initial commit of ebook 20657HEAD main

author: Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> 2025-10-15 01:24:43 -0700
committer: Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> 2025-10-15 01:24:43 -0700
commit: d9fd89e164c0a8b71809750560e63ff2d4ec4766 (patch)
tree: 08f6f5628cf68c0107213cc6700f481bf590101a
64 files changed, 30004 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/20657-8.txt b/20657-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..39ec4a6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,9931 @@
+Project Gutenberg's Tales from Shakespeare, by Charles Lamb and Mary  Lamb
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Tales from Shakespeare
+
+Author: Charles Lamb and Mary  Lamb
+
+Illustrator: Arthur Rackham
+
+Release Date: February 24, 2007 [EBook #20657]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Janet Blenkinship and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE
+
+By CHARLES & MARY LAMB
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATED BY ARTHUR RACKHAM
+
+
+
+
+_WEATHERVANE BOOKS NEW YORK_
+
+Copyright � MCMLXXV by Crown Publishers, Inc.
+Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 75-18860
+
+All rights reserved.
+
+This edition is published by Weathervane Books, a division of Barre
+Publishing Company, Inc.
+
+Manufactured in the United States of America
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The following Tales are meant to be submitted to the young reader as an
+introduction to the study of Shakespeare, for which purpose his words
+are used whenever it seemed possible to bring them in; and in whatever
+has been added to give them the regular form of a connected story,
+diligent care has been taken to select such words as might least
+interrupt the effect of the beautiful English tongue in which he wrote:
+therefore, words introduced into our language since his time have been
+as far as possible avoided.
+
+In those tales which have been taken from the Tragedies, the young
+readers will perceive, when they come to see the source from which these
+stories are derived, that Shakespeare's own words, with little
+alteration, recur very frequently in the narrative as well as in the
+dialogue; but in those made from the Comedies the writers found
+themselves scarcely ever able to turn his words into the narrative form:
+therefore it is feared that, in them, dialogue has been made use of too
+frequently for young people not accustomed to the dramatic form of
+writing. But this fault, if it be a fault, has been caused by an earnest
+wish to give as much of Shakespeare's own words as possible: and if the
+"_He said_," and "_She said_," the question and the reply, should
+sometimes seem tedious to their young ears, they must pardon it, because
+it was the only way in which could be given to them a few hints and
+little foretastes of the great pleasure which awaits them in their elder
+years, when they come to the rich treasures from which these small and
+valueless coins are extracted; pretending to no other merit than as
+faint and imperfect stamps of Shakespeare's matchless image. Faint and
+imperfect images they must be called, because the beauty of his language
+is too frequently destroyed by the necessity of changing many of his
+excellent words into words far less expressive of his true sense, to
+make it read something like prose; and even in some few places, where
+his blank verse is given unaltered, as hoping from its simple plainness
+to cheat the young readers into the belief that they are reading prose,
+yet still his language being transplanted from its own natural soil and
+wild poetic garden, it must want much of its native beauty.
+
+It has been wished to make these Tales easy reading for very young
+children. To the utmost of their ability the writers have constantly
+kept this in mind; but the subjects of most of them made this a very
+difficult task. It was no easy matter to give the histories of men and
+women in terms familiar to the apprehension of a very young mind. For
+young ladies too, it has been the intention chiefly to write; because
+boys being generally permitted the use of their fathers' libraries at a
+much earlier age than girls are, they frequently have the best scenes of
+Shakespeare by heart, before their sisters are permitted to look into
+this manly book; and, therefore, instead of recommending these Tales to
+the perusal of young gentlemen who can read them so much better in the
+originals, their kind assistance is rather requested in explaining to
+their sisters such parts as are hardest for them to understand: and when
+they have helped them to get over the difficulties, then perhaps they
+will read to them (carefully selecting what is proper for a young
+sister's ear) some passage which has pleased them in one of these
+stories, in the very words of the scene from which it is taken; and it
+is hoped they will find that the beautiful extracts, the select
+passages, they may choose to give their sisters in this way will be much
+better relished and understood from their having some notion of the
+general story from one of these imperfect abridgments;--which if they
+be fortunately so done as to prove delightful to any of the young
+readers, it is hoped that no worse effect will result than to make them
+wish themselves a little older, that they may be allowed to read the
+Plays at full length (such a wish will be neither peevish nor
+irrational). When time and leave of judicious friends shall put them
+into their hands, they will discover in such of them as are here
+abridged (not to mention almost as many more, which are left untouched)
+many surprising events and turns of fortune, which for their infinite
+variety could not be contained in this little book, besides a world of
+sprightly and cheerful characters, both men and women, the humour of
+which it was feared would be lost if it were attempted to reduce the
+length of them.
+
+What these Tales shall have been to the _young_ readers, that and much
+more it is the writers' wish that the true Plays of Shakespeare may
+prove to them in older years--enrichers of the fancy, strengtheners of
+virtue, a withdrawing from all selfish and mercenary thoughts, a lesson
+of all sweet and honourable thoughts and actions, to teach courtesy,
+benignity, generosity, humanity: for of examples, teaching these
+virtues, his pages are full.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                                    PAGE
+
+  THE TEMPEST                                                          1
+
+  A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM                                           14
+
+  THE WINTER'S TALE                                                   27
+
+  MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING                                              39
+
+  AS YOU LIKE IT                                                      53
+
+  THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA                                         71
+
+  THE MERCHANT OF VENICE                                              85
+
+  CYMBELINE                                                          102
+
+  KING LEAR                                                          117
+
+  MACBETH                                                            136
+
+  ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL                                          148
+
+  THE TAMING OF THE SHREW                                            162
+
+  THE COMEDY OF ERRORS                                               174
+
+  MEASURE FOR MEASURE                                                190
+
+  TWELFTH NIGHT; OR, WHAT YOU WILL                                   206
+
+  TIMON OF ATHENS                                                    221
+
+  ROMEO AND JULIET                                                   236
+
+  HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK                                          255
+
+  OTHELLO                                                            272
+
+  PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE                                           287
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+  PERDITA
+
+  WHEN CALIBAN WAS LAZY AND NEGLECTED HIS WORK,
+  ARIEL WOULD COME SLILY AND PINCH HIM
+
+  WHERE IS PEASE-BLOSSOM?
+
+  PAULINA DREW BACK THE CURTAIN WHICH CONCEALED
+  THIS FAMOUS STATUE
+
+  GANYMEDE ASSUMED THE FORWARD MANNERS OFTEN
+  SEEN IN YOUTHS WHEN THEY ARE BETWEEN BOYS
+  AND MEN
+
+  IMOGEN'S TWO BROTHERS THEN CARRIED HER TO A
+  SHADY COVERT
+
+  CORDELIA
+
+  THEY WERE STOPPED BY THE STRANGE APPEARANCE
+  OF THREE FIGURES
+
+  PETRUCHIO, PRETENDING TO FIND FAULT WITH EVERY
+  DISH, THREW THE MEAT ABOUT THE FLOOR
+
+  SHE BEGAN TO THINK OF CONFESSING THAT SHE WAS
+  A WOMAN
+
+  AT THE CELL OF FRIAR LAWRENCE
+
+  TO THIS BROOK OPHELIA CAME
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+THE TEMPEST
+
+
+There was a certain island in the sea, the only inhabitants of which
+were an old man, whose name was Prospero, and his daughter Miranda, a
+very beautiful young lady. She came to this island so young, that she
+had no memory of having seen any other human face than her father's.
+
+They lived in a cave or cell, made out of a rock; it was divided into
+several apartments, one of which Prospero called his study; there he
+kept his books, which chiefly treated of magic, a study at that time
+much affected by all learned men: and the knowledge of this art he found
+very useful to him; for being thrown by a strange chance upon this
+island, which had been enchanted by a witch called Sycorax, who died
+there a short time before his arrival, Prospero, by virtue of his art,
+released many good spirits that Sycorax had imprisoned in the bodies of
+large trees, because they had refused to execute her wicked commands.
+These gentle spirits were ever after obedient to the will of Prospero.
+Of these Ariel was the chief.
+
+[Illustration: WHEN CALIBAN WAS LAZY AND NEGLECTED HIS WORK, ARIEL WOULD
+COME SLILY AND PINCH HIM]
+
+The lively little sprite Ariel had nothing mischievous in his nature,
+except that he took rather too much pleasure in tormenting an ugly
+monster called Caliban, for he owed him a grudge because he was the son
+of his old enemy Sycorax. This Caliban, Prospero found in the woods, a
+strange misshapen thing, far less human in form than an ape: he took him
+home to his cell, and taught him to speak; and Prospero would have been
+very kind to him, but the bad nature which Caliban inherited from his
+mother Sycorax, would not let him learn anything good or useful:
+therefore he was employed like a slave, to fetch wood, and do the most
+laborious offices; and Ariel had the charge of compelling him to these
+services.
+
+When Caliban was lazy and neglected his work, Ariel (who was invisible
+to all eyes but Prospero's) would come slily and pinch him, and
+sometimes tumble him down in the mire; and then Ariel, in the likeness
+of an ape, would make mouths at him. Then swiftly changing his shape, in
+the likeness of a hedgehog, he would lie tumbling in Caliban's way, who
+feared the hedgehog's sharp quills would prick his bare feet. With a
+variety of such-like vexatious tricks Ariel would often torment him,
+whenever Caliban neglected the work which Prospero commanded him to do.
+
+Having these powerful spirits obedient to his will, Prospero could by
+their means command the winds, and the waves of the sea. By his orders
+they raised a violent storm, in the midst of which, and struggling with
+the wild sea-waves that every moment threatened to swallow it up, he
+showed his daughter a fine large ship, which he told her was full of
+living beings like themselves. "O my dear father," said she, "if by your
+art you have raised this dreadful storm, have pity on their sad
+distress. See! the vessel will be dashed to pieces. Poor souls! they
+will all perish. If I had power, I would sink the sea beneath the earth,
+rather than the good ship should be destroyed, with all the precious
+souls within her."
+
+"Be not so amazed, daughter Miranda," said Prospero; "there is no harm
+done. I have so ordered it, that no person in the ship shall receive any
+hurt. What I have done has been in care of you, my dear child. You are
+ignorant who you are, or where you came from, and you know no more of
+me, but that I am your father, and live in this poor cave. Can you
+remember a time before you came to this cell? I think you cannot, for
+you were not then three years of age."
+
+"Certainly I can, sir," replied Miranda.
+
+"By what?" asked Prospero; "by any other house or person? Tell me what
+you can remember, my child."
+
+Miranda said, "It seems to me like the recollection of a dream. But had
+I not once four or five women who attended upon me?"
+
+Prospero answered, "You had, and more. How is it that this still lives
+in your mind? Do you remember how you came here?"
+
+"No, sir," said Miranda, "I remember nothing more."
+
+"Twelve years ago, Miranda," continued Prospero, "I was Duke of Milan,
+and you were a princess, and my only heir. I had a younger brother,
+whose name was Antonio, to whom I trusted everything; and as I was fond
+of retirement and deep study, I commonly left the management of my state
+affairs to your uncle, my false brother (for so indeed he proved). I,
+neglecting all worldly ends, buried among my books, did dedicate my
+whole time to the bettering of my mind. My brother Antonio being thus in
+possession of my power, began to think himself the duke indeed. The
+opportunity I gave him of making himself popular among my subjects
+awakened in his bad nature a proud ambition to deprive me of my dukedom:
+this he soon effected with the aid of the King of Naples, a powerful
+prince, who was my enemy."
+
+"Wherefore," said Miranda, "did they not that hour destroy us?"
+
+"My child," answered her father, "they durst not, so dear was the love
+that my people bore me. Antonio carried us on board a ship, and when we
+were some leagues out at sea, he forced us into a small boat, without
+either tackle, sail, or mast: there he left us, as he thought, to
+perish. But a kind lord of my court, one Gonzalo, who loved me, had
+privately placed in the boat, water, provisions, apparel, and some books
+which I prize above my dukedom."
+
+"O my father," said Miranda, "what a trouble must I have been to you
+then!"
+
+"No, my love," said Prospero, "you were a little cherub that did
+preserve me. Your innocent smiles made me bear up against my
+misfortunes. Our food lasted till we landed on this desert island, since
+when my chief delight has been in teaching you, Miranda, and well have
+you profited by my instructions."
+
+"Heaven thank you, my dear father," said Miranda. "Now pray tell me,
+sir, your reason for raising this sea-storm?"
+
+"Know then," said her father, "that by means of this storm, my enemies,
+the King of Naples, and my cruel brother, are cast ashore upon this
+island."
+
+Having so said, Prospero gently touched his daughter with his magic
+wand, and she fell fast asleep; for the spirit Ariel just then presented
+himself before his master, to give an account of the tempest, and how he
+had disposed of the ship's company, and though the spirits were always
+invisible to Miranda, Prospero did not choose she should hear him
+holding converse (as would seem to her) with the empty air.
+
+"Well, my brave spirit," said Prospero to Ariel, "how have you performed
+your task?"
+
+Ariel gave a lively description of the storm, and of the terrors of the
+mariners; and how the king's son, Ferdinand, was the first who leaped
+into the sea; and his father thought he saw his dear son swallowed up by
+the waves and lost. "But he is safe," said Ariel, "in a corner of the
+isle, sitting with his arms folded, sadly lamenting the loss of the
+king, his father, whom he concludes drowned. Not a hair of his head is
+injured, and his princely garments, though drenched in the sea-waves,
+look fresher than before."
+
+"That's my delicate Ariel," said Prospero. "Bring him hither: my
+daughter must see this young prince. Where is the king, and my brother?"
+
+"I left them," answered Ariel, "searching for Ferdinand, whom they have
+little hopes of finding, thinking they saw him perish. Of the ship's
+crew not one is missing; though each one thinks himself the only one
+saved: and the ship, though invisible to them, is safe in the harbour."
+
+"Ariel," said Prospero, "thy charge is faithfully performed: but there
+is more work yet."
+
+"Is there more work?" said Ariel. "Let me remind you, master, you have
+promised me my liberty. I pray, remember, I have done you worthy
+service, told you no lies, made no mistakes, served you without grudge
+or grumbling."
+
+"How now!" said Prospero. "You do not recollect what a torment I freed
+you from. Have you forgot the wicked witch Sycorax, who with age and
+envy was almost bent double? Where was she born? Speak; tell me."
+
+"Sir, in Algiers," said Ariel.
+
+"O was she so?" said Prospero. "I must recount what you have been, which
+I find you do not remember. This bad witch, Sycorax, for her
+witch-crafts, too terrible to enter human hearing, was banished from
+Algiers, and here left by the sailors; and because you were a spirit too
+delicate to execute her wicked commands, she shut you up in a tree,
+where I found you howling. This torment, remember, I did free you from."
+
+"Pardon me, dear master," said Ariel, ashamed to seem ungrateful; "I
+will obey your commands."
+
+"Do so," said Prospero, "and I will set you free." He then gave orders
+what further he would have him do; and away went Ariel, first to where
+he had left Ferdinand, and found him still sitting on the grass in the
+same melancholy posture.
+
+"O my young gentleman," said Ariel, when he saw him, "I will soon move
+you. You must be brought, I find, for the Lady Miranda to have a sight
+of your pretty person. Come, sir, follow me." He then began singing,
+
+  "Full fathom five thy father lies:
+    Of his bones are coral made;
+  Those are pearls that were his eyes:
+    Nothing of him that doth fade,
+  But doth suffer a sea-change
+  Into something rich and strange.
+  Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:
+  Hark! now I hear them,--Ding-dong, bell."
+
+This strange news of his lost father soon roused the prince from the
+stupid fit into which he had fallen. He followed in amazement the sound
+of Ariel's voice, till it led him to Prospero and Miranda, who were
+sitting under the shade of a large tree. Now Miranda had never seen a
+man before, except her own father.
+
+"Miranda," said Prospero, "tell me what you are looking at yonder."
+
+"O father," said Miranda, in a strange surprise, "surely that is a
+spirit. Lord! how it looks about! Believe me, sir, it is a beautiful
+creature. Is it not a spirit?"
+
+"No, girl," answered her father; "it eats, and sleeps, and has senses
+such as we have. This young man you see was in the ship. He is somewhat
+altered by grief, or you might call him a handsome person. He has lost
+his companions, and is wandering about to find them."
+
+Miranda, who thought all men had grave faces and grey beards like her
+father, was delighted with the appearance of this beautiful young
+prince; and Ferdinand, seeing such a lovely lady in this desert place,
+and from the strange sounds he had heard, expecting nothing but
+wonders, thought he was upon an enchanted island, and that Miranda was
+the goddess of the place, and as such he began to address her.
+
+She timidly answered, she was no goddess, but a simple maid, and was
+going to give him an account of herself, when Prospero interrupted her.
+He was well pleased to find they admired each other, for he plainly
+perceived they had (as we say) fallen in love at first sight: but to try
+Ferdinand's constancy, he resolved to throw some difficulties in their
+way: therefore advancing forward, he addressed the prince with a stern
+air, telling him, he came to the island as a spy, to take it from him
+who was the lord of it. "Follow me," said he, "I will tie you neck and
+feet together. You shall drink sea-water; shell-fish, withered roots,
+and husks of acorns shall be your food." "No," said Ferdinand, "I will
+resist such entertainment, till I see a more powerful enemy," and drew
+his sword; but Prospero, waving his magic wand, fixed him to the spot
+where he stood, so that he had no power to move.
+
+Miranda hung upon her father, saying, "Why are you so ungentle? Have
+pity, sir; I will be his surety. This is the second man I ever saw, and
+to me he seems a true one."
+
+"Silence," said the father: "one word more will make me chide you, girl!
+What! an advocate for an impostor! You think there are no more such fine
+men, having seen only him and Caliban. I tell you, foolish girl, most
+men as far excel this, as he does Caliban." This he said to prove his
+daughter's constancy; and she replied, "My affections are most humble. I
+have no wish to see a goodlier man."
+
+"Come on, young man," said Prospero to the Prince; "you have no power to
+disobey me."
+
+"I have not indeed," answered Ferdinand; and not knowing that it was by
+magic he was deprived of all power of resistance, he was astonished to
+find himself so strangely compelled to follow Prospero: looking back on
+Miranda as long as he could see her, he said, as he went after Prospero
+into the cave, "My spirits are all bound up, as if I were in a dream;
+but this man's threats, and the weakness which I feel, would seem light
+to me if from my prison I might once a day behold this fair maid."
+
+Prospero kept Ferdinand not long confined within the cell: he soon
+brought out his prisoner, and set him a severe task to perform, taking
+care to let his daughter know the hard labour he had imposed on him, and
+then pretending to go into his study, he secretly watched them both.
+
+Prospero had commanded Ferdinand to pile up some heavy logs of wood.
+Kings' sons not being much used to laborious work, Miranda soon after
+found her lover almost dying with fatigue. "Alas!" said she, "do not
+work so hard; my father is at his studies, he is safe for these three
+hours; pray rest yourself."
+
+"O my dear lady," said Ferdinand, "I dare not. I must finish my task
+before I take my rest."
+
+"If you will sit down," said Miranda, "I will carry your logs the
+while." But this Ferdinand would by no means agree to. Instead of a help
+Miranda became a hindrance, for they began a long conversation, so that
+the business of log-carrying went on very slowly.
+
+Prospero, who had enjoined Ferdinand this task merely as a trial of his
+love, was not at his books, as his daughter supposed, but was standing
+by them invisible, to overhear what they said.
+
+Ferdinand inquired her name, which she told, saying it was against her
+father's express command she did so.
+
+Prospero only smiled at this first instance of his daughter's
+disobedience, for having by his magic art caused his daughter to fall in
+love so suddenly, he was not angry that she showed her love by
+forgetting to obey his commands. And he listened well pleased to a long
+speech of Ferdinand's, in which he professed to love her above all the
+ladies he ever saw.
+
+In answer to his praises of her beauty, which he said exceeded all the
+women in the world, she replied, "I do not remember the face of any
+woman, nor have I seen any more men than you, my good friend, and my
+dear father. How features are abroad, I know not; but, believe me, sir,
+I would not wish any companion in the world but you, nor can my
+imagination form any shape but yours that I could like. But, sir, I fear
+I talk to you too freely, and my father's precepts I forget."
+
+At this Prospero smiled, and nodded his head, as much as to say, "This
+goes on exactly as I could wish; my girl will be Queen of Naples."
+
+And then Ferdinand, in another fine long speech (for young princes speak
+in courtly phrases), told the innocent Miranda he was heir to the crown
+of Naples, and that she should be his queen.
+
+"Ah! sir," said she, "I am a fool to weep at what I am glad of. I will
+answer you in plain and holy innocence. I am your wife if you will marry
+me."
+
+Prospero prevented Ferdinand's thanks by appearing visible before them.
+
+"Fear nothing, my child," said he; "I have overheard, and approve of all
+you have said. And, Ferdinand, if I have too severely used you, I will
+make you rich amends, by giving you my daughter. All your vexations were
+but trials of your love, and you have nobly stood the test. Then as my
+gift, which your true love has worthily purchased, take my daughter, and
+do not smile that I boast she is above all praise." He then, telling
+them that he had business which required his presence, desired they
+would sit down and talk together till he returned; and this command
+Miranda seemed not at all disposed to disobey.
+
+When Prospero left them, he called his spirit Ariel, who quickly
+appeared before him, eager to relate what he had done with Prospero's
+brother and the King of Naples. Ariel said he had left them almost out
+of their senses with fear, at the strange things he had caused them to
+see and hear. When fatigued with wandering about, and famished for want
+of food, he had suddenly set before them a delicious banquet, and then,
+just as they were going to eat, he appeared visible before them in the
+shape of a harpy, a voracious monster with wings, and the feast vanished
+away. Then, to their utter amazement, this seeming harpy spoke to them,
+reminding them of their cruelty in driving Prospero from his dukedom,
+and leaving him and his infant daughter to perish in the sea; saying,
+that for this cause these terrors were suffered to afflict them.
+
+The King of Naples, and Antonio the false brother, repented the
+injustice they had done to Prospero; and Ariel told his master he was
+certain their penitence was sincere, and that he, though a spirit, could
+not but pity them.
+
+"Then bring them hither, Ariel," said Prospero: "if you, who are but a
+spirit, feel for their distress, shall not I, who am a human being like
+themselves, have compassion on them? Bring them, quickly, my dainty
+Ariel."
+
+Ariel soon returned with the king, Antonio, and old Gonzalo in their
+train, who had followed him, wondering at the wild music he played in
+the air to draw them on to his master's presence. This Gonzalo was the
+same who had so kindly provided Prospero formerly with books and
+provisions, when his wicked brother left him, as he thought, to perish
+in an open boat in the sea.
+
+Grief and terror had so stupefied their senses, that they did not know
+Prospero. He first discovered himself to the good old Gonzalo, calling
+him the preserver of his life; and then his brother and the king knew
+that he was the injured Prospero.
+
+Antonio with tears, and sad words of sorrow and true repentance,
+implored his brother's forgiveness, and the king expressed his sincere
+remorse for having assisted Antonio to depose his brother: and Prospero
+forgave them; and, upon their engaging to restore his dukedom, he said
+to the King of Naples, "I have a gift in store for you too;" and opening
+a door, showed him his son Ferdinand playing at chess with Miranda.
+
+Nothing could exceed the joy of the father and the son at this
+unexpected meeting, for they each thought the other drowned in the
+storm.
+
+"O wonder!" said Miranda, "what noble creatures these are! It must
+surely be a brave world that has such people in it."
+
+The King of Naples was almost as much astonished at the beauty and
+excellent graces of the young Miranda, as his son had been. "Who is this
+maid?" said he; "she seems the goddess that has parted us, and brought
+us thus together." "No, sir," answered Ferdinand, smiling to find his
+father had fallen into the same mistake that he had done when he first
+saw Miranda, "she is a mortal, but by immortal Providence she is mine; I
+chose her when I could not ask you, my father, for your consent, not
+thinking you were alive. She is the daughter to this Prospero, who is
+the famous Duke of Milan, of whose renown I have heard so much, but
+never saw him till now: of him I have received a new life: he has made
+himself to me a second father, giving me this dear lady."
+
+"Then I must be her father," said the king; "but oh! how oddly will it
+sound, that I must ask my child forgiveness."
+
+"No more of that," said Prospero: "let us not remember our troubles
+past, since they so happily have ended." And then Prospero embraced his
+brother, and again assured him of his forgiveness; and said that a wise
+over-ruling Providence had permitted that he should be driven from his
+poor dukedom of Milan, that his daughter might inherit the crown of
+Naples, for that by their meeting in this desert island, it had happened
+that the king's son had loved Miranda.
+
+These kind words which Prospero spoke, meaning to comfort his brother,
+so filled Antonio with shame and remorse, that he wept and was unable to
+speak; and the kind old Gonzalo wept to see this joyful reconciliation,
+and prayed for blessings on the young couple.
+
+Prospero now told them that their ship was safe in the harbour, and the
+sailors all on board her, and that he and his daughter would accompany
+them home the next morning. "In the meantime," says he, "partake of such
+refreshments as my poor cave affords; and for your evening's
+entertainment I will relate the history of my life from my first landing
+in this desert island." He then called for Caliban to prepare some food,
+and set the cave in order; and the company were astonished at the
+uncouth form and savage appearance of this ugly monster, who (Prospero
+said) was the only attendant he had to wait upon him.
+
+Before Prospero left the island, he dismissed Ariel from his service, to
+the great joy of that lively little spirit; who, though he had been a
+faithful servant to his master, was always longing to enjoy his free
+liberty, to wander uncontrolled in the air, like a wild bird, under
+green trees, among pleasant fruits, and sweet-smelling flowers. "My
+quaint Ariel," said Prospero to the little sprite when he made him free,
+"I shall miss you; yet you shall have your freedom." "Thank you, my dear
+master," said Ariel; "but give me leave to attend your ship home with
+prosperous gales, before you bid farewell to the assistance of your
+faithful spirit; and then, master, when I am free, how merrily I shall
+live!" Here Ariel sung this pretty song:
+
+    "Where the bee sucks, there suck I;
+    In a cowslip's bell I lie:
+    There I crouch when owls do cry
+    On the bat's back I do fly
+    After summer merrily.
+    Merrily, merrily shall I live now
+  Under the blossom that hangs on the bough."
+
+Prospero then buried deep in the earth his magical books and wand, for
+he was resolved never more to make use of the magic art. And having thus
+overcome his enemies, and being reconciled to his brother and the King
+of Naples, nothing now remained to complete his happiness, but to
+revisit his native land, to take possession of his dukedom, and to
+witness the happy nuptials of his daughter and Prince Ferdinand, which
+the king said should be instantly celebrated with great splendour on
+their return to Naples. At which place, under the safe convoy of the
+spirit Ariel, they, after a pleasant voyage, soon arrived.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
+
+
+There was a law in the city of Athens which gave to its citizens the
+power of compelling their daughters to marry whomsoever they pleased;
+for upon a daughter's refusing to marry the man her father had chosen to
+be her husband, the father was empowered by this law to cause her to be
+put to death; but as fathers do not often desire the death of their own
+daughters, even though they do happen to prove a little refractory, this
+law was seldom or never put in execution, though perhaps the young
+ladies of that city were not unfrequently threatened by their parents
+with the terrors of it.
+
+There was one instance, however, of an old man, whose name was Egeus,
+who actually did come before Theseus (at that time the reigning Duke of
+Athens), to complain that his daughter Hermia, whom he had commanded to
+marry Demetrius, a young man of a noble Athenian family, refused to obey
+him, because she loved another young Athenian, named Lysander. Egeus
+demanded justice of Theseus, and desired that this cruel law might be
+put in force against his daughter.
+
+Hermia pleaded in excuse for her disobedience, that Demetrius had
+formerly professed love for her dear friend Helena, and that Helena
+loved Demetrius to distraction; but this honourable reason, which Hermia
+gave for not obeying her father's command, moved not the stern Egeus.
+
+Theseus, though a great and merciful prince, had no power to alter the
+laws of his country; therefore he could only give Hermia four days to
+consider of it: and at the end of that time, if she still refused to
+marry Demetrius, she was to be put to death.
+
+When Hermia was dismissed from the presence of the duke, she went to her
+lover Lysander, and told him the peril she was in, and that she must
+either give him up and marry Demetrius, or lose her life in four days.
+
+Lysander was in great affliction at hearing these evil tidings; but
+recollecting that he had an aunt who lived at some distance from Athens,
+and that at the place where she lived the cruel law could not be put in
+force against Hermia (this law not extending beyond the boundaries of
+the city), he proposed to Hermia that she should steal out of her
+father's house that night, and go with him to his aunt's house, where he
+would marry her. "I will meet you," said Lysander, "in the wood a few
+miles without the city; in that delightful wood where we have so often
+walked with Helena in the pleasant month of May."
+
+To this proposal Hermia joyfully agreed; and she told no one of her
+intended flight but her friend Helena. Helena (as maidens will do
+foolish things for love) very ungenerously resolved to go and tell this
+to Demetrius, though she could hope no benefit from betraying her
+friend's secret, but the poor pleasure of following her faithless lover
+to the wood; for she well knew that Demetrius would go thither in
+pursuit of Hermia.
+
+The wood, in which Lysander and Hermia proposed to meet was the
+favourite haunt of those little beings known by the name of _Fairies_.
+
+Oberon the king, and Titania the queen of the Fairies, with all their
+tiny train of followers, in this wood held their midnight revels.
+
+Between this little king and queen of sprites there happened, at this
+time, a sad disagreement; they never met by moonlight in the shady walks
+of this pleasant wood, but they were quarrelling, till all their fairy
+elves would creep into acorn-cups and hide themselves for fear.
+
+The cause of this unhappy disagreement was Titania's refusing to give
+Oberon a little changeling boy, whose mother had been Titania's friend;
+and upon her death the fairy queen stole the child from its nurse, and
+brought him up in the woods.
+
+The night on which the lovers were to meet in this wood, as Titania was
+walking with some of her maids of honour, she met Oberon attended by his
+train of fairy courtiers.
+
+"Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania," said the fairy king. The queen
+replied, "What, jealous Oberon, is it you? Fairies, skip hence; I have
+forsworn his company." "Tarry, rash fairy," said Oberon; "am not I thy
+lord? Why does Titania cross her Oberon? Give me your little changeling
+boy to be my page."
+
+"Set your heart at rest," answered the queen; "your whole fairy kingdom
+buys not the boy of me." She then left her lord in great anger. "Well,
+go your way," said Oberon: "before the morning dawns I will torment you
+for this injury."
+
+Oberon then sent for Puck, his chief favourite and privy counsellor.
+
+Puck, (or as he was sometimes called, Robin Goodfellow) was a shrewd and
+knavish sprite, that used to play comical pranks in the neighbouring
+villages; sometimes getting into the dairies and skimming the milk,
+sometimes plunging his light and airy form into the butter-churn, and
+while he was dancing his fantastic shape in the churn, in vain the
+dairy-maid would labour to change her cream into butter: nor had the
+village swains any better success; whenever Puck chose to play his
+freaks in the brewing copper, the ale was sure to be spoiled. When a few
+good neighbours were met to drink some comfortable ale together, Puck
+would jump into the bowl of ale in the likeness of a roasted crab, and
+when some old goody was going to drink he would bob against her lips,
+and spill the ale over her withered chin; and presently after, when the
+same old dame was gravely seating herself to tell her neighbours a sad
+and melancholy story, Puck would slip her three-legged stool from under
+her, and down toppled the poor old woman, and then the old gossips would
+hold their sides and laugh at her, and swear they never wasted a merrier
+hour.
+
+"Come hither, Puck," said Oberon to this little merry wanderer of the
+night; "fetch me the flower which maids call _Love in Idleness_; the
+juice of that little purple flower laid on the eyelids of those who
+sleep, will make them, when they awake, dote on the first thing they
+see. Some of the juice of that flower I will drop on the eyelids of my
+Titania when she is asleep; and the first thing she looks upon when she
+opens her eyes she will fall in love with, even though it be a lion or a
+bear, a meddling monkey, or a busy ape; and before I will take this
+charm from off her sight, which I can do with another charm I know of, I
+will make her give me that boy to be my page."
+
+Puck, who loved mischief to his heart, was highly diverted with this
+intended frolic of his master, and ran to seek the flower; and while
+Oberon was waiting the return of Puck, he observed Demetrius and Helena
+enter the wood: he overheard Demetrius reproaching Helena for following
+him, and after many unkind words on his part, and gentle expostulations
+from Helena, reminding him of his former love and professions of true
+faith to her, he left her (as he said) to the mercy of the wild beasts,
+and she ran after him as swiftly as she could.
+
+The fairy king, who was always friendly to true lovers, felt great
+compassion for Helena; and perhaps, as Lysander said they used to walk
+by moonlight in this pleasant wood, Oberon might have seen Helena in
+those happy times when she was beloved by Demetrius. However that might
+be, when Puck returned with the little purple flower, Oberon said to his
+favourite, "Take a part of this flower; there has been a sweet Athenian
+lady here, who is in love with a disdainful youth; if you find him
+sleeping, drop some of the love-juice in his eyes, but contrive to do it
+when she is near him, that the first thing he sees when he awakes may be
+this despised lady. You will know the man by the Athenian garments which
+he wears." Puck promised to manage this matter very dexterously: and
+then Oberon went, unperceived by Titania, to her bower, where she was
+preparing to go to rest. Her fairy bower was a bank, where grew wild
+thyme, cowslips, and sweet violets, under a canopy of wood-bine,
+musk-roses, and eglantine. There Titania always slept some part of the
+night; her coverlet the enamelled skin of a snake, which, though a small
+mantle, was wide enough to wrap a fairy in.
+
+He found Titania giving orders to her fairies, how they were to employ
+themselves while she slept. "Some of you," said her majesty, "must kill
+cankers in the musk-rose buds, and some wage war with the bats for their
+leathern wings, to make my small elves coats; and some of you keep watch
+that the clamorous owl, that nightly hoots, come not near me: but first
+sing me to sleep." Then they began to sing this song:--
+
+  "You spotted snakes with double tongue,
+  Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen;
+  Newts and blind-worms do no wrong
+  Come not near our Fairy Queen.
+  Philomel, with melody,
+  Sing in our sweet lullaby,
+  Lulla, lulla, lullaby; lulla, lulla, lullaby;
+  Never harm, nor spell, nor charm,
+  Come our lovely lady nigh;
+  So good night with lullaby."
+
+When the fairies had sung their queen asleep with this pretty lullaby,
+they left her to perform the important services she had enjoined them.
+Oberon then softly drew near his Titania, and dropped some of the
+love-juice on her eyelids, saying,--
+
+  "What thou seest when thou dost wake,
+  Do it for thy true-love take."
+
+But to return to Hermia, who made her escape out of her father's house
+that night, to avoid the death she was doomed to for refusing to marry
+Demetrius. When she entered the wood, she found her dear Lysander
+waiting for her, to conduct her to his aunt's house; but before they had
+passed half through the wood, Hermia was so much fatigued, that
+Lysander, who was very careful of this dear lady, who had proved her
+affection for him even by hazarding her life for his sake, persuaded her
+to rest till morning on a bank of soft moss, and lying down himself on
+the ground at some little distance, they soon fell fast asleep. Here
+they were found by Puck, who, seeing a handsome young man asleep, and
+perceiving that his clothes were made in the Athenian fashion, and that
+a pretty lady was sleeping near him, concluded that this must be the
+Athenian maid and her disdainful lover whom Oberon had sent him to seek;
+and he naturally enough conjectured that, as they were alone together,
+she must be the first thing he would see when he awoke; so, without more
+ado, he proceeded to pour some of the juice of the little purple flower
+into his eyes. But it so fell out, that Helena came that way, and,
+instead of Hermia, was the first object Lysander beheld when he opened
+his eyes; and strange to relate, so powerful was the love-charm, all his
+love for Hermia vanished away, and Lysander fell in love with Helena.
+
+Had he first seen Hermia when he awoke, the blunder Puck committed would
+have been of no consequence, for he could not love that faithful lady
+too well; but for poor Lysander to be forced by a fairy love-charm to
+forget his own true Hermia, and to run after another lady, and leave
+Hermia asleep quite alone in a wood at midnight, was a sad chance
+indeed.
+
+Thus this misfortune happened. Helena, as has been before related,
+endeavoured to keep pace with Demetrius when he ran away so rudely from
+her; but she could not continue this unequal race long, men being always
+better runners in a long race than ladies. Helena soon lost sight of
+Demetrius; and as she was wandering about, dejected and forlorn, she
+arrived at the place where Lysander was sleeping. "Ah!" said she, "this
+is Lysander lying on the ground: is he dead or asleep?" Then, gently
+touching him, she said, "Good sir, if you are alive, awake." Upon this
+Lysander opened his eyes, and (the love-charm beginning to work)
+immediately addressed her in terms of extravagant love and admiration;
+telling her she as much excelled Hermia in beauty as a dove does a
+raven, and that he would run through fire for her sweet sake; and many
+more such lover-like speeches. Helena, knowing Lysander was her friend
+Hermia's lover, and that he was solemnly engaged to marry her, was in
+the utmost rage when she heard herself addressed in this manner; for she
+thought (as well she might) that Lysander was making a jest of her.
+"Oh!" said she, "why was I born to be mocked and scorned by every one?
+Is it not enough, is it not enough, young man, that I can never get a
+sweet look or a kind word from Demetrius; but you, sir, must pretend in
+this disdainful manner to court me? I thought, Lysander, you were a lord
+of more true gentleness." Saying these words in great anger, she ran
+away; and Lysander followed her, quite forgetful of his own Hermia, who
+was still asleep.
+
+When Hermia awoke, she was in a sad fright at finding herself alone.
+She wandered about the wood, not knowing what was become of Lysander, or
+which way to go to seek for him. In the meantime Demetrius not being
+able to find Hermia and his rival Lysander, and fatigued with his
+fruitless search, was observed by Oberon fast asleep. Oberon had learnt
+by some questions he had asked of Puck, that he had applied the
+love-charm to the wrong person's eyes; and now having found the person
+first intended, he touched the eyelids of the sleeping Demetrius with
+the love-juice, and he instantly awoke; and the first thing he saw being
+Helena, he, as Lysander had done before, began to address love-speeches
+to her; and just at that moment Lysander, followed by Hermia (for
+through Puck's unlucky mistake it was now become Hermia's turn to run
+after her lover) made his appearance; and then Lysander and Demetrius,
+both speaking together, made love to Helena, they being each one under
+the influence of the same potent charm.
+
+The astonished Helena thought that Demetrius, Lysander, and her once
+dear friend Hermia, were all in a plot together to make a jest of her.
+
+Hermia was as much surprised as Helena: she knew not why Lysander and
+Demetrius, who both before loved her, were now become the lovers of
+Helena; and to Hermia the matter seemed to be no jest.
+
+The ladies, who before had always been the dearest of friends, now fell
+to high words together.
+
+"Unkind Hermia," said Helena, "it is you have set Lysander on to vex me
+with mock praises; and your other lover Demetrius, who used almost to
+spurn me with his foot, have you not bid him call me Goddess, Nymph,
+rare, precious, and celestial? He would not speak thus to me, whom he
+hates, if you did not set him on to make a jest of me. Unkind Hermia, to
+join with men in scorning your poor friend. Have you forgot our
+school-day friendship? How often, Hermia, have we two, sitting on one
+cushion, both singing one song, with our needles working the same
+flower, both on the same sampler wrought; growing up together in fashion
+of a double cherry, scarcely seeming parted! Hermia, it is not friendly
+in you, it is not maidenly to join with men in scorning your poor
+friend."
+
+"I am amazed at your passionate words," said Hermia: "I scorn you not;
+it seems you scorn me." "Ay, do," returned Helena, "persevere,
+counterfeit serious looks, and make mouths at me when I turn my back;
+then wink at each other, and hold the sweet jest up. If you had any
+pity, grace, or manners, you would not use me thus."
+
+While Helena and Hermia were speaking these angry words to each other,
+Demetrius and Lysander left them, to fight together in the wood for the
+love of Helena.
+
+When they found the gentlemen had left them, they departed, and once
+more wandered weary in the wood in search of their lovers.
+
+As soon as they were gone, the fairy king, who with little Puck had been
+listening to their quarrels, said to him, "This is your negligence,
+Puck; or did you do this wilfully?" "Believe me, king of shadows,"
+answered Puck, "it was a mistake; did not you tell me I should know the
+man by his Athenian garments? However, I am not sorry this has happened,
+for I think their jangling makes excellent sport." "You heard," said
+Oberon, "that Demetrius and Lysander are gone to seek a convenient place
+to fight in. I command you to overhang the night with a thick fog, and
+lead these quarrelsome lovers so astray in the dark, that they shall not
+be able to find each other. Counterfeit each of their voices to the
+other, and with bitter taunts provoke them to follow you, while they
+think it is their rival's tongue they hear. See you do this, till they
+are so weary they can go no farther; and when you find they are asleep,
+drop the juice of this other flower into Lysander's eyes, and when he
+awakes he will forget his new love for Helena, and return to his old
+passion for Hermia; and then the two fair ladies may each one be happy
+with the man she loves, and they will think all that has passed a
+vexatious dream. About this quickly, Puck, and I will go and see what
+sweet love my Titania has found."
+
+Titania was still sleeping, and Oberon seeing a clown near her, who had
+lost his way in the wood, and was likewise asleep: "This fellow," said
+he, "shall be my Titania's true love;" and clapping an ass's head over
+the clown's, it seemed to fit him as well as if it had grown upon his
+own shoulders. Though Oberon fixed the ass's head on very gently, it
+awakened him, and rising up, unconscious of what Oberon had done to him,
+he went towards the bower where the fairy queen slept.
+
+"Ah! what angel is that I see?" said Titania, opening her eyes, and the
+juice of the little purple flower beginning to take effect: "are you as
+wise as you are beautiful?"
+
+"Why, mistress," said the foolish clown, "if I have wit enough to find
+the way out of this wood, I have enough to serve my turn."
+
+"Out of the wood do not desire to go," said the enamoured queen. "I am a
+spirit of no common rate. I love you. Go with me, and I will give you
+fairies to attend upon you."
+
+She then called four of her fairies: their names were, Pease-blossom,
+Cobweb, Moth, and Mustard-seed.
+
+[Illustration: WHERE IS PEASE-BLOSSOM?]
+
+"Attend," said the queen, "upon this sweet gentleman; hop in his walks,
+and gambol in his sight; feed him with grapes and apricots, and steal
+for him the honey-bags from the bees. Come, sit with me," said she to
+the clown, "and let me play with your amiable hairy cheeks, my beautiful
+ass! and kiss your fair large ears, my gentle joy!"
+
+"Where is Pease-blossom?" said the ass-headed clown, not much regarding
+the fairy queen's courtship, but very proud of his new attendants.
+
+"Here, sir," said little Pease-blossom.
+
+"Scratch my head," said the clown. "Where is Cobweb?"
+
+"Here, sir," said Cobweb.
+
+"Good Mr. Cobweb," said the foolish clown, "kill me the red humble bee
+on the top of that thistle yonder; and, good Mr. Cobweb, bring me the
+honey-bag. Do not fret yourself too much in the action, Mr. Cobweb, and
+take care the honey-bag break not; I should be sorry to have you
+overflown with a honey-bag. Where is Mustard-seed?"
+
+"Here, sir," said Mustard-seed: "what is your will?"
+
+"Nothing," said the clown, "good Mr. Mustard-seed, but to help Mr.
+Pease-blossom to scratch; I must go to a barber's, Mr. Mustard-seed, for
+methinks I am marvellous hairy about the face."
+
+"My sweet love," said the queen, "what will you have to eat? I have a
+venturous fairy shall seek the squirrel's hoard, and fetch you some new
+nuts."
+
+"I had rather have a handful of dried pease," said the clown, who with
+his ass's head had got an ass's appetite. "But, I pray, let none of your
+people disturb me, for I have a mind to sleep."
+
+"Sleep, then," said the queen, "and I will wind you in my arms. O how I
+love you! how I dote upon you!"
+
+When the fairy king saw the clown sleeping in the arms of his queen, he
+advanced within her sight, and reproached her with having lavished her
+favours upon an ass.
+
+This she could not deny, as the clown was then sleeping within her arms,
+with his ass's head crowned by her with flowers.
+
+When Oberon had teased her for some time, he again demanded the
+changeling boy; which she, ashamed of being discovered by her lord with
+her new favourite, did not dare to refuse him.
+
+Oberon, having thus obtained the little boy he had so long wished for to
+be his page, took pity on the disgraceful situation into which, by his
+merry contrivance, he had brought his Titania, and threw some of the
+juice of the other flower into her eyes; and the fairy queen immediately
+recovered her senses, and wondered at her late dotage, saying how she
+now loathed the sight of the strange monster.
+
+Oberon likewise took the ass's head from off the clown, and left him to
+finish his nap with his own fool's head upon his shoulders.
+
+Oberon and his Titania being now perfectly reconciled, he related to her
+the history of the lovers, and their midnight quarrels; and she agreed
+to go with him and see the end of their adventures.
+
+The fairy king and queen found the lovers and their fair ladies, at no
+great distance from each other, sleeping on a grass-plot; for Puck, to
+make amends for his former mistake, had contrived with the utmost
+diligence to bring them all to the same spot, unknown to each other; and
+he had carefully removed the charm from off the eyes of Lysander with
+the antidote the fairy king gave to him.
+
+Hermia first awoke, and finding her lost Lysander asleep so near her,
+was looking at him and wondering at his strange inconstancy. Lysander
+presently opening his eyes, and seeing his dear Hermia, recovered his
+reason which the fairy charm had before clouded, and with his reason,
+his love for Hermia; and they began to talk over the adventures of the
+night, doubting if these things had really happened, or if they had both
+been dreaming the same bewildering dream.
+
+Helena and Demetrius were by this time awake; and a sweet sleep having
+quieted Helena's disturbed and angry spirits, she listened with delight
+to the professions of love which Demetrius still made to her, and which,
+to her surprise as well as pleasure, she began to perceive were sincere.
+
+These fair night-wandering ladies, now no longer rivals, became once
+more true friends; all the unkind words which had passed were forgiven,
+and they calmly consulted together what was best to be done in their
+present situation. It was soon agreed that, as Demetrius had given up
+his pretensions to Hermia, he should endeavour to prevail upon her
+father to revoke the cruel sentence of death which had been passed
+against her. Demetrius was preparing to return to Athens for this
+friendly purpose, when they were surprised with the sight of Egeus,
+Hermia's father, who came to the wood in pursuit of his runaway
+daughter.
+
+When Egeus understood that Demetrius would not now marry his daughter,
+he no longer opposed her marriage with Lysander, but gave his consent
+that they should be wedded on the fourth day from that time, being the
+same day on which Hermia had been condemned to lose her life; and on
+that same day Helena joyfully agreed to marry her beloved and now
+faithful Demetrius.
+
+The fairy king and queen, who were invisible spectators of this
+reconciliation, and now saw the happy ending of the lovers' history,
+brought about through the good offices of Oberon, received so much
+pleasure, that these kind spirits resolved to celebrate the approaching
+nuptials with sports and revels throughout their fairy kingdom.
+
+And now, if any are offended with this story of fairies and their
+pranks, as judging it incredible and strange, they have only to think
+that they have been asleep and dreaming, and that all these adventures
+were visions which they saw in their sleep: and I hope none of my
+readers will be so unreasonable as to be offended with a pretty harmless
+Midsummer Night's Dream.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+THE WINTER'S TALE
+
+
+Leontes, King of Sicily, and his queen, the beautiful and virtuous
+Hermione, once lived in the greatest harmony together. So happy was
+Leontes in the love of this excellent lady, that he had no wish
+ungratified, except that he sometimes desired to see again, and to
+present to his queen, his old companion and school-fellow, Polixenes,
+King of Bohemia. Leontes and Polixenes were brought up together from
+their infancy, but being, by the death of their fathers, called to reign
+over their respective kingdoms, they had not met for many years, though
+they frequently interchanged gifts, letters, and loving embassies.
+
+At length, after repeated invitations, Polixenes came from Bohemia to
+the Sicilian court, to make his friend Leontes a visit.
+
+At first this visit gave nothing but pleasure to Leontes. He recommended
+the friend of his youth to the queen's particular attention, and seemed
+in the presence of his dear friend and old companion to have his
+felicity quite completed. They talked over old times; their school-days
+and their youthful pranks were remembered, and recounted to Hermione,
+who always took a cheerful part in these conversations.
+
+When, after a long stay, Polixenes was preparing to depart, Hermione,
+at the desire of her husband, joined her entreaties to his that
+Polixenes would prolong his visit.
+
+And now began this good queen's sorrow; for Polixenes refusing to stay
+at the request of Leontes, was won over by Hermione's gentle and
+persuasive words to put off his departure for some weeks longer. Upon
+this, although Leontes had so long known the integrity and honourable
+principles of his friend Polixenes, as well as the excellent disposition
+of his virtuous queen, he was seized with an ungovernable jealousy.
+Every attention Hermione showed to Polixenes, though by her husband's
+particular desire, and merely to please him, increased the unfortunate
+king's jealousy; and from being a loving and a true friend, and the best
+and fondest of husbands, Leontes became suddenly a savage and inhuman
+monster. Sending for Camillo, one of the lords of his court, and telling
+him of the suspicion he entertained, he commanded him to poison
+Polixenes.
+
+Camillo was a good man; and he, well knowing that the jealousy of
+Leontes had not the slightest foundation in truth, instead of poisoning
+Polixenes, acquainted him with the king his master's orders, and agreed
+to escape with him out of the Sicilian dominions; and Polixenes, with
+the assistance of Camillo, arrived safe in his own kingdom of Bohemia,
+where Camillo lived from that time in the king's court, and became the
+chief friend and favourite of Polixenes.
+
+The flight of Polixenes enraged the jealous Leontes still more; he went
+to the queen's apartment, where the good lady was sitting with her
+little son Mamillius, who was just beginning to tell one of his best
+stories to amuse his mother, when the king entered, and taking the child
+away, sent Hermione to prison.
+
+Mamillius, though but a very young child, loved his mother tenderly; and
+when he saw her so dishonoured, and found she was taken from him to be
+put into a prison, he took it deeply to heart, and drooped and pined
+away by slow degrees, losing his appetite and his sleep, till it was
+thought his grief would kill him.
+
+The king, when he had sent his queen to prison, commanded Cleomenes and
+Dion, two Sicilian lords, to go to Delphos, there to inquire of the
+oracle at the temple of Apollo, if his queen had been unfaithful to him.
+
+When Hermione had been a short time in prison, she was brought to bed of
+a daughter; and the poor lady received much comfort from the sight of
+her pretty baby, and she said to it, "My poor little prisoner, I am as
+innocent as you are."
+
+[Illustration: PAULINA DREW BACK THE CURTAIN WHICH CONCEALED THIS FAMOUS
+STATUE]
+
+Hermione had a kind friend in the noble-spirited Paulina, who was the
+wife of Antigonus, a Sicilian lord; and when the lady Paulina heard her
+royal mistress was brought to bed, she went to the prison where Hermione
+was confined; and she said to Emilia, a lady who attended upon Hermione,
+"I pray you, Emilia, tell the good queen, if her majesty dare trust me
+with her little babe, I will carry it to the king, its father; we do not
+know how he may soften at the sight of his innocent child." "Most worthy
+madam," replied Emilia, "I will acquaint the queen with your noble
+offer; she was wishing to-day that she had any friend who would venture
+to present the child to the king." "And tell her," said Paulina, "that I
+will speak boldly to Leontes in her defence." "May you be for ever
+blessed," said Emilia, "for your kindness to our gracious queen!" Emilia
+then went to Hermione, who joyfully gave up her baby to the care of
+Paulina, for she had feared that no one would dare venture to present
+the child to its father.
+
+Paulina took the new-born infant, and forcing herself into the king's
+presence, notwithstanding her husband, fearing the king's anger,
+endeavoured to prevent her, she laid the babe at its father's feet, and
+Paulina made a noble speech to the king in defence of Hermione, and she
+reproached him severely for his inhumanity, and implored him to have
+mercy on his innocent wife and child. But Paulina's spirited
+remonstrances only aggravated Leontes' displeasure, and he ordered her
+husband Antigonus to take her from his presence.
+
+When Paulina went away, she left the little baby at its father's feet,
+thinking when he was alone with it, he would look upon it, and have pity
+on its helpless innocence.
+
+The good Paulina was mistaken: for no sooner was she gone than the
+merciless father ordered Antigonus, Paulina's husband, to take the
+child, and carry it out to sea, and leave it upon some desert shore to
+perish.
+
+Antigonus, unlike the good Camillo, too well obeyed the orders of
+Leontes; for he immediately carried the child on ship-board, and put out
+to sea, intending to leave it on the first desert coast he could find.
+
+So firmly was the king persuaded of the guilt of Hermione, that he would
+not wait for the return of Cleomenes and Dion, whom he had sent to
+consult the oracle of Apollo at Delphos; but before the queen was
+recovered from her lying-in, and from her grief for the loss of her
+precious baby, he had her brought to a public trial before all the lords
+and nobles of his court. And when all the great lords, the judges, and
+all the nobility of the land were assembled together to try Hermione,
+and that unhappy queen was standing as a prisoner before her subjects to
+receive their judgment, Cleomenes and Dion entered the assembly, and
+presented to the king the answer of the oracle, sealed up; and Leontes
+commanded the seal to be broken, and the words of the oracle to be read
+aloud, and these were the words:--"_Hermione is innocent, Polixenes
+blameless, Camillo a true subject, Leontes a jealous tyrant, and the
+king shall live without an heir if that which is lost be not found._"
+The king would give no credit to the words of the oracle: he said it was
+a falsehood invented by the queen's friends, and he desired the judge to
+proceed in the trial of the queen; but while Leontes was speaking, a man
+entered and told him that the Prince Mamillius, hearing his mother was
+to be tried for her life, struck with grief and shame, had suddenly
+died.
+
+Hermione, upon hearing of the death of this dear affectionate child, who
+had lost his life in sorrowing for her misfortune, fainted; and Leontes,
+pierced to the heart by the news, began to feel pity for his unhappy
+queen, and he ordered Paulina, and the ladies who were her attendants,
+to take her away, and use means for her recovery. Paulina soon returned,
+and told the king that Hermione was dead.
+
+When Leontes heard that the queen was dead, he repented of his cruelty
+to her; and now that he thought his ill-usuage had broken Hermione's
+heart, he believed her innocent; and now he thought the words of the
+oracle were true, as he knew "if that which was lost was not found,"
+which he concluded was his young daughter, he should be without an heir,
+the young Prince Mamillius being dead; and he would give his kingdom now
+to recover his lost daughter: and Leontes gave himself up to remorse,
+and passed many years in mournful thoughts and repentant grief.
+
+The ship in which Antigonus carried the infant princess out to sea was
+driven by a storm upon the coast of Bohemia, the very kingdom of the
+good King Polixenes. Here Antigonus landed, and here he left the little
+baby.
+
+Antigonus never returned to Sicily to tell Leontes where he had left his
+daughter, for as he was going back to the ship, a bear came out of the
+woods, and tore him to pieces; a just punishment on him for obeying the
+wicked order of Leontes.
+
+The child was dressed in rich clothes and jewels; for Hermione had made
+it very fine when she sent it to Leontes, and Antigonus had pinned a
+paper to its mantle, and the name of _Perdita_ written thereon, and
+words obscurely intimating its high birth and untoward fate.
