564

PHORBAS-CREUSA

Phorb. let it burst in thunder on thy foes. CUR 'URB not thy passion, give it vent, great Queen, and

Creu. It shall, by heaven it shall: I thought till now my griefs were sacred, but this monster dares insult even misery itself. O Phorbas, forgive me if my tears will force a passage. Now they are gone, and I will weep no more. Come, faithful counsellor of vengeance, come, instruct me how to act, steel all my soul; let not remorse or pity's coward voice

Phorb.

the bane of noble deeds intrude to cross us. Nicander's injured ghost shall aid our counsels. Say, shall he die?

Not yet, first be his schemes

abortive all, his politic designs,

then let him die despised.

565 PHILIP VAN ARTEVELDE QUESTIONED BY ELENA

566

CONCERNING HIS VISION

'OUCHING this eye-creation;

TOUC

what is it to surprise us? Here we are
engendered out of nothing cognisable.
If this be not a wonder, nothing is;
if this be wonderful, then all is so.
Man's grosser attributes can generate
what is not, and has never been at all;
what should forbid his fancy to restore
a being passed away? The wonder lies
in the mind merely of the wondering man.
Treading the steps of common life with eyes
of curious inquisition, some will stare
at each discovery of nature's ways,

as it were new to find that God contrives.
The contrary were marvellous to me,
and till I find it I shall marvel not.
Or all is wonderful, or nothing is.

I

H. TAYLOR

THE RUINS OF AN ANCIENT ABBEY

DO love these ancient ruins.

We never tread upon them, but we set

567

568

569

our foot upon some reverend history;
and, questionless, here in this open court,
which now lies naked to the injuries

of stormy weather, some men lie interred,
loved the church so well, and gave so largely to it,
they thought it should have canopied their bones
till dooms-day but all things have their end;
churches and cities, which have diseases like to men,
must have like death that we have.

W

EFFECTS OF SLANDER

J. WEBSTER

HERE may a maiden live securely free

keeping her honour safe? Not with the living;

they feed upon opinions, errors, dreams,

and make 'em truth; they draw a nourishment
out of defamings, grow upon disgrace;
and, when they see a virtue fortified
strongly above the battery of their tongues,
oh, how they dart to sink it; and, defeated,
soul-sick with poison, strike the monuments
where noble names lie sleeping, till they sweat
and the cold marble melt.

BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER

A GARLAND FOR YOUNG men

PROSERPINA,

O, POR OS towers now, that, frighted, thou lett'st fall

from Dis's wagon !-daffodils,

that come before the swallow dares, and take
the winds of March with beauty; violets, dim,
but sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes

or Cytherea's breath; pale primroses,
that die unmarried, ere they can behold

bright Phoebus in his strength-O, these I lack,
to make you garlands of, and my sweet friend,
to strew him o'er and o'er!

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571

whose hours, whose bed, whose meal, and exercise, are still together, who twin, as 'twere, in love unseparable, shall within this hour,

on a dissension of a doit, break out

to bitterest enmity: so, fellest foes,

whose passions and whose plots have broke their sleep

to take the one the other, by some chance,

some trick not worth an egg, shall grow dear friends, and interjoin their issues.

W. SHAKESPEARE

AN APOLOGY FOR A BLACK COMPLEXION

M

THE PRINCE OF MOROCCO

ISLIKE me not for my complexion,

the shadow'd livery of the burnish'd sun,
to whom I am a neighbour, and near bred.
Bring me the fairest creature northward born,
where Phoebus' fire scarce thaws the icicles,
and let us make incision for your love,

to prove whose blood is reddest, his, or mine.
I tell thee, lady, this aspect of mine

hath fear'd the valiant; by my love, I swear
the best-regarded virgins of our clime
have lov'd it too: I would not change this hue,
except to steal your thoughts, my gentle queen.

S

JANE SHORE

W. SHAKESPEARE

UBMISSIVE, sad and lonely was her look,
a burning taper in her hand she bore
and on her shoulders carelessly confined
with loose neglect her lovely tresses hung:
upon her cheek a faintish blush was spread ;
feeble she seemed and sorely smit with pain,
while barefoot as she trod the flinty pavement,
her footsteps all along were marked with blood,
yet silent still she seemed and unrepining;
her streaming eye bent ever on the earth,
except when in some bitter pang of sorrow,
to heaven she seemed in fervent zeal to raise
and beg that mercy man denied here.

N. ROWE

572 OLIVER TELLING GANYMEDE HOW ORLANDO

573

HAD SAVED HIS LIFE

N brief, he led me to the gentle duke,

IN

who gave me fresh array and entertainment, committing me unto my brother's love;

who led me instantly unto his cave,

there stripp'd himself, and here upon his arm
the lioness had torn some flesh away,

which all this while had bled; and now he fainted,

and cried, in fainting, upon Rosalind.

Brief, I recover'd him, bound up his wound;

and, after some small space, being strong at heart,
he sent me hither, stranger as I am,

to tell this story, that you might excuse
his broken promise, and to give this napkin,
dy'd in his blood, unto the shepherd youth
that he in sport doth call his Rosalind.

PROSPERO-ARIEL

F the king's ship,

W. SHAKESPEARE

Pros. the mariners, say, how thou hast disposed,

Ar.

and all the rest o'the fleet?

Safely in harbour
is the king's ship; in the deep nook, where once
thou call'dst me up at midnight to fetch dew
from the still-vexed Bermoothes, there she's hid:
the mariners all under hatches stowed:

who, with a charm joined to their suffered labour,
I have left asleep and for the rest o'the fleet
which I dispersed, they all have met again;
and are upon the Mediterranean flote,
bound sadly home for Naples :

supposing that they saw the king's ship wrecked
and his great person perish.

W. SHAKESPEARE

574

GREATNESS

GREATNESS,

REATNESS, with private men

esteemed a blessing, is to me a curse;

and we, whom, for our high births, they conclude

the only freemen, are the only slaves.

Happy the golden mean! had I been born

in a poor sordid cottage, not nursed up

with expectation to command a court,

I might, like such of your condition, sweetest,
have ta'en a safe and middle course, and not,
as I am now, against my choice, compell'd
or to lie grovelling on the earth, or raised
so high upon the pinnacles of state,

that I must either keep my height with danger,
or fall with certain ruin.

ROM the turret of the fort,

575 FR

576

P. MASSINGER

by the rising clouds of dust, through which, like lightning,

the splendour of bright arms sometimes brake
through,

I did descry some forces making towards us;
and from the camp, as emulous of their glory,
the general-for I knew him by his horse-
and bravely seconded, encountered them.

Their greetings were too rough for friends, their
swords,

and not their tongues, exchanging courtesies.
By this the main battalias are joined ;

and if you please to be spectators of
the horrid issue, I will bring you where,
as in a theatre, you may see their fates
in purple gore presented.

RIVAL ARMIES

HEY have drawn to the field

ΤΗ

two royal armies, full of fiery youth; of equal spirit to dare, and power to do: so near intrench'd, that 'tis beyond all hope of human counsel they can e'er be severed, until it be determined by the sword, who hath the better cause: for the success concludes the victor innocent, and the vanquished most miserably guilty. How uncertain the fortune of the war is, children know; and, it being in suspense, on whose fair tent winged Victory will make her glorious stand, you cannot blame the duke, though he appear perplexed and troubled.

P. MASSINGER