'twixt south and southwest side.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 67.
For rhetoric, he could not ope
His mouth, but out there flew a trope.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 81.
For all a rhetorician's rules
Teach nothing but to name his tools.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 89.
A Babylonish dialect
Which learned pedants much affect.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 93.
For he by geometric scale
Could take the size of pots of ale.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 121.
And wisely tell what hour o' the day
The clock does strike, by algebra.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 125.
Whatever sceptic could inquire for,
For every why he had a wherefore.[210:2]
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 131.
Where entity and quiddity,
The ghosts of defunct bodies, fly.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 145.
He knew what 's what,[210:3] and that 's as high
As metaphysic wit can fly.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 149.
Such as take lodgings in a head
That 's to be let unfurnished.[210:4]
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 161.
'T was Presbyterian true blue.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 191.
And prove their doctrine orthodox,
By apostolic blows and knocks.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 199.
[211]
As if religion was intended
For nothing else but to be mended.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 205.
Compound for sins they are inclined to,
By damning those they have no mind to.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 215.
The trenchant blade, Toledo trusty,
For want of fighting was grown rusty,
And ate into itself, for lack
Of somebody to hew and hack.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 359.
For rhyme the rudder is of verses,
With which, like ships, they steer their courses.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 463.
He ne'er consider'd it, as loth
To look a gift-horse in the mouth.[211:1]
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 490.
And force them, though it was in spite
Of Nature and their stars, to write.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 647.
Quoth Hudibras, "I smell a rat![211:2]
Ralpho, thou dost prevaricate."
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 821.
Or shear swine, all cry and no wool.[211:3]
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 852.
And bid the devil take the hin'most.[211:4]
Hudibras. Part i. Canto ii. Line 633.
With many a stiff thwack, many a bang,
Hard crab-tree and old iron rang.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto ii. Line 831.
Like feather bed betwixt a wall
And heavy brunt of cannon ball.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto ii. Line 872.
Ay me! what perils do environ
The man that meddles with cold iron![211:5]
Hudibras. Part i. Canto iii. Line 1.
[212]
Nor do I know what is become
Of him, more than the Pope of Rome.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto iii. Line 263.
I 'll make the fur
Fly 'bout the ears of the old cur.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto iii. Line 277.
He had got a hurt
O' the inside, of a deadlier sort.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto iii. Line 309.
These reasons made his mouth to water.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto iii. Line 379.
With mortal crisis doth portend
My days to appropinque an end.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto iii. Line 589.
For those that run away and fly,
Take place at least o' the enemy.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto iii. Line 609.
I am not now in fortune's power:
He that is down can fall no lower.[212:2]
Hudibras. Part i. Canto iii. Line 877.
Cheer'd up himself with ends of verse
And sayings of philosophers.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto iii. Line 1011.
If he that in the field is slain
Be in the bed of honour lain,
He that is beaten may be said
To lie in honour's truckle-bed.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto iii. Line 1047.
When pious frauds and holy shifts
Are dispensations and gifts.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto iii. Line 1145.
Friend Ralph, thou hast
Outrun the constable[212:3] at last.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto iii. Line 1367.
Some force whole regions, in despite
O' geography, to change their site;
Make former times shake hands with latter,
And that which was before come after.
[213]But those that write in rhyme still make
The one verse for the other's sake;
For one for sense, and one for rhyme,
I think 's sufficient at one time.
Hudibras. Part ii. Canto i. Line 23.
Some have been beaten till they know
What wood a cudgel 's of by th' blow;
Some kick'd until they can feel whether
A shoe be Spanish or neat's leather.
Hudibras. Part ii. Canto i. Line 221.
No Indian prince has to his palace
More followers than a thief to the gallows.
Hudibras. Part ii. Canto i. Line 273.
Quoth she, I 've heard old cunning stagers
Say fools for arguments use wagers.
Hudibras. Part ii. Canto i. Line 297.
Love in your hearts as idly burns
As fire in antique Roman urns.[213:1]
Hudibras. Part ii. Canto i. Line 309.
For what is worth in anything
But so much money as 't will bring?
Hudibras. Part ii. Canto i. Line 465.
Love is a boy by poets styl'd;
Then spare the rod and spoil the child.[213:2]
Hudibras. Part ii. Canto i. Line 843.
The sun had long since in the lap
Of Thetis taken out his nap,
And, like a lobster boil'd, the morn
From black to red began to turn.
Hudibras. Part ii. Canto ii. Line 29.
Have always been at daggers-drawing,
And one another clapper-clawing.
Hudibras. Part ii. Canto ii. Line 79.
For truth is precious and divine,—
Too rich a pearl for carnal swine.
Hudibras. Part ii. Canto ii. Line 257.
Why should not conscience have vacation
As well as other courts o' th' nation?
Hudibras. Part ii. Canto ii. Line 317.
[214]
He that imposes an oath makes it,
Not he that for convenience takes it;
Then how can any man be said
To break an oath he never made?
Hudibras. Part ii. Canto ii. Line 377.
Doubtless the pleasure is as great
Of being cheated as to cheat.[214:4]
Hudibras. Part ii. Canto iii. Line 1.
He made an instrument to know
If the moon shine at full or no.
Hudibras. Part ii. Canto iii. Line 261.
Each window like a pill'ry appears,
With heads thrust thro' nail'd by the ears.
Hudibras. Part ii. Canto iii. Line 391.
To swallow gudgeons ere they 're catch'd,
And count their chickens ere they 're hatch'd.
Hudibras. Part ii. Canto iii. Line 923.
There 's but the twinkling of a star
Between a man of peace and war.
Hudibras. Part ii. Canto iii. Line 957.
But Hudibras gave him a twitch
As quick as lightning in the breech,
Just in the place where honour 's lodg'd,
As wise philosophers have judg'd;
Because a kick in that part more
Hurts honour than deep wounds before.
Hudibras. Part ii. Canto iii. Line 1065.
As men of inward light are wont
To turn their optics in upon 't.
Hudibras. Part iii. Canto i. Line 481.
[215]
Still amorous and fond and billing,
Like Philip and Mary on a shilling.
Hudibras. Part iii. Canto i. Line 687.
What makes all doctrines plain and clear?
About two hundred pounds a year.
And that which was prov'd true before
Prove false again? Two hundred more.
Hudibras. Part iii. Canto i. Line 1277.
'Cause grace and virtue are within
Prohibited degrees of kin;
And therefore no true saint allows
They shall be suffer'd to espouse.
Hudibras. Part iii. Canto i. Line 1293.
Nick Machiavel had ne'er a trick,
Though he gave his name to our Old Nick.
Hudibras. Part iii. Canto i. Line 1313.
With crosses, relics, crucifixes,
Beads, pictures, rosaries, and pixes,—
The tools of working our salvation
By mere mechanic operation.
Hudibras. Part iii. Canto i. Line 1495.
True as the dial to the sun,[215:1]
Although it be not shin'd upon.
Hudibras. Part iii. Canto ii. Line 175.
But still his tongue ran on, the less
Of weight it bore, with greater ease.
Hudibras. Part iii. Canto ii. Line 443.
For those that fly may fight again,
Which he can never do that 's slain.[215:2]
Hudibras. Part iii. Canto iii. Line 243.
He that complies against his will
Is of his own opinion still.
Hudibras. Part iii. Canto iii. Line 547.
With books and money plac'd for show
Like nest-eggs to make clients lay,
And for his false opinion pay.
Hudibras. Part iii. Canto iii. Line 624.
[216]
And poets by their sufferings grow,[216:1]—
As if there were no more to do,
To make a poet excellent,
But only want and discontent.
Fragments.
He Greek and Latin speaks with greater ease
Than hogs eat acorns, and tame pigeons peas.
Cranfield: Panegyric on Tom Coriate.
[211:4] Bid the Devil take the slowest.—Prior: On the Taking of Namur.
Deil tak the hindmost.—Burns: To a Haggis.
[211:6] Sure as a gun.—Dryden: The Spanish Friar, act iii. sc. 2. Cervantes: Don Quixote, part i. book iii. chap. vii.
[212:2] He that is down needs fear no fall.—Bunyan: Pilgrim's Progress, part ii.
[212:3] Outrun the constable.—Ray: Proverbs, 1670.
Our wasted oil unprofitably burns,
Like hidden lamps in old sepulchral urns.
Cowper: Conversation, line 357.
[214:3] Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.—Galatians vi.
