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I am Revenge, sent from the infernal kingdom
To ease the gnawing vulture of thy mind
By working wreckful vengeance on thy foes. William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus V ii 30-33, Tamora to Titus
O, how this villainy
Doth fat me with very thoughts of it!
Let fools do good, and fair men call for grace:
Aaron will have his soul black like his face. ibid. III i 201-204, Aaron to Titus
Why, I have not another tear to shed.
Besides, this sorrow is an enemy,
And would usurp upon my what’re eyes
And make them blind with tributary tears.
The which way will I find Revenge’s cave? ibid. III i 265-269
Be bold in us. We’ll follow where thou lead’st,
Like stinging bees in hottest summer’s day
Let by thy master to the flowered fields
And be avenged on cursed Tamora. Despiteful and intolerable wrongs!
Shall I endure this monstrous villainy? ibid. V i, Goth
Hamlet: O God!
Ghost: Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.
Hamlet: Murder!
Ghost: Murder most foul. William Shakespeare, Hamlet I v 24-27
Haste me to know ’t, that I, with sings as swift
As meditation or the thoughts of love
May sweep to my revenge. ibid. I v 29-31, Hamlet to Ghost
I am myself indifferent honest. But yet I could accuse me of such things, that it were better my mother had not borne me. I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious; with more offences at by beck than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves all; believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery. ibid. III i 123-140, Hamlet to Ophelia
Now might I do it pat, now he is praying;
And now I’ll do ’t – and so he goes to heaven;
And so am I revenged – that would be scanned.
A villain kills my father, and, for that,
I, his sole son, do this same villain send
To Heaven.
O, this is hire and salary, not revenge.
He took my father grosely, full of bread,
With all his crimes full blown, as flush as May;
And now his audit stands who knows save heaven?
But, in our circumstance and course of thought,
’Tis heavy with him in the purging of his soul.
When he is fit and seasoned for his passage? No. ibid. III iii 73-87, Hamlet
For ’tis the sport to have the engineer
Hoist with his own petar. ibid. III iv 207, Hamlet to mother
How all occasions do inform against me,
And spur my dull revenge! ... I do not know
Why yet I live to say ‘The thing’s to do’,
Sith I have cause and will and strength and means
To do ’t. ibid. IV iv 32-33&43-46, Hamlet
O from this time forth
My thought be bloody, or be nothing worth! ibid. IV iv 65-66
Vows, to the blackest devil!
Conscience and grave, to the profoundest pit!
I dare damnation. To this point I stand,
That both the worlds I give to negligence;
Let come what comes; only I’ll be revenged
Most thoroughly for my father. ibid. IV v 128-133
I’ll be revenged on the whole pack of you. William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night V i 374, Malvolio
The rarer action is
In virtue than in vengeance. William Shakespeare, The Tempest V i 27-38, Prospero
If they would yield us but the superfluity while it were wholesome, we might guess they relieved us humanely; but they think we are too dear; the leanness that afflicts us, the object of our misery, is as an inventory to particularise their abundance; our sufferance is a gain to them. Let us revenge this with our pikes ere we become rakes; for the gods know, I speak this in hunger for bread not in thirst for revenge. William Shakespeare, Coriolanus, first citizen
One who is injured ought not to return the injury, for on no account can it be right to do an injustice; and it is not right to return an injury, or to do evil to any man, however much we have suffered from him. Socrates
Sweet is revenge – especially to women. Lord Byron, Don Juan
It is far better to endure patiently a smart which nobody feels but yourself, than to commit a hasty action whose evil consequences will extend to all connected with you. Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
Revenge: Blood on blood? Death on death? On and on? No. Play for Today: Gangsters, writer Philip Martin, starring Maurice Colbourne & Ahmed Khalil & Elizabeth Cassidy & Saeed Jaffrey & Alibe Parsons & Paul Barber & Robert Lee et al, BBC 1975
Why revenge all the time ... Your mother? What about your father? You never saw her chop off someone’s finger. The Sopranos s5e10 Cold Cuts starring James Gandolfini & Lorriane Bracco & Edie Falco & Michael Imperioli & Dominic Chianese & Steven van Zandt & Tony Sirico & Robert Iler et al, Dr Melfi, HBO 2004
When he’s a man, he’ll come for revenge. The Godfather II 1974 starring Robert De Niro & Al Pacino & Robert Duvall & Diane Keaton & Talia Shire & Morgana King & John Cazale & Marianna Hill & Lee Strasberg et al, director Francis Ford Coppola, Don Ciccio
Revenge is a meal best served cold. Man on Fire 2004 starring Denzel Washington & Dakota Fanning & Christopher Walken & Giancarlo Giannini & Radha Mitchell & Marc Anthony & Mickey Rourke & Rachel Ticotin & Jesus Ochoa et al, director Tony Scott, Washington
The master often says, Retribution knows its time. Infernal Affairs II 2003 starring Anthony Wong & Eric Tsang & Carina Lau & Francis Ng & Edison Chen & Shawn Yeu & Hu Jun & Joe Cheung & Arthur Wong & Teddy Chan et al, directors Andrew Lau & Alan Mak, Hon Sam
You know I’ll come after you, don’t ya? Dead Man’s Shoes 2004 starring Paddy Considine & Gary Stretch & Toby Kebbell & Stuart Wolfenden & Emily Aston & Neil Bell & Jo Hartley & Seamus O'Neil et al, director Shane Meadows, Richard
A roaring rampage of revenge. I roared. And I rampaged. And I got bloody satisfaction. Kill Bill volume II 2004 starring Uma Thurman & David Carradine & Lucy Lui & Daryl Hannah & Gordon Lui & Michael Madsen & Vivica A Fox et al, director Quentin Tarantino
I’ll get even with you some day; you just wait. Angels With Dirty Faces 1938 starring James Cagney & Pat O’Brien & Humphrey Bogart & Ann Sheridan & George Bancroft & Billy Halp & Bobby Jordan & Leo Gorcey & Gabriel Dell & Huntz Hall et al, director Michael Curtiz, Laury
I’m in a strange business. If you decide to quit, one day someone will knock on your door to avenge a father, a brother or an uncle. You’re doomed to stick at it. 22 Bullets 2010 starring Jean Reno & Kad Merad & Richard Berry & Marina Fois & Jean-Pierre Darroussin et al, director Richard Berry
We will avenge the American wars on the Muslim world. Body of Lies 2008 starring Leonardo DiCaprio & Russell Crowe & Mark Strong & Golshifteh Farahani & Vince Colosimo & Oscar Isaac & Ali Suliman & Alon Aboutboul et al, director Ridley Scott, militant bloke