Shakespeare I Final Quotes

Front 1

If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
That strain again! it had a dying fall:
O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound,
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour! Enough; no more:
'Tis not so sweet now as it was before.
O spirit of love! how quick and fresh art thou,
That, notwithstanding thy capacity
Receiveth as the sea, nought enters there,
Of what validity and pitch soe'er,
But falls into abatement and low price,
Even in a minute: so full of shapes is fancy
That it alone is high fantastical.
…
Why, so I do, the noblest that I have:
O, when mine eyes did see Olivia first,
Methought she purged the air of pestilence!
That instant was I turn'd into a hart;
And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds,
E'er since pursue me.

Back 1

Twelfth Night
Duke Orsino
Act I, Scene I:
Duke Orsino opens the play. He is in love with Olivia, who does not return his love and he is pining away for her in this speech. He refuses to hunt and here orders musicians to play while he thinks about her.

Front 2

Speaker 1:
A virtuous maid, the daughter of a count
That died some twelvemonth since, then leaving her
In the protection of his son, her brother,
Who shortly also died: for whose dear love,
They say, she hath abjured the company
And sight of men.
Speaker 2:
O that I served that lady
And might not be delivered to the world,
Till I had made mine own occasion mellow,
What my estate is!
…
There is a fair behavior in thee, captain;
And though that nature with a beauteous wall
Doth oft close in pollution, yet of thee
I will believe thou hast a mind that suits
With this thy fair and outward character.
I prithee, and I'll pay thee bounteously,
Conceal me what I am, and be my aid
For such disguise as haply shall become
The form of my intent. I'll serve this duke:
Thou shall present me as an eunuch to him:
It may be worth thy pains; for I can sing
And speak to him in many sorts of music
That will allow me very worth his service.
What else may hap to time I will commit;
Only shape thou thy silence to my wit.

Back 2

Twelfth Night
Speaker 1: Captain, Speaker 2: Viola
Act I, Scene II:
Here, the Captain is talking to Viola, who has recently shown up. He is discussing Olivia and how she is the daughter of a count who died last year and then her brother, whose custody she was in, also died. She has sworn off men in memory of her brother. Viola relates to this because of her own loss. She decides that she wants to work for Olivia, because then she could hide away from the world until she feels it is the right time to reveal her identity. She then praises the character of the Captain, stating that she thinks he is a good person.

Front 3

O, then unfold the passion of my love,
Surprise her with discourse of my dear faith:
It shall become thee well to act my woes;
She will attend it better in thy youth
Than in a nuncio's of more grave aspect.
…
Dear lad, believe it;
For they shall yet belie thy happy years,
That say thou art a man: Diana's lip
Is not more smooth and rubious; thy small pipe
Is as the maiden's organ, shrill and sound,
And all is semblative a woman's part.
I know thy constellation is right apt
For this affair. Some four or five attend him;
All, if you will; for I myself am best
When least in company. Prosper well in this,
And thou shalt live as freely as thy lord,
To call his fortunes thine.

Back 3

Twelfth Night
Duke Orsino
Act I, Scene IV: Occurs after Viola has earned the trust of Orsino as Cesario. In this passage, Orsino is telling Viola (whom he believes to be Cesario) to tell Olivia how passionately he loves her and to overwhelm her with examples of how faithful and wonderful he is. He argues that Olivia will pay much more attention to a younger man, like Cesario, rather than Orsino. When Cesario protests, Orsino praises Cesario’s lips and soft voice, arguing that these features are feminine.

Front 4

Two faults, madonna, that drink and good counsel
will amend: for give the dry fool drink, then is
the fool not dry: bid the dishonest man mend
himself; if he mend, he is no longer dishonest; if
he cannot, let the botcher mend him. Any thing
that's mended is but patched: virtue that
transgresses is but patched with sin; and sin that
amends is but patched with virtue. If that this
simple syllogism will serve, so; if it will not,
what remedy? As there is no true cuckold but
calamity, so beauty's a flower. The lady bade take
away the fool; therefore, I say again, take her away.

Back 4

Twelfth Night
Fool/Feste
Act I, Scene IV: Occurs after Viola has earned the trust of Orsino as Cesario. In this passage, Orsino is telling Viola (whom he believes to be Cesario) to tell Olivia how passionately he loves her and to overwhelm her with examples of how faithful and wonderful he is. He argues that Olivia will pay much more attention to a younger man, like Cesario, rather than Orsino. When Cesario protests, Orsino praises Cesario’s lips and soft voice, arguing that these features are feminine.

Front 5

I marvel your ladyship takes delight in such a
barren rascal: I saw him put down the other day
with an ordinary fool that has no more brain
than a stone. Look you now, he's out of his guard
already; unless you laugh and minister occasion to
him, he is gagged. I protest, I take these wise men,
that crow so at these set kind of fools, no better
than the fools' zanies.

Back 5

Twelfth Night
Malvolio
Act I, Scene V: Malvolio doesn’t understand why Olivia keeps Feste around, since his only function is to make fun of her. Olivia responds that Malvolio is too full of “self-love.”

Front 6

Make me a willow cabin at your gate,
And call upon my soul within the house;
Write loyal cantons of contemned love
And sing them loud even in the dead of night;
Halloo your name to the reverberate hills
And make the babbling gossip of the air
Cry out 'Olivia!' O, You should not rest
Between the elements of air and earth,
But you should pity me!

Back 6

Twelfth Night
Viola
Act I, Scene V: Here, Viola is speaking to Olivia on behalf of Orsino. Instead of giving the memorized speech, she speaks extemporaneously. Olivia falls in love with Cesario.

Front 7

'Tis beauty truly blent, whose red and white
Nature's own sweet and cunning hand laid on:
Lady, you are the cruell'st she alive,
If you will lead these graces to the grave
And leave the world no copy.

Back 7

Twelfth Night
Viola
Act I, Scene V: Here, Viola, dressed as Cesario, is speaking to Olivia. Olivia has just refused to hear Orsino’s words and Viola manages to get her to listen with her eloquence, so she proceeds to praise her beauty.

Front 8

The gentleness of all the gods go with thee!
I have many enemies in Orsino's court,
Else would I very shortly see thee there.
But, come what may, I do adore thee so,
That danger shall seem sport, and I will go.

Back 8

Twelfth Night
Antonio
Act II, Scene I: Sebastian has been staying with Antonio for a while, under a false name, and he has just revealed his true identity to him and told him about his separation from his sister, and his father’s death. Sebastian has decided to go into Illyria and Antonio wishes to come with him. After Sebastian leaves to Orsino’s court (where he has many enemies), he decides that he cares for Sebastian so much that he must join him.

Front 9

Out o' tune, sir: ye lie. Art any more than a
steward? Dost thou think, because thou art
virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?

Back 9

Twelfth Night
Sir Toby
Act II, Scene III: In this scene, Sir Andrew and Sir Toby are up late drinking in Olivia’s house. Malvolio comes into the room and criticizes them for being so loud and drunk all the time. He warns Toby that his behavior is rude and that, while Olivia is willing to let him be her guest, because he is family, if he doesn’t change his behavior, he will be thrown out. Toby insults Malvolio, essentially saying that he is just a servant.

Front 10

The devil a puritan that he is, or any thing
constantly, but a time-pleaser; an affectioned ass,
that cons state without book and utters it by great
swarths: the best persuaded of himself, so
crammed, as he thinks, with excellencies, that it is
his grounds of faith that all that look on him love
him; and on that vice in him will my revenge find
notable cause to work.

Back 10

Twelfth Night
Maria
Act II, Scene III: Malvolio has just left the room after chastising Toby and Andrew for their drinking. He then turns the blame on Maria. He warns them all that he will let Olivia know about their behavior. While Andrew wants to challenge Malvolio to a duel, Maria has the idea to play a practical joke on him and target his ego.

Front 11

Would you'd pardon me;
I do not without danger walk these streets:
Once, in a sea-fight, 'gainst the count his galleys
I did some service; of such note indeed,
That were I ta'en here it would scarce be answer'd.
...
The offence is not of such a bloody nature;
Albeit the quality of the time and quarrel
Might well have given us bloody argument.
It might have since been answer'd in repaying
What we took from them; which, for traffic's sake,
Most of our city did: only myself stood out;
For which, if I be lapsed in this place,
I shall pay dear.

