THE

Beauties of Shakspeare.

PART THE FIRST.

COMEDIES.

B

THE

BEAUTIES OF SHAKSPEARE.

All's well that Ends Well.

ACT I.

ADVICE.

B , ,

E thou blest, Bertram! and succeed thy father

Contend for empire in thee; and thy goodness
Share with thy birthright! Love all, trust a few,
Do wrong to none: be able for thine enemy
Rather in power than use; and keep thy friend
Under thy own life's key: be check'd for silence,
But never tax'd for speech.

TOO AMBITIOUS LOVE.

I am undone; there is no living, none, If Bertram be away.

It were all one, That I should love a bright particular star, And think to wed it, he is so above me: In his bright radiance and collateral light Must I be comforted, not in his sphere. The ambition in my love thus plagues itself: The hind that would be mated by the lion, Must die for love. 'Twas pretty, though a plague,

To see him every hour; to sit and draw
His arched brows, his hawking eye, his curls,
In our heart's table*; heart, too capable
Of every line and trick t of his sweet favourt:
But now he's gone, and my idolatrous fancy
Must sanctify his relics.

COWARDICE.

I know him a notorious liar,
Think him a great way fool, solely a coward;
Yet these fix'd evils sit so fit in him,
That they take place, when virtue's steely bones
Look bleak in the cold wind.

THE REMEDY OF EVILS GENERALLY IN OURSELVES.

Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie,
Which we ascribe to heaven: the fated sky
Gives us free scope; only, doth backward pull
Our slow designs, when we ourselves are dull.

CHARACTER OF A NOBLE COURTIER.

In his youth He had the wit, which I can well observe To-day in our young lords; but they may jest Till their own scorn return to them unnoted, Ere they can hide their levity in honour. So like a courtier, contempt nor bitterness Were in his pride or sharpness; if they were, His equal had awak'd them; and his honour, Clock to itself, knew the true minute when Exception bid him speak, and at this time, His tongue obey'd his hand 9: who were below him He us'd as creatures of another place: And bow'd his eminent top to their low ranks,

* Helena considers her heart as the tablet on which his resemblance was pourtrayed. † Peculiarity of feature.

# Countenance. § His is put for its.