The White Devil

What a strange creature is a laughing fool, As if a man were created to no use But only to show his teeth.

There's nothing of so infinite vexation as man's own thoughts

Oft gay and honoured robes those tortures try: We think caged birds sing, when indeed they cry.

Condemn you me for that the duke did love me? So may you blame some fair and crystal river, For that some melancholic distracted man Hath drowned himself in’t.

O that I were a man, or that I had power To execute my apprehended wishes! I would whip some with scorpions.

Princes give rewards with their own hands, But death or punishment by the hands of other.

Ha, ha, ha, thou entanglest thyself in thine own work like a silkworm.

As in this world there are degrees of evils, So in this world there are degrees of devils.

We endure the strokes like anvils or hard steel, Till pain itself make us no pain to feel.

Fortune’s a right whore: If she give aught, she deals it in small parcels, That she may take away all at one swoop.

Right! There are plots. Your beauty! Oh, ten thousand curses on 't! How long have I beheld the devil in crystal! Thou hast led me, like an heathen sacrifice, With music, and with fatal yokes of flowers, To my eternal ruin. Woman to man Is either a god, or a wolf.

Call for the robin-red-breast and the wren, Since o'er shady groves they hover, And with leaves and flow'rs do cover The friendless bodies of unburied men. Call unto his funeral dole The ant, the field-mouse and the mole, To rear him hillocks that shall keep him warm, And (when gay tombs are robbed) sustain no harm, But keep the wolf far thence, that's foe to men, For with his nails he'll dig them up again. Let holy Church receive him duly, Since he paid the church-tithes truly.

Let all that do ill, take this precedent: Man may his fate foresee, but not prevent. And of all axioms this shall win the prize, 'Tis better to be fortunate than wise.

Take it for words. O woman’s poor revenge, Which dwells but in the tongue!

What's a whore? She's like the guilty counterfeited coin Which whosoe're first stamps it brings in trouble all that receive it.

There's but three furies found in spacious hell, But in a great man’s breast three thousand dwell

Know this, and let it somewhat raise your spite, Through darkness diamonds spread their richest light.

And great men do great good, or else great harm.

O me, this place is hell.

You know what whore is. Next the devil adultery, Enters the devil murder.

Whether I resolve to fire, earth, water, air, Or all the elements by scruples, I know not, Nor greatly care. - Shoot. Shoot! Of all deaths, the violent death is best; For from ourselves it steals ourselves so fast, The pain, once apprehended, is quite past.