Seem'd on our fide: But for their fpirits and fouls,
This word, rebellion, it had froze them up,
As fish are in a pond.
Shakespear's Second Part of King Henry IV.
Want made them murmur; for the people, who
To get their bread do wrestle with their fate,
Or those who in fuperfluous riot flow,
Sooneft rebel Convulfions in a state,
Like thofe, which nat'ral bodies do opprefs;
Rife from repletion, or from emptiness,
Aleyn's Henry VII.
But well-weigh'd reason told him, that when law
Either's renounc'd, or mifapply'd by th'awe
Of falfe nam'd patriots; that when the right
Of king and fubject is fupprefs'd by might;
When all religion either is refus'd
As mere pretence, or merely as that us'd;
When thus the fury of ambition fwells,
Who is not active, modeftly rebels.
This late commotion in your kingdom, fir,
Is like a growing wen upon the face ;
Which as we cannot look on but with trouble,
So take't away we cannot but with danger.
The vulgar in rebellion, are like
Unknown lands; thofe that firft poffefs them, have them.
About our beard, and are not worth the notice; Or if we crush them, they but foul our fingers: 'Tis noble prey deferves a prince's ftroak.
With claws bow'd in, and a close mouth, which only
She keeps for opportunity of prey.
I'll not fuch favour to rebellion fhew,
To wear a crown the people do beftow;
Who when their giddy violence is past,
Shall from the king th' ador'd, revolt at last;
And then the throne they gain, they shall invade,
And fcorn that idol which themselves have made.
200.263R E DRESS.
Crown's Charles VIII. of France.
When fwelling floods have overflown the town,
Too late it is to fave them that fhall drown.
G. Ferrers in the Mirror for Magiftrates.
1. Give me your hands all over, one by one.
2. And let us fwear our refolution.
1. No, not an oath: if that the face of men,
'The fuff'rance of our fouls, the time's abuse
If these be motives weak, break off betimes;
And ev'ry, man hence to his idle bed:
So, let high-fighted tyranny rage on,
Till each man drop by lott'ry. But if thefe,
As I am fure they do, bear fire enough
To kindle cowards, and to fteel with valour
The melting spirits of women; then countrymen,
What need we any fpur, but our own cause,
To prick us to redress? what other bond,
Than fecret Romans, that have spoke the word,
And will not palter? and what other oath,
Than honefty to honefty engag'd,
That this fhall be, or we will fall for it?
Swear priests and cowards, and men cautelous,
Old feeble carrions, and fuch fuff'ring fouls
That welcome wrongs: unto bad caufes, fwear
Such creatures as men doubt; but do not ftain
The even virtue of our enterprize,
Nor th' infuppreffive mettle of our spirits;
To think, that or our caufe, or our performance,
Did need an oath: when ev'ry drop of blood,
That ev'ry Roman bears, and nobly bears,
Is guilty of a feveral bastardy,
If he doth break the fmalleft particle
Of any promise that haft paft from him.
Skakefpear's Julius Cæfar.
The better, loathing courses fo impure,
Rather will like their wounds, than fuch a cure.
After this fhipwrack, I again must try
Some happier voyage, hopeful ftill to make :
'The plots that barren long we fee did lie,
Some fitting feafon plentifully take;
One fruitful harveft frankly doth restore,
What many winters hindred had before.
Drayton in the Mirror for Magiftrates.
The only way to falve a deep disease
Is to give what may cure, not what may pleafe;
Wherein delays prove worst: artists apply
Receipts, before diftempers grow too high.
Are you here, fir? does it become a king
To look upon affliction, and not ftrait
Redress it? the poor phyfician is fo nice
In the honour of his fcience, that he ne'er
Will vifit dying men: as if he were
Afham'd to look upon those inward wounds
He hath not skill to cure.
Sir W. Davenant's Fair Favourite. 1. Sir, I am pre-engag'd, let that fuffice. 2. The antidote's too late, to him who dies: Too late we take the taper from the fly, When he is burnt fo, that he needs muft die.
Dover's Roman Generals.
267.204. REFORMATION.
The king is full of grace and fair regard,
And a true lover of the holy church.
2. The courfes of his youth promis'd it not;
The breath no fooner left his father's body,
But that his wildness, mortify'd in him,
Seem'd to die too; yea, at that very moment,
Confideration, like an angel, came,
And whipp'd th'offending Adam out of him;
Leaving his body as a paradife,
T'invelope and contain celestial spirits.
Never was fuch a fudden scholar made:
Never came reformation in a flood
With fuch a heady current, fcow'ring faults:
Nor ever Hydra-headed wilfulness
So foon did lofe his feat, and all at once,
As in this king.
1. We're blessed in the change.
2. Hear him but reason in divinity,
And, all-admiring, with an inward wish
You would defire, the king were made a prelate:
Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs,
You'd fay, it hath been all in all his study;
Lift his discourse of war, and you shall hear
A fearful battle render'd you in mufick.
Turn him to any cause of policy,
The gordian knot of it he will unloofe,
Familiar as his garter. When he speaks,
The air, a charter'd libertine, is ftill;
And the mute wonder lurketh in mens ears,
To fteal his fweet and honied fentences:
So that the act, and practick part of life,
Must be the mistress to this rhetorick.
Which is a wonder how his grace fhould glean it,
Since his addition was to courfes vain ;
His companies unletter'd, rude and shallow;
His hours fill'd up with riots, banquets, sports;
And never noted in him any ftudy,
Any retirement, any fequeftration,
From open haunts and popularity.
1. The ftraw-berry grows underneath the nettle,
And wholesome berries thrive, and ripen best,
Neighbour'd by fruit of bafer quality:
And fo the prince obfcur'd his contemplation
Under the veil of wildness; which, no doubt,
Grew like the fummer-grafs, fafteft by night,
Unseen, yet crefcive in his faculty.
2. It must be fo; for miracles are ceas'd:
And therefore we muft needs admit the means,
How things are perfected.
Shakespear's King Henry V.
I know you all, and will awhile uphold
The un-yok'd humour of your idleness,
Yet herein will I imitate the fun,
Who doth permit the bafe contagious clouds
To fmother up his beauty from the world
That when he pleases again to be himself;
Being wanted, he may be more wonder'd at,
By breaking through the foul and ugly mists
Of vapours, that did seem to ftrangle him.
If all the year were playing holidays,
The fport would be as tedious as to work;
But when they feldom come, they wish'd-for come,
And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents :
So when this loose behaviour I throw off,
And pay the debt I never promised;
By how much better than my word I am,
By fo much fhall I falfify men's hopes;
And, like bright metal on a fullen ground,
My reformation, glitt'ring o'er my fault,
Shall fhew more goodly, and attract more eyes,
Than that which hath no foil to fet it off.
I'll fo offend, to make offence a skill;
Redeeming time, when men think leaft I will.
Shakespear's Firft Part of King Henry IV.
Formless themselves, reforming do pretend;
As if confufion could diforder mend.
For never headftrong reformation will
Reft, till to th' extreme oppofite it run,
And over-run, the mean distrusted still,
As b'ing too near of kin to that men fhun:
For good and bad, and all, must be one ill,
When once there is another truth begun.
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