Imatges de pàgina
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Song. On Matrimony. Wedding is great Juno's crown;

O blefied bond of board and bed! 'Tis Hymen peoples every town,

High wedlock then be honoured: Honour, high honour and renown, To Hymen, god of every town!

3. THE COMEDY OF ERRORS. SHAKSPEARE.

Child-bearing prettily expreffed.
Herself almost at fainting under
The pleasing punishment that women bear.
Cheats well defcribed.

They fay this town is full of cozenage;
As nimble jugglers that deceive the eye,
Dark-working forcerers, that change the mind,
Soul-killing witches, that deform the body,
Difguifed cheaters, prating mountebanks,
And many fuch-like liberties of fin !

Man's Pre-eminence.

Why headftrong liberty is lath'd with woe.
There's nothing fituate under Heaven's eye,
But hath its bound, in earth, in sea, in sky;
The beafts, the fishes, and the winged fowls,
Are their males' fubjects, and at their controuls.
Men, more divine, the mafters of all these,
Lords of the wide world, and wild watry feas,
Indu'd with intellectual fenfe and fouls,
Of more pre-eminence than fifh and fowls,
Are mafters to their females, and their lords:
Then let your will attend on their accords.

Patience cafier taught than practifed.
Patience unmov'd, no marvel though the paufe
They can be meek, that have no other caufe;
A wretched foul, bruis'd with adversity,
We bid be quiet, when we hear it cry;
But, were we burden'd with like weight of pain
As much or more we should ourselves complain.
Defamation.

I fee, the jewel best enamelled
Will lofe its beauty and tho' gold bides ftill,
That others touch; yet often touching will
Wear gold. And fo no man that hath a name,
But falfehood and corruption doth it shame.

Wife's Exbortation on a Hufband's Infidelity.
Ay, ay, Antipholus, look strange and frown;
Some other miftrefs hath thy fweet aspects:
I am not Adriana, nor thy wife.

[vow,
The time was once when thou, unurg'd, wouldft
That never words were mufic to thine ear,
That never object pleasing in thine eye,
That never touch well welcome to thine hand,
That never meat fweet favour'd in thy taste,
Unless I fpake, or look'd, or touch'd, or carv'd, to
thee.

For know, my love, as eafy mayft thou fall
A drop of water in the breaking gulph,
And take unmingled thence that drop again,
Without addition or diminishing,

As take from me thyfelf, and not me too.
How dearly would it touch thee to the quick,
Shouldst thou but hear I were licentious;
And that this body, confecrate to thee,
By ruffian luft fhould be contaminate!
Wouldst thou not fpit at me, and spurn at me,
And hurl the name of hufband in my face,
And tear the ftain'd skin off my harlot brow,
And from my falfe hand cut the wedding-ring,
And break it with a deep-divorcing vow?

I know thou canft; and therefore fee thou do it.
I am poffeft with an adulterate blot,
My blood is mingled with the crime of lust;
For if we two be one, and thou play false,
I do digeft the poifon of thy flesh,
Being trumpeted by thy contagion.

A Refpe&t to Decency and the Opinion of the World,
an excellent Bulwark to our Virtues.
Have patience, Sir; O, let it not be so;
Herein you war against your reputation,
And draw within the compafs of fufpect
Th' inviolated honour of your wife.
Once this-Your long experience of her wisdom,
Her fober virtue, years, and modesty,
Plead on her part fome caufe to you unknown;
And doubt not, Sir, but the will well excufe
Why at this time the doors are made against you.
Be rul'd by me; depart in patience,
And let us to the Tiger all to dinner;
And, about evening, come yourfelf alone,
To know the reafon of this ftrange restraint.
If by ftrong hand you offer to break in,
Now in the ftirring paffage of the day,
A vulgar comment will be made of it;
And that fuppofed by the common rout
Against your yet ungalled reputation,
That may with foul intrufion enter in,
And dwell upon your grave when you are dead:
For flander lives upon fucceffion;

For ever hous'd where it once gets poffeffion.
Document for Wives, and the ill Effects of
Jealousy.

Abbels. Hath he not loft much wealth by
wreck at fea?

Buried fome dear friend? Hath not elfe his eye
Stray'd his affection in unlawful love?
A fin prevailing much in youthful men,
Who give their eyes the liberty of gazing.
Which of thefe forrows is he fubject to

[aft;

Adriana. To none of thefe, except it be the Namely, fome love that drew him off from home. Abbess. You should for that have reprehended Adriana. Why so I did.

[it,

[him.

Abbels. But not rough enough.

