”

As young as I am, I have observed these three
swashers. I am boy to them all three: but all they
three, though they would serve me, could not be man
to me; for indeed three such antics do not amount to
a man. For Bardolph, he is white-livered and
red-faced; by the means whereof a’ faces it out, but
fights not. For Pistol, he hath a killing tongue
and a quiet sword; by the means whereof a’ breaks
words, and keeps whole weapons. For Nym, he hath
heard that men of few words are the best men; and
therefore he scorns to say his prayers, lest a’
should be thought a coward: but his few bad words
are matched with as few good deeds; for a’ never
broke any man’s head but his own, and that was
against a post when he was drunk. They will steal
any thing, and call it purchase. Bardolph stole a
lute-case, bore it twelve leagues, and sold it for
three half pence. Nym and Bardolph are sworn
brothers in filching, and in Calais they stole a
fire-shovel: I knew by that piece of service the
men would carry coals. They would have me as
familiar with men’s pockets as their gloves or their
handkerchers: which makes much against my manhood,
if I should take from another’s pocket to put into
mine; for it is plain pocketing up of wrongs. I
must leave them, and seek some better service:
their villany goes against my weak stomach, and
therefore I must cast it up.

Boy (Henry V, Act III scene ii)

(Source: dailyshakespeare)

3 weeks ago

(Source: chelseawoosh)

4 weeks ago
”

The weight of this sad time we must obey;
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
The oldest hath borne most: we that are young
Shall never see so much, nor live so long.

Edgar (King Lear, Act V scene iii)

(Source: dailyshakespeare)

1 month ago

Happy 449th Birthday, Shakespeare!

We’re always quoting Shakespeare here, but to celebrate his birthday, here’s some quotes about Shakespeare.

“Shakespeare - The nearest thing in incarnation to the eye of God.”
- Laurence Olivier

“If called to define Shakespeare’s faculty, I should say superiority of intellect, and think I had included all under that.”
- Thomas Carlyle

“He was the man who of all modern, and perhaps ancient poets, had the largest and most comprehensive soul.”
- John Dryden

“But Shakespeare’s magic could not copied be; Within that circle none durst walk but he.”
- John Dryden

“Scorn not the Sonnet; Critic, you have frowned, Mindless of its just honours; with this key Shakespeare unlocked his heart.”
- William Wordsworth

“When I read Shakespeare I am struck with wonder That such trivial people should muse and thunder In such lovely language.”
- D.H. Lawrence

“One of the greatest geniuses that ever existed, Shakespear, undoubtedly wanted taste.”
- Horace Walpole

“He was not of an age, but for all time!”
- Ben Jonson

(Source: dailyshakespeare)

1 month ago
”

Men are but gilded loam or painted clay.
A jewel in a ten-times-barr’d-up chest
Is a bold spirit in a loyal breast.
Mine honour is my life; both grow in one:
Take honour from me, and my life is done:
Then, dear my liege, mine honour let me try;
In that I live and for that will I die.

Mowbray (Richard II, Act I scene i)

(Source: dailyshakespeare)

1 month ago
”

You are three men of sin, whom Destiny,
That hath to instrument this lower world
And what is in’t, the never-surfeited sea
Hath caused to belch up you; and on this island
Where man doth not inhabit; you ‘mongst men
Being most unfit to live. I have made you mad;
And even with such-like valour men hang and drown
Their proper selves.
You fools! I and my fellows
Are ministers of Fate: the elements,
Of whom your swords are temper’d, may as well
Wound the loud winds, or with bemock’d-at stabs
Kill the still-closing waters, as diminish
One dowle that’s in my plume: my fellow-ministers
Are like invulnerable. If you could hurt,
Your swords are now too massy for your strengths
And will not be uplifted. But remember—
For that’s my business to you—that you three
From Milan did supplant good Prospero;
Exposed unto the sea, which hath requit it,
Him and his innocent child: for which foul deed
The powers, delaying, not forgetting, have
Incensed the seas and shores, yea, all the creatures,
Against your peace. Thee of thy son, Alonso,
They have bereft; and do pronounce by me:
Lingering perdition, worse than any death
Can be at once, shall step by step attend
You and your ways; whose wraths to guard you from—
Which here, in this most desolate isle, else falls
Upon your heads—is nothing but heart-sorrow
And a clear life ensuing.

Ariel (The Tempest, Act III scene iii)

(Source: dailyshakespeare)

1 month ago
”

The people are the city.

Citizens (Coriolanus, Act III scene i)

(Source: dailyshakespeare)

1 month ago

(via bawbags)

1 month ago
”

Lord, Lord! methought, what pain it was to drown!
What dreadful noise of waters in mine ears!
What ugly sights of death within mine eyes!
Methought I saw a thousand fearful wrecks;
Ten thousand men that fishes gnaw’d upon;
Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl,
Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels,
All scatter’d in the bottom of the sea:
Some lay in dead men’s skulls; and, in those holes
Where eyes did once inhabit, there were crept,
As ‘twere in scorn of eyes, reflecting gems,
Which woo’d the slimy bottom of the deep,
And mock’d the dead bones that lay scatter’d by.

Clarence (Richard III, Act I scene iv)

(Source: dailyshakespeare)

1 month ago
”

Madness in great ones must not unwatch’d go.

Claudius (Hamlet, Act III scene i)

(Source: dailyshakespeare)

1 month ago