Back 11

Twelfth Night
Antonio
Act III, Scene III: In this scene, Sebastian and Antonio have arrived at Illyria. Antonio explains why he is not safe there, stating that he was involved in a sea fight against Orsino, in which Antonio did them a lot of damage. He is willing to venture into Illyria, however, because of his love for Antonio.

Front 12

Speaker 1:
Put up your sword. If this young gentleman
Have done offence, I take the fault on me:
If you offend him, I for him defy you.
Speaker 2:
You, sir! why, what are you?
Speaker 1:
One, sir, that for his love dares yet do more
Than you have heard him brag to you he will.
Speaker 2:
Nay, if you be an undertaker, I am for you.

Back 12

Twelfth Night
Speaker 1: Antonia, Speaker 2: Sir Toby
Act III, Scene IV: In this scene, Toby is challenging Cesario (really Viola) to a duel. Antonio, thinking that Cesario is Sebastian, interjects and challenges Toby.

Front 13

I know of none;
Nor know I you by voice or any feature:
I hate ingratitude more in a man
Than lying, vainness, babbling, drunkenness,
Or any taint of vice whose strong corruption
Inhabits our frail blood.

Back 13

Twelfth Night
Viola
Act III, Scene IV: Antonio has just saved Viola from a possibly deadly duel with Toby. Antonio thinks that Viola (who is dressed up like Cesario) is Sebastian and thus, does not understand why he saved her. When asking for the purse that Antonio gave to Sebastian, Viola obviously doesn’t have it.

Front 14

Let me speak a little. This youth that you see here
I snatch'd one half out of the jaws of death,
Relieved him with such sanctity of love,
And to his image, which methought did promise
Most venerable worth, did I devotion.
...
But O how vile an idol proves this god
Thou hast, Sebastian, done good feature shame.
In nature there's no blemish but the mind;
None can be call'd deform'd but the unkind:
Virtue is beauty, but the beauteous evil
Are empty trunks o'erflourish'd by the devil.

Back 14

Twelfth Night
Antonio
Act III, Scene IV: Antonio has just saved Viola from a duel with Toby. Antonio thinks that Viola (who is dressed up like Cesario) is Sebastian and thus, does not understand why he saved her. When asking for the purse that Antonio gave to Sebastian, Viola obviously doesn’t have it. Here, he is lamenting the fact that Viola doesn’t seem to know who he is and cannot help him.

Front 15

He named Sebastian: I my brother know
Yet living in my glass; even such and so
In favour was my brother, and he went
Still in this fashion, colour, ornament,
For him I imitate: O, if it prove,
Tempests are kind and salt waves fresh in love.

Back 15

Twelfth Night
Viola
Act III, Scene IV: Antonio has just been taken away after trying to save Viola’s life. He thinks that Viola (dressed as Cesario) is Sebastian, who he has saved. This gives Viola hope that her brother is alive.

Front 16

Well held out, i' faith! No, I do not know you; nor
I am not sent to you by my lady, to bid you come
speak with her; nor your name is not Master Cesario;
nor this is not my nose neither. Nothing that is so is so.

Back 16

Twelfth Night
The Fool/Feste
Act IV, Scene I: The Fool is following Sebastian, whom he believes to be Cesario. He is trying to bring Cesario to Olivia’s home, which obviously confuses Sebastian. Another example of the fool being right, as he says nothing is what it is.

Front 17

This is the air; that is the glorious sun;
This pearl she gave me, I do feel't and see't;
And though 'tis wonder that enwraps me thus,
Yet 'tis not madness. Where's Antonio, then?
I could not find him at the Elephant:
Yet there he was; and there I found this credit,
That he did range the town to seek me out.
His counsel now might do me golden service;
For though my soul disputes well with my sense,
That this may be some error, but no madness,
Yet doth this accident and flood of fortune
So far exceed all instance, all discourse,
That I am ready to distrust mine eyes
And wrangle with my reason that persuades me
To any other trust but that I am mad
Or else the lady's mad; yet, if 'twere so,
She could not sway her house, command her followers,
Take and give back affairs and their dispatch
With such a smooth, discreet and stable bearing
As I perceive she does: there's something in't
That is deceiveable. But here the lady comes.

Back 17

Twelfth Night
Sebastian
Act IV, Scene III: Sebastian is wandering around Olivia’s house. He is very confused, because a beautiful woman whom he has never met has been showering him with gifts and wants to marry him. In this speech, he wishes he could find Antonio and talk to him about this, but he could not find him when he returned to the inn (because Antonio has been arrested).

Front 18

One face, one voice, one habit, and two persons,
A natural perspective, that is and is not!

Back 18

Twelfth Night
Orsino
Act V, Scene I: The two twins have just been revealed in front of everyone. Orsino comments on the confusion as the plot has not been revealed yet.

Front 19

O, were that all! I think not on my father;
And these great tears grace his remembrance more
Than those I shed for him. What was he like?
I have forgot him: my imagination
Carries no favour in't but Bertram's.
I am undone: there is no living, none,
If Bertram be away. 'Twere all one
That I should love a bright particular star
And think to wed it, he is so above me:
In his bright radiance and collateral light
Must I be comforted, not in his sphere.
The ambition in my love thus plagues itself:
The hind that would be mated by the lion
Must die for love. 'Twas pretty, though plague,
To see him every hour; to sit and draw
His arched brows, his hawking eye, his curls,
In our heart's table; heart too capable
Of every line and trick of his sweet favour:
But now he's gone, and my idolatrous fancy
Must sanctify his reliques. Who comes here?

Back 19

All's Well That Ends Well
Helena
Act I, Scene I: Helena is in love with Bertram, who is being sent to serve the King of France. Although her father has just died, Helena is undone because of her love for Bertram, as she discusses in this passage. This occurs right before her scene with Parolles.

Front 20

Let me see: marry, ill, to like him that ne'er it
likes. 'Tis a commodity will lose the gloss with
lying; the longer kept, the less worth: off with 't
while 'tis vendible; answer the time of request.
Virginity, like an old courtier, wears her cap out
of fashion: richly suited, but unsuitable: just
like the brooch and the tooth-pick, which wear not
now. Your date is better in your pie and your
porridge than in your cheek; and your virginity,
your old virginity, is like one of our French
withered pears, it looks ill, it eats drily; marry,
'tis a withered pear; it was formerly better;
marry, yet 'tis a withered pear: will you anything with it?

Back 20

All's Well That Ends Well
Parolles
Act I, Scene I: Here, Parolles is bantering with Helena. Parolles is an unsavory character who has managed to gain Bertram’s confidence, despite being a liar and a coward. In this exchange, Parolles is recommending that Helena find a husband quickly and lose her virginity as soon as possible.

Front 21

Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie,
Which we ascribe to heaven: the fated sky
Gives us free scope, only doth backward pull
Our slow designs when we ourselves are dull.
What power is it which mounts my love so high,
That makes me see, and cannot feed mine eye?
The mightiest space in fortune nature brings
To join like likes and kiss like native things.
Impossible be strange attempts to those
That weigh their pains in sense and do suppose
What hath been cannot be: who ever strove
So show her merit, that did miss her love?
The king's disease--my project may deceive me,
But my intents are fix'd and will not leave me.

Back 21

All's Well That Ends Well
Helena
Act I, Scene I: After her discussion with Parolles, Helena has devised a plan to get Bertram to love her. She is going to follow him to the King of France, who is suffering from a fistula, and she will use a remedy that her deceased father (who was a well known doctor) has taught her.