[214:4] This couplet is enlarged on by Swift in his "Tale of a Tub," where he says that the happiness of life consists in being well deceived.
True as the needle to the pole,
Or as the dial to the sun.
Barton Booth: Song.
Let who will boast their courage in the field,
I find but little safety from my shield.
Nature's, not honour's, law we must obey:
This made me cast my useless shield away.
And by a prudent flight and cunning save
A life, which valour could not, from the grave.
A better buckler I can soon regain;
But who can get another life again?
Archilochus: Fragm. 6. (Quoted by Plutarch, Customs of the Lacedæmonians.)
Sed omissis quidem divinis exhortationibus illum magis Græcum versiculum secularis sententiæ sibi adhibent, "Qui fugiebat, rursus prœliabitur:" ut et rursus forsitan fugiat (But overlooking the divine exhortations, they act rather upon that Greek verse of worldly significance, "He who flees will fight again," and that perhaps to betake himself again to flight).—Tertullian: De Fuga in Persecutione, c. 10.
The corresponding Greek, Ἀνὴρ ὁ φεύγων κaὶ πάλιν μαχήσεται, is ascribed to Menander. See Fragments (appended to Aristophanes in Didot's Bib. Græca,), p. 91.
That same man that runnith awaie
Maie again fight an other daie.
Erasmus: Apothegms, 1542 (translated by Udall).
Celuy qui fuit de bonne heure
Pent combattre derechef
(He who flies at the right time can fight again).
Satyre Menippée (1594).
Qui fuit peut revenir aussi;
Qui meurt, il n'en est pas ainsi
(He who flies can also return; but it is not so with him who dies).
Scarron (1610-1660).
He that fights and runs away
May turn and fight another day;
But he that is in battle slain
Will never rise to fight again.
Ray: History of the Rebellion (1752), p. 48.
For he who fights and runs away
May live to fight another day;
But he who is in battle slain
Can never rise and fight again.
Goldsmith: The Art of Poetry on a New Plan (1761), vol. ii. p. 147.
Most wretched men
Are cradled into poetry by wrong;
They learn in suffering what they teach in song.
Shelley: Julian and Maddalo.
[217]
The assembled souls of all that men held wise.
Gondibert. Book ii. Canto v. Stanza 37.
For angling-rod he took a sturdy oake;[217:2]
For line, a cable that in storm ne'er broke;
His hooke was such as heads the end of pole
To pluck down house ere fire consumes it whole;
The hook was baited with a dragon's tale,—
And then on rock he stood to bob for whale.
Britannia Triumphans. Page 15. 1637.
[217:1] From ignorance our comfort flows.—Prior: To the Hon. Charles Montague.
Where ignorance is bliss,
'T is folly to be wise.
Gray: Eton College, Stanza 10.
For angling rod he took a sturdy oak;
For line, a cable that in storm ne'er broke;
. . . . .
His hook was baited with a dragon's tail,—
And then on rock he stood to bob for whale.
From The Mock Romance, a rhapsody attached to The Loves of Hero and Leander, published in London in the years 1653 and 1677. Chambers's Book of Days, vol. i. p. 173. Daniel: Rural Sports, Supplement, p. 57.
His angle-rod made of a sturdy oak;
His line, a cable which in storms ne'er broke;
His hook he baited with a dragon's tail,—
And sat upon a rock, and bobb'd for whale.
William King (1663-1712): Upon a Giant's Angling (In Chalmers's "British Poets" ascribed to King.)
Too rashly charged the troops of error, and remain as trophies unto the enemies of truth.
Religio Medici. Part i. Sect. vi.
Rich with the spoils of Nature.[217:3]
Religio Medici. Part i. Sect. xiii.
[218]
Nature is the art of God.[218:1]
Religio Medici. Part i. Sect. xvi.
The thousand doors that lead to death.[218:2]
Religio Medici. Part i. Sect. xliv.
The heart of man is the place the Devil 's in: I feel sometimes a hell within myself.[218:3]
Religio Medici. Part i. Sect. li.
There is no road or ready way to virtue.
Religio Medici. Part i. Sect. lv.
It is the common wonder of all men, how among so many million of faces there should be none alike.[218:4]
Religio Medici. Part ii. Sect. ii.
There is music in the beauty, and the silent note which Cupid strikes, far sweeter than the sound of an instrument; for there is music wherever there is harmony, order, or proportion; and thus far we may maintain the music of the spheres.[218:5]
Religio Medici. Part ii. Sect. ix.
Sleep is a death; oh, make me try
By sleeping what it is to die,
And as gently lay my head
On my grave as now my bed!
Religio Medici. Part ii. Sect. xii.
Ruat cœlum, fiat voluntas tua.[218:6]
Religio Medici. Part ii. Sect. xii.
[219]
Times before you, when even living men were antiquities,—when the living might exceed the dead, and to depart this world could not be properly said to go unto the greater number.[219:1]
Dedication to Urn-Burial.
I look upon you as gem of the old rock.[219:2]
Dedication to Urn-Burial.
Man is a noble animal, splendid in ashes and pompous in the grave.
Dedication to Urn-Burial. Chap. v.
Quietly rested under the drums and tramplings of three conquests.
Dedication to Urn-Burial. Chap. v.
Herostratus lives that burnt the temple of Diana; he is almost lost that built it.[219:3]
Dedication to Urn-Burial. Chap. v.
What song the Sirens sang, or what name Achilles assumed when he hid himself among women.
Dedication to Urn-Burial. Chap. v.
When we desire to confine our words, we commonly say they are spoken under the rose.
Vulgar Errors.
[217:3] Rich with the spoils of time.—Gray: Elegy, stanza 13.
[218:1] The course of Nature is the art of God.—Young: Night Thoughts, night ix. line 1267.
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.
Milton: Paradise Lost, book i. line 253.
[218:4] The human features and countenance, although composed of but some ten parts or little more, are so fashioned that among so many thousands of men there are no two in existence who cannot be distinguished from one another.—Pliny: Natural History, book vii. chap. i.
Of a thousand shavers, two do not shave so much alike as not to be distinguished.—Johnson (1777).
There never were in the world two opinions alike, no more than two hairs or two grains; the most universal quality is diversity.—Montaigne: Of the Resemblance of Children to their Fathers, book i. chap. xxxvii.
Oh, could you view the melody
Of every grace
And music of her face.
Lovelace: Orpheus to Beasts.
[219:1] 'T is long since Death had the majority.—Blair: The Grave, part ii. line 449.
[219:2] Adamas de rupe præstantissimus (A most excellent diamond from the rock).
A chip of the old block.—Prior: Life of Burke.
The aspiring youth that fired the Ephesian dome
Outlives in fame the pious fool that raised it.
Cibber: Richard III. act iii. sc. 1.
The yielding marble of her snowy breast.
On a Lady passing through a Crowd of People.
That eagle's fate and mine are one,
Which on the shaft that made him die
Espied a feather of his own,
Wherewith he wont to soar so high.[219:4]
To a Lady singing a Song of his Composing.
[220]
A narrow compass! and yet there
Dwelt all that 's good, and all that 's fair;
Give me but what this riband bound,
Take all the rest the sun goes round.
On a Girdle.
For all we know
Of what the blessed do above
Is, that they sing, and that they love.
While I listen to thy Voice.
Poets that lasting marble seek
Must come in Latin or in Greek.
Of English Verse.
Under the tropic is our language spoke,
And part of Flanders hath receiv'd our yoke.
Upon the Death of the Lord Protector.
Go, lovely rose!
Tell her that wastes her time and me
That now she knows,
When I resemble her to thee,
How sweet and fair she seems to be.
Go, Lovely Rose.
How small a part of time they share
That are so wondrous sweet and fair!
Go, Lovely Rose.
Illustrious acts high raptures do infuse,
And every conqueror creates a muse.
Panegyric on Cromwell.
[221]
In such green palaces the first kings reign'd,
Slept in their shades, and angels entertain'd;
With such old counsellors they did advise,
And by frequenting sacred groves grew wise.
On St. James's Park.
And keeps the palace of the soul.[221:1]
Of Tea.
Poets lose half the praise they should have got,
Could it be known what they discreetly blot.
Upon Roscommon's Translation of Horace, De Arte Poetica.
Could we forbear dispute and practise love,
We should agree as angels do above.
Divine Love. Canto iii.
The soul's dark cottage, batter'd and decay'd,
Lets in new light through chinks that Time has made.[221:2]
Stronger by weakness, wiser men become
As they draw near to their eternal home:
Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view
That stand upon the threshold of the new.
