The Life of Shakespeare: Enquiries Into the Originality of His Dramatic Plots and Characters; and Essays on the Ancient Theatres and Theatrical Usages, Volume 2

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Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1824 - Dramatists, English

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Page 20 - gainst that season comes Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, This bird of dawning singeth all night long : And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad ; The nights are wholesome ; then no planets strike, No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.
Page 13 - My father's spirit in arms ! all is not well; I doubt some foul play: 'would, the night were come! Till then sit still, my soul: Foul deeds will rise, Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes.
Page 147 - tis strange ; — And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, The instruments of darkness tell us truths ; Win us with honest trifles, to betray us In deepest consequence.
Page 172 - This supernatural soliciting Cannot be ill ; cannot be good : — If ill, Why hath it given me earnest of success, Commencing in a truth ? I am thane of Cawdor : If good, why do I yield to that suggestion Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair, And make my seated heart knock at my ribs, • Against the use of nature...
Page 12 - What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord, Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff That beetles o'er his base into the sea, And there assume some other horrible form, Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason And draw you into madness...
Page 180 - Now o'er the one half world Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse The curtain'd sleep ; now witchcraft celebrates Pale Hecate's offerings ; and wither'd murder, Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf, Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace, With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design Moves like a ghost.
Page 144 - The night has been unruly : where we lay, Our chimneys were blown down, and, as they say, Lamentings heard i...
Page 35 - There's language in her eye, her cheek, her lip, Nay, her foot speaks ; her wanton spirits look out At every joint and motive of her body. O, these encounterers, so glib of tongue, That give a coasting welcome ere it comes. And wide unclasp the tables of their thoughts To every ticklish reader ! set them down For sluttish spoils of opportunity, And daughters of the game. [Trumpet within. All. The Trojans
Page 181 - O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife ! Thou know'st that Banquo, and his Fleance, lives. Lady M. But in them nature's copy's not eterne. Macb. There's comfort yet ; they are assailable ; Then be thou jocund : ere the bat hath flown His cloister'd flight, ere to black Hecate's summons The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done A deed of dreadful note.
Page 205 - How that might change his nature, there's the question. It is the bright day that brings forth the adder; And that craves wary walking. Crown him? that; And then, I grant, we put a sting in him, That at his will he may do danger with.

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