DRUMS. Strike up the drums: and let the tongue of war Plead for our interest. Do but start An echo with the clamour of thy drum, APPROACH OF DEATH. It is too late; the life of all his blood Is touch'd corruptibly; and his pure brain [house,) MADNESS OCCASIONED BY POISON. Ay, marry, now my soul hath elbow room; Poison'd,-ill fare:--dead, forsook, cast off: Nor let my kingdom's rivers take their course ENGLAND INVINCIBLE IF UNANIMOUS. England never did (nor never shall) * Sky. And we shall shock them: Nought shall make us rue, If England to itself do rest but true. KING RICHARD II. ACT I. REPUTATION. THE purest treasure mortal times afford, Is-spotless reputation; that away, Men are but gilded loam, or painted clay. COWARDICE. That which in mean men we entitle-patience, Is pale cold cowardice in noble breasts. CONSOLATION UNDER BANISHMENT. All places that the eye of heaven visits, Think not, the king did banish thee; To lie that way thou go'st, not whence thou com'st, The grass whereon thou tread'st, the presence⭑ strew'd; The flowers, fair ladies; and thy steps, no more Than a delightful measure, or a dance. For gnarling sorrow hath less power to bite *Presence chamber at court. + Growling. THOUGHTS INEFFECTUAL TO MODERATE O, who can hold a fire in his hand, Or wallow naked in December snow, POPULARITY. Ourself, and Bushy, Bagot here, and Green, What reverence he did throw away on slaves; A brace of draymen bid-God speed him well, With-Thanks, my countrymen, my loving friends ;-➡ ACT II. ENGLAND PATHETICALLY DESCRIBED. This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle, This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, This other Eden, demi-paradise; This fortress, built by nature for herself, England, bound in with the triumphant sea, Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege Of watery Neptune, is now bound in with shame, With inky blots and rotten parchment bonds: That England, that was wont to conquer others, Hath made a shameful conquest of itself. GRIEF. Each substance of a grief hath twenty shadows, Which show like grief itself, but are not so: For sorrow's eye, glaz'd with blinding tears, Divides one thing entire to many objects; Like perspectives,* which, rightly gaz'd upon, Show nothing but confusion; ey'd awry, Distinguish form. HOPE DECEITFUL. I will despair, and be at enmity Who gently would dissolve the bands of life, PROGNOSTICS OF WAR. The bay-trees in our country are all wither'd, And meteors fright the fixed stars of heaven; The pale-fac'd moon looks bloody on the earth, And lean-look'd prophets whisper fearful change: Rich men look sad, and ruffians dance and leap. ACT III. APOSTROPHE TO ENGLAND. As a long-parted mother with her child Plays fondly with her tears, and smiles in meeting So, weeping, smiling, greet I thee, my earth, And do thee favour with my royal hands. Feed not thy sovereign's foe, my gentle earth, Nor with thy sweets comfort his rav'nous sense: But let thy spiders, that suck up thy venom, And heavy-gaited toads, lie in their way: * Pictures. Doing annoyance to the treacherous feet, And when they from thy bosom pluck a flower, SUN RISING AFTER A DARK NIGHT. Know'st thou not, That when the searching eye of heaven is hid VANITY OF POWER AND MISERY OF KINGS. No matter where; of comfort no man speak: Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs; Make dust our paper, and with rainy eyes Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth. Let's choose executors, and talk of wills: And yet not so,—for what can we bequeath, Save our deposed bodies to the ground? Our lands, our lives, and all are Bolingbroke's, And nothing can we call our own, but death; And that small model of the barren earth, Which serves as paste and cover to our bones. For heaven's sake, let us sit upon the ground, And tell sad stories of the death of kings:How some have been depos'd, some slain in war; Some haunted by the ghosts they have depos'd; Some poison'd by their wives, some sleeping kill'd, All murder'd:--For within the hollow crown |