His glassy essence,-like an angry ape, THE PRIVILEGE OF AUTHORITY. Great men may jest with saints: 'tis wit in them; But, in the less, foul profanation. That in the captain's but a choleric word, HONEST BRIBERY. Hark, how I'll bribe you. Ang. How! bribe me? Lucio. [with you. Isab. Ay, with such gifts, that heaven shall share You had marr'd all else. Isab. Not with fond shekels of the tested* gold, Or stones, whose rates are either rich or poor, As fancy values them: but with true prayers, That shall be up at heaven, and enter there, Ere sun-rise; prayers from preserved † souls, From fasting maids, whose minds are dedicate To nothing temporal. THE POWER OF VIRTUOUS BEAUTY. Is this her fault, or mine? The tempter, or the tempted, who sins most? Ha! Not she; nor doth she tempt: but it is I, That lying by the violet, in the sun, Do, as the carrion does, not as the flower, Corrupt with virtuous season. Can it be, That modesty may more betray our sense [enough, And pitch our evils there ? O, fy, fy, fy! * Attested, stamped. + Preserved from the corruption of the world. See 2 Kings, x. 27. Dost thou desire her foully, for those things When judges steal themselves. What? do I love her, And feast upon her eyes? What is't I dream on? To sin in loving virtue: never could the strumpet, LOVE IN A GRAVE SEVERE GOVERNOR. When I would pray and think, I think and pray And in my heart, the strong and swelling evil FORNICATION AND MURDER EQUALLED. To pardon him, that hath from nature stolen A man already made, as to remit Their saucy sweetness, that do coin heaven's image, In stamps that are forbid: 'tis all as easy Falsely to take away a life true made, As to put mettle in restrained means, To make a false one. LOWLINESS OF MIND. Let me be ignorant, and in nothing good, But graciously to know I am no better. Ang. Thus wisdom wishes to appear most bright, When it doth tax itself. TEMPORAL FAR BETTER THAN ETERNAL DEATH, Better it were, a brother died at once, Than that a sister, by redeeming him, Should die for ever. WOMEN'S FRAILTY. Nay, women are frail too. [selves; Isab. Ay, as the glasses where they view themWhich are as easy broke as they make forms. Women!-Help heaven! men their creation mar In profiting by them. Nay, call us ten times frail: For we are soft as our complexions are, And credulous to false prints*. ACT III. HOPE. THE miserable have no other medicine, But only hope. REFLECTIONS ON THE VANITY OF LIFE. Reason thus with life, If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing That none but fools would keep: a breath thou art, (Servile to all the skiey influences), That dost this habitation, where thou keep'st, * Impressions. E For him thou labour'st by thy flight to shun, And yet run'st toward him still: Thou art not noble; Of a poor worm: Thy best of rest is sleep, Do curse the gout, serpigo†, and the rheum, [age; Dreaming on both: for all thy blessed youth Of palsied eld‡; and when thou art old, and rich, RESOLUTION FROM A SENSE OF HONOUR. Why give you me this shame? And hug it in mine arms. * Affects, affections. Old age. + Leprous eruptions. Claud. Ay, but to die, and go we know not where ; To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot: This sensible warm motion to become The weariest and most loathed worldly life, To what we fear of death. THE TERRORS OF DEATH MOST IN APPREHENSION. O, I do fear thee, Claudio; and I quake, Lest thou a feverous life should'st entertain, * Invisible. |