gratitude. LI. INCULCATING. COMMANDING. The dying charge of Micipsa, king of Numidia, to Jugurtha, whom he had adopted, and made joint-heir to his kingdom, with his two sons, Adherbal and Hiempsal. OU Exciting to You know, Jugurtha, that I received you under my protection in your early youth, when left a helpless, and hopeless orphan. I advanced you to high honours in my kingdom: in the full assurance that you would prove grateful for my kindness to you; and that, if I came to have children of my own, you would study to repay to them, what you owed to me. Hitherto I have dation. had no reason to repent of my favours to you. Commen- For to omit all former instances of your extraordinary merit, your late behaviour in the Numantian war, has reflected on me and my kingdom, a new and distinguished glory. You have, by your valour, rendered the Roman commonwealth, which before was well affected to our interest, much more friendly. In Spain, you have raised the honour of my name and crown. And you have surmounted what is justly reckoned one of the greatest difficulties; having by your merit, silenced envy. My dissolution seems now to be Intreating. fast approaching. I therefore beseech and conjure you, my dear Jugurtha, by this right hand; by the remembrance of my past kindness to you; by the honour of my kingdom, and by the majesty of the guds; be kind to my two sons, whom my favour to you has made your brothers; and do not think of forming a connexion with any stranger to the prejudice of your relations. It is not by arms, nor by treasures, that a kingdom is secured, but by well affected subjects and allies. Warning. And it is by faithful and important services, that Teaching. friendship (which neither gold will purchase, nor arms extort) is secured. But what friendship is Remonftr. more perfect than that which ought to obtain between brothers? What fidelity can be expected among strangers, if it is wanting among rela- Warning. tions? The kingdom I leave you, is in good condition, if you govern it properly; if otherwise, it is weak. For by agreement, a small state increases; by division a great one goes to ruin. It Inculcat. will lie upon you, Jugurtha, who are come to riper years than your brothers, to provide, that no misconduct produce any bad effect. And if any difference should rise between you and your brothers (which may the gods avert !) the public will Devotion. charge you, however innocent you may be, as the aggressor, because your years and abilities give you the superiority. But I firmly persuade myself, that you will treat them with kindness, and that they will honour and esteem you, as your distinguished virtue deserves. LII. DRUNKENNESS. (1) (Shakespear's OTHELLO.) MONTANO, CASSIO, and IAGO. Cassio. I'LL be ha-[hiccoughs] I'll be ha- Montano. Why, good master lieutenant, we are not beyond pints a-piece as I'm a so-as I'm a so as I'm a soldier. And that is a shallow (1) It may perhaps, feem flrange to fome, that fuch a leffon as this thould have a place. But, befides the diverfion of seeing drunkenness well imitated, the moral is good. For this very frolick cofts Caffio his place. It is needless to mark the emphatical words in this paffage. For drunkenness destroys all emphasis and propriety. Hope. brain-pan, which will not hold a poor pint of good liquor. Iago. Some wine, ho! And let me the cannakin clink, clink, [Sings.] A foldier's a man, and man's life but a span, Why then let a foldier have drink. Some wine, boy! Cassio. I'll be shot for a cow-for a COW for a coward, if that ben't an excellent song. Iago. I learnt it in England, where indeed they are most potent at the pot. Your Dane, your German, and your swag-belly'd Hollander, are nothing to your freeborn Englishman. Did you ever hear an Englishman reckon up the privileges he has by birth-right? Cassio. No, good Iago. What are they pray? Iago. Why, to say what he pleases of the government; to eat more roast beef, and drink more port, than any three subjects of any other country; and to do whatever he pleases, whereever he is. Therefore he raves at the best king, while your Frenchman worships the worst he breaks this week, the law he voted for last week, and in all countries he is winked at, when he does what would send a native to a mad-house; he eats you up the whole ox in less time than your Frenchman swills the soup he makes of the shins, and as to drinking, he lays you France, Austria, and Russia, among the table's feet, with no more conscience at the tavern, than in the field of battle. Cassio. Here is our noble ge-our noble ge our noble general's health for ever. Montano. Ay, ay, good master lieutenant, and as much longer as you please. Iago. O sweet England! King Stephen was an unworthy peer, [Sings.] He held them fix-pence all too dear, He was a wight of high renown, And thou art but of low degree : LIII. VEXATION. SPITEFUL JOY. The scene between SHYLOCK and TUBAL. (Shakespeare's MERCHANT OF VENICE.) (1) Shyl. How now, Tubal, what news from Quest, with Genoa? Have you heard any thing of my Anxiety, backsliding daughter ? Tub. I often came where I heard of her, but Disappointcould not find her. ment. Shyl. Why there, there, there! A diamond Vexation. gone that cost me two thousand ducats at Frankfort: The curse never fell upon our nation till now. I never felt it before. Two thousand dueats in that, and other precious, precious jewels! I wish she lay dead at my foot, with the jewels Execrating. I would she were hears'd with the in her ear. ducats in her coffin. No news of them! And I Vexation. know not what spent in the search. Loss upon loss. The thief gone with so much; and so much to find the thief; and no satisfaction, no revenge, no ill luck stirring but what lights on my shoulders, (1) The pupil muft, if he does not know it, be told a little of the plot, viz. That Shylock had sent Tubal in search of his daughter, whom his ill usage, and the importunity of her lover, had occafioned to elope from his house. And that Antonio was a merchant, mortally hated by Shylock, who had borrowed a sum of money of Shylock on the terms of his forfeiting a pound of his fleth, wherever Shylock pleafed to cut it, in case his failing to difcharge the debt on the day it was due. Narration. Spiteful joy Narration. Spiteful joy no sighs, but o' my breathing; no tears, but o' my shedding. Tub. Yes, other men, have ill luck too. Antonio, as I heard in Genoa Shyl. What! Has he had ill luck? [Earnestly.] Tub. He has had a ship cast away coming from Tripoli. Shyl. Thank God; thank God! Is it true? Tub. I spoke with some of the sailors, that 'scaped from the wreck. Spiteful joy Narration. them? Tub. Your daughter spent, in Genoa, as I heard, in one night, twenty ducats. Anguith. Shyl. Thou stick'st a dagger in me. I shall never see my gold again. Twenty ducats at a sitting! Twenty ducats!O father Abraham! Narration. Tub. There came divers of Antonio,s creditors in my company to Venice, that say, he cannot but break. Spiteful joy Narration. Anguish. Narration. Shyl. I'm glad of it. I'll plague him. I'll torture him. I'm glad of it. Tub. One of them shewed me a ring he had of your daughter for a monkey. Shyl. Out upon her! Thou torturest me, Tubal. It was my ruby. I had it of Leah. I would not have given it for as many monkeys as could stand together upon the Rialto. Tub. Antonio is certainly undone. Spiteful joy Shyl. Ay, ay, there is some comfort in Directing. that. Go, Tubal, fee me an officer; bespeak Cruelty. him to be ready. (1) I will be revenged on AnRevenge. tonio. I will wash my hands to the elbows, in his heart's blood. [Exit.] (1) This fhould be fpoken with malignant exultation and threatening. See Malice, page 29. |