β
I can see he's not in your good books,' said the messenger.
'No, and if he were I would burn my library.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow, than a man swear he loves me.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
Let me be that I am and seek not to alter me.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
I do love nothing in the world so well as you- is not that strange?
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more.
Men were deceivers ever,
One foot in sea, and one on shore,
To one thing constant never.
Then sigh not so, but let them go,
And be you blithe and bonny,
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into hey nonny, nonny.
Sing no more ditties, sing no more
Of dumps so dull and heavy.
The fraud of men was ever so
Since summer first was leafy.
Then sigh not so, but let them go,
And be you blithe and bonny,
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into hey, nonny, nonny.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
For which of my bad parts didst thou first fall in love with me?
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man. He that is more than a youth is not for me, and he that is less than a man, I am not for him.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
There was a star danced, and under that was I born.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
Why, what's the matter,
That you have such a February face,
So full of frost, of storm and cloudiness?
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
I wish my horse had the speed of your tongue.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
I will live in thy heart, die in thy lap, and be buried in thy
eyesβand moreover, I will go with thee to thy uncleβs.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
Silence is the perfectest herald of joy: I were but little happy, if I could say how much. Lady, as you are mine, I am yours: I give away myself for
you and dote upon the exchange.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
What, my dear Lady Disdain! are you yet living?
Beatrice: Is it possible disdain should die while she hath
such meet food to feed it as Signior Benedick?
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
Love me!... Why?
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
For it falls out
That what we have we prize not to the worth
Whiles we enjoy it, but being lacked and lost,
Why, then we rack the value, then we find
The virtue that possession would not show us
While it was ours.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
She's right, of course. My mother usually is. She's a librarian.
β
β
Heather Vogel Frederick (Much Ado About Anne)
β
Tax not so bad a voice to slander music any more than once.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
there is hope in maybe.
Maybe.
Such a tiny word.
Such a powerful word.
β
β
Heather Vogel Frederick (Much Ado About Anne)
β
A miracle. Here's our own hands against our hearts. Come, I will have thee, but by this light I take thee for pity.
Beatrice: I would not deny you, but by this good day, I yield upon great persuasion, and partly to save your life, for I was told you were in a consumption.
Benedick: Peace. I will stop your mouth.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
Suffer love! A good ephitet! I do suffer love indeed, for I love thee against my will.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
You are thought here to the most senseless and fit man for the job.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
For man is a giddy thing, and this is my conclusion.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
When you depart from me sorrow abides and happiness takes his leave.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
Is it not strange that sheep's guts could hail souls out of men's bodies?
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
Officers, what offence have these men done?
DOGBERRY
Marry, sir, they have committed false report; moreover, they have spoken untruths; secondarily, they are slanders; sixth and lastly, they have
belied a lady; thirdly, they have verified unjust things; and, to conclude, they are lying knaves.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
O God, that I were a man! I would eat his heart in the marketplace.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
Well, every one can master a grief but he that has it.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
To be a well-favoured man is the gift of fortune; but to write and read comes by nature.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
Ha. "Against my will I am sent to bid you come into dinner." There's a double meaning in that.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
And to be merry best becomes you; for, out of question, you were born in
a merry hour.
No, sure, my lord, my mother cried; but then there
was a star danced, and under that was I born.
β
β
William Shakespeare
β
Against my will I am sent to bid you come in to dinner.
BENEDICK
Fair Beatrice, I thank you for your pains.
BEATRICE
I took no more pains for those thanks than you take
pains to thank me: if it had been painful, I would
not have come.
BENEDICK
You take pleasure then in the message?
BEATRICE
Yea, just so much as you may take upon a knife's
point ... You have no stomach,
signior: fare you well.
Exit
BENEDICK
Ha! 'Against my will I am sent to bid you come in
to dinner;' there's a double meaning in that...
