Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

bullets of the brain, awe a man from the career of his humour?

ACT III.

Royal Favourites compared to Honeysuckles.

Bid her steal into the pleached bower,
Where honeysuckles ripen'd by the sun,
Forbid the sun to enter;-like favourites,
Made proud by princes, that advance their pride
Against that power that bred it.

Beatrice's disdainful manner described.

Disdain and scorn ride sparkling in her eyes,
Misprising what they look on; and her wit
Values itself so highly, that to her

All matter else seems weak; she cannot love,
Nor take no shape nor project of affection,
She is so self-endeared,

I never yet saw man,

How wise, how noble, young, how rarely featured,
But she would spell him backward; if fair-faced,
She'd swear the gentleman should be her sister;
If black, why, nature, drawing of an antic,
Made a foul blot: if tall, a lance ill-headed;
If low, an agate very vilely cut:

If speaking, why a vane blown with all winds:
If silent, why a block moved with none.
So turns she every man the wrong side out;
And never gives to truth and virtue, that
Which simpleness and merit purchaseth.

*Undervaluing..

Beatrice's awakened love for Benedick.

What fire is in mine ears? Can this be true?
Stand I condemn'd for pride and scorn so much?
Contempt, farewell! and maiden pride adieu !
No glory lives behind the back of such.
And, Benedick, love on, I will requite thee;
Taming my wild heart to thy loving hand;
If thou dost love, my kindness shall incite thee
To bind our loves up in a holy band:
For others say, thou dost deserve; and I
Believe it better than reportingly.

ACT IV.

Dissimulation.

O what authority and show of truth Can cunning sin cover itself withal!

Innocence confirmed by the Countenance.

I have mark'd

A thousand blushing apparitions start
Into her face; a thousand innocent shames
In angel whiteness bear away those blushes;
And in her eye there hath appear'd a fire,
To burn the errors that these princes hold
Against her maiden truth.

Resolution.

I know not if they speak but truth of her, These hands shall tear her; if they wrong her honour, The proudest of them shall well hear of it.

Time hath not yet so dried this blood of mine,

Nor age so eat up my invention,

K

Nor fortune made such havoc of

my means,

Nor my bad life reft me so much of friends,
But they shall find, awaked in such a kind,
Both strength of limb, and policy of mind,
Ability in means, and choice of friends,
To quit me of them thoroughly.

The Desire of a beloved Object heightened by its Loss.

For it so falls out,

That what we have we prize not to the worth,
Whiles we enjoy it; but being lack'd and lost,
Why, then we rack* the value; then we find
The virtue, that possession would not show us
While it was ours :-so will it fare with Claudio
When he shall hear she died upon his words,
The idea of her life shall sweetly creep
Into his study of imagination :

And every lovely organ of her life

Shall come apparell'd in more precious habit,
More moving delicate, and full of life,

[blocks in formation]

of his soul,

Than when she lived indeed.

Talking Braggarts.

Manhood is melted into courtesies, valour into compliment, and men are only turned into tongue, and trim ones too; he is now as valiant as Hercules, that only tells a lie, and swears it.

[blocks in formation]

Which they themselves not feel; but, tasting it,
Their counsel turns to passion, which before
Would give preceptial medicine to rage,
Fetter strong madness in a silken thread,
Charm ach with air, and agony with words;
No, no; 'tis all men's office to speak patience
To those that wring under the load of sorrow;
But no man's virtue, nor sufficiency,

To be so moral, when he shall endure
The like himself.

I

Satire on the Stoic Philosophers.

pray thee peace:

I will be flesh and blood;

For there was never yet philosopher

That could endure the tooth-ach patiently:
However they have writ the style of gods,
And made a push* at chance and sufferance.
Empty Boasters.

What man! I know them, yea,

And what they weigh, even to the utmost scruple;
Scambling, out-facing, fashion-mong'ring boys,
That lie, and cog, and flout, deprave and slander,
Go anticly, and show outward hideousness,
And speak off half a dozen dangerous words,
How they might hurt their enemies, if they durst,
And this is all.

Daybreak.

The wolves have prey'd; and look, the gentle day, Before the wheels of Phœbus, round about

Dapples the drowsy east with spots of gray.

* Defiance.

TAMING OF THE SHREW.

Baptista, a rich gentleman of Padua, has two daughters, Katharina and Bianca. For the hand of the latter, Gremio and Hortensio are suitors; Baptista, however, declines to assent to Bianca's marriage till her elder sister, Katharina, the Shrew, has obtained a husband. Lucentio, a gentleman of Pisa, arrives in Padua, and falls in love with Bianca, and, in order to urge his suit, he disguises himself as a schoolmaster, and undertakes to become her instructor. In this assumed character he avows his passion, and after telling her that he is Lucentio, woos and marries her. Petruchio, a gentleman of Verona, has, in the meantime, with the consent of Baptista, proffered his love to Katharina, and, after an uncouth courtship, they are married. The chief action of the play consists in the efforts made by Petruchio to curb the wild temper of his wife; in this he is at length completely successful, and she becomes a model of obedience. The play concludes with an animated speech from Katharina on the duties of wives to their husbands.

INDUCTION.

Hounds.

THY hounds shall make the welkin answer them, And fetch shrill echoes from the hollow earth.

Painting.

Dost thou love pictures? we will fetch thee straight Adonis painted by a running brook :

And Cytherea all in sedges hid:

Which seem to move and wanton with her breath.

Even as the waving sedges play with wind.

« AnteriorContinuar »