# Prithee, speak'st thou to me in the honey-tongued wit of the Swan of Avon, absolute in their numbers as he conceived them **URL:** \ **Category:** Thread Games\ **Created:** [May 18, 2021, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prithee-speakst-thou-to-me-in-the-honey-tongued-wit-of-the-swan-of-avon-absolute-in-their-numbers-as-he-conceived-them/942330 "2021-05-18T00:56:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2021, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prithee-speakst-thou-to-me-in-the-honey-tongued-wit-of-the-swan-of-avon-absolute-in-their-numbers-as-he-conceived-them/942330/61 "2021-05-23T12:30:00Z")
… but for sweet Jack Falstaff, kind Jack Falstaff, true Jack Falstaff, valiant Jack Falstaff, and therefore more valiant, being, as he is, old Jack Falstaff, banish not him thy Harry’s company, banish not him thy Harry’s company: banish plump Jack, and banish all the world. \*Henry IV, Part 1, II, iv. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2021, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prithee-speakst-thou-to-me-in-the-honey-tongued-wit-of-the-swan-of-avon-absolute-in-their-numbers-as-he-conceived-them/942330/62 "2021-05-25T02:24:05Z")
All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages. — _As You Like It_, II, vii. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2021, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prithee-speakst-thou-to-me-in-the-honey-tongued-wit-of-the-swan-of-avon-absolute-in-their-numbers-as-he-conceived-them/942330/63 "2021-05-25T13:00:11Z")
O, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumbshows and noise: I would have such a fellow whipped for o’erdoing Termagant; it out-herods Herod: pray you, avoid it. - Hamlet, III, ii ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2021, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prithee-speakst-thou-to-me-in-the-honey-tongued-wit-of-the-swan-of-avon-absolute-in-their-numbers-as-he-conceived-them/942330/64 "2021-05-25T22:36:31Z")
Men of few words are the best men. Henry V III ii ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2021, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prithee-speakst-thou-to-me-in-the-honey-tongued-wit-of-the-swan-of-avon-absolute-in-their-numbers-as-he-conceived-them/942330/65 "2021-05-25T22:38:41Z")
Enter Rumour, painted full of tongues. — _Henry IV, Part II_, I, i. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2021, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prithee-speakst-thou-to-me-in-the-honey-tongued-wit-of-the-swan-of-avon-absolute-in-their-numbers-as-he-conceived-them/942330/66 "2021-05-26T12:36:06Z")
I heard a bustling rumor like a fray, And the wind blows it from the Capitol. _Julius Caesar_, II, iv ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2021, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prithee-speakst-thou-to-me-in-the-honey-tongued-wit-of-the-swan-of-avon-absolute-in-their-numbers-as-he-conceived-them/942330/67 "2021-05-29T19:08:52Z")
Blow, blow, thou winter wind, Thou art not so unkind As man’s ingratitude; _Song_ ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2021, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prithee-speakst-thou-to-me-in-the-honey-tongued-wit-of-the-swan-of-avon-absolute-in-their-numbers-as-he-conceived-them/942330/68 "2021-05-30T02:56:35Z")
In Troy, there lies the scene. From isles of Greece The princes orgulous, their high blood chafed, Have to the port of Athens sent their ships, Fraught with the ministers and instruments Of cruel war: sixty and nine, that wore Their crownets regal, from the Athenian bay Put forth toward Phrygia; and their vow is made To ransack Troy, within whose strong immures The ravish’d Helen, Menelaus’ queen, With wanton Paris sleeps; and that’s the quarrel. _Troilus and Cressida_, I, i ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2021, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prithee-speakst-thou-to-me-in-the-honey-tongued-wit-of-the-swan-of-avon-absolute-in-their-numbers-as-he-conceived-them/942330/69 "2021-05-30T03:47:22Z")
> **THESEUS** > What are they that do play it? > **PHILOSTRATE** > Hard-handed men that work in Athens here, > Which never labour’d in their minds till now, > And now have toil’d their unbreathed memories > With this same play, against your nuptial. > **THESEUS** > And we will hear it. > **PHILOSTRATE** > No, my noble lord; > It is not for you: I have heard it over, > And it is nothing, nothing in the world; > Unless you can find sport in their intents, > Extremely stretch’d and conn’d with cruel pain, > To do you service. > **THESEUS** > I will hear that play; > For never anything can be amiss, > When simpleness and duty tender it. > Go, bring them in: and take your places, ladies. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2021, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prithee-speakst-thou-to-me-in-the-honey-tongued-wit-of-the-swan-of-avon-absolute-in-their-numbers-as-he-conceived-them/942330/70 "2021-05-30T14:15:28Z")
Like a dull actor now, I have forgot my part, and I am out, Even to a full disgrace. _Coriolanus_, V, iii. ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2021, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prithee-speakst-thou-to-me-in-the-honey-tongued-wit-of-the-swan-of-avon-absolute-in-their-numbers-as-he-conceived-them/942330/71 "2021-05-30T21:59:13Z")
