Term
How well I’ve come to know night’s congregation of stars,
the blazing monarchs of the sky, those that bring winter
and those that bring summer to us mortals.
I know just when they rise and when they set. |
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Definition
Orestia – Aeschylus
Page 3 Line 5
WATCHMAN |
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Term
…Like vultures grieving wildly
for stolen young kidnapped from their lofty nests,
whirling round and round, churning
the air with the oar-blades of their wings.
All their protective care made futile,
the young are lost forever.
Yet above is one – Apollo, Pan or Zues,
who hears the anguished cries
of these sky-borne guests,
and hurls on the guilty ones,
the wrath of a vengeful Fury! |
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Definition
Orestia-Aeschylus
Page 5 Line 49
CHORUS |
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Term
The kings of the birds for the kings of the ships,
one black, the other white-tailed, appeared
on the lucky spear-arm side of the palace.
They perched there clutching a pregnant hare
who never had the chance for one last run,
and in full view feasted on her unborn young. |
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Definition
Page 7 Line 114
CHORUS
Orestia
Aeschylus |
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Term
Once Oranus swelling with pride
and insolcence, held heaven's power,
he is nothing now, gone, forgotten.
Cronus, his sucessor, met his match,
downed on the third fall, overthrown!
Any man who shouts his victory-song to Zeus
will hit the mind's mark of true understanding. |
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Definition
Orestia
Aeschylus
Page 9 Line 167-182
CHORUS |
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Term
He set us mortals on the road to understanding,
and he has laid down his law:
“Man must learn by suffering!”
Not even sleep can relieve the painful memories
that fall upon the heart, drop by drop,
discretion comes even to the unwilling.
This grace is forced upon us
by sacred spirits who reign above. |
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Definition
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Term
Don’t listen to them and their idle yelping. You and I hold
the power of this house. We will set things right once and for all. |
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Definition
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Term
A
Your prayer has been fulfilled, proclaim it to the gods
and pray for the future, praise your good fortune.
B
Why? What has divine grace ever given me?
A
You see the sight you have prayed for.
B
How can you know my prayers?
A
I know about Orestes and how he fills your heart.
B
But how have my prayers been answered?
A
Here I am, I am your nearest, your dearest.
B
This is a trick, and you are a stranger trying to trap me in your net.
A
Then I am plotting against myself.
B
Are you mocking me in my misery? |
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Definition
A:Orestes B: Elektra
Orestia
p. 78 L 212 |
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Term
| Wait, my child! My son, have you no feelings? This breast once nurtured you, cradled your sleep, your soft mouth sucked the milk that made you strong. |
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Definition
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Term
A
Ah! Ah!
Women, there! Like Gorgons!
Black clad, writing with snakes!
I can’t stay here! I have to go!
B
What is it? What sights whirl you into such a frenzy?
You are the son of Agamemnon, be still, don’t surrender to fear.
A
Not sights! These terrors are real!
The mother’s curse, the hellhounds of hate, they are here! |
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Definition
A=Orestes B=Chorus
Orestia
p. 112, L 147 |
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Term
A
Be silent as the court convenes,
the city will learn my eternal laws,
the litigants will receive a fair trial
and hear a prudent judgment.
(enter Apollo on the roof)
Lord Apollo, you have your own jurisdiction;
tell me, how are you involved in this case? |
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Definition
Page 141 Line 570
Orestia
Athena |
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Term
A
That is why I’ve called you outside away from the others. I wanted to speak to you alone and tell you what I’ve heard.
B
What is it? You frighten me, Antigone.
A
Yes. I want to frighten you. Creon has honoured one of our brothers with burial and dishonoured the other. He has buried Eteocles in proper observance of right and custom, so that he can be honoured among the dead below. But he has forbidden anyone to bury or weep for Polyneices. His body must be left unmourned, without a tomb, a feast for scavenging birds. This is the worthy Creon’s decree; he’s coming here in person to spell it out. He doesn’t take this lightly: anyone defying the proclamation is to be stoned to death. Yes. That’s the situation. So now you have your chance to show whether you are true to your noble birth, or a coward. |
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Definition
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Term
A You are out of your mind, Antigone. Creon is the law.
