787 God's blessing on my earlier years bestowed, H. TAYLOR CLORIN A SHEPHERDESS WATCHING BY THE HA AIL, holy earth, whose cold arms do embrace of love; all sports, delights, and jolly games, since thou art far away, by whose dear side 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, or be they love-sick, or through too much heat 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. 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? I. I may inform the king, who hath decreed The gods have not decreed it. 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. Do not insist on what I must refuse. E'en now 'tis not too late to change thy mind. What thou wouldst shun, thou deem'st impossible. 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. 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, 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, and I have need of the last, for I have fallen the natural foes of all the blood of Greece. he would tread down the barbarous crowds, and 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. like one of virtue's fools that feed on praise; 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 this last great act; first, in the restraint the easiest slips that may prove dangerous 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. 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 |