To Deform: to disgrace: to dishonest: to disfigure: to deface

Author: Cooper, Thomas, 1517?-1594.
Title: Thesaurus linguae Romanae & Britannicae
Date: 1578

·  Deformo, deformas, deformâre.
Liu.
To destroy or waste: to disfigure: to marre the fashion of: to disgrace: to dishonest: to deforme: to defile. Also to graue: to pourtray: to drawe out like a painter: to fashion: to make the forme of: to discriue.

Canitiem immundo deformat puluere.
Virg.
Defileth.

Comas deformat arena.
Valer.
Disfigureth.

Amictu se deformare.
Claud.
To disfigure.

Castrorum pars incendio deformata.
Liu.
Was destroyed.

Ludi deformati, inquinati, peruersi, conturbati.
Cic.

Horrida vultum deformat macies.
Virg.
Disfigureth.

Multos honesti ordinis, deformatos prius stigmatu~ notis, ad metalla & munitiones viarum, aut bestias condemnauit.
Suet.
Disfigured or disgraced: dishonested.

Deformata ignominia imago.
Cic.

Deformatus & decoloratus. Author ad
Heren.

¶Deformare aliquem.
Cic.
To dishonest, or disgrace.

Ornare aliquem & Deformare, contraria.
Cic.

Deformatus atque ornamentis omnibus spoliatus.
Cic.

Deformata ciuitas.
Cic.
A citie brought cleane out of order and fashion.

Vitijs deformatus.
Cic.
Dishonested or distained with vices.

Deformatus corpore, fractus animo.
Cic.

Deformare genus & fortunam honestam.
Liu.
To dishonest a worshipfull stocke.

Caue deformes multa bona vno vitio.
Li.
See that thou deface not many good qualities with one vice.

¶Deformare.
Vitruuius.
To pourtray, or draw.

Marmora deformata.
Martial.
Images wrought in marble: or marble that is graued or wrought in.

Deformare areas.
Cato.
To drawe out plattes: to fashyon quarters in a gardeine.

Vt deformare possit imitatione~ aedificiorum. That he may pourtray or draw out plattes. &c.

Deformare locum alique~ ad literariae tabulae speciem.
Var.
To make or fashion like.

Deformati parietes.
Cic.

¶Certos atque deformatos fructus ostendere.
Quint.
To shew fruites in their perfite forme and shape.

Quae a fortuna ita deformata sunt. Which are in such sort brought to perfite forme by fortune.

¶Deformare aliquem. To discriue and poynt out ones condicions.
Cic.
Ille quem suprà deformaui.

·  Deformátio, onis, f. g.
Verbale. Liu.
A deforming, a defacing or disfiguring.

·  Deformis, & hoc deforme.
Plin.
Deformed: foule: vnhonest: vncomely.

Deformis & horridus ager.
Cic.
An yll fauoured grounde, out of fashion and tilth.

Animal deforme.
Ouid.
Arundo deformis.
Virg.

Aspectus deformis.
Cic.
The sight of a thing dishonest.

Cadauer deforme.
Claud.
Campi deformes.
Ouid.

Corpus deforme.
Senec.
Without shape of man.

Saeua ac deformis tota vrbe facies.
Tacit.

Deformis luctu laurea.
Liu.
Littora deformia.
Ouid.

Malum deforme.
Ouid.

Turpiculae res & quosi deformes.
Cic.

Senium· deforme.
Seneca.

Spectaculum,
Liu.
An ill fauored sight, vncomely to behold.

Tecta deformia.
Ouid.

Vita deformis.
Stat.
Filtie and dishonest.

·  Deformior, Comparatiuum.
Cic.

Deformius nihil est ardelione sene.
Martial.

Non est deforme.
Caesar.
It is fayre and goodly to beholde.

·  Defórmitas, pen. cor. huius deformitâtis, f. g.
Cic.
Deformitie· vncomelinesse: yl fauourednesse. A blemish in ones fauour

Deformitas & corporis vitium.
Cic.

Deformitas & prauitas.
Cic.
Agendi deformitas.
Cic.

Deformitas animi, & corporis prauitas.
Cic.

Insignis ad deformitatem.
Cic.

¶Deformitas.
Quint.
Dishonestie: vncomelinesse.

Dignitas & deformitas, pugnantia.
Cic.

Deformitas fugae, negligentiaeque alicuius.
Cic.
The dishonestie and reproch of ones fleeing.

