The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny.
Citizens. We'll mutiny.

First Citizen. We'll burn the house of Brutus.

Third Citizen.

conspirators.

Away, then! come, seek the

Antony. Yet hear me, countrymen; yet hear me speak.

Citizens.

Peace, ho-Hear Antony,-most

noble Antony.

Antony. Why, friends, you go to do you know not what.

Wherein hath Caesar thus deserv'd your loves? Alas! you know not: I must tell you then. You have forgot the will I told you of.

Citizens. Most true. The will! let's stay and hear the will.

Antony. Here is the will, and under Caesar's seal, To every Roman citizen he gives,

To every several man, seventy-five drachmas. Second Citizen. Most noble Caesar! we'll revenge his death.

Third Citizen. O royal Caesar!

Antony. Hear me with patience.
Citizens. Peace, ho!

Antony. Moreover, he hath left you all his walks,
His private arbours, and new-planted orchards,
On this side Tiber; he hath left them you,
And to your heirs for ever; common pleasures,
To walk abroad, and recreate yourselves.
Here was a Caesar! when comes such another?
First Citizen. Never, never! Come, away, away!
We'll burn his body in the holy place,

And with the brands fire the traitors' houses.
Take up the body.

Second Citizen. Go fetch fire.

Third Citizen. Pluck down benches.

Fourth Citizen. Pluck down forms, windows, any [Exeunt Citizens, with the body. Antony. Now let it work: mischief, thou art

thing.

afoot,

Take thou what course thou wilt!

Julius Caesar, III. ii.

II. OTHELLO. HOW HE WON THE LOVE OF
DESDEMONA

Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors,
My very noble and approv'd good masters,
That I have ta'en away this old man's daughter,
It is most true; true, I have married her:
The very head and front of my offending
Hath this extent, no more. Rude am I in my
speech,

And little bless'd with the soft phrase of peace;
For since these arms of mine had seven years' pith,
Till now some nine moons wasted, they have us'd
Their dearest action in the tented field;

And little of this great world can I speak,
More than pertains to feats of broil and battle ;
And therefore little shall I grace my cause

In speaking for myself. Yet, by your gracious patience,

I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver

Of my whole course of love; what drugs, what charms,

What conjuration, and what mighty magic,
For such proceeding I am charg'd withal,

I won his daughter. . .

pith] strength, vigour.

Her father lov'd me; oft invited me;
Still question'd me the story of my life

From year to year, the battles, sieges, fortunes
That I have pass'd.

I ran it through, even from my boyish days
To the very moment that he bade me tell it;
Wherein I spake of most disastrous chances,
Of moving accidents by flood and field,

Of hair-breadth 'scapes i' the imminent deadly breach,

Of being taken by the insolent foe

And sold to slavery, of my redemption thence
And portance in my travel's history;

Wherein of antres vast and desarts idle,
Rough quarries, rocks and hills whose heads touch
heaven,

It was my hint to speak, such was the process;
And of the Cannibals that each other eat,
The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders. This to hear
Would Desdemona seriously incline;

But still the house-affairs would draw her thence;
Which ever as she could with haste dispatch,
She'd come again, and with a greedy ear

Devour up my discourse. Which I observing,
Took once a pliant hour, and found good means
To draw from her a prayer of earnest heart
That I would all my pilgrimage dilate,
Whereof by parcels she had something heard,
But not intentively; I did consent;
And often did beguile her of her tears,
When I did speak of some distressful stroke

portance] conduct. antres] caverns. intentively] with unbroken attention.

idle] barren.

That my youth suffer'd. My story being done,
She gave me for my pains a world of sighs:
She swore, in faith, 'twas strange, 'twas passing
strange;

'Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful:

She wish'd she had not heard it, yet she wish'd That heaven had made her such a man; she thank'd me,

And bade me, if I had a friend that lov'd her,
I should but teach him how to tell my story,
And that would woo her. Upon this hint I spake :
She lov'd me for the dangers I had pass'd,
And I lov'd her that she did pity them.
This only is the witchcraft I have us'd:
Here comes the lady; let her witness it.

Othello, I. iii.

III. AGAMEMNON AND NESTOR

Agamemnon. Princes,

What grief hath set the jaundice on your cheeks? The ample proposition that hope makes

In all designs begun on earth below

Fails in the promis'd largeness: checks and disasters

Grow in the veins of actions highest rear'd;
As knots, by the conflux of meeting sap,
Infect the sound pine and divert his grain
Tortive and errant from his course of growth.
Nor, princes, is it matter new to us

That we come short of our suppose so far

Tortive] distorted.

suppose] supposition.

That after seven years' siege yet Troy walls stand;
Sith every action that hath gone before,
Whereof we have record, trial did draw
Bias and thwart, not answering the aim,
And that unbodied figure of the thought
That gave 't surmised shape. Why then, you princes,
Do you
with cheeks abash'd behold our works,
And call them shames? which are indeed nought
else

But the protractive trials of great Jove,
To find persistive constancy in men:

The fineness of which metal is not found

In Fortune's love; for then, the bold and coward,
The wise and fool, the artist and unread,
The hard and soft, seem all affin'd and kin :
But, in the wind and tempest of her frown,
Distinction, with a broad and powerful fan,
Puffing at all, winnows the light away;
And what hath mass or matter, by itself
Lies rich in virtue and unmingled.

Nestor. With due observance of thy god-like seat, Great Agamemnon, Nestor shall apply

Thy latest words. In the reproof of chance
Lies the true proof of men: the sea being smooth,
How many shallow bauble boats dare sail
Upon her patient breast, making their way
With those of nobler bulk!

But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage

The gentle Thetis, and anon behold

The strong-ribb'd bark through liquid mountains cut,

Bounding between the two moist elements,

Like Perseus' horse: where's then the saucy boat

reproof] confutation, refutation.