Por. It must not be; there is no pow'r in Venice Can alter a decree established: "Twill be recorded for a precedent; And many an error, by the fame example, Will ruth into the ftate: it cannot be.

Cheerful Refignation, with friendly Tenderness. Ant. I am arm'd and well prepar'd———— Give me your hand, Baffanio; fare you well! Grieve not that I am fallen to this for you; For herein fortune fhews herself more kind Than is her cuftom.-It is ftill her use, To let the wretched man outlive his wealth, To view with hollow eye, and wrinkled brow, An age of poverty; from which ling'ring penance Of fuch mifery doth the cut me off. Commend me to your honourable wife : Tell her the procefs of Anthonio's end; Say, how I lov'd you, fpeak me fair in death; And, when the tale is told, bid her be judge, Whether Baffanio had not once a love. Repent not you that you shall lose your friend, And he repents not that he pays your debt. Ample Payment.

He is well paid, that is well fatisfied. Defcription of a Moon-light Night, with fine Mufic. Lor. The moon fhines bright: in fuch a night as this,

When the fweet wind did gently kifs the trees, And they did make no noife; in fuch a night, Troilus, methinks, mounted the Trojans wall, And figh'd his foul toward the Grecian tents, Where Crefiid lay that night.

Jef. In fuch a night,

Did Thisbe fearfully o'ertrip the dew;
And faw the lion's fhadow ere himself,
And ran difinay'd away.

Lor. In fuch a night,

Stood Dido with a willow in her hand

Upon the wild-fea banks, and wait her love o come again to Carthage.

To

Jef. In fuch a night,

Medea gather'd the enchanted herbs, That did renew old Efon.

Lor. In fuch a night,

Did Jefica fteal from the wealthy Jew;
And with an unthrift love did run from Venice,
As far as Belmont.

Jef. And in fuch a night,

Did young Lorenzo fwear, he lov'd her well; Stealing her foul with many vows of faith, And ne'er a true one.

Lor. And in fuch a night,

Did pretty Jeffica, like a little fhrew,
Slander her love, and he forgave it her.

How sweet the moon-light fleeps upon this bank!
Here will we fit, and let the founds of mufic
Creep in our cars, foft ftillness and the night
Become the touches of fweet harmony.
Sit, Jefica; look, how the floor of heaven
Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold;
There's not the fmallet orb, which thou behold'ft,

But in his motion like an angel fings,
Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins:
Such harmony is in immortal fouls;
But, whilft this muddy vefture of decay
Doth grofsly clofe it in, we cannot hear it.-
Come, ho, and wake Diana with a hymn;
With sweetest touches pierce your mistress' ear,
And draw her home with mufic.

Jef. I am never merry when I hear sweet music.
Lor. The reafon is, your fpirits are attentive:
For do but note a wild and wanton herd,
Or race of youthful and unhandled colts,
Fetching mad bounds,bellowing and neighingloud,
Which is the hot condition of their blood;
If they perchance but hear a trumpet found,
Or any air of mufic touch their ears,
You shall perceive them make a mutual ftand,
Their favage eyes turn'd to a modeft gaze,
By the fweet pow'r of mufic. Therefore, the poet
Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones, and
floods;

Since nought fo stockish, hard, and full of rage,
But mufic for the time doth change his nature.
The man that hath not mufic in himself,
Nor is not mov'd with concord of fweet founds,
Is fit for treafons, ftratagems, and spoils;
The motions of his spirit are dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus:
Let no fuch man be trufted.

A good Deed compared to a Candle, and the Effels of Time, Circumftance, &c.

Por. How far that little candle throws his beams! So fhines a good deed in a naughty world. Ner. When the moon fhone, we did not fee the candle.

Por. So doth the greater glory dim the lefs; A fubftitute shines brightly as a king, Until a king be by; and then his ftate Empties itself, as doth an inland brook Into the main waters. Mufic! hark!

Ner. It is your mufic, madam, of the house. Por. Nothing is good, I fec, without refpect; Methinks it founds much fweeter than by day.

Ner. Silence beltows that virtue on it, madani, Por. The crow does fing as fweetly as the lark When neither is attended, and, I think, The nightingale, if the fhould fing by day, When ev'ry goofe is cackling, would be thought No better a mufician than the wren. How many things by feafon feafon'd are To their right praife, and true perfection! Peace, hoa the moon fleeps with Endymion, And would not be awak'd!

