Canst thou, when thou command'st the beggar's knee,
Command the health of it? No, thou proud dream,
That play'st so subtly with a king's repose;
I am a king, that find thee; and I know,
'Tis not the balm, the sceptre, and the ball,
The sword, the mace, the crown imperial,
The inter-tissued robe of gold and pearl,
The farced title running 'fore the king,
The throne he sits on, nor the tide of pomp
That beats upon the high shore of this world,
No, not all these, thrice gorgeous ceremony,
Not all these, laid in bed majestical,
Can sleep so soundly as the wretched slave;
Who, with a body fill'd, and vacant mind,
Gets him to rest, cramm'd with distressful bread;
Never sees horrid night, the child of hell;
But, like a lacquey, from the rise to set,
Sweats in the eye of Phœbus, and all night
Sleeps in Elysium; next day, after dawn,
Doth rise, and help Hyperion to his horse;
And follows so the ever-running year
With profitable labour, to his grave.
And, but for ceremony, such a wretch,
Winding up days with toil, and nights with sleep,
Had the forehand and vantage of a king.
The slave, a member of the country's peace,
Enjoys it; but in gross brain little wots,
What watch the king keeps to maintain the peace,
Whose hours the peasant best advantages.*

King Henry V. Act iv. Scene 1.

NOT EXEMPT FROM MORTAL FEELINGS AND FAILINGS.

K. Henry V. (disguised.) The king is but a man, as I am: the violet smells to him as it doth to me: the element shows to him as it doth to me; all his senses have but human conditions; his ceremonies laid by, in his nakedness he appears but a man; and though his affections are higher mounted than ours, yet when they stoop, they stoop with the like wing; therefore when he sees reason of fears, as we do, his fears, out of doubt, be of the same relish as ours.

King Henry V. Act iv. Scene 1.

NOT TO BE ENVIED.

King Henry VI. Gives not the hawthorn bush a sweeter shade

To shepherds, looking on their silly sheep,
Than doth a rich, embroider'd canopy
To kings that fear their subjects' treachery?
Oh, yes, it doth; a thousand-fold it doth.
And, (to conclude) the shepherd's homely curds,
His cold, thin drink out of his leather bottle,
His wonted sleep under a fresh tree's shade,
All which secure and sweetly he enjoys,
Is far beyond a prince's delicates,
His viands sparkling in a golden cup,
His body couched in a curious bed,

When care, mistrust, and treason wait on him.

3rd part King Henry VI. Act ii. Scene 5.

Queen Margaret. They that stand high have many blasts to shake them;

And, if they fall, they dash themselves to pieces.

King Richard III. Act i. Scene 3.

Brakenbury. Princes have but their titles for their glories,

An outward honour for an inward toil;

And, for unfelt imaginations,

They often feel a world of restless cares ;

So that, between their titles, and low name,
There's nothing differs but the outward fame.

King Richard III. Act i. Scene 4.

Wolsey. If I am traduced by tongues, which neither know

My faculties, nor person, yet will be

The chronicles of my doing-let me say,

'Tis but the fate of place, and the rough brake

That virtue must go through.

What we oft do best,

By sick interpreters, once weak ones, is

Not ours, or not allow'd; what worst, as oft,

Hitting a grosser quality, is cried up

For our best act.

King Henry VIII. Act i. Scene 2.

THE PAIN OF LOSS OF RANK AND POWER.

Anne Bullen.

Oh, now, after

So many courses of the sun enthron'd,

Still growing in a majesty and pomp,-(the which

To leave is a thousand-fold more bitter, than

"Tis sweet at first to acquire)-after this process,

To give her the avaunt! it is a pity

Would move a monster.

•

Much better,

She ne'er had known pomp; though it be temporal,

Yet, if that quarrel fortune do divorce

It from the bearer, 'tis a sufferance, panging

As soul and body's severing.

Ibid. Act ii. Scene 3.

Charmian. The soul and body rive not more in parting,

Than greatness going off.

Antony and Cleopatra. Activ. Scene 11.

King Edward IV. What fates impose, that men must needs abide;

It boots not to resist both wind and tide.

3rd part King Henry VI. Act iv. Scene 3.

Dorset. Comfort, dear mother! God is much displeas'd That you take with unthankfulness his doing; In common worldly things, 'tis call'd ungrateful, With dull unwillingness to repay a debt, Which with a bounteous hand was kindly lent; Much more to be thus opposite with heaven, For it requires the royal debt it lent you.

King Richard III. Act ii. Scene 2.

Coriolanus. 'Tis fond to wail inevitable strokes,

As 'tis to laugh at them.

Coriolanus. Act iv. Scene 1.

Cassius. Of your philosophy you make no use,

If you give place to accidental evils.

Julius Cæsar. Activ. Scene 3.

Octavius Cæsar.

Cheer your heart;

Be you not troubled with the time, which drives

O'er your content these strong necessities;

But let determin'd things to destiny

Hold unbewail'd their way.

Antony and Cleopatra. Act iii. Scene 6.

Hamlet. We defy augury: there is special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come; the readiness is all.

Hamlet, Act v. Scene 2.

Rumour is a pipe,

Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures;

And of so easy and so plain a stop,

That the blunt monster with uncounted heads,

The still-discordant wavering multitude

Can play upon it.

2nd part King Henry IV. Induction.

ITS EXAGGERATION.

Warwick. Rumour doth double, like the voice and echo, The numbers of the fear'd.

N

Ibid. Act iii. Scene 1.