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Suit the Action to the Word & the Word to the Action; with this special observance, that you o'erftep not the Modesty of Nature.

Shakespeare.

ELEGANT EXTRACTS,

POETICA L.

BOOK THE THIRD.

DRAMATIC, CHIEFLY

1. ALL's WELL THAT ENDS WELL. SHAKSPEARE.

BE

Advice.

E thou bleft, Bertram, and fucceed thy father, In manners as in fhape; thy blood and virtue Contend for empire in thee, and thy goodness Share with thy birth-right. Love all; truft a few;

Do wrong to none; be able for thine enemy
Rather in power than ufe; and keep thy friend
Under thy own life's key: be check'd for filence,
But never tax'd for fpeech. What Heaven more
will
[down,
That thee may furnish, and my prayers pluck
Fall on thy head !

Too ambitious Love.

I am undone; there is no living, none, If Bertram be away. It were all one, That I fhould love a bright particular star, And think to wed it, he is fo above me! In his bright radiance and collateral light Muft I be comforted, not in his fphere. Th' ambition in my love thus plagues itself: The hind that would be mated by the lion Muft die for love. 'Twas pretty, tho' a plague, To fee him every hour; to fit and draw His arched brows, his hawking eye, his curls, In our heart's table: heart, too capable Of every line and trick of his fweet favour! But now he's gone, and my idolatrous fancy Must sanctify his relics.

A parafitical, vain Coward.

I know him a notorious liar; Think him a great way fool, folely a coward; Yet thefe fix'd evils fit fo fit in him, That they take place, when virtue's fteely bones Look bleak in the cold wind: withal, full oft we fee

Cold witdom waiting on fuperfluous folly.

FROM SHAKSPEARE.

The Remedy of Evils generally in ourselves. Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, Which we afcribe to Heav'n. The fated sky Gives us free fcope; only doth backward pull Our flow defigns, when we ourfelves are dull. Impoffible be ftrange attempts to those That weigh their pain in fenfe, and do fuppofe What hath been cannot be. Who ever ftrove To fhew her merit, that did mifs her love?

Character of a noble Courtier, by an old Cotemporary.

King. I would I had that corporal foundness
now,

As when thy father and myfelf in friendship
First tried our foldierfhip! He did look far
Into the fervice of the time, and was
Difcipled of the braveft. He lafted long;
But on us both did haggish age steal on,
And wore us out of act. It much repairs me
To talk of your good father. In his youth
He had the wit which I can well obferve
To-day in our young Lords; but they may jeft
Till their own fcorn return to them unnoted,
Ere they can hide their levity in honour :
So like a courtier, no contempt or bitterness
Were in his pride or fharpnefs; if they were,
His equal had awak'd them and his honour,
Clock to itself, knew the true minute when
Exception bid him speak; and at that time
His tongue obey'd his hand. Who were below
He us'd as creatures of another place, [him
And bow'd his eminent top to their low ranks,
Making them proud of his humility.
In their poor praise he humbled: fuch a man
Might be a copy to thefe younger times,
Which, follow'd well, would demonftrate them
But goers backward.

[now Would I were with him -He would always fay

(Methinks I hear him now) his plaufive words Na

He

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