Sorrow's heaviness doth heavier grow
For debt, that bankrupt sleep doth sorrow owe.

511

Somnambulism.

7-iii. 2.

A great perturbation in nature! to receive at once the benefit of sleep, and do the effects of watching. 15-v. 1.

512

The instability of human happiness.. This is the state of man; to-day he puts forth The tender leaves of hope, to-morrow blossoms, And bears his blushing honours thick upon him: The third day, comes a frost, a killing frost; And,-when he thinks, good easy man, full surely His greatness is a ripening,-nips his fruit,a And then he falls.

Then was I as a tree,

25-iii. 2.

Whose boughs did bend with fruit: but in one night,
A storm, or robbery, call it what you will,

Shook down my mellow hangings, nay, my leaves,
And left me bare to weather.

This gate

31-iii. 3.

Instructs you how to adore the heavens; and bows

you

To morning's holy office: The gates of monarchs
Are arch'd so high, that giants may jetb through
And keep their impious turbands on, without
Good-morrow to the sun.

515

Town and country life contrasted.
Often, to our comfort, shall we find
The sharded beetle in a safer hold

31-iii. 3.

a Root is received by all the commentators, but evidently wrong; if fruit be taken, then the metaphor throughout is complete.---In confirmation of this, it may be observed that frosts do not nip the roots of trees and plants; they are so deep in the earth as to be protected from the influence of frosts. And it is therefore not to be thought that Shakspeare, who was so minute and accurate an observer of nature, should have written root.

b Strut, walk proudly.

с

Scaly-winged.

e

Than is the full-wing'd eagle. O, this lifed
Is nobler, than attending for a check;
Richer, than doing nothing for a babe;f
Prouder, than rustling in unpaid-for silk:
Such gain the cap of him, that makes them fine,
Yet keeps his book uncross'd.

Did you but know the city's usuries,

And felt them knowingly; the art o' the court,
As hard to leave, as keep; whose top to climb
Is certain falling, or so slippery, that

The fear's as bad as falling; the toil of the war,
A pain that only seems to seek out danger

I' the name of fame, and honour; which dies i' the
And hath as oft a slanderous epitaph,

As record of fair act; nay, many times,

[search;

31-iii. 3.

Doth ill deserve by doing well; what's worse,
Must court'sy at the censure.

Affairs, that walk at midnight, have

In them a wilder nature, than the business
That seeks despatch by day.

25-v. 1.

517

Death terrible to the wicked.

Death is a fearful thing,

And shamed life a hateful.
To die, and go we know not where;
To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot;
This sensible warm motion to become
A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit
To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside
In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice;
To be imprison'd in the viewless winds,
And blown with restless violence round about
The pendent world, or to be worse than worst
Of those, that lawless and incertain thoughts
Imagine howling!-'tis too horrible!
The weariest and most loathed worldly life,
That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment,
Can lay on nature, is a paradise

To what we fear of death.

d Rustic life.

5-iii. 1.

f A puppet, or plaything for children.

518

Greatness, the pain of separating from.

The soul and body rive1 not more in parting,
Than greatness going off.

30-iv. 11.

When clouds are seen, wise men put on their cloaks;
When great leaves fall, then winter is at hand;
When the sun sets, who doth not look for night?
Untimely storms make men expect a dearth.

Before the days of change, still is it so:
By a divine instinct, men's minds mistrust
Ensuing danger; as, by proof, we see
The water swell before a boist❜rous. storm,
But leave it all to God.

An habitation giddy and unsure

Hath he, that buildeth on the vulgar heart.

It hath been taught us from the primal state,
That he, which is, was wish'd until he were;

24-ii. 3.

24-ii. 3.

19-i. 3.

And the ebb'd man, ne'er loved, till ne'er worth love,
Comes dear'd by being lack'd.i This common body,
Like to a vagabond flag upon the stream,

Goes to, and back, lackeying the varying tide,
To rot itself with motion.

523

The effects of care on age and youth.

30-i. 4.

Care keeps his watch in every old man's eye,
And where care lodges, sleep will never lie;
But where unbruised youth with unstuff'd brain

Doth couch his limbs, there golden sleep doth reign.

524

Impartiality to be shewn in judging.

He, who the sword of Heaven will bear,

Should be as holy as severe;

Pattern in himself to know,
Grace to stand, and virtue go;

35-ii. 3.

More nor less to others paying,
Than by self-offences weighing.
Shame to him, whose cruel striking
Kills for faults of his own liking!

5-iii. 2.

Whose own hard dealings teaches them suspect
The thoughts of others!

9-i. 3.

Can it be,

That modesty may more betray our sense
Than woman's lightness?

527

Life.

Hold the world but as the world,

5-ii. 2.

A stage, where every man must play a part. 9-i. 1.

We all are men,

In our own natures frail; and capable

Of our flesh, few are angels.

Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself,

25-v. 2.

Till, by broad spreading, it disperse to nought.

530

Pleasure, preferred to knowledge.

21-i. 2.

Who, being mature in knowledge,

Pawn their experience to their present pleasure,
And so rebel to judgment.

30-i. 4.

'Tis an unweeded garden,

36-i. 2.

That grows to seed; things rank, and gross in nature, Possess it merely.*

532

Opportunity personified.

Unruly blasts wait on the tender spring;

Unwholesome weeds take root with precious flowers; The adder hisses where the sweet birds sing;

k Entirely.

What virtue breeds, iniquity devours:

We have no good that we can say is ours;
But ill annexed opportunity

Or kills his life, or else his quality.

O, Opportunity! thy guilt is great:

'Tis thou that execut'st the traitor's treason;
Thou set'st the wolf where he the lamb may get;
Whoever plots the sin, thou 'point'st the season;
'Tis thou that spurn'st at right, at law, at reason;
And in thy shady cell, where none may spy him,
Sits Sin, to seize the souls that wander by him.
Thou mak'st the vestal violate her oath:
Thou blow'st the fire when temperance is thaw'd;
Thou smother'st honesty, thou murder'st troth;
Thou foul abettor! thou notorious bawd!
Thou plantest scandal, and displacest laud:
Thou ravisher, thou traitor, thou false thief,
Thy honey turns to gall, thy joy to grief!

Thy secret pleasure turns to open shame,
Thy private feasting to a public fast;
Thy smoothing titles to a ragged name;
Thy sugar'd tongue to bitter wormwood taste:
Thy violent vanities can never last.
How comes it then, vile Opportunity,
Being so bad, such numbers seek for thee?

When wilt thou be the humble suppliant's friend,
And bring him where his suit may be obtain'd?
When wilt thou sort an hour great strifes to end?
Or free that soul which wretchedness hath chain'd?
Give physic to the sick, ease to the pain'd?
The poor, lame, blind, halt, creep, cry out for thee;
But they ne'er meet with Opportunity.

The patient dies while the physician sleeps;
The orphan pines while the oppressor feeds;
Justice is feasting while the widow weeps;
Advice is sporting while infection breeds;
Thou grant'st no time for charitable deeds:
Wrath, envy, treason, rape, and murder's rages,
Thy heinous hours wait on them as their pages.
When Truth and Virtue have to do with thee,
A thousand crosses keep them from thy aid;
They buy thy help: but Sin ne'er gives a fee,