nation. Lafin, it will be observed, hints at the skill in magic which he was supposed to possess, and the duke supposed to believe in."
Byr. Here is the man. My honour'd friend, Lafin, Alone and heavy-count'nanced! On what terms
Stood th' insultation of the king upon you?
Laf. Why do you ask?
Byr. Since I would know the truth.
Laf. And when you know it, what?
Byr. I'll judge betwixt you,
And, as I may, make even th' excess of either.
Laf. Alas, my lord, not all your loyalty,
Which is in you more than hereditary,
Nor all your valour, which is more than human,
Can do the service you may hope on me,
In sounding my displeased integrity.
Stand for the king, as much in policy
As have stirr'd for him in deeds of arms,
you
And make yourself his glory, and your country's,
Till you be suck'd as dry, and wrought as lean
As my flay'd carcass: you shall never close
With me as you imagine.
Byr. You much wrong me
To think me an intelligencing lord.
Laf. I know not how your so affected zeal
To be reputed a true-hearted subject
May stretch or turn you. I am desperate;
If I offend you, I am in
your power:
I care not how I tempt your conq'ring fury ;
I am predestined to too base an end
To have the honour of your wrath destroy me,
And be a worthy object for your sword.
I lay my hand, and head too, at your feet,
As I have ever; here I hold it still:
End me directly, do not go about.
Byr. How strange is this! The shame of his disgrace Hath made him lunatick.
Laf. Since the king hath wrong'd me,
He thinks I'll hurt myself: no, no, my lord;
I know that all the kings in Christendom,
If they should join in my revenge, would prove
Weak foes to him, still having you to friend.
If you were gone (I care not if you tell him)
I might be tempted then to right myself.
Byr. He has a will to me, and dares not shew it: His state decay'd, and he disgraced, distracts him.
Laf. Change not my words, my lord. I only said I might be tempted then to right myselfTemptation to treason is no treason;
And that word "tempted" was conditional too,
If you were gone. I pray inform the truth.
Byr. Stay, injured man, and know I am your friend. Far from these base and mercenary reaches
I am, I swear to you.
Laf. You may be so;
And yet you'll give me leave to be Lafin,
A poor and expuate humour of the court:
But what good blood came out with me; what veins
And sinews of the triumphs now it makes,
I list not vaunt; yet will I now confess,
And dare assume it, I have power to add
To all his greatness, and make yet more fix'd
His bold security. Tell him this, my lord;
And this (if all the spirits of earth and air
Be able to enforce) I can make good.
If knowledge of the sure events of things,
Even from the rise of subjects into kings,
And falls of kings to subjects, hold a power
Of strength to work it, I can make it good.
And tell him this too: if in midst of winter
To make black groves grow green; to still the thunder;
And cast out able flashes from mine eyes,
To beat the light'ning back into the skies,
Prove power to do it, I can make it good.
And tell him this too: if to lift the sea
Up to the stars, when all the winds are still,
And keep it calm when they are most enraged;
To make earth's driest palms sweat humorous springs ;
To make fix'd rocks walk, and loose shadows stand;
To make the dead speak; midnight see the sun ;
Mid-day turn midnight; to dissolve all laws
Of nature and of order-argue power
Able to work all, I can make all good;
And all this tell the king.
Byr. 'Tis more than strange,
To see you stand thus at the rapier's point
With one so kind and sure a friend as I.
Laf. Who cannot friend himself, is foe to any,
And to be fear'd of all, and that is it
Makes me so scorn'd: but make me what you can,
Never so wicked and so full of fiends,
I never yet was traitor to my friends.
The laws of friendship I have ever held
As my religion; and, for other laws,
He is a fool that keeps them with more care
Than they keep him, rich, safe, and popular.
For riches and for popular respects
Take them amongst ye, minions; but for safety
You shall not find the least flaw in mine arms,
To pierce or taint me. What will great men be
To please the king, and bear authority!
Byr. How fit a sort were this to hansel fortune!
And I will win it though I lose myself.
Though he prove harder than Egyptian marble,
I'll make him malleable as th' Ophir gold."
"The following speech of Henry is, I think, eminently wise, humane, and, as a poetical composition, truly beautiful. Roiseau has just described the attempts to seduce the duke."
Hen. It may be he dissembled, or, suppose
He be a little tainted: men whom virtue
Forms with the stuff of fortune, great and gracious,
Must needs partake with fortune in her humour
Of instability; and are like shafts
Grown crook'd with standing, which to rectify
Must twice as much be bow'd another way.
He that hath borne wounds for his worthy parts,
Must for his worst be borne with. We must fit
Our government to men, as men to it.
In old time, they that hunted savage beasts
Are said to clothe themselves in savage skins:
They that were fowlers, when they went on fowling,
Wore garments made with wings resembling fowls:
To bulls we must not shew ourselves in red,
Nor to the warlike elephant in white.
In all things govern'd, their infirmities
Must not be stirr'd, nor wrought on.
Flows with adust and melancholy choler,
And melancholy spirits are venomous,
Not to be touch'd but as they may be cured.
I therefore mean to make him change the air,
And send him further from those Spanish vapours,
That still bear fighting sulphur in their breasts,
To breathe awhile in temperate English air,
Whose lips are spiced with free and loyal counsels;
Where policies are not ruinous but saving;
Wisdom is simple, valour righteous,
Humane, and hating facts of brutish force,
And whose grave natures scorn the scoffs of France,
The empty compliments of Italy,
The any-way encroaching pride of Spain,
And love men modest, hearty, just, and plain."
"But," resumed Egeria, "it is not my intention to analyze the play; I shall therefore only read to you one or two of the similes.-The state of a man whose fortunes have shot beyond the foundation of his merits is thus magnificently compared :"
"As you may see a mighty promontory,
More digg'd and under-eaten than may warrant
A safe supportance to his hanging brows,
avoid him ; shun all ground
passengers
That lies within his shadow, and bear still
A flying eye upon him; so great men,
Corrupted in their grounds, and building out
Too swelling fronts for their foundations,
When most they should be propp'd are most forsaken,
And men will rather thrust into the storms
Of better-grounded states, than take a shelter
Beneath their ruinous and fearful weight;
Yet they so oversee their faulty bases,
That they remain securer in conceit;
And that security doth worse presage
Their near destruction, than their eaten grounds.”
"And I think the following description of a horse very spirited :—it is Byron's comparison of his own manner."
"To whom I came, methought, with such a spirit
you have seen a lusty courser shew,
That hath been long time at his manger tied,
High fed, alone, and when, his head-stall broken,
He runs his prison, like a trumpet neighs,
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