·  Deformiter, pen. cor. Aduerb.
Quin.
Ilfauoredly: vnhonestly.

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(Harvey prints his poem Speculum Tuscanismi disclaiming it as 'a bolde Satyricall Libell lately devised at the Instauce of an old friend.' It mocks Sidney's ENEMY the Earl of Oxford (See Katherine Duncan-Jones, Sir Philip Sidney: Courtier Poet, London, 1991, pp.166-7)

'Tell me in good sooth, doth it not too evidently appeare, that this English Poet [Oxford] wanted but a good PATTERNE before his eyes, as it might be some delicate, and choyce elegant Poesie of good M. Sidneys, or M. Dyers (ouer very Castor, & Pollux for such and many greater matters) when this trimme geere was in hatching: Much like some Gentlewooman, I coulde name in England, who by all Phisick and Physiognomie too, might as well have brought forth all goodly faire children, as they have now some YLFAVOURED and DEFORMED, had they at the tyme of their Conception, had in sight, the amiable and gallant beautifull Pictures of ADONIS, Cupido, Ganymedes, or the like, which no doubt would have wrought such deepe impression in their fantasies, and imaginations, as their children, and perhappes their Childrens children to, myght have thanked them for, as long as they shall have Tongues in their heades."
Sidney: The Critical Heritage By Martin Garrett (pp.92-93)

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VandA dedication - Shakespeare

 But if the first HEIRE of my inuention proue DEFORMED, I shall be sorie it had so noble a god-father : and neuer after eare so barren a land, for feare it yeeld me still so bad a haruest, 

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"To My Book" by Ben Jonson

It will be looked for, book, when some but see
Thy title, Epigrams, and named of me,
Thou should'st be bold, licentious, full of gall,
Wormwood, and sulphur, sharp, and toothed withal;
Become a petulant thing, hurl ink, and wit,
As madmen stones: not caring whom they hit.
Deceive their malice, who could wish it so.
And by thy wiser temper, let men know
Thou are not covetous of least self-fame.
Made from the hazard of another's shame:
Much less with lewd, profane, and beastly phrase,
To catch the world's loose laughter, or vain gaze.
He that departs with his own HONESTY
For VULGAR PRAISE, doth it too dearly buy.

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Vulgar Praise:

Jonson

To draw no envy, SHAKSPEARE, on thy name,
Am I thus ample to thy book and fame ;
While I confess thy writings to be such,
As neither Man nor Muse can praise too much.
'Tis true, and all men's suffrage. But these ways
Were not the paths I meant unto thy praise ;
For seeliest ignorance on these may light,
Which, when it sounds at best, but echoes right ;
Or blind affection, which doth ne'er advance
The truth, but gropes, and urgeth all by chance ;
Or crafty malice might pretend this praise,
And think to ruin where it seemed to raise.
These are, as some infamous bawd or whore
Should praise a matron ; what could hurt her more ?
But thou art proof against them, and, indeed,
Above the ill fortune of them, or the need.
I therefore will begin: Soul of the age!
The applause ! delight ! the wonder of our stage!
My SHAKSPEARE rise !

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Davies of Hereford's epigram "To Our English Terence, Mr. Will: Shake- speare", published in 1610 in Davies's The Scourge of Folly.

Some say (good Will) which I, in sport, do sing,
Had'st thou not played some Kingly parts in sport,
Thou hadst been a companion for a King;
And been a King among the meaner sort.
Some others rail; but, rail as they think fit,
Thou hast no railing, but, a reigning Wit:
    And HONESTY thou sow'st, which they do reap;
    So, to increase their stock which they do keep.

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Jennifer Richards _Rhetoric and Courtliness in Early Modern Literature_

