MISCELLANEOUS

EXTRACTS.

PEACE.

Archbishop of York.

PEACE is of the nature of a conquest;

For then both parties nobly are subdued,

And neither party loser.

2nd part King Henry IV. Act iv. Scene 2.

"BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS, ETC."

K. Edward IV. I every day expect an embassage
From my Redeemer to redeem me hence;
And more in peace my soul shall part to heaven,
Since I have made my friends at peace on earth.

Gloster. Good morrow to my sovereign king and queen; And, princely peers, a happy time of day!

K. Edward. Happy indeed, as we have spent the day: Brother, we have done deeds of charity, Made peace of enmity, fair love of hate. Gloster. A blessed labour!

King Richard III. Act ii. Scene 1.

DEATH'S SYMPTOMS.

Prince Henry. Death, having prey'd upon the outward parts,

Leaves them insensible; and his siege is now
Against the mind, the which he pricks and wounds

With many legions of strange fantasies;
Which, in their throng and press to that last hold,
Confound themselves.

King John. Act v. Scene 7.

A CRISIS IN PAIN AND EVIL.

Pandulph. Before the curing of a strong disease,
Even in the instant of repair and health,
The fit is strongest: evils that take leave,
On their departure most of all show * evil.

Ibid. Act iii, Scene 4.

THE JUSTICE OF EARTH AND HEAVEN.

King. In the corrupted currents of this world,
Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice;
And oft 'tis seen, the wicked prize itself
Buys out the law: but 'tis not so above :
There is no shuffling; there the action lies
In its true nature; and we ourselves compell'd,
Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults,
To give in evidence. What then? What rests ?-
Try what repentance can :- what can it not?

PRAYER SHOULD COME FROM THE HEART.

King. My words fly up, my thoughts remain below : Words, without thoughts, never to Heaven go.*

Menecrates.

•

Hamlet. Act iii. Scene 3.

UNWISE PRAYERS.

We, ignorant of ourselves,

Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers

Deny us for our good: so find we profit

By losing of our prayers.

Antony and Cleopatra. Act ii. Scene 1.

EVERY THING HAS ITS USE AND ABUSE.

Friar Laurence. Oh, mickle is the powerful grace that

lies

In herbs, plants, stones, and their true qualities;
For, nought so vile that on the earth doth live,
But to the earth some special good doth give;
Nor ought so good, but, strain'd from that fair use,
Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse:
Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied;
And vice sometime's by action dignified.
Within the infant rind of this small flower
Poison hath residence, and medicine power;
Two such opposed foes encamp them still
In man, as well as herbs-grace and rude will;
And, where the worser is predominant,
Full soon the canker death eats up that plant.

WORLDLY MAXIMS.

Polonius.

Give thy thoughts no tongue,

Nor any unproportion'd thought its act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd unfledg'd comrade. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in,
Bear it, that the opposer may beware of thee.
Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man's censure,* but reserve thy judgment.

Neither a borrower, nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend;
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all :-to thine ownself be true;
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.

Hamlet. Act i. Scene 3,

DOING EVIL THAT GOOD MAY COME.

York. But by bad courses, may be understood

That their events can never fall out good.

King Richard II. Act ii. Scene 1.

JUDGING BY THE EVENT.

Troilus. We may not think the justness of each act

Poet. When we for recompense have prais'd the vile,

It stains the glory in that happy verse

Which aptly sings the good.

Timon of Athens. Act i. Scene 1.

"LET WELL ALONE."

Pembroke. When workmen strive to do better than well,

They do confound their skill in covetousness:

And, oftentimes, excusing of a fault

Doth make the fault the worse by the excuse;
As patches, set upon a little breach,

Discredit more in hiding of the fault,

Than did the fault before it was so patch'd.

King John. Act iv. Scene 2.

Duke of Albany. Striving to better, oft we mar what's well.

King Lear. Act i. Scene 4.

Regan.

RASHNESS AND ITS CURE.

To wilful men,

The injuries that they themselves procure
Must be their schoolmasters.