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I ran it through, even from my boyish days
To the very moment that he bade me tell it.
Wherein I spoke of most disastrous chances;
Of moving accidents by flood and field;

Of hair-breadth 'scapes i' the imminent deadly breach;
Of being taken by the insolent foe

And sold to slavery; of my redemption thence,

And with it all my travel's history;

Wherein of antres vast, and deserts wild,

Rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads touch heaven,

It was my hint to speak.-All these to hear

Would Desdemona seriously incline:

But still the house-affairs would draw her thence,
Which ever as she could with haste despatch,
She'd come again, and with a greedy ear

Devour up my discourse: which I observing,
Took once a pliant hour, and found good means
To draw from her a prayer of earnest heart,
That I would all my pilgrimage dilate;
Whereof by parcels she had something heard,
But not distinctively. I did consent,
And often did beguile her of her tears,
When I did speak of some distressful stroke

That my youth suffered. My story being done,

She gave me for my pains a world of sighs:

She said, 'twas strange, indeed, 'twas passing strange;

'Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful

She wished she had not heard it—yet she wished

That Heaven had made her such a man: she thanked me,

And bade me, if I had a friend that loved her,

I should but teach him how to tell my story,

And that would woo her. On this hint I spake :

She loved me for the dangers I had past;

And I loved her, that she did pity them.

This only is the witchcraft I have used.

SHAKSPEARE.

9.-CASSIUS AGAINST CÆSAR.

I CANNOT tell what you and other men
'Think of this life; but for my single self,
I had as lief not be, as live to be

In awe of such a thing as I myself.

I was born free as Cæsar; so were you:
We both have fed as well; and we can both
Endure the winter's cold as well as he.
For once, upon a raw and gusty day,

The troubled Tiber chafing with her shores,
Cæsar said to me, Darest thou, Cassius, now
Leap in with me into this angry flood,
And swim to yonder point?--Upon the word,
Accoutred as I was, I plunged in,

And bade him follow: so indeed he did.
The torrent roared, and we did buffet it
With lusty sinews; throwing it aside,
And stemming it with hearts of controversy.
But ere we could arrive the point proposed,
Cæsar cried, Help me, Cassius, or I sink.
I, as Æneas, our great ancestor,

Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder

The old Anchises bear, so from the waves of Tiber

Did I the tired Cæsar: and this man

Is now become a god; and Cassius is

A wretched creature, and must bend his body
If Cæsar carelessly but nod on him.
He had a fever when he was in Spain,

And, when the fit was on him, I did mark

How he did shake: 'tis true, this god did shake;
His coward lips did from their colour fly;

And that same eye, whose bend does awe the world,
Did lose its lustre: I did hear him groan:
Ay, and that tongue of his, that bade the Romans
Mark him, and write his speeches in their books,
Alas! it cried, Give me some drink, Titinius,
As a sick girl. Ye gods, it doth amaze me,
A man of such a feeble temper should
So get the start of the majestic world,
And bear the palm alone.

Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus, and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs, and peep about
To find ourselves dishonourable graves.
Men at some time are masters of their fates:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,

But in ourselves, that we are underlings.

Brutus and Cæsar: What should be in that Cæsar?
Why should that name be sounded more than yours?
Write them together, yours is as fair a name;
Sound them, it doth become the mouth as well;
Weigh them, it is as heavy; conjure with them,
Brutus will start a spirit as soon as Cæsar.
Now, in the names of all the gods at once,
Upon what meat does this our Cæsar feed,
That he is grown so great? Age, thou art shamed!
Rome, thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods!
When went there by an age, since the great flood,
But it was famed with more than with one man?
When could they say, till now, that talked of Rome,
That her wide walls encompassed but one man?
O! you and I have heard our fathers say,

There was a Brutus once, that would have brooked
The eternal devil to keep his state in Rome,
As easily as a king.

SHAKSPEARE.

10. ADDRESS OF ION.

ARGIVES! I have a boon

To crave of you;-whene'er I shall rejoin
In death the father from whose heart in life
Stern fate divided me, think gently of him!
For ye who saw him in his full-blown pride,
Knew little of affections crushed within,
And wrongs which frenzied him; yet never more
Let the great interests of the state depend
Upon the thousand chances that may sway
A piece of human frailty! Swear to me
That ye will seek hereafter in yourselves
The means of sovereign rule :-our narrow space,
So happy in its confines, so compact,

Needs not the magic of a single name

Which wider regions may require to draw
Their interests into one; but, circled thus,
Like a blessed family by simple laws,
May tenderly be governed; all degrees

Moulded together as a single form

Of nymph-like loveliness, which finest chords
Of sympathy pervading, shall suffuse

In times of quiet with one bloom, and fill
With one resistless impulse, if the hosts

Of foreign power should threaten. Gracious gods!
In whose mild service my glad youth was spent,
Look on me now;-and if there is a power,

As at this solemn time I feel there is,

Beyond ye, that hath breathed through all your shapes
The spirit of the beautiful that lives

In earth and heaven;-to ye I offer up
This conscious being, full of life and love
For my dear country's welfare.

TALFOURD.

11.-THE DUKE ARANZA TO JULIANA, FROM

THE HONEY-MOON.

I'LL have no glittering gewgaws stuck about you
To stretch the gaping eyes of idiot wonder,
And make men stare upon a piece of earth
As on the star-wrought firmament-no feathers
To wave as streamers to your vanity-

Nor cumbrous silk, that, with its rustling sound,
Makes proud the flesh that bears it. She's adorned
Amply, that in her husband's eye looks lovely—
The truest mirror that an honest wife

Can see her beauty in!

Thus modestly attired,

A half-blown rose stuck in thy braided hair,
With no more diamonds than those eyes are made of,
No deeper rubies than compose thy lips,

Nor pearls more precious than inhabit them;

With the pure red and white, which that same hand
Which blends the rainbow mingles in thy cheeks;
This well-proportioned form (think not I flatter)
In graceful motion to harmonious sounds,
And thy free tresses dancing in the wind,
Thou 'lt fix as much observance as chaste dames
Can meet without a blush.

TOBIN.

12.

-SPEECH OF PRINCE EDWARD IN HIS DUNGEON.

DOTH the bright sun from the high arch of heaven,
In all his beauteous robes of fleckered clouds,
And ruddy vapours, and deep glowing flames,
And softly varied shades, look gloriously?
Do the green woods dance to the wind? the lakes
Cast up their sparkling waters to the light?
Do the sweet hamlets in their bushy dells

Send winding up to heaven their curling smoke
On the soft morning air?

Do the flocks bleat, and the wild creatures bound
In antic happiness? and mazy birds

Wing the mid air in lightly skimming bands?
Ay, all this is-men do behold all this—
The poorest man. Even in this lonely vault,
My dark and narrow world, oft do I hear
The crowing of the cock so near my walls,
And sadly think how small a space divides me
From all this fair creation.

JOANNA BAILLIE.

13.-ORATION IN PRAISE OF CORIOLANUS.

I SHALL lack voice: the deeds of Coriolanus
Should not be uttered feebly.-At sixteen years,
When Tarquin made a head for Rome, he fought
Beyond the mark of others: our then dictator,
Whom with all praise I point at, saw him fight,
When with his Amazonian chin he drove
The bristled lips before him: he bestrid
An o'er-pressed Roman, and in the consul's view
Slew three opposers: Tarquin's self he met,
And struck him on his knee: in that day's feats,
When he might act the woman in the scene,

He proved the best man in the field, and for his meed
Was brow-bound with the oak.-His pupil age,
Man-entered thus, he waxed like a sea;

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