I married with a scolding wife
The fourteenth of November;
She made me weary of my life,
By one unruly member.
Long did I bear the heavy yoke,
And many griefs attended:
But, to my comfort be it spoke,
Now, now her life is ended.
We liv’d full one-and-twenty years
As man and wife together:
At length from me her course she steer’d,
And gone I know not whither:
Would I could guess, I do profess,
I speak and do not flatter,
Of all the women in the world,
I never could come at her.
Her body is bestowed well,
A handsome grave does hide her,
But sure her soul is not in hell,
The de’il would ne’er abide her;
I rather think she is aloft,
And imitating thunder;
For why—methinks I hear her voice
Tearing the clouds asunder.
_Shakespeare’s Repetitions_
_Lightning._
_Lysander._ Brief the lightning in the collied night,
Which ere a man hath power to say “Behold!”
The jaws of darkness do devour it up.
“Midsummer Night’s Dream,” i, 1.
_Juliet._ It is too rash, too unadvis’d, too sudden:
Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be,
Ere one can say—“It lightens!”
“Romeo and Juliet,” ii, 2.
_Children._
_Capulet._ Wife, we scarce thought us bless’d,
That God had sent us but this only child;
But now I see this one is one too much.
“Romeo and Juliet,” iii, 5.
_Leonato._ Griev’d I, I had but one?
Chid I for that at nature’s frugal frame?
Oh! one too much by thee.
“Much Ado About Nothing,” iv, 1.
_Calumny._
_Duke._ No might nor greatness in mortality
Can censure scape; back-wounding calumny
The whitest virtue strikes.
“Measure for Measure,” iii, 2.
_Hamlet._ Be thou chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape
calumny.
“Hamlet,” iii, 4.
_Boabdils._
_Bassanio._ How many cowards, whose hearts are all as false
As stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins
The beards of Hercules, and frowning Mars:
Who, inward search’d, have livers white as milk!
“Merchant of Venice,” iii, 2.
_Rosalind._ We’ll have a swashing and a martial outside,
As many other mannish cowards have,
That do outface it with their semblances.
“As You Like It,” i, 2.
_Compulsion._
_Macbeth._ They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly,
But, bear-like, I must fight the course.
“Macbeth,” v, 5.
_Gloster._ I am tied to the stake, and I must stand the course.
“Lear,” iii, 7.
_Effect of Ill News._
_Constance._ Fellow, begone; I cannot brook thy sight;
Thy news hath made thee a most ugly man.
“King John,” iii, 1.
_Cleopatra._ Though it be honest, it is never good
To bring bad news. Go, get thee hence;
Hadst thou Narcissus in thy face, to me
Thou wouldst appear most ugly.
“Antony and Cleopatra,” ii, 6.
_Resignation._
_York._ Things past redress are now with me past care.
“Richard II.,” ii, 3.
_Lady Macbeth._ Things without remedy,
Should be without regard. “Macbeth,” iii, 2.
_Allusion to an Old Proverb._
_Gonzago._ I have great comfort from this fellow; methinks he hath no
drowning mark upon him. If he be not born to be hanged, our case is
miserable.
“Tempest,” i, 1.
_Proteus._ Go, go, begone, to save your ship from wreck,
Which cannot perish having thee on board,
Being destin’d to a drier death on shore.
“Two Gentlemen of Verona,” i, 1.
_Prayer._
_Angelo._ When I would pray and think, I think and pray
To several subjects; heaven hath my empty words,
While my invention, hearing not my tongue,
Anchors on Isabel. “Measure for Measure,” ii, 4.
_Claudius._ My words fly up, my thoughts remain below;
Words, without thoughts, never to heaven go.
“Hamlet,” iii, 4.
_Early Hours._
_Sir Toby Belch._ To be up after midnight, and to go to bed then, is
early; so that to go to bed after midnight, is to go to bed betimes.
“Twelfth Night,” ii.
_Capulet._ Light to my chamber, ho!
‘For me, it is so very late, that we
May call it early by and by.
“Romeo and Juliet,” iii, 4.
_Fortitude._
_Leonato._ ’Tis 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,” v, 1.
_Benedick._ Every one can master a grief but he that has it.
_Ibid._, iii, 2.