+
+[Illustration: PERDITA]
+
+This poor deserted baby was found by a shepherd. He was a humane man,
+and so he carried the little Perdita home to his wife, who nursed it
+tenderly; but poverty tempted the shepherd to conceal the rich prize he
+had found: therefore he left that part of the country, that no one might
+know where he got his riches, and with part of Perdita's jewels he
+bought herds of sheep, and became a wealthy shepherd. He brought up
+Perdita as his own child, and she knew not she was any other than a
+shepherd's daughter.
+
+The little Perdita grew up a lovely maiden; and though she had no better
+education than that of a shepherd's daughter, yet so did the natural
+graces she inherited from her royal mother shine forth in her untutored
+mind, that no one from her behaviour would have known she had not been
+brought up in her father's court.
+
+Polixenes, the King of Bohemia, had an only son, whose name was
+Florizel. As this young prince was hunting near the shepherd's dwelling,
+he saw the old man's supposed daughter; and the beauty, modesty, and
+queen-like deportment of Perdita caused him instantly to fall in love
+with her. He soon, under the name of Doricles, and in the disguise of a
+private gentleman, became a constant visitor at the old shepherd's
+house. Florizel's frequent absences from court alarmed Polixenes; and
+setting people to watch his son, he discovered his love for the
+shepherd's fair daughter.
+
+Polixenes then called for Camillo, the faithful Camillo, who had
+preserved his life from the fury of Leontes, and desired that he would
+accompany him to the house of the shepherd, the supposed father of
+Perdita.
+
+Polixenes and Camillo, both in disguise, arrived at the old shepherd's
+dwelling while they were celebrating the feast of sheep-shearing; and
+though they were strangers, yet at the sheep-shearing every guest being
+made welcome, they were invited to walk in, and join in the general
+festivity.
+
+Nothing but mirth and jollity was going forward. Tables were spread, and
+great preparations were making for the rustic feast. Some lads and
+lasses were dancing on the green before the house, while others of the
+young men were buying ribands, gloves, and such toys, of a pedlar at the
+door.
+
+While this busy scene was going forward, Florizel and Perdita sat
+quietly in a retired corner, seemingly more pleased with the
+conversation of each other, than desirous of engaging in the sports and
+silly amusements of those around them.
+
+The king was so disguised that it was impossible his son could know him:
+he therefore advanced near enough to hear the conversation. The simple
+yet elegant manner in which Perdita conversed with his son did not a
+little surprise Polixenes: he said to Camillo, "This is the prettiest
+low-born lass I ever saw; nothing she does or says but looks like
+something greater than herself, too noble for this place."
+
+Camillo replied, "Indeed she is the very queen of curds and cream."
+
+"Pray, my good friend," said the king to the old shepherd, "what fair
+swain is that talking with your daughter?" "They call him Doricles,"
+replied the shepherd. "He says he loves my daughter; and, to speak
+truth, there is not a kiss to choose which loves the other best. If
+young Doricles can get her, she shall bring him that he little dreams
+of;" meaning the remainder of Perdita's jewels; which, after he had
+bought herds of sheep with part of them, he had carefully hoarded up for
+her marriage portion.
+
+Polixenes then addressed his son. "How now, young man!" said he: "your
+heart seems full of something that takes off your mind from feasting.
+When I was young, I used to load my love with presents; but you have let
+the pedlar go, and have bought your lass no toy."
+
+The young prince, who little thought he was talking to the king his
+father, replied, "Old sir, she prizes not such trifles; the gifts which
+Perdita expects from me are locked up in my heart." Then turning to
+Perdita, he said to her, "O hear me, Perdita, before this ancient
+gentleman, who it seems was once himself a lover; he shall hear what I
+profess." Florizel then called upon the old stranger to be a witness to
+a solemn promise of marriage which he made to Perdita, saying to
+Polixenes, "I pray you, mark our contract."
+
+"Mark your divorce, young sir," said the king, discovering himself.
+Polixenes then reproached his son for daring to contract himself to this
+low-born maiden, calling Perdita "shepherd's-brat, sheep-hook," and
+other disrespectful names; and threatening, if ever she suffered his son
+to see her again, he would put her, and the old shepherd her father, to
+a cruel death.
+
+The king then left them in great wrath, and ordered Camillo to follow
+him with Prince Florizel.
+
+When the king had departed, Perdita, whose royal nature was roused by
+Polixenes' reproaches, said, "Though we are all undone, I was not much
+afraid; and once or twice I was about to speak, and tell him plainly
+that the selfsame sun which shines upon his palace, hides not his face
+from our cottage, but looks on both alike." Then sorrowfully she said,
+"But now I am awakened from this dream, I will queen it no further.
+Leave me, sir; I will go milk my ewes and weep."
+
+The kind-hearted Camillo was charmed with the spirit and propriety of
+Perdita's behaviour; and perceiving that the young prince was too deeply
+in love to give up his mistress at the command of his royal father, he
+thought of a way to befriend the lovers, and at the same time to execute
+a favourite scheme he had in his mind.
+
+Camillo had long known that Leontes, the King of Sicily, was become a
+true penitent; and though Camillo was now the favoured friend of King
+Polixenes, he could not help wishing once more to see his late royal
+master and his native home. He therefore proposed to Florizel and
+Perdita that they should accompany him to the Sicilian court, where he
+would engage Leontes should protect them, till, through his mediation,
+they could obtain pardon from Polixenes, and his consent to their
+marriage.
+
+To this proposal they joyfully agreed; and Camillo, who conducted
+everything relative to their flight, allowed the old shepherd to go
+along with them.
+
+The shepherd took with him the remainder of Perdita's jewels, her baby
+clothes, and the paper which he had found pinned to her mantle.
+
+After a prosperous voyage, Florizel and Perdita, Camillo and the old
+shepherd, arrived in safety at the court of Leontes. Leontes, who still
+mourned his dead Hermione and his lost child, received Camillo with
+great kindness, and gave a cordial welcome to Prince Florizel. But
+Perdita, whom Florizel introduced as his princess, seemed to engross all
+Leontes' attention: perceiving a resemblance between her and his dead
+queen Hermione, his grief broke out afresh, and he said, such a lovely
+creature might his own daughter have been, if he had not so cruelly
+destroyed her. "And then, too," said he to Florizel, "I lost the society
+and friendship of your brave father, whom I now desire more than my life
+once again to look upon."
+
+When the old shepherd heard how much notice the king had taken of
+Perdita, and that he had lost a daughter, who was exposed in infancy, he
+fell to comparing the time when he found the little Perdita, with the
+manner of its exposure, the jewels and other tokens of its high birth;
+from all which it was impossible for him not to conclude that Perdita
+and the king's lost daughter were the same.
+
+Florizel and Perdita, Camillo and the faithful Paulina, were present
+when the old shepherd related to the king the manner in which he had
+found the child, and also the circumstance of Antigonus' death, he
+having seen the bear seize upon him. He showed the rich mantle in which
+Paulina remembered Hermione had wrapped the child; and he produced a
+jewel which she remembered Hermione had tied about Perdita's neck, and
+he gave up the paper which Paulina knew to be the writing of her
+husband; it could not be doubted that Perdita was Leontes' own daughter:
+but oh! the noble struggles of Paulina, between sorrow for her husband's
+death, and joy that the oracle was fulfilled, in the king's heir, his
+long-lost daughter being found. When Leontes heard that Perdita was his
+daughter, the great sorrow that he felt that Hermione was not living to
+behold her child, made him that he could say nothing for a long time,
+but, "O thy mother, thy mother!"
+
+Paulina interrupted this joyful yet distressful scene, with saying to
+Leontes, that she had a statue newly finished by that rare Italian
+master, Julio Romano, which was such a perfect resemblance of the queen,
+that would his majesty be pleased to go to her house and look upon it,
+he would be almost ready to think it was Hermione herself. Thither then
+they all went; the king anxious to see the semblance of his Hermione,
+and Perdita longing to behold what the mother she never saw did look
+like.
+
+When Paulina drew back the curtain which concealed this famous statue,
+so perfectly did it resemble Hermione, that all the king's sorrow was
+renewed at the sight: for a long time he had no power to speak or move.
+
+"I like your silence, my liege," said Paulina, "it the more shows your
+wonder. Is not this statue very like your queen?"
+
+At length the king said, "O, thus she stood, even with such majesty,
+when I first wooed her. But yet, Paulina, Hermione was not so aged as
+this statue looks." Paulina replied, "So much the more the carver's
+excellence, who has made the statue as Hermione would have looked had
+she been living now. But let me draw the curtain, sire, lest presently
+you think it moves."
+
+The king then said, "Do not draw the curtain; Would I were dead! See,
+Camillo, would you not think it breathed? Her eye seems to have motion
+in it." "I must draw the curtain, my liege," said Paulina. "You are so
+transported, you will persuade yourself the statue lives." "O, sweet
+Paulina," said Leontes, "make me think so twenty years together! Still
+methinks there is an air comes from her. What fine chisel could ever yet
+cut breath? Let no man mock me, for I will kiss her." "Good my lord,
+forbear!" said Paulina. "The ruddiness upon her lip is wet; you will
+stain your own with oily painting. Shall I draw the curtain?" "No, not
+these twenty years," said Leontes.
+
+Perdita, who all this time had been kneeling, and beholding in silent
+admiration the statue of her matchless mother, said now, "And so long
+could I stay here, looking upon my dear mother."
+
+"Either forbear this transport," said Paulina to Leontes, "and let me
+draw the curtain; or prepare yourself for more amazement. I can make the
+statue move indeed; ay, and descend from off the pedestal, and take you
+by the hand. But then you will think, which I protest I am not, that I
+am assisted by some wicked powers."
+
+"What you can make her do," said the astonished king, "I am content to
+look upon. What you can make her speak, I am content to hear; for it is
+as easy to make her speak as move."
+
+Paulina then ordered some slow and solemn music, which she had prepared
+for the purpose, to strike up; and, to the amazement of all the
+beholders, the statue came down from off the pedestal, and threw its
+arms around Leontes' neck. The statue then began to speak, praying for
+blessings on her husband, and on her child, the newly-found Perdita.
+
+No wonder that the statue hung upon Leontes' neck, and blessed her
+husband and her child. No wonder; for the statue was indeed Hermione
+herself, the real, the living queen.
+
+Paulina had falsely reported to the king the death of Hermione,
+thinking that the only means to preserve her royal mistress' life; and
+with the good Paulina, Hermione had lived ever since, never choosing
+Leontes should know she was living, till she heard Perdita was found;
+for though she had long forgiven the injuries which Leontes had done to
+herself, she could not pardon his cruelty to his infant daughter.
+
+His dead queen thus restored to life, his lost daughter found, the
+long-sorrowing Leontes could scarcely support the excess of his own
+happiness.
+
+Nothing but congratulations and affectionate speeches were heard on all
+sides. Now the delighted parents thanked Prince Florizel for loving
+their lowly-seeming daughter; and now they blessed the good old shepherd
+for preserving their child. Greatly did Camillo and Paulina rejoice that
+they had lived to see so good an end of all their faithful services.
+
+And as if nothing should be wanting to complete this strange and
+unlooked-for joy, King Polixenes himself now entered the palace.
+
+When Polixenes first missed his son and Camillo, knowing that Camillo
+had long wished to return to Sicily, he conjectured he should find the
+fugitives here; and, following them with all speed, he happened to just
+arrive at this, the happiest moment of Leontes' life.
+
+Polixenes took a part in the general joy; he forgave his friend Leontes
+the unjust jealousy he had conceived against him, and they once more
+loved each other with all the warmth of their first boyish friendship.
+And there was no fear that Polixenes would now oppose his son's marriage
+with Perdita. She was no "sheep-hook" now, but the heiress of the crown
+of Sicily.
+
+Thus have we seen the patient virtues of the long-suffering Hermione
+rewarded. That excellent lady lived many years with her Leontes and her
+Perdita, the happiest of mothers and of queens.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
+
+
+There lived in the palace at Messina two ladies, whose names were Hero
+and Beatrice. Hero was the daughter, and Beatrice the niece, of Leonato,
+the governor of Messina.
+
+Beatrice was of a lively temper, and loved to divert her cousin Hero,
+who was of a more serious disposition, with her sprightly sallies.
+Whatever was going forward was sure to make matter of mirth for the
+light-hearted Beatrice.
+
+At the time the history of these ladies commences some young men of high
+rank in the army, as they were passing through Messina on their return
+from a war that was just ended, in which they had distinguished
+themselves by their great bravery, came to visit Leonato. Among these
+were Don Pedro, the Prince of Arragon; and his friend Claudio, who was a
+lord of Florence; and with them came the wild and witty Benedick, and he
+was a lord of Padua.
+
+These strangers had been at Messina before, and the hospitable governor
+introduced them to his daughter and his niece as their old friends and
+acquaintance.
+
+Benedick, the moment he entered the room, began a lively conversation
+with Leonato and the prince. Beatrice, who liked not to be left out of
+any discourse, interrupted Benedick with saying, "I wonder that you will
+still be talking, Signior Benedick: nobody marks you." Benedick was
+just such another rattle-brain as Beatrice, yet he was not pleased at
+this free salutation; he thought it did not become a well-bred lady to
+be so flippant with her tongue; and he remembered, when he was last at
+Messina, that Beatrice used to select him to make her merry jests upon.
+And as there is no one who so little likes to be made a jest of as those
+who are apt to take the same liberty themselves, so it was with Benedick
+and Beatrice; these two sharp wits never met in former times but a
+perfect war of raillery was kept up between them, and they always parted
+mutually displeased with each other. Therefore when Beatrice stopped him
+in the middle of his discourse with telling him nobody marked what he
+was saying, Benedick, affecting not to have observed before that she was
+present, said, "What, my dear Lady Disdain, are you yet living?" And now
+war broke out afresh between them, and a long jangling argument ensued,
+during which Beatrice, although she knew he had so well approved his
+valour in the late war, said that she would eat all he had killed there:
+and observing the prince take delight in Benedick's conversation, she
+called him "the prince's jester." This sarcasm sunk deeper into the mind
+of Benedick than all Beatrice had said before. The hint she gave him
+that he was a coward, by saying she would eat all he had killed, he did
+not regard, knowing himself to be a brave man; but there is nothing that
+great wits so much dread as the imputation of buffoonery, because the
+charge comes sometimes a little too near the truth: therefore Benedick
+perfectly hated Beatrice when she called him "the prince's jester."
+
+The modest lady Hero was silent before the noble guests; and while
+Claudio was attentively observing the improvement which time had made in
+her beauty, and was contemplating the exquisite graces of her fine
+figure (for she was an admirable young lady), the prince was highly
+amused with listening to the humorous dialogue between Benedick and
+Beatrice; and he said in a whisper to Leonato, "This is a
+pleasant-spirited young lady. She were an excellent wife for Benedick."
+Leonato replied to this suggestion, "O, my lord, my lord, if they were
+but a week married, they would talk themselves mad." But though Leonato
+thought they would make a discordant pair, the prince did not give up
+the idea of matching these two keen wits together.
+
+When the prince returned with Claudio from the palace, he found that the
+marriage he had devised between Benedick and Beatrice was not the only
+one projected in that good company, for Claudio spoke in such terms of
+Hero, as made the prince guess at what was passing in his heart; and he
+liked it well, and he said to Claudio, "Do you affect Hero?" To this
+question Claudio replied, "O my lord, when I was last at Messina, I
+looked upon her with a soldier's eye, that liked, but had no leisure for
+loving; but now, in this happy time of peace, thoughts of war have left
+their places vacant in my mind, and in their room come thronging soft
+and delicate thoughts, all prompting me how fair young Hero is,
+reminding me that I liked her before I went to the wars." Claudio's
+confession of his love for Hero so wrought upon the prince, that he lost
+no time in soliciting the consent of Leonato to accept of Claudio for a
+son-in-law. Leonato agreed to this proposal, and the prince found no
+great difficulty in persuading the gentle Hero herself to listen to the
+suit of the noble Claudio, who was a lord of rare endowments, and highly
+accomplished, and Claudio, assisted by his kind prince, soon prevailed
+upon Leonato to fix an early day for the celebration of his marriage
+with Hero.
+
+Claudio was to wait but a few days before he was to be married to his
+fair lady; yet he complained of the interval being tedious, as indeed
+most young men are impatient when they are waiting for the
+accomplishment of any event they have set their hearts upon: the prince,
+therefore, to make the time seem short to him, proposed as a kind of
+merry pastime that they should invent some artful scheme to make
+Benedick and Beatrice fall in love with each other. Claudio entered with
+great satisfaction into this whim of the prince, and Leonato promised
+them his assistance, and even Hero said she would do any modest office
+to help her cousin to a good husband.
+
+The device the prince invented was, that the gentlemen should make
+Benedick believe that Beatrice was in love with him, and that Hero
+should make Beatrice believe that Benedick was in love with her.
+
+The prince, Leonato, and Claudio began their operations first: and
+watching upon an opportunity when Benedick was quietly seated reading in
+an arbour, the prince and his assistants took their station among the
+trees behind the arbour, so near that Benedick could not choose but hear
+all they said; and after some careless talk the prince said, "Come
+hither, Leonato. What was it you told me the other day--that your niece
+Beatrice was in love with signior Benedick? I did never think that lady
+would have loved any man." "No, nor I neither, my lord," answered
+Leonato. "It is most wonderful that she should so dote on Benedick, whom
+she in all outward behaviour seemed ever to dislike." Claudio confirmed
+all this with saying that Hero had told him Beatrice was so in love with
+Benedick, that she would certainly die of grief, if he could not be
+brought to love her; which Leonato and Claudio seemed to agree was
+impossible, he having always been such a railer against all fair ladies,
+and in particular against Beatrice.
+
+The prince affected to hearken to all this with great compassion for
+Beatrice, and he said, "It were good that Benedick were told of this."
+"To what end?" said Claudio; "he would but make sport of it, and torment
+the poor lady worse." "And if he should," said the prince, "it were a
+good deed to hang him; for Beatrice is an excellent sweet lady, and
+exceeding wise in everything but in loving Benedick." Then the prince
+motioned to his companions that they should walk on, and leave Benedick
+to meditate upon what he had overheard.
+
+Benedick had been listening with great eagerness to this conversation;
+and he said to himself when he heard Beatrice loved him, "Is it
+possible? Sits the wind in that corner?" And when they were gone, he
+began to reason in this manner with himself: "This can be no trick! they
+were very serious, and they have the truth from Hero, and seem to pity
+the lady. Love me! Why it must be requited! I did never think to marry.
+But when I said I should die a bachelor, I did not think I should live
+to be married. They say the lady is virtuous and fair. She is so. And
+wise in everything but loving me. Why, that is no great argument of her
+folly. But here comes Beatrice. By this day, she is a fair lady. I do
+spy some marks of love in her." Beatrice now approached him, and said
+with her usual tartness, "Against my will I am sent to bid you come in
+to dinner." Benedick, who never felt himself disposed to speak so
+politely to her before, replied, "Fair Beatrice, I thank you for your
+pains:" and when Beatrice, after two or three more rude speeches, left
+him, Benedick thought he observed a concealed meaning of kindness under
+the uncivil words she uttered, and he said aloud, "If I do not take pity
+on her, I am a villain. If I do not love her, I am a Jew. I will go get
+her picture."
+
+The gentleman being thus caught in the net they had spread for him, it
+was now Hero's turn to play her part with Beatrice; and for this purpose
+she sent for Ursula and Margaret, two gentlewomen who attended upon her,
+and she said to Margaret, "Good Margaret, run to the parlour; there you
+will find my cousin Beatrice talking with the prince and Claudio.
+Whisper in her ear, that I and Ursula are walking in the orchard, and
+that our discourse is all of her. Bid her steal into that pleasant
+arbour, where honeysuckles, ripened by the sun, like ungrateful minions,
+forbid the sun to enter." This arbour, into which Hero desired Margaret
+to entice Beatrice, was the very same pleasant arbour where Benedick had
+so lately been an attentive listener.
+
+"I will make her come, I warrant, presently," said Margaret.
+
+Hero, then taking Ursula with her into the orchard, said to her, "Now,
+Ursula, when Beatrice comes, we will walk up and down this alley, and
+our talk must be only of Benedick, and when I name him, let it be your
+part to praise him more than ever man did merit. My talk to you must be
+how Benedick is in love with Beatrice. Now begin; for look where
+Beatrice like a lapwing runs close by the ground, to hear our
+conference." They then began; Hero saying, as if in answer to something
+which Ursula had said, "No, truly, Ursula. She is too disdainful; her
+spirits are as coy as wild birds of the rock." "But are you sure," said
+Ursula, "that Benedick loves Beatrice so entirely?" Hero replied, "So
+says the prince, and my lord Claudio, and they entreated me to acquaint
+her with it; but I persuaded them, if they loved Benedick, never to let
+Beatrice know of it." "Certainly," replied Ursula, "it were not good she
+knew his love, lest she made sport of it." "Why, to say truth," said
+Hero, "I never yet saw a man, how wise soever, or noble, young, or
+rarely featured, but she would dispraise him." "Sure sure, such carping
+is not commendable," said Ursula. "No," replied Hero, "but who dare tell
+her so? If I should speak, she would mock me into air." "O! you wrong
+your cousin," said Ursula: "she cannot be so much without true judgment,
+as to refuse so rare a gentleman as signior Benedick." "He hath an
+excellent good name," said Hero: "indeed, he is the first man in Italy,
+always excepting my dear Claudio." And now, Hero giving her attendant a
+hint that it was time to change the discourse, Ursula said, "And when
+are you to be married, madam?" Hero then told her, that she was to be
+married to Claudio the next day, and desired she would go in with her,
+and look at some new attire, as she wished to consult with her on what
+she would wear on the morrow. Beatrice, who had been listening with
+breathless eagerness to this dialogue, when they went away, exclaimed,
+"What fire is in mine ears? Can this be true? Farewell, contempt and
+scorn, and maiden pride, adieu! Benedick, love on! I will requite you,
+taming my wild heart to your loving hand."
+
+It must have been a pleasant sight to see these old enemies converted
+into new and loving friends, and to behold their first meeting after
+being cheated into mutual liking by the merry artifice of the
+good-humoured prince. But a sad reverse in the fortunes of Hero must now
+be thought of. The morrow, which was to have been her wedding-day,
+brought sorrow on the heart of Hero and her good father Leonato.
+
+The prince had a half-brother, who came from the wars along with him to
+Messina. This brother (his name was Don John) was a melancholy,
+discontented man, whose spirits seemed to labour in the contriving of
+villanies. He hated the prince his brother, and he hated Claudio,
+because he was the prince's friend, and determined to prevent Claudio's
+marriage with Hero, only for the malicious pleasure of making Claudio
+and the prince unhappy; for he knew the prince had set his heart upon
+this marriage, almost as much as Claudio himself; and to effect this
+wicked purpose, he employed one Borachio, a man as bad as himself, whom
+he encouraged with the offer of a great reward. This Borachio paid his
+court to Margaret, Hero's attendant; and Don John, knowing this,
+prevailed upon him to make Margaret promise to talk with him from her
+lady's chamber window that night, after Hero was asleep, and also to
+dress herself in Hero's clothes, the better to deceive Claudio into the
+belief that it was Hero; for that was the end he meant to compass by
+this wicked plot.
+
+Don John then went to the prince and Claudio, and told them that Hero
+was an imprudent lady, and that she talked with men from her chamber
+window at midnight. Now this was the evening before the wedding, and he
+offered to take them that night, where they should themselves hear Hero
+discoursing with a man from her window; and they consented to go along
+with him, and Claudio said, "If I see anything to-night why I should not
+marry her, to-morrow in the congregation, where I intended to wed her,
+there will I shame her." The prince also said, "And as I assisted you to
+obtain her, I will join with you to disgrace her."
+
+When Don John brought them near Hero's chamber that night, they saw
+Borachio standing under the window, and they saw Margaret looking out of
+Hero's window, and heard her talking with Borachio: and Margaret being
+dressed in the same clothes they had seen Hero wear, the prince and
+Claudio believed it was the lady Hero herself.
+
+Nothing could equal the anger of Claudio, when he had made (as he
+thought) this discovery. All his love for the innocent Hero was at once
+converted into hatred, and he resolved to expose her in the church, as
+he had said he would, the next day; and the prince agreed to this,
+thinking no punishment could be too severe for the naughty lady, who
+talked with a man from her window the very night before she was going to
+be married to the noble Claudio.
+
+The next day, when they were all met to celebrate the marriage, and
+Claudio and Hero were standing before the priest, and the priest, or
+friar, as he was called, was proceeding to pronounce the marriage
+ceremony, Claudio, in the most passionate language, proclaimed the guilt
+of the blameless Hero, who, amazed at the strange words he uttered, said
+meekly, "Is my lord well, that he does speak so wide?"
+
+Leonato, in the utmost horror, said to the prince, "My lord, why speak
+not you?" "What should I speak?" said the prince; "I stand dishonoured,
+that have gone about to link my dear friend to an unworthy woman.
+Leonato, upon my honour, myself, my brother, and this grieved Claudio,
+did see and hear her last night at midnight talk with a man at her
+chamber window."
+
+Benedick, in astonishment at what he heard, said, "This looks not like a
+nuptial."
+
+"True, O God!" replied the heart-struck Hero; and then this hapless lady
+sunk down in a fainting fit, to all appearance dead. The prince and
+Claudio left the church, without staying to see if Hero would recover,
+or at all regarding the distress into which they had thrown Leonato. So
+hard-hearted had their anger made them.
+
+Benedick remained, and assisted Beatrice to recover Hero from her swoon,
+saying, "How does the lady?" "Dead, I think," replied Beatrice in great
+agony, for she loved her cousin; and knowing her virtuous principles,
+she believed nothing of what she had heard spoken against her. Not so
+the poor old father; he believed the story of his child's shame, and it
+was piteous to hear him lamenting over her, as she lay like one dead
+before him, wishing she might never more open her eyes.
+
+But the ancient friar was a wise man, and full of observation on human
+nature, and he had attentively marked the lady's countenance when she
+heard herself accused, and noted a thousand blushing shames to start
+into her face, and then he saw an angel-like whiteness bear away those
+blushes, and in her eye he saw a fire that did belie the error that the
+prince did speak against her maiden truth, and he said to the sorrowing
+father, "Call me a fool; trust not my reading, nor my observation; trust
+not my age, my reverence, nor my calling, if this sweet lady lie not
+guiltless here under some biting error."
+
+When Hero had recovered from the swoon into which she had fallen, the
+friar said to her, "Lady, what man is he you are accused of?" Hero
+replied, "They know that do accuse me; I know of none:" then turning to
+Leonato, she said, "O my father, if you can prove that any man has ever
+conversed with me at hours unmeet, or that I yesternight changed words
+with any creature, refuse me, hate me, torture me to death."
+
+"There is," said the friar, "some strange misunderstanding in the prince
+and Claudio;" and then he counselled Leonato, that he should report that
+Hero was dead; and he said that the death-like swoon in which they had
+left Hero would make this easy of belief; and he also advised him that
+he should put on mourning, and erect a monument for her, and do all
+rites that appertain to a burial. "What shall become of this?" said
+Leonato; "What will this do?" The friar replied, "This report of her
+death shall change slander into pity: that is some good; but that is not
+all the good I hope for. When Claudio shall hear she died upon hearing
+his words, the idea of her life shall sweetly creep into his
+imagination. Then shall he mourn, if ever love had interest in his
+heart, and wish that he had not so accused her; yea, though he thought
+his accusation true."
+
+Benedick now said, "Leonato, let the friar advise you; and though you
+know how well I love the prince and Claudio, yet on my honour I will not
+reveal this secret to them."
+
+Leonato, thus persuaded, yielded; and he said sorrowfully, "I am so
+grieved, that the smallest twine may lead me." The kind friar then led
+Leonato and Hero away to comfort and console them, and Beatrice and
+Benedick remained alone; and this was the meeting from which their
+friends, who contrived the merry plot against them, expected so much
+diversion; those friends who were now overwhelmed with affliction, and
+from whose minds all thoughts of merriment seemed for ever banished.
+
+Benedick was the first who spoke, and he said, "Lady Beatrice, have you
+wept all this while?" "Yea, and I will weep a while longer," said
+Beatrice. "Surely," said Benedick, "I do believe your fair cousin is
+wronged." "Ah!" said Beatrice, "how much might that man deserve of me
+who would right her!" Benedick then said, "Is there any way to show such
+friendship? I do love nothing in the world so well as you: is not that
+strange?" "It were as possible," said Beatrice, "for me to say I loved
+nothing in the world so well as you; but believe me not, and yet I lie
+not. I confess nothing, nor I deny nothing. I am sorry for my cousin."
+"By my sword," said Benedick, "you love me, and I protest I love you.
+Come, bid me do anything for you." "Kill Claudio," said Beatrice. "Ha!
+not for the wide world," said Benedick; for he loved his friend Claudio,
+and he believed he had been imposed upon. "Is not Claudio a villain,
+that has slandered, scorned, and dishonoured my cousin?" said Beatrice:
+"O that I were a man!" "Hear me, Beatrice!" said Benedick. But Beatrice
+would hear nothing in Claudio's defence; and she continued to urge on
+Benedick to revenge her cousin's wrongs: and she said, "Talk with a man
+out of the window; a proper saying! Sweet Hero! she is wronged; she is
+slandered; she is undone. O that I were a man for Claudio's sake! or
+that I had any friend, who would be a man for my sake! but valour is
+melted into courtesies and compliments. I cannot be a man with wishing,
+therefore I will die a woman with grieving." "Tarry, good Beatrice,"
+said Benedick: "by this hand I love you." "Use it for my love some other
+way than swearing by it," said Beatrice. "Think you on your soul that
+Claudio has wronged Hero?" asked Benedick. "Yea," answered Beatrice; "as
+sure as I have a thought, or a soul." "Enough," said Benedick; "I am
+engaged; I will challenge him. I will kiss your hand, and so leave you.
+By this hand, Claudio shall render me a dear account! As you hear from
+me, so think of me. Go, comfort your cousin."
+
+While Beatrice was thus powerfully pleading with Benedick, and working
+his gallant temper by the spirit of her angry words, to engage in the
+cause of Hero, and fight even with his dear friend Claudio, Leonato was
+challenging the prince and Claudio to answer with their swords the
+injury they had done his child, who, he affirmed, had died for grief.
+But they respected his age and his sorrow, and they said, "Nay, do not
+quarrel with us, good old man." And now came Benedick, and he also
+challenged Claudio to answer with his sword the injury he had done to
+Hero; and Claudio and the prince said to each other, "Beatrice has set
+him on to do this." Claudio nevertheless must have accepted this
+challenge of Benedick, had not the justice of Heaven at the moment
+brought to pass a better proof of the innocence of Hero than the
+uncertain fortune of a duel.
+
+While the prince and Claudio were yet talking of the challenge of
+Benedick, a magistrate brought Borachio as a prisoner before the prince.
+Borachio had been overheard talking with one of his companions of the
+mischief he had been employed by Don John to do.
+
+Borachio made a full confession to the prince in Claudio's hearing, that
+it was Margaret dressed in her lady's clothes that he had talked with
+from the window, whom they had mistaken for the lady Hero herself; and
+no doubt continued on the minds of Claudio and the prince of the
+innocence of Hero. If a suspicion had remained it must have been removed
+by the flight of Don John, who, finding his villanies were detected,
+fled from Messina to avoid the just anger of his brother.
+
+The heart of Claudio was sorely grieved when he found he had falsely
+accused Hero, who, he thought, died upon hearing his cruel words; and
+the memory of his beloved Hero's image came over him, in the rare
+semblance that he loved it first; and the prince asking him if what he
+heard did not run like iron through his soul, he answered, that he felt
+as if he had taken poison while Borachio was speaking.
+
+And the repentant Claudio implored forgiveness of the old man Leonato
+for the injury he had done his child; and promised, that whatever
+penance Leonato would lay upon him for his fault in believing the false
+accusation against his betrothed wife, for her dear sake he would endure
+it.
+
+The penance Leonato enjoined him was, to marry the next morning a cousin
+of Hero's, who, he said, was now his heir, and in person very like Hero.
+Claudio, regarding the solemn promise he made to Leonato, said, he would
+marry this unknown lady, even though she were an Ethiop: but his heart
+was very sorrowful, and he passed that night in tears, and in remorseful
+grief, at the tomb which Leonato had erected for Hero.
+
+When the morning came, the prince accompanied Claudio to the church,
+where the good friar, and Leonato and his niece, were already assembled,
+to celebrate a second nuptial; and Leonato presented to Claudio his
+promised bride; and she wore a mask, that Claudio might not discover her
+face. And Claudio said to the lady in the mask, "Give me your hand,
+before this holy friar; I am your husband, if you will marry me." "And
+when I lived I was your other wife," said this unknown lady; and, taking
+off her mask, she proved to be no niece (as was pretended), but
+Leonato's very daughter, the Lady Hero herself. We may be sure that this
+proved a most agreeable surprise to Claudio, who thought her dead, so
+that he could scarcely for joy believe his eyes; and the prince, who was
+equally amazed at what he saw, exclaimed, "Is not this Hero, Hero that
+was dead?" Leonato replied, "She died, my lord, but while her slander
+lived." The friar promised them an explanation of this seeming miracle,
+after the ceremony was ended; and was proceeding to marry them, when he
+was interrupted by Benedick, who desired to be married at the same time
+to Beatrice. Beatrice making some demur to this match, and Benedick
+challenging her with her love for him, which he had learned from Hero, a
+pleasant explanation took place; and they found they had both been
+tricked into a belief of love, which had never existed, and had become
+lovers in truth by the power of a false jest: but the affection, which
+a merry invention had cheated them into, was grown too powerful to be
+shaken by a serious explanation; and since Benedick proposed to marry,
+he was resolved to think nothing to the purpose that the world could say
+against it; and he merrily kept up the jest, and swore to Beatrice, that
+he took her but for pity, and because he heard she was dying of love for
+him; and Beatrice protested, that she yielded but upon great persuasion,
+and partly to save his life, for she heard he was in a consumption. So
+these two mad wits were reconciled, and made a match of it, after
+Claudio and Hero were married; and to complete the history, Don John,
+the contriver of the villany, was taken in his flight, and brought back
+to Messina; and a brave punishment it was to this gloomy, discontented
+man, to see the joy and feastings which, by the disappointment of his
+plots, took place in the palace in Messina.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+AS YOU LIKE IT
+
+
+During the time that France was divided into provinces (or dukedoms as
+they were called) there reigned in one of these provinces an usurper,
+who had deposed and banished his elder brother, the lawful duke.
+
+The duke, who was thus driven from his dominions, retired with a few
+faithful followers to the forest of Arden; and here the good duke lived
+with his loving friends, who had put themselves into a voluntary exile
+for his sake, while their land and revenues enriched the false usurper;
+and custom soon made the life of careless ease they led here more sweet
+to them than the pomp and uneasy splendour of a courtier's life. Here
+they lived like the old Robin Hood of England, and to this forest many
+noble youths daily resorted from the court, and did fleet the time
+carelessly, as they did who lived in the golden age. In the summer they
+lay along under the fine shade of the large forest trees, marking the
+playful sports of the wild deer; and so fond were they of these poor
+dappled fools, who seemed to be the native inhabitants of the forest,
+that it grieved them to be forced to kill them to supply themselves with
+venison for their food. When the cold winds of winter made the duke feel
+the change of his adverse fortune, he would endure it patiently, and
+say, "These chilling winds which blow upon my body are true counsellors;
+they do not flatter, but represent truly to me my condition; and though
+they bite sharply, their tooth is nothing like so keen as that of
+unkindness and ingratitude. I find that howsoever men speak against
+adversity, yet some sweet uses are to be extracted from it; like the
+jewel, precious for medicine, which is taken from the head of the
+venomous and despised toad." In this manner did the patient duke draw a
+useful moral from everything that he saw; and by the help of this
+moralising turn, in that life of his, remote from public haunts, he
+could find tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in
+stones, and good in everything.
+
+The banished duke had an only daughter, named Rosalind, whom the
+usurper, Duke Frederick, when he banished her father, still retained in
+his court as a companion for his own daughter Celia. A strict friendship
+subsisted between these ladies, which the disagreement between their
+fathers did not in the least interrupt, Celia striving by every kindness
+in her power to make amends to Rosalind for the injustice of her own
+father in deposing the father of Rosalind; and whenever the thoughts of
+her father's banishment, and her own dependence on the false usurper,
+made Rosalind melancholy, Celia's whole care was to comfort and console
+her.
+
+One day, when Celia was talking in her usual kind manner to Rosalind,
+saying, "I pray you, Rosalind, my sweet cousin, be merry," a messenger
+entered from the duke, to tell them that if they wished to see a
+wrestling match, which was just going to begin, they must come instantly
+to the court before the palace; and Celia, thinking it would amuse
+Rosalind, agreed to go and see it.
+
+In those times wrestling, which is only practised now by country clowns,
+was a favourite sport even in the courts of princes, and before fair
+ladies and princesses. To this wrestling match, therefore, Celia and
+Rosalind went. They found that it was likely to prove a very tragical
+sight; for a large and powerful man, who had been long practised in the
+art of wrestling, and had slain many men in contests of this kind, was
+just going to wrestle with a very young man, who, from his extreme youth
+and inexperience in the art, the beholders all thought would certainly
+be killed.
+
+When the duke saw Celia and Rosalind, he said, "How now, daughter and
+niece, are you crept hither to see the wrestling? You will take little
+delight in it, there is such odds in the men: in pity to this young man,
+I would wish to persuade him from wrestling. Speak to him, ladies, and
+see if you can move him."
+
+The ladies were well pleased to perform this humane office, and first
+Celia entreated the young stranger that he would desist from the
+attempt; and then Rosalind spoke so kindly to him, and with such feeling
+consideration for the danger he was about to undergo, that instead of
+being persuaded by her gentle words to forego his purpose, all his
+thoughts were bent to distinguish himself by his courage in this lovely
+lady's eyes. He refused the request of Celia and Rosalind in such
+graceful and modest words, that they felt still more concern for him; he
+concluded his refusal with saying, "I am sorry to deny such fair and
+excellent ladies anything. But let your fair eyes and gentle wishes go
+with me to my trial, wherein if I be conquered there is one shamed that
+was never gracious; if I am killed, there is one dead that is willing to
+die; I shall do my friends no wrong, for I have none to lament me; the
+world no injury, for in it I have nothing; for I only fill up a place in
+the world which may be better supplied when I have made it empty."
+
+And now the wrestling match began. Celia wished the young stranger
+might not be hurt; but Rosalind felt most for him. The friendless state
+which he said he was in, and that he wished to die, made Rosalind think
+that he was like herself, unfortunate; and she pitied him so much, and
+so deep an interest she took in his danger while he was wrestling, that
+she might almost be said at that moment to have fallen in love with him.
+
+The kindness shown this unknown youth by these fair and noble ladies
+gave him courage and strength, so that he performed wonders; and in the
+end completely conquered his antagonist, who was so much hurt, that for
+a while he was unable to speak or move.
+
+The Duke Frederick was much pleased with the courage and skill shown by
+this young stranger; and desired to know his name and parentage, meaning
+to take him under his protection.
+
+The stranger said his name was Orlando, and that he was the youngest son
+of Sir Rowland de Boys.
+
+Sir Rowland de Boys, the father of Orlando, had been dead some years;
+but when he was living, he had been a true subject and dear friend of
+the banished duke: therefore, when Frederick heard Orlando was the son
+of his banished brother's friend, all his liking for this brave young
+man was changed into displeasure, and he left the place in very ill
+humour. Hating to hear the very name of any of his brother's friends,
+and yet still admiring the valour of the youth, he said, as he went out,
+that he wished Orlando had been the son of any other man.
+
+Rosalind was delighted to hear that her new favourite was the son of her
+father's old friend; and she said to Celia, "My father loved Sir Rowland
+de Boys, and if I had known this young man was his son, I would have
+added tears to my entreaties before he should have ventured."
+
+The ladies then went up to him; and seeing him abashed by the sudden
+displeasure shown by the duke, they spoke kind and encouraging words to
+him; and Rosalind, when they were going away, turned back to speak some
+more civil things to the brave young son of her father's old friend; and
+taking a chain from off her neck, she said, "Gentleman, wear this for
+me. I am out of suits with fortune, or I would give you a more valuable
+present."
+
+When the ladies were alone, Rosalind's talk being still of Orlando,
+Celia began to perceive her cousin had fallen in love with the handsome
+young wrestler, and she said to Rosalind, "Is it possible you should
+fall in love so suddenly?" Rosalind replied, "The duke, my father, loved
+his father dearly." "But," said Celia, "does it therefore follow that
+you should love his son dearly? for then I ought to hate him, for my
+father hated his father; yet I do not hate Orlando."
+
+Frederick being enraged at the sight of Sir Rowland de Boys' son, which
+reminded him of the many friends the banished duke had among the
+nobility, and having been for some time displeased with his niece,
+because the people praised her for her virtues, and pitied her for her
+good father's sake, his malice suddenly broke out against her; and while
+Celia and Rosalind were talking of Orlando, Frederick entered the room,
+and with looks full of anger ordered Rosalind instantly to leave the
+palace, and follow her father into banishment; telling Celia, who in
+vain pleaded for her, that he had only suffered Rosalind to stay upon
+her account. "I did not then," said Celia, "entreat you to let her stay,
+for I was too young at that time to value her; but now that I know her
+worth, and that we so long have slept together, rose at the same
+instant, learned, played, and eat together, I cannot live out of her
+company." Frederick replied, "She is too subtle for you; her smoothness,
+her very silence, and her patience speak to the people, and they pity
+her. You are a fool to plead for her, for you will seem more bright and
+virtuous when she is gone; therefore open not your lips in her favour,
+for the doom which I have passed upon her is irrevocable."
+
+When Celia found she could not prevail upon her father to let Rosalind
+remain with her, she generously resolved to accompany her; and leaving
+her father's palace that night, she went along with her friend to seek
+Rosalind's father, the banished duke, in the forest of Arden.
+
+Before they set out, Celia considered that it would be unsafe for two
+young ladies to travel in the rich clothes they then wore; she therefore
+proposed that they should disguise their rank by dressing themselves
+like country maids. Rosalind said it would be a still greater protection
+if one of them was to be dressed like a man; and so it was quickly
+agreed on between them, that as Rosalind was the tallest, she should
+wear the dress of a young countryman, and Celia should be habited like a
+country lass, and that they should say they were brother and sister, and
+Rosalind said she would be called Ganymede, and Celia chose the name of
+Aliena.
+
+[Illustration: GANYMEDE ASSUMED THE FORWARD MANNERS OFTEN SEEN IN YOUTHS
+WHEN THEY ARE BETWEEN BOYS AND MEN]
+
+In this disguise, and taking their money and jewels to defray their
+expenses, these fair princesses set out on their long travel; for the
+forest of Arden was a long way off, beyond the boundaries of the duke's
+dominions.
+
+The Lady Rosalind (or Ganymede as she must now be called) with her manly
+garb seemed to have put on a manly courage. The faithful friendship
+Celia had shown in accompanying Rosalind so many weary miles, made the
+new brother, in recompense for this true love, exert a cheerful spirit,
+as if he were indeed Ganymede, the rustic and stout-hearted brother of
+the gentle village maiden, Aliena.
+
+When at last they came to the forest of Arden, they no longer found the
+convenient inns and good accommodations they had met with on the road;
+and being in want of food and rest, Ganymede, who had so merrily cheered
+his sister with pleasant speeches and happy remarks all the way, now
+owned to Aliena that he was so weary, he could find in his heart to
+disgrace his man's apparel, and cry like a woman; and Aliena declared
+she could go no farther; and then again Ganymede tried to recollect
+that it was a man's duty to comfort and console a woman, as the weaker
+vessel; and to seem courageous to his new sister, he said, "Come, have a
+good heart, my sister Aliena; we are now at the end of our travel, in
+the forest of Arden." But feigned manliness and forced courage would no
+longer support them; for though they were in the forest of Arden, they
+knew not where to find the duke: and here the travel of these weary
+ladies might have come to a sad conclusion, for they might have lost
+themselves, and perished for want of food; but providentially, as they
+were sitting on the grass, almost dying with fatigue and hopeless of any
+relief, a countryman chanced to pass that way, and Ganymede once more
+tried to speak with a manly boldness, saying, "Shepherd, if love or gold
+can in this desert place procure us entertainment, I pray you bring us
+where we may rest ourselves; for this young maid, my sister, is much
+fatigued with travelling, and faints for want of food."
+
+The man replied that he was only a servant to a shepherd, and that his
+master's house was just going to be sold, and therefore they would find
+but poor entertainment; but that if they would go with him, they should
+be welcome to what there was. They followed the man, the near prospect
+of relief giving them fresh strength; and bought the house and sheep of
+the shepherd, and took the man who conducted them to the shepherd's
+house to wait on them; and being by this means so fortunately provided
+with a neat cottage, and well supplied with provisions, they agreed to
+stay here till they could learn in what part of the forest the duke
+dwelt.
+
+When they were rested after the fatigue of their journey, they began to
+like their new way of life, and almost fancied themselves the shepherd
+and shepherdess they feigned to be; yet sometimes Ganymede remembered he
+had once been the same Lady Rosalind who had so dearly loved the brave
+Orlando, because he was the son of old Sir Rowland, her father's
+friend; and though Ganymede thought that Orlando was many miles distant,
+even so many weary miles as they had travelled, yet it soon appeared
+that Orlando was also in the forest of Arden: and in this manner this
+strange event came to pass.
+
+Orlando was the youngest son of Sir Rowland de Boys, who, when he died,
+left him (Orlando being then very young) to the care of his eldest
+brother Oliver, charging Oliver on his blessing to give his brother a
+good education, and provide for him as became the dignity of their
+ancient house. Oliver proved an unworthy brother; and disregarding the
+commands of his dying father, he never put his brother to school, but
+kept him at home untaught and entirely neglected. But in his nature and
+in the noble qualities of his mind Orlando so much resembled his
+excellent father, that without any advantages of education he seemed
+like a youth who had been bred with the utmost care; and Oliver so
+envied the fine person and dignified manners of his untutored brother,
+that at last he wished to destroy him; and to effect this he set on
+people to persuade him to wrestle with the famous wrestler, who, as has
+been before related, had killed so many men. Now, it was this cruel
+brother's neglect of him which made Orlando say he wished to die, being
+so friendless.
+
+When, contrary to the wicked hopes he had formed, his brother proved
+victorious, his envy and malice knew no bounds, and he swore he would
+burn the chamber where Orlando slept. He was overheard making this vow
+by one that had been an old and faithful servant to their father, and
+that loved Orlando because he resembled Sir Rowland. This old man went
+out to meet him when he returned from the duke's palace, and when he saw
+Orlando, the peril his dear young master was in made him break out into
+these passionate exclamations: "O my gentle master, my sweet master, O
+you memory of old Sir Rowland! why are you virtuous? why are you gentle,
+strong, and valiant? and why would you be so fond to overcome the
+famous wrestler? Your praise is come too swiftly home before you."
+Orlando, wondering what all this meant, asked him what was the matter.
+And then the old man told him how his wicked brother, envying the love
+all people bore him, and now hearing the fame he had gained by his
+victory in the duke's palace, intended to destroy him, by setting fire
+to his chamber that night; and in conclusion, advised him to escape the
+danger he was in by instant flight; and knowing Orlando had no money,
+Adam (for that was the good old man's name) had brought out with him his
+own little hoard, and he said, "I have five hundred crowns, the thrifty
+hire I saved under your father, and laid by to be provision for me when
+my old limbs should become unfit for service; take that, and he that
+doth the ravens feed be comfort to my age! Here is the gold; all this I
+give to you: let me be your servant; though I look old I will do the
+service of a younger man in all your business and necessities." "O good
+old man!" said Orlando, "how well appears in you the constant service of
+the old world! You are not for the fashion of these times. We will go
+along together, and before your youthful wages are spent, I shall light
+upon some means for both our maintenance."
+
+Together then this faithful servant and his loved master set out; and
+Orlando and Adam travelled on, uncertain what course to pursue, till
+they came to the forest of Arden, and there they found themselves in the
+same distress for want of food that Ganymede and Aliena had been. They
+wandered on, seeking some human habitation, till they were almost spent
+with hunger and fatigue. Adam at last said, "O my dear master, I die for
+want of food, I can go no farther!" He then laid himself down, thinking
+to make that place his grave, and bade his dear master farewell.
+Orlando, seeing him in this weak state, took his old servant up in his
+arms, and carried him under the shelter of some pleasant trees; and he
+said to him, "Cheerly, old Adam, rest your weary limbs here awhile, and
+do not talk of dying!"
+
+Orlando then searched about to find some food, and he happened to arrive
+at that part of the forest where the duke was; and he and his friends
+were just going to eat their dinner, this royal duke being seated on the
+grass, under no other canopy than the shady covert of some large trees.
+
+Orlando, whom hunger had made desperate, drew his sword, intending to
+take their meat by force, and said, "Forbear and eat no more; I must
+have your food!" The duke asked him, if distress had made him so bold,
+or if he were a rude despiser of good manners? On this Orlando said, he
+was dying with hunger; and then the duke told him he was welcome to sit
+down and eat with them. Orlando hearing him speak so gently, put up his
+sword, and blushed with shame at the rude manner in which he had
+demanded their food. "Pardon me, I pray you," said he: "I thought that
+all things had been savage here, and therefore I put on the countenance
+of stern command; but whatever men you are, that in this desert, under
+the shade of melancholy boughs, lose and neglect the creeping hours of
+time; if ever you have looked on better days; if ever you have been
+where bells have knolled to church; if you have ever sat at any good
+man's feast; if ever from your eyelids you have wiped a tear, and know
+what it is to pity or be pitied, may gentle speeches now move you to do
+me human courtesy!" The duke replied, "True it is that we are men (as
+you say) who have seen better days, and though we have now our
+habitation in this wild forest, we have lived in towns and cities, and
+have with holy bell been knolled to church, have sat at good men's
+feasts, and from our eyes have wiped the drops which sacred pity has
+engendered; therefore sit you down, and take of our refreshment as much
+as will minister to your wants." "There is an old poor man," answered
+Orlando, "who has limped after me many a weary step in pure love,
+oppressed at once with two sad infirmities, age and hunger; till he be
+satisfied, I must not touch a bit." "Go, find him out, and bring him
+hither," said the duke; "we will forbear to eat till you return." Then
+Orlando went like a doe to find its fawn and give it food; and presently
+returned, bringing Adam in his arms; and the duke said, "Set down your
+venerable burthen; you are both welcome:" and they fed the old man, and
+cheered his heart, and he revived, and recovered his health and strength
+again.
+
+The duke inquired who Orlando was; and when he found that he was the son
+of his old friend, Sir Rowland de Boys, he took him under his
+protection, and Orlando and his old servant lived with the duke in the
+forest.
+
+Orlando arrived in the forest not many days after Ganymede and Aliena
+came there, and (as has been before related) bought the shepherd's
+cottage.
+
+Ganymede and Aliena were strangely surprised to find the name of
+Rosalind carved on the trees, and love-sonnets, fastened to them, all
+addressed to Rosalind; and while they were wondering how this could be,
+they met Orlando, and they perceived the chain which Rosalind had given
+him about his neck.
+
+Orlando little thought that Ganymede was the fair Princess Rosalind,
+who, by her noble condescension and favour, had so won his heart that he
+passed his whole time in carving her name upon the trees, and writing
+sonnets in praise of her beauty: but being much pleased with the
+graceful air of this pretty shepherd-youth, he entered into conversation
+with him, and he thought he saw a likeness in Ganymede to his beloved
+Rosalind, but that he had none of the dignified deportment of that noble
+lady; for Ganymede assumed the forward manners often seen in youths when
+they are between boys and men, and with much archness and humour talked
+to Orlando of a certain lover, "who," said he, "haunts our forest, and
+spoils our young trees with carving Rosalind upon their barks; and he
+hangs odes upon hawthorns, and elegies on brambles, all praising this
+same Rosalind. If I could find this lover, I would give him some good
+counsel that would soon cure him of his love."
+
+Orlando confessed that he was the fond lover of whom he spoke, and asked
+Ganymede to give him the good counsel he talked of. The remedy Ganymede
+proposed, and the counsel he gave him, was that Orlando should come
+every day to the cottage where he and his sister Aliena dwelt: "And
+then," said Ganymede, "I will feign myself to be Rosalind, and you shall
+feign to court me in the same manner as you would do if I was Rosalind,
+and then I will imitate the fantastic ways of whimsical ladies to their
+lovers, till I make you ashamed of your love; and this is the way I
+propose to cure you." Orlando had no great faith in the remedy, yet he
+agreed to come every day to Ganymede's cottage, and feign a playful
+courtship; and every day Orlando visited Ganymede and Aliena, and
+Orlando called the shepherd Ganymede his Rosalind, and every day talked
+over all the fine words and flattering compliments which young men
+delight to use when they court their mistresses. It does not appear,
+however, that Ganymede made any progress in curing Orlando of his love
+for Rosalind.
+
+Though Orlando thought all this was but a sportive play (not dreaming
+that Ganymede was his very Rosalind), yet the opportunity it gave him of
+saying all the fond things he had in his heart, pleased his fancy almost
+as well as it did Ganymede's, who enjoyed the secret jest in knowing
+these fine love-speeches were all addressed to the right person.
+
+In this manner many days passed pleasantly on with these young people;
+and the good-natured Aliena, seeing it made Ganymede happy, let him have
+his own way, and was diverted at the mock-courtship, and did not care to
+remind Ganymede that the Lady Rosalind had not yet made herself known
+to the duke her father, whose place of resort in the forest they had
+learnt from Orlando. Ganymede met the duke one day, and had some talk
+with him, and the duke asked of what parentage he came. Ganymede
+answered that he came of as good parentage as he did, which made the
+duke smile, for he did not suspect the pretty shepherd-boy came of royal
+lineage. Then seeing the duke look well and happy, Ganymede was content
+to put off all further explanation for a few days longer.
+
+One morning, as Orlando was going to visit Ganymede, he saw a man lying
+asleep on the ground, and a large green snake had twisted itself about
+his neck. The snake, seeing Orlando approach, glided away among the
+bushes. Orlando went nearer, and then he discovered a lioness lie
+crouching, with her head on the ground, with a cat-like watch, waiting
+until the sleeping man awaked (for it is said that lions will prey on
+nothing that is dead or sleeping). It seemed as if Orlando was sent by
+Providence to free the man from the danger of the snake and lioness; but
+when Orlando looked in the man's face, he perceived that the sleeper who
+was exposed to this double peril, was his own brother Oliver, who had so
+cruelly used him, and had threatened to destroy him by fire; and he was
+almost tempted to leave him a prey to the hungry lioness; but brotherly
+affection and the gentleness of his nature soon overcame his first anger
+against his brother; and he drew his sword, and attacked the lioness,
+and slew her, and thus preserved his brother's life both from the
+venomous snake and from the furious lioness; but before Orlando could
+conquer the lioness, she had torn one of his arms with her sharp claws.
+
+While Orlando was engaged with the lioness, Oliver awaked, and
+perceiving that his brother Orlando, whom he had so cruelly treated, was
+saving him from the fury of a wild beast at the risk of his own life,
+shame and remorse at once seized him, and he repented of his unworthy
+conduct, and besought with many tears his brother's pardon for the
+injuries he had done him. Orlando rejoiced to see him so penitent, and
+readily forgave him: they embraced each other; and from that hour Oliver
+loved Orlando with a true brotherly affection, though he had come to the
+forest bent on his destruction.
+
+The wound in Orlando's arm having bled very much, he found himself too
+weak to go to visit Ganymede, and therefore he desired his brother to go
+and tell Ganymede, "whom," said Orlando, "I in sport do call my
+Rosalind," the accident which had befallen him.
