Shakespeare comedies quotes

1. “O, methinks how slow

This old moon wanes! She lingers my desires

Like to a stepdame, or a dowager,

Long withering out a young man's revenue”

MSND, Theseus

1. Therefore, fair XXX, question your desires,

Know of your youth, examine well your blood,

Whether (if you yield not to your father’s choice)

You can endure the livery of a nun,

For aye to be in shady cloister mewed,

To live a barren sister all your life,

Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon.

Thrice-blessèd they that master so their blood

To undergo such maiden pilgrimage,

But earthlier happy is the rose distilled

Than that which, withering on the virgin thorn,

Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness

MSND, Theseus

1. “Or, if there were a sympathy in choice,

War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it,

Making it momentany as a sound,

Swift as a shadow, short as any dream,

Brief as the lightning in the collied night,

That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and Earth,

And, ere a man hath power to say “Behold!”

The jaws of darkness do devour it up.

So quick bright things come to confusion” (1.1)

MSND, Lysander

1. “Four days will quickly step themselves in night;

Four nights will quickly dream away the time;

And then the moon, like to a silver bow

New bent in heaven, shall behold the night

Of our solemnities”

MSND, Hippolyta

1. “ I have a widow aunt, a dowager

Of great revenue, and she hath no child.

From Athens is her house remote seven leagues;

And she respects me as her only son.

There, gentle XXX, may I marry thee;

And to that place the sharp Athenian law

Cannot pursue us”

MSND, Lysander

1. “The fairy land buys not the child of me.

His mother was a votress of my order,

And, in the spiced Indian air, by night,

Full often hath she gossiped by my side,

And sat with me on Neptune's yellow sands,

Marking th'embarked traders on the flood;

When we have laughed to see the sails conceive

And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind;

Which she, with pretty and with swimming gait

Following--her womb then rich with my young

squire--

Would imitate, and sail upon the land

To fetch me trifles, and return again

As from a voyage, rich with merchandise.

But she, being mortal, of that boy did die,

And for her sake do I rear up her boy,

And for her sake I will not part with him”

MSND, Titania

1. “O, is all forgot?

All schoolday's friendship, childhood innocence?

We, XXX, like two artificial gods,

Have with our needles created both one flower,

Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion,

Both warbling of one song, both in one key;

As if our hands, our sides, voices, and minds,

Had been incorporate. So we grew together,

Like to a double cherry, seeming parted,

But yet a union in partition” (3.2.204-211)

MSND, Helena

1. Most radiant Pyramus, most lily-white of hue,

Of color like the red rose on triumphant briar,

Most brisky juvenal, and eke most lovely Jew,

As true as truest horse, that never yet would tire”

MSND, Flute

1. “O XXX goddess, nymph, perfect, divine!

 To what, my love, shall I compare thine eyne?

Crystal is muddy. O, how ripe in show

Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow!

That pure congealed white, high Taurus' snow,

Fann'd with the eastern wind, turns to a crow

When thou holdst up thy hand” (3.2.137-144). 

MSND, Demetrius

1. “Methinks I see things with a parted eye,

When everything seems double.

MSND, Hermia

So, methinks,

And I have found XXX like a jewel,

Mine own and not mine own (4.1.186-189)

MSND, Helena

“My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind;

So flewed, so sanded; and their heads are hung

With ears that sweep away the morning dew;

Crook-kneed and dewlapped like Thessalian bulls;

Slow in pursuit, but matched in mouth like bells

Each under each. A cry more tuneable

Was never hollowed to, nor cheered with horn

In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly

MSND, Theseus

1. “The lunatic, the lover, and the poet

Are of imagination all compact.

One sees more devils than vast hell can hold:

That is the madman. The lover, all as frantic,

Sees Helen’s beauty in a brow of Egypt.

The poet’s eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,

Doth glance from heaven to Earth, from Earth to

heaven,

And as imagination bodies forth

The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen

Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing

A local habitation and a name.

Such tricks hath strong imagination

That, if it would but apprehend some joy,

It comprehends some bringer of that joy.

Or in the night, imagining some fear,

How easy is a bush supposed a bear! (5.1). 

MSND, Theseus

1. You know me well, and herein spend but time

To wind about my love with circumstance;

And out of doubt you do me now more wrong

In making question of my uttermost

Than if you had made waste of all I have.

Then do but say to me what I should do

That in your knowledge may by me be done,

And I am prest unto it. Therefore speak”

Merchant, Antonio

1.  “I will buy with you, sell with you, talk

with you, walk with you, and so following; but I

will not eat with you, drink with you, nor pray with

You” (1.3.29-32). 

