William Shakespeare - John Webster - William Cowper - Richard Brinsley Sheridan -
Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale,
Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man. William Shakespeare, King John III iv 108
Mark now, how a plain tale shall put you down. William Shakespeare, I Henry IV II iv 285
I will a round unvarnished tale deliver
Of my whole course of love; what drugs, what charms,
What conjuration, and what mighty magic,
For such proceeding I am charged withal,
I won his daughter. William Shakespeare, Othello I iii 90
Wherein I spake of most disastrous chances,
Of moving accidents by flood and field,
Of hair-breadth ’scapes i’ the imminent deadly breach,
Of being taken by the insolent foe
And sold to slavery, of my redemption thence
And portance in my travel’s history. ibid. I iii 34
And of the Cannibals that each other eat,
The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders. ibid. I iii 143
My story being done,
She gave me for my pains a world of sighs:
She swore, in faith, ’twas strange, ’twas passing strange;
’Twas pitiful, ’twas wondrous pitiful. ibid. I iii 158
She loved me for the dangers I had passed,
And I loved her that she did pity them. ibid. I iii 167
What cannot a knave with a smooth tale
Make a woman believe. John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi, 1623
A tale should be judicious, clear, succinct;
The language plain, and incidents well linked;
Tell not as new what ev’ry body knows,
And new or old, still hasten to a close. William Cowper, 1731-1800, Conversation, 1782
Tale-bearers are as bad as the tale-makers. Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal