William Shakespeare Quotes

“O, full of scorpions is my mind!”

“Confusion now hath made his masterpiece.”

“I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers could not, with all their quantity of love, make up my sum.”

“The sweetest honey is loathsome in its own deliciousness. And in the taste destroys the appetite. Therefore, love moderately.”

“All’s well that ends well.”

“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”

“Sweets to the sweet.”

“All causes shall give way: I am in blood Stepp’d in so far that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o’er.”

“Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.”

“Sweet are the uses of adversity Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.”

“Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds.”

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date: Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines, And too often is his gold complexion dimm’d: And every fair from fair sometimes declines, By chance or natures changing course untrimm’d; By thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou growest: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this and this gives life to thee.”

“Conscience doth make cowards of us all.”

“Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast.”

“Educated men are so impressive!”

“Tax not so bad a voice to slander music any more than once.”

“One may smile, and smile, and be a villain. ”

“Now cracks a noble heart. Good-night, sweet prince; And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest. ”

“He kills her in her own humor.”

“Doubt thou the stars are fire; Doubt that the sun doth move; Doubt truth to be a liar; But never doubt I love.”

“Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.”

“To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.”

“You are thought here to the most senseless and fit man for the job.”

“Words, words, words.”

“True hope is swift, and flies with swallow’s wings.”

“Are you sure That we are awake? It seems to me That yet we sleep, we dream.”

“Listen to many, speak to a few.”

“Yet but three come one more. Two of both kinds make up four. Ere she comes curst and sad. Cupid is a knavish lad. Thus to make poor females mad.”

“The Devil hath power To assume a pleasing shape.”

“Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul But I do love thee! and when I love thee not, Chaos is come again.”

“Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.”

“To die, to sleep - To sleep, perchance to dream - ay, there’s the rub, For in this sleep of death what dreams may come...”

“Love me or hate me, both are in my favour. If you love me, I’ll always be in your heart... If you hate me, I’ll always be in your mind.”

“And therefore, — since I cannot prove a lover, To entertain these fair well-spoken days, — I am determined to prove a villain, And hate the idle pleasures of these days.”

“I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw.”

“Life... is a paradise to what we fear of death.”

“Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be.”

“My stars shine darkly over me; the malignancy of my fate might, perhaps, distemper yours; therefore I shall crave of you your leave that I may bear my evils alone. It were a bad recompense for your love to lay any of them on you.”

“These violent delights have violent ends And in their triump die, like fire and powder Which, as they kiss, consume.”

“The Play’s the Thing, wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King.”

“You speak an infinite deal of nothing.”

“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars But in ourselves.”

“You cannot, sir, take from me any thing that I will more willingly part withal: except my life, except my life, except my life.”

“What’s in a name? that which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.”

“But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, Who is already sick and pale with grief, That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she. Be not her maid, since she is envious; Her vestal livery is but sick and green And none but fools do wear it; cast it off. It is my lady, O, it is my love! Oh, that she knew she were!”

“There’s an old saying that applies to me: you can’t lose a game if you don’t play the game.”

“Your face, my thane, is as a book where men May read strange matters. To beguile the time, Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye, Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under’t.”

“By my soul I swear, there is no power in the tongue of man to alter me.”

“Brevity is the soul of wit.”

“When sorrows come, they come not single spies. But in battalions!”

“I must be cruel only to be kind; Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.”

“Love is holy.”

“Lord Polonius: What do you read, my lord? Hamlet: Words, words, words. Lord Polonius: What is the matter, my lord? Hamlet: Between who? Lord Polonius: I mean, the matter that you read, my lord.”

“Good name in man and woman, dear my lord, Is the immediate jewel of their souls: Who steals my purse steals trash; ’tis something, nothing; ’twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands; But he that filches from me my good name Robs me of that which not enriches him, And makes me poor indeed.”

“Don’t waste your love on somebody, who doesn’t value it.”

“Good night, good night! parting is such sweet sorrow, That I shall say good night till it be morrow.”

