Romeo and Juliet

Prologue

4-5

From forth the fatal loins of these two foes

A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life

The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,

And the continuance of their parents' rage,

Which, but their children's end, nought could remove

If ever you disturb our streets again

Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace

She is the faries' midwife, and she comes

In shape no bigger than an agot-stone...

And in this state she gallops night by night

Through lovers' brains, and they dream of love;

O'er courtiers' knees, that dream on cur'sies straight;

O'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees;

O'er ladies' lips, whostraight on kisses dream

I fear, too early, for my mind misgives

Some consequence yet hanging in the stars

Shall bitterly begin this fearful date

With this night's revels, and expire the term

Of a despised life cols'd in my breast

By some vile forfeit of untimely death.

But He that hath the steerage of my course

Direct my sail!

Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight!

For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.

What dares the slave

Come hither, cover'd with an antic face,

To fleer and scorn at our solemnity?

Now, by the stock of honor of my kin,

To strike him dead I hold it not a sin.

Then move not while my prayer's effect I take.

Thus from my lips, by thine, my sin is purg'd.

My only love sprung from my only hate!

Too early seen unknown, and known too late!

Prodigious birth of love it is to me

That I must love a loathed enemy.

Here's much to do with hate, but more with love.

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

"Yea," quoth he, "dost thou fall upon thy face?

Thou wilt fall backward when theou hast more with,

Wilt thou not, Jule?"

But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?

It is the east, and (she) 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.

O ___, ___, wherefore art thou ___?

Deny thy father and refuse thy name;

Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,

And I'll no longer be a ____.

What's in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other word would smell as sweet

Well, do not swear. Although I joy in thee,

I have no joy of this contract tonight,

It is too rash, too unadvis'd, too sudden,

To like the lightning, which doth cease to be

Ere one can say it lightens. Sweet, good night!

Within the infant rind of this weak flower

Poison hath residence and medicine power;

For this, being smelt, with that part cheers each part, being tasted stays all the senses with the heart.

Two such opposed kings encamp them still

In man as well as herbs, grace and rude will;

And where the worser is predominant,

Full soon the canker death eats up that plant.

How much salt water thrown away in waste,

To season love, that of it doth not taste!

The sun not yet thy sighs from heaven clears,

Thy old groans yet ringing in mine ancient ears...

Pronounce this sentence then:

Women may fall, when there's no strength in men.

In one respect I'll thy assistant be;

For this alliance may so happy prove

To turn your households' rancor to pure love.

My words would bandy her to my sweet love,

And his to me.

But old folks--many feign as they were dead,

Unwieldy, slow, heavy, and pale as lead.

Though news be sad, yet tell them merrily;

If good, thou shamest the music of sweet news

By playing it to me with so sour a face.

The sweetest honey

Is loathsome in this own deliciousness,

And in the taste confounds the appetite.

Therefore love moderately: long love doth so;

Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.

___, the love I bear thee can afford

No better term than this: thou art a villain.

I do protest I never injuried thee,

But love thee better than thou canst devise,

Till thou shalt know the reason of my love,

And so, good ___--which name I tender

As dearly as mine own--be satisfied.

O serpant heart, hid with a flow'ring face!

Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave?

Beautiful tyrant! fiend angelical!

Dove-feather'd raven! wolvish ravening lamb!

Despised substance of divinest show!

Just opposite to what thou justly seem'st,

A damned saint, an hanorable villain!

Ha, banishment? Be merciful, say "death";

For exile hath more terror in his look,

Much more than death. Do not say "banishment"!

O Fortune, Fortune, all men fall thee fickle;

If thou art fickle, what dost thou with him

That is renowm'd for faith? Be fickle, Fortune:

For then I hope thou wilt not keep him long,

But send him back.

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 you last embrace! and lips, O you

The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss

A dateless bargain to engrossing death!

Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavory guide!

Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on

The dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark!

Here's to my love! O true apothecary!

Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.

Ah, what an unkind hour

Is guilty of this lamentable chance!

Come from that nest

Of death, contagion, and unnatral sleep.

A greater power than awe can contradict

Hath twarted our intents.

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

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Theseus

1.1.16-19

___, I woo'd 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 revelling.

This man hath bewitch'ed the bosom of my child.

