THE BOASTING OF YOUTH.

I'll hold thee any wager,

When we are both accouter'd like young men,
I'll prove the prettier fellow of the two,
And wear my dagger with the braver grace;
And speak, between the change of man and boy,
With a reed voice; and turn two mincing steps
Into a manly stride; and speak of frays,
Like a fine bragging youth: and tell quaint lies,
How honourable ladies sought my love,
Which I denying, they fell sick and died;
I could not do with all;-then I'll repent,
And wish, for all that, that I had not kill'd them:
And twenty of these puny lies I'll tell,

That men shall swear, I have discontinued school
Above a twelvemonth.

AFFECTATION IN WORDS.

O dear discretion, how his words are suited!
The fool hath planted in his memory
An army of good words: and I do know
As many fools, that stand in better place,
Garnish'd like him, that for a tricksy word
Defy the matter.

THE JEW'S REASON FOR REVENGE.

You'll ask me, why I rather choose to have
A weight of carrion flesh, than to receive
Three thousand ducats; I'll not answer that:
But, say, it is my humour:* is it answer'd?
What if my house be troubled with a rat,
And I be pleas'd to give ten thousand ducats
To have it baned? What, are you answer'd yet?
Some men there are, love not a gaping pig;
Some that are mad, if they behold a cat;

And others, when the bag-pipe sings i' the nose,
Cannot contain their urine: for affection,*
Mistress of passion, sways it to the mood

Of what it likes, or loaths. Now, for your answer:
As there is no firm reason to be render'd,
Why he cannot abide a gaping pig;
Why he, a harmless necessary cat;
Why he a swollen bag-pipe; but of force
Must yield to such inevitable shame,
As to offend, himself being offended;
So can I give no reason, nor I will not,
More than a lodg'd hate, and a certain loathing,
I bear Antonio, that I follow thus

A losing suit against him. Are you answered?

MERCY.

The quality of mercy is not strain'd;
It droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice bless'd;
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes:
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown:
His sceptre shews the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,

Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above the scepter'd sway,

It is enthroned in the hearts of kings;

It is an attribute to God himself;

And earthly power doth then shew likest God's,
When mercy seasons justice.

FORTUNE.

For herein fortune shews herself more kind Than is her custom; it is still her use,

To let the wretched man outlive his wealth,

*Prejudice.

To view with hollow eye, and wrinkled brow,

An age of poverty.

ACT V.
MOONLIGHT.

How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!
Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music
Creep in our ears; soft stillness, and the night,
Become the touches of sweet harmony.
Sit, Jessica: look, how the floor of heaven
Is thick inlaid with patines* of bright gold;
There's not the smallest orb, which thou behold'st,
But in his motion like an angel sings,

Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins:
Such harmony is 'in immortal souls;
But, whilst this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.

MUSIC.

I am never merry when I hear sweet music.
Lor. The reason is, your spirits are attentive:
For do but note a wild and wanton herd,
Or race of youthful and unhandled colts,
Fetching mad bounds, bellowing, and neighing loud,
Which is the hot condition of their blood;

If they but hear perchance a trumpet sound,
Or any air of music touch their ears,
You shall perceive them make a mutual stand,
Their savage eyes turn'd to a modest gaze,

By the sweet power of music: therefore, the poet
Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones, and floods;
Since nought so stockish, hard and full of rage,
But music for the time doth change his nature.
The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,

* A small flat dish, used in the administration of the Eucharist.

Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils;
The motions of his spirit are dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus:

Let no such man be trusted.

A GOOD DEED COMPARED.

How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world. NOTHING GOOD OUT OF SEASON.

The crow doth sing as sweetly as the lark, When neither is attended; and, I think, The nightingale, if she should sing by day, When every goose is cackling, would be thought No better a musician than the wren. How many things by season season'd are To their right praise, and true perfection! Peace, hoa! the moon sleeps with Endymion, And would not be awaked!

MOONLIGHT NIGHT.

This night, methinks, is but the daylight sick, It looks a little paler; 'tis a day,

Such as the day is when the sun is hid.

A Midsummer-Night's Dream.

ACT I.

A FATHER'S AUTHORITY.

To you your father should be as a god;
One that compos'd your beauties; yea, and one
To whom you are but as a form in wax,
By him imprinted, and within his power
To leave the figure, or disfigure it.

A RECLUSE LIFE.

Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires, Know of your youth, examine well your blood,

Whether, if you yield not to your father's choice,
You can endure the livery of a nun;
For aye* to be in shady cloister mew'd,
To live a barren sister all your life,

Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon.
Thrice blessed they that master so their blood,
To undergo such maiden pilgrimage:
But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd,

Than that which, withering on the virgin thorn,
Grows, lives, and dies, in single blessedness.

TRUE LOVE EVER CROSSED.

For aught that ever I could read,

Could ever hear by tale or history,

The course of true love never did run smooth:

But, either it was different in blood;

Or else misgraffed in respect of years;
Or else it stood upon the choice of friends;
Or, if there were a sympathy in choice,
War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it;
Making it momentany† as a sound,
Swift as a shadow, short as any dream;
Brief as the lightning in the colliedt night,
That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth,
And ere a man hath power to say,-Behold!
The jaws of darkness doth devour it up:
So quick bright things come to confusion.

ASSIGNATION.

I swear to thee, by Cupid's strongest bow; By his best arrow with the golden head;

By the simplicity of Venus' doves;

By that which knitteth souls, and prospers loves;

And by that fire which burn'd the Carthage queen, When the false Trojan under sail was seen;

* Ever.

† Momentary.

+ Black.