Adriana. As roughly as my modesty would

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How comes it now, my husband, oh, how comes
That thou art then estranged from thyself?
Thyfelf I call it, being strange to me;
That, undividable, incorporate,

Am better than thy dear felf's better part.
Ah, do not tear away thyself from me:

Adriana. It was the copy of our conference:

In bed, he flept not for my urging it;
At board, he fed not for my urging it:
Alone, it was the fubject of my theme;
In company, I often glanced at it;

[braidings;

And then grace us in the difgrace of death;
When, fpite of cormorant devouring time,
Th' endeavour of this prefent breath may buy
That honour which fhall bate his scythe's keen
And make us heirs of all eternity. [edge,
Therefore, brave conquerors for fo you are
That war against your own affections,
And the huge army of the world's defires ;-
Our late edict fhall ftrongly ftand in force.
Navarre fhall be the wonder of the world;

Still did I tell him it was vile and bad. [was mad
Abbess. And therefore came it that the man
The venom clamours of a jealous woman
Poifon more deadly than a mad dog's tooth.
It feems, his fleeps were hinder'd by thy railing:
And therefore comes it that his head is light.
Thou fay'ft his meat was fauc'd with thy up-Our court shall be a little academe,
Unquiet meals make ill digeftions,
Still and contemplative in living art.
Thereof the raging fire of fever bred;
And what's a fever, but a fit of madness? .
Thou fay'ft his fports were hinder'd by thy brawls:
Sweet recreation barr'd, what doth enfuc
But moody and dull melancholy,
Kinsman to grim and comfortless despair?
And, at her heels, a huge infectious troop
Of pale diftemperatures and foes to life.

Ill Deeds and ill Words, double Wrong.
'Tis double wrong to truant with your bed,
And let her read it in your looks at board:
Shame hath a bastard fame, well managed;

Ill deeds are doubled with an evil word.
Paffionate Lover's Addrefs to his Mistress.
Sing, fyren, for thyfeif, and I will dote;

Spread o'er the filver waves thy golden hairs;
And as a bed I'll take them, and there lie;

And in that glorious fuppofition think
He gains by death, that hath fuch means to die!
Defcription of a beggarly Conjurer, or a Fortune-

teller.

-A hungry, lean-fac'd villain,
A mere anatomy, a mountebank,
A thread-bare juggler, and a fortune-teller,
A needy, hollow-ey'd, fharp-looking wretch,
A living dead-man: this pernicious flave,
Forfooth, took on him as a conjurer;
And gazing in my eyes, feeling my pulfe,
And with no face as 't were outfacing me,
Cries out,
I was poffeft.

Old Age.

Not know my voice! O time's extremity,
Haft thou fo crack'd and fplitted my poor tongue,
In seven short years, that here my only fon
Knows not my feeble key of untun'd cares?
Tho' now this grained face of mine be hid
In fap-confuming winter's drizzled snow,
And all the conduits of my blood froze up;
Yet hath my night of life fome memory;
My wafting lamp fome fading glimmer left;
My dull deaf ears a little ufe to hear:
All these old witneffes,-I cannot err,-
Tell me, thou art my fon, Antipholus.

$4. LOVE's LABOUR LOST. SHAKSPEARE. A laudable Ambition for Fame and true Conqueft described.

King. LET Fame, that all hunt after in their

lives, Live regifter'd upon our brazen tombs,

Longaville. I am refolv'd; 'tis but a three
years faft;

The mind shall banquet, tho' the body pine—
Fat paunches have lean pates; and dainty bits
Make rich the ribs, but bankerout the wits.

Dumain. My loving lord, Dumain is mortified;
The groffer manner of the world's delights
He throws upon the grofs world's bafer flaves-
To love, to wealth, to pomp, I pine and die :
With all thefe living in philofophy.

Vanity of Pleafures.

Why, all delights are vain but that most vain,
Which, with pain purchas'd, doth inherit pain.
On Study.

Study is like the heaven's glorious fun, [looks;
That will not be deep fearch'd with faucy
Small have continual plodders ever won,

Save base authority from others books:

Thefe earthly godfathers of heaven's lights,

That give a name to every fixed star,
Have no more profit of their fhining nights,
Than thofe that walk, and wot not what they

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The Folly and Danger of making Vows.
Neceflity will make us all forfworn [fpace:
Three thousand times within thefe three years
For every man with his affects is born,
Not by might master'd, but by special grace :
If I break faith, this word fhall fpeak for me,
I am forfworn on mere neceflity.