Front 22

SPEAKER 1
Had you not lately an intent,--speak truly,--
To go to Paris?
SPEAKER 2
Madam, I had.
SPEAKER 1
Wherefore? tell true.
SPEAKER 2
I will tell truth; by grace itself I swear.
You know my father left me some prescriptions
Of rare and proved effects, such as his reading
And manifest experience had collected
For general sovereignty; and that he will'd me
In heedfull'st reservation to bestow them,
As notes whose faculties inclusive were
More than they were in note: amongst the rest,
There is a remedy, approved, set down,
To cure the desperate languishings whereof
The king is render'd lost.
SPEAKER 1
This was your motive
For Paris, was it? speak.
SPEAKER 2
My lord your son made me to think of this;
Else Paris and the medicine and the king
Had from the conversation of my thoughts
Haply been absent then.
SPEAKER 1
But think you, Helen,
If you should tender your supposed aid,
He would receive it? he and his physicians
Are of a mind; he, that they cannot help him,
They, that they cannot help: how shall they credit
A poor unlearned virgin, when the schools,
Embowell'd of their doctrine, have left off
The danger to itself?
SPEAKER 2
There's something in't,
More than my father's skill, which was the greatest
Of his profession, that his good receipt
Shall for my legacy be sanctified
By the luckiest stars in heaven:

Back 22

All's Well That Ends Well
Speaker 1: Countess; Speaker 2: Helena
Act I, Scene III: In this scene, Helena is speaking to the Countess, who is Bertram’s mother, about her love for Bertram and her plan to go to the King’s palace and offer her services as a doctor, using the medical knowledge her father taught her. The Countess gives her blessing.

Front 23

O, will you eat no grapes, my royal fox?
Yes, but you will my noble grapes, an if
My royal fox could reach them: I have seen a medicine
That's able to breathe life into a stone,
Quicken a rock, and make you dance canary
With spritely fire and motion; whose simple touch,
Is powerful to araise King Pepin, nay,
To give great Charlemain a pen in's hand,
And write to her a love-line.

Back 23

All's Well That Ends Well
Lafew
Act II, Scene I: In this scene, Lafew is talking to the King. He tells him that a female doctor has recently arrived, promising a cure for his fistula.

Front 24

SPEAKER 1
What I can do can do no hurt to try,
Since you set up your rest 'gainst remedy.
He that of greatest works is finisher
Oft does them by the weakest minister:
So holy writ in babes hath judgment shown,
When judges have been babes; great floods have flown
From simple sources, and great seas have dried
When miracles have by the greatest been denied.
Oft expectation fails and most oft there
Where most it promises, and oft it hits
Where hope is coldest and despair most fits.
SPEAKER 2
I must not hear thee; fare thee well, kind maid;
Thy pains not used must by thyself be paid:
Proffers not took reap thanks for their reward.
SPEAKER 1
Inspired merit so by breath is barr'd:
It is not so with Him that all things knows
As 'tis with us that square our guess by shows;
But most it is presumption in us when
The help of heaven we count the act of men.
Dear sir, to my endeavours give consent;
Of heaven, not me, make an experiment.
I am not an impostor that proclaim
Myself against the level of mine aim;
But know I think and think I know most sure
My art is not past power nor you past cure.

Back 24

All's Well That Ends Well
Speaker 1: Helena; Speaker 2: The King
Act II, Scene I: Here Helena is talking to the King about why he should let her help him. Helena promises that there is no harm in making an attempt and promises that the medicine will restore his health within just two days. She also says that if it fails, her life should be forfeit. If it succeeds, she should be allowed to marry whomever she wants.

Front 25

Then shalt thou give me with thy kingly hand
What husband in thy power I will command:
Exempted be from me the arrogance
To choose from forth the royal blood of France,
My low and humble name to propagate
With any branch or image of thy state;
But such a one, thy vassal, whom I know
Is free for me to ask, thee to bestow.

Back 25

All's Well That Ends Well
Helena
Act II, Scene I: Here Helena is talking to the King after he has promised to let her attempt to cure him. She also says that if it fails, her life should be forfeit. If it succeeds, she should be allowed to marry whomever she wants.

Front 26

They say miracles are past; and we have our
philosophical persons, to make modern and familiar,
things supernatural and causeless. Hence is it that
we make trifles of terrors, ensconcing ourselves
into seeming knowledge, when we should submit
ourselves to an unknown fear.

Back 26

All's Well That Ends Well
Lafew
Act II, Scene III: Lafew and Parolles remark on the amazing success of the Helena’s cure, which has restored the King to good health.

Front 27

SPEAKER 1:
My wife, my liege! I shall beseech your highness,
In such a business give me leave to use
The help of mine own eyes.
…
But follows it, my lord, to bring me down
Must answer for your raising? I know her well:
She had her breeding at my father's charge.
A poor physician's daughter my wife! Disdain
Rather corrupt me ever!
SPEAKER 2:
'Tis only title thou disdain'st in her, the which
I can build up. Strange is it that our bloods,
Of colour, weight, and heat, pour'd all together,
Would quite confound distinction, yet stand off
In differences so mighty. If she be
All that is virtuous, save what thou dislikest,
A poor physician's daughter, thou dislikest
Of virtue for the name: but do not so:
From lowest place when virtuous things proceed,
The place is dignified by the doer's deed:
Where great additions swell's, and virtue none,
It is a dropsied honour. Good alone
Is good without a name. Vileness is so:
The property by what it is should go,
Not by the title. She is young, wise, fair;
In these to nature she's immediate heir,
And these breed honour: that is honour's scorn,
Which challenges itself as honour's born
And is not like the sire: honours thrive,
When rather from our acts we them derive
Than our foregoers: the mere word's a slave
Debosh'd on every tomb, on every grave
A lying trophy, and as oft is dumb
Where dust and damn'd oblivion is the tomb
Of honour'd bones indeed. What should be said?
If thou canst like this creature as a maid,
I can create the rest: virtue and she
Is her own dower; honour and wealth from me.

Back 27

All's Well That Ends Well
Speaker 1: Bertram; Speaker 2: The King
Act II, Scene III: Bertram and the King are talking after Helena has stated that she wants to marry Bertram. He does not accept the match because of her low breeding and the King gives a long speech stating that inner worth is more important than noble birth and promises to raise Helena to a higher rank. Bertram still refuses.

Front 28

The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and
ill together: our virtues would be proud, if our
faults whipped them not; and our crimes would
despair, if they were not cherished by our virtues.

Back 28

All's Well That Ends Well
First Lord
Act IV, Scene III: The First Lord and the Second Lord are discussing Bertram’s conduct. The false rumor of Helena’s death has spread along with the letter from his mother, condemning his behavior towards Helena.

Front 29

But, O strange men!
That can such sweet use make of what they hate,
When saucy trusting of the cozen'd thoughts
Defiles the pitchy night: so lust doth play
With what it loathes for that which is away.
But more of this hereafter. You, Diana,
Under my poor instructions yet must suffer
Something in my behalf.

Back 29

All's Well That Ends Well
Helena
Act IV, Scene IV: This passage occurs after the bed-switch has succeeded. Helena is talking to the Widow and Diana about the plan and thanking them for their friendship and assistance.

Front 30

The king's a beggar, now the play is done:
All is well ended, if this suit be won,
That you express content; which we will pay,
With strife to please you, day exceeding day:
Ours be your patience then, and yours our parts;
Your gentle hands lend us, and take our hearts.

Back 30

All's Well That Ends Well
The King
Epilogue: Helena has revealed the bed-trick to Bertram and he has decided to marry her and love her. All of the plots of the play have been resolved. The actor that has played the King tells the audience they should applaud the actors for their hard work.

Front 31

Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death
The memory be green, and that it us befitted
To bear our hearts in grief and our whole kingdom
To be contracted in one brow of woe,
Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature
That we with wisest sorrow think on him,
Together with remembrance of ourselves.
Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen,
The imperial jointress to this warlike state,
Have we, as 'twere with a defeated joy,--
With an auspicious and a dropping eye,
With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage,
In equal scale weighing delight and dole,--
Taken to wife: nor have we herein barr'd
Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone
With this affair along. For all, our thanks.

Back 31

Hamlet
Claudius
Act I, Scene II: It has been a month since King Hamlet died. Claudius expresses his sorrow of losing his brother, but says that he has chosen to balance the grief of Denmark with the joy of his (kinda creepy) marriage. He shifts the attention to the foreign quarrel as well.

Front 32

Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off,
And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark.
Do not for ever with thy vailed lids
Seek for thy noble father in the dust:
Thou know'st 'tis common; all that lives must die,
Passing through nature to eternity.

Back 32

Hamlet
Gertrude
Act I, Scene II: Gertrude tries to make Hamlet understand that death is natural and that everyone must die. Except she’s wrong and this was MURDER! She thinks that Hamlet should get over his grief, take off his mourning clothes, and cheer up.

