DRAMATIC, CHIEFLY

§ 1. ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. SHAKSPEARE.

Advice.

BE E thou bleft, Bertram, and fucceed thy father, In manners as in shape; thy blood and virtue Contend for empire in thee, and thy goodness Share with thy birth-right. Love all; truft a few;

Do wrong to none; be able for thine enemy
Rather in power than ufe; and keep thy friend
Under the own life's key: be check'd for filence,
But never tax'd for fpeech. What Heaven more
will
[down,
That thee may furnish, and my prayers pluck
Fall on thy head!

Too ambitions Love.

I am undone; there is no living, none, If Bertram be away. It were all one, That I fhould love a bright particular star, And think to wed it, he is fo above me! In his bright radiance and collateral light Muft I be comforted, not in his sphere. Th' ambition in my love thus plagues itfelf: The hind that would be mated by the lion Muft die for love. 'Twas pretty, tho' a plague, To fee him every hour; to fit and draw His arched brows, his hawking eye, his curls, In our heart's table: heart, too capable Of every line and trick of his fweet favour! But now he's gone, and my idolatrous fancy Muft fanctify his relics.

A parafitical, vain Coward.

I know him a notorious liar; Think him a great way fool, folely a coward; Yet thefe fix'd evils fit fo fit in him, That they take place, when virtue's ftcely bones Look bleak in the cold wind: withal, full oft we

fee

Cold wifdom waiting on fuperfluous folly.

FROM SHAKSPEARE.

The Remedy of Evils generally in ourselves. Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, Which we afcribe to Heav'n. The fated sky Gives us free fcope; only doth backward pull Our flow defigns, when we ourselves are dull. Impoffible be strange attempts to those

That weigh their pain in fenfe, and do suppose What hath been cannot be. Who ever ftrove To fhew her merit, that did mifs her love?

Character of a noble Courtier, by an old Cotemporary.

King. I would I had that corporal foundness

now,

As when thy father and myself in friendship
First tried our foldierfhip! He did look far
Into the fervice of the time, and was
Difcipled of the braveft. He lasted long;
But on us both did haggish age steal on,
And wore us out of act. It much repairs me
To talk of your good father. In his youth
He had the wit which I can well obferve
To-day in our young Lords; but they may jeft
Till their own fcorn return to them unnoted,
Ere they can hide their levity in honour :
Were in his pride or fharpnefs; if they were,
So like a courtier, no contempt or bitterness
His equal had awak'd them: and his honour,
Clock to itfelf, knew the true minute when
Exception bid him speak; and at that time
His tongue obey'd his hand. Who were below
He us'd as creatures of another place, [him
And bow'd his eminent top to their low ranks,
Making them proud of his humility.

In their poor praise he humbled: fuch a man
Might be a copy to these younger times,
Which, follow'd well, would demonftrate them
But goers backward.
[now
Would I were with him!-He would always

fay(Methinks I hear him now) his plaufive words Na

He