When shepherds pipe on oaten straws,
And merry larks are ploughmen's clocks,
When turtles tread, and rooks, and daws,
And maidens bleach their summer smocks,
The Cuckoo then, on every tree,

Mocks married men, for thus sings he,
Cuckoo;

Cuckoo, cuckoo,-O word of fear,
Unpleasing to a married ear?
Winter. When icicles hang by the wall,
And Dick the shepherd blows his nail,
And Tom bears logs into the hall,

And milk comes frozen home in pail,
When blood is nipp'd, and ways be foul,
Then nightly sings the staring owl,
To-who;

Tu-whit, to-who, a merry note,
While greasy Joan doth keel* the pot.
When all aloud the wind doth blow,
And coughing drowns the parson's saw,
And birds sit brooding in the snow,

And Marian's nose looks red and raw,
When roasting crabst hiss in the bowl,
Then nightly sings the staring owl,
To-who;

Tu-whit, to-who, a merry note,
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

Measure for Measure.

ACT I.

VIRTUE GIVEN TO BE EXERTED.

HEAVEN doth with us as we with torches do; Not light them for themselves: for if our virtues † Wild apples.

* Cool.

Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike

As if we had them not.. Spirits are not finely touch'd,
But to find issues :* nor nature never lends

The smallest scruple of her excellence,
But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines
Herself the glory of a creditor,
Both thanks and use.†

THE CONSEQUENCE OF LIBERTY INDULGED.
As surfeit is the father of much fast,
So every scope by the immoderate use
Turns to restraint: our natures do pursue
(Like rats that ravint down their proper bane)
A thirsty evil; and when we drink, we die.

In her youth

ELOQUENCE AND BEAUTY.

There is a prones and speechless dialect,

Such as moves men; beside, she hath prosperous art When she will play with reason and discourse,

And well she can persuade.

PARDON THE SANCTION OF WICKEDNESS.

For we bid this be done,

When evil deeds have their permissive pass,

And not the punishment.

A SEVERE GOVERNOR.

Lord Angelo is precise;

Stands at a guard|| with envy; scarce confesses
That his blood flows, or that his appetite

Is more to bread than stone: hence shall we see,
If power change purpose, what our seemers be.

And make us lose the good we oft might win.

By fearing to attempt.

THE PRAYERS OF MAIDENS EFFECTUAL.

Go to lord Angelo,

And let him learn to know, when maidens sue,

Men give like gods; but when they weep and kneel,

All their petitions are as freely theirs

As they themselves would owe* them.

АСТ. II.

ALL MEN FRAIL.

Let but your honour know,t

(Whom I believe to be most straight in virtue)

That, in the working of your own affections,
Had time cohered‡ with place, or place with wishing,
Or that the resolute acting of your blood

Could have attain'd the effect of your own purpose,

Whether you had not sometime in your life

Err'd in this point which now you censure him,

And pull'd the law upon you.

THE FAULTS OF OTHERS NO JUSTIFICATION OF

OUR OWN.

'Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus,

Another thing to fall. I not deny,

The jury, passing on the prisoner's life,

May, in the sworn twelve, have a thief or two

Guiltier than him they try: what's open made to justice,

That justice seizes. What know the laws,

That thieves do pass on thieves? 'Tis very pregnant,||
The jewel that we find, we stoop and take it,
Because we see it; but what we do not see,
We tread upon, and never think of it.
You may not so extenuate his offence,

For I have had such faults; but rather tell me,

* Have.
Pass judgment.

† Examine.

|| Plain.

+ Suited.

¶ Because.

When I that censure* him doth so offend,

Let mine own judgment pattern out my death, And nothing come in partial.

MERCY FREQUENTLY MISTAKEN.

Mercy is not itself that oft looks so; Pardon is still the nurse of second woe.

MERCY IN GOVERNORS COMMENDED.

No ceremony that to great ones 'longs, Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword, The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe, Become them with one half so good a grace As mercy does.

THE DUTY OF MUTUAL FORGIVENESS.
Alas! alas!

Why, all the souls that were, were forfeit once;
And He that might the vantage best have took
Found out the remedy. How would you be,
If he, which is the top of judgment, should
But judge you as you are? O, think on that;
And mercy then will breathe within your lips,
Like man new made.

Yet shew some pity.

JUSTICE.

Ang. I shew it most of all when I shew justice; For then I pity those I do not know,

Which a dismiss'd offence would after gall;

And do him right, that, answering one foul wrong, Lives not to act another.

THE ABUSE OF AUTHORITY.

O, it is excellent

To have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous

To use it like a giant.

Could great men thunder

* Sentence.

As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet,

For every pelting,* petty officer,

Would use his heaven for thunder; nothing but thunder.Merciful Heaven!

Thou rather, with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt,

Split'st the unwedgeable and gnarled† oak,
Than the soft myrtle: O, but man, proud man!
Drest in a little brief authority-

Most ignorant of what he's most assured,
His glassy essence,-like an angry ape,

Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven,
As make the angels weep; who with our spleens,
Would all themselves laugh mortal.

THE PRIVILEGE OF AUTHORITY,

Great men may jest with saints: 'tis wit in them; But, in the less, foul profanation.

That in the captain's but a choleric word,

Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy.

HONEST BRIBERY.

Hark, how I'll bribe you.

Ang. How! bribe me?

Isab. Ay, with such gifts, that heaven shall share with
Lucio. You had marr'd all else.

Isab. Not with fond shekels of the tested‡ gold,
Or stones, whose rates are either rich or poor,
As fancy values them; but with true prayers,
That shall be up at heaven, and enter there,
Ere sun-rise; prayers from preserved§ souls,
From fasting maids, whose minds are dedicate
To nothing temporal.

THE POWER OF VIRTUOUS BEAUTY.

Is this her fault, or mine?

* Paltry.

† Knotted.

Attested, stamped

Preserved from the corruption of the world.

[you.