O teach me how you look; and with what art You fway the motion of Demetrius' heart.

Moon.

When Phoebe doth behold

Her filver vifage in the watry glafs,
Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grafs.
Love.

Things bafe and vile, holding no quantity,
Love can tranfpofe to form and dignity.
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind:
Nor hath Love's mind of any judgment taste :
Wings, and no eyes, figure unheedy hafte :
And therefore is Love faid to be a child,
Because in choice he is fo oft beguil'd:
As waggifh boys in game themfelves forfwear,
So the boy Love is perjur'd every where.

Corvflips and Fairy Employment.
The cowflips tall her penfioners be;
In their gold coats fpots you fee;
Those be rubies, fairy favours;
In thofe freckles live their favours:
I must go feck fome dew-drops here,
And hang a pearl in ev'ry cowflip's ear.

Puck, or Robin Good-fellow.

I am that merry wand'rer of the night. I jest to Oberon, and make him fimile, When I a fat and bean-fed horfe beguile, Neighing in likeness of a filly foal : And fometimes lurk I in a goffip's bowl, In very likeness of a roafted crab; And, when the drinks, against her lips I bob, And on her wither'd dewlap pour the ale. The wifeft aunt, telling the faddeft tale, Sometime for three-foot ftool mistaketh me; Then flip I from her bum, down topples fhe, And Tailor cries, and falls into a cough; And then the whole quire hold their hips, and loffe; And waxen in their mirth, and peeze, and fwear A merrier hour was never wafted there.

Fairy Jealoufy, and the Effects of it. Thefe are the forgeries of jealoufy: And never, fince the middle fummer's fpring, Met we on hill, in dale, foreft, or mead, By paved fountain, or by rufhy brook, Or on the beached margent of the fea, To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind, But with thy brawls thou haft difturb'd our sport. Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain, As in revenge, have fuck'd up from the fea Contagious fogs; which falling in the land, Have ev'ry pelting river made fo proud, That they have overborne their continents: The ox has therefore ftretch'd his yoke in vain, The ploughman loft his fweat; and the green corn Hath rotted, ere its youth attain'd a beard: The fold ftands empty in the drowned field, And crows are fatted with the murrain flock: The nine-men's morris is fill'd up with mud, And the quaint mazes in the wanton green, For lack of tread, are undiftinguishable. The human mortals want their winter here;

No night is now with hymn or carol bleft:
Therefore the moon, the governefs of floods,
Pale in her anger, wafies all the air,
That rheumatic difeafes do abound:
And, thorough this diftemperature, we see
The feafons alter: hoary-headed frosts
Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rofe;
And, on old Hyems' chin, and icy crown,
An od 'rous chaplet of fweet fummer-buds
The childing autumn, angry winter, change
Is, as in mock'ry, fet: the fpring, the fummer,
Their wonted liveries, and the 'mazed world
By their increase now knows not which is which,
Love in Idleness.

Thou remember st

Since once I fat upon a promontory,
And heard a mermaid, on a dolphin's back,
Uttering fuch dulcet and harmonious breath,
That the rude fea grew civil at her fong;
And certain ftars fhot madly from their fpheres,
To hear the fea-maid's music.

That
very time I faw (but thou could'ft not),
Flying between the cold moon and the earth,
Cupid all arm'd: a certain aim he took
At a fair veftal, throned by the weft;
And loos'd his love-fhaft fmartly from his bow,
As it fhould pierce a hundred thousand hearts.
But I might fee young Cupid's fiery shaft
Quencht in the chafte beams of the watʼry moon;
And the imperial vot refs paffed on,
In maiden meditation, fancy free.

Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell:
It fell upon a little western flow'r,
Before,milk-white; now purple with love's wound,
And maidens call it, "Love in idleness."

Virtuous Love's Protection and Reliance.
Your virtue is my privilege for that.
Therefore I think I am not in the night:
It is not night, when I do fee your face,
Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company;
For you, in my respect, are all the world:
Then how can it be faid, I am alone,
When all the world is here to look on me?

A Fairy Bank.

I know a bank, where the wild thyme blows Where ox-lips and the nodding violet grows; Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, There fleeps Titania, fometime of the night, With fweet mufk-rofcs, and with.eglantine: Lull'd in these flow'rs with dances and delight.

Fairy Courtefies.

