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Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
The bird of dawning singeth all night long,
And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad,
The nights are wholesome, then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm.
So hallowed and so gracious is that time.
Topic: Larks
Source: Hamlet Prince of Denmark (Marcellus at I, i)
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It is the lark that sings so out of tune,
Straining harsh discords and unpleasing sharps.
Topic: Larks
Source: Romeo and Juliet (Juliet at III, v)
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It was the lark, the herald of the morn;
No nightingale.
Topic: Larks
Source: Romeo and Juliet (Romeo at III, v)
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Lo, here the gentle lark, weary of rest,
From his moist cabinet mounts up on high
And wakes the morning, from whose silver breast
The sun ariseth in his majesty;
Who doth the world so gloriously behold
That cedar tops and hills seem burnished gold.
Topic: Larks
Source: Venus and Adonis (l. 853)
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Shall I say to Caesar
What you require of him? For he partly begs
To be desired to give. It much would please him
That of his fortunes you should make a staff
To lean upon.
Topic: Liberality
Source: Antony and Cleopatra (Thidias at III, xiii)
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Some book there is that she desires to see.
Which is it, girl, of these? Open them, boy.
But thou art deeper read and better skilled:
Come and take choice of all my library,
And so beguile thy sorrow, till the heavens
Reveal the damned contriver of this deed.
Topic: Libraries
Source: Titus Andronicus (Titus at IV, i)
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Simply the thing I am shall make me live.
Topic: Life
Source: None
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Cytherea,
How bravely thou becom'st thy bed, fresh lily,
And whiter than the sheets!
Topic: Lilies
Source: Cymbeline (Iachimo at II, ii)
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Like the lily
That once was mistress of the field and flourished,
I'll hang my head and perish.
Topic: Lilies
Source: The Life of King Henry the Eighth (Katherine at III, i)
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This is your devoted friend, sir, the manifold linguist and the
armipotent soldier.
Topic: Linguists
Source: All's Well That Ends Well (Second Lord at IV, iii)
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But those that understood him smiled at one another and shook
their heads; but for mine own part, if was Greek to me.
Topic: Linguists
Source: Julius Caesar (Casca at I, ii)
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Away with him, away with him! He speaks Latin.
Topic: Linguists
Source: King Henry the Sixth, Part II (Cade at IV, vii)
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O, good my lord, no Latin!
I am not such a truant since my coming
As not to know the language I have lived in.
A strnage tongue makes my cause more strnage, suspicious.
Pray speak in English.
Topic: Linguists
Source: The Life of King Henry the Eighth (Katherine at III, i)
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He plays o' th' viol-de-gamboys, and speaks three or four
languages word for word without book, and hath all the good gifts
of nature.
Topic: Linguists
Source: Twelfth Night, or, What You Will (Toby at I, iii)
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But to the purpose--for we cite our faults
That they may hold excused our lawless lives;
And partly, seeing you are beautified
With goodly shape, and by your own report
A linguist, and a man of such perfection
As we do in our quality much want--
Topic: Linguists
Source: The Two Gentlemen of Verona (First Outlaw at IV, i)
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And therefore 'tis called a sensible tale, and this cuff was but
to knock at your ear, and beseech listening.
Topic: Listening
Source: The Taming of the Shrew (Grumio at IV, i)
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And he goes through life, his mouth open, and his mind closed.
Topic: Listening
Source: The Taming of the Shrew (Grumio at IV, i)
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Oh, thou hast a damnable iteration, and art indeed able to corrupt a saint. Thou hast done much harm upon me Hal, God forgive thee for it. Before I knew thee Hal, I knew nothing, and now am I, if a man should speak truly, little better than one of the wicked.
Topic: Literary
Source: None
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It fits us therefore ripely
Our chariots and our horsemen be in readiness.
Topic: Livery
Source: Cymbeline (Cymbeline at III, v)
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Come, my coach! Good night, ladies, good night. Sweet ladies,
good night, good night.
Topic: Livery
Source: Hamlet Prince of Denmark (Ophelia at IV, v)
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Nay, 'tis in a manner done already;
For many carriages he hath dispatched
To the seaside, and put his cause and quarrel
To the disposing of the cardinal;
With whom yourself, myself, and other lords,
If you think meet, this afternoon will post
To consummate this business happily.
Topic: Livery
Source: The Life and Death of King John (Salisbury at V, vii)
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But come, I'll tell thee all my whole device
When I am in my coach, which stays for us
At the park gate; and therefore haste away,
For we must measure twenty miles to-day.
Topic: Livery
Source: The Merchant of Venice (Portia at III, iv)
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Wise men ne'er sit and wail their loss, but cheerily seek how to redress their harms.
