10 15 Now, one the better, then, another best; 25 To carve out dials quaintly, point by point, So many days my ewes have been with young; years, Pass'd over to the end they were created, And to conclude, the shepherd's homely curds, His cold thin drink out of his leather bottle, Is far beyond a prince's delicates, His viands sparkling in a golden cup, 50 When, care, mistrust, and treason wait on him. 4 (From II Henry IV., Act III., i., 1597-98) How many thousand of my poorest subjects Are at this hour asleep! O sleep, O gentle sleep, Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thes, 6 That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down, And steep my senses in forgetfulness? Why rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs, Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee, And hush'd with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber, Than in the perfum'd chambers of the great, Under the canopies of costly state, And lull'd with sounds of sweetest melody? 10 Or close the wall up with our English dead! As fearfully as does a galled rock 10 O'erhang and jutty his confounded base, 16 To his full height! On, on, you nobless Eng lish, 150 (From The Tempest, Act IV., i., 1610) Our revels now are ended: these our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits, and Are melted into air, into thin air; And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve; And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, 155 Leave not a wrack behind: We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep. Thomas Nash c. 1567-1601 DEATH'S SUMMONS (From Summer's Last Will and Testament, 1600) Lord, have mercy on us! Rich men, trust not in wealth, All things to end are made; The plague 2 full swift goes by: Lord, have mercy on us! 10 ISABELLA'S PLEA FOR MERCY (From the same, Act II., ii.) He's sentenc'd; 'tis too late. Too late? why, no, I, that do speak a word, Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword, 60 If he had been as you, and you as he, 65 Alas! Alas! 72 Why, all the souls that were, were forfeit once; And He that might the vantage best have took Found out the remedy; How would you be, If He, which is the top of judgment, should Hath no ears for to hear 1 Foolish. 25 30 London was suffering from the plague in 1598, wher the play from which this song is taken was produced. The want of term is town and city's harm;1 Down-a-down, hey, down-a-down. Cold's the wind, and wet's the rain, John Donne 1573-1631 10 15 AN ELEGY UPON THE DEATH OF THE LADY MARKHAM (First published 1633) 5 Man is the world, and death the ocean 10 We, after God, new drown our world again. she. 15 Of which this flesh was) her soul shall inspire 25 Flesh of such stuff, as God, when His last fire 1 Pass round the wine, or drink. 2 Let the bowl, (the gentle joy) come to me; let it circle or ring the compass, or circle, formed by those about the table. To ring compass, was therefore equivalent to let the bowl go round, or circulate freely. Annuls this world, to recompense it, shall Make and name them th' elixir of this all. They say the sea, when th' earth it gains, loseth too; 30 If carnal Death, the younger brother, do So, unobnoxious now, she hath buried both; 35 How little poison cracks a crystal glass! 45 But we, by a love so far refin'd That ourselves know now what it is, Inter-assured of the mind Careless eyes, lips, and hands, to miss. Our two souls therefore, which are one, Like gold to airy thinness beat. If they be two, they are two so And though it in the centre sit. Yet when the other far doth roam, It leans and harkens after it, And grows erect, as that comes home. Such wilt thou be to me, who must Like th' other foot, obliquely run; Thy firmness makes my circle just, And makes me end where I begun. SONG (From Poems, with Elegies on the Author's Death, 1633) Sweetest Love, I do not go For weariness of thee, Nor in hope the world can show But since that I Must die at last, 'tis best 61 Thus to use myself in jest, (Sometimes called "Upon Parting from his Mistris," written, 1612?) As virtuous men pass mildly away, Whilst some of their sad friends do say, "Now his breath goes," and some say, "No;" So let us melt, and make no noise, No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move; Moving of th' earth brings harm and fears, Thus by feigned death to die. Yesternight the sun went hence, And yet is here to-day; More wings and spurs than he. Nor a lost hour recall. 5 10 15 20 Ben Jonson 1573-1637 TO THE MEMORY OF MY BELOVED MASTER WIL LIAM SHAKESPEARE, AND WHAT HE HATH LEFT US (From First Folio edition of Shakespeare, 1623) To draw no envy, Shakespeare, on thy name, Am I thus ample to thy book and fame; While I confess thy writings to be such, As neither Man nor Muse can praise too much. 'Tis true, and all men's suffrage. But these ways 5 11 Were not the paths I meant unto thy praise; 20 25 I mean with great but disproportioned Muses; From thence to honour thee I would not seek For names, but call forth thund'ring Eschylus,* Euripides, and Sophocles to us, Pacuvius, Accius, him of Cordova dead, 35 Of all that insolent Greece or haughty Rome Sent forth, or since did from their ashes come. Triumph, my Britain, thou hast one to show, 41 To whom all scenes of Europe homage owe. 1 Chaucer, Spenser and Beaumont are buried near each other in the Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey. Proximity to the tomb of Chaucer, the first great English poet, was considered as a great honor. Spenser bad been granted this in 1599, and Beaumont in 1616. 2 One that would last, or go down to posterity. A satirical play upon the dramatist's name, since Thomas Kyd was anything but "Sporting," being chiefly known as the author of tragedies. 4 The three great poets, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, represent three stages in the development of the Greek tragic drama; so Pacurius, Accius, and "him of Cordova" (Seneca) stand in a similar manner for Roman tragedy-writing at successive epochs. The ancients are summoned to hear Shakespeare both as a tragic and a comic writer; the buskin, or shoe worn by Greek and Roman actors in tragedy, stands for tragedy; as the sock worn for comedy, means comedy. |