“T is just like a summer bird-cage in a garden,—the birds that are without despair to get in, and the birds that are within despair and are in a consumption for fear they shall never get out.”
Act I, scene ii. Compare: "To public feasts, where meet a public rout,— Where they that are without would fain go in, And they that are within would fain go out", John Davies, Contention betwixt a Wife, etc.
The White Devil (1612)
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John Webster 17
English dramatist 1578–1634Related quotes

Book III, Ch. 5
Attributed
Source: The Complete Essays
“God loved the birds and invented trees. Man loved the birds and invented cages.”
Quoted in Barbara K. Rodes and Rice Odell, A Dictionary of Environmental Quotations (1992), p. 22
“Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.”
Source: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

“I am a cage, in search of a bird.”
16
The Zürau Aphorisms (1917 - 1918)
Variant: A cage went in search of a bird.