B He has no right to come between my brother and me. |
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Definition
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Term
| Fine. I wouldn’t let you help me now even if you wanted to; I don’t want you at my side after what you’ve just said. Do as you like; I shall bury my brother. I know it’s right, die if I must! My crime will be a holy crime. I am his and I shall lie buried with him. There will be more time with those below than those on earth. I’ll be there for eternity. But as for you, forget about the gods, if that’s what you want. |
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Definition
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Term
| You cannot know a man’s heart, thought and judgment until you have tested his skill in leadership and lawmaking. Any ruler who does not pursue the policies he judges best, but holds his tongue because he is afraid, I think him the lowest of the low. Worse still, a man who sets a friend or relative above his country doesn’t deserve the name of citizen. Speaking for myself, I wouldn’t keep quiet if I saw the city threatened with destruction. And I wouldn’t call an enemy of my land a friend of mine. I know our salvation is the ship of state and only those who keep her on the right course can be called her friends and benefactors. I plan to make this city great. |
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Definition
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Term
There are many wonders in the world,
But nothing more amazing than man!
He crosses the white-capped sea in winter’s storms,
Cuts through the surge as it booms about him;
He harasses the almighty immortal unwearying Earth,
Turning his plough back and forth year after year,
Turning up the soil with the help of mules.
His contrivance is skilful beyond hope;
He moves towards good,
Sometimes towards evil.
When he follows the laws of the land
And swears to keep the justice of the gods,
He is lofty in the city… |
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Definition
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Term
A So where do we go now to dance? And what Are the steps our feet must learn? Where do we toss These old gray heads? Explain, Teiresias, Tell me as one old man to another – you Are the wise one. And I won’t weary, not In the least, pounding my thyrsus on the earth All day and all night, too – and what a joy To forget that we are old!
B Then you feel just As I do – young! I’ll try to dance the dance. |
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Definition
A=Kadmos B=Teiresius
The Bakkhai
Euripedes |
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Term
A So where do we go now to dance? And what Are the steps our feet must learn? Where do we toss These old gray heads? Explain, _____, Tell me as one old man to another – you Are the wise one. And I won’t weary, not In the least, pounding my thyrsus on the earth All day and all night, too – and what a joy To forget that we are old!
B Then you feel just As I do – young! I’ll try to dance the dance. |
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Definition
A=Kadmos B=Teiresius
Bakkai
Euripedes |
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Term
And all were sleeping –
At their ease, some of them were lying down
On soft pin needles, others on oak leaves,
Resting their heads on the ground wherever they wished.
And modestly. Not drunk – as you have said –
From the wine bowl, nor to the tunes of the pipes
Hunting one by one for sex in the woods.
Your mother must have heard our cattle lowing,
For she stood up with a drawn-out cry to wake
The women, who threw their deep sleep from their eyes
And rose quickly – a marvel of good order
And good grace: women young and old, and girls
Who have yet to be yoked in marriage. First
They let their hair fall to their shoulders, then
They tied their fawn pelts up 0 those that were loose – ,
Fastening the dappled skins with snakes
That licked their cheeks. Some women cradled wild
Gazelle kids and wolf cubs close in their arms
To suckle them with their pale milk – because
Thos who have just given birth have left
Their babies home and now their breasts are swollen.
They crowned themselves with ivy, oak leaves, vines.
One of them struck her thyrsus on a rock,
From which a cold fresh stream of water leapt.
Another touched her touched her fennel-staff to earth
And up flowed springs of wine. And those who longed
For milk began to dig by hand, and spurts
Of it surged up. |
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Definition
First Messenger
Bakkhai
Euripides |
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Term
A: Looking at them, I seem to see them, here.
