William Shakespeare Quotes

\"A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool."
"A peace is of the nature of a conquest; for then both parties nobly are subdued, and neither party loser."
"Absence from those we love is self from self - a deadly banishment."
"Alas, how love can trifle with itself!"
"Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy."
"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages."
"Ambition should be made of sterner stuff."
"And summer's lease hath all too short a date."
"And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind."
"And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything."
"April hath put a spirit of youth in everything."
"Art made tongue-tied by authority."
"As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods; They kill us for their sport."
"As he was valiant, I honour him. But as he was ambitious, I slew him."
"As soon go kindle fire with snow, as seek to quench the fire of love with words."
"Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them."
"Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar."
"Beauty is all very well at first sight; but whoever looks at it when it has been in the house three days?"
"Being born is like being kidnapped. And then sold into slavery."
"Better a witty fool than a foolish wit."
"Better three hours too soon than a minute too late."
"Boldness be my friend."
"Brevity is the soul of wit."
"But when they seldom come, they wished for come."
"But will they come when you do call for them?"
"By that sin fell the angels."
"Children wish fathers looked but with their eyes; fathers that children with their judgment looked; and either may be wrong."
"Confusion now hath made his masterpiece."
"Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once."
"Cudgel thy brains no more about it."
"Desire of having is the sin of covetousness."
"Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?"
"Everyone ought to bear patiently the results of his own conduct."
"Exceeds man's might: that dwells with the gods above."
"Expectation is the root of all heartache."
"False face must hide what the false heart doth know."
"Farewell, fair cruelty."
"Fishes live in the sea, as men do a-land; the great ones eat up the little ones."
"For my part, it was Greek to me."
"Fortune brings in some boats that are not steered."
"Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice."
"Give me my robe, put on my crown; I have Immortal longings in me."
"Go to you bosom: Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know."
"God has given you one face, and you make yourself another."
"Having nothing, nothing can he lose."
"He does it with better grace, but I do it more natural."
"He is winding the watch of his wit; by and by it will strike."
"He lives in fame that died in virtue's cause."
"He makes a swan-like end, fading in music."
"He that is giddy thinks the world turns round."
"He that loves to be flattered is worthy o' the flatterer."
"He wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat."
"Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself."
"Hell is empty and all the devils are here."
"How far that little candle throws its beams! So shines a good dead in a naughty world."
"How long a time lies in one little word?"
"How now, wit! Whither wander you?"
"How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds makes ill deeds done!"
"How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?"
"How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child!"
"I am but mad north-north-west; when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw."
"I am not bound to please thee with my answer."
"I bear a charmed life."
"I dote on his very absence."
"I shall the effect of this good lesson keeps as watchman to my heart."
"I try to forget what happiness was, and when that don't work, I study the stars."
"I was adored once too."
"I wasted time, and now doth time waste me."
"I will praise any man that will praise me."
"If it be a sin to covet honor, I am the most offending soul."
"If music be the food of love, play on."
"If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottage princes' palaces."
"If we are marked to die, we are enough to do our country loss; and if to live, the fewer men, the greater share of honor."
"If you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain will grow and which will not, speak then unto me."
"If you have tears, prepare to shed them now."
"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?"
"If you want to win anything - a race, your self, your life - you have to go a little berserk."
"Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven."
"In a false quarrel there is no true valor."
"In time we hate that which we often fear."
"Is it not strange that desire should so many years outlive performance?"
"Is pale cold cowardice in noble breasts."
"It is a custom. More honored in the breach than the observance."
"It is a wise father that knows his own child."
"It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves."
"It provokes the desire but it take away the performance."
"It will have blood, they say; blood will have blood."
"Lawless are they that make their wills their law."
"Let every eye negotiate for itself and trust no agent."
"Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course."
"Let no such man be trusted."
"Life every man holds dear; but the dear man holds honor far more precious dear than life."
"Life is as tedious as twice-told tale, vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man."
"Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
"Like as the waves make towards the pebbl'd shore, so do our minutes, hasten to their end."
"Lord, Lord, how subject we old men are to this vice of lying!"
"Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none."
"Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs."
"Love is a spirit of all compact of fire."
"Love is not love that alters when it alteration finds."
"Love sought is good, but given unsought, is better."
"Maids want nothing but husbands, and when they have them, they want everything."
"Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage."
"Men are April when they woo, December when they wed. Maids are May when they are maids, but the sky changes when they are wives."
"Men shut their doors against a setting sun."
"Mind your speech a little lest you should mar your fortunes."
"Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise."
"Most dangerous is that temptation that doth goad us on to sin in loving virtue."
"My age is as a lusty winter, frosty but kindly."
"My crown is called content, a crown that seldom kings enjoy."
"My library was dukedom large enough."
"My pride fell with my fortunes."
"Neither a borrower nor a lender be."
"No legacy is so rich as honesty."
"Nothing can come of nothing."
"Nothing is so common-place as to wish to be remarkable."
"Now, God be praised, that to believing souls gives light in darkness, comfort in despair."
"O God, O God, how weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world!"
"O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee devil."
"O, had I but followed the arts!"
"O! for a muse of fire, that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention."
"O! Let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven; keep me in temper; I would not be mad!"
"O! What a noble mind is here o'erthrown."
"O' What may man within him hide, though angel on the outward side!"
"One touch of nature makes the whole world kin."
"Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt."
"Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing."
"Parting is such sweet sorrow."
"Poor and content is rich, and rich enough."
"Rest, rest, perturbed spirit!"
"Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo? Deny thy father, and refuse thy name."
"So foul and fair a day I have not seen."
"So shines a good deed in a weary world."
"So wise so young, they say, do never live long."
"Such seems your beauty still."
"Suit the action to the word, the word to the action."
"Sweet are the uses of adversity which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head."
"Sweet are the uses of adversity."
"Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge."
"Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons, and you will find that it is to the soul what the water-bath is to the body."
"Talking isn't doing It is a kind of good deed to say well; and yet words are not deeds."
"Temptation is the fire that brings up the scum of the heart."
"The attempt and not the deed confounds us."
"The cat will mew, and dog will have his day."
"The course of true love never did run smooth."
"The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose."
"The empty vessel makes the loudest sound."
"The evil that men do lives after them;The good is oft interred with their bones."
"The fashion wears out more apparel than the man."
"The golden age is before us, not behind us."
"The lady doth protest too much, methinks."
"The love of heaven makes one heavenly."
"The lunatic, the lover, and the poet, are of imagination all compact."
"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 most peaceable way for you, if you do take a thief, is, to let him show himself what he is and steal out of your company."
"The object of art is to give life a shape."
"The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief."
"The stroke of death is as a lover's pinch, Which hurts and is desired."
"The undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns."
"The valiant never taste of death but once."
"The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream."
"The wheel is come full circle."
"The will of man is by his reason swayed."
"There is no darkness but ignorance."
"There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so."
"There's no art to find the mind's construction in the face."
"They do not love that do not show their love."
"They say miracles are past."
"Things done well and with a care, exempt themselves from fear."
"Things won are done, joy's soul lies in the doing."
"This above all; to thine own self be true."
"Though this be madness, yet there is method in't."
"Thus conscience does make cowards of us all."
"Time and the hour run through the roughest day."
"It is not enough to help the feeble up, but to support them after."
"It is one thing to be tempted, another thing to fall."
"To be, or not to be: that is the question."
"To fear the worst oft cures the worse."
"To their right praise and true perfection!"
"To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man."
"Tones that sound, and roar and storm about me until I have set them down in notes."
"Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown."
"Use every man after his desert, and who should scape whipping?"
"We cannot conceive of matter being formed of nothing, since things require a seed to start from... Therefore there is not anything which returns to nothing, but all things return dissolved into their elements."
"We know what we are, but know not what we may be."
"What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god."
"What is past is prologue."
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."
"When a father gives to his son, both laugh; when a son gives to his father, both cry."
"When sorrows come, they come not single spies, But in battalions."
"When we are born we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools."
"Where every something, being blent together turns to a wild of nothing."
"Why so large a cost, having so short a lease, does thou upon your fading mansion spend?"
"Why this is very midsummer madness."
"With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come."
"Women speak two languages - one of which is verbal."
"Words without thoughts never to heaven go."
"Words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart."
"Your 'if' is the only peace-maker; much virtue in 'if'."

