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588

589

Di.

ARE

PAGANISM EXPOSED

DOROTHEA TO CALISTA

RE they immortal then, that did partake
of human weakness, and had ample share
in men's most base affections; subject to
unchaste loves, anger, bondage, wounds, as men are?
Here, Jupiter, to serve his lust, turned bull,
the shape, indeed, in which he stole Europa;
Neptune, for gain, builds up the walls of Troy,
as a day-labourer; Apollo keeps

Admetus' sheep for bread; the Lemnian smith
sweats at the forge for hire; Prometheus here,
with his still-growing liver, feeds the vulture;
Saturn bound fast in hell with adamant chains;
and thousands more, on whom abuséd error
bestows a deity. Will you then, dear sisters,
for I would have you such, pay your devotions
to things of less power than yourselves?

LET

MASSINGER AND DECKER

DIONYSIUS—EUBULUS

ET fame talke what she lyst, so I may lyve in safetie.

Eu. The only meane to that is, to use mercie.

Di. A milde prince the people despiseth.

Eu. A cruell kinge the people hateth.
Di. Let them hate me, so they feare me.

Eu. That is not the way to lyve in safetie.

Di. My sword and power shall purchase my quietnesse. Eu. That is sooner procured by mercy and gentlenesse. Di. Dionysius ought to be feared.

Eu. Better for him to be wel beloved.

Di. Fortune maketh all thinges subject to my power.
Eu. Beleeve her not, she is a light goddesse; she can

laugh and lowre.

Di. A kinges prayse standeth in the revenging of his

enemie.

Fu. A greater prayse to win him by clemencie.

Di. To suffer the wicked to live it is no mercie.
Eu. To kill the innocent it is great crueltie.

R. EDWARDS

590

Nu.

WILL

JULIET-NURSE

ILL you speak well of him that killed your cousin?

Ju. Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband?

Ah, poor my lord, what tongue shall smooth thy

name,

when I, thy three-hours wife, have mangled it ?—— But wherefore, villain, did'st thou kill my cousin? That villain cousin would have killed my husband: back, foolish tears, back to your native spring ; your tributary drops belong to woe,

which you, mistaking, offer up to joy.

My husband lives, that Tybalt would have slain; and Tybalt's dead, that would have slain my husband:

all this is comfort; wherefore weep I, then?

some word there was, worser than Tybalt's death,
that murdered me; I would forget it fain; ̧
but, O, it presses to my memory,

like damnéd guilty deeds to sinners' minds.

W. SHAKESPEARE

591

Mer.

MERCURY-PROMETHEUS

WFUL sufferer!

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to thee unwilling, most unwillingly

I come, by the great Father's will driven down,
to execute a doom of new revenge.

Alas! I pity thee, and hate myself

that I can do no more: aye from thy sight returning, for a season, heaven seems hell, so thy worn form pursues me night and day, smiling reproach. Wise art thou, firm and good, but vainly wouldst stand forth alone in strife against the Omnipotent: as yon clear lamps, that measure and divide the weary years from which there is no refuge, long have taught, 592 and long must teach. Even now thy Torturer arms with the strange might of unimagined pains the powers who scheme slow agonies in Hell, and my commission is to lead them here, or what more subtle, foul, or savage fiends people the abyss, and leave them to their task.

Be it not so! there is a secret known

to thee, and to none else of living things,
which may transfer the sceptre of wide Heaven,
the fear of which perplexes the Supreme:
clothe it in words, and bid it clasp his throne
in intercession; bend thy soul in prayer,
and like a suppliant in some gorgeous fane,
let the will kneel within thy haughty heart:
for benefits and meek submission tame
the fiercest and the mightiest.

593 Prom.

594

Evil minds

change good to their own nature. I gave all

he has; and in return he chains me here
years, ages, night and day; whether the Sun
split my parched skin, or in the moony night
the crystal-wingéd snow cling round my hair:
whilst my belovéd race is trampled down
by his thought-executing ministers.
Such is the tyrant's recompense: 'tis just:
he who is evil can receive no good;
and for a world bestowed, or a friend lost,
he can feel hate, fear, shame; not gratitude :
he but requites me for his own misdeed.

