The Spanish Tragedy Quotes

“The less I speak, the more I meditate.”
― Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy

“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.”
― Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy

“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.”
― Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy

“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?”
― Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy

“I'll trust myself, myself shall be my friend.”
― Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy

“My grief no heart, my thoughts no tongue can tell.”
― Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy

“Fear shall force what friendship cannot win.”
― Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy

“That that is good for the body is likewise good for the soul.”
― Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy

“Qui jacet in terra non habet unde cadat. In me consumpsit vires fortuna nocendo, Nil superest ut iam possit obesse magis." (loosely translated: "He who lies on the ground can fall no farther. In me, Fortune has exhausted her power of hurting; nothing remains that can harm me anymore.")”
― Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy

“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.”
― Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy

“Where words prevail not, violence prevails;
But gold doth more than either of them both.”
― Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy

“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.”
― Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy

“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.”
― Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy

“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”
― Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy

“A guilty conscience, urged with the thought
Of former evils, easily cannot err.”
― Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy

“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.”
― Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy

“Nor dies Revenge although he sleep awhile,
For in unquiet, quietness is feigned,
and slumbering is a common worldly wile.”
― Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy

“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.”
― Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy

“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.”
― Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy

“Canst paint a doleful cry?”
― Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy

“HIERONIMO. Art a painter? canst paint me a tear, or a wound, a groan, or a sigh?”
― Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy

“Under feigned jest
Are things conceal'd that else would breed unrest.”
― Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy

“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.”
― Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy

“Now by the sorrows of the souls in hell,
Who first lays hand on me, I'll be his priest”
― Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy

“Aye, danger mix'd with jealous despite     Shall send thy soul into eternal night!”
― Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy

“Sweet lovely rose, ill plucked before thy time,
Fair worthy son, not conquered, but betrayed:
I'll kiss thee now, for words with tears are stayed.

And I'll close up the glasses of his sight,
For once these eyes were only my delight.”
― Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy

“And so shall I never again, my life, see those eyes of yours,
and has everlasting sleep sealed up your light of life?
I shall perish with you; thus, thus would it please me to go to the shades below.
Nonetheless I shall keep myself from yielding to a hastened death,
lest in that case no revenge should follow your death.”
― Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedie - The Spanish Tragedy - First Edition Experience - First Quarto Q1

“Eyes, life, world, heavens, hell, night, and day,
See, search, show, send some man, some mean, that may -
[A letter falleth]”
― Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedie

“No, she is wilder, and more hard withal
Than beast, or bird, or tree, or stony wall.”
― Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy