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That in the captain's but a choleric word
Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy.

      — Measure for Measure, Act II Scene 2

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1-12 of 12 total

KEYWORD: betters

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# Result number

Work The work is either a play, poem, or sonnet. The sonnets are treated as single work with 154 parts.

Character Indicates who said the line. If it's a play or sonnet, the character name is "Poet."

Line Shows where the line falls within the work.

The numbering is not keyed to any copyrighted numbering system found in a volume of collected works (Arden, Oxford, etc.) The numbering starts at the beginning of the work, and does not restart for each scene.

Text The line's full text, with keywords highlighted within it, unless highlighting has been disabled by the user.

1

As You Like It
[II, 4]

Touchstone

784

Your betters, sir.

2

Henry IV, Part II
[IV, 3]

Sir John Colville

2658

I am, my lord, but as my betters are
That led me hither. Had they been rul'd by me,
You should have won them dearer than you have.

3

Henry VI, Part II
[I, 3]

Winchester

503

Ambitious Warwick, let thy betters speak.

4

Henry VI, Part II
[I, 3]

Duke of Buckingham

505

All in this presence are thy betters, Warwick.

5

Henry VI, Part II
[V, 1]

Richard Plantagenet (Duke of Gloucester)

3102

O blood-besotted Neapolitan,
Outcast of Naples, England's bloody scourge!
The sons of York, thy betters in their birth,
Shall be their father's bail; and bane to those
That for my surety will refuse the boys!
[Enter EDWARD and RICHARD]
See where they come: I'll warrant they'll
make it good.

6

King John
[I, 1]

Philip the Bastard

162

Our country manners give our betters way.

7

King Lear
[I, 4]

Goneril

779

You strike my people, and your disorder'd rabble
Make servants of their betters.

8

King Lear
[III, 6]

Edgar

2106

When we our betters see bearing our woes,
We scarcely think our miseries our foes.
Who alone suffers suffers most i' th' mind,
Leaving free things and happy shows behind;
But then the mind much sufferance doth o'erskip
When grief hath mates, and bearing fellowship.
How light and portable my pain seems now,
When that which makes me bend makes the King bow,
He childed as I fathered! Tom, away!
Mark the high noises, and thyself bewray
When false opinion, whose wrong thought defiles thee,
In thy just proof repeals and reconciles thee.
What will hap more to-night, safe scape the King!
Lurk, lurk. [Exit.]

9

Taming of the Shrew
[IV, 3]

Katherina

2037

Why, sir, I trust I may have leave to speak;
And speak I will. I am no child, no babe.
Your betters have endur'd me say my mind,
And if you cannot, best you stop your ears.
My tongue will tell the anger of my heart,
Or else my heart, concealing it, will break;
And rather than it shall, I will be free
Even to the uttermost, as I please, in words.

10

Timon of Athens
[I, 2]

Timon

345

O, by no means,
Honest Ventidius; you mistake my love:
I gave it freely ever; and there's none
Can truly say he gives, if he receives:
If our betters play at that game, we must not dare
To imitate them; faults that are rich are fair.

11

Twelfth Night
[I, 3]

Sir Andrew Aguecheek

222

As any man in Illyria, whatsoever he be, under the
degree of my betters; and yet I will not compare
with an old man.

12

Winter's Tale
[IV, 4]

Florizel

2016

What you do
Still betters what is done. When you speak, sweet.
I'ld have you do it ever: when you sing,
I'ld have you buy and sell so, so give alms,
Pray so; and, for the ordering your affairs,
To sing them too: when you do dance, I wish you
A wave o' the sea, that you might ever do
Nothing but that; move still, still so,
And own no other function: each your doing,
So singular in each particular,
Crowns what you are doing in the present deed,
That all your acts are queens.

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