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924

AGENOR-MEDON-ION

ELCOME to the morn!

Age. WE

Me.

the eastern gates unfold, the Priest approaches; and lo! the sun is struggling with the gloom, whose masses fill the eastern sky, and tints its edges with dull red:—but he will triumph; bless'd be the omen!

God of light and joy,
once more refresh us with thy healing beams!
if I may trace thy language in the clouds

that wait upon thy rising, help is nigh-
but help achieved in blood.

Sayst thou in blood?

Ion.
Me. Yes, Ion !-why, he sickens at the word,

spite of his new-born strength;-the sights of woe
that he will seek have shed their paleness on him.
Has this night's walk shown more than common
sorrow?

Ion. I passed the palace where the frantic king yet holds his crimson revel, whence the roar of desperate mirth comes mingling with the sigh of death-subdued robustness, and the gleam of festal lamps 'mid spectral columns hung flaunting o'er shapes of anguish made them ghastlier. How can I cease to tremble for the sad ones he mocks-and him the wretchedest of all?

T. N. TALFOURD

925

FOR

LAERTES TO OPHELIA

OR Hamlet, and the trifling of his favour,
hold it a fashion, and a toy in blood;

a violet in the youth of primy nature,
forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting,
the pérfume and suppliance of a minute.

Then weigh what loss your honour may sustain,
if with too credent ear you list his songs;

or lose your heart; or your chaste treasure open
to his unmaster'd importunity.

926

Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister;
and keep you in the rear of your affection,
out of the shot and danger of desire.
The chariest maid is prodigal enough,
if she unmask her beauty to the moon:
virtue itself scapes not calumnious strokes:
the canker galls the infants of the spring,
too oft before their buttons be disclos'd;
and in the morn and liquid dew of youth
contagious blastments are most imminent.
Be wary then; best safety lies in fear;
youth to itself rebels, though none else near.

SINC

W. SHAKESPEARE

DESCRIPTION OF A PESTILENCE

INCE Egypt's plagues did never rage disease so sore and so invincible by art,

so varied in its forms and in its signs

so unintelligibly strange: in some

the fever keeps its course from first to last;

in others intermits: here suddenly

the patient's head is seiz'd with racking pains;
the intervals of pain, if such there be,
afford him no repose, but he is still
dejected, restless, of a hopeless mind,
indifferent to all incidents and objects,
or in his understanding too confused
to see or apprehend them: first the face
is red and flush'd, with large and fiery eyes;
then is it dropsical and deathly pale.

Sometimes such shudderings seize upon the frame
that the bed shakes beneath it, and with that
the breath is check'd with sobbings as from colds;
then comes a thick dark crust upon the lips,
and tongue, and teeth; the fatal hiccough next.
Some die in struggles and strong agonies;
some in a lethargy; whilst others wake

as from a dream, shake off the fit, look round,
and with collected senses and calm speech
tell the by-standers that their hour is come.

H. TAYLOR

927 KNOWELL'S ADVICE TO MASTER STEPHEN A COUNTRY-GULL

928

EARN to be wise, and practise how to thrive ;

LEARN to be wise, a you do: and not to spend

your coin on every bauble that you fancy,
or every foolish brain that humours you.
I would not have you to invade each place,
nor thrust yourself on all societies,
till men's affections, or your own desert,
should worthily invite you to your rank.
He that is so respectless in his courses,
oft sells his reputation at cheap market.
Nor would I, you should melt away yourself
in flashing bravery, lest, while you affect
to make a blaze of gentry to the world,
a little puff of scorn extinguish it,
and you be left like an unsavoury snuff,
whose property is only to offend.

I'd have you sober, and contain yourself;
not that your sail be bigger than your boat;
but moderate your expenses now, at first,
as you may keep the same proportion still,
nor stand so much on your gentility,

which is an airy and mere borrowed thing,

from dead men's dust and bones; and none of yours except you make, or hold it.

BEN JONSON

Elid.

Vel.

ELIDURUS-AULUS DIDIUS-VELLINUS

NOW that thou stand'st on consecrated ground:
these mighty piles of magic-planted rock,

thus ranged in mystic order, mark the place
where but at times of holiest festival

the Druid leads his train. Aul. Did. Where dwells

the seer?

In yonder shaggy cave; on which the moon

now sheds a side-long gleam. His brotherhood
possess the neighbouring cliffs. A. D. Yet up the hill
mine eye descries a distant range of caves,
delved in the ridges of the craggy steep:
and this way still another.

Elid.

On the left reside the sages skill'd in Nature's lore: the changeful universe, its numbers, powers, studious they measure, save when meditation gives place to holy rites: then in the grove each hath his rank and function. Yonder grots are tenanted by bards, who nightly thence, rob'd in their flowing vests of innocent white, descend, with harps that glitter to the moon, hymning immortal strains. The spirits of air, of earth, of water, nay of heav'n itself, do listen to their lay, and oft, 'tis said, in visible shapes dance they a magic round to the high minstrelsy.

W. MASON

929

CENONE TO PARIS

ND whereon then shall be my roundelay?

AND

for thou hast heard my store long since, dare say;

how Saturn did divide his kingdom tho,

to Jove, to Neptune, and to Dis below;

how mighty men made foul successless war,
against the gods, and state of Jupiter;

how Phorcys' imp, that was so trick and fair,
that tangled Neptune in her golden hair,
became a Gorgon for her lewd misdeed,

a pretty fable, Paris, for to read;

how Plato raught Queen Ceres' daughter thence, and what did follow of that love offence;

of Daphne turned into the laurel tree,

that shews a mirror of virginity;

how fair Narcissus, tooting on his shade,

reproves disdain, and tells how form doth vade;
how cunning Philomela's needle tells,

what force in love, what wit in sorrow dwells;
what pains unhappy souls abide in hell,
they say because on earth they liv'd not well;
Ixion's wheel, proud Tantal's pining woe,
Promethus' torment and a many moe;
how Danaus' daughters ply their endless task;
what toil the toil of Sisyphus doth ask.

G. PEELE

930 THE PATRIARCH OF THE GREEK CHURCH-NICEPHORUS BOTONIATES EMPEROR OF THE EAST

Pat. will abet your majesty in all,

PEAK but the word at once, the blow shall follow.

so it be sudden. Whatsoe'er is fear'd

in states is dangerous. The man is bold,
his friends are many; and it were not safe
to warn him retribution is at hand.

Nic. That is my fear: for he is not like all.
There is a desperate carelessness of life

in him which oft secures it when most menaced. Pat. His friends are not as he is. Him removed, they straight are nothing.

Nic. How canst thou divide them? Pat. My liege, 'twere easy, as I said, if sudden. But let a rumour of our aim go forth, and him made desperate at the head of friends whom he knows well the art, when at their head, to keep as firm as rocks, whom else each wind would shake adrift like waves-this suffered, sire, I answer not for what might then betide. Know you not there are maladies in men which in their rise were easy to be cured were they but known; whereof when clear become the diagnostics, difficult is the cure. For treason timely treatment.

H. TAYLOR

931

Pro.

SAY

AY, my spirit,

Ari.

PROSPERO

how fares the king and his?

Confin'd together
in the same fashion as you gave in charge;
just as you left them, Sir; all prisoners

in the line grove which weather-fends your cell;
they cannot budge, till you release. The king,
his brother, and yours, abide all three distracted;
and the remainder mourning over them,
brim-full of sorrow, and dismay; but chiefly
him you term'd, Sir, The good old lord, Gonzalo;
his tears run down his beard, like winter's drops

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