PLEA.

Since what I am to say, must be but that
Which contradicts my accusation; and
The testimony on my part, no other

But what comes from myself, it shall scarce boot me
To say,-Not Guilty:-mine integrity

Being counted falsehood, shall, as I express it,
Be so receiv'd. But thus,-if powers divine
Behold our human actions (as they do)

I doubt not then, but innocence shall make
False accusation blush, and tyranny
Tremble at patience.

PLEASURE AND REVENGE, RECKLESSNESS OF.

Pleasure, and revenge,

W. T. iii. 2.

Have ears more deaf than adders to the voice
Of any true decision.

T. C. ii. 2.

By the Lord, our plot is a good plot as ever was laid; our friends true and constant: a good plot, good friends, and full of expectation: an excellent plot, very good friends. H. IV. PT. 1. ii. 3.

Who cannot be crush'd with a plot!

So so; these are the limbs of the plot.

PLUNDERERS.

Hear me, you wrangling pirates, that fall out

A. W. iv. 3.

H. VIII. i. 1.

In sharing that which you have pill'd from me. R. III. i. 3.

POETRY. POET (See also BALLAD-Monger, RHYMSTER).

Our poesy is a gum, which oozes

From whence 'tis nourish'd: the fire i'the flint

Shows not, till it be struck; our gentle flame
Provokes itself, and, like the current, flies
Each bound it chafes.

Own'st thou the heavenly influence of the muse,
Spend not thy fury on some worthless song;
Dark'ning thy power to lend base subjects light.

T. A. i. 1.

Poems.

POETRY, POET,-continued.

Assist me, some extemporal god of rhyme, for, I am sure, I shall turn sonneteer. Devise, wit; write, pen; for I am for whole volumes in folio.

L. L. i. 2.

The elegancy, facility, and golden cadence of poesy.

And wait the season, and observe the times,
And spend his prodigal wits in bootless rhymes.
The force of heaven-bred poesy.

Audrey. I do not know what poetical is:
indeed and word? Is it a true thing?
Touchstone.-No, truly; for the truest poetry

feigning.

POISON.

Let me have

L. L. iv. ?.

L.L. v. 2. T. G. iii. 2.

Is

it honest

A dram of poison; such soon-speeding geer
As will disperse itself through all the veins,
That the life-weary taker may fall dead;
And that the trunk may be discharg'd of breath
As violently, as hasty powder fir'd

Doth hurry from the fatal cannon's womb.

is the mist A. Y. iii. 3.

R. J. v. 1.

No cataplasm so rare,

Collected from all simples that have virtue

Under the moon, can save the thing from death,
That is but scratch'd withal.

POLICY.

H. iv. 7.

The devil knew not what he did, when he made man politic.

Plague of your policy!

You sent me deputy for Ireland;

Far from his succour, from the king, from all

T. A. iii. 3.

That might have mercy on the fault thou gav'st him;
Whilst your great goodness, out of holy pity,
Absolv'd him with an axe.

POLITICIANS.

Get thee glass eyes;

And, like a scurvy politician, seem

To see the things thou dost not.

They'll sit by the fire, and presume to know
What's done i'the Capitol: who's like to rise,

H.VIII. iii. 2

K. L. iv. 6.

Who thrives, and who declines; side factions, and give out
Conjectural marriages; making parties strong,
And feebling such as stand not in their liking,
Below their cobbled shoes.

C. i. 1.

POLISHED MAN.

Behaviour, what wert thou

Till this man show'd thee? and what art thou now?

L. L. v. 2.

POMP.
Why, what is pomp, rule, reign, but earth and dust?
And, live we how we can, yet die we must.

AND POVERTY.

Take physic, pomp;

H.VI. PT. III. v. 2.

Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel;
That thou mayest shake the superflux to them,
And show the heavens more just.

POPULARITY (See also APPLAUSE, MOB).

All tongues speak of him, and the bleared sights
Are spectacled to see him.

Stalls, bulks, windows,

Are smother'd up, leads fill'd, and ridges hors'd
With variable complexions; all agreeing
In earnestness to see him.

Had I so lavish of my presence been,
So common hackney'd in the eyes of men,
So stale and cheap to vulgar company;
Opinion, that did help me to the crown,
Had still kept loyal to possession,
And left me in reputeless banishment,
A fellow of no mark, nor likelihood.
By being seldom seen, I could not stir,
But, like a comet, I was wonder'd at:
That men would tell their children, That is he;
Others would say, Where? which is Bolingbroke?
And then I stole all courtesy from heaven,
And dress'd myself in such humility,

That I did pluck allegiance from men's hearts,
Loud shouts and salutations from men's mouths,
Even in the presence of the crowned king.
Thus did I keep my person fresh and new;
My presence, like a robe pontifical,

Ne'er seen, but wonder'd at: and so my state,
Seldom, but sumptuous, showed like a feast;
And won, by rareness, such solemnity.

