we that have liv'd free in despite of fortune,
laughed at the outstretch'd arm of tyranny,

as still too short to reach us, shall we faint now?
No, my brave mates, I know your fiery temper,
and that you can and dare as much as men.
Calamity, that severs worldly friendships,
could ne'er divide us; you are still the same,
the constant followers of my banished fortunes,
the instruments of my revenge, the hands

by which I work and fashion all my projects.
J. FLETCHER

600 MYRRHA, AN IONIAN SLAVE, THE FAVOURITE OF

бог

SARDANAPALUS

O forth, and conquer! Now I am alone,

few

perhaps return. Let him but vanquish, and
me perish! If he vanquish not, I perish;
for I will not outlive him. He has wound
about my heart, I know not how nor why.
Not for that he is a king: for now his kingdom
rocks underneath his throne, and the earth yawns
to yield him no more of it than a grave:
and yet I love him more. Oh, mighty Jove!
forgive this monstrous love for a barbarian,
who knows not of Olympus! yes, I love him
now, now, far more than-Hark-to the war shout!
methinks it nears me. If it should be so,

this cunning Colchian poison, which my father
learn'd to compound on Euxine shores and taught me
how to preserve, shall free me.

AND

SOHRAB TO RUSTUM

LORD BYRON

ND, with a grave mild voice, Sohrab replied:--
"Desire not that, my father; thou must live.
For some are born to do great deeds, and live,
as some are born to be obscur'd, and die.
Do thou the deeds I die too young to do,
and reap a second glory in thine age.
But carry me with thee to Seistan,

and place me on a bed, and mourn for me,
and thou must lay me in that lovely earth,

and heap a stately mound above my bones,
and plant a far-seen pillar over all:

that so the passing horseman on the waste
may see my tomb a great way off, and say---
Sohrab, the mighty Rustum's son, lies there,
whom his great father did in ignorance kill—
and I be not forgotten in my grave."

M. ARNOLD

602 ASPATIA, FORSAKEN BY HER LOVER, FINDS HER MAID ANTIPHILA WORKING A PICTURE OF ARIADNE

HEN, my good girls, be more than women wise;

THE

at least be more than I was: and be sure
you credit any thing the light gives life to,
before a man. Rather believe the sea

weeps for the ruin'd merchant when he roars;
rather, the wind courts but the pregnant sails,
when the strong cordage cracks; rather, the sun
comes but to kiss the fruit in wealthy autumn,
when all falls blasted. If you needs must love,
(forced by ill fate,) take to your maiden-bosoms
two dead-cold aspicks, and of them make lovers:
they cannot flatter nor forswear.-

Come, let's be sad, my girls;
that down-cast of thine eye, Olympias,
shews a fine sorrow.-Mark, Antiphila;
just such another was the nymph Enone,
when Paris brought home Helen.

BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER

603 THE THREE QUEENS' PETITION TO THESEus

WE

́E are three queens, whose sovereigns fell before the wrath of cruel Creon; who endure

the beaks of ravens, talents of the kites,

and pecks of crows, in the foul fields of Thebes :

he will not suffer us to burn their bones,

to urn their ashes, nor to take th' offence

of mortal loathsomeness from the blest eye

of holy Phoebus, but infects the winds

with stench of our slain lords. Oh, pity, duke! thou purger of the earth, draw thy fear'd sword, that does good turns to the world; give us the bones

604

605

of our dead kings, that we may chapel them;
and, of thy boundless goodness, take some note
that for our crownéd heads we have no roof
save this, which is the lion's and the bear's,
and vault to every thing!

J. FLETCHER

HENRY V. TO THE CONSPIRATORS

GOD

OD quit you in his mercy! Hear your sentence. You have conspired against our royal person, joined with an enemy proclaim'd and from his coffers received the golden earnest of our death;

wherein you would have sold your king to slaughter,
his princes and his peers to servitude,
his subjects to oppression and contempt,
and his whole kingdom into desolation.
Touching our person, seek we no revenge;
but we our kingdom's safety must so tender,
whose ruin you have sought, that to her laws
we do deliver you. Get you, therefore, hence,
poor miserable wretches, to your death:
the taste whereof, God of his mercy give
you patience to endure, and true repentance
of all your dear offences!