On the Divine Poems.
So in the Libyan fable it is told
That once an eagle, stricken with a dart,
Said, when he saw the fashion of the shaft,
"With our own feathers, not by others' hands,
Are we now smitten."
Æschylus: Fragm. 123 (Plumptre's Translation).
So the struck eagle, stretch'd upon the plain,
No more through rolling clouds to soar again,
View'd his own feather on the fatal dart,
And wing'd the shaft that quiver'd in his heart.
Byron: English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, line 826.
Like a young eagle, who has lent his plume
To fledge the shaft by which he meets his doom,
See their own feathers pluck'd to wing the dart
Which rank corruption destines for their heart.
Thomas Moore: Corruption.
[221:1] The dome of thought, the palace of the soul.—Byron: Childe Harold, canto ii. stanza 6.
Drawing near her death, she sent most pious thoughts as harbingers to heaven; and her soul saw a glimpse of happiness through the chinks of her sickness-broken body.
Life of Monica.
He was one of a lean body and visage, as if his eager soul, biting for anger at the clog of his body, desired to fret a passage through it.[221:3]
Life of the Duke of Alva.
[222]
She commandeth her husband, in any equal matter, by constant obeying him.
Holy and Profane State. The Good Wife.
He knows little who will tell his wife all he knows.
Holy and Profane State. The Good Husband.
One that will not plead that cause wherein his tongue must be confuted by his conscience.
Holy and Profane State. The Good Advocate.
A little skill in antiquity inclines a man to Popery; but depth in that study brings him about again to our religion.[222:1]
Holy and Profane State. The True Church Antiquary.
But our captain counts the image of God—nevertheless his image—cut in ebony as if done in ivory, and in the blackest Moors he sees the representation of the King of Heaven.
Holy and Profane State. The Good Sea-Captain.
To smell to a turf of fresh earth is wholesome for the body; no less are thoughts of mortality cordial to the soul.
Holy and Profane State. The Virtuous Lady.
The lion is not so fierce as painted.[222:2]
Holy and Profane State. Of Preferment.
Their heads sometimes so little that there is no room for wit; sometimes so long that there is no wit for so much room.
Holy and Profane State. Of Natural Fools.
The Pyramids themselves, doting with age, have forgotten the names of their founders.
Holy and Profane State. Of Tombs.
Learning hath gained most by those books by which the printers have lost.
Holy and Profane State. Of Books.
They that marry ancient people, merely in expectation to bury them, hang themselves in hope that one will come and cut the halter.
Holy and Profane State. Of Marriage.
Fame sometimes hath created something of nothing.
Holy and Profane State. Fame.
Often the cockloft is empty in those whom Nature hath built many stories high.[222:3]
Andronicus. Sect. vi. Par. 18, 1.
A fiery soul, which, working out its way,
Fretted the pygmy-body to decay,
And o'er-inform'd the tenement of clay.
Dryden: Absalom and Achitophel, part i. line 156.
[222:1] See Bacon, p. 166.
[222:2] See Herbert, p. 205.
[222:3] See Bacon, p. 170.
[223]
Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world, and all our woe.
Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 1.
Or if Sion hill
Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook, that flow'd
Fast by the oracle of God.
Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 10.
Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.
Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 16.
What in me is dark
Illumine, what is low raise and support,
That to the height of this great argument
I may assert eternal Providence,
And justify the ways of God to men.[223:1]
Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 22.
As far as angels' ken.
Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 59.
Yet from those flames
No light, but rather darkness visible.
Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 62.
Where peace
And rest can never dwell, hope never comes
That comes to all.
Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 65.
What though the field be lost?
All is not lost; th' unconquerable will,
And study of revenge, immortal hate,
And courage never to submit or yield.
Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 105.
To be weak is miserable,
Doing or suffering.
Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 157.
And out of good still to find means of evil.
Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 165.
Farewell happy fields,
Where joy forever dwells: hail, horrors!
Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 249.
[224]
A mind not to be chang'd by place or time.
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.[224:1]
Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 253.
Here we may reign secure; and in my choice
To reign is worth ambition, though in hell:
Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.
Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 261.
Heard so oft
In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge
Of battle.
Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 275.
His spear, to equal which the tallest pine
Hewn on Norwegian hills to be the mast
Of some great ammiral were but a wand,
He walk'd with to support uneasy steps
Over the burning marle.
Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 292.
Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks
In Vallombrosa, where th' Etrurian shades
High over-arch'd imbower.
Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 302.
Awake, arise, or be forever fallen!
Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 330.
Spirits when they please
Can either sex assume, or both.
Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 423.
Execute their airy purposes.
Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 430.
When night
Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons
Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine.
Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 500.
Th' imperial ensign, which full high advanc'd
Shone like a meteor, streaming to the wind.[224:2]
Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 536.
Sonorous metal blowing martial sounds:
At which the universal host up sent
A shout that tore hell's concave, and beyond
Frighted the reign of Chaos and old Night.
Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 540.
[225]
Anon they move
In perfect phalanx, to the Dorian mood
Of flutes and soft recorders.
Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 549.
His form had yet not lost
All her original brightness, nor appear'd
Less than archangel ruin'd, and th' excess
Of glory obscur'd.
Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 591.
In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds
On half the nations, and with fear of change
Perplexes monarchs.
Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 597.
Thrice he assay'd, and thrice in spite of scorn
Tears, such as angels weep, burst forth.
Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 619.
Who overcomes
By force, hath overcome but half his foe.
Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 648.
Mammon, the least erected spirit that fell
From heaven; for ev'n in heaven his looks and thoughts
Were always downward bent, admiring more
The riches of heaven's pavement, trodden gold,
Than aught divine or holy else enjoy'd
In vision beatific.
Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 679.
Let none admire
That riches grow in hell: that soil may best
Deserve the precious bane.
Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 690.
Anon out of the earth a fabric huge
Rose, like an exhalation.
Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 710.
From morn
To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve,—
A summer's day; and with the setting sun
Dropp'd from the Zenith like a falling star.
Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 742.
Fairy elves,
Whose midnight revels by a forest side
Or fountain some belated peasant sees,
Or dreams he sees, while overhead the moon
Sits arbitress.
Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 781.
[226]
High on a throne of royal state, which far
Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind,
Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand
Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold,
Satan exalted sat, by merit rais'd
To that bad eminence.
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 1.
Surer to prosper than prosperity
Could have assur'd us.
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 39.
The strongest and the fiercest spirit
That fought in heaven, now fiercer by despair.
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 44.
Rather than be less,
Car'd not to be at all.
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 47.
My sentence is for open war.
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 51.
That in our proper motion we ascend
Up to our native seat: descent and fall
To us is adverse.
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 75.
When the scourge
Inexorable and the torturing hour
Call us to penance.
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 90.
Which, if not victory, is yet revenge.
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 105.
But all was false and hollow; though his tongue
Dropp'd manna, and could make the worse appear
The better reason,[226:1] to perplex and dash
Maturest counsels.
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 112.
Th' ethereal mould
Incapable of stain would soon expel
Her mischief, and purge off the baser fire,
Victorious. Thus repuls'd, our final hope
Is flat despair.[226:2]
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 139.
[227]
For who would lose,
Though full of pain, this intellectual being,
Those thoughts that wander through eternity,
To perish rather, swallow'd up and lost
In the wide womb of uncreated night?
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 146.
His red right hand.[227:1]
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 174.
Unrespited, unpitied, unrepriev'd.
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 185.
The never-ending flight
Of future days.
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 221.
Our torments also may in length of time
Become our elements.
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 274.
With grave
Aspect he rose, and in his rising seem'd
A pillar of state; deep on his front engraven
Deliberation sat, and public care;
And princely counsel in his face yet shone,
Majestic though in ruin: sage he stood,
With Atlantean shoulders, fit to bear
The weight of mightiest monarchies; his look
Drew audience and attention still as night
Or summer's noontide air.
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 300.
The palpable obscure.
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 406.
Long is the way
And hard, that out of hell leads up to light.
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 432.
Their rising all at once was as the sound
Of thunder heard remote.
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 476.
The low'ring element
Scowls o'er the darken'd landscape.
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 490.
Oh, shame to men! devil with devil damn'd
Firm concord holds, men only disagree
Of creatures rational.
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 496.
[228]
In discourse more sweet;
For eloquence the soul, song charms the sense.
