Virtue
Notes on Virtue
Shakespeare and the Casting Couch
Read the NoteStories about women summoned as supplicants to the portals of men with the power to grant their wishes, for a price, are common across professions, across countries, across millennia. Shakespeare dramatized the dilemmas some of these women faced in more than one of his plays.
In both Henry VI Part 3 and Measure for Measure, for example,
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Quotes including the Theme Virtue
I learn in this letter that Don Pedro of Aragon comes this night to Messina
Read the QuoteLeonato, with a letter
I learn in this letter that Don
Pedro of Aragon comes this night to Messina.
Messenger
He is very near by this. He was not three
leagues off when I left him.
He hath borne himself beyond the promise of his age,
doing in the figure of a lamb the feats of a lion.
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In delivering my son from me, I bury a second husband
Read the QuoteCountess
In delivering my son from me, I bury a second husband.
Bertram
And I in going, madam, weep o’er my father’s
death anew; but I must attend his Majesty’s
command, to whom I am now in ward, evermore
in subjection.
Moderate lamentation is the right of the dead,
excessive grief the enemy to the living
Lafew
You shall find of the King a husband,
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Angelo, There is a kind of character in thy life
Read the QuoteAngelo,
There is a kind of character in thy life,
That to th’ observer doth thy history
AlliterationFully unfoldHyperbaton. Thyself and thy belongings
Are not thine own so properAnastrophe as to waste
Thyself upon thy virtues, they on thee.
Heaven doth with us as we with torches do,
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Little Helen, farewell
Read the QuoteParolles
Little Helen, farewell. If I can remember
thee, I will think of thee at court.
Helen
Monsieur Parolles, you were born under a
charitable star.
Parolles
Under Mars, I.Hyperbaton & Ellipsis
Helen
I especially think under Mars.
Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie,
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For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favor,
Read the QuoteLaertes
For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favor,
Hold it a fashion and a toy in blood,Hendiadys & Synecdoche
A violet in the youth of primy nature,Metaphor
Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting,
Hendiadys & MetaphorThe perfume and suppliance of a minute,
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O, he sits high in all the people’s hearts
Read the QuoteO, he sits high in all the people’s hearts;
And that which would appear offense in us,
His countenance, like richest alchemy,Simile
Will change to virtue and to worthiness.
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What, my young master? O my gentle master
Read the QuoteWhat, my young master? O my gentle master,
O my sweet master, O you memory
Of old Sir Rowland! Why, what make you here?
Why are you virtuous? Why do people love you?
And wherefore are you gentle, strong, and valiant?
Why would you be so fond to overcome
The bonny priser of the humorous Duke?
Your praise is come too swiftly home before you.
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Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied
Read the QuoteVirtue itself turns vice, being misapplied,
And vice sometime by action dignified.
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Admit no other way to save his life
Read the QuoteAngelo
Admit no other way to save his life—
As I subscribe not that, nor any other—
But, in the loss of question, that you, his sister,
Finding yourself desired of such a person
Whose credit with the judge, or own great place,
Could fetch your brother from Metaphorthe manacles
Of the binding law,
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Let me choose, For as I am, I live upon the rack
Read the QuoteBassanio
Let me choose,
For as I am, I live upon the rack.
Portia
Upon the rack, Bassanio? Then confess
What treason there is mingled with your love.
Bassanio
None but that ugly treason of mistrust,
Which makes me fear th’ enjoying of my love.
There may as well be amity and life
‘Tween snow and fire,
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