Winter

By William Shakespeare

When icicles hang by the wall

And Dick the shepherd blows his nail

And Tom bears logs into the hall,

And milk comes frozen home in pail,

When Blood is nipped and ways be foul,

Then nightly sings the staring owl,

Tu-who;

Tu-whit, tu-who: a merry note,

While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

When all aloud the wind doth blow,

And coughing drowns the parson's saw,

And birds sit brooding in the snow,

And Marian's nose looks red and raw

When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl,

Then nightly sings the staring owl,

Tu-who;

Tu-whit, tu-who: a merry note,

While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

When to the sessions of sweet silent thought

By William Shakespeare

When to the sessions of sweet silent thought

I summon up remembrance of things past,

I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,

And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste:

Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,

For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,

And weep afresh love's long since cancelled woe,

And moan the expense of many a vanished sight:

Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,

And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er

The sad account of fore-bemoanèd moan,

Which I new pay as if not paid before.

But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,

All losses are restored and sorrows end.

When that I was and a little tiny boy

By William Shakespeare

When that I was and a little tiny boy,

With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,

A foolish thing was but a toy,

For the rain it raineth every day.

But when I came to man's estate,

With hey, ho, . . .

'Gainst knaves and thieves men shut their gate

For the rain, . . .

But when I came, alas! to wive,

With hey, ho, . . .

By swaggering could I never thrive,

For the rain, . . .

But when I came unto my beds,

With hey, ho, . . .

With toss-pots still had drunken heads,

For the rain, . . .

A great while ago the world begun,

With hey, ho, . . .

But that's all one, our play is done.

And we'll strive to please you every day.

When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes

By William Shakespeare

When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,

I all alone beweep my outcast state,

And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,

And look upon myself and curse my fate,

wishing me like to one more rich in hope,

Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,

Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,

With what I most enjoy contented least;

Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,

Haply I think on thee--and then my state,

Like to the lark at break of day arising

From sullen earth sings hymns at heaven's gate;

For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings,

That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

Under the Greenwood Tree

By William Shakespeare

Under the greenwood tree

Who loves to lie with me,

And turn his merry note

Unto the sweet bird's throat,

Come hither, come hither,

come hither:Here shall he see

No enemy

But winter and rough weather.