Others apart sat on a hill retir'd,
In thoughts more elevate, and reason'd high
Of providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate,
Fix'd fate, free-will, foreknowledge absolute;
And found no end, in wand'ring mazes lost.
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 555.
Vain wisdom all and false philosophy.
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 565.
Arm th' obdur'd breast
With stubborn patience as with triple steel.
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 568.
A gulf profound as that Serbonian bog
Betwixt Damiata and Mount Casius old,
Where armies whole have sunk: the parching air
Burns frore, and cold performs th' effect of fire.
Thither by harpy-footed Furies hal'd,
At certain revolutions all the damn'd
Are brought, and feel by turns the bitter change
Of fierce extremes,—extremes by change more fierce;
From beds of raging fire to starve in ice
Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine
Immovable, infix'd, and frozen round,
Periods of time; thence hurried back to fire.
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 592.
O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp,
Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death.
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 620.
Gorgons and Hydras and Chimæras dire.
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 628.
The other shape,
If shape it might be call'd that shape had none
Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb;
Or substance might be call'd that shadow seem'd,
For each seem'd either,—black it stood as night,
Fierce as ten furies, terrible as hell,
And shook a dreadful dart; what seem'd his head
The likeness of a kingly crown had on.
Satan was now at hand.
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 666.
[229]
Whence and what art thou, execrable shape?
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 681.
Back to thy punishment,
False fugitive, and to thy speed add wings.
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 699.
So spake the grisly Terror.
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 704.
Incens'd with indignation Satan stood
Unterrify'd, and like a comet burn'd
That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge
In th' arctic sky, and from his horrid hair
Shakes pestilence and war.
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 707.
Their fatal hands
No second stroke intend.
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 712.
Hell
Grew darker at their frown.
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 719.
I fled, and cry'd out, Death!
Hell trembled at the hideous name, and sigh'd
From all her caves, and back resounded, Death!
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 787.
Before mine eyes in opposition sits
Grim Death, my son and foe.
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 803.
Death
Grinn'd horrible a ghastly smile, to hear
His famine should be fill'd.
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 845.
On a sudden open fly,
With impetuous recoil and jarring sound,
Th' infernal doors, and on their hinges grate
Harsh thunder.
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 879.
Where eldest Night
And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, hold
Eternal anarchy amidst the noise
Of endless wars, and by confusion stand;
For hot, cold, moist, and dry, four champions fierce,
Strive here for mast'ry.
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 894.
Into this wild abyss,
The womb of Nature and perhaps her grave.
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 910.
[230]
O'er bog or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare,
With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way,
And swims or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies.
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 948.
With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout,
Confusion worse confounded.
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 995.
So he with difficulty and labour hard
Mov'd on, with difficulty and labour he.
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 1021.
And fast by, hanging in a golden chain,
This pendent world, in bigness as a star
Of smallest magnitude, close by the moon.
Paradise Lost. Book ii. Line 1051.
Hail holy light! offspring of heav'n first-born.
Paradise Lost. Book iii. Line 1.
The rising world of waters dark and deep.
Paradise Lost. Book iii. Line 11.
Thoughts that voluntary move
Harmonious numbers.
Paradise Lost. Book iii. Line 37.
Thus with the year
Seasons return; but not to me returns
Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn,
Or sight of vernal bloom or summer's rose,
Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine;
But cloud instead, and ever-during dark
Surrounds me; from the cheerful ways of men
Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair
Presented with a universal blank
Of Nature's works, to me expung'd and raz'd,
And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.
Paradise Lost. Book iii. Line 40.
Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.
Paradise Lost. Book iii. Line 99.
See golden days, fruitful of golden deeds,
With joy and love triumphing.
Paradise Lost. Book iii. Line 337.
[231]
Dark with excessive bright.
Paradise Lost. Book iii. Line 380.
Embryos and idiots, eremites and friars,
White, black, and gray, with all their trumpery.
Paradise Lost. Book iii. Line 474.
Since call'd
The Paradise of Fools, to few unknown.
Paradise Lost. Book iii. Line 495.
And oft, though wisdom wake, suspicion sleeps
At wisdom's gate, and to simplicity
Resigns her charge, while goodness thinks no ill
Where no ill seems.
Paradise Lost. Book iii. Line 686.
The hell within him.
Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 20.
Now conscience wakes despair
That slumber'd,—wakes the bitter memory
Of what he was, what is, and what must be
Worse.
Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 23.
A grateful mind
By owing owes not, but still pays, at once
Indebted and discharg'd.
Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 55.
Which way shall I fly
Infinite wrath and infinite despair?
Which way I fly is hell; myself am hell;
And in the lowest deep a lower deep,
Still threat'ning to devour me, opens wide,
To which the hell I suffer seems a heaven.
Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 73.
Such joy ambition finds.
Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 92.
Ease would recant
Vows made in pain, as violent and void.
Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 96.
So farewell hope, and with hope farewell fear,
Farewell remorse; all good to me is lost.
Evil, be thou my good.
Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 108.
[232]
That practis'd falsehood under saintly shew,
Deep malice to conceal, couch'd with revenge.
Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 122.
Sabean odours from the spicy shore
Of Araby the Blest.
Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 162.
And on the Tree of Life,
The middle tree and highest there that grew,
Sat like a cormorant.
Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 194.
A heaven on earth.
Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 208.
Flowers worthy of paradise.
Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 241.
Flowers of all hue, and without thorn the rose.[232:1]
Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 256.
Proserpine gathering flowers,
Herself a fairer flower.
Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 269.
For contemplation he and valour form'd,
For softness she and sweet attractive grace;
He for God only, she for God in him.
His fair large front and eye sublime declar'd
Absolute rule; and hyacinthine locks
Round from his parted forelock manly hung
Clustering, but not beneath his shoulders broad.
Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 297.
Implied
Subjection, but requir'd with gentle sway,
And by her yielded, by him best receiv'd,—
Yielded with coy submission, modest pride,
And sweet, reluctant, amorous delay.
Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 307.
Adam the goodliest man of men since born
His sons, the fairest of her daughters Eve.
Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 323.
And with necessity,
The tyrant's plea,[232:2] excus'd his devilish deeds.
Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 393.
[233]
As Jupiter
On Juno smiles, when he impregns the clouds
That shed May flowers.
Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 499.
Imparadis'd in one another's arms.
Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 506.
Live while ye may,
Yet happy pair.
Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 533.
Now came still evening on, and twilight gray
Had in her sober livery all things clad;
Silence accompany'd; for beast and bird,
They to their grassy couch, these to their nests,
Were slunk, all but the wakeful nightingale;
She all night long her amorous descant sung;
Silence was pleas'd. Now glow'd the firmament
With living sapphires; Hesperus, that led
The starry host, rode brightest, till the moon,
Rising in clouded majesty, at length
Apparent queen unveil'd her peerless light,
And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw.
Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 598.
The timely dew of sleep.
Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 614.
With thee conversing I forget all time,
All seasons, and their change,—all please alike.
Sweet is the breath of morn, her rising sweet,
With charm of earliest birds; pleasant the sun
When first on this delightful land he spreads
His orient beams on herb, tree, fruit, and flower,
Glist'ring with dew; fragrant the fertile earth
After soft showers; and sweet the coming on
Of grateful ev'ning mild; then silent night
With this her solemn bird and this fair moon,
And these the gems of heaven, her starry train:
But neither breath of morn when she ascends
With charm of earliest birds, nor rising sun
On this delightful land, nor herb, fruit, flower,
Glist'ring with dew, nor fragrance after showers,
Nor grateful ev'ning mild, nor silent night
[234]With this her solemn bird, nor walk by moon
Or glittering starlight, without thee is sweet.
Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 639.
Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth
Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep.
Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 677.
Eas'd the putting off
These troublesome disguises which we wear.
Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 739.
Hail wedded love, mysterious law, true source
Of human offspring.
Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 750.
Squat like a toad, close at the ear of Eve.
Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 800.
Him thus intent Ithuriel with his spear
Touch'd lightly; for no falsehood can endure
Touch of celestial temper.
Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 810.
Not to know me argues yourselves unknown,
The lowest of your throng.
Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 830.
Abash'd the devil stood,
And felt how awful goodness is, and saw
Virtue in her shape how lovely.
Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 846.
All hell broke loose.
Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 918.
Like Teneriff or Atlas unremoved.
Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 987.
The starry cope
Of heaven.
Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 992.
Fled
Murmuring, and with him fled the shades of night.
Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 1014.
Now morn, her rosy steps in th' eastern clime
Advancing, sow'd the earth with orient pearl,
When Adam wak'd, so custom'd; for his sleep
Was aery light, from pure digestion bred.
