Kent. If Fortune brag of two she loved and hated,
One of them we behold.

Lear. This is a dull sight. Are you not Kent?
Kent.
The same;
Your servant Kent. Where is your servant Caius?1
Lear. He's a good fellow, I can tell you, that;
He'll strike, and quickly too :-he's dead and rotten.
Kent. No, my good lord; I am the very man ;—
Lear. I'll see that straight.

Kent. That, from your first of difference and decay,
Have follow'd your sad steps.

Lear.

Kent. Nor no man else.

deadly.

You are welcome hither.

All's cheerless, dark, and

Ay, so I think.

Your eldest daughters have fore-done themselves,
And desperately are dead.

Lear.

Alb. He knows not what he says; and vain it is
That we present us to him.

Edg.

*

Alb.

Very bootless.

*

-O see, see!

Lear. And my poor fool is hang'd! No, no, no life :
Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life,

And thou no breath at all? O, thou wilt come no more,
Never, never, never, never, never!-

Pray you, undo this button. Thank you, Sir.

Do you see this? Look on her-look-her lips,

Look there, look there !—

[He dies.

Look up, my lord.

Edg. He faints!-My lord, My lord,-
Kent. Break, heart; I pr'ythee, break!

Edg.

Kent. Vex not his ghost. O, let him pass! He hates him, That would upon the rack of this tough world'

Stretch him out longer.

Edg.

O, he is gone, indeed.

Kent. The wonder is, he hath endured so long:

He but usurp'd his life.

1 Kent's name in his disguise.

2 A term of endearment applied to his daughter. Expressions of reproach are often used in this manner, as, "Excellent wretch," etc., Othello, Act III. Sc. 3, applied to Desdemona. By a similar reverse of application, fellow, companion, minion, etc., are used as terms of reproach. Urchin, imp, etc., belong to the same category.

This is a subtle touch of nature. He feels the choking sensation caused by anguish, and attempts to relieve it by unfastening his dress; his hands are unable to accomplish this, and he asks aid.

Pope printed "this rough world."

FROM SHAKESPEARE'S LYRICS.

SELECTIONS FROM SHAKESPEARE'S LYRICS.

ARIEL'S SONG.

Where the bee sucks, there suck I;

In a cowslip's bell I lie;

There I couch, when owls do cry;

On the bat's back I do fly.

After summer, merrily,

Merrily, merrily, shall I live now,

Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.

129

Tempest, Act V. Sc. 1.

SERENADE TO SYLVIA.

Who is Sylvia? what is she,

That all our swains commend her?

Holy, fair, and wise is she;

The heavens such grace did lend her,
That she might admiréd be.

Is she kind, as she is fair?

For beauty lives with kindness;
Love doth to her eyes repair,

To help him of his blindness;

And, being helped, inhabits there.
Then to Sylvia let us sing,
That Sylvia is excelling;
She excels each mortal thing
Upon the dull earth dwelling:
To her let us garlands bring.

Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act IV. Sc. 2.

THE FAIRY TO PUCK.

Over hill, over dale,

Thorough bush, thorough briar,
Over park, over pale,

Thorough flood, thorough fire,
I do wander every where,
Swifter than the moon's sphere;
And I serve the fairy queen,
To dew her orbs upon the green;
The cowslips tall her pensioners be;
In their gold coats spots you see ;1
Those be rubies, fairy favours,

In those freckles live their savours.

The allusion here is to Queen Elizabeth's band of Gentlemen Pensioners, who

were very richly dressed.

I must go seek some dew-drops here,
And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.
Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II. Sc. 1.

AMIENS' SONG

Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind

As man's ingratitude;

Thy tooth is not so keen,
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude.
Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
That dost not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot:

Though thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp

Ás friend remember'd not.

As you

like it, Act II. Sc. 7.

CLOTEN'S SERENADE.

Hark! hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings,

And Phoebus 'gins arise,

His steeds to water at those springs
On chaliced flowers that lies:

And winking Mary-buds begin

To ope their golden eyes;

With every thing that pretty is,1
My lady sweet, arise:
Arise, arise.

Cymbeline, Act II. Sc. 3.

DIRGE OF FIDELE.

Fear no more the frown o' the great,
Thou art past the tyrant's stroke;
Care no more to clothe and eat;

To thee the reed is as the oak:
The sceptre, learning, physic, must
All follow this, and come to dust.
Fear no more the lightning-flash,
Nor the all-dreaded thunder-stone;
Fear not slander, censure rash;

Thou hast finish'd joy and moan;
All lovers young, all lovers must
Consign to thee, and come to dust.

1 Hanmer, for the sake of the rhyme, printed "that pretty bin."

That time of year thou may'st in me behold,

When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,-
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou seest the twilight of such day

As, after sunset, fadeth in the west;

Which by and by black night doth take away;
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou seest the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie;
As the deathbed whereon it must expire,
Consumed with that which it was nourished by.

CXLVI.

Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth,a
Fooled by those rebel powers that thee array,
Why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth,
Painting thy outward wall so costly gay?
Why so large cost, having so short a lease,3
Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend?
Shall worms, inheritors of this excess,
Eat up thy charge? Is this thy body's end?
Then, soul, live thou upon thy servant's loss,
And let that pine to aggravate* thy store.
Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross;
Within be fed," without be rich no more.
So shalt thou feèd on death, that feeds on men;"
And, death once dead, there's no more dying then.

DETACHED PASSAGES.

FEMALE FRIENDSHIP.

Is all the counsel, that we two have shared,
The sisters' vows, the hours that we have spent,

1 Compare the Dirge by Collins, "To fair Fidele's

2 "Vile body." Philippians, iii. I. • Increase.

1 Cor. xv. 55. Rev. xxi. 4.

grassy tomb," etc.

Ps. xc. 10.

"Feeding upon Christ by Faith."

When we have chid the hasty-footed time
For parting us,-O! and is all forgot?
All school-days' friendship, childhood innocence?
We, Hermia, like two artificial gods,

Have with our needles1 created both one flower,
Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion,
Both warbling of one song, both in one key;
As if our hands, our sides, voices, and minds,
Had been incorporate. So we grew together,
Like to a double cherry, seeming parted,
But yet a union in partition;

Two lovely berries moulded on one stem;
So with two seeming bodies, but one heart.

Midsummer Night's Dream, Act III. Sc. 2.

CONCEALED LOVE.

She never told her love,

But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud,

Feed on her damask cheek: she pined in thought;
And, with a green and yellow melancholy,
She sat like patience on a monument,

Smiling at grief.

Twelfth Night, Act II. Sc. 4.

PROPER USE OF TALENTS.

Heaven doth with us, as we with torches do ;
Not light them for ourselves: for if our virtues

Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike

As if we had them not.2 Spirits are not finely touch'd,
But to fine issues; nor Nature never lends

The smallest scruple of her excellence,

But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines
Herself the glory of a creditor,

Both thanks and use.3

Measure for Measure, Act I. Sc.1.

TAKE THE BEAM OUT OF THINE OWN EYE.

Go to your bosom ;

Knock there; and ask your heart, what it doth know,

That's like my brother's fault; if it confess

A natural guiltiness, such as is his,

Let it not sound a thought upon your tongue

Against my brother's life.

Measure for Measure, Act II. Sc. 2.

1 This word was then pronounced in the time of one syllable.

2 Matt. v. 15, 16.

3 Interest. Matt. xxv. 20, etc.