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And flourish'd after, I'd not do't: but fince
Nor brass, nor stone, nor parchment bears not one,
Let villainy itself forswear it.

The Effects of Jealousy.

This jealousy

Is for a precious creature: as she's rare
Must it be great; and, as his person's mighty
Must it be violent; and as he does conceive
He is dishonoured by a man, which ever
Professed to him; why, his revenges must
In that be made more bitter.

:

ACT II. SCENE I.

Knowledge sometimes hurtful.

There may be in the cup

A spider steep'd, and one may drink, depart
And yet partake no venom; for his knowledge
Is not infected: but if one present
Th' abhorr'd ingredient to his eye; make known
How he hath drunk, he cracks his gorge, (8) his fides
With violent hefts.

Calumny.

Praise her but for this her without-door form, (Which, on my faith, deserves high speech) and

straight

The

(8) Gorge.] i. e. Throat; from the French. Hefts, is the fame as beavings. The reader will find a passage fimilar to this in Othello, where that unhappy, deluded man, laments his knowledge of his wife's stolen hours of luft; and observes,

He had been happy, if the gen'ral camp,
Pioneers and all, had tasted her sweet body,
So he had nothing known, &.

The shrug, the hum, or ha! these petty brands,
That calumny doth use. -O, Iam out,
That mercy does; for calumny will fear
Virtue itself:-these shrugs, these hums, and haes,
When you have said, she's goodly, come between,
Ere you can say, she's honest.

Fortitude and Innocence..

Her. Do, not weep, good fools;

There is no cause: when you shall know your mil

trefs

Has deserv'd prison, then abound in tears,
As I come out: this action, I now go on,

Is for my better grace.

SCENE II.

Honesty and Honour..

Here's a do,

To lock up honesty and honour from

The access of gentle visitors!

:

The Silence of Innocence eloquent.

The filence often of pure innocence

Perfuades, when speaking fails.

SCENE III, Affectionate Child...

To fee his nobleness!

Conceiving the dishonour of his mother,
He straight declin'd, droop'd, took it deeply;
Fasten'd and fix'd the shame on't in himself,
Threw off his spirit, his appetite, his fleep,
And downright languish'd.

Child

Child resembling its Father.

Behold, my lords,

i

Altho' the print be little, the whole matter
And copy of the father, eye, nose, lip;
The trick of his frown, his forehead; nay the valley
The pretty dimples of his chin, and cheek, his smiles;
The very mould and frame of hand, nail, finger.-
And thou, good goddess nature, which hast made it
So like to him that got it, if thou hast

The ordering of the mind too, 'mongst all colours
No yellow in 't; lest she suspect, as he does,
Her children not her husband's.

An Infant to be exposed.

Come on, poor babe!"

Some powerful spirits instruct the kites and ravens
To be thy nurses! wolves and bears, they say,
(Casting their favageness afide) have done

Like offices of pity.

ACT III.

SCENE II.

L

Hermione pleading her Innocence.

If powers divine

1.

Behold our human actions (as they do)
I doubt not then, but innocence shall make
False accufation blush, and tyranny
Tremble at patience. You, my lord, best know,
(Who least will seem to do so) my past life
Hath been as continent, as chafte, as true,
As I am now unhappy; which is more
Than history can pattern, though devis'd,
And play'd to take spectators: for behold me,-
A fellow of the royal bed, which owe
A moiety of the throne, a great king's daughter,
The mother to a hopeful prince; -here standing,

To prate and talk for life and honour, 'fore
Who please to come and hear. For life, I prize it (9)
As I weigh grief, which I would spare; for honour,
'Tis a derivative from me to mine,

And only that I stand for. I appeal

To your own confcience, Sir, before Polixenes
Came to your court, how I was in your grace,
How merited to be so: since he came,
With what encounter so uncurrent I

Have strain'd, (10) to appear thus? if one jot beyond

The bound of honour, or in act, or will,
That way inclining; harden'd be the hearts
Of all that hear me, and my nearest kin

Cry, fie, upon my grave!

A Wife's Loss of all Things dear, and Contempt of Death.

Leo. Look for no less than death.

Her. Sir, spare your threats;

The bug which you would fright me with, I seek.
To me can life be no commodity:

The crown and comfort of my life, your favour,
I do give loft; for I do feel it gone,
But know not how it went. My second joy,
And first-fruits of my body, from his prefence
I am barr'd, like one infectious: my third comfort,
Star'd most unluckily, (11) is from my breast,

The

(9) Life, I prize it, &c.] Life is to me only grief, and as fuch is confidered by me; I would therefore willingly Spare, that is, let it go, or quit the poffeffion of it. J.

(10) Have train'd.] Mrs. Ford talks of some ftrain, in her character; and in B. and Fletcher's Custom of the Country, the same expreffion occurs.

Strain your loves

With any base or hir'd perfuafions.

St.

(11) Star'd most unluckily.] i. e, born under an inau

fpicious planet. St.

The innocent milk in its most innocent mouth,
Hal'd out to murther. Myself on every post
Proclaim'd a strumpet, with unmodest hatred.
The child-bed privilege deny'd, which 'longs
To women of all fashion; lastly, hurry'd
Here to this place, i' the open air, before
I have got fstrength of limit(12). Now, my liege,
Tell me what blessings I have here alive,
That I should fear to die! Therefore, proceed.
But yet hear this; mistake me not;-no life;
I prize it not a straw: but for mine honour,
(Which I would free) if I shall be condemn'd
Upon furmises; all proofs sleeping else,
But what your jealoufies awake; I tell you,
'Tis rigour, and not law.

Despair of Pardon.

But, O thou tyrant!

Do not repent these things; for they are heavier
Than all thy woes can ftir: therefore, betake thee
To nothing but despair. A thousand knees,
Ten thousand years together, naked, fasting,
Upon a barren mountain, and still winter,
In storın perpetual, cou'd not move the Gods
To look that way thou wert.

SCENE III. An Account of a Ghosts appearing in a Dream.

(13) I've heard, but not believ'd, the spirits of the

dead

May

(12) Strength of limit.] I know not well how ftrength of limit can mean " strength to pass the limits of the childbed chamber," which yet it must mean in this place, unless we read in a more easy phrase, Strength of limb. 7.

(13) See Paftor Fido, Act 1. Sc. 4. In the third Book of Lucan's Pharfalia, there is an elegant description of Pompey's

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