Be kind and courteous to this gentleman; Hop in his walks, and gambol in his eyes; Feed him with apricots and dewberries, With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries; The honey-bags fteal from the humble-bees, And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighs, And light them at the fiery glow-worm's eyes, To have my love to bed, and to arife; And pluck the wings from painted butterflies, To fan the moon-beams from his fleeping eyes Nod to him, elves, and do him courtefies. Saiftaeft

Female Friendship.

Is all the council that we two have shar'd,
The fifters' vows, the hours that we have spent,
When we have chid the hafty-footed time
For parting us: Oh! is all now forgot?
All fchool-days friendship, childhood innocence?
We, Hermia, like two artificial gods,
Have with our neelds created both one flow'r,
Both on one fampler, fitting on one cushion;
Both warbling of one fong, both in one key;
As if our hands, our fides, voices and minds,
Had been incorporate. So we grew together,
Like to a double cherry, feeming parted;
But yet a union in partition,

Two lovely berries moulded on one stem
So with two feeming bodies, but one heart;
Two of the first, like coats in heraldry,
Due but to one, and crowned with one creft.
And will you rent our ancient love afunder,
To join with men in fcorning your poor friend?
It is not friendly, 'tis not maidenly:
Our fex, as well as I, may chide you for it;
Though I alone do feel the injury.

Lover's Hate the greateft Harm.
What can you do me greater harm than hate?
Female Timidity.

I pray you, though you mock me, gentlemen, Let her not hurt me: I was never curft; I have no gift at all in fhrewishness; I am a right maid for my cowardice.

That fame dew, which fometime on the buds Was wont to fwell, like round and orient pearls, Stood now within the pretty flow'ret's eyes, Like tears that did their own difgrace bewail. Hunting and Hounds.

Thef. We will, fair queen, up to the mountain's [top,

And mark the mufical confufion
Of hounds and echo in conjunction.

Hip. I was with Hercules and Cadmus once,
When in a wood of Crete they bay'd the bear
With hounds of Sparta: never did I hear
Such gallant chiding; for, befides the groves,
The kies, the fountains, ev'ry region near

Seem'd all one mutual cry: I never heard
So mufical a difcord, fuch fweet thunder.
Thej. My hounds are bred out of the Spartan
kind,

With ears that fweep away the morning dew;
So flew'd, fo fanded; and their heads are hung
Crook-kneed, and dew-lap'd,likeTheffalian bulls;
Slow in purfuit, but match'd in mouth like bells,
Each under each. A cry more tunable
Was never holla'd to, nor cheer'd with horn,
Fairy Motion.

Then, my queen, in filence fad
Trip we after the night's fhade:
We the globe can compafs foon.
Swifter than the wand'ring moon.

Confufed Remembrance. These things feem fmall and undistinguishable, Like far off mountains turned into clouds. The Power of Imagination.

The lunatic, the lover, and the poet, Are of imagination all compact: One fees more devils than vaft hell can hold; That is the madman. The lover, all as frantic, Secs Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt. The poet's eye, in a fine phrenzy rolling, Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to And, as imagination bodies forth [heaven; The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen Turns them to fhapes, and gives to airy nothing A local habitation and a name.

Simpleness and modeft Duty always acceptable.
Philoft. No, my noble lord,

It is not for you: I have heard it over,
And it is nothing, nothing in the world;
Unless you can find fport in their intents,
Extremely ftretch'd, and conn'd with cruel pain,
To do you fervice.

Thef. I will hear that play:
For never any thing can be amifs,
When fimplenefs and duty tender it.

Hip. I love not to fee wretchednefs o'ercharg'd, And duty in his fervice perifhing.

Thef. Why, gentle fweet, you shall fee no fuch thing.

Our fport fhall be, to take what they mistake:
And what poor duty cannot do,

Noble refpect takes it in might, not merit.
Where I have come, great clerks have purpofed
To greet me with premeditated welcomes;
Where I have feen them fhiver and look pale,
Make periods in the midst of fentcnces,
Throttle their practis'd accents in their fears,
And, in conclufion, dumbly have broke off,
Not paving me a welcome. Trust me, fweet,
Out of this filence, yet, I pick'd a welcome :
And in the modefty of fearful duty

I read as much, as from the rattling tongue
Of faucy and audacious eloquence.
Love, therefore, and tongue-tied fimplicity,
In leaft, fpeak moft, to my capacity.

Clock.

The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve. Night.

Night.