"Sixteenth century humanists inherited an overlapping but distinct Socratic dialogue style which informed that rival genre to the courtesy book, the husbandry manual. The figures of the courtier and the husbandman offer different styles of social and commercial exchange and also different styles of 'honesty' which are not easily translated into a modern political idiom. to understand these traditions we will nee to be more open in our thinking about where we locate 'subversive' or 'conservative' agendas. *The representation of the courtier as dissembling in much modern criticism, for example, indicates the victory of the plain husbandman as a social and cultural authority*. Yet, there are good reasons why such plain-speakers are not to be trusted, not least because there is no way of knowing whether the claim to be telling the truth, or the promise of transparency, however plainly put, is not also a rhetorical ploy which aims to occlude the interests of others. (p.5)
(SNIP)
One idea which is examined closely (note-in Guazzo's Civile Conversation) is the virtue of 'honesty', a virtue which serves as a glue to all social relationships. In the course of his conversation with Anniball, William will learn to appreciate the greater honesty of the dissimulative courtier rather than the anti-social simplicity of the 'scholler'. For the scholar only maintains his simple lifestyle by removing himself from the rough and tumble of daily social interaction, whereas the courtier attempts to balance honestly - or DECOROUSLY - personal aspirations with social duty...I want to explore how the character of Anniball makes William honest and sociable in Civile Conversation, and also how, in the attempt, the concept of 'honesty' is defined in such a way as to make plain the potential of others. I will also explore, however, how seemingly honest conversation can equally disguise the power dynamic of intimate relationships...'Honesty' remains the crucial term here: how we define it will affect profoundly* the way in which we imagine people should relate to one another*" (p.23)

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William Empson points out that 'honest' and 'honesty' are used  52 times in Othello, writing that 'in Othello, divergent uses of th(is) key word are found for all the main characters; even the attenuated clown plays upon it; the unchaste Bianca, for instance, snatches a moment to claim that she is more honest than Emilia the thief of the handkerchief; and with all the variety of use the ironies on the word mount up steadily to the end. Such is the general power of the writing that this is not obtrusive, but if all but the phrases involving honest were in the style of Ibsen the effect would be a symbolical charade. Everyone calls Iago honest once or twice, but with Othello it becomes an obsession; at the crucial moment just before Emilia exposes Iago he keeps howling the word out. (William Empson, _Honest in Othello_)

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CXII

1. Your love and pity doth the impression fill,
2. Which VULGAR scandal STAMPED upon my BROW;

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Jonson - Poetaster
To the Reader


(snip)


 Aut. But, they that have incens'd me, can in Soul
Acquit me of that guilt. *They know, I dare
To spurn, or bafful 'em; or squirt their Eyes
With Ink, or URINE: or I could do worse,
Arm'd with Archilochus fury, write Iambicks,
Should make the desperate lashers hang themselves;
Rhime 'em to Death, as they do Irish Rats
In drumming Tunes. Or, living, I could STAMP
Their FOREHEADS with those deep, and PUBLICK BRAND,
That the whole company of Barber-Surgeons
Should not take off, with all their Art, and Plaisters.
And these my Prints should last, still to be read
In their pale Fronts*: when, what they write 'gainst me,
Shall, like a FIGURE drawn in Water, fleet,
And the poor wretched Papers be imploy'd
To clothe Tabacco, or some cheaper Drug.
This I could do, and make them infamous.
But, to what end? when their own DEEDS have MARK'd 'em
And that I know, within his guilty Breast
Each slanderer bears a WHIP, that shall torment him,
Worse, than a million of these temporal Plagues:
Which to pursue, were but a Feminine humour,
And far beneath the Dignity of Man.

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O for my sake do you with Fortune chide,
The guilty goddess of my harmful deeds,
That did not better for my life provide
Than public means which PUBLIC MANNERS breeds.
Thence comes it that my name receives a BRAND,
And almost thence my nature is subdued
To what it works in, like the dyer's hand:
Pity me then, and wish I were renewed,
Whilst like a willing patient I will drink
Potions of eisel 'gainst my strong infection;
No bitterness that I will bitter think,
Nor double penance, to correct correction.
Pity me then, dear friend, and I assure ye,
Ev'n that your pity is enough to cure me. 

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Shakespeare

No,  I AM THAT I AM,  and they that level
  At my ABUSES reckon up their own:
  I may be straight, though they themselves be bevel;
  By their rank thoughts my DEEDS must not be shown;

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Iago - I confess it is my nature's plague/To spy into ABUSES.

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Iago
For when my outward action doth demonstrate
The native act and figure of my heart
In compliment extern, 'tis not long after
But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
For daws to peck at: I AM NOT WHAT I AM.

