A FATHER THE BEST GUEST AT HIS SON'S NUPTIALS. Pol. Methinks, a father

is, at the nuptial of his son, a guest

That best becomes the table. Pray you, once more: is not your father grown incapable

Of reasonable affairs? is he not stupid

With age, and altering rheums? Can he speak? hear?

Know man from man? dispute his own estate?*
Lies he not bed-rid? and again does nothing,
Put what he did being childish?

No, good sir:

Flo.
He has his health, and ampler strength, indeed,
Than most have of his age.

Pol.
By my white beard,
You offer him, if this be so, a wrong

Something unfilial: Reason, my son

Should choose himself a wife: but as good reason,
The father (all whose joy is nothing else

But fair posterity,) should hold some counsel
In such a business.

RURAL SIMPLICITY.

I was not much afeard. for once, or twice,
I was about to speak; and tell him plainly,
The self-same su, that shines upon his court,
Hides not his viage from our cottage, but
Looks on alike.

LOVE CEMENTED BY PROSPERITY, BUT LOOSENED BY

ADVERSITY.

Prosperity's the very bond of love;

Whose fresh complexion and whose heart together Affliction alters.

ACT V.

WONDER, PROCEEDING FROM SUDDEN JOY.

There was speech in their dumbness, language in their very gesture; they looked, as they had heard of a world ransomed, or one destroyed: A notable passion of wonder appeared in them; but the wisest

*Talk over his affairs.

beholder, that knew no more but seeing, could not say, if the importance* were joy, or sorrow: but in the extremity of the one, it must needs be.

A STATUTE.

What was he, that did make it?-See, my lord, Would you not deem, it breath'd? and that those veins

The very life seems warm upon her lip.

Leon. The fixure of her eye has motion in'tt Ast we are mock'd with art.

Still, methinks

There is an air comes from her; What fine chisel Could ever yet cut breath? Let no man mock me, For I will kiss her.

A WIDOW COMPARED TO A TURTLE.

I, an old turtle,

Will wing me to some wither'd bow; and there
My mate, that's never to be found again,
Lament till I am lost.

*The thing imported.

te. Though her eye be fixed, it seems to have motion

in it.

+ As if.

3

BEAUTIES

OF

SHAKSPEARE.

PART II.

KING JOHN.

ACT I.

NEW TITLES.

GOOD den,* sir Richard,-God-a-mercy, fellow;-
And if his name be George, I'll call him Peter
For new made honour doth forget men's names:
Tis too respective,† and too sociable,

For
your conversion. Now your traveller,-
He and his tooth-pick at my worship's mess;
And when my nightly stomach is suffic'd,
Why then I suck my teeth, and catechise
My picked man of countries:§- -My dear sir,
(Thus, leaning on mine elbow, I begin,)
I shall beseech you-That is question now:
And then comes answer like an ABC-book:||—
O sir, says answer, at your best command;
At your employment; at your service, sir:-
No, sir, says question, I, sweet sir, at yours;
And so, ere answer knows what question would,
(Saving in dialogue of compliment;

And talking of the Alps, and Appenines;
The Pyrenean, and the river Po,)

It draws towards supper in conclusion so.
But this is worshipful society,

* Good evening. Change of condition. Il Catechism.

† Respectable.

§ My travelled fop.

And fits the mounting spirits, like myself:
For he is a bastard to the time,
That doth not smack of observation.

ACT II.

DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND.

That pale, that white-fac'd shore,

Whose foot spurns back the ocean's roaring tides,
And coops from other lands her islanders,
Even till that England, hedg'd in with the main,
That water-walled bulwark, still secure
And confident from foreign purposes,
Even till that utmost corner of the west
Salute thee for her king.

DESCRIPTION OF AN ENGLISH ARMY.

His marches are expedient to this town, His forces strong, his soldiers confident. With him along is come the mother-queen, An Ate, stirring him to blood and strife; With her her niece, the lady Blanch of Spain; With them a bastard of the king deceas'd: And all the unsettled humors of the land,Rash, inconsiderate, fiery voluntaries, With ladies' faces, and fierce dragons' spleens,Have sold their fortunes at their native homes, Bearing their birthrights proudly on their backs, To make a hazard of new fortunes here. In brief, a braver choice of dauntless spirits, Than now the English bottoms have waft o'er, Did never float upon the swelling tide, To do offence and scath‡ in Christendom. The interruption of their churlish drums Cuts off more circumstance: they are at hand.

COURAGE.

By how much unexpected, by so much We must awake endeavour for defence: For courage mounteth with occasion.

* Immediate, expeditious. + The Goddess of Revenge.

+ Mischief.

A BOASTER.

What cracker is this same, that deafs our ears With this abundance of superfluous breath?

DESCRIPTION OF VICTORY BY THE FRENCH.

You men of Angiers, open wide your gates, And let young Arthur, duke of Bretagne, in; Who, by the hand of France, this day hath made Much work for tears in many an English mother, Whose sons lie scatter'd on the bleeding ground: Many a widow's husband grovelling lies, Coldly embracing the discolour'd earth; And victory, with little loss, doth play Upon the dancing banners of the French; Which are at hand, triumphantly display'd To enter conquerors.

VICTORY DESCRIBED BY THE ENGLISH.

Rejoice, you men of Angiers, ring your bells;
King John, your king and England's, doth approach,
Commander of this hot malicious day!

Their armours, that march'd hence so silver bright,
Hither return all gilt with Frenchman's blood;
There stuck no plume in any English crest,
That is removed by a staff of France;

Our colours do return in those same hands
That did display them when we first march'd forth:
And, like a jolly troop of huntsmen, come
Our lusty English, all with purpled hands,
Died in the dying slaughter of their foes.

A COMPLETE LADY.

If lusty love should go in quest of beauty,
Where should he find it fairer than in Blanch?
If zealous* love should go in search of virtue,
Where should he find it purer than in Blanch?
If love ambitious sought a match of birth,

Whose veins bound richer blood than lady Blanch?

POWERFUL EFFECTS OF SELF-INTEREST.

Roundedt in the ear

With that same purpose-changer, that sly devil,