that never will in other climate grow,
my early visitation, and my last
at even, which I bred up with tender hand
from the first opening bud, and gave ye names!
who now shall rear ye to the sun, or rank
your tribes, and water from the ambrosial fount?
thee lastly, nuptial bower! by me adorned
with what to sight or smell was sweet, from thee
how shall I part, and whither wander down
into a lower world, to this obscure
and wild? How shall we breathe in other air
less pure, accustomed to immortal fruits?
to answer this defiance. What intelligence
holds your proud master with the will of heaven,
that, ere the uncertain die of war be thrown,
he dares assure himself the victory?
Are his unjust invading arms of fire?
Or those we put on in defence of right,
like chaff, to be consumed in the encounter?
I look on your dimensions and find not
mine own of lesser size: the blood, that fills
my veins, as hot as yours: my sword as sharp,
my nerves of equal strength, my heart as good;
and, confident we have the better cause,
why should we fear the trial? Far. You presume
you are superior in numbers; we
lay hold upon the surest anchor, virtue;
which, when the tempest of the war roars loudest, must prove a strong protection.
your resolution cannot hold, when 'tis opposed, as it must be, by the power o' the king: one of these two must be necessities,
which then will speak, that you must change this purpose,
with these forced thoughts, I prithee, darken not the mirth o' the feast; or I'll be thine, my fair, or not my father's: for I cannot be
mine own, nor any thing to any, if
I be not thine. To this I am most constant
though destiny say no. Be merry, gentle;
strangle such thoughts as these with any thing,
that you behold the while. Your guests are coming:
lift up your countenance, as 'twere the day
of celebration of that nuptial which
we two have sworn shall come.
THE COURT LIVELY PAINTED
HE simple man whose marvell is so great at stately courts and princes regall seat, with gazing eye but only doth regard
the golden glosse that outwardly appeares,
the glittering mace, the pompe of swarming traine,
the mightie halles heapt full of flattering freends,
but never views wyth eye of inward thought
the painfull tode, the great and greevous cares,
troubles still, the new-increasing feares,
that princes nourish in their jealous breasts,
he weigheth not the charge that Jove hath laid
on princes, how for themselves they raigne not:
he weenes the law must stoup to princely will,
but princes frame their noble wils to lawe:
he knoweth not that as the boistrous winde
doth shake the tops of highest reared towres,
so doth the force of froward fortune strike
the wight that highest sits in haughtie state.
E loved his people, deem'd them all his children ; the good exalted and depress'd the bad: he spurn'd the flattering crew, with scorn rejected their smooth advice that only means themselves,
their schemes to aggrandize him into baseness:
nor did he less disdain the secret breath
the whispered tale, that blights a virtuous name.
He sought alone the good of those for whom
he was intrusted with the sovereign power;
well knowing that a people, in their rights
and industry protected, living safe
beneath the sacred shelter of the laws;
encouraged in their genius, arts and labours;
and happy each as he himself deserves,
are ne'er ungrateful. With unsparing hand
they will for him provide: their filial love
and confidence are his unfailing treasure;
and every honest man, his faithful guard.
HAVE, thou gallant Trojan, seen thee oft,
labouring for destiny, make cruel way
through ranks of Greekish youth; and I have seen
thee,
as hot as Perseus, spur thy Phrygian steed,
despising many forfeits and subduements;
when thou hast hung thy advanced sword i' the air,
not letting it decline on the declined;
that I have said to some my standers-by,
Lo, Jupiter is yonder, dealing life!
and I have seen thee pause, and take thy breath,
when that a ring of Greeks has hemmed thee in,
like an Olympian wrestling: this have I seen:
but this thy countenance, still locked in steel,
I never saw till now. I knew thy grandsire,
and once fought with him; he was a soldier good,
but, by great Mars, the captain of us all,
never like thee. Let an old man embrace thee,
and, worthy warrior, welcome to our tents.
F I for fear obey the Destinies;
then I no better were than unsouled clay,
or sorry beast, or leopard of the hills.
If I for fear echo to his behest;
and lay aside, but at the will of Zeus,
my unused strength; I little better were
than unskilled slave, that supples at the whip,
and gets a slow reprieve by cringing prayers.
That were to make myself a less than he.
But if I bear that which there is to bear,
not of constraint, but of my own proud will;
if I put on an energy to keep
my heart content, and suffer willingly;
then I say not 'I suffer' any more,
but call it triumph. It is victory.
Victory, not of Zeus,-but I myself
subdue myself. So then I am a god:
so then I am a greater than myself.
PATIENCE, I say; your mind, perhaps, may
Oth. Never, Iago. Like to the Pontic sea,
whose icy current and compulsive course
ne'er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on
to the Propontic and the Hellespont;
even so my bloody thoughts, with violent pace,
shall ne'er look back, ne'er ebb to humble love,
till that a capable and wide revenge
swallow them up.-Now, by yond marble heaven,
in the due reverence of a sacred vow
I here engage my word. Ia. Do not rise yet.―
Witness you ever-burning lights above,
you elements that clip us round about,—
witness that here Iago doth give up
the execution of his wit, hands, heart,
to wronged Othello's service! Let him command, and to obey shall be in me remorse
what bloody business ever.
shaken as we are, so wan with care,
find we a time for frighted peace to pant,
and breathe short-winded accents of new broils:
to be commenced in strands afar remote.
No more the thirsty entrance of this soil
shall daub her lips with her own children's blood;
no more shall trenching war channel her fields,
nor bruise her flowerets with the arméd hoofs
of hostile paces: those opposéd eyes,
which, like the meteors of a troubled heaven,
all of one nature, of one substance bred,
did lately meet in the intestine shock
and furious close of civil butchery,
shall now, in mutual well-beseeming ranks,
march all one way, and be no more opposed
against acquaintance, kindred, and allies:
the edge of war, like an ill-sheathéd knife,
no more shall cut his master.
FATHER, forbear: for I but meet to-day
the doom that at my birth was written down
in Heaven, and thou art Heaven's unconscious hand.
Surely my heart cried out that it was thou,
when first I saw thee; and thy heart spoke too,
I know it but Fate trod those promptings down
under its iron heel; Fate, Fate engag'd
the strife, and hurl'd me on my father's spear.
But let us speak no more of this: I find
my father; let me feel that I have found.
Come, sit beside me on this sand, and take
my head betwixt thy hands, and kiss my cheeks,
and wash them with thy tears, and say, 'My Son!'
quick! quick! for number'd are my sands of life,
and swift; for like the lightning to this field
1 came, and like the wind I go away-
sudden, and swift, and like a passing wind.
But it was writ in Heaven that this should be.
THE CHORUS OF MESSENIAN MAIDENS-MEROPE
'HE dead hath now his offerings duly paid. But whither go'st thou hence, O Queen, away? Me. To receive Arcas, who to-day should come, bringing me of my boy the annual news. Ch. No certain news if like the rest it run.
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