Hor. Do not, my lord. Ham. Why, what should be the fear? And, for my soul, what can it do to that, It waves me forth again.-I'll follow it 2d Cit. If thou consider rightly of the matter, Cæsar has had great wrong. 3d Cit. Has he, masters ? I fear there will a worse come in his place. 4th Cit. Mark'd ye his words? take the crown; He would not Hor. What if it tempt you tow'rd the flood, my lord; Therefore, 'tis certain he was not ambitious. Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff, That beetles o'er his base into the sea; Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason, The very place puts toys of desperation, Ham. It waves me still.-Go on, I'll follow thee. Mar. Be rul'd; you shall not go. And makes each petty artery in this body [Breaking from them. [Exeunt Ghost and Hamlet. [Mark Antony over Cesar's Body.] [Exeunt. 1st Cit. If it be found so, some will dear abide it. 2d Cit. Poor soul! his eyes are red as fire with weeping. 3d Cit. There's not a nobler man in Rome than 4th Cit. Now, mark him, he begins again to speak. Oh, masters! if I were dispos'd to stir I should do Brutus wrong, and Cassius wrong, I will not do them wrong: I rather choose Let but the commons hear this testament 4th Cit. We'll hear the will; read it, Mark Antony. will! Ant. Have patience, gentle friends! I must not read it; Ant. Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your It is not meet you know how Cæsar lov'd you. ears. I come to bury Cæsar, not to praise him. He was my friend, faithful and just to me; He hath brought many captives home to Rome, When that the poor have cried, Cæsar hath wept; I thrice presented him a kingly crown, Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition? Yet Brutus says he was ambitious ; I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke ; You are not wood, you are not stones, but men; 4th Cit. Read the will; we will hear it, Antony : You shall read us the will; Cæsar's will! Ant. Will you be patient? will you stay a while? I have o'ershot myself, to tell you of it. I fear I wrong the honourable men Whose daggers have stabb'd Cæsar. I do fear it. 4th Cit. They were traitors. Honourable men! All. The will! the testament ! 2d Cit. They were villains, murderers! The will! Ant. You will compel me, then, to read the will? 2d Cit. Descend. [He comes down from the pulpit. 4th Cit. A ring! Stand round! 1st Cit. Stand from the hearse, stand from the body. Look in this place ran Cassius' dagger through; 1st Cit. Methinks there is much reason in his And, as he plucked his cursed steel away, sayings. Mark how the blood of Cæsar followed it! As rushing out of doors, to be resolv'd If Brutus so unkindly knock'd, or no. For Brutus, as you know, was Cæsar's angel; Which all the while ran blood, great Cæsar fell. 2d Cit. O noble Cæsar ! 3d Cit. O woful day! 4th Cit. O traitors! villains! 1st Cit. O most bloody sight! 2d Cit. We will be reveng'd! Revenge! Aboutseek-burn-fire-kill-slay! Let not a trai tor live! [Othello's Relation of his Courtship to the Senate.] Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors, My very noble and approv'd good masters; That I have ta'en away this old man's daughter, It is most true; true, I have married her; The very head and front of my offending Hath this extent, no more. Rude am I in my speech, And little blest with the soft phrase of peace; For since these arms of mine had seven years' pith, Till now, some nine moons wasted, they have us'd Their dearest action in the tented field; And little of this great world can I speak, More than pertains to feats of broil and battle; And therefore shall I little grace my cause In speaking for myself. Yet by your gracious patience I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver Of my whole course of love: what drugs, what charms, Her father lov'd me, oft invited me ; I ran it through, ev'n from my boyish days, Of hair-breadth 'scapes i' th' imminent deadly breach; And sold to slavery; of my redemption thence, heaven, It was my lot to speak, such was the process; Do grow beneath their shoulders. These things to hear But still the house affairs would draw her thence; Whereof by parcels she had something heard, 'Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful She wish'd she had not heard it, yet she wish'd me, And bade me, if I had a friend that loved her, [Queen Mab.] O then, I see queen Mab hath been with you. Made by the joiner squirrel, or old grub, Romeo and Juliet. [End of All Earthly Glories.] 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-capt towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve; And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind! We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep. The Tempest. [Life and Death Weighed.] To be, or not to be, that is the question- And, by opposing, end them? To die-to sleep- To sleep!