“How Low am I, thou painted Maypole? Speak:How Low am I? I am not yet so LowBut that my Nails can reach unto thine Eyes”

“Alack, there lies more peril in thine eyeThan twenty of their swords: look thou but sweet,And I am proof against their enmity.”

“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!”

“Though I am not naturally honest, I am sometimes so by chance.”

“O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, / That I am meek and gentle with these butchers!”

“But I will wear my heart upon my sleeveFor daws to peck at: I am not what I am.”

“though I be but the prince of Wales, yet I am king of courtesy”