787

God's blessing on my earlier years bestowed,
the clear contentment of a heart at ease.
All will I part with to partake thy cares,
let but thy love my lesser joys outlast.

H. TAYLOR

CLORIN A SHEPHERDESS WATCHING BY THE
GRAVE OF HER LOVER IS FOUND BY A SATYR

HA

AIL, holy earth, whose cold arms do embrace
the truest man that ever fed his flocks
by the fat plains of fruitful Thessaly!
Thus I salute thy grave; thus do I pay
my early vows and tribute of mine eyes
to thy still-lovéd ashes; thus I free
myself from all ensuing heats and fires

of love; all sports, delights, and jolly games,
that shepherds hold full dear, thus put I off;
now no more shall these smooth brows be begirt
with youthful coronals, and lead the dance;
no more the company of fresh fair maids
and wanton shepherds be to me delightful,
nor the shrill pleasing sound of merry pipes
under some shady dell, when the cool wind
plays on the leaves: all be far away,

since thou art far away, by whose dear side
how often have I sat crown'd with fresh flow'rs
for summer's queen, whilst every shepherd's boy
puts on his lusty green, with gaudy hook,
and hanging scrip of finest cordevan!

788 But thou art gone, and these are gone with thee, and all are dead but thy dear memory;

that shall outlive thee, and shall ever spring,
while there are pipes or jolly shepherds sing.
And here will I, in honour of thy love,
dwell by thy grave, forgetting all those joys
that former times made precious to mine eyes;
only remembering what my youth did gain
in the dark, hidden virtuous use of herbs:
that will I practise, and as freely give
all my endeavours as I gain'd them free.
Of all green wounds I know the remedies
in men or cattle, be they stung with snakes,
or charmed with powerful words of wicked art,

or be they love-sick, or through too much heat
grown wild or lunatic, their eyes or ears
thicken'd with misty film of dulling rheum;
these I can cure, such secret virtue lies
in herbs appliéd by a virgin's hand.

J. FLETCHER

789

KING RICHARD III-DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM

K. R. STAND all apart!-Cousin of Buckingham,— Buck. My gracious sovereign?

K. R. Give me thy hand. Thus high, by thy advice and thy assistance, is King Richard seated:

but shall we wear these glories for a day? or shall they last, and we rejoice in them? Buck. Still live they, and for ever let them last! K. R. Ah, Buckingham, now do I 'play the touch, to try if thou be current gold indeed :—

young Edward lives ;-think now what I would speak.

Buck. Say on, my loving lord.

K. R. Why, Buckingham, I say, I would be king.
Buck. Why so you are, my thrice-renowned liege.
K. R. Ha! am I king? 'Tis so:-but Edward lives.
Buck. True, noble Prince.
K. R.

O bitter consequence, that Edward still should live,-true, noble prince!cousin, thou wast not wont to be so dull:shall I be plain?—I wish the bastards dead: and I would have it suddenly performed. What say'st thou now? speak suddenly, be brief.

W. SHAKESPEARE

790

A.

I.

A.

I.

A.

ARKAS-IPHIGENIA

PRIESTESS, with speed conclude the sacrifice!

impatiently the king and people wait.

I had perform'd my duty and thy will,

had not an unforeseen impediment

the execution of my purpose thwarted.

What is it that obstructs the king's commands?
Chance, which from mortals will not brook control.
Possess me with the reason, that with speed

I.

I may inform the king, who hath decreed
the death of both.

The gods have not decreed it.
The elder of these men doth bear the guilt
of kindred murder; on his steps attend
the dread Eumenides. They seiz'd their prey
within the inner fane, polluting thus
the holy sanctuary. I hasten now,
together with my virgin-train, to bathe
Diana's image in the sea, and there
with solemn rites its purity restore.

Let none presume our silent march to follow!

791 A. This hindrance to the monarch I'll announce : do not commence the rite till he permit.

I.

A.

I.

A.

I.

A.

I.

A.

I.

The priestess interferes alone in this.

An incident so strange the king should know.
Here, nor his counsel nor command avails.
Oft are the great consulted out of form.

