William Shakespeare

“ If Signior Leonato be her father, she would not have his head on her shoulders for all Messina, as like him as she is.
Beat. I wonder that you will still be talking, Signior 100 Benedick: nobody marks you.
Bene. What, my dear Lady Disdain! are you yet living?
Beat. Is it possible disdain should die while she hath such meet food to feed it, as Signior Benedick? Courtesy itself must convert to disdain, if you come in her presence. ”

“ Signior Leonato, let the Friar advise you:
245 And though you know my inwardness and love
Is very much unto the prince and Claudio,
Yet, by mine honour, I will deal in this
As secretly and justly as your soul
Should with your body.
Leon. 249 Being that I flow in grief,
250 The smallest twine may lead me.
Friar. ’Tis well consented: presently away;
For to strange sores strangely they strain the cure.
Come, lady, die to live: this wedding-day
254 Perhaps is but prolong’d: have patience and endure. ”

“ How happy some o’er other some can be!
Through Athens I am thought as fair as she.
But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so;
229 He will not know what all but he do know:
230 And as he errs, doting on Hermia’s eyes,
So I, admiring of his qualities:
Things base and vile, holding no quantity,
Love can transpose to form and dignity:
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;
235 And therefore is wing’d Cupid painted blind:
Nor hath Love’s mind of any judgement taste ”

“ Exeunt Don John and Borachio.
Claud. Thus answer I in name of Benedick,
152 But hear these ill news with the ears of Claudio.
’Tis certain so; the prince wooes for himself.
Friendship is constant in all other things
155 Save in the office and affairs of love:
156 Therefore all hearts in love use their own tongues;
Let every eye negotiate for itself,
158 And trust no agent; for beauty is a witch,
Against whose charms faith melteth into blood.
160 This is an accident of hourly proof,
161 Which I mistrusted not. Farewell, therefore, Hero!
Re-enter Benedick. Bene. Count Claudio? ”

“ Enter Balthasar with Music. D. Pedro. Come, Balthasar, we’ll hear that song again.
040 Balth. O, good my lord, tax not so bad a voice
041 To slander music any more than once.
D. Pedro. It is the witness still of excellency
To put a strange face on his own perfection.
I pray thee, sing, and let me woo no more.
045 Balth. Because you talk of wooing, I will sing;
Since many a wooer doth commence his suit
To her he thinks not worthy, yet he wooes,
Yet will he swear he loves.
D. Pedro. Nay, pray thee, come;
Or, if thou wilt hold longer argument,
Do it in notes. ”

“ There are things in this comedy of Pyramus and Thisby that will never please. First, Pyramus must draw 010 a sword to kill himself; which the ladies cannot abide. How answer you that?
012 Snout. By’r lakin, a parlous fear.
Star. I believe we must leave the killing out, when all is done.
015 Bot. Not a whit: I have a device to make all well. Write me a prologue; and let the prologue seem to say, we will do no harm with our swords, and that Pyramus is not 018 killed indeed; and, for the more better assurance, tell them that I Pyramus am not Pyramus, but Bottom the weaver: ”

“ Lor. How every fool can play upon the word! I think the best grace of wit will shortly turn into silence; and discourse 040 grow commendable in none only but parrots. Go in, sirrah; bid them prepare for dinner.
Laun. That is done, sir; they have all stomachs.
043 Lor. Goodly Lord, what a wit-snapper are you! then bid them prepare dinner.
045 Laun. That is done too, sir; only ‘cover’ is the word.
Lor. Will you cover, then, sir?
Laun. Not so, sir, neither; I know my duty.
048 Lor. Yet more quarrelling with occasion! Wilt thou show the whole wealth of thy wit in an instant? ”

“ Then is courtesy a turncoat. But it is certain I am loved of all ladies, only you excepted: and I would I could find in my heart that I had not a hard heart; for, truly, I love none.
Beat. A dear happiness to women: they would else have 110 been troubled with a pernicious suitor. I thank God and my cold blood, I am of your humour for that: I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me. ”

“ Enter Beatrice. 038 Sweet Beatrice, wouldst thou come when I called thee?
Beat. Yea, signior, and depart when you bid me.
040 Bene. O, stay but till then!
Beat. ‘Then’ is spoken; fare you well now: and yet, 042 ere I go, let me go with that I came; which is, with knowing what hath passed between you and Claudio.
Bene. Only foul words; and thereupon I will kiss thee.
045 Beat. Foul words is but foul wind, and foul wind is but foul breath, and foul breath is noisome; therefore I will depart unkissed.
048 Bene. Thou hast frighted the word out of his right sense, so forcible is thy wit. ”