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
There's little of the melancholy element in her, my lord: she is never sad but when she sleeps; and not ever sad then; for I have heard my daughter say, she hath often dreamt of unhappiness, and waked herself with laughing.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
The world must be peopled!
β
β
William Shakespeare
β
Time goes on crutches till love have all his rites.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
Then is courtesy a turncoat. But it is certain I am loved of all ladies, only you excepted: and I would I could find in my heart that I had not a hard heart; for, truly, I love none.
A dear happiness to women: they would else have been troubled with a pernicious suitor. I thank God and my cold blood, I am of your humour for that: I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
In sooth, I know not why I am so sad:
It wearies me; you say it wearies you;
But how I caught it, found it, or came by it,
What stuff 'tis made of, whereof it is born,
I am to learn;
And such a want-wit sadness makes of me,
That I have much ado to know myself.
β
β
William Shakespeare (The Merchant of Venice)
β
If her breath were as terrible as her terminations, there were no living near her, she would infect to the north star!
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
Done to death by slanderous tongue
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
Well, niece, I hope to see you one day fitted with a husband.
BEATRICE
Not till God make men of some other metal than earth. Would it not grieve a woman to be overmastered with a pierce of valiant dust? to make an account of her life to a clod of wayward marl? No, uncle, I'll none: Adam's sons are my brethren; and, truly, I hold it a sin to match in my kindred.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
Foul words is but foul wind, and foul wind is but foul breath, and foul breath is noisome; therefore I will depart unkissed.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
Speak low if you speak love.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
Why, i' faith, methinks she's too low for a high
praise, too brown for a fair praise and too little
for a great praise: only this commendation I can
afford her, that were she other than she is, she
were unhandsome; and being no other but as she is, I
do not like her. (Benedick, from Much Ado About Nothing)
β
β
William Shakespeare
β
I was born to speak all mirth and no matter.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
Well, then, go you into hell?
BEATRICE
No, but to the gate; and there will the devil meet me, like an old cuckold, with horns on his head, and say 'Get you to heaven, Beatrice, get you to heaven; here's no place for you maids:' so deliver I up my apes, and away to Saint Peter for the heavens; he shows me where the bachelors sit, and there live we as merry as the day is long.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
Yes, faith; it is my cousin's duty to make curtsy and say 'Father, as it please you.' But yet for all that, cousin, let him be a handsome fellow, or else make another curtsy and say 'Father, as it please me.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
Sweet Beatrice, wouldst thou come when I called thee?
BEATRICE
Yea, signior, and depart when you bid me.
BENEDICK
O, stay but till then!
BEATRICE
'Then' is spoken; fare you well now...
(Much Ado About Nothing)
β
β
William Shakespeare
β
It was wonderful flirting with him, all the razor-edged literary banter, like Beatrice and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing. A battle of wit, and a test, too.
β
β
Elizabeth Wein (Code Name Verity (Code Name Verity, #1))
β
Friendship is constant in all other things
Save in the office and affairs of love.
Therefore all hearts in love use their own tongues.
Let every eye negotiate for itself,
And trust no agent; for beauty is a witch
Against whose charms faith melteth into blood.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
There is more ado to interpret interpretations than to interpret things, and more books upon books than upon any other subject; we do nothing but comment upon one another. Every place swarms with commentaries; of authors there is great scarcity.
β
β
Michel de Montaigne (The Complete Essays)
β
By this hand, I love thee.
Beatrice
Use it for my love some other way than swearing by it.
β
β
William Shakespeare
β
If [God] send me no husband, for the which blessing I am at him upon my knees every morning and evening ...
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
Is he not approved in the height a villain that hath slandered, scorned, dishonoured my kinswoman? O that I were a man! What, bear her in hand until they come to take hands, and then, with public accusation, uncovered slander, unmitigated rancour - O God, that I were a man! I would eat his heart in the market-place.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
So you walk softly and look sweetly and say nothing. I am yours for the walk and especially when I walk away.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
Come, lady, come; you have lost the heart of Signior Benedick.
