DETACHED PASSAGES.

133

THE VOICE OF THE DYING.

The tongues of dying men
Enforce attention like deep harmony:

Where words are scarce, they are seldom spent in vain :
For they breathe truth, that breathe their words in pain.
He that no more must say, is listen'd more

Than they whom youth and ease have taught to glose;
More are men's ends mark'd, than their lives before:
The setting sun, and music at the close,
As the last taste of sweets is sweetest last;

Writ in remembrance, more than things long past.

Richard II., Act. II. Sc. 1.

A GOOD CONSCIENCE.

What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted?
Thrice is he arm'd that hath his quarrel just;
And he but naked, though lock'd up in steel,
Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted.

Henry VI. (Part 2), Act III. Sc. 2.

WOLSEY TO CROMWELL.

Thus far hear me, Cromwell;

And when I am forgotten, as I shall be,
And sleep in dull cold marble, where no mention
Of me more must be heard of—say, I taught thee,
Say, Wolsey, that once trod the ways of glory,
And sounded all the depths and shoals of honour,-
Found thee a way, out of his wreck, to rise in ;
A sure and safe one, though thy master missed it.
Mark but my fall, and that that ruin'd me.
Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition :
By that sin fell the angels; how can man, then,
The image of his Maker, hope to win by it?

Love thyself last: cherish those hearts that hate thee;
Corruption wins not more than honesty.

Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace,

To silence envious tongues. Be just, and fear not :
Let all the ends thou aim'st at, be thy country's,

Thy God's, and truth's. Then if thou fall'st, O Cromwell,
Thou fall'st a blessed martyr!

Henry VIII., Act III. Sc. 2.

VALERIA.

The noble sister of Publicola,

The moon of Rome; chaste as the icicle
That's curded by the frost from purest snow,
And hangs on Dian's temple !

Coriolanus, Act V. Sc. 3.

CLEOPATRA ON THE CYDNUS.

The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne,
Burn'd on the water; the poop was beaten gold;

Purple the sails, and so perfumed, that

The winds were love-sick with them; the oars were silver,
Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made

The water, which they beat, to follow faster,

As amorous of their strokes. For her own person,
It beggar'd all description; she did lie
In her pavilion, (cloth of gold, of tissue,)
O'er-picturing that Venus, where we see

The fancy out-work nature. On each side her,
Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids,
With divers-colour'd fans, whose wind did seem
To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool,
And what they undid, did.

Antony and Cleopatra, Act II. Sc. 2.

HAMLET'S MELANCHOLY.

I have of late, (but wherefore I know not,) lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises; and, indeed, it goes so heavily with my disposition, that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire,-why, it appears no other thing to me, than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculties in form and moving how express and admirable! in action, how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals !—and yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me. Hamlet, Act II. Sc. 2.

WEALTH THE ARMOUR OF SIN.

Through tattered clothes small vices do appear;
Robes and furred gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold,
And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks :
Arm it in rags, a pigmy's straw doth pierce it.

Lear, Act IV. Sk. 6.

FROM SATIRE IV.

GOOD NAME.

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Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,

Is the immediate jewel of their souls:

Who steals my purse, steals trash; 'tis something, nothing; 'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands;

But he, that filches from me my good name,

Robs me of that which not enriches him,

And makes me poor indeed.

Othello, Act III. Sc. 3.

JOHN DONNE, D.D.

(1573-1631.)

DONNE was of Welsh extraction but born in London. He entered Oxford at the early age of twelve. His Roman Catholic faith excluded him from university honours; but he studied with distinction both in Oxford and Cambridge. His subsequent life in his youth is varied and irregular. The romantic story of his marriage and its results to his fortunes is detailed by Izaak Walton. He became, from serious and pious examination of the controversy between the opposing systems of Christianity, a convert to Protestantism. His learning procured him the favour of James I., at whose request he took holy orders when he had attained the age of 42, became a most popular preacher, and died Dean of St. Paul's.

The poetical works of Donne consist of satires, epistles, epigrams, and occasional poems. They are characterised by brilliancy of wit, though frequently of a fantastic character; by subtlety and depth of reflection; and by terseness and vigour of language. His versification is in general uncouth and rugged; but this style seems to have been his choice. Dryden calls him "the greatest wit, though not the greatest poet of our nation."-See Dryden's Dedication of Juvenal to the Earl of Dorset. He is the father of the class of writers who have been termed by Johnson the metaphysical poets. Two of his satires have been "translated into numbers" or modernised by Pope.

FROM SATIRE IV.

Towards me did run1

A thing more strange, than, on Nile's slime, the sun
E'er bred, or all which into Noah's Ark came;

A thing which would have posed Adam to name.

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His clothes were strange though coarse, and black though

bare;

Sleeveless his jerkin was, and it had been

Velvet, but 'twas now-so much ground was seen→→

1 This passage is an imitation of Horace, Sat. 1. 9.

Become tuff-taffety,1 and our children shall

See it plain rash a while, then nought at all.