-perchance to dream!-ay, there's the rub; For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear, [Fear of Death.] Ay, but to die, and go we know not where; The weariest and most loathed worldly life, Hamlet. Measure for Measure. [Description of Ophelia's Drowning.] There is a willow grows ascant the brook, Unto that element; but long it could not be, [Perseverance.] Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back, A great-siz'd monster of ingratitudes: Those scraps are good deeds past, which are devour'd For honour travels in a strait so narrow, Where one but goes abreast: Keep, then, the path ; Or, like a gallant horse, fall'n in first rank, O'er-run and trampled on : then what they do in present, Though less than yours in past, must o'ertop yours; That slightly shakes his parting guest by the hand, Remuneration for the thing it was; for beauty, wit, High birth, vigour of bone, desert in service, Troilus and Cressida. [The Deceit of Ornament or Appearances.] The world is still deceiv'd with ornament. In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt, But being season'd with a gracious voice, Obscures the show of evil? In religion, What damned error, but some sober brow Will bless it, and approve it with a text, Hiding the grossness with fair ornament? There is no vice so simple, but assumes Some mark of virtue on its outward parts. How many cowards, whose hearts are all as false As stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars; Who, inward search'd, have livers white as milk! And these assume but valour's excrement, To render them redoubted. Look on beauty, And you shall see 'tis purchas'd by the weight, Which therein works a miracle in nature, Making them lightest that wear most of it. So are those crisped, snaky, golden locks, Which make such wanton gambols with the wind Upon supposed fairness; often known To be the dowry of a second head, The skull that bred them in the sepulchre. Thus ornament is but the gilded shore To a most dangerous sea; the beauteous scarf Veiling an Indian beauty; in a word, The seeming truth which cunning times put on T' entrap the wisest: therefore, thou gaudy gold, Hard food for Midas, I will none of thee: Nor none of thee, thou pale and common drudge "Tween man and man: but thou, thou meagre lead, Which rather threaten'st than dost promise aught, Thy plainness moves me more than eloquence, And here choose I; joy be the consequence. Hamlet. Merchant of Venice. [Mercy.] The quality of mercy is not strain'd ; And earthly power doth then show likeɛt God's, Merchant of Venice. With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side; Is second childishness, and mere oblivion: As You Like It. [Description of Night in a Camp.] From camp to camp, thro' the foul womb of night, Steed threatens steed, in high and boastful neighs, Give dreadful note of preparation. The country cocks do crow, the clocks do toll, [Solitude preferred to a Court Life, and the Advantages And the third hour of drowsy morning name. of Adversity.] Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile, And this our life, exempt from public haunt, Amiens. Happy is your grace, That can translate the stubbornness of fortune As You Like It. [The World Compared to a Stage.] Thou seest we are not all alone unhappy— Presents more woful pageants than the scene Jaques. All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; Even in the cannon's mouth. And then, the justice, Proud of their numbers and secure in soul, Sit patiently, and inly ruminate The morning's danger: and their gesture sad So many horrid ghosts. O, now, who will behold For forth he goes, and visits all his host, How dread an army hath enrounded him; His liberal eye doth give to every one, [The Blessings of a Shepherd's Life.] Henry V. O God! methinks it were a happy life So many days my ewes have been with young; So minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years, And to conclude, the shepherd's homely curds, 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. [The Vicissitudes of Life.] Henry VI. So farewell to the little good you bear me. Farewell, a long farewell to all my greatness! This is the state of man: To-day he puts forth The tender leaves of hope, to-morrow blossoms, And bears his blushing honours thick upon him; The third day comes a frost, a killing frost, And when he thinks, good easy man, full surely His greatness is a ripening, nips his root, And then he falls as I do. I have ventur'd, Like little wanton boys, that swim on bladders, These many summers in a sea of glory; But far beyond my depth: my high-blown pride At length broke under me; and now has left