GLOUCESTER: My lord, 'tis but a base ignoble
mind
That mounts no higher than a bird can soar.
2 Henry VI, II, i
KING HENRY VI: How irksome is this music to my
heart!
When such strings jar, what hope of harmony?
2 Henry VI, II, i
GLOUCESTER: Thus sometimes hath the brightest
day a cloud;
And after summer evermore succeeds
Barren winter, with his wrathful nipping cold:
So cares and joys abound, as seasons fleet.
2 Henry VI, II, iv
QUEEN MARGARET: Small curs are not regarded
when they grin;
But great men tremble when the lion roars.
2 Henry VI, III, i
YORK: Show me one scar character'd on thy
skin:
Men's flesh preserved so whole do seldom win.
2 Henry VI, III, i
WARWICK: Who finds the heifer dead and
bleeding fresh
And sees fast by a butcher with an axe,
But will suspect 'twas he that made the slaughter?
2 Henry VI, III, ii
SUFFOLK: Would curses kill, as doth the
mandrake's groan,
I would invent as bitter-searching terms,
As curst, as harsh and horrible to hear,
Deliver'd strongly through my fixed teeth,
With full as many signs of deadly hate,
As lean-faced Envy in her loathsome cave.
2 Henry VI, III, ii
SUFFOLK: I can no more: live thou to joy thy
life;
Myself no joy in nought but that thou livest.
2 Henry VI, III, ii
CADE: Be brave, then; for your captain is brave, and vows reformation. There shall be in England seven halfpenny loaves sold for a penny: the three-hooped pot shall have ten hoops and I will make it felony to drink small beer.
2 Henry VI, IV, ii
DICK: The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.
2 Henry VI, IV, ii
CADE: Is not this a lamentable thing, that of the skin of an innocent lamb should be made parchment? that parchment, being scribbled o'er, should undo a man? Some say the bee stings: but I say, 'tis the bee's wax; for I did but seal once to a thing, and I was never mine own man since.
2 Henry VI, IV, ii
SMITH: The clerk of Chatham: he can write and read and cast accompt.
CADE: O monstrous!
2 Henry VI, IV, ii
BUCKINGHAM: Trust nobody, for fear you be betray'd.
2 Henry VI, IV, v
CADE: Be it known unto thee by these presence, even the presence of Lord Mortimer, that I am the besom that must sweep the court clean of such filth as thou art. Thou hast most traitorously corrupted the youth of the realm in erecting a grammar school; and whereas, before, our forefathers had no other books but the score and the tally, thou hast caused printing to be used, and, contrary to the king, his crown and dignity, thou hast built a paper-mill. It will be proved to thy face that thou hast men about thee that usually talk of a noun and a verb, and such abominable words as no Christian ear can endure to hear.
2 Henry VI, IV, vii
CADE: Was ever feather so lightly blown to and fro as this multitude?
2 Henry VI, IV, ix
RICHARD: Sword, hold thy temper; heart, be
wrathful still:
Priests pray for enemies, but princes kill.
2 Henry VI, V, ii
YORK: In them I trust; for they are
soldiers,
Witty, courteous, liberal, full of spirit.
3 Henry VI, I, ii
RUTLAND: So looks the pent-up lion o'er the
wretch
That trembles under his devouring paws;
And so he walks, insulting o'er his prey,
And so he comes, to rend his limbs asunder.
3 Henry VI, I, iii
YORK: O tiger's heart wrapt in a woman's hide!
3 Henry VI, I, iv
EDWARD: Dazzle mine eyes, or do I see three suns?
RICHARD: Three glorious suns, each one a
perfect sun;
Not separated with the racking clouds,
But sever'd in a pale clear-shining sky.
See, see! they join, embrace, and seem to kiss,
As if they vow'd some league inviolable:
Now are they but one lamp, one light, one sun.
In this the heaven figures some event.
3 Henry VI, II, i
RICHARD: To weep is to make less the depth of
grief:
Tears then for babes; blows and revenge for me.
3 Henry VI, II, i
CLIFFORD: The smallest worm will turn, being trodden on.
3 Henry VI, II, ii
KING HENRY VI: O God! methinks it were a happy
life,
To be no better than a homely swain;
To sit upon a hill, as I do now,
To carve out dials quaintly, point by point,
Thereby to see the minutes how they run,
How many make the hour full complete;
How many hours bring about the day;
How many days will finish up the year;
How many years a mortal man may live.
3 Henry VI, II, v
KING HENRY VI: When this is known, then to
divide the times:
So many hours must I tend my flock;
So many hours must I take my rest;
So many hours must I contemplate;
So many hours must I sport myself;
So many days my ewes have been with young;
So many weeks ere the poor fools will ean:
So many years ere I shall shear the fleece:
So minutes, hours, days, months, and years,
Pass'd over to the end they were created,
Would bring white hairs unto a quiet grave.
