Imatges de pàgina
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Por. It must not be; there is no power in Ve-, But in his motion like an angel fings,
Can alter a decree established:

[nice 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 fweeteft touches pierce your mistress' eat,
And draw her home with mufic.

well!

'Twill be recorded for a precedent;"
And many an error, by the fame example,
Will rush 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
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 a 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, speak 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 lofe 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 Nigot, with fine Mufic.

Lor. The moon fhines bright: in fuch a night as this,

When the sweet 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 Creffid lay that night.

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Did Jeffica 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,

Lar. And in fuch a night,
Did pretty Jeffica, like a little fhrew,
Slander her love, and he forgave it her.

How fweet the moon-light fleeps upon this bank!
Here will we fit, and let the founds of mufic
Creep in our ears; soft ftillness and the night
Become the touches of fweet harmony.
Sit, Jeffica; look, how the floor of heav'n
Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold;
There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st,

Jef. I am never merry when I hear sweet mufic.
Lor. The reafon 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 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 thall preceive them make a mutual ftand,
Their favage eyes turn'd to a modest gaze,
By the fweet pow'r of mufic. Therefore, the poet
Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, ftones, and
floods;

Since nought fo ftockish, 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 fpirit 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 Effects 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 fhines 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 music, madam, of the house. Por. Nothing is good, I fee, without refpe&t; Methinks it founds much fweeter than by day. Ner. Silence bestows that virtue on it, madam, 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 ficeps with Endymion,
And would not be awak'd!

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Elegant Compliment.

Fair ladies, you drop manna in the way Of ftarved people.

§ 7. MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR,
SHAKSPEARE.
Defcription of Spendthrifts, who seek to better their
Fortunes by rich Wives.

HE doth object, I am too great of birth;
And that, my ftate being gall'd with my
I feek to heal it only by his wealth: [expence,
Befides thefe, other bars he lays before me-
My riots paft, my wild focieties;
And tells me, 'tis a thing impoffible

I fhould love thee but as a property.

Valuable Woman loved for her own Sake.

-Wooing thee, I found thee of more value
Than ftamps in gold, or fums in fealed bags;
And 'tis the very riches of thy felf
That now I aim at.

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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 fhady cloifter mew'd,
To live a barren fifter all your life,
Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon.
Thrice bleffed they, that mafter fo their blood,
To undergo fuch maiden pilgrimage!
But earthlier happy is the rose diftill'd,
Than that which, withering on the virgin thorn,
Grows, lives, and dies, in fingle bleffednefs.

Herm. So will I grow, fo live, fo die, my lord,
Ere I will yield my virgin-patent up
My foul confents not to give fovereignty.
Unto his lordship, to whofe unwifhd yoke
True Love ever crossed.

Fairies, their Rewards and Punishments.
Cricket, to Windfor's chimneys fhalt thou leap:
Where fires thou find'st unrak'd and hearths un-Or elfe mifgrafted in refpect of years;
There pinch the maids as blue as bilberry: [fwept,
Our radiant queen hates fluts and fluttery.
Go you, and where's Pede? you find a maid
That ere the fleep hath thrice her prayers faid,
Rein up the organs of her fantafy;"
Sleep the as found as careless infancy;
But those that sleep, and think not on their fins,
Pinch them, arms, legs, back, shoulders, fides

Lys. Ah me! for aught that ever I could read,
Could ever hear by tale or hiftory,
But either it was different in blood,
The courfe of true love never did run fmooth:

and fhins.

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Oo elfe it ftood upon the choice of friends:
Or, if there were a fympathy in choice,
War, death, or ficknels, did lay siege to it i
Making it momentary as a found,
Swift as a fhadow, fhort as any dream;
That, in a fplcen, unfolds both heav'n and earth:
Brief as the lightning in the collied night,
And, ere a man hath pow'r to say-Behold!
The jaws of darkness do devour it up:
So quick bright things come to confufion!
Herm. Then let us teach our trial patience,
Because it is a customary cross,
[fighs,
As due to love, as thoughts, and dreams, and
Wishes, and tears, poor fancy's followers.
Affignation.

I fwear to thee, by Cupid's ftrongest bow,
By his best arrow with the golden head,
By the fimplicity of Venus' doves,
By that which knitteth fouls, and profpers loves;
And by that fire which burnt the Carthage

queen,

When the falfe Trojan under fail was feen;
By all the vows that ever men have broke,
In number more than ever women fpoke;
In that fame place thou haft appointed me,
To-morrow truly will I meet with thee,

Modeft and generous Eulogium of a Rival,
Hel. Call you me fair? That fair again unfay
Demetrius loves you, fair: O happy fair!
Your eyes are lode-stars, and your tongue's fweet
[air
More tunable than lark to thepherd's ear,
When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds
Sickness is catching: O, were favour fo!
Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere 1 go:
My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye;
My tongue should catch your tongue's sweet

melody.

appear.

Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated,
The reft I'll give to be to you translated.

004

O teac

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

Moon.

When Phoebe doth behold Her filver visage in the watry glass, 1 ccking with liquid pearl the bladed grafs.

Lave.

Things bafe and vile, holding no quantity,
Love can tranfpole 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 hatte:
And therefore is Love faid to be a child,
Becaufe in choice he is fo oft beguil'd:
As waggifh boys in game themfelves forfwear;
So the boy Love is perjur'd every-where.

