Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Murder
’Twas not enough
By subtle fraud to snatch a single life;
Puny impiety! whole kingdoms fell
To sate the lust of power: more horrid still,
The foulest stain and scandal of our nature,
Became its boast. One murder made a villain;
Millions a hero.
Dr. Porteus.—Poem on Death.
One to destroy is murder by the law,
And gibbets keep the lifted hand in awe;
To murder thousands takes a specious name,
War’s glorious art, and gives immortal fame.
Dr. Young.—Love of Fame, Satire VII. Line 55.
Laid schemes for death, to slaughter turn’d his heart,
And fitted murder to the rules of Art.
Tickell.—On the Prospect of Peace.
Murder may pass unpunish’d for a time,
But tardy justice will o’ertake the crime.
Dryden.—The Cock and Fox.
Foul deeds will rise,
Though all the earth o’erwhelm them, to men’s eyes.
Shakespeare.—Hamlet, Act I. Scene 2. (After hearing of his Father’s ghost.)
For murther, though it have no tongue, will speak
With most miraculous organ.
Shakespeare.—Hamlet, Act II. Scene 2. (Chiding himself for his apathy.)
Murder will out—that see we day by day.
Chaucer.—The Nun’s Priests Tale, Line 15,058.
Murther most foul, as in the best it is.
Shakespeare.—Hamlet, Act I. Scene 5. (His Father’s ghost to him.)
’Tis of all vices the most contrary
To every virtue, and humanity;
For they intend the pleasure and delight,
But this the dissolution of nature.
Shackerly.—Marmion: Antiquary, Act III.