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"Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit;
All with me's meet that I can fashion fit."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Edmund, in King Lear, act 1, sc. 2, l. 184.
Everything that serves his purpose ("can fashion fit") is okay or justifiable ("meet"). |
"It is the disease of not listening, the malady of not marking,
that I am troubled withal."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Falstaff, in Henry IV, Part 2, act 1, sc. 2, l. 121-2.
Refusing to heed the warnings of the Chief Justice. |
"The sweetest honey
Is loathsome in his own deliciousness,
And in the taste confounds the appetite."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Friar Lawrence, in Romeo and Juliet, act 2, sc. 6, l. 11-3.
Varying the proverb, "too much honey cloys the stomach," and hinting at the idea of love turning into hate. |
"Winter tames man, woman, and beast."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Grumio, in The Taming of the Shrew, act 4, sc. 1, l. 23-4. |
"If thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool, for wise men
know what monsters you make of them."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Hamlet, in Hamlet, act 3, sc. 1, l. 137-9.
Caustic advice to Ophelia. |
"The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,
Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat
Awake the god of day, and at his warning,
Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,
Th' extravagant and erring spirit hies
To his confine."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Horatio, in Hamlet, act 1, sc. 1, l. 150-5.
Wandering ("extravagant") spirits return to where they came from in daylight. |
"Nothing can or shall content my soul
Till I am evened with him, wife for wife,
Or failing so, yet that I put the Moor
At least into a jealousy so strong
That judgment cannot cure."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Iago, in Othello, act 2, sc. 1, l. 301-2.
Imagining Othello has slept with his wife, Emilia. |
"Good night, good night. Parting is such sweet sorrow
That I shall say good night till it be morrow."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Juliet, in Romeo and Juliet, act 2, sc. 2, l. 184-5.
Bidding farewell from her window to Romeo in the garden below. |
"The fewer men, the greater share of honor."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. King Henry, in Henry V, act 4, sc. 3, l. 22.
In fighting against the French. |
"Adultery?
Thou shalt not die. Die for adultery? No.
The wren goes to 't, and the small gilded fly
Does lecher in my sight.
Let copulation thrive; for Gloucester's bastard son
Was kinder to his father than my daughters
Got 'tween the lawful sheets.
To 't, luxury, pell-mell, for I lack soldiers."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British poet. King Lear (IV, vi).
OHFP. The Unabridged William Shakespeare, William George Clark and William Aldis Wright, eds. (1989) Running Press. |
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