Obrázky na stránke
PDF
ePub

In such a place as this, at such an hour,
if ancestry can be in aught believed,
descending spirits have conversed with man,
and told the secrets of the world unknown.

J. HOME

414 THOMAS MOWBRAY, DUKE OF NORFOLK

415

HOWEVER God or fortune cast my lot,

there lives or dies, true to King Richard's throne,
a loyal, just, and upright gentleman:
never did captive with a freer heart

cast off his chains of bondage, and embrace
his golden uncontroll'd enfranchisement,
more than my dancing soul doth celebrate
this feast of battle with mine adversary.—
Most mighty liege, and my companion peers,—
take from my mouth the wish of happy years:
as gentle and as jocund as to jest

go I to fight: truth hath a quiet breast.

W. SHAKESPEARE

TARQVINIVS svperbvs DE SOMNIO SVO

UM jam quieti corpus nocturno impetu

CUM

dedi, sopore placans artus languidos ;
visum est in somnis pastorem ad me appellere
pecus lanigerum eximiâ polchritudine:
duos consanguineos arietes inde eligi,
præclarioremque alterum involare me:
deinde ejus germanum cornibus connitier

in me arietare, eoque ictu me ad casum dari:
exin prostratum terrâ graviter saucium,

resupinum; in cœlo contueri maximum

ac mirificum facinus; dextrorsum orbem flammeum, radiatum solis, liquier cursu novo.

416 CONJECTORVM Interpretatio svper eodem SOMNIO TARQVINII

REX

O EX, quæ in vitâ usurpant homines, cogitant, curant, vident,

quæque agunt vigilantes, agitantque, ea si cui in somno accidunt

minus mirum est: sed in re tantâ haud temere visa se offerunt:

proin vide, ne, quem tu esse hebetem deputes æquè ac pecus,

is sapientiâ munitum pectus egregium gerat,

teque regno expellat. Nam id quod de sole ostentum est tibi,

populo commutationem rerum portendit fore

perpropinquam: hæc bene verruncent populo. Nam quod ad dexteram

cepit cursum ab lævâ signum præpotens, polcherrimè auguratum est, rem Romanam publicam summam fore.

L. ACCIVS

417

418

LOVE IN BROOKS

EE, gentle brooks, how quietly they glide,

while in their crystal streams at once they shew
and with them feed the flowers which they bestow:
tho' rudely thronged by a too near embrace,
in gentle murmurs they keep on their pace

to the loved sea: for streams have their desires,
cool as they are, they feel love's powerful fires,
and with such passion, that if any force
stop or molest them in their amorous course,
they swell, break down with rage and ravage o'er
the banks they kissed and flowers they fed before.
EARL OF ROCHESTER

BE

COURAGE TRIUMPHING OVER PERIL

THE BASTARD TO KING JOHN

E great in act, as you have been in thought;
let not the world see fear and sad distrust
govern the motion of a kingly eye:

be stirring as the time: be fire with fire;
threaten the threatener, and outface the brow
of bragging horror: so shall inferior eyes,
that borrow their behaviours from the great,
grow great by your example, and put on
the dauntless spirit of resolution.
Away, and glister like the god of war,
when he intendeth to become the field:
show boldness and aspiring confidence.

W. SHAKESPEARE

419

SAMSON AGONISTES

MANOAH-CHORUS

Man. Oh! it continues, they have slain my son.

F ruin indeed methought I heard the noise.

Cho.

Thy son is rather slaying them; that outcry from slaughter of one foe could not ascend. Man. Some dismal accident it needs must be;

what shall we do, stay here or run and see? Cho. Best keep together here, lest running thither, we unawares run into danger's mouth.

420

421

This evil on the Philistines is fallen;

from whom could else a general cry be heard?
the sufferers then will scarce molest us here;
from other hands we need not much to fear.

