A wretched foul, bruis'd with adverfity, We bid be quiet, when we hear it cry; But, were we burdened with like weight of pain, [plain. As much or more we fhould ourselves com- Defamation.
I fee, the jewel beft 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 fhame. Wife's Exhortation on a Hufband's Infidelity. Ay, ay, Antipholus, look ftrange and frown; Some other miftrefs hath thy fweet afpects: I am not Adriana, nor thy wife. [wouldst vow, The time was once when thou, unurged, That never words were mufic to thine ear, That never object pleafing in thine eye, That never touch wellwelcome to thine hand, That never meat fweet favour'd in thy tafte, Unless I fpake, or look'd, or touch'd, or carv'd to thee. [comes it, How comes it now, my hufband, Oh, how That thou art then eftranged 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 thyfelf from me: 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, Should 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 fpurn at me, And hurl the name of hufband in my face. And tear the ftain'd fkin 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 thoudo it. Iam poffeft with an adulterate blot, My blood is mingled with the crime of luft, For if we two be one, and thou play false, 1 do digeft the poifon of thy flesh, Being firumpeted by thy contagion.
4 Refped to Decency and the Opinion of the World, an excellent Bulwark to our Virtues.
Against your yet ungalled reputation, That may with foul intrufion enter in, And dwell upon your grave when you are For flander lives upon fucceffion; [dead For ever hous'd where it once gets poffeffion. Document for Wives, and the ill Effects af Jealousy.
Abbefs. Hath he not loft much wealth by wreck at fea. [eye Buried fome dear friend! Hath not elfe his 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 ? Adriana. To none of thefe, except it be the laft?
Namely, fome love that drew him off from home. [ed him, Abbess. You should for that have reprehend Adriana. Why fo I did.
Abbefs. But not rough enough. [let me. Adriana. Asroughly as my modefty would Abbefs. Haply in private.
Adriana. And in affemblies too. Abbes. But not enough.
[ence: Adriana. It was the copy of our confer 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: Still did I tell him it was vile and bad.
Abbefs. And therefore came it that the man was mad.
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- Unquiet meals make ill digeftions,[braidings; Thereof the raging fire of fever bred; And what's a fever, but a fit of madness? Thou fay'ft his fports were hindered by thy
Sweet recreation barr'd, what doth enfue But moody and dull melancholy,
Kinfman to grim and comfortless defpair? And, at her heels, a huge infectious troop Of pale distemperatures and foes to life.
Ill Deeds and ill Words, double Wrong.
Have patience, Sir; O, let it not be fo;'Tis double wrong to truant with your bed, 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 wif- Her fober virtues, years, and modefty, [dom, 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 Berul'd by me; depart in patience, [you. And let us to the Tiger all to dinner; And, about evening, come yourself alone, To know the reafon of this ftrange restraint. Ifby ftrong hand you offer to break in, Now in the ftirring paffage of the day, Avulgar comment will be made of it; And that fupposed by the common rout
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, Syren, for thyfelf, and I will dote; Spread o'er the filver waves thygolden hairs: And as a bed I'll take them, and there lie; And in that glorious fuppofition think [diel__
He gains bydeath, that hath fuch means to Defeription 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 slave,
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.
Not know my voice! O time's extremity, Haft thou fo crack'd and splitted my poor tongue,
In feven fhort years, that here my only fon Knows not my feeble key of untun'd cares? Though now this grained face of mine be hid In fap-confuming winter's drizzled fnow, 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 defcribed. KingLET Fame, that all hunt after in their
Live regifter'd upon our brazen tombs, 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 fcythe's keen edge,
And make us heirs of all eternity. Therefore, brave conquerors! for so you are That war against your own affections,
And the huge army of the world's defires;- Our late edict shall strongly stand in force. Navarre fhall be the wonder of the world: Our court fhall be a little academe. Still and contemplative in living art. Longaville. I am refolv'd; 'tis but a three years' faft;
The mind fhall banquet though the bodypine.. Fat paunches have lean pates; and dainty bits Make rich the ribs, but banker out the wits. Dumain. My loving Lord, Dumain is mortifi- The groffer manner of the world's delights[ed; 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.
Why, all delights are vain: but that most vain, [pain, Which, with pain purchas'd, doth inherit On Study. Stu ly is like the heaven's glorious fun, [looks; That will not be deep fearch'd with faucy Small have continual plodders ever won
Save bafe authority from others books: Thefe earthly godfathers of heaven's lights, That give a name to every fixed ftar, Have no more profit of their fhining nights, Than those that walk, and wot not what they are. [fame, Too much to know, is to know nought but And every godfather can give a name. Again.
So ftudy evermore is overfhot;
While it doth study to have what it would, It doth forget to do the things it thould: And when it hath the thing it hunteth moff, 'Tis won, as towns with fire; fo won, fo loft. Froft.
