Henry VI - Memorable Quotes - John

Henry VI Part 1

Hung be the heavens with black, yield day to night.  I i

I think, by some gimmers of device

Their arms are set like clocks, still to stride on;

Else ne'er could they hold out so as they do. 1 ii

Expect Saint Martin's summer, halcyon days.  1 ii

Glory is like a circle in the water,

Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself

Till by broad spreading it disperse to nought. I ii

Thy promises are like Adonis' gardens

That one day bloomed and fruitful were the next  1 iv

And I have heard it said, unbidden guests

Are often welcomed when they are gone II ii

Faith, I have been a truant in the law,

And never yet could frame my will to it;

And therefore frame the law unto my will  II iv

Between two hawks, which flies the higher pitch;

Between two dogs, which hath the deeper mouth;

Between two blades, which bears the better temper;

Between two horses, which doth bear him best;

Between two girls, which hath the merriest eye;

I have perhaps some shallow spirit of judgement;

But in these nice sharp quillits of the law,

Good faith, I am no wiser than a daw.  II iv

I'll note you in my book of memory.  II iv

These eyes, like lamps whose wasting oil is spent

Wax dim, so drawing to their exigent  II v

Just death, kind umpire of men's miseries,

With sweet enlargement doth dismiss me hence  II v

Comest thou with deep premeditated lines

With written pamphlets studiously devised?  III i

For friendly counsel cuts off many foes  III I

Undaunted spirit in a dying breast.  III ii

Care is no cure, but rather corrosive,

For things that are not to be remedied.  III iii

When first this order was ordain'd, my lords,

Knights of the Garter were of noble birth.

Valiant and virtuous, full of haughty courage,

Such as were grown to credit by the wars;

Not fearing death, nor shrinking for distress,

But always resolute in most extremes.

He then that is not furnish'd in this sort

Doth but usurp the sacred name of knight,

Profaning this most honourable order    IV I

I owe him little duty, and less love.  IV iv

Him that thou magnifiest with all these titles

Stinking and flyblown lies here at our feet.  IV vii

Marriage uncle! Alas my years are young!

And fitter is my study and my books

Than wanton dalliance with a paramour   V i

Of all base passions, fear is most accursed  V ii

She's beautiful and therefore to be woo'd

She is a woman, therefore to be won   V iii

For what is wedlock forced but a hell,

An age of discord and continual strife?

Whereas the contrary bringeth bliss,

And is a pattern of celestial peace.  V v

Henry VI Part 2

                        O Lord, that lends me life,

Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness!   I i

For Suffolk's Duke, may he be suffocate,

That dims the honour of this warlike isle  I i

While these do labour for their own preferment

Behoves it us to labour for the realm.  I i

Pirates may make cheap pennyworths of their pillage  I i

She bears a Duke's revenues on her back,

And in her heart she scorns our poverty.  I iii

Could I come near your beauty with my nails,

I could set my ten commandments in you face.   I iii

Deep night, dark night, the silent of the night,

The time of night when Troy was set on fire;

The time when screech-owls cry and ban-dogs howl

And spirits walk and Ghosts break up their graves,

That time best fits the work we have in hand.  I iv

Thus sometimes hath the brightest day a cloud;

And after summer evermore succeeds

Barren winter, with his wrathful nipping cold;

So cares and joys abound, as seasons fleet.  II iv

Small curs are not regarded when they grin;

But great men tremble when the lion roars;   III i

No 'tis the spring, and weeds are shallow-rooted

Suffer them now, and they'll o'ergrow the garden

And choke the herbs for want of husbandry III i

Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep,  III i

Henry, my lord is cold in great affairs,

Too full of foolish pity, and Gloucester's show

Beguiles him as the mournful crocodile

With sorrow snares relenting passengers;

Or as the snake roll'd in a flowering bank

With shining checkered slough, doth sting a child

That for the beauty thinks it excellent.   III i

Faster than spring-time showers comes thought on thought   III i

What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted;

Thrice is he arm'd that has his quarrel just,

And he but naked, though lock'd in in steel,

Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted   III ii

Well could I curse away a winter's night,

Though standing naked on a mountain top,

Where biting cold would never let grass grow,

And think it but a minute spent in sport.   III ii

Ah, what a sign it is of evil life,

Where death's approach is seen so terrible   III iii

He dies and makes no sign.   III iii

Forbear to judge, for we are sinners all.

