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the fountain from the which my current runs,
or else dries up; to be discarded thence!
-Turn thy complexion there,

patience, thou young and rose-lipp'd cherubin,—
ay, there, look grim as hell!

W. SHAKESPEARE

685

Ion.

Adr.

ION-ADRASTUS

T is most true;

IT

thou sparedst my life, and therefore do the gods ordain me to this office, lest thy fall

seem the chance forfeit of some single sin,
and not the great redress of Argos. Now-
now, while I parley-Spirits that have left
within this hour, their plague-tormented flesh
to rot untombed, glide by, and frown on me,
their slow Avenger—and the chamber swarms
with looks of Furies.-Yet a moment wait,
ye dreadful prompters !—If there is a friend,
whom dying thou would'st greet by word or token,
speak thy last bidding.

I have none on earth.

If thou hast courage, end me! strike the blow
at once! my hour is come; and now in thee
I recognise the minister of Jove,

and, kneeling thus, submit me to his power.

T. N. TALFOURD

686

'M fallen so low, have grown so poor withal,

I'M faust recall to thee our childhood's years,

must ask thee payment of a debt incurr'd
when thou and I were scarce to boyhood grown.
Dost thou remember, how we grew together,
two daring youths, like brothers, side by side?
I had no sorrow but to see myself
eclipsed by thy bright genius. So I vow'd,
since I might never cope with thee in power,
that I would love thee with excess of love.
Then with a thousand shows of tenderness,
and warm affection, I besieged thy heart,
which cold and proudly still repulsed them all.

687

688

K. H.

Oft have I stood, and-yet thou saw'st it never-
hot bitter tear-drops brimming in mine eyes,
when I have mark'd thee, passing me unheeded,
fold to thy bosom youths of humbler birth.

CATILINE TO THE CONSPIRATORS

OBLE confederates, thus far is perfect.
Only your suffrages I will expect

at the assembly for the choosing consuls,
and all the voices you can make by friends
to my election: then let me work out

your fortunes and mine own. Meanwhile, all rest
sealed up and silent, as when rigid frosts

have bound up brooks and rivers, forced wild beasts
unto their caves, and birds into the woods,
clowns to their houses, and the country sleeps;

that, when the sudden thaw comes, we may break
upon them like a deluge, bearing down
half Rome before us, and invade the rest
with cries, and noise, able to wake the urns
of those are dead, and make their ashes fear.
The horrors that do strike the world, should come
loud, and unlook'd for; till they strike, be dumb.
B. JONSON

I

KING HENRY VI-QUEEN MARGARET

MUSE, my lord of Gloster is not come: 'tis not his wont to be the hindmost man, whate'er occasion keeps him from us now. Q. M. Can you not see? or will ye not observe the strangeness of his alter'd countenance? with what a majesty he bears himself; how insolent of late he is become,

how proud, how peremptory, and unlike himself?
we know the time since he was mild and affable;
and, if we did but glance a far-off look,
immediately he was upon his knee,

that all the court admir'd him for submission:
but meet him now, and, be it in the morn,
when every one will give the time of day,
he knits his brow, and shows an angry eye,

689

690

and passeth by with stiff unbowéd knee,
disdaining duty that to us belongs.

BEGGARY

W. SHAKESPEARE

KNOWELL TO BRAINWORM

RT thou a man, and sham'st thou not to beg,

A to practise such a servile kind of life?

Why, were thy education ne'er so mean,
having thy limbs, a thousand fairer courses
offer themselves to thy election.

Either the wars might still supply thy wants,
or service of some virtuous gentleman,
or honest labour; nay, what can I name,
but would become thee better than to beg?
But men of thy condition feed on sloth,
as doth the beetle on the dung she breeds in;
not caring how the metal of your minds

is eaten with the rust of idleness.

Now, afore me, whate'er he be, that should
relieve a person of thy quality,

while thou insist 'st in this loose desperate course,
I would esteem the sin not thine but his.

L

ARCITA TO PALAMON IN PRISON

B. JONSON

ET'S think this prison holy sanctuary,

to keep us from corruption of worse men:

we are an endless mine to one another;
we're father, friends, acquaintance;

we are, in one another, families;

I am your heir, and you are mine; this place

is our inheritance; no hard oppressor

dare take this from us; here with a little patience
we shall live long and loving; no surfeits seek us:
the hand of war hurts none here, nor the seas
swallow their youth: were we at liberty,
a wife might part us lawfully, or business;
quarrels consume us; envy of ill men
grave our acquaintance; I might sicken, cousin,
where you should never know it, and so perish
without your noble hand to close mine eyes,

or prayers to the gods; a thousand chances,
were we from hence, would sever us.

J. FLETCHER

691

Cyn. H

Str.

692

EULOGY OF A GOOD WIFE

CYNANCHE-STRAZZA

How it now, my lord

OW fares it now, my dear lord and husband?

for the sweet food of thy divine advice.

Let no man value at a little price

a virtuous woman's counsaile: her winged spirit
is feathered oftentimes with heavenly words:
the weaker bodie, still the stronger soul.

O what a treasure is a virtuous wife,
discreet and loving; not one gift on earth
makes a man's life so highly bound to heaven;
she gives him double forces, to endure
and to enjoy ; by being one with him,
feeling his joies and griefes with equal sense;
if he lament, she melts herself in teares;

if he be glad, she triumphs: if he stirre,

she mooves his way: in all things his sweet ape: all store without her, leaves a man but poore; and with her, poverty is exceeding store.

G

ROMEO TO BALTHASAR

G. CHAPMAN

IVE me that mattock, and the wrenching iron. Hold, take this letter; early in the morning see thou deliver it to my lord and father.

Give me the light: upon thy life I charge thee,
whate'er thou hear'st or seest, stand all aloof,
and do not interrupt me in my course.
Why I descend into this bed of death,

is, partly, to behold my lady's face:

but chiefly to take thence from her dead finger
a precious ring,-a ring that I must use

in dear employment: therefore hence, be gone:—
but if thou, jealous, dost return to pry
in what I further shall intend to do,
by heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint,

and strew this hungry church-yard with thy limbs.
The time, and my intents are savage-wild,
more fierce and more inexorable far

than empty tigers or the roaring sea.

W. SHAKESPEARE

693

694

GREATNESS STILL LIABLE TO FEAR

DISTU

ISTURBED thoughts drive me from company, and dry my marrow with their watchfulness; continual trouble of my moody brain

feebles my body by excess of drink,

and nips me as the bitter north-east wind
doth check the tender blossom in the spring.
Well fares the man, howe'er his cates do taste,
that tables not with foul suspicion;

and he but pines among his delicates

whose troubled mind is stuff'd with discontent.
My golden time was when I had no gold;
though then I wanted, yet I slept secure;
my daily toil begat me night's repose,
my night's repose made daylight fresh to me:
but since I climb'd the top bough of the tree,
and sought to build my nest among the clouds,
each gentle stary gale doth shake my bed,
and makes me dread my downfall to the earth.

I

HAD a husband once who loved me; now he ever wears a frown upon his brow: and yet I cannot hate.-O! there were hours when I could hang for ever on his eye; and Time, who stole with silent swiftness by, strewed, as he hurried on, his path with flowers. I loved him then: he loved me too; my heart still finds its fondness kindle, if he smile: the memory of our loves will ne'er depart; and though he often stings me with a dart venom'd and barbed, and wastes upon the vile caresses which his babe and mine should share, though he should spurn me, I will calmly bear his madness; and should sickness come, and lay

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