William Shakespeare

“ The Duke of Suffolk?
First Gent. 'Tis the same: high-steward.
Sec. Gent. And that my Lord of Norfolk?
First Gent. Yes.
Sec. Gent. [Looking on the Queen] Heaven bless thee! [659]
Thou hast the sweetest face I ever look'd on.
Sir, as I have a soul, she is an angel;
Our king has all the Indies in his arms, 45
And more and richer, when he strains that lady: [660]
I cannot blame his conscience.
First Gent. They that bear
The cloth of honour over her, are four barons [661]
[Pg 83] Of the Cinque-ports.
Sec. Gent. Those men are happy; and so are all are near her. ”

“ So farewell to the little good you bear me. [609] 350
Farewell! a long farewell, to all my greatness! [610]
This is the state of man: to-day he puts forth
The tender leaves of hopes; to-morrow blossoms, [611]
And bears his blushing honours thick upon him;
The third day comes a frost, a killing frost, 355
And, when he thinks, good easy man, full surely
His greatness is a-ripening, nips his root, [612]
And then he falls, as I do. I have ventured,
Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders,
This many summers in a sea of glory, [613] 360
But far beyond my depth: ”

“ Coal-black is better than another hue,
In that it scorns to bear another hue; [4538] 100
For all the water in the ocean
Can never turn the swan's black legs to white, [4539]
Although she lave them hourly in the flood. ”

“ 'Tis well said again;
And 'tis a kind of good deed to say well:
And yet words are no deeds. ”

“ Nothing, but our undertakings; when we vow to [1630]
weep seas, live in fire, eat rocks, tame tigers; thinking it
harder for our mistress to devise imposition enough than
for us to undergo any difficulty imposed. This is the monstruosity [1631] 75
in love, lady, that the will is infinite and the
execution confined, that the desire is boundless and the
act a slave to limit. ”

“ O, why should wrath be mute, and fury dumb? [4880]
I am no baby, I, that with base prayers 185
I should repent the evils I have done: [4881]
[Pg 531] Ten thousand worse than ever yet I did
Would I perform, if I might have my will:
If one good deed in all my life I did,
I do repent it from my very soul. ”

“ Cres. Good night: I prithee, come.
[Exit Diomedes. [2238]
Troilus, farewell! one eye yet looks on thee, 105
But with my heart the other eye doth see. [2239]
Ah, poor our sex! this fault in us I find,
The error of our eye directs our mind:
What error leads must err; O, then conclude
Minds sway'd by eyes are full of turpitude. [Exit. 110
Ther. A proof of strength she could not publish more, [2240]
Unless she said 'My mind is now turn'd whore.' [2241]
Ulyss. All's done, my lord.
Tro. It is. ”

“ When heaven doth weep, doth not the earth o'erflow?
If the winds rage, doth not the sea wax mad,
Threatening the welkin with his big-swoln face?
And wilt thou have a reason for this coil? 225
I am the sea; hark, how her sighs do blow! [4388]
She is the weeping welkin, I the earth:
Then must my sea be moved with her sighs;
Then must my earth with her continual tears
Become a deluge, overflow'd and drown'd: [4389] 230
For why my bowels cannot hide her woes, [4390]
But like a drunkard must I vomit them.
Then give me leave; for losers will have leave
To ease their stomachs with their bitter tongues. ”

“ pride hath no other glass
To show itself but pride, for supple knees
Feed arrogance and are the proud man's fees. ”

“ Ay, that I had not done a thousand more.
Even now I curse the day—and yet, I think, 125
Few come within the compass of my curse— [4719]
Wherein I did not some notorious ill:
As kill a man, or else devise his death;
Ravish a maid, or plot the way to do it;
Accuse some innocent, and forswear myself; [4720] 130
Set deadly enmity between two friends;
Make poor men's cattle break their necks; [4721]
Set fire on barns and hay-stacks in the night
And bid the owners quench them with their tears. [4722]
Oft have I digg'd up dead men from their graves, 135
And set them upright at their dear friends' doors, ”

“ Accept distracted thanks.
[Exeunt Troilus, Æneas, and Ulysses.
Ther. Would I could meet that rogue Diomed! I would
croak like a raven; I would bode, I would bode. Patroclus
will give me any thing for the intelligence of this whore: the 190
parrot will not do more for an almond than he for a commodious
drab. Lechery, lechery! still wars and lechery! nothing
else holds fashion. A burning devil take them! [Exit.
Scene III. Troy. Before Priam's palace. [2274] Enter Hector and Andromache.
And. When was my lord so much ungently temper'd,
To stop his ears against admonishment? ”

“ Their clothes are after such a pagan cut too, [176]
That, sure, they've worn out Christendom. ”

“ Handlest in thy discourse, O, that her hand, [959] [960] [961]
In whose comparison all whites are ink [961]
Writing their own reproach, to whose soft seizure [961]
The cygnet's down is harsh and spirit of sense [961] [962] 55
Hard as the palm of ploughman: this thou tell'st me, [961]
As true thou tell'st me, when I say I love her; ”