Paradise Lost. Book v. Line 1.
[235]
Hung over her enamour'd, and beheld
Beauty, which, whether waking or asleep,
Shot forth peculiar graces.
Paradise Lost. Book v. Line 13.
My latest found,
Heaven's last, best gift, my ever new delight!
Paradise Lost. Book v. Line 18.
Good, the more
Communicated, more abundant grows.
Paradise Lost. Book v. Line 71.
These are thy glorious works, Parent of good!
Paradise Lost. Book v. Line 153.
Fairest of stars, last in the train of night,
If better thou belong not to the dawn.
Paradise Lost. Book v. Line 166.
A wilderness of sweets.
Paradise Lost. Book v. Line 294.
Another morn
Ris'n on mid-noon.
Paradise Lost. Book v. Line 310.
So saying, with despatchful looks in haste
She turns, on hospitable thoughts intent.
Paradise Lost. Book v. Line 331.
Nor jealousy
Was understood, the injur'd lover's hell.
Paradise Lost. Book v. Line 449.
The bright consummate flower.
Paradise Lost. Book v. Line 481.
Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers.
Paradise Lost. Book v. Line 601.
They eat, they drink, and in communion sweet
Quaff immortality and joy.
Paradise Lost. Book v. Line 637.
Satan; so call him now, his former name
Is heard no more in heaven.
Paradise Lost. Book v. Line 658.
Midnight brought on the dusky hour
Friendliest to sleep and silence.
Paradise Lost. Book v. Line 667.
Innumerable as the stars of night,
Or stars of morning, dewdrops which the sun
Impearls on every leaf and every flower.
Paradise Lost. Book v. Line 745.
So spake the seraph Abdiel, faithful found;
Among the faithless, faithful only he.
Paradise Lost. Book v. Line 896.
Morn,
Wak'd by the circling hours, with rosy hand
Unbarr'd the gates of light.
Paradise Lost. Book vi. Line 2.
[236]
Servant of God, well done; well hast thou fought
The better fight.
Paradise Lost. Book vi. Line 29.
Arms on armour clashing bray'd
Horrible discord, and the madding wheels
Of brazen chariots rag'd: dire was the noise
Of conflict.
Paradise Lost. Book vi. Line 209.
Spirits that live throughout,
Vital in every part, not as frail man,
In entrails, heart or head, liver or reins,
Cannot but by annihilating die.
Paradise Lost. Book vi. Line 345.
Far off his coming shone.
Paradise Lost. Book vi. Line 768.
More safe I sing with mortal voice, unchang'd
To hoarse or mute, though fall'n on evil days,
On evil days though fall'n, and evil tongues.
Paradise Lost. Book vii. Line 24.
Still govern thou my song,
Urania, and fit audience find, though few.
Paradise Lost. Book vii. Line 30.
Heaven open'd wide
Her ever during gates, harmonious sound,
On golden hinges moving.
Paradise Lost. Book vii. Line 205.
Hither, as to their fountain, other stars
Repairing, in their golden urns draw light.
Paradise Lost. Book vii. Line 364.
Now half appear'd
The tawny lion, pawing to get free
His hinder parts.
Paradise Lost. Book vii. Line 463.
Indu'd
With sanctity of reason.
Paradise Lost. Book vii. Line 507.
A broad and ample road, whose dust is gold,
And pavement stars,—as stars to thee appear
Seen in the galaxy, that milky way
Which nightly as a circling zone thou seest
Powder'd with stars.
Paradise Lost. Book vii. Line 577.
[237]
The Angel ended, and in Adam's ear
So charming left his voice, that he awhile
Thought him still speaking, still stood fix'd to hear.
Paradise Lost. Book viii. Line 1.
There swift return
Diurnal, merely to officiate light
Round this opacous earth, this punctual spot.
Paradise Lost. Book viii. Line 21.
And grace that won who saw to wish her stay.
Paradise Lost. Book viii. Line 43.
And touch'd by her fair tendance, gladlier grew.
Paradise Lost. Book viii. Line 47.
With centric and eccentric scribbled o'er,
Cycle and epicycle, orb in orb.
Paradise Lost. Book viii. Line 83.
Her silent course advance
With inoffensive pace, that spinning sleeps
On her soft axle.
Paradise Lost. Book viii. Line 163.
Be lowly wise:
Think only what concerns thee and thy being.
Paradise Lost. Book viii. Line 173.
To know
That which before us lies in daily life
Is the prime wisdom.
Paradise Lost. Book viii. Line 192.
Liquid lapse of murmuring streams.
Paradise Lost. Book viii. Line 263.
And feel that I am happier than I know.
Paradise Lost. Book viii. Line 282.
Among unequals what society
Can sort, what harmony, or true delight?
Paradise Lost. Book viii. Line 383.
Grace was in all her steps, heaven in her eye,
In every gesture dignity and love.
Paradise Lost. Book viii. Line 488.
Her virtue and the conscience of her worth,
That would be woo'd, and not unsought be won.
Paradise Lost. Book viii. Line 502.
She what was honour knew,
And with obsequious majesty approv'd
My pleaded reason. To the nuptial bower
I led her blushing like the morn; all heaven
[238]And happy constellations on that hour
Shed their selectest influence; the earth
Gave sign of gratulation, and each hill;
Joyous the birds; fresh gales and gentle airs
Whisper'd it to the woods, and from their wings
Flung rose, flung odours from the spicy shrub.
Paradise Lost. Book viii. Line 508.
The sum of earthly bliss.
Paradise Lost. Book viii. Line 522.
So well to know
Her own, that what she wills to do or say
Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best.
Paradise Lost. Book viii. Line 548.
Accuse not Nature: she hath done her part;
Do thou but thine.
Paradise Lost. Book viii. Line 561.
Oft times nothing profits more
Than self-esteem, grounded on just and right
Well manag'd.[238:1]
Paradise Lost. Book viii. Line 571.
Those graceful acts,
Those thousand decencies that daily flow
From all her words and actions.
Paradise Lost. Book viii. Line 600.
With a smile that glow'd
Celestial rosy red, love's proper hue.
Paradise Lost. Book viii. Line 618.
My unpremeditated verse.
Paradise Lost. Book ix. Line 24.
Pleas'd me, long choosing and beginning late.
Paradise Lost. Book ix. Line 26.
Unless an age too late, or cold
Climate, or years, damp my intended wing.
Paradise Lost. Book ix. Line 44.
Revenge, at first though sweet,
Bitter ere long back on itself recoils.
Paradise Lost. Book ix. Line 171.
The work under our labour grows,
Luxurious by restraint.
Paradise Lost. Book ix. Line 208.
Smiles from reason flow,
To brute deny'd, and are of love the food.
Paradise Lost. Book ix. Line 239.
[239]
For solitude sometimes is best society,
And short retirement urges sweet return.
Paradise Lost. Book ix. Line 249.
At shut of evening flowers.
Paradise Lost. Book ix. Line 278.
As one who long in populous city pent,
Where houses thick and sewers annoy the air.
Paradise Lost. Book ix. Line 445.
So gloz'd the tempter.
Paradise Lost. Book ix. Line 549.
Hope elevates, and joy
Brightens his crest.
Paradise Lost. Book ix. Line 633.
Earth felt the wound; and Nature from her seat,
Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe
That all was lost.
Paradise Lost. Book ix. Line 782.
In her face excuse
Came prologue, and apology too prompt.
Paradise Lost. Book ix. Line 853.
A pillar'd shade
High overarch'd, and echoing walks between.
Paradise Lost. Book ix. Line 1106.
Yet I shall temper so
Justice with mercy, as may illustrate most
Them fully satisfy'd, and thee appease.
Paradise Lost. Book x. Line 77.
So scented the grim Feature, and upturn'd
His nostril wide into the murky air,
Sagacious of his quarry from so far.
Paradise Lost. Book x. Line 279.
How gladly would I meet
Mortality my sentence, and be earth
Insensible! how glad would lay me down
As in my mother's lap!
Paradise Lost. Book x. Line 775.
Must I thus leave thee, Paradise?—thus leave
Thee, native soil, these happy walks and shades?
Paradise Lost. Book xi. Line 269.
[240]
Then purg'd with euphrasy and rue
The visual nerve, for he had much to see.
Paradise Lost. Book xi. Line 414.
Moping melancholy
And moon-struck madness.
Paradise Lost. Book xi. Line 485.
