And more a friend than e'er an enemy; Most welcome! CORIOLANUS, A. 4, s. 5. THE GUILTY SOUL IN FEAR. GIVE me another horse,-bind up my wounds,Have mercy, Jesu!-Soft; I did but dream.— O coward conscience, how dost thou afflict me! The lights burn blue. It is now dead midnight. Cold fearful drops stand on my trembling flesh. What do I fear? myself? there's none else by: Richard loves Richard; that is, I am I. Is there a murderer here? No;-Yes; I am: Then fly, What, from myself? Great reason: Why? Lest I revenge. What? Myself on myself? O, no: alas, I rather hate myself, I am a villain: Yet I lie, I am not. Fool, of thyself speak well:-Fool, do not flatter. Nay, wherefore should they? since that I myself Methought, the souls of all that I had murder'd Came to my tent: and every one did threat Have struck more terror to the soul of Richard, K. RICHARD III., A. 5, s. 3. THE HANGMAN'S COMFORT. BUT the comfort is, you shall be called to no more payments, fear no more tavern bills; which are often the sadness of parting, as the procuring of mirth: you come in faint for want of meat, depart reeling with too much drink; sorry that you have paid too much, and sorry that you are paid too much; purse and brain both empty: the brain the heavier for being too light, the purse too light, being drawn of heaviness: O! of this contradiction you shall now be quit.-0, the charity of a penny cord! it sums up thousands in a trice: you have no true debitor and creditor but it; of what's past, is, and to come, the discharge:Your neck, sir, is pen, book, and counters; so the acquittance follows. Of heat and cold; he was nor sad nor merry. CLEO. O well-divided disposition! - Note him, Note him, good Charmian, 'tis the man; but note him: He was not sad; for he would shine on those So does it no man else. ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, A. 1, s. 5. THE HAPPY MEDIUM. HE were an excellent man, that were made just in the mid-way between him and Benedick; the one is too like an image, and says nothing; and the other, too like my lady's eldest son, evermore tattling. MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, A. 2, s. 1. THE HEAD NO MATCH FOR THE ISABELLA. ANGELO. HEART. Must he needs die ? Maiden, no remedy. ISAB. Yes; I do think that you might pardon him, And neither heaven nor man grieve at the mercy. ANG. I will not do't. ISAB. But can you, if you would? ANG. Look, what I will not, that I cannot do. ISAB. But might you do't, and do the world no wrong, If so your heart were touch'd with that remorse, As mine is to him? ANG. He's sentenc'd; 'tis too late. ISAB. Too late? why, no; I, that do speak a word, May call it back again: Well, believe this, 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. If he had been as you, And you as he, you would have slipt like him; But he, like you, would not have been so stern. I would to heaven I had your potency, And you were Isabel? should it then be thus ? No; I would tell what 'twere to be a judge, And what a prisoner. ANG. Your brother is a forfeit of the law, And you but waste your words. ISAB. 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. ANG. Be you content, fair maid; It is the law, not I, condemns your brother: Were he my kinsman, brother, or my son, It should be thus with him; he must die to morrow. ISAB. To-morrow? O, that's sudden! Spare him, spare him: He's not prepar'd for death! Even for our kitchens We kill the fowl of season; shall we serve heaven With less respect than we do minister To our gross selves? Good, good my lord, bethink you: Who is it that hath died for this offence? ANG. The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept: Those many had not dar'd to do that evil, ISAB. Yet show some pity. ANG. I show it most of all, when I show justice; For then I pity those I do not know, Which a dismiss'd offence would after gall; wrong, Lives not to act another. Be satisfied; Your brother dies to-morrow; be content. ISAB. So you must be the first, that gives this sentence; And he, that suffers: O, it is excellent Could great men thunder |