Great Throughts Treasury

"Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him; The evil that men do lives after them, The good is oft interred with their bones, So let it be with Caesar ... The noble Brutus Hath told you Caesar was ambitious: If it were so, it was a grievous fault, And grievously hath Caesar answered it ... Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest, (For Brutus is an honourable man; So are they all; all honourable men) Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral ... He was my friend, faithful and just to me: But Brutus says he was ambitious; And Brutus is an honourable man…. He hath brought many captives home to Rome, Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill: Did this in Caesar seem ambitious? When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept: Ambition should be made of sterner stuff: Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; And Brutus is an honourable man. You all did see that on the Lupercal I thrice presented him a kingly crown, Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition? Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; And, sure, he is an honourable man. I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke, But here I am to speak what I do know. You all did love him once, not without cause: What cause withholds you then to mourn for him? O judgement! thou art fled to brutish beasts, And men have lost their reason…. Bear with me; My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar, And I must pause till it come back to me. Julius Caesar, Act iii, Scene 2"

"WESTMORELAND. O that we now had here But one ten thousand of those men in England That do no work to-day! KING. What's he that wishes so? My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin; If we are mark'd to die, we are enow To do our country loss; and if to live, The fewer men, the greater share of honour. God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more. By Jove, I am not covetous for gold, Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost; It yearns me not if men my garments wear; Such outward things dwell not in my desires. But if it be a sin to covet honour, I am the most offending soul alive. No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England. God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour As one man more methinks would share from me For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more! Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host, That he which hath no stomach to this fight, Let him depart; his passport shall be made, And crowns for convoy put into his purse; We would not die in that man's company That fears his fellowship to die with us. This day is call'd the feast of Crispian. He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd, And rouse him at the name of Crispian. He that shall live this day, and see old age, Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours, And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian.' Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars, And say 'These wounds I had on Crispian's day.' Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot, But he'll remember, with advantages, What feats he did that day. Then shall our names, Familiar in his mouth as household words- Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter, Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester- Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red. This story shall the good man teach his son; And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by, From this day to the ending of the world, But we in it shall be remembered- We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition; And gentlemen in England now-a-bed Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here, And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day."

"A babe to honour her! If she must teem. King Lear, Act i, Scene 4"

"1st MURDERER: Where's thy conscience now?... 2nd MURDERER: I'll not meddle with it. It makes a man a coward.... It fills a man full of obstacles. It made me once restore a purse of gold that by chance I found. It beggars any man that keeps it. It is turned out of towns and cities for a dangerous thing, and every man that means to live well endeavors to trust to himself and live without it. Richard III, Act i, Scene 4"

"A beggar's book outworths a noble's blood. Henry VIII, Act i, Scene 1"

"A barren detested vale, you see it is; the trees, though summer, yet forlorn and lean, o'ercome with moss and baleful mistletoe. Titus Andronicus, Act ii, Scene 3"

"A book? O, rare one, be not, as is our fangled world, a garment nobler than that it covers. Cymbeline, Act v, Scene 4"

"A breath thou art, Servile to all the skyey influences. Measure for Measure. Act iii. Sc. 1."

"A beauty-waning and distressed widow, even in the afternoon of her best days. Richard III, Act iii, Scene 7"

"A breed for barren metal of his friend?"

"A beastly ambition, which the gods grant thee t' attain to! If thou wert the lion, the fox would beguile thee; if thou wert the lamb, the fox would eat three: if thou wert the fox, the lion would suspect thee, when peradventure thou wert accused by the ass: if thou wert the ass, thy dullness would torment thee, and still thou livedst but as a breakfast to the wolf: if thou wert the wolf, thy greediness would afflict thee, and oft thou shouldst hazard thy life for thy dinner: wert thou the unicorn, pride and wrath would confound thee and make thine own self the conquest of thy fury: wert thou a bear, thou wouldst be killed by the horse: wert thou a horse, thou wouldst be seized by the leopard: wert thou a leopard, thou wert German to the lion and the spots of thy kindred were jurors on thy life: all thy safety were remotion and thy defense absence. What beast couldst thou be, that were not subject to a beast? and what a beast art thou already, that seest not thy loss in transformation! Timons of Athens, Act iv, Scene 3"

"A brother noble, whose nature is so far from doing harms that he suspects none. King Lear, Act i, Scene 2"

"A buck of the first head. Love's Labour 's Lost. Act iv. Sc. 2."