“If love be rough with you, be rough with love. Prick love for pricking and you beat love down.”

“My words fly up, my thoughts remain below: Words without thoughts never to heaven go.”

“Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove. O no, it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wand’ring barque, Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken. Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle’s compass come; Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved.”

“Et tu, Brute?”

“O serpent heart hid with a flowering face! Did ever a dragon keep so fair a cave? Beautiful tyrant, feind angelical, dove feather raven, wolvish-ravening lamb! Despised substance of devinest show, just opposite to what thou justly seemest - A dammed saint, an honourable villain!”

“This goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory, this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o’erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. 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?”

“I have no spur To prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself And falls on the other.”

“Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye Than twenty of their swords: look thou but sweet, And I am proof against their enmity.”

“This above all: to thine own self be true.”

“God hath given you one face, and you make yourself another.”

“I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest.”

“My bounty is as boundless as the sea, My love as deep; the more I give to thee, The more I have, for both are infinite.”

“Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs.”

“See how she leans her cheek upon her hand. O, that I were a glove upon that hand That I might touch that cheek!”

“Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs; Being purg’d, a fire sparkling in lovers’ eyes; Being vex’d, a sea nourish’d with lovers’ tears; What is it else? A madness most discreet, A choking gall, and a preserving sweet.”

“Under loves heavy burden do I sink.

“Love moderately. Long love doth so. Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.”

“The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

“O wonderful, wonderful, and most wonderful wonderful! And yet again wonderful, and after that, out of all hooping.”

“thus with a kiss I die”

“Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight! For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.”

“My only love sprung from my only hate.”

“Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires.”

“Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak knits up the o-er wrought heart and bids it break.”

“With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.”

“The rest, is silence.”

“Thou art a very ragged Wart.”

“This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.”

“Love is heavy and light, bright and dark, hot and cold, sick and healthy, asleep and awake- its everything except what it is!”

“Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?”

“These violent delights have violent ends.”

“Romeo: I dreamt a dream tonight. Mercutio: And so did I. Romeo: Well, what was yours? Mercutio: That dreamers often lie. Romeo: In bed asleep while they do dream things true.”

“Why then, O brawling love! O loving hate! O any thing, of nothing first create! O heavy lightness, serious vanity, Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms, Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health, Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is! This love feel I, that feel no love in this.”

“Eye of newt, and toe of frog, Wool of bat, and tongue of dog, Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting, Lizard’s leg, and owlet’s wing,— For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble. Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and caldron bubble.”

“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

“So full of artless jealousy is guilt, It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.”

“For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo.”

“Do not swear by the moon, for she changes constantly. then your love would also change.”

“Women may fall when there’s no strength in men.”

“To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.”

“Life ... is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.”

“...Who could refrain, That had a heart to love, and in that heart Courage to make love known?”

“If we are true to ourselves, we can not be false to anyone.”

“Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting That would not let me sleep.”

“Come, gentle night; come, loving, black-browed night; Give me my Romeo; and, when I shall die, Take him and cut him out in little stars, And he will make the face of heaven so fine That all the world will be in love with night...”

“O, here Will I set up my everlasting rest, And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars From this world-wearied flesh. Eyes, look your last! Arms, take your last embrace! and, lips, O you The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss A dateless bargain to engrossing death!”

“Oh, I am fortune’s fool!”

“But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.”

“Turn him into stars and form a constellation in his image. His face will make the heavens so beautiful that the world will fall in love with the night and forget about the garish sun.”

“Come what come may, time and the hour run through the roughest day.”

“By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes.”

“Where shall we three meet again in thunder, lightning, or in rain? When the hurlyburly ‘s done, when the battle ‘s lost and won”

“It provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance.”

“So fair and foul a day I have not seen.”

“O teach me how I should forget to think.”

“Tis an ill cook that cannot lick his own fingers.”

“Things without all remedy should be without regard: what’s done is done.”