Merchant, Shylock

1. “Should I go to church

And see the holy edifice of stone

And not bethink me straight of dangerous rocks,

Which, touching but my gentle vessel’s side,

Would scatter all her spices on the stream,

Enrobe the roaring waters with my silks,

And, in a word, but even now worth this

And now worth nothing?

Merchant, Salerio

1. “In my school days, when I had lost one shaft,

I shot his fellow of the selfsame flight

The selfsame way with more advisèd watch

To find the other forth; and by adventuring both

I oft found both”

Merchant, Bassanio

1. Yet his means are in supposition: he

hath an argosy bound to Tripolis, another to the

Indies. I understand, moreover, upon the Rialto,

he hath a third at Mexico, a fourth for England, and

other ventures he hath squandered abroad. But

ships are but boards, sailors but men; there be land

rats and water rats, water thieves and land

thieves—I mean pirates—and then there is the

peril of waters, winds, and rocks”

Merchant, Shylock

1. - “And what of him? Did he take interest?

-“No, not take interest, not, as you would say,

Directly “interest.” Mark what Jacob did.

When Laban and himself were compromised

That all the eanlings which were streaked and pied

Should fall as Jacob’s hire, the ewes being rank

In end of autumn turnèd to the rams,

And when the work of generation was

Between these woolly breeders in the act,

The skillful shepherd pilled me certain wands,

And in the doing of the deed of kind

He stuck them up before the fulsome ewes,

Who then conceiving did in eaning time

Fall parti-colored lambs, and those were Jacob’s.

This was a way to thrive, and he was blest;

And thrift is blessing if men steal it not” 

-“This was a venture, sir, that Jacob served for,

A thing not in his power to bring to pass,

But swayed and fashioned by the hand of heaven.

Was this inserted to make interest good?

Or is your gold and silver ewes and rams?”

- “I cannot tell; I make it breed as fast” (1.3.69-90). 

Merchant, Antonio and Shylock

1. “In Belmont is a lady richly left;

And she is fair, and fairer than that word,

Of wondrous virtues. Sometimes from her eyes

I did receive fair speechless messages.

Her name is Portia, nothing undervalued

To Cato's daughter, Brutus' Portia;

Nor is the wide world ignorant of her worth,

For the four winds blow in from every coast

Renowned suitors, and her sunny locks

Hang on her temples like a golden fleece

Which makes her seat of Belmont Colchos' strond,

And many Jasons come in quest of her” (1.2.161-173). 

Merchant, Bassanio

1. “What, no more?

Pay him six thousand and deface the bond.

Double six thousand and then treble that,

Before a friend of this description

Shall lose a hair through XXX’s fault” (3.2.297-300). 

Merchant, Portia

1. “One of them showed me a ring that he had of

your daughter for a monkey” 

-“Out upon her! Thou torturest me, Tubal. It

was my turquoise! I had it of Leah when I was a

bachelor. I would not have given it for a wilderness

of monkeys” (3.1.98-102). 

Merchant, Tubal and Shylock

1. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs,

dimensions, senses, affections, passions?--fed with the

same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the

same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and

cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian

is? 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?”

Merchant, Shylock

1. You see me, Lord XXX, where I stand,

Such as I am. Though for myself alone

I would not be ambitious in my wish

To wish myself much better, yet for you

I would be trebled twenty times myself,

A thousand times more fair, ten thousand times

More rich, that only to stand high in your account

I might in virtues, beauties, livings, friends,

Exceed account. But the full sum of me

Is sum of something, which, to term in gross,

Is an unlessoned girl, unschooled, unpracticed;

Happy in this, she is not yet so old

But she may learn; happier than this,

She is not bred so dull but she can learn;

Happiest of all, is that her gentle spirit

Commits itself to yours to be directed

As from her lord, her governor, her king.

Myself, and what is mine, to you and yours

Is now converted. But now I was the lord

Of this fair mansion, master of my servants,

Queen o’er myself; and even now, but now,

This house, these servants, and this same myself

Are yours, my lord’s. I give them with this ring” (3.2).

Merchant, Portia

1. “I say my daughter is my flesh and blood” 

- “There is more difference between thy flesh and hers

Than between jet and ivory; more between your bloods than there is between red whine and Rhenish” (3.1.31-34). 

Merchant, Shylock and Salerio

1. “Therefore, Jew

Though justice be thy plea, consider this:

That in the course of justice, none of us

Should see salvation. We do pray for mercy,

And that same prayer doth teach us all to render

The deeds of mercy” (4.1.192-197). 

Merchant, Portia

1. -Hath XXX any son, my lord?

-No child but XXX. She’s his only heir.

