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DESCRIPTION OF THE MISERABLE STATE OF THE ENGLISH ARMY.

Yon island carrions, desperate of their bones, Ill-favour'dly become the morning field: Their ragged curtains* poorly are let loose, And our air shakes them passing scornfully. Big Mars seems bankrupt in their beggar'd host, And faintly through a rusty beaver peeps. Their horsemen sit like fixed candlesticks, With torch-staves in their hand: and their poor jades Lob down their heads, dropping the hides and hips; The gum down-roping from their pale-dead eyes; And in their pale dull mouths the grimmal bit Lies foul with chew'd grass, still and motionless; And their executors, the knavish crows, Fly o'er them all, impatient for their hour.

KING HENRY'S SPEECH BEFORE THE BATTLE OF

AGINCOURT.

He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd, And rouse him at the name of Crispian. He, that shall live this day, and see old age, Will yearly on the vigil feast his friends, And say-to-morrow is Saint Crispian: Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars, And say, these wounds I had on Crispian's day. Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot, But he'll remember, with advantages,

What feats he did that day: Then shall our names, Familiar in their mouths as household words,Harry the king, Bedford, and Exeter,

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Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloster,- . Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DUKE OF YORK'S DEATH.

He smil❜d me in the face, raught✶ me his hand, And, with a feeble gripe, says,-Dear my lord, Commend my service to my sovereign.

So did he turn, and over Suffolk's neck

He threw his wounded arm, and kiss'd his lips;
And so, espous'd to death, with blood he seal'd
A testament of noble-ending love.

The pretty and sweet manner of it forc'd
Those waters from me, which I would have stopp'd;
But I had not so much of man in me,

But all my mother came into mine eyes,
And gave me up to tears.

ACT V.

THE MISERIES OF WAR.

Her vine, the merry cheerer of the heart,
Unpruned dies: her hedges even-pleach'd,—
Like prisoners wildly overgrown with hair,
Put forth disorder'd twigs: her fallow leas
The darnel, hemlock, and rank fumitory,
Doth root upon; while that the coulter rusts,
That should deracinate such savagery:
The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth
The freckled cowslip, burnet, and green clover,
Wanting the scythe, all uncorrected, rank,
Conceives by idleness; and nothing teems,
But hateful docks, rough thistles, kecksies, burs,
Losing both beauty and utility.

* Reached.
+ Plough share.
To deracinate, is to force up the roots.

And as our vineyards, fallows, meads, and hedges, Defective in their natures, grow to wildness.

KING HENRY VI.

PART I.

ACT I.

GLORY.

GLORY is like a circle in the water,
Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself,
Till, by broad spreading, it disperse to nought.

ACT V.

MARRIAGE.

Marriage is a matter of more worth
Than to be dealt in by attorneyship*.

For what is wedlock forced, but a hell,
An age of discord and continual strife?
Whereas the contrary bringeth forth bliss,
And is a pattern of celestial peace.

KING HENRY VI.

PART II.

A RESOLVED AND AMBITIOUS WOMAN.

FOLLOW I must, I cannot go before,

While Gloster bears this base and humble mind. Were I a man, a duke, and next of blood,

* By the discretional agency of another.

I would remove these tedious stumbling-blocks,
And smooth my way upon their headless necks:
And, being a woman, I will not be slack
To play my part in fortune's pageant.

ACT II.

GOD'S GOODNESS EVER TO BE REMEMbered.

Let never day nor night unhallow'd pass, But still remember what the Lord hath done.

THE DUCHESS OF GLOSTER'S REMONSTRANCE TO HER HUSBAND, WHEN DOING PENANCE.

back;

For, whilst I think I am thy married wife, And, thou a prince, protector of this land, Methinks, I should not thus be led along, Mail'd up in shame*, with papers on my And follow'd with a rabble, that rejoice To see my tears, and hear my deep-fett groans. The ruthless flint doth cut my tender feet; And, when I start, the envious people laugh, And bid me be advised how I tread.

ACT III.

SILENT RESENTMENT DEEPEST.

Smooth runs the water, where the brook is deep; And in his simple show he harbours treason.

A GUILTY COUNTENANCE.

Upon thy eyeballs murderous tyranny Sits in grim majesty, to fright the world.

DESCRIPTION OF A MURDERED PERSON.

See, how the blood is settled in his face! *Wrapped up in disgrace; alluding to the sheet of penance. + Deep-fetched.

Oft have I seen a timely parted ghost",
Of ashy semblance, meagre, pale, and bloodless,
Being all descended to the labouring heart;
Who, in the conflict that it holds with death,
Attracts the same for aidance 'gainst the enemy;
Which with the heart there cools and ne'er returneth
To blush and beautify the cheek again.

But, see, his face is black, and full of blood;
His eyeballs further out than when he liv'd,
Staring full ghastly, like a strangled man: [gling;
His hair uprear'd, his nostrils stretch'd with strug-
His hands abroad display'd, as one that grasp'd
And tugg'd for life, and was by strength subdu'd.
Look on the sheets, his hair, you see, is sticking:
His well-proportion'd beard made rough and rug-
Like to the summer's corn by tempest lodg'd. [ged,
It cannot be, but he was murder'd here;

The least of all these signs were probable.

A GOOD CONSCIENCE.

What stronger breast-plate 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.

REMORSELESS HATRED.

A plague upon them! Wherefore should I curse them?

Would curses kill, as doth the mandrake's groan,
I would invent as bitter-searching terms,
As curst, as harsh, and horrible to hear,
Deliver'd strongly through my fixed teeth,
With full as many signs of deadly hate,

A body become inanimate in the common course of nature; to which violence has not brought a timeless end.

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