BEATRICE
Indeed, my lord, he lent it me awhile; and I gave him use for it, a double heart for his single one: marry, once before he won it of me with false dice, therefore your grace may well say I have lost it.
DON PEDRO
You have put him down, lady, you have put him down.
BEATRICE
So I would not he should do me, my lord, lest I should prove the mother of fools.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
There may be people who like centipedes... Personally, I would regard such an individual with deep suspicion. I have just petted my cat: "And how is this good little cat beast?" Now what sort of man or woman or monster would stroke a centipede on his underbelly? "And here is my good big centipede!" If such a man exists, I say kill him without more ado. He is a traitor to the human race.
β
β
William S. Burroughs (The Western Lands (The Red Night Trilogy,. #3))
β
there is always something fundamentally wrong with a rich man or a king who pretends to be religious. Let the poor and helpless invoke the gods. That is what the gods are forβto distract the attention of the weak from their otherwise intolerable miseries. When an emperor makes much ado about religion, he is either cracked or crooked.
β
β
Lloyd C. Douglas (The Robe)
β
No, sure, my lord, my mother cried, but then there was a star danced, and under that was I born.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
There are no faces truer than those that are so washed. How much better is it to weep at joy than to joy at weeping!
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
Neighbours, you are tedious.
DOGBERRY
It pleases your worship to say so, but we are the poor duke's officers; but truly, for mine own part, if I were as tedious as a king, I could find it in
my heart to bestow it all of your worship.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
Men from children nothing differ.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
CLYTEMNESTRA
What ails thee, raising this ado for us?
SLAVE
I say the dead are come to slay the living.
β
β
Aeschylus
β
The first thing the intellect does with an object is to class it along with something else. But any object that is infinitely important to us and awakens our devotion feels to us also as if it must be sui generis and unique. Probably a crab would be filled with a sense of personal outrage if it could hear us class it without ado or apology as a crustacean, and thus dispose of it. "I am no such thing," it would say; "I am MYSELF, MYSELF alone.
β
β
William James (The Varieties of Religious Experience)
β
I may chance have some
odd quirks and remnants of wit broken on me,
because I have railed so long against marriage: but
doth not the appetite alter? a man loves the meat
in his youth that he cannot endure in his age.
Shall quips and sentences and these paper bullets of
the brain awe a man from the career of his humour?
No, the world must be peopled. When I said I would
die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I
were married.
β
β
William Shakespeare
β
Pause awhile, And let my counsel sway you.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
And now, tell me, for which of my bad qualities did you first fall in love with me?β
βAll of them together,β she said. βThey maintained such a well organised state of evil that they wouldnβt allow any good quality to intermingle with them
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
Dost thou not suspect my place? Dost thou not suspect my years? O that he were here to write me down an ass! But masters, remember that I am an ass. Though it be not written down, yet forget not that I am an ass. No, thou villain, thou art full of piety, as shall be proved upon thee by good witness. I am a wise fellow, and which is more, an officer, and which is more, a householder, and which is more, as pretty a piece of flesh as any is in Messina, and one that knows the law, go to . . . and one that hath two gowns, and everything handsome about him. Bring him away. O that I had been writ down an ass!
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
For thee I'll lock up all the gates of love
And on my eyelids shall conjecture hang,
To turn all beauty into thoughts of harm,
And never shall it be more gracious.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
...Having no recourse, I feel back on Shakespeare. Leif would recognize it and understand the context properly. With my remaining few seconds of consciousness, I quoted Benedick from Much Ado About Nothing, who spoke these words to his former friend:
"you are a Villain: I jest not." and then I collapsed into a pool of my own blood.