+
+Thither then Oliver went, and told to Ganymede and Aliena how Orlando
+had saved his life: and when he had finished the story of Orlando's
+bravery, and his own providential escape, he owned to them that he was
+Orlando's brother, who had so cruelly used him; and then he told them of
+their reconciliation.
+
+The sincere sorrow that Oliver expressed for his offences made such a
+lively impression on the kind heart of Aliena, that she instantly fell
+in love with him; and Oliver observing how much she pitied the distress
+he told her he felt for his fault, he as suddenly fell in love with her.
+But while love was thus stealing into the hearts of Aliena and Oliver,
+he was no less busy with Ganymede, who hearing of the danger Orlando had
+been in, and that he was wounded by the lioness, fainted; and when he
+recovered, he pretended that he had counterfeited the swoon in the
+imaginary character of Rosalind, and Ganymede said to Oliver, "Tell your
+brother Orlando how well I counterfeited a swoon." But Oliver saw by the
+paleness of his complexion that he did really faint, and much wondering
+at the weakness of the young man, he said, "Well, if you did
+counterfeit, take a good heart, and counterfeit to be a man." "So I do,"
+replied Ganymede, truly, "but I should have been a woman by right."
+
+Oliver made this visit a very long one, and when at last he returned
+back to his brother, he had much news to tell him; for besides the
+account of Ganymede's fainting at the hearing that Orlando was wounded,
+Oliver told him how he had fallen in love with the fair shepherdess
+Aliena, and that she had lent a favourable ear to his suit, even in this
+their first interview; and he talked to his brother, as of a thing
+almost settled, that he should marry Aliena, saying, that he so well
+loved her, that he would live here as a shepherd, and settle his estate
+and house at home upon Orlando.
+
+"You have my consent," said Orlando. "Let your wedding be to-morrow, and
+I will invite the duke and his friends. Go and persuade your shepherdess
+to agree to this: she is now alone; for look, here comes her brother."
+Oliver went to Aliena; and Ganymede, whom Orlando had perceived
+approaching, came to inquire after the health of his wounded friend.
+
+When Orlando and Ganymede began to talk over the sudden love which had
+taken place between Oliver and Aliena, Orlando said he had advised his
+brother to persuade his fair shepherdess to be married on the morrow,
+and then he added how much he could wish to be married on the same day
+to his Rosalind.
+
+Ganymede, who well approved of this arrangement, said that if Orlando
+really loved Rosalind as well as he professed to do, he should have his
+wish; for on the morrow he would engage to make Rosalind appear in her
+own person, and also that Rosalind should be willing to marry Orlando.
+
+This seemingly wonderful event, which, as Ganymede was the Lady
+Rosalind, he could so easily perform, he pretended he would bring to
+pass by the aid of magic, which he said he had learnt of an uncle who
+was a famous magician.
+
+The fond lover Orlando, half believing and half doubting what he heard,
+asked Ganymede if he spoke in sober meaning. "By my life I do," said
+Ganymede; "therefore put on your best clothes, and bid the duke and your
+friends to your wedding; for if you desire to be married to-morrow to
+Rosalind, she shall be here."
+
+The next morning, Oliver having obtained the consent of Aliena, they
+came into the presence of the duke, and with them also came Orlando.
+
+They being all assembled to celebrate this double marriage, and as yet
+only one of the brides appearing, there was much of wondering and
+conjecture, but they mostly thought that Ganymede was making a jest of
+Orlando.
+
+The duke, hearing that it was his own daughter that was to be brought in
+this strange way, asked Orlando if he believed the shepherd-boy could
+really do what he had promised; and while Orlando was answering that he
+knew not what to think, Ganymede entered, and asked the duke, if he
+brought his daughter, whether he would consent to her marriage with
+Orlando. "That I would," said the duke, "if I had kingdoms to give with
+her." Ganymede then said to Orlando, "And you say you will marry her if
+I bring her here." "That I would," said Orlando, "if I were king of many
+kingdoms."
+
+Ganymede and Aliena then went out together, and Ganymede throwing off
+his male attire, and being once more dressed in woman's apparel, quickly
+became Rosalind without the power of magic; and Aliena changing her
+country garb for her own rich clothes, was with as little trouble
+transformed into the Lady Celia.
+
+While they were gone, the duke said to Orlando, that he thought the
+shepherd Ganymede very like his daughter Rosalind; and Orlando said, he
+also had observed the resemblance.
+
+They had no time to wonder how all this would end, for Rosalind and
+Celia in their own clothes entered; and no longer pretending that it was
+by the power of magic that she came there, Rosalind threw herself on
+her knees before her father, and begged his blessing. It seemed so
+wonderful to all present that she should so suddenly appear, that it
+might well have passed for magic; but Rosalind would no longer trifle
+with her father, and told him the story of her banishment, and of her
+dwelling in the forest as a shepherd-boy, her cousin Celia passing as
+her sister.
+
+The duke ratified the consent he had already given to the marriage; and
+Orlando and Rosalind, Oliver and Celia, were married at the same time.
+And though their wedding could not be celebrated in this wild forest
+with any of the parade or splendour usual on such occasions, yet a
+happier wedding-day was never passed: and while they were eating their
+venison under the cool shade of the pleasant trees, as if nothing should
+be wanting to complete the felicity of this good duke and the true
+lovers, an unexpected messenger arrived to tell the duke the joyful
+news, that his dukedom was restored to him.
+
+The usurper, enraged at the flight of his daughter Celia, and hearing
+that every day men of great worth resorted to the forest of Arden to
+join the lawful duke in his exile, much envying that his brother should
+be so highly respected in his adversity, put himself at the head of a
+large force, and advanced towards the forest, intending to seize his
+brother, and put him with all his faithful followers to the sword; but,
+by a wonderful interposition of Providence, this bad brother was
+converted from his evil intention; for just as he entered the skirts of
+the wild forest, he was met by an old religious man, a hermit, with whom
+he had much talk, and who in the end completely turned his heart from
+his wicked design. Thenceforward he became a true penitent, and
+resolved, relinquishing his unjust dominion, to spend the remainder of
+his days in a religious house. The first act of his newly-conceived
+penitence was to send a messenger to his brother (as has been related)
+to offer to restore to him his dukedom, which he had usurped so long,
+and with it the lands and revenues of his friends, the faithful
+followers of his adversity.
+
+This joyful news, as unexpected as it was welcome, came opportunely to
+heighten the festivity and rejoicings at the wedding of the princesses.
+Celia complimented her cousin on this good fortune which had happened to
+the duke, Rosalind's father, and wished her joy very sincerely, though
+she herself was no longer heir to the dukedom, but by this restoration
+which her father had made, Rosalind was now the heir: so completely was
+the love of these two cousins unmixed with anything of jealousy or of
+envy.
+
+The duke had now an opportunity of rewarding those true friends who had
+stayed with him in his banishment; and these worthy followers, though
+they had patiently shared his adverse fortune, were very well pleased to
+return in peace and prosperity to the palace of their lawful duke.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA
+
+
+There lived in the city of Verona two young gentlemen, whose names were
+Valentine and Proteus, between whom a firm and uninterrupted friendship
+had long subsisted. They pursued their studies together, and their hours
+of leisure were always passed in each other's company, except when
+Proteus visited a lady he was in love with; and these visits to his
+mistress, and this passion of Proteus for the fair Julia, were the only
+topics on which these two friends disagreed; for Valentine, not being
+himself a lover, was sometimes a little weary of hearing his friend for
+ever talking of his Julia, and then he would laugh at Proteus, and in
+pleasant terms ridicule the passion of love, and declare that no such
+idle fancies should ever enter his head, greatly preferring (as he said)
+the free and happy life he led, to the anxious hopes and fears of the
+lover Proteus.
+
+One morning Valentine came to Proteus to tell him that they must for a
+time be separated, for that he was going to Milan. Proteus, unwilling to
+part with his friend, used many arguments to prevail upon Valentine not
+to leave him: but Valentine said, "Cease to persuade me, my loving
+Proteus. I will not, like a sluggard, wear out my youth in idleness at
+home. Home-keeping youths have ever homely wits. If your affection were
+not chained to the sweet glances of your honoured Julia, I would entreat
+you to accompany me, to see the wonders of the world abroad; but since
+you are a lover, love on still, and may your love be prosperous!"
+
+They parted with mutual expressions of unalterable friendship. "Sweet
+Valentine, adieu!" said Proteus; "think on me, when you see some rare
+object worthy of notice in your travels, and wish me partaker of your
+happiness."
+
+Valentine began his journey that same day towards Milan; and when his
+friend had left him, Proteus sat down to write a letter to Julia, which
+he gave to her maid Lucetta to deliver to her mistress.
+
+Julia loved Proteus as well as he did her, but she was a lady of a noble
+spirit, and she thought it did not become her maiden dignity too easily
+to be won; therefore she affected to be insensible of his passion, and
+gave him much uneasiness in the prosecution of his suit.
+
+And when Lucetta offered the letter to Julia, she would not receive it,
+and chid her maid for taking letters from Proteus, and ordered her to
+leave the room. But she so much wished to see what was written in the
+letter, that she soon called in her maid again; and when Lucetta
+returned, she said, "What o'clock is it?" Lucetta, who knew her mistress
+more desired to see the letter than to know the time of day, without
+answering her question, again offered the rejected letter. Julia, angry
+that her maid should thus take the liberty of seeming to know what she
+really wanted, tore the letter in pieces, and threw it on the floor,
+ordering her maid once more out of the room. As Lucetta was retiring,
+she stopped to pick up the fragments of the torn letter; but Julia, who
+meant not so to part with them, said, in pretended anger, "Go, get you
+gone, and let the papers lie; you would be fingering them to anger me."
+
+Julia then began to piece together as well as she could the torn
+fragments. She first made out these words, "Love-wounded Proteus;" and
+lamenting over these and such like loving words, which she made out
+though they were all torn asunder, or, she said _wounded_ (the
+expression "Love-wounded Proteus" giving her that idea), she talked to
+these kind words, telling them she would lodge them in her bosom as in a
+bed, till their wounds were healed, and that she would kiss each several
+piece, to make amends.
+
+In this manner she went on talking with a pretty ladylike childishness,
+till finding herself unable to make out the whole, and vexed at her own
+ingratitude in destroying such sweet and loving words, as she called
+them, she wrote a much kinder letter to Proteus than she had ever done
+before.
+
+Proteus was greatly delighted at receiving this favourable answer to his
+letter; and while he was reading it, he exclaimed, "Sweet love, sweet
+lines, sweet life!" In the midst of his raptures he was interrupted by
+his father. "How now!" said the old gentleman; "what letter are you
+reading there?"
+
+"My lord," replied Proteus, "it is a letter from my friend Valentine, at
+Milan."
+
+"Lend me the letter," said his father: "let me see what news."
+
+"There are no news, my lord," said Proteus, greatly alarmed, "but that
+he writes how well beloved he is of the Duke of Milan, who daily graces
+him with favours; and how he wishes me with him, the partner of his
+fortune."
+
+"And how stand you affected to his wish?" asked the father.
+
+"As one relying on your lordship's will, and not depending on his
+friendly wish," said Proteus.
+
+Now it had happened that Proteus' father had just been talking with a
+friend on this very subject: his friend had said, he wondered his
+lordship suffered his son to spend his youth at home, while most men
+were sending their sons to seek preferment abroad; "some," said he, "to
+the wars, to try their fortunes there, and some to discover islands far
+away, and some to study in foreign universities; and there is his
+companion Valentine, he is gone to the Duke of Milan's court. Your son
+is fit for any of these things, and it will be a great disadvantage to
+him in his riper age not to have travelled in his youth."
+
+Proteus' father thought the advice of his friend was very good, and upon
+Proteus telling him that Valentine "wished him with him, the partner of
+his fortune," he at once determined to send his son to Milan; and
+without giving Proteus any reason for this sudden resolution, it being
+the usual habit of this positive old gentleman to command his son, not
+reason with him, he said, "My will is the same as Valentine's wish;" and
+seeing his son look astonished, he added, "Look not amazed, that I so
+suddenly resolve you shall spend some time in the Duke of Milan's court;
+for what I will I will, and there is an end. To-morrow be in readiness
+to go. Make no excuses; for I am peremptory."
+
+Proteus knew it was of no use to make objections to his father, who
+never suffered him to dispute his will; and he blamed himself for
+telling his father an untruth about Julia's letter, which had brought
+upon him the sad necessity of leaving her.
+
+Now that Julia found she was going to lose Proteus for so long a time,
+she no longer pretended indifference; and they bade each other a
+mournful farewell, with many vows of love and constancy. Proteus and
+Julia exchanged rings, which they both promised to keep for ever in
+remembrance of each other; and thus, taking a sorrowful leave, Proteus
+set out on his journey to Milan, the abode of his friend Valentine.
+
+Valentine was in reality what Proteus had feigned to his father, in
+high favour with the Duke of Milan; and another event had happened to
+him, of which Proteus did not even dream, for Valentine had given up the
+freedom of which he used so much to boast, and was become as passionate
+a lover as Proteus.
+
+She who had wrought this wondrous change in Valentine was the Lady
+Silvia, daughter of the Duke of Milan, and she also loved him; but they
+concealed their love from the duke, because although he showed much
+kindness for Valentine, and invited him every day to his palace, yet he
+designed to marry his daughter to a young courtier whose name was
+Thurio. Silvia despised this Thurio, for he had none of the fine sense
+and excellent qualities of Valentine.
+
+These two rivals, Thurio and Valentine, were one day on a visit to
+Silvia, and Valentine was entertaining Silvia with turning everything
+Thurio said into ridicule, when the duke himself entered the room, and
+told Valentine the welcome news of his friend Proteus' arrival.
+Valentine said, "If I had wished a thing, it would have been to have
+seen him here!" And then he highly praised Proteus to the duke, saying,
+"My lord, though I have been a truant of my time, yet hath my friend
+made use and fair advantage of his days, and is complete in person and
+in mind, in all good grace to grace a gentleman."
+
+"Welcome him then according to his worth," said the duke. "Silvia, I
+speak to you, and you, Sir Thurio; for Valentine, I need not bid him do
+so." They were here interrupted by the entrance of Proteus, and
+Valentine introduced him to Silvia, saying, "Sweet lady, entertain him
+to be my fellow-servant to your ladyship."
+
+When Valentine and Proteus had ended their visit, and were alone
+together, Valentine said, "Now tell me how all does from whence you
+came? How does your lady, and how thrives your love?" Proteus replied,
+"My tales of love used to weary you. I know you joy not in a love
+discourse."
+
+"Ay, Proteus," returned Valentine, "but that life is altered now. I have
+done penance for condemning love. For in revenge of my contempt of love,
+love has chased sleep from my enthralled eyes. O gentle Proteus, Love is
+a mighty lord, and hath so humbled me, that I confess there is no woe
+like his correction, nor no such joy on earth as in his service. I now
+like no discourse except it be of love. Now I can break my fast, dine,
+sup, and sleep, upon the very name of love."
+
+This acknowledgment of the change which love had made in the disposition
+of Valentine was a great triumph to his friend Proteus. But "friend"
+Proteus must be called no longer, for the same all-powerful deity Love,
+of whom they were speaking (yea, even while they were talking of the
+change he had made in Valentine), was working in the heart of Proteus;
+and he, who had till this time been a pattern of true love and perfect
+friendship, was now, in one short interview with Silvia, become a false
+friend and a faithless lover; for at the first sight of Silvia all his
+love for Julia vanished away like a dream, nor did his long friendship
+for Valentine deter him from endeavouring to supplant him in her
+affections; and although, as it will always be, when people of
+dispositions naturally good become unjust, he had many scruples before
+he determined to forsake Julia, and become the rival of Valentine; yet
+he at length overcame his sense of duty, and yielded himself up, almost
+without remorse, to his new unhappy passion.
+
+Valentine imparted to him in confidence the whole history of his love,
+and how carefully they had concealed it from the duke her father, and
+told him, that, despairing of ever being able to obtain his consent, he
+had prevailed upon Silvia to leave her father's palace that night, and
+go with him to Mantua; then he showed Proteus a ladder of ropes, by help
+of which he meant to assist Silvia to get out of one of the windows of
+the palace after it was dark.
+
+Upon hearing this faithful recital of his friend's dearest secrets, it
+is hardly possible to be believed, but so it was, that Proteus resolved
+to go to the duke, and disclose the whole to him.
+
+This false friend began his tale with many artful speeches to the duke,
+such as that by the laws of friendship he ought to conceal what he was
+going to reveal, but that the gracious favour the duke had shown him,
+and the duty he owed his grace, urged him to tell that which else no
+worldly good should draw from him. He then told all he had heard from
+Valentine, not omitting the ladder of ropes, and the manner in which
+Valentine meant to conceal them under a long cloak.
+
+The duke thought Proteus quite a miracle of integrity, in that he
+preferred telling his friend's intention rather than he would conceal an
+unjust action, highly commended him, and promised him not to let
+Valentine know from whom he had learnt this intelligence, but by some
+artifice to make Valentine betray the secret himself. For this purpose
+the duke awaited the coming of Valentine in the evening, whom he soon
+saw hurrying towards the palace, and he perceived somewhat was wrapped
+within his cloak, which he concluded was the rope-ladder.
+
+The duke upon this stopped him, saying, "Whither away so fast,
+Valentine?"--"May it please your grace," said Valentine, "there is a
+messenger that stays to bear my letters to my friends, and I am going to
+deliver them." Now this falsehood of Valentine's had no better success
+in the event than the untruth Proteus told his father.
+
+"Be they of much import?" said the duke.
+
+"No more, my lord," said Valentine, "than to tell my father I am well
+and happy at your grace's court."
+
+"Nay then," said the duke, "no matter; stay with me a while. I wish your
+counsel about some affairs that concern me nearly." He then told
+Valentine an artful story, as a prelude to draw his secret from him,
+saying that Valentine knew he wished to match his daughter with Thurio,
+but that she was stubborn and disobedient to his commands, "neither
+regarding," said he, "that she is my child, nor fearing me as if I were
+her father. And I may say to thee, this pride of hers has drawn my love
+from her. I had thought my age should have been cherished by her
+childlike duty. I now am resolved to take a wife, and turn her out to
+whosoever will take her in. Let her beauty be her wedding dower, for me
+and my possessions she esteems not."
+
+Valentine, wondering where all this would end, made answer, "And what
+would your grace have me to do in all this?"
+
+"Why," said the duke, "the lady I would wish to marry is nice and coy,
+and does not much esteem my aged eloquence. Besides, the fashion of
+courtship is much changed since I was young: now I would willingly have
+you to be my tutor to instruct me how I am to woo."
+
+Valentine gave him a general idea of the modes of courtship then
+practised by young men, when they wished to win a fair lady's love, such
+as presents, frequent visits, and the like.
+
+The duke replied to this, that the lady did refuse a present which he
+sent her, and that she was so strictly kept by her father, that no man
+might have access to her by day.
+
+"Why then," said Valentine, "you must visit her by night."
+
+"But at night," said the artful duke, who was now coming to the drift of
+his discourse, "her doors are fast locked."
+
+Valentine then unfortunately proposed that the duke should get into the
+lady's chamber at night by means of a ladder of ropes, saying he would
+procure him one fitting for that purpose; and in conclusion advised him
+to conceal this ladder of ropes under such a cloak as that which he now
+wore. "Lend me your cloak," said the duke, who had feigned this long
+story on purpose to have a pretence to get off the cloak; so upon
+saying these words, he caught hold of Valentine's cloak, and throwing it
+back, he discovered not only the ladder of ropes, but also a letter of
+Silvia's, which he instantly opened and read; and this letter contained
+a full account of their intended elopement. The duke, after upbraiding
+Valentine for his ingratitude in thus returning the favour he had shown
+him, by endeavouring to steal away his daughter, banished him from the
+court and city of Milan for ever; and Valentine was forced to depart
+that night, without even seeing Silvia.
+
+While Proteus at Milan was thus injuring Valentine, Julia at Verona was
+regretting the absence of Proteus; and her regard for him at last so far
+overcame her sense of propriety, that she resolved to leave Verona, and
+seek her lover at Milan; and to secure herself from danger on the road,
+she dressed her maiden Lucetta and herself in men's clothes, and they
+set out in this disguise, and arrived at Milan soon after Valentine was
+banished from that city through the treachery of Proteus.
+
+Julia entered Milan about noon, and she took up her abode at an inn; and
+her thoughts being all on her dear Proteus, she entered into
+conversation with the innkeeper, or host, as he was called, thinking by
+that means to learn some news of Proteus.
+
+The host was greatly pleased that this handsome young gentleman (as he
+took her to be), who from his appearance he concluded was of high rank,
+spoke so familiarly to him; and being a good-natured man, he was sorry
+to see him look so melancholy; and to amuse his young guest, he offered
+to take him to hear some fine music, with which, he said, a gentleman
+that evening was going to serenade his mistress.
+
+The reason Julia looked so very melancholy was, that she did not well
+know what Proteus would think of the imprudent step she had taken; for
+she knew he had loved her for her noble maiden pride and dignity of
+character, and she feared she should lower herself in his esteem: and
+this it was that made her wear a sad and thoughtful countenance.
+
+She gladly accepted the offer of the host to go with him, and hear the
+music; for she secretly hoped she might meet Proteus by the way.
+
+But when she came to the palace whither the host conducted her, a very
+different effect was produced to what the kind host intended; for there,
+to her heart's sorrow, she beheld her lover, the inconstant Proteus,
+serenading the Lady Silvia with music, and addressing discourse of love
+and admiration to her. And Julia overheard Silvia from a window talk
+with Proteus, and reproach him for forsaking his own true lady, and for
+his ingratitude to his friend Valentine; and then Silvia left the
+window, not choosing to listen to his music and his fine speeches; for
+she was a faithful lady to her banished Valentine, and abhorred the
+ungenerous conduct of his false friend Proteus.
+
+Though Julia was in despair at what she had just witnessed, yet did she
+still love the truant Proteus; and hearing that he had lately parted
+with a servant, she contrived with the assistance of her host, the
+friendly innkeeper, to hire herself to Proteus as a page; and Proteus
+knew not she was Julia, and he sent her with letters and presents to her
+rival Silvia, and he even sent by her the very ring she gave him as a
+parting gift at Verona.
+
+When she went to that lady with the ring, she was most glad to find that
+Silvia utterly rejected the suit of Proteus; and Julia, or the page
+Sebastian as she was called, entered into conversation with Silvia about
+Proteus' first love, the forsaken Lady Julia. She putting in (as one may
+say) a good word for herself, said she knew Julia; as well she might,
+being herself the Julia of whom she spoke; telling how fondly Julia
+loved her master Proteus, and how his unkind neglect would grieve her:
+and then she with a pretty equivocation went on: "Julia is about my
+height, and of my complexion, the colour of her eyes and hair the same
+as mine:" and indeed Julia looked a most beautiful youth in her boy's
+attire. Silvia was moved to pity this lovely lady, who was so sadly
+forsaken by the man she loved; and when Julia offered the ring which
+Proteus had sent, refused it, saying, "The more shame for him that he
+sends me that ring; I will not take it; for I have often heard him say
+his Julia gave it to him. I love thee, gentle youth, for pitying her,
+poor lady! Here is a purse; I give it you for Julia's sake." These
+comfortable words coming from her kind rival's tongue cheered the
+drooping heart of the disguised lady.
+
+But to return to the banished Valentine; who scarce knew which way to
+bend his course, being unwilling to return home to his father a
+disgraced and banished man: as he was wandering over a lonely forest,
+not far distant from Milan, where he had left his heart's dear treasure,
+the Lady Silvia, he was set upon by robbers, who demanded his money.
+
+Valentine told them that he was a man crossed by adversity, that he was
+going into banishment, and that he had no money, the clothes he had on
+being all his riches.
+
+The robbers, hearing that he was a distressed man, and being struck with
+his noble air and manly behaviour, told him if he would live with them,
+and be their chief, or captain, they would put themselves under his
+command; but that if he refused to accept their offer, they would kill
+him.
+
+Valentine, who cared little what became of himself, said he would
+consent to live with them and be their captain, provided they did no
+outrage on women or poor passengers.
+
+Thus the noble Valentine became, like Robin Hood, of whom we read in
+ballads, a captain of robbers and outlawed banditti; and in this
+situation he was found by Silvia, and in this manner it came to pass.
+
+Silvia, to avoid a marriage with Thurio, whom her father insisted upon
+her no longer refusing, came at last to the resolution of following
+Valentine to Mantua, at which place she had heard her lover had taken
+refuge; but in this account she was misinformed, for he still lived in
+the forest among the robbers, bearing the name of their captain, but
+taking no part in their depredations, and using the authority which they
+had imposed upon him in no other way than to compel them to show
+compassion to the travellers they robbed.
+
+Silvia contrived to effect her escape from her father's palace in
+company with a worthy old gentleman, whose name was Eglamour, whom she
+took along with her for protection on the road. She had to pass through
+the forest where Valentine and the banditti dwelt; and one of these
+robbers seized on Silvia, and would also have taken Eglamour, but he
+escaped.
+
+The robber who had taken Silvia, seeing the terror she was in, bid her
+not be alarmed, for that he was only going to carry her to a cave where
+his captain lived, and that she need not be afraid, for their captain
+had an honourable mind, and always showed humanity to women. Silvia
+found little comfort in hearing she was going to be carried as a
+prisoner before the captain of a lawless banditti. "O Valentine," she
+cried, "this I endure for thee!"
+
+But as the robber was conveying her to the cave of his captain, he was
+stopped by Proteus, who, still attended by Julia in the disguise of a
+page, having heard of the flight of Silvia, had traced her steps to this
+forest. Proteus now rescued her from the hands of the robber; but scarce
+had she time to thank him for the service he had done her, before he
+began to distress her afresh with his love suit; and while he was rudely
+pressing her to consent to marry him, and his page (the forlorn Julia)
+was standing beside him in great anxiety of mind, fearing lest the great
+service which Proteus had just done to Silvia should win her to show him
+some favour, they were all strangely surprised with the sudden
+appearance of Valentine, who, having heard his robbers had taken a lady
+prisoner, came to console and relieve her.
+
+Proteus was courting Silvia, and he was so much ashamed of being caught
+by his friend, that he was all at once seized with penitence and
+remorse; and he expressed such a lively sorrow for the injuries he had
+done to Valentine, that Valentine, whose nature was noble and generous,
+even to a romantic degree, not only forgave and restored him to his
+former place in his friendship, but in a sudden flight of heroism he
+said, "I freely do forgive you; and all the interest I have in Silvia, I
+give it up to you." Julia, who was standing beside her master as a page,
+hearing this strange offer, and fearing Proteus would not be able with
+this new-found virtue to refuse Silvia, fainted, and they were all
+employed in recovering her: else would Silvia have been offended at
+being thus made over to Proteus, though she could scarcely think that
+Valentine would long persevere in this overstrained and too generous act
+of friendship. When Julia recovered from the fainting fit, she said, "I
+had forgot, my master ordered me to deliver this ring to Silvia."
+Proteus, looking upon the ring, saw that it was the one he gave to
+Julia, in return for that which he received from her, and which he had
+sent by the supposed page to Silvia. "How is this?" said he, "this is
+Julia's ring: how came you by it, boy?" Julia answered, "Julia herself
+did give it me, and Julia herself hath brought it hither."
+
+Proteus, now looking earnestly upon her, plainly perceived that the page
+Sebastian was no other than the Lady Julia herself; and the proof she
+had given of her constancy and true love so wrought in him, that his
+love for her returned into his heart, and he took again his own dear
+lady, and joyfully resigned all pretensions to the Lady Silvia to
+Valentine, who had so well deserved her.
+
+Proteus and Valentine were expressing their happiness in their
+reconciliation, and in the love of their faithful ladies when they were
+surprised with the sight of the Duke of Milan and Thurio, who came there
+in pursuit of Silvia.
+
+Thurio first approached, and attempted to seize Silvia, saying, "Silvia
+is mine." Upon this Valentine said to him in a very spirited manner,
+"Thurio, keep back: if once again you say that Silvia is yours, you
+shall embrace your death. Here she stands, take but possession of her
+with a torch! I dare you but to breathe upon my love." Hearing this
+threat, Thurio, who was a great coward, drew back, and said he cared not
+for her, and that none but a fool would fight for a girl who loved him
+not.
+
+The duke, who was a very brave man himself, said now in great anger,
+"The more base and degenerate in you to take such means for her as you
+have done, and leave her on such slight conditions." Then turning to
+Valentine, he said, "I do applaud your spirit, Valentine, and think you
+worthy of an empress' love. You shall have Silvia, for you have well
+deserved her." Valentine then with great humility kissed the duke's
+hand, and accepted the noble present which he had made him of his
+daughter with becoming thankfulness: taking occasion of this joyful
+minute to entreat the good-humoured duke to pardon the thieves with whom
+he had associated in the forest, assuring him, that when reformed and
+restored to society, there would be found among them many good, and fit
+for great employment; for the most of them had been banished, like
+Valentine, for state offences, rather than for any black crimes they had
+been guilty of. To this the ready duke consented: and now nothing
+remained but that Proteus, the false friend, was ordained, by way of
+penance for his love-prompted faults, to be present at the recital of
+the whole story of his loves and falsehoods before the duke; and the
+shame of the recital to his awakened conscience was judged sufficient
+punishment: which being done, the lovers, all four, returned back to
+Milan, and their nuptials were solemnised in the presence of the duke,
+with high triumphs and feasting.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+THE MERCHANT OF VENICE
+
+
+Shylock, the Jew, lived at Venice: he was an usurer, who had amassed an
+immense fortune by lending money at great interest to Christian
+merchants. Shylock, being a hard-hearted man, exacted the payment of the
+money he lent with such severity that he was much disliked by all good
+men, and particularly by Antonio, a young merchant of Venice; and
+Shylock as much hated Antonio, because he used to lend money to people
+in distress, and would never take any interest for the money he lent;
+therefore there was great enmity between this covetous Jew and the
+generous merchant Antonio. Whenever Antonio met Shylock on the Rialto
+(or Exchange), he used to reproach him with his usuries and hard
+dealings, which the Jew would bear with seeming patience, while he
+secretly meditated revenge.
+
+Antonio was the kindest man that lived, the best conditioned, and had
+the most unwearied spirit in doing courtesies; indeed, he was one in
+whom the ancient Roman honour more appeared than in any that drew breath
+in Italy. He was greatly beloved by all his fellow-citizens; but the
+friend who was nearest and dearest to his heart was Bassanio, a noble
+Venetian, who, having but a small patrimony, had nearly exhausted his
+little fortune by living in too expensive a manner for his slender
+means, as young men of high rank with small fortunes are too apt to do.
+Whenever Bassanio wanted money, Antonio assisted him; and it seemed as
+if they had but one heart and one purse between them.
+
+One day Bassanio came to Antonio, and told him that he wished to repair
+his fortune by a wealthy marriage with a lady whom he dearly loved,
+whose father, that was lately dead, had left her sole heiress to a large
+estate; and that in her father's lifetime he used to visit at her house,
+when he thought he had observed this lady had sometimes from her eyes
+sent speechless messages, that seemed to say he would be no unwelcome
+suitor; but not having money to furnish himself with an appearance
+befitting the lover of so rich an heiress, he besought Antonio to add to
+the many favours he had shown him, by lending him three thousand ducats.
+
+Antonio had no money by him at that time to lend his friend; but
+expecting soon to have some ships come home laden with merchandise, he
+said he would go to Shylock, the rich money-lender, and borrow the money
+upon the credit of those ships.
+
+Antonio and Bassanio went together to Shylock, and Antonio asked the Jew
+to lend him three thousand ducats upon any interest he should require,
+to be paid out of the merchandise contained in his ships at sea. On
+this, Shylock thought within himself, "If I can once catch him on the
+hip, I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him; he hates our Jewish
+nation; he lends out money gratis, and among the merchants he rails at
+me and my well-earned bargains, which he calls interest. Cursed be my
+tribe if I forgive him!" Antonio finding he was musing within himself
+and did not answer, and being impatient for the money, said, "Shylock,
+do you hear? will you lend the money?" To this question the Jew replied,
+"Signior Antonio, on the Rialto many a time and often you have railed at
+me about my monies and my usuries, and I have borne it with a patient
+shrug, for sufferance is the badge of all our tribe; and then you have
+called me unbeliever, cut-throat dog, and spit upon my Jewish garments,
+and spurned at me with your foot, as if I was a cur. Well then, it now
+appears you need my help; and you come to me, and say, _Shylock, lend me
+monies_. Has a dog money? Is it possible a cur should lend three
+thousand ducats? Shall I bend low and say, Fair sir, you spit upon me on
+Wednesday last, another time you called me dog, and for these courtesies
+I am to lend you monies." Antonio replied, "I am as like to call you so
+again, to spit on you again, and spurn you too. If you will lend me this
+money, lend it not to me as to a friend, but rather lend it to me as to
+an enemy, that, if I break, you may with better face exact the
+penalty."--"Why, look you," said Shylock, "how you storm! I would be
+friends with you, and have your love. I will forget the shames you have
+put upon me. I will supply your wants, and take no interest for my
+money." This seemingly kind offer greatly surprised Antonio; and then
+Shylock, still pretending kindness, and that all he did was to gain
+Antonio's love, again said he would lend him the three thousand ducats,
+and take no interest for his money; only Antonio should go with him to a
+lawyer, and there sign in merry sport a bond, that if he did not repay
+the money by a certain day, he would forfeit a pound of flesh, to be cut
+off from any part of his body that Shylock pleased.
+
+"Content," said Antonio: "I will sign to this bond, and say there is
+much kindness in the Jew."
+
+Bassanio said Antonio should not sign to such a bond for him; but still
+Antonio insisted that he would sign it, for that before the day of
+payment came, his ships would return laden with many times the value of
+the money.
+
+Shylock, hearing this debate, exclaimed, "O, father Abraham, what
+suspicious people these Christians are! Their own hard dealings teach
+them to suspect the thoughts of others. I pray you tell me this,
+Bassanio: if he should break his day, what should I gain by the exaction
+of the forfeiture? A pound of man's flesh, taken from a man, is not so
+estimable, nor profitable neither, as the flesh of mutton or beef. I
+say, to buy his favour I offer this friendship: if he will take it, so;
+if not, adieu."
+
+At last, against the advice of Bassanio, who, notwithstanding all the
+Jew had said of his kind intentions, did not like his friend should run
+the hazard of this shocking penalty for his sake, Antonio signed the
+bond, thinking it really was (as the Jew said) merely in sport.
+
+The rich heiress that Bassanio wished to marry lived near Venice, at a
+place called Belmont: her name was Portia, and in the graces of her
+person and her mind she was nothing inferior to that Portia, of whom we
+read, who was Cato's daughter, and the wife of Brutus.
+
+Bassanio being so kindly supplied with money by his friend Antonio, at
+the hazard of his life, set out for Belmont with a splendid train, and
+attended by a gentleman of the name of Gratiano.
+
+Bassanio proving successful in his suit, Portia in a short time
+consented to accept of him for a husband.
+
+Bassanio confessed to Portia that he had no fortune, and that his high
+birth and noble ancestry was all that he could boast of; she, who loved
+him for his worthy qualities, and had riches enough not to regard wealth
+in a husband, answered with a graceful modesty, that she would wish
+herself a thousand times more fair, and ten thousand times more rich, to
+be more worthy of him; and then the accomplished Portia prettily
+dispraised herself, and said she was an unlessoned girl, unschooled,
+unpractised, yet not so old but that she could learn, and that she
+would commit her gentle spirit to be directed and governed by him in all
+things; and she said, "Myself and what is mine, to you and yours is now
+converted. But yesterday, Bassanio, I was the lady of this fair mansion,
+queen of myself, and mistress over these servants; and now this house,
+these servants, and myself, are yours, my lord; I give them with this
+ring;" presenting a ring to Bassanio.
+
+Bassanio was so overpowered with gratitude and wonder at the gracious
+manner in which the rich and noble Portia accepted of a man of his
+humble fortunes, that he could not express his joy and reverence to the
+dear lady who so honoured him, by anything but broken words of love and
+thankfulness; and taking the ring, he vowed never to part with it.
+
+Gratiano and Nerissa, Portia's waiting-maid, were in attendance upon
+their lord and lady, when Portia so gracefully promised to become the
+obedient wife of Bassanio; and Gratiano, wishing Bassanio and the
+generous lady joy, desired permission to be married at the same time.
+
+"With all my heart, Gratiano," said Bassanio, "if you can get a wife."
+
+Gratiano then said that he loved the Lady Portia's fair waiting
+gentlewoman Nerissa, and that she had promised to be his wife, if her
+lady married Bassanio. Portia asked Nerissa if this was true. Nerissa
+replied, "Madam, it is so, if you approve of it." Portia willingly
+consenting, Bassanio pleasantly said, "Then our wedding-feast shall be
+much honoured by your marriage, Gratiano."
+
+The happiness of these lovers was sadly crossed at this moment by the
+entrance of a messenger, who brought a letter from Antonio containing
+fearful tidings. When Bassanio read Antonio's letter, Portia feared it
+was to tell him of the death of some dear friend, he looked so pale; and
+inquiring what was the news which had so distressed him, he said, "O
+sweet Portia, here are a few of the unpleasantest words that ever
+blotted paper; gentle lady, when I first imparted my love to you, I
+freely told you all the wealth I had ran in my veins; but I should have
+told you that I had less than nothing, being in debt." Bassanio then
+told Portia what has been here related, of his borrowing the money of
+Antonio, and of Antonio's procuring it of Shylock the Jew, and of the
+bond by which Antonio had engaged to forfeit a pound of flesh, if it was
+not repaid by a certain day: and then Bassanio read Antonio's letter;
+the words of which were, "_Sweet Bassanio, my ships are all lost, my
+bond to the Jew is forfeited, and since in paying it is impossible I
+should live, I could wish to see you at my death; notwithstanding, use
+your pleasure; if your love for me do not persuade you to come, let not
+my letter._" "O, my dear love," said Portia, "despatch all business, and
+begone; you shall have gold to pay the money twenty times over, before
+this kind friend shall lose a hair by my Bassanio's fault; and as you
+are so dearly bought, I will dearly love you." Portia then said she
+would be married to Bassanio before he set out, to give him a legal
+right to her money; and that same day they were married, and Gratiano
+was also married to Nerissa; and Bassanio and Gratiano, the instant they
+were married, set out in great haste for Venice, where Bassanio found
+Antonio in prison.
+
+The day of payment being past, the cruel Jew would not accept of the
+money which Bassanio offered him, but insisted upon having a pound of
+Antonio's flesh. A day was appointed to try this shocking cause before
+the Duke of Venice, and Bassanio awaited in dreadful suspense the event
+of the trial.
+
+When Portia parted with her husband, she spoke cheeringly to him, and
+bade him bring his dear friend along with him when he returned; yet she
+feared it would go hard with Antonio, and when she was left alone, she
+began to think and consider within herself, if she could by any means be
+instrumental in saving the life of her dear Bassanio's friend; and
+notwithstanding when she wished to honour her Bassanio, she had said to
+him with such a meek and wife-like grace, that she would submit in all
+things to be governed by his superior wisdom, yet being now called forth
+into action by the peril of her honoured husband's friend, she did
+nothing doubt her own powers, and by the sole guidance of her own true
+and perfect judgment, at once resolved to go herself to Venice, and
+speak in Antonio's defence.
+
+Portia had a relation who was a counsellor in the law; to this
+gentleman, whose name was Bellario, she wrote, and stating the case to
+him, desired his opinion, and that with his advice he would also send
+her the dress worn by a counsellor. When the messenger returned, he
+brought letters from Bellario of advice how to proceed, and also
+everything necessary for her equipment.
+
+Portia dressed herself and her maid Nerissa in men's apparel, and
+putting on the robes of a counsellor, she took Nerissa along with her as
+her clerk; and setting out immediately, they arrived at Venice on the
+very day of the trial. The cause was just going to be heard before the
+duke and senators of Venice in the senate-house, when Portia entered
+this high court of justice, and presented a letter from Bellario, in
+which that learned counsellor wrote to the duke, saying, he would have
+come himself to plead for Antonio, but that he was prevented by
+sickness, and he requested that the learned young doctor Balthasar (so
+he called Portia) might be permitted to plead in his stead. This the
+duke granted, much wondering at the youthful appearance of the stranger,
+who was prettily disguised by her counsellor's robes and her large wig.
+
+And now began this important trial. Portia looked around her, and she
+saw the merciless Jew; and she saw Bassanio, but he knew her not in her
+disguise. He was standing beside Antonio, in an agony of distress and
+fear for his friend.
+
+The importance of the arduous task Portia had engaged in gave this
+tender lady courage, and she boldly proceeded in the duty she had
+undertaken to perform: and first of all she addressed herself to
+Shylock; and allowing that he had a right by the Venetian law to have
+the forfeit expressed in the bond, she spoke so sweetly of the noble
+quality of _mercy_, as would have softened any heart but the unfeeling
+Shylock's; saying, that it dropped as the gentle rain from heaven upon
+the place beneath; and how mercy was a double blessing, it blessed him
+that gave, and him that received it; and how it became monarchs better
+than their crowns, being an attribute of God himself; and that earthly
+power came nearest to God's, in proportion as mercy tempered justice;
+and she bid Shylock remember that as we all pray for mercy, that same
+prayer should teach us to show mercy. Shylock only answered her by
+desiring to have the penalty forfeited in the bond. "Is he not able to
+pay the money?" asked Portia. Bassanio then offered the Jew the payment
+of the three thousand ducats as many times over as he should desire;
+which Shylock refusing, and still insisting upon having a pound of
+Antonio's flesh, Bassanio begged the learned young counsellor would
+endeavour to wrest the law a little, to save Antonio's life. But Portia
+gravely answered, that laws once established must never be altered.
+Shylock hearing Portia say that the law might not be altered, it seemed
+to him that she was pleading in his favour, and he said, "A Daniel is
+come to judgment! O wise young judge, how I do honour you! How much
+elder are you than your looks!"
+
+[Illustration: SHYLOCK WAS SHARPENING A LONG KNIFE]
+
+Portia now desired Shylock to let her look at the bond; and when she had
+read it, she said, "This bond is forfeited, and by this the Jew may
+lawfully claim a pound of flesh, to be by him cut off nearest Antonio's
+heart." Then she said to Shylock, "Be merciful: take the money, and bid
+me tear the bond." But no mercy would the cruel Shylock show; and he
+said, "By my soul I swear, there is no power in the tongue of man to
+alter me."--"Why then, Antonio," said Portia, "you must prepare your
+bosom for the knife:" and while Shylock was sharpening a long knife with
+great eagerness to cut off the pound of flesh, Portia said to Antonio,
+"Have you anything to say?" Antonio with a calm resignation replied,
+that he had but little to say, for that he had prepared his mind for
+death. Then he said to Bassanio, "Give me your hand, Bassanio! Fare you
+well! Grieve not that I am fallen into this misfortune for you. Commend
+me to your honourable wife, and tell her how I have loved you!" Bassanio
+in the deepest affliction replied, "Antonio, I am married to a wife, who
+is as dear to me as life itself; but life itself, my wife, and all the
+world, are not esteemed with me above your life: I would lose all, I
+would sacrifice all to this devil here, to deliver you."
+
+Portia hearing this, though the kind-hearted lady was not at all
+offended with her husband for expressing the love he owed to so true a
+friend as Antonio in these strong terms, yet could not help answering,
+"Your wife would give you little thanks, if she were present, to hear
+you make this offer." And then Gratiano, who loved to copy what his lord
+did, thought he must make a speech like Bassanio's, and he said, in
+Nerissa's hearing, who was writing in her clerk's dress by the side of
+Portia, "I have a wife, whom I protest I love; I wish she were in
+heaven, if she could but entreat some power there to change the cruel
+temper of this currish Jew." "It is well you wish this behind her back,
+else you would have but an unquiet house," said Nerissa.
+
+Shylock now cried out impatiently, "We trifle time; I pray pronounce the
+sentence." And now all was awful expectation in the court, and every
+heart was full of grief for Antonio.
+
+Portia asked if the scales were ready to weigh the flesh; and she said
+to the Jew, "Shylock, you must have some surgeon by, lest he bleed to
+death." Shylock, whose whole intent was that Antonio should bleed to
+death, said, "It is not so named in the bond." Portia replied, "It is
+not so named in the bond, but what of that? It were good you did so much
+for charity." To this all the answer Shylock would make was, "I cannot
+find it; it is not in the bond." "Then," said Portia, "a pound of
+Antonio's flesh is thine. The law allows it, and the court awards it.
+And you may cut this flesh from on his breast. The law allows it and the
+court awards it." Again Shylock exclaimed, "O wise and upright judge! A
+Daniel is come to judgment!" And then he sharpened his long knife again,
+and looking eagerly on Antonio, he said, "Come, prepare!"
+
+"Tarry a little, Jew," said Portia; "there is something else. This bond
+here gives you no drop of blood; the words expressly are, 'a pound of
+flesh.' If in the cutting off the pound of flesh you shed one drop of
+Christian blood, your lands and goods are by the law to be confiscated
+to the state of Venice." Now as it was utterly impossible for Shylock to
+cut off the pound of flesh without shedding some of Antonio's blood,
+this wise discovery of Portia's, that it was flesh and not blood that
+was named in the bond, saved the life of Antonio; and all admiring the
+wonderful sagacity of the young counsellor, who had so happily thought
+of this expedient, plaudits resounded from every part of the
+senate-house; and Gratiano exclaimed, in the words which Shylock had
+used, "O wise and upright judge! mark, Jew, a Daniel is come to
+judgment!"
+
+Shylock, finding himself defeated in his cruel intent, said with a
+disappointed look, that he would take the money; and Bassanio, rejoiced
+beyond measure at Antonio's unexpected deliverance, cried out, "Here is
+the money!" But Portia stopped him, saying, "Softly; there is no haste;
+the Jew shall have nothing but the penalty: therefore prepare, Shylock,
+to cut off the flesh; but mind you shed no blood: nor do not cut off
+more nor less than just a pound; be it more or less by one poor
+scruple, nay if the scale turn but by the weight of a single hair, you
+are condemned by the laws of Venice to die, and all your wealth is
+forfeited to the senate." "Give me my money, and let me go," said
+Shylock. "I have it ready," said Bassanio: "here it is."
+
+Shylock was going to take the money, when Portia again stopped him,
+saying, "Tarry, Jew; I have yet another hold upon you. By the laws of
+Venice, your wealth is forfeited to the state, for having conspired
+against the life of one of its citizens, and your life lies at the mercy
+of the duke; therefore, down on your knees, and ask him to pardon you."
+
+The duke then said to Shylock, "That you may see the difference of our
+Christian spirit, I pardon you your life before you ask it; half your
+wealth belongs to Antonio, the other half comes to the state."
+
+The generous Antonio then said that he would give up his share of
+Shylock's wealth, if Shylock would sign a deed to make it over at his
+death to his daughter and her husband; for Antonio knew that the Jew had
+an only daughter who had lately married against his consent to a young
+Christian, named Lorenzo, a friend of Antonio's, which had so offended
+Shylock, that he had disinherited her.
+
+The Jew agreed to this: and being thus disappointed in his revenge, and
+despoiled of his riches, he said, "I am ill. Let me go home; send the
+deed after me, and I will sign over half my riches to my
+daughter."--"Get thee gone, then," said the duke, "and sign it; and if
+you repent your cruelty and turn Christian, the state will forgive you
+the fine of the other half of your riches."
+
+The duke now released Antonio, and dismissed the court. He then highly
+praised the wisdom and ingenuity of the young counsellor, and invited
+him home to dinner. Portia, who meant to return to Belmont before her
+husband, replied, "I humbly thank your grace, but I must away directly."
+The duke said he was sorry he had not leisure to stay and dine with
+him; and turning to Antonio, he added, "Reward this gentleman; for in my
+mind you are much indebted to him."
+
+The duke and his senators left the court; and then Bassanio said to
+Portia, "Most worthy gentleman, I and my friend Antonio have by your
+wisdom been this day acquitted of grievous penalties, and I beg you will
+accept of the three thousand ducats due unto the Jew." "And we shall
+stand indebted to you over and above," said Antonio, "in love and
+service evermore."
+
+Portia could not be prevailed upon to accept the money; but upon
+Bassanio still pressing her to accept of some reward, she said, "Give me
+your gloves; I will wear them for your sake;" and then Bassanio taking
+off his gloves, she espied the ring which she had given him upon his
+finger: now it was the ring the wily lady wanted to get from him to make
+a merry jest when she saw her Bassanio again, that made her ask him for
+his gloves; and she said, when she saw the ring, "and for your love I
+will take this ring from you." Bassanio was sadly distressed that the
+counsellor should ask him for the only thing he could not part with, and
+he replied in great confusion, that he could not give him that ring,
+because it was his wife's gift, and he had vowed never to part with it;
+but that he would give him the most valuable ring in Venice, and find it
+out by proclamation. On this Portia affected to be affronted, and left
+the court, saying, "You teach me, sir, how a beggar should be answered."
+
+"Dear Bassanio," said Antonio, "let him have the ring; let my love and
+the great service he has done for me be valued against your wife's
+displeasure." Bassanio, ashamed to appear so ungrateful, yielded, and
+sent Gratiano after Portia with the ring; and then the _clerk_ Nerissa,
+who had also given Gratiano a ring, she begged his ring, and Gratiano
+(not choosing to be outdone in generosity by his lord) gave it to her.
+And there was laughing among these ladies to think, when they got home,
+how they would tax their husbands with giving away their rings, and
+swear that they had given them as a present to some woman.
+
+Portia, when she returned, was in that happy temper of mind which never
+fails to attend the consciousness of having performed a good action; her
+cheerful spirits enjoyed everything she saw: the moon never seemed to
+shine so bright before; and when that pleasant moon was hid behind a
+cloud, then a light which she saw from her house at Belmont as well
+pleased her charmed fancy, and she said to Nerissa, "That light we see
+is burning in my hall; how far that little candle throws its beams, so
+shines a good deed in a naughty world;" and hearing the sound of music
+from her house, she said, "Methinks that music sounds much sweeter than
+by day."
+
+And now Portia and Nerissa entered the house, and dressing themselves in
+their own apparel, they awaited the arrival of their husbands, who soon
+followed them with Antonio; and Bassanio presenting his dear friend to
+the Lady Portia, the congratulations and welcomings of that lady were
+hardly over, when they perceived Nerissa and her husband quarrelling in
+a corner of the room. "A quarrel already?" said Portia. "What is the
+matter?" Gratiano replied, "Lady, it is about a paltry gilt ring that
+Nerissa gave me, with words upon it like the poetry on a cutler's knife;
+_Love me, and leave me not._"
+
+"What does the poetry or the value of the ring signify?" said Nerissa.
+"You swore to me when I gave it to you, that you would keep it till the
+hour of death; and now you say you gave it to the lawyer's clerk. I know
+you gave it to a woman."--"By this hand," replied Gratiano, "I gave it
+to a youth, a kind of boy, a little scrubbed boy, no higher than
+yourself; he was clerk to the young counsellor that by his wise pleading
+saved Antonio's life: this prating boy begged it for a fee, and I could
+not for my life deny him." Portia said, "You were to blame, Gratiano,
+to part with your wife's first gift. I gave my lord Bassanio a ring, and
+I am sure he would not part with it for all the world." Gratiano, in
+excuse for his fault, now said, "My lord Bassanio gave his ring away to
+the counsellor, and then the boy, his clerk, that took some pains in
+writing, he begged my ring."
+
+Portia, hearing this, seemed very angry, and reproached Bassanio for
+giving away her ring; and she said, Nerissa had taught her what to
+believe, and that she knew some woman had the ring. Bassanio was very
+unhappy to have so offended his dear lady, and he said with great
+earnestness, "No, by my honour, no woman had it, but a civil doctor, who
+refused three thousand ducats of me, and begged the ring, which when I
+denied him, he went displeased away. What could I do, sweet Portia? I
+was so beset with shame for my seeming ingratitude, that I was forced to
+send the ring after him. Pardon me, good lady; had you been there, I
+think you would have begged the ring of me to give the worthy doctor."
+
+"Ah!" said Antonio, "I am the unhappy cause of these quarrels."
+
+Portia bid Antonio not to grieve at that, for that he was welcome
+notwithstanding; and then Antonio said, "I once did lend my body for
+Bassanio's sake; and but for him to whom your husband gave the ring, I
+should have now been dead. I dare be bound again, my soul upon the
+forfeit, your lord will never more break his faith with you."--"Then you
+shall be his surety," said Portia; "give him this ring, and bid him keep
+it better than the other."
+
+When Bassanio looked at this ring, he was strangely surprised to find it
+was the same he gave away; and then Portia told him how she was the
+young counsellor, and Nerissa was her clerk; and Bassanio found, to his
+unspeakable wonder and delight, that it was by the noble courage and
+wisdom of his wife that Antonio's life was saved.
+
+And Portia again welcomed Antonio, and gave him letters which by some
+chance had fallen into her hands, which contained an account of
+Antonio's ships, that were supposed lost, being safely arrived in the
+harbour. So these tragical beginnings of this rich merchant's story were
+all forgotten in the unexpected good fortune which ensued; and there was
+leisure to laugh at the comical adventure of the rings, and the husbands
+that did not know their own wives: Gratiano merrily swearing, in a sort
+of rhyming speech, that
+
+  ----while he lived, he'd fear no other thing
+  So sore, as keeping safe Nerissa's ring.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+CYMBELINE
+
+
+During the time of Augustus C�sar, Emperor of Rome, there reigned in
+England (which was then called Britain) a king whose name was Cymbeline.
+
+Cymbeline's first wife died when his three children (two sons and a
+daughter) were very young. Imogen, the eldest of these children, was
+brought up in her father's court; but by a strange chance the two sons
+of Cymbeline were stolen out of their nursery, when the eldest was but
+three years of age, and the youngest quite an infant; and Cymbeline
+could never discover what was become of them, or by whom they were
+conveyed away.
+
+[Illustration: IMOGEN'S TWO BROTHERS THEN CARRIED HER TO A SHADY COVERT]
+
+Cymbeline was twice married: his second wife was a wicked, plotting
+woman, and a cruel stepmother to Imogen, Cymbeline's daughter by his
+first wife.
+
+The queen, though she hated Imogen, yet wished her to marry a son of her
+own by a former husband (she also having been twice married): for by
+this means she hoped upon the death of Cymbeline to place the crown of
+Britain upon the head of her son Cloten; for she knew that, if the
+king's sons were not found, the Princess Imogen must be the king's heir.
+But this design was prevented by Imogen herself, who married without
+the consent or even knowledge of her father or the queen.
+
+Posthumus (for that was the name of Imogen's husband) was the best
+scholar and most accomplished gentleman of that age. His father died
+fighting in the wars for Cymbeline, and soon after his birth his mother
+died also for grief at the loss of her husband.
+
+Cymbeline, pitying the helpless state of this orphan, took Posthumus
+(Cymbeline having given him that name, because he was born after his
+father's death), and educated him in his own court.
+
+Imogen and Posthumus were both taught by the same masters, and were
+playfellows from their infancy; they loved each other tenderly when they
+were children, and their affection continuing to increase with their
+years, when they grew up they privately married.
+
+The disappointed queen soon learnt this secret, for she kept spies
+constantly in watch upon the actions of her daughter-in-law, and she
+immediately told the king of the marriage of Imogen with Posthumus.
+
+Nothing could exceed the wrath of Cymbeline, when he heard that his
+daughter had been so forgetful of her high dignity as to marry a
+subject. He commanded Posthumus to leave Britain, and banished him from
+his native country for ever.
+
+The queen, who pretended to pity Imogen for the grief she suffered at
+losing her husband, offered to procure them a private meeting before
+Posthumus set out on his journey to Rome, which place he had chosen for
+his residence in his banishment: this seeming kindness she showed, the
+better to succeed in her future designs in regard to her son Cloten; for
+she meant to persuade Imogen, when her husband was gone, that her
+marriage was not lawful, being contracted without the consent of the
+king.
+
+Imogen and Posthumus took a most affectionate leave of each other.
+Imogen gave her husband a diamond ring, which had been her mother's,
+and Posthumus promised never to part with the ring; and he fastened a
+bracelet on the arm of his wife, which he begged she would preserve with
+great care, as a token of his love; they then bid each other farewell,
+with many vows of everlasting love and fidelity.
+
+Imogen remained a solitary and dejected lady in her father's court, and
+Posthumus arrived at Rome, the place he had chosen for his banishment.
+
+Posthumus fell into company at Rome with some gay young men of different
+nations, who were talking freely of ladies: each one praising the ladies
+of his own country, and his own mistress. Posthumus, who had ever his
+own dear lady in his mind, affirmed that his wife, the fair Imogen, was
+the most virtuous, wise and constant lady in the world.
+
+One of those gentlemen, whose name was Iachimo, being offended that a
+lady of Britain should be so praised above the Roman ladies, his
+country-women, provoked Posthumus by seeming to doubt the constancy of
+his so highly-praised wife; and at length, after much altercation,
+Posthumus consented to a proposal of Iachimo's, that he (Iachimo) should
+go to Britain, and endeavour to gain the love of the married Imogen.
+They then laid a wager, that if Iachimo did not succeed in this wicked
+design, he was to forfeit a large sum of money; but if he could win
+Imogen's favour, and prevail upon her to give him the bracelet which
+Posthumus had so earnestly desired she would keep as a token of his
+love, then the wager was to terminate with Posthumus giving to Iachimo
+the ring, which was Imogen's love present when she parted with her
+husband. Such firm faith had Posthumus in the fidelity of Imogen, that
+he thought he ran no hazard in this trial of her honour.
+
+Iachimo, on his arrival in Britain, gained admittance, and a courteous
+welcome from Imogen, as a friend of her husband; but when he began to
+make professions of love to her, she repulsed him with disdain, and he
+soon found that he could have no hope of succeeding in his dishonourable
+design.
+
+The desire Iachimo had to win the wager made him now have recourse to a
+stratagem to impose upon Posthumus, and for this purpose he bribed some
+of Imogen's attendants, and was by them conveyed into her bedchamber,
+concealed in a large trunk, where he remained shut up till Imogen was
+retired to rest, and had fallen asleep; and then getting out of the
+trunk, he examined the chamber with great attention, and wrote down
+everything he saw there, and particularly noticed a mole which he
+observed upon Imogen's neck, and then softly unloosing the bracelet from
+her arm, which Posthumus had given to her, he retired into the chest
+again; and the next day he set on for Rome with great expedition, and
+boasted to Posthumus that Imogen had given him the bracelet, and
+likewise permitted him to pass a night in her chamber: and in this
+manner Iachimo told his false tale: "Her bedchamber," said he, "was hung
+with tapestry of silk and silver, the story was _the proud Cleopatra
+when she met her Anthony_, a piece of work most bravely wrought."
+
+"This is true," said Posthumus; "but this you might have heard spoken of
+without seeing."
+
+"Then the chimney," said Iachimo, "is south of the chamber, and the
+chimney-piece is _Diana bathing_; never saw I figures livelier
+expressed."
+
+"This is a thing you might have likewise heard," said Posthumus; "for it
+is much talked of."
+
+Iachimo as accurately described the roof of the chamber; and added, "I
+had almost forgot her andirons; they were _two winking Cupids_ made of
+silver, each on one foot standing." He then took out the bracelet, and
+said, "Know you this jewel, sir? She gave me this. She took it from her
+arm. I see her yet; her pretty action did outsell her gift, and yet
+enriched it too. She gave it me, and said, _she prized it once._" He
+last of all described the mole he had observed upon her neck.
+
+Posthumus, who had heard the whole of this artful recital in an agony of
+doubt, now broke out into the most passionate exclamations against
+Imogen. He delivered up the diamond ring to Iachimo, which he had agreed
+to forfeit to him, if he obtained the bracelet from Imogen.
+
+Posthumus then in a jealous rage wrote to Pisanio, a gentleman of
+Britain, who was one of Imogen's attendants, and had long been a
+faithful friend to Posthumus; and after telling him what proof he had of
+his wife's disloyalty, he desired Pisanio would take Imogen to
+Milford-Haven, a seaport of Wales, and there kill her. And at the same
+time he wrote a deceitful letter to Imogen, desiring her to go with
+Pisanio, for that finding he could live no longer without seeing her,
+though he was forbidden upon pain of death to return to Britain, he
+would come to Milford-Haven, at which place he begged she would meet
+him. She, good unsuspecting lady, who loved her husband above all
+things, and desired more than her life to see him, hastened her
+departure with Pisanio, and the same night she received the letter she
+set out.
+
+When their journey was nearly at an end, Pisanio, who, though faithful
+to Posthumus, was not faithful to serve him in an evil deed, disclosed
+to Imogen the cruel order he had received.
+
+Imogen, who, instead of meeting a loving and beloved husband, found
+herself doomed by that husband to suffer death, was afflicted beyond
+measure.
+
+Pisanio persuaded her to take comfort, and wait with patient fortitude
+for the time when Posthumus should see and repent his injustice: in the
+meantime, as she refused in her distress to return to her father's
+court, he advised her to dress herself in boy's clothes for more
+security in travelling; to which advice she agreed, and thought in that
+disguise she would go over to Rome, and see her husband, whom, though
+he had used her so barbarously, she could not forget to love.
+
+When Pisanio had provided her with her new apparel, he left her to her
+uncertain fortune, being obliged to return to court; but before he
+departed he gave her a phial of cordial, which he said the queen had
+given him as a sovereign remedy in all disorders.
+
+The queen, who hated Pisanio because he was a friend to Imogen and
+Posthumus, gave him this phial, which she supposed contained poison, she
+having ordered her physician to give her some poison, to try its effects
+(as she said) upon animals; but the physician, knowing her malicious
+disposition, would not trust her with real poison, but gave her a drug
+which would do no other mischief than causing a person to sleep with
+every appearance of death for a few hours. This mixture, which Pisanio
+thought a choice cordial, he gave to Imogen, desiring her, if she found
+herself ill upon the road, to take it; and so, with blessings and
+prayers for her safety and happy deliverance from her undeserved
+troubles, he left her.
+
+Providence strangely directed Imogen's steps to the dwelling of her two
+brothers, who had been stolen away in their infancy. Bellarius, who
+stole them away, was a lord in the court of Cymbeline, and having been
+falsely accused to the king of treason, and banished from the court, in
+revenge he stole away the two sons of Cymbeline, and brought them up in
+a forest, where he lived concealed in a cave. He stole them through
+revenge, but he soon loved them as tenderly as if they had been his own
+children, educated them carefully, and they grew up fine youths, their
+princely spirits leading them to bold and daring actions; and as they
+subsisted by hunting, they were active and hardy, and were always
+pressing their supposed father to let them seek their fortune in the
+wars.
+
+At the cave where these youths dwelt it was Imogen's fortune to arrive.
+She had lost her way in a large forest, through which her road lay to
+Milford-Haven (from which she meant to embark for Rome); and being
+unable to find any place where she could purchase food, she was with
+weariness and hunger almost dying; for it is not merely putting on a
+man's apparel that will enable a young lady, tenderly brought up, to
+bear the fatigue of wandering about lonely forests like a man. Seeing
+this cave, she entered, hoping to find some one within of whom she could
+procure food. She found the cave empty, but looking about she discovered
+some cold meat, and her hunger was so pressing, that she could not wait
+for an invitation, but sat down and began to eat. "Ah," said she,
+talking to herself, "I see a man's life is a tedious one; how tired am
+I! for two nights together I have made the ground my bed: my resolution
+helps me, or I should be sick. When Pisanio showed me Milford-Haven from
+the mountain top, how near it seemed!" Then the thoughts of her husband
+and his cruel mandate came across her, and she said, "My dear Posthumus,
+thou art a false one!"
+
+The two brothers of Imogen, who had been hunting with their reputed
+father, Bellarius, were by this time returned home. Bellarius had given
+them the names of Polydore and Cadwal, and they knew no better, but
+supposed that Bellarius was their father; but the real names of these
+princes were Guiderius and Arviragus.
+
+Bellarius entered the cave first, and seeing Imogen, stopped them,
+saying, "Come not in yet; it eats our victuals, or I should think it was
+a fairy."
+
+"What is the matter, sir?" said the young men. "By Jupiter," said
+Bellarius again, "there is an angel in the cave, or if not, an earthly
+paragon." So beautiful did Imogen look in her boy's apparel.
+
+She, hearing the sound of voices, came forth from the cave, and
+addressed them in these words: "Good masters, do not harm me; before I
+entered your cave, I had thought to have begged or bought what I have
+eaten. Indeed I have stolen nothing, nor would I, though I had found
+gold strewed on the floor. Here is money for my meat, which I would have
+left on the board when I had made my meal, and parted with prayers for
+the provider." They refused her money with great earnestness. "I see you
+are angry with me," said the timid Imogen; "but, sirs, if you kill me
+for my fault, know that I should have died if I had not made it."
+
+"Whither are you bound?" asked Bellarius, "and what is your name?"
+
+"Fidele is my name," answered Imogen. "I have a kinsman, who is bound
+for Italy; he embarked at Milford-Haven, to whom being going, almost
+spent with hunger, I am fallen into this offence."
+
+"Prithee, fair youth," said old Bellarius, "do not think us churls, nor
+measure our good minds by this rude place we live in. You are well
+encountered; it is almost night. You shall have better cheer before you
+depart, and thanks to stay and eat it. Boys, bid him welcome."
+
+The gentle youths, her brothers, then welcomed Imogen to their cave with
+many kind expressions, saying they would love her (or, as they said,
+_him_) as a brother; and they entered the cave, where (they having
+killed venison when they were hunting) Imogen delighted them with her
+neat housewifery, assisting them in preparing their supper; for though
+it is not the custom now for young women of high birth to understand
+cookery, it was then, and Imogen excelled in this useful art; and, as
+her brothers prettily expressed it, Fidele cut their roots in
+characters, and sauced their broth, as if Juno had been sick, and Fidele
+were her dieter. "And then," said Polydore to his brother, "how
+angel-like he sings!"
+
+They also remarked to each other, that though Fidele smiled so sweetly,
+yet so sad a melancholy did overcloud his lovely face, as if grief and
+patience had together taken possession of him.
+
+For these her gentle qualities (or perhaps it was their near
+relationship, though they knew it not) Imogen (or, as the boys called
+her, _Fidele_) became the doting-piece of her brothers, and she scarcely
+less loved them, thinking that but for the memory of her dear Posthumus,
+she could live and die in the cave with these wild forest youths; and
+she gladly consented to stay with them, till she was enough rested from
+the fatigue of travelling to pursue her way to Milford-Haven.
+
+When the venison they had taken was all eaten and they were going out to
+hunt for more, Fidele could not accompany them because she was unwell.
+Sorrow, no doubt, for her husband's cruel usage, as well as the fatigue
+of wandering in the forest, was the cause of her illness.
+
+They then bid her farewell, and went to their hunt, praising all the way
+the noble parts and graceful demeanour of the youth Fidele.
+
+Imogen was no sooner left alone than she recollected the cordial Pisanio
+had given her, and drank it off, and presently fell into a sound and
+death-like sleep.
+
+When Bellarius and her brothers returned from hunting, Polydore went
+first into the cave, and supposing her asleep, pulled off his heavy
+shoes, that he might tread softly and not awake her; so did true
+gentleness spring up in the minds of these princely foresters; but he
+soon discovered that she could not be awakened by any noise, and
+concluded her to be dead, and Polydore lamented over her with dear and
+brotherly regret, as if they had never from their infancy been parted.
+
+Bellarius also proposed to carry her out into the forest, and there
+celebrate her funeral with songs and solemn dirges, as was then the
+custom.
+
+Imogen's two brothers then carried her to a shady covert, and there
+laying her gently on the grass, they sang repose to her departed spirit,
+and covering her over with leaves and flowers, Polydore said, "While
+summer lasts and I live here, Fidele, I will daily strew thy grave. The
+pale primrose, that flower most like thy face; the blue-bell, like thy
+clear veins; and the leaf of eglantine, which is not sweeter than was
+thy breath; all these will I strew over thee. Yea, and the furred moss
+in winter, when there are no flowers to cover thy sweet corse."
+
+When they had finished her funeral obsequies they departed very
+sorrowful.
+
+Imogen had not been long left alone, when, the effect of the sleepy drug
+going off, she awaked, and easily shaking off the slight covering of
+leaves and flowers they had thrown over her, she arose, and imagining
+she had been dreaming, she said, "I thought I was a cave-keeper, and
+cook to honest creatures; how came I here covered with flowers?" Not
+being able to find her way back to the cave, and seeing nothing of her
+new companions, she concluded it was certainly all a dream; and once
+more Imogen set out on her weary pilgrimage, hoping at last she should
+find her way to Milford-Haven, and thence get a passage in some ship
+bound for Italy; for all her thoughts were still with her husband
+Posthumus, whom she intended to seek in the disguise of a page.
+
+But great events were happening at this time, of which Imogen knew
+nothing; for a war had suddenly broken out between the Roman emperor
+Augustus C�sar and Cymbeline, the King of Britain; and a Roman army had
+landed to invade Britain, and was advanced into the very forest over
+which Imogen was journeying. With this army came Posthumus.
+
+Though Posthumus came over to Britain with the Roman army he did not
+mean to fight on their side against his own countrymen, but intended to
+join the army of Britain, and fight in the cause of his king who had
+banished him.
+
+He still believed Imogen false to him; yet the death of her he had so
+fondly loved, and by his own orders too (Pisanio having written him a
+letter to say he had obeyed his command, and that Imogen was dead), sat
+heavy on his heart, and therefore he returned to Britain, desiring
+either to be slain in battle, or to be put to death by Cymbeline for
+returning home from banishment.
+
+Imogen, before she reached Milford-Haven, fell into the hands of the
+Roman army; and her presence and deportment recommending her, she was
+made a page to Lucius, the Roman general.
+
+Cymbeline's army now advanced to meet the enemy, and when they entered
+this forest, Polydore and Cadwal joined the king's army. The young men
+were eager to engage in acts of valour, though they little thought they
+were going to fight for their own royal father: and old Bellarius went
+with them to the battle. He had long since repented of the injury he had
+done to Cymbeline in carrying away his sons; and having been a warrior
+in his youth, he gladly joined the army to fight for the king he had so
+injured.
+
+And now a great battle commenced between the two armies, and the Britons
+would have been defeated, and Cymbeline himself killed, but for the
+extraordinary valour of Posthumus and Bellarius and the two sons of
+Cymbeline. They rescued the king, and saved his life, and so entirely
+turned the fortune of the day, that the Britons gained the victory.
+
+When the battle was over, Posthumus, who had not found the death he
+sought for, surrendered himself up to one of the officers of Cymbeline,
+willing to suffer the death which was to be his punishment if he
+returned from banishment.
+
+Imogen and the master she served were taken prisoners, and brought
+before Cymbeline, as was also her old enemy Iachimo, who was an officer
+in the Roman army; and when these prisoners were before the king,
+Posthumus was brought in to receive his sentence of death; and at this
+strange juncture of time, Bellarius with Polydore and Cadwal were also
+brought before Cymbeline, to receive the rewards due to the great
+services they had by their valour done for the king. Pisanio, being one
+of the king's attendants, was likewise present.
+
+Therefore there were now standing in the king's presence (but with very
+different hopes and fears) Posthumus and Imogen, with her new master the
+Roman general; the faithful servant Pisanio, and the false friend
+Iachimo; and likewise the two lost sons of Cymbeline, with Bellarius,
+who had stolen them away.
+
+The Roman general was the first who spoke; the rest stood silent before
+the king, though there was many a beating heart among them.
+
+Imogen saw Posthumus, and knew him, though he was in the disguise of a
+peasant; but he did not know her in her male attire: and she knew
+Iachimo, and she saw a ring on his finger which she perceived to be her
+own, but she did not know him as yet to have been the author of all her
+troubles: and she stood before her own father a prisoner of war.
+
+Pisanio knew Imogen, for it was he who had dressed her in the garb of a
+boy. "It is my mistress," thought he; "since she is living, let the time
+run on to good or bad." Bellarius knew her too, and softly said to
+Cadwal, "Is not this boy revived from death?"--"One sand," replied
+Cadwal, "does not more resemble another than that sweet rosy lad is like
+the dead Fidele."--"The same dead thing alive," said Polydore. "Peace,
+peace," said Bellarius; "if it were he, I am sure he would have spoken
+to us."--"But we saw him dead," again whispered Polydore. "Be silent,"
+replied Bellarius.
+
+Posthumus waited in silence to hear the welcome sentence of his own
+death; and he resolved not to disclose to the king that he had saved his
+life in the battle, lest that should move Cymbeline to pardon him.
+
+Lucius, the Roman general, who had taken Imogen under his protection as
+his page, was the first (as has been before said) who spoke to the king.
+He was a man of high courage and noble dignity, and this was his speech
+to the king:--
+
+"I hear you take no ransom for your prisoners, but doom them all to
+death: I am a Roman, and with a Roman heart will suffer death. But there
+is one thing for which I would entreat." Then bringing Imogen before the
+king, he said, "This boy is a Briton born. Let him be ransomed. He is my
+page. Never master had a page so kind, so duteous, so diligent on all
+occasions, so true, so nurse-like. He hath done no Briton wrong, though
+he hath served a Roman. Save him, if you spare no one beside."
+
+Cymbeline looked earnestly on his daughter Imogen. He knew her not in
+that disguise; but it seemed that all-powerful Nature spake in his
+heart, for he said, "I have surely seen him, his face appears familiar
+to me. I know not why or wherefore I say, Live, boy; but I give you your
+life, and ask of me what boon you will, and I will grant it you. Yea,
+even though it be the life of the noblest prisoner I have."
+
+"I humbly thank your highness," said Imogen.
+
+What was then called granting a boon was the same as a promise to give
+any one thing, whatever it might be, that the person on whom that favour
+was conferred chose to ask for. They all were attentive to hear what
+thing the page would ask for; and Lucius her master said to her, "I do
+not beg my life, good lad, but I know that is what you will ask
+for."--"No, no, alas!" said Imogen, "I have other work in hand, good
+master; your life I cannot ask for."
+
+This seeming want of gratitude in the boy astonished the Roman general.
+
+Imogen then, fixing her eye on Iachimo, demanded no other boon than
+this: that Iachimo should be made to confess whence he had the ring he
+wore on his finger.
+
+Cymbeline granted her this boon, and threatened Iachimo with the torture
+if he did not confess how he came by the diamond ring on his finger.
+
+Iachimo then made a full acknowledgment of all his villany, telling, as
+has been before related, the whole story of his wager with Posthumus,
+and how he had succeeded in imposing upon his credulity.
+
+What Posthumus felt at hearing this proof of the innocence of his lady
+cannot be expressed. He instantly came forward, and confessed to
+Cymbeline the cruel sentence which he had enjoined Pisanio to execute
+upon the princess; exclaiming wildly, "O Imogen, my queen, my life, my
+wife! O Imogen, Imogen, Imogen!"
+
+Imogen could not see her beloved husband in this distress without
+discovering herself, to the unutterable joy of Posthumus, who was thus
+relieved from a weight of guilt and woe, and restored to the good graces
+of the dear lady he had so cruelly treated.
+
+Cymbeline, almost as much overwhelmed as he with joy, at finding his
+lost daughter so strangely recovered, received her to her former place
+in his fatherly affection, and not only gave her husband Posthumus his
+life, but consented to acknowledge him for his son-in-law.
+
+Bellarius chose this time of joy and reconciliation to make his
+confession. He presented Polydore and Cadwal to the king, telling him
+they were his two lost sons, Guiderius and Arviragus.
+
+Cymbeline forgave old Bellarius; for who could think of punishments at a
+season of such universal happiness? To find his daughter living, and his
+lost sons in the persons of his young deliverers, that he had seen so
+bravely fight in his defence, was unlooked-for joy indeed!
+
+Imogen was now at leisure to perform good services for her late master,
+the Roman general Lucius, whose life the king her father readily granted
+at her request; and by the mediation of the same Lucius a peace was
+concluded between the Romans and the Britons, which was kept inviolate
+many years.
+
+How Cymbeline's wicked queen, through despair of bringing her projects
+to pass, and touched with remorse of conscience, sickened and died,
+having first lived to see her foolish son Cloten slain in a quarrel
+which he had provoked, are events too tragical to interrupt this happy
+conclusion by more than merely touching upon. It is sufficient that all
+were made happy who were deserving; and even the treacherous Iachimo, in
+consideration of his villany having missed its final aim, was dismissed
+without punishment.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+KING LEAR
+
+
+Lear, King of Britain, had three daughters; Goneril, wife to the Duke of
+Albany; Regan, wife to the Duke of Cornwall; and Cordelia, a young maid,
+for whose love the King of France and Duke of Burgundy were joint
+suitors, and were at this time making stay for that purpose in the court
+of Lear.
+
+[Illustration: CORDELIA]
+
+The old king, worn out with age and the fatigues of government, he being
+more than fourscore years old, determined to take no further part in
+state affairs, but to leave the management to younger strengths, that he
+might have time to prepare for death, which must at no long period
+ensue. With this intent he called his three daughters to him, to know
+from their own lips which of them loved him best, that he might part his
+kingdom among them in such proportions as their affection for him should
+seem to deserve.
+
+Goneril, the eldest, declared that she loved her father more than words
+could give out, that he was dearer to her than the light of her own
+eyes, dearer than life and liberty, with a deal of such professing
+stuff, which is easy to counterfeit where there is no real love, only a
+few fine words delivered with confidence being wanted in that case. The
+king, delighted to hear from her own mouth this assurance of her love,
+and thinking truly that her heart went with it, in a fit of fatherly
+fondness bestowed upon her and her husband one third of his ample
+kingdom.
+
+Then calling to him his second daughter, he demanded what she had to
+say. Regan, who was made of the same hollow metal as her sister, was not
+a whit behind in her professions, but rather declared that what her
+sister had spoken came short of the love which she professed to bear for
+his highness; insomuch that she found all other joys dead, in comparison
+with the pleasure which she took in the love of her dear king and
+father.
+
+Lear blessed himself in having such loving children, as he thought; and
+could do no less, after the handsome assurances which Regan had made,
+than bestow a third of his kingdom upon her and her husband, equal in
+size to that which he had already given away to Goneril.
+
+Then turning to his youngest daughter Cordelia, whom he called his joy,
+he asked what she had to say, thinking no doubt that she would glad his
+ears with the same loving speeches which her sisters had uttered, or
+rather that her expressions would be so much stronger than theirs, as
+she had always been his darling, and favoured by him above either of
+them. But Cordelia, disgusted with the flattery of her sisters, whose
+hearts she knew were far from their lips, and seeing that all their
+coaxing speeches were only intended to wheedle the old king out of his
+dominions, that they and their husbands might reign in his lifetime,
+made no other reply but this,--that she loved his majesty according to
+her duty, neither more nor less.
+
+The king, shocked with this appearance of ingratitude in his favourite
+child, desired her to consider her words, and to mend her speech, lest
+it should mar her fortunes.
+
+Cordelia then told her father, that he was her father, that he had
+given her breeding, and loved her; that she returned those duties back
+as was most fit, and did obey him, love him, and most honour him. But
+that she could not frame her mouth to such large speeches as her sisters
+had done, or promise to love nothing else in the world. Why had her
+sisters husbands, if (as they said) they had no love for anything but
+their father? If she should ever wed, she was sure the lord to whom she
+gave her hand would want half her love, half of her care and duty; she
+should never marry like her sisters, to love her father all.
+
+Cordelia, who in earnest loved her old father even almost as
+extravagantly as her sisters pretended to do, would have plainly told
+him so at any other time, in more daughter-like and loving terms, and
+without these qualifications, which did indeed sound a little
+ungracious; but after the crafty flattering speeches of her sisters,
+which she had seen drawn such extravagant rewards, she thought the
+handsomest thing she could do was to love and be silent. This put her
+affection out of suspicion of mercenary ends, and showed that she loved,
+but not for gain; and that her professions, the less ostentatious they
+were, had so much the more of truth and sincerity than her sisters'.
+
+This plainness of speech, which Lear called pride, so enraged the old
+monarch--who in his best of times always showed much of spleen and
+rashness, and in whom the dotage incident to old age had so clouded over
+his reason, that he could not discern truth from flattery, nor a gay
+painted speech from words that came from the heart--that in a fury of
+resentment he retracted the third part of his kingdom which yet
+remained, and which he had reserved for Cordelia, and gave it away from
+her, sharing it equally between her two sisters and their husbands, the
+Dukes of Albany and Cornwall; whom he now called to him, and in presence
+of all his courtiers bestowing a coronet between them, invested them
+jointly with all the power, revenue, and execution of government, only
+retaining to himself the name of king; all the rest of royalty he
+resigned; with this reservation, that himself, with a hundred knights
+for his attendants, was to be maintained by monthly course in each of
+his daughters' palaces in turn.
+
+So preposterous a disposal of his kingdom, so little guided by reason,
+and so much by passion, filled all his courtiers with astonishment and
+sorrow; but none of them had the courage to interpose between this
+incensed king and his wrath, except the Earl of Kent, who was beginning
+to speak a good word for Cordelia, when the passionate Lear on pain of
+death commanded him to desist; but the good Kent was not so to be
+repelled. He had been ever loyal to Lear, whom he had honoured as a
+king, loved as a father, followed as a master; and he had never esteemed
+his life further than as a pawn to wage against his royal master's
+enemies, nor feared to lose it when Lear's safety was the motive; nor
+now that Lear was most his own enemy, did this faithful servant of the
+king forget his old principles, but manfully opposed Lear, to do Lear
+good; and was unmannerly only because Lear was mad. He had been a most
+faithful counsellor in times past to the king, and he besought him now,
+that he would see with his eyes (as he had done in many weighty
+matters), and go by his advice still; and in his best consideration
+recall this hideous rashness: for he would answer with his life, his
+judgment that Lear's youngest daughter did not love him least, nor were
+those empty-hearted whose low sound gave no token of hollowness. When
+power bowed to flattery, honour was bound to plainness. For Lear's
+threats, what could he do to him, whose life was already at his service?
+That should not hinder duty from speaking.
+
+The honest freedom of this good Earl of Kent only stirred up the king's
+wrath the more, and like a frantic patient who kills his physician, and
+loves his mortal disease, he banished this true servant, and allotted
+him but five days to make his preparations for departure; but if on the
+sixth his hated person was found within the realm of Britain, that
+moment was to be his death. And Kent bade farewell to the king, and
+said, that since he chose to show himself in such fashion, it was but
+banishment to stay there; and before he went, he recommended Cordelia to
+the protection of the gods, the maid who had so rightly thought, and so
+discreetly spoken; and only wished that her sisters' large speeches
+might be answered with deeds of love; and then he went, as he said, to
+shape his old course to a new country.
+
+The King of France and Duke of Burgundy were now called in to hear the
+determination of Lear about his youngest daughter, and to know whether
+they would persist in their courtship to Cordelia, now that she was
+under her father's displeasure, and had no fortune but her own person to
+recommend her: and the Duke of Burgundy declined the match, and would
+not take her to wife upon such conditions; but the King of France,
+understanding what the nature of the fault had been which had lost her
+the love of her father, that it was only a tardiness of speech, and the
+not being able to frame her tongue to flattery like her sisters, took
+this young maid by the hand, and saying that her virtues were a dowry
+above a kingdom, bade Cordelia to take farewell of her sisters and of
+her father, though he had been unkind, and she should go with him, and
+be queen of him and of fair France, and reign over fairer possessions
+than her sisters: and he called the Duke of Burgundy in contempt a
+waterish duke, because his love for this young maid had in a moment run
+all away like water.
+
+Then Cordelia with weeping eyes took leave of her sisters, and besought
+them to love their father well, and make good their professions: and
+they sullenly told her not to prescribe to them, for they knew their
+duty; but to strive to content her husband, who had taken her (as they
+tauntingly expressed it) as Fortune's alms. And Cordelia with a heavy
+heart departed, for she knew the cunning of her sisters, and she wished
+her father in better hands than she was about to leave him in.
+
+Cordelia was no sooner gone, than the devilish dispositions of her
+sisters began to show themselves in their true colours. Even before the
+expiration of the first month, which Lear was to spend by agreement with
+his eldest daughter Goneril, the old king began to find out the
+difference between promises and performances. This wretch having got
+from her father all that he had to bestow, even to the giving away of
+the crown from off his head, began to grudge even those small remnants
+of royalty which the old man had reserved to himself, to please his
+fancy with the idea of being still a king. She could not bear to see him
+and his hundred knights. Every time she met her father, she put on a
+frowning countenance; and when the old man wanted to speak with her, she
+would feign sickness, or anything to get rid of the sight of him; for it
+was plain that she esteemed his old age a useless burden, and his
+attendants an unnecessary expense: not only she herself slackened in her
+expressions of duty to the king, but by her example, and (it is to be
+feared) not without her private instructions, her very servants affected
+to treat him with neglect, and would either refuse to obey his orders,
+or still more contemptuously pretend not to hear them. Lear could not
+but perceive this alteration in the behaviour of his daughter, but he
+shut his eyes against it as long as he could, as people commonly are
+unwilling to believe the unpleasant consequences which their own
+mistakes and obstinacy have brought upon them.
+
+True love and fidelity are no more to be estranged by _ill_, than
+falsehood and hollow-heartedness can be conciliated by _good_, _usage_.
+This eminently appears in the instance of the good Earl of Kent, who,
+though banished by Lear, and his life made forfeit if he were found in
+Britain, chose to stay and abide all consequences, as long as there was
+a chance of his being useful to the king his master. See to what mean
+shifts and disguises poor loyalty is forced to submit sometimes; yet it
+counts nothing base or unworthy, so as it can but do service where it
+owes an obligation!
+
+In the disguise of a serving man, all his greatness and pomp laid aside,
+this good earl proffered his services to the king, who, not knowing him
+to be Kent in that disguise, but pleased with a certain plainness, or
+rather bluntness in his answers, which the earl put on (so different
+from that smooth oily flattery which he had so much reason to be sick
+of, having found the effects not answerable in his daughter), a bargain
+was quickly struck, and Lear took Kent into his service by the name of
+Caius, as he called himself, never suspecting him to be his once great
+favourite, the high and mighty Earl of Kent.
+
+This Caius quickly found means to show his fidelity and love to his
+royal master: for Goneril's steward that same day behaving in a
+disrespectful manner to Lear, and giving him saucy looks and language,
+as no doubt he was secretly encouraged to do by his mistress, Caius, not
+enduring to hear so open an affront put upon his majesty, made no more
+ado but presently tripped up his heels, and laid the unmannerly slave in
+the kennel; for which friendly service Lear became more and more
+attached to him.
+
+Nor was Kent the only friend Lear had. In his degree, and as far as so
+insignificant a personage could show his love, the poor fool, or jester,
+that had been of his palace while Lear had a palace, as it was the
+custom of kings and great personages at that time to keep a fool (as he
+was called) to make them sport after serious business: this poor fool
+clung to Lear after he had given away his crown, and by his witty
+sayings would keep up his good humour, though he could not refrain
+sometimes from jeering at his master for his imprudence in uncrowning
+himself, and giving all away to his daughters; at which time, as he
+rhymingly expressed it, these daughters
+
+  For sudden joy did weep
+    And he for sorrow sung,
+  That such a king should play bo-peep
+    And go the fools among.
+
+And in such wild sayings, and scraps of songs, of which he had plenty,
+this pleasant honest fool poured out his heart even in the presence of
+Goneril herself, in many a bitter taunt and jest which cut to the quick:
+such as comparing the king to the hedge-sparrow, who feeds the young of
+the cuckoo till they grow old enough, and then has its head bit off for
+its pains; and saying, that an ass may know when the cart draws the
+horse (meaning that Lear's daughters, that ought to go behind, now
+ranked before their father); and that Lear was no longer Lear, but the
+shadow of Lear: for which free speeches he was once or twice threatened
+to be whipped.
+
+The coolness and falling off of respect which Lear had begun to
+perceive, were not all which this foolish fond father was to suffer from
+his unworthy daughter: she now plainly told him that his staying in her
+palace was inconvenient so long as he insisted upon keeping up an
+establishment of a hundred knights; that this establishment was useless
+and expensive, and only served to fill her court with riot and feasting;
+and she prayed him that he would lessen their number, and keep none but
+old men about him, such as himself, and fitting his age.
+
+Lear at first could not believe his eyes or ears, nor that it was his
+daughter who spoke so unkindly. He could not believe that she who had
+received a crown from him could seek to cut off his train, and grudge
+him the respect due to his old age. But she, persisting in her undutiful
+demand, the old man's rage was so excited, that he called her a detested
+kite, and said that she spoke an untruth; and so indeed she did, for
+the hundred knights were all men of choice behaviour and sobriety of
+manners, skilled in all particulars of duty, and not given to rioting or
+feasting, as she said. And he bid his horses to be prepared, for he
+would go to his other daughter, Regan, he and his hundred knights; and
+he spoke of ingratitude, and said it was a marble-hearted devil, and
+showed more hideous in a child than the sea-monster. And he cursed his
+eldest daughter Goneril so as was terrible to hear; praying that she
+might never have a child, or if she had, that it might live to return
+that scorn and contempt upon her which she had shown to him: that she
+might feel how sharper than a serpent's tooth it was to have a thankless
+child. And Goneril's husband, the Duke of Albany, beginning to excuse
+himself for any share which Lear might suppose he had in the unkindness,
+Lear would not hear him out, but in a rage ordered his horses to be
+saddled, and set out with his followers for the abode of Regan, his
+other daughter. And Lear thought to himself how small the fault of
+Cordelia (if it was a fault) now appeared, in comparison with her
+sister's, and he wept; and then he was ashamed that such a creature as
+Goneril should have so much power over his manhood as to make him weep.
+
+Regan and her husband were keeping their court in great pomp and state
+at their palace; and Lear despatched his servant Caius with letters to
+his daughter, that she might be prepared for his reception, while he and
+his train followed after. But it seems that Goneril had been before-hand
+with him, sending letters also to Regan, accusing her father of
+waywardness and ill humours, and advising her not to receive so great a
+train as he was bringing with him. This messenger arrived at the same
+time with Caius, and Caius and he met: and who should it be but Caius's
+old enemy the steward, whom he had formerly tripped up by the heels for
+his saucy behaviour to Lear. Caius not liking the fellow's look, and
+suspecting what he came for, began to revile him, and challenged him to
+fight, which the fellow refusing, Caius, in a fit of honest passion,
+beat him soundly, as such a mischief-maker and carrier of wicked
+messages deserved; which coming to the ears of Regan and her husband,
+they ordered Caius to be put in stocks, though he was a messenger from
+the king her father, and in that character demanded the highest respect:
+so that the first thing the king saw when he entered the castle, was his
+faithful servant Caius sitting in that disgraceful situation.
+
+This was but a bad omen of the reception which he was to expect; but a
+worse followed, when, upon inquiry for his daughter and her husband, he
+was told they were weary with travelling all night, and could not see
+him; and when lastly, upon his insisting in a positive and angry manner
+to see them, they came to greet him, whom should he see in their company
+but the hated Goneril, who had come to tell her own story, and set her
+sister against the king her father!
+
+This sight much moved the old man, and still more to see Regan take her
+by the hand; and he asked Goneril if she was not ashamed to look upon
+his old white beard. And Regan advised him to go home again with
+Goneril, and live with her peaceably, dismissing half of his attendants,
+and to ask her forgiveness; for he was old and wanted discretion, and
+must be ruled and led by persons that had more discretion than himself.
+And Lear showed how preposterous that would sound, if he were to go down
+on his knees, and beg of his own daughter for food and raiment, and he
+argued against such an unnatural dependence, declaring his resolution
+never to return with her, but to stay where he was with Regan, he and
+his hundred knights; for he said that she had not forgot the half of the
+kingdom which he had endowed her with, and that her eyes were not fierce
+like Goneril's, but mild and kind. And he said that rather than return
+to Goneril, with half his train cut off, he would go over to France,
+and beg a wretched pension of the king there, who had married his
+youngest daughter without a portion.
+
+But he was mistaken in expecting kinder treatment of Regan than he had
+experienced from her sister Goneril. As if willing to outdo her sister
+in unfilial behaviour, she declared that she thought fifty knights too
+many to wait upon him: that five-and-twenty were enough. Then Lear, nigh
+heart-broken, turned to Goneril and said that he would go back with her,
+for her fifty doubled five-and-twenty, and so her love was twice as much
+as Regan's. But Goneril excused herself, and said, what need of so many
+as five-and-twenty? or even ten? or five? when he might be waited upon
+by her servants, or her sister's servants? So these two wicked
+daughters, as if they strove to exceed each other in cruelty to their
+old father, who had been so good to them, by little and little would
+have abated him of all his train, all respect (little enough for him
+that once commanded a kingdom), which was left him to show that he had
+once been a king! Not that a splendid train is essential to happiness,
+but from a king to a beggar is a hard change, from commanding millions
+to be without one attendant; and it was the ingratitude in his
+daughters' denying it, more than what he would suffer by the want of it,
+which pierced this poor king to the heart; insomuch, that with this
+double ill-usage, and vexation for having so foolishly given away a
+kingdom, his wits began to be unsettled, and while he said he knew not
+what, he vowed revenge against those unnatural hags, and to make
+examples of them that should be a terror to the earth!
+
+While he was thus idly threatening what his weak arm could never
+execute, night came on, and a loud storm of thunder and lightning with
+rain; and his daughters still persisting in their resolution not to
+admit his followers, he called for his horses, and chose rather to
+encounter the utmost fury of the storm abroad, than stay under the same
+roof with these ungrateful daughters: and they, saying that the injuries
+which wilful men procure to themselves are their just punishment,
+suffered him to go in that condition and shut their doors upon him.
+
+The winds were high, and the rain and storm increased, when the old man
+sallied forth to combat with the elements, less sharp than his
+daughters' unkindness. For many miles about there was scarce a bush; and
+there upon a heath, exposed to the fury of the storm in a dark night,
+did King Lear wander out, and defy the winds and the thunder; and he bid
+the winds to blow the earth into the sea, or swell the waves of the sea
+till they drowned the earth, that no token might remain of any such
+ungrateful animal as man. The old king was now left with no other
+companion than the poor fool, who still abided with him, with his merry
+conceits striving to outjest misfortune, saying it was but a naughty
+night to swim in, and truly the king had better go in and ask his
+daughter's blessing:--
+
+  But he that has a little tiny wit.
+    With heigh ho, the wind and the rain!
+  Must make content with his fortunes fit.
+    Though the rain it raineth every day:
+
+and swearing it was a brave night to cool a lady's pride.
+
+Thus poorly accompanied, this once great monarch was found by his
+ever-faithful servant the good Earl of Kent, now transformed to Caius,
+who ever followed close at his side, though the king did not know him to
+be the earl; and he said, "Alas! sir, are you here? creatures that love
+night, love not such nights as these. This dreadful storm has driven the
+beasts to their hiding places. Man's nature cannot endure the affliction
+or the fear." And Lear rebuked him and said, these lesser evils were not
+felt, where a greater malady was fixed. When the mind is at ease, the
+body has leisure to be delicate, but the tempest in his mind did take
+all feeling else from his senses, but of that which beat at his
+heart. And he spoke of filial ingratitude, and said it was all one as if
+the mouth should tear the hand for lifting food to it; for parents were
+hands and food and everything to children.
+
+[Illustration: THERE UPON A HEATH, EXPOSED TO THE FURY OF THE STORM ON A
+DARK NIGHT, DID KING LEAR WANDER OUT]
+
+But the good Caius still persisting in his entreaties that the king
+would not stay out in the open air, at last persuaded him to enter a
+little wretched hovel which stood upon the heath, where the fool first
+entering, suddenly ran back terrified, saying that he had seen a spirit.
+But upon examination this spirit proved to be nothing more than a poor
+Bedlam beggar, who had crept into this deserted hovel for shelter, and
+with his talk about devils frighted the fool, one of those poor lunatics
+who are either mad, or feign to be so, the better to extort charity from
+the compassionate country people, who go about the country, calling
+themselves poor Tom and poor Turlygood, saying, "Who gives anything to
+poor Tom?" sticking pins and nails and sprigs of rosemary into their
+arms to make them bleed; and with such horrible actions, partly by
+prayers, and partly with lunatic curses, they move or terrify the
+ignorant country-folks into giving them alms. This poor fellow was such
+a one; and the king seeing him in so wretched a plight, with nothing but
+a blanket about his loins to cover his nakedness, could not be persuaded
+but that the fellow was some father who had given all away to his
+daughters, and brought himself to that pass: for nothing he thought
+could bring a man to such wretchedness but the having unkind daughters.
+
+And from this and many such wild speeches which he uttered, the good
+Caius plainly perceived that he was not in his perfect mind, but that
+his daughters' ill usage had really made him go mad. And now the loyalty
+of this worthy Earl of Kent showed itself in more essential services
+than he had hitherto found opportunity to perform. For with the
+assistance of some of the king's attendants who remained loyal, he had
+the person of his royal master removed at daybreak to the castle of
+Dover, where his own friends and influence, as Earl of Kent, chiefly
+lay; and himself embarking for France, hastened to the court of
+Cordelia, and did there in such moving terms represent the pitiful
+condition of her royal father, and set out in such lively colours the
+inhumanity of her sisters, that this good and loving child with many
+tears besought the king her husband that he would give her leave to
+embark for England, with a sufficient power to subdue these cruel
+daughters and their husbands, and restore the old king her father to his
+throne; which being granted, she set forth, and with a royal army landed
+at Dover.
+
+Lear having by some chance escaped from the guardians which the good
+Earl of Kent had put over him to take care of him in his lunacy, was
+found by some of Cordelia's train, wandering about the fields near
+Dover, in a pitiable condition, stark mad, and singing aloud to himself,
+with a crown upon his head which he had made of straw, and nettles, and
+other wild weeds that he had picked up in the corn-fields. By the advice
+of the physicians, Cordelia, though earnestly desirous of seeing her
+father, was prevailed upon to put off the meeting, till by sleep and the
+operation of herbs which they gave him, he should be restored to greater
+composure. By the aid of these skilful physicians, to whom Cordelia
+promised all her gold and jewels for the recovery of the old king, Lear
+was soon in a condition to see his daughter.
+
+A tender sight it was to see the meeting between this father and
+daughter; to see the struggles between the joy of this poor old king at
+beholding again his once darling child, and the shame at receiving such
+filial kindness from her whom he had cast off for so small a fault in
+his displeasure; both these passions struggling with the remains of his
+malady, which in his half-crazed brain sometimes made him that he scarce
+remembered where he was, or who it was that so kindly kissed him and
+spoke to him: and then he would beg the standers-by not to laugh at
+him, if he were mistaken in thinking this lady to be his daughter
+Cordelia! And then to see him fall on his knees to beg pardon of his
+child; and she, good lady, kneeling all the while to ask a blessing of
+him, and telling him that it did not become him to kneel, but it was her
+duty, for she was his child, his true and very child Cordelia! and she
+kissed him (as she said) to kiss away all her sisters' unkindness, and
+said that they might be ashamed of themselves, to turn their old kind
+father with his white beard out into the cold air, when her enemy's dog,
+though it had bit her (as she prettily expressed it), should have stayed
+by her fire such a night as that, and warmed himself. And she told her
+father how she had come from France with purpose to bring him
+assistance; and he said that she must forget and forgive, for he was old
+and foolish, and did not know what he did; but that to be sure she had
+great cause not to love him, but her sisters had none. And Cordelia said
+that she had no cause, no more than they had.
+
+So we will leave this old king in the protection of his dutiful and
+loving child, where, by the help of sleep and medicine, she and her
+physicians at length succeeded in winding up the untuned and jarring
+senses which the cruelty of his other daughters had so violently shaken.
+Let us return to say a word or two about those cruel daughters.
+
+These monsters of ingratitude, who had been so false to their old
+father, could not be expected to prove more faithful to their own
+husbands. They soon grew tired of paying even the appearance of duty and
+affection, and in an open way showed they had fixed their loves upon
+another. It happened that the object of their guilty loves was the same.
+It was Edmund, a natural son of the late Earl of Gloucester, who by his
+treacheries had succeeded in disinheriting his brother Edgar, the lawful
+heir, from his earldom, and by his wicked practices was now earl
+himself; a wicked man, and a fit object for the love of such wicked
+creatures as Goneril and Regan. It falling out about this time that the
+Duke of Cornwall, Regan's husband, died, Regan immediately declared her
+intention of wedding this Earl of Gloucester, which rousing the jealousy
+of her sister, to whom as well as to Regan this wicked earl had at
+sundry times professed love, Goneril found means to make away with her
+sister by poison; but being detected in her practices, and imprisoned by
+her husband, the Duke of Albany, for this deed, and for her guilty
+passion for the earl which had come to his ears, she, in a fit of
+disappointed love and rage, shortly put an end to her own life. Thus the
+justice of Heaven at last overtook these wicked daughters.
+
+While the eyes of all men were upon this event, admiring the justice
+displayed in their deserved deaths, the same eyes were suddenly taken
+off from this sight to admire at the mysterious ways of the same power
+in the melancholy fate of the young and virtuous daughter, the Lady
+Cordelia, whose good deeds did seem to deserve a more fortunate
+conclusion: but it is an awful truth, that innocence and piety are not
+always successful in this world. The forces which Goneril and Regan had
+sent out under the command of the bad Earl of Gloucester were
+victorious, and Cordelia, by the practices of this wicked earl, who did
+not like that any should stand between him and the throne, ended her
+life in prison. Thus, Heaven took this innocent lady to itself in her
+young years, after showing her to the world an illustrious example of
+filial duty. Lear did not long survive this kind child.
+
+Before he died, the good Earl of Kent, who had still attended his old
+master's steps from the first of his daughters' ill usage to this sad
+period of his decay, tried to make him understand that it was he who had
+followed him under the name of Caius; but Lear's care-crazed brain at
+that time could not comprehend how that could be, or how Kent and Caius
+could be the same person: so Kent thought it needless to trouble him
+with explanations at such a time; and Lear soon after expiring, this
+faithful servant to the king, between age and grief for his old master's
+vexations, soon followed him to the grave.
+
+How the judgment of Heaven overtook the bad Earl of Gloucester, whose
+treasons were discovered, and himself slain in single combat with his
+brother, the lawful earl; and how Goneril's husband, the Duke of Albany,
+who was innocent of the death of Cordelia, and had never encouraged his
+lady in her wicked proceedings against her father, ascended the throne
+of Britain after the death of Lear, is needless here to narrate; Lear
+and his Three Daughters being dead, whose adventures alone concern our
+story.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+MACBETH
+
+
+When Duncan the Meek reigned King of Scotland, there lived a great
+thane, or lord, called Macbeth. This Macbeth was a near kinsman to the
+king, and in great esteem at court for his valour and conduct in the
+wars; an example of which he had lately given, in defeating a rebel army
+assisted by the troops of Norway in terrible numbers.
+
+[Illustration: THEY WERE STOPPED BY THE STRANGE APPEARANCE OF THREE
+FIGURES]
+
+The two Scottish generals, Macbeth and Banquo, returning victorious from
+this great battle, their way lay over a blasted heath, where they were
+stopped by the strange appearance of three figures like women, except
+that they had beards, and their withered skins and wild attire made them
+look not like any earthly creatures. Macbeth first addressed them, when
+they, seemingly offended, laid each one her choppy finger upon her
+skinny lips, in token of silence; and the first of them saluted Macbeth
+with the title of thane of Glamis. The general was not a little startled
+to find himself known by such creatures; but how much more, when the
+second of them followed up that salute by giving him the title of thane
+of Cawdor, to which honour he had no pretensions; and again the third
+bid him "All hail! king that shalt be hereafter!" Such a prophetic
+greeting might well amaze him, who knew that while the king's sons
+lived he could not hope to succeed to the throne. Then turning to
+Banquo, they pronounced him, in a sort of riddling terms, to be _lesser
+than Macbeth and greater_! _not so happy, but much happier_! and
+prophesied that though he should never reign, yet his sons after him
+should be kings in Scotland. They then turned into air, and vanished: by
+which the generals knew them to be the weird sisters, or witches.
+
+While they stood pondering on the strangeness of this adventure, there
+arrived certain messengers from the king, who were empowered by him to
+confer upon Macbeth the dignity of thane of Cawdor: an event so
+miraculously corresponding with the prediction of the witches astonished
+Macbeth, and he stood wrapped in amazement, unable to make reply to the
+messengers; and in that point of time swelling hopes arose in his mind
+that the prediction of the third witch might in like manner have its
+accomplishment, and that he should one day reign king in Scotland.
+
+Turning to Banquo, he said, "Do you not hope that your children shall be
+kings, when what the witches promised to me has so wonderfully come to
+pass?" "That hope," answered the general, "might enkindle you to aim at
+the throne; but oftentimes these ministers of darkness tell us truths in
+little things, to betray us into deeds of greatest consequence."
+
+But the wicked suggestions of the witches had sunk too deep into the
+mind of Macbeth to allow him to attend to the warnings of the good
+Banquo. From that time he bent all his thoughts how to compass the
+throne of Scotland.
+
+Macbeth had a wife, to whom he communicated the strange prediction of
+the weird sisters, and its partial accomplishment. She was a bad,
+ambitious woman, and so as her husband and herself could arrive at
+greatness, she cared not much by what means. She spurred on the
+reluctant purpose of Macbeth, who felt compunction at the thoughts of
+blood, and did not cease to represent the murder of the king as a step
+absolutely necessary to the fulfilment of the flattering prophecy.
+
+It happened at this time that the king, who out of his royal
+condescension would oftentimes visit his principal nobility upon
+gracious terms, came to Macbeth's house, attended by his two sons,
+Malcolm and Donalbain, and a numerous train of thanes and attendants,
+the more to honour Macbeth for the triumphal success of his wars.
+
+The castle of Macbeth was pleasantly situated, and the air about it was
+sweet and wholesome, which appeared by the nests which the martlet, or
+swallow, had built under all the jutting friezes and buttresses of the
+building, wherever it found a place of advantage; for where those birds
+most breed and haunt, the air is observed to be delicate. The king
+entered well-pleased with the place, and not less so with the attentions
+and respect of his honoured hostess, Lady Macbeth, who had the art of
+covering treacherous purposes with smiles; and could look like the
+innocent flower, while she was indeed the serpent under it.
+
+The king being tired with his journey, went early to bed, and in his
+state-room two grooms of his chamber (as was the custom) slept beside
+him. He had been unusually pleased with his reception, and had made
+presents before he retired to his principal officers; and among the
+rest, had sent a rich diamond to Lady Macbeth, greeting her by the name
+of his most kind hostess.
+
+Now was the middle of night, when over half the world nature seems dead,
+and wicked dreams abuse men's minds asleep, and none but the wolf and
+the murderer is abroad. This was the time when Lady Macbeth waked to
+plot the murder of the king. She would not have undertaken a deed so
+abhorrent to her sex, but that she feared her husband's nature, that it
+was too full of the milk of human kindness, to do a contrived murder.
+She knew him to be ambitious, but withal to be scrupulous, and not yet
+prepared for that height of crime which commonly in the end accompanies
+inordinate ambition. She had won him to consent to the murder, but she
+doubted his resolution; and she feared that the natural tenderness of
+his disposition (more humane than her own) would come between, and
+defeat the purpose. So with her own hands armed with a dagger, she
+approached the king's bed; having taken care to ply the grooms of his
+chamber so with wine, that they slept intoxicated, and careless of their
+charge. There lay Duncan in a sound sleep after the fatigues of his
+journey, and as she viewed him earnestly, there was something in his
+face, as he slept, which resembled her own father; and she had not the
+courage to proceed.
+
+She returned to confer with her husband. His resolution had begun to
+stagger. He considered that there were strong reasons against the deed.
+In the first place, he was not only a subject, but a near kinsman to the
+king; and he had been his host and entertainer that day, whose duty, by
+the laws of hospitality, it was to shut the door against his murderers,
+not bear the knife himself. Then he considered how just and merciful a
+king this Duncan had been, how clear of offence to his subjects, how
+loving to his nobility, and in particular to him; that such kings are
+the peculiar care of Heaven, and their subjects doubly bound to revenge
+their deaths. Besides, by the favours of the king, Macbeth stood high in
+the opinion of all sorts of men, and how would those honours be stained
+by the reputation of so foul a murder!
+
+In these conflicts of the mind Lady Macbeth found her husband inclining
+to the better part, and resolving to proceed no further. But she being a
+woman not easily shaken from her evil purpose, began to pour in at his
+ears words which infused a portion of her own spirit into his mind,
+assigning reason upon reason why he should not shrink from what he had
+undertaken; how easy the deed was; how soon it would be over; and how
+the action of one short night would give to all their nights and days to
+come sovereign sway and royalty! Then she threw contempt on his change
+of purpose, and accused him of fickleness and cowardice; and declared
+that she had given suck, and knew how tender it was to love the babe
+that milked her; but she would, while it was smiling in her face, have
+plucked it from her breast, and dashed its brains out, if she had so
+sworn to do it, as he had sworn to perform that murder. Then she added,
+how practicable it was to lay the guilt of the deed upon the drunken
+sleepy grooms. And with the valour of her tongue she so chastised his
+sluggish resolutions, that he once more summoned up courage to the
+bloody business.
+
+So, taking the dagger in his hand, he softly stole in the dark to the
+room where Duncan lay; and as he went, he thought he saw another dagger
+in the air, with the handle towards him, and on the blade and at the
+point of it drops of blood; but when he tried to grasp at it, it was
+nothing but air, a mere phantasm proceeding from his own hot and
+oppressed brain and the business he had in hand.
+
+Getting rid of this fear, he entered the king's room, whom he despatched
+with one stroke of his dagger. Just as he had done the murder, one of
+the grooms, who slept in the chamber, laughed in his sleep, and the
+other cried, "Murder," which woke them both; but they said a short
+prayer; one of them said, "God bless us!" and the other answered "Amen;"
+and addressed themselves to sleep again. Macbeth, who stood listening to
+them, tried to say, "Amen," when the fellow said, "God bless us!" but,
+though he had most need of a blessing, the word stuck in his throat, and
+he could not pronounce it.
+
+Again he thought he heard a voice which cried, "Sleep no more: Macbeth
+doth murder sleep, the innocent sleep, that nourishes life." Still it
+cried, "Sleep no more," to all the house. "Glamis hath murdered sleep,
+and therefore Cawdor shall sleep no more, Macbeth shall sleep no more."
+
+With such horrible imaginations Macbeth returned to his listening wife,
+who began to think he had failed of his purpose, and that the deed was
+somehow frustrated. He came in so distracted a state, that she
+reproached him with his want of firmness, and sent him to wash his hands
+of the blood which stained them, while she took his dagger, with purpose
+to stain the cheeks of the grooms with blood, to make it seem their
+guilt.
+
+Morning came, and with it the discovery of the murder, which could not
+be concealed; and though Macbeth and his lady made great show of grief,
+and the proofs against the grooms (the dagger being produced against
+them and their faces smeared with blood) were sufficiently strong, yet
+the entire suspicion fell upon Macbeth, whose inducements to such a deed
+were so much more forcible than such poor silly grooms could be supposed
+to have; and Duncan's two sons fled. Malcolm, the eldest, sought for
+refuge in the English court; and the youngest, Donalbain, made his
+escape to Ireland.
