PITY.

Those that can pity, here

May, if they think it well, let fall a tear ;
The subject will deserve it.

But if there be

H.VIII. prologue

Yet left in heaven as small a drop of pity,
As a wren's eye, fear'd gods, a part of it!
And pity, like a naked new-born babe,
Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, hors'd
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,
That tears shall drown the wind.

Cym. iv. 2.

M. i. 7.

H.VIII. ii. 3.

If ever you have look'd on better days;

A. Y. ii. 7.

If ever been where bells have knoll'd to church
If ever sat at any good man's feast;
If ever from your eye-lids wip'd a tear,
And know what 'tis to pity and be pitied;
Let gentleness my strong enforcement be.
A begging prince what beggar pities not?
Had not God, for some strong purpose, steel'd
The hearts of men, they must perforce have melted,
And barbarism itself have pitied him.

If thou tell'st this heavy story right,

Upon my soul the hearers will shed tears;

Yea, even my foes will shed fast falling tears,

R. III. i. 4.

R. II. v. 2

And say,—Alas, it was a piteous deed! H.VI. PT. III. i. 4.

I show it most of all when I show justice;

For then I pity those I do not know,

Which a dismiss'd offence would after gall;

And do him right, that, answering one foul wrong

Lives not to act another.

M. M. ii. 2.

Pity's sleeping:

Strange times, that weep with laughing, not with weeping!

But, I perceive,

Men must learn now with pity to dispense;

For policy sits above conscience.

The dint of pity.

Tear-falling pity.

T. A. iv. 3.

T. A. iii. 2.

J. C. iii. 2.

R. III. iv. 2.

Cym. 1.7.

O dearest soul! your cause doth strike my heart
With pity, that doth make me sick.

PLACE AND GREATNESS.

O place and greatness, millions of false eyes
Are struck upon thee! volumes of report

Run with these false and most contrarious quests
Upon thy doings! thousand 'scapes of wit
Make thee the father of their idle dreams,
And rack thee in their fancies!

PLANETARY INFLUENCE.

M. M. iv. 1.

This is the excellent foppery of the world; that, when we are sick in fortune, (often the surfeit of our own beha viour) we make guilty of our disasters, the sun, the moon, and the stars as if we were villains by necessity; fools, by heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and treachers, by spherical predominance; drunkards, liars, and adulterers, by an enforced obedience of planetary influence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on: An admirable evasion of man, to lay his goatish disposition to the charge of a star!

Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie,

Which we ascribe to heaven: the fated sky
Gives us free scope; only, doth backward pull
Our slow designs, when we ourselves are dull.
Men at some time are masters of their fates:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.

Melancholy is the nurse of frenzy,

Therefore, they thought it good you hear a play,
And frame your mind to mirth and merriment,
Which bars a thousand harms, and lengthens life.

Is there no play,

To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?
Shall's have a play of this?

What, a play toward? I'll be an auditor.

The play's the thing,

Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.

K. L. i. 2.

A. W. i. 1.

J.C. i. 2.

T. S. IND. 2.

M. N. v. 1.
Cym. v.5.

M. N. iii. 1.

H. ii. 2.

Good, my lord, will you see the players well bestow'd? Do you hear, let them be well used; for they are the abstract, and brief chronicles, of the time: After your death, you were better have a bad epitaph, than their ill report while you live. H. ii. 2.

The players cannot keep counsel; they'll tell all. H. iii. 2.

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,

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

PLEDGE.

My heart is thirsty for that noble pledge.

PLODDING.

Why, universal plodding prisons up
The nimble spirits in the arteries;

As motion, and long-during action, tires
The sinewy vigour of the traveller.

PLOT.

W. T. iii. 2.

T. C. ii. 2.

J.C. iv. 3.

L. L. iv. 3.

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. I. 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. 2.

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.

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.

is the most

A. Y. iii. 3.

R. J. v. 1.

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.

H.VIII. iii. 2.

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,

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?

POMP.

L. L. v. 2.

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.