William Shakespeare 1564-1616 The Merry Wives of Windsor John Bartlett 1919 Familiar Quotations


1
I will make a Star-chamber matter of it.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act i. Sc. 1.
2
All his successors gone before him have done ’t; and all his ancestors that come after him may.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act i. Sc. 1.
3
It is a familiar beast to man, and signifies love.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act i. Sc. 1.
4
Seven hundred pounds and possibilities is good gifts.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act i. Sc. 1.
5
Mine host of the Garter.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act i. Sc. 1.
6
I had rather than forty shillings I had my Book of Songs and Sonnets here.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act i. Sc. 1.
7
If there be no great love in the beginning, yet heaven may decrease it upon better acquaintance, when we are married and have more occasion to know one another: I hope, upon familiarity will grow more contempt. 1
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act i. Sc. 1.
8
O base Hungarian wight! wilt thou the spigot wield?
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act i. Sc. 3.
9
“Convey,” the wise it call. “Steal!” foh! a fico for the phrase!
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act i. Sc. 3.
10
Sail like my pinnace to these golden shores.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act i. Sc. 3.



11
Tester I ’ll have in pouch, when thou shalt lack, Base Phrygian Turk!
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act i. Sc. 3.
12
Thou art the Mars of malcontents.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act i. Sc. 3.
13
Here will be an old abusing of God’s patience and the king’s English.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act i. Sc. 4.
14
We burn daylight.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act ii. Sc. 1.
15
There ’s the humour of it.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act ii. Sc. 1.
16
Faith, thou hast some crotchets in thy head now.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act ii. Sc. 1.
17
Why, then the world ’s mine oyster, Which I with sword will open.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act ii. Sc. 2.
18
This is the short and the long of it.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act ii. Sc. 2.
19
Unless experience be a jewel.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act ii. Sc. 2.
20
Like a fair house, built on another man’s ground.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act ii. Sc. 2.
21
We have some salt of our youth in us.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act ii. Sc. 3.
22
I cannot tell what the dickens his name is. 2
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act iii. Sc. 2.
23
What a taking was he in when your husband asked who was in the basket!
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act iii. Sc. 3.
24
O, what a world of vile ill-favour’d faults Looks handsome in three hundred pounds a year!
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act iii. Sc. 4.
25
Happy man be his dole!
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act iii. Sc. 4.
26
I have a kind of alacrity in sinking.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act iii. Sc. 5.
27
As good luck would have it. 3
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act iii. Sc. 5.
28
The rankest compound of villanous smell that ever offended nostril.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act iii. Sc. 5.
29
A man of my kidney.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act iii. Sc. 5.
30
Think of that, Master Brook.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act iii. Sc. 5.
31
Your hearts are mighty, your skins are whole.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act iv. Sc. 1.
32
In his old lunes again.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act iv. Sc. 2.
33
So curses all Eve’s daughters, of what complexion soever.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act iv. Sc. 2.
34
This is the third time; I hope good luck lies in odd numbers…. There is divinity in odd numbers, either in nativity, chance, or death.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act v. Sc. 1.

Note 1.
Familiarity breeds contempt.—Publius Syrus: Maxim 640. [back]

Note 2.
What the dickens!—Thomas Heywood: Edward IV. act iii. sc. 1. [back]

Note 3.
As ill luck would have it.—Cervantes: Don Quixote, pt. i. bk. i ch. ii. [back]

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