844 I W.

Hec.

845

It cannot be but he was murder'd here;
the least of all these signs were probable.

WHY

W. SHAKESPEARE

FIRST WITCH-HECATE

HY, how now, Hecate! you look angerly.
Have I not reason, beldams as you are,
saucy and over-bold? How did you dare,
to trade and traffick with Macbeth,

in riddles and affairs of death;
and I, the mistress of your charms,
the close contriver of all harms,
was never call'd to bear my part,
or shew the glory of our art?

and, which is worse, all you have done,
hath been but for a wayward son,
spiteful, and wrathful; who, as others do,
loves for his own ends, not for you.
But make amends now: get you gone,
and at the pit of Acheron

meet me i' the morning; thither he
will come to know his destiny.
Your vessels and your spells provide,
your charms, and every thing beside:
I am for the air; this night I'll spend
unto a dismal and a fatal end.

MY

FOREST HYMN

W. SHAKESPEARE

Y heart is awed within me, when I think
of the great miracle that still goes on
in silence round me-the perpetual work
of the creation, finished, yet renewed

for ever.

Written on thy works I read

the lesson of thy own eternity.

Lo! all grow old and die-but see, again,
how on the faltering footsteps of decay
youth presses-ever gay and beautiful youth
in all its beautiful forms. These lofty trees
wave not less proudly that their ancestors
moulder beneath them. Oh! there is not lost
one of earth's charms: upon her bosom yet,
after the flight of untold centuries,

846

the freshness of her far beginning lies
and yet shall lie. Life mocks the idle hate
of his arch-enemy Death-yea, seats himself
upon the tyrant's throne-the sepulchre,
and of the triumphs of his ghastly foe

makes his own nourishment. For he came forth
from thine own bosom, and shall have no end.

FAILOR-MARIUS

W. C. BRYANT

Ja. The many friends that fawn'd when fortune smil'd,

HE high estate your lordship once did wield,

your great promotions, and your mighty wealth,
these (were I Marius) would amate me so,

as loss of them would vex me more than death. Ma. Is lordship then so great a bliss, my friend? Ja. No title may compare with princely rule. Ma. Are friends so faithful pledges of delight? Ja. What better comforts than are faithful friends? Ma. Is wealth a mean to lengthen life's content? Ja. Where great possessions bide, what care can touch? Ma. These stales of fortune are the common plagues that still mislead the thoughts of simple men. The shepherd swain, that 'midst his country cot deludes his broken slumbers by his toil,

847

thinks lordship sweet, when care with lordship dwells.
The trustful man that builds on trothless vows,
whose simple thoughts are cross'd with scornful ways,
together weeps the loss of wealth and friend:
so lordship, friends, wealth, spring and perish fast,
where death alone yields happy life at last.

THE LOVE OF HOME

MATHIAS TO KING LADISLAUS

IF it be true,

T. LODGE

dread sir, as 'tis affirmed, that every soil, where he is well, is to a valiant man

his natural country, reason may assure me

I should fix here, where blessings beyond hope,
from you, the spring, like rivers, flow unto me.
If wealth were my ambition, by the queen

848

Ach.

I am made rich already to the amazement
of all that see, or shall hereafter read
the story of her bounty: if to spend
the remnant of my life in deeds of arms,
no region is more fertile of good knights,

from whom my knowledge that way may be better'd,
than this your warlike Hungary:—if favour

or grace in court could take me, by your grant,
far, far, beyond my merit, I may make
in yours a free election; but, alas! sir,
I am not mine own, but by my destiny
(which I cannot resist) forced to prefer
my country's smoke before the glorious fire
with which your bounties warm me.

THE

ACHATES-VENUS-ENEAS

P. MASSINGER

HE air is pleasant, and the soil most fit
for cities, and society's supports;

yet much I marvel that I cannot find
no steps of men imprinted in the earth.-
Ven. Ho, young men! saw you, as you came,
any of all my sisters wandering here,
having a quiver girded to her side,
and clothed in a spotted leopard's skin?
En. I neither saw nor heard of any such.

But what may I, fair virgin, call your name,
whose looks set forth no mortal form to view,
nor speech bewrays aught human in thy birth?
Thou art a goddess that delud'st our eyes,
and shroud'st thy beauty in this borrowed shape:
but whether thou the Sun's bright sister be,
or one of chaste Diana's fellow-nymphs,
live happy in the height of all content,
and lighten our extremes with this one boon,
as to instruct us under what good heaven

we breathe as now, and what this world is call'd
on which by tempests' fury we are cast.

A Roman soul is bent on higher views:
to civilize the rude unpolished world,
and lay it under the restraint of laws;
to make man mild and sociable to man;
to cultivate the wild, licentious savage
with wisdom, discipline and liberal arts,—
th' embellishments of life: virtues like these
make human nature shine, reform the soul,
and break our fierce barbarians into men.

Syph. Patience, kind heavens! excuse an old man's warmth!
What are these wond'rous civilizing arts,

this Roman polish, and this smooth behaviour, that render man thus tractable and tame? Are they not only to disguise our passions, to set our looks at variance with our thoughts, to check the starts and sallies of the soul, and break off all its commerce with the tongue; in short, to change us into other creatures than what our nature and the gods designed us? 850 Jub. To strike thee dumb, turn up thy eyes to Cato! there may'st thou see to what a godlike height the Roman virtues lift up mortal man;

while good, and just, and anxious for his friends, he's still severely bent against himself; renouncing sleep, and rest, and food, and ease, he strives with thirst and hunger, toil and heat; and when his fortune sets before him all

the pomps and pleasures that his soul can wish, his rigid virtue will accept of none.

Syph. Believe me, prince, there's not an African,
that traverses our vast Numidian deserts

in quest of prey, and lives upon his bow,
but better practises these boasted virtues.
Coarse are his meals, the fortune of the chase,
amidst the running stream he slakes his thirst,
toils all the day, and at the approach of night
on the first friendly bank he throws him down,
or rests his head upon a rock till morn:
then rises fresh, pursues his wonted game,
and if the following day he chance to find
a new repast or an untasted spring;
blesses his stars, and thinks it luxury.

J. ADDISON

851

Ch. I. Gis.

CHORUS-GISMUNDA

MADAM, forbear, suppress this headstrong rage.

Maidens, forbear your comfortable words. Ch. 2. O worthy Queen, rashness doth overthrow the author of his resolution.

Gis.

Where hope of help is lost, what booteth fear? Ch. 3. Fear will avoid the sting of infamy.

Gis.

May good or bad reports delight the dead?
Ch. 4. If of the living yet the dead have care.
Gis.

An easy grief by counsel may be cured.

Ch. 1. But headstrong mischief princes should avoid.
Gis. In headlong griefs and cases desperate?
Ch. 2. Call to your mind, Gismund, you are the Queen.
Gis. Unhappy widow, wife, and paramour.

Ch. 3. Think on the king. Gis. The king, the tyrant king?
Ch. 4. Your father. Gis. Yes, the murderer of my love.
Ch. 4. His force. Gis. The dead fear not the force of men.
Ch. 1. His care and grief. Gis. That neither car'd for me
nor grievéd at the murder of my love.

My mind is settled; you, with these vain words,
withhold me but too long from my desire.
Depart ye to my chamber.

852

DEGREE

ULYSSES

R. WILMOT

Ulys. DEGREE being vizarded,

the unworthiest shows as fairly in the mask. The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre, observe degree, priority and place,

insisture, course, proportion, season, form,

office and custom, in all line of order;
and therefore is the glorious planet Sol
in noble eminence enthroned and sphered
amidst the other: whose med 'cinable eye
corrects the ill aspects of planets evil

and posts, like the commandment of a king,

sans check, to good and bad; but when the planets

in evil mixture to disorder wander,

what plagues and what portents! what mutiny!
what raging of the sea! shaking of earth!

commotion in the winds! frights, changes, horrors,
divert and crack, rend and deracinate