Turns to a wild of nothing save of joy,
Express'd, and not express'd.

IMPLACABLE REVENGE.

Shy. I'll have my bond; I will not hear thee speak: I'll have my bond; and therefore speak no more, I'll not be made a soft and dull-ey'd fool, To shake the head, relent, and sigh, and yield To Christian intercessors.

THE BOASTING OF YOUTH.

I'll hold thee any wager,

When we are both accouter'd like young men,
I'll prove the prettier fellow of the two,
And wear my dagger with the braver grace;
And speak, between the change of man and boy,
With a reed voice; and turn two mincing steps
Into a manly stride; and speak of frays,
Like a fine bragging youth: and tell quaint lies,
How honourable ladies sought my love,
Which I denying, they fell sick and died;
I could not do with all; then I'll repent,
And wish, for all that, that I had not kill'd them:
And twenty of these puny lies I'll tell,
That men shall swear, I have discontinued school
Above a twelvemonth.

AFFECTATION IN WORDS.

O dear discretion, how his words are suited!
The fool hath planted in his memory
An army of good words: and I do know
As many fools, that stand in better place
Garnish'd like him, that for a tricksy word
Defy the matter.

THE JEW'S REASON FOR REVENGE.

You'll ask me why I rather chose to have A weight of carrion flesh, than to receive Three thousand ducats: I'll not answer that: But, say, it is my humour:* Is it answer'd? What if my house be troubled with a rat,

* Particular fancy.

And I be pleased to give ten thousand ducats
To have it it baned? What, are you answer'd yet?
Some men there are, love not a gaping pig;
Some, that are mad, if they behold a cat;
And others, when the bag-pipe sings i'the nose,
Cannot contain their urine: For affection,*
Mistress of passion, sways it to the mood
Of what it likes, or loaths: Now, for your answer:
Asthere is no firm reason to be render'd,
Why he cannot abide a gaping† pig;
Why he, a harmless necessary cat;
Why he, a swollen bag-pipe; but of force
Must yield to such inevitable shame,
As to offend, himself being offended;
So can I give no reason, nor I will not,
More than a lodg'd hate, and a certain loathing
I bear Antonio, that I follow thus

A losing suit against him. Are you answer'd?

MERCY.

The quality of mercy is not strain'd;
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice bless'd;
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes:
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown:
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptre'd sway.
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;

And earthly power doth then show likest God's,
When mercy seasons justice.

FORTUNE.

For herein fortune shows herself more kind
Than is her custom: it is still her use,
To let the wretched man outlive his wealth,
To view with hollow eye, and wrinkled brow,

An age of poverty.

* Prejudice.

How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank! Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music Creep in our ears; soft stillness, and the night, Become the touches of sweet harmony. Sit, Jessica: Look, how the floor of heaven Is thick inlaid with patines* of bright gold: There's not the smallest orb, which thou behold'st, But in his motion like an angel sings, Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubim: Such harmony is in immortal souls; But, whilst this muddy vesture of decay Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.

MUSIC.

I am never merry, when I hear sweet music. Lor. The reason is, your spirits are attentive:For do but note a wild and wanton herd, Or race of youthful and unhandled colts, Fetching mad bounds, bellowing, and neighing loud, Which is the hot condition of their blood; If they but hear perchance a trumpet sound, Or any air of music touch their ears, You shall perceive them make a mutual stand, Their savage eyes turn'd to a modest gaze, By the sweet power of music: Therefore the poet Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones, and floods; Since not so stockish, hard, and full of rage, But music for the time doth change his nature: The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils; The motions of his spirit are dull as night, And his affections dark as Erebus:

Let no such man be trusted.

A GOOD DEED COMPARED.

How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.

* A small flat dish, used in the administration of the Eucharist.

NOTHING GOOD OUT OF SEASON.

The crow doth sing as sweetly as the lark,
When neither is attended; and, I think,
The nightingale, if she should sing by day,
When every goose is cackling, would be thought
No better a musician than the wren.

How many things by season seasoned are
To their right praise, and true perfection!-
with Endymio

Peace, hoa! the moon sleeps

And would not be awak'd!

MOONLIGHT NIGHT.

This night, methinks, is but the daylight sick,

It looks a little paler; 'tis a day,

Such as the day is when the sun is hid.

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A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.

ACT I.

A FATHER'S AUTHORITY.

TO you your father should be as a god; One that compos'd your beauties; yea, and one To whom you are but as a form in wax, By him imprinted, and within his power To leave the figure, or disfigure it.

A RECLUSE LIFE.

Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires,
Know of your youth, examine well your blood,
Whether, if you yield not to your father's choice,
You can endure the livery of a nun;
For aye* to be in shady cloister mew'd,
To live a barren sister all your life,

Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon.
Thrice blessed they, that master so their blood,
To undergo such maiden pilgrimage:
But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd,

1

Than that, which, withering on the virgin thorn,
Grows, lives, and dies, in single blessedness.

TRUE LOVE EVER CROSSED.

For aught that ever I could read,
Could ever hear by tale or history,
The course of true love never did run smooth:

But, either it was different in blood:
Or else misgraffed, in respect of years;
Or else it stood upon the choice of friends:
Or, if there were a sympathy in choice,
War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it;
Making it momentany* as a sound,
Swift as a shadow, short as any dream;
Brief as the lightning in the colliedt night,
That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth,
And ere a man hath power to say, -Behold!
The jaws of darkness do devour it up:

So quick bright things come to confusion.

ASSIGNATION.

I swear to thee, by cupid's strongest bow; By his best arrow with the golden head; By the simplicity of Venus' doves; By that which knitteth souls, and prospers loves: And by that fire which burn'd the Carthage queen, When the false Trojan under sail was seen; By all the vows that ever men have broke, In number more than ever woman spoke;In that same place thou hast appointed me, To-morrow truly will I meet with thee.

THE MOON.

When Phœbe doth behold

Her silver visage in the wat'ry glass,
Decking with liquid pearls the bladed grass.

LOVE.

- Things base and vile, holding no quantity, Love can transpose to form and dignity.

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind: