Forsooth, took on him as a conjurer: While it doth study to have what it would,
And gazing in my eyes, feeling my pulse, It doth forget to do the things it should :
And with no face as 't were ourfacing me, And when it hath the thing it hunteth most,
Cries ont, I was possest.

Tis won, as towns with fire ; so won, so lost.
Old Age.

Frost.
Not know my voice! O time's extremity,

An envious sneaping frost,
Hast thou so crack dand splitted my poor tongue That bites the first-born infants of the spring.
In seven short years, thai here my only son

The Foliy and Danger of making Vows.
Knows not my feeble key of untun'd cares?

Necessity will make us all forsworn (space: Though now this grained face of mine be hid Three thousand times within these three years' In sap-consuming winter's drizzled svow,

For every man with his affects is born, And all the conduits of my blood froze up:

Not by might master'd, but by special grace: Yet hath my night of life some memory;

If I break faith, this word shall speak for me, My wasting lamp some fading glimmer left;

I am forsworn on mere necessity. My dull deaf ears a little vse to hear :

A conceited Courtier, or Man of Compliments. Al these old witnesses, -I cannot err,

Our court, you know, is haunted Tell me, thou art my son, Antipholus.

With a refined traveller of Spain;

A man in all the world's new fashion planted, $ 4. LOVE'S LAEQUR'S LOST. That hath a mint of phrases in his brain :

SHAKSPEARE.

One whom the music of his own vain tongue A laudable Ambition for Fame and true Con- A man of compliments, whom right and wrong

Doth ravish, like enchanting harmony: quest described.

Have chose as umpire of their mutiny. King. Let Fame, that all hunt after in their This child of fancy, that Armado bighi, lives,

For interim to our studies, shall relate
Live register'd upon our brazen tombs, In high-born words the worih of many a knight,
And then grace us in the disgrace of death ; From tawny Spain, lost in the word's debate.
When, spite of cormorant devouring time, How you delight, my lords, I know not, I:
Th' endeavour of this present breath may buy But, I protest, I love to hear him lie,
That honor which shall bate his scythe's keen And I will use him for iny minstrelsy.
edge,

Biron, Armado is a most illustrious wight,
And make us heirs of all eternity.

A man of fire-new words, fashion's own knight. Therefore, brave conquerors! for so you are

Beauty
That war against your own affections,

My beauty though but mean,
And the huge army of the world's desires ;- Needs not the painied Aourish of your praise :
Our late edict shall strongly stand in force. Beauty is bought by judgement of the eye,
Navarre shall be the wonder of the world : Not uttered by base sale of chapmen's tongues.
Our court shall be a little academe,

d Wit. Still and contemplative in living art.

In Normandy saw I this Longaville: Longaville. I'am resolv'd ; 'tis but a three A man of sovereign parts he is esteem'd; years' fast ;

Well fitted in the arts, glorious in arms:
The mind shall banquet tho' the body pine- Nothing becomes him ill, that he would well:
Fat paunches have lean pates : and dainty bits The only foil of his fair virtue's gloss
Make rich the ribs, but bank'rout the wits. (If virtue's gloss will stain with any foil)

Dumain. My loving lord, Dumain is morti- Is a sharp wit match'd with two blunt a will;
The grosser inanner of the world's delights[fied; Whose edge hath pow'r to cut, whose will still
He throws upon the gross world's baser slaves wills
To love, to wealth, to pomp, I pine and die : Itshould none spare that come within his power.
With all these living in philosophy.

Pri. Some merry mocking lord, be like is't so!
Vanity of Pleasures.

Mar. They say so most, that most his hu-
Why, all delights are vain: but that most mors know.

(grow. vain,

Pri. Such short-liv'd wits do wither as they
Which, with pain purchas'd, doth inherit pain.

A Merry Man.
On Study.

A merrier man,
Study is like the heaven's glorious sun,

Within the limit of becoming mirth,
That will not be deep search'd with saucylooks; I never spent an hour's talk withal.
Small have continual plodders ever won His eye begets occasion for his wit;

Save base authority from others' books: For every object that the one doth catch
These earthly godfathers of heaven's lights, The other turns to a mirth-moving jest;

That give a name to every fixed star, Which his fair tongue (conceit's expositor)
Have no more profit of their shining nights, Delivers in such apt and gracious words,
Than those that walk, and wot not what That aged ears play truant at his tales,
they are.

And younger hearings are quite ravished;
Too much to know, is to know nought but fame, So sweet and voluble is his discourse.
And every godfather can give a naine.

