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I remember, the players have often mentioned it as an honour to Shakespeare, that in his writing he never plotted out a line. My answer hath been, would he had blotted a thousand.

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.

For a good poet's made, as well as born, And such wast thou! Look how the father's face Lives in his issue; even so the race Of Shakespeare's mind and manner brightly shine In his well-turned and true-filed lines; In each of which he seems to shake a lance, As brandished at the eyes of ignorance.

He was not of an age, but for all time! And all the Muses still were in their prime, When, like Apollo, he came forth to warm Our ears, or like a Mercury to charm!

Nature herself was proud of his designs, And joyed to wear the dressing of his lines! Which were so richly spun, and woven so fit, As since, she will vouchsafe no other wit.

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

I have no other but a woman's reason: I think him so, because I think him so. -The Two Gentleman of Verona. Act i. Sc. 2.

O, how this spring of love resembleth The uncertain glory of an April day! -The Two Gentleman of Verona. Act i. Sc. 3.

And if it please you, so; if not, why, so. -The Two Gentleman of Verona. Act ii. Sc. 1.

O jest unseen, inscrutable, invisible, As a nose on a man's face, or a weathercock on a steeple. -The Two Gentleman of Verona. Act ii. Sc. 1.

She is mine own, And I as rich in having such a jewel As twenty seas, if all their sand were pearl, The water nectar, and the rocks pure gold. -The Two Gentleman of Verona. Act ii. Sc. 4.

He makes sweet music with th' enamell'd stones, Giving a gentle kiss to every sedge He overtaketh in his pilgrimage. -The Two Gentleman of Verona. Act ii. Sc. 7.

That man that hath a tongue, I say, is no man, If with his tongue he cannot win a woman. -The Two Gentleman of Verona. Act iii. Sc. 1.

Except I be by Sylvia in the night, There is no music in the nightingale. -The Two Gentleman of Verona. Act iii. Sc. 1.

A man I am, cross'd with adversity. -The Two Gentleman of Verona. Act iv. Sc. 1.

Is she not passing fair? -The Two Gentleman of Verona. Act iv. Sc. 4.

How use doth breed a habit in a man! -The Two Gentleman of Verona. Act v. Sc. 4.

O heaven! were man But constant, he were perfect. -The Two Gentleman of Verona. Act v. Sc. 4.

Come not within the measure of my wrath. -The Two Gentleman of Verona. Act v. Sc. 4.

I will make a Star-chamber matter of it. -The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act i. Sc. 1.