Close up his eyes and draw the curtains close;

And let us all to meditation.   III iii

The gaudy, babbling and remorseful day

Is crept into the bosom of the sea;   IV i

Small things make base en proud  IV i

True nobility is exempt from fear,

More can I bear than you dare execute.   IV i

Great men oft die by vile Besonians:

A Roman sworder and banditto slave

Murdered sweet Tully; Brutus' bastard hand

Stabb'd Julius Caesar: savage islanders

Pompey the Great; and Suffolk dies by pirates   IV i

Cade:             Be brave then; for your captain is brave, and vows reformation.  There shall                      be in england seven halfpenny loaves sold for a penny; the three-hooped pot                       shall have ten hoops; and I will make it felony to drink small beer.   IV ii

Dick:               The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.

Cade              Nay, that I mean to do.  Is not this a lamentable thing, that of the skin of an                       innocent lamb should be made parchment?  That parchment, being scribbled                 o'er, should undo a man?  IV ii

Clerk:              Sir, I thank God, I have been so well brought up that I can write my name.

All:                  He hath confessed; away with him.  He's a villain and a traitor.

Cade:             Away with him, I say!  Hang him with his pen and ink-horn about his neck.

                                                                                                                        IV ii

Smith:                        Sir, he made a chimney in my father's house, and the bricks are alive at this                    day to testify it; therefore deny it not.   IV ii         

Cade:             We will not leave one lord, one gentleman;

                        Spare none but such as go in clouted shoon;

                        For they are thrifty honest men and such

                        As would, but that they dare not, take our parts.  IV ii

Say:                The trust I have is in my innocence

                        And therefore am I bold and resolute.  IV iv

Cade:             Thou hast most traitorously corrupted the youth of the realm in erecting a              grammar school; and whereas, before, our forefathers had no other books                 but the score and the tally, thou hast caused printing to be used, and,                                contrary to the King, his crown and dignity, thou hast built a paper-mill.  It will                        be proved to thy face that thou hast men about thee that usually talk of a                                noun and a verb, and such abominable words as no Christian ear can endure                       to hear.   IV vii

Cade:             Away with him!  Away with him!  He speaks Latin.    IV vii

Say:                Kent, in the Commentaries Caesar writ,

                        Is term'd the civilest place of all this isle;

                        Sweet is the country, because full of riches,

                        The people liberal, valiant, active, wealthy;  IV vii

Cade:             Was ever feather so lightly blown to and fro as this multitude?   IV viii

Was never subject long'd to be a king

As I do long and wish to be a subject   IV ix

Lord, who would live turmoiled in the court,

And may enjoy such quiet walks as these?   IV x

To lose thy youth in peace, and to achieve

The silver livery of advised age,

And in thy reverence and thy chair-days, thus

To die in ruffian battle.   V ii

Henry VI Part 3

Patience is for poltroons.   I i

How sweet a thing it is to wear a crown

Within whose circuit is Elysium

And all that poets feign of bliss and joy.   I ii

The sands are number'd that make up my life   I iv

'Tis beauty that doth oft make women proud;

But, God he knows, thy share thereof is small.   I iv

O tiger's heart wrapt in a woman's hide.  I iv

See how the morning opes her golden gates,

And takes her farewell of the glorious sun.   II i

And many strokes, though with a little axe,

Hew down and fell the hardest-timber'd oak.  II i

The smallest will turn being trodden on,

And doves will peck in safeguard of their brood.  II ii

            didst thou never hear

That things ill-got had ever bad success?