+
+The king's sons, who should have succeeded him, having thus vacated the
+throne, Macbeth as next heir was crowned king, and thus the prediction
+of the weird sisters was literally accomplished.
+
+Though placed so high, Macbeth and his queen could not forget the
+prophecy of the weird sisters, that, though Macbeth should be king, yet
+not his children, but the children of Banquo, should be kings after him.
+The thought of this, and that they had defiled their hands with blood,
+and done so great crimes, only to place the posterity of Banquo upon the
+throne, so rankled within them, that they determined to put to death
+both Banquo and his son, to make void the predictions of the weird
+sisters, which in their own case had been so remarkably brought to pass.
+
+For this purpose they made a great supper, to which they invited all the
+chief thanes; and, among the rest, with marks of particular respect,
+Banquo and his son Fleance were invited. The way by which Banquo was to
+pass to the palace at night was beset by murderers appointed by Macbeth,
+who stabbed Banquo; but in the scuffle Fleance escaped. From that
+Fleance descended a race of monarchs who afterwards filled the Scottish
+throne, ending with James the Sixth of Scotland and the First of
+England, under whom the two crowns of England and Scotland were united.
+
+At supper, the queen, whose manners were in the highest degree affable
+and royal, played the hostess with a gracefulness and attention which
+conciliated every one present, and Macbeth discoursed freely with his
+thanes and nobles, saying, that all that was honourable in the country
+was under his roof, if he had but his good friend Banquo present, whom
+yet he hoped he should rather have to chide for neglect, than to lament
+for any mischance. Just at these words the ghost of Banquo, whom he had
+caused to be murdered, entered the room and placed himself on the chair
+which Macbeth was about to occupy. Though Macbeth was a bold man, and
+one that could have faced the devil without trembling, at this horrible
+sight his cheeks turned white with fear, and he stood quite unmanned
+with his eyes fixed upon the ghost. His queen and all the nobles, who
+saw nothing, but perceived him gazing (as they thought) upon an empty
+chair, took it for a fit of distraction; and she reproached him,
+whispering that it was but the same fancy which made him see the dagger
+in the air, when he was about to kill Duncan. But Macbeth continued to
+see the ghost, and gave no heed to all they could say, while he
+addressed it with distracted words, yet so significant, that his queen,
+fearing the dreadful secret would be disclosed, in great haste dismissed
+the guests, excusing the infirmity of Macbeth as a disorder he was often
+troubled with.
+
+To such dreadful fancies Macbeth was subject. His queen and he had their
+sleeps afflicted with terrible dreams, and the blood of Banquo troubled
+them not more than the escape of Fleance, whom now they looked upon as
+father to a line of kings who should keep their posterity out of the
+throne. With these miserable thoughts they found no peace, and Macbeth
+determined once more to seek out the weird sisters, and know from them
+the worst.
+
+He sought them in a cave upon the heath, where they, who knew by
+foresight of his coming, were engaged in preparing their dreadful
+charms, by which they conjured up infernal spirits to reveal to them
+futurity. Their horrid ingredients were toads, bats, and serpents, the
+eye of a newt, and the tongue of a dog, the leg of a lizard, and the
+wing of the night-owl, the scale of a dragon, the tooth of a wolf, the
+maw of the ravenous salt-sea shark, the mummy of a witch, the root of
+the poisonous hemlock (this to have effect must be digged in the dark),
+the gall of a goat, and the liver of a Jew, with slips of the yew tree
+that roots itself in graves, and the finger of a dead child: all these
+were set on to boil in a great kettle, or cauldron, which, as fast as it
+grew too hot, was cooled with a baboon's blood: to these they poured in
+the blood of a sow that had eaten her young, and they threw into the
+flame the grease that had sweaten from a murderer's gibbet. By these
+charms they bound the infernal spirits to answer their questions.
+
+It was demanded of Macbeth, whether he would have his doubts resolved by
+them, or by their masters, the spirits. He, nothing daunted by the
+dreadful ceremonies which he saw, boldly answered, "Where are they? let
+me see them." And they called the spirits, which were three. And the
+first arose in the likeness of an armed head, and he called Macbeth by
+name, and bid him beware of the thane of Fife; for which caution Macbeth
+thanked him; for Macbeth had entertained a jealousy of Macduff, the
+thane of Fife.
+
+And the second spirit arose in the likeness of a bloody child, and he
+called Macbeth by name, and bid him have no fear, but laugh to scorn the
+power of man, for none of woman born should have power to hurt him; and
+he advised him to be bloody, bold, and resolute. "Then live, Macduff!"
+cried the king; "what need I fear of thee? but yet I will make assurance
+doubly sure. Thou shalt not live; that I may tell pale-hearted Fear it
+lies, and sleep in spite of thunder."
+
+That spirit being dismissed, a third arose in the form of a child
+crowned, with a tree in his hand. He called Macbeth by name, and
+comforted him against conspiracies, saying, that he should never be
+vanquished, until the wood of Birnam to Dunsinane Hill should come
+against him. "Sweet bodements! good!" cried Macbeth; "who can unfix the
+forest, and move it from its earth-bound roots? I see I shall live the
+usual period of man's life, and not be cut off by a violent death. But
+my heart throbs to know one thing. Tell me, if your art can tell so
+much, if Banquo's issue shall ever reign in this kingdom?" Here the
+cauldron sank into the ground, and a noise of music was heard, and eight
+shadows, like kings, passed by Macbeth, and Banquo last, who bore a
+glass which showed the figures of many more, and Banquo all bloody
+smiled upon Macbeth, and pointed to them; by which Macbeth knew that
+these were the posterity of Banquo, who should reign after him in
+Scotland; and the witches, with a sound of soft music, and with dancing,
+making a show of duty and welcome to Macbeth, vanished. And from this
+time the thoughts of Macbeth were all bloody and dreadful.
+
+The first thing he heard when he got out of the witches' cave, was that
+Macduff, thane of Fife, had fled to England, to join the army which was
+forming against him under Malcolm, the eldest son of the late king, with
+intent to displace Macbeth, and set Malcolm, the right heir, upon the
+throne. Macbeth, stung with rage, set upon the castle of Macduff, and
+put his wife and children, whom the thane had left behind, to the sword,
+and extended the slaughter to all who claimed the least relationship to
+Macduff.
+
+These and such-like deeds alienated the minds of all his chief nobility
+from him. Such as could, fled to join with Malcolm and Macduff, who were
+now approaching with a powerful army, which they had raised in England;
+and the rest secretly wished success to their arms, though for fear of
+Macbeth they could take no active part. His recruits went on slowly.
+Everybody hated the tyrant; nobody loved or honoured him; but all
+suspected him, and he began to envy the condition of Duncan, whom he had
+murdered, who slept soundly in his grave, against whom treason had done
+its worst: steel nor poison, domestic malice nor foreign levies, could
+hurt him any longer.
+
+While these things were acting, the queen, who had been the sole partner
+in his wickedness, in whose bosom he could sometimes seek a momentary
+repose from those terrible dreams which afflicted them both nightly,
+died, it is supposed, by her own hands, unable to bear the remorse of
+guilt, and public hate; by which event he was left alone, without a soul
+to love or care for him, or a friend to whom he could confide his wicked
+purposes.
+
+He grew careless of life, and wished for death; but the near approach of
+Malcolm's army roused in him what remained of his ancient courage, and
+he determined to die (as he expressed it) "with armour on his back."
+Besides this, the hollow promises of the witches had filled him with a
+false confidence, and he remembered the sayings of the spirits, that
+none of woman born was to hurt him, and that he was never to be
+vanquished till Birnam wood should come to Dunsinane, which he thought
+could never be. So he shut himself up in his castle, whose impregnable
+strength was such as defied a siege: here he sullenly waited the
+approach of Malcolm. When, upon a day, there came a messenger to him,
+pale and shaking with fear, almost unable to report that which he had
+seen; for he averred, that as he stood upon his watch on the hill, he
+looked towards Birnam, and to his thinking the wood began to move! "Liar
+and slave!" cried Macbeth; "if thou speakest false, thou shalt hang
+alive upon the next tree, till famine end thee. If thy tale be true, I
+care not if thou dost as much by me;" for Macbeth now began to faint in
+resolution, and to doubt the equivocal speeches of the spirits. He was
+not to fear till Birnam wood should come to Dunsinane; and now a wood
+did move! "However," said he, "if this which he avouches be true, let us
+arm and out. There is no flying hence, nor staying here. I begin to be
+weary of the sun, and wish my life at an end." With these desperate
+speeches he sallied forth upon the besiegers, who had now come up to the
+castle.
+
+The strange appearance which had given the messenger an idea of a wood
+moving is easily solved. When the besieging army marched through the
+wood of Birnam, Malcolm, like a skilful general, instructed his soldiers
+to hew down every one a bough and bear it before him, by way of
+concealing the true numbers of his host. This marching of the soldiers
+with boughs had at a distance the appearance which had frightened the
+messenger. Thus were the words of the spirit brought to pass, in a sense
+different from that in which Macbeth had understood them, and one great
+hold of his confidence was gone.
+
+And now a severe skirmishing took place, in which Macbeth, though feebly
+supported by those who called themselves his friends, but in reality
+hated the tyrant and inclined to the party of Malcolm and Macduff, yet
+fought with the extreme of rage and valour, cutting to pieces all who
+were opposed to him, till he came to where Macduff was fighting. Seeing
+Macduff, and remembering the caution of the spirit who had counselled
+him to avoid Macduff, above all men, he would have turned, but Macduff,
+who had been seeking him through the whole fight, opposed his turning,
+and a fierce contest ensued; Macduff giving him many foul reproaches for
+the murder of his wife and children. Macbeth, whose soul was charged
+enough with blood of that family already, would still have declined the
+combat; but Macduff still urged him to it, calling him tyrant, murderer,
+hell-hound, and villain.
+
+Then Macbeth remembered the words of the spirit, how none of woman born
+should hurt him; and smiling confidently he said to Macduff, "Thou
+losest thy labour, Macduff. As easily thou mayest impress the air with
+thy sword, as make me vulnerable. I bear a charmed life, which must not
+yield to one of woman born."
+
+"Despair thy charm," said Macduff, "and let that lying spirit whom thou
+hast served, tell thee, that Macduff was never born of woman, never as
+the ordinary manner of men is to be born, but was untimely taken from
+his mother."
+
+"Accursed be the tongue which tells me so," said the trembling Macbeth,
+who felt his last hold of confidence give way; "and let never man in
+future believe the lying equivocations of witches and juggling spirits,
+who deceive us in words which have double senses, and while they keep
+their promise literally, disappoint our hopes with a different meaning.
+I will not fight with thee."
+
+"Then live!" said the scornful Macduff; "we will have a show of thee, as
+men show monsters, and a painted board, on which shall be written, 'Here
+men may see the tyrant!'"
+
+"Never," said Macbeth, whose courage returned with despair; "I will not
+live to kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet, and to be baited
+with the curses of the rabble. Though Birnam wood be come to Dunsinane,
+and thou opposed to me, who wast never born of woman, yet will I try the
+last." With these frantic words he threw himself upon Macduff, who,
+after a severe struggle, in the end overcame him, and cutting off his
+head, made a present of it to the young and lawful king, Malcolm; who
+took upon him the government which, by the machinations of the usurper,
+he had so long been deprived of, and ascended the throne of Duncan the
+Meek, amid the acclamations of the nobles and the people.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL
+
+
+Bertram, Count of Rousillon, had newly come to his title and estate, by
+the death of his father. The King of France loved the father of Bertram,
+and when he heard of his death, he sent for his son to come immediately
+to his royal court in Paris, intending, for the friendship he bore the
+late count, to grace young Bertram with his especial favour and
+protection.
+
+Bertram was living with his mother, the widowed countess, when Lafeu, an
+old lord of the French court, came to conduct him to the king. The King
+of France was an absolute monarch, and the invitation to court was in
+the form of a royal mandate, or positive command, which no subject, of
+what high dignity soever, might disobey; therefore though the countess,
+in parting with this dear son, seemed a second time to bury her husband,
+whose loss she had so lately mourned, yet she dared not to keep him a
+single day, but gave instant orders for his departure. Lafeu, who came
+to fetch him, tried to comfort the countess for the loss of her late
+lord, and her son's sudden absence; and he said, in a courtier's
+flattering manner, that the king was so kind a prince, she would find in
+his majesty a husband, and that he would be a father to her son; meaning
+only, that the good king would befriend the fortunes of Bertram. Lafeu
+told the countess that the king had fallen into a sad malady, which was
+pronounced by his physicians to be incurable. The lady expressed great
+sorrow on hearing this account of the king's ill health, and said, she
+wished the father of Helena (a young gentlewoman who was present in
+attendance upon her) were living, for that she doubted not he could have
+cured his majesty of his disease. And she told Lafeu something of the
+history of Helena, saying she was the only daughter of the famous
+physician Gerard de Narbon, and that he had recommended his daughter to
+her care when he was dying, so that since his death she had taken Helena
+under her protection; then the countess praised the virtuous disposition
+and excellent qualities of Helena, saying she inherited these virtues
+from her worthy father. While she was speaking, Helena wept in sad and
+mournful silence, which made the countess gently reprove her for too
+much grieving for her father's death.
+
+Bertram now bade his mother farewell. The countess parted with this dear
+son with tears and many blessings, and commended him to the care of
+Lafeu, saying, "Good my lord, advise him, for he is an unseasoned
+courtier."
+
+Bertram's last words were spoken to Helena, but they were words of mere
+civility, wishing her happiness; and he concluded his short farewell to
+her with saying, "Be comfortable to my mother, your mistress, and make
+much of her."
+
+Helena had long loved Bertram, and when she wept in sad and mournful
+silence, the tears she shed were not for Gerard de Narbon. Helena loved
+her father, but in the present feeling of a deeper love, the object of
+which she was about to lose, she had forgotten the very form and
+features of her dead father, her imagination presenting no image to her
+mind but Bertram's.
+
+Helena had long loved Bertram, yet she always remembered that he was the
+Count of Rousillon, descended from the most ancient family in France.
+She of humble birth. Her parents of no note at all. His ancestors all
+noble. And therefore she looked up to the high-born Bertram as to her
+master and to her dear lord, and dared not form any wish but to live his
+servant, and so living to die his vassal. So great the distance seemed
+to her between his height of dignity and her lowly fortunes, that she
+would say, "It were all one that I should love a bright particular star,
+and think to wed it, Bertram is so far above me."
+
+Bertram's absence filled her eyes with tears and her heart with sorrow;
+for though she loved without hope, yet it was a pretty comfort to her to
+see him every hour, and Helena would sit and look upon his dark eye, his
+arched brow, and the curls of his fine hair, till she seemed to draw his
+portrait on the tablet of her heart, that heart too capable of retaining
+the memory of every line in the features of that loved face.
+
+Gerard de Narbon, when he died, left her no other portion than some
+prescriptions of rare and well-proved virtue, which by deep study and
+long experience in medicine he had collected as sovereign and almost
+infallible remedies. Among the rest, there was one set down as an
+approved medicine for the disease under which Lafeu said the king at
+that time languished: and when Helena heard of the king's complaint,
+she, who till now had been so humble and so hopeless, formed an
+ambitious project in her mind to go herself to Paris, and undertake the
+cure of the king. But though Helena was the possessor of this choice
+prescription, it was unlikely, as the king as well as his physicians was
+of opinion that his disease was incurable, that they would give credit
+to a poor unlearned virgin, if she should offer to perform a cure. The
+firm hopes that Helena had of succeeding, if she might be permitted to
+make the trial, seemed more than even her father's skill warranted,
+though he was the most famous physician of his time; for she felt a
+strong faith that this good medicine was sanctified by all the luckiest
+stars in heaven to be the legacy that should advance her fortune, even
+to the high dignity of being Count Rousillon's wife.
+
+Bertram had not been long gone, when the countess was informed by her
+steward, that he had overheard Helena talking to herself, and that he
+understood from some words she uttered, she was in love with Bertram,
+and thought of following him to Paris. The countess dismissed the
+steward with thanks, and desired him to tell Helena she wished to speak
+with her. What she had just heard of Helena brought the remembrance of
+days long past into the mind of the countess; those days probably when
+her love for Bertram's father first began; and she said to herself,
+"Even so it was with me when I was young. Love is a thorn that belongs
+to the rose of youth; for in the season of youth, if ever we are
+nature's children, these faults are ours, though then we think not they
+are faults."
+
+While the countess was thus meditating on the loving errors of her own
+youth, Helena entered, and she said to her, "Helena, you know I am a
+mother to you." Helena replied, "You are my honourable mistress." "You
+are my daughter," said the countess again: "I say I am your mother. Why
+do you start and look pale at my words?" With looks of alarm and
+confused thoughts, fearing the countess suspected her love, Helena still
+replied, "Pardon me, madam, you are not my mother; the Count Rousillon
+cannot be my brother, nor I your daughter." "Yet, Helena," said the
+countess, "you might be my daughter-in-law; and I am afraid that is what
+you mean to be, the words _mother_ and _daughter_ so disturb you.
+Helena, do you love my son?" "Good madam, pardon me," said the
+affrighted Helena. Again the countess repeated her question, "Do you
+love my son?" "Do not you love him, madam?" said Helena. The countess
+replied, "Give me not this evasive answer, Helena. Come, come, disclose
+the state of your affections, for your love has to the full appeared."
+Helena on her knees now owned her love, and with shame and terror
+implored the pardon of her noble mistress; and with words expressive of
+the sense she had of the inequality between their fortunes, she
+protested Bertram did not know she loved him, comparing her humble
+unaspiring love to a poor Indian, who adores the sun that looks upon his
+worshipper, but knows of him no more. The countess asked Helena if she
+had not lately an intent to go to Paris? Helena owned the design she had
+formed in her mind, when she heard Lafeu speak of the king's illness.
+"This was your motive for wishing to go to Paris," said the countess,
+"was it? Speak truly." Helena honestly answered, "My lord your son made
+me to think of this; else Paris, and the medicine, and the king, had
+from the conversation of my thoughts been absent then." The countess
+heard the whole of this confession without saying a word either of
+approval or of blame, but she strictly questioned Helena as to the
+probability of the medicine being useful to the king. She found that it
+was the most prized by Gerard de Narbon of all he possessed, and that he
+had given it to his daughter on his deathbed; and remembering the solemn
+promise she had made at that awful hour in regard to this young maid,
+whose destiny, and the life of the king himself, seemed to depend on the
+execution of a project (which though conceived by the fond suggestions
+of a loving maiden's thoughts, the countess knew not but it might be the
+unseen workings of Providence to bring to pass the recovery of the king,
+and to lay the foundation of the future fortunes of Gerard de Narbon's
+daughter), free leave she gave to Helena to pursue her own way, and
+generously furnished her with ample means and suitable attendants; and
+Helena set out for Paris with the blessings of the countess, and her
+kindest wishes for her success.
+
+Helena arrived at Paris, and by the assistance of her friend the old
+Lord Lafeu, she obtained an audience of the king. She had still many
+difficulties to encounter, for the king was not easily prevailed on to
+try the medicine offered him by this fair young doctor. But she told him
+she was Gerard de Narbon's daughter (with whose fame the king was well
+acquainted), and she offered the precious medicine as the darling
+treasure which contained the essence of all her father's long experience
+and skill, and she boldly engaged to forfeit her life, if it failed to
+restore his majesty to perfect health in the space of two days. The king
+at length consented to try it, and in two days' time Helena was to lose
+her life if the king did not recover; but if she succeeded, he promised
+to give her the choice of any man throughout all France (the princes
+only excepted) whom she could like for a husband; the choice of a
+husband being the fee Helena demanded if she cured the king of his
+disease.
+
+Helena did not deceive herself in the hope she conceived of the efficacy
+of her father's medicine. Before two days were at an end, the king was
+restored to perfect health, and he assembled all the young noblemen of
+his court together, in order to confer the promised reward of a husband
+upon his fair physician; and he desired Helena to look round on this
+youthful parcel of noble bachelors, and choose her husband. Helena was
+not slow to make her choice, for among these young lords she saw the
+Count Rousillon, and turning to Bertram, she said, "This is the man. I
+dare not say, my lord, I take you, but I give me and my service ever
+whilst I live into your guiding power." "Why, then," said the king,
+"young Bertram, take her; she is your wife." Bertram did not hesitate to
+declare his dislike to this present of the king's of the self-offered
+Helena, who, he said, was a poor physician's daughter, bred at his
+father's charge, and now living a dependent on his mother's bounty.
+Helena heard him speak these words of rejection and of scorn, and she
+said to the king, "That you are well, my lord, I am glad. Let the rest
+go." But the king would not suffer his royal command to be so slighted;
+for the power of bestowing their nobles in marriage was one of the many
+privileges of the kings of France; and that same day Bertram was married
+to Helena, a forced and uneasy marriage to Bertram, and of no promising
+hope to the poor lady, who, though she gained the noble husband she had
+hazarded her life to obtain, seemed to have won but a splendid blank,
+her husband's love not being a gift in the power of the King of France
+to bestow.
+
+Helena was no sooner married, than she was desired by Bertram to apply
+to the king for him for leave of absence from court; and when she
+brought him the king's permission for his departure, Bertram told her
+that he was not prepared for this sudden marriage, it had much unsettled
+him, and therefore she must not wonder at the course he should pursue.
+If Helena wondered not, she grieved when she found it was his intention
+to leave her. He ordered her to go home to his mother. When Helena heard
+this unkind command, she replied, "Sir, I can nothing say to this, but
+that I am your most obedient servant, and shall ever with true
+observance seek to eke out that desert, wherein my homely stars have
+failed to equal my great fortunes." But this humble speech of Helena's
+did not at all move the haughty Bertram to pity his gentle wife, and he
+parted from her without even the common civility of a kind farewell.
+
+Back to the countess then Helena returned. She had accomplished the
+purport of her journey, she had preserved the life of the king, and she
+had wedded her heart's dear lord, the Count Rousillon; but she returned
+back a dejected lady to her noble mother-in-law, and as soon as she
+entered the house she received a letter from Bertram which almost broke
+her heart.
+
+The good countess received her with a cordial welcome, as if she had
+been her son's own choice, and a lady of a high degree, and she spoke
+kind words to comfort her for the unkind neglect of Bertram in sending
+his wife home on her bridal day alone. But this gracious reception
+failed to cheer the sad mind of Helena, and she said, "Madam, my lord is
+gone, for ever gone." She then read these words out of Bertram's letter:
+_When you can get the ring from my finger, which never shall come off,
+then call me husband, but in such a Then I write a Never_. "This is a
+dreadful sentence!" said Helena. The countess begged her to have
+patience, and said, now Bertram was gone, she should be her child, and
+that she deserved a lord that twenty such rude boys as Bertram might
+tend upon, and hourly call her mistress. But in vain by respectful
+condescension and kind flattery this matchless mother tried to soothe
+the sorrows of her daughter-in-law.
+
+Helena still kept her eyes fixed upon the letter, and cried out in an
+agony of grief, _Till I have no wife, I have nothing in France_. The
+countess asked her if she found those words in the letter? "Yes, madam,"
+was all poor Helena could answer.
+
+The next morning Helena was missing. She left a letter to be delivered
+to the countess after she was gone, to acquaint her with the reason of
+her sudden absence: in this letter she informed her that she was so much
+grieved at having driven Bertram from his native country and his home,
+that to atone for her offence, she had undertaken a pilgrimage to the
+shrine of St. Jaques le Grand, and concluded with requesting the
+countess to inform her son that the wife he so hated had left his house
+for ever.
+
+Bertram, when he left Paris, went to Florence, and there became an
+officer in the Duke of Florence's army, and after a successful war, in
+which he distinguished himself by many brave actions, Bertram received
+letters from his mother, containing the acceptable tidings that Helena
+would no more disturb him; and he was preparing to return home, when
+Helena herself, clad in her pilgrim's weeds, arrived at the city of
+Florence.
+
+Florence was a city through which the pilgrims used to pass on their way
+to St. Jaques le Grand; and when Helena arrived at this city, she heard
+that a hospitable widow dwelt there, who used to receive into her house
+the female pilgrims that were going to visit the shrine of that saint,
+giving them lodging and kind entertainment. To this good lady,
+therefore, Helena went, and the widow gave her a courteous welcome, and
+invited her to see whatever was curious in that famous city, and told
+her that if she would like to see the duke's army, she would take her
+where she might have a full view of it. "And you will see a countryman
+of yours," said the widow; "his name is Count Rousillon, who has done
+worthy service in the duke's wars." Helena wanted no second invitation,
+when she found Bertram was to make part of the show. She accompanied her
+hostess; and a sad and mournful pleasure it was to her to look once more
+upon her dear husband's face. "Is he not a handsome man?" said the
+widow. "I like him well," replied Helena, with great truth. All the way
+they walked, the talkative widow's discourse was all of Bertram: she
+told Helena the story of Bertram's marriage, and how he had deserted the
+poor lady his wife, and entered into the duke's army to avoid living
+with her. To this account of her own misfortunes Helena patiently
+listened, and when it was ended, the history of Bertram was not yet
+done, for then the widow began another tale, every word of which sank
+deep into the mind of Helena; for the story she now told was of
+Bertram's love for her daughter.
+
+Though Bertram did not like the marriage forced on him by the king, it
+seems he was not insensible to love, for since he had been stationed
+with the army at Florence, he had fallen in love with Diana, a fair
+young gentlewoman, the daughter of this widow who was Helena's hostess;
+and every night, with music of all sorts, and songs composed in praise
+of Diana's beauty, he would come under her window, and solicit her love;
+and all his suit to her was, that she would permit him to visit her by
+stealth after the family were retired to rest; but Diana would by no
+means be persuaded to grant this improper request, nor give any
+encouragement to his suit, knowing him to be a married man; for Diana
+had been brought up under the counsels of a prudent mother, who, though
+she was now in reduced circumstances, was well born, and descended from
+the noble family of the Capulets.
+
+All this the good lady related to Helena, highly praising the virtuous
+principles of her discreet daughter, which she said were entirely owing
+to the excellent education and good advice she had given her; and she
+further said, that Bertram had been particularly importunate with Diana
+to admit him to the visit he so much desired that night, because he was
+going to leave Florence early the next morning.
+
+Though it grieved Helena to hear of Bertram's love for the widow's
+daughter, yet from this story the ardent mind of Helena conceived a
+project (nothing discouraged at the ill success of her former one) to
+recover her truant lord. She disclosed to the widow that she was Helena,
+the deserted wife of Bertram, and requested that her kind hostess and
+her daughter would suffer this visit from Bertram to take place, and
+allow her to pass herself upon Bertram for Diana; telling them, her
+chief motive for desiring to have this secret meeting with her husband,
+was to get a ring from him, which he had said, if ever she was in
+possession of he would acknowledge her as his wife.
+
+The widow and her daughter promised to assist her in this affair, partly
+moved by pity for this unhappy forsaken wife, and partly won over to her
+interest by the promises of reward which Helena made them, giving them a
+purse of money in earnest of her future favour. In the course of that
+day Helena caused information to be sent to Bertram that she was dead;
+hoping that when he thought himself free to make a second choice by the
+news of her death, he would offer marriage to her in her feigned
+character of Diana. And if she could obtain the ring and this promise
+too, she doubted not she should make some future good come of it.
+
+In the evening, after it was dark, Bertram was admitted into Diana's
+chamber, and Helena was there ready to receive him. The flattering
+compliments and love discourse he addressed to Helena were precious
+sounds to her, though she knew they were meant for Diana; and Bertram
+was so well pleased with her, that he made her a solemn promise to be
+her husband, and to love her for ever; which she hoped would be
+prophetic of a real affection, when he should know it was his own wife,
+the despised Helena, whose conversation had so delighted him.
+
+Bertram never knew how sensible a lady Helena was, else perhaps he would
+not have been so regardless of her; and seeing her every day, he had
+entirely overlooked her beauty; a face we are accustomed to see
+constantly, losing the effect which is caused by the first sight either
+of beauty or of plainness; and of her understanding it was impossible he
+should judge, because she felt such reverence, mixed with her love for
+him, that she was always silent in his presence: but now that her future
+fate, and the happy ending of all her love-projects, seemed to depend on
+her leaving a favourable impression on the mind of Bertram from this
+night's interview, she exerted all her wit to please him; and the simple
+graces of her lively conversation and the endearing sweetness of her
+manners so charmed Bertram, that he vowed she should be his wife. Helena
+begged the ring from off his finger as a token of his regard, and he
+gave it to her; and in return for this ring, which it was of such
+importance to her to possess, she gave him another ring, which was one
+the king had made her a present of. Before it was light in the morning,
+she sent Bertram away; and he immediately set out on his journey towards
+his mother's house.
+
+Helena prevailed on the widow and Diana to accompany her to Paris, their
+further assistance being necessary to the full accomplishment of the
+plan she had formed. When they arrived there, they found the king was
+gone upon a visit to the Countess of Rousillon, and Helena followed the
+king with all the speed she could make.
+
+The king was still in perfect health, and his gratitude to her who had
+been the means of his recovery was so lively in his mind, that the
+moment he saw the Countess of Rousillon, he began to talk of Helena,
+calling her a precious jewel that was lost by the folly of her son; but
+seeing the subject distressed the countess, who sincerely lamented the
+death of Helena, he said, "My good lady, I have forgiven and forgotten
+all." But the good-natured old Lafeu, who was present, and could not
+bear that the memory of his favourite Helena should be so lightly passed
+over, said, "This I must say, the young lord did great offence to his
+majesty, his mother, and his lady; but to himself he did the greatest
+wrong of all, for he has lost a wife whose beauty astonished all eyes,
+whose words took all ears captive, whose deep perfection made all hearts
+wish to serve her." The king said, "Praising what is lost makes the
+remembrance dear. Well--call him hither;" meaning Bertram, who now
+presented himself before the king: and, on his expressing deep sorrow
+for the injuries he had done to Helena, the king, for his dead father's
+and his admirable mother's sake, pardoned him and restored him once more
+to his favour. But the gracious countenance of the king was soon changed
+towards him, for he perceived that Bertram wore the very ring upon his
+finger which he had given to Helena: and he well remembered that Helena
+had called all the saints in heaven to witness she would never part with
+that ring, unless she sent it to the king himself upon some great
+disaster befalling her; and Bertram, on the king's questioning him how
+he came by the ring, told an improbable story of a lady throwing it to
+him out of a window, and denied ever having seen Helena since the day of
+their marriage. The king, knowing Bertram's dislike to his wife, feared
+he had destroyed her: and he ordered his guards to seize Bertram,
+saying, "I am wrapt in dismal thinking, for I fear the life of Helena
+was foully snatched." At this moment Diana and her mother entered, and
+presented a petition to the king, wherein they begged his majesty to
+exert his royal power to compel Bertram to marry Diana, he having made
+her a solemn promise of marriage. Bertram, fearing the king's anger,
+denied he had made any such promise; and then Diana produced the ring
+(which Helena had put into her hands) to confirm the truth of her words;
+and she said that she had given Bertram the ring he then wore, in
+exchange for that, at the time he vowed to marry her. On hearing this,
+the king ordered the guards to seize her also; and her account of the
+ring differing from Bertram's, the king's suspicions were confirmed: and
+he said, if they did not confess how they came by this ring of Helena's,
+they should be both put to death. Diana requested her mother might be
+permitted to fetch the jeweller of whom she bought the ring, which being
+granted, the widow went out, and presently returned leading in Helena
+herself.
+
+The good countess, who in silent grief had beheld her son's danger, and
+had even dreaded that the suspicion of his having destroyed his wife
+might possibly be true, finding her dear Helena, whom she loved with
+even a maternal affection, was still living, felt a delight she was
+hardly able to support; and the king, scarce believing for joy that it
+was Helena, said, "Is this indeed the wife of Bertram that I see?"
+Helena, feeling herself yet an unacknowledged wife, replied, "No, my
+good lord, it is but the shadow of a wife you see, the name and not the
+thing." Bertram cried out, "Both, both! O pardon!"--"O my lord," said
+Helena, "when I personated this fair maid, I found you wondrous kind;
+and look, here is your letter!" reading to him in a joyful tone those
+words which she had once repeated so sorrowfully, _When from my finger
+you can get this ring_,--"This is done; it was to me you gave the ring.
+Will you be mine, now you are doubly won?" Bertram replied, "If you can
+make it plain that you were the lady I talked with that night, I will
+love you dearly ever, ever dearly." This was no difficult task, for the
+widow and Diana came with Helena to prove this fact; and the king was so
+well pleased with Diana, for the friendly assistance she had rendered
+the dear lady he so truly valued for the service she had done him, that
+he promised her also a noble husband: Helena's history giving him a
+hint, that it was a suitable reward for kings to bestow upon fair ladies
+when they perform notable services.
+
+Thus Helena at last found that her father's legacy was indeed sanctified
+by the luckiest stars in heaven; for she was now the beloved wife of her
+dear Bertram, the daughter-in-law of her noble mistress, and herself the
+Countess of Rousillon.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+THE TAMING OF THE SHREW
+
+
+Katharine, the Shrew, was the eldest daughter of Baptista, a rich
+gentleman of Padua. She was a lady of such an ungovernable spirit and
+fiery temper, such a loud-tongued scold, that she was known in Padua by
+no other name than Katharine the Shrew. It seemed very unlikely, indeed
+impossible, that any gentleman would ever be found who would venture to
+marry this lady, and therefore Baptista was much blamed for deferring
+his consent to many excellent offers that were made to her gentle sister
+Bianca, putting off all Bianca's suitors with this excuse, that when the
+eldest sister was fairly off his hands, they should have free leave to
+address young Bianca.
+
+[Illustration: PETRUCHIO, PRETENDING TO FIND FAULT WITH EVERY DISH,
+THREW THE MEAT ABOUT THE FLOOR]
+
+It happened, however, that a gentleman, named Petruchio, came to Padua,
+purposely to look out for a wife, who, nothing discouraged by these
+reports of Katharine's temper, and hearing she was rich and handsome,
+resolved upon marrying this famous termagant, and taming her into a meek
+and manageable wife. And truly none was so fit to set about this
+herculean labour as Petruchio, whose spirit was as high as Katharine's,
+and he was a witty and most happy-tempered humourist, and withal so
+wise, and of such a true judgment, that he well knew how to feign a
+passionate and furious deportment, when his spirits were so calm that
+himself could have laughed merrily at his own angry feigning, for his
+natural temper was careless and easy; the boisterous airs he assumed
+when he became the husband of Katharine being but in sport, or more
+properly speaking, affected by his excellent discernment, as the only
+means to overcome, in her own way, the passionate ways of the furious
+Katharine.
+
+A courting then Petruchio went to Katharine the Shrew; and first of all
+he applied to Baptista her father, for leave to woo his _gentle
+daughter_ Katharine, as Petruchio called her, saying archly, that having
+heard of her bashful modesty and mild behaviour, he had come from Verona
+to solicit her love. Her father, though he wished her married, was
+forced to confess Katharine would ill answer this character, it being
+soon apparent of what manner of gentleness she was composed, for her
+music-master rushed into the room to complain that the gentle Katharine,
+his pupil, had broken his head with her lute, for presuming to find
+fault with her performance; which, when Petruchio heard, he said, "It is
+a brave wench; I love her more than ever, and long to have some chat
+with her;" and hurrying the old gentleman for a positive answer, he
+said, "My business is in haste, Signior Baptista, I cannot come every
+day to woo. You knew my father: he is dead, and has left me heir to all
+his lands and goods. Then tell me, if I get your daughter's love, what
+dowry you will give with her." Baptista thought his manner was somewhat
+blunt for a lover; but being glad to get Katharine married, he answered
+that he would give her twenty thousand crowns for her dowry, and half
+his estate at his death: so this odd match was quickly agreed on, and
+Baptista went to apprise his shrewish daughter of her lover's addresses,
+and sent her in to Petruchio to listen to his suit.
+
+In the meantime Petruchio was settling with himself the mode of
+courtship he should pursue; and he said, "I will woo her with some
+spirit when she comes. If she rails at me, why then I will tell her she
+sings as sweetly as a nightingale; and if she frowns, I will say she
+looks as clear as roses newly washed with dew. If she will not speak a
+word, I will praise the eloquence of her language; and if she bids me
+leave her, I will give her thanks as if she bid me stay with her a
+week." Now the stately Katharine entered, and Petruchio first addressed
+her with "Good morrow, Kate, for that is your name, I hear." Katharine,
+not liking this plain salutation, said disdainfully, "They call me
+Katharine who do speak to me." "You lie," replied the lover; "for you
+are called plain Kate, and bonny Kate, and sometimes Kate the Shrew:
+but, Kate, you are the prettiest Kate in Christendom, and therefore,
+Kate, hearing your mildness praised in every town, I am come to woo you
+for my wife."
+
+A strange courtship they made of it. She in loud and angry terms showing
+him how justly she had gained the name of Shrew, while he still praised
+her sweet and courteous words, till at length, hearing her father
+coming, he said (intending to make as quick a wooing as possible),
+"Sweet Katharine, let us set this idle chat aside, for your father has
+consented that you shall be my wife, your dowry is agreed on, and
+whether you will or no, I will marry you."
+
+And now Baptista entering, Petruchio told him his daughter had received
+him kindly, and that she had promised to be married the next Sunday.
+This Katharine denied, saying she would rather see him hanged on Sunday,
+and reproached her father for wishing to wed her to such a mad-cap
+ruffian as Petruchio. Petruchio desired her father not to regard her
+angry words, for they had agreed she should seem reluctant before him,
+but that when they were alone he had found her very fond and loving; and
+he said to her, "Give me your hand, Kate; I will go to Venice to buy you
+fine apparel against our wedding day. Provide the feast, father, and
+bid the wedding guests. I will be sure to bring rings, fine array, and
+rich clothes, that my Katharine may be fine; and kiss me, Kate, for we
+will be married on Sunday."
+
+On the Sunday all the wedding guests were assembled, but they waited
+long before Petruchio came, and Katharine wept for vexation to think
+that Petruchio had only been making a jest of her. At last, however, he
+appeared; but he brought none of the bridal finery he had promised
+Katharine, nor was he dressed himself like a bridegroom, but in strange
+disordered attire, as if he meant to make a sport of the serious
+business he came about; and his servant and the very horses on which
+they rode were in like manner in mean and fantastic fashion habited.
+
+Petruchio could not be persuaded to change his dress; he said Katharine
+was to be married to him, and not to his clothes; and finding it was in
+vain to argue with him, to the church they went, he still behaving in
+the same mad way, for when the priest asked Petruchio if Katharine
+should be his wife, he swore so loud that she should, that, all amazed,
+the priest let fall his book, and as he stooped to take it up, this
+mad-brained bridegroom gave him such a cuff, that down fell the priest
+and his book again. And all the while they were being married he stamped
+and swore so, that the high-spirited Katharine trembled and shook with
+fear. After the ceremony was over, while they were yet in the church, he
+called for wine, and drank a loud health to the company, and threw a sop
+which was at the bottom of the glass full in the sexton's face, giving
+no other reason for this strange act, than that the sexton's beard grew
+thin and hungerly, and seemed to ask the sop as he was drinking. Never
+sure was there such a mad marriage; but Petruchio did but put this
+wildness on, the better to succeed in the plot he had formed to tame his
+shrewish wife.
+
+Baptista had provided a sumptuous marriage feast, but when they returned
+from church, Petruchio, taking hold of Katharine, declared his
+intention of carrying his wife home instantly: and no remonstrance of
+his father-in-law, or angry words of the enraged Katharine, could make
+him change his purpose. He claimed a husband's right to dispose of his
+wife as he pleased, and away he hurried Katharine off: he seeming so
+daring and resolute that no one dared attempt to stop him.
+
+Petruchio mounted his wife upon a miserable horse, lean and lank, which
+he had picked out for the purpose, and himself and his servant no better
+mounted; they journeyed on through rough and miry ways, and ever when
+this horse of Katharine's stumbled, he would storm and swear at the poor
+jaded beast, who could scarce crawl under his burthen, as if he had been
+the most passionate man alive.
+
+At length, after a weary journey, during which Katharine had heard
+nothing but the wild ravings of Petruchio at the servant and the horses,
+they arrived at his house. Petruchio welcomed her kindly to her home,
+but he resolved she should have neither rest nor food that night. The
+tables were spread, and supper soon served; but Petruchio, pretending to
+find fault with every dish, threw the meat about the floor, and ordered
+the servants to remove it away; and all this he did, as he said, in love
+for his Katharine, that she might not eat meat that was not well
+dressed. And when Katharine, weary and supperless, retired to rest, he
+found the same fault with the bed, throwing the pillows and bed-clothes
+about the room, so that she was forced to sit down in a chair, where if
+she chanced to drop asleep, she was presently awakened by the loud voice
+of her husband, storming at the servants for the ill-making of his
+wife's bridal-bed.
+
+The next day Petruchio pursued the same course, still speaking kind
+words to Katharine, but when she attempted to eat, finding fault with
+everything that was set before her, throwing the breakfast on the floor
+as he had done the supper; and Katharine, the haughty Katharine, was
+fain to beg the servants would bring her secretly a morsel of food; but
+they being instructed by Petruchio, replied, they dared not give her
+anything unknown to their master. "Ah," said she, "did he marry me to
+famish me? Beggars that come to my father's door have food given them.
+But I, who never knew what it was to entreat for anything, am starved
+for want of food, giddy for want of sleep, with oaths kept waking, and
+with brawling fed; and that which vexes me more than all, he does it
+under the name of perfect love, pretending that if I sleep or eat, it
+were present death to me." Here the soliloquy was interrupted by the
+entrance of Petruchio: he, not meaning she should be quite starved, had
+brought her a small portion of meat, and he said to her, "How fares my
+sweet Kate? Here, love, you see how diligent I am, I have dressed your
+meat myself. I am sure this kindness merits thanks. What, not a word?
+Nay, then you love not the meat, and all the pains I have taken is to no
+purpose." He then ordered the servant to take the dish away. Extreme
+hunger, which had abated the pride of Katharine, made her say, though
+angered to the heart, "I pray you let it stand." But this was not all
+Petruchio intended to bring her to, and he replied, "The poorest service
+is repaid with thanks, and so shall mine before you touch the meat." On
+this Katharine brought out a reluctant "I thank you, sir." And now he
+suffered her to make a slender meal, saying, "Much good may it do your
+gentle heart, Kate; eat apace! And now, my honey love, we will return to
+your father's house, and revel it as bravely as the best, with silken
+coats and caps and golden rings, with ruffs and scarfs and fans and
+double change of finery;" and to make her believe he really intended to
+give her these gay things, he called in a tailor and a haberdasher, who
+brought some new clothes he had ordered for her, and then giving her
+plate to the servant to take away, before she had half satisfied her
+hunger, he said, "What, have you dined?" The haberdasher presented a
+cap, saying, "Here is the cap your worship bespoke;" on which Petruchio
+began to storm afresh, saying the cap was moulded in a porringer, and
+that it was no bigger than a cockle or walnut shell, desiring the
+haberdasher to take it away and make it bigger. Katharine said, "I will
+have this; all gentlewomen wear such caps as these."--"When you are
+gentle," replied Petruchio, "you shall have one too, and not till then."
+The meat Katharine had eaten had a little revived her fallen spirits,
+and she said, "Why, sir, I trust I may have leave to speak, and speak I
+will: I am no child, no babe; your betters have endured to hear me say
+my mind; and if you cannot, you had better stop your ears." Petruchio
+would not hear these angry words, for he had happily discovered a better
+way of managing his wife than keeping up a jangling argument with her;
+therefore his answer was, "Why, you say true; it is a paltry cap, and I
+love you for not liking it."--"Love me, or love me not," said Katharine,
+"I like the cap, and I will have this cap or none."--"You say you wish
+to see the gown," said Petruchio, still affecting to misunderstand her.
+The tailor then came forward and showed her a fine gown he had made for
+her. Petruchio, whose intent was that she should have neither cap nor
+gown, found as much fault with that. "O mercy, Heaven!" said he, "what
+stuff is here! What, do you call this a sleeve? it is like a
+demi-cannon, carved up and down like an apple tart." The tailor said,
+"You bid me make it according to the fashion of the times;" and
+Katharine said, she never saw a better fashioned gown. This was enough
+for Petruchio, and privately desiring these people might be paid for
+their goods, and excuses made to them for the seemingly strange
+treatment he bestowed upon them, he with fierce words and furious
+gestures drove the tailor and the haberdasher out of the room; and then,
+turning to Katharine, he said, "Well, come, my Kate, we will go to your
+father's even in these mean garments we now wear." And then he ordered
+his horses, affirming they should reach Baptista's house by dinner-time,
+for that it was but seven o'clock. Now it was not early morning, but the
+very middle of the day, when he spoke this; therefore Katharine ventured
+to say, though modestly, being almost overcome by the vehemence of his
+manner, "I dare assure you, sir, it is two o'clock, and will be
+supper-time before we get there." But Petruchio meant that she should be
+so completely subdued, that she should assent to everything he said,
+before he carried her to her father; and therefore, as if he were lord
+even of the sun, and could command the hours, he said it should be what
+time he pleased to have it, before he set forward; "For," he said,
+"whatever I say or do, you still are crossing it. I will not go to-day,
+and when I go, it shall be what o'clock I say it is." Another day
+Katharine was forced to practise her newly-found obedience, and not till
+he had brought her proud spirit to such a perfect subjection, that she
+dared not remember there was such a word as contradiction, would
+Petruchio allow her to go to her father's house; and even while they
+were upon their journey thither, she was in danger of being turned back
+again, only because she happened to hint it was the sun, when he
+affirmed the moon shone brightly at noonday. "Now, by my mother's son,"
+said he, "and that is myself, it shall be the moon, or stars, or what I
+list, before I journey to your father's house." He then made as if he
+were going back again; but Katharine, no longer Katharine the Shrew, but
+the obedient wife, said, "Let us go forward, I pray, now we have come so
+far, and it shall be the sun, or moon, or what you please, and if you
+please to call it a rush candle henceforth, I vow it shall be so for
+me." This he was resolved to prove, therefore he said again, "I say, it
+is the moon."--"I know it is the moon," replied Katharine. "You lie, it
+is the blessed sun," said Petruchio. "Then it is the blessed sun,"
+replied Katharine; "but sun it is not, when you say it is not. What you
+will have it named, even so it is, and so it ever shall be for
+Katharine." Now then he suffered her to proceed on her journey; but
+further to try if this yielding humour would last, he addressed an old
+gentleman they met on the road as if he had been a young woman, saying
+to him, "Good morrow, gentle mistress;" and asked Katharine if she had
+ever beheld a fairer gentlewoman, praising the red and white of the old
+man's cheeks, and comparing his eyes to two bright stars; and again he
+addressed him, saying, "Fair lovely maid, once more good day to you!"
+and said to his wife, "Sweet Kate, embrace her for her beauty's sake."
+The now completely vanquished Katharine quickly adopted her husband's
+opinion, and made her speech in like sort to the old gentleman, saying
+to him, "Young budding virgin, you are fair, and fresh, and sweet:
+whither are you going, and where is your dwelling? Happy are the parents
+of so fair a child."--"Why, how now, Kate," said Petruchio; "I hope you
+are not mad. This is a man, old and wrinkled, faded and withered, and
+not a maiden, as you say he is." On this Katharine said, "Pardon me, old
+gentleman; the sun has so dazzled my eyes, that everything I look on
+seemeth green. Now I perceive you are a reverend father: I hope you will
+pardon me for my sad mistake."--"Do, good old grandsire," said Petruchio,
+"and tell us which way you are travelling. We shall be glad of your good
+company, if you are going our way." The old gentleman replied, "Fair
+sir, and you, my merry mistress, your strange encounter has much amazed
+me. My name is Vincentio, and I am going to visit a son of mine who
+lives at Padua." Then Petruchio knew the old gentleman to be the father
+of Lucentio, a young gentleman who was to be married to Baptista's
+younger daughter, Bianca, and he made Vincentio very happy, by telling
+him the rich marriage his son was about to make: and they all journeyed
+on pleasantly together till they came to Baptista's house, where there
+was a large company assembled to celebrate the wedding of Bianca and
+Lucentio, Baptista having willingly consented to the marriage of Bianca
+when he had got Katharine off his hands.
+
+When they entered, Baptista welcomed them to the wedding feast, and
+there was present also another newly married pair.
+
+Lucentio, Bianca's husband, and Hortensio, the other new married man,
+could not forbear sly jests, which seemed to hint at the shrewish
+disposition of Petruchio's wife, and these fond bridegrooms seemed
+highly pleased with the mild tempers of the ladies they had chosen,
+laughing at Petruchio for his less fortunate choice. Petruchio took
+little notice of their jokes till the ladies were retired after dinner,
+and then he perceived Baptista himself joined in the laugh against him:
+for when Petruchio affirmed that his wife would prove more obedient than
+theirs, the father of Katharine said, "Now, in good sadness, son
+Petruchio, I fear you have got the veriest shrew of all." "Well," said
+Petruchio, "I say no, and therefore for assurance that I speak the
+truth, let us each one send for his wife, and he whose wife is most
+obedient to come at first when she is sent for, shall win a wager which
+we will propose." To this the other two husbands willingly consented,
+for they were quite confident that their gentle wives would prove more
+obedient than the headstrong Katharine; and they proposed a wager of
+twenty crowns, but Petruchio merrily said, he would lay as much as that
+upon his hawk or hound, but twenty times as much upon his wife. Lucentio
+and Hortensio raised the wager to a hundred crowns, and Lucentio first
+sent his servant to desire Bianca would come to him. But the servant
+returned, and said, "Sir, my mistress sends you word she is busy and
+cannot come."--"How," said Petruchio, "does she say she is busy and
+cannot come? Is that an answer for a wife?" Then they laughed at him,
+and said, it would be well if Katharine did not send him a worse answer.
+And now it was Hortensio's turn to send for his wife; and he said to his
+servant, "Go, and entreat my wife to come to me." "Oh ho! entreat her!"
+said Petruchio. "Nay, then, she needs must come."--"I am afraid, sir,"
+said Hortensio, "your wife will not be entreated." But presently this
+civil husband looked a little blank, when the servant returned without
+his mistress; and he said to him, "How now! Where is my wife?"--"Sir,"
+said the servant, "my mistress says, you have some goodly jest in hand,
+and therefore she will not come. She bids you come to her."--"Worse and
+worse!" said Petruchio; and then he sent his servant, saying, "Sirrah,
+go to your mistress, and tell her I command her to come to me." The
+company had scarcely time to think she would not obey this summons, when
+Baptista, all in amaze, exclaimed, "Now, by my _holidame_, here comes
+Katharine!" and she entered, saying meekly to Petruchio, "What is your
+will, sir, that you send for me?"--"Where is your sister and Hortensio's
+wife?" said he. Katharine replied, "They sit conferring by the parlour
+fire."--"Go, fetch them hither!" said Petruchio. Away went Katharine
+without reply to perform her husband's command. "Here is a wonder," said
+Lucentio, "if you talk of a wonder."--"And so it is," said Hortensio; "I
+marvel what it bodes."--"Marry, peace it bodes," said Petruchio, "and
+love, and quiet life, and right supremacy; and, to be short, everything
+that is sweet and happy." Katharine's father, overjoyed to see this
+reformation in his daughter, said, "Now, fair befall thee, son
+Petruchio! you have won the wager, and I will add another twenty
+thousand crowns to her dowry, as if she were another daughter, for she
+is changed as if she had never been."--"Nay," said Petruchio, "I will
+win the wager better yet, and show more signs of her new-built virtue
+and obedience." Katharine now entering with the two ladies, he
+continued, "See where she comes, and brings your froward wives as
+prisoners to her womanly persuasion. Katharine, that cap of yours does
+not become you; off with that bauble, and throw it under foot."
+Katharine instantly took off her cap, and threw it down. "Lord!" said
+Hortensio's wife, "may I never have a cause to sigh till I am brought to
+such a silly pass!" And Bianca, she too said, "Fie, what foolish duty
+call you this?" On this Bianca's husband said to her, "I wish your duty
+were as foolish too! The wisdom of your duty, fair Bianca, has cost me a
+hundred crowns since dinner-time."--"The more fool you," said Bianca,
+"for laying on my duty."--"Katharine," said Petruchio, "I charge you
+tell these headstrong women what duty they owe their lords and
+husbands." And to the wonder of all present, the reformed shrewish lady
+spoke as eloquently in praise of the wife-like duty of obedience, as she
+had practised it implicitly in a ready submission to Petruchio's will.
+And Katharine once more became famous in Padua, not as heretofore, as
+Katharine the Shrew, but as Katharine the most obedient and duteous wife
+in Padua.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+THE COMEDY OF ERRORS
+
+
+The states of Syracuse and Ephesus being at variance, there was a cruel
+law made at Ephesus, ordaining that if any merchant of Syracuse was seen
+in the city of Ephesus, he was to be put to death, unless he could pay a
+thousand marks for the ransom of his life.
+
+�geon, an old merchant of Syracuse, was discovered in the streets of
+Ephesus, and brought before the duke, either to pay this heavy fine, or
+to receive sentence of death.
+
+�geon had no money to pay the fine, and the duke, before he pronounced
+the sentence of death upon him, desired him to relate the history of his
+life, and to tell for what cause he had ventured to come to the city of
+Ephesus, which it was death for any Syracusan merchant to enter.
+
+�geon said, that he did not fear to die, for sorrow had made him weary
+of his life, but that a heavier task could not have been imposed upon
+him than to relate the events of his unfortunate life. He then began his
+own history, in the following words:
+
+"I was born at Syracuse, and brought up to the profession of a merchant.
+I married a lady, with whom I lived very happily, but being obliged to
+go to Epidamnum, I was detained there by my business six months, and
+then, finding I should be obliged to stay some time longer, I sent for
+my wife, who, as soon as she arrived, was brought to bed of two sons,
+and what was very strange, they were both so exactly alike, that it was
+impossible to distinguish the one from the other. At the same time that
+my wife was brought to bed of these twin boys, a poor woman in the inn
+where my wife lodged was brought to bed of two sons, and these twins
+were as much like each other as my two sons were. The parents of these
+children being exceeding poor, I bought the two boys, and brought them
+up to attend upon my sons.
+
+"My sons were very fine children, and my wife was not a little proud of
+two such boys: and she daily wishing to return home, I unwillingly
+agreed, and in an evil hour we got on ship-board; for we had not sailed
+above a league from Epidamnum before a dreadful storm arose, which
+continued with such violence, that the sailors seeing no chance of
+saving the ship, crowded into the boat to save their own lives, leaving
+us alone in the ship, which we every moment expected would be destroyed
+by the fury of the storm.
+
+"The incessant weeping of my wife, and the piteous complaints of the
+pretty babes, who, not knowing what to fear, wept for fashion, because
+they saw their mother weep, filled me with terror for them, though I did
+not for myself fear death; and all my thoughts were bent to contrive
+means for their safety. I tied my youngest son to the end of a small
+spare mast, such as seafaring men provide against storms; at the other
+end I bound the youngest of the twin slaves, and at the same time I
+directed my wife how to fasten the other children in like manner to
+another mast. She thus having the care of the two eldest children, and I
+of the two younger, we bound ourselves separately to these masts with
+the children; and but for this contrivance we had all been lost, for the
+ship split on a mighty rock, and was dashed in pieces; and we, clinging
+to these slender masts, were supported above the water, where I, having
+the care of two children, was unable to assist my wife, who with the
+other children was soon separated from me; but while they were yet in my
+sight, they were taken up by a boat of fishermen, from Corinth, (as I
+supposed), and seeing them in safety, I had no care but to struggle with
+the wild sea-waves, to preserve my dear son and the youngest slave. At
+length we, in our turn, were taken up by a ship, and the sailors,
+knowing me, gave us kind welcome and assistance, and landed us in safety
+at Syracuse; but from that sad hour I have never known what became of my
+wife and eldest child.
+
+"My youngest son, and now my only care, when he was eighteen years of
+age, began to be inquisitive after his mother and his brother, and often
+importuned me that he might take his attendant, the young slave, who had
+also lost his brother, and go in search of them: at length I unwillingly
+gave consent, for though I anxiously desired to hear tidings of my wife
+and eldest son, yet in sending my younger one to find them, I hazarded
+the loss of him also. It is now seven years since my son left me; five
+years have I passed in travelling through the world in search of him: I
+have been in farthest Greece, and through the bounds of Asia, and
+coasting homewards, I landed here in Ephesus, being unwilling to leave
+any place unsought that harbours men; but this day must end the story of
+my life, and happy should I think myself in my death, if I were assured
+my wife and sons were living."
+
+Here the hapless �geon ended the account of his misfortunes; and the
+duke, pitying this unfortunate father, who had brought upon himself this
+great peril by his love for his lost son, said, if it were not against
+the laws, which his oath and dignity did not permit him to alter, he
+would freely pardon him; yet, instead of dooming him to instant death,
+as the strict letter of the law required, he would give him that day to
+try if he could beg or borrow the money to pay the fine.
+
+This day of grace did seem no great favour to �geon, for not knowing
+any man in Ephesus, there seemed to him but little chance that any
+stranger would lend or give him a thousand marks to pay the fine; and
+helpless and hopeless of any relief, he retired from the presence of the
+duke in the custody of a jailor.
+
+�geon supposed he knew no person in Ephesus; but at the very time he was
+in danger of losing his life through the careful search he was making
+after his youngest son, that son and his eldest son also were both in
+the city of Ephesus.
+
+�geon's sons, besides being exactly alike in face and person, were both
+named alike, being both called Antipholus, and the two twin slaves were
+also both named Dromio. �geon's youngest son, Antipholus of Syracuse, he
+whom the old man had come to Ephesus to seek, happened to arrive at
+Ephesus with his slave Dromio that very same day that �geon did; and he
+being also a merchant of Syracuse, he would have been in the same danger
+that his father was, but by good fortune he met a friend who told him
+the peril an old merchant of Syracuse was in, and advised him to pass
+for a merchant of Epidamnum; this Antipholus agreed to do, and he was
+sorry to hear one of his own countrymen was in this danger, but he
+little thought this old merchant was his own father.
+
+The eldest son of �geon (who must be called Antipholus of Ephesus, to
+distinguish him from his brother Antipholus of Syracuse) had lived at
+Ephesus twenty years, and, being a rich man, was well able to have paid
+the money for the ransom of his father's life; but Antipholus knew
+nothing of his father, being so young when he was taken out of the sea
+with his mother by the fishermen that he only remembered he had been so
+preserved, but he had no recollection of either his father or his
+mother; the fishermen who took up this Antipholus and his mother and the
+young slave Dromio, having carried the two children away from her (to
+the great grief of that unhappy lady), intending to sell them.
+
+Antipholus and Dromio were sold by them to Duke Menaphon, a famous
+warrior, who was uncle to the Duke of Ephesus, and he carried the boys
+to Ephesus when he went to visit the duke his nephew.
+
+The Duke of Ephesus taking a liking to young Antipholus, when he grew
+up, made him an officer in his army, in which he distinguished himself
+by his great bravery in the wars, where he saved the life of his patron
+the duke, who rewarded his merit by marrying him to Adriana, a rich lady
+of Ephesus; with whom he was living (his slave Dromio still attending
+him) at the time his father came there.
+
+Antipholus of Syracuse, when he parted with his friend, who advised him
+to say he came from Epidamnum, gave his slave Dromio some money to carry
+to the inn where he intended to dine, and in the meantime he said he
+would walk about and view the city, and observe the manners of the
+people.
+
+Dromio was a pleasant fellow, and when Antipholus was dull and
+melancholy he used to divert himself with the odd humours and merry
+jests of his slave, so that the freedoms of speech he allowed in Dromio
+were greater than is usual between masters and their servants.
+
+When Antipholus of Syracuse had sent Dromio away, he stood awhile
+thinking over his solitary wanderings in search of his mother and his
+brother, of whom in no place where he landed could he hear the least
+tidings; and he said sorrowfully to himself, "I am like a drop of water
+in the ocean, which seeking to find its fellow drop, loses itself in the
+wide sea. So I unhappily, to find a mother and a brother, do lose
+myself."
+
+While he was thus meditating on his weary travels, which had hitherto
+been so useless, Dromio (as he thought) returned. Antipholus, wondering
+that he came back so soon, asked him where he had left the money. Now it
+was not his own Dromio, but the twin-brother that lived with Antipholus
+of Ephesus, that he spoke to. The two Dromios and the two Antipholuses
+were still as much alike as �geon had said they were in their infancy;
+therefore no wonder Antipholus thought it was his own slave returned,
+and asked him why he came back so soon. Dromio replied, "My mistress
+sent me to bid you come to dinner. The capon burns, and the pig falls
+from the spit, and the meat will be all cold if you do not come home."
+"These jests are out of season," said Antipholus: "where did you leave
+the money?" Dromio still answering, that his mistress had sent him to
+fetch Antipholus to dinner: "What mistress?" said Antipholus. "Why, your
+worship's wife, sir," replied Dromio. Antipholus having no wife, he was
+very angry with Dromio, and said, "Because I familiarly sometimes chat
+with you, you presume to jest with me in this free manner. I am not in a
+sportive humour now: where is the money? we being strangers here, how
+dare you trust so great a charge from your own custody?" Dromio hearing
+his master, as he thought him, talk of their being strangers, supposing
+Antipholus was jesting, replied merrily, "I pray you, sir, jest as you
+sit at dinner. I had no charge but to fetch you home, to dine with my
+mistress and her sister." Now Antipholus lost all patience, and beat
+Dromio, who ran home, and told his mistress that his master had refused
+to come to dinner, and said that he had no wife.
+
+Adriana, the wife of Antipholus of Ephesus, was very angry when she
+heard that her husband said he had no wife; for she was of a jealous
+temper, and she said her husband meant that he loved another lady better
+than herself; and she began to fret, and say unkind words of jealousy
+and reproach of her husband; and her sister Luciana, who lived with her,
+tried in vain to persuade her out of her groundless suspicions.
+
+Antipholus of Syracuse went to the inn, and found Dromio with the money
+in safety there, and seeing his own Dromio, he was going again to chide
+him for his free jests, when Adriana came up to him, and not doubting
+but it was her husband she saw, she began to reproach him for looking
+strange upon her (as well he might, never having seen this angry lady
+before); and then she told him how well he loved her before they were
+married, and that now he loved some other lady instead of her. "How
+comes it now, my husband," said she, "O how comes it that I have lost
+your love?"--"Plead you to me, fair dame?" said the astonished
+Antipholus. It was in vain he told her he was not her husband, and that
+he had been in Ephesus but two hours; she insisted on his going home
+with her, and Antipholus at last, being unable to get away, went with
+her to his brother's house, and dined with Adriana and her sister, the
+one calling him husband, and the other brother, he, all amazed, thinking
+he must have been married to her in his sleep, or that he was sleeping
+now. And Dromio, who followed them, was no less surprised, for the
+cook-maid, who was his brother's wife, also claimed him for her husband.
+
+While Antipholus of Syracuse was dining with his brother's wife, his
+brother, the real husband, returned home to dinner with his slave
+Dromio; but the servants would not open the door, because their mistress
+had ordered them not to admit any company; and when they repeatedly
+knocked, and said they were Antipholus and Dromio, the maids laughed at
+them, and said that Antipholus was at dinner with their mistress, and
+Dromio was in the kitchen; and though they almost knocked the door down,
+they could not gain admittance, and at last Antipholus went away very
+angry, and strangely surprised at hearing a gentleman was dining with
+his wife.
+
+When Antipholus of Syracuse had finished his dinner, he was so perplexed
+at the lady's still persisting in calling him husband, and at hearing
+that Dromio had also been claimed by the cook-maid, that he left the
+house, as soon as he could find any pretence to get away; for though he
+was very much pleased with Luciana, the sister, yet the jealous-tempered
+Adriana he disliked very much, nor was Dromio at all better satisfied
+with his fair wife in the kitchen: therefore both master and man were
+glad to get away from their new wives as fast as they could.
+
+The moment Antipholus of Syracuse had left the house, he was met by a
+goldsmith, who mistaking him, as Adriana had done, for Antipholus of
+Ephesus, gave him a gold chain, calling him by his name; and when
+Antipholus would have refused the chain, saying it did not belong to
+him, the goldsmith replied he made it by his own orders; and went away,
+leaving the chain in the hands of Antipholus, who ordered his man Dromio
+to get his things on board a ship, not choosing to stay in a place any
+longer, where he met with such strange adventures that he surely thought
+himself bewitched.
+
+The goldsmith who had given the chain to the wrong Antipholus, was
+arrested immediately after for a sum of money he owed; and Antipholus,
+the married brother, to whom the goldsmith thought he had given the
+chain, happened to come to the place where the officer was arresting the
+goldsmith, who, when he saw Antipholus, asked him to pay for the gold
+chain he had just delivered to him, the price amounting to nearly the
+same sum as that for which he had been arrested. Antipholus denying the
+having received the chain, and the goldsmith persisting to declare that
+he had but a few minutes before given it to him, they disputed this
+matter a long time, both thinking they were right: for Antipholus knew
+the goldsmith never gave him the chain, and so like were the two
+brothers, the goldsmith was as certain he had delivered the chain into
+his hands, till at last the officer took the goldsmith away to prison
+for the debt he owed, and at the same time the goldsmith made the
+officer arrest Antipholus for the price of the chain; so that at the
+conclusion of their dispute, Antipholus and the merchant were both
+taken away to prison together.
+
+As Antipholus was going to prison, he met Dromio of Syracuse, his
+brother's slave, and mistaking him for his own, he ordered him to go to
+Adriana his wife, and tell her to send the money for which he was
+arrested. Dromio wondering that his master should send him back to the
+strange house where he dined, and from which he had just before been in
+such haste to depart, did not dare to reply, though he came to tell his
+master the ship was ready to sail: for he saw Antipholus was in no
+humour to be jested with. Therefore he went away, grumbling within
+himself, that he must return to Adriana's house, "Where," said he,
+"Dowsabel claims me for a husband: but I must go, for servants must obey
+their masters' commands."
+
+Adriana gave him the money, and as Dromio was returning, he met
+Antipholus of Syracuse, who was still in amaze at the surprising
+adventures he met with; for his brother being well known in Ephesus,
+there was hardly a man he met in the streets but saluted him as an old
+acquaintance: some offered him money which they said was owing to him,
+some invited him to come and see them, and some gave him thanks for
+kindnesses they said he had done them, all mistaking him for his
+brother. A tailor showed him some silks he had bought for him, and
+insisted upon taking measure of him for some clothes.
+
+Antipholus began to think he was among a nation of sorcerers and
+witches, and Dromio did not at all relieve his master from his
+bewildered thoughts, by asking him how he got free from the officer who
+was carrying him to prison, and giving him the purse of gold which
+Adriana had sent to pay the debt with. This talk of Dromio's of the
+arrest and of a prison, and of the money he had brought from Adriana,
+perfectly confounded Antipholus, and he said, "This fellow Dromio is
+certainly distracted, and we wander here in illusions;" and quite
+terrified at his own confused thoughts, he cried out, "Some blessed
+power deliver us from this strange place!"
+
+And now another stranger came up to him, and she was a lady, and she too
+called him Antipholus, and told him he had dined with her that day, and
+asked him for a gold chain which she said he had promised to give her.
+Antipholus now lost all patience, and calling her a sorceress, he denied
+that he had ever promised her a chain, or dined with her, or had even
+seen her face before that moment. The lady persisted in affirming he had
+dined with her, and had promised her a chain, which Antipholus still
+denying, she further said, that she had given him a valuable ring, and
+if he would not give her the gold chain, she insisted upon having her
+own ring again. On this Antipholus became quite frantic, and again
+calling her sorceress and witch, and denying all knowledge of her or her
+ring, ran away from her, leaving her astonished at his words and his
+wild looks, for nothing to her appeared more certain than that he had
+dined with her, and that she had given him a ring, in consequence of his
+promising to make her a present of a gold chain. But this lady had
+fallen into the same mistake the others had done, for she had taken him
+for his brother: the married Antipholus had done all the things she
+taxed this Antipholus with.
+
+When the married Antipholus was denied entrance into his own house
+(those within supposing him to be already there), he had gone away very
+angry, believing it to be one of his wife's jealous freaks, to which she
+was very subject, and remembering that she had often falsely accused him
+of visiting other ladies, he, to be revenged on her for shutting him out
+of his own house, determined to go and dine with this lady, and she
+receiving him with great civility, and his wife having so highly
+offended him, Antipholus promised to give her a gold chain, which he had
+intended as a present for his wife; it was the same chain which the
+goldsmith by mistake had given to his brother. The lady liked so well
+the thoughts of having a fine gold chain, that she gave the married
+Antipholus a ring; which when, as she supposed (taking his brother for
+him), he denied, and said he did not know her, and left her in such a
+wild passion, she began to think he was certainly out of his senses; and
+presently she resolved to go and tell Adriana that her husband was mad.
+And while she was telling it to Adriana, he came, attended by the jailor
+(who allowed him to come home to get the money to pay the debt), for the
+purse of money, which Adriana had sent by Dromio, and he had delivered
+to the other Antipholus.
+
+Adriana believed the story the lady told her of her husband's madness
+must be true, when he reproached her for shutting him out of his own
+house; and remembering how he had protested all dinner-time that he was
+not her husband, and had never been in Ephesus till that day, she had no
+doubt that he was mad; she therefore paid the jailor the money, and
+having discharged him, she ordered her servants to bind her husband with
+ropes, and had him conveyed into a dark room, and sent for a doctor to
+come and cure him of his madness: Antipholus all the while hotly
+exclaiming against this false accusation, which the exact likeness he
+bore to his brother had brought upon him. But his rage only the more
+confirmed them in the belief that he was mad; and Dromio persisting in
+the same story, they bound him also, and took him away along with his
+master.
+
+Soon after Adriana had put her husband into confinement, a servant came
+to tell her that Antipholus and Dromio must have broken loose from their
+keepers, for that they were both walking at liberty in the next street.
+On hearing this, Adriana ran out to fetch him home, taking some people
+with her to secure her husband again; and her sister went along with
+her. When they came to the gates of a convent in their neighbourhood,
+there they saw Antipholus and Dromio, as they thought, being again
+deceived by the likeness of the twin-brothers.
+
+Antipholus of Syracuse was still beset with the perplexities this
+likeness had brought upon him. The chain which the goldsmith had given
+him was about his neck, and the goldsmith was reproaching him for
+denying that he had it, and refusing to pay for it, and Antipholus was
+protesting that the goldsmith freely gave him the chain in the morning,
+and that from that hour he had never seen the goldsmith again.
+
+And now Adriana came up to him and claimed him as her lunatic husband,
+who had escaped from his keepers; and the men she brought with her were
+going to lay violent hands on Antipholus and Dromio; but they ran into
+the convent, and Antipholus begged the abbess to give him shelter in her
+house.
+
+And now came out the lady abbess herself to inquire into the cause of
+this disturbance. She was a grave and venerable lady, and wise to judge
+of what she saw, and she would not too hastily give up the man who had
+sought protection in her house; so she strictly questioned the wife
+about the story she told of her husband's madness, and she said, "What
+is the cause of this sudden distemper of your husband's? Has he lost his
+wealth at sea? Or is it the death of some dear friend that has disturbed
+his mind?" Adriana replied, that no such things as these had been the
+cause. "Perhaps," said the abbess, "he has fixed his affections on some
+other lady than you his wife; and that has driven him to this state."
+Adriana said she had long thought the love of some other lady was the
+cause of his frequent absences from home. Now it was not his love for
+another, but the teasing jealousy of his wife's temper, that often
+obliged Antipholus to leave his home; and (the abbess suspecting this
+from the vehemence of Adriana's manner) to learn the truth, she said,
+"You should have reprehended him for this."--"Why, so I did," replied
+Adriana. "Ay," said the abbess, "but perhaps not enough." Adriana,
+willing to convince the abbess that she had said enough to Antipholus
+on this subject, replied, "It was the constant subject of our
+conversation: in bed I would not let him sleep for speaking of it. At
+table I would not let him eat for speaking of it. When I was alone with
+him, I talked of nothing else; and in company I gave him frequent hints
+of it. Still all my talk was how vile and bad it was in him to love any
+lady better than me."
+
+The lady abbess, having drawn this full confession from the jealous
+Adriana, now said, "And therefore comes it that your husband is mad. The
+venomous clamour of a jealous woman is a more deadly poison than a mad
+dog's tooth. It seems his sleep was hindered by your railing; no wonder
+that his head is light: and his meat was sauced with your upbraidings;
+unquiet meals make ill digestions, and that has thrown him into this
+fever. You say his sports were disturbed by your brawls; being debarred
+from the enjoyment of society and recreation, what could ensue but dull
+melancholy and comfortless despair? The consequence is then, that your
+jealous fits have made your husband mad."
+
+Luciana would have excused her sister, saying, she always reprehended
+her husband mildly; and she said to her sister, "Why do you hear these
+rebukes without answering them?" But the abbess had made her so plainly
+perceive her fault, that she could only answer, "She has betrayed me to
+my own reproof."
+
+Adriana, though ashamed of her own conduct, still insisted on having her
+husband delivered up to her; but the abbess would suffer no person to
+enter her house, nor would she deliver up this unhappy man to the care
+of the jealous wife, determining herself to use gentle means for his
+recovery, and she retired into her house again, and ordered her gates to
+be shut against them.
+
+During the course of this eventful day, in which so many errors had
+happened from the likeness the twin brothers bore to each other, old
+�geon's day of grace was passing away, it being now near sunset; and at
+sunset he was doomed to die, if he could not pay the money.
+
+The place of his execution was near this convent, and here he arrived
+just as the abbess retired into the convent; the duke attending in
+person, that if any offered to pay the money, he might be present to
+pardon him.
+
+Adriana stopped this melancholy procession, and cried out to the duke
+for justice, telling him that the abbess had refused to deliver up her
+lunatic husband to her care. While she was speaking, her real husband
+and his servant Dromio, who had got loose, came before the duke to
+demand justice, complaining that his wife had confined him on a false
+charge of lunacy; and telling in what manner he had broken his bands,
+and eluded the vigilance of his keepers. Adriana was strangely surprised
+to see her husband, when she thought he had been within the convent.
+
+�geon, seeing his son, concluded this was the son who had left him to go
+in search of his mother and his brother; and he felt secure that this
+dear son would readily pay the money demanded for his ransom. He
+therefore spoke to Antipholus in words of fatherly affection, with
+joyful hope that he should now be released. But to the utter
+astonishment of �geon, his son denied all knowledge of him, as well he
+might, for this Antipholus had never seen his father since they were
+separated in the storm in his infancy; but while the poor old �geon was
+in vain endeavouring to make his son acknowledge him, thinking surely
+that either his griefs and the anxieties he had suffered had so
+strangely altered him that his son did not know him, or else that he was
+ashamed to acknowledge his father in his misery; in the midst of this
+perplexity, the lady abbess and the other Antipholus and Dromio came
+out, and the wondering Adriana saw two husbands and two Dromios standing
+before her.
+
+And now these riddling errors, which had so perplexed them all, were
+clearly made out. When the duke saw the two Antipholuses and the two
+Dromios both so exactly alike, he at once conjectured aright of these
+seeming mysteries, for he remembered the story �geon had told him in the
+morning; and he said, these men must be the two sons of �geon and their
+twin slaves.
+
+But now an unlooked-for joy indeed completed the history of �geon; and
+the tale he had in the morning told in sorrow, and under sentence of
+death, before the setting sun went down was brought to a happy
+conclusion, for the venerable lady abbess made herself known to be the
+long-lost wife of �geon, and the fond mother of the two Antipholuses.
+
+When the fishermen took the eldest Antipholus and Dromio away from her,
+she entered a nunnery, and by her wise and virtuous conduct, she was at
+length made lady abbess of this convent, and in discharging the rites of
+hospitality to an unhappy stranger she had unknowingly protected her own
+son.
+
+Joyful congratulations and affectionate greetings between these long
+separated parents and their children made them for a while forget that
+�geon was yet under sentence of death; but when they were become a
+little calm, Antipholus of Ephesus offered the duke the ransom money for
+his father's life; but the duke freely pardoned �geon, and would not
+take the money. And the duke went with the abbess and her newly-found
+husband and children into the convent, to hear this happy family
+discourse at leisure of the blessed ending of their adverse fortunes.
+And the two Dromios' humble joy must not be forgotten; they had their
+congratulations and greetings too, and each Dromio pleasantly
+complimented his brother on his good looks, being well pleased to see
+his own person (as in a glass) show so handsome in his brother.
+
+Adriana had so well profited by the good counsel of her mother-in-law,
+that she never after cherished unjust suspicions, or was jealous of her
+husband.
+
+Antipholus of Syracuse married the fair Luciana, the sister of his
+brother's wife; and the good old �geon, with his wife and sons, lived at
+Ephesus many years. Nor did the unravelling of these perplexities so
+entirely remove every ground of mistake for the future, but that
+sometimes, to remind them of adventures past, comical blunders would
+happen, and the one Antipholus, and the one Dromio, be mistaken for the
+other, making altogether a pleasant and diverting Comedy of Errors.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+MEASURE FOR MEASURE
+
+
+In the city of Vienna there once reigned a duke of such a mild and
+gentle temper, that he suffered his subjects to neglect the laws with
+impunity; and there was in particular one law, the existence of which
+was almost forgotten, the duke never having put it in force during his
+whole reign. This was a law dooming any man to the punishment of death,
+who should live with a woman that was not his wife; and this law,
+through the lenity of the duke, being utterly disregarded, the holy
+institution of marriage became neglected, and complaints were every day
+made to the duke by the parents of the young ladies in Vienna, that
+their daughters had been seduced from their protection, and were living
+as the companions of single men.
+
+The good duke perceived with sorrow this growing evil among his
+subjects; but he thought that a sudden change in himself from the
+indulgence he had hitherto shown, to the strict severity requisite to
+check this abuse, would make his people (who had hitherto loved him)
+consider him as a tyrant; therefore he determined to absent himself a
+while from his dukedom, and depute another to the full exercise of his
+power, that the law against these dishonourable lovers might be put in
+effect, without giving offence by an unusual severity in his own person.
+
+Angelo, a man who bore the reputation of a saint in Vienna for his
+strict and rigid life, was chosen by the duke as a fit person to
+undertake this important charge; and when the duke imparted his design
+to Lord Escalus, his chief counsellor, Escalus said, "If any man in
+Vienna be of worth to undergo such ample grace and honour, it is Lord
+Angelo." And now the duke departed from Vienna under pretence of making
+a journey into Poland, leaving Angelo to act as the lord deputy in his
+absence; but the duke's absence was only a feigned one, for he privately
+returned to Vienna, habited like a friar, with the intent to watch
+unseen the conduct of the saintly-seeming Angelo.
+
+It happened just about the time that Angelo was invested with his new
+dignity, that a gentleman, whose name was Claudio, had seduced a young
+lady from her parents; and for this offence, by command of the new lord
+deputy, Claudio was taken up and committed to prison, and by virtue of
+the old law which had been so long neglected, Angelo sentenced Claudio
+to be beheaded. Great interest was made for the pardon of young Claudio,
+and the good old Lord Escalus himself interceded for him. "Alas," said
+he, "this gentleman whom I would save had an honourable father, for
+whose sake I pray you pardon the young man's transgression." But Angelo
+replied, "We must not make a scare-crow of the law, setting it up to
+frighten birds of prey, till custom, finding it harmless, makes it their
+perch, and not their terror. Sir, he must die."
+
+Lucio, the friend of Claudio, visited him in the prison, and Claudio
+said to him, "I pray you, Lucio, do me this kind service. Go to my
+sister Isabel, who this day proposes to enter the convent of Saint
+Clare; acquaint her with the danger of my state; implore her that she
+make friends with the strict deputy; bid her go herself to Angelo. I
+have great hopes in that; for she can discourse with prosperous art, and
+well she can persuade; besides, there is a speechless dialect in
+youthful sorrow, such as moves men."
+
+Isabel, the sister of Claudio, had, as he said, that day entered upon
+her noviciate in the convent, and it was her intent, after passing
+through her probation as a novice, to take the veil, and she was
+inquiring of a nun concerning the rules of the convent, when they heard
+the voice of Lucio, who, as he entered that religious house, said,
+"Peace be in this place!"--"Who is it that speaks?" said Isabel. "It is
+a man's voice," replied the nun: "Gentle Isabel, go to him, and learn
+his business; you may, I may not. When you have taken the veil, you must
+not speak with men but in the presence of the prioress; then if you
+speak you must not show your face, or if you show your face, you must
+not speak."--"And have you nuns no further privileges?" said Isabel.
+"Are not these large enough?" replied the nun. "Yes, truly," said
+Isabel: "I speak not as desiring more, but rather wishing a more strict
+restraint upon the sisterhood, the votarists of Saint Clare." Again they
+heard the voice of Lucio, and the nun said, "He calls again. I pray you
+answer him." Isabel then went out to Lucio, and in answer to his
+salutation, said, "Peace and Prosperity! Who is it that calls?" Then
+Lucio, approaching her with reverence, said, "Hail, virgin, if such you
+be, as the roses on your cheeks proclaim you are no less! can you bring
+me to the sight of Isabel, a novice of this place, and the fair sister
+to her unhappy brother Claudio?"--"Why her unhappy brother?" said
+Isabel, "let me ask! for I am that Isabel, and his sister."--"Fair and
+gentle lady," he replied, "your brother kindly greets you by me; he is
+in prison."--"Woe is me! for what?" said Isabel. Lucio then told her,
+Claudio was imprisoned for seducing a young maiden. "Ah," said she, "I
+fear it is my cousin Juliet." Juliet and Isabel were not related, but
+they called each other cousin in remembrance of their school days'
+friendship; and as Isabel knew that Juliet loved Claudio, she feared she
+had been led by her affection for him into this transgression. "She it
+is," replied Lucio. "Why then, let my brother marry Juliet," said
+Isabel. Lucio replied that Claudio would gladly marry Juliet, but that
+the lord deputy had sentenced him to die for his offence; "Unless," said
+he, "you have the grace by your fair prayer to soften Angelo, and that
+is my business between you and your poor brother."--"Alas!" said Isabel,
+"what poor ability is there in me to do him good? I doubt I have no
+power to move Angelo."--"Our doubts are traitors," said Lucio, "and make
+us lose the good we might often win, by fearing to attempt it. Go to
+Lord Angelo! When maidens sue, and kneel, and weep, men give like
+gods."--"I will see what I can do," said Isabel: "I will but stay to
+give the prioress notice of the affair, and then I will go to Angelo.
+Commend me to my brother: soon at night I will send him word of my
+success."
+
+Isabel hastened to the palace, and threw herself on her knees before
+Angelo, saying, "I am a woful suitor to your honour, if it will please
+your honour to hear me."--"Well, what is your suit?" said Angelo. She
+then made her petition in the most moving terms for her brother's life.
+But Angelo said, "Maiden, there is no remedy; your brother is sentenced,
+and he must die."--"O just, but severe law," said Isabel: "I had a
+brother then--Heaven keep your honour!" and she was about to depart. But
+Lucio, who had accompanied her, said, "Give it not over so; return to
+him again, entreat him, kneel down before him, hang upon his gown. You
+are too cold; if you should need a pin, you could not with a more tame
+tongue desire it." Then again Isabel on her knees implored for mercy.
+"He is sentenced," said Angelo: "it is too late."--"Too late!" said
+Isabel: "Why, no: I that do speak a word may call it back again. Believe
+this, my lord, no ceremony that to great ones belongs, not the king's
+crown, nor the deputed sword, the marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's
+robe, becomes them with one half so good a grace as mercy does."--"Pray
+you begone," said Angelo. But still Isabel entreated; and she said, "If
+my brother had been as you, and you as he, you might have slipped like
+him, but he, like you, would not have been so stern. I would to heaven I
+had your power, and you were Isabel. Should it then be thus? No, I would
+tell you what it were to be a judge, and what a prisoner."--"Be content,
+fair maid!" said Angelo: "it is the law, not I, condemns your brother.
+Were he my kinsman, my brother, or my son, it should be thus with him.
+He must die to-morrow."--"To-morrow?" said Isabel; "Oh, that is sudden:
+spare him, spare him; he is not prepared for death. Even for our
+kitchens we kill the fowl in season; shall we serve Heaven with less
+respect than we minister to our gross selves? Good, good, my lord,
+bethink you, none have died for my brother's offence, though many have
+committed it. So you would be the first that gives this sentence, and he
+the first that suffers it. Go to your own bosom, my lord; knock there,
+and ask your heart what it does know that is like my brother's fault; if
+it confess a natural guiltiness such as his is, let it not sound a
+thought against my brother's life!" Her last words more moved Angelo
+than all she had before said, for the beauty of Isabel had raised a
+guilty passion in his heart, and he began to form thoughts of
+dishonourable love, such as Claudio's crime had been; and the conflict
+in his mind made him to turn away from Isabel; but she called him back,
+saying, "Gentle my lord, turn back; hark, how I will bribe you. Good my
+lord, turn back!"--"How, bribe me!" said Angelo, astonished that she
+should think of offering him a bribe. "Ay," said Isabel, "with such
+gifts that Heaven itself shall share with you; not with golden
+treasures, or those glittering stones, whose price is either rich or
+poor as fancy values them, but with true prayers that shall be up to
+Heaven before sunrise,--prayers from preserved souls, from fasting
+maids whose minds are dedicated to nothing temporal."--"Well, come to me
+to-morrow," said Angelo. And for this short respite of her brother's
+life, and for this permission that she might be heard again, she left
+him with the joyful hope that she should at last prevail over his stern
+nature: and as she went away she said, "Heaven keep your honour safe!
+Heaven save your honour!" Which when Angelo heard, he said within his
+heart, "Amen, I would be saved from thee and from thy virtues:" and
+then, affrighted at his own evil thoughts, he said, "What is this? What
+is this? Do I love her, that I desire to hear her speak again, and feast
+upon her eyes? What is it I dream on? The cunning enemy of mankind, to
+catch a saint, with saints does bait the hook. Never could an immodest
+woman once stir my temper, but this virtuous woman subdues me quite.
+Even till now, when men were fond, I smiled and wondered at them."
+
+In the guilty conflict in his mind Angelo suffered more that night than
+the prisoner he had so severely sentenced; for in the prison Claudio was
+visited by the good duke, who, in his friar's habit, taught the young
+man the way to heaven, preaching to him the words of penitence and
+peace. But Angelo felt all the pangs of irresolute guilt: now wishing to
+seduce Isabel from the paths of innocence and honour, and now suffering
+remorse and horror for a crime as yet but intentional. But in the end
+his evil thoughts prevailed; and he who had so lately started at the
+offer of a bribe, resolved to tempt this maiden with so high a bribe, as
+she might not be able to resist, even with the precious gift of her dear
+brother's life.
+
+When Isabel came in the morning, Angelo desired she might be admitted
+alone to his presence: and being there, he said to her, if she would
+yield to him her virgin honour and transgress even as Juliet had done
+with Claudio, he would give her her brother's life; "For," said he, "I
+love you, Isabel."--"My brother," said Isabel, "did so love Juliet, and
+yet you tell me he shall die for it."--"But," said Angelo, "Claudio
+shall not die, if you will consent to visit me by stealth at night, even
+as Juliet left her father's house at night to come to Claudio." Isabel,
+in amazement at his words, that he should tempt her to the same fault
+for which he passed sentence upon her brother, said, "I would do as much
+for my poor brother as for myself; that is, were I under sentence of
+death, the impression of keen whips I would wear as rubies, and go to my
+death as to a bed that longing I had been sick for, ere I would yield
+myself up to this shame." And then she told him, she hoped he only spoke
+these words to try her virtue. But he said, "Believe me, on my honour,
+my words express my purpose." Isabel, angered to the heart to hear him
+use the word Honour to express such dishonourable purposes, said, "Ha!
+little honour to be much believed; and most pernicious purpose. I will
+proclaim thee, Angelo, look for it! Sign me a present pardon for my
+brother, or I will tell the world aloud what man thou art!"--"Who will
+believe you, Isabel?" said Angelo; "my unsoiled name, the austereness of
+my life, my word vouched against yours, will outweigh your accusation.
+Redeem your brother by yielding to my will, or he shall die to-morrow.
+As for you, say what you can, my false will overweigh your true story.
+Answer me to-morrow."
+
+"To whom should I complain? Did I tell this, who would believe me?" said
+Isabel, as she went towards the dreary prison where her brother was
+confined. When she arrived there, her brother was in pious conversation
+with the duke, who in his friar's habit had also visited Juliet, and
+brought both these guilty lovers to a proper sense of their fault; and
+unhappy Juliet with tears and a true remorse confessed that she was more
+to blame than Claudio, in that she willingly consented to his
+dishonourable solicitations.
+
+As Isabel entered the room where Claudio was confined, she said, "Peace
+be here, grace, and good company!"--"Who is there?" said the disguised
+duke; "come in; the wish deserves a welcome."--"My business is a word or
+two with Claudio," said Isabel. Then the duke left them together, and
+desired the provost, who had the charge of the prisoners, to place him
+where he might overhear their conversation.
+
+"Now, sister, what is the comfort?" said Claudio. Isabel told him he
+must prepare for death on the morrow. "Is there no remedy?" said
+Claudio.--"Yes, brother," replied Isabel, "there is; but such a one, as
+if you consented to it would strip your honour from you, and leave you
+naked."--"Let me know the point," said Claudio. "O, I do fear you,
+Claudio!" replied his sister; "and I quake, lest you should wish to
+live, and more respect the trifling term of six or seven winters added
+to your life, than your perpetual honour! Do you dare to die? The sense
+of death is most in apprehension, and the poor beetle that we tread
+upon, feels a pang as great as when a giant dies." "Why do you give me
+this shame?" said Claudio. "Think you I can fetch a resolution from
+flowery tenderness? If I must die, I will encounter darkness as a bride,
+and hug it in my arms."--"There spoke my brother," said Isabel; "there
+my father's grave did utter forth a voice. Yes, you must die; yet would
+you think it, Claudio! this outward sainted deputy, if I would yield to
+him my virgin honour, would grant your life. O, were it but my life, I
+would lay it down for your deliverance as frankly as a pin!"--"Thanks,
+dear Isabel," said Claudio. "Be ready to die to-morrow," said Isabel.
+"Death is a fearful thing," said Claudio. "And shamed life a hateful,"
+replied his sister. But the thoughts of death now overcame the constancy
+of Claudio's temper, and terrors, such as the guilty only at their
+deaths do know, assailing him, he cried out, "Sweet sister, let me live!
+The sin you do to save a brother's life, nature dispenses with the deed
+so far, that it becomes a virtue."--"O faithless coward! O dishonest
+wretch!" said Isabel; "would you preserve your life by your sister's
+shame? O fie, fie, fie! I thought, my brother, you had in you such a
+mind of honour, that had you twenty heads to render up on twenty blocks,
+you would have yielded them up all, before your sister should stoop to
+such dishonour." "Nay, hear me, Isabel!" said Claudio. But what he would
+have said in defence of his weakness, in desiring to live by the
+dishonour of his virtuous sister, was interrupted by the entrance of the
+duke; who said, "Claudio, I have overheard what has passed between you
+and your sister. Angelo had never the purpose to corrupt her; what he
+said, has only been to make trial of her virtue. She having the truth of
+honour in her, has given him that gracious denial which he is most glad
+to receive. There is no hope that he will pardon you; therefore pass
+your hours in prayer, and make ready for death." Then Claudio repented
+of his weakness, and said, "Let me ask my sister's pardon! I am so out
+of love with life, that I will sue to be rid of it." And Claudio
+retired, overwhelmed with shame and sorrow for his fault.
+
+The duke being now alone with Isabel, commended her virtuous resolution,
+saying, "The hand that made you fair, has made you good."--"O," said
+Isabel, "how much is the good duke deceived in Angelo! if ever he
+return, and I can speak to him, I will discover his government." Isabel
+knew not that she was even now making the discovery she threatened. The
+duke replied, "That shall not be much amiss; yet as the matter now
+stands, Angelo will repel your accusation; therefore lend an attentive
+ear to my advisings. I believe that you may most righteously do a poor
+wronged lady a merited benefit, redeem your brother from the angry law,
+do no stain to your own most gracious person, and much please the absent
+duke, if peradventure he shall ever return to have notice of this
+business." Isabel said, she had a spirit to do anything he desired,
+provided it was nothing wrong. "Virtue is bold, and never fearful," said
+the duke: and then he asked her, if she had ever heard of Mariana, the
+sister of Frederick, the great soldier who was drowned at sea. "I have
+heard of the lady," said Isabel, "and good words went with her
+name."--"This lady," said the duke, "is the wife of Angelo; but her
+marriage dowry was on board the vessel in which her brother perished,
+and mark how heavily this befell to the poor gentlewoman! for, beside
+the loss of a most noble and renowned brother, who in his love towards
+her was ever most kind and natural, in the wreck of her fortune she lost
+the affections of her husband, the well-seeming Angelo; who pretending
+to discover some dishonour in this honourable lady (though the true
+cause was the loss of her dowry) left her in her tears, and dried not
+one of them with his comfort. His unjust unkindness, that in all reason
+should have quenched her love, has, like an impediment in the current,
+made it more unruly, and Mariana loves her cruel husband with the full
+continuance of her first affection." The duke then more plainly unfolded
+his plan. It was, that Isabel should go to Lord Angelo, and seemingly
+consent to come to him as he desired at midnight; that by this means she
+would obtain the promised pardon; and that Mariana should go in her
+stead to the appointment, and pass herself upon Angelo in the dark for
+Isabel. "Nor, gentle daughter," said the feigned friar, "fear you to do
+this thing; Angelo is her husband, and to bring them thus together is no
+sin." Isabel being pleased with this project, departed to do as he
+directed her; and he went to apprise Mariana of their intention. He had
+before this time visited this unhappy lady in his assumed character,
+giving her religious instruction and friendly consolation, at which
+times he had learned her sad story from her own lips; and now she,
+looking upon him as a holy man, readily consented to be directed by him
+in this undertaking.
+
+When Isabel returned from her interview with Angelo, to the house of
+Mariana, where the duke had appointed her to meet him, he said, "Well
+met, and in good time; what is the news from this good deputy?" Isabel
+related the manner in which she had settled the affair. "Angelo," said
+she, "has a garden surrounded with a brick wall, on the western side of
+which is a vineyard, and to that vineyard is a gate." And then she
+showed to the duke and Mariana two keys that Angelo had given her; and
+she said, "This bigger key opens the vineyard gate; this other a little
+door which leads from the vineyard to the garden. There I have made my
+promise at the dead of the night to call upon him, and have got from him
+his word of assurance for my brother's life. I have taken a due and wary
+note of the place; and with whispering and most guilty diligence he
+showed me the way twice over."--"Are there no other tokens agreed upon
+between you, that Mariana must observe?" said the duke. "No, none," said
+Isabel, "only to go when it is dark. I have told him my time can be but
+short; for I have made him think a servant comes along with me, and that
+this servant is persuaded I come about my brother." The duke commended
+her discreet management, and she, turning to Mariana, said, "Little have
+you to say to Angelo, when you depart from him, but soft and low,
+_Remember now my brother_!"
+
+Mariana was that night conducted to the appointed place by Isabel, who
+rejoiced that she had, as she supposed, by this device preserved both
+her brother's life and her own honour. But that her brother's life was
+safe the duke was not well satisfied, and therefore at midnight he again
+repaired to the prison, and it was well for Claudio that he did so, else
+would Claudio have that night been beheaded; for soon after the duke
+entered the prison, an order came from the cruel deputy, commanding that
+Claudio should be beheaded, and his head sent to him by five o'clock in
+the morning. But the duke persuaded the provost to put off the
+execution of Claudio, and to deceive Angelo, by sending him the head of
+a man who died that morning in the prison. And to prevail upon the
+provost to agree to this, the duke, whom still the provost suspected not
+to be anything more or greater than he seemed, showed the provost a
+letter written with the duke's hand, and sealed with his seal, which
+when the provost saw, he concluded this friar must have some secret
+order from the absent duke, and therefore he consented to spare Claudio;
+and he cut off the dead man's head, and carried it to Angelo.
+
+Then the duke in his own name, wrote to Angelo a letter, saying, that
+certain accidents had put a stop to his journey, and that he should be
+in Vienna by the following morning, requiring Angelo to meet him at the
+entrance of the city, there to deliver up his authority; and the duke
+also commanded it to be proclaimed, that if any of his subjects craved
+redress for injustice, they should exhibit their petitions in the street
+on his first entrance into the city.
+
+Early in the morning Isabel came to the prison, and the duke, who there
+awaited her coming, for secret reasons thought it good to tell her that
+Claudio was beheaded; therefore when Isabel inquired if Angelo had sent
+the pardon for her brother, he said, "Angelo has released Claudio from
+this world. His head is off, and sent to the deputy." The much-grieved
+sister cried out, "O unhappy Claudio, wretched Isabel, injurious world,
+most wicked Angelo!" The seeming friar bid her take comfort, and when
+she was become a little calm, he acquainted her with the near prospect
+of the duke's return, and told her in what manner she should proceed in
+preferring her complaint against Angelo; and he bade her not fear if the
+cause should seem to go against her for a while. Leaving Isabel
+sufficiently instructed, he next went to Mariana, and gave her counsel
+in what manner she also should act.
+
+Then the duke laid aside his friar's habit, and in his own royal robes,
+amidst a joyful crowd of his faithful subjects, assembled to greet his
+arrival, entered the city of Vienna, where he was met by Angelo, who
+delivered up his authority in the proper form. And there came Isabel, in
+the manner of a petitioner for redress, and said, "Justice, most royal
+duke! I am the sister of one Claudio, who, for the seducing a young
+maid, was condemned to lose his head. I made my suit to Lord Angelo for
+my brother's pardon. It were needless to tell your grace how I prayed
+and kneeled, how he repelled me, and how I replied; for this was of much
+length. The vile conclusion I now begin with grief and shame to utter.
+Angelo would not but by my yielding to his dishonourable love release my
+brother; and after much debate within myself, my sisterly remorse
+overcame my virtue, and I did yield to him. But the next morning
+betimes, Angelo, forfeiting his promise, sent a warrant for my poor
+brother's head!" The duke affected to disbelieve her story; and Angelo
+said that grief for her brother's death, who had suffered by the due
+course of the law, had disordered her senses. And now another suitor
+approached, which was Mariana; and Mariana said, "Noble prince, as there
+comes light from heaven, and truth from breath, as there is sense in
+truth and truth in virtue, I am this man's wife, and, my good lord, the
+words of Isabel are false; for the night she says she was with Angelo, I
+passed that night with him in the garden-house. As this is true, let me
+in safety rise, or else for ever be fixed here a marble monument." Then
+did Isabel appeal for the truth of what she had said to Friar Lodowick,
+that being the name the duke had assumed in his disguise. Isabel and
+Mariana had both obeyed his instructions in what they said, the duke
+intending that the innocence of Isabel should be plainly proved in that
+public manner before the whole city of Vienna; but Angelo little thought
+that it was from such a cause that they thus differed in their story,
+and he hoped from their contradictory evidence to be able to clear
+himself from the accusation of Isabel; and he said, assuming the look
+of offended innocence, "I did but smile till now; but, good my lord, my
+patience here is touched, and I perceive these poor distracted women are
+but the instruments of some greater one, who sets them on. Let me have
+way, my lord, to find this practice out."--"Ay, with all my heart," said
+the duke, "and punish them to the height of your pleasure. You, Lord
+Escalus, sit with Lord Angelo, lend him your pains to discover this
+abuse; the friar is sent for that set them on, and when he comes, do
+with your injuries as may seem best in any chastisement. I for a while
+will leave you, but stir not you, Lord Angelo, till you have well
+determined upon this slander." The duke then went away, leaving Angelo
+well pleased to be deputed judge and umpire in his own cause. But the
+duke was absent only while he threw off his royal robes and put on his
+friar's habit; and in that disguise again he presented himself before
+Angelo and Escalus: and the good old Escalus, who thought Angelo had
+been falsely accused, said to the supposed friar, "Come, sir, did you
+set these women on to slander Lord Angelo?" He replied, "Where is the
+duke? It is he who should hear me speak." Escalus said, "The duke is in
+us, and we will hear you. Speak justly."--"Boldly at least," retorted
+the friar; and then he blamed the duke for leaving the cause of Isabel
+in the hands of him she had accused, and spoke so freely of many corrupt
+practices he had observed, while, as he said, he had been a looker-on in
+Vienna, that Escalus threatened him with the torture for speaking words
+against the state, and for censuring the conduct of the duke, and
+ordered him to be taken away to prison. Then, to the amazement of all
+present, and to the utter confusion of Angelo, the supposed friar threw
+off his disguise, and they saw it was the duke himself.
+
+The duke first addressed Isabel. He said to her, "Come hither, Isabel.
+Your friar is now your prince, but with my habit I have not changed my
+heart. I am still devoted to your service." "O give me pardon," said
+Isabel, "that I, your vassal, have employed and troubled your unknown
+sovereignty." He answered that he had most need of forgiveness from her,
+for not having prevented the death of her brother--for not yet would he
+tell her that Claudio was living; meaning first to make a further trial
+of her goodness. Angelo now knew the duke had been a secret witness of
+his bad deeds, and he said, "O my dread lord, I should be guiltier than
+my guiltiness, to think I can be undiscernible, when I perceive your
+grace, like power divine, has looked upon my actions. Then, good prince,
+no longer prolong my shame, but let my trial be my own confession.
+Immediate sentence and death is all the grace I beg." The duke replied,
+"Angelo, thy faults are manifest. We do condemn thee to the very block
+where Claudio stooped to death; and with like haste away with him; and
+for his possessions, Mariana, we do instate and widow you withal, to buy
+you a better husband."--"O my dear lord," said Mariana, "I crave no
+other, nor no better man:" and then on her knees, even as Isabel had
+begged the life of Claudio, did this kind wife of an ungrateful husband
+beg the life of Angelo; and she said, "Gentle my liege, O good my lord!
+Sweet Isabel, take my part! Lend me your knees, and all my life to come
+I will lend you all my life, to do you service!" The duke said, "Against
+all sense you importune her. Should Isabel kneel down to beg for mercy,
+her brother's ghost would break his paved bed, and take her hence in
+horror." Still Mariana said, "Isabel, sweet Isabel, do but kneel by me,
+hold up your hand, say nothing! I will speak all. They say, best men are
+moulded out of faults, and for the most part become much the better for
+being a little bad. So may my husband. Oh, Isabel, will you not lend a
+knee?" The duke then said, "He dies for Claudio." But much pleased was
+the good duke, when his own Isabel, from whom he expected all gracious
+and honourable acts, kneeled down before him, and said, "Most bounteous
+sir, look, if it please you, on this man condemned, as if my brother
+lived. I partly think a due sincerity governed his deeds, till he did
+look on me. Since it is so, let him not die! My brother had but justice,
+in that he did the thing for which he died."
+
+The duke, as the best reply he could make to this noble petitioner for
+her enemy's life, sending for Claudio from his prison-house, where he
+lay doubtful of his destiny, presented to her this lamented brother
+living; and he said to Isabel, "Give me your hand, Isabel; for your
+lovely sake I pardon Claudio. Say you will be mine, and he shall be my
+brother too." By this time Lord Angelo perceived he was safe; and the
+duke, observing his eye to brighten up a little, said, "Well, Angelo,
+look that you love your wife; her worth has obtained your pardon: joy to
+you, Mariana! Love her, Angelo! I have confessed her, and know her
+virtue." Angelo remembered, when dressed in a little brief authority,
+how hard his heart had been, and felt how sweet is mercy.
+
+The duke commanded Claudio to marry Juliet, and offered himself again to
+the acceptance of Isabel, whose virtuous and noble conduct had won her
+prince's heart. Isabel, not having taken the veil, was free to marry;
+and the friendly offices, while hid under the disguise of a humble
+friar, which the noble duke had done for her, made her with grateful joy
+accept the honour he offered her; and when she became Duchess of Vienna,
+the excellent example of the virtuous Isabel worked such a complete
+reformation among the young ladies of that city, that from that time
+none ever fell into the transgression of Juliet, the repentant wife of
+the reformed Claudio. And the mercy-loving duke long reigned with his
+beloved Isabel, the happiest of husbands and of princes.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+TWELFTH NIGHT OR WHAT YOU WILL
+
+
+Sebastian and his sister Viola, a young gentleman and lady of Messaline,
+were twins, and (which was accounted a great wonder) from their birth
+they so much resembled each other, that, but for the difference in their
+dress, they could not be known apart. They were both born in one hour,
+and in one hour they were both in danger of perishing, for they were
+shipwrecked on the coast of Illyria, as they were making a sea-voyage
+together. The ship, on board of which they were, split on a rock in a
+violent storm, and a very small number of the ship's company escaped
+with their lives. The captain of the vessel, with a few of the sailors
+that were saved, got to land in a small boat, and with them they brought
+Viola safe on shore, where she, poor lady, instead of rejoicing at her
+own deliverance, began to lament her brother's loss; but the captain
+comforted her with the assurance that he had seen her brother, when the
+ship spilt, fasten himself to a strong mast, on which, as long as he
+could see anything of him for the distance, he perceived him borne up
+above the waves. Viola was much consoled by the hope this account gave
+her, and now considered how she was to dispose of herself in a strange
+country, so far from home; and she asked the captain if he knew anything
+of Illyria. "Ay, very well, madam," replied the captain, "for I was born
+not three hours' travel from this place."--"Who governs here?" said
+Viola. The captain told her, Illyria was governed by Orsino, a duke
+noble in nature as well as dignity. Viola said, she had heard her father
+speak of Orsino, and that he was unmarried then. "And he is so now,"
+said the captain; "or was so very lately, for, but a month ago, I went
+from here, and then it was the general talk (as you know what great ones
+do, the people will prattle of) that Orsino sought the love of fair
+Olivia, a virtuous maid, the daughter of a count who died twelve months
+ago, leaving Olivia to the protection of her brother, who shortly after
+died also; and for the love of this dear brother, they say, she has
+abjured the sight and company of men." Viola, who was herself in such a
+sad affliction for her brother's loss, wished she could live with this
+lady, who so tenderly mourned a brother's death. She asked the captain
+if he could introduce her to Olivia, saying she would willingly serve
+this lady. But he replied, this would be a hard thing to accomplish,
+because the Lady Olivia would admit no person into her house since her
+brother's death, not even the duke himself. Then Viola formed another
+project in her mind, which was, in a man's habit, to serve the Duke
+Orsino as a page. It was a strange fancy in a young lady to put on male
+attire, and pass for a boy; but the forlorn and unprotected state of
+Viola, who was young and of uncommon beauty, alone, and in a foreign
+land, must plead her excuse.
+
+She having observed a fair behaviour in the captain, and that he showed
+a friendly concern for her welfare, entrusted him with her design, and
+he readily engaged to assist her. Viola gave him money, and directed him
+to furnish her with suitable apparel, ordering her clothes to be made of
+the same colour and in the same fashion her brother Sebastian used to
+wear, and when she was dressed in her manly garb, she looked so exactly
+like her brother that some strange errors happened by means of their
+being mistaken for each other; for, as will afterwards appear, Sebastian
+was also saved.
+
+Viola's good friend, the captain, when he had transformed this pretty
+lady into a gentleman, having some interest at court, got her presented
+to Orsino under the feigned name of Cesario. The duke was wonderfully
+pleased with the address and graceful deportment of this handsome youth,
+and made Cesario one of his pages, that being the office Viola wished to
+obtain: and she so well fulfilled the duties of her new station, and
+showed such a ready observance and faithful attachment to her lord, that
+she soon became his most favoured attendant. To Cesario Orsino confided
+the whole history of his love for the Lady Olivia. To Cesario he told
+the long and unsuccessful suit he had made to one who, rejecting his
+long services, and despising his person, refused to admit him to her
+presence; and for the love of this lady who had so unkindly treated him,
+the noble Orsino, forsaking the sports of the field and all manly
+exercises in which he used to delight, passed his hours in ignoble
+sloth, listening to the effeminate sounds of soft music, gentle airs,
+and passionate love-songs; and neglecting the company of the wise and
+learned lords with whom he used to associate, he was now all day long
+conversing with young Cesario. Unmeet companion no doubt his grave
+courtiers thought Cesario was for their once noble master, the great
+Duke Orsino.
+
+It is a dangerous matter for young maidens to be the confidants of
+handsome young dukes; which Viola too soon found to her sorrow, for all
+that Orsino told her he endured for Olivia, she presently perceived she
+suffered for the love of him; and much it moved her wonder, that Olivia
+could be so regardless of this her peerless lord and master, whom she
+thought no one could behold without the deepest admiration, and she
+ventured gently to hint to Orsino, that it was a pity he should affect a
+lady who was so blind to his worthy qualities; and she said, "If a lady
+were to love you, my lord, as you love Olivia (and perhaps there may be
+one who does), if you could not love her in return, would you not tell
+her that you could not love, and must she not be content with this
+answer?" But Orsino would not admit of this reasoning, for he denied
+that it was possible for any woman to love as he did. He said, no
+woman's heart was big enough to hold so much love, and therefore it was
+unfair to compare the love of any lady for him, to his love for Olivia.
+Now, though Viola had the utmost deference for the duke's opinions, she
+could not help thinking this was not quite true, for she thought her
+heart had full as much love in it as Orsino's had; and she said, "Ah,
+but I know, my lord."--"What do you know, Cesario?" said Orsino. "Too
+well I know," replied Viola, "what love women may owe to men. They are
+as true of heart as we are. My father had a daughter loved a man, as I
+perhaps, were I a woman, should love your lordship."--"And what is her
+history?" said Orsino. "A blank, my lord," replied Viola: "she never
+told her love, but let concealment, like a worm in the bud, feed on her
+damask cheek. She pined in thought, and with a green and yellow
+melancholy, she sat like Patience on a monument, smiling at Grief." The
+duke inquired if this lady died of her love, but to this question Viola
+returned an evasive answer; as probably she had feigned the story, to
+speak words expressive of the secret love and silent grief she suffered
+for Orsino.
+
+While they were talking, a gentleman entered whom the duke had sent to
+Olivia, and he said, "So please you, my lord, I might not be admitted to
+the lady, but by her handmaid she returned you this answer: Until seven
+years hence, the element itself shall not behold her face; but like a
+cloistress she will walk veiled, watering her chamber with her tears for
+the sad remembrance of her dead brother." On hearing this, the duke
+exclaimed, "O she that has a heart of this fine frame, to pay this debt
+of love to a dead brother, how will she love, when the rich golden shaft
+has touched her heart!" And then he said to Viola, "You know, Cesario, I
+have told you all the secrets of my heart; therefore, good youth, go to
+Olivia's house. Be not denied access; stand at her doors, and tell her,
+there your fixed foot shall grow till you have audience."--"And if I do
+speak to her, my lord, what then?" said Viola. "O then;" replied Orsino,
+"unfold to her the passion of my love. Make a long discourse to her of
+my dear faith. It will well become you to act my woes, for she will
+attend more to you than to one of graver aspect."
