Your tittle-tattlers, and those who listen to slander, by my good
will should all be hanged--the former by their read more

Your tittle-tattlers, and those who listen to slander, by my good
will should all be hanged--the former by their tongues, the
latter by the ears.
[Lat., Homines qui gestant, quique auscultant crimina,
Si meo arbitratu liceat, omnes pendeant,
Gestores linguis, auditores auribus.]

I will be hanged if some eternal villain,
Some busy and insinuating rogue,
Some cogging, cozening slave, read more

I will be hanged if some eternal villain,
Some busy and insinuating rogue,
Some cogging, cozening slave, to get some office,
Have not devised this slander.

No, 'tis slander,
Whose edge is sharper than the sword, whose tongue
Outvenoms all the worms of read more

No, 'tis slander,
Whose edge is sharper than the sword, whose tongue
Outvenoms all the worms of Nile, whose breath
Rides on the posting winds and doth belie
All corners of the world. Kings, queens. and states,
Maids, matrons, nay, the secrets of the grave
This viperous slander enters.

To murder character is as truly a crime as to murder the body: the tongue of the slanderer is brother read more

To murder character is as truly a crime as to murder the body: the tongue of the slanderer is brother to the dagger of the assassin.

If I can do it
By aught that I can speak in his dispraise,
She shall not read more

If I can do it
By aught that I can speak in his dispraise,
She shall not long continue love to him.

That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect,
For slander's mark was ever yet the fair;
read more

That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect,
For slander's mark was ever yet the fair;
The ornament of beauty is suspect,
A crow that flies in heaven's sweetest air.
So thou be good, slander doth but approve
Thy worth the greater, being wooed of time;
For canker vice the sweetest buds doth love,
And thou present'st a pure unstained prime.

. . . For slander lives upon succession,
For ever housed where it gets possession.

. . . For slander lives upon succession,
For ever housed where it gets possession.

Have patience awhile; slanders are not long-lived. Truth is the child of time; ere long she shall appear to vindicate read more

Have patience awhile; slanders are not long-lived. Truth is the child of time; ere long she shall appear to vindicate thee.

Where it concerns himself,
Who's angry at a slander, makes it true.

Where it concerns himself,
Who's angry at a slander, makes it true.