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"What thing, in honor, had my father lost,
That need to be revived and breathed in me?"
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British playwright, poet. Henry IV, Part II. |
"Poor and content is rich, and rich enough,
But riches fineless is as poor as winter
To him that ever fears he shall be poor."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Iago, in Othello, act 3, sc. 3, l. 172-4.
"Fineless" means unlimited. |
"At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Jaques, in As You Like It, act 2, sc. 7, l. 143-4.
The first of the "seven ages" of man, that of the infant crying and being sick. |
"How quickly nature falls into revolt
When gold becomes her object!"
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. King Henry, in Henry IV, Part 2, act 4, sc. 5, l. 65-6.
"Nature" means human nature, or natural affection; mistakenly thinking Prince Hal is greedy for power. |
"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.
For he today that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition.
And gentlemen in England now abed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. King Henry, in King Henry V, act 4, sc. 3, l. 60-7 (1600).
Henry's speech before the battle of Agincourt. |
"Out, damned spot; out I say."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Lady Macbeth, in Macbeth, act 5, sc. 1, l. 33 (1623).
Lady Macbeth, sleepwalking, sees the murdered Duncan's blood on her hands. |
"I have full cause of weeping, but this heart
Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws
Or ere I'll weep."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Lear, in King Lear, act 2, sc. 2, l. 457-9 (1623). |
"And Pity, like a naked newborn babe
Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubin, horsed
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,
That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself
And falls on th' other—"
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British poet. Macbeth (I, vii). . .
The Unabridged William Shakespeare, William George Clark and William Aldis Wright, eds. (1989) Running Press. |
"I'll be revenged on the whole pack of you."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Malvolio, in Twelfth Night, act 5, sc. 1, l. 378.
His famous exit line, after being duped and treated as mad. |
"In the reproof of chance
Lies the true proof of men."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Nestor, in Troilus and Cressida, act 1, sc. 3, l. 33-4.
The true test of men, says Nestor, lies in the way they cope with chance. |
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William Shakespeare
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