An envious fneaping froft, That bites the first-born infants of the spring. The Folly and Danger of making Vows. Neceffity will make us all forfworn [(pace: 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 fashionplanted, That hath a mint of phrafes in his brain: One whom the music of his own vain tongue Doth ravish, 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 worthof manyaknight,
How you delight, my lords, I know not, l; From tawny Spain, loft in the word's debate. But, I proteft, I love to hear him lie, And I will ufe him for my minitrelly.
Biron. Armado is a moft illuftrious wight, A man of fire-new words, fashion's own knight, Beauty.
My beauty though but mean, Needs not the painted flourish of your praise: Beauty is bought by judgment of the eye, Nor uttered 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 ftain with any foil) Isa fharp wit match'd with too blunt a will Whofe edge hath pow'r to cut, whofe will [post.
It should none fpare that come within his Pri. Some merrymocking lord, belike; is'tfo Mar. They fay fo moff, that moft his - mours know. Pri. Such fhort-liv'd wits do wither as they A merry Man. A merrier man,
Within the limit of becoming mirth, I never fpent 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 his difcourfe.
A comical Defcription of Cupid or Love. O! and I forfooth, in lovel I, that have been love's whip;
adle to a humorous figh:
nay, a night-watch constable; eering pedant o'er the boy,
Than wom no mortal more magnificent! This wimpled, whining, purblind, way- ard boy,
This Sig nior Julio's giant dwarf, Dan Cupid, Regent of love-rhymes, lord of folded arms, Th'anonted 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 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 still go right? Il Deeds often done for the Sake of Fame. A giving hand, though foul, fhall have fair paife- [kill, But come, the bow:-Now mercy goes to And fhooting well is then accounted ill. Thus will fave my credit in the fhoot: Not wounding, pity would not let me do't; If wounding, then it was to fhew my skill, That more for praife than purpose meant to And, out of queftion, fo it is fometimes; [kill. Glory grows guilty of detefted crimes; [part, When, for fame's fake, for praife, an outward We bend to that the working of the heart : As I, for praife alone, now feek to fpill [ill. The poor deer's blood that my heart means no Sonnet.
Did not the heavenly rhetoric of thine eye (Gainft whom the world cannot hold argu. Perfuade my heart to this falfe perjury; [ment) Vows, for thee broke, deferve not punish- A woman I forfwore; but I will prove [ment. (Thou being a goddefs) I forfwore not thee. My vow was earthly, thou a heavenly love: Thy grace being gain'd cures all difgrace in
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 lose an oath to win a paradife? Another.
On a day, (alack the day!) Love, whofe month is ever May, Spy'd a bloffom palling fair Playing in the wanton air:
Through the velvet leaves the wind, All unfeen, 'gan paffage find; That the lover, fick to death, Wifh'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 himself for Jove, Turning mortal for thy love.
-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 majesty The Power of Love.
Why univerfal plodding prifons up The nimble fpirits in the arteries, 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 practifers, Scarce fhew a harvest of their heavy toil: But love first 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 every 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 ears 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 fweet and mufical As bright Apollo's lute, ftrung with his hairs And when love fpeaks, the voice of all the Makes heaven drow fy with the harmony.[gods Never durft poet touch a pen to write, Until his ink were tempered with love's fighs: O then his eyes would ravish savage ears, And plant in tyrants mild humility.
From women's eyes this doctrine Í derive : They sparkle 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 wifdom hatch'd, Hath wisdom's warrant, and the help of school, And wit's own grace to grace a learned fool. Rofs. The blood of youth burns not with fuch excefs
As gravity's revolt to wantonness,
Mar. Folly in fools bears not fo ftrange a As foolery in the wife, when wit doth dote Since all the power thereof it doth apply, To prove by wit, worth in fimplicity.
Keennefs of Women's Tongues. The tongues of mocking wenches are as As is the razor's edge invifible.
Which party coloured prefence of loofe love, Put on by us, if, in your heavenly eyes, [keen'T hath mifbecom'd our oaths and gravities, Thofe heavenly eyes that look into thefe faults
Cutting a fmaller hair than may be seen ; Above the sense of sense, so fenfible Seemeth their conference; their conceit hath wings Fleeter than arrows, bullets, wind, thought, fwifter things.
Ladies majk'd amd unmask'd. Fair ladies mafk'd are rofes in the bud; Dismask'd their damafk fweet commixture shown,
Are angels vailing clouds, or roses blown. A Lord Chamberlain or, Gentleman Usher. 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, [fhow, Have not the grace to grace it with fuch 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 courtely; 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 fweet;
The stairs as he treads on them kifs his feet. This is the flower that fmiles on every one," To fhow 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 [now? Till this man fhew'd thee? and what art thou Elegant Compliment to a Lady. Fair, gentle, fweet, [greet Your wit makes wife things foolith: when we With eyes beft feeing Heaven's fiery eye. By light we lofe light: your capacity Is of that nature, as to your huge ftore [poor. Wife things feem foolish, and rich things but Humble Zeal to pleafe. [how; That fport beft pleafes that doth least know When zeal ftrives to content, and the contents Die in the zeal of that which it prefents, Their form confounded makes moft form in mirth, [birth. When great things labouring perish in their The Effects of Love.