Who doth ambition shun,

And loves to live i' the sun,

Seeking the food he eats,

And pleas'd with what he gets,

Come hither, come hither, come hither:

Here shall he see

No enemy

But winter and rough weather.

The Quality of Mercy

By William Shakespeare

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.

'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes

The throned monarch better than his crown.

His scepter 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 sceptered sway;

It is enthroned in the heart of kings;

It is an attribute to God himself;

And earthly power doth then show likest God's

When mercy seasons justice.

The Blossom

By William Shakespeare

ON a day--alack the day!--

Love, whose month is ever May,

Spied a blossom passing fair

Playing in the wanton air:

Through the velvet leaves the wind

All unseen 'gan passage find;

That the lover, sick to death,

Wish'd himself the heaven's breath.

Air, quoth he, thy cheeks may blow;

Air, would I might triumph so!

But, alack, my hand is sworn

Ne'er to pluck thee from thy thorn:

Vow, alack, for youth unmeet;

Youth so apt to pluck a sweet!

Do not call it sin in me

That I am forsworn for thee;

Thou for whom e'en Jove would swear

Juno but an Ethiop were;

And deny himself for Jove,

Turning mortal for thy love.

That time of year thou mayst in me behold

By William Shakespeare

That time of year thou mayst in me behold

When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang

Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,

Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.

In me thou see'st the twilight of such day

As after sunset fadeth in the west;

Which by and by black night doth take away,

Death's second self, that seals all up in rest.

In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire,

That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,

As the deathbed whereon it must expire,

Consumed with that which it was nourished by.

This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,

To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

Take, O take those Lips away

By William Shakespeare

TAKE, O take those lips away,

That so sweetly were forsworn;

And those eyes, the break of day,

Lights that do mislead the morn!

But my kisses bring again,

Bring again;

Seals of love, but seal'd in vain,

Seal'd in vain!

Sweet-and-Twenty

By William Shakespeare

O MISTRESS mine, where are you roaming?

O, stay and hear! your true love 's coming,

That can sing both high and low:

Trip no further, pretty sweeting;

Journeys end in lovers meeting,

Every wise man's son doth know.

What is love? 'tis not hereafter;

Present mirth hath present laughter;

What 's to come is still unsure:

In delay there lies no plenty;

Then come kiss me, sweet-and-twenty!

Youth 's a stuff will not endure.

Spring

By William Shakespeare

When daisies pied, and violets blue,

And lady-smocks all silver-white,

And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue

Do paint the meadows with delight,

The cuckoo then, on every tree,

Mocks married men, for thus sings he:

'Cuckoo!

Cuckoo, cuckoo!' O word of fear,

Unpleasing to a married ear.

When shepherds pipe on oaten straws,

And merry larks are ploughmen's clocks,

When turtles tread, and rooks, and daws,

And maidens bleach their summer smocks,

The cuckoo then, on every tree,

Mocks married men, for thus sings he:

'Cuckoo!

Cuckoo, cuckoo!' O word of fear,

Unpleasing to a married ear.

Cupid laid by his brand and fell asleep

By William Shakespeare

Cupid laid by his brand and fell asleep,

A maid of Dian's this advantage found,

And his love-kindling fire did quickly steep

In a cold valley-fountain of that ground;

Which borrowed from this holy fire of Love

A dateless lively heat still to endure,

And grew a seeting bath, which yet men prove

Against strange maladies a sovereign cure.

But at my mistress' eye Love's brand new-fired,

The boy for trial needs would touch my breast;

I, sick withal, the help of bath desired,

And thither hied a sad distempered guest,

But found no cure. The bath for my help lies

Where Cupid got new fire—my mistress' eyes.

In loving thee thou know'st I am forsworn

By William Shakespeare

In loving thee thou know'st I am forsworn,

But thou art twice forsworn to me love swearing:

In act thy bed-vow broke and new faith torn

In vowing new hate after new love bearing.

But why of two oaths' breach do I accuse thee,

When I break twenty? I am perjured most,

For all my vows are oaths but to misuse thee,

And all my honest faith in thee is lost.

For I have sworn deep oaths of thy deep kindness,

Oaths of thy love, thy truth, thy constancy,

And to enlighten thee gave eyes to blindness,

Or made them swear against the thing they see.

For I have sworn thee fair. More perjured eye,

To swear against the truth so foul a lie!

Love is too young to know what conscience

By William Shakespeare

Love is too young to know what conscience is;

Yet who knows not conscience is born of love?

Then, gentle cheater, urge not my amiss,

Lest guilty of my faults thy sweet self prove.

For thou betraying me, I do betray

My nobler part to my gross body's treason;

My soul doth tell my body that he may

Triumph in love; flesh stays no farther reason,

But, rising at thy name, doth point out thee

As his triumphant prize. Proud of this pride,

He is contented thy poor drudge to be,

To stand in thy affairs, fall by thy side.

No want of conscience hold it that I call,

Her "love" for whose dear love I rise and fall.

O from what power hast thou this powerful might

By William Shakespeare

O, from what power hast thou this powerful might

With insufficiency my heart to sway?

To make me give the lie to my true sight,

And swear that brightness doth not grace the day?

Whence hast thou this becoming of things ill,

That in the very refuse of thy deeds

There is such strength and warrantise of skill

That, in my mind, thy worst all best exceeds?

Who taught thee how to make me love thee more,

The more I hear and see just cause of hate?

