Vulgar words in Characters of Shakespeare's Plays (Page 1)
This book at a glance
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~ ~ ~ Sentence 104 ~ ~ ~
I had just prepared a second edition--such was called for--but then the Quarterly told the public that I was a fool and a dunce, and more, that I was an evil disposed person: and the public, supposing Gifford to know best, confessed that it had been a great ass to be pleased where it ought not to be, and the sale completely stopped.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 511 ~ ~ ~
These Witches can hurt the body; those have power over the soul.--Hecate in Middleton has a son, a low buffoon: the hags of Shakespeare have neither child of their own, nor seem to be descended from any parent.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 853 ~ ~ ~
I mock you not, by Heaven, &c. The part indeed would hardly be tolerated, even as a foil to The virtue and generosity of the other characters in the play, But for its indefatigable industry and inexhaustible resources, Which divert the attention of the spectator (as well as his own) from the end he has in view to the means by which it must be accomplished.--Edmund the Bastard in Lear is something of the same character, placed in less prominent circumstances.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 896 ~ ~ ~
Son of sixteen, Pluck the lin'd crutch from thy old limping sire, And with it beat his brains out!
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,282 ~ ~ ~
When 'his father's spirit was in arms', it was not a time for the son to make love in.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,432 ~ ~ ~
None, man; all idle; whores and knaves.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,457 ~ ~ ~
If our holiday mechanic rules the roast among his fellows, he is no less at home in his new character of an ass, 'with amiable cheeks, and fair large ears'.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,510 ~ ~ ~
Thus Bottom's head in the play is a fantastic illusion, produced by magic spells: on the stage, it is an ass's head, and nothing more; certainly a very strange costume for a gentleman to appear in.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,703 ~ ~ ~
It is the absence of this detestable quality that is the only relief in the character of Edmund the Bastard, and that at times reconciles us to him.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,750 ~ ~ ~
May not an ass know when the cart draws the horse?--Whoop, Jug, I love thee.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,763 ~ ~ ~
Saddle my horses; call my train together.-- Degenerate Bastard!
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,993 ~ ~ ~
Cordelia is hanged in prison by the orders of the bastard Edmund, which are known too late to be countermanded, and Lear dies broken-hearted, lamenting over her.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 2,051 ~ ~ ~
Fitzwater, thou art damn'd to hell for this.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 2,167 ~ ~ ~
I'll be damn'd for never a king's son in Christendom, P. Henry.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 2,234 ~ ~ ~
That he is old (the more the pity) his white hairs do witness it: but that he is (saving your reverence) a whore-master, that I utterly deny.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 2,768 ~ ~ ~
The accompaniment of the comic character of the Bastard was well chosen to relieve the poignant agony of suffering, and the cold, cowardly policy of behaviour in the principal characters of this play.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 2,773 ~ ~ ~
The character of the Bastard's comic humour is the same in essence as that of other comic characters in Shakespeare; they always run on with good things and are never exhausted; they are always daring and successful.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 3,020 ~ ~ ~
O, my Anthonio, I do know of these, That therefore only are reputed wise, For saying nothing; who, I am very sure, If they should speak, would almost damn those ears, Which hearing them, would call their brothers fools.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 3,098 ~ ~ ~
Sir, the year growing ancient, Not yet on summer's death, nor on the birth Of trembling winter, the fairest flowers o' the season Are our carnations, and streak'd gilly-flowers, Which some call nature's bastards: of that kind Our rustic garden's barren; and I care not To get slips of them.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 3,111 ~ ~ ~
Then make your garden rich in gilly-flowers, And do not call them bastards.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 3,182 ~ ~ ~
Simply the thing I am Shall make me live; who knows himself a braggart, Let him fear this; for it shall come to pass, That every braggart shall be found an ass.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 3,341 ~ ~ ~
He is a mixture of the ancient cynic philosopher with the modern buffoon, and turns folly into wit, and wit into folly, just as the fit takes him.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 3,519 ~ ~ ~
; That issue out of dust: happy thou art not; For what thou hast not, still thou striv'st to get; And what thou hast, forget'st; thou art not certain; For thy complexion shifts to strange effects, After the moon; if thou art rich, thou art poor; For, like an ass, whose back with ingots bows, Thou bear'st thy heavy riches but a journey, And death unloads thee: friend thou hast none; For thy own bowels, which do call thee sire, The mere effusion of thy proper loins, Do curse the gout, serpigo, and the rheum, For ending thee no sooner: thou hast nor youth, nor age; But, as it were, an after-dinner's sleep, Dreaming on both: for all thy blessed youth Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms Of palsied eld; and when thou art old, and rich, Thou hast neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty, To make thy riches pleasant.