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And deck my body in gay ornaments,
And 'witch sweet ladies with my words and looks.
Oh! miferable thought! and more unlikely,
Than to accomplish twenty golden crowns.
Why, love forswore me in my mother's womb,
And, for I should not deal in her soft laws,
She did corrupt frail nature with some bribe
To shrink my arm like to a wither'd shrub;
To make an envious mountain on my back,
Where fits deformity to mock my body;
To shape my legs of an uneven size;
To disproportion me in every part:
Like to a chaos, or unlick'd bear-whelp
That carries no impression like the dam..
And am I then a man to be belov'd ?
Oh monftrous fault to harbour such a thought!
Then fince the world affords no joy to me,
But to command, to check, to o'er-bear such
As are of better person than myself;

I'll make my heav'n to dream upon the crown,
And while I live to account this world but hell,
Until the mishap'd trunk that bears this head
Be round impaled with a glorious crown.

[Henry VI. At 3d, Scene 3d.

GLOUCESTER. GLOUCESTER.

The midwife wonder'd, and the woman cry'd,
Oh Jesus bless us, he is born with teeth!
And so I was, which plainly fignified
That I should snarl, and bite, and play the dog :
Then since the heav'ns have shap'd my body so,
Let hell make crook'd my mind to answer it.
I have no brother, I am like no brother,

And that word, love, which grey-beards call divine,

Be refident in men like one another,

And not in me: I am myself alone.

[Henry VI. Act 5th, Scene 7th.

Our author, by following minutely the chronicles of the times, has embarrassed his drama's with too great a number of persons and events. The hurley-burley of these plays recommended them to a rude illiterate audience, who, as he says, loved a noise of targets. His poverty, and the low condition of the stage (which at that time was not frequented by persons of rank) obliged him to this complaisance; and unfortunately he had not been tutored by any rules of art, or informed by acquaintance with just and regular drama's. Even the politer fort by E 4 reading reading books of chivalry, which were the polite literature of the times, were accuftomed to bold adventures and achievements. In our northern climates heroic adventures pleased more than the gallant dialogue, where love and honour dispute with all the fophiftry of the schools, and one knows not when the contest would end, if heraldry did not step in and decide the point, as in the foliloquy of the Infanta in the Cid.

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L'INFANTE.

T'écouterai-je encor, respect de ma naissance?
Qui fais un crime de mes feux ?
T'écouterai-je, amour, dont la douce puissance
Contre ce fier tyran fait rebeller mes vœux ?
Pauvre princesse, auquel des deux

Dois-tu prêter obéissance?

Rodrigue, ta valeur te rend digne de moi;

Mais pour être vaillant tu n'es pas fils de roi.

Le Cid, Acte 5me.

Nor is this rule, that a princess can love

only the fon of a king, a mere Spanish punto; you shall hear two Spartan virgins, daugh

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ters

ters of Lysander, speaking the fame language,

ELPINICE.

Cotys est roi, ma fæur; & comme sa couronne
Parle suffisamment pour lui,

Afsuré de mon cœur que son trône lui donne,
De le trop demander il s'épargne l'ennui.

This lady then proceeds to question her fifterconcerning her inclination for her lover Spitridates, and urges in his favour;

ELPINICE.

Car enfin, Spitridate a l'entretien charmant,
L'œil vif, l'esprit aifé, le cœur bon, l'ame belle;

A tant de qualités s'il joignait un vrai zéle...
To which the other answers,

AGLATIDE.

Ma sæur, il n'est pas roi comme l'est votre amant.
Il n'est pas roi, vous dis-je, & c'est un grand défaut..

The Queen of the Lufitanians, in the famous play of Sertorius, speaks thus to that Roman general ;

* Agefilaus of Corneille.

VIRITATE.

And deck my body in gay ornaments,
And 'witch sweet ladies with my words and looks.
Oh! miferable thought! and more unlikely,
Than to accomplish twenty golden crowns.
Why, love forswore me in my mother's womb,
And, for I should not deal in her soft laws,
She did corrupt frail nature with fome bribe
To shrink my arm like to a wither'd shrub;
To make an envious mountain on my back,
Where fits deformity to mock my body;
To shape my legs of an uneven size;
To disproportion me in every part:
Like to a chaos, or unlick'd bear-whelp
That carries no impression like the dam..
And am I then a man to be belov'd ?
Oh monftrous fault to harbour such a thought!
Then fince the world affords no joy to me,
But to command, to check, to o'er-bear such
As are of better person than myself;

I'll make my heav'n to dream upon the crown,
And while I live to account this world but hell,
Until the mishap'd trunk that bears this head

Be round impaled with a glorious crown.

[Henry VI. At 3d, Scene 3d.

GLOUCESTER.

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