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"Alas, what danger will it be to us,
Maids as we are, to travel forth so far!
Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Rosalind, in As You Like It, act 1, sc. 3, l. 108-10.
Celia has suggested that they go to the forest of Arden. |
"As many lies as will lie in thy paper, although the sheet were big enough for the bed of Ware in England."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Sir Toby Belch, in Twelfth Night, act 3, sc. 2, l. 46-8.
Advising Sir Andrew on writing a challenge; the bed of Ware, in Hertfordshire, was famous, being ten feet square, and able to accommodate twelve people. |
"My love shall hear the music of my hounds."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Theseus, in A Midsummer Night's Dream, act 4, sc. 1, l. 106.
Speaking to Hippolyta. |
"What's aught but as 'tis valued?"
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Troilus, in Troilus and Cressida, act 2, sc. 2, l. 52.
The Trojans are debating whether to keep Helen or return her to the Greeks. |
"Suspicion all our lives shall be stuck full of eyes;
Treason is but trusted like the fox,
Who never so tame, so cherished and locked up,
Will have a wild trick of his ancestors."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Worcester, in Henry IV, Part 1, act 5, sc. 2, l. 9-11.
The rebels should not make make terms with the king since they will always be watched and never trusted. |
"Aeneas. We know each other well.
Diomedes. We do, and long to know each other worse."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Aeneas and Diomedes, in Troilus and Cressida, act 4, sc. 1, l. 31-2.
A Trojan and a Greek meeting during a truce; they will know each other "worse" on the field of battle. |
"The beds i' th' East are soft."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Antony, in Antony and Cleopatra, act 2, sc. 6, l. 50.
Recalling Egyptian luxury in warlike Rome. |
"I think he'll be to Rome
As is the osprey to the fish, who takes it
By sovereignty of nature."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Aufidius, in Coriolanus, act 4, sc. 7, l. 33-5.
Speaking of Coriolanus; fish were said to surrender themselves to the osprey. |
"If her breath were as terrible as her terminations, there were no living near her; she would infect to the north star."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Benedick, in Much Ado About Nothing, act 2, sc. 1, l. 248-50.
On Beatrice's sharp tongue; "terminations" means the barbed endings of her sentences. |
"There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Brutus, in Julius Caesar, act 4, sc. 2. |
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William Shakespeare
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