MACBETH: If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me,

Without my stir.

— Macbeth, I, iii

Sonnet 140 - CXL
Be wise as thou art cruel; do not press
My tongue-tied patience with too much disdain;
Lest sorrow lend me words, and words express
The manner of my pity-wanting pain.
If I might teach thee wit, better it were,
Though not to love, yet, love to tell me so;
As testy sick men, when their deaths be near,
No news but health from their physicians know;
For, if I should despair, I should grow mad,
And in my madness might speak ill of thee;
Now this ill-wresting world is grown so bad,
Mad slanderers by mad ears believed be.
That I may not be so, nor thou belied,
Bear thine eyes straight, though thy proud heart go wide.

bot by @davidaugust

GLOUCESTER: 'Tis the time's plague, when madmen lead the blind.

— King Lear, IV, i

Sonnet 063 - LXIII
Against my love shall be as I am now,
With Time's injurious hand crush'd and o'erworn;
When hours have drain'd his blood and fill'd his brow
With lines and wrinkles; when his youthful morn
Hath travell'd on to age's steepy night;
And all those beauties whereof now he's king
Are vanishing, or vanished out of sight,
Stealing away the treasure of his spring;
For such a time do I now fortify
Against confounding age's cruel knife,
That he shall never cut from memory
My sweet love's beauty, though my lover's life:
His beauty shall in these black lines be seen,
And they shall live, and he in them still green.

bot by @davidaugust

A quotation from Shakespeare

DUKE:         If thou art rich, thou ’rt poor,
   For, like an ass whose back with ingots bows,
   Thou bear’st thy heavy riches but a journey,
   And death unloads thee.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Measure for Measure, Act 3, sc. 1, l. 26ff (3.1.26-29) (1604)

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/shakespeare-william/…

The 4th Duke of Norfolk's execution warrant, the tangent post to 'Commiserating With Mary'. Part of this reads like the Brave Sir Robin song in Holy Grail. A traitor's death at Tyburn was no fun, though in the end Tom was spared that end.

https://edevere17.com/250412-tangent-his-head-to-be-smitten-off/

#Shakespeare #ShakespeareAuthorship
#Oxfordian #VeroNihilVerius

HAMLET: How all occasions do inform against me,

And spur my dull revenge!

— Hamlet, IV, iv

Sonnet 086 - LXXXVI
Was it the proud full sail of his great verse,
Bound for the prize of all too precious you,
That did my ripe thoughts in my brain inhearse,
Making their tomb the womb wherein they grew?
Was it his spirit, by spirits taught to write
Above a mortal pitch, that struck me dead?
No, neither he, nor his compeers by night
Giving him aid, my verse astonished.
He, nor that affable familiar ghost
Which nightly gulls him with intelligence,
As victors of my silence cannot boast;
I was not sick of any fear from thence:
But when your countenance filled up his line,
Then lacked I matter; that enfeebled mine.

bot by @davidaugust

There's an outstanding production of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" by the Atlanta Shakespeare Company through April 27. There's a shipwreck, and twins, and mistaken identities, and romance. It was *great.* Lots of performances left, so don't miss it! #Shakespeare @atlshakespeareco.bsky.social

https://www.shakespearetavern.com/on-stage/company/twelfth-night/

"Liberty plucks justice by the nose,
The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart
Goes all decorum."
- William Shakespeare, "Measure for Measure" (Act 1, Scene 3)

I know Iago's refusal to give any reason for turning on Othello is supposed to be like the ultimate injustice or something, but I really can't help but feel that Shakespeare simply couldn't think up a satisfying explanation himself. #Shakespeare #Othello #Iago

Sonnet 011 - XI
As fast as thou shalt wane, so fast thou grow'st
In one of thine, from that which thou departest;
And that fresh blood which youngly thou bestow'st,
Thou mayst call thine when thou from youth convertest.
Herein lives wisdom, beauty, and increase;
Without this folly, age, and cold decay:
If all were minded so, the times should cease
And threescore year would make the world away.
Let those whom nature hath not made for store,
Harsh, featureless, and rude, barrenly perish:
Look whom she best endow'd, she gave the more;
Which bounteous gift thou shouldst in bounty cherish:
She carv'd thee for her seal, and meant thereby,
Thou shouldst print more, not let that copy die.

bot by @davidaugust

FLAVIUS: I bleed inwardly for my lord.

— Timon of Athens, I, ii

Warning: Mixing Montague and Capulet - dramatic euphoria followed by impulsive behaviour, potential strong feeling of self-harm for adolescents.

#RXLikeWarningsForRelationships
#HashTagGames #Shakespeare #RomeoAndJuliet
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1777

I like to call dead authors fun names. Like William #Shakespeare gets to be Billy Shakes.
Watching people have little mental fits is fun.

PROSPERO: The charm dissolves apace,

And as the morning steals upon the night,

Melting the darkness, so their rising senses

Begin to chase the ignorant fumes that mantle

Their clearer reason.

— The Tempest, V, i

Sonnet 025 - XXV
Let those who are in favour with their stars
Of public honour and proud titles boast,
Whilst I, whom fortune of such triumph bars
Unlook'd for joy in that I honour most.
Great princes' favourites their fair leaves spread
But as the marigold at the sun's eye,
And in themselves their pride lies buried,
For at a frown they in their glory die.
The painful warrior famoused for fight,
After a thousand victories once foiled,
Is from the book of honour razed quite,
And all the rest forgot for which he toiled:
Then happy I, that love and am beloved,
Where I may not remove nor be removed.

bot by @davidaugust