That, when the sea was calm, all boats alike Show'd mastership in floating: fortune's blows, When most struck home, being gentle wounded,

craves

A noble cunning: you were us'd to load me
With precepts, that would make invincible
The heart that conn'd them.

ON COMMON FRIENDSHIPS.

O, world, thy slippery turns! Friends now fast

sworn,

Whose double bosoms seem to wear one heart,
Whose hours, whose bed, whose meal, and exercise,
Are still together, who twin, as 'twere in love
Unseparable, shall within this hour,

On a dissention of a doit,* break out
To bitterest enmity: So fellest foes,

Whose passions and whose plots have broke their sleep

To take the one the other, by some chance,

Some trick not worth an egg, shall grow dear friends And interjoin their issues.

Let me twine

MARTIAL. FRIENDSHIP.

Mine arms about that body, where against
My grained ash an hundred times hath broke,
And scar'd the moon with splinters. Here I clipt
The anvil of my sword; and do contest
As hotly and as nobly with thy love,
As ever in ambitious strength I did
Contend against thy valour. Know thou first,
I loved the maid I married; never man

Sign'd truer breath: but that I see thee here,
Thu noble thing! more dances my wrapt heart,
Than when I first my wedded mistress saw
Be tride my threshold. Why, thou Mars! I tell
thee,

We have a power on foot; and I had purpose
O ce more to hew thy target from thy brawn,t
O. lose mine arm fort: Thou hast beat me outs

small coin † Embrace, Arm Full

Twelve several times, and I have nightly since
Dreamt of encounters 'twixt thyself and me;
We have been down together in my sleep,
Unbuckling helms, fisting each other's throat,
And wak'd half dead with nothing.

ACT V.

THE SEASON OF SOLICITATION.

He was not taken well: he had not din'd: The veins unfill'd, our blood is cold, and then We pout upon the morning, are unapt

To give or to forgive; but when we have stuff'd These pipes and these conveyances of our blood With wine and feeding, we have suppler souls Than in our priest-like fasts: therefore I'll watch him

Till he be dicted to my request.

OBSTINATE RESOLUTION.

My wife comes foremost; then the honour'd mould Wherein this irunk was fram'd, and in her hand The grandchild to her blood. But, out, affection: All bond and privilege of nature, break!

Let it be virtuous, to be obstinate.

What is that court'sey worth, or those doves' eyes, Which can make gods forsworn?—I melt, and am

not

Of stronger earth than others.-My mother bows,
As if Olympus to a molehill should

In supplication nod: and my young boy
Hath an aspect of intercession, which
Great nature cries, Deny not-Let the Volces
Plough Rome, and harrow Italy; l'il never
Be such a gosling* to obey instinct; but stand,
Asi a man were author of himself,

And knew no other kin.

RELENTING TENDERNESS.

Like a dull actor now,

I have forgot my part, and I am out,
Even to a full disgrace. Best of my flesh,

A young goose.

orgive my tyranny; but do not say,
For that, Forgive our Romans.-O, a kiss
Long as my exile, sweet as my revenge!
Now by the jealous queen of heaven, that kiss
I carried from thee, dear; and my true lip
Hath virgin'd it e'er since.-You gods, I prate,
And the most noble mother of the world
Leave unsaluted: Sink my knee, i' the earth;
Of thy deep duty more impression show
I'han that of common sons.

CHASTITY.

The noble sister of Publicola,

The moon of Rome; chaste as the icicle,
That's cruded by the frost from purest snow,
And hangs on Dian's temple: Dear Valeria!

CORIOLANUS'S PRAYER FOR HIS SON.

The god of soldiers,

With the consent of supreme Jove, inform

Thy thoughts with nobleness; that thou may'st prove
To shame unvulnerable, and stick i' the wars
Like a great sea mark, standing every flaw,f
And saving those that eye thee!

VOLUMNIA'S PATHETIC SPEECH TO HER SON

CORIOLANUS.

Think with thyself,

How more unfortunate than all living women Are we come hither: since that thy sight, which should

Make our eyes flow with joy, hearts dance with com

forts,

Constrains them weep, and shake with fear and

sorrow;

Making the mother, wife, and child, to see
The son, the husband, and the father, tearing
His country's bowels out. And to poor we,
Thine enmity's most capital: thou barr'st us
Our prayers to the gods, which is a comfort
That all but we enjoy.

2

#

We must find

An evident calamity, though we had

Our wish, which side should win. for either Uza
Must, as a foreign recreant, be led

With manacles through our streets, or else
Triumphantly tread on thy country's ruin;
And bear the palm, for having bravely shed
Thy wife and children's blood. For rayself, son,
1 purpose not to wait on fortune, till

These wars determine:* if I cannot persuade thee
Rather to show a noble grace to both parts,
Than seek the end of one, thou shalt no sooner
March to assault thy country, than to tread,
(Trust to't, thou shalt not) on thy mother's womb,
That brought thee to this world.

PEACE AFTER A SIEGE.

Ne'er through an arch so hurried the blown tide, As the recomforted through the gates. Why, hark you:

The trumpets, sackbuts, psalteries, and fifes,
Tabors and cymbals, and the shouting Romans,
Make the sun dance.

CYMBELINE

ACT I.

PARTING LOVERS.

Imo. THOU shouldst have made him

As ittle as a crow, or less, ere left

To after-eye him.

Pisa.

Madam, so I did.

Imo. I would have broke mine eye-strings; crack'd

then, but

To look upon him: till the diminution

Of space had pointed him sharp as my needle:
Nay, follow'd him, till he had melted from

The smallness of a gnat to air; and then

Have turn'd mine eye, and wept.-But, good Pisanio. When shall we hear from him?

• Conclude.

Pisa.

With his next vantage.*

Be assur'd, madam,

Imo. I did not take my leave of lim, but had Most pretty things to say: ere I could tell him, How would think on him, at certain hours,

Such thoughts, and such; or I could make him swear
The she's of Italy should not betray

Mine interest, and his honour; or have charged him,
At the sixth hour of morn, at noon, at midnight,
To encounter me with orisons,† for then

I am in heaven for him: or ere I could
Give him that parting kiss, which I had set
Betwixt two charming words, comes in my father,
And, like the tyrannous breathing of the north,
Shakes all our buds from growing.

THE BASENESS OF FALSEHOOD TO A WIFE.

Doubting things go ill, often hurts more
Than to be sure they do: For certainties
Either are past remedies: or, timely knowing,
The remedy then born; discover to me
What both you spur and stop.‡

Had I this cheek

Iach.
To bathe my lips upon; this hand, whose touch,
Whose every touch, would force the feeler's soul
To the oath of loyalty; this object, which
Takes prisoner the wild motion of mine eye,
Fixing it only here; should I (damn'd then,)
Slaver with lips as common as the stairs,
That mount the Capitol; join gripes with hands
Made hard with hourly falsehood (falsehood, as
With labour;) then lie peeping in an eye,
Base and unlustrous as the smoky light
That's fed with stinking tallow; it were fit,
That all the plagues of hell should at one time
Encounter such revolt.

*Opportunity.

Meet me with reciprocal prayer. ‡ What you seem anxious to utter, and yet withhold