J. MILTON

WALLENSTEIN TO MAX PICCOLOMINI

THE

`HINK'ST thou, that fool-like, I shall let thee go,
and act the mock-magnanimous with thee?
Thy father is become a villain to me;

I hold thee for his son, and nothing more:
nor to no purpose shalt thou have been given
into my power. Think not, that I will honour
that ancient love, which so remorselessly

he mangled. They are now past by, those hours
of friendship and forgiveness. Hate and vengeance
succeed 'tis now their turn-I too can throw
all feelings of the man aside-can prove
myself as much a monster as thy father.

S. T. COLERIDGE from Schiller

DESCRIPTION OF AN ANCIENT CATHEDRAL

No, all is hush'd and still as death 'Tis dreadful!

How reverend is the face of this tall pile

whose ancient pillars rear their marble heads,
to bear aloft its arch'd and ponderous roof,
by its own weight made steadfast and immoveable,
looking tranquillity! It strikes an awe

and terror to my aching sight! the tombs
and monumental caves of death look cold,
and shoot a chillness to my trembling heart.
Give me thy hand, and let me hear thy voice;

F. S. III

5

422

423

424

nay, quickly speak to me, and let me hear

thy voice;-my own affrights me with its echoes.

A COMPARISON

W. CONGREVE

HE lapse of time and rivers is the same,

THE

both speed their journey with a restless stream; the silent pace, with which they steal away,

no wealth can bribe, no prayers persuade to stay,
alike irrevocable both when past,

and a wide ocean swallows both at last.
Though each resemble each in every part,

a difference strikes at length the musing heart;
streams never flow in vain: where streams abound,
how laughs the land with various plenty crown'd!
but time, that should enrich the nobler mind,
neglected, leaves a weary waste behind.

I

SOLILOQUY ON DEATH

HAVE not lived

after the rate to fear another world.

We come from nothing into life, a time

W. COWPER

we measure with a short breath, and that often
made tedious too with our own cares that fill it,
which like so many atoms in a sunbeam
but crowd and jostle one another. All,
from the adored purple to the hair-cloth,

must centre in a shade; and they that have
their virtues to wait on them bravely mock

the rugged storms, which so much fright them here,
when their soul's launched by death into a sea
that's ever calm.

'TIS

J. SHIRLEY

THE BLESSING of SELF-CONTROL

IS not enough, alas! our power to extend,
or over-run the world from east to west,
or that our hands the earth can comprehend,
or that we proudly do what like us best.
He lives more quietly whose rest is made,
and can with reason chasten his desire,
than he that blindly toileth for a shade,
and is with other's empire set on fire.

Our bliss consists not in possessions,

but in commanding our affections;

in virtue's choice, and vice's needful chace
far from our hearts, for staining of our face.

T. KYD

425 SATAN TO THE COUNcil of inferNAL PEERS

426

427

UT I should ill become this throne, O Peers,

B and this imperial sovranty, adorned

with splendour, armed with power, if aught proposed and judged of public moment, in the shape

of difficulty or danger, could deter

me from attempting. Wherefore do I assume
these royalties, and not refuse to reign,
refusing to accept as great a share

of hazard as of honour, due alike

to him who reigns, and so much to him due
of hazard more, as he above the rest
high honoured sits?

TH

THE LOVE OF KINGS

J. MILTON

'HE love of kings is like the blowing of winds, which whistle sometimes gently among the leaves, and straightway turn the trees up by the roots; or fire, which warmeth afar off, and burneth near hand; or the sea, which makes men hoise their sails in a flattering calm, and to cut their masts in a rough storm. They place affection by times, by policy, by appointment; if they frown, who dares call them unconstant? if bewray secrets, who will term them untrue? if fall to other loves, who trembles not, if he call them unfaithful?

ROME

J. LYLY

ROME, Rome, thou now resemblest a ship

at random wandering in a boisterous sea,
when foaming billows feel the northern blasts;
thou toil'st in peril, and the windy storm
doth topside-turvey toss thee as thou float'st.
Thy mast is shivered and thy mainsail torn,
thy sides sore beaten, and thy hatches broke:
thou want'st thy tackling, and a ship unrigged

« PredošláPokračovať »