A Comical Description of Cupid or Love.
Again.

O! and I forsooth, in love!
So study evermore is overshot ;

I, that have been love's whip:

A very beadle to a humorous sigh:

Thou for whom e'en Jove would swear
A critic; nay, a night-watch coustable; Juno but an Ethiope were ;
A domineering pedant o'er the boy,

And deny himself for Jove,
Than whom no mortal more magnificent! Turning mortal for thy love.
This whimpled, whining, purblind, wayward

Commanding Beauty. boy,

-Who sees the heai enly Rosalind, This Signior Julio's giant dwarf, Dan Cupid, That, like a rude and savage man of Inde, Regent of love-rhymes, lord of folded arms, At the first opening of the gorgeous east, Th' anointed sovereign of sighs and groans; Bows* not his vassal head, and, strucken blind, Liege of all loiterers and malcontents ;

Kisses the base ground with obedient breast ? . Sole imperator, and great general

What peremptory eagle-sighted eye Oi trotting 'paritors : (O my liule heart) Dares louk upon the heaven other brow, And I to be a corporal of his file,

That is not blinded by her majesty?
And wear his colours ! like a tumbler's hoop!

The Power of Love.
What? |! I love! I sue! I seek a wife ! Why universal plodding prisons up
A woman, that is like a German clock, The nimble spirits in the arteries,
Still a-repairing; ever out of frame,

As motion and long-during action tire
And never going right, being a watch, The sinewy rigor of the traveller.
But being watchd, that it may still

go right? Ill Deeds often done for the Sake of Fame. When would you, my liege-or you—or you A giving hand, though foul, shall have fair In leaden contemplation have found out praise

Such fiery numbers, as the prompting eyes But couse, the bow :-Now mercy goes to kill, Of beauteous tutors have enrich'd you with ? And shooting well is then accounted ill. Other slow arts entirely keep the brain ; Thus will I save my credit in the shoot: And therefore finding barren practisers, Not wounding, pity would not let me do't; Scarce show a harvest of their heavy toil • If wounding, then it was to show my skill, But love, first learned in a lady's eyes, That more for praise than purpose meant to kill. Lires not alone immured in the brain; And, out of question, so it is sometimes : But, with the motion of all elements, Glory grows guilty of detested crimes ; [part, Courses as swift as thought in every pow'r ; When, for fume's sake, for praise, an outward | And gives to every pow'r a double pow'r; We bend to that the working of the heart: Above their functions and their offices, As I, for praise alone, now seek to spill [ill It adds a precious seeing to the eye; The poor deer's blood that my heart means no A lover's eyes will gaze an eagle blind : Sonnet.

A lover's ears will hear the lowest sound, Did not the heavenly rhetoric of thine eye When the suspicious head of theft is stopt.

(Gainst whom the world cannot hold argu- Love's feeling is more soft and sensible Persuade my heart to this false perjury? [ment.) Than are the tender horns of cockled snails.

Vows, for thee broke, deserve not punish- Love's tongue proves dainty Bacchus gross in A woman I forswore; but I will prove (ment. For valor, is noi love a Hercules, [taste.

(Thou being a goddess) I forswore not thee. Suill climbing trees in the Hesperides? My vow was earthly, thou a heavenly love : Subtle as Sphinx; as sweet and musical Thy grace being gain'd cures all disgrace in As bright Apollo's lute, strung with his hair : mne.

And when love speaks, the voice of all the gods Vows are but breath, and breath a vapor is; Makes heaven drowsy with the harmony.

Then thou, fair sun, which on my earth dost Never durst poet touch a pen to write,
Exhal'st this rapor vow; in thee it is : [shine, Until his ink were tempered with love's sighs:

If broken then, it is no fault of mine; O chen his eyes would ravish savage ears,
If by me broke, what fool is not so wise, And plant in tyrants mild humility.
To lose an oath to win a paradise?

From women's eyes this doctrine I derive:
Another.

They sparkle still the right Promethean fire: On a day (alack the day!)

They are the books, the arts, the acadenies, Love, whose month is ever May,

That show, contain, and nourish all the world; Spyd a blossom passing fair

Else, none at all in aught proves excellent. Playing in the wanton air :

Wise Men greatest Fools in Love. Through the velvet leaves the wind,

Ri. None are so surely caught, when they All unseen, 'gan passage find;

are catch'd That the lover, sick to death,

As wit turn'd fool : folly in wisdom hatch'd, Wish'd hiinself the heaven's breath.

Hath wisclon's warrant, and the help of school, Air, quoth he, thy cheeks may blow;- And wit's own grace to grace a learned fool. Air, would I might triumph so!