“Two households, both alike in dignity In fair Verona, where we lay our scene From ancient grudge break to new mutiny Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life Whose misadventured piteous overthrows Do with their death bury their parents’ strife.”

“I defy you, stars.”

“A glooming peace this morning with it brings; The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head: Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things; Some shall be pardon’d, and some punished: For never was a story of more woe Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.”

“You are a lover. Borrow Cupid’s wings and soar with them above a common bound.”

“Macbeth: How does your patient, doctor? Doctor: Not so sick, my lord, as she is troubled with thick-coming fancies that keep her from rest. Macbeth: Cure her of that! Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased, pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, raze out the written troubles of the brain, and with some sweet oblivious antidote cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff which weighs upon her heart. Doctor: Therein the patient must minister to himself.”

“What’s done cannot be undone.”

“Fair is foul, and foul is fair, hover through fog and filthy air.”

“Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell. Though all things foul would wear the brows of grace, Yet Grace must still look so.”

“False face must hide what the false heart doth know.”

“My hands are of your color, but I shame to wear a heart so white.”

“The love that follows us sometime is our trouble, which still we thank as love.”

“I dare do all that may become a man; Who dares do more, is none”

“But it is the nature of stars to cross, and never was Shakespeare more wrong than when he has Cassius note, ‘The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars / But in ourselves.”

“Lord, what fools these mortals be!”

“I’ll follow thee and make a heaven of hell, To die upon the hand I love so well.”

“So we grew together, Like to a double cherry, seeming parted, But yet an union in partition, Two lovely berries moulded on one stem.”

“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is wing’d Cupid painted blind.”

“Thus I die. Thus, thus, thus. Now I am dead, Now I am fled, My soul is in the sky. Tongue, lose thy light. Moon take thy flight. Now die, die, die, die.”

“For you, in my respect, are all the world. Then how can it be said I am alone When all the world is here to look on me?”

“Though she be but little, she is fierce!”

“The course of true love never did run smooth.”

“Take pains. Be perfect.”

“Four days will quickly steep themselves in nights; Four nights will quickly dream away the time.”

“O, then, what graces in my love do dwell, That he hath turn’d a heaven unto a hell!”

“I will not trust you, I, Nor longer stay in your curst company. Your hands than mine are quicker for a fray, My legs are longer though, to run away.”

“So quick bright things come to confusion.”

“... and yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together now-a-days.”

“O! why rebuke you him that loves you so? Lay breath so bitter on your bitter foe.”

“O me! -- you juggler! you canker-blossom! You thief of love!”

“The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man’s hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream was.”

“O, teach me how you look, and with what art You sway the motion of Demetrius’ heart.”

“My soul is in the sky.”

“And sleep, that sometime shuts up sorrow’s eye, Steal me a while from mine own company.”

“I[f] we shadows have offended, Think but this, and all is mended, That you have but slumber’d here, While these visions did appear, And this weak and idle theme, No more yielding, but a dream.”

“Therefore, another prologue must tell he is not a lion”

“Why should you think that I should woo in scorn? Scorn and derision never come in tears: Look, when I vow, I weep; and vows so born, In their nativity all truth appears. How can these things in me seem scorn to you, Bearing the badge of faith to prove them true?”

“Pardon me: I was born to speak all mirth and no matter.”

“I hope to see you one day fitted with a husband.”

“Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper, Thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee, And for thy maintenance; commits his body To painful labor, both by sea and land; To watch the night in storms, the day in cold.”

“Hearing thy mildness prais’d in every town, Thy virtues spoke of, and thy beauty sounded,-- Yet not so deeply as to thee belongs,-- Myself am mov’d to woo thee for my wife.”

“Tis a very excellent piece of work, madam lady. Would ‘twere done.”

“I love the name of honour more than I fear death.”

“Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably.”

“Your silence most offends me, and to be merry best becomes you.”

“No profit grows where is no pleasure ta’en”

“But mercy is above this sceptred sway; It is enthroned in the hearts of kings, It is an attribute to God himself; And earthly power doth then shew likest Gods When mercy seasons justice.”