O, though I love what others do abhor,

With others thou shouldst not abhor my state.

If thy unworthiness raised love in me,

More worthy I to be beloved of thee.

When I consider every thing that grows

By William Shakespeare

When I consider every thing that grows

Holds in perfection but a little moment.

That this huge stage presenteth nought but shows

Whereon the stars in secret influence comment.

When I perceive that men as plants increase,

Cheerèd and checked even by the self-same sky,

Vaunt in their youthful sap, at height decrease,

And wear their brave state out of memory;

Then the conceit of this inconstant stay,

Sets you most rich in youth before my sight,

Where wasteful Time debateth with decay

To change your day of youth to sullied night;

And all in war with Time for love of you,

As he takes from you, I engraft you new

Silvia

By William Shakespeare

WHO is Silvia? What is she?

That all our swains commend her?

Holy, fair, and wise is she;

The heaven such grace did lend her,

That she might admired be.

Is she kind as she is fair?

For beauty lives with kindness:

Love doth to her eyes repair,

To help him of his blindness;

And, being help'd, inhabits there.

Then to Silvia let us sing,

That Silvia is excelling;

She excels each mortal thing

Upon the dull earth dwelling:

To her let us garlands bring.

Sigh No More

By William Shakespeare

Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,

Men were deceivers ever;

One foot in sea, and one on shore,

To one thing constant never.

Then sigh not so,

But let them go,

And be you blith and bonny,

Converting all your sounds of woe

Into Hey nonny, nonny.

Sing no more ditties, sing no mo

Of dumps so dull and heavy;

The fraud of men was ever so,

Since summer first was leavy.

Then sigh not so,

But let them go,

And be you blith and bonny,

Converting all your sounds of woe

Into Hey nonny, nonny.

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

By William Shakespeare

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate.

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer's lease hath all too short a date.

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimmed;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimmed;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,

Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,

When in eternal lines to Time thou grow'st.

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Orpheus

By William Shakespeare

ORPHEUS with his lute made trees

And the mountain tops that freeze

Bow themselves when he did sing:

To his music plants and flowers

Ever sprung; as sun and showers

There had made a lasting spring.

Every thing that heard him play,

Even the billows of the sea,

Hung their heads and then lay by.

In sweet music is such art,

Killing care and grief of heart

Fall asleep, or hearing, die.

Not marble nor the guilded monuments

By William Shakespeare

Not marble nor the gilded monuments

Of princes shall outlive this powerful rhyme;

But you shall shine more bright in these contents

Than unswept stone, besmear'd with sluttish time.

When wasteful war shall statues overturn,

And broils root out the work of masonry,

Nor Mars his sword nor war's quick fire shall burn

The living record of your memory.

'Gainst death and all-oblivious enmity

Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room,

Even in the eyes of all posterity

That wear this world out to the ending doom.

So, till the judgment that yourself arise,

You live in this, and dwell in lovers' eyes.

Not from the stars do I my judgment pluck

By William Shakespeare

Not from the stars do I my judgment pluck,

And yet methinks I have astronomy;

But not to tell of good or evil luck,

Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons' quality;

Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell,

Pointing to each his thunder, rain, and wind,

Or say with princes if it shall go well

By oft predict that I in heaven find.

But from thine eyes my knowledge I derive,

And, constant stars, in them I read such art

As truth and beauty shall together thrive

If from thyself to store thou wouldst convert:

Or else of thee this I prognosticate,

Thy end is truth's and beauty's doom and date.

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun

By William Shakespeare

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;

Coral is far more red than her lips' red;

If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;

If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

I have seen roses damasked, red and white,

But no such roses see I in her cheeks;

And in some perfumes is there more delight

Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

I love to hear her speak, yet well I know

That music hath a far more pleasing sound;

I grant I never saw a goddess go;

My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare

As any she belied with false compare.

It was a Lover and his Lass

By William Shakespeare

IT was a lover and his lass,

With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,

That o'er the green corn-field did pass,

In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,

When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding;

Sweet lovers love the spring.

Between the acres of the rye,

With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,

These pretty country folks would lie,

In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,

When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding;

Sweet lovers love the spring.

This carol they began that hour,

With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,

How that life was but a flower

In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,

When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding;

Sweet lovers love the spring.

And, therefore, take the present time

With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,

For love is crown`d with the prime

In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,

When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding;

Sweet lovers love the spring.

Hark! Hark! The Lark

By William Shakespeare

Hark! hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings,

And Phoebus 'gins arise,

His steeds to water at those springs

On chalic'd flowers that lies;

And winking Mary-buds begin

To ope their golden eyes;

With everything that pretty is

,My lady sweet, arise:

Arise, arise!

Full Fathom Five

By William Shakespeare

Full fathom five thy father lies;

Of his bones are coral made;

Those are pearls that were his eyes:

Nothing of him that doth fade

But doth suffer a sea-change

Into something rich and strange.

Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:

Ding-dong.

Hark! now I hear them,--ding-dong, bell.

From you have I been absent in the spring

By William Shakespeare

From you have I been absent in the spring,

When proud-pied April, dressed in all his trim,

Hath put a spirit of youth in everything,

That heavy Saturn laughed and leaped with him,

Yet nor the lays of birds, nor the sweet smell

Of different flowers in odor and in hue,

Could make me any summer's story tell,

Or from their proud lap pluck them where they grew.

