Christopher Marlowe: 1563-1593. The Shepherd to his Love. And I will make thee beds of roses, Michael Drayton: 1563-1631. Clear had the day been from the dawn, To make one leaf the next to kiss, The rills that on the pebbles played This world they only music made, Sir Walter Raleigh: 1552-1618. Give me my scallop-shell of quiet, My bottle of salvation; My gown of glory, hope's true gauge, Where spring the nectar fountains. Lines composed the Night before his When such is time, that takes on trust Richard Barnfield: ? 1570-P In the merry month of May, The flowers, like brave embroidered girls, Senseless trees, they cannot hear thee; Looked as they much desired To see whose head with orient pearls Most curiously was tyred. And to itself the subtile air Such sovereignty assumes, That it received too large a share dressed Ruthless bears, they will not cheer thee: All thy friends are lapped in lead; 1 Pandion, king of Attica, was the father of Philomela, who was changed into a nightingale. William Shakspeare: 1564-1616. Scene from Coriolanus.'-Rome. A Street. Enter a company of mutinous Citizens, with staves, clubs, and other weapons. 1st Cit. Before we proceed any further, hear me speak. All. Speak, speak. 1st Cit. You are all resolved rather to die than to famish? All. Resolved, resolved. 1st Cit. First, you know, Caius Marcius is chief enemy to the people. All. We know 't, we know 't. 1st Cit. Let us kill him, and we 'll have corn at our own price. Is 't a verdict? All. No more talking on 't let it be done: away, away! 2d Cit. One word, good citizens. 1st Cit. We are accounted poor citizens; the patricians, good.1 What authority surfeits on would relieve us. If they would yield us but the superfluity, while it were wholesome, we might guess they relieved us humanely; but they think we are too dear: the leanness that afflicts us, the object of our misery, is as an inventory to particularise their abundance; our sufferance is a gain to them.-Let us revenge this with our pikes, ere we become rakes:2 for the gods know, I speak this in hunger for bread, not in thirst for revenge. 2d Cit. Would you proceed especially against Caius Marcius? All. Against him first: he's a very dog to the commonalty. 2d Cit. Consider you what services he has done for his country? 1st Cit. Very well; and could be content to give him good report for 't, but that he pays himself with being proud. 2d Cit. Nay, but speak not maliciously. 1st Cit. I say unto you, what he hath done famously he did it to that end; though soft-conscienced men can be content to say it was for his country, he did it to please his mother, and to be partly proud; which he is, even to the altitude of his virtue. 2d Cit. What he cannot help in his nature you account a vice in him. You must in no way say he is covetous. 1st Cit. If I must not, I need not be barren of accusations; he hath faults, with surplus, to tire in repetition. [Shouts within.] What shouts are these? The other side o' the city is risen: why stay we prating here? to the Capitol ! All. Come, come. 1st Cit. Soft! who comes here? 2d Cit. Worthy Menenius Agrippa; one that hath always loved the people. 1st Cit. He's one honest enough: would all the rest were so! Enter MENENIUS AGRIPPA. Men. What work 's, my countrymen, in hand? Where go you with bats and clubs? The matter? Speak, I pray you. 1st Cit. Our business is not unknown to the senate; they have had inkling, this fortnight, what we intend to do, which now we 'll shew'em in deeds. They say poor suitors have strong breaths; they shall know we have strong arms too. Men. Why, masters, my good friends, mine honest neighbours, Will you undo yourselves? 1st Cit. We cannot, sir, we are undone already. Men. I tell you, friends, most charitable care 1 Used here in a commercial sense. 2 An allusion to the old proverb, As lean as a rake.' Have the patricians of you. For your wants, Thither where more attends you; and you slander 1st Cit. Care for us!-True, indeed!-They ne'er cared for us yet. Suffer us to famish, and their storehouses crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act established against the rich; and provide more piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and there's all the love they bear us. Men. Either you must 1st Cit. Well, I'll hear it, sir: yet you must not think to fob off our disgrace with a tale: but, an 't please you, deliver. Men. There was a time when all the body's members Rebell'd against the belly; thus accus'd it : That only like a gulf it did remain I' the midst o' the body, idle and unactive, Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing Like labour with the rest; where the other instruments 1st Cit. Well, sir, what answer made the belly? To the discontented members, the mutinous parts They are not such as you. Your belly's answer? What! 1st Cit. In this our fabric, if that they Men. What then? 'Fore me, this fellow speaks!-what then? what then? 1st Cit. Should by the cormorant belly be restrain'd, Who is the sink o' the body put off Men. Well, what then? 1st Cit. The former agents, if they did complain, What could the belly answer? Men. I will tell you; If you'll bestow a small (of what you have little) Note me this, good friend; I send it through the rivers of your blood, Even to the court, the heart, to the seat o' the brain; The strongest nerves, and small inferior veins, Whereby they live: and though that all at once, Men. "Though all at once cannot See what I do deliver out to each; Yet I can make my audit up, that all From me do back receive the flour of all, And leave me but the bran.' What say you to 't? But it proceeds, or comes, from them to you, And no way from yourselves.-What do you think? You, the great toe of this assembly?— 1st Cit. I the great toe? Why the great toe? Men. For that, being one o' the lowest, basest, poorest, Of this most wise rebellion, thou go'st foremost : Thou rascal, that art worst in blood to run, Lead'st first, to win some vantage. But make you ready your stiff bats and clubs; Rome and her rats are at the point of battle, The one side must have bale.-Hail, noble Marcius! Enter CAIUS MARCIUS. Mar. Thanks.-What's the matter, you dissentious rogues? Mar. He that will give good words to thee will flatter ruin Where foxes, geese: you are no surer, no, Or hailstone in the sun. Your virtue is, To make him worthy whose offence subdues him, And curse that justice did it. Who deserves greatness A sick man's appetite, who desires most that Which would increase his evil. He that depends Upon your favours swims with fins of lead, And hews down oaks with rushes. Hang ye! Trust ye! And call him noble that was now your hate, Him vile that was your garland. What's the matter, You cry against the noble senate, who, Under the gods, keep you in awe, which else Would feed on one another?-What's their seeking? Mar. Hang 'em! They say! They'll sit by the fire, and presume to know What's done i' the Capitol; who's like to rise, Who thrives, and who declines; side factions, and give out And feebling such as stand not in their liking Below their cobbled shoes. They say there's grain enough! Would the nobility lay aside their ruth, And let me use my sword, I'd make a quarry With thousands of these quarter'd slaves, as high As I could pick my lance. Men. Nay, these are almost thoroughly persuaded; Yet are they passing cowardly. But, I beseech you, Mar. They vented their complainings; which being answer'd, (To break the heart of generosity, And make bold power look pale), they threw their caps Men. What is granted them? Mar. Five tribunes to defend their vulgar wisdoms, Of their own choice: one's Junius Brutus, Sicinius Velutus, and I know not-'Sdeath! The rabble should have first unroof'd the city, Win upon power, and throw forth greater themes Men. This is strange. Mar. Go, get you home, you fragments! pity pitch God's death! |