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Shakespeare Dragon Quotes

Shakespeare quotes about the mighty dragon. From Macbeth, King Lear, and more.

I still have to clean up the main dragon quotes page one of these days (there’s also a Dragon Quotes from Game of Thrones post). I thought some Shakespeare dragon quotes would be a nice addition.

I was flipping through this book when I saw a dragon reference in Macbeth:

Great stuff, so here’s a selection of other Shakespeare dragon quotes!


Shakespeare Dragon Quotes

Sometimes we see a cloud that’s dragonish;
A vapour sometime like a bear or lion. . .
~ Antony & Cleopatra, Act IV, Scene 14

Believe’t not lightly—though I go alone,
Like to a lonely dragon, that his fen
Makes fear’d and talk’d of more than seen—your son
Will or exceed the common or be caught
With cautelous baits and practise.
~ Coriolanus, Act IV, Scene 3

This Marcius is grown from man to dragon: he has wings; he’s more than a creeping thing.
~ Coriolanus, Act V, Scene 4

Swift, swift, you dragons of the night, that dawning
May bare the raven’s eye! I lodge in fear;
Though this a heavenly angel, hell is here.
~ Cymbeline, Act II, Scene 2

I cannot choose: sometime he angers me
With telling me of the mouldwarp and the ant,
Of the dreamer Merlin and his prophecies,
And of a dragon and a finless fish,
A clip-wing’d griffin and a moulten raven,
A couching lion and a ramping cat. . .
~ Henry IV, Part I / Act III, Scene 1

England ne’er had a king until his time.
Virtue he had, deserving to command:
His brandish’d sword did blind men with his beams:
His arms spread wider than a dragon’s wings;
His sparking eyes, replete with wrathful fire,
More dazzled and drove back his enemies
Than mid-day sun fierce bent against their faces.
What should I say? his deeds exceed all speech:
He ne’er lift up his hand but conquered.
~ Henry VI, Part I / Act I, Scene 1

Rash, inconsiderate, fiery voluntaries,
With ladies’ faces and fierce dragons’ spleens,
Have sold their fortunes at their native homes,
Bearing their birthrights proudly on their backs,
To make hazard of new fortunes here. . .
~ King John, Act II, Scene 1

Saint George, that swinged the dragon, and e’er since
Sits on his horseback at mine hostess’ door,
Teach us some fence!
~ King John, Scene II, Act 1

Come not between the dragon and his wrath.
~ King Lear, Act I, Scene 1

My father compounded with my mother under the Dragon’s Tail, and my nativity was under Ursa Major, so that it follows I am rough and lecherous.
~ King Lear, Act I, Scene

Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,
Witches’ mummy, maw and gulf
Of the ravin’d salt-sea shark,
Root of hemlock digg’d i’ the dark,
Liver of blaspheming Jew,
Gall of goat, and slips of yew
Silver’d in the moon’s eclipse,
Nose of Turk and Tartar’s lips,
Finger of birth-strangled babe
Ditch-deliver’d by a drab,
Make the gruel thick and slab:
Add thereto a tiger’s chaudron,
For the ingredients of our cauldron.
~ Macbeth, Act IV, Scene 1

My fairy lord, this must be done with haste,
For night’s swift dragons cut the clouds full fast,
And yonder shines Aurora’s harbinger;
At whose approach, ghosts, wandering here and there,
Troop home to churchyards: damned spirits all. . .
~ Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene 2

Before thee stands this fair Hesperides,
With golden fruit, but dangerous to be touch’d;
For death-like dragons here affright thee hard. . .
~ Pericles, Act I, Scene 1

O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face!
Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave?
~ Romeo and Juliet, Act III, Scene 2

Go great with tigers, dragons, wolves, and bears;
Teem with new monsters, whom thy upward face
Hath to the marbled mansion all above
Never presented!
~ Timon of Athens, Act IV, Scene 3

The dragon wing of night o’erspreads the earth,
And, stickler-like, the armies separates.
My half-supp’d sword, that frankly would have fed,
Pleased with this dainty bait, thus goes to bed.
~ Troilus and Cressida, Act V, Scene 8


Reference:

OpenSourceShakespeare.org


By Jess

Jess Chua is an award-winning writer and sketch artist.

Dragonsinn was launched in June 1999. Jess works in the knowledge management field and enjoys yoga, reading, and design.

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