Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub

Go great with tigers, dragons, wolves, and bears, | At duty, more than I could frame employment; Teem with new monsters, whom thy upward face

Hath to the marble mansion all above
Never presented!-O, a root-dear thanks!
Dry up thy marrows, vines, and plough-torn
leas,
[draughts,
Whereof ingrateful man, with liquorish
And morsels unctuous, greases his pure mind,
That from it all consideration slips!

Timon's Discourse with Apemantus.
Apem. This is in thee a nature but affected:
A poor unmanly melancholy, sprung
From change of fortune. Why this spade? this
place?

This slave-like habit? and these looks of care?
Thy flatt'rers yet wear silk, drink wine, lie soft;
Hug their diseas'd perfumes, and have forgot
That ever Timon was. Shame not these woods,
By putting on the cunning of a carper.
Be thou a flatt'rer now, and seek to thrive
By that which hath undone thee: hinge thy
knee,

And let his very breath, whom thou'lt observe,
Blow off thy cap; praise his most vicious strain,
And call it excellent. Thou wast told thus ;
Thou gav'st thine ears, like tapsters, that bid
welcome

To knaves, and all approachers: 'tis most just That thou turn rascal; hadst thou wealth again, Rascals should have't. Do not assume my likeness. [self. Tim. Were I like thee, I'd throw away myApem. Thou hast cast away thyself, being

like thyself,

A madman so long, now a fool: what, think'st That the bleak air, thy boisterous chamberlain, Will put thy shirt on warm? will these moss'd

[blocks in formation]

tures

Whose naked natures live in all the spite
Of wreakful heaven; whose bare unhoused
trunks,

To the conflicting elements expos'd,
Answer mere nature-bid them flatter thee;
O! thou shalt find-

Tim. Thou art a slave, whom fortune's tender arm

With favor never clasp'd; but bred a dog. Hadst thou, like us, from our first swath, proceeded

The sweet degrees that this brief world affords
To such as may the passive drugs of it
Freely command, thou wouldst have plung'd
thyself

In general riot; melted down thy youth
In different beds of lust; and never learn'd
The icy precepts of respect, but follow'd
The sugar'd game before thee. But myself,
Who had the world as my confectionary,
The mouths, the tongues, the eyes, and hearts

of men

That numberless upon me stuck, as leaves
Do on the oak-have with one winter's brush
Fell from their boughs, and left me open, bare,
For every storm that blows:-1, to bear this,
That never knew but better, is some burthen.
Thy nature did commence in sufferance; time
Hath made thee hard in't. Why shouldst thou
hate men?
[given?
They never flatter'd thee. What hast thou
If thou wilt curse,-thy father, that poor rag,
Must be thy subject, who in spite put stuff
To some she-beggar, and compounded thee
Poor rogue hereditary. Hence! begone.
If thou hadst not been born the worst of men,
Thou hadst been a knave and flatterer.
On Gold.

O thou sweet king-killer, and dear divorce
[Looking on the gold.
"Twixt natural son and sire! thou bright defiler
Of Hymen's purest bed! thou valiant Mars!
Thou ever young, fresh, lov'd, and delicate

[blocks in formation]

Why should you want? behold, the earth hath roots! [springs; Within this mile break forth an hundred The oaks bear masts, the briers scarlet hips; The bounteous housewife, nature, on each bush Lays her full mess before Want! why

want?

you.

[blocks in formation]

grape,

Till the high fever seeth your blood to froth,
And so 'scape hanging: trust not the physician;
His antidotes are poison, and he slays
More than you rob: take wealth and lives to-
gether;

Do villany, do, since you profess to do't,
Like workmen. I'll example you with thievery:
The sun's a thief, and with his great attraction
Robs the vast sea; the moon's an arrant thief,
And her pale fire she snatches from the sun;
The sea's a thief, whose liquid surge resolves
The moon into salt tears; the earth's a thief,
That feeds and breeds by a composture stolen
From gen'ral excrement: each thing's a thief;
The laws, your curb and whip, in their rough

pow'r

Have uncheck'd theft. Love not yourelves: | As any mortal body, hearing it,

[blocks in formation]

[throats; Should straight fall mad, or else die suddenly.
A Ring in a dark Pit.
Upon his bloody finger he doth wear
A precious ring, that lightens all the hole;
Which, like a taper in some monument,
Doth shine upon the dead man's earthy cheeks,
And shows the ragged entrails of this pit.
Young Lady playing on a Lute and singing.

Forgive my gen'ral and exceptless rashness,
Perpetual-sober gods! I do proclaim
One honest man-mistake me not-but one;
No more, I pray-and he is a steward.
How fain would I have hated all mankind,
And thou redeem'st thyself: but all, save thee,
I fell with curses.