And over them triumphant Death his dart
Shook, but delay'd to strike, though oft invok'd.
Paradise Lost. Book xi. Line 491.
So may'st thou live, till like ripe fruit thou drop
Into thy mother's lap.
Paradise Lost. Book xi. Line 535.
Nor love thy life, nor hate; but what thou liv'st
Live well: how long or short permit to heaven.[240:1]
Paradise Lost. Book xi. Line 553.
A bevy of fair women.
Paradise Lost. Book xi. Line 582.
The brazen throat of war.
Paradise Lost. Book xi. Line 713.
Some natural tears they dropp'd, but wip'd them soon;
The world was all before them, where to choose
Their place of rest, and Providence their guide.
They hand in hand, with wand'ring steps and slow,
Through Eden took their solitary way.
Paradise Lost. Book xii. Line 645.
Beauty stands
In the admiration only of weak minds
Led captive.
Paradise Regained. Book ii. Line 220.
Rocks whereon greatest men have oftest wreck'd.
Paradise Regained. Book ii. Line 228.
Of whom to be disprais'd were no small praise.
Paradise Regained. Book iii. Line 56.
Elephants endors'd with towers.
Paradise Regained. Book iii. Line 329.
Syene, and where the shadow both way falls,
Meroe, Nilotic isle.
Paradise Regained. Book iv. Line 70.
Dusk faces with white silken turbans wreath'd.
Paradise Regained. Book iv. Line 76.
[241]
Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts
And eloquence.
Paradise Regained. Book iv. Line 240.
The olive grove of Academe,
Plato's retirement, where the Attic bird
Trills her thick-warbled notes the summer long.
Paradise Regained. Book iv. Line 244.
Thence to the famous orators repair,
Those ancient, whose resistless eloquence
Wielded at will that fierce democratie,
Shook the arsenal, and fulmin'd over Greece,
To Macedon, and Artaxerxes' throne.
Paradise Regained. Book iv. Line 267.
Socrates . . . .
Whom well inspir'd the oracle pronounc'd
Wisest of men.
Paradise Regained. Book iv. Line 274.
Deep vers'd in books, and shallow in himself.
Paradise Regained. Book iv. Line 327.
As children gath'ring pebbles on the shore.
Or if I would delight my private hours
With music or with poem, where so soon
As in our native language can I find
That solace?
Paradise Regained. Book iv. Line 330.
Till morning fair
Came forth with pilgrim steps in amice gray.
Paradise Regained. Book iv. Line 426.
O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon,
Irrecoverably dark, total eclipse
Without all hope of day!
Samson Agonistes. Line 80.
The sun to me is dark
And silent as the moon,
When she deserts the night
Hid in her vacant interlunar cave.
Samson Agonistes. Line 86.
[242]
Ran on embattled armies clad in iron,
And, weaponless himself,
Made arms ridiculous.
Samson Agonistes. Line 129.
Just are the ways of God,
And justifiable to men;
Unless there be who think not God at all.
Samson Agonistes. Line 293.
What boots it at one gate to make defence,
And at another to let in the foe?
Samson Agonistes. Line 560.
But who is this, what thing of sea or land,—
Female of sex it seems,—
That so bedeck'd, ornate, and gay,
Comes this way sailing
Like a stately ship
Of Tarsus, bound for th' isles
Of Javan or Gadire,
With all her bravery on, and tackle trim,
Sails fill'd, and streamers waving,
Courted by all the winds that hold them play,
An amber scent of odorous perfume
Her harbinger?
Samson Agonistes. Line 710.
Yet beauty, though injurious, hath strange power,
After offence returning, to regain
Love once possess'd.
Samson Agonistes. Line 1003.
He 's gone, and who knows how he may report
Thy words by adding fuel to the flame?
Samson Agonistes. Line 1350.
For evil news rides post, while good news baits.
Samson Agonistes. Line 1538.
And as an ev'ning dragon came,
Assailant on the perched roosts
And nests in order rang'd
Of tame villatic fowl.
Samson Agonistes. Line 1692.
Nothing is here for tears, nothing to wail
Or knock the breast, no weakness, no contempt,
Dispraise, or blame,—nothing but well and fair,
And what may quiet us in a death so noble.
Samson Agonistes. Line 1721.
[243]
Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot
Which men call earth.
Comus. Line 5.
That golden key
That opes the palace of eternity.
Comus. Line 13.
The nodding horror of whose shady brows
Threats the forlorn and wandering passenger.
Comus. Line 38.
I will tell you now
What never yet was heard in tale or song,
From old or modern bard, in hall or bower.
Comus. Line 43.
Bacchus, that first from out the purple grape
Crush'd the sweet poison of misused wine.
Comus. Line 46.
These my sky-robes spun out of Iris' woof.
Comus. Line 83.
The star that bids the shepherd fold.
Comus. Line 93.
Midnight shout and revelry,
Tipsy dance and jollity.
Comus. Line 103.
Ere the blabbing eastern scout,
The nice morn, on th' Indian steep
From her cabin'd loop-hole peep.
Comus. Line 138.
When the gray-hooded Even,
Like a sad votarist in palmer's weed,
Rose from the hindmost wheels of Phœbus' wain.
Comus. Line 188.
A thousand fantasies
Begin to throng into my memory,
Of calling shapes, and beck'ning shadows dire,
And airy tongues that syllable men's names
On sands and shores and desert wildernesses.
Comus. Line 205.
O welcome, pure-ey'd Faith, white-handed Hope,
Thou hovering angel, girt with golden wings!
Comus. Line 213.
Was I deceiv'd, or did a sable cloud
Turn forth her silver lining on the night?
Comus. Line 221.
Can any mortal mixture of earth's mould
Breathe such divine enchanting ravishment?
Comus. Line 244.
[244]
How sweetly did they float upon the wings
Of silence through the empty-vaulted night,
At every fall smoothing the raven down
Of darkness till it smil'd!
Comus. Line 249.
Who, as they sung, would take the prison'd soul
And lap it in Elysium.
Comus. Line 256.
Such sober certainty of waking bliss.
Comus. Line 263.
I took it for a faery vision
Of some gay creatures of the element,
That in the colours of the rainbow live,
And play i' th' plighted clouds.
Comus. Line 298.
It were a journey like the path to heaven,
To help you find them.
Comus. Line 303.
With thy long levell'd rule of streaming light.
Comus. Line 340.
Virtue could see to do what virtue would
By her own radiant light, though sun and moon
Were in the flat sea sunk. And Wisdom's self
Oft seeks to sweet retired solitude,
Where with her best nurse Contemplation
She plumes her feathers and lets grow her wings,
That in the various bustle of resort
Were all-to ruffled, and sometimes impair'd.
He that has light within his own clear breast
May sit i' th' centre and enjoy bright day;
But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts
Benighted walks under the midday sun.
Comus. Line 373.
The unsunn'd heaps
Of miser's treasure.
Comus. Line 398.
'T is chastity, my brother, chastity:
She that has that is clad in complete steel.
Comus. Line 420.
Some say no evil thing that walks by night,
In fog or fire, by lake or moorish fen,
Blue meagre hag, or stubborn unlaid ghost
[245]That breaks his magic chains at curfew time,
No goblin, or swart fairy of the mine,
Hath hurtful power o'er true virginity.
Comus. Line 432.
So dear to heav'n is saintly chastity,
That when a soul is found sincerely so,
A thousand liveried angels lackey her,
Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt,
And in clear dream and solemn vision
Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear,
Till oft converse with heav'nly habitants
Begin to cast a beam on th' outward shape.
Comus. Line 453.
How charming is divine philosophy!
Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose,
But musical as is Apollo's lute,[245:1]
And a perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets
Where no crude surfeit reigns.
Comus. Line 476.
And sweeten'd every musk-rose of the dale.
Comus. Line 496.
Fill'd the air with barbarous dissonance.
Comus. Line 550.
I was all ear,
And took in strains that might create a soul
Under the ribs of death.
Comus. Line 560.
That power
Which erring men call Chance.
Comus. Line 587.
If this fail,
The pillar'd firmament is rottenness,
And earth's base built on stubble.
Comus. Line 597.
The leaf was darkish, and had prickles on it,
But in another country, as he said,
Bore a bright golden flow'r, but not in this soil;
Unknown, and like esteem'd, and the dull swain
Treads on it daily with his clouted shoon.
Comus. Line 631.
Enter'd the very lime-twigs of his spells,
And yet came off.
