Whether to deck with clouds th' uncolour'd sky,
Or wet the thirsty earth with falling show'rs,
Rising, or falling, still advance his praise.
His praise, ye winds, that from four quarters blow,
Breathe soft or loud; and wave your tops, ye pines,
With ev'ry plant, in sign of worship wave.
Fountains, and ye that warble, as ye flow,
Melodious murmurs, warbling tune his praise.
Join voices all ye living souls ; ye birds,
That singing up to Heaven-gate ascend,
Bear on your wings, and in your notes his praise.
Ye that in waters glide, and ye that walk
The earth, and stately tread, or lowly creep;
Witness if I be silent, morn or ev'n,
To hill or valley, fountain or fresh shade,
Made vocal by my song, and taught his praise.
Hail, universal Lord ! be bounteous still
To give us only good : and if the night
Have gather'd aught of evil, or conceald,
Disperse it, as now light dispels the dark. MILTON.

CHAP. XIX.

THE PROGRESS OF LIFE.

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely play’rs :
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts;
His acts being seven ages. First the infant,
Muling and puking in the nurse's arms,
And then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel,
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel:
Seeking the bubble reputation

a

Ev'n in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly, with good capon lin’d,
With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well sav'd, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank ; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness, and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans ev'ry thing.

SHAKSPEARE

CHAP. XX.

THE ENTRY OF BOLINGBROKE AND RICHARD INTO

LONDON.

DUKE AND DUCHESS OF YORK.

Duch. My lord, you told me you would tell the rest,
When weeping made you break the story off,
Of our two cousins coming into London.

York. Where did I leave ?

Duch. At that sad stop, my lord,
Where rude, misgoveru'd hands, from window-tops,
Threw dust and rubbish on king Richard's head.

York. Then, as I said, the duke, great Bolingbroke,
Mounted

upon a hot and fiery steed,
Which his aspiring rider scem'd to know,
With slow, but stately pace, kept on his course :
While all tongues cried, God save thee, Bolingbroke!
You would have thought the very windows spake,
So many greedy looks of young

and old
Through casements darted their desiring eyes
Upon his visage: and that all the walls
With painted imag’ry had said at once

1 a

Jesu preserve thee! welcome Bolingbroke!
While he, from one side to the other turning,
Bare headed, lower than his proud steed's neck,
Bespoke them thus : I thank you, countrymen ;
And thus still doing, thus he pass'd along.

Duch. Alas! poor Richard, where rides he the while ?

York. As in a theatre, the eyes of men,
After a well-grac'd actor leaves the stage,
Are idly bent on him that enters next,
Thinking his prattle to be tedious :
Ev'n so, or with much more contempt, men's eyes
Did scowl on Richard : no man cried, God save him!
No joyful tongue gave him his welcome home:
But dust was thrown upon his sacred head;
Which with such gentle sorrow he shook off
(His face still combating with tears and smiles,
The badges of his grief and patience,)
That had not God, for some strong purpose, steeld
The hearts of men, they must perforce have nzelted,
And barbarism itself have pitied him.
But Heaven hath a hand in these events,
To whose high will we bound our calm contents.

SHAKSPEARE.

CHAP. XXI.

LIFE.

-Reason thus with life :
If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing
That none but fools would reck : a breath thou art,
Servile to all the skyey influences,
That do this habitation, where thou keep’st,
Hourly afflict; merely thou art death's fool;
For him thou labour'st by thy flight to shun,
And yet runn'st tow'rd him still. Thou art not noble;
For all th' accommodations that thou bear’st
Are nurs’d by baseness : thou’rt by no means valiant ;
For thou dost fear the soft and tender fork
Of a poor worm. Thy best of rest is sleep,

And that thou bft provok'st; yet grossly fear'st
Thy death, which is no more. Thou’rt not thyself ;
For thou exist'st on many a thousand grains,
That issue out of dust. Happy tlion art not ;
For what thou hast not, still thou striv'st to get;
And what thou hast, forgett'st. Thou art not certain ;
For thy complexion shifts to strange effects,
After the moon. If thou art rich, thou'rt poor;
For, like an ass, whose back with ingots bows,
Thou bear'st thy heavy riches but a journey,
And death unloadetli thee. Friend thou hast none;
For thy own bowels, which do call thee sire,
The niere effusion of thy proper loins,
Do curse the Gout, Serpigo, and the Rheum,
For ending thee no sooner. Thou hast nor youth nor age;
But as it were an after dinner's sleep,
Dreaming on both; for all thy blessed youth
Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms
Of palsied Eld; and when thou'rt old and rich,
Thou hast neither heat, affection, limb, nor bounty,
To make thy riches pleasant. What's yet in this
That bears the name of life? yet in this life,
Lie hid more thousand deaths ; yet death we fear,
That makes these odds all even.

SIAKSPEARE.

I Do remember when the fight was done,
When I was dry with rage and extreme toil,
Breathless and faint, leaning upon my sword,
Came there a certain lord, neat, trimly dress'd ;
Fresh as a bridegroom, and his chin, new reap'd,
Show'd like a stubble land at harvest bome.
He was perfumed like a milliner ;
And 'twixt his finger and his thumb he lield
A pouncet-box, which ever and anon
He
gave

his

nose, and took't away again ;

a

Who, therewith angry, when it next came there,
Took it in snuff. And still he smild, and talk'd ;
And as the soldiers' bare dead bodies by,
He call'd them untaught knaves, unmannerly,
To bring a slovenly, unhandsome corse
Betwixt the wind and his nobility.
With many holiday and lady terms
He question’d me : among the rest demanded
My pris'ners, in your Majesty's behalf.
I then, all smarting with my wounds, being galld
To be so pester'd with a popinjay,
Out of my grief, and my impatience,
Answer'd negligently, I know not what :
He should, or should not ; for he made me mad,
To see him shine so brisk, and smell so sweet,
And talk so like a waiting gentlewoman,
Of guns, and drums, and wounds; (God save the mark!
And telling me, the sovereign'st thing on earth
Was spermaceti for an inward bruise ;
And that it was great pity, so it was,
This villanous saltpetre should be digg’d;
Out of the bowels of the harmless earth,
Which many a good tall fellow had destroy'd
So cowardly: and, but for these vile guns,
He would himself have been a soldier.

SÚAKSPEARE.

CHAP. XXIII.

CLARENCE'S DREAM.

CLARENCE AND BRAKENBURY.'

Brak. Why looks your Grace so heavily to day?

Clar. O, I have pass'd a miserable night,
So full of ugly sights, of ghastly dreams,
That as I am a christian faithful man,
I would not spend another such a night,
Though 'twere to buy a world of happy days ;
So full of dismal terrour was the time!