Dost thou affect her, XXX?

- O my lord,

When you went onward on this ended action,

I looked upon her with a soldier’s eye,

That liked, but had a rougher task in hand

Than to drive liking to the name of love.

But now I am returned, and that war-thoughts

Have left their places vacant, in their rooms

Come thronging soft and delicate desires,

All prompting me how fair young XXX is,

Saying I liked her ere I went to wars.

Much ado, Claudio and Don Pedro

1. - I think this is your daughter.

-Her mother hath many times told me so.

- Were you in doubt, sir, that you asked her?

-  Signior XXX, no, for then you were a child.

- You have it full, XXX, We may guess by

this what you are, being a man.

much ado, don pedro, leonato, benedick

• God keep your Ladyship still in that mind,

so some gentleman or other shall ’scape a predestinate

scratched face.

  Scratching could not make it worse an

’twere such a face as yours were (

Much ado, benedick and beatrice

1. Yes, faith, it is my cousin’s duty to make

curtsy and say “Father, as it please you.” But yet for

all that, cousin, let him be a handsome fellow, or

else make another curtsy and say “Father, as it

please me” (2.1.44-47). 

Much ado, Beatrice

1. Tis certain so, the Prince woos for himself.

Friendship is constant in all other things

Save in the office and affairs of love;

Therefore all hearts in love use their own tongues.

Let every eye negotiate for itself

And trust no agent; for beauty is a witch

Against whose charms faith melteth into blood.

This is an accident of hourly proof,

Which I mistrusted not” (2.1.152-160). 

Much ado, Claudio

1. “O, she misused me past the endurance of a

block! An oak but with one green leaf on it would

have answered her. My very visor began to assume

life and scold with her. She told me, not thinking I

had been myself, that I was the Prince’s jester, that I

was duller than a great thaw, huddling jest upon jest

with such impossible conveyance upon me that I

stood like a man at a mark with a whole army

shooting at me. She speaks poniards, and every

word stabs. If her breath were as terrible as her

terminations, there were no living near her; she

would infect to the North Star. I would not marry

her though she were endowed with all that Adam

had left him before he transgressed. She would have

made Hercules have turned spit, yea, and have cleft

his club to make the fire, too. Come, talk not of her.

You shall find her the infernal Ate in good apparel. I

would to God some scholar would conjure her, for

certainly, while she is here, a man may live as quiet

in hell as in a sanctuary, and people sin upon

purpose because they would go thither. So indeed

all disquiet, horror, and perturbation follows her”

Much ado, Benedick

1. Give not this rotten orange to your friend.

She’s but the sign and semblance of her honor.

Behold how like a maid she blushes here!

O, what authority and show of truth

Can cunning sin cover itself withal!

Comes not that blood as modest evidence

To witness simple virtue? Would you not swear.

All you that see her, that she is a maid.

By these exterior shows? But she is none:

She knows the heat of a luxurious bed;

Her blush is guiltiness, not modesty” (4.1.31-40.)

Much ado, Claudio

1. “Dost thou not suspect my place? Dost

thou not suspect my years? O, that he were here to

write me down an ass! But masters, remember that

I am an ass, though it be not written down, yet

forget not that I am an ass.—No, thou villain, thou

art full of piety, as shall be proved upon thee by

good witness. I am a wise fellow and, which is more,

an officer and, which is more, a householder and,

which is more, as pretty a piece of flesh as any is in

Messina, and one that knows the law, go to, and a

rich fellow enough, go to, and a fellow that hath had

losses, and one that hath two gowns and everything

handsome about him.—Bring him away.—O, that I

had been writ down an ass!” (4.2)

Much ado, dogberry

1. “My heart is sorry for your daughter’s death,

But, on my honor, she was charged with nothing

But what was true and very full of proof” (

Much ado, Don pedro

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 odor. 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”

12th, Orsino

1. So please my lord, I might not be admitted,

But from her handmaid do return this answer:

The element itself, till seven years’ heat,

Shall not behold her face at ample view,

But like a cloistress she will veilèd walk,

And water once a day her chamber round

With eye-offending brine—all this to season

A brother’s dead love, which she would keep fresh

And lasting in her sad remembrance”

12th, Valentine

1. 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”

12th, Viola

1. “How will this fadge? My master loves her dearly;

And I, poor monster, fond as much on him;

And she, mistaken, seems to dote on me.

What will become of this? As I am man,

My state is desperate for my master's love.

As I am woman (now alas the day!)

What thriftless sighs shall poor XXX breathe?