_Posthumous Fame._
_Benedick._ If a man do not erect in this age his own tomb ere he dies,
he shall live no longer in memory than the bell rings and the widow
weeps.
“Much Ado about Nothing,” v, 3.
_Hamlet._ There’s hope a great man’s memory may outlive his life half a
year, but, by’r lady, he must build churches then, or else he shall
suffer not thinking on.
“Hamlet,” iii, 2.
_Mercy._
_Isabel._ 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. “Measure for Measure,” ii, 2.
_Portia._ The quality of mercy is not strain’d,
It droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath—It becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown.
“Merchant of Venice,” i, 1.
_Madness._
_Duke._ By mine honesty,
If she be mad (as I believe no other),
Her madness hath the oddest frame of sense,
That e’er I heard in madness.
“Measure for Measure,” v, 1.
_Edgar._ O, matter and impertinency mix’d!
Reason is madness! “Lear,” iv, 6.
_Polonius._ Though this be madness, yet there’s method in it.
“Hamlet,” ii, 2.
_The King’s Name._
_King Richard._ Is not the king’s name forty thousand names? Arm, arm,
my name.
“Richard II.,” iii, 2.
_King Richard._ Besides, the king’s name is a tower of strength, which
they upon the adverse faction want.
“Richard III.,” v, 3.
_Object of Imitation._
_Ophelia._ O, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown,
The courtier’s, scholar’s, soldier’s, eye, tongue, sword,
The expectancy and rose of the fair state,
The glass of fashion and the mould of form,
Th’ observed of all observers. “Hamlet,” iii, 1.
_Lady Percy._——He was indeed the glass
Wherein the noble youth did dress themselves.
——In speech, in gait.
In diet, in affections of delight,
He was the mark and glass, copy and book,
That fashion’d others. “2d Henry IV.”, ii, 3.
_Woman._
_Gloster._ Was ever woman in this humor woo’d?
Was ever woman in this humor won?
“Richard III.,” i, 2.
_Suffolk._ She’s beautiful, and therefore to be woo’d,
She is a woman, therefore may be won.
“1st Henry VI.”, v, 3.
_Demetrius._ She is a woman, therefore may be woo’d,
She is a woman, therefore may be won.
“Titus Andronicus,” ii, 1.
“_Bad Epitaph and Ill Report._”
_Anthony._ The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is often interred with their bones.
“Julius Cæsar,” iii, 2.
_Griffith._ Men’s evil manners live in brass; their virtues
We write in water. “Henry VIII.,” iv, 2.
_Remembrance of Past Feats._
_Othello._——I have seen the day,
That, with this little arm, and this good sword
I’ve made my way through more impediments
Than twenty times your stop. “Othello,” v, 2.
_Lear._ I have seen the day, with my good biting faulchion,
I would have made them skip. “Lear,” v, 2.
_Perverted Reason._
_Hamlet._ Frost itself as actively doth burn,
And reason panders will. “Hamlet,” iii, 4.
——O, strange excuse!
When reason is the bawd to lust’s abuse.
“Venus and Adonis.”
_Deceit._
_Duchess of York._ Oh, that deceit should steal such gentle shapes,
And with a virtuous visor hide deep vice.
“Richard III,” ii, 2.
_Juliet._ Was ever book, containing such vile matter,
So fairly bound? Oh, that deceit should dwell
In such a gorgeous palace.
“Romeo and Juliet,” iii, 2.
_Thereby Hangs a Tale._
In “Othello,” act iii, scene 1:
_Clown._—O, thereby hangs a tail.
_First Musician._—Whereby hangs a tale, sir?
In “Merry Wives of Windsor,” act i, scene 4, _Mrs. Quickly_ remarks:
Well, thereby hangs a tale; good faith, it is such another Nan.
In “As You Like It,” act ii, scene 7, in the middle of _Jaques’s_ first
speech:
And so, from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe.
And then, from hour to hour, we ripe and rot.
And thereby hangs a tale.
And in the “Taming of the Shrew,” act iv, scene 1:
_Grumio._ First, know, my horse is tired; my master and mistress have
fallen out.
_Curtis._ How?
_Grumio._ Out of their saddles into the dirt. And thereby hangs a tale.