Thomas Kyd Quotes

Thomas Kyd's stark reflections probe suffering, death and the quirks of human nature.

30 quotes

1. Evil news fly faster still than good.

2. In time the savage bull sustains the yoke, In time all haggard hawks will stoop to lure, In time small wedges cleave the hardest oak, In time the flint is pierced with softest shower.

3. What outcries pluck me from my naked bed And chill my throbbing heart with trembling fear.

4. Oh eyes, no eyes, but fountains fraught with tears; Oh life, no life, but lively form of death; Oh world, no world, but mass of public wrongs, Confused and filled with murder and misdeeds.

5. Thus must we toil in other men's extremes, That know not how to remedy our own.

6. Dost thou think to live till his old doublet will make thee a new truss?

7. For what's a play without a woman in it?

8. My son - and what's a son? A thing begot Within a pair of minutes, thereabout: A lump bred up in darkness.

9. Duly twice a morning Would I be sprinkling it with fountain-water. At last it grew, and grew, and bore, and bore, Till at the length It grew a gallows, and did bear our son, It bore thy fruit and mine: O wicked, wicked plant.

10. As I am never better than when I am mad; then methinks I am a brave fellow; then I do wonders: but reason abuseth me, and there's the torment, there's the hell.

11. Fear shall force what friendship cannot win.

12. Then haste we down to meet thy friends and foes; To place thy friends in ease, the rest in woes. For here though death doth end their misery, I'll there begin their endless tragedy.

13. Where words prevail not, violence prevails.

14. I'll trust myself, myself shall be my friend.

15. “BEL-IMPERIA: Oh let me go; for in my troubled eyes Now may'st thou read that life in passion dies. HORATIO: Oh stay a while, and I will die with thee; So shalt thou yield, and yet have conquered me.”

16. “HIERONIMO. See, who knock there. PEDRO. It is a painter, sir. HIERONIMO. Bid him come in, and paint some comfort. For surely there's none lives but painted comfort”

17. “My soule, poore soule thou talkes of things/ Thou knowest not what, my soule hath sliver wings,/ That mounts me up unto the highest heavens.”

18. “The less I speak, the more I meditate.”

19. “Aye, danger mix'd with jealous despite     Shall send thy soul into eternal night!”

20. “HIERONIMO. O eyes! no eyes, but fountains fraught with tears; O life! no life, but lively form of death O world! no world, but mass of public wrongs, Confus'd and fill'd with murder and misdeeds! O sacred heav'ns! if this unhallowed deed, If this inhuman and barbarous attempt, If this incomparable murder thus Of mine, but now no more my son, Shall unreveal'd and unreveng'd pass, How should we term your dealings to be just, If you unjustly deal with those that in your justice trust?”

21. “Canst paint a doleful cry?”

22. “Under feigned jest Are things conceal'd that else would breed unrest.”

23. “Let dangers go; thy war shall be with me, But such a war, as breaks no bonds of peace. Speak thou fair words, I'll cross them with fair words; Send thou sweet looks, I'll meet them with sweet looks; Write loving lines, I'll answer loving lines; Give me a kiss, I'll countercheck thy kiss. Be this our warring peace, or peaceful war.”

24. “My grief no heart, my thoughts no tongue can tell.”

25. “A guilty conscience, urged with the thought Of former evils, easily cannot err.”

26. “Comedies are fit for common wits: But to present a kingly troop withal, Give me a stately-written tragedy; Tragadia cothurnata , fitting kings, Containing matter, and not common things.”

27. “VICEROY OF PORTUGAL. ...My late ambition hath distain'd my faith; My breach of faith occasion'd bloody wars; Those bloody wars have spent my treasure; And with my treasure my people's blood; And with their blood, my joy and best belov'd My best belov'd, my sweet and only son. O, wherefore went I not to war myself The cause was mine; I might have died for both: My years were mellow, his but young and green; My death were natural, but his was forc'd.”

28. “I list not trust the air With utterance of our pretence therein, For fear the privy whisp'ring of the wind Convey our words amongst unfriendly ears, That lie too open to advantages.”

29. “HIERONIMO. Art a painter? canst paint me a tear, or a wound, a groan, or a sigh?”

30. “I think Horatio be my destin'd plague: First, in his hand he brandished a sword, And with that sword he fiercely waged war, And in that war he gave me dangerous wounds, And by those wounds he forced me to yield, And by my yielding I became his slave. Now in his mouth he carries pleasing words, Which pleasing words do harbour sweet conceits, Which sweet conceits are lim'd with sly deceits, Which sly deceits smooth Bellimperia's ears, And through her ears dive down into her heart, And in her heart set him, where I should stand.”