“ Well, set thee down, sorrow! for so they say the fool said, and so say I, and I the fool: well proved, wit! By the Lord, this love is 005 as mad as Ajax: it kills sheep; it kills me, I a sheep: well 006 proved again o’ my side! I will not love: if I do, hang me; i’ faith, I will not. O, but her eye,—by this light, but for 009 her eye, I would not love her; yes, for her two eyes. Well, 010 I do nothing in the world but lie, and lie in my throat. By heaven, I do love: and it hath taught me to rhyme, and to 012 be melancholy; and here is part of my rhyme, and here my melancholy. ”

“ A time that lovers’ flights doth still conceal,
213 Through Athens’ gates have we devised to steal.
Her. And in the wood, where often you and I
215 Upon faint primrose-beds were wont to lie,
216 Emptying our bosoms of their counsel sweet,
There my Lysander and myself shall meet;
And thence from Athens turn away our eyes,
219 To seek new friends and stranger companies.
220 Farewell, sweet playfellow: pray thou for us;
And good luck grant thee thy Demetrius!
Keep word, Lysander: we must starve our sight
From lovers’ food till morrow deep midnight.
Lys. I will, my Hermia. ”

“ My love is thine to teach: teach it but how,
250 And thou shalt see how apt it is to learn
Any hard lesson that may do thee good.
Claud. Hath Leonato any son, my lord?
D. Pedro. No child but Hero; she’s his only heir.
Dost thou affect her, Claudio? ”

“ A critic, nay, a night-watch constable;
A domineering pedant o’er the boy;
168 Than whom no mortal so magnificent!
169 This wimpled, whining, purblind, wayward boy;
170 This senior-junior, giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid;
Regent of love-rhymes, lord of folded arms,
The anointed sovereign of sighs and groans,
Liege of all loiterers and malcontents,
Dread prince of plackets, king of codpieces,
175 Sole imperator and great general
Of trotting ’paritors:—O my little heart!—
177 And I to be a corporal of his field,
And wear his colours like a tumbler’s hoop!
179 What! I love! I sue! I seek a wife! ”

“ A lover’s ear will hear the lowest sound,
332 When the suspicious head of theft is stopp’d:
Love’s feeling is more soft and sensible
Than are the tender horns of cockled snails;
335 Love’s tongue proves dainty Bacchus gross in taste:
336 For valour, is not Love a Hercules,
Still climbing trees in the Hesperides?
338 Subtle as Sphinx; as sweet and musical
339 As bright Apollo’s lute, strung with his hair;
340 And when Love speaks, the voice of all the gods
341 Make heaven drowsy with the harmony.
Never durst poet touch a pen to write
343 Until his ink were temper’d with Love’s sighs ”

“ Thy slander hath gone through and through her heart,
And she lies buried with her ancestors;
070 O, in a tomb where never scandal slept,
Save this of hers, framed by thy villany!
Claud. My villany?
Leon. Thine, Claudio; thine, I say.
D. Pedro. You say not right, old man.
Leon. My lord, my lord,
I’ll prove it on his body, if he dare,
075 Despite his nice fence and his active practice,
His May of youth and bloom of lustihood.
Claud. Away! I will not have to do with you.
078 Leon. Canst thou so daff me? Thou hast kill’d my child:
If thou kill’st me, boy, thou shalt kill a man. ”

“ I will not be sworn but love may transform me 022 to an oyster; but I’ll take my oath on it, till he have made an oyster of me, he shall never make me such a fool. One woman is fair, yet I am well; another is wise, yet I am 025 well; another virtuous, yet I am well: but till all graces be in one woman, one woman shall not come in my grace. ”

“ But, in good sooth, are you he that hangs the verses on the trees, wherein Rosalind is so admired?
Orl. I swear to thee, youth, by the white hand of 365 Rosalind, I am that he, that unfortunate he.
Ros. But are you so much in love as your rhymes speak?
Orl. Neither rhyme nor reason can express how much.
Ros. Love is merely a madness; and, I tell you, deserves as well a dark house and a whip as madmen do: and 370 the reason why they are not so punished and cured is, that the lunacy is so ordinary that the whippers are in love too. ”

