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"By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. 2nd Witch, in Macbeth, act 4, sc. 1, l. 44-5. |
"There's a time for all things."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Antipholus of Syracuse, in The Comedy of Errors, act 2, sc. 2, l. 65.
proverbial; from Ecclesiates, 3.1, "To every thing there is a season." |
"Apothecary. My poverty, but not my will, consents.
Romeo. I pay thy poverty, and not thy will."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Apothecary and Romeo, in Romeo and Juliet, act 5, sc. 1, l. 75-6.
Romeo persuades the apothecary to sell him poison. |
"Wooing, wedding, and repenting, is as a Scotch jig, a measure, and a cinquepace; the first suit is hot and hasty, like a Scotch jig, and full as fantastical; the wedding, mannerly-modest, as a measure, full of state and ancientry; and then comes repentance and, with his bad legs, falls into the cinquepace faster and faster, till he sink into his grave."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Beatrice, in Much Ado About Nothing, act 2, sc. 1, l. 73-80.
Her cynical view of marriage; "state and ancientry" means stateliness and old-fashioned formality; a "cinquepace" was a lively dance (French "cinq pas" means five paces), with a pun on "sink." |
"They will steal anything, and call it purchase."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Boy, in Henry V, act 3, sc. 2, l. 41-2.
"Purchase" means plunder. |
"But you are come
A market-maid to Rome."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Caesar, in Antony and Cleopatra, act 3, sc. 6, l. 50-1.
Octavius sees his sister returning to Rome with a smaller train than he thinks appropriate. |
"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Cassius, in Julius Caesar, act 1, sc. 2, l. 140-1. |
"If he be not in love with some woman, there is no believing old signs. 'A brushes his hat o'mornings; what should that bode?"
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Claudio, in Much Ado About Nothing, act 3, sc. 2, l. 40-2.
On Benedick sprucing himself up. |
"Is not their climate foggy, raw, and dull,
On whom, as in despite, the sun looks pale,
Killing their fruit with frowns?"
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Constable, in Henry V, act 3, sc. 5, l. 16-8.
On the English climate. |
"O villain! Thou wilt be condemned into everlasting redemption for this."
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Dogberry, in Much Ado About Nothing, act 4, sc. 2, l. 56-7.
Interrogating his prisoner, Borachio; he means to say "damnation," not "redemption." |
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William Shakespeare
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