The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (242 page)
Read The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Online
Authors: Elizabeth Knowles
c.
1573–1637
Neither do thou lust after that tawney weed tobacco.
Bartholomew Fair
(1614) act 2, sc. 6
The voice of Rome is the consent of heaven!
Catiline his Conspiracy
(1611) act 3, sc. 1
Queen and huntress, chaste and fair,
Now the sun is laid to sleep,
Seated in thy silver chair,
State in wonted manner keep:
Hesperus entreats thy light,
Goddess, excellently bright.
Cynthia's Revels
(1600) act 5, sc. 3
This is Mab, the Mistress-Fairy
That doth nightly rob the dairy.
The Entertainment at Althorpe
(1603)
Still to be neat, still to be drest,
As you were going to a feast;
Still to be powdered, still perfumed,
Lady, it is to be presumed,
Though art's hid causes are not found,
All is not sweet, all is not sound.
Epicene
(1609) act 1, sc. 1
Such sweet neglect more taketh me,
Than all the adulteries of art;
They strike mine eyes, but not my heart.
Epicene
(1609) act 1, sc. 1
Blind Fortune still
Bestows her gifts on such as cannot use them.
Every Man out of His Humour
(1599) act 2, sc. 2
Ramp up my genius, be not retrograde;
But boldly nominate a spade a spade.
The Poetaster
(1601) act 5, sc. 1
I glory
More in the cunning purchase of my wealth
Than in the glad possession.
Volpone
(1606) act 1, sc. 1
I have been at my book, and am now past the craggy paths of study, and come to the flowery plains of honour and reputation.
Volpone
(1606) act 2, sc. 1
Suns, that set, may rise again;
But if once we lose this light,
'Tis with us perpetual night.
Volpone
(1606) act 3, sc. 5.
Come, my Celia, let us prove,
While we can, the sports of love.
Volpone
(1606) act 3, sc. 5.
You have a gift, sir, (thank your education),
Will never let you want, while there are men,
And malice, to breed causes.
to a lawyer
Volpone
(1606) act 5, sc. 1
Rest in soft peace, and, asked, say here doth lie
Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry.
"On My First Son" (1616)
This figure that thou here seest put,
It was for gentle Shakespeare cut,
Wherein the graver had a strife
With Nature, to out-do the life.
on the portrait of Shakespeare
First Folio Shakespeare
(1623) "To the Reader"
Reader, look
Not on his picture, but his book.
on the portrait of Shakespeare
First Folio Shakespeare
(1623) "To the Reader"
Drink to me only with thine eyes,
And I will pledge with mine;
Or leave a kiss but in the cup,
And I'll not look for wine.
"To Celia" (1616)
Soul of the Age!
The applause, delight, the wonder of our stage!
"To the Memory of My Beloved, the Author, Mr William Shakespeare" (1623)
How far thou didst our Lyly outshine,
Or sporting Kyd, or Marlowe's mighty line.
"To the Memory of…Shakespeare" (1623)
Thou hadst small Latin, and less Greek.
"To the Memory of…Shakespeare" (1623)
He was not of an age, but for all time!
"To the Memory of…Shakespeare" (1623)
Sweet Swan of Avon!
"To the Memory of…Shakespeare" (1623)
Donne, for not keeping of accent, deserved hanging…Shakespeare wanted art.
in
Conversations with William Drummond of Hawthornden
(written 1619) no. 3
Whatsoever he [Shakespeare] penned, he never blotted out a line. My answer hath been "Would he had blotted a thousand"…But he redeemed his vices with his virtues. There was ever more in him to be praised than to be pardoned.
Timber, or Discoveries made upon Men and Matter
(1641) l. 658 "De Shakespeare Nostrati".
1943–70
Fourteen heart attacks and he had to die in my week. In
my
week.
when ex-President Eisenhower's death prevented her photograph appearing on the cover of Newsweek
in
New Musical Express
12 April 1969
1698–1770
Palmam qui meruit, ferat.Let him who has won it bear the palm.
adopted by Lord Nelson as his motto
Lusus Poetici
(3rd ed., 1748) "Ad Ventos"
1741–90
Too beautiful for our ears, and much too many notes, dear Mozart.
of The Abduction from the Seraglio (1782)
attributed; Franz Xaver Niemetschek
Life of Mozart
(1798)
