he was too great for us, and that they knew

who did remove him hence. Sab. When men grow

fast

honour'd and lov'd, there is a trick in state
(which jealous princes never fail to use)
how to decline that growth, with fair pretext,
and honourable colours of employment,
either by embassy, the war, or such,
to shift them forth into another air,

where they may purge, and lessen; so was he:
and had his seconds there, sent by Tiberius,
and his more subtle dam, to discontent him;
to breed, and cherish mutinies; detract
his greatest actions; give audacious check
to his commands; and work to put him out
in open act of treason. All which snares
when his wise cares prevented, a fine poison
was thought on, to mature their practices.

B. JONSON

995

CESAR-CATILINE

Cas. Therefore end in few. Be resolute,

'HE night grows on, and you are for your meeting;

and put your enterprise in act; the more
actions of depth and danger are consider'd,
the less assuredly they are perform'd:

and thence it happeneth, that the bravest plots,
not executed straight, have been discover'd.
Say, you are constant, or another, a third,
or more; there may be yet one wretched spirit,
with whom the fear of punishment shall work
'bove all the thoughts of honour and revenge.
You are not now to think what's best to do,
as in beginnings; but, what must be done,
being thus enter'd; and slip no advantage
that may secure you. Let 'em call it mischief:
when it is past, and prosper'd, 'twill be virtue.
They're petty crimes are punish'd, great rewarded.
Nor must you think of peril, since attempts
begun with danger, still do end with glory;
and, when need spurs, despair will be call'd wisdom.
Less ought the care of men, or fame to fright you,
for they that win do seldom receive shame

of victory, howe'er it be achieved,

and vengeance, least: for who, besieged with wants,
would stop at death, or any thing beyond it?

Come, there was never any great thing yet
aspiréd, but by violence or fraud:

and he that sticks, for folly of a conscience,
to reach it-

Cat. Is a good religious fool.

996

HA

KING EDWARD IV

B. JONSON

AVE I a tongue to doom my brother's death, and shall that tongue give pardon to a slave? my brother kill'd no man,-his fault was thought, and yet his punishment was bitter death. Who sued to me for him? who, in my wrath, kneel'd at my feet, and bade me be advis'd? who spoke of brotherhood? who spoke of love? who told me how the poor soul did forsake the mighty Warwick, and did fight for me? who told me, in the field at Tewksbury, when Oxford had me down, he rescued me, and said, 'Dear brother, live, and be a king'? Who told me, when we both lay in the field frozen almost to death, how he did lap me even in his garments, and did give himself, all thin and naked, to the numb cold night? All this from my remembrance brutish wrath sinfully plucked, and not a man of you had so much grace to put it in my mind. But when your carters or your waiting-vassals have done a drunken slaughter, and defac'd the precious image of our dear Redeemer, you straight are on your knees for pardon, pardon; and I, unjustly too, must grant it you:—

but for my brother not a man would speak,—

nor I, ungracious, speak unto myself

for him, poor soul. The proudest of you all
have been beholding to him in his life;
yet none of you would once plead for his life.-
O God, I fear, thy justice will take hold

on me, and you, and mine, and yours for this!

W. SHAKESPEARE

997

Th.

THEOPHILUS—ANTONINUS-DOROTHEA

WOW, proud Contemner

Now,

of us and of our gods, tremble to think
it is not in the Power thou serv'st to save thee.
Not all the riches of the sea, increased

by violent shipwrecks, nor the unsearched mines,
(mammon's unknown exchequer,) shall redeem thee:
and, therefore, having first with horror weighed
what 'tis to die and to die young: to part with
all pleasures and delights: lastly to go
where all antipathies to comfort dwell,
force behind, about thee, and before thee;
and, to add to affliction, the remembrance
of the Elysian joys thou might'st have tasted,
hadst thou not turned apostate to those gods
that so reward their servants; let despair

prevent the hangman's sword, and on this scaffold
make thy first entrance into hell.

Ant. She smiles,

Th.

unmoved, by Mars! as if she were assured

Death, looking on her constancy, would forget
the use of his inevitable hand.