β
β
Kevin Hearne (Tricked (The Iron Druid Chronicles, #4))
β
I should think this a gull, but that the white-bearded fellow speaks it; knavery cannot, sure, hide himself in such reverence.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
There is no measure in the occasion that breeds;
therefore the sadness is without limit.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
I am gone, though I am here. There is no love in you. Nay, I pray you let me go.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
If I had my mouth, I would bite; if I had my liberty, I would do my liking: in the meantime, let me be that I am, and seek not to alter me.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
Wooing, wedding, and repenting is as a Scotch jig, a measure, and a cinque-pace: the first suit is hot and hasty like a Scotch jig--and full as fantastical; the wedding, mannerly modest, as a measure, full of state and ancientry; and then comes repentance and with his bad legs falls into the cinque-pace faster and faster, till he sink into his grave.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
I wonder that you will still be talking, Signior Benedick: nobody marks you.
Benedick: What, my dear Lady Disdain! are you yet living?
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
She was remembering His gaze, those deep pools of blue, crystalline in nature, peering deep into her soul. She remembered the first night she had looked into that darkness β no, into that light in his eyes β they were level and straight, kind and compassionate, without any ado, Her hands in His, offerings of comfort and concern for Her station, the concern she felt for those close to Her, each to their own heaven or hell, and the law of attraction began to build.
β
β
Frank L. DeSilva (Tales of Love and LIght Here, Now, and All Ways)
β
We're constantly correcting, and correcting ourselves, most rigorously , because we recognize at every moment that we did it all wrong, how we acted all wrong, that everything to this point in time is a falsification, so we correct this falsification, and then we again correct the correction of this falsification and we correct the result of the correction of a correction and so forth, so Roithamer. But the ultimate correction is one we keep delaying, the kind others have made without ado from one minute to the next, I think, so Roithamer, the kind they could, by the time they no longer thought about it, because they were afraid even to think about it, but then they did correct themselves, like my cousin, like his father, my uncle, like all the others whom we knew, as we thought, whom we knew so thoroughly, yet we didn't really know all these peoples' characters, because their self-correction took us by surprise, otherwise we wouldn't have been surprised by their ultimate existential correction, their suicide.
β
β
Thomas Bernhard (Correction)
β
Every house should have a turret
β
β
Heather Vogel Frederick (Much Ado About Anne)
β
Youβre my home.
β
β
Samantha Young (Much Ado About You)
β
I don't purchase people with money, or hiss like a snake to attract their attention, all i do is to rest on my couch because i have the conviction that no human can progress with an exception without a power behind.
β
β
Michael Bassey Johnson
β
Ho! now you strike like the blind man;
t'was the boy that stole your meat,
and you'll beat the post.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
God help the noble Claudio! if he have caught the Benedick, it will cost him a thousand pound ere aβ be cured.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
He stopped and looked at her. "Your eyes are leaking."
"It's the flowers. They make me sneeze."
"Then let us be away from the garden. Open the door, love, if you will."
She obeyed, then froze halfway over the threshold. "What did you call me?"
"The first of countless endearments if you'll but stir yourself to hold our current course.
β
β
Lynn Kurland (Much Ado in the Moonlight (MacLeod, #9; de Piaget/MacLeod, #12))
β
I pray thee, cease thy counsel,
Which falls into mine ears as profitless
As water in a sieve: give not me counsel;
Nor let no comforter delight mine ear
But such a one whose wrongs do suit with mine:
... for, brother, men
Can counsel and speak comfort to that grief Which they themselves not feel; but, tasting it,
Their counsel turns to passion, which before
Would give preceptial medicine to rage,
Fetter strong madness in a silken thread,
Charm ache with air and agony with words.
