Nor dignifies an impure thought with breath;
Manly as Hector, but more dangerous;
For Hector, in his blaze of wrath, subscribes
To tender objects; but he, in heat of action,
Is more vindicative than jealous love. Shakspeare.
I HAVE, thou gallant Trojan, seen thee oft,
Labouring for destiny, make cruel way
Through ranks of Greekish youths: and I have seen thee,
As hot as Perseus, spur thy Phrygian steed,
Despising many forfeits and subduments,
When thou hast hung thy advanced sword i' the
Nor letting it decline on the declin'd;
That I have said to some my standers-by, 'Lo, Jupiter is yonder, dealing life!'
And I have seen thee pause, and take thy breath, When that a ring of Greeks have hemm'd thee in, Like an Olympian wrestling. Shakspeare.
PROLOGUE TO HENRY IV.
Enter Rumour, painted full of Tongues. OPEN your ears: for which of you will stop The vent of hearing, when loud Rumour speaks? I from the orient to the drooping west, Making the wind my post-horse, still unfold The acts commenced on this ball of earth: Upon my tongues continual slanders ride; The which in every language I pronounce, Stuffing the ears of men with false reports. I speak of peace, while covert enmity,
Under the smile of safety, wounds the world:
And who but Rumour, who but only I,
Make fearful musters, and prepar'd defence,
Whilst the big year, swol'n with some other grief,
Is thought with child by the stern tyrant War,
And no such matter? Rumour is a pipe
Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures;
And of so easy and so plain a stop,
That the blunt monster with uncounted heads,
The still-discordant wavering multitude,
Can play upon it. But what need I thus
My well-known body to anatomize
Among my household? Why is Rumour here ?
I run before king Harry's victory;
Who, in a bloody field by Shrewsbury,
Hath beaten down young Hotspur, and his troops,
Quenching the flame of bold rebellion,
Even with the rebel's blood. But what mean I
To speak so true at first? My office is
To noise abroad,-that Harry Monmouth fell
Under the wrath of noble Hotspur's sword;
And that the king before the Douglas' rage
Stoop'd his anointed head as low as death.
This have I rumour'd through the peasant towns
Between that royal field of Shrewsbury
And this worm-eaten hold of ragged stone,
Where Hotspur's father, old Northumberland,
Lies crafty sick: the post comes tiring on,
And not a man of them brings other news
Than they have learn'd of me; from Rumour's
They bring smooth comforts false, worse than true
O, FOR a muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention !
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act,
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!
Then should the warlike Harry, like himself,
Assume the port of Mars; and, at his heels,
Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword, and
fire,
Crouch for employment. But pardon, gentles all,
The flat unraised spirit, that hath dar'd,
On this unworthy scaffold, to bring forth
So great an object: Can this Cockpit hold
The vasty fields of France? or may we cram,
Within this wooden O, the very casques,
That did affright the air at Agincourt?
O, pardon! since a crooked figure may
Attest, in little place, a million;
And let us, ciphers to this great accompt,
On your imaginary forces work:
Suppose, within the girdle of these walls
Are now confin'd two mighty monarchies,
Whose high upreared and abutting fronts
Perilous, the narrow ocean parts asunder.
Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts;
Into a thousand parts divide one man,
And make imaginary puissance :
Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them
Printing their proud hoofs in the receiving earth:
For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings,
Carry them here and there; jumping o'er times;
Turning the accomplishment of many years
Into an hour-glass: for the which supply,
Adinit me chorus to this history;
Who, prologue-like, your humble patience pray,
Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play.
CATO'S ADVICE TO HIS FRIENDS.
REMEMBER, O my friends, the laws, the rights,
The gen'rous plan of pow'r deliver'd down,
From age to age, by your renown'd forefathers,
(So dearly bought, the price of so much blood :)
O let it never perish in your hands!
But piously transmit it to your children.
Do thou, great Liberty, inspire our souls,
And make our lives in thy possession happy,
Or our deaths glorious in thy just defence.
CATO'S ADVICE TO HIS SON.
PORTIUS, draw near: my son, thou oft has seen
Thy sire engag'd in a corrupted state,
Wrestling with vice and faction: now thou seest me
Spent, overpower'd, despairing of success:
Let me advise thee to retreat betimes
To thy paternal seat, the Sabine field,
Where the great censor toil'd with his own hands,
And all our frugal ancestors were bless'd
In humble virtues, and a rural life;
There live retir'd, pray for the peace of Rome,
Content thyself to be obscurely good.
When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway, The post of honour is a private station.
THE PLAGUE DESCRIBED.
THE raw damps
With flaggy wings fly heavily about,
Scattering their pestilential colds and rheums
Through all the lazy air.
Hence murrains follow
On bleating flocks, and on the lowing herds.
At last the faithful malady grew more domestic,
And the faithful dog
Died at his master's feet; and next his master: For all those plagues which earth and air had brooded,
First on inferior creatures tried their force,
And last they seiz'd on man:
And then a thousand deaths at once advanc'd,
And every dart took place. All was so sudden,
That scarce a first man fell. One but began
To wonder, and straight fell a wonder too;
A third, who stoop'd to raise his dying friend,
Dropp'd in the pious act. Heard you that groan?
A troop of ghosts took flight together there!
Now death's grown riotous, and will play no more
For single stakes, but families and tribes.
With dead and dying men our streets are cover'd,
And earth exposes bodies on the pavements
More than those she hides in graves.
Between the bride and bridegroom have I seen
The nuptial torch do common offices
Of marriage and of death. Cast round your eyes,
|