| 1H6 I.i.105 | [Third Messenger to nobles] I must inform you of a dismal fight |
| Ham II.ii.454 | [Hamlet to First Player, quoting lines about Pyrrhus] this dread and black complexion smeared / With heraldry more dismal |
| Ham V.ii.361.2 | [Ambassador to all] The sight is dismal |
| Mac III.v.21 | [Hecat to Witches] this night I'll spend / Unto a dismal and a fatal end |
| Mac V.v.12 | [Macbeth to himself] The time has been ... my fell of hair / Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir / As life were in't |
| RJ IV.iii.19 | [Juliet alone] My dismal scene I needs must act alone |
| TNK III.v.113 | [Schoolmaster to Theseus] dainty Duke, whose doughty dismal fame ... / Is blown abroad [i.e. causing disaster to others] |