No, no; 'tis all men's office to speak patience
To those that wring under the load of sorrow,
But no man's virtue nor sufficiency
To be so moral when he shall endure
The like himself. Therefore give me no counsel:
My griefs cry louder than advertisement.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
I had rather be a canker in a hedge than a rose in his grace; and it better fits my blood to be disdained of all than to fashion a carriage to rob love from any: in this, though I cannot be said to be a flattering honest man, it must not be denied but I am a plain-dealing villain. I am trusted with a muzzle and enfranchised with a clog; therefore I have decreed not to sing in my cage. If I had my mouth, I would bite; if I had my liberty, I would do my liking: in the meantime, let me be that I am, and seek not to alter me.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
Dr. Bone Specialist came in, made me stand up and hobble across the room, checked my reflexes, and then made me lie down on the table. He bent my right knee this way and that, up and down, all the way out to the side and in. Then he did the same with my left leg. He ordered X rays then started to leave the room. I panicked. I MUST GET DRUGS.
"What can I take for the pain?" I asked him before he got out the door.
"You can take some over the counter ibuprofen," he suggested. "But I wouldn't take more than nine a day."
I choked. Nine a day? I'd been popping forty. Nine a day? Like hell. I couldn't even go to the bathroom on my own, I hadn't slept in three weeks, and my normally sunny cheery disposition had turned into that of a very rabid dog. If I didn't get good drugs and get them now, it was straight to Shooter's World and then Walgreens pharmacy for me.
"I don't think you understand," I explained. "I can't go to work. I have spent the last four days with my mother who is addicted to QVC, watching jewelry shows, doll shows and make-up shows. I almost ordered a beef-jerky maker! Give me something, or I'm going to use your calf muscles to make the first batch!"
Without further ado, he hastily scribbled out a prescription for some codeine and was gone. I was happy.
My mother, however, had lost the ability to speak.
β
β
Laurie Notaro (The Idiot Girls' Action-Adventure Club: True Tales from a Magnificent and Clumsy Life)
β
That a woman conceived me, I thank her; that she brought me up, I likewise give her most humble thanks. But that I will have a recheat winded in my forehead or hang my bugle in an invisible baldrick, all women shall pardon me. Because I will not do them the wrong to mistrust any, I will do myself the right to trust none. And the fine is, for the which I may go the finer, I will live a bachelor.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
β
Adam, we hear, walked in easy fellowship with God in the cool of the evening and spoke to him as to a friend. This ordering of Adam to God meant that our first parent was effortlessly caught up in adoration. The term "adoration" comes from the Latin ado ratio, which in turn is derived from "ad ora" (to the mouth). To adore, therefore, is to be mouth to mouth with God, properly aligned to the divine source, breathing in God's life. When one is in the stance of adoration, the whole of one's life - mind, will, emotions, imagination, sexuality - becomes ordered and harmonized, much as the elements of a rose window arrange themselves musically around a central point.
β
β
Robert Barron
β
For the will, as that which is common to all, is for that reason also common: consequently, every vehement emergence of will is common, i.e. it demeans us to a mere exemplar of the species.
He, who on the other hand. who wants to be altogether uncommon, that is to say great, must never let a preponderant agitation of will take his consciousness altogether, however much he is urged to do so.
He must, e.g., be able to take note of the odious opinion of another without feeling his own aroused by it: indeed, there is no surer sign of greatness than ignoring hurtful or insulting expressions by attributing them without further ado, like countless other errors, to the speaker's lack of knowledge and thus merely taking note of them without feeling them.