Front 33

Seems, madam! nay it is; I know not 'seems.'
'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,
Nor customary suits of solemn black,
Nor windy suspiration of forced breath,
No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,
Nor the dejected 'havior of the visage,
Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief,
That can denote me truly: these indeed seem,
For they are actions that a man might play:
But I have that within which passeth show;
These but the trappings and the suits of woe.

Back 33

Hamlet
Hamlet
Act I, Scene II: Hamlet is telling his mother that his grief is real, as opposed the the theatricality of the court. This is often misinterpreted. What’s Hamlet’s thesis here? The theatrical way is the royal way. This is the antitheatrical Hamlet, anti-seeming, anti-court. Is also suggesting that any representation, even if it’s authentic, fails. But there is an is, Hamlet says that there is a real him with feelings.

Front 34

Think it no more;
For nature, crescent, does not grow alone
In thews and bulk, but, as this temple waxes,
The inward service of the mind and soul
Grows wide withal. Perhaps he loves you now,
And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch
The virtue of his will: but you must fear,
His greatness weigh'd, his will is not his own;
For he himself is subject to his birth:
He may not, as unvalued persons do,
Carve for himself; for on his choice depends
The safety and health of this whole state;
And therefore must his choice be circumscribed
Unto the voice and yielding of that body
Whereof he is the head. Then if he says he loves you,
It fits your wisdom so far to believe it
As he in his particular act and place
May give his saying deed; which is no further
Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal.
Then weigh what loss your honour may sustain,
If with too credent ear you list his songs,
Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open
To his unmaster'd importunity.

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Hamlet
Laertes
Act I, Scene III: This speech occurs when Laertes is leaving for France and is speaking to his sister Ophelia and cautioning her not to fall in love with Hamlet, who is too far above her birth to love her honorably. Here, he is discussing about how Hamlet’s family obligations will overshadow her and she cannot be loved by him the way she deserves. If he loves her, it is still only as much as Denmark will allow.

Front 35

From me, whose love was of that dignity
That it went hand in hand even with the vow
I made to her in marriage, and to decline
Upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor
To those of mine!
But virtue, as it never will be moved,
Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven,
So lust, though to a radiant angel link'd,
Will sate itself in a celestial bed,
And prey on garbage.

Back 35

Hamlet
Ghost
Act I, Scene V: In this scene, Hamlet speaks to the ghost of his father. He is learning that his father has been murdered by Claudius and the ghost is asking Hamlet to seek revenge for his death.

Front 36

O all you host of heaven! O earth! what else?
And shall I couple hell? O, fie! Hold, hold, my heart;
And you, my sinews, grow not instant old,
But bear me stiffly up. Remember thee!
Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat
In this distracted globe. Remember thee!
Yea, from the table of my memory
I'll wipe away all trivial fond records,
All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past,
That youth and observation copied there;
And thy commandment all alone shall live
Within the book and volume of my brain,
Unmix'd with baser matter: yes, by heaven!
O most pernicious woman!
O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!
My tables,--meet it is I set it down,
That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain;
At least I'm sure it may be so in Denmark:
Writing
So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word;
It is 'Adieu, adieu! remember me.'
I have sworn 't.

Back 36

Hamlet
Hamlet
Act I, Scene V: This speech occurs after Hamlet has talked to his father’s ghost. He has just learned that his father was murdered by Claudius. In this speech, Hamlet swears to remember and obey the ghost and seek revenge for his father’s death.

Front 37

SPEAKER 1:
This business is well ended.
My liege, and madam, to expostulate
What majesty should be, what duty is,
Why day is day, night night, and time is time,
Were nothing but to waste night, day and time.
Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
I will be brief: your noble son is mad:
Mad call I it; for, to define true madness,
What is't but to be nothing else but mad?
But let that go.
SPEAKER 2:
More matter, with less art.

Back 37

Hamlet
Speaker 1: Polonius; Speaker 2: Gertrude
Act II, Scene II: Ambassadors have arrived from Norway, which Polonius has just announced. Now he is trying to discuss Hamlet’s madness, but he is a bit wordy (ironic since he thinks that “brevity is the soul of wit”). Gertrude is more no-nonsense and wants him to get to the point (which he does in the next quote).

Front 38

Reads.
'Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.
'O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers;
I have not art to reckon my groans: but that
I love thee best, O most best, believe it. Adieu.
'Thine evermore most dear lady, whilst
this machine is to him, HAMLET.'

Back 38

Hamlet
Polonius
Act II, Scene II: Everybody is worried about Hamlet because he’s been acting crazy. Gertrude has called for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (Hamlet’s old school friends) to try to figure out what’s up. Polonius has announced that ambassadors from Norway have arrived. After this, he turns to the subject of Hamlet, and after a long-winded preamble, he reads a love letter that Hamlet has sent to Ophelia. He thinks that Hamlet’s madness could have been caused by his love for Ophelia, and hatches a plan to test his theory.

Front 39

What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason!
how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how
express and admirable! in action how like an angel!
in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the
world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me,
what is this quintessence of dust? man delights not
me: no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling
you seem to say so.

Back 39

Hamlet
Hamlet
Act II, Scene II: Hamlet is talking to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. He has told them about his sadness and inability for enjoying life or exercising ever since his father’s death. He here goes on to paint a glorified picture of humanity and the world, though he is no longer able to see them as anything but the “quintessence of dust,” and he finds no pleasure in interacting with the world.

Front 40

'Anon he finds him
Striking too short at Greeks; his antique sword,
Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls,
Repugnant to command: unequal match'd,
Pyrrhus at Priam drives; in rage strikes wide;
But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword
The unnerved father falls. Then senseless Ilium,
Seeming to feel this blow, with flaming top
Stoops to his base, and with a hideous crash
Takes prisoner Pyrrhus' ear: for, lo! his sword,
Which was declining on the milky head
Of reverend Priam, seem'd i' the air to stick:
So, as a painted tyrant, Pyrrhus stood,
And like a neutral to his will and matter,
Did nothing.
But, as we often see, against some storm,
A silence in the heavens, the rack stand still,
The bold winds speechless and the orb below
As hush as death, anon the dreadful thunder
Doth rend the region, so, after Pyrrhus' pause,
Aroused vengeance sets him new a-work;
And never did the Cyclops' hammers fall
On Mars's armour forged for proof eterne
With less remorse than Pyrrhus' bleeding sword
Now falls on Priam.
Out, out, thou strumpet, Fortune! All you gods,
In general synod 'take away her power;
Break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel,
And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven,
As low as to the fiends!'

Back 40

Hamlet
Player
Act II, Scene II: In this scene, the players have just arrived and follow Polonius into the room. Hamlet welcomes them and entreats one of them to give a speech about the fall of Troy. This is the speech that the player gives-- he talks about the fall of Troy and the death of Priam and Hecuba. This speech impresses Hamlet and the players are allowed to stay in guest rooms.

Front 41

Ay, so, God be wi' ye;
Now I am alone.
O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!
Is it not monstrous that this player here,
But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,
Could force his soul so to his own conceit
That from her working all his visage wann'd,
Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect,
A broken voice, and his whole function suiting
With forms to his conceit? and all for nothing!
For Hecuba!
What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,
That he should weep for her? What would he do,
Had he the motive and the cue for passion
That I have? He would drown the stage with tears
And cleave the general ear with horrid speech,
Make mad the guilty and appal the free,
Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed
The very faculties of eyes and ears.

Back 41

Hamlet
Hamlet
Act II, Scene II: Hamlet leaves Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and begins cursing himself because the player who gave the speech was able to summon a depth of feeling and expression for long-dead figures who mean nothing to him, while Hamlet is unable to take action even with his far more powerful motives.

Front 42

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.

Back 42

Hamlet
Hamlet
Act III, Scene I: In this scene, Hamlet is talking to Ophelia, but this is him soliloquizing before she arrives. He is saying that fear of death makes us all cowards, and our natural boldness becomes weak with too much thinking. Actions that should be carried out at once get misdirected and stop being actions at all.