THE TEMPTATION

W. SHAKESPEARE

EMPRESS of this fair world, resplendent Eve!

easy to me it is to tell thee all

what thou commandest, and right thou shouldest be obeyed.

I was at first, as other beasts that graze

the trodden herb, of abject thoughts and low,

as was my food; nor aught but food discerned
or sex, and apprehended nothing high;
till on a day, roving the field, I chanc'd
a goodly tree far distant to behold,
loaden with fruit of fairest colours mixed,
ruddy and gold. I nearer drew to gaze;
when from the boughs a savoury odour blown,
grateful to appetite, more pleased my sense
than smell of sweetest fennel, or the teats

of ewe or goat dropping with milk at even,
unsucked of lamb or kid that tend their play.

J. MILTON

606 THYESTES, WHO HAS BEEN LIVING IN THE WOODS

TO ELUDE THE VENGEANCE OF ATREUS, INVITED
BY PHILISTHENES HIS SON TO RETURN

Thy. WE

WELCOME to my arms,
my hope, my comfort!

about

Time has rolled

several months since I have seen thy face,

and in its progress has done wond'rous things. Phil. Strange things indeed, to chase you to this sad dismal abode; nay, and to age, I think:

I see that winter thrusting itself forth
long, long before its time, in silver hairs.

Thy. My fault, my son; I would be great and high;
snow lies in summer on some mountain tops.
Ah, Son! I'm sorry for thy noble youth,
thou hast so bad a father; I'm afraid,
fortune will quarrel with thee for my sake:
thou wilt derive unhappiness from me,
like an hereditary ill disease.

J. CROWNE

607 THYESTES IS WON FROM HIS RETIREMENT BY

Thy.

PHILISTHENES AND PENEUS TO VISIT MYCENE
-HIS CONFIDENCE IN ATREUS' GOOD FAITH; HIS
RETURNING MISGIVINGS

WONDROUS pleasure to a banish'd man. I feel my lov'd long-look'd-for native soil! and oh! my weary eyes, that all the day had from some mountain travell'd toward this place, now rest themselves upon the royal towers of that great palace where I had my birth. O sacred towers, sacred in your height, mingling with clouds, the villas of the gods, whither for sacred pleasures they retire; your lofty looks boast your divine descent; and the proud city which lies at your feet, and would give place to nothing but to you, owns her original is short of yours.

And now a thousand objects more ride fast

on morning beams, and meet my eyes in throngs; and see, all Argos meets me with loud shouts! 608 Phil. O joyful sound!

Thy. But with them Atreus too

Phil. What ails my father, that he stops and shakes. and now retires?

Thy.

Return with me my son

and old friend Peneus to the honest beasts, and faithful desert and well-seated caves; trees shelter man, by whom they often die, and never seek revenge: no villainy lies in the prospect of an humble cave. Pen. Talk you of villainy, of foes, and fraud? Thy. I talk of Atreus.

Pen.

What are these to him?

Thy. Nearer than I am, for they are himself.

Pen. Gods drive these impious thoughts out of your mind. Thy. The Gods for all our safety put them there.—

Pen.

Return, return with me.

Against our oaths?
I cannot stem the vengeance of the gods.
Thy. Here are no gods; they've left this dire abode.
Pen. True race of Tantalus! who parent-like

609

are doom'd in midst of plenty to be starved.

THE

IN TRUST IS TREASON

J. CROWNE

HE straightest tree that growes upon one only roote,

if that root fayle, wil quickly fade, no props can do it boote.

I am that fading plant, which on thy grace did growe, thy grace is gone, wherfore I mone and wither all

in woe.

The tallest ship that sayles, if she to anchors trust, when anchor slips and cables breake, her helpe lies in the dust.

I am that ship my selfe, mine anchor was thy faith,
which now is fled, thy promise broke, and I am
driven to death.

By thee I thought to live, by thee now must I die;
I made thee my physician, thou art my malladie.