Hanging and wiving goes by destiny. 1

The Merchant of Venice. Act ii. Sc. 9.

If my gossip Report be an honest woman of her word.

Act iii. Sc. 1.

If it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge.

Ibid.

I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?

Ibid.

The villany you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard, but I will better the instruction.

Makes a swan-like end,

Ibid.

Fading in music.2

Tell me where is fancy bred,

Or in the heart or in the head?
How begot, how nourished?
Reply, reply.

In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt
But being season'd with a gracious voice
Obscures the show of evil?

Sc. 2.

Ibid.

Ibid.

There is no vice so simple but assumes

Some mark of virtue in his outward parts.

Ibid.

Thus ornament is but the guiled shore
To a most dangerous sea.

Ibid.

The seeming truth which cunning times put on
To entrap the wisest.

Ibid.

1 See Heywood, page 10.

2 I will play the swan and die in music. - Othello, act v. sc. 2. I am the cygnet to this pale faint swan,

Who cants a doleful hymn to his own death. King John, act v. sc. 7. There, swan-like, let me sing and die. - BYRON: Don Juan, canto iii. st. 86.

You think that upon the score of fore-knowledge and divining I am infinitely inferior to the swans. When they perceive approaching death they sing more merrily than before, because of the joy they have in going to the God they serve. SOCRATES: In Phaedo, 77.

An unlesson'd girl, unschool'd, unpractised;

Happy in this, she is not yet so old

But she may learn.1

The Merchant of Venice. Act iii. Sc. 2.

Here are a few of the unpleasant'st words

That ever blotted paper!

Ibid.

The kindest man,

The best-condition'd and unwearied spirit

In doing courtesies.

Ibid.

Thus when I shun Scylla, your father, I fall into Charybdis, your mother.2

Sc. 5.

Let it serve for table-talk.

Ibid.

A harmless necessary cat.

Act iv. Sc. 1.

What! wouldst thou have a serpent sting thee twice?

Ibid.

I am a tainted wether of the flock,

Meetest for death: the weakest kind of fruit

Drops earliest to the ground.

Ibid.

I never knew so young a body with so old a head.

Ibid.

The quality of mercy is not strain'd,

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest :
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
"T is mightiest in the mightiest it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,

Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway,
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,

It is an attribute to God himself;

And earthly power doth then show likest God's,

1 It is better to learn late than never. - PUBLIUS SYRUS: Maxim 864.

2 Incidis in Scyllam cupiens vitare Charybdim (One falls into Scylla in seeking to avoid Charybdis). -PHILLIPPE GUALTIER: Alexandreis, book v. line 301.

Circa 1300.

When mercy seasons justice. 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 Merchant of Venice. Act iv. Sc. 1.

The deeds of mercy.

A Daniel come to judgment! yea, a Daniel!

Is it so nominated in the bond? 1

"T is not in the bond.

Speak me fair in death.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Ibid.

An upright judge, a learned judge!

A second Daniel, a Daniel, Jew!
Now, infidel, I have you on the hip.

I thank thee, Jew, for teaching me that word.

You take my house when you do take the prop
That doth sustain my house; you take my life
When you
do take the means whereby I live.

He is well paid that is well satisfied.

How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!
Here we will sit and let the sounds of music
Creep in our ears: soft stillness and the night
Become the touches of sweet harmony.

Sit, Jessica. Look how the floor of heaven

Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold:

There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st
But in his motion like an angel sings,
Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubims.
Such harmony is in immortal souls;
But whilst this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.
I am never merry when I hear sweet music.

1 "It is not nominated in the bond," - White.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Act v. Sc. 1.

Ibid.

The man that hath no music in himself,

Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils;
The motions of his spirit are dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus.

Let no such man be trusted.

The Merchant of Venice. Act v. Sc. 1

How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
How many things by season season'd are
To their right praise and true perfection!

Ibid.

Ibid.

This night methinks is but the daylight sick.
These blessed candles of the night.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Fair ladies, you drop manna in the way
Of starved people.

Ibid.

We will answer all things faithfully.

Ibid.

Fortune reigns in gifts of the world.

As You Like It. Act i. Sc. 2.

The little foolery that wise men have makes a great

show.

Ibid.

Well said: that was laid on with a trowel.

Ibid.

Your heart's desires be with you!

Ibid.

One out of suits with fortune.

Ibid.

Hereafter, in a better world than this,

I shall desire more love and knowledge of you.

Oh, how full of briers is this working-day world!

Ibid.

Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold.

Ibid.

We'll have a swashing and a martial outside,
As many other mannish cowards have.

Ibid.

Sweet are the uses of adversity,

Which like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;

And this our life, exempt from public haunt,

Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in every thing.

As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 1.

The big round tears

Coursed one another down his innocent nose

In piteous chase.

"Poor dear," quoth he, "thou makest a testament

Ibid.

As worldlings do, giving thy sum of more
To that which had too much."

Sweep on, you fat and greasy citizens.

And He that doth the ravens feed,

Yea, providently caters for the sparrow,
Be comfort to my age!

For in my youth I never did apply

Ibid.

Ibid.

Sc. 3.

Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood.
Therefore my age is as a lusty winter,
Frosty, but kindly.

Oh, good old man, how well in thee appears
The constant service of the antique world,
When service sweat for duty, not for meed!
Thou art not for the fashion of these times,
Where none will sweat but for promotion.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Ay, now am I in Arden: the more fool I. When I was at home I was in a better place; but travellers must be content.

Sc. 4.

I shall ne'er be ware of mine own wit till I break my shins against it.

Ibid.