O Time, thou must untangle this, not I;

It is too hard a knot for me t'untie” (2.3.31-39)

12th, Viola

1. “My father had a daughter loved a man

As it might be perhaps, were I a woman,

I should your lordship.

-And what's her history?

-A blank, my lord; she never told her love,

But let concealment, like a worm i' th' bud

Feed on her damask cheek; she pined in thought,

And with a green and yellow melancholy

She sate like Patience on a monument,

Smiling at grief. Was not this love indeed?

We men may say more, swear more, but indeed

Our shows are more than will; for still we prove

Much in our vows, but little in our love.

- But died thy sister of her love, my boy?

- I am all the daughters of my father's house,

        And all the brothers too--and yet I know not. (2.4)

12th, Viola and Duke

1. “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some

have greatness thrust upon 'em. Thy fates open their

hands, let thy blood and spirit embrace them, and to

inure thyself to what thou art like to be, cast thy humble

slough and appear fresh. Be opposite with a kinsman,

surly with servants; let thy tongue tang arguments of

state; put thyself into the trick of singularity. She advises

thee that sighs for thee. Remember who commended thy

yellow stockings, and wished to see thee ever cross-

gartered: I say, remember” (2.5.126-134)

12th, Malvolio

1. “By my life, this is my

lady’s hand! These be her very c’s, her u’s, and her

t’s, and thus she makes her great P’s. It is in

contempt of question her hand”

12th, Malvolio

1. This fellow is wise enough to play the fool,

And to do that well craves a kind of wit.

He must observe their mood on whom he jests,

The quality of persons, and the time,

And like the haggard, check at every feather

That comes before his eye. This is a practice

As full of labor as a wise man's art”

12th, Viola

1. To see this age! A sentence is but a cheverel glove to

a good wit. How quickly the wrong side may be turned

outward!

-. Nay, that's certain. They that dally nicely with words

may quickly make them wanton.

-. I would therefore my sister had no name, sir.

XXX. Why, man?

-Why, sir, her name's a word, and to dally with that

word might make my sister wanton. But indeed, words

are very rascals since bonds disgraced them.

-Thy reason, man?

-Troth, sir, I can yield you none without words, and

words are grown so false, I am loath to prove reason

without them. (3.1)

12th, Clown and Viola

1. I prithee tell me what thou thinkest of me.

-That you do think you are not what you are.

- If I think so, I think the same of you.

-. Then think you right, I am not what I am.

- I would you were as I would have you be.

-Would it be better, madam, than I am?

12th, Olivia and Viola

1. “I could not stay behind you. My desire

(More sharp than filed steel) did spur me forth,

And not all love to see you (though so much

As might have drawn one to a longer voyage)

But jealousy what might befall your travel,

Being skilless in these parts” (3.3.4-9)

12th, Antonio

1. “One face, one voice, one habit, and two persons!

A natural perspective, that is and is not!”

12th, Orsino

1. Our natures do pursue,

Like rats that raven down their proper bane,

A thirsty evil, and when we drink we die”

Measure, Claudio

1. “Thus stands it with me. Upon a true contract

I got possession of XXX's bed.

You know the lady; she is fast my wife,

Save that we do the denunciation lack

Of outward order. This we came not to

Only for propagation of a dower

Remaining in the coffer of her friends,

From whom we thought it meet to hide our love

Till time had made them for us. But it chances

The stealth of our most mutual entertainment

With character too gross is writ on XXX

Measure, Claudio

1.  “XXX,

There is a kind of character in thy life,

That to th'observer doth thy history

Fully unfold. Thyself and thy belongings

Are not thine own so proper, as to waste

Thyself upon thy virtues, they on thee.

Heaven doth with us as we with torches do,

Not light them for themselves; for if our virtues

Did not go forth of us, twere all alike

As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touched

But to fine issues, nor Nature never lends

The smallest scruple of her excellence

But like a thrifty goddess she determines

Herself the glory of a creditor,

Both thanks and use” (1.1.26-40). 

Measure, Duke

1. How I have ever loved the life removed,

And held in idle price to haunt assemblies

Where youth and cost witless bravery keeps

Measure, Duke

1. “Tis one thing to be tempted, XXX,

Another thing to fall. I not deny,

The jury passing on the prisoner's life

May in the sworn twelve have a thief or two

Guiltier than him they try. What's open made to justice,

That justice seizes” (2.1.17-24). 

Measure, Angelo

1. “Why, all the souls that were were forfeit once,

And He that might the vantage best have took,

Found out the remedy. How would you be

If He,which is the top of judgment should

But judge you as you are?”

Measure, Isabella

1. “What's this? What's this? is this her fault or mine?

The tempter, or the tempted, who sins most, ha?

