To whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in, And there die strangled ere my Romeo comes? Or, if I live, is it not very like, The horrible conceit of death and night, Where, for these many hundred years, the bones So early waking,—what with loathsome smells; [She throws herself on the bed. In Othello we have many gems of thought here is one :— Good name in man and woman, dear Is the immediate jewel of their souls: my lord, Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing; 'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands : But he that filches from me my good name, Robs me of that which not enriches him, And makes me poor indeed. We all remember these admirable lines : The quality of mercy is not strained; The throned monarch better than his crown. What a sublime passage is that on the end of all earthly glo The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, What can be finer in structure of words than the speech of Mark Antony over the body of Cæsar? Or, take another variety— Othello's relation of his courtship, to the Senate; or, still another familiar, yet exquisite passage, from Romeo and Juliet, on Dreams, commencing : O then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you. For wonderful condensation and vigor, it has been thought that the passage in As You Like It, on the world being compared to a stage, is one of the greatest gems of Shakspeare: but we have the authority of Bunsen for assigning the highest merit to the description of a moonlight night with music, in The Merchant of l'enice : How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank! Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins : Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it. Now for a cluster of little brilliants, rich and rare: From Two Gentlemen of Verona : Who is Silvia? what is she, That all our swains commend her? Holy, fair, and wise is she : The heavens such grace did lend her, That she might admired be. Is she kind, as she is fair? For beauty lives with kindness: Love doth to her eyes repair, To help him of his blindness; Then to Silvia let us sing, That Silvia is excelling: Upon the dull earth dwelling: From Measure for Measure: Take, oh take those lips away, That so sweetly are forsworn; Seals of love, but seal'd in vain, From The Merchant of Venice : Tell me, where is Fancy' bred, It is engender'd in the eyes, Let us all ring Fancy's knell : From As You Like It: Blow, blow, thou winter wind, Thou art not so unkind As man's ingratitude: Thy tooth is not so keen, Because thou art not seen, Although thy breath be rude. Heigh, ho! sing heigh, ho! unto the green holly; |