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"What's the matter, you dissentious rogues,
That rubbing the poor itch of your opinion
Make yourselves scabs?"
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Caius Marcius, later Coriolanus, in Coriolanus, act 1, sc. 1, l. 164-6.
A patrician reveals his contempt for the people and their opinions. |
"West of this place, down in the neighbor bottom,
The rank of osiers by the murmuring stream
Left on your right hand brings you to the place."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Celia, in As You Like It, act 4, sc. 3, l. 78-80.
Directions to Oliver to the house Celia and Rosalind live in; left means passed by. |
"Who makes the fairest show means most deceit."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Cleon, in Pericles, act 1, sc. 4, l. 75.
Misinterpreting the arrival of the fleet of Pericles that is bringing aid to Tarsus; proverbial. |
"He cannot flatter, he,
An honest mind and plain, he must speak truth!
And they will take it, so; if not, he's plain."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Cornwall, in King Lear, act 2, sc. 2, l. 98-100.
Speaking about the disguised Kent. |
"It is the witness still of excellency
To put a strange face on his own perfection."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Don Pedro, in Much Ado About Nothing, act 2, sc. 3, l. 46-7.
On the singer Balthasar; it is typical of the truly talented not to seem to be aware of their own high skill. |
"When valour preys on reason,
It eats the sword it fights with."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Enobarbus, in Antony and Cleopatra, act 3, sc. 13. |
"The devil take one party and his dam the other!"
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Falstaff, in The Merry Wives of Windsor, act 4, sc. 5, l. 106-7.
On being tricked by Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Page; "dam" = dame or woman. |
"Thou turn'st my eyes into my very soul,
And there I see such black and grained spots
As will not leave their tinct."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Gertrude, in Hamlet, act 3, sc. 4, l. 89-91.
Hamlet has made her conscious of her guilt in marrying Claudius; "grained" means ingrained, fast-dyed. |
"Seems, madam? Nay, it is. I know not "seems".
'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good Mother,
Nor customary suits of solemn black,
Nor windy suspiration of forced breath,
No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,
Nor the dejected havior of the visage,
Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief,
That can denote me truly. These indeed seem,
For they are actions that a man might play.
But I have that within which passes show;
These but the trappings and the suits of woe."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British poet. Hamlet (I, ii).
NAWM-1. The Unabridged William Shakespeare, William George Clark and William Aldis Wright, eds. (1989) Running Press. |
"'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,
Nor customary suits of solemn black,
...
Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief,
That can denote me truly."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Hamlet, in Hamlet, act 1, sc. 2, l. 77-8, 82-3.
Outward shows of mourning do not do justice to his inward grief for his father's death. |
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William Shakespeare
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