Not she; nor doth she tempt; but it is I

That, lying by the violet in the sun,

Do, as the carrion does, not as the flower,

Corrupt with virtuous season. Can it be

That modesty may more betray our sense

Than woman's lightness? Having waste ground enough,

Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary

And pitch our evils there? O fie, fie, fie!

What dost thou, or what are thou, XXX?

Dost thou desire her foully for those things

That make her good?” (2.2.162-175). 

Measure, Angelo

1. Ha! Fie, these filthy vices! It were as good

To pardon him that hath from nature stolen

A man already made, as to remit

Their saucy sweetness that do coin God’s image

In stamps that are forbid. ’Tis all as easy

Falsely to take away a life true made

As to put metal in restrainèd means

To make a false one” (2.4). 

measure, Angelo

1. To whom should I complain? Did I tell this,

Who would believe me? O, perilous mouths,

That bear in them one and the selfsame tongue,

Either of condemnation or approof,

Bidding the law make curtsy to their will,

Hooking both right and wrong to th’ appetite,

To follow as it draws. I’ll to my brother.

Though he hath fall’n by prompture of the blood,

Yet hath he in him such a mind of honor

That, had he twenty heads to tender down

On twenty bloody blocks, he’d yield them up

Before his sister should her body stoop

To such abhorred pollution.

Then, XXX, live chaste, and, brother, die.

More than our brother is our chastity.

I’ll tell him yet of XXXs request,

And fit his mind to death, for his soul’s rest” (2.4). 

Measure, Isabella

1. “He who the sword of heaven will bear

Should be as holy as severe,

Pattern in himself to know,

Grace to stand, and virtue go;

More nor less to others paying

Than by self-offenses weighing.

Shame to him whose cruel striking

Kills for faults of his own liking” (3.2). 

Craft against vice I must apply.

With XXX tonight shall lie

His old betrothèd but despisèd.

So disguise shall, by th’ disguisèd,

Pay with falsehood false exacting

And perform an old contracting.

Measure, Duke

1. “O, were it but my life,

I’d throw it down for your deliverance

As frankly as a pin” (

Measure, Isabella

1. Go to, sir; you weigh equally. A feather will

turn the scale” (4.2). 

Measure, Provost

Go, Philostrate,
Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments.
Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth.
Turn melancholy forth to funerals;
The pale companion is not for our pomp.

MSND, Theseus

XXX I wooed thee with my sword
And won thy love doing thee injuries,
But I will wed thee in another key,
With pomp, with triumph, and with reveling.

MSND, Theseus

If we shadows have offended,
 Think but this and all is mended:
 That you have but slumbered here
 While these visions did appear.
 And this weak and idle theme,
 No more yielding but a dream,
 Gentles, do not reprehend.
 If you pardon, we will mend.
 And, as I am an honest XXX,
 If we have unearnèd luck
 Now to ’scape the serpent’s tongue,
 We will make amends ere long.
 Else the XXX a liar call.
 So good night unto you all.
 Give me your hands, if we be friends,
 And XXX shall restore amends.

MSND, Robin Puck

What judgment shall I dread, doing no wrong?
You have among you many a purchased slave,
Which, like your asses and your dogs and mules,
You use in abject and in slavish parts
Because you bought them. Shall I say to you
“Let them be free! Marry them to your heirs!
Why sweat they under burdens? Let their beds
Be made as soft as yours, and let their palates
Be seasoned with such viands”? You will answer
“The slaves are ours!” So do I answer you:
The pound of flesh which I demand of him
Is dearly bought; ’tis mine and I will have it.
If you deny me, fie upon your law:
There is no force in the decrees of Venice.
I stand for judgment. Answer: shall I have it?

Merchant, Shylock

There is no woman’s sides
Can bide the beating of so strong a passion
As love doth give my heart; no woman’s heart
So big, to hold so much; they lack retention.
Alas, their love may be called appetite,
No motion of the liver but the palate,
That suffer surfeit, cloyment, and revolt;
But mine is all as hungry as the sea,
And can digest as much. Make no compare
Between that love a woman can bear me
And that I owe XXX

12th, Duke

What is your parentage?”
“Above my fortunes, yet my state is well.
I am a gentleman.” I’ll be sworn thou art.
Thy tongue, thy face, thy limbs, actions, and spirit
Do give thee fivefold blazon. Not too fast! Soft,
soft!

12th, Olivia

Such a fellow is not to be talked withal. Away
with him to prison. Where is the Provost? Provost
comes forward.  Away with him to prison. Lay bolts
enough upon him. Let him speak no more. Away
with those giglets too, and with the other confederate
companion.

Measure, Escalus