And happy always was it for that son

whose father for his hoarding went to hell?   II ii

Thou setter up and plucker down of kings  II iii

This battle fares like to the morning's war,

When dying clouds contend with growing light,

What time the shepherd, blowing of his nails,

Can neither call it perfect day or night.  II v

Would I were dead!  If God's good will were so;

For what is in this world but grief and woe?  II v

O God!  Methinks it were a happy life,

To be no better than a homely swain;

To sit upon a hill, as I do now,

To carve out dials quaintly, point by point,

Thereby to see the minutes how they run,

How many make the hour full complete;

How many hours brings about the day,

How many days will finish up the year'

How many years a mortal man may live.

When this is known, then to divide the times:

So many hours must I tend my flock'

So many hours must I take my rest;

So many hours must I contemplate;

So many hours must I sport myself;

So many days my ewes have been with young'

So many weeks ere the poor fools will ean;

So many years ere I shall shear the fleece;

So minutes, hours, days, months, and years,

Pass'd over to the end they were created,

Would bring white hairs unto a quiet grave,

Ah, what a life were this!  How sweet!  How lovely!

Gives not the hawthorn-bush a sweeter shade

To shepherds looking on their silly sheep,

Than doth a rich embroider'd canopy

To kings that fear their subject's treachery?

O yes, it doth; a thousand-fold it doth    II v

Ill blows the wind that profits nobody  II v

Keeper:          But if thou be a king, where is thy crown?

Henry:                        My crown is in my heart, not on my head;

                        Not deck'd with diamonds and Indian stones,

                        Nor to be seen; my crown is called content;

                        A crown it is that seldom kings enjoy.   III i

Like one that stands upon a promontory,

And spies a far-off shore where he would tread,

Wishing his foot were equal with his eye   III ii

I'll drown more sailors than the mermaid shall;

I'll slay more gazers then the basilisk;

I'll play the orator as well as Nestor,

Deveive more slily than Ulysses could,

And, like a Sinon, take another Troy.   III ii

                                    Yield not thy neck

To fortune's yoke, but let thy dauntless mind

Still ride in triumph over all mischance.  III iii

For how can tyrants safely govern home,

Unless abroad they purchase great alliance   III iii

Yet hasty marriage seldom proveth well.   IV i

Let us be backed with God and with the seas

Which He hath given for fence impregnable,   IV i

I hear, yet say not much, but think the more.   IV i

What fates impose, that men must needs abide;

It boots not to resist both wind and tide.   IV iii

This pretty lad will prove our country's bliss

His looks are full of peaceful majesty,

His head by nature framed to wear a crown.

His hand to wield a sceptre, and himself

Likely in time to bless a regal throne.   IV vi

A little fire is quickly trodden out;

Which, being suffer'd, rivers cannot quench.   IV viii

Like to his island girt in with the ocean,  IV viii

But whiles he thought to steal the single ten

The king was slily fingered from the deck!   V i

The harder matched, the greater victory.   V i

Why, what is pomp, rule, reign, but earth and dust

And, live we how we can, yet die we must.   V ii

For every cloud engenders not a storm.   V iii

Great lords, wise men ne'er sit and wail their loss

But cheerly seek how to redress their harms.

What though the mast be now blown overboard,

The cable broke, the holding anchor lost

And half our sailors swallow'd in the flood?

Yet lives our pilot still.   V iv

                        What cannot be avoided

'Twere childish weakness to lament, or fear.   V iv

So part we sadly in this troublous world,

To meet with joy in sweet Jerusalem.   V v

Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind;

The thief doth fear each bush an officer.  V vi

Down, down to hell; and say I sent thee thither,  V vi

Chosen for:

a)    Poetry

b)    Remembered phrases

c)    Used by Shakespeare in other plays and by other playwriters

d)    Amusement

e)    Expanded the character of the speaker, or of whom it was spoken about