Great Speeches of Vengeance

I was just thinking today about some of the great and moving speeches of vengeance from history, movies, theater, and television. I thought I'd share some of my special favorites. I love language, it has such power to strike terror in the hearts of the weak.

Allow me to impress upon you the severe mistake you have made.
For years my conduct has been largely benign, and yet without provocation you have severed our détente and forced me to unleash upon you the vengeful flames of a thousand suns.
You shall curse your mothers for the day of your birth!
So go now, GO, and begin your life of fear,
knowing that when you least expect it, the looming sword of Damocles will CRASH down upon you, cleaving you in twain,
and as you gaze upon the smoking wreckage that was once your life, you will regret the day you crossed THE WRONG FISH!

Klaus the goldfish from American Dad

The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.

Jules (played by Samuel Jackson), Pulp Fiction

LUCIUS
Art thou not sorry for these heinous deeds?

AARON
Ay, that I had not done a thousand more.
Even now I curse the day--and yet, I think,
Few come within the compass of my curse,--
Wherein I did not some notorious ill,
As kill a man, or else devise his death,
Ravish a maid, or plot the way to do it,
Accuse some innocent and forswear myself,
Set deadly enmity between two friends,
Make poor men's cattle break their necks;
Set fire on barns and hay-stacks in the night,
And bid the owners quench them with their tears.
Oft have I digg'd up dead men from their graves,
And set them upright at their dear friends' doors,
Even when their sorrows almost were forgot;
And on their skins, as on the bark of trees,
Have with my knife carved in Roman letters,
'Let not your sorrow die, though I am dead.'
Tut, I have done a thousand dreadful things
As willingly as one would kill a fly,
And nothing grieves me heartily indeed
But that I cannot do ten thousand more.

Act 5, Titus Andronicus

AARON
O, why should wrath be mute, and fury dumb?
I am no baby, I, that with base prayers
I should repent the evils I have done:
Ten thousand worse than ever yet I did
Would I perform, if I might have my will;
If one good deed in all my life I did,
I do repent it from my very soul.

Oh yeah, he's bad. But you know the villains are always the best characters, and they get all the best lines!

Getting in the Halloween spirit

A little poetry to get you in the spooky mood of my most favorite holiday!
(My apologies for poetic license, but "five" didn't rhyme!)

Once upon a forum dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious thread of forgotten gore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my convo door.
'Tis some buyer,' I muttered, 'tapping at my convo door -
Only this, and nothing more.'

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak September,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow
From my crafts surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Etsy four -
For the rare and snarky maidens whom the angels named Etsy four -
Nameless here for evermore.

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,
'Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,' I said, `'art sure no craven.
Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the nightly shore -
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!'
Quoth the raven, 'Etsy four.'

And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Rokali just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,
And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted - nevermore!