Nor did I wonder at the lily's white,

Nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose;

They were but sweet, but figures of delight,

Drawn after you, you pattern of all those.

Yet seemed it winter still, and, you away,

As with your shadow I with these did play.

Fear No More

By William Shakespeare

Fear no more the heat o' the sun;

Nor the furious winter's rages,

Thou thy worldly task hast done,

Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages;

Golden lads and girls all must,

As chimney sweepers come to dust.

Fear no more the frown of the great,

Thou art past the tyrant's stroke:

Care no more to clothe and eat;

To thee the reed is as the oak:

The sceptre, learning, physic, must

All follow this, and come to dust.

Fear no more the lightning-flash,

Nor the all-dread thunder-stone;

Fear not slander, censure rash;

Thou hast finished joy and moan;

All lovers young, all lovers must

Consign to thee, and come to dust.

No exorciser harm thee!

Nor no witchcraft charm thee!

Ghost unlaid forbear thee!

Nothing ill come near thee!

Quiet consummation have;

And renowned be thy grave!

Fairy Land ii

By William Shakespeare

YOU spotted snakes with double tongue,

Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen;

Newts and blind-worms, do no wrong;

Come not near our fairy queen.

Philomel, with melody,

Sing in our sweet lullaby;

Lulla, lulla, lullaby; lulla, lulla, lullaby!

Never harm,

Nor spell nor charm

, Come our lovely lady nigh;

So, good night, with lullaby.

Weaving spiders, come not here;

Hence, you long-legg'd spinners, hence!

Beetles black, approach not near;

Worm nor snail, do no offence.

Philomel, with melody,

Sing in our sweet lullaby;

Lulla, lulla, lullaby; lulla, lulla, lullaby!

Never harm,

Nor spell nor charm,

Come our lovely lady nigh;

So, good night, with lullaby.

Dirge of the Three Queens

By William Shakespeare

URNS and odours bring away!

Vapours, sighs, darken the day!

Our dole more deadly looks than dying;

Balms and gums and heavy cheers,

Sacred vials fill'd with tears,

And clamours through the wild air flying!

Come, all sad and solemn shows,

That are quick-eyed Pleasure's foes!

We convent naught else but woes.

Dirge

By William Shakespeare

COME away, come away, death,

And in sad cypres let me be laid;

Fly away, fly away, breath;

I am slain by a fair cruel maid.

My shroud of white, stuck all with yew,

O prepare it!

My part of death, no one so true

Did share it.

Not a flower, not a flower sweet,

On my black coffin let there be strown;

Not a friend, not a friend greet

My poor corse, where my bones shall be thrown:

A thousand thousand sighs to save,

Lay me, O, where

Sad true lover never find my grave

To weep there!

Carpe Diem

By William Shakespeare

O mistress mine, where are you roaming?

O stay and hear! your true-love's coming

That can sing both high and low;

Trip no further, pretty sweeting,

Journey's end in lovers' meeting--

Every wise man's son doth know.

What is love? 'tis not hereafter;

Present mirth hath present laughter;

What's to come is still unsure:

In delay there lies no plenty,--

Then come kiss me, Sweet and twenty,

Youth's a stuff will not endure.

Bridal Song

By William Shakespeare

ROSES, their sharp spines being gone,

Not royal in their smells alone,

But in their hue;

Maiden pinks, of odour faint,

Daisies smell-less, yet most quaint,

And sweet thyme true;

Primrose, firstborn child of Ver;

Merry springtime's harbinger,

With her bells dim;

Oxlips in their cradles growing,

Marigolds on death-beds blowing,

Larks'-heels trim;

All dear Nature's children sweet

Lie 'fore bride and bridegroom's feet,

Blessing their sense!

Not an angel of the air,

Bird melodious or bird fair,

Be absent hence!

The crow, the slanderous cuckoo, nor

The boding raven, nor chough hoar,

Nor chattering pye,

May on our bride-house perch or sing,

Or with them any discord bring,

But from it fly!

Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind

By William Shakespeare

Blow, blow, thou winter wind

Thou art not so unkind

As man's ingratitude;

Thy tooth is not so keen,

Because thou art not seen,

Although thy breath be rude.

Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly:

Most freindship if feigning, most loving mere folly:

Then heigh-ho, the holly!

This life is most jolly.

Freeze, freeze thou bitter sky,

That does not bite so nigh

As benefits forgot:

Though thou the waters warp,

Thy sting is not so sharp

As a friend remembered not.

Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly:

Most freindship if feigning, most loving mere folly:

Then heigh-ho, the holly!

This life is most jolly.

Aubade

By William Shakespeare

HARK! hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings,

And Phoebus 'gins arise,

His steeds to water at those springs

On chaliced flowers that lies;

And winking Mary-buds begin

To ope their golden eyes:

With everything that pretty bin,

My lady sweet, arise!

Arise, arise!

A Fairy Song

By William Shakespeare

Over hill, over dale,

Thorough bush, thorough brier,

Over park, over pale,

Thorough flood, thorough fire!

I do wander everywhere,

Swifter than the moon's sphere;

And I serve the Fairy Queen,

To dew her orbs upon the green;

The cowslips tall her pensioners be;

In their gold coats spots you see;

Those be rubies, fairy favours;

In those freckles live their savours;

I must go seek some dewdrops here,

And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.