“Lucentio: I read that I profess, the Art of Love. Bianca: And may you prove, sir, master of your art! Lucentio: While you, sweet dear, prove mistress of my heart!”

“Let me be that I am, and seek not to alter me.”

“Suffer love,--a good epithet! I do suffer love indeed, for I love thee against my will.”

“I would my horse had the speed of your tongue.”

“She moves me not, or not removes at least, Affection’s edge in me.”

“This is a way to kill a wife with kindness, And thus I’ll curb her mad and headstrong humour. He that knows better how to tame a shrew, Now let him speak. ‘Tis charity to show.”

“Marry, peace it bodes, and love, and quiet life, An awful rule and right supremacy; And, to be short, what not that’s sweet and happy.”

“Tell me for which of my bad parts didst thou first fall in love with me?”

“When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married.”

“Love me! Why, it must be requited.”

“Say she rail; why, I’ll tell her plain She sings as sweetly as a nightingale. Say that she frown; I’ll say she looks as clear As morning roses newly wash’d with dew. Say she be mute and will not speak a word; Then I’ll commend her volubility, and say she uttereth piercing eloquence.”

“If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?”

“It is a good divine that follows his own instructions.”

“If she do bid me pack, I’ll give her thanks As though she bid me stay by her a week. If she deny to wed, I’ll crave the day When I shall ask the banns, and when be married.”

“I do love nothing in the world so well as you: is not that strange?”

“For which of my good parts did you first suffer love for me?”

“There was a star danced, and under that was I born.”

“Happy are they that hear their detractions, and can put them to mending.”

“If I be waspish, best beware my sting.”

“The poorest service is repaid with thanks.”

“But love is blind and lovers cannot see The pretty follies that themselves commit”

“Tis hatch’d and shall be so.”

“There is no vice so simple but assumes Some mark of virtue on his outward parts.”

“Ay, to the proof; as mountains are for winds, That shake not, though they blow perpetually.”

“All that glisters is not gold; Often have you heard that told: Many a man his life hath sold But my outside to behold: Gilded tombs do worms enfold.”

“To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what’s his reason?”

“Tell me where is fancy bred, Or in the heart, or in the head?”

“Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more, Men were deceivers ever, One foot in sea and one on shore, To one thing constant never.”

“In spite of your heart, I think; alas, poor heart! If you spite it for my sake, I will spite it for yours; for I will never love that which my friend hates.”

“There’s small choice in rotten apples.”

“The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils; The motions of his spirit are dull as night, And his affections dark as Erebus. Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music.”

“I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano; A stage where every man must play a part, And mine a sad one.”

“Love is blind.”

“Cry ‘havoc,’ and let slip the dogs of war.”

“Bid me run, and I will strive with things impossible.”

“But I am constant as the Northern Star, Of whose true fixed and resting quality There is no fellow in the firmament.”

“Peace! I will stop your mouth.”

“Sit by my side, and let the world slip: we shall ne’er be younger.”

“I see a woman may be made a fool, If she had not a spirit to resist.”

“Forward, I pray, since we have come so far, And be it moon, or sun, or what you please. And if you please to call it a rush candle, Henceforth I vow it shall be so for me.”

“There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries.”

“Not that I lov’d Caesar less, but that I lov’d Rome more.”

“And since you know you cannot see yourself, so well as by reflection, I, your glass, will modestly discover to yourself, that of yourself which you yet know not of.”

“O Judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts, And men have lost their reason!”

“I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me.”

“Why, what’s the matter, That you have such a February face, So full of frost, of storm and cloudiness?”

“The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.”

“Better once than never, for never too late.”

“I am not bound to please thee with my answers.”

“And it is very much lamented,... That you have no such mirrors as will turn Your hidden worthiness into your eye That you might see your shadow.”

“He reads much; He is a great observer; and he looks Quite through the deeds of men.”

“He that hath a beard is more than a youth; and he that hath no beard is less than a man: and he that is more than a youth is not for me; and he that is less than a man, I am not for him.”

“There’s not one wise man among twenty that will praise himself.”

“An evil soul producing holy witness Is like a villain with a smiling cheek, A goodly apple rotten at the heart. O what a goodly outside falsehood hath!”

“How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.”

“If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches and poor men’s cottages princes’ palaces. It is a good divine that follows his own instructions: I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching.”

“Here is my hand, and here I firmly vow Never to woo her more, but do forswear her, As one unworthy all the former favours That I have fondly flatter’d her withal.”

“The quality of mercy is not strain’d, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.”

“O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, That I am meek and gentle with these butchers!”

“You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things!”

“He reads much; He is a great observer; and he looks Quite through the deeds of men.”

“My tongue will tell the anger of my heart, Or else my heart, concealing it, will break.”

“I am asham’d that women are so simple To offer war where they should kneel for peace, Or seek for rule, supremacy, and sway, When they are bound to serve, love, and obey. Why are our bodies soft, and weak, and smooth, Unapt to toil and trouble in the world, But that our soft conditions and our hearts Should well agree with our external parts?”

“We will have rings, and things, and fine array.”

“Had you been as wise as bold, Young in limbs, in judgement old, Your answer had not been inscrolled. Fare you well, your suit is cold.”

“Seeing too much sadness hath congeal’d your blood, And melancholy is the nurse of frenzy.”

“The brain may devise laws for the blood, but a hot temper leaps o’er a cold decree.”

“By my soul I swear There is no power in the tongue of man To alter me.”

“Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once. Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, It seems to me most strange that men should fear; Seeing that death, a necessary end, Will come when it will come.”

“He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what’s his reason? I am a Jew.”

“Men at some time are masters of their fates.”

“One half of me is yours, the other half yours, Mine own, I would say; but if mine, then yours, And so all yours.”

“The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones.”

“His life was gentle; and the elements So mix’d in him that Nature might stand up And say to all the world, ‘This was a man!‘”

“There are no tricks in plain and simple faith.”

“I have not slept. Between the acting of a dreadful thing And the first motion, all the interim is Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream: The Genius and the mortal instruments Are then in council; and the state of man, Like to a little kingdom, suffers then The nature of an insurrection.”

“He loves no plays, . . . he hears no music; Seldom he smiles, and smiles in such a sort As if he mock’d himself and scorn’d his spirit That could be moved to smile at any thing.”

“Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world Like a Colossus; and we petty men Walk under his huge legs, and peep about To find ourselves dishonourable graves.”

“Beware the ides of March.”

“When beggars die, there are no comets seen; The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.”

“Let me have men about me that are fat... Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look. He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.”

“Now let it work. Mischief, thou art afoot. Take thou what course thou wilt.”

“Though I do hate him as I do hell pains, Yet, for necessity of present life, I must show out a flag and sign of love— Which is indeed but sign.”

“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 showed To you, preferring you before her father, So much I challenge that I may profess Due to the Moor my lord.”

“All my fond love thus do I blow to heaven. ‘Tis gone. Arise, black vengeance, from the hollow hell!”

“Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners.”

“Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see. She has deceived her father, and may thee.”

“I am glad I have found this napkin. This was her first remembrance from the Moor. My wayward husband hath a hundred times Wooed me to steal it. But she so loves the token (For he conjured her she should ever keep it) That she reserves it evermore about her To kiss and talk to. I’ll have the work ta’en out And give ‘t Iago. What he will do with it Heaven knows, not I. I nothing but to please his fantasy.”

“O curse of marriage, That we can call these delicate creatures ours And not their appetites! I had rather be a toad And live upon the vapor of a dungeon Than keep a corner in the thing I love For others’ uses. Yet ‘tis the plague of great ones; Prerogatived are they less than the base. ‘Tis destiny unshunnable, like death. Even then this forked plague is fated to us When we do quicken.”

“Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial.”