428

can make no shift to combat with the sea.

See how the rocks do heave their heads at thee, which if thou should but touch, thou straight becom'st

a spoil to Neptune and a sportful prey

to the Glaucs and Tritons, pleased with thy decay.

CATILINE TO THE CONSPIRATORS

LL places, honours, offices are theirs,

ALL

T. KYD

or where they will confer 'em: they leave us the dangers, the repulses, judgments, wants;

which how long will you bear, most valiant spirits?
Were we not better to fall once with virtue,
than draw a wretched and dishonour'd breath,

to lose with shame, when these men's pride will
laugh?

I call the faith of gods and men to question,
the power is in our hands, our bodies able,
our minds as strong; o' the contrary, in them
all things grown aged, with their wealth and years:
there wants but only to begin the business,
the issue is certain.

B. JONSON

429

I

CONTEMPT OF LOVE PUNISHED

HAVE done penance for contemning Love,

whose high imperious thoughts have punished me

with bitter fasts, with penitential groans,

with nightly tears, and daily heart-sore sighs;

for, in revenge of my contempt of love,

love hath chased sleep from my enthralléd eyes,

and made them watchers of mine own heart's sorrow.

O, gentle Proteus, Love's a mighty lord,

and hath so humbled me, as, I confess,

there is no woe to his correction,

nor to his service no such joy on earth!

now, no discourse, except it be of love;

nor can I break my fast, dine, sup, and sleep,

upon the very naked name of love.

W. SHAKESPEARE

430 En.

FALS

CENONE-HOBBINOL-DIGON

ALSE Paris, this was not thy vow, when thou and I were one,

to range and change old love for new; but now those days be gone.

But I will find the goddess out, that she thy vow may read,

And fill these woods with thy laments for thy unhappy

deed.

Hob. So fair a face, so foul a thought to harbour in his

breast!

thy hope consumed, poor nymph, thy hap is worse than all the rest.

En. Ah, shepherds, you bin full of wiles and whet your wits on books,

and wrape poor maids with pipes and songs, and sweet alluring looks!

Dig. Misspeak not all for his amiss; there bin that keepen flocks,

that never chose but once, nor yet beguiled love with

mocks.

En. False Paris, he is none of those, his trothless double

431

deed

will hurt a many shepherds else that might go nigh to speed.

WE

SUSPENSION OF LAWS

G. PEELE

E have strict statutes and most biting laws,-
the needful bits and curbs for head-strong
steeds,―

which for this fourteen years we have let sleep;
even like an o'ergrown lion in a cave,

that goes not out to prey. Now, as fond fathers,
having bound up the threatening twigs of birch
only to stick it in their children's sight,

for terror, not to use, in time the rod

becomes more mocked than feared: So our decrees, dead to infliction, to themselves are dead;

and liberty plucks justice by the nose;

the baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart
goes all decorum.

W. SHAKESPEARE

432

LIBERTY

SAPRITIUS-BRITISH SLAVE

Sap. WHAT would'st thou do to gain thy liberty?

433

Car.

Slave. Do! liberty! fight naked with a lion, venture to pluck a standard from the heart of an arm'd legion. Liberty! I'd thus bestride a vampire, and defiance spit

i' the face of death, then, when the battering-ram was fetching his career backward, to pash

me with his horns in pieces. To shake my chains off,
and that I could not do't but by thy death,

stood 'st thou on this dry shore, I on a rock
ten pyramids high, down would I leap to kill thee
or die myself: what is for man to do
I'll venture on, to be no more a slave.

THE HEIGHT OF HONOUR

PEAK, the height of honour?

SPE

Paul. No man to offend,

P. MASSINGER

ne'er to reveal the secrets of a friend;
rather to suffer than to do a wrong:

to make the heart no stranger to the tongue :
provoked, not to betray an enemy;

nor eat his meat I choke with flattery;
blushless to tell wherefore I wear my scars,
or for my conscience, or my country's wars:
to aim at just things; if we have wildly run
into offences, wish them all undone :
'tis poor, in grief for a wrong done, to die,
honour, to dare to live, and satisfy.