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Jonson - Timber

Censura de poetis. - Nothing in our age, I have observed, is more preposterous than the running judgments upon poetry and poets; when we shall hear those things commended and cried up for the best writings which a man would scarce vouchsafe to wrap any wholesome drug in; he would never light his tobacco with them.  And those men almost named for miracles, who yet are so VILE that if a man should go about to examine and correct them, he must make all they have done but one blot.  Their good is so entangled with their bad as forcibly one must draw on the other' s death with it.  A sponge dipped in ink will do all:-
" - Comitetur Punica librum
Spongia. - " {44a}
Et paulò post,
" Non possunt . . . multæ . . . lituræ
. . . una litura potest."
Cestius - Cicero - Heath - Taylor - Spenser. - Yet their VICES have not hurt them; nay, a great many they have profited, for they have been loved for nothing else.  And this false opinion grows strong against the best men, if once it take root with the IGNORANT. Cestius, in his time, was preferred to Cicero, so far as the ignorant durst.  They learned him without book, and had him often in their mouths; but a man cannot imagine that thing so foolish or rude but will find and enjoy an admirer; at least a reader or spectator.  The puppets are seen now in despite of the players; Heath' s epigrams and the Sculler' s poems have their applause.  There are never wanting that dare prefer the worst preachers, the worst pleaders, the worst poets; not that the better have left to write or speak better, but that they that hear them judge worse; Non illi pejus dicunt, sed hi corruptius judicant.  Nay, if it were put to the question of the water- rhymer' s works, against Spenser' s, *I doubt not but they would find more suffrages; because the most favour common vices, out of a prerogative the VULGAR have to lose their judgments and like that which is naught.*
Poetry, in this latter age, hath proved but a mean mistress to such as have wholly addicted themselves to her, or given their names up to her family.  They who have but saluted her on the by, and now and then tendered their visits, she hath done much for, and advanced in the way of their own professions (both the law and the gospel) beyond all they could have hoped or done for themselves without her favour.  Wherein she doth emulate the judicious but preposterous bounty of the time' s grandees, who accumulate all they can upon the parasite or fresh-man in their friendship; but think an old client or honest servant bound by his place to write and starve.
Indeed, the multitude commend writers as they do fencers or wrestlers, who if they come in robustiously and put for it with a deal of violence are received for the braver fellows; when many times their own rudeness is a cause of their disgrace, and a slight touch of their adversary gives all that boisterous force the foil.  But in these things the unskilful are naturally deceived, and judging wholly by the bulk, think rude things greater than polished, and scattered more numerous than composed; nor think this only to be true in the sordid multitude, but the neater sort of our gallants; for all are the multitude, only they differ in clothes, not in judgment or understanding.

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Othello on Iago -

This fellow's of exceeding honesty,
And knows all qualities, with a LEARNED spirit
Of human dealings.

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Honesty in Othello

Paul A. Jorgensen

Iago's masterwork as Honesty is proving to Othello that Cassio and Desdemona are only SEEMING-honest. In the overt part of this business he resorts, as did the morality character in uncloaking scoundrels before the King, to expertly staged strategems - the handkerchief and the overheard conversation. But more subtle and devastating is his behaviour in the famous 'temptation scene,' where he seems merely to rely on his reputation for insight in such matters. Here he gives Othello the impression that, while believing Cassio to be dishonest, he is trying to suppress his knowledge.

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Beware then thou render Mens Figures truly, and teach them no less to hate their Deformities, than to love their Forms -- Jonson, _Narcissus or Cynthia's Revels_

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Author: Cooper, Thomas, 1517?-1594. 
Title: Thesaurus linguae Romanae & Britannicae

Dehonestus, Adiectiuum.
Gel.
Dishonest.

·  Dehonestamentum, ti, n. g. A thing that doth dishonest, disfigure, or disgrace.

Generis dehonestamentum.
Iustin.
The dishonesting of his stocke.

Oris dehonestamentum.
Tacit.
A disfiguring of.

Dehonestamentum corporis.
Gell.

¶Dehonestamentum.
Tacit.
A rebuke or reproch.

Eo iuber viuere in nos dehonestamento.
Tac.
He byddeth him leeue with that dispite or reproch towarde vs.

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Honest Ben/Honest Iago

Othello: Act 2, Scene 1
IAGO [Aside.]
167   He takes her by the palm: ay, well said,
168   whisper: with as little a web as this will I
169   ensnare as great a fly as Cassio. Ay, smile upon
170   her, do; *I will gyve thee in thine own courtship*.
171   You say true; 'tis so, indeed: if such tricks as
172   these strip you out of your lieutenantry, it had
173   been better you had not KISSED your three FINGERS so
174   oft, which now again you are most apt to play the
175   sir in. Very good; well kissed! an excellent
176   courtesy! 'tis so, indeed. Yet again your fingers
177   to your lips? would they were CLYSTER-pipes for your sake!


