From “As You Like It,” Act II. Sc. 5.

      UNDER the greenwood tree
      Who loves to lie with me,
      And tune his merry note
      Unto the sweet bird’s throat,
Come hither, come hither, come hither;
      Here shall he see
      No...

From “Cymbeline,” Act II. Sc. 3.
HARK, hark! the lark at heaven’s gate sings,
    And Phœbus ’gins arise,
His steeds to water at those springs
    On chaliced flowers that lies;
And winking Mary-buds begin
    To ope their golden eyes;
With...

From “The Tempest,” Act I. Sc. 2.
I.
COME unto these yellow sands,
    And then take hands;
Court’sied when you have, and kissed.
    (The wild waves whist!)
Foot it featly here and there;
And, sweet sprites, the burthen bear.
    ...

From “The Tempest,” Act IV. Sc. 1.
OUR revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air;
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,
...

From “The Faërie Queene,” Book I. Canto I.
  A GENTLE Knight was pricking on the plaine,
  Ycladd in mightie armes and silver shielde,
  Wherein old dints of deepe woundes did remaine,
  The cruell markes of many a bloody fielde;
  Yet armes till that time...

From “The Faërie Queene,” Book I. Canto III.
  ONE day, nigh wearie of the yrkesome way,
  From her unhastie beast she did alight;
  And on the grasse her dainty limbs did lay
  In secrete shadow, far from all mens sight;
  From her fayre head her fillet...

From “The Faërie Queene,” Book II. Canto XII.
  THERE the most daintie paradise on ground
  Itselfe doth offer to his sober eye,
  In which all pleasures plenteously abownd,
  And none does others happinesse envye;
  The painted flowres; the trees...

From “The Faërie Queene,” Book I. Canto I.
  HE, making speedy way through spersèd ayre,
  And through the world of waters wide and deepe,
  To Morpheus house doth hastily repaire,
  Amid the bowels of the earth full steepe,
  And low, where dawning day...

Sonnet Xii.
when I do count the clock that tells the time,
And see the brave day sunk in hideous night;
When I behold the violet past prime,
And sable curls all silvered o’er with white;
When lofty trees I see barren of leaves,
Which erst from heat...

How happy is he born and taught
  That serveth not another’s will;
Whose armor is his honest thought,
  And simple truth his utmost skill!

Whose passions not his masters are;
  Whose soul is still prepared for death,
Not tied unto the world with...