Quotations on law and lawyers

The following are some Shakepeare quotations on law and lawyers with links to the plays full text.

As You Like It

I have neither the scholar's melancholy, which is
emulation, nor the musician's, which is fantastical,
nor the courtier's, which is proud, nor the
soldier's, which is ambitious, nor the lawyer's,
which is politic,   (4.1.10-14)

push him out of doors;
And let my officers of such a nature
Make an extent upon his house and lands:
Do this expediently and turn him going.   (3.1.15-18)

if thou never wast at court, thou never sawest
good manners; if thou never sawest good manners,
then thy manners must be wicked; and wickedness is
sin, and sin is damnation. Thou art in a parlous
state, shepherd.   (3.2.38-42)

With lawyers in the vacation, for they sleep between
term and term and then they perceive not how Time moves.   (3.2.317-318)

Henry IV, part 1

Yea, and so used it that were it not here apparent
that thou art heir apparent--But, I prithee, sweet
wag, shall there be gallows standing in England when
thou art king? and resolution thus fobbed as it is
with the rusty curb of old father antic the law? Do
not thou, when thou art king, hang a thief.   (1.2.53-58)

Hamlet

why may not that be the skull of a
lawyer? Where be his quiddities now, his quillets,
his cases, his tenures, and his tricks? why does he
suffer this rude knave now to knock him about the
sconce with a dirty shovel, and will not tell him of
his action of battery? Hum! This fellow might be
in's time a great buyer of land, with his statutes,
his recognizances, his fines, his double vouchers,
his recoveries: is this the fine of his fines, and
the recovery of his recoveries, to have his fine
pate full of fine dirt? will his vouchers vouch him
no more of his purchases, and double ones too, than
the length and breadth of a pair of indentures? The
very conveyances of his lands will hardly lie in
this box; and must the inheritor himself have no more, ha?   (5.1.98-112)

In the corrupted currents of this world
Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice,
And oft 'tis seen the wicked prize itself
Buys out the law:   (3.3.60-63)

How dangerous is it that this man goes loose!
Yet must not we put the strong law on him:
He's loved of the distracted multitude,
Who like not in their judgment, but their eyes;
And where tis so, the offender's scourge is weigh'd,
But never the offence.   (4.3.2-7)

Henry VI, part 1

Faith, I have been a truant in the law,
And never yet could frame my will to it;
And therefore frame the law unto my will.   (2.4.7-9)

Between two hawks, which flies the higher pitch;
Between two dogs, which hath the deeper mouth;
Between two blades, which bears the better temper:
Between two horses, which doth bear him best;
Between two girls, which hath the merriest eye;
I have perhaps some shallow spirit of judgement;
But in these nice sharp quillets of the law,
Good faith, I am no wiser than a daw.   (2.4.11-18)

Unless my study and my books be false,
The argument you held was wrong in you:   (2.4.56-57)

Henry VI, part 2

The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.   (4.2.68)

All scholars, lawyers, courtiers, gentlemen,
They call false caterpillars, and intend their death.   (4.4.36-37)

King John

when law can do no right
Let it be lawful that law bar no wrong:
Law cannot give my child his kingdom here,
For he that holds his kingdom holds the law;
Therefore, since law itself is perfect wrong,
How can the law forbid my tongue to curse?   (3.1.188-193)

King Lear

Then 'tis like the breath of an unfee'd lawyer; you
gave me nothing for't.   (1.4.122-123)

When priests are more in word than matter;
When brewers mar their malt with water;
When nobles are their tailors' tutors;
No heretics burn'd, but wenches' suitors;
When every case in law is right;
No squire in debt, nor no poor knight;
When slanders do not live in tongues;
Nor cutpurses come not to throngs;
When usurers tell their gold i' the field;
And bawds and whores do churches build;
Then shall the realm of Albion
Come to great confusion:   (13.2.86-96)

Measure for Measure

We have strict statutes and most biting laws.
The needful bits and curbs to headstrong weeds,
Which for this nineteen years we have let slip;
Even like an o'ergrown lion in a cave,
That goes not out to prey.   (1.3.20-24)

We must not make a scarecrow of the law,
Setting it up to fear the birds of prey,
And let it keep one shape, till custom make it
Their perch and not their terror.   (2.1.1-4)

The jury, passing on the prisoner's life,
May in the sworn twelve have a thief or two
Guiltier than him they try. What's open made to justice,
That justice seizes: what know the laws
That thieves do pass on thieves? 'Tis very pregnant,
The jewel that we find, we stoop and take't
Because we see it; but what we do not see
We tread upon, and never think of it.
You may not so extenuate his offence
For I have had such faults; but rather tell me,
When I, that censure him, do so offend,
Let mine own judgment pattern out my death,
And nothing come in partial. Sir, he must die.   (2.1.20-32)

O just but severe law! 2.2.56   (2.2.56)

The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept:   (2.2.115)

You seem'd of late to make the law a tyrant;   (2.4.122 )

The very mercy of the law cries out
Most audible, even from his proper tongue,
'An Angelo for Claudio, death for death!'   (5.1.435-437)

The Merchant of Venice

The world is still deceived with ornament.
In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt,
But, being seasoned with a gracious voice,
Obscures the show of evil?   (3.2.77-80)

A pound of that same merchant's flesh is thine:
The court awards it, and the law doth give it.   (4.1.310-311)

I crave the law,
The penalty and forfeit of my bond.   (4.1.213-214)

And I beseech you,
Wrest once the law to your authority:
To do a great right, do a little wrong,
And curb this cruel devil of his will.   (4.1.221-224)

The Merry Wives of Windsor

I will make a Star-
chamber matter of it:   (1.1.1-2)

Richard II
If you do wrongfully seize Hereford's rights,
Call in the letters patent that he hath
By his attorneys-general to sue
His livery, and deny his offer'd homage,
You pluck a thousand dangers on your head,   (2.1.203-207)

Romeo and Juliet

O'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees,   (1.4.77)

O deadly sin! O rude unthankfulness!
Thy fault our law calls death; but the kind prince,
Taking thy part, hath rush'd aside the law,
And turn'd that black word death to banishment:
This is dear mercy, and thou seest it not.   (3.3.25-29)

Taming of the Shrew

And do as adversaries do in law,
Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends.   (1.2.279-280)

Timon of Athens

the law shall bruise him.   (3.5.4)

For pity is the virtue of the law,
And none but tyrants use it cruelly.   (3.5.8-9)

Upon a friend of mine, who, in hot blood,
Hath stepp'd into the law, which is past depth
To those that, without heed, do plunge into 't.   (3.5.11-13)

Crack the lawyer's voice,
That he may never more false title plead,
Nor sound his quillets shrilly:   (4.3.167-169)

Twelfth Night

Still you keep o' the windy side of the law: good.   (3.4.153)

The Winter's Tale

He hath ribbons of an the colours i' the rainbow;
points more than all the lawyers in Bohemia can
learnedly handle, though they come to him by the
gross: inkles, caddisses, cambrics, lawns:   (4.4.234-237)

Famous quotations (with links)
Quotations on love (with links)
Quotations on life (with links)
Quotations on flowers (with links)
Quotations on sleep (with links)
Quotations references to a candle (with links)

Monologues menu (all speeches)
Most famous speeches
Full list of all Shakespeare�s characters (with link for each character)

Return to top

Main Menu

Plays

Sonnets

Poems

Notes

Index