From year to year-the battles, fieges, fortunes
That I have pafs'd.
I ran it through, even from my boyish days,
To the very moment that he bad me tell it:
Wherein I fpake of moft difaftrous chances;
Of moving accidents by flood and field;
Of hair-breadth fcapes i'the imminent deadly breach;
Of being taken by the infolent foe,
And fold to flavery; of my redemption thence,
And portance in my travels' hiftory;
Wherein of antres vaft, and deferts idle,
Rough quarries, rocks and hills, whofe heads touch heaven,
It was my hint to fpeak; (fuch was the process;)
And of the Cannibals that each other eat;
The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their fhoulders. These things to hear,
Would Defdemona feriously incline.
But ftill the house affairs would draw her thence ;
Which ever as fhe could with hafte difpatch,
She'd come again, and with a greedy ear
Devour up my difcourfe; which I obferving,
Took once a pliant hour, and found good means
To draw from her a prayer of earnest heart,
That I would all my pilgrimage dilate;
Whereof by parcels fhe had fomething heard,
But not intentively. I did confent ;
And often did beguile her of her tears,
When I did fpeak of fome distressful stroke
That my youth fuffer'd. My ftory being done,
She gave me, for my pains, a world of fighs:
She fwore, in faith 'twas ftrange, 'twas paffing ftrange, 'Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful :
She will'd fhe had not heard it: yet fhe wish'd
That heaven had made her fuch a man. She thank'd me, And bad me, if I had a friend that loved her,
I should but teach him how to tell my story,
And that would woo her. Upon this hint I fpake.
She lov'd me for the dangers I had paft;
And I lov'd her, that flie did pity them.
This only is the witchcraft I have us'd;
Here comes the lady-let her witness it.
The heavens themselves, the planets, and this center,
Obferve degree, priority and place,
Infifture, courfe, proportion, feafon, form,
Office and cuftom, in all line of Order:
And therefore is the glorious planet Sol
In noble eminence enthron'd and spher'd
Amidst the other; whofe med'cinable eye
Corrects the ill aspects of planets evil,
And pofts, like the commandment of a king,
Sans check, to good and bad. But when the planets
In evil mixture to diforder wander,
What plagues, and what portents! what mutiny!
What raging of the fea! fhaking of earth!
Commotion in the winds! frights, changes, horrors,
Divert and crack, rend and deracinate
The unity and married calm of states
Quite from their fixture! O, when degree is fhak'd,
Which is the ladder to all high defigns,
The enterprise is fick! How could communities,
Degrees in fchools, and brotherhoods in cities,
Peaceful commerce from dividable fhores,
The primo geniture and due of birth,
Prerogative of age, crowns, fceptres, laurels,
But by degree, ftand in authentic place?
Take but degree away-untune that ftring,
And hark what difcord follows! Each thing meets
In mere oppugnancy: The bounded waters
Should lift their bofoms higher than the fhores,
And make a fop of all this folid globe:
Strength fhould be Lord of Imbecillity,
And the rude fon fhould ftrike his father dead:
Force fhould be right, or rather right and wrong,
(Between whofe endless jar juftice refides)
Should lofe their names, and fo fhould juftice too:
Then every thing includes itfelf in power,
Power into will, will into appetite;
And appetite, an univerfal wolf,
So doubly feconded with will and power,
Must make perforce an univerfal prey,
And laft eat up himself.
Troilus and Creffida, A. 1. Sc. 3.
When love begins to ficken and decay,
It ufeth an enforced ceremony.
There are no tricks in plain and fimple faith:
But hollow men, like horfes hot at hand,
Make gallant fhew, and proinife of their mettle:
But when they should endure the bloody fpur,
They fall their crefts, and, like deceitful jades,
Sink in the tryal.
Julius Cæfar, A. 4. Sc. 2.
Doft thou love pictures? We will fetch thee ftrait
Adonis, painted by a running brook;
And Citherea all in fedges hid,
Which feem to move and wanton with her breath,
Ev'n as the waving fedges play with wind.