+
+Away then went Viola; but not willingly did she undertake this
+courtship, for she was to woo a lady to become a wife to him she wished
+to marry: but having undertaken the affair, she performed it with
+fidelity; and Olivia soon heard that a youth was at her door who
+insisted upon being admitted to her presence. "I told him," said the
+servant, "that you were sick: he said he knew you were, and therefore he
+came to speak with you. I told him that you were asleep: he seemed to
+have a foreknowledge of that too, and said, that therefore he must speak
+with you. What is to be said to him, lady? for he seems fortified
+against all denial, and will speak with you, whether you will or no."
+Olivia, curious to see who this peremptory messenger might be, desired
+he might be admitted; and throwing her veil over her face, she said she
+would once more hear Orsino's embassy, not doubting but that he came
+from the duke, by his importunity. Viola, entering, put on the most
+manly air she could assume, and affecting the fine courtier language of
+great men's pages, she said to the veiled lady, "Most radiant,
+exquisite, and matchless beauty, I pray you tell me if you are the lady
+of the house; for I should be sorry to cast away my speech upon another;
+for besides that it is excellently well penned, I have taken great pains
+to learn it."--"Whence come you, sir?" said Olivia. "I can say little
+more than I have studied," replied Viola; "and that question is out of
+my part."--"Are you a comedian?" said Olivia. "No," replied Viola; "and
+yet I am not that which I play;" meaning that she, being a woman,
+feigned herself to be a man. And again she asked Olivia if she were the
+lady of the house. Olivia said she was; and then Viola, having more
+curiosity to see her rival's features, than haste to deliver her
+master's message, said, "Good madam, let me see your face." With this
+bold request Olivia was not averse to comply; for this haughty beauty,
+whom the Duke Orsino had loved so long in vain, at first sight conceived
+a passion for the supposed page, the humble Cesario.
+
+When Viola asked to see her face, Olivia said, "Have you any commission
+from your lord and master to negotiate with my face?" And then,
+forgetting her determination to go veiled for seven long years, she drew
+aside her veil, saying, "But I will draw the curtain and show the
+picture. Is it not well done?" Viola replied, "It is beauty truly mixed;
+the red and white upon your cheeks is by Nature's own cunning hand laid
+on. You are the most cruel lady living, if you will lead these graces to
+the grave, and leave the world no copy."--"O, sir," replied Olivia, "I
+will not be so cruel. The world may have an inventory of my beauty. As,
+_item_, two lips, indifferent red; _item_, two grey eyes, with lids to
+them; one neck; one chin; and so forth. Were you sent here to praise
+me?" Viola replied, "I see what you are: you are too proud, but you are
+fair. My lord and master loves you. O such a love could but be
+recompensed, though you were crowned the queen of beauty: for Orsino
+loves you with adoration and with tears, with groans that thunder love,
+and sighs of fire."--"Your lord," said Olivia, "knows well my mind. I
+cannot love him; yet I doubt not he is virtuous; I know him to be noble
+and of high estate, of fresh and spotless youth. All voices proclaim
+him learned, courteous, and valiant; yet I cannot love him, he might
+have taken his answer long ago."--"If I did love you as my master does,"
+said Viola, "I would make me a willow cabin at your gates, and call upon
+your name, I would write complaining sonnets on Olivia, and sing them in
+the dead of the night; your name should sound among the hills, and I
+would make Echo, the babbling gossip of the air, cry out _Olivia_. O you
+should not rest between the elements of earth and air, but you should
+pity me."--"You might do much," said Olivia: "what is your parentage?"
+Viola replied, "Above my fortunes, yet my state is well. I am a
+gentleman." Olivia now reluctantly dismissed Viola, saying, "Go to your
+master, and tell him, I cannot love him. Let him send no more, unless
+perchance you come again to tell me how he takes it." And Viola
+departed, bidding the lady farewell by the name of Fair Cruelty. When
+she was gone, Olivia repeated the words, _Above my fortunes, yet my
+state is well. I am a gentleman._ And she said aloud, "I will be sworn
+he is; his tongue, his face, his limbs, action, and spirit, plainly show
+he is a gentleman." And then she wished Cesario was the duke; and
+perceiving the fast hold he had taken on her affections, she blamed
+herself for her sudden love: but the gentle blame which people lay upon
+their own faults has no deep root; and presently the noble Lady Olivia
+so far forgot the inequality between her fortunes and those of this
+seeming page, as well as the maidenly reserve which is the chief
+ornament of a lady's character, that she resolved to court the love of
+young Cesario, and sent a servant after him with a diamond ring, under
+the pretence that he had left it with her as a present from Orsino. She
+hoped by thus artfully making Cesario a present of the ring, she should
+give him some intimation of her design; and truly it did make Viola
+suspect; for knowing that Orsino had sent no ring by her, she began to
+recollect that Olivia's looks and manner were expressive of admiration,
+and she presently guessed her master's mistress had fallen in love with
+her. "Alas," said she, "the poor lady might as well love a dream.
+Disguise I see is wicked, for it has caused Olivia to breathe as
+fruitless sighs for me as I do for Orsino."
+
+Viola returned to Orsino's palace, and related to her lord the ill
+success of the negotiation, repeating the command of Olivia, that the
+duke should trouble her no more. Yet still the duke persisted in hoping
+that the gentle Cesario would in time be able to persuade her to show
+some pity, and therefore he bade him he should go to her again the next
+day. In the meantime, to pass away the tedious interval, he commanded a
+song which he loved to be sung; and he said, "My good Cesario, when I
+heard that song last night, methought it did relieve my passion much.
+Mark it, Cesario, it is old and plain. The spinsters and the knitters
+when they sit in the sun, and the young maids that weave their thread
+with bone, chant this song. It is silly, yet I love it, for it tells of
+the innocence of love in the old times."
+
+
+SONG
+
+      Come away, come away, Death,
+        And in sad cypress let me be laid;
+      Fly away, fly away, breath,
+        I am slain by a fair cruel maid.
+  My shroud of white stuck all with yew, O prepare it!
+  My part of death no one so true did share it.
+      Not a flower, not a flower sweet,
+        On my black coffin let there be strewn:
+      Not a friend, not a friend greet
+        My poor corpse, where my bones shall be thrown.
+  A thousand thousand sighs to save, lay me O where
+  Sad true lover never find my grave, to weep there!
+
+Viola did not fail to mark the words of the old song, which in such true
+simplicity described the pangs of unrequited love, and she bore
+testimony in her countenance of feeling what the song expressed. Her sad
+looks were observed by Orsino, who said to her, "My life upon it,
+Cesario, though you are so young, your eye has looked upon some face
+that it loves: has it not, boy?"--"A little, with your leave," replied
+Viola. "And what kind of woman, and of what age is she?" said Orsino.
+"Of your age and of your complexion, my lord," said Viola; which made
+the duke smile to hear this fair young boy loved a woman so much older
+than himself, and of a man's dark complexion; but Viola secretly meant
+Orsino, and not a woman like him.
+
+When Viola made her second visit to Olivia, she found no difficulty in
+gaining access to her. Servants soon discover when their ladies delight
+to converse with handsome young messengers; and the instant Viola
+arrived, the gates were thrown wide open, and the duke's page was shown
+into Olivia's apartment with great respect; and when Viola told Olivia
+that she was come once more to plead in her lord's behalf, this lady
+said, "I desired you never to speak of him again; but if you would
+undertake another suit, I had rather hear you solicit, than music from
+the spheres." This was pretty plain speaking, but Olivia soon explained
+herself still more plainly, and openly confessed her love; and when she
+saw displeasure with perplexity expressed in Viola's face, she said, "O
+what a deal of scorn looks beautiful in the contempt and anger of his
+lip! Cesario, by the roses of the spring, by maidhood, honour, and by
+truth, I love you so, that, in spite of your pride, I have neither wit
+nor reason to conceal my passion." But in vain the lady wooed; Viola
+hastened from her presence, threatening never more to come to plead
+Orsino's love; and all the reply she made to Olivia's fond solicitation
+was, a declaration of a resolution _Never to love any woman._
+
+No sooner had Viola left the lady than a claim was made upon her valour.
+A gentleman, a rejected suitor of Olivia, who had learned how that lady
+had favoured the duke's messenger, challenged him to fight a duel. What
+should poor Viola do, who, though she carried a manlike outside, had a
+true woman's heart, and feared to look on her own sword?
+
+[Illustration: SHE BEGAN TO THINK OF CONFESSING THAT SHE WAS A WOMAN]
+
+When she saw her formidable rival advancing towards her with his sword
+drawn, she began to think of confessing that she was a woman; but she
+was relieved at once from her terror, and the shame of such a discovery,
+by a stranger that was passing by, who made up to them, and as if he had
+been long known to her, and were her dearest friend, said to her
+opponent, "If this young gentleman has done offence, I will take the
+fault on me; and if you offend him, I will for his sake defy you."
+Before Viola had time to thank him for his protection, or to inquire the
+reason of his kind interference, her new friend met with an enemy where
+his bravery was of no use to him; for the officers of justice coming up
+in that instant, apprehended the stranger in the duke's name, to answer
+for an offence he had committed some years before: and he said to Viola,
+"This comes with seeking you:" and then he asked her for a purse,
+saying, "Now my necessity makes me ask for my purse, and it grieves me
+much more for what I cannot do for you, than for what befalls myself.
+You stand amazed, but be of comfort." His words did indeed amaze Viola,
+and she protested she knew him not, nor had ever received a purse from
+him; but for the kindness he had just shown her, she offered him a small
+sum of money, being nearly the whole she possessed. And now the stranger
+spoke severe things, charging her with ingratitude and unkindness. He
+said, "This youth, whom you see here, I snatched from the jaws of death,
+and for his sake alone I came to Illyria, and have fallen into this
+danger." But the officers cared little for hearkening to the complaints
+of their prisoner, and they hurried him on, saying, "What is that to
+us?" And as he was carried away, he called Viola by the name of
+Sebastian, reproaching the supposed Sebastian for disowning his friend,
+as long as he was within hearing. When Viola heard herself called
+Sebastian, though the stranger was taken away too hastily for her to ask
+an explanation, she conjectured that this seeming mystery might arise
+from her being mistaken for her brother; and she began to cherish hopes
+that it was her brother whose life this man said he had preserved. And
+so indeed it was. The stranger, whose name was Antonio, was a
+sea-captain. He had taken Sebastian up into his ship, when, almost
+exhausted with fatigue, he was floating on the mast to which he had
+fastened himself in the storm. Antonio conceived such a friendship for
+Sebastian, that he resolved to accompany him whithersoever he went; and
+when the youth expressed a curiosity to visit Orsino's court, Antonio,
+rather than part from him, came to Illyria, though he knew, if his
+person should be known there, his life would be in danger, because in a
+sea-fight he had once dangerously wounded the Duke Orsino's nephew. This
+was the offence for which he was now made a prisoner.
+
+Antonio and Sebastian had landed together but a few hours before Antonio
+met Viola. He had given his purse to Sebastian, desiring him to use it
+freely if he saw anything he wished to purchase, telling him he would
+wait at the inn, while Sebastian went to view the town; but Sebastian
+not returning at the time appointed, Antonio had ventured out to look
+for him, and Viola being dressed the same, and in face so exactly
+resembling her brother, Antonio drew his sword (as he thought) in
+defence of the youth he had saved, and when Sebastian (as he supposed)
+disowned him, and denied him his own purse, no wonder he accused him of
+ingratitude.
+
+Viola, when Antonio was gone, fearing a second invitation to fight,
+slunk home as fast as she could. She had not been long gone, when her
+adversary thought he saw her return; but it was her brother Sebastian,
+who happened to arrive at this place, and he said, "Now, sir, have I met
+with you again? There's for you;" and struck him a blow. Sebastian was
+no coward; he returned the blow with interest, and drew his sword.
+
+A lady now put a stop to this duel, for Olivia came out of the house,
+and she too mistaking Sebastian for Cesario, invited him to come into
+her house, expressing much sorrow at the rude attack he had met with.
+Though Sebastian was as much surprised at the courtesy of this lady as
+at the rudeness of his unknown foe, yet he went very willingly into the
+house, and Olivia was delighted to find Cesario (as she thought him)
+become more sensible of her attentions; for though their features were
+exactly the same, there was none of the contempt and anger to be seen in
+his face, which she had complained of when she told her love to Cesario.
+
+Sebastian did not at all object to the fondness the lady lavished on
+him. He seemed to take it in very good part, yet he wondered how it had
+come to pass, and he was rather inclined to think Olivia was not in her
+right senses; but perceiving that she was mistress of a fine house, and
+that she ordered her affairs and seemed to govern her family discreetly,
+and that in all but her sudden love for him she appeared in the full
+possession of her reason, he well approved of the courtship; and Olivia
+finding Cesario in this good humour, and fearing he might change his
+mind, proposed that, as she had a priest in the house, they should be
+instantly married. Sebastian assented to this proposal; and when the
+marriage ceremony was over, he left his lady for a short time, intending
+to go and tell his friend Antonio the good fortune that he had met with.
+In the meantime Orsino came to visit Olivia: and at the moment he
+arrived before Olivia's house, the officers of justice brought their
+prisoner, Antonio, before the duke. Viola was with Orsino, her master;
+and when Antonio saw Viola, whom he still imagined to be Sebastian, he
+told the duke in what manner he had rescued this youth from the perils
+of the sea; and after fully relating all the kindness he had really
+shown to Sebastian, he ended his complaint with saying, that for three
+months, both day and night, this ungrateful youth had been with him. But
+now the Lady Olivia coming forth from her house, the duke could no
+longer attend to Antonio's story; and he said, "Here comes the countess:
+now Heaven walks on earth! but for thee, fellow, thy words are madness.
+Three months has this youth attended on me:" and then he ordered Antonio
+to be taken aside. But Orsino's heavenly countess soon gave the duke
+cause to accuse Cesario as much of ingratitude as Antonio had done, for
+all the words he could hear Olivia speak were words of kindness to
+Cesario: and when he found his page had obtained this high place in
+Olivia's favour, he threatened him with all the terrors of his just
+revenge; and as he was going to depart, he called Viola to follow him,
+saying, "Come, boy, with me. My thoughts are ripe for mischief." Though
+it seemed in his jealous rage he was going to doom Viola to instant
+death, yet her love made her no longer a coward, and she said she would
+most joyfully suffer death to give her master ease. But Olivia would not
+so lose her husband, and she cried, "Where goes my Cesario?" Viola
+replied, "After him I love more than my life." Olivia, however,
+prevented their departure by loudly proclaiming that Cesario was her
+husband, and sent for the priest, who declared that not two hours had
+passed since he had married the Lady Olivia to this young man. In vain
+Viola protested she was not married to Olivia; the evidence of that lady
+and the priest made Orsino believe that his page had robbed him of the
+treasure he prized above his life. But thinking that it was past recall,
+he was bidding farewell to his faithless mistress, and the _young
+dissembler_, her husband, as he called Viola, warning her never to come
+in his sight again, when (as it seemed to them) a miracle appeared! for
+another Cesario entered, and addressed Olivia as his wife. This new
+Cesario was Sebastian, the real husband of Olivia; and when their wonder
+had a little ceased at seeing two persons with the same face, the same
+voice, and the same habit, the brother and sister began to question each
+other; for Viola could scarce be persuaded that her brother was living,
+and Sebastian knew not how to account for the sister he supposed drowned
+being found in the habit of a young man. But Viola presently
+acknowledged that she was indeed Viola, and his sister, under that
+disguise.
+
+When all the errors were cleared up which the extreme likeness between
+this twin brother and sister had occasioned, they laughed at the Lady
+Olivia for the pleasant mistake she had made in falling in love with a
+woman; and Olivia showed no dislike to her exchange, when she found she
+had wedded the brother instead of the sister.
+
+The hopes of Orsino were for ever at an end by this marriage of Olivia,
+and with his hopes, all his fruitless love seemed to vanish away, and
+all his thoughts were fixed on the event of his favourite, young
+Cesario, being changed into a fair lady. He viewed Viola with great
+attention, and he remembered how very handsome he had always thought
+Cesario was, and he concluded she would look very beautiful in a woman's
+attire; and then he remembered how often she had said _she loved him_,
+which at the time seemed only the dutiful expressions of a faithful
+page; but now he guessed that something more was meant, for many of her
+pretty sayings, which were like riddles to him, came now into his mind,
+and he no sooner remembered all these things than he resolved to make
+Viola his wife; and he said to her (he still could not help calling her
+_Cesario_ and _boy_), "Boy, you have said to me a thousand times that
+you should never love a woman like to me, and for the faithful service
+you have done for me so much beneath your soft and tender breeding, and
+since you have called me master so long, you shall now be your master's
+mistress, and Orsino's true duchess."
+
+Olivia, perceiving Orsino was making over that heart, which she had so
+ungraciously rejected, to Viola, invited them to enter her house, and
+offered the assistance of the good priest, who had married her to
+Sebastian in the morning, to perform the same ceremony in the remaining
+part of the day for Orsino and Viola. Thus the twin brother and sister
+were both wedded on the same day: the storm and shipwreck, which had
+separated them, being the means of bringing to pass their high and
+mighty fortunes. Viola was the wife of Orsino, the Duke of Illyria, and
+Sebastian the husband of the rich and noble countess, the Lady Olivia.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+TIMON OF ATHENS
+
+
+Timon, a lord of Athens, in the enjoyment of a princely fortune,
+affected a humour of liberality which knew no limits. His almost
+infinite wealth could not flow in so fast, but he poured it out faster
+upon all sorts and degrees of people. Not the poor only tasted of his
+bounty, but great lords did not disdain to rank themselves among his
+dependants and followers. His table was resorted to by all the luxurious
+feasters, and his house was open to all comers and goers at Athens. His
+large wealth combined with his free and prodigal nature to subdue all
+hearts to his love; men of all minds and dispositions tendered their
+services to Lord Timon, from the glass-faced flatterer, whose face
+reflects as in a mirror the present humour of his patron, to the rough
+and unbending cynic, who affecting a contempt of men's persons, and an
+indifference to worldly things, yet could not stand out against the
+gracious manners and munificent soul of Lord Timon, but would come
+(against his nature) to partake of his royal entertainments, and return
+most rich in his own estimation if he had received a nod or a salutation
+from Timon.
+
+If a poet had composed a work which wanted a recommendatory introduction
+to the world, he had no more to do but to dedicate it to Lord Timon, and
+the poem was sure of sale, besides a present purse from the patron, and
+daily access to his house and table. If a painter had a picture to
+dispose of, he had only to take it to Lord Timon, and pretend to consult
+his taste as to the merits of it; nothing more was wanting to persuade
+the liberal-hearted lord to buy it. If a jeweller had a stone of price,
+or a mercer rich costly stuffs, which for their costliness lay upon his
+hands, Lord Timon's house was a ready mart always open, where they might
+get off their wares or their jewellery at any price, and the
+good-natured lord would thank them into the bargain, as if they had done
+him a piece of courtesy in letting him have the refusal of such precious
+commodities. So that by this means his house was thronged with
+superfluous purchases, of no use but to swell uneasy and ostentatious
+pomp; and his person was still more inconveniently beset with a crowd of
+these idle visitors, lying poets, painters, sharking tradesmen, lords,
+ladies, needy courtiers, and expectants, who continually filled his
+lobbies, raining their fulsome flatteries in whispers in his ears,
+sacrificing to him with adulation as to a God, making sacred the very
+stirrup by which he mounted his horse, and seeming as though they drank
+the free air but through his permission and bounty.
+
+Some of these daily dependants were young men of birth, who (their means
+not answering to their extravagance) had been put in prison by
+creditors, and redeemed thence by Lord Timon; these young prodigals
+thenceforward fastened upon his lordship, as if by common sympathy he
+were necessarily endeared to all such spendthrifts and loose livers,
+who, not being able to follow him in his wealth, found it easier to copy
+him in prodigality and copious spending of what was their own. One of
+these flesh-flies was Ventidius, for whose debts, unjustly contracted,
+Timon but lately had paid down the sum of five talents.
+
+But among this confluence, this great flood of visitors, none were more
+conspicuous than the makers of presents and givers of gifts. It was
+fortunate for these men if Timon took a fancy to a dog or a horse, or
+any piece of cheap furniture which was theirs. The thing so praised,
+whatever it was, was sure to be sent the next morning with the
+compliments of the giver for Lord Timon's acceptance, and apologies for
+the unworthiness of the gift; and this dog or horse, or whatever it
+might be, did not fail to produce from Timon's bounty, who would not be
+outdone in gifts, perhaps twenty dogs or horses, certainly presents of
+far richer worth, as these pretended donors knew well enough, and that
+their false presents were but the putting out of so much money at large
+and speedy interest. In this way Lord Lucius had lately sent to Timon a
+present of four milk-white horses, trapped in silver, which this cunning
+lord had observed Timon upon some occasion to commend; and another lord,
+Lucullus, had bestowed upon him in the same pretended way of free gift a
+brace of greyhounds, whose make and fleetness Timon had been heard to
+admire; these presents the easy-hearted lord accepted without suspicion
+of the dishonest views of the presenters; and the givers of course were
+rewarded with some rich return, a diamond or some jewel of twenty times
+the value of their false and mercenary donation.
+
+Sometimes these creatures would go to work in a more direct way, and
+with gross and palpable artifice, which yet the credulous Timon was too
+blind to see, would affect to admire and praise something that Timon
+possessed, a bargain that he had bought, or some late purchase, which
+was sure to draw from this yielding and soft-hearted lord a gift of the
+thing commended, for no service in the world done for it but the easy
+expense of a little cheap and obvious flattery. In this way Timon but
+the other day had given to one of these mean lords the bay courser which
+he himself rode upon, because his lordship had been pleased to say that
+it was a handsome beast and went well; and Timon knew that no man ever
+justly praised what he did not wish to possess. For Lord Timon weighed
+his friends' affection with his own, and so fond was he of bestowing,
+that he could have dealt kingdoms to these supposed friends, and never
+have been weary.
+
+Not that Timon's wealth all went to enrich these wicked flatterers; he
+could do noble and praiseworthy actions; and when a servant of his once
+loved the daughter of a rich Athenian, but could not hope to obtain her
+by reason that in wealth and rank the maid was so far above him, Lord
+Timon freely bestowed upon his servant three Athenian talents, to make
+his fortune equal with the dowry which the father of the young maid
+demanded of him who should be her husband. But for the most part, knaves
+and parasites had the command of his fortune, false friends whom he did
+not know to be such, but, because they flocked around his person, he
+thought they must needs love him; and because they smiled and flattered
+him, he thought surely that his conduct was approved by all the wise and
+good. And when he was feasting in the midst of all these flatterers and
+mock friends, when they were eating him up, and draining his fortunes
+dry with large draughts of richest wines drunk to his health and
+prosperity, he could not perceive the difference of a friend from a
+flatterer, but to his deluded eyes (made proud with the sight) it seemed
+a precious comfort to have so many like brothers commanding one
+another's fortunes (though it was his own fortune which paid all the
+costs), and with joy they would run over at the spectacle of such, as it
+appeared to him, truly festive and fraternal meeting.
+
+But while he thus outwent the very heart of kindness, and poured out his
+bounty, as if Plutus, the god of gold, had been but his steward; while
+thus he proceeded without care or stop, so senseless of expense that he
+would neither inquire how he could maintain it, nor cease his wild flow
+of riot; his riches, which were not infinite, must needs melt away
+before a prodigality which knew no limits. But who should tell him so?
+his flatterers? they had an interest in shutting his eyes. In vain did
+his honest steward Flavius try to represent to him his condition, laying
+his accounts before him, begging of him, praying of him, with an
+importunity that on any other occasion would have been unmannerly in a
+servant, beseeching him with tears to look into the state of his
+affairs. Timon would still put him off, and turn the discourse to
+something else; for nothing is so deaf to remonstrance as riches turned
+to poverty, nothing is so unwilling to believe its situation, nothing so
+incredulous to its own true state, and hard to give credit to a reverse.
+Often had this good steward, this honest creature, when all the rooms of
+Timon's great house have been choked up with riotous feeders at his
+master's cost, when the floors have wept with drunken spilling of wine,
+and every apartment has blazed with lights and resounded with music and
+feasting, often had he retired by himself to some solitary spot, and
+wept faster than the wine ran from the wasteful casks within, to see the
+mad bounty of his lord, and to think, when the means were gone which
+brought him praises from all sorts of people, how quickly the breath
+would be gone of which the praise was made; praises won in feasting
+would be lost in fasting, and at one cloud of winter-showers these flies
+would disappear.
+
+But now the time was come that Timon could shut his ears no longer to
+the representations of this faithful steward. Money must be had; and
+when he ordered Flavius to sell some of his land for that purpose,
+Flavius informed him, what he had in vain endeavoured at several times
+before to make him listen to, that most of his land was already sold or
+forfeited, and that all he possessed at present was not enough to pay
+the one half of what he owed. Struck with wonder at this presentation,
+Timon hastily replied, "My lands extend from Athens to Lacedaemon." "O
+my good lord," said Flavius, "the world is but a world, and has bounds;
+were it all yours to give in a breath, how quickly were it gone!"
+
+Timon consoled himself that no villanous bounty had yet come from him,
+that if he had given his wealth away unwisely, it had not been bestowed
+to feed his vices, but to cherish his friends; and he bade the
+kind-hearted steward (who was weeping) to take comfort in the assurance
+that his master could never lack means, while he had so many noble
+friends; and this infatuated lord persuaded himself that he had nothing
+to do but to send and borrow, to use every man's fortune (that had ever
+tasted his bounty) in this extremity, as freely as his own. Then with a
+cheerful look, as if confident of the trial, he severally despatched
+messengers to Lord Lucius, to Lords Lucullus and Sempronius, men upon
+whom he had lavished his gifts in past times without measure or
+moderation; and to Ventidius, whom he had lately released out of prison
+by paying his debts, and who, by the death of his father, was now come
+into the possession of an ample fortune, and well enabled to requite
+Timon's courtesy: to request of Ventidius the return of those five
+talents which he had paid for him, and of each of those noble lords the
+loan of fifty talents; nothing doubting that their gratitude would
+supply his wants (if he needed it) to the amount of five hundred times
+fifty talents.
+
+Lucullus was the first applied to. This mean lord had been dreaming
+overnight of a silver bason and cup, and when Timon's servant was
+announced, his sordid mind suggested to him that this was surely a
+making out of his dream, and that Timon had sent him such a present: but
+when he understood the truth of the matter, and that Timon wanted money,
+the quality of his faint and watery friendship showed itself, for with
+many protestations he vowed to the servant that he had long foreseen the
+ruin of his master's affairs, and many a time had he come to dinner to
+tell him of it, and had come again to supper to try to persuade him to
+spend less, but he would take no counsel nor warning by his coming: and
+true it was that he had been a constant attender (as he said) at Timon's
+feasts, as he had in greater things tasted his bounty; but that he ever
+came with that intent, or gave good counsel or reproof to Timon, was a
+base unworthy lie, which he suitably followed up with meanly offering
+the servant a bribe, to go home to his master and tell him that he had
+not found Lucullus at home.
+
+As little success had the messenger who was sent to Lord Lucius. This
+lying lord, who was full of Timon's meat, and enriched almost to
+bursting with Timon's costly presents, when he found the wind changed,
+and the fountain of so much bounty suddenly stopped, at first could
+hardly believe it; but on its being confirmed, he affected great regret
+that he should not have it in his power to serve Lord Timon, for
+unfortunately (which was a base falsehood) he had made a great purchase
+the day before, which had quite disfurnished him of the means at
+present, the more beast he, he called himself, to put it out of his
+power to serve so good a friend; and he counted it one of his greatest
+afflictions that his ability should fail him to pleasure such an
+honourable gentleman.
+
+Who can call any man friend that dips in the same dish with him? just of
+this metal is every flatterer. In the recollection of everybody Timon
+had been a father to this Lucius, had kept up his credit with his purse;
+Timon's money had gone to pay the wages of his servants, to pay the hire
+of the labourers who had sweat to build the fine houses which Lucius's
+pride had made necessary to him: yet, oh! the monster which man makes
+himself when he proves ungrateful! this Lucius now denied to Timon a
+sum, which, in respect of what Timon had bestowed on him, was less than
+charitable men afford to beggars.
+
+Sempronius, and every one of these mercenary lords to whom Timon applied
+in their turn, returned the same evasive answer or direct denial; even
+Ventidius, the redeemed and now rich Ventidius, refused to assist him
+with the loan of those five talents which Timon had not lent but
+generously given him in his distress.
+
+Now was Timon as much avoided in his poverty as he had been courted and
+resorted to in his riches. Now the same tongues which had been loudest
+in his praises, extolling him as bountiful, liberal, and open handed,
+were not ashamed to censure that very bounty as folly, that liberality
+as profuseness, though it had shown itself folly in nothing so truly as
+in the selection of such unworthy creatures as themselves for its
+objects. Now was Timon's princely mansion forsaken, and become a shunned
+and hated place, a place for men to pass by, not a place, as formerly,
+where every passenger must stop and taste of his wine and good cheer;
+now, instead of being thronged with feasting and tumultuous guests, it
+was beset with impatient and clamorous creditors, usurers, extortioners,
+fierce and intolerable in their demands, pleading bonds, interest,
+mortgages; iron-hearted men that would take no denial nor putting off,
+that Timon's house was now his jail, which he could not pass, nor go in
+nor out for them; one demanding his due of fifty talents, another
+bringing in a bill of five thousand crowns, which if he would tell out
+his blood by drops, and pay them so, he had not enough in his body to
+discharge, drop by drop.
+
+In this desperate and irremediable state (as it seemed) of his affairs,
+the eyes of all men were suddenly surprised at a new and incredible
+lustre which this setting sun put forth. Once more Lord Timon proclaimed
+a feast, to which he invited his accustomed guests, lords, ladies, all
+that was great or fashionable in Athens. Lord Lucius and Lucullus came,
+Ventidius, Sempronius, and the rest. Who more sorry now than these
+fawning wretches, when they found (as they thought) that Lord Timon's
+poverty was all pretence, and had been only put on to make trial of
+their loves, to think that they should not have seen through the
+artifice at the time, and have had the cheap credit of obliging his
+lordship? yet who more glad to find the fountain of that noble bounty,
+which they had thought dried up, still fresh and running? They came
+dissembling, protesting, expressing deepest sorrow and shame, that when
+his lordship sent to them, they should have been so unfortunate as to
+want the present means to oblige so honourable a friend. But Timon
+begged them not to give such trifles a thought, for he had altogether
+forgotten it. And these base fawning lords, though they had denied him
+money in his adversity, yet could not refuse their presence at this new
+blaze of his returning prosperity. For the swallow follows not summer
+more willingly than men of these dispositions follow the good fortunes
+of the great, nor more willingly leaves winter than these shrink from
+the first appearance of a reverse; such summer birds are men. But now
+with music and state the banquet of smoking dishes was served up; and
+when the guests had a little done admiring whence the bankrupt Timon
+could find means to furnish so costly a feast, some doubting whether the
+scene which they saw was real, as scarce trusting their own eyes; at a
+signal given, the dishes were uncovered, and Timon's drift appeared:
+instead of those varieties and far-fetched dainties which they expected,
+that Timon's epicurean table in past times had so liberally presented,
+now appeared under the covers of these dishes a preparation more
+suitable to Timon's poverty, nothing but a little smoke and lukewarm
+water, fit feast for this knot of mouth-friends, whose professions were
+indeed smoke, and their hearts lukewarm and slippery as the water with
+which Timon welcomed his astonished guests, bidding them, "Uncover,
+dogs, and lap;" and before they could recover their surprise,
+sprinkling it in their faces, that they might have enough, and throwing
+dishes and all after them, who now ran huddling out, lords, ladies, with
+their caps snatched up in haste, a splendid confusion, Timon pursuing
+them, still calling them what they were, "smooth smiling parasites,
+destroyers under the mask of courtesy, affable wolves, meek bears, fools
+of fortune, feast-friends, time-flies." They, crowding out to avoid him,
+left the house more willingly than they had entered it; some losing
+their gowns and caps, and some their jewels in the hurry, all glad to
+escape out of the presence of such a mad lord, and from the ridicule of
+his mock banquet.
+
+This was the last feast which ever Timon made, and in it he took
+farewell of Athens and the society of men; for, after that, he betook
+himself to the woods, turning his back upon the hated city and upon all
+mankind, wishing the walls of that detestable city might sink, and the
+houses fall upon their owners, wishing all plagues which infest
+humanity, war, outrage, poverty, diseases, might fasten upon its
+inhabitants, praying the just gods to confound all Athenians, both young
+and old, high and low; so wishing, he went to the woods, where he said
+he should find the unkindest beast much kinder than mankind. He stripped
+himself naked, that he might retain no fashion of a man, and dug a cave
+to live in, and lived solitary in the manner of a beast, eating the wild
+roots, and drinking water, flying from the face of his kind, and
+choosing rather to herd with wild beasts, as more harmless and friendly
+than man.
+
+What a change from Lord Timon the rich, Lord Timon the delight of
+mankind, to Timon the naked, Timon the man-hater! Where were his
+flatterers now? Where were his attendants and retinue? Would the bleak
+air, that boisterous servitor, be his chamberlain, to put his shirt on
+warm? Would those stiff trees that had outlived the eagle, turn young
+and airy pages to him, to skip on his errands when he bade them? Would
+the cool brook, when it was iced with winter, administer to him his warm
+broths and caudles when sick of an overnight's surfeit? Or would the
+creatures that lived in those wild woods come and lick his hand and
+flatter him?
+
+Here on a day, when he was digging for roots, his poor sustenance, his
+spade struck against something heavy, which proved to be gold, a great
+heap which some miser had probably buried in a time of alarm, thinking
+to have come again, and taken it from its prison, but died before the
+opportunity had arrived, without making any man privy to the
+concealment; so it lay, doing neither good nor harm, in the bowels of
+the earth, its mother, as if it had never come from thence, till the
+accidental striking of Timon's spade against it once more brought it to
+light.
+
+Here was a mass of treasure which, if Timon had retained his old mind,
+was enough to have purchased him friends and flatterers again; but Timon
+was sick of the false world, and the sight of gold was poisonous to his
+eyes; and he would have restored it to the earth, but that, thinking of
+the infinite calamities which by means of gold happen to mankind, how
+the lucre of it causes robberies, oppression, injustice, briberies,
+violence, and murder, among men, he had a pleasure in imagining (such a
+rooted hatred did he bear to his species) that out of this heap, which
+in digging he had discovered, might arise some mischief to plague
+mankind. And some soldiers passing through the woods near to his cave at
+that instant, which proved to be a part of the troops of the Athenian
+captain Alcibiades, who upon some disgust taken against the senators of
+Athens (the Athenians were ever noted to be a thankless and ungrateful
+people, giving disgust to their generals and best friends), was marching
+at the head of the same triumphant army which he had formerly headed in
+their defence, to war against them; Timon, who liked their business
+well, bestowed upon their captain the gold to pay his soldiers,
+requiring no other service from him, than that he should with his
+conquering army lay Athens level with the ground, and burn, slay, kill
+all her inhabitants; not sparing the old men for their white beards, for
+(he said) they were usurers, nor the young children for their seeming
+innocent smiles, for those (he said) would live, if they grew up, to be
+traitors; but to steel his eyes and ears against any sights or sounds
+that might awaken compassion; and not to let the cries of virgins,
+babes, or mothers, hinder him from making one universal massacre of the
+city, but to confound them all in his conquest; and when he had
+conquered, he prayed that the gods would confound him also, the
+conqueror: so thoroughly did Timon hate Athens, Athenians, and all
+mankind.
+
+While he lived in this forlorn state, leading a life more brutal than
+human, he was suddenly surprised one day with the appearance of a man
+standing in an admiring posture at the door of his cave. It was Flavius,
+the honest steward, whom love and zealous affection to his master had
+led to seek him out at his wretched dwelling, and to offer his services;
+and the first sight of his master, the once noble Timon, in that abject
+condition, naked as he was born, living in the manner of a beast among
+beasts, looking like his own sad ruins and a monument of decay, so
+affected this good servant, that he stood speechless, wrapped up in
+horror, and confounded. And when he found utterance at last to his
+words, they were so choked with tears, that Timon had much ado to know
+him again, or to make out who it was that had come (so contrary to the
+experience he had had of mankind) to offer him service in extremity. And
+being in the form and shape of a man, he suspected him for a traitor,
+and his tears for false; but the good servant by so many tokens
+confirmed the truth of his fidelity, and made it clear that nothing but
+love and zealous duty to his once dear master had brought him there,
+that Timon was forced to confess that the world contained one honest
+man; yet, being in the shape and form of a man, he could not look upon
+his man's face without abhorrence, or hear words uttered from his man's
+lips without loathing; and this singly honest man was forced to depart,
+because he was a man, and because, with a heart more gentle and
+compassionate than is usual to man, he bore man's detested form and
+outward feature.
+
+But greater visitants than a poor steward were about to interrupt the
+savage quiet of Timon's solitude. For now the day was come when the
+ungrateful lords of Athens sorely repented the injustice which they had
+done to the noble Timon. For Alcibiades, like an incensed wild boar, was
+raging at the walls of their city, and with his hot siege threatened to
+lay fair Athens in the dust. And now the memory of Lord Timon's former
+prowess and military conduct came fresh into their forgetful minds, for
+Timon had been their general in past times, and a valiant and expert
+soldier, who alone of all the Athenians was deemed able to cope with a
+besieging army such as then threatened them, or to drive back the
+furious approaches of Alcibiades.
+
+A deputation of the senators was chosen in this emergency to wait upon
+Timon. To him they come in their extremity, to whom, when he was in
+extremity, they had shown but small regard; as if they presumed upon his
+gratitude whom they had disobliged, and had derived a claim to his
+courtesy from their own most discourteous and unpiteous treatment.
+
+Now they earnestly beseech him, implore him with tears, to return and
+save that city, from which their ingratitude had so lately driven him;
+now they offer him riches, power, dignities, satisfaction for past
+injuries, and public honours, and the public love; their persons, lives,
+and fortunes, to be at his disposal, if he will but come back and save
+them. But Timon the naked, Timon the man-hater, was no longer Lord
+Timon, the lord of bounty, the flower of valour, their defence in war,
+their ornament in peace. If Alcibiades killed his countrymen, Timon
+cared not. If he sacked fair Athens, and slew her old men and her
+infants, Timon would rejoice. So he told them; and that there was not a
+knife in the unruly camp which he did not prize above the reverendest
+throat in Athens.
+
+This was all the answer he vouchsafed to the weeping disappointed
+senators; only at parting he bade them commend him to his countrymen,
+and tell them, that to ease them of their griefs and anxieties, and to
+prevent the consequences of fierce Alcibiades' wrath, there was yet a
+way left, which he would teach them, for he had yet so much affection
+left for his dear countrymen as to be willing to do them a kindness
+before his death. These words a little revived the senators, who hoped
+that his kindness for their city was returning. Then Timon told them
+that he had a tree, which grew near his cave, which he should shortly
+have occasion to cut down, and he invited all his friends in Athens,
+high or low, of what degree soever, who wished to shun affliction, to
+come and take a taste of his tree before he cut it down; meaning, that
+they might come and hang themselves on it, and escape affliction that
+way.
+
+And this was the last courtesy, of all his noble bounties, which Timon
+showed to mankind, and this the last sight of him which his countrymen
+had: for not many days after, a poor soldier, passing by the sea-beach,
+which was at a little distance from the woods which Timon frequented,
+found a tomb on the verge of the sea, with an inscription upon it,
+purporting that it was the grave of Timon the man-hater, who "While he
+lived, did hate all living men, and dying wished a plague might consume
+all caitiffs left!"
+
+Whether he finished his life by violence, or whether mere distaste of
+life and the loathing he had for mankind brought Timon to his
+conclusion, was not clear, yet all men admired the fitness of his
+epitaph, and the consistency of his end; dying, as he had lived, a hater
+of mankind: and some there were who fancied a conceit in the very choice
+which he had made of the sea-beach for his place of burial, where the
+vast sea might weep for ever upon his grave, as in contempt of the
+transient and shallow tears of hypocritical and deceitful mankind.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+ROMEO AND JULIET
+
+
+The two chief families in Verona were the rich Capulets and the
+Montagues. There had been an old quarrel between these families, which
+was grown to such a height, and so deadly was the enmity between them,
+that it extended to the remotest kindred, to the followers and retainers
+of both sides, insomuch that a servant of the house of Montague could
+not meet a servant of the house of Capulet, nor a Capulet encounter with
+a Montague by chance, but fierce words and sometimes bloodshed ensued;
+and frequent were the brawls from such accidental meetings, which
+disturbed the happy quiet of Verona's streets.
+
+Old Lord Capulet made a great supper, to which many fair ladies and many
+noble guests were invited. All the admired beauties of Verona were
+present, and all comers were made welcome if they were not of the house
+of Montague. At this feast of Capulets, Rosaline, beloved of Romeo, son
+to the old Lord Montague, was present; and though it was dangerous for a
+Montague to be seen in this assembly, yet Benvolio, a friend of Romeo,
+persuaded the young lord to go to this assembly in the disguise of a
+mask, that he might see his Rosaline, and seeing her, compare her with
+some choice beauties of Verona, who (he said) would make him think his
+swan a crow. Romeo had small faith in Benvolio's words; nevertheless,
+for the love of Rosaline, he was persuaded to go. For Romeo was a
+sincere and passionate lover, and one that lost his sleep for love, and
+fled society to be alone, thinking on Rosaline, who disdained him, and
+never requited his love, with the least show of courtesy or affection;
+and Benvolio wished to cure his friend of this love by showing him
+diversity of ladies and company. To this feast of Capulets then young
+Romeo with Benvolio and their friend Mercutio went masked. Old Capulet
+bid them welcome, and told them that ladies who had their toes unplagued
+with corns would dance with them. And the old man was light hearted and
+merry, and said that he had worn a mask when he was young, and could
+have told a whispering tale in a fair lady's ear. And they fell to
+dancing, and Romeo was suddenly struck with the exceeding beauty of a
+lady who danced there, who seemed to him to teach the torches to burn
+bright, and her beauty to show by night like a rich jewel worn by a
+blackamoor; beauty too rich for use, too dear for earth! like a snowy
+dove trooping with crows (he said), so richly did her beauty and
+perfections shine above the ladies her companions. While he uttered
+these praises, he was overheard by Tybalt, a nephew of Lord Capulet, who
+knew him by his voice to be Romeo. And this Tybalt, being of a fiery and
+passionate temper, could not endure that a Montague should come under
+cover of a mask, to fleer and scorn (as he said) at their solemnities.
+And he stormed and raged exceedingly, and would have struck young Romeo
+dead. But his uncle, the old Lord Capulet, would not suffer him to do
+any injury at that time, both out of respect to his guests, and because
+Romeo had borne himself like a gentleman, and all tongues in Verona
+bragged of him to be a virtuous and well-governed youth. Tybalt, forced
+to be patient against his will, restrained himself, but swore that this
+vile Montague should at another time dearly pay for his intrusion.
+
+The dancing being done, Romeo watched the place where the lady stood;
+and under favour of his masking habit, which might seem to excuse in
+part the liberty, he presumed in the gentlest manner to take her by the
+hand, calling it a shrine, which if he profaned by touching it, he was a
+blushing pilgrim, and would kiss it for atonement. "Good pilgrim,"
+answered the lady, "your devotion shows by far too mannerly and too
+courtly: saints have hands, which pilgrims may touch, but kiss
+not."--"Have not saints lips, and pilgrims too?" said Romeo. "Ay," said
+the lady, "lips which they must use in prayer."--"O then, my dear
+saint," said Romeo, "hear my prayer, and grant it, lest I despair." In
+such like allusions and loving conceits they were engaged, when the lady
+was called away to her mother. And Romeo inquiring who her mother was,
+discovered that the lady whose peerless beauty he was so much struck
+with, was young Juliet, daughter and heir to the Lord Capulet, the great
+enemy of the Montagues; and that he had unknowingly engaged his heart to
+his foe. This troubled him, but it could not dissuade him from loving.
+As little rest had Juliet, when she found that the gentleman that she
+had been talking with was Romeo and a Montague, for she had been
+suddenly smit with the same hasty and inconsiderate passion for Romeo,
+which he had conceived for her; and a prodigious birth of love it seemed
+to her, that she must love her enemy, and that her affections should
+settle there, where family considerations should induce her chiefly to
+hate.
+
+It being midnight, Romeo with his companions departed; but they soon
+missed him, for, unable to stay away from the house where he had left
+his heart, he leaped the wall of an orchard which was at the back of
+Juliet's house. Here he had not been long, ruminating on his new love,
+when Juliet appeared above at a window, through which her exceeding
+beauty seemed to break like the light of the sun in the east; and the
+moon, which shone in the orchard with a faint light, appeared to Romeo
+as if sick and pale with grief at the superior lustre of this new sun.
+And she, leaning her cheek upon her hand, he passionately wished himself
+a glove upon that hand, that he might touch her cheek. She all this
+while thinking herself alone, fetched a deep sigh, and exclaimed, "Ah
+me!" Romeo, enraptured to hear her speak, said softly, and unheard by
+her, "O speak again, bright angel, for such you appear, being over my
+head, like a winged messenger from heaven whom mortals fall back to gaze
+upon." She, unconscious of being overheard, and full of the new passion
+which that night's adventure had given birth to, called upon her lover
+by name (whom she supposed absent): "O Romeo, Romeo!" said she,
+"wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father, and refuse thy name, for my
+sake; or if thou wilt not, be but my sworn love, and I no longer will be
+a Capulet." Romeo, having this encouragement, would fain have spoken,
+but he was desirous of hearing more; and the lady continued her
+passionate discourse with herself (as she thought), still chiding Romeo
+for being Romeo and a Montague, and wishing him some other name, or that
+he would put away that hated name, and for that name which was no part
+of himself, he should take all herself. At this loving word Romeo could
+no longer refrain, but taking up the dialogue as if her words had been
+addressed to him personally, and not merely in fancy, he bade her call
+him Love, or by whatever other name she pleased, for he was no longer
+Romeo, if that name was displeasing to her. Juliet, alarmed to hear a
+man's voice in the garden, did not at first know who it was, that by
+favour of the night and darkness had thus stumbled upon the discovery of
+her secret; but when he spoke again, though her ears had not yet drunk a
+hundred words of that tongue's uttering, yet so nice is a lover's
+hearing, that she immediately knew him to be young Romeo, and she
+expostulated with him on the danger to which he had exposed himself by
+climbing the orchard walls, for if any of her kinsmen should find him
+there, it would be death to him being a Montague. "Alack," said Romeo,
+"there is more peril in your eye, than in twenty of their swords. Do you
+but look kind upon me, lady, and I am proof against their enmity. Better
+my life should be ended by their hate, than that hated life should be
+prolonged, to live without your love."--"How came you into this place,"
+said Juliet, "and by whose direction?"--"Love directed me," answered
+Romeo: "I am no pilot, yet wert thou as far apart from me, as that vast
+shore which is washed with the farthest sea, I should venture for such
+merchandise." A crimson blush came over Juliet's face, yet unseen by
+Romeo by reason of the night, when she reflected upon the discovery
+which she had made, yet not meaning to make it, of her love to Romeo.
+She would fain have recalled her words, but that was impossible: fain
+would she have stood upon form, and have kept her lover at a distance,
+as the custom of discreet ladies is, to frown and be perverse, and give
+their suitors harsh denials at first; to stand off, and affect a coyness
+or indifference, where they most love, that their lovers may not think
+them too lightly or too easily won; for the difficulty of attainment
+increases the value of the object. But there was no room in her case for
+denials, or puttings off, or any of the customary arts of delay and
+protracted courtship. Romeo had heard from her own tongue, when she did
+not dream that he was near her, a confession of her love. So with an
+honest frankness, which the novelty of her situation excused, she
+confirmed the truth of what he had before heard, and addressing him by
+the name of _fair Montague_ (love can sweeten a sour name), she begged
+him not to impute her easy yielding to levity or an unworthy mind, but
+that he must lay the fault of it (if it were a fault) upon the accident
+of the night which had so strangely discovered her thoughts. And she
+added, that though her behaviour to him might not be sufficiently
+prudent, measured by the custom of her sex, yet that she would prove
+more true than many whose prudence was dissembling, and their modesty
+artificial cunning.
+
+Romeo was beginning to call the heavens to witness, that nothing was
+farther from his thoughts than to impute a shadow of dishonour to such
+an honoured lady, when she stopped him, begging him not to swear; for
+although she joyed in him, yet she had no joy of that night's contract:
+it was too rash, too unadvised, too sudden. But he being urgent with her
+to exchange a vow of love with him that night, she said that she already
+had given him hers before he requested it; meaning, when he overheard
+her confession; but she would retract what she then bestowed, for the
+pleasure of giving it again, for her bounty was as infinite as the sea,
+and her love as deep. From this loving conference she was called away by
+her nurse, who slept with her, and thought it time for her to be in bed,
+for it was near to daybreak; but hastily returning, she said three or
+four words more to Romeo, the purport of which was, that if his love was
+indeed honourable, and his purpose marriage, she would send a messenger
+to him to-morrow, to appoint a time for their marriage, when she would
+lay all her fortunes at his feet, and follow him as her lord through the
+world. While they were settling this point, Juliet was repeatedly called
+for by her nurse, and went in and returned, and went and returned again,
+for she seemed as jealous of Romeo going from her, as a young girl of
+her bird, which she will let hop a little from her hand, and pluck it
+back with a silken thread; and Romeo was as loath to part as she; for
+the sweetest music to lovers is the sound of each other's tongues at
+night. But at last they parted, wishing mutually sweet sleep and rest
+for that night.
+
+[Illustration: AT THE CELL OF FRIAR LAWRENCE]
+
+The day was breaking when they parted, and Romeo, who was too full of
+thoughts of his mistress and that blessed meeting to allow him to sleep,
+instead of going home, bent his course to a monastery hard by, to find
+Friar Lawrence. The good friar was already up at his devotions, but
+seeing young Romeo abroad so early, he conjectured rightly that he had
+not been abed that night, but that some distemper of youthful affection
+had kept him waking. He was right in imputing the cause of Romeo's
+wakefulness to love, but he made a wrong guess at the object, for he
+thought that his love for Rosaline had kept him waking. But when Romeo
+revealed his new passion for Juliet, and requested the assistance of the
+friar to marry them that day, the holy man lifted up his eyes and hands
+in a sort of wonder at the sudden change in Romeo's affections, for he
+had been privy to all Romeo's love for Rosaline, and his many complaints
+of her disdain: and he said, that young men's love lay not truly in
+their hearts, but in their eyes. But Romeo replying, that he himself had
+often chidden him for doting on Rosaline, who could not love him again,
+whereas Juliet both loved and was beloved by him, the friar assented in
+some measure to his reasons; and thinking that a matrimonial alliance
+between young Juliet and Romeo might happily be the means of making up
+the long breach between the Capulets and the Montagues; which no one
+more lamented than this good friar, who was a friend to both the
+families and had often interposed his mediation to make up the quarrel
+without effect; partly moved by policy, and partly by his fondness for
+young Romeo, to whom he could deny nothing, the old man consented to
+join their hands in marriage.
+
+Now was Romeo blessed indeed, and Juliet, who knew his intent from a
+messenger which she had despatched according to promise, did not fail to
+be early at the cell of Friar Lawrence, where their hands were joined in
+holy marriage; the good friar praying the heavens to smile upon that
+act, and in the union of this young Montague and young Capulet to bury
+the old strife and long dissensions of their families.
+
+The ceremony being over, Juliet hastened home, where she stayed
+impatient for the coming of night, at which time Romeo promised to come
+and meet her in the orchard, where they had met the night before; and
+the time between seemed as tedious to her, as the night before some
+great festival seems to an impatient child, that has got new finery
+which it may not put on till the morning.
+
+That same day, about noon, Romeo's friends, Benvolio and Mercutio,
+walking through the streets of Verona, were met by a party of the
+Capulets with the impetuous Tybalt at their head. This was the same
+angry Tybalt who would have fought with Romeo at old Lord Capulet's
+feast. He, seeing Mercutio, accused him bluntly of associating with
+Romeo, a Montague. Mercutio, who had as much fire and youthful blood in
+him as Tybalt, replied to this accusation with some sharpness; and in
+spite of all Benvolio could say to moderate their wrath, a quarrel was
+beginning, when Romeo himself passing that way, the fierce Tybalt turned
+from Mercutio to Romeo, and gave him the disgraceful appellation of
+villain. Romeo wished to avoid a quarrel with Tybalt above all men,
+because he was the kinsman of Juliet, and much beloved by her; besides,
+this young Montague had never thoroughly entered into the family
+quarrel, being by nature wise and gentle, and the name of a Capulet,
+which was his dear lady's name, was now rather a charm to allay
+resentment, than a watchword to excite fury. So he tried to reason with
+Tybalt, whom he saluted mildly by the name of _good Capulet_, as if he,
+though a Montague, had some secret pleasure in uttering that name: but
+Tybalt, who hated all Montagues as he hated hell, would hear no reason,
+but drew his weapon; and Mercutio, who knew not of Romeo's secret motive
+for desiring peace with Tybalt, but looked upon his present forbearance
+as a sort of calm dishonourable submission, with many disdainful words
+provoked Tybalt to the prosecution of his first quarrel with him; and
+Tybalt and Mercutio fought, till Mercutio fell, receiving his death's
+wound while Romeo and Benvolio were vainly endeavouring to part the
+combatants. Mercutio being dead, Romeo kept his temper no longer, but
+returned the scornful appellation of villain which Tybalt had given him;
+and they fought till Tybalt was slain by Romeo. This deadly broil
+falling out in the midst of Verona at noonday, the news of it quickly
+brought a crowd of citizens to the spot, and among them the old Lords
+Capulet and Montague, with their wives; and soon after arrived the
+prince himself, who being related to Mercutio, whom Tybalt had slain,
+and having had the peace of his government often disturbed by these
+brawls of Montagues and Capulets, came determined to put the law in
+strictest force against those who should be found to be offenders.
+Benvolio, who had been eye-witness to the fray, was commanded by the
+prince to relate the origin of it; which he did, keeping as near the
+truth as he could without injury to Romeo, softening and excusing the
+part which his friends took in it. Lady Capulet, whose extreme grief for
+the loss of her kinsman Tybalt made her keep no bounds in her revenge,
+exhorted the prince to do strict justice upon his murderer, and to pay
+no attention to Benvolio's representation, who, being Romeo's friend and
+a Montague, spoke partially. Thus she pleaded against her new
+son-in-law, but she knew not yet that he was her son-in-law and Juliet's
+husband. On the other hand was to be seen Lady Montague pleading for her
+child's life, and arguing with some justice that Romeo had done nothing
+worthy of punishment in taking the life of Tybalt, which was already
+forfeited to the law by his having slain Mercutio. The prince, unmoved
+by the passionate exclamations of these women, on a careful examination
+of the facts, pronounced his sentence, and by that sentence Romeo was
+banished from Verona.
+
+Heavy news to young Juliet, who had been but a few hours a bride, and
+now by this decree seemed everlastingly divorced! When the tidings
+reached her, she at first gave way to rage against Romeo, who had slain
+her dear cousin, she called him a beautiful tyrant, a fiend angelical, a
+ravenous dove, a lamb with a wolf's nature, a serpent-heart hid with a
+flowering face, and other like contradictory names, which denoted the
+struggles in her mind between her love and her resentment: but in the
+end love got the mastery, and the tears which she shed for grief that
+Romeo had slain her cousin, turned to drops of joy that her husband
+lived whom Tybalt would have slain. Then came fresh tears, and they were
+altogether of grief for Romeo's banishment. That word was more terrible
+to her than the death of many Tybalts.