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

Puck, or Robin Good-fellow.

I am that merry wand 'rer of the night.
I jeft to Oberon, and make him fmile,
When I a fat and bean-fed horfe beguile,
Neighing in likeness of a filly foal;
And fometimes lurk I in a goflip'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 the,
And Tailor cries, and falls into a cough;
And then the whole quire hold their hips, and leffe;
And waxen in their mirth, and neeze, and fwear
A merrier hour was never waited there.

Fairy Fealoufy 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 ruthy brook,
Or on the beached inargent of the fea,
To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
But with thy brawls thou haft difturb'd our iport:
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 murtain 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, wafhes all the air,
That rheumatic difeafes do abound.
And, thorough this diftemperature, we fee
The feafons alter; hoary-headed frofts
Fali in the fresh lap of the crimson rofe;
And on oid Hyems' chin, and icy crown,
An od rous chaplet of fweet fummer-buds
Is, as in mock'ry, fet; the fpring, the fummer,
The childing autumn, angry winter, change
Their wonted liveries, and the 'mazed world
By their increase now knows not which is which.
Love in Idleness.

Thou remember t

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 spheres,
To hear the fea-maid's mufic.

That very time I faw (but thou couldst 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 should pierce a hundred thousand hearts.
But I might fee young Cupid's fiery shaft
Quench'd in the chafte beams of the wat'ry 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 weftern flow'r, [wound,
Before milk-white; now purpled with love's
And maidens call it, " Love in idlenefs."

Firtuous 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 refpect 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, whereon the wild thyme blow
Where ox-lips and the nodding violet grows;
Quite over-canopy'd with lufcicus woodbine,
There fleeps Titania, fometime of the night,
With fweet mufk-rofes, and with eglantine:
Lull'd in thefe 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 noon-beams from his fleeping eyes;
Nod to him, elves, and do him courtefies.

Swiftness

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Female Friendship.

Is all the council that we two have shar'd,
The filter vows, the hours that we have spent,
When we have chid the hafty-footed time
For parting us: O! and is all forgot?
All fchool-days friendship, childhood innocence?
We, Hermia, like two artificial gods,
Have with our needles created both one flower,
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 incorp'rate. So we grew together,
Like to a double cherry, feeming parted,
But

yet an 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 rend 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.

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

So flew 'd, fo fanded; and their heads are hung
With ears that fweep away the morning dew,
Crook-kneed,anddew-lapp'd,likeTheffalianbulls,
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 undiftinguishable
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,
Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt.
The poet's eye, in a fine phrenfy rolling,
Doth glance from heav'n to earth, from earth to
And, as imagination bodies forth
[heav'n;
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 sport in their intents,
gentlemen,Extremely ftretch'd, and conn'd with cruel pain,
To do you fervice.

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

Night's fwift dragons cut the clouds full fast,
And yonder fhines Aurora's harbinger;
At whofe approach, ghosts wand'ring here and
Troop home to church-yards.
[there,

Embracing.

So doth the wood-bine the tweet honey-fuckle
Gently entwift-the female ivy fo
Enrings the barky fingers of the elm.

Dew in Flowers.

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 wretchedness o'ercharg'd,
And duty in his fervice perifhing.

Thef. Why, gentle fweet, you fhall 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 purposed
To greet me with premeditated welcomes;
Where I have feen them fhiver and look pale,
Make periods in the midst of fentences,
Throttle their practis'd accents in their fears,
And, in conclufion, dumbly have broke off,
Not paying me a welcome. Trust me, fweet,
moun-Out of this filence, yet, I pick'd a welcome:
[tain's top,
And in the modefly of fearful duty

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.
The. We will, fair queen, up to the
And mark the musical 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 boar
With hounds of Sparta : never did I hear
Such gallant chiding. For, befides the groves,
The kies, the fountains, ev'ry region near

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

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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 fcreech-owl, fcreeching loud, Puts the wretch, that lies in woe,

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

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

In the church-yard paths to glide. And we Fairies, that do run,

By the triple Hecat's team,
From the prefence of the fun,

Following darkness like a dream,
Now are frolic; not a mouse
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: beauty is a witch,
Against whofe charms faith melteth into blood.
Merit always modeft.

It is the witness 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 so,

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 praise him more than ever man did merit ; My talk to thee muft be, how Benedick

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Angling, &c.

The pleafant'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 stuff than that of Beatrice. Difdain and fcorn ride fparkling in her eyes, Mifprifing what they look on: and her wit Values itself fo highly, that to her

All matter elfe feems weak; the cannot love, Nor take no fhape, nor project of affection, She is fo felf-endear'd.

I never yet faw man,

[tur'd,

How wife, how noble, young, how rarely fea-
But the would fpell him backward: if fair fac'd,
She'd fwear the gentleman fhould 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;
Which fimplenefs and merit purchaseth.
And never gives to truth and virtue that
Slandering the Obje&t, a Way to deftroy Affection,
No; rather I will go to Benedick,
And counsel 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 empoison 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 kindness fhall incite thee To bind our loves up in a holy band: For others fay, thou doft deferve; and I Believe it better than reportingly.

Diffimulation.

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

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

Her. And feem'd I ever otherwife to you?
Clau. Out on thy feeming! I will write a-
You feem to me as Dian in her orb; [gainst it :
As chafte as is the bud ere it be blown;
But you are more intemperate in your blood

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