Imatges de pàgina
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should be sorry for.

threats:

Bru. You have done that you
There is no terror, Cassius, in your
For I am arm'd so strong in honesty,
That they pass by me as the idle wind,
Which I respect not. I did send to you

For certain sums of gold, which you denied me ;-
For I can raise no money by vile means:
By heaven I had rather coin my heart,

And drop my blood for drachmas*, than to wring
From the hard hands of peasants their vile trash,
By any indirection, I did send

To you for gold to pay my legions,

Which you denied me: Was that done like Cassius?
Should I have answer'd Caius Cassius so?
When Marcus Brutus grows so covetous,
To lock such rascal counters from his friends,
Be ready, gods, with all your thunderbolts,
Dash him to pieces!

Cas.

Bru. You did.

Cas.

I denied you not.

I did not

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he was but a fool,

Brutus hath riv'd†

A friend should bear his friend's infirmities,
But Brutus makes mine greater than they are.
Bru. I do not, till you practise them on me.
Cas, You love me not.

Bru.

I do not like your faults. Cas. A friendly eye could never see such faults. Bru. A flatterer's would not, though they do ap

As huge as high Olympus.

[pear Cas. Come, Antony, and young Octavius, come, Revenge yourselves alone on Cassius,

For Cassius is aweary of the world:

* Coin.

BB

+ Split.

Hated by one he loves: brav'd by his brother:
Check'd like a bondman; all his faults observ'd,
Set in a note-book, learn'd, and conn'd by rote,
To cast into my teeth. O, I could weep
My spirit from mine eyes!-There is my dagger,
And here my naked breast; within, a heart
Dearer than Plutus' mine, richer than gold:
If that thou be'st a Roman, take it forth;
I, that denied thee gold, will give my heart:
Strike, as thou didst at Cæsar; for I know,
When thou didst hate him worst, thou lov'dst him
Than ever thou lov'dst Cassius.

Be

Bru.

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Sheath your dagger: angry when you will, it shall have scope; Do what you will, dishonour shall be humour. O Cassius, you are yoked with a lamb That carries anger as the flint bears fire; Who, much enforced, shows, a hasty spark, And straight is cold again.

Cas.

Hath Cassius liv'd

To be but mirth and laughter to his Brutus,
When grief, and blood ill temper'd, vexeth him?
Bru. When I spoke that, I was ill temper'd too.
Cas. Do you confess so much; Give me your
Bru. And my heart too.
[hand.

Cas.

Bru.

O Brutus !

What's the matter?

Cas. Have you not love enough to bear with me, When that rash humour, which my mother gave me, Makes me forgetful?

Bru.

Yes, Cassius; and henceforth, When you are over-earnest with your Brutus, He'll think your mother chides, and leave you so.

Bru. O Cassius, I am sick of many griefs.

Cas. Of your philosophy you make no use, If you give place to accidental evils.

Bru. No man bears sorrow better:-Portia is

Cas. Ha! Portia ?

Bru. She is dead.

[dead.

Cas. How scap'd I killing, when I cross'd you O insupportable and touching loss!— [so?Upon what sickness?

Bru.

Impatient of my absence; And grief, that young Octavius with Mark Antony Have made themselves so strong;-for with her death

That tidings came.-With this she fell distract, And, her attendants absent, swallow'd fire.

Cas. And died so?

Bru. Even so.

Cas. O ye immortal gods!

Enter LUCIUS, with Wine and Tapers.

Bru. Speak no more of her.-Give me a bowl of wine :

In this I'll bury all unkindness, Cassius. [Drinks.
Cas. My heart is thirsty for that noble pledge:
Fill, Lucius, till the wine o'erswell the cup;
I cannot drink too much of Brutus' love. [Drinks.

OPPORTUNITY TO BE SEIZED ON ALL OCCASIONS OF
LIFE.

There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life

Is bound in shallows, and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat;

And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.

ACT V.

THE PARTING OF BRUTUS AND CASSIUS.

Bru. No, Cassius, no: think not, thou noble
Roman,

That ever Brutus will go bound to Rome;
He bears too great a mind. But this same day
Must end that work, the ides of March begun;
And whether we shall meet again, I know not.
Therefore our everlasting farewell take :
For ever, and for ever, farewell, Cassius!
If we do meet again, why we shall smile;
If not, why then this parting was well made.
Cas. For ever, and for ever, farewell, Brutus!
If we do meet again, we'll smile indeed;
If not, 'tis true, this parting was well made.
Bru. Why, then, lead on.-O, that a man might
know

The end of this day's business, ere it come!
But it sufficeth, that the day will end,
And then the end is known.

MELANCHOLY, THE PARENT OF ERror.
O hateful error, melancholy's child!

Why dost thou show to the apt thoughts of men
The things that are not! O error, soon conceiv'd,
Thou never com'st unto a happy birth,
But kill'st the mother that engender'd thee.

ANTONY'S CHARACTER OF brutus.

This was the noblest Roman of them all :
All the conspirators, save only he,
Did that they did in envy of great Cæsar;
only, in a general honest thought,

And common good to all, made one of them.
His life was gentle; and the elements
So mix'd in him, that Nature might stand up,
And say to all the world, This was a man!

KING LEAR.

ACT I.

A FATHER'S ANGER.

LET it be so,-Thy truth then be thy dower
For, by the sacred radiance of the sun;
The mysterics of Hecate, and the night;
By all the operations of the orbs,

From whence we do exist, and cease to be;
Here I disclaim all my paternal care,

Propinquity* and property of blood,
And as a stranger to my heart and me

:

Hold thee from this, for ever. The barbarous
Scythian,

Or he that makes his generation‡ messes
To gorge his appetite, shall to my bosom
Be as well neighbour'd, pitied, and reliev'd,
As thou my sometime daughter.

BASTARDY.

Thou, nature, art my goddess; to thy law My services are bound: Wherefore should I Stand in the plague§ of custom; and permit The curiosity of nations to deprive me,

For that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines Lag of a brother? Why bastard? wherefore base?

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+ His children. The nicety of civil institution.

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