My life is run his compass.
‘Julius Caesar’ (1599) act 5, sc. 3, l. 23
O hateful error, melancholy’s child!
Why dost thou show, to the apt thoughts of men, The things that are not?
‘Julius Caesar’ (1599) act 5, sc. 3, l. 67
O Julius Caesar! thou art mighty yet!
Thy spirit walks abroad, and turns our swords In our own proper entrails.
‘Julius Caesar’ (1599) act 5, sc. 3, l. 94
I had rather have
Such men my friends than enemies.
‘Julius Caesar’ (1599) act 5, sc. 4, l. 28
Thou seest the world, Volumnius, how it goes; Our enemies have beat us to the pit:
It is more worthy to leap in ourselves, Than tarry till they push us.
‘Julius Caesar’ (1599) act 5, sc. 5, l. 22
Thou art a fellow of a good respect;
Thy life hath had some smatch of honour in it. Hold then my sword, and turn away thy face, While I do run upon it.
‘Julius Caesar’ (1599) act 5, sc. 5, l. 45
This was the noblest Roman of them all; All the conspirators save only he
Did that they did in envy of great Caesar; He, only, in a general honest thought
And common good to all, made one of them. His life was gentle, and the elements
So mixed in him that Nature might stand up And say to all the world, “This was a man!”
‘Julius Caesar’ (1599) act 5, sc. 5, l. 68
7.66.16 King John
Hadst thou rather be a Faulconbridge And like thy brother, to enjoy thy land, Or the reputed son of Coeur-de-Lion, Lord of thy presence and no land beside.
‘King John’ (1591-8) act 1, sc. 1, l. 134
And if his name be George, I’ll call him Peter;
For new-made honour doth forget men’s names.
‘King John’ (1591-8) act 1, sc. 1, l. 186
Sweet, sweet, sweet poison for the age’s tooth.
‘King John’ (1591-8) act 1, sc. 1, l. 213
Courage mounteth with occasion.
‘King John’ (1591-8) act 2, sc. 1, l. 82
Saint George, that swingéd the dragon and e’er since Sits on his horse back at mine hostess’ door.
‘King John’ (1591-8) act 2, sc. 1, l. 288
Mad world! mad kings! mad composition!
‘King John’ (1591-8) act 2, sc. 1, l. 561
That smooth-faced gentleman, tickling Commodity, Commodity, the bias of the world.
‘King John’ (1591-8) act 2, sc. 1, l. 573
Well, whiles I am a beggar, I will rail, And say there is no sin, but to be rich; And, being rich, my virtue then shall be, To say there is no vice, but beggary.
‘King John’ (1591-8) act 2, sc. 1, l. 593
Thou wear a lion’s hide! doff it for shame, And hang a calf’s-skin on those recreant limbs!
‘King John’ (1591-8) act 3, sc. 1, l. 128
Old Time the clock-setter, that bald sexton, Time.
‘King John’ (1591-8) act 3, sc. 1, l. 324
Bell, book, and candle shall not drive me back, When gold and silver becks me to come on.
‘King John’ (1591-8) act 3, sc. 3, l. 12
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: Then have I reason to be fond of grief.
‘King John’ (1591-8) act 3, sc. 4, l. 93
Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale, Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man.
‘King John’ (1591-8) act 3, sc. 4, l. 108
Heat me these irons hot.
‘King John’ (1591-8) act 4, sc. 1, l. 1
Methinks nobody should be sad but I:
Yet I remember, when I was in France, Young gentlemen would be as sad as night, Only for wantonness.
‘King John’ (1591-8) act 4, sc. 1, l. 13
Will you put out mine eyes?
These eyes that never did nor never shall So much as frown on you?
‘King John’ (1591-8) act 4, sc. 1, l. 56
To be possessed with double pomp, To guard a title that was rich before, To gild refinéd 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’ (1591-8) act 4, sc. 2, l. 9
The spirit of the time shall teach me speed.
‘King John’ (1591-8) act 4, sc. 2, l. 176
Another lean unwashed artificer
Cuts off his tale and talks of Arthur’s death.
‘King John’ (1591-8) act 4, sc. 2, l. 201
How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds Makes ill deeds done!
‘King John’ (1591-8) act 4, sc. 2, l. 219
Heaven take my soul, and England keep my bones!
‘King John’ (1591-8) act 4, sc. 3, l. 10
Whate’er you think, good words, I think, were best.
‘King John’ (1591-8) act 4, sc. 3, l. 28
None of you will bid the winter come To thrust his icy fingers in my maw;
Nor let my kingdom’s rivers take their course Through my burned bosom; nor entreat the north To make his bleak winds kiss my parchéd lips And comfort me with cold. I do not ask you much: I beg cold comfort; and you are so strait
And so ingrateful you deny me that.
‘King John’ (1591-8) act 5, sc. 7, l. 36
This England never did, nor never shall, Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror,
But when it first did help to wound itself. Now these her princes are come home again, 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’ (1591-8) act 5, sc. 7, l. 112
7.66.17 King Lear
Nothing will come of nothing: speak again.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 1, sc. 1, l. [92]
Lear: So young, and so untender? Cordelia: So young, my lord, and true.