For your fair fakes have we neglected time, Play'd foul play with our oaths; your beauty, ladies, [mours Hath much deformed us, fashioning our hu. Even to the oppofed end of our intents; And what in us hath feem'd ridiculous- As love is full of unbefitting ftrains, All wanton as a child, fkipping and vain ; Lorm'd by the eye; and therefore like the eye, Full of ftrange fhapes, of habits, and of forms, Varying in fabjects as the eye doth roll To every vary'd objeét in his glance;
Suggested us to make them: therefore, ladies, Our love being yours, the error that love Is likewife yours. (makes
If this auftere, infociable life Change not your offer made in heat of blood; Iffrofts, andfafts, hard lodging and thin weeds, Nip not the gaudy bloffoms of your love, But that it bear this trial, and last love; Then, at the expiration of the year, Come challenge me.
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 fouts; Which you on all eftates will execute, That lie within the mercy of your wit: [brain, To weed this wormwood from your fruitful And therewithal to win me, if you please, (Without the which I am not to be won) [day, You fhall this twelvemonth term, from day to Vifit the fpeechlefs fick, and ftill converfe With groaning wretches: and your task shall With all the fierce endeavour of your wit, [be, T'enforce the pained impotent to fmile.
Bir. To move wild laughter in the throat of death?
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 loofe grace Which fhallow 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 ears, Deaft with the clamours of their own dear
Will hear your idle fcorns, continue then, And I will have you, and that fault withal; But if they will not, throw away that fpirit, 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 cucków 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 thepherd's pipe on oaten ftraws, And merry larks are ploughmen's clocks: When turtles tread, and rooks and daws; And maidens bleach their fummer (mocks: The cuckow then, on every tree, Mocks married men; for thus fings he, Cuckow!
Cuckow! Cuckow O werd of fear, Unpleafing to a married ear! M'inter
Winter. A Song. When icicles hang by the wall,
And Dick the thepherd 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 ftaring owl To.whoo!
Tu-whit, to-whoo, a merry note, While greafy Joan doth keel the pot, When all aloud the wind doth blow, And coughing drowns the parfon's faw; And birds fit brooding in the fnow,
And Marian's nofe looks red and raw : When roafted crabs hifs in the bowl, Then nightly fings the staring owl To-whoo!
Tu-whit, to whoo, a merry note, While greafy Joan doth keel the pot.
§ 5. MEASURE FOR MEASURE. SHAKSPEARE.
Virtue given to be exerted. THERE is a kind of character in thy life, That, to the obferver, doth thy hiftory 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 themselves; for if our vir
Did not go forth of us, twere all alike[touch'd, As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely But to fine iffues: nor nature never lends The fmalleft fcruple of her excellence, But, like a thrifty goddefs, the determines Herfelf the glory of a creditor, Both thanks and use.
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, As furfeit is the father of much faft [liberty: So every fcope, by the immoderate ufe, Turns to restraint. Our natures do purfue, 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 [round, So long, that nineteen zodiacs have gone
My holy Sir, none better knows than you How I have ever lov'd the life remov'd: And held in idle price to haunt affemblies Where youth, and cost, and witless bravery keeps.
Licentioufnefs the Confequence of unexecuted Laws. We have ftrict ftatutes, and most biting laws. [íteeds) (The needful bits and curbs to head-strong Which for thefe nineteen years we have let Even like an o'ergrown lion in a cave,[fleep; That goes not out to prey: now as fond fa- birch, Having bound up the threat'ning twigs of Only to ftick it in their chitdren's light For terror, not for ufe; in time the rod [crees, Becomes more mock'd than fear'd; fo our de. Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead; And liberty plucks juftice by the nofe: The baby beats the nurfe, and quite athwart Goes all decorum.
Pardon, the Sanction of Wickedness. For we bid this be done, When evil deeds have their permiffive pafs, And not the punishment.
A fevere faint-like Governor. Lord Angelo is precife: Stands at a guard with envy: fcarce confeffes That his blood flows, or that his appetite Is more to bread than itone: hence hallwe fee. If pow'r change purpose, what our feemers be. A Virgin addreffed.
Hail, virgin, if you be; as thofe cheek-rofes Proclaim you are no lefs!
I hold you as a thing enfky'd and fainted; By your renouncement, an immortal spirit, And to be talk'd with in fincerity, As with a faint.
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