A conceited Courtier, or Man of Compliments.
Our court, you know, is haunted

With a refined traveller of Spain;
A man in all the world's new fashion planted,
That hath a mint of phrafes in his brain:
One whom the mufic of his own vain tongue
Doth ravifh, like enchanting harmony:
A man of compliments, whom right and wrong
Have chofe as umpire of their mutiny.

This child of fancy, that Armado hight,
For interim to our ftudies, fhall relate
In high-born words the worth of many a knight,
From tawny Spain, loft in the word's debate.
How you delight, my lords, I know not, I;
But, I proteft, I love to hear him lie,
And I will ufe him for my minftrelly.

Biron. Armado is a moft illuftrious wight,
A man of fire-new words, fashion's own knight.
Beauty.

My beauty, tho' but mean, Needs not the painted flourish of your praife: Beauty is bought by judgment of the eye, Nor utter'd by bafe fale of chapmen's tongues. A Wit.

In Normandy faw I this Longaville: A man of fovereign parts he is efteem'd; Well fitted in the arts, glorious in arms: Nothing becomes him ill, that he would well : The only foil of his fair virtue's glofs (If virtue's glofs will stain with any foil) Is a fharp wit match'd with too blunt a will; Whofe edge hath pow'r to cut, whofe will fill

wills

It should none fpare that come within his power. Pri. Some merry mocking lord, belike; is 't fo? Mar. They fay fo moft, that most his humours [grow. Pri. Such fhort-liv'd wits do wither as they A Merry Man.

know.

A merrier man,
Within the limit of becoming mirth,
I never spent an hour's talk withal.
His eye begets occafion for his wit;
For every object that the one doth catch
The other turns to a mirth-moving jelt;
Which his fair tongue (conceit's expofitor)
Delivers in fuch apt and gracious words,
That aged ears play truant at his tales,
And younger hearings are quite ravished;
So fweet and voluble is hi, difcourfe.

A comical Defeription of Cupid or Love.
O! and I, forfooth, in love!

I, that have been love's whip;
A very beadle to a humorous figh:
A critic; nay, a night-watch conftable;
A domineering pedant o'er the boy,
Than whom no mortal more magnificent!
This whimpled, whining, purblind, wayward
boy,

This Signior Julio's giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid,
Regent of love-rhymes, lord of folded arms,
Th' anointed fovereign of fighs and groans;
Liege of all loiterers and malecontents;
Sole imperator, and great general
Of trotting 'paritors: (O my little heart)
And I to be a corporal of his file,

And wear his colours! like a tumbler's hoop!
What? I! I love! I fue! I feek a wife!
A woman, that is like a German clock,
Still a-repairing; ever out of frame,
And never going right, being a watch,
But being watch'd, that it may ftill go right?

Ill Deeds often done for the Sake of Fame. A giving hand, though foul, fhall have fair

praife

But come, the bow:-Now mercy goes to kill,
And fhooting well is then accounted ill.
Thus will I fave my credit in the shoot:
Not wounding, pity would not let me do 't;
If wounding, then it was to fhew my fkill,
That more for praise than purpose meant to kill.
And, out of queftion, fo it is fometimes;
Glory grows guilty of detefted crimes; [part.
When, for fame's fake, for praise, an outward
We bend to that the working of the heart:
As I, for praife alone, now feek to fpill fill.
The poor deer's blood, that my heart means no
Sonnet.

Did not the heavenly rhetoric of thine eye

('Gainst whom the world cannot hold arguPerfuade my heart to this falfe perjury; [ment) Vows, for thee broke, deferve not punishment. A woman I forfwore; but I will prove

(Thou being a goddess) I forswore not thee:
My vow was earthly, thou a heavenly love:
Thy grace being gain'd, cures all difgrace in me.
Vows are but breath, and breath a vapour is;
Then thou, fair fun, which on my earth doft
Exhal'ft this vapour vow; in thee it is: [fhine,
If broken then, it is no fault of mine;
If by me broke, what fool is not fo wife,
To lafe an oath to win a paradife?
Another.

On a day, (alack the day!)
Love, whole month is ever May,
Spy'd a bloffom paffing fair
Playing in the wanton air:
Thro' the velvet leaves the wind,
All unfeen, 'gan paffage find;
That the lover, fick to death,
Wish'd himself the heaven's breath.
Air, quoth he, thy cheeks may blow;-
Air, would I might triumph fo!

But, alack! my hand is fworn,
Ne'er to pluck thee from thy thorn.
Vow, alack! for youth unmeet,
Youth fo apt to pluck a fweet.
Do not call it fin in me,

That I am forfworn for thee:
Thou for whom ev'n Jove would fwear
Juno but an Ethiope were;
And deny himfelf for Jove,
Turning mortal for thy love.