Topic: Losing
Source: None
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Great lords, wise men ne'er sit and wail their loss
But cheerly seek how to redress their harms.
Topic: Loss
Source: King Henry the Sixth, Part III (Queen Margaret at V, iv)
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Praising what is lost Makes the remembrance dear.
Topic: Loss
Source: None
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Wise men never sit and wail their loss, but cheerily seek how to redress their harms.
Topic: Loss
Source: None
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Love is a spirit of all compact of fire.
Topic: Love
Source: None
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Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs, Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes, Being vexed, a sea nourished with lovers' tears. What is it else? A madness most discreet, A choking gall and a preserving sweet.
Topic: Love
Source: None
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Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.
Topic: Love
Source: None
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Love sought is good, but given unsought, is better.
Topic: Love
Source: None
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The course of true love never did run smooth.
Topic: Love
Source: None
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They do not love that do not show their love.
Topic: Love
Source: None
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As soon go kindle fire with snow, as seek to quench the fire of love with words.
Topic: Love
Source: None
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Doubt that the stars are fire, doubt that the sun doth move, doubt truth to be a liar, but never doubt I love.
Topic: Love
Source: None
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There's something in't
More than my father's skill, which was the great'st
Of his profession, that his good receipt
Shall for my legacy be sanctified
By th' luckiest stars in heaven; and would your honor
But give me leave to thy success, I'd venture
The well-lost life of mine on his grace's cure
By such a day and hour.
Topic: Luck
Source: All's Well That Ends Well (Helena at I, iii)
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I will be treble-sinewed, hearted, breathed,
And fight maliciously; for when mine hours
Were nice and lucky, men did ransom lives
Of me for jests; but now I'll set my teeth
And send to darkness all that stop me.
Topic: Luck
Source: Antony and Cleopatra (Antony at III, xiii)
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Farewell, good Salisbury, and good luck go with thee!
Topic: Luck
Source: The Life of King Henry the Fifth (Bedford at IV, iii)
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As good luck would have it, comes in one Mistress Page, gives
intelligence of Ford's approach, and in her invention, and Ford's
wife's distraction, they conveyed me into a buck-basket.
Topic: Luck
Source: The Merry Wives of Windsor (Falstaff at III, v)
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This is the third time; I hope good luck lies in odd numbers.
Away; go. They say there is divinity in odd numbers, either in
nativity, chance, or death.
Topic: Luck
Source: The Merry Wives of Windsor (Falstaff at V, i)
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What think you, if he were conveyed to bed,
Wrapped in sweet clothes, rings put upon his fingers,
A most delicious banquet by his bed,
And brave attendants near him when he wakes,
Would not the beggar then forget himself?
Topic: Luxury
Source: The Taming of the Shrew (Lord at induction, i)
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Like sending them ruffles, when wanting a shirt.
Topic: Luxury
Source: The Taming of the Shrew (Lord at induction, i)
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Nay, master, said not I as much when I saw the porpoise, how he
bounced and tumbled? They say they're half fish, half flesh. A
plague on them! They ne'er come but I look to be washed.
Topic: Mammals
Source: Pericles Prince of Tyre (Third Fisherman at II, i)
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All the world's a stage, And all the men and merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts....
Topic: Man
Source: None
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Beware the ides of March.
Topic: March
Source: Julius Caesar (Soothsayer at I, ii)
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The ides of March are come.
Topic: March
Source: Julius Caesar (Caesar at III, i)
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This guest of summer,
The temple-haunting martlet, does approve
By his loved mansionry that the heaven's breath
Smells wooingly here. No jutty, frieze,
Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird
Hath made his pendent bed and procreant cradle.
Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed
The air is delicate.
Topic: Martlets
Source: Macbeth (Banquo at I, vi)
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What many men desire--that 'many' may be meant
By the fool multitude that choose by show,
Not learning more than the fond eye doth teach,
Which pries not to th' interior, but like the martlet
Builds in the weather on the outward wall,
Even in the force and road of casualty.
Topic: Martlets
Source: The Merchant of Venice (Arragon at II, ix)
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All furnished, all in arms;
All plum'd like estridges that with the wind
Bated like eagles having lately bathed;
Glittering in golden coats like images;
As full of spirit as the month of May
And gorgeous as the sun at midsummer;
Wanton as youthful goats, wild as young bulls.
Topic: May
Source: King Henry the Fourth, Part I (Vernon at IV, ii)
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No doubt they rose up early to observe
The rite of May; and, hearing our intent,
Came here in grace of our solemnity.
Topic: May
Source: A Midsummer Night's Dream (Theseus at IV, i)
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There's her cousin, an she were not possessed with a fury,
exceeds her as much in beauty as the first of May doth the last
of December.
Topic: May
Source: Much Ado About Nothing (Benedick at I, i)
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