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Prince Troilus, I have lov'd you night and day, For many weary months.

TROILUS. Why was my Cressid then so hard to win?

CRES.

Hard to seem won; but I was won,

my lord,
With the first glance that ever-Pardon me ;-
If I confess much, you will play the tyrant.
I love you now; but not, till now, so much
But I might master it :-in faith, I lie;
My thoughts were like unbridled children, grown
Too headstrong for their mother: See, we fools!
Why have I blabb'd? who shall be true to us,
When we are so unsecret to ourselves?

But, though I lov'd you well, I woo'd you not;
And yet, good faith, I wish'd myself a man;
Or that we women had men's privilege

Of speaking first. Sweet, bid me hold my tongue;

For, in this rapture, I shall surely speak

The thing I shall repent. See, see, your silence, Cunning in dumbness, from my weakness draws My very soul of counsel: Stop my mouth.

TRO. And shall, albeit sweet musick issue thence.

CRES. My lord, I do beseech you, pardon me: 'Twas not my purpose, thus to beg a kiss: I am asham'd;-O heavens! what have I done?— For this time will I take my leave, my

lord.

TRO. Your leave, sweet Cressid? What offends you, lady?

CRES. Sir, mine own company.

TRO.

Yourself.

CRES. Let me go and try:

You cannot shun

I have a kind of self resides with you:

But an unkind self, that itself will leave,
To be another's fool. I would be gone :-
Where is my wit? I know not what I speak.
TRO. Well know they what they speak, that
speak so wisely.

CRES. Perchance, my lord, I show more craft than love:

And fell so roundly to a large confession,

To angle for your thoughts: But you are wise; Or else you love not; For to be wise, and love, Exceeds man's might; that dwells with gods above.

TRO. O, that I thought it could be in a

woman,

(As, if it can, I will presume in you,)

To feed for aye her lamp and flames of love;
To keep her constancy in plight and youth,
Outliving beauty's outward, with a mind
That doth renew swifter than blood decays!
Or, that persuasion could but thus convince me,-
That my integrity and truth to you

Might be affronted with the match and weight
Of such a winnow'd purity in love;
How were I then uplifted! but, alas!
I am as true as truth's simplicity,
And simpler than the infancy of truth.
CRES. In that I'll war with you.
TRO.
When right with right wars who shall be most

right!

Ŏ virtuous fight,

True swains in love shall, in the world to come, Approve their truths by Troilus: when their rhymes,

Full of protest, of oath, and big compare,
Want similes, truth tir'd with iteration,-
As true as steel, as plantage to the moon,

As sun to day, as turtle to her mate,
As iron to adamant, as earth to the centre,-
Yet, after all comparisons of truth,

As truth's authentick author to be cited,
As true as Troilus shall crown up the verse,
And sanctify the numbers.

CRES.

Prophet may you be! If I be false, or swerve a hair from truth,

When time is old and hath forgot itself,

When waterdrops have worn the stones of Troy,
And blind oblivion swallow'd cities up,

And mighty states characterless are grated
To dusty nothing; yet let memory

From false to false, among false maids in love, Upbraid my falsehood! when they have said-as false

As air, as water, wind, or sandy earth,

As fox to lamb, as wolf to heifer's calf,

Pard to the hind, or stepdame to her son;
Yea, let them say, to stick the heart of falsehood,
As false as Cressid.

TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, A. 3, s. 2.

THE CROWN OF CONTENT.

K. HENRY. My crown is in my heart, not on my head;

Not deck'd with diamonds, and Indian stones,
Nor to be seen: my crown is call'd, content;
A crown it is, that seldom kings enjoy.

KEEPER. Well, if you be a king crown'd with content,

Your crown content, and you, must be contented To go along with us.

K. HENRY VI., PART III., A. 3, s. 2.

THE CROW PECKING AT THE

EAGLE.

FAME, at which he aims, In whom already he is well grac'd, cannot Better be held, nor more attain'd, than by A place below the first: for what miscarries Shall be the general's fault, though he perform To the utmost of a man; and giddy censure Will then cry out of Marcius, O, if he

Had borne the business!

Half all Cominius' honours are to Marcius, Though Marcius earn'd them not; and all his faults

To Marcius shall be honours, though, indeed,
In aught he merit not.

CORIOLANUS, A. 1, s. 1.

THE CURSE OF CIVIL WAR
PROPHESIED.

MARRY, God forbid !—

Worst in this royal presence may I speak,
Yet best beseeming me to speak the truth.
Would God, that any in this noble presence
Were enough noble to be upright judge
Of noble Richard; then true nobles would
Learn him forbearance from so foul a wrong.
What subject can give sentence on his king?
And who sits here, that is not Richard's subject?
Thieves are not judg'd, but they are by to hear,
Although apparent guilt be seen in them:
And shall the figure of God's majesty,
His captain, steward, deputy elect,
Anointed, crowned, planted many years,

Be judg'd by subject and inferior breath,
And he himself not present? O, forbid it, God,
That, in a Christian climate, souls refin'd
Should show so heinous, black, obscene a deed!
I speak to subjects, and a subject speaks,
Stirr'd up by heaven thus boldly for his king.
My lord of Hereford here, whom you call king,
Is a foul traitor to proud Hereford's king:
And if you crown him, let me prophesy,-
The blood of English shall manure the ground,
And future ages groan for this foul act;
Peace shall go sleep with Turks and infidels,
And, in this seat of peace, tumultuous wars
Shall kin with kin, and kind with kind confound;
Disorder, horror, fear, and mutiny,

Shall here inhabit, and this land be call'd
The field of Golgotha, and dead men's sculls.
O, if you rear this house against this house,
It will the woefullest division prove,
That ever fell upon this cursed earth:
Prevent, resist it, let it not be so,

Lest child, child's children, cry against you

woe!

K. RICHARD Il., A. 4, s. 1.

THE DEMON OF REVENGE.

KKOW thou, sad man, I am not Tamora;
She is thy enemy, and I thy friend :

I am Revenge; sent from the infernal kingdom,
To ease the gnawing vulture of thy mind,
By working wreakful vengeance on thy foes.
Come down, and welcome me to this world's

light;

Confer with me of murder and of death:

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