P. MASSINGER

434 KING HENRY VI ON THE BATTLE-FIELD AT TOWTON

'HIS battle fares like to the morning's war,

THIS

when dying clouds contend with growing light, what time the shepherd, blowing of his nails, can neither call, it perfect day nor night. Now sways it this way, like a mighty sea forced by the tide to combat with the wind; now sways it that way, like the self-same sea, forced to retire by fury of the wind:

sometime the flood prevails, and then the wind:

435

K.

now one the better, then another best:
both tugging to be victors, breast to breast,
yet neither conqueror nor conqueréd:

so is the equal poise of this fell war.

W. SHAKESPEARE

KING EDWARD IV-DUKE OF CLARENCE
ON THE BATTLE FIELD NEAR BARNET

THUS

HUS far our fortune keeps an upward course, and we are graced with wreaths of victory. But, in the midst of this bright shining day, I spy a black, suspicious, threatening cloud, that will encounter with our glorious sun, ere he attain his easeful western bed;

I mean, my lords, those powers that the queen hath raised in Gallia have arrived our coast, and, as we hear, march on to fight with us. Cl. A little gale will soon disperse that cloud, and blow it to the source from whence it came: thy very beams will dry those vapours up; for every cloud engenders not a storm.

436

437

N

W. SHAKESPEARE

ADAM PLEADING WITH EVE

OT then mistrust, but tender love, enjoins,
that I should mind thee oft, and mind thou me.

Firm we subsist, yet possible to swerve,
since reason not impossibly may meet
some specious object by the foe suborned,
and fall into deception unaware,

not keeping strictest watch, as she was warned.
Seek not temptation then, which to avoid
were better, and most likely if from me
thou sever not: trial will come unsought.
Wouldst thou approve thy constancy, approve
first thy obedience; the other who can know,
not seeing thee attempted? who attest?

THE CHRISTIAN'S HOPE

J. MILTON

UT ours, Olybius, is no earthly kingdom,

Bno crown, that with the lofty head that wears it

438

439

must make its mouldering pillow in the grave. This earth disowns our glories: but when Rome hath sepulcred the last of all her sons,

when Desolation walks her voiceless streets,

ay, when this world, and all its lords and slaves,
are swept into the ghastly gulf of ruin;
high in immortal grandeur, like the stars,
but brighter and more lasting, shall our souls,
sit in their empyrean thrones, endiadem'd
with amaranthine light. Such gifts our God
hath promised to his faithful.

THE HOURS

H. H. MILMAN

HE rocks are cloven, and through the purple night

THE rocks drawn by rainbow winged steeds

which trample the dim winds; in each there stands
a wild-eyed charioteer urging their flight.
Some look behind, as fiends pursued them there,
and yet I see no shapes but the keen stars:
others, with burning eyes, lean forth and drink
with eager lips the wind of their own speed,
as if the thing they loved fled on before,

and now, even now, they clasped it. Their bright
locks

stream like a comet's flashing hair: they all
sweep onward.

I

P. B. SHELLEY

QUEEN CATHARINE'S DYING WORDS
THANK

you,

honest lord. Remember me

in all humility unto his highness ;

say his long trouble now is passing

out of this world; tell him, in death I blessed him,
for so I will.-Mine eyes grow dim.-Farewell,

my lord.-Griffith, farewell.-Nay, Patience,
you must not leave me yet: I must to bed;
call in more women.-When I am dead, good wench,
let me be used with honour: strew me over
with maiden flowers, that all the world may know
I was a chaste wife to my grave: embalm me,
then lay me forth: although unqueened, yet like
a queen, and daughter to a king, inter me.
I can no more.

W. SHAKESPEARE