Page 135

William Shakespeare. (1564–1616) (continued)

1573

Unpack my heart with words,
And fall a-cursing, like a very drab.

Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.

1574

For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak
With most miraculous organ. 1

Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.

1575

The devil hath power
To assume a pleasing shape.

Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.

1576

Abuses me to damn me.

Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.

1577

The play ’s the thing
Wherein I ’ll catch the conscience of the king.

Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.

1578

With devotion’s visage
And pious action we do sugar o’er
The devil himself.

Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 1.

1579

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ’t is 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 heartache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to,—’t is 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

Note 1.
See Chaucer, Quotation 39. [back]

Contents -AUTHOR INDEX -CONCORDANCE INDEX -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD