would satisfy the audience, they satisfied the writer. It is seldom that authors, though more studious of fame than Shakespeare, rise much above the standard of their own age; to add a little to what is best will always be sufficient for present praise, and those who find themselves exalted into fame, are willing to credit their encomiasts, and to spare the labour of contending with themselves."

The dramatic reputation of Shakespeare, although great in his own days, became partially obsolete during the period when French taste prevailed, and French models were studied, under the second Charles; and rising again as it did on its own intrinsic pretension, until his productions established a national taste, the fact is still more honorable to his genius. That much of the admiration entertained for him is national and conventional, may be freely allowed; but giving all due weight to the cold hints of this nature, which pervade criticism of a certain tone, a fair appeal may be made on the ground of positive qualification, and a knowledge of the human heart, which, in its diversity at least, has never been surpassed. To this faculty must be added, that of an imagination powerful, poetical, and so felicitously creative, that presuming the existence of the vivid offspring of his fancy, the adopted feelings and manners seem to belong to them alone.

Voltaire observes that Shakespeare has been the favourite of the English nation for more than a century; and that that which has engrossed national admiration for a hundred years, will by prescription insure it for ever. But though there may be some truth in this remark, the obvious and undeniable fact is, that great native strength of genius can alone establish the prepossession.

There's in him stuff that puts him to these ends:
For, being not propp'd by ancestry, whose grace
Chalks successors their way; nor call'd upon
For high feats done to the crown; neither allied
To eminent assistants; but spider-like,
Out of his self-drawing web, he gives us note;
The force of his own merit makes his way;
A gift that heaven gives for him, which buys
A place next to the king.

ABSENCE.

H. VIII. i. 1.

I have this while with leaden thoughts been press'd;
But I shall, in a more continuate time,

Strike off this score of absence.

LOVERS'.

What! keep a week away? seven days and nights?

O. iii. 4.

Eight score eight hours,-and lovers' absent hours,

More tedious than the dial eight score times?

O weary reckoning!

O. iii. 4.

O thou that dost inhabit in my breast,

Leave not the mansion so long tenantless;
Lest growing ruinous the building fall,
And leave no memory of what it was.

T. G. v. 4.

ABUSE, AND BAD ENGLISH (See also VITUPERATION).

Have I lived to stand at the taunt of one that makes fritters of English?

M. W. v. 5.

Here will be an old abusing of God's patience and the king's English.

M. W. i. 4,

Let them keep their limbs whole, and hack our English.

M. W. iii. 4.

0. i. 3.

Without more certain and more overt test, Than these thin habits, and poor likelihoods Of modern seeming do prefer against him. ACHIEVEMENT. A very good piece of work, I assure you, and a merry. M. N. D. i. 1.

Let it be booked with the rest of this day's deeds; or I swear I will have it in a particular ballad, with mine own picture on the top of it. H. IV. PT. 11. iv. 1

ACQUITTAL.

Now doth thy honour stand,
In him that was of late an heretic,
As firm as faith.

ACTION, DRAMATIC.

M. W. iv. 4.

Let your own discretion be your tutor: suit the action to the word, and the word to the action; with this special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature: for any thing so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first, and now, was, and is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure: * * * O, there be players, that I have seen play, and heard others praise, and that highly,-not to speak it profanely, that, neither having the accent of Christians, nor the gait of Christian, Pagan, nor man, have so strutted, and bellowed, that I have thought some of nature's journeymen had made men, and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably. H. iii. 2. ADOPTION.

'Tis often seen

Adoption strives with nature; and choice breeds
A native slip to us from foreign seeds.

ADORATION, A LOVER'S.

A. W. i. 3.

What you do,

ADORATION,-continued.

Still betters what is done. When you speak, sweet,
I'd have you do it ever: when you sing,
I'd have you buy and sell so; so give alms;
Pray so; and, for the order of your affairs,
To sing them too: When you do dance, I wish you
A wave o' the sea, that you might ever do
Nothing but that; move still, still so, and own
No other function: Each your doing,

So singular in each particular,

Crowns what you are doing in the present deeds,
That all your acts are queens.

ADVERSITY (See also MISFORTUNE).

W. T. iv. 4.

T. G. iv. 1.

But myself,

A man I am, cross'd with adversity.

Who had the world as my confectionary;

The mouths, the tongues, the eyes, the hearts of men
At duty, more than I could frame employment
That numberless upon me stuck, as leaves
Do on the oak, have with one winter's brush
Fell from their boughs, and left me open, bare,
For every storm that blows; I, to bear this,
That never knew but better, is some burden.

Such a house broke!

So noble a master fallen! All gone! and not
One friend to take his fortune by the arm,
And go along with him!

FOLLY OF REPINING AT.

What think'st

T. A. iv. 3.

T. A. iv. 2.

That the bleak air, thy boisterous chamberlain,
Will put thy shirt on warm? Will these moist trees,
That have out-lived the eagle, page thy heels,

And skip when thou point'st out? will the cold brook,
Candied with ice, caudle thy morning taste,

To cure thy o'er-night's surfeit? Call the creatures;
Whose naked natures live in all the spight

Of wreakful heaven; whose bare unhoused trunks,
To the conflicting elements expos'd,

Answer mere nature,-bid them flatter thee.

ITS USES.

Sweet are the uses of adversity,

Which, like the toad, ugly and venemous,

T. A. iv. 3.

Wears yet a precious jewel in its head.

'Tis good for men to love their present pains,
Upon example; so the spirit is eas'd:

A. F. ii. 1.

ADVERSITY,-continued.
And, when the mind is quicken'd, out of doubt,
The organs, though defunct and dead before,
Break up their drowsy grave, and newly move
With casted slough, and fresh legerity.

H. V. iii. 1.

In poison there is physic; and these news
Having been well, that would have made me sick;
Being sick, have in some measure made me well.
And as the wretch whose fever-weaken'd joints,
Like strengthless hinges, buckle under life,
Impatient of his fit, breaks like a fire.

Out of his keeper's arms; even so my limbs,

Weaken'd with grief, being now enrag'd with grief,
Are thrice themselves.

ADVICE (See also CAUTION).

Fasten your ear to my advisings.

H. IV. PT. II. i. 1.

M. M. iii ì.

Obey thy parents; keep thy word justly; swear not; commit not with man's sworn spouse; set not thy sweet heart on proud array.

K. L. iii. 4. Take heed, be wary how you place your words.

H. VI. PT. I. iii. 2.

Let go thy hold, when a great wheel runs down a hill, lest it break thy neck with following it; but the great one that goes up the hill, let him draw thee after. When a wise man gives thee better counsel, give me mine again.

Pray be counsel'd:

I have a heart as little apt as yours,
But yet a brain, that leads my use of anger
To better 'vantage.

Love all, trust a few,

Do wrong to none: be able for thine enemy
Rather in power than use; and keep thy friend
Under thy own life's key: be check'd for silence,
But never tax'd for speech.

K. L. ii. 4.

C. iii. 2.

A. W. i. 1.

Keep thy pen from lenders' books, and defy the foul fiend. Let not the creaking of shoes, nor the rustling of silks, betray thy poor heart to women.

TO A YOUNG WOMAN.

Fear it, my dear sister;

And keep you in the rear of your affection,
Out of the shot and danger of desire.
The chariest maid is prodigal enough,
If she unmask her beauty to the moon;

K. L. iii. 4.

K. L. iii. 4.