Fred,
In The Two Gentlemen of Verona ACT V SCENE IV, Valentine says:
"These are my mates, that make their wills their law, have some unhappy
passenger in chase. They love me well; yet I have much to do to keep them
from uncivil outrages."
I think that may be the line attributed to Shakespeare.
BTW, I found this at a search engine company called DTSearch which has a
complete Shakespeare search engine with XML tags.
We are working with this company to improve the OSCN website's search
engine. They are wonderful people to deal with if you need any search
engine needs.
-----Original Message-----
From: David Leone [mailto:DL@wallerlaw.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 04, 2000 8:32 AM
To: 'Fred Shapiro'; Susan Szymula
Cc: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: RE: Thanks re: "Lawless are they..." quote
I tend to doubt the accuracy of this quote. Although many quotation sources
do cite it to Shakespeare, only the last part "... that make their will
their law" appears in any play. This may be a case of misattribution, and
repetition has given the impression of fact.
David Leone
Librarian
Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis PLLC
511 Union Street
Suite 2100
Nashville, Tennessee 37219
Phone: 615-244-6380
Fax: 615-244-6804
Email: dleone@wallerlaw.com
This message is intended only for the use of the individual or entity to
which it is addressed, and may contain information that is privileged,
confidential and exempt from disclosure under applicable law.
-----Original Message-----
From: Fred Shapiro [mailto:fred.shapiro@yale.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, October 04, 2000 7:43 AM
To: Susan Szymula
Cc: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: Re: Thanks re: "Lawless are they..." quote
On Wed, 4 Oct 2000, Susan Szymula wrote:
> Thanks to all who responded to my request for source of quote:
> "Lawless are they that make their will their law".
>
> Consensus was Shakespeare, but no one could verify which work.
I hope you recognize that the reason no one could verify which work is
that Shakespeare did not actually write these words.
Fred Shapiro
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Fred R. Shapiro Editor
Associate Librarian for Public Services YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
and Lecturer in Legal Research Yale University Press,
Yale Law School forthcoming
e-mail: fred.shapiro@yale.edu http://quotationdictionary.com
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