We'll fhew thee Io, as he was a maid,
And how he was beguiled and furpris'd,
As lively painted as the deed was done :
Or Daphne roaming through a thorny wood,
Scratching her legs, that one fhall fwear fhe bleeds;
And at that fight fhall fad Apollo weep:
So workmanly the blood and tears are drawn.
The Taming of the Shrew, Induction.
PARENTAL FONDNESS.
How fometimes nature will betray its folly,
Its tenderness, and make itself a paftime
To harder bofoms! Looking on the lines
Of my boy's face, methoughts I did recoil
Twenty three years, and faw myself unbreech'd,
In my green velvet coat; my dagger muzzled,
Left it thould bite its mafter, and fo prove,
As ornaments oft do, too dangerous,
How like, methought, I then was to this kernel,
This fquafh, this gentleman!
PARTING OF FRIENDS.
I faw Baffanio and Anthonio part.
Baffanio told him, he would make some speed
Of his return: he answer'd, Do not so :
Slubber not bufinefs for my fake, Baffanio,
But ftay the very riping of the time;
And for the Jew's bond, which he hath of me,
Let it not enter in your mind of love:
Be merry, and employ your chiefeft thoughts
To courtship, and fuch fair oftents of love,
As fhall conveniently become you there.
And even there, his eye being big with tears,
Turning his face, he put his hand behind him,
And with affection wond'rous fenfible
He wrung Baffanio's hand, and fo they parted.
The Merchant of Venice, A. 2. Sc. 5.
O F LOVERS.
What! gone without a word?
Ay, fo true love should do; it cannot speak;
For truth hath better deeds than words to grace it.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona, A. 2. Sc. 2.
We two, that with fo many thousand fighs
Did buy each other, muft poorly fell ourselves,
With the rude brevity and difcharge of one.
Injurious time, now with a robber's haste,
Crams his rich thievery up, he knows not how':
As many farewells as be ftars in heav'n,
With diftin&t breath, and confign'd kiffes to them,
He fumbles up
into a loofe adieu;
And fcants us with a fingle famish'd kiss,
Diftaited with the falt of broken. tears.
Troilus and Creffida, A. 4. Sc. 4.
Should we be taking leave
As long a term as yet we have to live,
The lothness to depart would grow - Adieu !
I would have broke mine eye-ftrings, crack'd them but
To look upon him, till the diminution
Of space had pointed him sharp as my needle:
Nay, followed him, till he had melted from
G
The fmallness of a gnat, to air; and then
Have turn'd mine
PATERNAL REMONSTRANCE,
Doft thou fo hunger for my empty chair,
That thou wilt needs inveft thee with my honours,
Before thy hour be ripe? O foolish youth!
Thou feek'ft the greatness that will overwhelm thee.
Stay but a little; for my cloud of dignity
Is held from falling with fo weak a wind,
That it will quickly drop; my day is dim.
Thou haft ftol'n that, which after fome few hours
Were thine without offence: and at my death
Thou haft feal'd up my expectation:
Thy life did manifeft thou lov'dft me not,
And thou wilt have me die affur'd of it.
Thou hid'ft a thousand daggers in thy thoughts,
Which thou haft whetted on thy ftony heart,
To ftab at half an hour of my frail life.
What! can't thou not forbear me half an hour?
Then get thee gone,
and dig my grave thyself,
And bid the merry bells ring to thy ear
That thou art crowned, not that I am dead..
Let all the tears that should bedew my hearfe,
Be drops of balm to fanctify my head;
Only compound me with forgotten dust,
Give that which gave thee life unto the worms.
Pluck down my officers, break my decrees:
For now a time is come, to mock at form.
Henry the Fifth is crown'd: up vanity,
Down royal ftate. All you fage counfellors, hence,
And to the English court affemble now,
From every region, apes of idleness:
Now, neighbour confines, purge you of your fcum.
Have you a ruffian that will fwear, drink, dance,
Revel the night, rob, murder, and commit
The oldeft fins, the neweft kind of ways?
Be happy; he will trouble you no more:
England thall give him office, honour, might:
For the fifth Harry from curb'd licence plucks
The muzzle of reftraint, and the wild dog
Shall fleth his tooth on every innocent.
O my poor kingdom! fick with civil blows:
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