Lear: Let it be so; thy truth then be thy dower: For, by the sacred radiance of the sun,
The mysteries of Hecate and the night, By all the operation of the orbs
From whom we do exist and cease to be, Here I disclaim all my paternal care, Propinquity and property of blood,
And as a stranger to my heart and me Hold thee from this for ever.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 1, sc. 1, l. [108]
Come not between the dragon and his wrath.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 1, sc. 1, l. [124]
I want that glib and oily art
To speak and purpose not; since what I well intend, I’ll do’t before I speak.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 1, sc. 1, l. [227]
It is no vicious blot nor other foulness, No unchaste action, or dishonoured step,
That hath deprived me of your grace and favour, But even for want of that for which I am richer, A still-soliciting eye, and such a tongue
That I am glad I have not, though not to have it Hath lost me in your liking.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 1, sc. 1, l. [230]
Love is not love
When it is mingléd with regards that stand Aloof from the entire point.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 1, sc. 1, l. [241]
Fairest Cordelia, that art most rich, being poor; Most choice, forsaken; and most loved, despised!
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 1, sc. 1, l. [253]
Why bastard? wherefore base?
When my dimensions are as well compact, My mind as generous, and my shape as true, As honest madam’s issue? Why brand they us
With base? with baseness? bastardy? base, base? Who in the lusty stealth of nature take
More composition and fierce quality Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed, Go to creating a whole tribe of fops, Got ’tween asleep and wake?
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 1, sc. 2, l. 6
I grow, I prosper;
Now, gods, stand up for bastards!
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 1, sc. 2, l. 21
This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune,—often the surfeit of our own behaviour,—we make guilty of our own disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars; as if we were villains by necessity, fools by heavenly compulsion, knaves, thieves, and treachers by spherical predominance, drunkards, liars, and adulterers by an enforced obedience of planetary influence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on: an admirable evasion of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish disposition to the charge of a star! My father compounded with my mother under the dragon’s tail, and my nativity was under ursa major; so that it follows I am rough and lecherous. ’Sfoot! I should have been that I am had the maidenliest star in the firmament twinkled on my bastardizing.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 1, sc. 2, l. [132]
Pat he comes, like the catastrophe of the old comedy; my cue is villanous melancholy, with a sigh like Tom o’ Bedlam.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 1, sc. 2, l. [150]
Lear: Dost thou know me, fellow?
Kent: No, sir; but you have that in your countenance which I would fain call master. Lear: What’s that?
Kent: Authority.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 1, sc. 4, l. [28]
Not so young, sir, to love a woman for singing, nor so old to dote on her for any thing.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 1, sc. 4, l. [40]
Have more than thou showest, Speak less than thou knowest, Lend less than thou owest.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 1, sc. 4, l. [132]
Lear: Dost thou call me fool, boy?
Fool: All thy other titles thou hast given away; that thou wast born with.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 1, sc. 4, l. [163]
Ingratitude, thou marble-hearted fiend,
More hideous, when thou show’st thee in a child, Than the sea-monster.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 1, sc. 4, l. [283]
How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is To have a thankless child!
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 1, sc. 4, l. [312]
O! let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven; Keep me in temper; I would not be mad!
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 1, sc. 5, l. [51]
Thou whoreson zed! thou unnecessary letter!
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 2, sc. 2, l. [68]
Goose, if I had you upon Sarum plain, I’d drive ye cackling home to Camelot.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 2, sc. 2, l. [88]
Down, thou climbing sorrow! Thy element’s below.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 2, sc. 4, l. [57]
O, sir! you are old;
Nature in you stands on the very verge Of her confine.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 2, sc. 4, l. [148]
You see me here, you gods, a poor old man, As full of grief as age; wretched in both!
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 2, sc. 4, l. [275]
Touch me with noble anger,
And let not women’s weapons, water-drops, Stain my man’s cheeks! No, you unnatural hags, I will have such revenges on you both
That all the world shall—I will do such things,— What they are yet I know not,—but they shall be The terrors of the earth. You think I’ll weep; No, I’ll not weep:
I have full cause of weeping, but this heart Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws Or ere I’ll weep. O fool! I shall go mad.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 2, sc. 4, l. [279]
Contending with the fretful elements; Bids the wind blow the earth into the sea, Or swell the curléd waters ’bove the main, That things might change or cease.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 3, sc. 1, l. 4
Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow! You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
Till you have drenched our steeples, drowned the cocks! You sulphurous and thought-executing fires, Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder, Strike flat the thick rotundity o’ the world!
Crack nature’s moulds, all germens spill at once That make ingrateful man!
