“I sworn thee fair, and thought thee brightWho art cold as Hel, as dark as night”
“For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright,Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.”
“Two households, both alike in dignity,In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.From forth the fatal loins of these two foesA pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;Whole misadventured piteous overthrowsDo with their death bury their parents' strife.The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,And the continuance of their parents' rage,Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;The which if you with patient ears attend,What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.”
“Here is the indictment of the good Lord Hastings;Which in a set hand fairly is engross'dThat 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 grosThat 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.”
“Unless hours were cups of sack, and minutes capons, and clocks the tongues of bawds, and dials the signs of leaping-houses, and the blessed sun himself a fair hot wench in flame-colored taffeta, I see no reason why thou shouldst be so superfluous to demand the time of the day.”
“Fairies, black, grey, green, and white, You moonshine revellers, and shades of night, You orphan heirs of fixed destiny, Attend your office and your quality. William Shakespeare”