Halcyon days. -King Henry VI. Part I. Act i. Sc. 2.

Halcyon days. -King Henry VI. Part I. Act i. Sc. 2.

Benedick the married man. -Much Ado about Nothing. Act i. Sc. 1.

Benedick the married man. -Much Ado about Nothing. Act i. Sc. 1.

Honour pricks me on. Yea, but how if honour prick me off when I come on,—how then? Can honour set read more

Honour pricks me on. Yea, but how if honour prick me off when I come on,—how then? Can honour set to a leg? no: or an arm? no: or take away the grief of a wound? no. Honour hath no skill in surgery, then? no. What is honour? a word. What is in that word honour; what is that honour? air. A trim reckoning! Who hath it? he that died o' Wednesday. Doth he feel it? no. Doth he hear it? no. 'T is insensible, then? yea, to the dead. But will it not live with the living? no. Why? detraction will not suffer it. Therefore I 'll none of it. Honour is a mere scutcheon. And so ends my catechism. -King Henry IV. Part I. Act v. Sc. 1.

Home-keeping youth have ever homely wits. -The Two Gentleman of Verona. Act i. Sc. 1.

Home-keeping youth have ever homely wits. -The Two Gentleman of Verona. Act i. Sc. 1.

A snapper-up of unconsidered trifles. -The Winter's Tale. Act iv. Sc. 3.

A snapper-up of unconsidered trifles. -The Winter's Tale. Act iv. Sc. 3.

A mad fellow met me on the way and told me I had unloaded all the gibbets and pressed the read more

A mad fellow met me on the way and told me I had unloaded all the gibbets and pressed the dead bodies. No eye hath seen such scarecrows. I 'll not march through Coventry with them, that 's flat: nay, and the villains march wide betwixt the legs, as if they had gyves on; for indeed I had the most of them out of prison. There 's but a shirt and a half in all my company; and the half-shirt is two napkins tacked together and thrown over the shoulders like an herald's coat without sleeves. -King Henry IV. Part I. Act iv. Sc. 2.

Men are April when they woo, December when they wed: maids are May when they are maids, but the sky read more

Men are April when they woo, December when they wed: maids are May when they are maids, but the sky changes when they are wives. -As You Like It. Act iv. Sc. 1.

I met a fool i' the forest, A motley fool. -As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 7.

I met a fool i' the forest, A motley fool. -As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 7.

This figure that thou here seest put,
It was for gentle Shakespeare cut,
Wherein the graver had read more

This figure that thou here seest put,
It was for gentle Shakespeare cut,
Wherein the graver had a strife
With Nature, to outdo the life:
Oh, could he but have drawn his wit
As well in brass, as he has hit
His face, the print would then surpass
All that was ever writ in brass;
But since he cannot, reader, look
Not on his picture, but his book.