Ros. The blood of youth burns not with But, alack! my hand is sworn

such excess Ne'er to pluck thee from thy thorn.

As gravity's revolt to wantonness. Vow, alack! for youth unineet,

Mar. Folly in fools bears not so strange a note, Youth so apt to pluck a sweet.

As foolery in the wise, when wit doth dote : Do not call it sin in me,

Since all the power thereof it doth apply, That I am forsworn for thee :

To prore by wit, worth in simplicity.

Keenness of Women's Tongues. To every vary'd object in his glance : The longues of mocking wenches are as keen Which-party-colored presence of loose love, As is the razor's edge invisible,

Put on by us, if, in your heavenly eyes, Cutting a smaller hair than may be seen ; 'T hath misbecom'd our oaths and gravities, Above the sense of sense, so sensible

Those heavenly eyes that look into these faults Seemeth their conference; their conceit hath Suggested us to make them : therefore, ladies, wings

Our love being yours, the error chat love makes Fleeter than arrows, bullets, wind, thought, Is likewise yours. swifter things.

Trial of Love.
Ladies mask'd and unmask'd.

If this austere, insociable life
Fair ladies mask'd are roses in the bud; Change not your offer made in heat of blood;
Dismask'd, their damask sweet commixture If frosts, and fasts, hard lodging and thin weeds,
shown,

Nip not the gaudy blossoms of your love, Are angels vailing clouds, or roses blown. But that it bear this trial, and last love; A Lord Chamberlain or Gentleman Usher.

Then, at the expiration of the year, This fellow pecks up wit, as pigeons pease;

Come challenge me. And utters it again when God doth please :

Jest and Jester. He is wit's pedlar; and retails his wares

Ros. Oft have I heard of you, my lord Biron, At wakes, and wassels, meetings, markets, fairs. Before I saw you: and the world's large tongue And we that sell by gross, the Lord doth know, Proclaims you for a man replete with mocks; Have not the grace to grace it with such show. Full of comparisons, and wounding flouts ; This gallant pins the wenches on his sleeve;

Which you on all estates will execute, Had he been Adam he had tempted Eve.

That lie within the mercy of your wit : (brain He can carve too, and lisp: Why this is he To weed this wormwood from your fruitful That kiss'd his hand away in courtesy;

And therewithal to win me, if you please,

(Without the which I am not to be won) [day, This is the ape of form, Monsieur the nice, That when he plays at tables, chides the dice

You shall this twelvemonth term, from day to In honorable terms: nay, he can sing

Visit the speechless sick, and still converse A mean most meanly; and in ushering

With groaning wretches : and your task shall Mend him who can: the ladies call him sweet; With all the fierce endeavour of your wit, [be, The stairs as he treads on them kiss his feet. T enforce the pained impotent to smile. This is the flower that smiles on every one,

Bir. To move wild laughter in the throat To show his teeth as white as whale his bone:

of death? And consciences that will not die in debt,

It cannot be, it is impossible : Pay him the due of honey-tongu'd Boyet.

Mirth cannot more a soul in agony. (spirit,

Ros. Why, that's the way to choak a gibing See where it comes ! Behaviour, what wert thou Whose influence is begot of that loose grace Till this man show'd thee? and what art thou Which shallow laughing hearers give to fools : now?

A jest's prosperity lies in the ear

of him that hears it, never in the tonglie Elegant Compliment to a Lady.

of him that makes it. Then, if sickly ears, Fair, gentle, sweet, [greet Deaft with the clamors of their own dear groans, Your wit makes wise things foolish : when we will bear your idle scorns, continue then, With eyes best seeing Heaven's fiery eye,

And I will have you, and that fault withal; By light we lose light: your capacity Is of that nature, as to your huge store [poor. And I shall find you empty of that fauli,

But if they will not, throw away that spirit, Wise things seem foolish, and rich things but

Right joyful of your reformation.
Humble Zeal to pleuse.

[how;
That sport best pleases that doth least know when daisies pied, and violets blue,

Spring. A Song. When zeal strives to content, and the contents

And lady-smocks all silver white, Die in the zeal of that which it presents,

And cuckow buds of yellow hue, Their form confounded makes most form in

Do paint the meadows with delight: mirth,

[birth. The cuckow, then, on every tree, When great things laboring perish in their Mocks married men; for thus sings he, The Effects of Love.

