Shakespeare [Adopt a Greyhound]

Shakespeare & Greyhounds

LOVE'S LABOURS LOST Act 5, Scene 2

ADRIANO DE ARMADO

Sweet Lord Longaville, rein thy tongue.

LONGAVILLE

I must rather give it the rein, for it runs against Hector.

DUMAIN

Ay, and Hector's a greyhound.

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING Act 5, Scene 2

MARGARET

To have no man come over me! why, shall I always keep below stairs?

BENEDICK

Thy wit is as quick as the greyhound's mouth; it catches.

MARGARET

And yours as blunt as the fencer's foils, which hit, but hurt not.

THE TAMING OF THE SHREW Induction, Scene 2

LORD

...Thy hounds shall make the welkinanswer them And fetch shrill echoes from the hollow earth.

FIRST SERVANT

Say thou wilt course; thy greyhounds are as swift As breathed stags, ay, fleeter than the roe.

Act 5, Scene 2

TRANIO

O, sir, Lucentio slipp'd me like his Greyhound,
Which runs himself and catches for his master.

PETRUCHIO

A good swift simile, but something currish.

THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR Act 1, Scene 1

PAGE

I am glad to see you, good Master Slender.

SLENDER

How does your fallow greyhound, sir? I heard say he
was outrun on Cotsall.

PAGE

It could not be judged, sir.

SLENDER

You'll not confess, you'll not confess.

SHALLOW

That he will not. 'Tis your fault, 'tis your fault;
'tis a good dog.

PAGE

A cur, sir.

SHALLOW

Sir, he's a good dog, and a fair dog: can there be
more said? he is good and fair. Is Sir John
Falstaff here?

1 KING HENRY IV Act 1, Scene 3

HOTSPUR

You say true:
Why, what a candy deal of courtesy
This fawning greyhound then did proffer me!
Look,'when his infant fortune came to age,'
And 'gentleHarry Percy,' and 'kind cousin;'
O, the devil take such cozeners! God forgive me!
Good uncle, tell your tale; I have done.

2 KING HENRY IV Act 2, Scene 4

FALSTAFF

He's no swaggerer, hostess; a tame cheater, i'
faith; you may stroke him as gently as a puppy
greyhound: he'll not swagger with a Barbary hen, if
her feathers turn back in any show of resistance.
Call him up, drawer.

3 KING HENRY VI Act 2, Scene 5

QUEEN MARGARET

Mount you, my lord; towards Berwick post amain:
Edward and Richard, like a brace of greyhounds
Having the fearful flying hare in sight,
With fiery eyes sparkling for very wrath,
And bloody steel grasp'd in their ireful hands,
Are at our backs; and therefore hence amain.

KING HENRY V Act 3, Scene 1

KING HENRY V

... And you, good yeoman,
Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
The mettle of your pasture; let us swear
That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;
For there is none of you so mean and base,
That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
I see you stand like greyhounds the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'

MACBETH

FIRST MURDERER

We are men, my liege.

MACBETH

Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men;
As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs,
Shoughs, water-rugs and demi-wolves, are clept
All by the name of dogs: the valued file
Distinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle,
The housekeeper, the hunter, every one
According to the gift which bounteous nature
Hath in him closed; whereby he does receiveParticular addition. from the bill
That writes them all alike: and so of men...

CORIOLANUS Act 1, Scene 6

MARCIUS

As with a man busied about decrees:
Condemning some to death, and some to exile;
Ransoming him, or pitying, threatening the other;
Holding Corioli in the name of Rome,
Even like a fawning greyhound in the leash,
To let him slip at will.

TIMON OF ATHENS Act 1, Scene 2

THIRD SERVANT

Please you, my lord, that honourable
gentleman, Lord Lucullus, entreats your company
to-morrow to hunt with him, and has sent your honour
two brace of greyhounds.

TIMON

I'll hunt with him; and let them be received,
Not without fair reward.

From MIT's The Tech Shakespeare page

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