Thou, thou, ___, thou hast given her rhymes,

And interchang'd love-tokens with my child;

Thou hast by moolight at her window sung

With faining voice verses of faining love,

And stol'n the impression of her fantasy

Things base and vile, holding no quantity,

Love can transpose to form and dignity.

Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind;

And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind.

Nor hath Love's mind of any judgment taste;

Wings, and no eyes, figure unheedy hast;

And therefore is Love said to be a child,

Because in choice he is so oft beguil'd.

But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon,

Your buskin'd mistress, and your warrior love,

To ___ must be wedded, and you come

To give their bed joy and prosperity.

That very time I saw (but thou couldst not),

Flying between the cold moon and the earth,

Cupid all arm'd. A certain aim he took

At a fair vestal throned by the west,

And loos'd his love-shaft smartly from his bow,

As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts;

But I might see young Cupid's firey shaft

Quench'd in the chaste beams of the wat'ry moon,

And the imperial vot'ress passed on,

In maiden meditation, fancy-free.

Yet mark'd I where the bold of Cupid fell.

It fell upon a little western flower

And even for that do I love you the more:

I am your spaniel; and ___,

The more you beat me, I will fawn on you.

Use me but as your spaniel; spurn me, strike me,

Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave,

Unworthy as I am, to follow you.

Who will not change a raven for a dove?

The will of man is by his reason sway'd;

And reason says you are the worthier maid.

Things growing are not ripe until their season,

So I, being young, till now ripe not to reason;

And touching now the point of human skill,

Reason becomes the marshal to my will,

And leads me to your eyes, where I o'erlook

Love's stories written in Love's richest book.

I could munch your good dry oats.

Methings I have a great desire to a bottle of hay.

Good hay, sweet hay, hath no fellow.

Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,

Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend

More than cool reason ever comprehends.

The lunatic, the lover, and the poet

Are of imagination all compact.

And this the cranny is, right and sinister,

Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper.

You, ladies, you, whose gentle heart do fear

The smallest monstrous mouse that creeps on floor,

May now, perchance, both quake and tremble here,

When ___ rough in wildest rage doth roar.

All that I have to say is to tell you that the

lanthorn is the ___, I the man i' the ___, this

thorn-bush my thorn-bush, and this dogn my dog.

Since lion vild hath here deflow'r;d my dear;

Which is--no, no--which was the fairest dame

That liv'd, that lov'd, that lik'd, that look'd with cheer.

Come, tears, confound

Out, sword, and wound...

Now die, die, die, die, die.

Speak, speak! Quite dumb?

Dead, dead? A tomb

Must cover thy sweet eyes.

These lily lips,

This cherry nose,

These yellow cowslip cheeks,

Are gone, are gone!..

Tongue, not a word!

Come, trusty sword,

Come, blade, my breast imbrue!

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 yeilding but a dream,

Gentles, do not reprehend.

If you pardon, we will mend.

The Merchant of Venice

Antonio

1.1-2

In sooth, I know not why I am so sad;

It wearies me, you say it wearies you

I hold the world but as the world,

A stage where every man must play a part,

And mine a sad one.

The Merchant of Venice

Portia

1.2.1-2

By my troth, my little body is

a-weary of this great world.

The Merchant of Venice

Portia

1.2.12-17

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 good divine

the follows his own instructions; I can easier

teach twenty what were good to be done, than to be the one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching.

The Merchant of Venice

Shylock

1.3.42-47

I hate him for he is a Christian;

But more, for that in low simplicity

He lends out money gratis, and brings down

The rate of usance here with us.

If I can catch him once upon the hip,

I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him.

The Merchant of Venice

Antonio

1.3.99-102

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 ouside falshood hath!

The Merchant of Venice

Shylock

1.3.107-111

you have rated me

About my moneys and my usances.

Still have I borne it with a patient shrug

(For suff'rance is the badge of all our tribe).

You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog

The Merchant of Venice

Shylock

1.3.138-139

I would be friends with you, and have your love,

Forget the shames that you have stain'd me with

The Merchant of Venice

Shylock

1.3.143-151

This kindness will I show.

