The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (394 page)
Read The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Online
Authors: Elizabeth Knowles
The lunatic, the lover, and the poet,
Are of imagination all compact.
A Midsummer Night's Dream
(1595–6) act 5, sc. 1, l. 7
The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;
And, as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.
A Midsummer Night's Dream
(1595–6) act 5, sc. 1, l. 12
The best in this kind are but shadows, and the worst are no worse, if imagination amend them.
A Midsummer Night's Dream
(1595–6) act 5, sc. 1, l. [215]
The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve;
Lovers, to bed; 'tis almost fairy time.
A Midsummer Night's Dream
(1595–6) act 5, sc. 1, l. [372]
Not a mouse
Shall disturb this hallowed house:
I am sent with broom before,
To sweep the dust behind the door.
A Midsummer Night's Dream
(1595–6) act 5, sc. 2, l. 17
488
He is a very valiant trencher-man.
Much Ado About Nothing
(1598–9) act 1, sc. 1, l. [52]
There was a star danced, and under that was I born.
Much Ado About Nothing
(1598–9) act 2, sc. 1, l. [351]
Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,
Men were deceivers ever.
Much Ado About Nothing
(1598–9) act 2, sc. 3, l. [65]
Sits the wind in that corner?
Much Ado About Nothing
(1598–9) act 2, sc. 3, l. [108]
Comparisons are odorous.
Much Ado About Nothing
(1598–9) act 3, sc. 5, l. [18]
You have stayed me in a happy hour.
Much Ado About Nothing
(1598–9) act 4, sc. 1, l. [283]
O God, that I were a man! I would eat his heart in the market-place.
Much Ado About Nothing
(1598–9) act 4, sc. 1, l. [311]
No, I was not born under a rhyming planet.
Much Ado About Nothing
(1598–9) act 5, sc. 2, l. [40]
496
But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
For daws to peck at: I am not what I am.
Othello
(1602–4) act 1, sc. 1, l. 64
Even now, now, very now, an old black ram
Is tupping your white ewe.
Othello
(1602–4) act 1, sc. 1, l. 88
Your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs.
Othello
(1602–4) act 1, sc. 1, l. [117]
Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them.
Othello
(1602–4) act 1, sc. 2, l. 59
I will a round unvarnished tale deliver.
Othello
(1602–4) act 1, sc. 3, l. 90
And of the Cannibals that each other eat,
The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders.
Othello
(1602–4) act 1, sc. 3, l. 143
She loved me for the dangers I had passed,
And I loved her that she did pity them.
Othello
(1602–4) act 1, sc. 3, l. 167
I do perceive here a divided duty.
Othello
(1602–4) act 1, sc. 3, l. 181
Our great captain's captain.
Othello
(1602–4) act 2, sc. 1, l. 74
To suckle fools and chronicle small beer.
Othello
(1602–4) act 2, sc. 1, l. 163
O! I have lost my reputation. I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial.
Othello
(1602–4) act 2, sc. 3, l. [264]
O! thereby hangs a tail.
Othello
(1602–4) act 3, sc. 1, l. [8]
Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul
But I do love thee! and when I love thee not,
Chaos is come again.
Othello
(1602–4) act 3, sc. 3, l. 90
Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing;
'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.
Othello
(1602–4) act 3, sc. 3, l. 157
O! beware, my lord, of jealousy;
It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock
The meat it feeds on.
Othello
(1602–4) act 3, sc. 3, l. 165
If I do prove her haggard,
Though that her jesses were my dear heart-strings,
I'd whistle her off and let her down the wind,
To prey at fortune.
Othello
(1602–4) act 3, sc. 3, l. 260
I had rather be a toad,
And live upon the vapour of a dungeon,
Than keep a corner in the thing I love
For others' uses.
Othello
(1602–4) act 3, sc. 3, l. 270
Trifles light as air
Are to the jealous confirmations strong
As proofs of holy writ.
Othello
(1602–4) act 3, sc. 3, l. 323
Farewell the tranquil mind; farewell content!
Farewell the plumèd troop and the big wars
That make ambition virtue!
Othello
(1602–4) act 3, sc. 3, l. 349
Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war!
Othello
(1602–4) act 3, sc. 3, l. 355
Othello's occupation's gone!
Othello
(1602–4) act 3, sc. 3, l. 358
That handkerchief
Did an Egyptian to my mother give.
Othello
(1602–4) act 3, sc. 4, l. 56
A sibyl, that had numbered in the world
The sun to course two hundred compasses,
In her prophetic fury sewed the work;
The worms were hallowed that did breed the silk.
Othello
(1602–4) act 3, sc. 4, l. 71
But yet the pity of it, Iago! O! Iago, the pity of it, Iago!
Othello
(1602–4) act 4, sc. 1, l. [205]
Those that do teach young babes
Do it with gentle means and easy tasks;
He might have chid me so; for, in good faith,
I am a child to chiding.
Othello
(1602–4) act 4, sc. 2, l. 111
The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree,
Sing all a green willow;
Her hand on her bosom, her head on her knee,
Sing willow, willow, willow.
Othello
(1602–4) act 4, sc. 3, l. [41]
It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul;
Let me not name it to you, you chaste stars!
It is the cause.
Othello
(1602–4) act 5, sc. 2, l. 1
Put out the light, and then put out the light.
Othello
(1602–4) act 5, sc. 2, l. 7
Murder's out of tune,
And sweet revenge grows harsh.
Othello
(1602–4) act 5, sc. 2, l. 113
Here is my journey's end, here is my butt,
And very sea-mark of my utmost sail.
Othello
(1602–4) act 5, sc. 2, l. 266
I have done the state some service, and they know 't;
No more of that. I pray you, in your letters,
When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,
Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate,
Nor set down aught in malice: then, must you speak
Of one that loved not wisely but too well;
Of one not easily jealous, but, being wrought,
Perplexed in the extreme; of one whose hand,
Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away
Richer than all his tribe.
Othello
(1602–4) act 5, sc. 2, l. 338
I kissed thee ere I killed thee, no way but this,
Killing myself to die upon a kiss.
Othello
(1602–4) act 5, sc. 2, l. 357
528
Old John of Gaunt, time-honoured Lancaster.
Richard II
(1595) act 1, sc. 1, l. 1
The purest treasure mortal times afford
Is spotless reputation; that away,
Men are but gilded loam or painted clay.
Richard II
(1595) act 1, sc. 1, l. 177
We were not born to sue, but to command.
Richard II
(1595) act 1, sc. 1, l. 196.
How long a time lies in one little word!
Four lagging winters and four wanton springs
End in a word; such is the breath of kings.
Richard II
(1595) act 1, sc. 3, l. 213
There is no virtue like necessity.
Richard II
(1595) act 1, sc. 3, l. 278
As the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last,
Writ in remembrance more than things long past.
Richard II
(1595) act 2, sc. 1, l. 13
This royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea.
Richard II
(1595) act 2, sc. 1, l. 40
This blessèd plot, this earth, this realm, this England.
Richard II
(1595) act 2, sc. 1, l. 50
Grace me no grace, nor uncle me no uncle.
Richard II
(1595) act 2, sc. 3, l. 87
The caterpillars of the commonwealth.
Richard II
(1595) act 2, sc. 3, l. 166
Things past redress are now with me past care.
Richard II
(1595) act 2, sc. 3, l. 171
Not all the water in the rough rude sea
Can wash the balm from an anointed king.
Richard II
(1595) act 3, sc. 2, l. 54
O! call back yesterday, bid time return.
Richard II
(1595) act 3, sc. 2, l. 69
Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs;
Make dust our paper, and with rainy eyes
Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth.
Let's choose executors, and talk of wills.
Richard II
(1595) act 3, sc. 2, l. 145
For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground
And tell sad stories of the death of kings.
Richard II
(1595) act 3, sc. 2, l. 155
Within the hollow crown
That rounds the mortal temples of a king
Keeps Death his court.
Richard II
(1595) act 3, sc. 2, l. 160
What must the king do now? Must he submit?
The king shall do it: must he be deposed?
The king shall be contented.
Richard II
(1595) act 3, sc. 3, l. 143
I'll give my jewels for a set of beads,
