| Main Menu |
| Index | 
|
|
|
|
|
The following are some Shakepeare quotations on sleep with links to the plays full text. Sonnet 27 Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed, The dear repose for limbs with travel tired; But then begins a journey in my head, To work my mind, when body's work's expired: For then my thoughts, from far where I abide, Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee, And keep my drooping eyelids open wide, Looking on darkness which the blind do see Save that my soul's imaginary sight Presents thy shadow to my sightless view, Which, like a jewel hung in ghastly night, Makes black night beauteous and her old face new. Lo! thus, by day my limbs, by night my mind, For thee and for myself no quiet find. (27.1-14) Cymbeline He that sleeps feels not the tooth-ache: (5.4.175-176) Hamlet To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep; No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause: (3.1.64-75) Henry IV, part 1 She bids you on the wanton rushes lay you down And rest your gentle head upon her lap, And she will sing the song that pleaseth you And on your eyelids crown the god of sleep. Charming your blood with pleasing heaviness, Making such difference 'twixt wake and sleep As is the difference betwixt day and night The hour before the heavenly-harness'd team Begins his golden progress in the east. (3.1.215-223) Henry IV, part 2 O sleep, O gentle sleep, Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee, That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down And steep my senses in forgetfulness? Why rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs, Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee And hush'd with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber, Than in the perfumed chambers of the great, Under the canopies of costly state, And lull'd with sound of sweetest melody? (3.1.5-14) But since all is well, keep it so: wake not a sleeping wolf. (1.2.148-149) Henry V How you awake our sleeping sword of war: (1.2.24) Julius Caesar Enjoy the honey-heavy dew of slumber: Thou hast no figures nor no fantasies, Which busy care draws in the brains of men; Therefore thou sleep'st so sound. (2.1.240-243) King Lear All weary and o'erwatch'd, Take vantage, heavy eyes, not to behold This shameful lodging. Fortune, good night: smile once more: turn thy wheel! (2.2.174-177) Macbeth I will drain him dry as hay: Sleep shall neither night nor day Hang upon his pent-house lid; (1.3.19-21) Now o'er the one halfworld Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse The curtain'd sleep; (2.1.57-59) Still it cried 'Sleep no more!' to all the house: 'Glamis hath murder'd sleep, and therefore Cawdor Shall sleep no more; Macbeth shall sleep no more.' (2.2.53-55) Methought I heard a voice cry 'Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep', the innocent sleep, Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleeve of care, The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath, Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, Chief nourisher in life's feast,-- (2.2.46-51) Duncan is in his grave; After life's fitful fever he sleeps well; Treason has done his worst: nor steel, nor poison, Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing, Can touch him further. (3.2.25-29) You lack the season of all natures, sleep. (3.4.165) A great perturbation in nature, to receive at once the benefit of sleep, and do the effects of watching! (5.1.8-10) A Midsummer Night's Dream So sorrow's heaviness doth heavier grow For debt that bankrupt sleep doth sorrow owe: (3.2.87-88) And sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow's eye, Steal me awhile from mine own company. (3.2.458-459) Othello Not poppy, nor mandragora, Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world, Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep Which thou owedst yesterday. (3.3.370-373) There are a kind of men so loose of soul, That in their sleeps will mutter their affairs: One of this kind is Cassio: In sleep I heard him say 'Sweet Desdemona, Let us be wary, let us hide our loves;' (3.3.463-467) Romeo and Juliet What early tongue so sweet saluteth me? Young son, it argues a distemper'd head So soon to bid good morrow to thy bed: Care keeps his watch in every old man's eye, And where care lodges, sleep will never lie; But where unbruised youth with unstuff'd brain Doth couch his limbs, there golden sleep doth reign: (2.3.33-39) The Tempest Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises, Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not. Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices That, if I then had waked after long sleep, Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming, The clouds methought would open and show riches Ready to drop upon me that, when I waked, I cried to dream again. (3.2.134-142) We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep. (4.1.171-173) Twelfth Night What relish is in this? how runs the stream? Or I am mad, or else this is a dream: Let fancy still my sense in Lethe steep; If it be thus to dream, still let me sleep! (4.1.56-59) Famous quotations (with links) Quotations on love (with links) Quotations on life (with links) Quotations on law and lawyers (with links) Quotations on flowers (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)
|