Emi. O Heaven, that such companions thou’dst unfold,
And put in every honest hand a whip,
To lash the rascals naked through the world,
Even from the east to the west.-Act 4, Sc. 2.
Oth. I have done the state some service, and they know ’t.
No more of that. I pray you, in your letters,
When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,
Speak of me as I am ; nothing extenuate,
Nor set down aught in malice: then must you speak
Of one that lov'd not wisely, but too well ;
Of one not easily jealous, but being wrought
Perplex'd in the extreme; of one whose hand,
Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away
Richer than all his tribe ; of one whose subdued eyes,
Albeit unused to the melting mood,
Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees
Their medicinal gum. Set you down this ;
And say besides, that in Aleppo once,
Where a malignant and a turban'd Turk
Beat a Venetian and traduc'd the state,
I took by the throat the circumcised dog,
And smote him, thus.-Act 5, Sc. 2.
Mene.
We, ignorant of ourselves,
Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers
Deny us for our good; so find our profit,
By losing of our prayers.--Act 2, Sc. I.
Eno. I will tell you.
The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne,
Burn'd on the water : the poop was beaten gold ; *
Purple the sails, and so perfumed that
The winds were love-sick with them; the oars were
silver,
Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made
The water which they beat to follow faster,
As amorous of their strokes.
For her own person,
It beggar'd all description : she did lie
In her pavilion-cloth-of-gold of tissue-
O’er-picturing that Venus where we see
The fancy outwork nature : on each side her
Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids,
With divers-colour'd fans, whose wind did seem
To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool,
And what they undid did.
Agr.
O, rare for Antony !
Eno. Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides,
So many mermaids, tended her i’ the eyes,
And made their bends adornings: at the helm
A seeming mermaid steers : the silken tackle
Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands,
That yarely frame the office. From the barge
A strange invisible perfume hits the sense
Of the adjacent wharves. -Act 2, Sc. 2.
Eno. Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety ; other women cloy
The appetites they feed; but she makes hungry
Where most she satisfies.-Act 2, Sc. 2.
Cleo.
Music, moody food
Of us that trade in love.—Act 2, Sc. 5.
Mæc.
Made good guard for itself.--Act 4, Sc. I.
Ant. Sometimes we see a cloud that's dragonish;
A vapour sometime like a bear or lion,
A tower'd citadel, a pendent rock,
A forked mountain, or blue promontory
With trees upon 't, that nod unto the world,
And mock our eyes with air : thou hast seen these
signs ;
They are black vesper's pageants.-Act 4, Sc. 14.
Hark, hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings,
And Phoebus 'gins arise,
His steeds to water at those springs
On chalic'd flowers that lies;
And winking Mary-buds begin
To ope their golden eyes :
With every thing that pretty is,
My lady sweet, arise;
Arise, arise. *—Act 2, Sc. 3.
'Tis gold
Which buys admittance; oft it doth; yea, and makes
Diana's rangers false themselves, yield up
Their deer to the stand o' the stealer; and 'tis gold
Which makes the true man kill'd and saves the thief;
Nay, sometime hangs both thief and true man : what
Can it not do and undo ?-Act 2, Sc. 3.
Posthumus.
For there's no motion
That tends to vice in man, but I affirm
It is the woman's part : be it lying, note it,
The woman's; flattering, hers; deceiving, hers;
Lust and rank thoughts, hers, hers; revenges, hers;
Ambitions, covetings, change of prides, disdain,
Nice longing, slanders, mutability,
All faults that may be nam’d, nay, that hell knows,
Why, hers, in part or all; but rather, all ;
For ev'n to vice
They are not constant, but are changing still
One vice, but of a minute old, for one
Not half so old as that.—Act 2, Sc. 5.
Belarius.
The gates of monarchs
Are arch'd so high, that giants may jet through,
And keep their impious turbans on, without
Good-morrow to the sun.-Act 3, Sc. 3.
Pisanio.
Slander,
Whose edge is sharper than the sword, whose tongue
Outvenoms all the worms of Nile.—Act 3, Sc. 4.
Imogen. Men's vows are women's traitors. —Act 3, Sc. 4.
Imogen.
To lapse in fulness
Is sorer than to lie for need, and falsehood
Is worse in kings than beggars.—Act 3, Sc. 6.
Bel.
Weariness
Can snore upon the flint, when restive sloth
Finds the down pillow hard. - Act 3, Sc. 6.
Guiderius. For notes of sorrow out of tune are worse
Than priests and fanes that lie. —Act 4, Sc. 2.
Gui. Fear no more the heat o' the sun,
Nor the furious winter's rages;
Thou thy worldly task hast done,
Home art gone, and ta’en thy wages :
Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.
Arv. Fear no more the frown o' the great ;
Thou art past the tyrant's stroke;
Care no more to clothe and eat;
To thee the reed is as the oak :
The sceptre, learning, physic, must
All follow this, and come to dust.-Act 4, Sc. 2.
Pisanio. All other doubts by time let them be clear'd ;
Fortune brings in some boats, that are not steer'd.
Act 4, Sc. 3.
Cym. By medicine life may be prolong’d, yet death
Will seize the doctor too.-Act 5, Sc. 5.
Pericles. For death remember'd, should be like a mirror, Who tells us life's but breath; to trust it, error.
Act I, Sc. I.
Per. One sin, I know, another doth provoke ;
Murder 's as near to lust as flame to smoke;
Poison and treason are the hands of sin,
Ay, and the targets, to put off the shame :--Act I, Sc. I.
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