The skipping king, he ambled up and down,
With shallow jesters, and rash bavin wits,
Soon kindled, and soon burn'd: carded his state;
Mingled his royalty with carping fools;

Had his great name profaned with his scorns;
And gave his countenance, against his name,

K. L. iii. 4

C. ii. 1.

C. ii. 1.

POPULARITY,-continued.

To laugh at gibing boys, and stand the push
Of every beardless vain comparative:
Grew a companion to the common streets,
Enfeoff'd himself to popularity:

That being daily swallowed by men's eyes,
They surfeited with honey; and began

To loathe the taste of sweetness, whereof a little
More than a little is by much too much.
So, when he had occasion to be seen,

He was but as the cuckoo is in June,

Heard, not regarded; seen, but with such eyes,

As, sick and blunted with community,

Afford no extraordinary gaze,

Such as is bent on sun-like majesty

When it shines seldom in admiring eyes. H. IV. PT. 1. iii. 2.

I have seen

The dumb men throng to see him, and the blind
To hear him speak: the matrons flung their gloves,
Ladies and maids their scarfs and handkerchiefs,
Upon him as he pass'd: the nobles bended,
As to Jove's statue; and the commons made

A shower, and thunder, with their caps and shouts.

He's lov'd of the distracted multitude,
Who like not in their judgment, but their eyes;
And, where 'tis so, the offender's scourge is weigh'd
But never the offence.

It hath been taught us from the primal state,
That he, which is, was wish'd until he were;

C. ii. 1.

H. iv. 3.

C. v. 5.

And the ebb'd man, ne'er loved, till ne'er worth love,
Comes dear'd by being lack'd. This common body,
Like a vagabond flag upon the stream,

Goes to, and back, lackeying the varying tide,
To rot itself with motion.

Such a noise arose
As the shrouds make at sea in a stiff tempest,
As loud, and to as many tunes: hats, cloaks,
(Doublets, I think,) flew up; and had their faces
Been loose, this day they had been lost.

Every wretch, pining and pale before,
Beholding him, plucks comfort from his looks;
A largess universal, like the sun,

A. C. i. 4.

H. VIII. iv. 1

POPULARITY,-continued.

His lib'ral eye doth give to every one,
Thawing cold fear.

H.V. iv. chorus.

Then, as I said, the Duke, great Bolingbroke,
Mounted upon a hot and fiery steed,

Which his aspiring rider seemed to know,

With slow, but stately pace, kept on his course;

While all tongues cry'd,-God save thee, Bolingbroke!
You would have thought the very windows spake

So many greedy looks of young and old
Through casements darted their desiring eyes
Upon his visage ;-and that all the walls,
With painted imagʼry, had said at once,—
JESU preserve thee: Welcome, Bolingbroke!
Whilst he, from one side to the other turning,
Bare-headed, lower than his proud steed's neck,
Bespake them thus:-I thank you, countrymen ;
And thus still doing, thus he passed along.

R. II. v, 2.

If the tag-rag people did not clap him, and hiss him, according as he pleased, and displeased them, as they use to do the players in the theatre, I am no true man. J.C. i. 2.

Marry, before he fell down when he perceived the common herd was glad he refused the crown, he plucked me ope his doublet, and offered them his throat to cut. An I had been a man of any occupation, if I would not have taken him at his word, I would I might go to hell, among the rogues; and so he fell. When he came to himself again, he said, If he had done, or said, anything amiss, he desired their worships to think it was his infirmity. Three or four wenches, where I stood, cried, Alas, good soul,—and forgave him with all their hearts. J.C. i. 2.

Since the wisdom of their choice, is rather to have my hat than my heart, I will practise the insinuating nod, and be off to them most counterfeitly; that is, Sir, I will counterfeit the bewitchment of some popular man, and give it bountifully to the desirers.

The rabble call him lord:
And, as the world were now but to begin,
Antiquity forgot, custom not known,
The ratifiers and props of every word,

They cry,-Choose we; Laertes shall be king!

Now, when the lords, and barons of the realm,
Perceiv'd Northumberland did lean to him,
The more and less came in with cap and knee;
Met him in boroughs, cities, villages;
Attended him on bridges, stood in lanes,

C. ii. 3.

H. iv. 5.