Comus. Line 646.
[246]
This cordial julep here,
That flames and dances in his crystal bounds.
Comus. Line 672.
Budge doctors of the Stoic fur.
Comus. Line 707.
And live like Nature's bastards, not her sons.
Comus. Line 727.
It is for homely features to keep home,—
They had their name thence; coarse complexions
And cheeks of sorry grain will serve to ply
The sampler and to tease the huswife's wool.
What need a vermeil-tinctur'd lip for that,
Love-darting eyes, or tresses like the morn?
Comus. Line 748.
Swinish gluttony
Ne'er looks to heav'n amidst his gorgeous feast,
But with besotted base ingratitude
Crams, and blasphemes his feeder.
Comus. Line 776.
Enjoy your dear wit and gay rhetoric,
That hath so well been taught her dazzling fence.
Comus. Line 790.
His rod revers'd,
And backward mutters of dissevering power.
Comus. Line 816.
Sabrina fair,
Listen where thou art sitting
Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave,
In twisted braids of lilies knitting
The loose train of thy amber-dropping hair.
Comus. Line 859.
But now my task is smoothly done,
I can fly, or I can run.
Comus. Line 1012.
Or if Virtue feeble were,
Heav'n itself would stoop to her.
Comus. Line 1022.
I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude,
And with forc'd fingers rude
Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year.
Lycidas. Line 3.
He knew
Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme.
Lycidas. Line 10.
[247]
Without the meed of some melodious tear.
Lycidas. Line 14.
Under the opening eyelids of the morn.
Lycidas. Line 26.
But oh the heavy change, now thou art gone,
Now thou art gone and never must return!
Lycidas. Line 37.
The gadding vine.
Lycidas. Line 40.
And strictly meditate the thankless Muse.
Lycidas. Line 66.
To sport with Amaryllis in the shade,
Or with the tangles of Neæra's hair.
Lycidas. Line 68.
Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise[247:1]
(That last infirmity of noble mind)
To scorn delights, and live laborious days;
But the fair guerdon when we hope to find,
And think to burst out into sudden blaze,
Comes the blind Fury with th' abhorred shears
And slits the thin-spun life.
Lycidas. Line 70.
Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil.
Lycidas. Line 78.
It was that fatal and perfidious bark,
Built in th' eclipse, and rigg'd with curses dark.
Lycidas. Line 100.
The pilot of the Galilean lake;
Two massy keys he bore, of metals twain
(The golden opes, the iron shuts amain).
Lycidas. Line 109.
But that two-handed engine at the door
Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more.
Lycidas. Line 130.
Throw hither all your quaint enamell'd eyes
That on the green turf suck the honied showers,
And purple all the ground with vernal flowers.
Bring the rathe primrose that forsaken dies,
The tufted crow-toe, and pale jessamine,
[248]The white pink, and the pansy freakt with jet,
The glowing violet,
The musk-rose, and the well-attir'd woodbine,
With cowslips wan that hang the pensive head,
And every flower that sad embroidery wears.
Lycidas. Line 139.
So sinks the day-star in the ocean bed,
And yet anon repairs his drooping head,
And tricks his beams, and with new-spangled ore
Flames in the forehead of the morning sky.
Lycidas. Line 168.
He touch'd the tender stops of various quills,
With eager thought warbling his Doric lay.
Lycidas. Line 188.
To-morrow to fresh woods and pastures new.
Lycidas. Line 193.
Haste thee, Nymph, and bring with thee
Jest and youthful Jollity,
Quips and Cranks and wanton Wiles,
Nods and Becks and wreathed Smiles.
L'Allegro. Line 25.
Sport, that wrinkled Care derides,
And Laughter holding both his sides.
Come and trip it as ye go,
On the light fantastic toe.
L'Allegro. Line 31.
The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty.
L'Allegro. Line 36.
And every shepherd tells his tale
Under the hawthorn in the dale.
L'Allegro. Line 67.
Meadows trim with daisies pied,
Shallow brooks and rivers wide;
Towers and battlements it sees
Bosom'd high in tufted trees,
Where perhaps some beauty lies,
The cynosure of neighboring eyes.
L'Allegro. Line 75.
Herbs, and other country messes,
Which the neat-handed Phillis dresses.
L'Allegro. Line 85.
To many a youth and many a maid
Dancing in the chequer'd shade.
L'Allegro. Line 95.
[249]
Then to the spicy nut-brown ale.
L'Allegro. Line 100.
Tower'd cities please us then,
And the busy hum of men.
L'Allegro. Line 117.
Ladies, whose bright eyes
Rain influence, and judge the prize.
L'Allegro. Line 121.
Such sights as youthful poets dream
On summer eyes by haunted stream.
Then to the well-trod stage anon,
If Jonson's learned sock be on,
Or sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy's child,
Warble his native wood-notes wild.
L'Allegro. Line 129.
And ever against eating cares
Lap me in soft Lydian airs,
Married to immortal verse,[249:1]
Such as the meeting soul may pierce,
In notes with many a winding bout
Of linked sweetness long drawn out.
L'Allegro. Line 135.
Untwisting all the chains that tie
The hidden soul of harmony.
L'Allegro. Line 143.
The gay motes that people the sunbeams.
Il Penseroso. Line 8.
And looks commercing with the skies,
Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes.
Il Penseroso. Line 39.
Forget thyself to marble.
Il Penseroso. Line 42.
And join with thee calm Peace and Quiet,
Spare Fast, that oft with gods doth diet.
Il Penseroso. Line 45.
And add to these retired Leisure,
That in trim gardens takes his pleasure.
Il Penseroso. Line 49.
Sweet bird, that shun'st the noise of folly,
Most musical, most melancholy!
Il Penseroso. Line 61.
[250]
I walk unseen
On the dry smooth-shaven green,
To behold the wandering moon
Riding near her highest noon,
Like one that had been led astray
Through the heav'n's wide pathless way;
And oft, as if her head she bow'd,
Stooping through a fleecy cloud.
Il Penseroso. Line 65.
Where glowing embers through the room
Teach light to counterfeit a gloom.
Il Penseroso. Line 79.
Far from all resort of mirth
Save the cricket on the hearth.
Il Penseroso. Line 81.
Sometime let gorgeous Tragedy
In sceptred pall come sweeping by,
Presenting Thebes, or Pelops' line,
Or the tale of Troy divine.
Il Penseroso. Line 97.
Or bid the soul of Orpheus sing
Such notes as, warbled to the string,
Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek.
Il Penseroso. Line 105.
Or call up him that left half told
The story of Cambuscan bold.
Il Penseroso. Line 109.
Where more is meant than meets the ear.
Il Penseroso. Line 120.
When the gust hath blown his fill,
Ending on the rustling leaves
With minute drops from off the eaves.
Il Penseroso. Line 128.
Hide me from day's garish eye.
Il Penseroso. Line 141.
And storied windows richly dight,
Casting a dim religious light.
Il Penseroso. Line 159.
Till old experience do attain
To something like prophetic strain.
Il Penseroso. Line 173.
Such sweet compulsion doth in music lie.
Arcades. Line 68.
Under the shady roof
Of branching elm star-proof.
Arcades. Line 88.
[251]
O fairest flower! no sooner blown but blasted,
Soft silken primrose fading timelessly.
Ode on the Death of a fair Infant, dying of a Cough.
Such as may make thee search the coffers round.
At a Vacation Exercise. Line 31.
No war or battle's sound
Was heard the world around.
Hymn on Christ's Nativity. Line 53.
Time will run back and fetch the age of gold.
Hymn on Christ's Nativity. Line 135.
Swinges the scaly horror of his folded tail.
Hymn on Christ's Nativity. Line 172.
The oracles are dumb,
No voice or hideous hum
Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving.
Apollo from his shrine
Can no more divine,
With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving.
No nightly trance or breathed spell
Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell.
Hymn on Christ's Nativity. Line 173.
From haunted spring and dale
Edg'd with poplar pale
The parting genius is with sighing sent.
Hymn on Christ's Nativity. Line 184.
Peor and Baälim
Forsake their temples dim.
Hymn on Christ's Nativity. Line 197.
What needs my Shakespeare for his honour'd bones,—
The labour of an age in piled stones?
Or that his hallow'd relics should be hid
Under a star-y-pointing pyramid?
Dear son of memory, great heir of fame,
What need'st thou such weak witness of thy name?
Epitaph on Shakespeare.