“ ACT V. Scene I. The forest. AYLI V. 1 Enter Touchstone and Audrey. Touch. We shall find a time, Audrey; patience, gentle Audrey.
Aud. Faith, the priest was good enough, for all the old gentleman’s saying.
005 Touch. A most wicked Sir Oliver, Audrey, a most vile Martext. But, Audrey, there is a youth here in the forest lays claim to you.
Aud. Ay, I know who ’tis: he hath no interest in me in the world: here comes the man you mean.
010 Touch. It is meat and drink to me to see a clown: by my troth, we that have good wits have much to answer for; we shall be flouting; we cannot hold. ”

“ So turns she every man the wrong side out;
And never gives to truth and virtue that
070 Which simpleness and merit purchaseth.
Urs. Sure, sure, such carping is not commendable.
072 Hero. No, not to be so odd, and from all fashions,
As Beatrice is, cannot be commendable:
But who dare tell her so? If I should speak,
075 She would mock me into air; O, she would laugh me
Out of myself, press me to death with wit!
Therefore let Benedick, like cover’d fire,
Consume away in sighs, waste inwardly:
079 It were a better death than die with mocks,
080 Which is as bad as die with tickling. ”

“ Enter Duke senior, Amiens, and Lords like outlaws.
Duke S. I think he be transform’d into a beast;
For I can no where find him like a man.
First Lord. My lord, he is but even now gone hence:
Here was he merry, hearing of a song.
005 Duke S. If he, compact of jars, grow musical,
We shall have shortly discord in the spheres.
Go, seek him: tell him I would speak with him.
Enter Jaques. First Lord. He saves my labour by his own approach.
Duke S. Why, how now, monsieur! what a life is this,
010 That your poor friends must woo your company?
What, you look merrily!
Jaq. A fool, a fool! ”

“ I remember, when I was in love I broke my sword upon a stone and bid him take that for 045 coming a-night to Jane Smile: and I remember the kissing 046 of her batlet and the cow’s dugs that her pretty chopt hands had milked: and I remember the wooing of a peascod 048 instead of her; from whom I took two cods and, giving her them again, said with weeping tears ‘Wear these for my 050 sake.’ We that are true lovers run into strange capers; but as all is mortal in nature, so is all nature in love mortal in folly. ”

“ Hero. So says the prince and my new-trothed lord.
Urs. And did they bid you tell her of it, madam?
040 Hero. They did entreat me to acquaint her of it;
But I persuaded them, if they loved Benedick,
042 To wish him wrestle with affection,
And never to let Beatrice know of it.
Urs. Why did you so? Doth not the gentleman
045 Deserve as full as fortunate a bed
As ever Beatrice shall couch upon?
Hero. O god of love! I know he doth deserve
As much as may be yielded to a man:
But Nature never framed a woman’s heart
050 Of prouder stuff than that of Beatrice ”

“ Why, sir, is this such a piece of study? Now 051 here is three studied, ere ye’ll thrice wink: and how easy it is to put years to the word three, and study three years in two words, the dancing horse will tell you.
Arm. A most fine figure!
055 Moth. To prove you a cipher.
Arm. I will hereupon confess I am in love: and as it is base for a soldier to love, so am I in love with a base wench. If drawing my sword against the humour of affection would deliver me from the reprobate thought of it, I 060 would take Desire prisoner, and ransom him to any French courtier for a new-devised courtesy. ”

“ No, no, Orlando; men are April when they woo, December when they wed: maids are May when they are maids, but the sky changes when they are wives. I will be more jealous of thee than a Barbary cock-pigeon over his hen, more clamorous than 135 a parrot against rain, more new-fangled than an ape, more giddy in my desires than a monkey: I will weep for nothing, like Diana in the fountain, and I will do that when you are disposed to be merry ”

“ Starveling! God’s my life, stolen hence, and left 201 me asleep! I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what dream it was: man 203 is but an ass, if he go about to expound this dream. Methought I was—there is no man can tell what. Methought I was.—and methought I had,—but man is but a patched 205 fool, if he will offer to say what methought I had. The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man’s hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream was. ”

“ A fool, a fool! I met a fool i’ the forest,
013 A motley fool; a miserable world!
As I do live by food, I met a fool;
015 Who laid him down and bask’d him in the sun,
And rail’d on Lady Fortune in good terms,
In good set terms, and yet a motley fool. ”