“ Those wounds heal ill that men do give themselves:
Omission to do what is necessary 230
Seals a commission to a blank of danger; ”

“ As the running title, 'The history of Troylus and Cresseida' corresponds with the first quoted title-page, we believe that the copies with this title-page were first issued for the theatre, and afterwards those with the new title-page and preface for general readers. In this case the expression 'neuer stal'd with the Stage, neuer clapper-clawd with the palmes of the vulger' must refer to the first appearance of the play in type, unless we suppose that the publisher was more careful to say what would recommend his book than to state what was literally true. ”

“ We live not to be grip'd by meaner persons.
King. Deliver this with modesty to the queen.
[Exit Gardiner.
The most convenient place that I can think of 135
For such receipt of learning is Black-Friars;
There ye shall meet about this weighty business.
My Wolsey, see it furnish'd. O, my lord,
Would it not grieve an able man to leave
So sweet a bedfellow? But, conscience, conscience! 140
O, 'tis a tender place; and I must leave her. [Exeunt.
[Pg 43]
Scene III. An ante-chamber of the Queen's apartments. [335] Enter Anne Bullen and an old Lady. ”

“ III. 2. 105. Malone (1790) says 'The word as has been substituted for which by the modern editors in the passage before us.' We have been unable to find it in Rowe, Pope, Theobald, Hanmer, Warburton, Johnson, Capell, or Steevens. It is probably a printer's emendation in some of the numerous reprints of the play. ”

“ He that is proud eats up himself: pride is [1461]
his own glass, his own trumpet, his own chronicle; and 150
whatever praises itself but in the deed, devours the deed in [1462]
the praise. ”

“ Ne'er look, ne'er look; the eagles are gone:
crows and daws, crows and daws! I had rather be such a
man as Troilus than Agamemnon and all Greece.
Cres. There is among the Greeks Achilles, a better [1060]
man than Troilus. 235
Pan. Achilles! a drayman, a porter, a very camel.
Cres. Well, well.
Pan. Well, well! Why, have you any discretion?
have you any eyes? do you know what a man is? Is not
birth, beauty, good shape, discourse, manhood, learning, 240
gentleness, virtue, youth, liberality, and such like, the spice [1061]
and salt that season a man? [1062]
Cres. ”

“ The error of our eye directs our mind:
What error leads must err; ”

“ For this last, [2944]
Before and in Corioli, let me say,
I cannot speak him home: he stopp'd the fliers; 100
And by his rare example made the coward
Turn terror into sport: as weeds before [2945]
A vessel under sail, so men obey'd,
And fell below his stem: his sword, death's stamp, [2946]
Where it did mark, it took; from face to foot [2947] 105
He was a thing of blood, whose every motion [2947]
Was timed with dying cries: alone he enter'd [2948]
The mortal gate of the city, which he painted [2949]
With shunless destiny; aidless came off, [2950]
[Pg 324] ”

“ Force should be right; or rather, right and wrong, [1137]
Between whose endless jar justice resides, [1138]
Should lose their names, and so should justice too. [1136] [1137] [1139]
Then every thing includes itself in power, [1140]
[Pg 146] Power into will, will into appetite; 120
And appetite, an universal wolf,
So doubly seconded with will and power,
Must make perforce an universal prey,
And last eat up himself. ”

“ A barren detested vale, you see it is; [4201]
The trees, though summer, yet forlorn and lean,
O'ercome with moss and baleful mistletoe: [4202] 95
Here never shines the sun; ”

“ For honour travels in a strait so narrow,
Where one but goes abreast: keep then the path; ”

“ Meet and agreeing with thine infancy; [4875] 165
In that respect then, like a loving child,
Shed yet some small drops from thy tender spring,
Because kind nature doth require it so:
Friends should associate friends in grief and woe:
Bid him farewell; commit him to the grave; 170
Do him that kindness, and take leave of him. [4876]
Boy. O grandsire, grandsire! even with all my heart [4877]
Would I were dead, so you did live again!
O Lord, I cannot speak to him for weeping;
My tears will choke me, if I ope my mouth. 175
Re-enter Attendants with Aaron. [4878]
A Roman. ”

“ All the commerce that you have had with Troy 205
As perfectly is ours as yours, my lord;
And better would it fit Achilles much
To throw down Hector than Polyxena:
But it must grieve young Pyrrhus now at home,
When fame shall in our islands sound her trump; [1787] 210
And all the Greekish girls shall tripping sing
'Great Hector's sister did Achilles win,
But our great Ajax bravely beat down him.' [1788]
Farewell, my lord: I as your lover speak;
[Pg 202] The fool slides o'er the ice that you should break. [Exit. [1789] 215
Patr. ”

“ In IV. 4. 113, he gives, in the Appendix to Coleridge's Lectures, and in his second edition of Shakespeare, 'Then go incessantly, and plead 'fore him,' as the reading of the MS. corrector, while in the one-volume edition, he gives, on the same authority, 'Then go successfully, and plead 'fore him.' We have left unnoticed other discrepancies, where, as is usually the case, they were unimportant to the sense. We mention the fact once for all, in order to defend ourselves from the charge of inaccuracy. ”

