Whereof by parcels she had something heard, She swore in faith, 'twas strange, 'twas passing strange; 'Twas pitiful; 'twas wond'rous pitiful; She wish'd she had not heard it; yet she wish'd [me, That heaven had made her such a man. She thank'd And that would woo her. On this hint I spake ; IX.-Henry IV's Soliloquy on Sleep. SHAKESPEAre. Why rather, sleep, liest thou in smoaky cribs, And hush'd with buzzing night flies to thy slumber. And lull'd with sounds of sweetest melody? Who take the ruffian billiows by the tops, And in the calmest and the stillest night, X.-Capt. Bobadil's Method of defeating an Army. I WILL tell you, Sir, by the way of private and under seal, I am a gentleman; and live here obscure, and to myself; but were I known to his Majesty and the Lords, observe me, I would undertake, upon this poor head and live, for the public benefit of the state, not only to spare the entire lives of his subjects in general, but to save the one half, nay three fourths of his yearly charge in holding war, and against what enemy soever. And how would I do it, think you? Why thus, Sir.-I would se lect nineteen more to myself, throughout the land; gentlemen they should be; of good spirit, strong and able constitution. I would choose them by an instinct that I have. And I would teach these nineteen the special rules; as your Punto, your Reverso, your Stoccata, your Imbroccata, your Passada, your Montonto; till they could all play very near, or altogether, as well as myself. This done: say the enemy were forty thousand strong. twenty would come into the field, the tenth of March, or thereabouts, and we would challenge twenty of the enemy; they could not, in their honour, refuse us. Well-we would kill them; challenge twenty more-kill them; twenty more-kill them; twenty more-kill them too. And thus, would we kill every man, his ten a day-that's ten -score: Ten score-that's two hundred; two hundred a day-five days, a thousand: Forty thousand-forty times five-five times forty-two hundred days kill them all up by computation. And this I will venture my poor gentlemanlike carcase to perform (provided there be no treason practised upon us) by fair and discreet manhood; that is civilly-by the sword. We XI-Soliloquy of Hamlet's Uncle, on the Murder of his OH! my offence is rank; it smells to heaven; A brother's murder!-Pray I cannot, And what's in prayer, but this twofold force? Or pardon'd being down? Then I'll look up. But 'tis not so above. there the action lies Yet what can it, when one cannot repent? Art more engag'd! Help, angels! Make assay ! All may be well. XII.-Soliloquy of Hamlet on Death-IB. that is the question, Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The flings and arrows of outrageous fortune- No more? And, by a sleep, to say we end That flesh is heir to. Devoutly to be wish'd. To die-to sleep To sleep, perchance to dream-ay, there's the rub- Must give us pause. -There's the respect, For, who would bear the whips and scorns of time, And makes us rather bear those ills we have, Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought; XIII.-Falstaff's Encomium on Sack.-HENRY IV. A GOOD sherris sack hath a twofold operation in it It ascends me into the brain; dries me there, all the fool ish, dull and crudy vapours which environ it; makes it apprehensive, quick, inventive; full of nimble, fiery and delectable shapes; which delivered over to the voice, the tongue, which is the birth, becomes excellent wit. second property of your excellent sherris, is the warming of the blood; which, before, cold and settled, left the liver white and pale, which is the badge of pusillanimity and cow. ardice. But the sherris warms it, and makes it course from the inwards to the parts extreme. It illuminateth the face; which, as a beacon, gives warning to all the rest of The this little kingdom, man, to arm; and then, the vital commoners, and inland petty spirits, muster me all to their captain, the heart; who great and puffed up with this retinue, doth any deed of courage-and this valour comes of sherris. So that skill in the weapon is nothing without sack, for that sets it awork; and learning, a mere hoard of gold kept by a devil till sack commences it, and sets it in act and use. Hereof comes it that Prince Harry is valiant; for the cold blood he did naturally inherit of his father, he hath, like lean, sterile and bare land, manured husbanded and tilled, with drinking good, and a good store of fertile sherris. If I had a thousand sons, the first human principle I would teach them, should be-to for swear thin potations, and to adict themselves to sack. XIV.-Prologue to the Tragedy of Cato.-POPE. Who hears him groan, and does not wish to bleed è |