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And
Cassandra Laughed
[Troilus and Cressida]
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Here
the author has thrown in a pinch of irony. Cassandra is a prophetess
cursed by Apollo so that no one ever believes her predictions. Now,
she knows full well what terrible fates await her family so it’s
remarkable she can laugh at anything, especially at a really bad joke by
her brother, Troilus.
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Beatrice
and Benedick
[Much Ado About Nothing]
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Beatrice:
Against my will, I am sent to bid you come in to dinner.
Benedick: Fair Beatrice, I thank you for your pains.
Beatrice: I took no more pains for those thanks, than you take
pains to thank me; if it had been painful I would not have come.
Benedick: You take pleasure, then, in the message?
Beatrice: Yea, just so much as you may take upon a knife’s
point...
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Evolution
of the Spirit
[The Tempest]
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The
slave, Caliban, and the magician, Prospero, evolve toward the state of the
perfect spirit, Ariel. Caliban, who had fallen in with a bad crowd,
is redeemed by foregoing revenge against his master, and Prospero, who is
influenced by Ariel, is redeemed by foregoing revenge against his sworn
enemies. Neither quite reaches Ariel's level, but they both
progress.
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A Most
Humorous Sadness
[As You Like It]
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Jaques
(pronounced Jay-kweez) is questioned about his melancholy nature by
Rosalind. He replies that the “contemplation of my travels...wraps
me in a most humorous sadness.” Rosalind understands and says that
a traveler who has sold his own lands to see those of other men will
“have rich eyes and poor hands”.
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A
Poisonous Mineral
[Othello]
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Iago
feeds his poisonous suggestions to his general, Othello, who comes to
believe that his wife, Desdemona, has been unfaithful. This is an
example of a scoundrel whose villainy is so powerful that it can corrupt
an innocent character, inciting him to disastrous jealousy.
Iago: For that I do suspect the lusty Moor hath leap’d
into my seat; the thought whereof doth, like a poisonous mineral, gnaw my
inwards; and nothing can or shall content my soul, till I am even’d with
him, wife for wife; Or failing so, yet that I put the Moor at least into a
jealousy so strong that judgment cannot cure.
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A
Strumpet's Fool
[Antony and Cleopatra]
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Philo:
Take but good note, and you shall see in him
The triple pillar of the world transformed
Into a strumpet’s fool: behold and see.
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As If We
Were God’s Spies
[King Lear]
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Lear
and his daughter, Cordelia, have been taken as prisoners. In the midst of his insanity, Lear has a remarkable insight
about the transitiveness of wealth and power. “We two alone will sing like birds in the cage...and
we’ll wear out, in a walled prison, packs and sects of great ones, that
ebb and flow by the moon."
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Help Him
to His Grave
[Richard II]
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Bushy:
Old John of Gaunt is grievous sick, my lord...
Richard: Now put it, heaven, in his physician’s mind
To help him to his grave immediately!
The lining of his coffers shall make coats
To deck our soldiers for these Irish wars.
Come, gentlemen, let’s all go visit him:
Pray God, we may make haste, and come too late!
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Polonius
and the Madman
[Hamlet]
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Hamlet:
Do you see that cloud, that’s almost in shape like a camel?
Polonius: By the mass, and it is like a camel, indeed.
Hamlet: Methinks, it is like a weasel.
Polonius: It is backed like a weasel.
Hamlet: Or, like a whale?
Polonius: Very like a whale.
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Portia's
Dilemma
[The Merchant of Venice]
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Portia's
father has specified that in order to win her hand in marriage a suitor
must choose the casket that holds her portrait. There are three
caskets on the table - gold, silver, and lead. Portia knows that the
lead casket holds her portrait and, with Bassanio (her choice for a
husband) doing the choosing, she might offer some subtle hints. She
isn't the type to leave things to chance or to a suitor who isn't the
brightest guy in the world. Nerissa, her maid, watches with
glee.
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Robin’s
Mistake
[A Midsummer-Night’s Dream]
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Oberon:
Hast thou the flower, welcome wanderer?
... Take thou some of it, and seek through this grove;
A sweet Athenian lady is in love
With a disdainful youth: anoint his eyes
... that he may prove
more fond on her, than she upon her love.
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Slumbery
Agitation
[Macbeth]
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Gentlewoman:
...I have seen her rise from her bed, throw her nightgown upon her, unlock
her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon it, afterwards seal it,
and again return to bed; yet all this while in a most fast sleep.
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The Head
That Wears a Crown
[Henry IV, Part 2]
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Henry
can't sleep. His conscience is probably bothering him - he has
killed a few people, such as his predecessor, Richard II. He is also
concerned about his worthless, playboy son, Prince Hal. Still, it
seems to Henry that the king, of all people, should be granted a sound
sleep. All of this results in the greatest whining soliloquy ever
written.
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The Spider
and the Painted Queens
[Richard III]
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Richard
confronts Queen Margaret and Queen Elizabeth. Both of the queens
hate Richard and they also feel powerless and vulnerable with respect to
Richard. Margaret directs some of her wrath toward Elizabeth who has
been trying to appease the villain. Margaret calls Elizabeth
"poor painted queen" and berates her for feeding sugar to the
venomous "bottled spider" (Act I, Scene iii).
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The
Tickled Trout
[Twelfth Night]
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Malvolio
is pompous and conceited and nearly half the characters in the play
conspire to “make a contemplative idiot of him”. They convince
him that his boss, Olivia, is in love with him and that she requests he
wear cross-gartered yellow stockings and smile at all times. When he
shows up like this, Olivia thinks he has lost his mind.
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The
Warning
[Julius Caesar]
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Caesar:
Set on; and leave no ceremony out.
Soothsayer: Caesar.
Caesar: Ha! Who calls?
Casca: Bid every noise be still. Peace yet again.
Caesar: Who is in the press that calls on me?
I hear a tongue, shriller than all the music…
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