Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Speak
Speak, that I may see thee. (Oratio imago animi.) Language most shews a man. No glass renders a man’s form or likeness so true as his speech.
Ben Jonson.—“Discoveries,” Vol. IX. Page 223. (Gifford); and see the “Spectator,” No. 86.
Speak, I’ll go no further.
Shakespeare.—Hamlet, Act I. Scene 5. (To the Ghost.)
Mistake me not, I speak but as I find.
Shakespeare.—Taming of the Shrew, Act II. Scene 1. (Baptista to Petruchio.)
A heavier task could not have been imposed,
Than I to speak my griefs unspeakable.
Shakespeare.—Comedy of Errors, Act I. Scene 1. (Ægeon to the Duke.)
More he endeavour’d; but the accents hung,
Half form’d and stopt unfinish’d on his tongue.
Garth.—Claremont, Line 271.
For in it lurks that nameless spell,
Which speaks, itself unspeakable.
Byron.—The Giaour.
I will speak daggers to her, but use none.
Shakespeare.—Hamlet, Act III. Scene 2. (Hamlet, at the very witching time of night.)
You are speaking stones.
Plautus.—Aulularia, Act II. Scene 1. (Riley’s Transl.) [Aristophanes says, in one of his plays, “You are speaking roses to me.”]
Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear
Your favours, nor your hate.
Shakespeare.—Macbeth, Act I. Scene 3. (Banquo to the Witches.)
What the devil ails the fellow? Why don’t you speak out?—not stand croaking like a frog in a quinsey!
Sheridan.—The Rivals, Act IV. Scene 2.
I wish you could advance your voice a little.
Ben Jonson.—The Alchemist, Act I. Scene 1.
How absolute the knave is;
We must speak by the card, or equivocation will undo us.
Shakespeare.—Hamlet, Act V. Scene 1. (Hamlet to Horatio.)
I will put on clean linen, and speak wisely.
Suckling.—Brennoralt, Act II.
Why dost thou not speak, thou art both as drunk and as mute as a fish.
Congreve.—The Way of the World, Act II. Scene 9.
You can speak well; if your tongue deliver the message of your heart.
Ford.—The Sun’s Darling, Act V. Scene 1.
In one scene no more than three should speak.
Roscommon.—Horace’s Art of Poetry.
I say you are wrong; we should speak all together, each for himself, and all at once, that we may be heard the better.
Sheridan.—St. Patrick’s Day, Act I. Scene 1.
1.Hear me but speak.
2.No, not in a cause against the king.
D’Avenant.—The Wits, Act V. Scene 1.
All tongues speak of him.
Shakespeare.—Coriolanus, Act II. Scene 1. (Brutus to the Tribunes.)