“ What cannot be preserved when fortune takes, Patience her injury a mockery makes. The robb’d that smiles steals something from the thief; He robs himself that spends a bootless grief. ”
William Shakespeare, Othello (1623). copy citation
| Author | William Shakespeare |
|---|---|
| Source | Othello |
| Topic | mockery patience |
| Date | 1623 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | Written between 1601 and 1604 |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1531/1531-h/1531-h.htm |
Context
“Let me speak like yourself, and lay a sentence, Which as a grise or step may help these lovers Into your favour. When remedies are past, the griefs are ended By seeing the worst, which late on hopes depended. To mourn a mischief that is past and gone Is the next way to draw new mischief on. What cannot be preserved when fortune takes, Patience her injury a mockery makes. The robb’d that smiles steals something from the thief; He robs himself that spends a bootless grief. BRABANTIO. So let the Turk of Cyprus us beguile, We lose it not so long as we can smile; He bears the sentence well, that nothing bears But the free comfort which from thence he hears; But he bears both the sentence and the sorrow That, to pay grief, must of poor patience borrow.”
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