Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

WHOLESOME OBEDIENCE THE GRAND LAW OF NATURE. WHY, headstrong liberty is lash'd with woe. There's nothing, situate under heaven's eye, But hath his bound, in earth, in sea, in sky: The beasts, the fishes, and the winged fowls, Are their males' subject, and at their controls: Men, more divine, the masters of all these, Lords of the wide world, and wild wat'ry seas, Indued with intellectual sense and souls, Of more pre-eminence than fish and fowls, Are masters to their females and their lords: Then let your will attend on their accords.

COMEDY OF ERRORS, A. 2, s. 1.

WIELDING OF MATERIAL AND
ABSTRACT POWER

AGRIPPA. To hold you in perpetual amity,
To make you brothers, and to knit your hearts
With an un-slipping knot, take Antony
Octavia to his wife: whose beauty claims
No worse a husband than the best of men;
Whose virtue, and whose general graces, speak
That which none else can utter. By this marriage,
All little jealousies, which now seem great,
And all great fears, which now import their
dangers,

Would then be nothing: truths would be but tales,

Where now half tales be truths: her love to both,
Would, each to other, and all loves to both,
Draw after her. Pardon what I have spoke:
For 'tis a studied, not a present thought,
By duty ruminated.

[blocks in formation]

What power is in Agrippa,

If I would say, Agrippa, be it so,
To make this good?

CAS.

The power of Cæsar, and

His power unto Octavia.

ANT.

May I never, To this good purpose, that so fairly shows, Dream of impediment!-Let me have thy hand: Further this act of grace; and, from this hour, The heart of brothers govern in our loves, And sway our great designs.

CES.

There is my hand. A sister I bequeath you, whom no brother Did ever love so dearly: Let her live To join our kingdoms and our hearts; Fly off our loves again.

and never

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, A. 2, s. 2.

WIFE'S LOGIC.

I Do think, it is their husbands' faults,
If wives do fall: Say, that they slack their duties,
And pour out treasures into foreign laps;
Or else break out in peevish jealousies,

Throwing restraint upon us; or, say, they strike

us,

Or scant our former having in despite;

Why, we have galls; and, though we have some

grace,

Yet we have some revenge. Let husbands know,

Their wives have sense like them: they see, and smell,

And have their palates both for sweet and sour,
As husbands have. What is it that they do,
When they change us for others? Is it sport?
I think, it is; And doth affection breed it ?
I think, it doth; Is't frailty, that thus errs?
It is so too: And have not we affections?
Desires for sport? and frailty, as men have?
Then, let them use us well: else, let them know,
The ills we do, their ills instruct us to.

OTHELLO, A. 4, s. 3.

WINNING THE SHREW.

GREMIO. But, will you woo this wild cat?

PETRUCHIO.

Will I live?

Why came I hither, but to that intent?

Think you, a little din can daunt mine ears;
Have I not in my time heard lions roar?
Have I not heard the sea, puff'd up with winds,
Rage like an angry boar, chafed with sweat ?
Have I not heard great ordnance in the field,
And heaven's artillery thunder in the skies?
Have I not in a pitched battle heard

Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets' clang?

And do you tell me of a woman's tongue; That gives not half so great a blow to the ear, As will a chesnut in a farmer's fire?

Tush tush! fear boys with bugs.

HORTENSIO. I promis'd, we would be contributors,

And bear his charge of wooing, whatsoe'er.

GRE. And so we will; provided, that he win her.

GRUMIO. I would, I were as sure of a good dinner.

TAMING OF THE SHREW, A. 1, s. 2.

WIT AND VALOUR.

THAT Julius Caesar was a famous man:
With what his valour did enrich his wit,
His wit set down to make his valour live:
Death makes no conquest of this conqueror;
For now he lives in fame, though not in life.

K. RICHARD III., A. 3, s. 1.

WITHOUT CONSCIENCE BLOODY
DEEDS ENSUE.

THE tyrannous and bloody act is done;
The most arch deed of piteous massacre,
That ever yet this land was guilty of.
Dighton, and Forrest, whom I did suborn
To do this piece of ruthless butchery,
Albeit they were flesh'd villains, bloody dogs,
Melting with tenderness and mild compassion,
Wept like two children, in their death's sad
story.

O thus, quoth Dighton, lay the gentle babes,-
Thus, thus, quoth Forrest, girdling one another
Within their alabaster innocent arms:

Their lips were four red roses on a stalk,
Which, in their summer beauty, kiss'd each other.
A book of prayers on their pillow lay :

Which once, quoth Forrest, almost chang'd my mind;

But, O, the devil-there the villain stopp'd;
When Dighton thus told on,- -we smothered
The most replenished sweet work of nature,
That, from the prime creation, e'er she fram'd.—
Hence both are gone with conscience and remorse:
They could not speak; and so I left them both,
To bear this tidings to the bloody king.

K. RICHARD III., A. 4, s. 3.

WITHOUT OBEDIENCE TO HEAVEN'S LAWS KINGS ARE NOT SECURE. K. JOHN. Here once again we sit, once again crown'd,

And look'd upon, I hope, with cheerful eyes. PEMBROKE. This once again, but that your highness pleas'd,

Was once superflous: you were crown'd before,
And that high royalty was ne'er pluck'd off;
The faiths of men ne'er stained with revolt;
Fresh expectation troubled not the land,
With any long'd-for change, or better state.
SALISBURY. Therefore, to be possess'd with
double pomp,

To guard a title that was rich before,
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 taper-light

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

PEM. But that your royal pleasure must be done,

This act is as an ancient tale new told;

And, in the last repeating, troublesome,

« ZurückWeiter »