Derided too! dispatch, I say.

998 Dor. Thou fool!

that gloriest in having power to ravish

a trifle from me I am weary of.

What is this life to me? not worth a thought:

or, if it be esteem'd, 'tis that I lose it

to win a better: even thy malice serves

to me but as a ladder to mount up

to such a height of happiness, where I shall
look down with scorn on thee and on the world;
where, circled with true pleasures, placed above
the reach of death or time, 'twill be my glory
to think at what an easy price I bought it.
There's a perpetual spring, perpetual youth:
no joint-benumbing cold, or scorching heat,
famine, nor age, have any being there.
Forget, for shame, your Tempe; bury in
oblivion your feign'd Hesperian orchards :-
the golden fruit, kept by the watchful dragon,
which did require a Hercules to get it,

compared with what grows in all plenty there,
deserves not to be named. The Power I serve,
laughs at your happy Araby, or the

Elysian shades; for he hath made his bowers
better in deed, than you can fancy yours.

P. MASSINGER

999 KING EDWARD II BEING DEPOSED SURRENDERS

HIS CROWN INTO THE HANDS OF THE EARL OF
LEICESTER

LE

EICESTER, if gentle words might comfort me,
thy speech long ago had eas'd my sorrows,
for kind and loving hast thou always been.
The griefs of private men are soon allay'd;
but not of kings. The forest deer, being struck,
runs to an herb that closeth up the wounds;
but when the imperial lion's flesh is gor'd,
he rends and tears it with his wrathful paw,
and, highly scorning that the lowly earth
should drink his blood, mounts up to the air.
And so it fares with me, whose dauntless mind
th' ambitious Mortimer would seek to curb;
and that unnatural queen, false Isabel,
that thus hath pent and mur'd me in a prison:
for such outrageous passions cloy my soul,
as with the wings of rancour and disdain,
full oft am I soaring up to heaven,

to plain me to the gods against them both.
But when I call to mind I am a king,
methinks I should revenge me of the wrongs
that Mortimer and Isabel have done.
But what are kings, when regiment is gone,
but perfect shadows in a sunshine day?
my nobles rule; I bear the name of king:
I wear the crown; but am controll'd by them,
by Mortimer and my unconstant queen,
who spots my nuptial bed with infamy;
whilst I am lodg'd within this cave of care,
where sorrow at my elbow still attends,
to company my heart with sad laments,
that bleeds within me for this strange exchange.

C. MARLOWE

BLOW, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!

you cataracts and hurricanoes, spout

till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks! you sulphurous and thought-executing fires

vaunt-couriers of oak-cleaving thunderbolts

singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,
strike flat the thick rotundity o' the world!
crack nature's moulds, all germens spill at once,
that make ingrateful man!

Rumble thy bellyfull! Spit, fire! spout, rain!
nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters;
I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness:
I never gave you kingdom, call'd you children,
you owe me no subscription; then let fall
your horrible pleasure: here I stand, your slave,
a poor, infirm, weak, and despis'd old man:—
but yet I call you servile ministers,
that will with two pernicious daughters join
your high-engendered battles 'gainst a head
so old and white as this! O, O 'tis foul!
Let the great Gods
that keep the dreadful pother o'er our heads,
find out their enemies now. Tremble, thou wretch,
that hast within thee undivulgéd crimes,

unwhipp'd of justice: hide thee, thou bloody hand;
thou perjur'd, and thou simular of virtue
that art incestuous: caitiff, to pieces shake,
that under covert and convenient seeming
hast practis'd on man's life: close pent-up guilts,
rive your concealing continents, and cry
these dreadful summoners grace.-I am a man
more sinned against than sinning.

W. SHAKESPEARE

1001

BELARIUS-GUIDERIUS—ARVIRAGUS

GOODLY day not to keep house, with such whose roof's as low as ours! Stoop, boys: this

gate

instructs you how to adore the heavens, and bows you
to morning's holy office: the gates of monarchs
are arch'd so high, that giants may jet through