Go with me to a notary, seal me there

Your single bond; and in a merry sport

If you repay me not such a day,

In such a place, such sum or sums as are

Express'd in the condition, let the forfeit

Be nominated for an equal pound

Of your fair flesh, to be cut off and taken

In what part of your body pleaseth me.

The Merchant of Venice

Gratiano

2.2.190-194

If I do not put on a sober habit,
Talk with respect, and swear but now and then,

Wear prayer-books in my pocket, look demurely,

Nay more, while grace is saying hood mine eyes

Thus with my hat, and sigh and say amen 

The Merchant of Venice
Launcelot Gobbo

2.2.31-32

I wil run, fiend;my heels are at

your commandment, I will run.

The Merchant of Venice

Shylock

2.5.32-33

Nor thrust your head into the public street

To gaze on Christian fools with varnish'd faces

The Merchant of Venice

Prince of Moracco

2.7.16-19

"Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath."

Must give--for what? for lead, hazard for lead?

This casket threatens. Men that hazard all

Do it in hope of fair advantages

The Merchant of Venice

Prince of Morocco

2.7.65

(O hell!)

"All that glitters is not gold"

The Merchant of Venice

Shylock

3.1.54-67

Hath not a J___ eyes? Hath not a J___ hands, organs,

dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with

the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject

to the same diseases, heal'd by the same means,

warm'd and coll'd bu the same winter and summer,

as a C___ 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?

The Merchant of Venice

Bassanio

3.2.73-80

So many the outward shows be least themselves--

The world is still deceiv'd with ornament.

In law, what plea so atinted and corrupt

But, being season'd with a gracious voice,

Obscures the show of evil? In religion,

What damned error but some sober brow

Will bless it, and approve it with a text,

Hiding the grossness with fair ornament?

The Merchant of Venice

Bassanio

3.2.258-260

When I told you

My state was nothing, I should then have told you

That I was worse than nothing

The Merchant of Venice

Shylock

4.1.206-207

My deeds upon my head! I crave the law,

The penalty and forfeit of my bond.

The Merchant of Venice

Shylock

4.1.223-224

A Daniel come to judgment! yea, a Daniel!

O wise young judge, how I do honor thee!

The Merchant of Venice

Antonio

4.1.266-267,273-275

Grieve not that I am fall'n to this for you;

For herein Fortune shows herself more kind

Than is her custom...

Commend me to your honorable wife,

Tell her the process of ___'s end,

Say how I lov'd you, speak me fair in death

The Merchant of Venice

Bassanio

4.1.284-287

But life itself, my wife, and all the world,

Are not with me esteem'd above thy life.

I would lose all, ay, sacrifice them all

Here to this devil, to deliver you.

The Merchant of Venice

Portia

4.1.307-312

The words expressly are "a pound of flesh."

Take then thy bond, take thou thy pound of flesh,

But in the cutting it, if thou dost shed

One drop of Christian blood, thy lands and goods

Are by the laws of Venice confiscate

Unto the state of Venice

The Merchant of Venice

Portia

4.1.198-203

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. I have spoke thus much

To mitigate the justice of thy plea

The Merchant of Venice

Lorenzo and Jessica

5.1

The Merchant of Venice

Bassanio

5.1.192-198

If you did know to whom I gave the ring,

If you did know for whom I gave the ring,

And would conceive for what I gave the ring,

And how unwillingly I left the ring,

When nought would be accepted but the ring,

You wouls abate the strength of your displeasure.

The Merchant of Venice

Portia

5.1.199-203

I you had known the virtue of the ring,

Or half her worthiness that gave the ring,

Or your own honor to conatin the ring,

You would not then have parted with the ring.

The Merchant of Venice

Antonio

5.1.149-153

I once did lend my body for his wealth,

Which but for him that had your husband's ring

Had quite miscarried. I dare be bound again,

My soul upon the forfeit, that your lord

Will never more break faith advisedly.

The Merchant of Venice

Antonio

5.1.286-288

Sweet lady, you have given me life and living,

For here I read for certain that my ships

Are safely come to road.

The Merchant of Venice

Gratiano

5.1.306-307

Well, while I live I'll fear no other thing

So sore, as keeping safe ___'s ring