Front 43

I have heard of your paintings too, well enough; God
has given you one face, and you make yourselves
another: you jig, you amble, and you lisp, and
nick-name God's creatures, and make your wantonness
your ignorance. Go to, I'll no more on't; it hath
made me mad. I say, we will have no more marriages:
those that are married already, all but one, shall
live; the rest shall keep as they are. To a
nunnery, go.

Back 43

Hamlet
Hamlet
Act III, Scene I: Hamlet is speaking to Ophelia, after telling her that he never loved her. He is criticizing women in this speech for using cosmetics, as they contribute to the world’s dishonesty by painting their faces to appear more beautiful than they are. He is arguing that women don’t use their God-given face and instead deceive others.

Front 44

How these things came about: so shall you hear
Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts,
Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters,
Of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause,
And, in this upshot, purposes mistook
Fall'n on the inventors' reads: all this can I
Truly deliver.

Back 44

Hamlet
Horatio
Act V, Scene II: Right before his death, Hamlet has urged Horatio to stay alive and tell the story of what led to the horrific and violent last scene. Horatio keeps his word and vows to tell everyone assembled (Fortinbras and co).

Front 45

For, sir,
It is as sure as you are Roderigo,
Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago:
In following him, I follow but myself;
Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty,
But seeming so, for my peculiar end:
For when my outward action doth demonstrate
The native act and figure of my heart
In compliment extern, 'tis not long after
But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
For daws to peck at: I am not what I am.

Back 45

Othello
Iago
Act I, Scene I: Rodrigo has been paying Iago to help him woo Desdemona. However, they have discovered that she has married Othello, for whom Iago works. In this quote, Iago assures Rodrigo that the only reason he is working for Othello is to get what he wants for himself, and he actually hates him. Iago is an evil master and manipulator of reality, and we can never really know him. What he seems to be is not reflective of an inner aim.

Front 46

O heaven! How got she out? O treason of the blood!
Fathers, from hence trust not your daughters' minds
By what you see them act. Is there not charms
By which the property of youth and maidhood
May be abused?

Back 46

Othello
Brabantio
Act I, Scene I: As part of Iago and Rodrigo’s plan, they go to Desdemona’s father’s house and tell him that she has married Othello. At first Brabantio thinks that it is just another ploy from Rodrigo to try to see Desdemona, but he finds out that it is true. Clearly, Desdemona’s father owns her and hasn’t given her permission, so he is very upset.

Front 47

O thou foul thief, where hast thou stow'd my daughter?
Damn'd as thou art, thou hast enchanted her;
For I'll refer me to all things of sense,
If she in chains of magic were not bound,
Whether a maid so tender, fair and happy,
So opposite to marriage that she shunned
The wealthy curled darlings of our nation,
Would ever have, to incur a general mock,
Run from her guardage to the sooty bosom
Of such a thing as thou, to fear, not to delight.
Judge me the world, if 'tis not gross in sense
That thou hast practised on her with foul charms,
Abused her delicate youth with drugs or minerals
That weaken motion: I'll have't disputed on;
'Tis probable and palpable to thinking.
I therefore apprehend and do attach thee
For an abuser of the world, a practiser
Of arts inhibited and out of warrant.
Lay hold upon him: if he do resist,
Subdue him at his peril.

Back 47

Othello
Brabantio
Act I, Scene II: Brabantio accuses Othello of bewitching his daughter, after finding out that they are married behind his back and without his permission. He uses the fact that she has denied all others in the city to discredit Othello, saying she wouldn’t run off with a Moor. He says that he must have tricked, drugged, or kidnapped her and threatens to arrest Othello.

Front 48

I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver
Of my whole course of love; what drugs, what charms,
What conjuration and what mighty magic,
For such proceeding I am charged withal,
I won his daughter.

Back 48

Othello
Othello
Act I, Scene III: Othello has been accused of using charms and magic to win Brabantio’s daughter, and here he is preparing to talk about how the story of his life was actually what made Desdemona fall in love with him.

Front 49

A maiden never bold;
Of spirit so still and quiet, that her motion
Blush'd at herself; and she, in spite of nature,
Of years, of country, credit, every thing,
To fall in love with what she fear'd to look on!
It is a judgment maim'd and most imperfect
That will confess perfection so could err
Against all rules of nature, and must be driven
To find out practises of cunning hell,
Why this should be. I therefore vouch again
That with some mixtures powerful o'er the blood,
Or with some dram conjured to this effect,
He wrought upon her.

Back 49

Othello
Brabantio
Act I, Scene III: In the middle of a military meeting, Brabanzio, Othello, Cassio, Iago, Roderigo, and officers arrive. Brabantio is certain that there is magic and trickery involved in Desdemona’s love for Othello, as she is a good and blushing girl who would normally be afraid to look at Othello (yay, racism?).

Front 50

Her father loved me; oft invited me;
Still question'd me the story of my life,
From year to year, the battles, sieges, fortunes,
That I have passed.
I ran it through, even from my boyish days,
To the very moment that he bade me tell it;
Wherein I spake of most disastrous chances,
Of moving accidents by flood and field
Of hair-breadth scapes i' the imminent deadly breach,
Of being taken by the insolent foe
And sold to slavery, of my redemption thence
And portance in my travels' history:
Wherein of antres vast and deserts idle,
Rough quarries, rocks and hills whose heads touch heaven
It was my hint to speak,--such was the process;
And of the Cannibals that each other eat,
The Anthropophagi and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders. This to hear
Would Desdemona seriously incline:
But still the house-affairs would draw her thence:
Which ever as she could with haste dispatch,
She'ld come again, and with a greedy ear
Devour up my discourse: which I observing,
Took once a pliant hour, and found good means
To draw from her a prayer of earnest heart
That I would all my pilgrimage dilate,
Whereof by parcels she had something heard,
But not intentively: I did consent,
And often did beguile her of her tears,
When I did speak of some distressful stroke
That my youth suffer'd. My story being done,
She gave me for my pains a world of sighs:
She swore, in faith, twas strange, 'twas passing strange,
'Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful:
She wish'd she had not heard it, yet she wish'd
That heaven had made her such a man: she thank'd me,
And bade me, if I had a friend that loved her,
I should but teach him how to tell my story.
And that would woo her. Upon this hint I spake:
She loved me for the dangers I had pass'd,
And I loved her that she did pity them.
This only is the witchcraft I have used:
Here comes the lady; let her witness it.

Back 50

Othello
Othello
Act I, Scene III: After being accused of using witchcraft to win Desdemona’s affections, Othello tells the story of how they fell in love. He begins by saying that he was often invited into her house by her father, who was very interested in his life story. Othello told stories of his youth, and Desdemona often listened attentively. She fell in love with him for his stories and the difficulties he had overcome in his past, that is the only witchcraft Othello used.

Front 51

I pray you, hear her speak:
If she confess that she was half the wooer,
Destruction on my head, if my bad blame
Light on the man! Come hither, gentle mistress:
Do you perceive in all this noble company
Where most you owe obedience?

Back 51

Othello
Brabantio
Act I, Scene III: Brabantio gives Othello the benefit of the doubt and asks his daughter of the story of her love for him. He also obviously expects her to say that she loves her father more than her husband.

Front 52

My noble father,
I do perceive here a divided duty:
To you I am bound for life and education;
My life and education both do learn me
How to respect you; you are the lord of duty;
I am hitherto your daughter: but here's my husband,
And so much duty as my mother show'd
To you, preferring you before her father,
So much I challenge that I may profess
Due to the Moor my lord.

Back 52

Othello
Desdemona
Act I, Scene III: Desdemona says that she is torn as she feels loyalty to both her father and her husband, but that she is now a wife and as such must be more obedient to her husband, just like her mother had been to Brabantio. It’s only natural to get a husband and not be with your father for your whole life.

Front 53

That I did love the Moor to live with him,
My downright violence and storm of fortunes
May trumpet to the world: my heart's subdued
Even to the very quality of my lord:
I saw Othello's visage in his mind,
And to his honour and his valiant parts
Did I my soul and fortunes consecrate.
So that, dear lords, if I be left behind,
A moth of peace, and he go to the war,
The rites for which I love him are bereft me,
And I a heavy interim shall support
By his dear absence. Let me go with him.