But a lock of hair has fallen out of place,
It’s not where I tucked it up beneath your sash.
B: Inside, when I was shaking it back and forth,
Acting like the Bakkhai, it came loose.
A: But since our task it to take good care of you,
I’ll put it back – but hold your head up straight.
B: Arrange it all! I’m dedicated to you.
A Your belt is slack. And then the pleats of your robe
Do not hang straight, below your ankles, either.
B: No, it seems to me they don’t, on my right side.
But on this side it’s all straight at my heel. |
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Definition
A= Dionysus B=Pantheus
Bakkhai
Euripedes |
|
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Term
He reached to the top branch of a fir tree
As tall as the sky and pulled it downward, down,
Down till it touched the black earth and it formed
Half a circle, like a bow drawn back
Or the wheel-curve that’s traced by the taut end
Of a pegged string. That is, with his bare hands
The Stranger bent the mountain fir in a way
No mortal could. |
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Definition
Second Messenger
Bakkhai
Euripides |
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Term
Eeuueeuueeuuh!
Zeus almighty, what a night!
It’s going on forever. Will daylight never come?
I heard the cock crow hours ago. Where are
The slaves? Still snoring? Times have changed.
Something else to blame on this confounded war:
A man can’t thrash his own slaves any more,
In case they run away to fight. |
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Definition
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Term
Eeuueeuueeuuh!
Zeus almighty, what a night!
It’s going on forever. Will daylight never come?
I heard the cock crow hours ago. Where are
The slaves? Still snoring? Times have changed.
Something else to blame on this confounded war:
A man can’t thrash his own slaves any more, |
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Definition
Strepsiades
The Clouds- Aristophanes |
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Term
A: What then, brave boy?
B: How? What then, simpleton?
A: Ay, simpleton indeed!
B: Had I neglected such a short, wished-for and unexpected opportunity,
when it dropped into my very mouth, I must then have been a very eunuch
indeed |
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Definition
A= Antipho B=Chaerea
The Eunuch-Terence |
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Term
| (to herself) Nay, more than that, after having abused the girl, he tears her clothes, and drags her up and down by the hair of the head. |
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Definition
| Pythia The Eunuch-Terence |
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Term
Your house will be an asylum for madmen, violent,
blustering, bragging, and then, in a moment, cringing,
crooning, and desolate – power and wretchedness changing
madly as in a lunatic’s wavering fancies.
Chance, stone blind, will lead on a treacherous path
as your heirs are exiled for vile misdeeds and return
to worse crimes. But no onlooker will pity
or feel for them anything other than sheer
disgust, while in that arrogant house, in hatred
and fear, brother will mistrust brother, as father
will fear his sons, who will quail at the sight of their father.
Born in disgrace, they will die in an earned vileness.
A wife will strike the blow to dispatch her husband,
and blood will flood the land to bring forth lusts
like vermin, corrupting every virtue. |
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Definition
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Term
Yes, this rage, it’s just what we want. Let its fire
light your house! The deep thirst you have felt,
let them feel too – for one another’s blood. |
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Definition
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Term
Of so many crimes have I been victim,
enduring a brother’s treacheries, my disgrace
is vile, worse than his guilt, which is limitless. |
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Definition
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Term
Pain is real
and everything else is merely a moment
of respite, irrelevant. Scars are the only
parts of the body to trust. The rest
of the smooth and innocent flesh is merely
waiting to feel the fire, the steel
and send the news of pain to the brain,
which all along was waiting to hear it. |
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Definition
|
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Term
| Even a crime should have some logic to it. |
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Definition
|
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Term
| There was, as Livy tells us, A knight known as Virginius, |
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Definition
| Narrator The Physician's Tale Geoffrey Chaucer |
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Term
| These metaphysics of magicians And negromantic books are heavenly; Lines, circles, letters, characters – Ay, these are those that ________ most desires. O, what a world of profit and delight, Of power, of honor, and omnipotence Is promised to the studious artisan! All things that move between the quiet poles Shall be at my command: emperors and kings Are but obeyed in their several provinces But his dominion that exceeds in this Stretcheth as far as doth the mind of man: A sound magician is a demi-god! Here tire my brains to get a deity! |
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Definition
Faustus
Doctor Faustus
Christopher Marlowe |
|
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Term
A: Was not that Lucifer an angel once?
B: Yes _____, and most dearly loved of God.
A: How comes it then that he is prince of devils?
B: O, by aspiring pride and insolence For which God threw him from the face of heaven. |
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Definition
| A= Faustus B=Mephostophlis Doctor Faustus-Christopher Marlowe |
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Term
A: Yet _____, call on God.
B: On God, whom _____ hath abjured? On God whom ______ hath blasphemed? O my God, I would weep, but the devil draws in my tears! Gush forth blood instead of tears, yea life and soul! O, he stays my tongue! I would life up my hands, But see, they hold ‘em, the hold ‘em |
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Definition
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Term
A: So now _______, ask me what thou wilt.
B: First will I question with thee about hell.
Tell me, where is the place that men call hell?
A: Under the heavens.
B: Ay, so are all things else, but whereabouts?
A: Within the bowels of these elements
Where we are tortured and remain forever.
Hell hath no limits nor is circumscribed
In one self place, but where we are is hell,
And where hell is there must we ever be.
And to be short, when all the world dissolves
And every creature shall be purified
All places shall be hell that is not heaven! |
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Definition
| A=Mephostopholis B=Faustus |
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Term
A:
But what trade art thou? Answer me directly.
B:
A trade, sir, that I hope I may use with a safe conscience,
which is indeed, sire, a mender of bad soles.
C:
What trade, thou knave? Thou naughty knave, what trade?
B:
Nay, I beseech you, sire, be not out with me; yet if you be
out, sir, I can mend you.
A:
What mean’st thou by that? Mend me, thou saucy fellow?
B:
Why, sire, cobble you. |
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Definition
A=Murellus B=Cobbler C=Flavius
Julius Caesar |
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Term
You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things!
O you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome,
Knew you not Pompey? Many a time and oft
Have you climb’d up to walls and battlements,
To towers and windows, yea, to chimney tops,
Your infants in your arms, and there have sat
The livelong day with patient expectation,
To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome.
And when you saw this chariot but appear
Have you not made an universal shout,
That Tiber trembled underneath her banks
To hear the replication of your sounds
Made in her concave shores?
And do you now put on your best attire?
And do you now cull out a holiday?
And do you now strew flowers in his way,
That comes in triumph over Pompey’s blood? |
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Definition
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Term
Our course will seem too bloody, Caius Cassius,
To cut the head off and then hack the limbs –
Like wrath in death and envy afterwards –
For Antony is but a limb of Caesar.
Let’s be sacrificers, but not butchers, Caius.
We all stand up against the spirit of Caesar,
And in the spirit of men there is no blood.
O, that we then could come by Caesar’s spirit
And not dismember Caesar! But, alas,
Caesar must bleed for it. And, gentle friends,
Let’s kill him boldly, but not wrathfully;
Let’s carve him as a dish fit for the gods,
Not hew him as a carcass fit for hounds. |
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Definition
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Term
Cowards die many times before their deaths,
The valiant never taste of death but once.
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. |
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Definition
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Term
Domestic fury and fierce civil strife
Shall cumber all the parts of Italy;
Blood and destruction shall be so in use
And dreadful objects so familiar
That mothers shall but smile when they behold
Their infants quarter’d with the hands of war,
All pity chok’d with custom of fell deeds;
And Caesar’s spirit, ranging for revenge,
With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch’s voice
Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war,
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men groaning for burial. |
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Definition
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|
Term
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 ones:
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 answer’d 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. |
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Definition
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Term
A: I did not think you could have been so angry.
B: O ____, I am sick of many griefs.
A: Of your philosophy you make no use If you give place to accidental evils.
B: No man bears sorrow better. Portia is dead.
A: Ha? Portia?
B: She is dead.
A: How scap’d I killing when I cross’d you so? |
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Definition
A=Cassius B=Brutus
Julius Caesar |
|
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Term
A
Then like a Roman bear the truth I tell,
For certain she is dead, and by strange manner.
B
Why, farewell, Portia. We must die, ________.
With meditating that she must die once,
I have the patience to endure it now.
A
Even so, greater men great losses should endure. |
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Definition
A=Messala B=Brutus
Julius Caesar |
|
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Term
A
Even by the rule of that philosophy
By which I did blame Cato for the death
Which he did give himself – I know not how,
But I do find it cowardly and vile,
For fear of what might fall, so to prevent
The time of life – arming myself with patience
To stay the providence of some high powers
That govern us below.
B
Then if we lose this battle,
You are contented to be led in triumph
Through the streets of Rome?
A
No, ______, no. Think not, thou noble Roman,
That ever ______ will go bound to Rome:
He bears too great a mind. |
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Definition
A= Brutus B=Cassius
Julius Caesar |
|
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Term
Those opposed eyes
Which, like the meteors of a troubled heaven,
All of one nature, of one substance bred,
Did lately meet in the intestine shock
And furious close of civil butchery,
Shall now, in mutual well-beseeming ranks,
March all one way, and be no more oppos’d
Against acquaintance, kindred, and allies.
The edge of war, like an ill-sheathed knife,
No more shall cut his master. |
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Definition
|
|
Term
A
Good cousin, give me audience for a while.
B
I cry you mercy.
A
Those same noble Sectors
That are your prisoners –
B
I’ll keep them all;
By God he shall not have a Scot of them!
No, if a Scot would save his soul he shall not.
I’ll keep them, by this hand!
A
You start away,
And lend no ear unto my purposes.
Those prisoners you shall keep –
B
Nay, I will: that’s flat! |
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Definition
A=Worcester B=Hotspur
Henry IV Part 1 |
|
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Term
A
Thou art violently carried away from grace. There is a devil haunts thee in in the likeness of an old fat man; a tun of man is they companion. Why dost thou converse with that trunk of humours, that bolting-hunch of beastliness, that swollen parcel of dropsies, that huge bombard of sack, that stuffed cloak-bag of guts, that roasted Manningtree ox with the pudding in his belly, that reverend vice, that grey iniquity, that father ruffian, that vanity in years…
B
No, my good lord; banish Peto, banish Bardolph, banish Poins – but for sweet Jack ____, kind Jack _____, true Jack _____, valiant Jack Falstaff, and therefore more valiant, being as he is old Jack ____, banish not him thy Harry’s company, banish not him thy Harry’s company. Banish plump Jack, and banish all the world.
A
I do, I will. |
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Definition
A=Prince B=Falstaff
Henry IV Part 1 |
|
|
Term
A
Now God help thee!
B
To the Welsh lady’s bed.
A
What’s that?
B
Peace she sings. |
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Definition
A= Lady Percy B=Hotspur
Henry IV Part 1 |
|
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Term
Had I so lavish of my presence been,
So common-hackney’d in the eyes of men,
So stale and cheap to vulgar company.
Opinion, that did help me to the crown
Had still kept loyal to possession,
And left me in reputeless banishment,
A fellow of no mark no likelihood.
By being seldom seen, I could not stir
But like a comet I was wonder’d at,
That men would tell their children, ‘This is he!’ |
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Definition
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Term
_____ is but my factor, good my lord,
To engross up glorious deeds on my behalf;
And I will call him to so strict account
That he shall render every glory up
Yea, even the slightest worship of his time,
Or I will tear the reckoning from his heart. |
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Definition
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