Love

By William Shakespeare

Tell me where is Fancy bred,

Or in the heart or in the head!

How begot, how nourished?

Reply, reply.

It is engender'd in the eyes,

With gazing fed; and Fancy dies

In the cradle where it lies.

Let us all ring Fancy's knell;

I'll begin it, - Ding, dong, bell.

To be, or not to be

By William Shakespeare

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action. - Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember'd.

Sonnet

By Williams Shakespeare

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Friends, Romans, countrymen

BY William Shskespeare

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 bones;
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.
You all did see that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And, sure, he is an honourable man.
I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then, to mourn for him?
O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason. Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.

All the world's a stage

By william shsaespeare

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

THE PHOENIX AND THE TURTLE

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

The Phoenix and the Turtle

Let the bird of loudest lay

On the sole Arabian tree,

Herald sad and trumpet be,

To whose sound chaste wings obey.

But thou shrieking harbinger,

Foul precurrer of the fiend,

Augur of the fever's end,

To this troop come thou not near.

From this session interdict

Every fowl of tyrant wing

Save the eagle, feather'd king:

Keep the obsequy so strict.

Let the priest in surplice white

That defunctive music can,

Be the death-divining swan,

Lest the requiem lack his right.

And thou, treble-dated crow,

That thy sable gender mak'st

With the breath thou giv'st and tak'st,

'Mongst our mourners shalt thou go.

Here the anthem doth commence:—

Love and constancy is dead;

Phoenix and the turtle fled

In a mutual flame from hence.

So they loved, as love in twain

Had the essence but in one;

Two distincts, division none;

Number there in love was slain.

Hearts remote, yet not asunder;

Distance, and no space was seen

'Twixt the turtle and his queen:

But in them it were a wonder.

So between them love did shine,

That the turtle saw his right

Flaming in the phoenix' sight;

Either was the other's mine.

Property was thus appall'd,

That the self was not the same;

Single nature's double name

Neither two nor one was call'd.

Reason, in itself confounded,

Saw division grow together;

To themselves yet either neither;

Simple were so well compounded,

That it cried, 'How true a twain

Seemeth this concordant one!

Love hath reason, reason none

If what parts can so remain.'

Whereupon it made this threne

To the phoenix and the dove,

Co-supremes and stars of love,

As chorus to their tragic scene.

THRENOS

BEAUTY, truth, and rarity,

Grace in all simplicity

,Here enclosed in cinders lie.

Death is now the phoenix' nest;

And the turtle's loyal breast

To eternity doth rest,

Leaving no posterity:

'Twas not their infirmity,

It was married chastity.

Truth may seem, but cannot be;

Beauty brag, but 'tis not she;

Truth and beauty buried be.

To this urn let those repair

That are either true or fair;

For these dead birds sigh a prayer.

A LOVER'S COMPLAINT

A POEM BYWILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

From off a hill whose concave womb reworded

A plaintful story from a sist'ring vale,

My spirits t'attend this double voice accorded,

And down I laid to list the sad-tuned tale,

Ere long espied a fickle maid full pale,

Tearing of papers, breaking rings atwain,

Storming her world with sorrow's wind and rain.

Upon her head a platted hive of straw

,Which fortified her visage from the sun,

Whereon the thought might think sometime it saw

The carcase of a beauty spent and done.

Time had not scythed all that youth begun,

Nor youth all quit, but spite of heaven's fell rage

Some beauty peeped through lattice of seared age

Oft did she heave her napkin to her eyne,

Which on it had conceited characters,

Laund'ring the silken figures in the brine

That seasoned woe had pelleted in tears,

And often reading what contents it bears;

As often shrieking undistinguished woe

In clamours of all size, both high and low.

Sometimes her levelled eyes their carriage ride

As they did batt'ry to the spheres intend;

Sometime diverted their poor balls are tied

To th'orbed earth; sometimes they do extend

Their view right on; anon their gazes lend

To every place at once, and nowhere fixed,

The mind and sight distractedly commixed.

Her hair, nor loose nor tied in formal plait,

Proclaimed in her a careless hand of pride;

For some, untucked, descended her sheaved hat,

Hanging her pale and pined cheek beside;

Some in her threaden fillet still did bide,

And, true to bondage, would not break from thence,

Though slackly braided in loose negligence.

A thousand favours from a maund she drew

Of amber, crystal, and of beaded jet,

Which one by one she in a river threw,

Upon whose weeping margent she was set;

Like usury applying wet to wet,

Or monarch's hands that lets not bounty fall

Where want cries some, but where excess begs all.

Of folded schedules had she many a one,

Which she perused, sighed, tore, and gave the flood;

Cracked many a ring of posied gold and bone,

Bidding them find their sepulchres in mud;

Found yet moe letters sadly penned in blood,

With sleided silk feat and affectedly

Enswathed and sealed to curious secrecy.

These often bathed she in her fluxive eyes,

And often kissed, and often 'gan to tear;

Cried "O false blood, thou register of lies,

What unapproved witness dost thou bear!

Ink would have seemed more black and damned here!"

This said, in top of rage the lines she rents,

Big discontent so breaking their contents.

A reverend man that grazed his cattle nigh,

Sometime a blusterer that the ruffle knew

Of court, of city, and had let go by

The swiftest hours observed as they flew,

Towards this afflicted fancy fastly drew,

And, privileged by age, desires to know

In brief the grounds and motives of her woe.