Back 53

Othello
Desdemona
Act I, Scene III: The Duke tells Othello that he must go to war, and Othello asks that arrangements for Desdemona will be made. The Duke suggests that she live with her father, but neither Brabantio nor Othello nor Desdemona agree. The Duke asks Desdemona what she wants to do, and she answers that she wants to go with him because he is now a part of her. The Duke doesn’t really care what happens, and says that they can deal with it themselves.

Front 54

Let her have your voices.
Vouch with me, heaven, I therefore beg it not,
To please the palate of my appetite,
Nor to comply with heat--the young affects
In me defunct--and proper satisfaction.
But to be free and bounteous to her mind:

Back 54

Othello
Othello
Act I, Scene III: Othello assures everyone that he does not merely wish to have Desdemona with him for sex (he’s too old for that), but that he loves her for her mind.

Front 55

Thus do I ever make my fool my purse:
For I mine own gain'd knowledge should profane,
If I would time expend with such a snipe.
But for my sport and profit. I hate the Moor:
And it is thought abroad, that 'twixt my sheets
He has done my office: I know not if't be true;
But I, for mere suspicion in that kind,
Will do as if for surety. He holds me well;
The better shall my purpose work on him.
Cassio's a proper man: let me see now:
To get his place and to plume up my will
In double knavery--How, how? Let's see:--
After some time, to abuse Othello's ear
That he is too familiar with his wife.
He hath a person and a smooth dispose
To be suspected, framed to make women false.
*The Moor is of a free and open nature,
That thinks men honest that but seem to be so,
And will as tenderly be led by the nose
As ***** are.*
I have't. It is engender'd. Hell and night
Must bring this monstrous birth to the world's light.

Back 55

Othello
Iago
Act I Scene III: Iago is here fleshing out his plan. In this soliloquy, Iago talks of his hatred of Othello (he thinks that he’s slept with his wife, Emilia), and his plan to cheat Rodrigo out of his money and to convince Othello that Desdemona is cheating on him with Cassio. In this selection, Iago is speaking of Othello’s unsuspecting and trusting nature, and is turning these good qualities into a weakness.

Front 56

Reputation is an idle and most false
imposition: oft got without merit, and lost without
deserving:

Back 56

Othello
Iago
Act II, Scene III: Cassio is lamenting his loss of good reputation, saying that he is hurt. Iago first assumes that he means physically, but is dismissive when he discovers that Cassio is talking about his reputation. He thinks that a reputation is fake, and that it is something put on you by others.

Front 57

And what's he then that says I play the villain?
When this advice is free I give and honest,
Probal to thinking and indeed the course
To win the Moor again? For 'tis most easy
The inclining Desdemona to subdue
In any honest suit: she's framed as fruitful
As the free elements. And then for her
To win the Moor--were't to renounce his baptism,
All seals and symbols of redeemed sin,
His soul is so enfetter'd to her love,
That she may make, unmake, do what she list,
Even as her appetite shall play the god
With his weak function. How am I then a villain
To counsel Cassio to this parallel course,
Directly to his good? Divinity of hell!
When devils will the blackest sins put on,
They do suggest at first with heavenly shows,
As I do now: for whiles this honest fool
Plies Desdemona to repair his fortunes
And she for him pleads strongly to the Moor,
I'll pour this pestilence into his ear,
That she repeals him for her body's lust;
And by how much she strives to do him good,
She shall undo her credit with the Moor.
So will I turn her virtue into pitch,
And out of her own goodness make the net
That shall enmesh them all.

Back 57

Othello
Iago
Act II, Scene III: Cassio is lamenting his loss of good reputation after he had a fight with Montano and Othello found him and dismissed him from his service. Iago has told Cassio to appeal to Desdemona as she can control Othello. However, as soon as Cassio leaves, we hear more of Iago’s plan. Iago is turning things around and doing/undoing. He plays with opposites (such as devils and heaven). He is turning virtue into pitch.

Front 58

O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;
It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock
The meat it feeds on; that cuckold lives in bliss
Who, certain of his fate, loves not his wronger;
But, O, what damned minutes tells he o'er
Who dotes, yet doubts, suspects, yet strongly loves!
…
Poor and content is rich and rich enough,
But riches fineless is as poor as winter
To him that ever fears he shall be poor.
Good heaven, the souls of all my tribe defend
From jealousy!

Back 58

Othello
Iago
Act III, Scene III: This is a long scene where everything turns around. Iago is insinuating Desdemona’s unfaithfulness and warns Othello of jealousy (though jealousy is exactly what he wants), and claims that the cuckold is happier than the loving husband who does not know that his wife is unfaithful. Better to be the certain hater than the doubting lover. He also says (a line later) that the poor man is happier than the rich because he is not afraid of losing his money.

Front 59

Why, why is this?
Think'st thou I'ld make a lie of jealousy,
To follow still the changes of the moon
With fresh suspicions? No; to be once in doubt
Is once to be resolved: exchange me for a goat,
When I shall turn the business of my soul
To such exsufflicate and blown surmises,
Matching thy inference. 'Tis not to make me jealous
To say my wife is fair, feeds well, loves company,
Is free of speech, sings, plays and dances well;
Where virtue is, these are more virtuous:
Nor from mine own weak merits will I draw
The smallest fear or doubt of her revolt;
For she had eyes, and chose me. No, Iago;
I'll see before I doubt; when I doubt, prove;
And on the proof, there is no more but this,--
Away at once with love or jealousy!

Back 59

Othello
Othello
Act III, Scene III: For a moment, Othello rejects Iago’s allegations of Desdemona’s unfaithfulness. He says that there is no doubt if there is doubt, and therefore he won’t allow himself to even suspect her a little. He is secure in their relationship (for now).

Front 60

Ay, there's the point: as--to be bold with you--
Not to affect many proposed matches
Of her own clime, complexion, and degree,
Whereto we see in all things nature tends--
Foh! one may smell in such a will most rank,
Foul disproportion thoughts unnatural.
But pardon me; I do not in position
Distinctly speak of her; though I may fear
Her will, recoiling to her better judgment,
May fall to match you with her country forms
And happily repent.

Back 60

Othello
Iago
Act III, Scene III: Iago suggests that Desdemona has gone against nature by picking Othello, who is from a different race. Othello may have been talking about Desdemona and her natural goodness erring from itself, but Iago takes it in a different direction. For him, nature erring from itself is going away from normal conventions and natural selections of partners. She erred from herself by picking Othello. She is going to see the error of her ways and come back to nature, Venetian people. He gets Othello to doubt his conversion.

Front 61

Villain, be sure thou prove my love a whore,
Be sure of it; give me the ocular proof:
Or by the worth of man's eternal soul,
Thou hadst been better have been born a dog
Than answer my waked wrath!

Back 61

Othello
Othello
Act III, Scene III: Now Othello is starting to doubt Desdemona’s faithfulness. He wants ocular proof of her infidelity, but of course there is none as there is no affair.

Front 62

SPEAKER 1:
And may: but, how? how satisfied, my lord?
Would you, the supervisor, grossly gape on--
Behold her topp'd?
SPEAKER 2:
Death and damnation! O!
SPEAKER 1:
It were a tedious difficulty, I think,
To bring them to that prospect: damn them then,
If ever mortal eyes do see them bolster
More than their own! What then? how then?
What shall I say? Where's satisfaction?
It is impossible you should see this,
Were they as prime as goats, as hot as monkeys,
As salt as wolves in pride, and fools as gross
As ignorance made drunk. But yet, I say,
If imputation and strong circumstances,
Which lead directly to the door of truth,
Will give you satisfaction, you may have't.

Back 62

Othello
Speaker 1: Iago; Speaker 2: Othello
Act III, Scene III: Iago is trying to convince Othello that he doesn’t actually want to see real proof of Desdemona’s affair. He also points out that it would be difficult to arrange for this to happen (especially since it isn’t true, shhhh), so he tries to come up with a different way of proving the affair. Gets him to settle for circumstantial evidence. There are two pieces of circumstantial evidence: handkerchief – which he has in his pocket, and the dream he claims that Cassio had.

