I ran it through, even from my boyish days To the very moment that he bade me tell it. Wherein I spoke 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 with it all my travel's history;
Wherein of antres vast, and deserts wild,
Rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads touch heaven,
It was my hint to speak.-All these to hear
Would Desdemona seriously incline:
But still the house-affairs would draw her thence, Which ever as she could with haste despatch, 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 distinctively. I did consent, And often did beguile her of her tears, When I did speak of some distressful stroke
That my youth suffered. My story being done,
She gave me for my pains a world of sighs:
She said, 'twas strange, indeed, 'twas passing strange;
'Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful
She wished she had not heard it—yet she wished
That Heaven had made her such a man: she thanked me,
And bade me, if I had a friend that loved her,
I should but teach him how to tell my story,
And that would woo her. On this hint I spake :
She loved me for the dangers I had past;
And I loved her, that she did pity them.
This only is the witchcraft I have used.
9.-CASSIUS AGAINST CÆSAR.
I CANNOT tell what you and other men 'Think of this life; but for my single self, I had as lief not be, as live to be
In awe of such a thing as I myself.
I was born free as Cæsar; so were you: We both have fed as well; and we can both Endure the winter's cold as well as he. For once, upon a raw and gusty day,
The troubled Tiber chafing with her shores, Cæsar said to me, Darest thou, Cassius, now Leap in with me into this angry flood, And swim to yonder point?--Upon the word, Accoutred as I was, I plunged in,
And bade him follow: so indeed he did. The torrent roared, and we did buffet it With lusty sinews; throwing it aside, And stemming it with hearts of controversy. But ere we could arrive the point proposed, Cæsar cried, Help me, Cassius, or I sink. I, as Æneas, our great ancestor,
Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder
The old Anchises bear, so from the waves of Tiber
Did I the tired Cæsar: and this man
Is now become a god; and Cassius is
A wretched creature, and must bend his body If Cæsar carelessly but nod on him. He had a fever when he was in Spain,
And, when the fit was on him, I did mark
How he did shake: 'tis true, this god did shake; His coward lips did from their colour fly;
And that same eye, whose bend does awe the world, Did lose its lustre: I did hear him groan: Ay, and that tongue of his, that bade the Romans Mark him, and write his speeches in their books, Alas! it cried, Give me some drink, Titinius, As a sick girl. Ye gods, it doth amaze me, A man of such a feeble temper should So get the start of the majestic world, And bear the palm alone.
Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world Like a Colossus, and we petty men Walk under his huge legs, and peep about To find ourselves dishonourable graves. Men at some time are masters of their fates: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
Brutus and Cæsar: What should be in that Cæsar? Why should that name be sounded more than yours? Write them together, yours is as fair a name; Sound them, it doth become the mouth as well; Weigh them, it is as heavy; conjure with them, Brutus will start a spirit as soon as Cæsar. Now, in the names of all the gods at once, Upon what meat does this our Cæsar feed, That he is grown so great? Age, thou art shamed! Rome, thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods! When went there by an age, since the great flood, But it was famed with more than with one man? When could they say, till now, that talked of Rome, That her wide walls encompassed but one man? O! you and I have heard our fathers say,
There was a Brutus once, that would have brooked The eternal devil to keep his state in Rome, As easily as a king.
ARGIVES! I have a boon
To crave of you;-whene'er I shall rejoin In death the father from whose heart in life Stern fate divided me, think gently of him! For ye who saw him in his full-blown pride, Knew little of affections crushed within, And wrongs which frenzied him; yet never more Let the great interests of the state depend Upon the thousand chances that may sway A piece of human frailty! Swear to me That ye will seek hereafter in yourselves The means of sovereign rule :-our narrow space, So happy in its confines, so compact,
Needs not the magic of a single name
Which wider regions may require to draw Their interests into one; but, circled thus, Like a blessed family by simple laws, May tenderly be governed; all degrees
Moulded together as a single form
Of nymph-like loveliness, which finest chords Of sympathy pervading, shall suffuse
In times of quiet with one bloom, and fill With one resistless impulse, if the hosts
Of foreign power should threaten. Gracious gods! In whose mild service my glad youth was spent, Look on me now;-and if there is a power,
As at this solemn time I feel there is,
Beyond ye, that hath breathed through all your shapes The spirit of the beautiful that lives
In earth and heaven;-to ye I offer up This conscious being, full of life and love For my dear country's welfare.
11.-THE DUKE ARANZA TO JULIANA, FROM
I'LL have no glittering gewgaws stuck about you To stretch the gaping eyes of idiot wonder, And make men stare upon a piece of earth As on the star-wrought firmament-no feathers To wave as streamers to your vanity-
Nor cumbrous silk, that, with its rustling sound, Makes proud the flesh that bears it. She's adorned Amply, that in her husband's eye looks lovely— The truest mirror that an honest wife
A half-blown rose stuck in thy braided hair, With no more diamonds than those eyes are made of, No deeper rubies than compose thy lips,
Nor pearls more precious than inhabit them;
With the pure red and white, which that same hand Which blends the rainbow mingles in thy cheeks; This well-proportioned form (think not I flatter) In graceful motion to harmonious sounds, And thy free tresses dancing in the wind, Thou 'lt fix as much observance as chaste dames Can meet without a blush.
-SPEECH OF PRINCE EDWARD IN HIS DUNGEON.
DOTH the bright sun from the high arch of heaven, In all his beauteous robes of fleckered clouds, And ruddy vapours, and deep glowing flames, And softly varied shades, look gloriously? Do the green woods dance to the wind? the lakes Cast up their sparkling waters to the light? Do the sweet hamlets in their bushy dells
Send winding up to heaven their curling smoke On the soft morning air?
Do the flocks bleat, and the wild creatures bound In antic happiness? and mazy birds
Wing the mid air in lightly skimming bands? Ay, all this is-men do behold all this— The poorest man. Even in this lonely vault, My dark and narrow world, oft do I hear The crowing of the cock so near my walls, And sadly think how small a space divides me From all this fair creation.
13.-ORATION IN PRAISE OF CORIOLANUS.
I SHALL lack voice: the deeds of Coriolanus Should not be uttered feebly.-At sixteen years, When Tarquin made a head for Rome, he fought Beyond the mark of others: our then dictator, Whom with all praise I point at, saw him fight, When with his Amazonian chin he drove The bristled lips before him: he bestrid An o'er-pressed Roman, and in the consul's view Slew three opposers: Tarquin's self he met, And struck him on his knee: in that day's feats, When he might act the woman in the scene,
He proved the best man in the field, and for his meed Was brow-bound with the oak.-His pupil age, Man-entered thus, he waxed like a sea;
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