β
β
Arthur Schopenhauer (Essays and Aphorisms)
β
Man,β said a thoughtless, ungodly English traveller to a North American Indian convert, βMan, what is the reason that you make so much of Christ, and talk so much about Him? What has this Christ done for you, that you should make so much ado about Him?β The converted Indian did not answer him in words. He gathered together some dry leaves and moss and made a ring with them on the ground. He picked up a live worm and put it in the middle of the ring. He struck a light and set the moss and leaves on fire. The flame soon rose and the heat scorched the worm. It writhed in agony, and after trying in vain to escape on every side, curled itself up in the middle, as if about to die in despair. At that moment the Indian reached forth his hand, took up the worm gently and placed it on his bosom. βStranger,β he said to the Englishman, βDo you see that worm? I was that perishing creature. I was dying in my sins, hopeless, helpless, and on the brink of eternal fire. It was Jesus Christ who put forth the arm of His power. It was Jesus Christ who delivered me with the hand of His grace, and plucked me from everlasting burnings. It was Jesus Christ who placed me, a poor sinful worm, near the heart of His love. Stranger, that is the reason why I talk of Jesus Christ and make much of Him. I am not ashamed of it, because I love Him.β If
β
β
J.C. Ryle (Holiness)
β
John Bunyan: "But one day, as I was passing in the field, and that too with some dashes on my conscience, fearing lest yet all was not right, suddenly this sentence fell upon my soul, Thy righteousness is in heaven; and methought withal, I saw, with the eyes of my soul, Jesus Christ at God's right hand; there, I say, as my righteousness; so that wherever I was, or whatever I was adoing, mGod could not say of me, He wants my righteousness, for that was just before him. I also saw, moreover, that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame that made my righteousness worse; for my righteousness was Jesus Christ himself, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." (Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, 35-36)
β
β
John Bunyan
β
Impatiently I waited for evening, when I might summon you to my presence. An unusualβ to meβ a perfectly new character, I suspected was yours; I desired to search it deeper, and know it better. You entered the room with a look and air at once shy and independent; you were quaintly dressβ much as you are now. I made you talk; ere long I found you full of strange contrasts. Your garb and manner were restricted by rule; your air was often diffident, and altogether that of one refined by nature, but absolutely unused to society, and a good deal afraid of making herself disadvantageously conspicuous by some solecism or blunder; yet, when addressed, you lifted a keen, a daring, and a glowing eye to your interlocutorβs face; there was penetration and power in each glance you gave; when plied by close questions, you found ready and round answers. Very soon you seemed to get used to me β I believe you felt the existence of sympathy between you and your grim and cross master, Jane; for it was astonishing to see how quickly a certain pleasant ease tranquilized your manner; snarl as I would, you showed no surprise, fear, annoyance, or displeasure, at my moroseness; you watched me, and now and then smiled at me with a simple yet sagacious grace I cannot describe. I was at once content and stimulated with what I saw; I liked what I had seen, and wished to see more. Yet, for a long time, I treated you distantly, and sought your company rarely, I was an intellectual epicure, and wished to prolong the gratification of making this novel and piquant acquaintance; besides, I was for a while troubled with a haunting fear that if I handled the flower freely its bloom would fade β the sweet charm of freshness would leave it. I did not then know that it was no transitory blossom, but rather the radiant resemblance of one, cut in an indestructible gem. Moreover, I wished to see whether you would seek me if I shunned you β but you did not; you kept in the school-room as still as your own desk and easel; if by chance I met you, you passed me as soon, and with as little token of recognition, as was consistent with respect. Your habitual expression in those days, Jane, was a thoughtful look; not despondent, fro you were not sickly; but not buoyant, for you had little hope, and no actual pleasure. I wondered what you thought of meβ or if you ever thought of me; to find this out, I resumed my notice of you. There was something glad in your glance, and genial in your manner, when you conversed; I saw you had a social heart; it was the silent school-roomβ it was the tedium of your life that made you mournful. I permitted myself the delight of being kind to you; kindness stirred emotion soon; your face became soft in expression, your tones gentle; I liked my name pronounced by your lips in a grateful, happy accent. I used to enjoy a chance meeting with you, Jane, at this time; there was a curious hesitation in your manner; you glanced at me with a slight troubleβ a hovering doubt; you did not know what my caprice might beβ whether I was going to play the master, and be sternβ or the friend, and be benignant. I was now too fond of you often to stimulate the first whim; and, when I stretched my hand out cordially, such bloom, and light, and bliss, rose to your young, wistful features, I had much ado often to avoid straining you then and there to my heart.
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Charlotte BrontΓ« (Jane Eyre)
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I do love nothing in the world so well as you: is
not that strange?