Front 63

In sleep I heard him say 'Sweet Desdemona,
Let us be wary, let us hide our loves;'
And then, sir, would he gripe and wring my hand,
Cry 'O sweet creature!' and then kiss me hard,
As if he pluck'd up kisses by the roots
That grew upon my lips: then laid his leg
Over my thigh, and sigh'd, and kiss'd; and then
Cried 'Cursed fate that gave thee to the Moor!'

Back 63

Othello
Iago
Act III, Scene III: Iago is continuing his attack on Desdemona’s faithfulness. He says that he took a nap with Cassio and heard the following:

Front 64

I am no viper, yet I feed
On mother's flesh which did me breed.
I sought a husband, in which labour
I found that kindness in a father:
He's father, son, and husband mild;
I mother, wife, and yet his child.
How they may be, and yet in two,
As you will live, resolve it you.
Sharp physic is the last: but, O you powers
That give heaven countless eyes to view men's acts,
Why cloud they not their sights perpetually,
If this be true, which makes me pale to read it?
Fair glass of light, I loved you, and could still,

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Pericles
Pericles
Act I, Scene I: We are given a riddle in Antioch. Anyone who wishes to ask for the King’s daughter’s hand must solve it, and if they fail they will be executed. Pericles solves it and is horrified. Changes the way he looks and women and families. Changes the way he looks at his daughter as well. If you get the answer wrong (or maybe right) your head ends up on a stake. Basically, the answer to the riddle is incest.

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'Keep it, my Pericles; it hath been a shield
Twixt me and death;'--and pointed to this brace;--
'For that it saved me, keep it; in like necessity--
The which the gods protect thee from!--may
defend thee.'

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Pericles
Pericles
Act II, Scene I (or I.V depending on the source??): Pericles is shipwrecked and makes it onshore. A bunch of fishermen enter and talks about humanity using sea metaphors. Pericles likes this so he goes over and talks to them. They tell him of Princess Thaisa’s birthday celebration, where he could win her love. They fish his armor out of the sea, and Pericles begs for it. His dead father gave it to him. Armor can be important in terms of identity, especially since it is an inheritance from his father. The armor also helps him in his quest for Thaisa.

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May be, nor can I think the contrary,
As great in blood as I myself.--
Therefore hear you, mistress; either frame
Your will to mine,--and you, sir, hear you,
Either be ruled by me, or I will make you--
Man and wife:
Nay, come, your hands and lips must seal it too:
And being join'd, I'll thus your hopes destroy;
And for a further grief,--God give you joy!--
…
It pleaseth me so well, that I will see you wed;
And then with what haste you can get you to bed.

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Pericles
Simonides
Act II, Scene V: Simonides is an atypically generous father. Simonides threatens to banish Pericles, but Thaisa defends him. Simonides says he will tame her, or he will punish her by making Thaisa and Pericles man and wife. He clasps their hands together; they kiss, and are married. Simonides is pleased that they are both happy with the match.

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SPEAKER 1:
Thou god of this great vast, rebuke these surges,
Which wash both heaven and hell; and thou, that hast
Upon the winds command, bind them in brass,
Having call'd them from the deep! O, still
Thy deafening, dreadful thunders; gently quench
Thy nimble, sulphurous flashes! O, how, Lychorida,
How does my queen? Thou stormest venomously;
Wilt thou spit all thyself? The seaman's whistle
Is as a whisper in the ears of death,
Unheard. Lychorida!--Lucina, O
Divinest patroness, and midwife gentle
To those that cry by night, convey thy deity
Aboard our dancing boat; make swift the pangs
Of my queen's travails!
Enter SPEAKER 2, with an Infant
Now, Lychorida!
SPEAKER 2:
Here is a thing too young for such a place,
Who, if it had conceit, would die, as I
Am like to do: take in your arms this piece
Of your dead queen.
SPEAKER 1:
How, how, Lychorida!
SPEAKER 2:
Patience, good sir; do not assist the storm.
Here's all that is left living of your queen,
A little daughter: for the sake of it,
Be manly, and take comfort.
SPEAKER 1:
O you gods!
Why do you make us love your goodly gifts,
And snatch them straight away? We here below
Recall not what we give, and therein may
Use honour with you.
SPEAKER 2:
Patience, good sir,
Even for this charge.
SPEAKER 1:
Now, mild may be thy life!
For a more blustrous birth had never babe:
Quiet and gentle thy conditions! for
Thou art the rudeliest welcome to this world
That ever was prince's child. Happy what follows!
Thou hast as chiding a nativity
As fire, air, water, earth, and heaven can make,
To herald thee from the womb: even at the first
Thy loss is more than can thy portage quit,
With all thou canst find here. Now, the good gods
Throw their best eyes upon't!

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Pericles
Speaker 1: Pericles; Speaker 2: Lychordia
Act III, Scene I: Pericles cries to the gods that they made him love their creations, yet snatch them away cruelly soon. Lychordia hands him his child, saying that her future life will surely be calm in contrast to a birth in the middle of such violence.

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O, make for Tarsus!
There will I visit Cleon, for the babe
Cannot hold out to Tyrus: there I'll leave it
At careful nursing. Go thy ways, good mariner:
I'll bring the body presently.

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Pericles
Pericles
Act III, Scene I: In this passage, Pericles states that he will go to Tarsus to give the child to Cleon, even though he believes it won’t survive until Tyre.

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We cannot but obey
The powers above us. Could I rage and roar
As doth the sea she lies in, yet the end
Must be as 'tis.

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Pericles
Pericles
Act III, Scene IV: Pericles arrives in Tarsus, and tells Cleon and Dionyza about his misfortune. He lands at Tarsus and charges Cleon and Dionyza with the care of his child, and asks them to raise her as a noble.

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Prithee, speak:
Falseness cannot come from thee; for thou look'st
Modest as Justice, and thou seem'st a palace
For the crown'd Truth to dwell in: I will
believe thee,
And make my senses credit thy relation
To points that seem impossible; for thou look'st
Like one I loved indeed.

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Pericles
Pericles
Act V, Scene I: Pericles’s ship is on the way to Myteline. Helicanus has explained to Lysimachus that the king on board has not spoken for three months. Lysimachus believes that Marina will be able to make him speak again and brings her onto the ship. Marina converts men. When Pericles is violent with her after her song, she tells him her story. Pericles speaks because he has heard things that reminds him of his own life. Marina is now the repository of truth which helps Pericles believe in things again. A child giving birth to a father. Not just words that transform, but visual wonder as well.

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Sicilia cannot show himself over-kind to Bohemia.
They were trained together in their childhoods; and
there rooted betwixt them then such an affection,
which cannot choose but branch now.

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The Winter's Tale
Camillo
Act I, Scene I: The two kings are connected in childhood despite the chasm between the kingdoms. “Branch” means flourishing.

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SPEAKER 1:
We were as twinn'd lambs that did frisk i' the sun,
And bleat the one at the other: what we changed
Was innocence for innocence; we knew not
The doctrine of ill-doing, nor dream'd
That any did. Had we pursued that life,
And our weak spirits ne'er been higher rear'd
With stronger blood, we should have answer'd heaven
Boldly 'not guilty;' the imposition clear'd
Hereditary ours.
SPEAKER 2:
By this we gather
You have tripp'd since.
SPEAKER 1:
O my most sacred lady!
Temptations have since then been born to's; for
In those unfledged days was my wife a girl;
Your precious self had then not cross'd the eyes
Of my young play-fellow.

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The Winter's Tale
Speaker 1: Polixenes; Speaker 2: Hermione
Act I, Scene II: Leontes has tried to get Polixenes to stay longer, but he refused. When Hermione asked, he agreed. Leontes and Polixenes grew up together, were “twinn’d lambs.” They were innocent growing up, but they have fallen into heterosexual matrimony, and their twinn’d lamb male world changed.

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Affection! thy intention stabs the centre:
Thou dost make possible things not so held,
Communicatest with dreams;--how can this be?--
With what's unreal thou coactive art,
And fellow'st nothing: then 'tis very credent
Thou mayst co-join with something; and thou dost,
And that beyond commission, and I find it,
And that to the infection of my brains
And hardening of my brows.

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The Winter's Tale
Leontes
Act I, Scene II: This occurs when Leontes suspects that Polixenes and Hermione got it on. Leontes is recognizing that he might be making the whole thing up. Affection is a faculty of mind, creating something from nothing. But he has something to go on which leads to “infection” and “hardening.” This is difficult, Polixenes barely understands it.