The thing hath travelled, and, faith, speaks all tongues,
And only knoweth what to all states belongs.
Made of the accents and best phrase of these,
He speaks one language. If strange meats displease,
Art can deceive, or hunger force my taste;
But pedants' motley tongue, soldiers' bombast,
Mountebanks' drug-tongue, nor the terms of law,
Are strong enough preparatives to draw

Me to bear this. Yet I must be content

With his tongue, in his tongue called compliment.

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He names me, and comes to me; I whisper-“ God,
How have I sinned that thy wrath's furious rod-
This fellow, chooseth me?" He saith, "Sir,

I love your judgment; whom do you prefer

For the best linguist?" And I sillily

Said, that I thought Calepine's Dictionary.

Nay, but of men, most sweet Sir."-Beza, then
Some Jesuits, and two reverend men

Of our two academies, I named.

Here

He stopped me, and said,—“ Nay, your apostles were
Pretty good linguists; so Panurgus was;

Yet a poor gentleman all these may pass

By travel." Then, as if he would have sold

His tongue, he praised it, and such wonders told,
That I was fain to say,-" If you had lived, Sir,
Time enough to have been interpreter

To Babel's bricklayers, sure the tower had stood."
He adds, "If of Court life you knew the good,
You would leave loneness." I said, "Not alone
My loneness is; but Spartan's fashion,
To teach by painting drunkards,' doth not last
Now; Aretine's pictures have made few chaste;
No more can princes' courts, tho' there be few
Better pictures of vice, teach me virtùe."

He like a high stretched lute-string, squeak'd-"Oh, Sir,
'Tis sweet to talk of kings."-" At Westminster,”
Said I, "the man that keeps the abbey-tombs,

And for his price, doth, with whoever comes,

1 Taffeta or Taffata, a thin silk; alleged etymology tapes, Lat. rash; Fr. ras; applied to cloth without the pile; scraped; threadbare.-See Raschit and Rasour.Jamieson, Scot. Dict.

So called from their occupation of selling quack medicines.

3 The Polyglot Dictionary of Ambrosius Calepinus of seven languages.

4 The reformer Theodore Beza.

The Panurge of Rabelais' "Gargantua and Pantagruel."

Alluding to a saying of Africanus noticed often by Cicero, e. g., De Repub. v. 17. 7 The Spartans compelled their slaves to intoxicate themselves, to inspire their youth with horror of the vice of drunkenness.

Pietro Aretino, the celebrated lampooner, and the illustrator by sonnets of the profligate drawings of Giulio Romano.

FROM SATIRE IV.

Of all our Harrys and our Edwards talk,
From king to king, and all their kin can walk.

Your ears shall hear nought but kings; your eyes meet
Kings only; the way to it is King Street."1

He smack'd and cried,-" He's base mechanic, coarse,
So 're all your Englishmen in their discourse;

Are not your Frenchmen neat? Mine? as you see,-
I have but one, Sir-look, he follows me.

Are they not neatly clothed? I of this mind am.
Your only wearing is your grogaram."3_

"Not so, Sir. I have more." Under this pitch
He would not fly."

To fit my sullenness,

He to another key his style doth dress;3

*

And asks "What news?"-I tell him of new plays.
He takes my hand, and, as a still, which stays
A semibreve 'twixt each drop, he niggardly,
As loth to enrich me, tells me many a lie,

More than ten Holinsheds, or Halls, or Stows,'

Of trivial household trash he knows.

He knows

137

When the Queen frowned or smiled; and he knows what
A subtle statesman may gather of that:

He knows who loves whom, and who by poison

Hastes to an office's reversion:

He knows who hath sold his land, and now doth beg

A license of old iron, boots, shoes, and egg

9

Shells to transport. 8 Shortly boys shall not play
At span-counter or blow-point, but shall pay
Toll to some courtier. 10 And wiser than all us,
He knows what lady is not painted. Thus
He with home-meats cloys me. I belch, spit,
Look pale and sickly, like a patient, yet
He thrusts on more.

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He, like a privileged spy" whom nothing can
Discredit, libels now 'gainst each great man.
He names a price for every office paid.

He saith-our wars thrive ill, because delayed;

1 A street in the vicinity of the abbey.

2 My French valet.

"Give

3 "Grogram (Fr. gros, grain), stuff made of silk and mohair."-Reid. Wearing or wear used for dress: "Motley's the only wear."-Shakesp. As you like it. me my nightly wearing, good Emelia."-Id. Othello.

4 An expression borrowed from falconry.

One of the similes characteristic of the "metaphysical" poets. 7 Chroniclers of the period.

8 Export.

5 For address

9 Span-counter, a game in which counters were used, as marbles are in Hit-orspan. Blow-point, blowing an arrow through a trunk or tube at certain numbers, by way of lottery.-Strut's Sports.

10 A great abuse of the reigns of Elizabeth and James was the granting of licenses or monopolies to favourites.

11 Spies formed an important portion of the machinery of Elizabeth's government.--See the narrative of the "Babington Conspiracy," in Hume and Robertson.