Now the hungry lion roars,
And the wolf behowls the moon;
Whilft the heavy ploughman fnores,
All with weary task fore-done.
Now the wafted brands do glow,

Whilft the fcritch-owl, fcritching loud, Puts the wretch, that lies in woe,

In remembrance of a shroud. Now it is the time of night,

That the graves, all gaping wide, Every one lets forth his spright,

In the church-way paths to glide:
And we Fairies, that do run,

By the triple Hecat's team,
From the prefence of the fun,
Following darknefs like a dream,
Now are frolic; not a moufe
Shall difturb this hallow'd house:
I am fent with broom, before,
To fweep the duft behind the door.

§ 9. MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. SHAKSPEARE.

Peace infpires Love. BUT now I am return'd, and that war thoughts Have left their places vacant, in their rooms Come thronging foft and delicate defires, All prompting me how fair young Hero is. Friendship in Love.

Friendship is conftant in all other things, Save in the office and affairs of love: Therefore, all hearts in love ufe their own tongues; Let every eye negotiate for itself,

And truft no agent; for beauty is a witch,
Againft whofe charms faith melteth into blood.
Merit always modeft.

It is the witnefs ftill of excellency,
To put a strange face on his own perfection.
A Song.

Sigh no more, ladies, figh no more,
Men were deceivers ever;
One foot in fea, and one on fhore,
To one thing conftant never :
Then figh not fo,

But let them go,
And be you blith and bonny;
Converting all your founds of woe

Into, Hey nonny, nonny.
Favourites compared to Honey-fuckles, &c.

-Bid her fteal into the pleached bower,
Where honey-fuckles, ripen'd by the fun,
Forbid the fun to enter; like favourites,
Made proud by princes, that advance their pride
Against that power that bred it.

Scheme to captivate Beatrice.

Let it be thy part

To praife him more than ever man did merit:
My talk to thee must be, how Bencdick
Is fick in love with Beatrice: Of this matter
Is little Cupid's crafty arrow made,
That only wounds by hearfay.

Angling, &c.

The pleasant ft angling is to fee the fish Cut with her golden oars the filver ftream, And greedily devour the treacherous bait: So angle we for Beatrice.

A fcornful and fatirical Beauty. Nature never fram'd a woman's heart Of prouder ftuff than that of Beatrice. Difdain and fcorn ride fparkling in her eyes, Mifprifing what they look on; and her wit Values itfelf fo highly, that to her

All matter elfe feems weak; fhe cannot love, Nor take no fhape, nor project of affection, She is fo felf-endeared.

I never yet faw man,
How wife, how noble, young, how rarely featur'd,
But fhe would fpell him backward: if fair fac'd,
She'd fwear the gentleman should be her fifter;
If black, why, nature, drawing of an antick,
Made a foul blot; if tall, a lance ill-headed;
If low, an agate very vilely cut;

If fpeaking, why, a vane blown with all winds;
If filent, why, a block, moved with none.
So turns the ev'ry man the wrong fide out;
And never gives to truth and virtue, that
Which fimplenefs and merit purchaseth.
Slandering the Object, a Way to defiroy Affection.

No; rather I will go to Benedick,

And counfel him to fight against his paffion :
And, truly, I'll devife fome honeft flanders,
To ftain my coufin with; one doth not know,
How much an ill word may empoifon liking.

Beatrice's Recantation.
What fire is in mine ears? Can this be true>

Stand I condemn'd for pride and fcorn fo much?
Contempt, farewel! and maiden pride, adieu!
No glory lives behind the back of fuch.
And, Benedick, love on, I will requite thee,

Taming my wild heart to thy loving hand: If thou doft love, my kindnefs fhall incite thee To bind our loves up in a holy band: For others fay, thou dost deserve; and I Believe it better than reportingly.

Diffimulation.

O, what authority and fhew of truth
Can cunning fin cover itfeif withal!
Comes not that blood, as modest evidence,
To witnefs fimple virtue? Would you not fwear,
All you that fee her, that he were a maid,
By the e exterior thews? But he is none:
She knows the heat of a luxurious bed:
Her bluth is guiltinefs, not modefty.
Female Seeming.

I never tempted her with word too large;
But, as a brother to a fifter, fhew'd
Bafhful fincerity, and comely love.

Her. And feem'd I ever otherwife to you? Clau. Out on thy feeming! I will write against it: You seem to me as Dian in her orb;

blood

As chafte as is the bud ere it be blown ; But you are more intemperate in your