Cuckow ! For your fair sakes have we neglected time, Cuckow ! Cuckow ! O word of fear, Play'd foul play with our oaths; your beauty, Unpleasing to a married ear! ladies,

(mors When shepherds pipe on oaten straws, Hath much deformd us, fashioning our hu- And merry larks are plowmen's clocks; Even to the opposed end of our intents ; When turtles tread, and rooks and daws; And what in us hath seem'd ridiculous And inaidens bleach their summer smocks : As love is full of unbefitting strains,

The cuckow then, on every tree, All wanton as a child, skipping and vain; Mocks married men; for thus sings he, Form'd by the eye; and therefore like the eye, Cuckow ! Full of strange shapes, of habits, and of forms, Cuckow! Cuckow! O word of fear, Varying in subjects as the eye doth roll

Unpleasing to a married car !

Winter. A Song.

And none of them been worn; and for a namco When icicles hang by the wall,

Now puts the drowsy and neglected act And Dick the shepherd blows his nail;

Freshly on me: 'tis surely for a name.

Eloquence and Beauty.
And Tomi bears logs into the hall,

In her youth
And inilk comes frozen home in pail;
When blood is nipt, and ways be foul,

There is a prone and speechless dialect,

Such as moves men; beside she hath a proThen nightly sings the staring owl To-whoo!

sp'rous art, Tu-whit, to-whoo, a merry note,

When she will play with reason and discourse,

And well she can persuade. While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

Retired Life. When all aloud the wind doth blow,

My holy Sir, none better knows than you And coughing drowns the parson's saw ;

How I have ever lov'd the life remov'd : And birds sit brooding in the snow,

And held in idle price to haunt assemblies And Marian's nose looks red and raw : When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl,

Where youth, and cost, and witless bravery

keeps. Then nightly sings the staring owl To-whoo!

Licentiousness the Consequence of unexecuted To-whil, to-whoo, a merry note,

Laws. While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

We have strict statutes, and most biting laws,

(steeds), (The needful bits and curbs to headstrong

Which for these nineteen years we have letsleep; 5. MEASURE FOR MEASURE.

Even like an o'ergrown lion in a cave,

SHAKSPEARE. That goes pot out to prey: now as fond fathers Virtue given to be exerted.

Having bound up the threat’ning twigs of birch, There is a kind of character in thy life,

Only to stick it in their children's sight

For terror, not for use; in time the rod That, to the observer, doth thy history

Becomes more mock'd than fear'd; so our Fully unfold: thyself and thy belongings

decrees, Are not thine own so proper, as to waste

Dead to ipfliction, to themselves are dead; Thyself ::pon thy virtues, them on thee. Heav'n doth with us as we with torches do,

And liberty plucks justice by the nose : Not light them for themselves : for if our virtues Goes all decorum.

The baby beats the nurse, nd quite athwart Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike (touch'd As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely

Pardon the Sanction of Wickedness. But to fine issues : nor nature never lends

For we bid this be done, The smallest scruple of her excellence,

When evil deeds have their permissive pass, But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines

And not the punishment. Herself the glory of a creditor,

A severe saint-like Governor. Both thanks and use.

Lord Angelo is precise : Dislike of Popularity.

Stands at a guard with envy: scarce confesses I love the people,

That his blood flows, or that liis appetite But do not like to stage me to their eyes : Is more to bread than stone: heuce shall we see, Though it do well, I do not relish well

If pow'r change purpose, what our seemers be. Their loud applause and aves vehement:

A Virgin addressed. Nor do I think the man of safe discretion Hail, virgin, if you be; as those cheek-roses That does affect it.

Proclaim

you are no less ! Authority.

A Religious profest. Thus can the demi-god authority

I hold you as a thing ensky'd and sainted ; Make us pay down for our offence by weight. By your renouncement, an immortal spirit, The words of Heav'n: On whom it will, it will; And to be talk'd with in sincerity, On whom it will not, so ; yet still 'tis just. As with a saint. The Consequence of Liberty indulged.

Embracing Lacio. Why how now, Claudio? whence Your brother and his lover have embrac'd : comes this restraint?

As those that feed grow full; as blossoming Claud. From too much liberty, my Lucio, time, As surfeit is the father of much fast, (liberty : That from the seedness the bare fallow brings So every scope, by the immoderate use, To teening foyson; so her plenteous womb Turns to restraint. Our natures do pursue, Expresseth his full tilth and husbandry. Like rats that raven down their proper bane,

School-fellows. A thirsty evil; and when we drink we die. Luc. Is she

your cousin ? [their names, Neglected Laws.

