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the rainbow, or with taper-light

To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish,

Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.

King John. Act iv. Sc. 2.

[80]

And oftentimes excusing of a fault

Doth make the fault the worse by the excuse.[80:1]

King John. Act iv. Sc. 2.

We cannot hold mortality's strong hand.

King John. Act iv. Sc. 2.

Make haste; the better foot before.

King John. Act iv. Sc. 2.

I saw a smith stand with his hammer, thus,

The whilst his iron did on the anvil cool,

With open mouth swallowing a tailor's news.

King John. Act iv. Sc. 2.

Another lean unwashed artificer.

King John. Act iv. Sc. 2.

How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds

Make deeds ill done!

King John. Act iv. Sc. 2.

Mocking the air with colours idly spread.

King John. Act v. Sc. 1.

'T is strange that death should sing.

I am the cygnet to this pale faint swan,

Who chants a doleful hymn to his own death,[80:2]

And from the organ-pipe of frailty sings

His soul and body to their lasting rest.

King John. Act v. Sc. 7.

Now my soul hath elbow-room.

King John. Act v. Sc. 7.

This England never did, nor never shall,

Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror.

King John. Act v. Sc. 7.

Come the three corners of the world in arms,

And we shall shock them. Nought shall make us rue,

If England to itself do rest but true.

King John. Act v. Sc. 7.

Old John of Gaunt, time-honoured Lancaster.

King Richard II. Act i. Sc. 1.

In rage deaf as the sea, hasty as fire.

King Richard II. Act i. Sc. 1.

The daintiest last, to make the end most sweet.

King Richard II. Act i. Sc. 3.

Truth hath a quiet breast.

King Richard II. Act i. Sc. 3.

All places that the eye of heaven visits

Are to a wise man ports and happy havens.

King Richard II. Act i. Sc. 3.

[81]

O, who can hold a fire in his hand

By thinking on the frosty Caucasus?

Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite

By bare imagination of a feast?

Or wallow naked in December snow

By thinking on fantastic summer's heat?

O, no! the apprehension of the good

Gives but the greater feeling to the worse.

King Richard II. Act i. Sc. 3.

The tongues of dying men

Enforce attention like deep harmony.

King Richard II. Act ii. Sc. 1.

The setting sun, and music at the close,

As the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last,

Writ in remembrance more than things long past.

King Richard II. Act ii. Sc. 1.

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,

This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,

This other Eden, demi-paradise,

This fortress built by Nature for herself

Against infection and the hand of war,

This happy breed of men, this little world,

This precious stone set in the silver sea,

Which serves it in the office of a wall

Or as a moat defensive to a house,

Against the envy of less happier lands,—

This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.

King Richard II. Act ii. Sc. 1.

The ripest fruit first falls.

King Richard II. Act ii. Sc. 1.

Evermore thanks, the exchequer of the poor.

King Richard II. Act ii. Sc. 3.

Eating the bitter bread of banishment.

King Richard II. Act iii. Sc. 1.

Fires the proud tops of the eastern pines.

King Richard II. Act iii. Sc. 2.

Not all the water in the rough rude sea

Can wash the balm off from an anointed king.

King Richard II. Act iii. Sc. 2.

O, call back yesterday, bid time return!

King Richard II. Act iii. Sc. 2.

Let 's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs.

King Richard II. Act iii. Sc. 2.

[82]

And nothing can we call our own but death

And that small model of the barren earth

Which serves as paste and cover to our bones.

For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground

And tell sad stories of the death of kings.

King Richard II. Act iii. Sc. 2.

Comes at the last, and with a little pin

Bores through his castle wall—and farewell king!

King Richard II. Act iii. Sc. 2.

He is come to open

The purple testament of bleeding war.

King Richard II. Act iii. Sc. 3.

And my large kingdom for a little grave,

A little little grave, an obscure grave.

King Richard II. Act iii. Sc. 3.

Gave

His body to that pleasant country's earth,

And his pure soul unto his captain Christ,

Under whose colours he had fought so long.

King Richard II. Act iv. Sc. 1.

A mockery king of snow.

King Richard II. Act iv. Sc. 1.

As in a theatre, the eyes of men,

After a well-graced actor leaves the stage,

Are idly bent on him that enters next,

Thinking his prattle to be tedious.

King Richard II. Act v. Sc. 2.

As for a camel

To thread the postern of a small needle's eye.[82:1]

King Richard II. Act v. Sc. 5.

So shaken as we are, so wan with care.

King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 1.

In those holy fields

Over whose acres walked those blessed feet

Which fourteen hundred years ago were nail'd

For our advantage on the bitter cross.

King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 1.

Diana's foresters, gentlemen of the shade, minions of the moon.

King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 2.

Old father antic the law.

King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 2.

[83]

I would to God thou and I knew where a commodity of good names were to be bought.

King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 2.

Thou hast damnable iteration, and art indeed able to corrupt a saint.

King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 2.

And now am I, if a man should speak truly, little better than one of the wicked.

King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 2.

'T is my vocation, Hal; 't is no sin for a man to labour in his vocation.

King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 2.

He will give the devil his due.[83:1]

King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 2.

There 's neither honesty, manhood, nor good fellowship in thee.

King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 2.

If all the year were playing holidays,

To sport would be as tedious as to work.

King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 2.

Fresh as a bridegroom; and his chin new reap'd

Showed like a stubble-land at harvest-home;

He was perfumed like a milliner,

And 'twixt his finger and his thumb he held

A pouncet-box, which ever and anon

He gave his nose and took 't away again.

King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 3.

And as the soldiers bore dead bodies by,

He called the untaught knaves, unmannerly,

To bring a slovenly unhandsome corse

Betwixt the wind and his nobility.

King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 3.

God save the mark.

King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 3.

And telling me, the sovereign'st thing on earth

Was parmaceti for an inward bruise;

And that it was great pity, so it was,

This villanous saltpetre should be digg'd

Out of the bowels of the harmless earth,

Which many a good tall fellow had destroy'd

So cowardly; and but for these vile guns,

He would himself have been a soldier.

King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 3.

[84]

The blood more stirs

To rouse a lion than to start a hare!

King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 3.

By heaven, methinks it were an easy leap

To pluck bright honour from the pale-faced moon,

Or dive into the bottom of the deep,

Where fathom-line could never touch the ground,

And pluck up drowned honour by the locks.

King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 3.

I know a trick worth two of that.

King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 1.

If the rascal have not given me medicines to make me love him, I 'll be hanged.

King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 2.

It would be argument for a week, laughter for a month, and a good jest for ever.

King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 2.

Falstaff sweats to death,

And lards the lean earth as he walks along.

King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 2.

Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.

King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 3.

Brain him with his lady's fan.

King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 3.

A Corinthian, a lad of mettle, a good boy.