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PASSION TOO STRONG FOR VOWS.

Look, thou be true; do not give dalliance Too much the rein; the strongest oaths are straw To the fire i' the blood: be more abstemious, Or else, good night, your vow!

VANITY OF HUMAN NATURE.

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-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit shall dissolve;
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded *,
Leave not a rack+ behind: We are such stuff
As dreams are made of, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.

DRUNKARDS ENCHANTED BY ARIEL.

I TOLD you, sir, they were red-hot with drinking; So full of valour, that they smote the air For breathing in their faces; beat the ground For kissing of their feet: yet always bending Towards their project: Then I beat my tabor, At which, like unback'd colts, they prick'd their ears, Advanc'd their eyelids, lifted up their noses, As they smelt music; so I charm'd their ears, That, calf-like, they my lowing follow'd, through Tooth'd briers, sharp furzes, prickling goss,and thorns, Which enter'd their frail shins: at last I left them I' the filthy mantled pool beyond your cell, There dancing up to the chins.

* Vanished.

† A body of clouds in motion; but it is most probable that the author wrote track.

LIGHTNESS OF FOOT.

Pray you, tread softly, that the blind mole may not Hear a foot fall.

ACT V.

TEARS.

His tears run down his beard, like winter's drops
From eaves* of reeds.

COMPASSION AND CLEMENCY SUPERIOR TO REVENGE.

Hast thou, which art but air, a touch, a feeling Of their afflictions? and shall not myself,

One of their kind, that relish all as sharply,

Passion as they, be kindlier mov'd than thou art? Though with their high wrongs I am struck to the quick,

Yet, with my nobler reason, 'gainst my fury

Do I take part: the rarer action is

In virtue than in vengeance: they being penitent, The sole drift of my purpose doth extend

Not a frown further.

FAIRIES AND MAGIC.

Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and groves; And ye, that on the sands with printless foot Do chase the ebbing Neptune, and do fly him, When he comes back; you demy-puppets, that By moonshine do the green-sour ringlets make, Whereof the ewe not bites; and you, whose pastime Is to make midnight-mushrooms; that rejoice To hear the solemn curfew; by whose aid (Weak masters though you be) I have be-dimm'd The noon-tide sun, call'd forth the mutinous winds,

* Thatch.

And 'twixt the green sea and the azur'd vault
Set roaring war; to the dread rattling thunder
Have I given fire, and rifted Jove's stout oak
With his own bolt: the strong-bas'd promontory
Have I made shake; and by the spurs pluck'd up
The pine, and cedar: graves, at my command,
Have wak'd their sleepers; op'd, and let them forth
By my so potent art.

SENSES RETURNING.

The charm dissolves apace,
And as the morning steals upon the night,
Melting the darkness, so their rising senses
Begin to chase the ignorant fumes that mantle
Their clearer reason.-O my good Gonzalo,
My true preserver, and a loyal sir

To him thou follow'st; I will pay thy graces
Home, both in word and deed. Most cruelly
Didst thou, Alonso, use me and my daughter:
Thy brother was a furtherer in the act:- [blood,
Thou'rt pinch'd for't now, Sebastian.- Flesh and
You brother mine, that entertain'd ambition,
Expell'd remorse* and nature; who, with Sebastian,
(Whose inward pinches therefore are most strong),
Would here have kill'd our king; I do forgive thee,
Unnatural though thou art!-Their understanding
Begins to swell; and the approaching tide
Will shortly fill the reasonable shores,

That now lie foul and muddy. Not one of them,
That yet looks on me, or would know me.

ARIEL'S SONG.

Where the bee sucks, there suck I;

In a cowslip's bell I lie:

There I couch when owls do fly,

On the bat's back I do fly,

After summer, merrily:

Merrily, merrily, shall I live now,

Under the blossom that hangs on the bough,
Pity, or tenderness of heart.

Twelfth Night.

ACT I.

MUSIC.

IF music be the food of love, play on,
Give me excess of it; that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.-
That strain again; it had a dying fall:
O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet south,
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing, and giving odour.

NATURAL AFFECTION ALLIED TO LOVE.

O, she, that hath a heart of that fine frame, To pay this debt of love but to a brother, How will she love, when the rich golden shaft Hath kill'd the flock of all affections else That live in her! when liver, brain, and heart, These sovereign thrones, are all supplied, and fill'd, (Her sweet perfections) with one self king!

ESCAPE FROM DANGER.

I saw your brother,

Most provident in peril, bind himself

(Courage and hope both teaching him the practice)
To a strong mast that lived upon the sea;
Where, like Arion on the dolphin's back,

I saw him hold acquaintance with the wave,
So long as I could see.

A BEAUTIFUL BOY.

Dear lad, believe it;

For they shall yet belie thy happy years
That say, thou art a man: Diana's lip

Is not more smooth and rubious; thy small pipe
Is as the maiden's organ, shrill, and sound,

And all is semblative a woman's part.

DETERMINED LOVE.

Öli. Why, what would you?

Vio. Make me a willow cabin at your gate, And call upon my soul within the house; Write loyal cantons* of contemned love, And sing them loud even in the dead of night; Holla your name to the reverberate† hills, And make the babbling gossip of the air Cry out, Olivia! O, you should not rest Between the elements of air and earth, But you should pity me.

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DISGUISE, I see, thou art a wickedness,
Wherein the pregnant‡ enemy does much.
How easy is it, for the proper-false§

In women's waxen hearts to set their forms!
Alas, our frailty is the cause, not we;
For, such as we are made of, such we be.

TRUE LOVE.

Come hither, boy; If ever thou shalt love,
In the sweet pangs of it, remember me:
For, such as I am, all true lovers are;
Unstaid and skittish in all motions else,
Save, in the constant image of the creature
That is belov'd.

THE WOMAN SHOULD BE YOUNGEST IN LOVE.

Too old, by heaven; Let still the woman take An elder than herself; so wears she to him, So sways she level in her husband's heart. For, boy, however we do praise ourselves,

* Cantos, verses.
Dexterous, ready fiend.

+ Echoing. § Fair deceiver.

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