3 Henry VI, II, v
SON: Ill blows the wind that profits nobody.
3 Henry VI, II, v
KING HENRY VI: O piteous spectacle! O bloody
times!
Whiles lions war and battle for their dens,
Poor harmless lambs abide their enmity.
3 Henry VI, II, v
KING HENRY VI: 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.
3 Henry VI, III, i
KING HENRY VI: Look, as I blow this feather
from my face,
And as the air blows it to me again,
Obeying with my wind when I do blow,
And yielding to another when it blows,
Commanded always by the greater gust;
Such is the lightness of you common men.
3 Henry VI, III, ii
GLOUCESTER: Why, I can smile, and murder
whiles I smile,
And cry 'Content' to that which grieves my heart,
And wet my cheeks with artificial tears,
And frame my face to all occasions.
3 Henry VI, III, ii
GLOUCESTER: I'll drown more sailors than the
mermaid shall;
I'll slay more gazers than the basilisk;
I'll play the orator as well as Nestor,
Deceive more slily than Ulysses could,
And, like a Sinon, take another Troy.
I can add colours to the chameleon,
Change shapes with Proteus for advantages,
And set the murderous Machiavel to school.
Can I do this, and cannot get a crown?
Tut, were it farther off, I'll pluck it down.
3 Henry VI, III, ii
KING EDWARD IV: Though fortune's malice
overthrow my state,
My mind exceeds the compass of her wheel.
3 Henry VI, IV, iii
KING EDWARD IV: What fates impose, that men
must needs abide;
It boots not to resist both wind and tide.
3 Henry VI, IV, iii
KING HENRY VI: Ay, such a pleasure as incaged
birds
Conceive when after many moody thoughts
At last by notes of household harmony
They quite forget their loss of liberty.
3 Henry VI, IV, vi
WARWICK: Thus yields the cedar to the axe's
edge,
Whose arms gave shelter to the princely eagle,
Under whose shade the ramping lion slept,
Whose top-branch overpeer'd Jove's spreading tree
And kept low shrubs from winter's powerful wind.
3 Henry VI, V, ii
GLOUCESTER: Suspicion always haunts the guilty
mind;
The thief doth fear each bush an officer.
3 Henry VI, V, vi
GLOUCESTER: I have no brother, I am like no
brother;
And this word 'love,' which graybeards call divine,
Be resident in men like one another
And not in me: I am myself alone.
3 Henry VI, V, vi
GLOUCESTER: What should I say? His deeds
exceed all speech:
He ne'er lift up his hand but conquered.
1 Henry VI, I, i
EXETER: We mourn in black: why mourn we not in blood?
1 Henry VI, I, i
EXETER: Upon a wooden coffin we attend,
And death's dishonourable victory
We with our stately presence glorify,
Like captives bound to a triumphant car.
1 Henry VI, I, i
JOAN LA PUCELLE: Glory is like a circle in the
water,
Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself
Till by broad spreading it disperse to nought.
1 Henry VI, I, iii
PLANTAGENET: I'll note you in my book of
memory,
To scourge you for this apprehension.
1 Henry VI, II, iv
FIRST SERVING-MAN: I'll to the surgeon's.
SECOND SERVING-MAN: And so will I.
THIRD SERVING-MAN: And I will see what physic the tavern affords.
1 Henry VI, III, i
EXETER: This late dissension grown betwixt the
peers
Burns under feigned ashes of forged love
And will at last break out into a flame:
As fester'd members rot but by degree,
Till bones and flesh and sinews fall away,
So will this base and envious discord breed.
1 Henry VI, III, i
JOAN LA PUCELLE: You judge it straight a thing
impossible
To compass wonders but by help of devils.
1 Henry VI, V, vii
SUFFOLK: For what is wedlock forced but a
hell,
An age of discord and continual strife?
Whereas the contrary bringeth bliss,
And is a pattern of celestial peace.
1 Henry VI, V, viii
KING HENRY VI: I feel such sharp dissension in
my breast,
Such fierce alarums both of hope and fear,
As I am sick with working of my thoughts.
1 Henry VI, V, viii
VALENTINE: She shall be dignified with this
high honour--
To bear my lady's train, lest the base earth
Should from her vesture chance to steal a kiss
And, of so great a favour growing proud,
Disdain to root the summer-swelling flower
And make rough winter everlastingly.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona, II, iv
PROTEUS: O heaven! were man
But constant, he were perfect. That one error
Fills him with faults; makes him run through all the sins:
Inconstancy falls off ere it begins.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona, V, iv
GLOUCESTER: Now is the winter of our
discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York.
Richard III, I, i
GLOUCESTER: Grim-visaged war hath smooth'd his
wrinkled front;
And now, instead of mounting barded steeds
To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,
He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber
To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.
Richard III, I, i
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