Comedies
All's Well that Ends Well Act 2, Scene 1: Paris. The KING's palace.
LAFEU
I have seen a medicine
That's able to breathe life into a stone,
Quicken a rock, and make you dance canary
With spritely fire and motion.
As You Like It Act 5, Scene 4: The Forest of Arden
JAQUES
So, to your pleasures:
I am for other than for dancing measures.
Love's Labours's Lost Act 3, Scene 1: The king of Navarre's park.
MOTH
Master, will you win your love with a French brawl?
ADRIANO DE ARMADO
How meanest thou? brawling in French?
MOTH
No, my complete master: but to jig off a tune at
the tongue's end and canary to it with your feet.
The Merchant of Venice Act 1, Scene 2: Belmont. A room in PORTIA'S house.
PORTIA
God made him, and therefore let him pass for a man.
In truth, I know it is a sin to be a mocker: but,
he! why, he hath a horse better than the
Neapolitan's, a better bad habit of frowning than
the Count Palatine; he is every man in no man; if a
throstle sing, he falls straight a capering: he will
fence with his own shadow: if I should marry him, I
should marry twenty husbands. If he would despise me
I would forgive him, for if he love me to madness, I
shall never requite him.
The Merry Wives of Windsor Act 3, Scene 2: A street.
HOST
What say you to young Master Fenton? he capers, he
dances, he has eyes of youth, he writes verses, he
speaks holiday, he smells April and May: he will
carry't, he will carry't; 'tis in his buttons; he
will carry't.
Midsummer Night's Dream Act 5, Scene 1: Athens. The palace of THESEUS.
BOTTOM
Will it please you to see the
epilogue, or to hear a Bergomask dance between two
of our company?
THESEUS
No epilogue, I pray you; for your play needs no
excuse. Never excuse; for when the players are all
dead, there needs none to be blamed. Marry, if he
that writ it had played Pyramus and hanged himself
in Thisbe's garter, it would have been a fine
tragedy: and so it is, truly; and very notably
discharged. But come, your Bergomask: let your
epilogue alone.
A dance
The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve:
Lovers, to bed; 'tis almost fairy time.
I fear we shall out-sleep the coming morn
As much as we this night have overwatch'd.
This palpable-gross play hath well beguiled
The heavy gait of night. Sweet friends, to bed.
A fortnight hold we this solemnity,
In nightly revels and new jollity.
[Puck's speech has been cut]
OBERON
Through the house give gathering light,
By the dead and drowsy fire:
Every elf and fairy sprite
Hop as light as bird from brier;
And this ditty, after me,
Sing, and dance it trippingly.
TITANIA
First, rehearse your song by rote
To each word a warbling note:
Hand in hand, with fairy grace,
Will we sing, and bless this place.
Song and dance
Much Ado About Nothing Act 1, Scene 2 A room in LEONATO's house.
ANTONIO
…the prince discovered to Claudio that he loved my
niece your daughter and meant to acknowledge it
this night in a dance…
Much Ado About Nothing Act 5, Scene 4 A room in LEONATO's house.
BENEDICK
Come, come, we are friends: let's have a dance ere
we are married, that we may lighten our own hearts
and our wives' heels.
Pericles, Prince of Tyre Act 4, Scene 6: Mytilene. A room in the brothel.
MARINA
Proclaim that I can sing, weave, sew, and dance,
With other virtues, which I'll keep from boast:
And I will undertake all these to teach.
I doubt not but this populous city will
Yield many scholars.
The Taming of the Shrew Act 2, Scene 1: Padua. A room in BAPTISTA'S house.
KATHARINA
What, will you not suffer me? Nay, now I see
She is your treasure, she must have a husband;
I must dance bare-foot on her wedding day
And for your love to her lead apes in hell.
Talk not to me: I will go sit and weep
Till I can find occasion of revenge.
The Tempest Act 4, Scene 1: Before PROSPERO'S cell.
ARIEL
Then I beat my tabour;
At which, like unback'd colts, they prick'd their ears,
Advanced their eyelids, lifted up their noses
As they smelt music: so I charm'd their ears
That calf-like they my lowing follow'd through
Tooth'd briers, sharp furzes, pricking goss and thorns,
Which entered their frail shins: at last I left them
I' the filthy-mantled pool beyond your cell,
There dancing up to the chins, that the foul lake
O'erstunk their feet.
Two Gentleman of Verona Act 3, Scene 2: Milan. The DUKE's palace.
PROTEUS
For Orpheus' lute was strung with poets' sinews,
Whose golden touch could soften steel and stones,
Make tigers tame and huge leviathans
Forsake unsounded deeps to dance on sands.
The Winter's Tale Act 1, Scene 2: A room of state in Leontes' palace.
LEONTES
Too hot, too hot!
To mingle friendship far is mingling bloods.
I have tremor cordis on me: my heart dances;
But not for joy; not joy.
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Histories
Henry IV, Part 2 Act 4, Scene 5: Westminster. A chamber.
KING HENRY VI
Have you a ruffian that will swear, drink, dance,
Revel the night, rob, murder, and commit
The oldest sins the newest kind of ways?
Henry V The Prologue
CHORUS
… O, do but think
You stand upon the ravage and behold
A city on the inconstant billows dancing;
For so appears this fleet majestical,
Holding due course to Harfleur.
Henry V Act 1, Scene 2: London. The Presence chamber
FIRST AMBASSADOR
….there's nought in France
That can be with a nimble galliard won;
You cannot revel into dukedoms there.
Henry V Act 2, Scene 4: France. The Kings's palace.
DAUPHIN
Therefore, I say 'tis meet we all go forth
To view the sick and feeble parts of France:
And let us do it with no show of fear;
No, with no more than if we heard that England
Were busied with a Whitsun morris-dance…
Henry V Act 5, Scene 2: France. A royal palace.
KING HENRY V
Marry, if you would put me to verses or to dance for
your sake, Kate, why you undid me: for the one, I
have neither words nor measure, and for the other, I
have no strength in measure, yet a reasonable
measure in strength. If I could win a lady at
leap-frog, or by vaulting into my saddle with my
armour on my back, under the correction of bragging
be it spoken. I should quickly leap into a wife.
Or if I might buffet for my love, or bound my horse
for her favours, I could lay on like a butcher and
sit like a jack-an-apes, never off. But, before God,
Kate, I cannot look greenly nor gasp out my
eloquence, nor I have no cunning in protestation;
only downright oaths, which I never use till urged,
nor never break for urging.
Henry VI, Part 2 Act 4, Scene 1: The coast of Kent.
SUFFOLK
Suffolk's imperial tongue is stern and rough,
Used to command, untaught to plead for favour.
Far be it we should honour such as these
With humble suit: no, rather let my head
Stoop to the block than these knees bow to any
Save to the God of heaven and to my king;
And sooner dance upon a bloody pole
Than stand uncover'd to the vulgar groom.
True nobility is exempt from fear:
More can I bear than you dare execute.
Henry VI, Part 3 Act 1, Scene 4: Field of battle betwixt Sandal Castle and Wakefield.
QUEEN MARGARET
Why art thou patient, man? thou shouldst be mad;
And I, to make thee mad, do mock thee thus.
Stamp, rave, and fret, that I may sing and dance.
King John Act 2, Scene 1: France. Before Angiers.
FRENCH HERALD
You men of Angiers, open wide your gates,
And let young Arthur, Duke of Bretagne, in,
Who by the hand of France this day hath made
Much work for tears in many an English mother,
Whose sons lie scattered on the bleeding ground;
Many a widow's husband grovelling lies,
Coldly embracing the discolour'd earth;
And victory, with little loss, doth play
Upon the dancing banners of the French,
Who are at hand, triumphantly display'd,
To enter conquerors and to proclaim
Arthur of Bretagne England's king and yours.
Richard II Act 2, Scene 4: A camp in Wales.
CAPTAIN
The pale-faced moon looks bloody on the earth
And lean-look'd prophets whisper fearful change;
Rich men look sad and ruffians dance and leap,
The one in fear to lose what they enjoy,
The other to enjoy by rage and war:
These signs forerun the death or fall of kings.
Farewell: our countrymen are gone and fled,
As well assured Richard their king is dead.
Richard II Act 3, Scene 4: LANGLEY. The DUKE OF YORK's garden.
QUEEN
My legs can keep no measure in delight,
When my poor heart no measure keeps in grief:
Therefore, no dancing, girl; some other sport.
Richard III Act 1, Scene 1: London. A street.
RICHARD
Grim-visaged war hath smooth'd his wrinkled front;
And now, instead of mounting barded steeds
To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,
He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber
To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.
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Tragedies
Antony and Cleopatra Alexandria. Act 1, Scene 3: A room in CLEOPATRA's palace.
CLEOPATRA
See where he is, who's with him, what he does:
I did not send you: if you find him sad,
Say I am dancing; if in mirth, report
That I am sudden sick: quick, and return.
Coriolanus Act 4, Scene 5: Antium. A hall in Aufidius's house.
AUFIDIUS
Know thou first,
I loved the maid I married; never man
Sigh'd truer breath; but that I see thee here,
Thou noble thing! more dances my rapt heart
Than when I first my wedded mistress saw
Bestride my threshold.
Macbeth Act 1, Scene 3: A heath near Forres.
THREE WITCHES
The weird sisters, hand in hand,
Posters of the sea and land,
Thus do go about, about:
Thrice to thine and thrice to mine
And thrice again, to make up nine.
Othello Act 2, Scene 2: A street.
HERALD
It is Othello's pleasure, our noble and valiant
general, that, upon certain tidings now arrived,
importing the mere perdition of the Turkish fleet,
every man put himself into triumph; some to dance,
some to make bonfires, each man to what sport and
revels his addiction leads him: for, besides these
beneficial news, it is the celebration of his
nuptial. So much was his pleasure should be
proclaimed. All offices are open, and there is full
liberty of feasting from this present hour of five
till the bell have told eleven. Heaven bless the
isle of Cyprus and our noble general Othello!
Timon of Athens Act 1, Scene 2: A banqueting-room in Timon's house.
APEMANTUS
Who lives that's not depraved or depraves?
Who dies, that bears not one spurn to their graves
Of their friends' gift?
I should fear those that dance before me now
Would one day stamp upon me…
Titus Andronicus Act 2, Scene 1: Rome. Before the Palace.
DEMETRIUS
Why, boy, although our mother, unadvised,
Gave you a dancing-rapier by your side,
Are you so desperate grown, to threat your friends?
Go to; have your lath glued within your sheath
Till you know better how to handle it.
Troilus and Cressida Act 4, Scene 4: Troy. Pandarus' house.
TROILUS
I cannot sing,
Nor heel the high lavolt, nor sweeten talk,
Nor play at subtle games; fair virtues all,
To which the Grecians are most prompt and pregnant:
But I can tell that in each grace of these
There lurks a still and dumb-discoursive devil
That tempts most cunningly: but be not tempted.
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