Commanding Beauty.

-Who fees the heavenly Rofalind, That, like a rude and favage man of Inde, At the first opening of the gorgeous caft, Bows not his vaffal head, and, ftrucken blind, Kiffes the bafe ground with obedient breast? What peremptory eagle-fighted eye

Dares look upon the heaven of her brow, That is not blinded by her majefty?

The Power of Love.

Why, univerfal plodding prifons up The nimble fpirits in the arteries,

As

As motion and long during action tires
The finewy vigour of the traveller.

When would you, my liege-or you-or you-
In leaden contemplation, have found out
Such fiery numbers, as the prompting eyes
Of beauteous tutors have enrich'd you with?
Other flow arts entirely keep the brain;
And therefore finding barren practisers,
Scarce fhew a harvest of their heavy toil :
But love, firft learned in a lady's eyes,
Lives not alone immured in the brain;
But, with the motion of all elements,
Courfes as fwift as thought in every pow'r;
And gives to ev'ry pow'r a double pow'r,
Above their functions and their offices.
It adds a precious feeing to the eye;
A lover's eyes will gaze an eagle blind.
A lover's cars will hear the lowest found,
When the fufpicious head of theft is ftopt.
Love's feeling is more foft and fenfible
Than are the tender horns of cockled fnails.
Love's tongue proves dainty Bacchus grofs in
For valour, is not love a Hercules, [tafte.
Still climbing trees in the Hefperides?
Subtle as Sphinx; as sweet and musical
As bright Apollo's lute, ftrung with his hair:
And when love fpeaks, the voice of all the gods
Makes heaven drowsy with the harmony.
Never durft poct touch a pen to write,
Until his ink were temper'd with love's fighs :
O, then his eyes would ravifh favage ears,
And plant in tyrants mild humility.
From women's eyes this doctrine I derive:
They fparkle ftill the right Promethean fire;
They are the books, the arts, the academes,
That fhew, contain, and nourish all the world;
Elfe, none at all in aught proves excellent.

Wife Men greatest Fools in Love.

Ri. None are fo furely caught, when they are
catch'd,

As wit turn'd fool: folly, in wisdom hatch'd,
Hath wifdom's warrant, and the help of fchool,
And wit's own grace to grace a learned fool.
Rof. The blood of youth burns not with fuch
As gravity's revolt to wantonnefs. [excefs
Mar. Folly in fools bears not fo ftrange a note,
As foolery in the wife, when wit doth dote:
Since all the power thereof it doth apply,
To prove, by wit, worth in fimplicity.

Keennels of Women's Tongues.

The tongues of mocking wenches are as keen As is the razor's edge invifible,

Cutting a smaller hair than may be seen ; Above the fense of sense. so sensible Seemeth their conference; their conceit hath wings Fleeter than arrows,bullets,wind, thought, fwifter things.

Ladies mafked and unmasked. Fair ladies mask'd are rofes in the bud; Difmafk'd, their damafk fweet commixture fhown, Are angels vailing clouds, or roles blown.

A Lord Chamberlain or Gentleman Uber.
This fellow pecks up wit, as pigeons peafe ;
And utters it again when God doth please:
He is wit's pedlar; and retails his wares
At wakes, and waffels, meetings, markets, fairs.
And we that fell by grofs, the Lord doth know,
Have not the grace to grace it with such show.
This gallant pins the wenches on his fleeve;
Had he been Adam he had tempted Eve.
He can carve too, and lifp: Why this is he
That kifs'd his hand away in courtesy;
This is the ape of form, Monfieur the nice,
That, when he plays at tables, chides the dice
In honourable terms: nay, he can fing
A mean most meanly; and in ufhering
Mend him who can': the ladies call him Sweet;
The ftairs, as he treads on them, kifs his feet.
This is the flower that fmiles on every one,
To fhew his teeth as white as whale his bone:
And confciences that will not die in debt,
Pay him the due of honey-tongu'd Boyet!

See where it comes!-Behaviour, what wert thou
Till this man fhew'd thee? and what art thou now?
Elegant Compliment to a Lady.
Fair, gentle, fweet,

[greet
With eyes beft feeing Heaven's fiery eye,
Your wit makes wife things foolish: when we
By light we lofe light: your capacity
Is of that nature, as to your huge store
Wife things feem foolish, and rich things but
Humble Zeal to please.

[poor.