"A child of our grandmother Eve, a female; or, for thy more sweet understanding, a woman. Love's Labour 's Lost. Act i. Sc. 1."

"A countenance more in sorrow than in anger. Horatio, scene ii"

"A college of wit-crackers cannot flout me out of my humor. Dost thou think I care for a satire or an epigram? Much Ado About Nothing, Act v, Scene 4"

"A city on whom plenty held full hand, for riches strewed herself even in her streets; whose towers bore heads so high they kissed the clouds, and strangers ne'er beheld but wondered at. Pericles, Act i, Scene 4"

"A Corinthian, a lad of mettle, a good boy. King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4."

"A Daniel come to judgment! yea, a Daniel! O wise young judge, how I do honor thee! The Merchant of Venice (Shylock at IV, i)"

"A cup of hot wine with not a drop of allaying Tiber in 't. -Coriolanus. Act ii. Sc. 1."

"A coward, a most devout coward; religious in it. Twelfth Night, or, What You Will (Fabian at III, iv)"

"A coward dies a thousand times before his death, but the valiant taste of death but once. It seems to me most strange that men should fear, seeing that death, a necessary end, will come when it will come. Julius Caesar, Act 1, Scene 2"

"A Daniel still say I, a second Daniel! I thank thee, Jew, for teaching me that word. The Merchant of Venice (Gratiano at IV, i)"

"A daughter, and a goodly babe, Lusty and like to live. The queen receives Much comfort in't, says, 'My poor prisoner, I am innocent as you.'"

"A day in April never came so sweet, to show how costly summer was at hand, as this fore-spurrer comes before his lord."

"A deal of skimble-skamble stuff. King Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 1."

"A deed of dreadful note. Macbeth, Act iii, Scene 2"

"A deed without a name. Macbeth, Act iv, Scene 1"

"A dream itself is but a shadow. Hamlet, Act ii, Scene 2"

"A dog is obeyed in office. King Lear, Act iv, Scene 6"

"A Devil, a born Devil on whose nature, nurture can never stick, on whom my pain, humanly taken, all lost, quite lost. The Tempest, Act iv, Scene 1"

"A dish fit for the gods. Julius Caesar, Act ii, Scene 1"

"A fair face will wither; a full eye will wax hollow: but a good heart, Kate, is the sun and the moon; or, rather, the sun and not the moon; for it shines bright, and never changes, but keeps his course truly. If thou would have such a one, take me: and take me, take a soldier; take a soldier, take a king: and what say'st thou then to my love? Speak, my fair, and fairly, I pray thee. Henry V, Act v, Scene 2"

"A feast of languages."

"A falcon, touring in her pride of place, was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd. Macbeth, Act ii, Scene 4"

"A face without a heart. Hamlet Act iv, Scene 7"

"A fellow almost damned in a fair wife. Othello, Act i, Scene 1"

"A February face, so full of frost, of storm and cloudiness. Much Ado About Nothing, Act v, Scene 4"

"A fellow of no mark nor likelihood. King Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 2."

"A fish that hangs in the net, like a poor man's right in the law, will hardly come out of it. Pericles, Act ii, Scene 1"

"A fool and his words are soon parted."

"A fellow that hath had losses, and one that hath two gowns and every thing handsome about him. Much Ado about Nothing. Act iv. Sc. 2."

"A fine volley of words, gentlemen, and quickly shot off. The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act ii, Scene 4"

"A figure like your father, armed at point exactly, cap-a-pe, appears before them and with solemn march goes slow and stately by them. Hamlet, Act i, Scene 2"

"A fool, a fool! I met a fool i' th' forest, a motley fool! a miserable world! As I do live by food, I met a fool who laid him down and basked him in the sun and railed on Lady Fortune in good terms, in good set terms, and yet a motley fool. As You Like It, Act ii, Scene 7"

"A fool doth think himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool. As You Like It, Act v, Scene 1"

"A fish, he smells like a fish; a very ancient and fish-like smell. The Tempest, Act ii, Scene 2"

"A fool's bolt is soon shot. The Life of King Henry the Fifth (Orleans at III, vii)"

"A forted residence 'gainst the tooth of time and razure of oblivion. Measure for Measure. Act v. Sc. 1."

"A foutre for the world and worldlings base! I speak of Africa and golden joys. King Henry IV. Part II. Act v. Sc. 3."