no other sustentation to suffice
what nature claims, but raw unsavoury roots,
with troubled waters, where untamed beasts
I do bathe themselves.
BUT the milder passions shew the man;
for as the leaf doth beautify the tree,
the pleasant flowers bedeck the painted spring,
even so, in men of greatest reach and power,
a mild and piteous thought augments renown.
Old Anthony did never see, my lord,
a swelling shower that did continue long,
a climbing tower that did not taste the wind,
a wrathful man not wasted with repent.
I speak of love, my Sylla, and of joy,
to see how fortune lends a pleasant gale
unto the spreading sails of thy desires;
and loving thee must counsel thee withal:
for, as by cutting fruitful vines increase,
so faithful counsels work a prince's peace..
AULUS DIDIUS WITH ROMANS ENTERING THE
DRUIDS' CONSECRATED GROVE IN MONA
HIS is the secret centre of the isle;
here, Romans, pause, and let the eye of wonder gaze on the solemn scene; behold yon oak, how stern he frowns, and with his broad brown arms chills the pale plain beneath him: mark yon altar, the dark stream brawling round its rugged base, these cliffs, these yawning caverns, this wide circus, skirted with unhewn stone: they awe my soul, as if the very Genius of the place
himself appeared and with terrific tread
stalk'd through his drear domain. And yet, my friends,
(if shapes like his be but the fancy's coinage)
surely there is a hidden power, that reigns
'mid the lone majesty of untamed nature,
controlling sober reason.
ETHINKS I hear a host in tumult flying,
steeds rushing on, as o'er a battle-field,
and the loud brazen clash of shield and spear.
Now nearer yet the trumpet's voice is swelling,
and lo! the foeman in the regal halls
bursts on a fated band of revellers.
Fallen is the golden city, in the dust
spoiled of her crown, dismantled of her state;
she that had trusted in her strength of towers
weeps, like a desolate mother, o'er her dead.
She that beheld the nations at her feet
thronging in homage shall be called no more
queen of the kingdoms. Who shall mourn her fate,
her power o'erthrown, her spoils and triumphs gone?
what widowed land her widowhood shall deplore?
PETRUCHIO TO KATHARINA
WELL, Come, se honest mean habiliments;
ELL, come, my Kate; we will unto your father's,
our purses shall be proud, our garments poor:
for 'tis the mind that makes the body rich;
and as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds,
so honour peereth in the meanest habit.
What, is the jay more precious than the lark,
because his feathers are more beautiful?
Or is the adder better than the eel,
because his painted skin contents the eye?
O, no, good Kate; neither art thou the worse
for this poor furniture, and mean array.
If thou account'st it shame, lay it on me:
and, therefore, frolic; we will hence forthwith,
to feast and sport us at thy father's house.
FRIAR LAURENCE TO ROMEO
OLD thy desperate hand:
art thou a man? thy form cries out thou art; thy tears are womanish; thy wild acts denote
the unreasonable fury of a beast:
unseemly woman in a seeming man!
or ill-beseeming beast in seeming both!
thou hast amazed me; by my holy order,
I thought thy disposition better tempered.
Hast thou slain Tybalt? wilt thou slay thyself?
and slay thy lady too that lives in thee,
by doing damnéd hate upon thyself?
Why rail'st thou on thy birth, the heaven, and earth? since birth, and heaven, and earth, all three do meet in thee at once; which thou at once wouldst lose. Fie, fie, thou sham'st thy shape, thy love thy wit.
HAT must the king do now? Must he submit?
The king shall do it.
The king shall be contented:
Must he be depos'd?
Must he lose
the name of king? o' God's name, let it go:
I'll give my jewels, for a set of beads;
my gorgeous palace, for a hermitage;
my gay apparel, for an alms-man's gown;
my figured goblets, for a dish of wood;
my sceptre, for a palmer's walking-staff,
my subjects, for a pair of carvéd saints;
and my large kingdom, for a little grave,
a little little grave, an obscure grave:-
or I'll be buried in the king's highway,
some way of common trade, where subjects' feet
may hourly trample on their sovereign's head.
HERE is no help for me in heaven or earth.
There is, there is; despair not, sorrowful maid,
all will be well. I'm going to the King,
and will with pow'rful reasons bind his hands;
and something in me says I shall prevail.
But to whose care shall I leave thee the while?for oh! I dare not trust thee to thy grief. Ant. I'll be disposed of, father, as you please,
till I receive the blest or dreadful doom. Pen. Then come, dear daughter, lean upon my arm, which old and weak is stronger yet than thine; thy youth hath known more sorrow than my age. I never hear of grief, but when I'm here;
but one day's diet here of sighs and tears
returns me elder home by many years.
547 To be the chief of honourable men
is honour; and if dangerous, yet faith
still binds them faster as the danger grows,
To be the head of villains,—what is that
but to be mind to an unwholesome body.
These hands are spotless yet—
yea, white as when in infancy they strayed
unconscious o'er my mother's face, or closed
with that small grasp which mothers love to feel.
No stain has come upon them since that time—
they have done nothing violent—
of a calm will untroubled servants they,
and went about their offices, if here
I must not say in purity, in peace.
But he they served, he is not what he was.
F by your art, my dearest father, you have
put the wild waters in this roar, allay them.
The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch,
but that the sea, mounting to the welkin's cheek,
dashes the fire out. O, I have suffer'd
with those that I saw suffer! a brave vessel,
who had, no doubt, some noble creatures in her,
dash'd all to pieces. O, the cry did knock
against my very heart! Poor souls, they perish'd.
Had I been any god of power, I would
have sunk the sea within the earth, or e'er
it should the good ship so have swallow'd and
the fraughting souls within her. Pro. Be collected;
no more amazement: tell your piteous heart
there's no harm done.
AM undone: there is no living, none
if Bertram be away. It were all one
that I should love a bright particular star,
and think to wed it, he is so above me:
in his bright radiance and collateral light
must I be comforted, not in his sphere.
The ambition in my love thus plagues itself;
the hind that would be mated by the lion
must die for love. 'Twas pretty, though a plague,
to see him every hour; to sit and draw
his arched brows, his hawking eye, his curls,
in our heart's table,-heart too capable
of every line and trick of his sweet favour:
but now he's gone, and my idolatrous fancy
must sanctify his relics.
550 PUBLIC ENTRY OF BOLINGBROKE INTO LONDON
DUKE AND DUCHESS OF YORK
Duke. THEN, as I said, the duke, great Bolingbroke,mounted upon a hot and fiery steed,
which his aspiring rider seem'd to know,-
with slow but stately pace kept on his course,
while all tongues cried 'God save thee, Bolingbroke!'
You would have thought the very windows spake,
so many greedy looks of young and old
through casements darted their desiring eyes
upon his visage; and that all the walls
with painted imagery had said at once,—
'Jesu preserve thee! welcome, Bolingbroke!'
whilst he, from one side to the other turning,
bare-headed, lower than his proud steed's neck,
bespake them thus,-I thank you, countrymen :
and thus still doing, thus he pass'd along.
551 Duch. Alas, poor Richard! where rides he the while? Duke. As in a theatre, the eyes of men,
after a well-graced actor leaves the stage,
are idly bent on him that enters next,
thinking his prattle to be tedious:
even so, or with much more contempt, men's eyes
did scowl on Richard; no man cried, 'God save him;'
no joyful tongue gave him his welcome home:
but dust was thrown upon his sacred head;
which with such gentle sorrow he shook off,—
his face still combating with tears and smiles,
the badges of his grief and patience,-
that had not God, for some strong purpose, steel'd
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