L.

LABOUR IN VAIN.

Numbering sands and drinking oceans dry.

R. II. ii. 2.

You may as well go about to turn the sun to ice, by fanning in his face with a peacock's feather.

I have seen a swan

With bootless labour swim against the tide,

And spend her strength with over-matching waves.

LABYRINTH.

Here's a maze trod, indeed,

Through forth-rights, and meanders!
LAMENTATIONS (See also SORROW, TEARS).
Why should calamity be full of words?

Windy attorneys to their client woes,
Airy succeeders of intestate joys,

Poor breathing orators of miseries!

H. V. iv. 1.

H. VI. PT. III. i. 4.

Let them have scope: though what they do impart,
Help nothing else, yet do they ease the heart.
Alas, poor Yorick !

Wise men ne'er sit and wail their loss,
But cheerly seek how to redress their harms.
Cry, Trojans, cry! lend me ten thousand eyes,
And I will fill them with prophetic tears.
Virgins and boys, mid-age and wrinkled elders,
Soft infancy, that nothing canst but cry,
Add to my clamours! let us pay betimes
A moiety of that mass of moan to come.
LAND OWNER.

T. iii. 3.

R. III. iv. 4.

R. III. iv. 4.
H. v. 1.

H. VI. PT. III. v. 4.

T. C. ii. 2.

He hath much land, and fertile :-'Tis a chough; but, as I say, spacious in the possession of dirt.

LANGUAGE, ENGAGING.

H. v. 2.

Have you no wit, manners, nor honesty, but to gabble like tinkers at this time of night?

What doth gravity out of his bed at midnight!

LATIN.

T. N. ii. 3.

H. IV. PT. I. ii. 4.

Away with him, away with him! He speaks Latin.

O, good, my lord, no Latin;

I am not such a truant since my coming,
As not to know the language I have liv'd in.

H. VI. PT. I. iv. 2.

H. VIII. iii. 1.

LATIN,-continued.

You do ill to teach the child such words: he teaches him to hick, and to hack, which they'll do fast enough of themselves; and to call horum;-fye upon you!

O, I smell false Latin.

LAUGHTER.

With his eyes in flood with laughter.

M. W. iv. 1.

L. L. v. 1.

Cym. i. 7.

O, you shall see him laugh, till his face be like a wet cloak, ill

laid up.

With such a zealous laughter, so profound.
Stopping the career of laughter with a sigh.
Making that idiot, laughter, keep men's eyes,
And strain their cheeks to idle merriment,
A passion hateful to my purposes.
O, I am stabb'd with laughter.

More merry tears

The passion of loud laughter never shed.

LAW (See also LITIGATION).

We have strict statutes and most biting laws.

H. IV. PT. II. v. 1.

When law can do no right,

Let it be lawful, that law bar no wrong.

L. L. v. 2.

W. T. i. 2.

K. J. iii. 3.

L. L. v. 2.

M. N. v.1.

M. M. i. 4.

K.J. iii. 1.

In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt,
But, being season'd with a gracious, voice,
Obscures the show of evil?

M. V. iii. 2.

Help, master, help; here's a fish hangs in the net, like a poor man's right in the law; 'twill hardly come out.

P. P. ii. 1.

The brain may devise laws for the blood; but a hot temper leaps over a cold decree such a hare is madness the youth, to skip o'er the meshes of good counsel the cripple.

LAW,-continued.

Only to stick it in their children's sight,

For terror, not to use; in time the rod

Becomes more mock'd than fear'd: so our decrees,
Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead;

And liberty plucks justice by the nose.

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 it,
Because we see it; but what we do not see,
We tread upon, and never think of it.

The bloody book of law
You shall yourself read in the bitter letter,
After your own sense.

If by this crime he owes the law his life,
Why, let the war receiv't in valiant gore;
For law is strict, and war is nothing more.
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.

M. M. i. 4.

M. M. ii. 1.

O. i. 3.

T. A. iii. 5.

H. VI. PT. I. ii. 4.

But, I pr'ythee, sweet wag, shall there be gallows standing in England when thou art king?—and resolution thus fobb'd as it is, with the rusty curb of old father antic, the law?

ABUSE OF.

The usurer hangs the cozener.

LAWYERS.

H. IV. PT. I. i. 2.

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

Do as adversaries in law, strive mightily,
But eat and drink as friends.

LEADER.