Methinks, thou art more honest now than wise;
For, by oppressing and betraying me,
Thou mighist have sooner got another service:
For many so arrive at second masters,
Upon their first lord's neck.

[blocks in formation]

Replying shrilly to the well-tun'd horns,
As if a double hunt were heard at once-
Let us sit down, and mark their yelling noise:
And after conflict-such as was suppos'd
The wand'ring prince and Dido once enjoy'd,
When with a happy storm they were surpris'd,
And curtain'd with a counsel-keeping cave-
We may, each wreathed in the other's arms,
Our pastimes done, possess a golden slumber!
Whiles hounds, and horns, and sweet melodi-
Be unto us as is a nurse's song
[ous birds,

Of lullaby, to bring her babe asleep.
Vale, a dark and melancholy one described.
A barren detested vale, you see, it is:
The trees, tho' summer, yet forlorn and lean,
O'ercome with moss, and baleful misseltoe.
Here never shines the sun. here nothing breeds,
Unless the nightly owl, or fatal raven.

And when they show'd me this abhorred pit,
They told me, here, at dead time of the night,
A thousand fiends, a thousand hissing snakes,
Ten thousand swelling toads, as many urchins,
Would make such fearful and confused cries,

Fair Philomela, she but lost her tongue, And in a tedious sampler sew'd her mind: But, lovely niece, that mean is cut from thee; A craftier Tereus hast thou met withal, And he hath cut those pretty fingers off, That could have better sew'd than Philomel. O, had the monster seen those lily hands Tremble, like aspen leaves, upon a lute, And make the silken strings delight to kiss them ; [life: He would not then have touch'd them for his Or had he heard the heavenly harmony, Which that sweet tongue hath made, He would have dropt his knife, and fell asleep, As Cerberus at the Thracian poet's feet. A Lady's Tongue cut out.

O, that delightful engine of her thoughts, That blabb'd them with such pleasing eloquence,

Is torn from forth that pretty hollow cage;
Where, like a sweet melodious bird, it sung
Sweet varied notes, enchanting every ear!
A person in Despair compared to one on a Rock,
&c.

For now I stand as one upon a rock, Environ'd with a wilderness of sea; [wave, Who marks the waxing tide grow wave by Expecting ever when some envious surge Will in his brinish bowels swallow him.

Tears compared to Dew on a Lily. When I did name her brothers, then fresh

[blocks in formation]

Revenge.

Lo, by thy side, where rape and inurder stands; Now give some surance that thou art revenge, Stab them, or tear them on thy chariot wheels; And then I'll come, and be thy waggoner, And whirl along with thee about the globe. Provide thee two proper palfries, black as jet, To hale thy vengeful waggon swift away, And find out murderers in their guilty caves: And, when thy car is loaden with their heads, I will dismount, and by the waggon wheel Trot, like a servile footinan, all day long; Even from Hyperion's rising in the east, Until his very downfall in the sea.

§ 36. TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. SHAKSPEARE.

Love in a brave young Soldier.
CALL here my varlet, I'll unarm again :
Why should I war without the walls of Troy,

That find such cruel battle here within?
Each Trojan, that is master of his heart,
Let him to field; Troilus, alas! hath none.

The Greeks are strong and skilful to their strength,

Fierce to their skill and to their fierceness valiant;

But I am weaker than a woman's tear,
Tamer than sleep, fonder than ignorance;
Less valiant than the virgin in the night,
And skill-less as unpractis'd infancy.

[blocks in formation]

Conduct in War superior to Action. The still and mental parts,

measure

That do contrive how many hands shall strike
When fitness calls them on; and know, by
Of their observant toil, the enemies' weight—
Why, this hath not a finger's dignity;
They call this bed-work, mapp'ry, closet war:
So that the ram, that batters down the wall,
For the great swing and rudeness of his poize,
They place before his hand that made the engine;
Or those, that with the fineness of their souls
By reason guide his execution.

Adversity the Trial of Man.
-Why then, you princes,
Do you with cheeks abash'd behold our works,
And think them shames, which are indeed
nought else

But the protractive trials of great Jove,
The fineness of which metal is not found
To find persistive constancy in men?
In fortune's love; for then, the bold and coward,
The wise and fool, the artist and unread,
The hard and soft, seem all affin'd and kin:
But in the wind and tempest of her frown,
Distinction, with a broad and pow'rful fan,
Puffing at all, winnows the light away;
And what hath mass, or matter, by itself,
Lies rich in virtue, and unmingled.

Achilles described by Ulysses.

