Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors,

My very noble and approv'd good masters,

That I have ta'en away this old man's daughter,

It is most true; true, I have married her:

The very head and front of my offending

Hath this extent, no more. Rude am I in my speech,

And little bless'd with the soft phrase of peace:

For since these arms of mine had seven years' pith,

Till now some nine moons wasted, they have used

Their dearest action in the tented field,

And little of this great world can I speak,

More than pertains to feats of broil and battle,

And therefore little shall I grace my cause

In speaking for myself. Yet, by your gracious patience,

I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver

Of my whole course of love.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Othello. Act i. Sc. 3.

Be noble! and the nobleness that lies

In other men, sleeping but never dead,

Will rise in majesty to meet thine own.

James Russell Lowell (1819-1891): Sonnet iv.

Conjure with 'em,—

Brutus will start a spirit as soon as Caesar.

Now, in the names of all the gods at once,

Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed,

That he is grown so great? Age, thou art shamed!

Rome, thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods!

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Julius Caesar. Act i. Sc. 2.

Genteel in personage,

Conduct, and equipage;

Noble by heritage,

Generous and free.

Henry Carey (1663-1743): The Contrivances. Act i. Sc. 2.

Nothing is here for tears, nothing to wail

Or knock the breast, no weakness, no contempt,

Dispraise, or blame,—nothing but well and fair,

And what may quiet us in a death so noble.

John Milton (1608-1674): Samson Agonistes. Line 1721.

There is

One great society alone on earth:

The noble living and the noble dead.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): The Prelude. Book xi.

O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!

The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's eye, tongue, sword.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 1.

His noble negligences teach

What others' toils despair to reach.

Matthew Prior (1664-1721): Alma. Canto ii. Line 7.

Whoe'er amidst the sons

Of reason, valour, liberty, and virtue

Displays distinguish'd merit, is a noble

Of Nature's own creating.

James Thomson (1700-1748): Coriolanus. Act iii. Sc. 3.

Every gift of noble origin

Is breathed upon by Hope's perpetual breath.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): These Times strike Monied Worldlings.

Howe'er it be, it seems to me,

'T is only noble to be good.

Kind hearts are more than coronets,

And simple faith than Norman blood.

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892): Lady Clara Vere de Vere. Stanza 7.

We 'll shine in more substantial honours,

And to be noble we 'll be good.

Thomas Percy (1728-1811): Winifreda (1720).

His nature is too noble for the world:

He would not flatter Neptune for his trident,

Or Jove for's power to thunder.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Coriolanus. Act iii. Sc. 1.