me, Weary and old with service, to the mercy Of a rude stream, that must for ever hide me. Vain pomp and glory of this world, I hate ye! I feel my heart new open'd. O, how wretched Is that poor man that hangs on princes' favours! There is, betwixt that smile we would aspire to, That sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin, More pangs and fears than wars or women have; And, when he falls, he falls like Lucifer, Never to hope again. Henry VIII. [Falstaffs Cowardice and Boasting.] [Falstaff, who is represented as a monster of fat, a sensualist, and a coward, yet is rendered tolerable by his humour, had accompanied Prince Henry and some other dissolute companions on a predatory expedition to Gad's Hill, where they first robbed a few travellers, and afterwards the Prince and Poins set upon Falstaff and others of the party in the dark, and made them take to flight. The following scene takes place afterwards in their favourite London haunt, the Boar's Head Tavern in Eastcheap.] TO PRINCE HENRY and POINS, enter FALSTAFF, GADSHILL, BARDOLPH, and PETO. Poins. Welcome, Jack. Where hast thou been? Fal. A plague of all cowards, I say, and a vengeance too!-marry, and amen! Give me a cup of sack, boy. Ere I lead this life long, I'll sow nether stocks, and mend them, and foot them too. A plague of all cowards! Give me a cup of sack, rogue. Is there no virtue extant ? [He drinks. P. Henry. Didst thou never see Titan kiss a dish of butter-pitiful-hearted Titan, that melted at the sweet tale of the sun?—if thou didst, then behold that compound. Fal. You rogue, here's lime in this sack too. There is nothing but roguery to be found in villanous man. Yet a coward is worse than a cup of sack with lime in it a villanous coward. Go thy ways, old Jack; die when thou wilt, if manhood, good manhood, be not forgot upon the face of the earth, then am I a shotten herring. There live not three good men unhanged in England; and one of them is fat, and grows old. God help the while!-a bad world, I say! I would I were a weaver; I could sing all manner of songs. A plague of all cowards, I say still! P. Henry. How now, wool-sack-what mutter you? Fal. A king's son! If I do not beat thee out of thy kingdom with a dagger of lath, and drive all thy subjects afore thee like a flock of wild geese, I'll never wear hair on my face more. You Prince of Wales ! P. Henry. Why, you whoreson round man !-what's the matter? Fal. Are you not a coward?-answer me to that; and Poins there? [To Poins. P. Henry. Ye fat paunch, an ye call me coward, I'll stab thee. Fal. I call thee coward! I'll see thee damn'd ere I call thee coward; but I would give a thousand pound I could run as fast as thou canst. You are strait enough in the shoulders; you care not who sees your back. Call you that backing of your friends? A plague upon such backing!-give me them that will face me. Give me a cup of sack; I am a rogue, if I drunk to-day. P. Henry. O villain ! thy lips are scarce wiped since thou drunk'st last. Fal. All's one for that. A plague of all cowards, still say I! [He drinks. P. Henry. What's the matter? Fal. What's the matter?-here be four of us have ta'en a thousand pound this morning. P. Henry. Where is it, Jack?-where is it? Fal. Where is it?-taken from us it is: a hundred upon poor four of us. P. Henry. What, a hundred, man? Fal. I am a rogue, if I were not at half-sword with a dozen of them two hours together. have 'scap'd by miracle. I am eight times thrust through the doublet, four through the hose, my buckler cut through and through, my sword hacked like a hand-saw, ecce signum. I never dealt better since I was a man. All would not do. A plague of all cowards! Let them speak: if they speak more or less than truth, they are villains, and the sons of darkness. P. Henry. Speak, sirs. How was it? Peto. No, no, they were not bound. Fal. You rogue, they were bound, every man of them; or I am a Jew else, an Ebrew Jew. Gads. As we were sharing, some six or seven fresh men set upon us Fal. And unbound the rest, and then came in the other. P. Henry. What! fought you with them all? Fal. All I know not what you call all; but if I fought not with fifty of them, I am a bunch of radish; if there were not two or three and fifty upon poor old Jack, then am I no two-legged creature. Poins. Pray heaven, you have not murdered some of them. Fal. Nay, that's past praying for; I have peppered two of them: two, I am sure, I have paid; two rogues in buckram suits. I tell thee what, Hal-if I tell thee a lie, spit in my face, call me horse. Thou know'st my old ward; here I lay, and thus I bore my point. Four rogues in buckram let drive at meP. Henry. What! four ?-thou saidst but two even now. Fal. Four, Hal; I told thee four. Poins. Ay, ay, he said four. |