That sport most pleases, that doth least know how; When zeal ftrives to content, and the contents Die in the zeal of that which it presents, Their form confounded makes moft form in [birth. When great things labouring perish in their The Effects of Love.

mirth,

For your fair fakes have we neglected time, Play'd foul play with our oaths; your beauty, ladies, [mours Hath much deform'd us, fashioning our huEven to the oppofed end of our intents;

And what in us hath feem'd ridiculous-
All wanton as a child, fkipping and vain;
As love is full of unbefitting ftrains,
Form'd by the eye; and therefore, like the eye,
Full of ftrange fhapes, of habits, and of forms,
Varying in fubjects as the eye doth roll
To every vary'd object in his glance :
Which party-colour'd prefence of loofe love,
Put on by us, if, in your heavenly eyes,
'T hath midbecom'd our oaths and gravities,
Thofe heavenly eyes, that look into these faults,
Suggested us to make them: therefore, ladies,
Our love being yours, the error that love makes
Is likewife yours.

Trial of Love.
If this auftere, infociable life

Change not your offer made in heat of blood;
If frofts, and fats, hard lodging, and thin weeds,

Nip not the gaudy blossoms of your love, But

But that it bear this trial, and laft love;
Then, at the expiration of the year,
Come challenge me.

Jeft and Jefter.

Rof. Oft have I heard of you, my Lord Biron, Before I faw you; and the world's large tongue Proclaims you for a man replete with mocks; Full of comparifons, and wounding flouts; Which you on all eftates will execute, That lie within the mercy of your wit: Toweed this wormwood from your fruitful brain, And therewithal to win me, if you please, (Without the which I am not to be won) You shall this twelvemonth term, from day to day, Vifit the fpeechlefs fick, and ftill converfe With groaning wretches: and your task fhall be, With all the fierce endeavour of your wit, T'enforce the pained impotent to fmile. [death: Bir. To move wild laughter in the throat of It cannot be, it is impoffible: Mirth cannot move a foul in agony.

[fpirit,
Ref. Why, that's the way to choak a gibing
Whofe influence is begot of that loose grace
Which thallow laughing hearers give to fools:
A jeft's profperity lies in the ear

Of him that hears it, never in the tongue
Of him that makes it, Then, if fickly cars,
Deaft with the clamours of their own dear groans,
Will hear your idle fcorns, continue then,
And I will have you, and that fault withal;
But if they will not, throw away that spirit,
And I fhall find you empty of that fault,
Right joyful of your reformation.

Spring. A Song.

When daifies pied, and violets blue,
And lady-fmocks all filver white,
And cuckow-buds of yellow hue,
Do paint the meadows with delight:
The cuckow, then, on every tree,
Mocks married men; for thus fings he,
Cuckow !

Cuckow! cuckow! O word of fear,
Unpleafing to a married ear!

When thepherds pipe on oaten ftraws,
And merry larks are ploughmen's clocks;
When turtles tread, and rooks and daws;
And maidens bleach their summer smocks;
The cuckow then, on every tree,
Mocks married men; for thus fings he,
Cuckow !

Cuckow! cuckow! O word of fear,
Unpleafing to a married ear !

Winter. A Song.

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 nipt, and ways be foul,
Then nightly fings the staring ow!
To-whoo!

Tu-whit, to-whoo, a merry note,
While greafy Joan doth keel the pot.

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THE

Virtue given to be exerted. HERE is a kind of character in thy life, That, to the observer, doth thy history Fully unfold: thy felf and thy belongings Are not thine own fo proper, as to waste Thyfelf upon thy virtues, them on thee. Heav'n doth with us as we with torches do, Not light them for themfelves: for if our virtues Did not go forth of us, 't were all alike As if we had them not. Spirits are not finelytouch'd, But to fine iffues: nor nature never lends The fmalleft fcruple of her excellence, But, like a thrifty goddess, the determines Herfelf the glory of a creditor, Both thanks and use.

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Thus can the demi-god, authority, Make us pay down for our offence by weight. The words of Heav'n: On whom it will, it will; On whom it will not, fo; yet still 'tis juft. The Confequence of Liberty indulged. Lucio. Why, how now, Claudio? whence comes this restraint?

Claud. From too much liberty, my Lucio, liAs furfeit is the father of much fast, [berty: So every fcope, by the immoderate use, Turns to reftraint. Our natures do pursue, Like rats that raven down their proper bane, A thirsty evil; and when we drink we die. Neglected Laws.

This new governor
Awakes me all th' enrolled penalties,
Which have, like unfcour'd armour, hung by
the wall

So long, that nineteen zodiacs have gone round,
And none of them been worn; and for a name,
Now puts the drowsy and neglected act
Freshly on me: 'tis furely for a name.

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