And so sepúlchred in such pomp dost lie,
That kings for such a tomb would wish to die.
Epitaph on Shakespeare.
Thy liquid notes that close the eye of day.[251:1]
Sonnet to the Nightingale.
[252]
As ever in my great Taskmaster's eye.
On his being arrived to the Age of Twenty-three.
The great Emathian conqueror bid spare
The house of Pindarus, when temple and tower
Went to the ground.
When the Assault was intended to the City.
That old man eloquent.
To the Lady Margaret Ley.
That would have made Quintilian stare and gasp.
On the Detraction which followed upon my writing certain Treatises.
License they mean when they cry, Liberty!
For who loves that must first be wise and good.
On the Detraction which followed upon my writing certain Treatises.
Peace hath her victories
No less renown'd than war.
To the Lord General Cromwell.
Ev'n them who kept thy truth so pure of old,
When all our fathers worshipp'd stocks and stones.
On the late Massacre in Piedmont.
Thousands at his bidding speed,
And post o'er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait.
On his Blindness.
What neat repast shall feast us, light and choice,
Of Attic taste?
To Mr. Lawrence.
In mirth that after no repenting draws.
Sonnet xxi. To Cyriac Skinner.
For other things mild Heav'n a time ordains,
And disapproves that care, though wise in show,
That with superfluous burden loads the day,
And when God sends a cheerful hour, refrains.
Sonnet xxi. To Cyriac Skinner.
Yet I argue not
Against Heav'n's hand or will, nor bate a jot
Of heart or hope; but still bear up and steer
Right onward.
Sonnet xxii. To Cyriac Skinner.
Of which all Europe rings from side to side.
Sonnet xxii. To Cyriac Skinner.
But oh! as to embrace me she inclin'd,
I wak'd, she fled, and day brought back my night.
On his Deceased Wife.
[253]
Have hung
My dank and dropping weeds
To the stern god of sea.
Translation of Horace. Book i. Ode 5.
For such kind of borrowing as this, if it be not bettered by the borrower, among good authors is accounted Plagiarè.
Iconoclastes. xxiii.
Truth is as impossible to be soiled by any outward touch as the sunbeam.[253:1]
Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce.
A poet soaring in the high reason of his fancies, with his garland and singing robes about him.
The Reason of Church Government. Introduction, Book ii.
By labour and intent study (which I take to be my portion in this life), joined with the strong propensity of nature, I might perhaps leave something so written to after times as they should not willingly let it die.
The Reason of Church Government. Introduction, Book ii.
Beholding the bright countenance of truth in the quiet and still air of delightful studies.
The Reason of Church Government. Introduction, Book ii.
He who would not be frustrate of his hope to write well hereafter in laudable things ought himself to be a true poem.
Apology for Smectymnuus.
His words, like so many nimble and airy servitors, trip about him at command.
Apology for Smectymnuus.
Litigious terms, fat contentions, and flowing fees.
Tractate of Education.
I shall detain you no longer in the demonstration of what we should not do, but straight conduct ye to a hillside, where I will point ye out the right path of a virtuous and noble education; laborious indeed at the first ascent, but else so smooth, so green, so full of goodly prospect and melodious sounds on every side that the harp of Orpheus was not more charming.
Tractate of Education.
[254]
Enflamed with the study of learning and the admiration of virtue; stirred up with high hopes of living to be brave men and worthy patriots, dear to God, and famous to all ages.
Tractate of Education.
Ornate rhetorick taught out of the rule of Plato. . . . To which poetry would be made subsequent, or indeed rather precedent, as being less suttle and fine, but more simple, sensuous, and passionate.
Tractate of Education.
In those vernal seasons of the year, when the air is calm and pleasant, it were an injury and sullenness against Nature not to go out and see her riches, and partake in her rejoicing with heaven and earth.
Tractate of Education.
Attic tragedies of stateliest and most regal argument.
Tractate of Education.
As good almost kill a man as kill a good book: who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image; but he who destroys a good book kills reason itself.
Areopagitica.
A good book is the precious life-blood of a master-spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.
Areopagitica.
Seasoned life of man preserved and stored up in books.
Areopagitica.
I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat.
Areopagitica.
Who shall silence all the airs and madrigals that whisper softness in chambers?
Areopagitica.
Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant nation rousing herself like a strong man after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks; methinks I see her as [255]an eagle mewing her mighty youth, and kindling her undazzled eyes at the full midday beam.
Areopagitica.
Though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do ingloriously, by licensing and prohibiting, to misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple: who ever knew Truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter?[255:1]
Areopagitica.
Men of most renowned virtue have sometimes by transgressing most truly kept the law.
Tetrachordon.
By this time, like one who had set out on his way by night, and travelled through a region of smooth or idle dreams, our history now arrives on the confines, where daylight and truth meet us with a clear dawn, representing to our view, though at a far distance, true colours and shapes.
The History of England. Book i.
Such bickerings to recount, met often in these our writers, what more worth is it than to chronicle the wars of kites or crows flocking and fighting in the air?
The History of England. Book iv.
[223:1] But vindicate the ways of God to man.—Pope: Essay on Man, epistle i. line 16.
[224:1] See Book iv. line 75.
[224:2] Stream'd like a meteor to the troubled air.—Gray: The Bard, i. 2, line 6.
[226:1] Aristophanes turns Socrates into ridicule . . . as making the worse appear the better reason.—Diogenes Laertius: Socrates, v.
[226:2] Our hope is loss, our hope but sad despair.—Shakespeare: Henry VI. part iii. act ii. sc. 3.
[227:1] Rubente dextera.—Horace: Ode i. 2, 2.
[230:1] Compare great things with small.—Virgil: Eclogues, i. 24; Georgics, iv. 176. Cowley: The Motto. Dryden: Ovid, Metamorphoses, book i. line 727. Tickell: Poem on Hunting. Pope: Windsor Forest.
[231:1] Ye little stars! hide your diminished rays.—Pope: Moral Essays, epistle iii. line 282.
[232:2] Necessity is the argument of tyrants, it is the creed of slaves.—William Pitt: Speech on the India Bill, November, 1783.
[234:1] When unadorned, adorned the most.—Thomson: Autumn, line 204.
[238:1] "But most of all respect thyself."—A precept of the Pythagoreans.
[239:1] Stern daughter of the voice of God.—Wordsworth: Ode to Duty.
[240:1] Summum nec metuas diem, nec optes (Neither fear nor wish for your last day).—Martial: lib. x. epigram 47, line 13.
[241:1] The child is father of the man.—Wordsworth: My Heart Leaps up.
[247:1] Erant quibus appetentior famæ videretur, quando etiam sapientibus cupido gloriæ novissima exuitur (Some might consider him as too fond of fame, for the desire of glory clings even to the best of men longer than any other passion) [said of Helvidius Priscus].—Tacitus: Historia, iv. 6.
[249:1] Wisdom married to immortal verse.—Wordsworth: The Excursion, book vii.
[255:1] Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.—Jefferson: Inaugural Address.
He [Hampden] had a head to contrive, a tongue to persuade, and a hand to execute any mischief.[255:2]
History of the Rebellion. Vol. iii. Book vii. § 84.
[255:2] In every deed of mischief he had a heart to resolve, a head to contrive, and a hand to execute.—Gibbon: Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. xlviii.
Heart to conceive, the understanding to direct, or the hand to execute.—From Junius, letter xxxvii. Feb. 14, 1770.
[256]
Her feet beneath her petticoat
Like little mice stole in and out,[256:1]
As if they feared the light;
But oh, she dances such a way!
No sun upon an Easter-day
Is half so fine a sight.
Ballad upon a Wedding.
Her lips were red, and one was thin;
Compared with that was next her chin,—
Some bee had stung it newly.
Ballad upon a Wedding.
Why so pale and wan, fond lover?
Prithee, why so pale?
Will, when looking well can't move her,
Looking ill prevail?
Prithee, why so pale?
Song.
'T is expectation makes a blessing dear;
Heaven were not heaven if we knew what it were.
Against Fruition.
She is pretty to walk with,
And witty to talk with,
And pleasant, too, to think on.
Brennoralt. Act ii.
Her face is like the milky way i' the sky,—
A meeting of gentle lights without a name.
Brennoralt. Act iii.
But as when an authentic watch is shown,
Each man winds up and rectifies his own,
So in our very judgments.[256:2]
Aglaura. Epilogue.
The prince of darkness is a gentleman.[256:3]
The Goblins.