Another of his fashion they have not;

To lead their business.

LEAN VISAGE.

Would he were fatter :-But I fear him not:-
Yet if my name were liable to fear,

I do not know the man I should avoid

K. L. iv. 6.

H. VI. PT. II. iv. 2.

T. S. i. 2.

So soon as that spare Cassius. He reads much;
He is a great observer, and he looks

Quite through the deeds of men; he loves no plays,
As thou dost, Antony; he hears no music :
Seldom he smiles; and smiles in such a sort,
As if he mock'd himself, and scorn'd his spirit
That could be mov'd to smile at any thing.
Such men as he be never at heart's ease,
Whiles they behold a greater than themselves;
And therefore are they very dangerous.

0. i. 1.

J. C. i. 2.

LEARNING (See also LIGHT, KING HENRY V., STUDY).
O this learning! what a thing it is!
Learning is but an adjunct to ourself.

T. S. i. 2.

L. L. iv. 3.

A mere hoard of gold, kept by a devil; till sack commences it, and sets it in use. H. IV. PT. II. iv. 3.

LEEK, THE.

Will you mock at an antient tradition, begun upon an honourable respect, and worn as a memorable trophy of predeceased valour,—and dare not avouch in your deeds any of your words? H. V. v.1.

LEERING.

I spy entertainment in her; she discourses, she carves, she gives the leer of invitation. M. W. i. 3.

LEGITIMACY.

Sirrah, your brother is legitimate:

Your father's wife did after wedlock bear him :
And if she did play false, the fault was her's;
Which fault lies on the hazards of all husbands
That marry wives.

LENITY.

For what doth cherish weeds but gentle air?
And what makes robbers bold, but too much lenity?

My gracious liege, this too much lenity
And harmful pity, must be laid aside.

LETTER.

K. J. i. l.

H. VI. PT. II. ii. 6.

H. VI. PT. II. ii. 2.

An' it shall please you to break up this, it shall seem to signify.

Why, what read you there,

M. V. ii. 4.

That hath so cowarded and chas'd your blood,

Out of appearance?

H. V. ii. 2.

Let us see:

K. L. iv. 6.

Leave, gentle wax; and, manners, blame us not.

Why, thou picture of what thou seemest, and idol of idiotworshippers, here's a letter for thee.

LIAR. LIES. LYING.

T. C. v. 1.

One that lies three-thirds, and uses a known truth to pass a thousand nothings with, should be once heard, and thrice beaten.

You told a lie; an odious, damned lie;
Upon my soul, a lie ; a wicked lie.

A. W. ii. 5.

0. v. 2.

He will lie, Sir, with such volubility, that you would think truth were a fool. A. W. iv. 3.

LIAR,-continued.

Two beggars told me,

I could not miss my way: Will poor folks lie,
That have afflictions on them; knowing 'tis
A punishment, or trial? Yes; no wonder,
When rich ones scarce tell true: To lapse in fulness
Is sorer than to lie for need; and falsehood
Is worse in kings than beggars.

Cym. iii. 6.

Let me have no lying; it becomes none but tradesmen.

Detested kite! thou liest.

W. T. iv.3.

K. L. i. 4.

These lies are like the father that begets them; gross as a moun. tain, open, palpable. H. IV. PT. I. ii. 4.

This same starved justice hath done nothing but prate to me of the wildness of his youth, and the feats he hath done about Turnbull-street; and every third word a lie, duer paid to the hearer than the Turk's tribute. H. IV. PT. II. iii. 2.

Thou liest, thou jesting monkey, thou.

Whose tongue soe'er speaks false,
Not truly speaks; who speaks not truly, lies.

T. iii. 2.

K. J. iv. 3.

A very honest woman, but something given to lie; as a woman should not do, but in the way of honesty.

A. C. v. 2.

Lord, Lord, how subject we old men are to this vice of lying!
H. IV. PT. II. iii. 4.

As surfeit is the father of much fast,
So every scope, by the immoderate use,
Turns to restraint.

LIFE (See also ILLUSION, MAN, DEATH).
Thy life's a miracle.

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

O gentlemen, the time of life is short;
To spend that shortness basely, were too long,
If life did ride upon a dial's point,

Still ending at th' arrival of an hour.

T. i. 2.

Cym. i. 7.

M. M. i. 3.

K. L. iv. 6.

M. v. 5.

H. IV. PT. I. v. 2.