quote · Source-linked selection
The time has been, That when the brains were out the man would die, And there an end; but now they rise again, With twenty mortal murders on their crowns, And push us from our stools.
The time has been, That when the brains were out the man would die, And there an end; but now they rise again, With twenty mortal murders on their crowns, And push us from our stools.
Approximate author period: c. 1590 AD · renaissance
Meaning not yet available
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Begin with source-checked readings and explanations ↗Attribution & collection notes
- Author or tradition
- William Shakespeare
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Approximate author period: c. 1590 AD · renaissance
author lifetime midpoint
An author lifetime, approximate period or collection date is not necessarily the date when these words were first written or spoken. - Recorded source
- Familiar Quotations, ninth edition (1905 printing) (1905 AD)
Macbeth. Act iii. Sc. 4.
A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.
The voice behind the words.
Listed in the author section of Bartlett’s ninth-edition anthology, in the linked 1905 printing. Dates reflect that historical edition and may differ from modern scholarship.
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