as was his daughter or his dearest child.
There came a stranger to this wealthy man :
and he refus'd, and spar'd to take his own,
or of his store to dress or make him meat,
but took the poor man's sheep, partly, poor man's store,
and dress'd it for this stranger in his house.
What, tell me, shall be done to him for this?'
F cunning hath power to win the king,
let those employ it that can flatter him;
if honour'd deed may reconcile the king,
it lies in me to give and him to take.
Lo. Why, what remains for Baliol now to give?
Bal. Allegiance, as becomes a royal king.
Lo. What league of faith, where league is broken once?
Bal. The greater hope in them that once have fallen.
Lo. But foolish are those monarchs, that do yield
a conquer'd realm upon submissive .vows.
Bal. There, take my crown, and so redeem my life.
Lo. Ay, sir; that was the choicest plea of both;
for whoso quells the pomp of haughty minds,
and breaks their staff whereon they build their trust,
is sure in wanting power they cannot harm.
Baliol shall live; but yet within such bounds
that if his wings grow flig, they may be clipt.
UPPOSE this done, or were it possible I could rise higher still, I am a man: and all these glories, empires heaped upon me, confirmed by constant friends and faithful guards, cannot defend me from a shaking fever,
or bribe the uncorrupted dart of Death
to spare me one short minute. Thus adorned
in these triumphant robes, a sword's sharp point
enters my flesh as far; dreams break my sleep,
as when I was a private man; my passions
are stronger tyrants on me; nor is greatness
a saving antidote to keep me from
a traitor's poison. Shall I praise my Fortune,
or raise the building of my happiness
on her uncertain favour? or presume
she is my own, and sure, that yet was never
constant to any?
YOUR coming, friends, revives me; for I learn
now of my own experience, not by talk,
how counterfeit a coin they are who friends
bear in their superscription, (of the most
I would be understood). In prosperous days
they swarm, but in adverse withdraw their head,
not to be found though sought. Ye see, O friends,
how many evils have enclosed me round;
yet that which was the worst now least afflicts me,
blindness; for had I sight, confused with shame,
how could I once look up, or heave the head?
Who, like a foolish pilot, have shipwrecked
my vessel, trusted to me from above,
gloriously rigged; and for a word, a tear,
fool! have divulged the secret gift of God
to a deceitful woman.
667 TIRESIAS, feeling the inSPIRATION OF THE GOD
TO HIS DAUGHTER MANTO WHO IS LEADING HIM
like a strong spirit charmed into a tree,
that leaps, and moves the wood without a wind.
The roused God, as all this while he lay
intombed alive, starts and dilates himself;
he struggles, and he tears my agéd trunk
with holy fury, my old arteries burst,
my rivell❜d skin,
like parchment, crackles at the hallow'd fire;
I shall be young again: Manto, my daughter,
thou hast a voice that might have sav'd the bard
of Thrace, and forced the raging bacchanals,
with lifted prongs, to listen to thy airs;
O charm this god, this fury in my bosom,
lull him with tuneful notes, and artful strings,
with powerful strains; Manto, my lovely child,
sooth the unruly god-head to be mild.
HE plucked aside the curtain of the couch,
and there two children's bodies lay composed. They seemed like twins of some ten years of age, and they had died so nearly both together he scarce could say which first and being dead, he put them, for some fanciful affection, each with its arm about the other's neck, so that a fairer sight I had not seen than those two children.
I looked upon them long, and for a while
I wished myself their sister, and to lie
with them in death as they did with each other;
I thought that there was nothing in the world
I could have loved so much; and then I wept.
And when he saw I wept, his own tears fell,
and he was sorely shaken and convulsed,
through weakness of his frame and his great grief.
669 ALMERIA AND LEONORA IN the aisle of a
T was a fancied noise, for all is hushed.
It bore the accent of a human voice.
Al. It was thy fear, or else some transient wind
whistling through hollows of the vaulted aisle.
Le. Let us return; the horror of this place
and silence will increase your melancholy.
Al. It may my fears: but cannot add to that.
No, I will on; show me Anselmo's tomb,
lead me o'er bones and sculls and mouldering earth
of human bodies; for I'll mix with them:
or wind me in the shroud of some pale corse
yet green in earth, rather than be the bride
of Garcia's more detested bed: that thought
exerts my spirits; and my present fears
are lost in dread of greater ill. Then show me:
lead me, for I am bolder grown: lead on
where I may kneel and pay my vows again
to him, to heaven, and my Alphonso's soul.
CATILINE TO HIS ARMY
NEVER yet knew, soldiers, that in fight
words added virtue unto valiant men;
or that a general's oration made
an army fall or stand; but how much prowess
habitual or natural, each man's breast
was owner of, so much in act it shewed.
Whom neither glory or danger can excite,
'tis vain to attempt with speech; for the mind's fear
keeps all brave sounds from entering at that ear.
I yet would warn you some few things, my friends,
and give you reason of my present counsels.
HE vaine excesse of flattering fortune's gifts
envenometh the mind with vanitie,
and beats the restlesse braine with endlesse drifts,
to stay the staffe of worldly dignitie:
the begger stands in like extremitie.
By too too much Dan Croesus caught his death,
and bought with blood the price of glittering golde,
by too too lyttle many one lackes breath,
and sterves in streets a mirrour to behold;
so pride for heat and poverty pines for colde,
The conqueror with uncontented sway
doth raise up rebels by hys avarice,
the recreant doth yeeld himself a pray
to forren spoile by slouth and cowardice:
so too much and too little both be nice:
wherefore to lacke the most and leave the least,
I count enough as good as any feast.
KING HENRY IV TO HIS SON
OD pardon thee!-yet let me wonder, Harry, at thy affections, which do hold a wing quite from the flight of all thy ancestors. Thy place in council thou hast rudely lost, which by thy younger brother is supplied; and art almost an alien to the hearts
of all the court and princes of my blood:
the hope and expectation of thy time
is ruin'd; and the soul of every man
prophetically does fore-think thy fall.
Had I so lavish of my presence been,
so common-hackney'd in the eyes of men,
so stale and cheap to vulgar company;
opinion, that did help me to the crown,
had still kept loyal to possession;
and left me in reputeless banishment,
a fellow of no mark, nor likelihood.
673 KING HENRY IV-DUKE OF CLARENCE HIS SON
HAT would my lord and father?
Nothing but well to thee, Thomas of Clarence.
How chance thou art not with the prince thy brother?
He loves thee, and thou dost neglect him, Thomas;
thou hast a better place in his affection
than all thy brothers: cherish it, my boy;
and noble offices thou may'st effect
of mediation, after I am dead,
between his greatness and thy other brethren :—
therefore omit him not; blunt not his love:
nor lose the good advantage of his grace
by seeming cold or careless of his will:
for he is gracious, if he be observed;
he hath a tear for pity, and a hand
open as day for melting charity :
yet notwithstanding, being incensed, he's flint;
as humorous as winter, and as sudden
as flaws congealéd in the spring of day.
HE looked upon him, and was calmed and cheered;
his ghastly colour from his lips had fled;
in his deportment, shape, and mien, appeared
Elysian beauty, melancholy grace,
brought from a pensive though a happy place.
|