“ expectation whirls me round. [1600]
The imaginary relish is so sweet
That it enchants my sense: what will it be, [1601]
When that the watery palates taste indeed [1602] 20
[Pg 186] Love's thrice repured nectar? ”

“ He knows not his own nature: what things are
Most abject in regard, and dear in use?'
Hanmer reconstructed the whole passage, thus:
'I was much rapt
In this I read, and apprehended here
Immediately the unknown Ajax: heavens!
What a man's there? a very horse, that has
He knows not what: in nature what things there are
Most abject in regard, and dear in use.'
Note XI.
IV. 4. 74-77. The Quarto here reads:
'Here why I speake it loue,
The Grecian youths are full of quality,
And swelling ore with arts and exercise:'
The first Folio has:
'Heare why I speake it ”

“ There is, betwixt that smile we would aspire to, [616]
That sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin, [617]
More pangs and fears than wars or women have: 370
And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer,
Never to hope again. ”

“ Women are angels, wooing:
Things won are done; joy's soul lies in the doing: [1077]
That she beloved knows nought that knows not this: [1078]
Men prize the thing ungain'd more than it is:
That she was never yet that ever knew 275
Love got so sweet as when desire did sue: [1079]
Therefore this maxim out of love I teach: [1080]
[Pg 141] Achievement is command; ”

“ How some men creep in skittish fortune's hall, [1739] [1740]
While others play the idiots in her eyes! [1739] 135
How one man eats into another's pride,
While pride is fasting in his wantonness! [1741]
To see these Grecian lords! Why, even already
They clap the lubber Ajax on the shoulder,
As if his foot were on brave Hector's breast [1742] 140
And great Troy shrieking. [1743]
Achil. I do believe it; for they pass'd by me [1744] [1745]
As misers do by beggars, neither gave to me [1744]
Good word nor look: what, are my deeds forgot? [1744] [1746]
Ulyss. ”

“ Should he 'scape Hector fair: if he were foil'd, [1253]
Why then, we did our main opinion crush [1254]
In taint of our best man. No, make a lottery;
And by device let blockish Ajax draw [1255] 375
The sort to fight with Hector: among ourselves [1256]
Give him allowance for the better man; [1257]
For that will physic the great Myrmidon
Who broils in loud applause, and make him fall
His crest that prouder than blue Iris bends. ”

“ No space of earth shall sunder our two hates:
I'll haunt thee like a wicked conscience still,
That mouldeth goblins swift as frenzy's thoughts. [2438]
Strike a free march to Troy! with comfort go: [2439] 30
Hope of revenge shall hide our inward woe.
[Exeunt Æneas and Trojans.
As Troilus is going out, enter, from the other side, Pandarus. [2440]
Pan. ”

“ Or else you love not, for to be wise and love [1655] [1656]
Exceeds man's might; that dwells with gods above. ”

“ Barr'st me my way in Rome? [Stabbing Mutius. [4026]
Mut. Help, Lucius, help! [Dies.
[During the fray, Saturninus, Tamora, Demetrius, Chiron and Aaron go out, and re-enter above.
Re-enter Lucius. [4027]
Luc. My lord, you are unjust; and, more than so,
In wrongful quarrel you have slain your son.
Tit. Nor thou, nor he, are any sons of mine;
My sons would never so dishonour me: 295
[Pg 443] Traitor, restore Lavinia to the emperor.
Luc. Dead, if you will; but not to be his wife,
That is another's lawful promised love. [Exit. [4028]
Sat. ”

“ I would not care; but to be Menelaus! I would conspire [2157]
against destiny. Ask me not what I would be, if I were [2158] 60
not Thersites; for I care not to be the louse of a lazar, so I
were not Menelaus. Hoy-day! spirits and fires!
Enter Hector, Troilus, Ajax, Agamemnon, Ulysses, Nestor, Menelaus, and Diomedes, with lights. [2159]
Agam. We go wrong, we go wrong. [2160]
Ajax. No, yonder 'tis; [2161]
There, where we see the lights. [2162]
Hect. I trouble you. [2161]
Ajax. No, not a whit.
Re-enter Achilles. [2163]
Ulyss. Here comes himself to guide you. 65
Achil. ”

“ thus is the poor agent despised! O [2445]
traitors and bawds, how earnestly are you set a-work, and [2446]
how ill requited! why should our endeavour be so loved [2447]
and the performance so loathed? ”

“ Are not words duly hallow'd, nor my wishes
More worth than empty vanities; yet prayers and wishes [355]
Are all I can return. ”

“ Why, a' stalks up and down like a peacock,—a [1802] 250
stride and a stand: ruminates like an hostess that hath no
arithmetic but her brain to set down her reckoning: bites his
lip with a politic regard, as who should say 'There were wit
in this head, an 'twould out:' and so there is; ”

“ Did ever raven sing so like a lark,
That gives sweet tidings of the sun's uprise? ”

“ O brother, speak with possibilities, [4385] 215
And do not break into these deep extremes. ”