So slides he down upon his grained bat,

And comely distant sits he by her side,

When he again desires her, being sat,

Her grievance with his hearing to divide.

If that from him there may be aught applied

Which may her suffering ecstasy assuage,

'Tis promised in the charity of age.

"Father," she says "though in me you behold

The injury of many a blasting hour,

Let it not tell your judgement I am old:

Not age, but sorrow over me hath power.

I might as yet have been a spreading flower,

Fresh to myself, if I had self-applied

Love to myself, and to no love beside.

"But, woe is me! too early I attended

A youthful suit -it was to gain my grace -

O, one by nature's outwards so commended

That maidens' eyes stuck over all his face.

Love lacked a dwelling and made him her place;

And when in his fair parts she did abide

She was new-lodged and newly deified.

"His browny locks did hang in crooked curls,

And every light occasion of the wind

Upon his lips their silken parcels hurls.

What's sweet to do, to do will aptly find:

Each eye that saw him did enchant the mind,

For on his visage was in little drawn

What largeness thinks in Paradise was sawn.

"Small show of man was yet upon his chin;

His phoenix down began but to appear,

Like unshorn velvet, on that termless skin,

Whose bare outbragged the web it seemed to wear;

Yet showed his visage by that cost more dear,

And nice affections wavering stood in doubt

If best were as it was, or best without.

"His qualities were beauteous as his form,

For maiden-tongued he was, and thereof free;

Yet, if men moved him, was he such a storm

As oft twixt May and April is to see,

When winds breathe sweet, unruly though they be.

His rudeness so with his authorized youth

Did livery falseness in a pride of truth.

"Well could he ride, and often men would say

`That horse his mettle from his rider takes:

Proud of subjection, noble by the sway,

What rounds, what bounds, what course, what stop he makes!'

And controversy hence a question takes,

Whether the horse by him became his deed,

Or he his manage by th' well-doing steed.

"But quickly on this side the verdict went:

His real habitude gave life and grace

To appertainings and to ornament,

Accomplished in himself, not in his case.

All aids, themselves made fairer by their place,

Came for additions; yet their purposed trim

Pieced not his grace, but were all graced by him.

"So on the tip of his subduing tongue

All kind of arguments and question deep,

All replication prompt, and reason strong,

For his advantage still did wake and sleep.

To make the weeper laugh, the laugher weep,

He had the dialect and different skill,

Catching all passions in his craft of will,

"That he did in the general bosom reign

Of young, of old, and sexes both enchanted,

To dwell with him in thoughts, or to remain

In personal duty, following where he haunted.

Consents bewitched, ere he desire, have granted,

And dialogued for him what he would say,

Asked their own wills, and made their wills obey.

"Many there were that did his picture get

To serve their eyes, and in it put their mind;

Like fools that in th'imagination set

The goodly objects which abroad they find

Of lands and mansions, theirs in thought assigned,

And labour in moe pleasures to bestow them

Than the true gouty landlord which doth owe them.

"So many have, that never touched his hand,

Sweetly supposed them mistress of his heart.

My woeful self, that did in freedom stand,

And was my own fee-simple, not in part,

What with his art in youth, and youth in art,

Threw my affections in his charmed power,

Reserved the stalk and gave him all my flower.

"Yet did I not, as some my equals did,

Demand of him, nor being desired yielded;

Finding myself in honour so forbid,

With safest distance I mine honour shielded.

Experience for me many bulwarks builded

Of proofs new-bleeding, which remained the foil

Of this false jewel and his amorous spoil.

"But ah, who ever shunned by precedent

The destined ill she must herself assay?

Or forced examples 'gainst her own content

To put the by-past perils in her way?

Counsel may stop awhile what will not stay,

For when we rage, advice is often seen

By blunting us to make our wills more keen.

"Nor gives it satisfaction to our blood

That we must curb it upon others' proof,

To be forbod the sweets that seems so good

For fear of harms that preach in our behoof.

O appetite, from judgement stand aloof!

The one a palate hath that needs will taste,

Though reason weep, and cry `It is thy last'.

"For further I could say this man's untrue

,And knew the patterns of his foul beguiling;

Heard where his plants in others' orchards grew;

Saw how deceits were gilded in his smiling;

Knew vows were ever brokers to defiling;

Thought characters and words merely but art,

And bastards of his foul adulterate heart.

"And long upon these terms I held my city,

Till thus he 'gan besiege me: `Gentle maid,

Have of my suffering youth some feeling pity,

And be not of my holy vows afraid.

That's to ye sworn to none was ever said;

For feasts of love I have been called unto,

Till now did ne'er invite nor never woo.

" `All my offences that abroad you see

Are errors of the blood, none of the mind;

Love made them not; with acture they may be,

Where neither party is nor true nor kind.

They sought their shame that so their shame did find;

And so much less of shame in me remains

By how much of me their reproach contains.

" `Among the many that mine eyes have seen,

Not one whose flame my heart so much as warmed,

Or my affection put to th' smallest teen,

Or any of my leisures ever charmed.

Harm have I done to them, but ne'er was harmed;

Kept hearts in liveries, but mine own was free,

And reigned commanding in his monarchy.

