From “Third Part of Henry VI.,” Act II. Sc. 5.
KING HENRY.—O God! methinks, it were a happy life,
To be no better than a homely swain;
To sit upon a hill, as I do now,
To carve out dials quaintly, point by point,
Thereby to see the minutes how they run:
How many make the hour full complete,
How many hours bring about the day,
How...
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From “a Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Act III. Sc. 2.
O, IS all forgot?
All school-days’ friendship, childhood innocence?
We, Hermia, like two artificial gods,
Have with our needles created both one flower,
Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion,
Both warbling of one song, both in one key,
As if our hands, our sides,... -
From “Hamlet,” Act III. Sc. 2.
HAMLET.—Horatio, thou art e’en as just a man
As e’er my conversation coped withal.
HORATIO.—O my dear lord—
HAMLET.— Nay, do not think I flatter:
For what advancement may I hope from thee
That no revènue hast but thy good spirits,
To feed and clothe thee? Why should the poor be flattered?
... -
Sonnet Xxx.
when to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time’s waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death’s dateless night,
And weep afresh love’s long-since-cancelled woe,
And... -
Sonnet Xxix.
when in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf Heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man’s art, and that man’s scope,
With... -
Sonnet Lv.
not marble, not the gilded monuments
Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme;
But you shall shine more bright in these contents,
Than unswept stone, besmeared with sluttish time.
When wasteful war shall statues overturn,
And broils root out the work of masonry,
Nor Mars his sword nor war’s quick fire shall burn
The... -
From “Julius Cæsar,” Act IV. Sc. 3.
Enter BRUTUS and CASSIUS.
CASSIUS.—That you have wronged me doth appear in this:
You have condemned and noted Lucius Pella
For taking bribes here of the Sardians;
Wherein my letter, praying on his side,
Because I knew the man, was slighted off.
BRUTUS.—You wronged yourself to write in such a case.... -
From “As You Like It,” Act III. Sc. 5.
THINK not I love him, though I ask for him;
’T is but a peevish boy:—yet he talks well;—
But what care I for words?—yet words do well,
When he that speaks them pleases those that hear.
But, sure, he ’s proud; and yet his pride becomes him:
He ’ll make a proper man: The best thing in him
Is his... -
From “The Merchant of Venice,” Act III. Sc. 2.
TELL me where is fancy bred,
Or in the heart, or in the head?
How begot, how nourishèd?
Reply, reply.It is engendered in the eyes,
With gazing fed; and fancy dies
In the cradle where it lies.
Let us all ring fancy’s knell;
I ’ll begin it,—ding, dong, bell,... -
From “Love’s Labor ’s Lost,” Act IV. Sc. 3.
KING.—But what of this? are we not all in love?
BIRON.—Nothing so sure; and thereby all forsworn.
KING.—Then leave this chat; and, good Biron, now prove
Our loving lawful, and our faith not torn.
DUMAIN.—Ay, marry, there; some flattery for this evil.
LONGAVILLE.—O, some authority how to proceed...