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"Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile,
Hath not old custom made this life more sweet
Than that of painted pomp?"
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Duke Senior, in As You Like It, act 2, sc. 1, l. 1-3.
The banished duke moralizing in the forest of Arden. |
"Watch tonight, pray tomorrow. Gallants, lads, boys, hearts of gold, all the titles of good fellowship come to you!"
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Falstaff, in Henry IV, Part 1, act 2, sc. 4, l. 277-9.
Happy in the prospect of a night's festivity; "watch" means stay awake. |
"There is a river in Macedon, and there is moreover a river in Monmouth. It is called Wye at Monmouth, but it is out of my prains what is the name of the other river; but 'tis all one, 'tis alike as my fingers is to my fingers, and there is salmons in both."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Fluellen, in Henry V, act 4, sc. 7, l. 26-31.
Fluellen's logic is as quaint as his language as he "proves" that Henry V is as great a soldier as Alexander the Great. |
"O, the difference of man and man!
To thee a woman's services are due."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Goneril, in King Lear, act 4, sc. 2, l. 26-7.
Making love to Edmund, so different from her husband, Albany. |
"Blest are those
Whose blood and judgment are so well commingled
That they are not a pipe for Fortune's finger
To sound what stop she please."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Hamlet, in Hamlet, act 3, sc. 2, l. 68-71.
Referring to Horatio; "blood" means passions; "commingled" means mixed. |
"So we grew together
Like to a double cherry, seeming parted,
But yet an union in partition,
Two lovely berries moulded on one stem."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Helena, in A Midsummer Night's Dream, act 3, sc. 2, l. 208-11. |
"He's a soldier fit to stand by Caesar
And give direction."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Iago, in Othello, act 2, sc. 3, l. 122-3.
Commenting on Cassio. |
"Then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Jaques, in As You Like It, act 2, sc. 7, l. 147-9.
The third of the "seven ages" (l. 143) of man. |
"Those holy fields,
Over whose acres walked those blessed feet
Which fourteen hundred years ago were nailed
For our advantage on the bitter cross."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. King Henry, in Henry IV, Part 1, act 1, sc. 1, l. 24-7. |
"God shall be my hope,
My stay, my guide, and lantern to my feet."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. King Henry, in Henry VI, Part 2, act 2, sc. 3, l. 24-5. |
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William Shakespeare
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