THE JOYS OF PARENTS

P. B. SHELLEY

WEET is the lovely blush of orient morn

SWEET

and the smooth surface of the blue serene
in ocean's mirror; sweet the fragrant earth
array'd in vernal bloom, pleasant the stream
rolling its grateful tide after sweet showers,
and other visions the gay Muse could dream;
but neither orient morn when she ascends
with charm of earliest dawn, nor blue serene
on the unruffled forehead of the deep,
nor vernal earth, nor river's swelling pride,
nor all the visions the gay Muse could dream,
so sweetly ravish the delighted eye,

or bathe the soul in bliss so exquisite,
as the far-beaming light from infant heir
to the fond parent, whose soft yearning heart
full many a day has pined in deep despair.

R. P. JODDRELL

595

596

THE VICES OF TYRANNY

THINK'ST thou her? The despotism of vice

HINK'ST thou there is no tyranny but that

the weakness and the wickedness of luxury—
the negligence, the apathy, the evils,

of sensual sloth-produce ten thousand tyrants,
whose delegated cruelty surpasses

the worse acts of one energetic master,
however harsh and hard in his own bearing.
The false and fond example of thy lusts
corrupt no less than they oppress, and sap
in the same moment all thy pageant power
and those who should sustain it: so that whether
a foreign foe invade, or civil broil

distract within, both will alike prove fatal:

the first thy subjects have no heart to conquer ; the last they rather would assist than vanquish.

M. WY

MARTIUS-QUINTUS

LORD BYRON

HY dost not comfort me and help me out from this unhallowed and blood-stained hole

2. I am surpriséd with an uncouth fear,

a chilling sweat o'erruns my trembling joints, my heart suspects more than mine eye can see. M. To prove thou hast a true divining heart,

Aaron and thou look down into this den, and see a fearful sight of blood and death. 2. Aaron is gone; and my compassionate heart will not permit mine eyes once to behold the thing whereat it trembles by surmise: Oh, tell me how it is; for ne'er till now was I a child to fear I know not what.

M. Lord Bassianus lies embrewéd here

all on a heap, like to a slaughter'd lamb, in this detested, dark, blood-drinking pit. Q. If it be dark, how dost thou know tis he?

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598

Luc.

which would but lead me to a worse relapse
and heavier fall: so should I purchase dear
short intermission bought with double smart.
This knows my Punisher; therefore as far
from granting he, as I from begging, peace.
All hope excluded thus, behold in stead
of us outcast, exiled, his new delight,
mankind created, and for him this World!
So farewell hope, and with hope farewell fear,
farewell remorse! all good to me is lost;
evil be thou my good: by thee at least
divided empire with Heaven's King I hold,
by thee, and more than half perhaps will reign:
as Man ere long and this new World shall know.
J. MILTON

COM

LUCIUS-BOY

OME hither, boy; come, come and learn of us
to melt in showers. Thy grandsire loved thee
well;

many a time he danced thee on his knee,
sung thee asleep, his loving breast thy pillow;
many a matter hath he told to thee,

meet and agreeing with thine infancy;

in that respect, then, like a loving child, shed yet some small drops from thy tender spring, because kind nature doth require it so: friends should associate friends in grief and woe. Bid him farewell, commit him to the grave; do him that kindness, and take leave of him. Boy. O, grandsire, grandsire, even with all my heart would I were dead, so you did live again! O, Lord, I cannot speak to him for weeping; my tears will choke me if I ope my mouth.

599

THE DUKE OF SESSE TO HIS FOLLOWERS

НЕ

E that fears death or tortures, let him leave me :
the stops that we have met with crown our
conquest.

Common attempts are fit for common men;
the rare, the rarest spirits. Can we be daunted?
we that have smiled at sea at certain ruins,
which men on shore, but hazarded, would shake at?

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