Isab. Ay, with such gifts, that Heaven shall share Lucio. You had marr'd all else. [with you, Isab. Not with fond shekels of the tested gold, * Preserved from the corruption of the world. THE TERRORS OF DEATH MOST IN APPREHENSION. O, I do fear thee, Claudio; and I quake, REFLECTIONS ON THE VANITY OF LIFE. Reason thus with life, If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing, That none but fools would keep a breath thou art That does this habitation, where thou keep'st, And yet runn'st toward him still thou art not noble; Are nursed by baseness: thou art by no means valiant; For thou dost fear the soft and tender fork Of a poor worm: thy best of rest is sleep, And that thou oft provokest; yet grossly fear'st Thy death, which is no more: thou art not thyself; That issue out of dust: happy thou art not; For what thou hast not, still thou strivest to get; And what thou hast, forgett'st thou art not certain; For thy complexion shifts to strange effects,* For, like an ass, whose back with ingots bows, * Affects, affections. And death unloads thee: friend hast thou none; Do curse the gout, serpigo,* and the rheum, For ending thee no sooner thou hast not youth nor age; But, as it were, an after-dinner's sleep, Dreaming on both for all thy blessed youth Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms Of palsied eld;† and when thou art old, and rich, That bears the name of life? Yet in this life Lie hid more thousand deaths: yet death we fear, VIRTUE AND GOODNESS. Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful. GREATNESS SUBJECT TO CENSURE. O place and greatness, millions of false eyes And rack thee in their fancies. RESOLUTION FROM A SENSE OF HONOUR. Why give me this shame ? Think you I can a resolution fetch I will encounter darkness as a bride, And hug it in mine arms. Leprous eruptions. † Old age. + Sallies. Claud. Ay, but to die, and go we know not where, To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot: This sensible warm motion to become A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit Imagine howling!-'tis too horrible! The weariest and most loathed worldly life, To what we fear of death. MERCHANT OF VENICE. MIRTH AND MELANCHOLY. Now, by two-headed Janus, Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time Some that will evermore peep through their eyes, And laugh, like parrots, at a bag-piper; And other of such vinegar aspect, That they'll not show their teeth in way of smile, Though Nestor swear the jest be laughable. WORLDLINESS. You have too much respect upon the world: CHEERFULNESS. Let me play the fool: With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come; Than my heart cool with mortifying groans. Sleep when he wakes? and creep into the jaundice |