_“As an unperfect actor on the stage”_ Sonnet 23 ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2021, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prithee-speakst-thou-to-me-in-the-honey-tongued-wit-of-the-swan-of-avon-absolute-in-their-numbers-as-he-conceived-them/942330/72 "2021-05-31T01:35:25Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > > **THESEUS** > > What are they that do play it? > > … Don’t forget to provide a cite! Next up: To be in love, where scorn is bought with groans; Coy looks with heart-sore sighs; one fading moment’s mirth With twenty watchful, weary, tedious nights: If haply won, perhaps a hapless gain; If lost, why then a grievous labour won; However, but a folly bought with wit, Or else a wit by folly vanquished. _Two Gentlemen of Verona_, I, i ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2021, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prithee-speakst-thou-to-me-in-the-honey-tongued-wit-of-the-swan-of-avon-absolute-in-their-numbers-as-he-conceived-them/942330/73 "2021-05-31T12:36:51Z")
Adieu, valour: rust, rapier: be still, drum, for your manager is in love: yea, he loveth. Assist me, some extemporal god of rhyme, for I am sure I shall turn sonnet. Devise, wit: write, pen, for I am for whole volumes in folio. _Love’s Labour’s Lost_, I, ii. ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2021, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prithee-speakst-thou-to-me-in-the-honey-tongued-wit-of-the-swan-of-avon-absolute-in-their-numbers-as-he-conceived-them/942330/74 "2021-05-31T22:17:18Z")
_And folly, doctor-like, controlling skill, And simple truth miscalled simplicity,_ Sonnet 66 ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2021, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prithee-speakst-thou-to-me-in-the-honey-tongued-wit-of-the-swan-of-avon-absolute-in-their-numbers-as-he-conceived-them/942330/75 "2021-06-01T02:38:58Z")
This above all- to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. _Hamlet_, I, iii ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2021, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prithee-speakst-thou-to-me-in-the-honey-tongued-wit-of-the-swan-of-avon-absolute-in-their-numbers-as-he-conceived-them/942330/76 "2021-06-01T04:47:40Z")
Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove: O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark, That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken. — Sonnet 116 ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2021, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prithee-speakst-thou-to-me-in-the-honey-tongued-wit-of-the-swan-of-avon-absolute-in-their-numbers-as-he-conceived-them/942330/77 "2021-06-01T06:04:24Z")
BENEDICK Will your grace command me any service to the world’s end? I will go on the slightest errand now to the Antipodes that you can devise to send me on; I will fetch you a tooth-picker now from the furthest inch of Asia; Bring you the length of Prester John’s foot; Fetch you a hair off the great Cham’s beard; Do you any embassage to the Pigmies … rather than hold three words’ conference with this harpy. _Much Ado About Nothing II i_ ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2021, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prithee-speakst-thou-to-me-in-the-honey-tongued-wit-of-the-swan-of-avon-absolute-in-their-numbers-as-he-conceived-them/942330/78 "2021-06-01T12:10:56Z")
“O, they have lived long on the alms-basket of words. I marvel thy master hath not eaten thee for a word; for thou art not so long by the head as honorificabilitudinitatibus: thou art easier swallowed than a flap-dragon.” _Love’s Labour’s Lost_, V, i. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2021, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prithee-speakst-thou-to-me-in-the-honey-tongued-wit-of-the-swan-of-avon-absolute-in-their-numbers-as-he-conceived-them/942330/79 "2021-06-03T13:46:22Z")
Come not between the dragon and his wrath! – _Lear_, I, i. [Modern addition: “For you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!”] ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2021, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prithee-speakst-thou-to-me-in-the-honey-tongued-wit-of-the-swan-of-avon-absolute-in-their-numbers-as-he-conceived-them/942330/80 "2021-06-03T13:49:58Z")
And let us, ciphers to this great accompt, On your imaginary forces work. Suppose within the girdle of these walls Are now confined two mighty monarchies, Whose high upreared and abutting fronts The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder: Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts; Into a thousand parts divide on man, And make imaginary puissance; Think when we talk of horses, that you see them Printing their proud hoofs i’ the receiving earth; For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings, Carry them here and there; jumping o’er times, Turning the accomplishment of many years Into an hour-glass: for the which supply, Admit me Chorus to this history; Who prologue-like your humble patience pray, Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play. _Henry V_, I, i [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prithee-speakst-thou-to-me-in-the-honey-tongued-wit-of-the-swan-of-avon-absolute-in-their-numbers-as-he-conceived-them/942330.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prithee-speakst-thou-to-me-in-the-honey-tongued-wit-of-the-swan-of-avon-absolute-in-their-numbers-as-he-conceived-them/942330.md?page=5)