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Than one that's sick o' the gout: since he had rather

Groan so in perpetuity, than be cur'd

By the sure physician, death; who is the key To unbar these locks. My conscience! thou art fetter'd

More than my shanks, and wrists: You good gods, give me

The penitent instrument, to pick that bolt,
Then, free for ever! Is't enough, I am sorry?
So children temporal fathers do appease ;
Gods are more full of mercy. Must I repent?
I cannot do it better than in gyves,

Desir'd, more than constrain'd: to satisfy,
If of my freedom 'tis the main part, take
No stricter render of
me, than my all.
I know you are more clement than vile men,
Who of their broken debtors take a third,
A sixth, a tenth, letting them thrive again
On their abatement: that's not my desire:
For Imogen's dear life, take mine; and though
'Tis not so dear, yet 'tis a life; you coin'd it:
"Tween man and man, they weigh not every stamp;
Though light, take pieces for the figure's sake:
You rather mine, being yours: And so, great

If

powers,

you will take this audit, take this life, And cancel these cold bonds. O Imogen! I'll speak to thee in silence.

CYMBELINE, A. 5, s. 4.

COURAGE OF DESPERATION.

I WILL to-morrow,

(Betimes I will,) unto the weird sisters:

More shall they speak; for now I am bent to know,

By the worst means, the worst: for mine own good,

All causes shall give way; I am in blood
Stept in so far, that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o'er:

Strange things I have in head, that will to hand;
Which must be acted, ere they may be scann'd.
Come, we'll to sleep: My strange and self-abuse
Is the initiate fear, that wants hard use:—
We are yet but young in deed.

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K. HENRY. Hadst thou been kill'd, when first thou didst presume,

Thou hadst not liv'd to kill a son of mine.
And thus I prophecy,-that many a thousand,
Which now mistrust no parcel of my fear;

And many an old man's sigh, and many a widow's,
And many an orphan's water-standing eye,—
Men for their sons, wives for their husbands' fate,
And orphans for their parents' timeless death,-
Shall rue the hour that ever thou wast born.
The owl shriek'd at thy birth, an evil sign;
The night-crow cried, aboding luckless time;
Dogs howl'd, and hideous tempests shook down
trees;

The raven rook'd her on the chimney's top,
And chattering pies in dismal discords sung.
Thy mother felt more than a mother's pain,
And yet brought forth less than a mother's hope;
To wit, an indigest deformed lump,

Not like the fruit of such a goodly tree.

Teeth hadst thou in thy head, when thou wast born,

To signify, thou cam'st to bite the world:
And, if the rest be true which I have heard,
Thou cam'st-

GLO.

I'll hear no more;-Die, prophet, in thy speech: [Stabs him. For this, amongst the rest, was I ordain'd. K. HEN. Ay, and for much more slaughter after this.

O God! forgive my sins, and pardon thee!

[Dies.

GLO. What, will the aspiring blood of Lan

caster

Sink in the ground? I thought it would have mounted.

See, how my sword weeps for the poor king's death! O, may such purple tears be alway shed

thither,

From those that wish the downfal of our house!-
If any spark of life be yet remaining,
Down, down to hell; and say I sent thee
[Stabs him again.
I, that have neither pity, love, nor fear.—
Indeed, 'tis true, that Henry told me of;
For I have often heard my mother say,
I came into the world with my legs forward:
Had I not reason, think ye, to make haste,
And seek their ruin that usurp'd our right?
The midwife wonder'd: and the women cried,
O, Jesus bless us, he is born with teeth!
And so I was; which plainly signified-
That I should snarl, and bite, and play the dog.
Then, since the heavens have shap'd my body so,
Let hell make crook'd my mind to answer it.
I have no brother, I am like no brother:

And this word-love, which greybeards call

divine,

Be resident in men like one another,

And not in me; I am myself alone.

Clarence, beware; thou keep'st me from the light;
But I will sort a pitchy day for thee:
For I will buz abroad such prophecies,
That Edward shall be fearful of his life;
And, then, to purge his fear, I'll be thy death.
King Henry, and the prince his son, are gone:
Clarence, thy turn is next, and then the rest
Counting myself but bad, till I be best.-
I'll throw thy body in another room,
And triumph, Henry, in thy day of doom.

K. HENRY VI., PART III., A. 5, s. 6.

CUNNING.

WHEN the fox hath once got in his nose, He'll soon find means to make the body follow.

K. HENRY VI., PART III., A. 4, s. 7.

CUNNING UNDERMINING GENIUS.
ALL places yield to him ere he sits down:
And the nobility of Rome are his:

The senators, and patricians, love him too:
The tribunes are no soldiers; and their people
Will be as rash in the repeal, as hasty

To expel him thence. I think, he'll be to Rome,
As is the osprey to the fish, who takes it
By sovereignty of nature. First he was
A noble servant to them; but he could not
Carry his honours even: whether 'twas pride,
Which out of daily fortune ever taints

The happy man; whether defect of judgment,
To fail in the disposing of those chances
Which he was lord of; or whether nature,
Not to be other than one thing, not moving
From the casque to the cushion, but command-
ing peace

Even with the same austerity and garb

As he controll'd the war; but, one of these,
(As he hath spices of them all, not all,

For I dare so far free him,) made him fear'd,
So hated, and so banish'd: But he has a merit,
To choke it in the utterance. So our virtues
Lie in the interpretation of the time:
And power, unto itself most commendable,
Hath not a tomb so evident as a chair

To extol what it hath done.

One fire drives out one fire; one nail, one nail; Rights by rights fouler, strengths by strengths do fail.

Come, let's away. When, Caius, Rome is thine, Thou art poor'st of all; then shortly art thou mine.

CORIOLANUS, A. 4, s. 7.

CURSE OF UNLAWFUL AMBITION.

Go, after, after, cousin Buckingham.

The mayor towards Guild-hall hies him in all post:

There, at your meetest vantage of the time,
Infer the bastardy of Edward's children :
Tell them, how Edward put to death a citizen,
Only for saying—he would make his son
Heir to the crown; meaning, indeed, his house,
Which, by the sign thereof, was termed so.
Moreover, urge his hateful luxury,

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