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 3, sc. 2, l. 1
Rumble thy bellyful! Spit, fire! Spout, rain! Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters: I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness; I never gave you kingdom, called you children, You owe me no subscription: then, let fall
Your horrible pleasure; here I stand, your slave, A poor, infirm, weak, and despised old man.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 3, sc. 2, l. 14
There was never yet fair woman but she made mouths in a glass.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 3, sc. 2, l. [35]
No, I will be the pattern of all patience; I will say nothing.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 3, sc. 2, l. [37]
Marry, here’s grace and a cod-piece; that’s a wise man and a fool.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 3, sc. 2, l. [40]
Things that love night Love not such nights as these.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 3, sc. 2, l. [42]
Close pent-up guilts,
Rive your concealing continents, and cry These dreadful summoners grace. I am a man More sinned against than sinning.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 3, sc. 2, l. [57]
The art of our necessities is strange, That can make vile things precious.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 3, sc. 2, l. [70]
He that has a little tiny wit,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, Must make content with his fortunes fit, Though the rain it raineth every day.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 3, sc. 2, l. [74]
When the mind’s free, The body’s delicate.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 3, sc. 4, l. 11
O! that way madness lies; let me shun that.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 3, sc. 4, l. 21
Poor naked wretches, wheresoe’er you are, That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,
How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides, Your loopéd and windowed raggedness, defend you From seasons such as these?
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 3, sc. 4, l. 28
Take physic, pomp;
Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 3, sc. 4, l. 33
Pillicock sat on Pillicock-hill: Halloo, halloo, loo, loo!
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 3, sc. 4, l. [75]
A serving-man, proud in heart and mind: that curled my hair, wore gloves in my cap, served the lust of my mistress’s heart, and did the act of darkness with her; swore as many oaths as I spake words, and broke them in the sweet face of heaven; one that slept in the contriving of lust, and waked to do it. Wine loved I deeply, dice dearly, and in woman out-paramoured the Turk.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 3, sc. 4, l. [84]
Keep thy foot out of brothels, thy hand out of plackets, thy pen from lenders’ books, and defy the foul fiend.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 3, sc. 4, l. [96]
Thou art the thing itself; unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art. Off, off, you lendings! Come; unbutton here.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 3, sc. 4, l. [109]
’Tis a naughty night to swim in.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 3, sc. 4, l. [113]
This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet: he begins at curfew, and walks till the first cock; he gives the web and the pin, squints the eye, and makes the harelip; mildews the white wheat, and hurts the poor creatures of earth.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 3, sc. 4, l. [118]
The green mantle of the standing pool.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 3, sc. 4, l. [136]
The prince of darkness is a gentleman.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 3, sc. 4, l. [148]
Poor Tom’s a-cold.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 3, sc. 4, l. [151]
Child Roland to the dark tower came, His word was still, Fie, foh, and fum, I smell the blood of a British man.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 3, sc. 4, l. [185].
He’s mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a horse’s health, a boy’s love, or a whore’s oath.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 3, sc. 6, l. [20]
The little dogs and all,
Tray, Blanch, and Sweet-heart, see, they bark at me.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 3, sc. 6, l. [65]
By the kind gods, ’tis most ignobly done To pluck me by the beard.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 3, sc. 7, l. [35]
I am tied to the stake, and I must stand the course.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 3, sc. 7, l. [54]
Cornwall: Out, vile jelly! Where is thy lustre now?
Gloucester: All dark and comfortless.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 3, sc. 7, l. [83]
Yet better thus, and known to be contemnd, Than still contemned and flattered. To be worst, The lowest and most dejected thing of fortune, Stands still in esperance, lives not in fear:
The lamentable change is from the best; The worst returns to laughter.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 4, sc. 1, l. 1
I have no way, and therefore want no eyes; I stumbled when I saw.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 4, sc. 1, l. 18
Might I but live to see thee in my touch, I’d say I had eyes again.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 4, sc. 1, l. 23
The worst is not,
So long as we can say, ‘This is the worst.’
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 4, sc. 1, l. 27
As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods; They kill us for their sport.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 4, sc. 1, l. 36
You are not worth the dust which the rude wind Blows in your face.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 4, sc. 2, l. 30
Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile; Filths savour but themselves.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 4, sc. 2, l. 38
It is the stars,
The stars above us, govern our conditions.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 4, sc. 3, l. [34]
He was met even now
As mad as the vexed sea; singing aloud; Crowned with rank fumitor and furrow weeds, With burdocks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo-flowers, Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow
In our sustaining corn.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 4, sc. 4, l. 1
How fearful
And dizzy ’tis to cast one’s eyes so low!
The crows and choughs that wing the midway air Show scarce so gross as beetles; 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, and yond tall anchoring bark Diminished to her cock, her cock a buoy
Almost too small for sight. The murmuring surge, That on the unnumbered idle pebbles chafes, Cannot be heard so high.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 4, sc. 6, l. 12
They told me I was every thing; ’tis a lie, I am not ague-proof.
‘King Lear’ (1605-6) act 4, sc. 6, l. [107]
Gloucester: Is’t not the king? Lear: Ay, every inch a king:
When I do stare, see how the subject quakes. I pardon that man’s life. What was thy cause? Adultery?
Thou shalt not die: die for adultery! No:
