To draw no envy, Shakespeare, on thy name,
Am I thus ample to thy book and fame;
While I confess thy writings to be such
As neither man nor Muse can praise too much.* * * * *
Soul of the age!
The applause, delight, the wonder of our stage!
My Shakespeare, rise! I will not lodge thee by
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From “As You Like It,” Act II. Sc. 7.
ALL the world ’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His Acts being seven ages. At first the Infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
Then the whining School-boy, with his... -
From “Antony and Cleopatra,” Act II. Sc. 2.
ENOBARBUS.—The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne,
Burned on the water: the poop was beaten gold;
Purple the sails, and so perfumèd that
The winds were lovesick with them; the oars were silver,
Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made
The water, which they beat, to follow faster,... -
From “Epicœne; or, the Silent Woman,” Act I. Sc. 1.
STILL to be neat, still to be drest,
As you were going to a feast;
Still to be powdered, still perfumed,—
Lady, it is to be presumed,
Though art’s hid causes are not found,
All is not sweet, all is not sound.Give me a look, give me a face,
That makes simplicity a grace;... -
From “King John,” Act V. Sc. 7.
THIS England never did, nor never shall,
Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror,* * * * *
Come the three corners of the world in arms,
And we shall shock them. Nought shall make us rue,
If England to itself do rest but true. -
From “Tamburlaine”
TAMBURLAINE.—But now, my boys, leave off and list to me,
That mean to teach you rudiments of war:
I ’ll have you learn to sleep upon the ground,
March in your armor through watery fens,
Sustain the scorching heat and freezing cold,
Hunger and thirst, right adjuncts of the war,
And after this to scale a castle wall,... -
From “Epigrams,” Book IV. Epigram 6
I PRAISED the speech, but cannot now abide it,
That warre is sweet to those that have not try’d it;
For I have proved it now and plainly see ’t,
It is so sweet, it maketh all things sweet.
At home Canaric wines and Greek grow lothsome;
Here milk is nectar, water tasteth toothsome.
There without baked,... -
[1415]
fair stood the wind for France,
When we our sails advance,
Nor now to prove our chance
Longer will tarry;
But putting to the main,
At Kause, the mouth of Seine,
With all his martial train,
Landed King Harry,And taking many a fort,
Furnished in warlike sort,
Marchèd towards Agincourt... -
[1415]
From “King Henry V.,” Act III. Sc. 1.
ONCE more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead!
In peace, there ’s nothing so becomes a man,
As modest stillness, and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon... -
From “King Richard III.,” Act I. Sc. 1.
NOW is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York,
And all the clouds that lowered upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths;
Our bruisèd arms hung up for monuments;
Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings,...