Nay, hear me, Hubert, drive these men away,
And I will sit as quiet as a lamb;

I will not stir, nor wince, nor speak a word,
Nor look upon the iron angrily :

Thrust but these men away, and I'll forgive you,
Whatever torment you do put me to.

Is there no remedy?

Hub.

None, but to lose your eyes.

Arth. Oh, Heaven !-that there were but a mote in

yours,

A grain, a dust, a gnat, a wand'ring hair,

Any annoyance in that precious sense!

Then, feeling what small things are boist'rous there,

Your vile intent must needs seem horrible.

PERFECTION ADMITS OF NO ADDITION.

To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,

To throw a perfume on the violet,

To smooth the ice, or add another hue
Unto the rainbow, or with a taper-light

To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish,
Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.

DESPAIR.

If thou didst but consent

To this most cruel act, do but despair,
And, if thou want'st a cord, the smallest thread

That ever spider twisted from her womb

Will serve to strangle thee; a rush will be

A beam to hang thee on; or wouldst thou drown thyself,

Put but a little water in a spoon,

And it shall be as all the ocean,
Enough to stifle such a villain up.

A MAN IN TEARS.

Let me wipe off this honourable dew,
That silverly doth progress on thy cheeks:
My heart hath melted at a lady's tears,
Being an ordinary inundation;

But this effusion of such manly drops,

This shower, blown up by tempest of the soul,
Startles mine eyes, and makes me more amazed
Than had I seen the vaulty top of heaven
Figured quite o'er with burning meteors.
Lift up thy brow, renowned Salisbury,
And with a great heart heave away this storm :
Commend these waters to those baby eyes,
That never saw the giant world enraged;
Nor met with fortune other than at feasts,
Full warm of blood, of mirth, of gossiping.

APPROACH OF DEATH.

It is too late; the life of all his blood
Is touched corruptibly; and his pure brain
(Which some suppose the soul's frail dwelling-house,)
Doth, by the idle comments that it makes,
Fortell the ending of mortality.

ENGLAND INVINCIBLE IF UNANIMOUS.

England never did (nor never shall)
Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror,
But when it first did help to wound itself.
Now these her princes are come home again,

Come the three corners of the world in arms,

And we shall shock them: Naught shall make us rue If England to itself do rest but true.

KING RICHARD II.

REPUTATION.

The purest treasure mortal time afford,

Is-spotless reputation;

that away,

Men are but gilded loam, or painted clay.

COWARDICE.

That which in mean men we entitle-patience,
Is pale cold cowardice in noble breasts.

THOUGHTS INEFFECTUAL TO MODERATE AFFLICTION.

O, who can hold a fire in his hand,
By thinking on the frosty Caucasus ?
Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite,
By bare imagination of a feast?
Or wallow naked in December's snow,
By thinking on fantastic summer's heat?
O, no! the apprehension of the good,
Gives but the greater feeling to the worse:
Fell sorrow's tooth doth never rankle more,
Than when it bites, but lanceth not the sore.

SUN-RISING AFTER A DARK NIGHT.

Know'st thou not

That when the searching eye of Heaven is hid

Behind the globe, and lights the lower world,
Then thieves and robbers range abroad unseen,
In murders, and in outrage, bloody here;
But when, from under this terrestrial ball,
He fires the proud tops of the eastern pines,
And darts his light through every guilty hole,
Then murders, treasons, and detested sins,

The cloak of night being plucked from off their backs,
Stand bare and naked, trembling at themselves?

MELANCHOLY STORIES.

In winter's tedious nights, sit by the fire
With good old folks; and let them tell thee tales

Of woful ages, long ago betid :*

And ere thou bid good night, to quit† their grief,
Tell thou the lamentable fall of me,

And send the heroes weeping to their beds.

VIOLETS.

Who are the violets now,

That strew the green lap of the new-come spring?

KING HENRY IV.-PART I.

HOTSPUR'S DESCRIPTION OF A FINICAL FOP.

But I remember, when the fight was done,
When I was dry with rage and extreme toil,
Breathless and faint, leaning upon my sword,
Came there a certain lord, neat, trimly dress'd,
Fresh as a bridegroom; and his chin, new reap'd,
Showed like a stubble-land at harvest-home :
He was perfumed like a milliner;

And 'twixt his finger and his thumb he held
A pouncet-box,* which ever and anon

He gave his nose, and took't away again;-
Who, therewith angry, when it next came there,
Took it in snuff:-and still he smiled, and talk'd;
And, as the soldiers bore dead bodies by,
He call'd them untaught knaves, unmannerly,
To bring a slovenly unhandsome corse
Betwixt the wind and his nobility.

With many holiday and lady terms

He question'd me; among the rest demanded
My prisoners, in your majesty's behalf.

I then, all smarting with my wounds, being cold,
To be so pester'd with a popinjay,+

Out of my grief and my impatience,

Answered, neglectingly, I know not what;

He should, or he should not;-for he made me mad To see him shine so brisk, and smell so sweet,

And talk so like a waiting gentlewoman,

Of guns, and drums, and wounds (God save the mark!)

And telling me the sovereign'st thing on earth

Was parmaceti, for an inward bruise;

And that it was great pity, so it was,
That villanous saltpetre should be digg'd
Out of the bowels of the harmless earth,
Which many a good tall fellow had destroy'd
So cowardly; and, but for these vile guns,
He would himself have been a soldier.

DANGER.

I'll read you matter deep and dangerous;
As full of peril, and adventurous spirit,
As to o'erwalk a current, roaring loud,
On the unsteadfast footing of a spear.

A box of perfumes.

† A parrot.