Thomas Middleton > Quotes

“Let me feel how thy pulses beat.”
― Thomas Middleton, The Changeling

“The slowest kiss makes too much haste.”
― Thomas Middleton

“Has not heaven an ear? Is all the lightning wasted?”
― Thomas Middleton, The Revenger's Tragedy

“FRANCISCUS: How sweetly she looks! Oh, but there's a wrinkle in her brow as deep as philosophy.”
― Thomas Middleton, The Changeling

“I much applaud thy judgement; thou art well-read in a fellow.
And 'tis the deepest art to study man.”
― Thomas Middleton, The Revenger's Tragedy

“Her fingers touched me!
She smells all amber.”
― Thomas Middleton, The Changeling

“Lussurioso: "Welcome, be not far off, we must be better acquainted. Push, be bold with us, thy hand!"
Vindice: "With all my heart, i'faith. How dost, sweet musk-cat?
When shall we lie together?"
Lussurioso: (aside) "Wondrous knave!
Gather him into boldness? 'Sfoot, the slave's
Already as familiar as an ague,
And shakes me at his pleasure! -- Friend, I can
Forget myself in private, but elsewhere,
I pray do you remember be."
Vindice: "Oh, very well, sir.
I conster myself saucy."
Lussurioso: "What hast been? What profession?"
Vindice: "A bone-setter."
Lussurioso: "A bone-setter!"
Vindice: "A bawd, my lord, one that sets bones together."
Lussurioso: (aside) "Notable bluntness!”
― Thomas Middleton, The Revenger's Tragedy

“Castiza: "False! I defy you both!
I have endured you with an ear of fire;
Your tongues have struck hot irons on my face!
Mother, come from that poisonous woman there."
Gratiana: "Where?"
Castiza: "Do you not see her? She's too inward then.”
― Thomas Middleton, The Revenger's Tragedy

“Good, happy, swift; there's gunpowder i'th' court,
Wildfire at midnight in this heedless fury.”
― Thomas Middleton, The Revenger's Tragedy

“Tis time to die when we are ourselves our foes.”
― Thomas Middleton, The Revenger’s Tragedy Thomas Middleton

“Oh,Wert not gold and women, there would be no damnation”
― Thomas Middleton, The Revenger's Tragedy

“As fast as they peep up let's cut 'em down.”
― Thomas Middleton, The Revenger's Tragedy

“Tis time to die, when 'tis a shame to live.”
― Thomas Middleton, The Changeling

“How sweetly she looks! O, but there's a wrinkle in her brow as deep as philosophy. - Anacreon, drink to my mistress' health, I'll pledge it. Stay, stay, there's a spider in the cup! No, 'tis but a grape-stone; swallow it, fear nothing, poet. So, so; lift higher.”
― Thomas Middleton, The Changeling

“Money! Ho, ho!
'T'as been my want so long, 'tis now my scoff.
I've e'en forgot what colour silver's of.”
― Thomas Middleton, The Revenger's Tragedy

“I know she hates me, yet cannot choose but love her:
No matter, if but to vex her, I'll haunt her still;
Though I get nothing else, I'll have my will.”
― Thomas Middleton, The Changeling

“Never were finer snares for womens' honesties
Than are devis'd in these days ; no spider's web's
Made of a daintier thread, than are now practis'd
To catch love's flesh-fly by the silver wing”
― Thomas Middleton, Women Beware Women

“Ha! What news here? Is the day out a' th' socket
That it is noon at midnight? The court up?”
― Thomas Middleton, The Revenger's Tragedy

“If he were not as he is, he would be better than himself.”
― Thomas Middleton, The Phoenix

“She that in life and love refuses me,
In death and shame my partner she shall be.”
― Thomas Middleton, The Changeling

“Our eyes are sentinels unto our judgements,
And should give certain judgement what they see;
But they are rash sometimes, and tell us wonders
Of common things, which when our judgments find,
They can then check the eyes, and call them blind.”
― Thomas Middleton, The Changeling

“He would sell his soul if he knew what merchant would lay out money upon’t; and some of ‘em have need of one.”
― Thomas Middleton, The Phoenix

“He has more tongues in his head than some have teeth.”
― Thomas Middleton, The Roaring Girl

“Yonder's another vessel, I'll board her - if she be lawful prize, down goes her top-sail.”
― Thomas Middleton

“Faith, if the truth were known, I was begot
After some gluttonous dinner; some stirring dish
Was my first father. When deep healths went round,
And ladies' cheeks were painted red with wine,
Their tongues as short and nimble as their heels,
Uttering words sweet and thick, and when they rose
Were marrily disposed to fall again:
Oh, damnation met
The sin of feasts, drunken adultery!
I feel it swell me; my revenge is just:
I was begot in impudent wine and lust
(...)
As for my brother, the duke's only son,
Whose birth is more beholding to report
Than mine, and yet perhaps as falsely sown,
I'll loose my days upon him, hate all I.”
― Thomas Middleton, The Revenger's Tragedy

“My lands showed like a full moon about me, but now the moon's i'the last quarter, waning, waning; and I am to think that moon was mine. Mine and my father's and my forefathers': generations, generations! Down goes the house of us, down, down it sinks. Now is the name a beggar, begs in me; that name, which hundreds of years has made this shire famous, in me and my posterity runs out.”
― Thomas Middleton, A Yorkshire Tragedy

“I that am of your blood was taken from you
For your better health; look no more upon 't,
But cast it to the ground regardlessly,
Let the common sewer take it from distinction:
Beneath the stars, upon yon meteor
Ever hung my fate, 'mongst things corruptible;
I ne'er could pluck it from him; my loathing
Was prophet to the rest, but ne'er believed.”
― Thomas Middleton, Women Beware Women (New Mermaids) by Thomas Middleton

“He that climbs highest had the greatest fall.”
― Thomas Middleton, The Revenger’s Tragedy Thomas Middleton