Do not insist on what I must refuse.

E'en now 'tis not too late to change thy mind.
To do so is alas beyond our power.

What thou wouldst shun, thou deem'st impossible.
Thy wish doth make thee deem it possible.

A. Wilt thou so calmly venture everything?

I.

A.

I.

A.

I.

My fate I have committed to the gods.

The gods are wont to save by human means.
By their appointment everything is done.
Believe me all doth now depend on thee.
Shake not my spirit, which thou canst not bend.
A. SWANWICK from Goethe

792

MYRRHA AN IONIAN SLAVE THE FAVOURITE OF

WHY

SARDANAPALUS

HY do I love this man? My country's daughters love none but heroes. But I have no country! the slave hath lost all save her bonds. I love him; and that's the heaviest link of the long chain

to love whom we esteem not.

Be it so:

the hour is coming when he'll need all love,
and find none.

To fall from him now were baser

than to have stabbed him on his throne when highest would have been noble in my country's creed:

793

794

I was not made for either. Could I save him,
I should not love him better, but myself;

and I have need of the last, for I have fallen
in my own thoughts, by loving this soft stranger:
and yet methinks I love him more, perceiving
that he is hated by his own barbarians,

the natural foes of all the blood of Greece.
Could I but wake a single thought like those
which even the Phrygians felt when battling long
'twixt Ilion and the sea, within his heart,

he would tread down the barbarous crowds, and
triumph.

AUS

LORD BYRON

ACHITOPHEL'S ADDRESS TO ABSALOM

USPICIOUS prince, at whose nativity some royal planet ruled the southern sky; thy longing country's darling and desire, their cloudy pillar and their guardian fire; their second Moses, whose extended wand divides the seas, and shows the promised land; whose dawning day in every distant age has exercised the sacred prophet's rage: the people's prayer, the glad diviner's theme, the young men's vision, and the old men's dream! thee, Saviour, thee, the nation's vows confess, and, never satisfied with seeing, bless:

swift unbespoken pomps thy steps proclaim,

and stammering babes are taught to lisp thy name.
How long wilt thou the general joy detain,
starve and defraud the people of thy reign!
content ingloriously to pass thy days,

like one of virtue's fools that feed on praise;
till thy fresh glories, which now shine so bright,
grow stale, and tarnish with our daily sight!

A

THE EXAMPLE OF KINGS

J. DRYDEN

DUTY well discharged is never followed

by sad repentance; nor did your highness ever make payment of the debt you owed her better than in your late reproofs, not of her, but those crimes that made her worthy of reproof.

795

The most remarkable point in which kings differ
from private men, is that they not alone
stand bound to be in themselves innocent,
but that all such as are allied to them
in nearness or dependance by their care
should be free from suspicion of all crime.
And you have reaped a double benefit

from this last great act; first, in the restraint
of her lost pleasures you remove the example
from others of the like licentiousness;
then, when 'tis known that your severity
extended to your mother, who dares hope for
the least indulgence or connivance in

the easiest slips that may prove dangerous
to you or to the kingdom?

BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER

I

SPEECH OF VALERIO TO RYNALDO, IN ANSWER

TO HIS BITTER INVECTIVE AGAINST THE SEX

TELL thee love is nature's second sun,

causing a spring of virtues where he shines. And as without the sun, the world's great eye, all colours, beauties, both of art and nature, are giv'n in vain to men; so without love all beauties bred in women are in vain,

all virtues born in men lie buried,

for love informs them as the sun doth colours.
And as the sun, reflecting his warm beams
against the earth, begets all fruits and flowers,
so love, fair shining in the inward man,
brings forth in him the honorable fruits
of valour, wit, virtue, and haughty thoughts,
brave resolution, and divine discourse.
O'tis the paradise! the heaven of earth!
and didst thou know the comfort of two hearts

in one delicious harmony united,

as to joy one joy, and think both one thought, love hath one life, and there in double life, thou wouldst abhor thy tongue for blasphemy.

G. CHAPMAN