dots-menu
×

Home  »  Familiar Quotations  »  1589 William Shakespeare 1564-1616 John Bartlett

John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.

1589 William Shakespeare 1564-1616 John Bartlett

 
NUMBER:1589
AUTHOR:William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
QUOTATION:Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness. Oh, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb-shows and noise. I would have such a fellow whipped for o’erdoing Termagant; it out-herods Herod.
ATTRIBUTION:Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.  [text]
WORKS:William Shakespeare Collection.