Isab. Adoptedly, as schoolmaids change This new governor By vain though apt atfection. Awakes me all th' enrolled penalties,

Resolution. Which have, like unscour'd armour, hung by

Our doubts are traitors; the wall

And make us lose the good we oft might win, So long, that nineteen zodiacs have gone round, By fearing to attempt.

The Prayers of Maidens effectuel. And you as he, you would have slipt like him, Go to lord Angelo,

But he, like you, would noi have been so stera. And let him learn to know, when maidens sue,

The Duty of mutual Forgiveness. Men give like gods; but when they weep and knecl,

Alas! alas! All their petitions are as freely theirs

Why, all the souls that were, were forfeit once, As they themselves would owe them.

And he that might the vantage best have look, All Men frail.

Found out the reniedy. How would you be, Angelo. We must not make a scare-crow of But judge you as you are? Oh! think on that:

If he, which is the top of judgement, should the law,

And
mercy

then will breathe within your lips, Setting it up to scare the birds of prey,

Like man new made.
And let it keep one shape will custom make it
Their perch and not their terror.

Unprepared Death.
Esca. Ay, but yet

Isab. To-morrow! O, that's sudden! spare Let us be keen, and rather cut a little,

him, spare bim :

[kitchens Than fall, and bruise to death : alas! this gen-We kill the fowl of season; shall we serve Hea

He's not prepar'd for death! Even for our tleman, Whom I would save, had a most noble father. With less respect than we do minister (ven Let but your honor know,

To our gross selves? Good, good mny lord, (Whom I believe to be most strait in virtue)

bethink

you; That in the working of your own affections, Who is it that hath dy'd for this offence? Had time coher'd with place, or place with - There's many have commited it. wishing,

Ang. The law hath not been dead, though Or that the resolute acting of your blood

it hath slept; Could have attain'd th effect of your own Those many had not dared to do that evil, purpose,

If the first inan that did th' edict infringe Whether you had not some time in your life

Had answer'd for his deed : now, 'tis awake; Err'd in this point, which now you censure him, Take note of what is done; and, like a prophet, And pulld the law upon you.

Looks in a glass, that shows what future evils Angelo. 'Tis one thing to be tempted, Es. (Or new, or by remissness new conceir’d, Another thing to fall. I not deny, [calus, | And so in progress to be hatch'd and born) The jury, passing on the pris'ner's life, Are now to have no successive degrees, May in the sworn twelve have a thief or two But, ere they live, to end. Guiltier than him they try; what's open made

Justice. To justice, that justice seizes. What know Isab. Yet show some pity. Cjustice; the laws

[pregnant, Ang. I show it most of all when I show That thieves do pass on thieves ? Tis very For then I pity those I do not know, The jewel that we find, we stoop and take it, Which a dismiss'd offence would after gall; Because we see it; but what we do not And do him right, that, answering one foul We tread upon, and never think of it.

Lives not to act another.

[wrong, You may not so extenuate his offence,

The Abuse of Authority.
For I have had such faults : but rather tell me,
When I that censure him do so offend,

Oh, 'tis excellent
Let mine own judgement pattern out iny death, To use it like a giant.

To have a giant's strength! but it is tyrannous And nothing come in pariial.

Great Men's Abuse of Power.
Mercy frequently mistaken.
Mercy is not itself, ihat oft looks so;

Could great men thunder,

(quiet; Pardon is still the nurse of second woe.

As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be

For ev'ry pelting, petty officer [but thunder! Not to be too hasty in Actions irremediable.

Would use his heav'n for thunder! Nothing Under your good correction I have seen

Merciful heav'n! When, after execution, judgement hath

Thou rather with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt Repented o'er his doom.

Split'st the unwedgable and gnarled oak, Bad Actions already condemned, the Actors to Than the soft myrtle. O, but man! proud man, be punished

Drest in a little brief authority, Condemn the fault, and not the actor of it? Most ignorant of what he's most assur'd, Why, every fault's condemn'd, ere it be done: His glassy essence-like an angry ape, Mine were the very cipher of a function, Plays such fantastic tricks before high Heav'n To fine the faults whose fine stands in record, As makes the angels weep; who, with our And let go by the actor.

Would all themselves laugh mortal. (spleens, Mercy in Governors recommended.

The Privilege of Authority. No ceremony that to great ones 'longs, We cannot weigh our brother with ourself. Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword, Great inen mayjest with saints; 'tiswit in then; The marshal's truncheon, nor the jurige's robe, But, in the less, foul profanation. Become them with one half so good a grace That in the captain's but a choleric word, As mercy does. If he had been as you, Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy.