第42章

They that have the voice of lions, and the act of bares, are they not monsters?

Troilus and Cressida -- III. 2.

CALUMNY.

Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny.

Hamlet -- III. 1.

No might nor greatness in mortality Can censure 'scape; back-wounding calumny The whitest virtue strikes. What king so strong, Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue?

Measure for Measure -- III. 2.

CEREMONY.

Ceremony Was but devised at first, to set a gloss On faint deeds, hollow welcomes.

Recanting goodness, sorry ere 'tis shown;

But where there is true friendship, there needs none.

Timon of Athens -- I. 2.

COMFORT.

Men Can counsel, and speak comfort to that grief Which they themselves not feel; but tasting it, Their counsel turns to passion, which before Would give preceptial medicine to rage, Fetter strong madness in a silken thread, Charm ache with air, and agony with words:

No, no; 'tis all men's office to speak patience To those that wring under the load of sorrow;But no man's virtue, nor sufficiency, To be so moral, when he shall endure The like himself.

Much Ado About Nothing -- V. 1.

Well, every one can master a grief, but he that has it.

Idem -- II.

COMPARISON.

When the moon shone, we did not see the candle.

So doth the greater glory dim the less;

A substitute shines brightly as a king, Until a king be by; and then his state Empties itself, as does an inland brook Into the main of waters.

Merchant of Venice -- V. 1.

CONSCIENCE.

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.

Hamlet -- III. 1.

CONTENT.

My crown is in my heart, not on my head;

Not decked with diamonds and Indian stones, Nor to be seen; my crown is called "content";A crown it is, that seldom kings enjoy.

King Henry VI., Part 3d - III. 1.

CONTENTION.

How, in one house, Should many people, under two commands, Hold amity?

King Lear -- II. 4.

When two authorities are set up, Neither supreme, how soon confusion May enter twixt the gap of both, and take The one by the other.

Coriolanus -- III. 1.

CONTENTMENT.

'Tis better to be lowly born, And range with humble livers in content, Than to be perked up in a glistering grief, And wear a golden sorrow.

King Henry VIII. -- II. 3.

COWARDS.

Cowards die many times before their deaths;

The valiant never taste of death but once.

Julius Caesar -- II. 2.

CUSTOM.

That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat Of habit's devil, is angel yet in this:

That to the use of actions fair and good He likewise gives a frock, or livery, That aptly is put on: Refrain to-night:

And that shall lend a kind of easiness To the next abstinence: the next more easy:

For use almost can change the stamp of nature, And either curb the devil, or throw him out With wondrous potency.

Hamlet -- III. 4.

A custom More honored in the breach, then the observance.

Idem -- I. 4.

DEATH.

Kings, and mightiest potentates, must die;

For that's the end of human misery.

King Henry VI., Part 1st -- III. 2.

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.

Julius Caesar -- II. 2.

The dread of something after death, Makes us rather bear those ills we have, Than fly to others we know not of.

Hamlet -- III. 1.

The sense of death is most in apprehension.

Measure for Measure -- III. 1.

By medicine life may be prolonged, yet death Will seize the doctor too.

Cymbeline -- V. 5.

DECEPTION.

The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.

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!

Merchant of Venice -- I. 3.

DEEDS.

Foul deeds will rise, Though all the earth o'erwhelm them to men's eyes.

Hamlet -- I. 2.

How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds, Makes deeds ill done!

King John -- IV. 2.

DELAY.

That we would do, We should do when we would; for this would changes, And hath abatements and delays as many, As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents;And then this should is like a spendthrift sigh, That hurts by easing.

Hamlet -- IV. 7.

DELUSION.

For love of grace, Lay not that flattering unction to your soul;It will but skin and film the ulcerous place;Whiles rank corruption, mining all within, Infects unseen.

Hamlet -- III. 4.

DISCRETION.

Let's teach ourselves that honorable stop, Not to outsport discretion.

Othello -- II. 3.

DOUBTS AND FEARS.

I am cabin'd, cribb'd, confined, bound in To saucy doubts and fears.

Macbeth -- III. 4.

DRUNKENNESS.

Boundless intemperance.

In nature is a tyranny; it hath been Th' untimely emptying of the happy throne, And fall of many kings.

Measure for Measure -- I. 3.

DUTY OWING TO OURSELVES AND OTHERS.

Love all, trust a few, Do wrong to none; be able for thine enemy Rather in power, than use; and keep thy friend Under thy own life's key; be checked for silence, But never taxed for speech.

All's Well that Ends Well -- I. 1.

EQUIVOCATION.

But yet I do not like but yet, it does allay The good precedence; fye upon but yet:

But yet is as a gailer to bring forth Some monstrous malefactor.

Antony and Cleopatra -- II. 5.

EXCESS.

A surfeit of the sweetest things The deepest loathing to the stomach brings.

Midsummer Night's Dream -- II. 3.

Every inordinate cup is unblessed, and the ingredient is a devil.

Othello -- II. 3.

FALSEHOOD.

Falsehood, cowardice, and poor descent, Three things that women hold in hate.

Two Gentlemen of Verona -- III. 2.

FEAR.

Fear frames disorder, and disorder wounds Where it should guard.

King Henry VI., Part 2d -- V. 2.

Fear, and be slain; no worse can come, to fight:

And fight and die, is death destroying death;Where fearing dying, pays death servile breath.

King Richard II. -- III. 2.

FEASTS.

Small cheer, and great welcome, makes a merry feast.

Comedy of Errors -- III. 1.

FILIAL INGRATITUDE.