THE DUCHESS OF GLOSTER'S REMONSTRANCE TO HER HUSBAND, WHEN DOING PENANCE. For, whilst I think I am thy married wife, To see my tears, and hear my deep-fet† groans. ACT III. SILENT RESENTMENT DEEPEST. SMOOTH runs the water, where the brook is deep; And in his simple show he harbours treason. A GUILTY COUNTENANCE. Upon thy eyeballs murderous tyranny Sits in grim majesty, to fright the world. *Wrapped up in disgrace; alluding to the sheet of penance. + Deep-fetched. DESCRIPTION OF A MURDERED PERSON. See how the blood is settled in his face! Oft have I seen a timely-parted ghost*, Of ashy semblance, meagre, pale, and bloodless, Being all descended to the labouring heart; Who, in the conflict that it holds with death, Attracts the same for aidance 'gainst the enemy; Which with the heart there cools and ne'er returneth To blush and beautify the cheek again. But, see, his face is black, and full of blood; His eyeballs further out than when he liv'd, Staring full ghastly like a strangled man: [gling; His hair uprear'd, his nostrils stretch'd with strugHis hands abroad display'd, as one that grasp'd And tugg'd for life, and was by strength subdu'd. Look on the sheets, his hair, you see, is sticking; His well-proportion'd beard made rough and rugged, Like to the summer's corn by tempest lodg'd. It cannot be, but he was murder'd here; The least of all these signs were probable. A GOOD CONSCIENCE. What stronger breast-plate than a heart untainted? Thrice is he arm'd, that hath his quarrel just; And he but naked, though lock'd up in steel, Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted. REMORSELESS HATRED. A plague upon them! wherefore should I curse them? Would curses kill, as doth the mandrake's groan, I would invent as bitter-searching terms, As curst, as harsh, and horrible to hear, Deliver'd strongly through my fixed teeth, With full as many signs of deadly hate, As lean-fac'd Envy in her loathsome cave: My tongue should stumble in mine earnest words: A body become inanimate in the common course of nature; to which violence has not brought a timeless end. Mine eyes should sparkle like the beaten flint; Now, by the ground that I am banish'd from, THE DEATH-BED HORRORS OF A GUILTY CONSCIENCE. Bring me unto my trial when you will. Died he not in his bed? where should he die? DYING WITH THE PERSON BELOVED PREFERABLE TO PARTING. If I depart from thee, I cannot live: And in thy sight to die, what were it else, But like a pleasant slumber in thy lap? Here could I breathe my soul into the air, As mild and gentle as the cradle-babe, Dying with mother's dug between its lips. And banish'd I am, if but from thee. Go, speak not to me; even now be gone.O, go not yet!-Even thus two friends condemn'd Embrace, and kiss, and take ten thousand leaves, Loather a hundred times to part than die. Yet now farewell; and farewell life with thee! Suf. Thus is poor Suffolk ten times banished, So Suffolk had thy heavenly company: ACT IV. NIGHT. THE gaudy, blabbing, and remorseful * day * Pitiful. And now loud-howling wolves arouse the jades Who with their drowsy, slow, and flagging wings KENT. Kent, in the commentaries Cæsar writ, LORD SAY'S APOLOGY FOR HIMSELF. Justice with favour have I always done; Prayers and tears have mov'd me, gifts could never. When have I aught exacted at your hands, Kent to maintain, the king, the realm, and you? Large gifts have I bestow'd on learned clerks, Because my book preferr'd me to the king: And-seeing ignorance is the curse of God, Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven,-Unless you be possess'd with devilish spirits, You cannot but forbear to murder me. King Henry VI. PART III. ACT I. THE TRANSPORTS OF A CROWN. Do but think, How sweet a thing it is to wear a crown; And all that poets feign of bliss and joy. Q |