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._
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
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._
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._
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._
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._
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._
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._
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._
One woe doth tread upon another's heel,
So fast they follow.[143-1]
_Hamlet. Act iv. Sc. 7._
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._
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._
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._
There 's a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will.[145-1]
_Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 2._
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._
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._
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._
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._
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
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,
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.