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Gone already!
Inch-thick, knee-deep, o'er head and
ears a fork'd one!
Go, play, boy, play: thy mother plays, and I
Play too, but so disgraced a part, whose issue
Will hiss me to my grave: contempt and clamour
Will be my knell. Go, play, boy, play.
There have been,
Or I am much deceived, cuckolds ere now;
And many a man there is, even at this present,
Now while I speak this, holds his wife by the arm,
That little thinks she has been sluiced in's absence
And his pond fish'd by his next neighbour, by
Sir Smile, his neighbour: nay, there's comfort in't
Whiles other men have gates and those gates open'd,
As mine, against their will. Should all despair
That have revolted wives, the tenth of mankind
Would hang themselves. Physic for't there is none;
It is a bawdy planet, that will strike
Where 'tis predominant; and 'tis powerful, think it,
From east, west, north and south: be it concluded,
No barricado for a belly; know't;
It will let in and out the enemy
With bag and baggage: many thousand on's
Have the disease, and feel't not. How now, boy!

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The Winter's Tale
Leontes
Act I, Scene II: Seems as if it’s a soliloquy, but Leontes is talking to his son. Three different kinds of play. Boy: child’s play, Leontes: playing the part of husband though he may be a cuckold, Mother: sexual play. Vision of heterosexuality as Iago-like. Portrait of adult heterosexual life: miserable, constantly betrayed, encountering Sir Smile who is doing bad things behind your back, Hamlet-like, treachery and betrayal. Promiscuity everywhere, comings and goings, no stability.

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SPEAKER 1:
Why, that was when
Three crabbed months had sour'd themselves to death,
Ere I could make thee open thy white hand
And clap thyself my love: then didst thou utter
'I am yours for ever.'
SPEAKER 2:
'Tis grace indeed.
Why, lo you now, I have spoke to the purpose twice:
The one for ever earn'd a royal husband;
The other for some while a friend.

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The Winter's Tale
Speaker 1: Leontes; Speaker 2: Hermione
Act I, Scene II: It took Hermione three months to agree to marriage. Leontes is equating her two well-spoken moments and if she’s not careful, she’ll fall into his trap, and accuse her of using speaking to get Polixenes to stay longer because she’s romantically interested in him. Hermione is an intellectual equal, though, and points out the difference. One is getting a husband forever, the other to get a friend to stay a bit longer.

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How blest am I
In my just censure, in my true opinion!
Alack, for lesser knowledge! how accursed
In being so blest! There may be in the cup
A spider steep'd, and one may drink, depart,
And yet partake no venom, for his knowledge
Is not infected: but if one present
The abhorr'd ingredient to his eye, make known
How he hath drunk, he cracks his gorge, his sides,
With violent hefts. I have drunk,
and seen the spider.

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The Winter's Tale
Leontes
Act II, Scene I: Leontes is jealous and a little bit crazy. He is sure that Hermione is having an affair with Polixenes.

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SPEAKER 1:
I would not be a stander-by to hear
My sovereign mistress clouded so, without
My present vengeance taken: 'shrew my heart,
You never spoke what did become you less
Than this; which to reiterate were sin
As deep as that, though true.
SPEAKER 2:
Is whispering nothing?
Is leaning cheek to cheek? is meeting noses?
Kissing with inside lip? stopping the career
Of laughing with a sigh?--a note infallible
Of breaking honesty--horsing foot on foot?
Skulking in corners? wishing clocks more swift?
Hours, minutes? noon, midnight? and all eyes
Blind with the pin and web but theirs, theirs only,
That would unseen be wicked? is this nothing?
Why, then the world and all that's in't is nothing;
The covering sky is nothing; Bohemia nothing;
My wife is nothing; nor nothing have these nothings,
If this be nothing.
SPEAKER 1:
Good my lord, be cured
Of this diseased opinion, and betimes;
For 'tis most dangerous.

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The Winter's Tale
Speaker 1: Camillo; Speaker 2: Leontes
Act II, Scene II or III (the online text is being confusing): Camillo is sure of his Hermione’s innocence. Leontes is definitely not. Breaking the speech into two: “is this nothing,” description of something, romantic encounter, courtship. Him as a writer of fiction, he’s making all this up, imagining them. The second half: he thinks it’s something, because otherwise his whole view of the world is nothing. He has a stake in believing his own fiction that she is treacherous.

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if I shall be condemn'd
Upon surmises, all proofs sleeping else
But what your jealousies awake, I tell you
'Tis rigor and not law. Your honours all,
I do refer me to the oracle:
Apollo be my judge!

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The Winter's Tale
Hermione
Act III, Scene II: Leontes wants to have a court with himself as judge, but Hermione knows that human proof and law is subject to human error, and wishes to be judged by the Oracle instead. The Oracle is crystal clear, not convoluted. Declares Hermione chaste, etc. And yet, Leontes denies its truth.

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The Emperor of Russia was my father:
O that he were alive, and here beholding
His daughter's trial! that he did but see
The flatness of my misery, yet with eyes
Of pity, not revenge!

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The Winter's Tale
Hermione
Act III, Scene II: Clue to Hermione’s heritage. Renaissance Russia: Ivan the Terrible, may have been her father. Hermione going from tyrant father to tyrant husband. Her name has classical resonnance. Married to Pyrrhus and to Arrestes. Father was Menelaus, the archetypical cuckold. Etymological: Pillar-like, pile of stones.

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Take her hence:
Her heart is but o'ercharged; she will recover:
I have too much believed mine own suspicion:
Beseech you, tenderly apply to her
Some remedies for life.
Exeunt PAULINA and Ladies, with HERMIONE
Apollo, pardon
My great profaneness 'gainst thine oracle!
I'll reconcile me to Polixenes,
New woo my queen, recall the good Camillo,
Whom I proclaim a man of truth, of mercy;
For, being transported by my jealousies
To bloody thoughts and to revenge, I chose
Camillo for the minister to poison
My friend Polixenes: which had been done,
But that the good mind of Camillo tardied
My swift command, though I with death and with
Reward did threaten and encourage him,
Not doing 't and being done: he, most humane
And fill'd with honour, to my kingly guest
Unclasp'd my practise, quit his fortunes here,
Which you knew great, and to the hazard
Of all encertainties himself commended,
No richer than his honour: how he glisters
Thorough my rust! and how his pity
Does my deeds make the blacker!

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The Winter's Tale
Leontes
Act III, Scene II: After the Oracle’s verdict has been read, a courtier comes in to say that Mamilius has died. Hermione swoons. Leontes starts to feel a lot of regret.

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I do believe
Hermione hath suffer'd death, and that
Apollo would, this being indeed the issue
Of King Polixenes, it should here be laid,
Either for life or death, upon the earth
Of its right father.

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The Winter's Tale
Antigonus
Act III, Scene III: Antigonus has arrived on the coast of Bohemia with the newborn princess. He doesn’t know about the Oracles revelation. He has been visited by Hermione in a dream. She told him to name the baby Perdita, and that he would never see his family again (watch out for that bear!).

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I'll not put
The dibble in earth to set one slip of them;
No more than were I painted I would wish
This youth should say 'twere well and only therefore
Desire to breed by me.

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The Winter's Tale
Perdita
Act IV, Scene IV: It is the day of the sheep shearing. Perdita is speaking about flowers to a disguised Polixenes. She is anti-theatrical and anti-art. She is afraid of losing herself in teh performance of the sheep-shearing festival. Playing a role that is false, pretending to be someone she is not, afraid she won’t be able to come back to herself.

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Even with such life of majesty, warm life,
As now it coldly stands, when first I woo'd her!
I am ashamed: does not the stone rebuke me
For being more stone than it?

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The Winter's Tale
Leontes
Act V, Scene III: Paulina reveals the statue of Hermione, which is very lifelike and also shows her being sixteen years older than when she died. Leontes is moved by the realism. , Leontes turned her into stone, froze her into something, then killed her. Recognition of that moment, and then a second chance. Amazingly still alive, lucky you. Astronished = “astonied” – turned to stone with wonder The stone becomes real as the people become stone.