The great Achilles-whom opinion crowns The sinew and the fore-hand of our hostHaving his ear full of his airy fame, Grows dainty of his worth, and in his tent Lies mocking our designs: with him PatroUpon a lazy bed, the live-long day [clus, Breaks scurril jests;

And with ridiculous and awkward action (Which, slanderer! he imitation calls) He pageants us. Sometime, great Agamemnon, And, like a strutting player-whose conceit Thy topless deputation he puts on; Lies in his hamstring, and doth think it rich To hear the wooden dialogue and sound 'Twixt his stretch'd footing and the scaffoldage, Such to be pitied and o'erwrested seeming He acts thy greatness in: and when he speaks, 'Tis like a chime a-mending: with terms unsquar'd,

Which, from the tongue of roaring Typhon dropt,

Would seem hyperboles. At this fusty stuff, The large Achilles, on his prest bed lolling, From his deep chest laughs out a loud applause; Cries- Excellent! 'tis Agamemnon just! Now play me Nestor-hem, and stroke thy beard,

[ocr errors]
[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

Sir Valor dies; cries-"O! enough, Patroclus, |
Or give me ribs of steel! I shall split all
In pleasure of my spleen." And, in this fashion
All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes,
Severals and generals of grace exact,
Achievements, plots, orders, preventions,
Excitements to the field, or speech for truce,
Success or loss, what is or is not, serves
As stuff for these two to make paradoxes.
Respect.

I ask, that I might weaken reverence,
And bid the cheek be ready with a blush
Modest as morning, when she coldly eyes
The youthful Phoebus.

[blocks in formation]

Cry, "No recovery."

Aga. Let Ajax go to him.

Dear lord, go you, and greet him in his tent: "Tis said, he holds you well; and will be led, At your request, a little from himself.

Ulys. O Agamemnon, let it not be so! We'll consecrate the steps that Ajax makes, When they go from Achilles: shall the proud lord

That bastes his arrogance with his own seam,
And never suffers matter of the world
Enter his thoughts, save such as do revolve
And ruminate himself-shall he be worshipp'd
Of that we hold an idol more than he?
No, this thrice worthy and right valiant lord
Must not so stale his palm, nobly acquir'd;
Nor, by my will, assubjugate his merit,
As amply titled as Achilles is,
By going to Achilles;

That were to enlard his fat-already pride,
And add more coals to Cancer, when he burns
With entertaining great Hyperion.
This lord go to him! Jupiter forbid !
And say in thunder "Achilles go to him."
Nest. O, this is well; he rubs the vein of

him. [Aside. Dio. And how his silence drinks up this

applause! [Aside. Ajax. If I go to him with my armed fist I'll pash him o'er the face.

Aga. O no, you shall not go.

Ajax. An he be proud with me, I'll pheese his pride: let me go to him.

Ulys. Not for the worth that hangs upon our quarrel.

Ajax. A paltry, insolent fellow !

Nest. How he describes himself! [Aside. Ajax. Can he not be sociable?

Ulys. The raven chides blackness. [Aside. Ajax. I'll let his humors blood.

Aga. He'll be the physician that should be
the patient.
[Aside.
Ajax. An all men were o' my mind-
Ulys. Wit would be out of fashion. [Aside.
Ajax. He should not bear it so;

He should eat swords first: shall pride carry it?
Nest. An 'twould, you'd carry half. [Aside.
Ulys. He would have ten shares. Aside.
Ajax. I will knead him, I'll make him
supple.
[him
Nest. He is not yet thorough warm; force
With praises; pour in; his ambition 's dry.

[Aside.

Ulys. My lord, you feed too much on this dislike,

Nest. O noble general, do not do so. Dio. You must prepare to fight without Achilles. [him harm. Ulys. Why, 'tis this naming of him does Here is a man-but 'tis before his faceI will be silent.

[liant.

Nest. Wherefore should you so? He is not emulous, as Achilles is. Ulys. Know the whole world, he is as vaAjax. A whoreson dog! that shall palter thus with us!

Would he were a Trojan.

Nest. What a vice were it in Ajax now-
Ulys. If he were proud?
Dio. Or covetous of praise?
Ulys. Ay, or surly borne?

Dio. Or strange, or self-affected?

Ulys. Thank the heavens, lord, thou art of

sweet composure:

[suck: Praise him that got thee, she that gave thee Fam'd be thy tutor, and thy parts of nature Thrice fam'd beyond all erudition; But he that disciplin'd thy arms to fight, Let Mars divide eternity in twain, And give him half: and for thy vigor, Bull-bearing Milo his addition yield To sinewy Ajax. I will not praise thy wisdom, Which, like a bourn, a pale, a shore, confines Thy spacious and dilated parts: here's Nestor, Instructed by the antiquary timesHe must, he is, he cannot but be wise;

But pardon, father Nestor; were your days,
As green as Ajax, and your brain so temper'd,
You should not have the eminence of him,
But be as Ajax.

Ajax. Shall I call you father?
Ulys. Ay, my good son.

Dio. Be rul'd by him, lord Ajax.

Ulys. There is no tarrying here; the hart
Achilles

Keeps thicket: please it our great general
To call together all his state of war;

Fresh kings are come to Troy; to-morrow,
friends,

We must with all our main of pow'r stand fast,
And here's a lord; come knights from east to
west,

And cull their flow'r, Ajax shall cope the best.
Aga. Go we to council. Let Achilles sleep:
Light boats sail swift, though greater hulks
draw deep.
[Exeunt.

An expecting Lover.

No, Pandarus: I stalk about her door,
Like a strange soul upon the Stygian banks
Staying for waftage. O, be thou my Charon,
And give me swift transportance to those fields,
Where I may wallow in the lily beds
Propos'd for the deserver! O gentle Pandarus,
From Cupid's shoulders pluck his painted
And fly with me to Cressid!
[wings,

I am giddy; expectation whirls me round.
The imaginary relish is so sweet

That it enchants my sense; what will it be,
When that the wat❜ry palate tastes indeed
Love's thrice-reputed nectar? Death, I fear me;
Swooning destruction; or some joy too fine,
Too subtle-potent, and too sharp in sweetness,
For the capacity of my ruder powers;
I fear it much; and I do fear besides
That I shall lose distinction in my joys;
As doth a battle, when they charge on heaps
The enemy flying.

My heart beats thicker than a fev'rous pulse;
And all my powers do their bestowing lose,
Like vassalage at unawares encount'ring

The

eye of majesty.

Constancy in love protested.
Troilus. True swains in love shall in the
world to come
[rhymes,
Approve their truths by Troilus; when their
Full of protest, of oath, and big compare,
Want similes; truth tir'd with iteration-
As true as steel, as plantage to the moon,
As sun to day, as turtle to her mate,

As iron to adamant, as earth to the centre-
Yet, after all comparisons of truth,
As truth's authentic author to be cited,
As true as Troilus, shall crown up the verse,
And sanctify the numbers.

Cres. Prophet may you be!

If I be false, or swerve a hair from truth,
When time is old and hath forgot itself,

Upbraid my falsehood! when they have aid-
as false

As air, as water, wind, or sandy earth,
As fox to lamb, as wolf to heifer's calf,
Pard to the hind, or step-dame to her son-
Yea, let them say, to stick the heart of false-
hood,

As false as Cressid.

Pride cures Pride.
Pride hath no other glass
To show itself, but pride: for supple knees
Feed arrogance, and are the proud man's fees.
Greatness contemptible when it declines.
'Tis certain, greatness, once fallen out with
fortune,
[is,
Must fall out with men too: what the declin'd
He shall as soon read in the eyes of others,
As feel in his own fall; for men, like butterflies,
Show not their mealy wings but to the summer:
And not a man, for being simply man,
Hath any honor; but honor for those honors
That are without him, as place, riches, favor,
Prizes of accident as oft as merit;
Which when they fall, as being slippery standers,
The love that lean'd on them is slippery too,
Do one pluck down another, and together
Die in the fall.

Honor: continued Acts necessary to preserve

its Lustre.

Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back,
Wherein he puts alms for oblivion,

A great-siz'd monster of ingratitudes:
Those scraps are good deeds past; which are
devour'd

As fast as they are made, forgot as soon
As done: perseverance, dear my lord,
Keeps honor bright: to have done, is to hang
Quite out of fashion, like a rusty mail,
In monumental mockery. Take the instant

way,

For honor travels in a strait so narrow,
Where one but goes abreast: keep then the
For emulation hath a thousand sons,
path;
That one by one pursue; if you give way,
Or hedge aside from the direct forthright,
Like to an enter'd tide they all rush by,
And leave you hindmost-
Or, like a gallant horse fall'n in first rank,
Lie there for pavement to the abject rear,
O'er-run and trampled on; then what they do
in present,
[yours:
Though less than yours in past, must o'er-top
For time is like a fashionable host, [hand;
That slightly shakes his parting guest by the
And with his arms outstretch'd, as he would fly,
Grasps in the comer: welcome ever smiles,
And farewell goes out sighing. O, let not
virtue seek
[wit,
Remuneration for the thing it was; for beauty,
High birth, vigor of bone, desert in service,
Love, friendship, charity, are subjects all

When water-drops have worn the stones of To envious and calumniating time.

Troy,

And blind oblivion swallow'd cities up,

And mighty states characterless are grated
To dusty nothing; yet let memory,
From false to false, among false maids in love,

[gauds,

One touch of nature makes the whole world
kin-
That all with one consent praise new-born
Though they are made and moulded of things
And give to dust, that is a little gilt, [past;

« FöregåendeFortsätt »