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Iago's Clyster:
Purgation, Anality, and the Civilizing Process
Ben Saunders
In this essay I will elaborate a hermeneutic strategy that builds on the hints provided by Iago's attraction to verbal figures of purgation, evacuation, and oral/anal substitution and displacement, as witnessed in this passage. By attending to the neglected (waste) matter of bodily purgation and regulation in this play, I hope not only to say something about early modern anality but also to broaden our sense of its relation to a historically emergent racist vocabulary. In the process I will expand on the (by-now) commonplace notion that Othello generates a good deal of its aesthetic effect, and emotional affect, through "a black/white opposition" that is "built into the play at every level." Assuming the centrality of a related opposition between civilization and barbarism, which I find reinscribed and deconstructed throughout the text, I will suggest that the process of ideological invention whereby "civilized" man is distinguished from his "barbaric" other emerges in Othello quite literally from the sewer. In this account, Iago represents not only a portrait of the villain as anal-retentive artist but also as the Shakespearean figure who expresses the (disavowed) centrality of lower- body functions to the production of "civilized" Christian masculinity-- and who therefore also best reveals the violent, disciplinary force that is the (again, disavowed) foundation of that "civilizing" process.
(snip)    "I cannot imagine any spectator leaving Othello feeling cleansed."Edward Pechter
An excretory précis of the plot of Othello therefore runs as follows: Iago talks shit, pumping pestilence into Othello's ear, literally filling Othello's head with shit, until he believes that his love object smells like shit, and comes to feel that he has actually been smeared with shit--shit that can be washed away only with Desdemona's blood. Then, upon killing her, Othello discovers that he has not removed the stain but has rather become the very substance that soils: along with everything else he touches, Iago has turned Othello into shit.
(snip)
To conclude by returning briefly to the "clyster-pipes" that initially inspired my inquiry: these pipes may now look more unpleasant than ever, though in the context of the foregoing arguments, their invocation is perhaps less startling. For the entire text of Othello can be read as in some sense the result of Iago's investment in violent evacuation and purgation. Iago--who restores the "natural" order in terms of normative homo-social and racially pure power relations--might even see his actions as analogous to those of the early modern physician, restoring health to what he would consider a diseased body politic, clogged as it is with unhealthful foreign excrements that have risen from the lower extremities, where they belong, to positions of power and authority: "Work on, / My medicine, work!" he cries, as the fit seizes Othello and drives him to his knees (4.1.44-45). He hatches a plot to expunge Venetian society of everything he associates with lower-body functions: women, people of color, sexual desire. Iago's "monstrous birth" is no baby, then, but rather a tremendous evacuation--the inevitable and horrific consequence of a "diet of revenge." And the complete success of Iago's enema is attested to when this masterful shitmonger has nothing left to say: "Demand me nothing. What you know, you know. / From this time forth I never will speak word" (5.2.300-301). The clyster has done its work. Othello, Desdemona, Emilia, and Roderigo lie dead, and Iago is . . . empty. Silent. Purged. But Iago's sadistic drives have already exposed the civilized impulses toward order, control, and cleanliness, impulses that provide one linguistic matrix for modern racism, as rooted in a series of paradoxical disavowals and denials: the obsessive need for order that itself produces chaos; the tremendous appetite to deny appetite; the consuming passion to be free of passion; the excessive desire to eliminate all excess; the overpowering lust to banish lust. Shakespeare has personified the civilizing process in Iago, an anal-retentive proto-racist poet devoted to the terrible logic of the purge.

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Vile Ibides/Clyster

Jonson
From Poetaster
T O   T H E   R E A D E R.
If, by looking on what is past, thou hast deserv'd that Name, I am willing thou should'st yet know more, by that which follows, an Apologetical Dialogue; which was only once spoken upon the Stage, and all the Answer I ever gave to sundry impotent Libels then cast out (and some yet remaining) against me, and this Play. Wherein I take no pleasure to revive the Times; but that Posterity may make a difference between their Manners that provok'd me then, and mine that neglected them ever. For, in these Strifes, and on such Persons, were as wretched to affect a Victory, as it is unhappy to be committed with them. Non annorum canities est laudanda, sed morum.

note-Non annorum canities est laudanda, sed morum. Nullus pudor est ad meliora transire 1 ; "Not the ancienty of years, but of MANNERS, is commendable. No shame it is to pass to better.")
(snip)

from To the Reader


Pol. O, but they lay particular imputations —
   Author. As what?   Pol. That all your writing, is meer rayling.
   Author. Ha! If all the Salt in the old Comœdy
Should be so censur'd, or the sharper wit
Of the bold Satyr, termed scolding Rage,
What Age could then compare with those, for BUFFOONS?
What should be said of Aristophanes,
Persius, or Juvenal? whose names we now
So glorifie in Schools, at least pretend it.
Ha' they no other?   Pol. Yes: they say you are slow,
And scarce bring forth a Play a Year.   Author. 'Tis true.
I would, they could not say that I did that.
There's all the Joy that I take i' their Trade,
Unless such Scribes as they might be proscrib'd
Th' abused Theaters. They would think it strange, now,
A Man should take but Colts-foot, for one day,
And, between whiles, spit out a better Poem
Than e're the Master of Art, or giver of Wit,
Their Belly made. Yet, this is possible,
If a free Mind had but the patience,
To think so much, together, and so vile.
But, that these base and beggerly conceits
Should carry it, by the multitude of Voices,
Against the most abstracted work, oppos'd
To the stuff'd Nostrils of the drunken rout!
O, this would make a learn'd and liberal Soul,
To rive his stained Quill, up to the Back,
And damn his long-watch'd Labours to the Fire;
Things, that were born, when none but the still Night,
And his dumb Candle, saw his pinching throes:
Were not his own free merit a more Crown
Unto his Travels, than their reeling Claps?
This 'tis, that strikes me silent, seals my Lips,
And apts me rather to sleep out my time,
Than I would waste it in contemned strifes,
With these VILE IBIDES, these unclean Birds,
That make their Mouths their CLYSTERS, and still PURGE
From their hot entrails. *But, I leave the MONSTERS
To their own fate*. And, since the Comick Muse
Hath prov'd so ominous to me, I will try
If Tragœdie have a more kind aspect;
Her favours in my next I will pursue,
Where, if I prove the pleasure but of one,
So he judicious be; He shall b' alone
A Theater unto me:

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Othello - An honest man [Iago] he is, and hates the slime
That sticks on filthy deeds.

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Narcissus/Oxford/Amorphus of _Cynthia's Revels_. Oxford saw his greatness 'boyed' by squeaking child actors. His honesty 'uncloaked' by Jonson/Crites/Criticus/Iago.


Upon Ben: Johnson, the most excellent of Comick Poets.


Mirror of Poets! Mirror of our Age!
Which her wholE Face beholding on thy stage,
Pleas'd and displeas'd with her owne faults endures,
A remedy, like Those whom Musicke cures,
Thou not alone those various inclinations,
Which Nature gives to Ages, Sexes, Nations,
Hast traced with thy All-resembling Pen,
But all that custome hath impos'd on Men,
Or ill-got Habits, which distort them so,
That scarce the Brother can the Brother know,
Is represented to the wondring Eyes,
Of all that see or read thy Comedies.
Whoever in those Glasses lookes may finde,
The spots return'd, or graces of his minde;
And by the helpe of so divine an Art,
At leisure view, and dresse his nobler part.
*NARCISSUS conzen'd by that flattering Well,
Which nothing could but of his beauty tell,
Had here discovering the DEFORM'D estate
Of his fond minde, preserv'd himselfe with hate*,

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Iago(Crites/Criticus/Jonson) - For I am nothing if not critical.

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Othello

Then must you speak
Of one that loved not wisely but too well,
Of one not easily jealous but, being wrought,
Perplexed in the extreme; of one whose hand,
Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away
Richer than all his tribe; of one whose subdued eyes,
Albeit unused to the melting mood,
Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees
Their medicinable gum. Set you down this,
And say besides that in Aleppo once,
Where a malignant and a turbaned Turk
Beat a Venetian and traduced the state,
I took by th’ throat the circumcised dog
And smote him thus. (V.ii.341-354)

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O! lest the world should task you to recite
What merit lived in me, that you should love
After my death,--dear love, forget me quite,
For you in me can nothing worthy prove.
Unless you would devise some virtuous lie,
To do more for me than mine own desert,
And hang more praise upon deceased I
Than niggard truth would willingly impart:
O! lest your true love may seem false in this
That you for love speak well of me untrue,
My name be buried where my body is,
And live no more to shame nor me nor you.
For I am shamed by that which I bring forth,
And so should you, to love things nothing worth.