BEATRICE
As strange as the thing I know not. It were as
possible for me to say I loved nothing so well as
you: but believe me not; and yet I lie not; I
confess nothing, nor I deny nothing. I am sorry for my cousin.
BENEDICK
By my sword, Beatrice, thou lovest me.
BEATRICE
Do not swear, and eat it.
BENEDICK
I will swear by it that you love me; and I will make
him eat it that says I love not you.
BEATRICE
Will you not eat your word?
BENEDICK
With no sauce that can be devised to it. I protest
I love thee.
BEATRICE
Why, then, God forgive me!
BENEDICK
What offence, sweet Beatrice?
BEATRICE
You have stayed me in a happy hour: I was about to
protest I loved you.
BENEDICK
And do it with all thy heart.
BEATRICE
I love you with so much of my heart that none is
left to protest.
BENEDICK
Come, bid me do any thing for thee.
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William Shakespeare
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As regards structure, comedy has come a long way since Shakespeare, who in his festive conclusions could pair off any old shit and any old fudge-brained slag (see Claudio and Hero in Much Ado) and get away with it. But the final kiss no longer symbolizes anything and well-oiled nuptials have ceased to be a plausible image of desire. That kiss is now the beginning of the comic action, not the end that promises another beginning from which the audience is prepared to exclude itself. All right? We have got into the habit of going further and further beyond the happy-ever-more promise: relationships in decay, aftermaths, but with everyone being told a thing or two about themselves, busy learning from their mistakes. So, in the following phase, with the obstructive elements out of the way (DeForest, Gloria) and the consummation in sight, the comic action would have been due to end, happily. But who is going to believe that any more?
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Martin Amis (The Rachel Papers)
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I will not be sworn but love may transform me to an oyster,
but Iβll take my oath on it, till he have made an oyster of me,
he shall never make me such a fool. One woman is fair, yet
I am well; another is wise, yet I am well; another virtuous,
yet I am well; but till all graces be in one woman, one
woman shall not come in my grace. Rich she shall be, thatβs
certain; wise, or Iβll none; virtuous, or Iβll never cheapen
her; fair, or Iβll ever look on her; mild, or come not near
me; noble, or not I for an angel; of good discourse, an
excellent musician, and her hair shall be of what color it
please God. Ha! The Prince and Monsieur Love! I will hide
me in the arbor.
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William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing)
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Here is the indictment of the good Lord Hastings;
Which in a set hand fairly is engross'd
That it may be to-day read o'er in Paul's.
And mark how well the sequel hangs together:
Eleven hours I have spent to write it over,
For yesternight by Catesby was it sent me;
The precedent was full as long a-doing;
And yet within these five hours Hastings liv'd,
Untainted, unexamin'd, free, at liberty.
Here's a good world the while! Who is so gros
That cannot see this palpable device?
Yet who's so bold but says he sees it not?
Bad is the world; and all will come to nought,
When such ill dealing must be seen in thought.
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William Shakespeare (Richard III)
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She pulled back, but not abruptly. His eyes were the darkest indigo blue that she had ever seen. She let a faint smile curl on her lips. "You inquire how many kisses of yours would be enough, and more to satisfy me," she said, and was startled to hear a husky catch in her voice. "As many as the grains of Libyan sand that lie between hot Jupiter's oracleβ¦ as manyβ¦" She paused. The look in his eye had made her forget what she was saying. What came after hot oracle!
He didn't look sardonic now, but truly surprised. She had to leave. This was all entirely too intimate and uncomfortable.
"Alas," she said, gathering up her skirts again and turning toward the rockslide. "I have quite forgotten the next line, so we shall have to delay this learned discussion." He was at her shoulder in a moment, helping her over the stones.
"As many as the stars," he said, conversationally, as if they were talking of gardening, or Romans, or any number of polite topics. "As many as the stars, when the night is still, gazing down on secret human desires.
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Eloisa James (Much Ado About You (Essex Sisters, #1))