" `Look here what tributes wounded fancies sent me

Of pallid pearls and rubies red as blood,

Figuring that they their passions likewise lent me

Of grief and blushes, aptly understood

In bloodless white and the encrimsoned mood -

Effects of terror and dear modesty,

Encamped in hearts, but fighting outwardly.

" `And lo, behold these talents of their hair,

With twisted metal amorously impleached,

I have received from many a several fair,

Their kind acceptance weepingly beseeched,

With the annexions of fair gems enriched,

And deep-brained sonnets that did amplify

Each stone's dear nature, worth, and quality.

" `The diamond? -why, 'twas beautiful and hard,

Whereto his invised properties did tend;

The deep-green em'rald, in whose fresh regard

Weak sights their sickly radiance do amend;

The heaven-hued sapphire and the opal blend

With objects manifold: each several stone,

With wit well blazoned, smiled or made some moan.

" `Lo, all these trophies of affections hot,

Of pensived and subdued desires the tender,

Nature hath charged me that I hoard them not,

But yield them up where I myself must render -

That is to you, my origin and ender;

For these, of force, must your oblations be,

Since I their altar, you enpatron me.

" `O then advance of yours that phraseless hand,

Whose white weighs down the airy scale of praise.

Take all these similes to your own command,

Hallowed with sighs that burning lungs did raise.

What me your minister, for you obeys,

Works under you, and to your audit comes

Their distract parcels in combined sums.

" `Lo, this device was sent me from a nun,

A sister sanctified, of holiest note,

Which late her noble suit in court did shun,

Whose rarest havings made the blossoms dote;

For she was sought by spirits of richest coat,

But kept cold distance, and did thence remove

To spend her living in eternal love.

" `But, O my sweet, what labour is't to leave

The thing we have not, mast'ring what not strives,

Planing the place which did no form receive,

Playing patient sports in unconstrained gyves!

She that her fame so to herself contrives,

The scars of battle scapeth by the flight,

And makes her absence valiant, not her might.

" `O pardon me, in that my boast is true!

The accident which brought me to her eye

Upon the moment did her force subdue,

And now she would the caged cloister fly:

Religious love put out religion's eye.

Not to be tempted, would she be immured,

And now to tempt, all liberty procured.

" `How mighty then you are, O hear me tell!

The broken bosoms that to me belong

Have emptied all their fountains in my well,

And mine I pour your ocean all among.

I strong o'er them, and you o'er me being strong,

Must for your victory us all congest,

As compound love to physic your cold breast.

" `My parts had power to charm a sacred nun,

Who, disciplined, ay, dieted in grace,

Believed her eyes when they t'assail begun,

All vows and consecrations giving place.

O most potential love! -vow, bond, nor space,

In thee hath neither sting, knot, nor confine,

For thou art all, and all things else are thine.

" `When thou impressest, what are precepts worth

Of stale example? When thou wilt inflame,

How coldly those impediments stand forth,

Of wealth, of filial fear, law, kindred, fame!

Love's arms are peace, 'gainst rule, 'gainst sense, 'gainst shame;

And sweetens, in the suff'ring pangs it bears,

The aloes of all forces, shocks, and fears.

" `Now all these hearts that do on mine depend,

Feeling it break, with bleeding groans they pine,

And supplicant their sighs to you extend,

To leave the batt'ry that you make 'gainst mine,

Lending soft audience to my sweet design,

And credent soul to that strong-bonded oath

That shall prefer and undertake my troth.'

"This said, his wat'ry eyes he did dismount,

whose sights till then were levelled on my face;

Each cheek a river running from a fount

With brinish current downward flowed apace.

O how the channel to the stream gave grace!

Who glazed with crystal gate the glowing roses

That flame through water which their hue encloses.

"O father, what a hell of witchcraft lies

In the small orb of one particular tear!

But with the inundation of the eyes

What rocky heart to water will not wear?

What breast so cold that is not warmed here?

O cleft effect! Cold modesty, hot wrath,

Both fire from hence and chill extincture hath.

"For lo, his passion, but an art of craft,

Even there resolved my reason into tears;

There my white stole of chastity I daffed,

Shook off my sober guards and civil fears;

Appear to him as he to me appears,

All melting; though our drops this diff'rence bore:

His poisoned me, and mine did him restore.

"In him a plenitude of subtle matter,

Applied to cautels, all strange forms receives,

Of burning blushes or of weeping water,

Or swooning paleness; and he takes and leaves,

In either's aptness, as it best deceives,

To blush at speeches rank, to weep at woes,

Or to turn white and swoon at tragic shows,

"That not a heart which in his level came

Could scape the hail of his all-hurting aim,

Showing fair nature is both kind and tame;

And, veiled in them, did win whom he would maim.

Against the thing he sought he would exclaim;

When he most burned in heart-wished luxury

He preached pure maid and praised cold chastity.

"Thus merely with the garment of a grace

The naked and concealed fiend he covered,

That th'unexperient gave the tempter place,

Which like a cherubin above them hovered.

Who, young and simple, would not be so lovered?

Ay me, I fell; and yet do question make

What I should do again for such a sake.

"O, that infected moisture of his eye,

O, that false fire which in his cheek so glowed,

O, that forced thunder from his heart did fly,

O, that sad breath his spongy lungs bestowed,

O, all that borrowed motion, seeming owed,

Would yet again betray the fore-betrayed,

And new pervert a reconciled maid."