+
+Romeo, after the fray, had taken refuge in Friar Lawrence's cell, where
+he was first made acquainted with the prince's sentence, which seemed to
+him far more terrible than death. To him it appeared there was no world
+out of Verona's walls, no living out of the sight of Juliet. Heaven was
+there where Juliet lived, and all beyond was purgatory, torture, hell.
+The good friar would have applied the consolation of philosophy to his
+griefs: but this frantic young man would hear of none, but like a madman
+he tore his hair, and threw himself all along upon the ground, as he
+said, to take the measure of his grave. From this unseemly state he was
+roused by a message from his dear lady, which a little revived him; and
+then the friar took the advantage to expostulate with him on the unmanly
+weakness which he had shown. He had slain Tybalt, but would he also slay
+himself, slay his dear lady, who lived but in his life? The noble form
+of man, he said, was but a shape of wax, when it wanted the courage
+which should keep it firm. The law had been lenient to him, that instead
+of death, which he had incurred, had pronounced by the prince's mouth
+only banishment. He had slain Tybalt, but Tybalt would have slain him:
+there was a sort of happiness in that. Juliet was alive, and (beyond all
+hope) had become his dear wife; therein he was most happy. All these
+blessings, as the friar made them out to be, did Romeo put from him
+like a sullen misbehaved wench. And the friar bade him beware, for such
+as despaired (he said) died miserable. Then when Romeo was a little
+calmed, he counselled him that he should go that night and secretly take
+his leave of Juliet, and thence proceed straightways to Mantua, at which
+place he should sojourn, till the friar found fit occasion to publish
+his marriage, which might be a joyful means of reconciling their
+families; and then he did not doubt but the prince would be moved to
+pardon him, and he would return with twenty times more joy than he went
+forth with grief. Romeo was convinced by these wise counsels of the
+friar, and took his leave to go and seek his lady, proposing to stay
+with her that night, and by daybreak pursue his journey alone to Mantua;
+to which place the good friar promised to send him letters from time to
+time, acquainting him with the state of affairs at home.
+
+That night Romeo passed with his dear wife, gaining secret admission to
+her chamber, from the orchard in which he had heard her confession of
+love the night before. That had been a night of unmixed joy and rapture;
+but the pleasures of this night, and the delight which these lovers took
+in each other's society, were sadly allayed with the prospect of
+parting, and the fatal adventures of the past day. The unwelcome
+daybreak seemed to come too soon, and when Juliet heard the morning song
+of the lark, she would have persuaded herself that it was the
+nightingale, which sings by night; but it was too truly the lark which
+sang, and a discordant and unpleasing note it seemed to her; and the
+streaks of day in the east too certainly pointed out that it was time
+for these lovers to part. Romeo took his leave of his dear wife with a
+heavy heart, promising to write to her from Mantua every hour in the
+day; and when he had descended from her chamber-window, as he stood
+below her on the ground, in that sad foreboding state of mind in which
+she was, he appeared to her eyes as one dead in the bottom of a tomb.
+Romeo's mind misgave him in like manner: but now he was forced hastily
+to depart, for it was death for him to be found within the walls of
+Verona after daybreak.
+
+This was but the beginning of the tragedy of this pair of star-crossed
+lovers. Romeo had not been gone many days, before the old Lord Capulet
+proposed a match for Juliet. The husband he had chosen for her, not
+dreaming that she was married already, was Count Paris, a gallant,
+young, and noble gentleman, no unworthy suitor to the young Juliet, if
+she had never seen Romeo.
+
+The terrified Juliet was in a sad perplexity at her father's offer. She
+pleaded her youth unsuitable to marriage, the recent death of Tybalt,
+which had left her spirits too weak to meet a husband with any face of
+joy, and how indecorous it would show for the family of the Capulets to
+be celebrating a nuptial feast, when his funeral solemnities were hardly
+over: she pleaded every reason against the match, but the true one,
+namely, that she was married already. But Lord Capulet was deaf to all
+her excuses, and in a peremptory manner ordered her to get ready, for by
+the following Thursday she should be married to Paris: and having found
+her a husband, rich, young, and noble, such as the proudest maid in
+Verona might joyfully accept, he could not bear that out of an affected
+coyness, as he construed her denial, she should oppose obstacles to her
+own good fortune.
+
+In this extremity Juliet applied to the friendly friar, always her
+counsellor in distress, and he asking her if she had resolution to
+undertake a desperate remedy, and she answering that she would go into
+the grave alive rather than marry Paris, her own dear husband living; he
+directed her to go home, and appear merry, and give her consent to marry
+Paris, according to her father's desire, and on the next night, which
+was the night before the marriage, to drink off the contents of a phial
+which he then gave her, the effect of which would be that for
+two-and-forty hours after drinking it she should appear cold and
+lifeless; and when the bridegroom came to fetch her in the morning, he
+would find her to appearance dead; that then she would be borne, as the
+manner in that country was, uncovered on a bier, to be buried in the
+family vault; that if she could put off womanish fear, and consent to
+this terrible trial, in forty-two hours after swallowing the liquid
+(such was its certain operation) she would be sure to awake, as from a
+dream; and before she should awake, he would let her husband know their
+drift, and he should come in the night, and bear her thence to Mantua.
+Love, and the dread of marrying Paris, gave young Juliet strength to
+undertake this horrible adventure; and she took the phial of the friar,
+promising to observe his directions.
+
+Going from the monastery, she met the young Count Paris, and modestly
+dissembling, promised to become his bride. This was joyful news to the
+Lord Capulet and his wife. It seemed to put youth into the old man; and
+Juliet, who had displeased him exceedingly, by her refusal of the count,
+was his darling again, now she promised to be obedient. All things in
+the house were in a bustle against the approaching nuptials. No cost was
+spared to prepare such festival rejoicings as Verona had never before
+witnessed.
+
+On the Wednesday night Juliet drank off the potion. She had many
+misgivings lest the friar, to avoid the blame which might be imputed to
+him for marrying her to Romeo, had given her poison; but then he was
+always known for a holy man: then lest she should awake before the time
+that Romeo was to come for her; whether the terror of the place, a vault
+full of dead Capulets' bones, and where Tybalt, all bloody, lay
+festering in his shroud, would not be enough to drive her distracted:
+again she thought of all the stories she had heard of spirits haunting
+the places where their bodies were bestowed. But then her love for
+Romeo, and her aversion for Paris returned, and she desperately
+swallowed the draught, and became insensible.
+
+When young Paris came early in the morning with music to awaken his
+bride, instead of a living Juliet, her chamber presented the dreary
+spectacle of a lifeless corse. What death to his hopes! What confusion
+then reigned through the whole house! Poor Paris lamenting his bride,
+whom most detestable death had beguiled him of, had divorced from him
+even before their hands were joined. But still more piteous it was to
+hear the mournings of the old Lord and Lady Capulet, who having but this
+one, one poor loving child to rejoice and solace in, cruel death had
+snatched her from their sight, just as these careful parents were on the
+point of seeing her advanced (as they thought) by a promising and
+advantageous match. Now all things that were ordained for the festival
+were turned from their properties to do the office of a black funeral.
+The wedding cheer served for a sad burial feast, the bridal hymns were
+changed for sullen dirges, the sprightly instruments to melancholy
+bells, and the flowers that should have been strewed in the bride's
+path, now served but to strew her corse. Now, instead of a priest to
+marry her, a priest was needed to bury her; and she was borne to church
+indeed, not to augment the cheerful hopes of the living, but to swell
+the dreary numbers of the dead.
+
+Bad news, which always travels faster than good, now brought the dismal
+story of his Juliet's death to Romeo, at Mantua, before the messenger
+could arrive, who was sent from Friar Lawrence to apprise him that these
+were mock funerals only, and but the shadow and representation of death,
+and that his dear lady lay in the tomb but for a short while, expecting
+when Romeo would come to release her from that dreary mansion. Just
+before, Romeo had been unusually joyful and light-hearted. He had
+dreamed in the night that he was dead (a strange dream, that gave a dead
+man leave to think), and that his lady came and found him dead, and
+breathed such life with kisses in his lips, that he revived, and was an
+emperor! And now that a messenger came from Verona, he thought surely it
+was to confirm some good news which his dreams had presaged. But when
+the contrary to this flattering vision appeared, and that it was his
+lady who was dead in truth, whom he could not revive by any kisses, he
+ordered horses to be got ready, for he determined that night to visit
+Verona, and to see his lady in her tomb. And as mischief is swift to
+enter into the thoughts of desperate men, he called to mind a poor
+apothecary, whose shop in Mantua he had lately passed, and from the
+beggarly appearance of the man, who seemed famished, and the wretched
+show in his show of empty boxes ranged on dirty shelves, and other
+tokens of extreme wretchedness, he had said at the time (perhaps having
+some misgivings that his own disastrous life might haply meet with a
+conclusion so desperate), "If a man were to need poison, which by the
+law of Mantua it is death to sell, here lives a poor wretch who would
+sell it him." These words of his now came into his mind, and he sought
+out the apothecary, who after some pretended scruples, Romeo offering
+him gold, which his poverty could not resist, sold him a poison, which,
+if he swallowed, he told him, if he had the strength of twenty men,
+would quickly despatch him.
+
+With this poison he set out for Verona, to have a sight of his dear lady
+in her tomb, meaning, when he had satisfied his sight, to swallow the
+poison, and be buried by her side. He reached Verona at midnight, and
+found the churchyard, in the midst of which was situated the ancient
+tomb of the Capulets. He had provided a light, and a spade, and
+wrenching iron, and was proceeding to break open the monument, when he
+was interrupted by a voice, which by the name of _vile Montague_, bade
+him desist from his unlawful business. It was the young Count Paris, who
+had come to the tomb of Juliet at that unseasonable time of night, to
+strew flowers and to weep over the grave of her that should have been
+his bride. He knew not what an interest Romeo had in the dead, but
+knowing him to be a Montague, and (as he supposed) a sworn foe to all
+the Capulets, he judged that he was come by night to do some villanous
+shame to the dead bodies; therefore in an angry tone he bade him desist;
+and as a criminal, condemned by the laws of Verona to die if he were
+found within the walls of the city, he would have apprehended him. Romeo
+urged Paris to leave him, and warned him by the fate of Tybalt, who lay
+buried there, not to provoke his anger, or draw down another sin upon
+his head, by forcing him to kill him. But the count in scorn refused his
+warning, and laid hands on him as a felon, which Romeo resisting, they
+fought, and Paris fell. When Romeo, by the help of a light, came to see
+who it was that he had slain, that it was Paris, who (he learned in his
+way from Mantua) should have married Juliet, he took the dead youth by
+the hand, as one whom misfortune had made a companion, and said that he
+would bury him in a triumphal grave, meaning in Juliet's grave, which he
+now opened: and there lay his lady, as one whom death had no power upon
+to change a feature or complexion, in her matchless beauty; or as if
+Death were amorous, and the lean abhorred monster kept her there for his
+delight; for she lay yet fresh and blooming, as she had fallen to sleep
+when she swallowed that benumbing potion; and near her lay Tybalt in his
+bloody shroud, whom Romeo seeing, begged pardon of his lifeless corse,
+and for Juliet's sake called him _cousin_, and said that he was about to
+do him a favour by putting his enemy to death. Here Romeo took his last
+leave of his lady's lips, kissing them; and here he shook the burden of
+his cross stars from his weary body, swallowing that poison which the
+apothecary had sold him, whose operation was fatal and real, not like
+that dissembling potion which Juliet had swallowed, the effect of which
+was now nearly expiring, and she about to awake to complain that Romeo
+had not kept his time, or that he had come too soon.
+
+For now the hour was arrived at which the friar had promised that she
+should awake; and he, having learned that his letters which he had sent
+to Mantua, by some unlucky detention of the messenger, had never reached
+Romeo, came himself, provided with a pickaxe and lantern, to deliver the
+lady from her confinement; but he was surprised to find a light already
+burning in the Capulets' monument, and to see swords and blood near it,
+and Romeo and Paris lying breathless by the monument.
+
+Before he could entertain a conjecture, to imagine how these fatal
+accidents had fallen out, Juliet awoke out of her trance, and seeing the
+friar near her, she remembered the place where she was, and the occasion
+of her being there, and asked for Romeo, but the friar, hearing a noise,
+bade her come out of that place of death, and of unnatural sleep, for a
+greater power than they could contradict had thwarted their intents; and
+being frightened by the noise of people coming, he fled: but when Juliet
+saw the cup closed in her true love's hands, she guessed that poison had
+been the cause of his end, and she would have swallowed the dregs if any
+had been left, and she kissed his still warm lips to try if any poison
+yet did hang upon them; then hearing a nearer noise of people coming,
+she quickly unsheathed a dagger which she wore, and stabbing herself,
+died by her true Romeo's side.
+
+The watch by this time had come up to the place. A page belonging to
+Count Paris, who had witnessed the fight between his master and Romeo,
+had given the alarm, which had spread among the citizens, who went up
+and down the streets of Verona confusedly exclaiming, A Paris! a Romeo!
+a Juliet! as the rumour had imperfectly reached them, till the uproar
+brought Lord Montague and Lord Capulet out of their beds, with the
+prince, to inquire into the causes of the disturbance. The friar had
+been apprehended by some of the watch, coming from the churchyard,
+trembling, sighing, and weeping, in a suspicious manner. A great
+multitude being assembled at the Capulets' monument, the friar was
+demanded by the prince to deliver what he knew of these strange and
+disastrous accidents.
+
+And there, in the presence of the old Lords Montague and Capulet, he
+faithfully related the story of their children's fatal love, the part he
+took in promoting their marriage, in the hope in that union to end the
+long quarrels between their families: how Romeo, there dead, was husband
+to Juliet; and Juliet, there dead, was Romeo's faithful wife; how before
+he could find a fit opportunity to divulge their marriage, another match
+was projected for Juliet, who, to avoid the crime of a second marriage,
+swallowed the sleeping draught (as he advised), and all thought her
+dead; how meantime he wrote to Romeo, to come and take her thence when
+the force of the potion should cease, and by what unfortunate
+miscarriage of the messenger the letters never reached Romeo: further
+than this the friar could not follow the story, nor knew more than that
+coming himself, to deliver Juliet from that place of death, he found the
+Count Paris and Romeo slain. The remainder of the transactions was
+supplied by the narration of the page who had seen Paris and Romeo
+fight, and by the servant who came with Romeo from Verona, to whom this
+faithful lover had given letters to be delivered to his father in the
+event of his death, which made good the friar's words, confessing his
+marriage with Juliet, imploring the forgiveness of his parents,
+acknowledging the buying of the poison of the poor apothecary, and his
+intent in coming to the monument, to die, and lie with Juliet. All these
+circumstances agreed together to clear the friar from any hand he could
+be supposed to have in these complicated slaughters, further than as the
+unintended consequences of his own well meant, yet too artificial and
+subtle contrivances.
+
+And the prince, turning to these old lords, Montague and Capulet,
+rebuked them for their brutal and irrational enmities, and showed them
+what a scourge Heaven had laid upon such offences, that it had found
+means even through the love of their children to punish their unnatural
+hate.
+
+And these old rivals, no longer enemies, agreed to bury their long
+strife in their children's graves; and Lord Capulet requested Lord
+Montague to give him his hand, calling him by the name of brother, as if
+in acknowledgment of the union of their families, by the marriage of the
+young Capulet and Montague; and saying that Lord Montague's hand (in
+token of reconcilement) was all he demanded for his daughter's jointure:
+but Lord Montague said he would give him more, for he would raise her a
+statue of pure gold, that while Verona kept its name, no figure should
+be so esteemed for its richness and workmanship as that of the true and
+faithful Juliet. And Lord Capulet in return said that he would raise
+another statue to Romeo. So did these poor old lords, when it was too
+late, strive to outgo each other in mutual courtesies: while so deadly
+had been their rage and enmity in past times, that nothing but the
+fearful overthrow of their children (poor sacrifices to their quarrels
+and dissensions) could remove the rooted hates and jealousies of the
+noble families.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK
+
+
+Gertrude, Queen of Denmark, becoming a widow by the sudden death of King
+Hamlet, in less than two months after his death married his brother
+Claudius, which was noted by all people at the time for a strange act of
+indiscretion, or unfeelingness, or worse: for this Claudius did no ways
+resemble her late husband in the qualities of his person or his mind,
+but was as contemptible in outward appearance, as he was base and
+unworthy in disposition; and suspicions did not fail to arise in the
+minds of some, that he had privately made away with his brother, the
+late king, with the view of marrying his widow, and ascending the throne
+of Denmark, to the exclusion of young Hamlet, the son of the buried
+king, and lawful successor to the throne.
+
+But upon no one did this unadvised action of the queen make such
+impression as upon this young prince, who loved and venerated the memory
+of his dead father almost to idolatry, and being of a nice sense of
+honour, and a most exquisite practiser of propriety himself, did sorely
+take to heart this unworthy conduct of his mother Gertrude: insomuch
+that, between grief for his father's death and shame for his mother's
+marriage, this young prince was overclouded with a deep melancholy, and
+lost all his mirth and all his good looks; all his customary pleasure in
+books forsook him, his princely exercises and sports, proper to his
+youth, were no longer acceptable; he grew weary of the world, which
+seemed to him an unweeded garden, where all the wholesome flowers were
+choked up, and nothing but weeds could thrive. Not that the prospect of
+exclusion from the throne, his lawful inheritance, weighed so much upon
+his spirits, though that to a young and high-minded prince was a bitter
+wound and a sore indignity; but what so galled him, and took away all
+his cheerful spirits, was, that his mother had shown herself so
+forgetful to his father's memory: and such a father! who had been to her
+so loving and so gentle a husband! and then she always appeared as
+loving and obedient a wife to him, and would hang upon him as if her
+affection grew to him: and now within two months, or as it seemed to
+young Hamlet, less than two months, she had married again, married his
+uncle, her dear husband's brother, in itself a highly improper and
+unlawful marriage, from the nearness of relationship, but made much more
+so by the indecent haste with which it was concluded, and the unkingly
+character of the man whom she had chosen to be the partner of her throne
+and bed. This it was, which more than the loss of ten kingdoms, dashed
+the spirits and brought a cloud over the mind of this honourable young
+prince.
+
+In vain was all that his mother Gertrude or the king could do to
+contrive to divert him; he still appeared in court in a suit of deep
+black, as mourning for the king his father's death, which mode of dress
+he had never laid aside, not even in compliment to his mother upon the
+day she was married, nor could he be brought to join in any of the
+festivities or rejoicings of that (as appeared to him) disgraceful day.
+
+What mostly troubled him was an uncertainty about the manner of his
+father's death. It was given out by Claudius that a serpent had stung
+him; but young Hamlet had shrewd suspicions that Claudius himself was
+the serpent; in plain English, that he had murdered him for his crown,
+and that the serpent who stung his father did now sit on the throne.
+
+How far he was right in this conjecture, and what he ought to think of
+his mother, how far she was privy to this murder, and whether by her
+consent or knowledge, or without, it came to pass, were the doubts which
+continually harassed and distracted him.
+
+A rumour had reached the ear of young Hamlet, that an apparition,
+exactly resembling the dead king his father, had been seen by the
+soldiers upon watch, on the platform before the palace at midnight, for
+two or three nights successively. The figure came constantly clad in the
+same suit of armour, from head to foot, which the dead king was known to
+have worn: and they who saw it (Hamlet's bosom friend Horatio was one)
+agreed in their testimony as to the time and manner of its appearance:
+that it came just as the clock struck twelve; that it looked pale, with
+a face more of sorrow than of anger; that its beard was grisly, and the
+colour a _sable silvered_, as they had seen it in his lifetime: that it
+made no answer when they spoke to it; yet once they thought it lifted up
+its head, and addressed itself to motion, as if it were about to speak;
+but in that moment the morning cock crew, and it shrunk in haste away,
+and vanished out of their sight.
+
+The young prince, strangely amazed at their relation, which was too
+consistent and agreeing with itself to disbelieve, concluded that it was
+his father's ghost which they had seen, and determined to take his watch
+with the soldiers that night, that he might have a chance of seeing it;
+for he reasoned with himself, that such an appearance did not come for
+nothing, but that the ghost had something to impart, and though it had
+been silent hitherto, yet it would speak to him. And he waited with
+impatience for the coming of night.
+
+When night came he took his stand with Horatio, and Marcellus, one of
+the guard, upon the platform, where this apparition was accustomed to
+walk: and it being a cold night, and the air unusually raw and nipping,
+Hamlet and Horatio and their companion fell into some talk about the
+coldness of the night, which was suddenly broken off by Horatio
+announcing that the ghost was coming.
+
+At the sight of his father's spirit, Hamlet was struck with a sudden
+surprise and fear. He at first called upon the angels and heavenly
+ministers to defend them, for he knew not whether it were a good spirit
+or bad; whether it came for good or evil: but he gradually assumed more
+courage; and his father (as it seemed to him) looked upon him so
+piteously, and as it were desiring to have conversation with him, and
+did in all respects appear so like himself as he was when he lived, that
+Hamlet could not help addressing him: he called him by his name, Hamlet,
+King, Father! and conjured him that he would tell the reason why he had
+left his grave, where they had seen him quietly bestowed, to come again
+and visit the earth and the moonlight: and besought him that he would
+let them know if there was anything which they could do to give peace to
+his spirit. And the ghost beckoned to Hamlet, that he should go with him
+to some more removed place, where they might be alone; and Horatio and
+Marcellus would have dissuaded the young prince from following it, for
+they feared lest it should be some evil spirit, who would tempt him to
+the the neighbouring sea, or to the top of some dreadful cliff, and
+there put on some horrible shape which might deprive the prince of his
+reason. But their counsels and entreaties could not alter Hamlet's
+determination, who cared too little about life to fear the losing of
+it; and as to his soul, he said, what could the spirit do to that, being
+a thing immortal as itself? And he felt as hardy as a lion, and bursting
+from them, who did all they could to hold him, he followed whithersoever
+the spirit led him.
+
+And when they were alone together, the spirit broke silence, and told
+him that he was the ghost of Hamlet, his father, who had been cruelly
+murdered, and he told the manner of it; that it was done by his own
+brother Claudius, Hamlet's uncle, as Hamlet had already but too much
+suspected, for the hope of succeeding to his bed and crown. That as he
+was sleeping in his garden, his custom always in the afternoon, his
+treasonous brother stole upon him in his sleep, and poured the juice of
+poisonous henbane into his ears, which has such an antipathy to the life
+of man, that swift as quicksilver it courses through all the veins of
+the body, baking up the blood, and spreading a crustlike leprosy all
+over the skin: thus sleeping, by a brother's hand he was cut off at once
+from his crown, his queen, and his life: and he adjured Hamlet, if he
+did ever his dear father love, that he would revenge his foul murder.
+And the ghost lamented to his son, that his mother should so fall off
+from virtue, as to prove false to the wedded love of her first husband,
+and to marry his murderer; but he cautioned Hamlet, howsoever he
+proceeded in his revenge against his wicked uncle, by no means to act
+any violence against the person of his mother, but to leave her to
+heaven, and to the stings and thorns of conscience. And Hamlet promised
+to observe the ghost's direction in all things, and the ghost vanished.
+
+And when Hamlet was left alone, he took up a solemn resolution, that all
+he had in his memory, all that he had ever learned by books or
+observation, should be instantly forgotten by him, and nothing live in
+his brain but the memory of what the ghost had told him, and enjoined
+him to do. And Hamlet related the particulars of the conversation which
+had passed to none but his dear friend Horatio; and he enjoined both to
+him and Marcellus the strictest secrecy as to what they had seen that
+night.
+
+The terror which the sight of the ghost had left upon the senses of
+Hamlet, he being weak and dispirited before, almost unhinged his mind,
+and drove him beside his reason. And he, fearing that it would continue
+to have this effect, which might subject him to observation, and set his
+uncle upon his guard, if he suspected that he was meditating anything
+against him, or that Hamlet really knew more of his father's death than
+he professed, took up a strange resolution, from that time to
+counterfeit as if he were really and truly mad; thinking that he would
+be less an object of suspicion when his uncle should believe him
+incapable of any serious project, and that his real perturbation of mind
+would be best covered and pass concealed under a disguise of pretended
+lunacy.
+
+From this time Hamlet affected a certain wildness and strangeness in his
+apparel, his speech, and behaviour, and did so excellently counterfeit
+the madman, that the king and queen were both deceived, and not thinking
+his grief for his father's death a sufficient cause to produce such a
+distemper, for they knew not of the appearance of the ghost, they
+concluded that his malady was love, and they thought they had found out
+the object.
+
+[Illustration: TO THIS BROOK OPHELIA CAME]
+
+Before Hamlet fell into the melancholy way which has been related, he
+had dearly loved a fair maid called Ophelia, the daughter of Polonius,
+the king's chief counsellor in affairs of state. He had sent her letters
+and rings, and made many tenders of his affection to her, and importuned
+her with love in honourable fashion: and she had given belief to his
+vows and importunities. But the melancholy which he fell into latterly
+had made him neglect her, and from the time he conceived the project of
+counterfeiting madness, he affected to treat her with unkindness, and a
+sort of rudeness: but she, good lady, rather than reproach him with
+being false to her, persuaded herself that it was nothing but the
+disease in his mind, and no settled unkindness, which had made him less
+observant of her than formerly; and she compared the faculties of his
+once noble mind and excellent understanding, impaired as they were with
+the deep melancholy that oppressed him, to sweet bells which in
+themselves are capable of most exquisite music, but when jangled out of
+tune, or rudely handled, produce only a harsh and unpleasing sound.
+
+Though the rough business which Hamlet had in hand, the revenging of his
+father's death upon his murderer, did not suit with the playful state of
+courtship, or admit of the society of so idle a passion as love now
+seemed to him, yet it could not hinder but that soft thoughts of his
+Ophelia would come between, and in one of these moments, when he thought
+that his treatment of this gentle lady had been unreasonably harsh, he
+wrote her a letter full of wild starts of passion, and in extravagant
+terms, such as agreed with his supposed madness, but mixed with some
+gentle touches of affection, which could not but show to this honoured
+lady that a deep love for her yet lay at the bottom of his heart. He
+bade her to doubt the stars were fire, and to doubt that the sun did
+move, to doubt truth to be a liar, but never to doubt that he loved;
+with more of such extravagant phrases. This letter Ophelia dutifully
+showed to her father, and the old man thought himself bound to
+communicate it to the king and queen, who from that time supposed that
+the true cause of Hamlet's madness was love. And the queen wished that
+the good beauties of Ophelia might be the happy cause of his wildness,
+for so she hoped that her virtues might happily restore him to his
+accustomed way again, to both their honours.
+
+But Hamlet's malady lay deeper than she supposed, or than could be so
+cured. His father's ghost, which he had seen, still haunted his
+imagination, and the sacred injunction to revenge his murder gave him no
+rest till it was accomplished. Every hour of delay seemed to him a sin,
+and a violation of his father's commands. Yet how to compass the death
+of the king, surrounded as he constantly was with his guards, was no
+easy matter. Or if it had been, the presence of the queen, Hamlet's
+mother, who was generally with the king, was a restraint upon his
+purpose, which he could not break through. Besides, the very
+circumstance that the usurper was his mother's husband filled him with
+some remorse, and still blunted the edge of his purpose. The mere act of
+putting a fellow-creature to death was in itself odious and terrible to
+a disposition naturally so gentle as Hamlet's was. His very melancholy,
+and the dejection of spirits he had so long been in, produced an
+irresoluteness and wavering of purpose, which kept him from proceeding
+to extremities. Moreover, he could not help having some scruples upon
+his mind, whether the spirit which he had seen was indeed his father, or
+whether it might not be the devil, who he had heard has power to take
+any form he pleases, and who might have assumed his father's shape only
+to take advantage of his weakness and his melancholy, to drive him to
+the doing of so desperate an act as murder. And he determined that he
+would have more certain grounds to go upon than a vision, or apparition,
+which might be a delusion.
+
+While he was in this irresolute mind there came to the court certain
+players, in whom Hamlet formerly used to take delight, and particularly
+to hear one of them speak a tragical speech, describing the death of old
+Priam, King of Troy, with the grief of Hecuba his queen. Hamlet welcomed
+his old friends, the players, and remembering how that speech had
+formerly given him pleasure, requested the player to repeat it; which he
+did in so lively a manner, setting forth the cruel murder of the feeble
+old king, with the destruction of his people and city by fire, and the
+mad grief of the old queen, running barefoot up and down the palace,
+with a poor clout upon that head where a crown had been, and with
+nothing but a blanket upon her loins, snatched up in haste, where she
+had worn a royal robe; that not only it drew tears from all that stood
+by, who thought they saw the real scene, so lively was it represented,
+but even the player himself delivered it with a broken voice and real
+tears. This put Hamlet upon thinking, if that player could so work
+himself up to passion by a mere fictitious speech, to weep for one that
+he had never seen, for Hecuba, that had been dead so many hundred years,
+how dull was he, who having a real motive and cue for passion, a real
+king and a dear father murdered, was yet so little moved, that his
+revenge all this while had seemed to have slept in dull and muddy
+forgetfulness! and while he meditated on actors and acting, and the
+powerful effects which a good play, represented to the life, has upon
+the spectator, he remembered the instance of some murderer, who seeing a
+murder on the stage, was by the mere force of the scene and resemblance
+of circumstances so affected, that on the spot he confessed the crime
+which he had committed. And he determined that these players should play
+something like the murder of his father before his uncle, and he would
+watch narrowly what effect it might have upon him, and from his looks he
+would be able to gather with more certainty if he were the murderer or
+not. To this effect he ordered a play to be prepared, to the
+representation of which he invited the king and queen.
+
+The story of the play was of a murder done in Vienna upon a duke. The
+duke's name was Gonzago, his wife Baptista. The play showed how one
+Lucianus, a near relation to the duke, poisoned him in his garden for
+his estate, and how the murderer in a short time after got the love of
+Gonzago's wife.
+
+At the representation of this play, the king, who did not know the trap
+which was laid for him, was present, with his queen and the whole court:
+Hamlet sitting attentively near him to observe his looks. The play began
+with a conversation between Gonzago and his wife, in which the lady
+made many protestations of love, and of never marrying a second husband,
+if she should outlive Gonzago; wishing she might be accursed if she ever
+took a second husband, and adding that no woman did so, but those wicked
+women who kill their first husbands. Hamlet observed the king his uncle
+change colour at this expression, and that it was as bad as wormwood
+both to him and to the queen. But when Lucianus, according to the story,
+came to poison Gonzago sleeping in the garden, the strong resemblance
+which it bore to his own wicked act upon the late king, his brother,
+whom he had poisoned in his garden, so struck upon the conscience of
+this usurper, that he was unable to sit out the rest of the play, but on
+a sudden calling for lights to his chamber, and affecting or partly
+feeling a sudden sickness, he abruptly left the theatre. The king being
+departed, the play was given over. Now Hamlet had seen enough to be
+satisfied that the words of the ghost were true, and no illusion; and in
+a fit of gaiety, like that which comes over a man who suddenly has some
+great doubt or scruple resolved, he swore to Horatio, that he would take
+the ghost's word for a thousand pounds. But before he could make up his
+resolution as to what measures of revenge he should take, now he was
+certainly informed that his uncle was his father's murderer, he was sent
+for by the queen his mother, to a private conference in her closet.
+
+It was by desire of the king that the queen sent for Hamlet, that she
+might signify to her son how much his late behaviour had displeased them
+both, and the king, wishing to know all that passed at that conference,
+and thinking that the too partial report of a mother might let slip some
+part of Hamlet's words, which it might much import the king to know,
+Polonius, the old counsellor of state, was ordered to plant himself
+behind the hangings in the queen's closet, where he might unseen hear
+all that passed. This artifice was particularly adapted to the
+disposition of Polonius, who was a man grown old in crooked maxims and
+policies of state, and delighted to get at the knowledge of matters in
+an indirect and cunning way.
+
+Hamlet being come to his mother, she began to tax him in the roundest
+way with his actions and behaviour, and she told him that he had given
+great offence to _his father_, meaning the king, his uncle, whom,
+because he had married her, she called Hamlet's father. Hamlet, sorely
+indignant that she should give so dear and honoured a name as father
+seemed to him, to a wretch who was indeed no better than the murderer of
+his true father, with some sharpness replied, "Mother, _you_ have much
+offended _my father_." The queen said that was but an idle answer. "As
+good as the question deserved," said Hamlet. The queen asked him if he
+had forgotten who it was he was speaking to? "Alas!" replied Hamlet, "I
+wish I could forget. You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife;
+and you are my mother: I wish you were not what you are." "Nay, then,"
+said the queen, "if you show me so little respect, I will set those to
+you that can speak," and was going to send the king or Polonius to him.
+But Hamlet would not let her go, now he had her alone, till he had tried
+if his words could not bring her to some sense of her wicked life; and,
+taking her by the wrist, he held her fast, and made her sit down. She,
+affrighted at his earnest manner, and fearful lest in his lunacy he
+should do her a mischief, cried out; and a voice was heard from behind
+the hangings, "Help, help, the queen!" which Hamlet hearing, and verily
+thinking that it was the king himself there concealed, he drew his sword
+and stabbed at the place where the voice came from, as he would have
+stabbed a rat that ran there, till the voice ceasing, he concluded the
+person to be dead. But when he dragged for the body, it was not the
+king, but Polonius, the old officious counsellor, that had planted
+himself as a spy behind the hangings. "Oh me!" exclaimed the queen,
+"what a rash and bloody deed have you done!" "A bloody deed, mother,"
+replied Hamlet, "but not so bad as yours, who killed a king, and married
+his brother." Hamlet had gone too far to leave off here. He was now in
+the humour to speak plainly to his mother, and he pursued it. And though
+the faults of parents are to be tenderly treated by their children, yet
+in the case of great crimes the son may have leave to speak even to his
+own mother with some harshness, so as that harshness is meant for her
+good, and to turn her from her wicked ways, and not done for the purpose
+of upbraiding. And now this virtuous prince did in moving terms
+represent to the queen the heinousness of her offence, in being so
+forgetful of the dead king, his father, as in so short a space of time
+to marry with his brother and reputed murderer: such an act as, after
+the vows which she had sworn to her first husband, was enough to make
+all vows of women suspected, and all virtue to be accounted hypocrisy,
+wedding contracts to be less than gamesters' oaths, and religion to be a
+mockery and a mere form of words. He said she had done such a deed, that
+the heavens blushed at it, and the earth was sick of her because of it.
+And he showed her two pictures, the one of the late king, her first
+husband, and the other of the present king, her second husband, and he
+bade her mark the difference; what a grace was on the brow of his
+father, how like a god he looked! the curls of Apollo, the forehead of
+Jupiter, the eye of Mars, and a posture like to Mercury newly alighted
+on some heaven-kissing hill! this man, he said, _had been_ her husband.
+And then he showed her whom she had got in his stead: how like a blight
+or a mildew he looked, for so he had blasted his wholesome brother. And
+the queen was sore ashamed that he should so turn her eyes inward upon
+her soul, which she now saw so black and deformed. And he asked her how
+she could continue to live with this man, and be a wife to him, who had
+murdered her first husband, and got the crown by as false means as a
+thief----and just as he spoke, the ghost of his father, such as he was
+in his lifetime, and such as he had lately seen it, entered the room,
+and Hamlet, in great terror, asked what it would have; and the ghost
+said that it came to remind him of the revenge he had promised, which
+Hamlet seemed to have forgot; and the ghost bade him speak to his
+mother, for the grief and terror she was in would else kill her. It then
+vanished, and was seen by none but Hamlet, neither could he by pointing
+to where it stood, or by any description, make his mother perceive it;
+who was terribly frightened all this while to hear him conversing, as it
+seemed to her, with nothing; and she imputed it to the disorder of his
+mind. But Hamlet begged her not to flatter her wicked soul in such a
+manner as to think that it was his madness, and not her own offences,
+which had brought his father's spirit again on the earth. And he bade
+her feel his pulse, how temperately it beat, not like a madman's. And he
+begged of her with tears, to confess herself to heaven for what was
+past, and for the future to avoid the company of the king, and be no
+more as a wife to him: and when she should show herself a mother to him,
+by respecting his father's memory, he would ask a blessing of her as a
+son. And she promising to observe his directions, the conference ended.
+
+And now Hamlet was at leisure to consider who it was that in his
+unfortunate rashness he had killed: and when he came to see that it was
+Polonius, the father of the Lady Ophelia, whom he so dearly loved, he
+drew apart the dead body, and, his spirits being now a little quieter,
+he wept for what he had done.
+
+The unfortunate death of Polonius gave the king a pretence for sending
+Hamlet out of the kingdom. He would willingly have put him to death,
+fearing him as dangerous; but he dreaded the people, who loved Hamlet,
+and the queen, who, with all her faults, doted upon the prince, her son.
+So this subtle king, under pretence of providing for Hamlet's safety,
+that he might not be called to account for Polonius' death, caused him
+to be conveyed on board a ship bound for England, under the care of two
+courtiers, by whom he despatched letters to the English court, which in
+that time was in subjection and paid tribute to Denmark, requiring for
+special reasons there pretended, that Hamlet should be put to death as
+soon as he landed on English ground. Hamlet, suspecting some treachery,
+in the night-time secretly got at the letters, and skilfully erasing
+his own name, he in the stead of it put in the names of those two
+courtiers, who had the charge of him, to be put to death: then sealing
+up the letters, he put them into their place again. Soon after the ship
+was attacked by pirates, and a sea-fight commenced; in the course of
+which Hamlet, desirous to show his valour, with sword in hand singly
+boarded the enemy's vessel; while his own ship, in a cowardly manner,
+bore away, and leaving him to his fate, the two courtiers made the best
+of their way to England, charged with those letters the sense of which
+Hamlet had altered to their own deserved destruction.
+
+The pirates, who had the prince in their power, showed themselves gentle
+enemies; and knowing whom they had got prisoner, in the hope that the
+prince might do them a good turn at court in recompense for any favour
+they might show him, they set Hamlet on shore at the nearest port in
+Denmark. From that place Hamlet wrote to the king, acquainting him with
+the strange chance which had brought him back to his own country, and
+saying that on the next day he should present himself before his
+majesty. When he got home, a sad spectacle offered itself the first
+thing to his eyes.
+
+This was the funeral of the young and beautiful Ophelia, his once dear
+mistress. The wits of this young lady had begun to turn ever since her
+poor father's death. That he should die a violent death, and by the
+hands of the prince whom she loved, so affected this tender young maid,
+that in a little time she grew perfectly distracted, and would go about
+giving flowers away to the ladies of the court, and saying that they
+were for her father's burial, singing songs about love and about death,
+and sometimes such as had no meaning at all, as if she had no memory of
+what happened to her. There was a willow which grew slanting over a
+brook, and reflected its leaves on the stream. To this brook she came
+one day when she was unwatched, with garlands she had been making, mixed
+up of daisies and nettles, flowers and weeds together, and clambering up
+to hang her garland upon the boughs of the willow, a bough broke, and
+precipitated this fair young maid, garland, and all that she had
+gathered, into the water, where her clothes bore her up for a while,
+during which she chanted scraps of old tunes, like one insensible to her
+own distress, or as if she were a creature natural to that element: but
+long it was not before her garments, heavy with the wet, pulled her in
+from her melodious singing to a muddy and miserable death. It was the
+funeral of this fair maid which her brother Laertes was celebrating, the
+king and queen and whole court being present, when Hamlet arrived. He
+knew not what all this show imported, but stood on one side, not
+inclining to interrupt the ceremony. He saw the flowers strewed upon her
+grave, as the custom was in maiden burials, which the queen herself
+threw in; and as she threw them she said, "Sweets to the sweet! I
+thought to have decked thy bride-bed, sweet maid, not to have strewed
+thy grave. Thou shouldst have been my Hamlet's wife." And he heard her
+brother wish that violets might spring from her grave: and he saw him
+leap into the grave all frantic with grief, and bid the attendants pile
+mountains of earth upon him, that he might be buried with her. And
+Hamlet's love for this fair maid came back to him, and he could not bear
+that a brother should show so much transport of grief, for he thought
+that he loved Ophelia better than forty thousand brothers. Then
+discovering himself, he leaped into the grave where Laertes was, all as
+frantic or more frantic than he, and Laertes knowing him to be Hamlet,
+who had been the cause of his father's and his sister's death, grappled
+him by the throat as an enemy, till the attendants parted them: and
+Hamlet, after the funeral, excused his hasty act in throwing himself
+into the grave as if to brave Laertes; but he said he could not bear
+that any one should seem to outgo him in grief for the death of the fair
+Ophelia. And for the time these two noble youths seemed reconciled.
+
+But out of the grief and anger of Laertes for the death of his father
+and Ophelia, the king, Hamlet's wicked uncle, contrived destruction for
+Hamlet. He set on Laertes, under cover of peace and reconciliation, to
+challenge Hamlet to a friendly trial of skill at fencing, which Hamlet
+accepting, a day was appointed to try the match. At this match all the
+court was present, and Laertes, by direction of the king, prepared a
+poisoned weapon. Upon this match great wagers were laid by the
+courtiers, as both Hamlet and Laertes were known to excel at this sword
+play; and Hamlet taking up the foils chose one, not at all suspecting
+the treachery of Laertes, or being careful to examine Laertes' weapon,
+who, instead of a foil or blunted sword, which the laws of fencing
+require, made use of one with a point, and poisoned. At first Laertes
+did but play with Hamlet, and suffered him to gain some advantages,
+which the dissembling king magnified and extolled beyond measure,
+drinking to Hamlet's success, and wagering rich bets upon the issue: but
+after a few pauses, Laertes growing warm made a deadly thrust at Hamlet
+with his poisoned weapon, and gave him a mortal blow. Hamlet incensed,
+but not knowing the whole of the treachery, in the scuffle exchanged his
+own innocent weapon for Laertes' deadly one, and with a thrust of
+Laertes' own sword repaid Laertes home, who was thus justly caught in
+his own treachery. In this instant the queen shrieked out that she was
+poisoned. She had inadvertently drunk out of a bowl which the king had
+prepared for Hamlet, in case, that being warm in fencing, he should call
+for drink: into this the treacherous king had infused a deadly poison,
+to make sure of Hamlet, if Laertes had failed. He had forgotten to warn
+the queen of the bowl, which she drank of, and immediately died,
+exclaiming with her last breath that she was poisoned. Hamlet,
+suspecting some treachery, ordered the doors to be shut, while he sought
+it out. Laertes told him to seek no farther, for he was the traitor; and
+feeling his life go away with the wound which Hamlet had given him, he
+made confession of the treachery he had used, and how he had fallen a
+victim to it: and he told Hamlet of the envenomed point, and said that
+Hamlet had not half an hour to live, for no medicine could cure him; and
+begging forgiveness of Hamlet, he died, with his last words accusing the
+king of being the contriver of the mischief. When Hamlet saw his end
+draw near, there being yet some venom left upon the sword, he suddenly
+turned upon his false uncle, and thrust the point of it to his heart,
+fulfilling the promise which he had made to his father's spirit, whose
+injunction was now accomplished, and his foul murder revenged upon the
+murderer. Then Hamlet, feeling his breath fail and life departing,
+turned to his dear friend Horatio, who had been spectator of this fatal
+tragedy; and with his dying breath requested him that he would live to
+tell his story to the world (for Horatio had made a motion as if he
+would slay himself to accompany the prince in death), and Horatio
+promised that he would make a true report, as one that was privy to all
+the circumstances. And, thus satisfied, the noble heart of Hamlet
+cracked; and Horatio and the bystanders with many tears commended the
+spirit of this sweet prince to the guardianship of angels. For Hamlet
+was a loving and a gentle prince, and greatly beloved for his many noble
+and princelike qualities; and if he had lived, would no doubt have
+proved a most royal and complete king to Denmark.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+OTHELLO
+
+
+Brabantio, the rich senator of Venice, had a fair daughter, the gentle
+Desdemona. She was sought to by divers suitors, both on account of her
+many virtuous qualities, and for her rich expectations. But among the
+suitors of her own clime and complexion, she saw none whom she could
+affect: for this noble lady, who regarded the mind more than the
+features of men, with a singularity rather to be admired than imitated,
+had chosen for the object of her affections, a Moor, a black, whom her
+father loved, and often invited to his house.
+
+Neither is Desdemona to be altogether condemned for the unsuitableness
+of the person whom she selected for her lover. Bating that Othello was
+black, the noble Moor wanted nothing which might recommend him to the
+affections of the greatest lady. He was a soldier, and a brave one; and
+by his conduct in bloody wars against the Turks, had risen to the rank
+of general in the Venetian service, and was esteemed and trusted by the
+state.
+
+He had been a traveller, and Desdemona (as is the manner of ladies)
+loved to hear him tell the story of his adventures, which he would run
+through from his earliest recollection; the battles, sieges, and
+encounters, which he had passed through; the perils he had been exposed
+to by land and by water; his hair-breadth escapes, when he had entered
+a breach, or marched up to the mouth of a cannon; and how he had been
+taken prisoner by the insolent enemy, and sold to slavery; how he
+demeaned himself in that state, and how he escaped: all these accounts,
+added to the narration of the strange things he had seen in foreign
+countries, the vast wilderness and romantic caverns, the quarries, the
+rocks and mountains, whose heads are in the clouds; of the savage
+nations, the cannibals who are man-eaters, and a race of people in
+Africa whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders: these travellers'
+stories would so enchain the attention of Desdemona, that if she were
+called off at any time by household affairs, she would despatch with all
+haste that business, and return, and with a greedy ear devour Othello's
+discourse. And once he took advantage of a pliant hour, and drew from
+her a prayer, that he would tell her the whole story of his life at
+large, of which she had heard so much, but only by parts: to which he
+consented, and beguiled her of many a tear, when he spoke of some
+distressful stroke which his youth had suffered.
+
+His story being done, she gave him for his pains a world of sighs: she
+swore a pretty oath, that it was all passing strange, and pitiful,
+wondrous pitiful: she wished (she said) she had not heard it, yet she
+wished that heaven had made her such a man; and then she thanked him,
+and told him, if he had a friend who loved her, he had only to teach him
+how to tell his story, and that would woo her. Upon this hint, delivered
+not with more frankness than modesty, accompanied with certain
+bewitching prettiness, and blushes, which Othello could not but
+understand, he spoke more openly of his love, and in this golden
+opportunity gained the consent of the generous Lady Desdemona privately
+to marry him.
+
+Neither Othello's colour nor his fortune were such that it could be
+hoped Brabantio would accept him for a son-in-law. He had left his
+daughter free; but he did expect that, as the manner of noble Venetian
+ladies was, she would choose ere long a husband of senatorial rank or
+expectations; but in this he was deceived; Desdemona loved the Moor,
+though he was black, and devoted her heart and fortunes to his valiant
+parts and qualities; so was her heart subdued to an implicit devotion to
+the man she had selected for a husband, that his very colour, which to
+all but this discerning lady would have proved an insurmountable
+objection, was by her esteemed above all the white skins and clear
+complexions of the young Venetian nobility, her suitors.
+
+Their marriage, which, though privately carried, could not long be kept
+a secret, came to the ears of the old man, Brabantio, who appeared in a
+solemn council of the senate, as an accuser of the Moor Othello, who by
+spells and witchcraft (he maintained) had seduced the affections of the
+fair Desdemona to marry him, without the consent of her father, and
+against the obligations of hospitality.
+
+At this juncture of time it happened that the state of Venice had
+immediate need of the services of Othello, news having arrived that the
+Turks with mighty preparation had fitted out a fleet, which was bending
+its course to the island of Cyprus, with intent to regain that strong
+post from the Venetians, who then held it; in this emergency the state
+turned its eyes upon Othello, who alone was deemed adequate to conduct
+the defence of Cyprus against the Turks. So that Othello, now summoned
+before the senate, stood in their presence at once as a candidate for a
+great state employment, and as a culprit, charged with offences which by
+the laws of Venice were made capital.
+
+The age and senatorial character of old Brabantio, commanded a most
+patient hearing from that grave assembly; but the incensed father
+conducted his accusation with so much intemperance, producing
+likelihoods and allegations for proofs, that, when Othello was called
+upon for his defence, he had only to relate a plain tale of the course
+of his love; which he did with such an artless eloquence, recounting the
+whole story of his wooing, as we have related it above, and delivered
+his speech with so noble a plainness (the evidence of truth), that the
+duke, who sat as chief judge, could not help confessing that a tale so
+told would have won his daughter too: and the spells and conjurations
+which Othello had used in his courtship, plainly appeared to have been
+no more than the honest arts of men in love; and the only witchcraft
+which he had used, the faculty of telling a soft tale to win a lady's
+ear.
+
+This statement of Othello was confirmed by the testimony of the Lady
+Desdemona herself, who appeared in court, and professing a duty to her
+father for life and education, challenged leave of him to profess a yet
+higher duty to her lord and husband, even so much as her mother had
+shown in preferring him (Brabantio) above _her_ father.
+
+The old senator, unable to maintain his plea, called the Moor to him
+with many expressions of sorrow, and, as an act of necessity, bestowed
+upon him his daughter, whom, if he had been free to withhold her (he
+told him), he would with all his heart have kept from him; adding, that
+he was glad at soul that he had no other child, for this behaviour of
+Desdemona would have taught him to be a tyrant, and hang clogs on them
+for her desertion.
+
+This difficulty being got over, Othello, to whom custom had rendered the
+hardships of a military life as natural as food and rest are to other
+men, readily undertook the management of the wars in Cyprus: and
+Desdemona, preferring the honour of her lord (though with danger) before
+the indulgence of those idle delights in which new-married people
+usually waste their time, cheerfully consented to his going.
+
+No sooner were Othello and his lady landed in Cyprus, than news arrived,
+that a desperate tempest had dispersed the Turkish fleet, and thus the
+island was secure from any immediate apprehension of an attack. But the
+war, which Othello was to suffer, was now beginning; and the enemies,
+which malice stirred up against his innocent lady, proved in their
+nature more deadly than strangers or infidels.
+
+Among all the general's friends no one possessed the confidence of
+Othello more entirely than Cassio. Michael Cassio was a young soldier, a
+Florentine, gay, amorous, and of pleasing address, favourite qualities
+with women; he was handsome and eloquent, and exactly such a person as
+might alarm the jealousy of a man advanced in years (as Othello in some
+measure was), who had married a young and beautiful wife; but Othello
+was as free from jealousy as he was noble, and as incapable of
+suspecting as of doing a base action. He had employed this Cassio in his
+love affair with Desdemona, and Cassio had been a sort of go-between in
+his suit: for Othello, fearing that himself had not those soft parts of
+conversation which please ladies, and finding these qualities in his
+friend, would often depute Cassio to go (as he phrased it) a courting
+for him: such innocent simplicity being rather an honour than a blemish
+to the character of the valiant Moor. So that no wonder, if next to
+Othello himself (but at far distance, as beseems a virtuous wife) the
+gentle Desdemona loved and trusted Cassio. Nor had the marriage of this
+couple made any difference in their behaviour to Michael Cassio. He
+frequented their house, and his free and rattling talk was no unpleasing
+variety to Othello, who was himself of a more serious temper: for such
+tempers are observed often to delight in their contraries, as a relief
+from the oppressive excess of their own: and Desdemona and Cassio would
+talk and laugh together, as in the days when he went a courting for his
+friend.
+
+Othello had lately promoted Cassio to be the lieutenant, a place of
+trust, and nearest to the general's person. This promotion gave great
+offence to Iago, an older officer who thought he had a better claim than
+Cassio, and would often ridicule Cassio as a fellow fit only for the
+company of ladies, and one that knew no more of the art of war or how to
+set an army in array for battle, than a girl. Iago hated Cassio, and he
+hated Othello, as well for favouring Cassio, as for an unjust suspicion,
+which he had lightly taken up against Othello, that the Moor was too
+fond of Iago's wife Emilia. From these imaginary provocations, the
+plotting mind of Iago conceived a horrid scheme of revenge, which should
+involve both Cassio, the Moor, and Desdemona, in one common ruin.
+
+Iago was artful, and had studied human nature deeply, and he knew that
+of all the torments which afflict the mind of man (and far beyond bodily
+torture), the pains of jealousy were the most intolerable, and had the
+sorest sting. If he could succeed in making Othello jealous of Cassio,
+he thought it would be an exquisite plot of revenge, and might end in
+the death of Cassio or Othello, or both; he cared not.
+
+The arrival of the general and his lady, in Cyprus, meeting with the
+news of the dispersion of the enemy's fleet, made a sort of holiday in
+the island. Everybody gave themselves up to feasting and making merry.
+Wine flowed in abundance, and cups went round to the health of the black
+Othello, and his lady the fair Desdemona.
+
+Cassio had the direction of the guard that night, with a charge from
+Othello to keep the soldiers from excess in drinking, that no brawl
+might arise, to fright the inhabitants, or disgust them with the
+new-landed forces. That night Iago began his deep-laid plans of
+mischief: under colour of loyalty and love to the general, he enticed
+Cassio to make rather too free with the bottle (a great fault in an
+officer upon guard). Cassio for a time resisted, but he could not long
+hold out against the honest freedom which Iago knew how to put on, but
+kept swallowing glass after glass (as Iago still plied him with drink
+and encouraging songs), and Cassio's tongue ran over in praise of the
+Lady Desdemona, whom he again and again toasted, affirming that she was
+a most exquisite lady: until at last the enemy which he put into his
+mouth stole away his brains; and upon some provocation given him by a
+fellow whom Iago had set on, swords were drawn, and Montano, a worthy
+officer, who interfered to appease the dispute, was wounded in the
+scuffle. The riot now began to be general, and Iago, who had set on foot
+the mischief, was foremost in spreading the alarm, causing the
+castle-bell to be rung (as if some dangerous mutiny instead of a slight
+drunken quarrel had arisen): the alarm-bell ringing awakened Othello,
+who, dressing in a hurry, and coming to the scene of action, questioned
+Cassio of the cause. Cassio was now come to himself, the effect of the
+wine having a little gone off, but was too much ashamed to reply; and
+Iago, pretending a great reluctance to accuse Cassio, but, as it were,
+forced into it by Othello, who insisted to know the truth, gave an
+account of the whole matter (leaving out his own share in it, which
+Cassio was too far gone to remember) in such a manner, as while he
+seemed to make Cassio's offence less, did indeed make it appear greater
+than it was. The result was, that Othello, who was a strict observer of
+discipline, was compelled to take away Cassio's place of lieutenant from
+him.
+
+Thus did Iago's first artifice succeed completely; he had now undermined
+his hated rival, and thrust him out of his place: but a further use was
+hereafter to be made of the adventure of this disastrous night.
+
+Cassio, whom this misfortune had entirely sobered, now lamented to his
+seeming friend Iago that he should have been such a fool as to transform
+himself into a beast. He was undone, for how could he ask the general
+for his place again? he would tell him he was a drunkard. He despised
+himself. Iago, affecting to make light of it, said, that he, or any man
+living, might be drunk upon occasion; it remained now to make the best
+of a bad bargain; the general's wife was now the general, and could do
+anything with Othello; that he were best to apply to the Lady Desdemona
+to mediate for him with her lord; that she was of a frank, obliging
+disposition, and would readily undertake a good office of this sort, and
+set Cassio right again in the general's favour; and then this crack in
+their love would be made stronger than ever. A good advice of Iago, if
+it had not been given for wicked purposes, which will after appear.
+
+Cassio did as Iago advised him, and made application to the Lady
+Desdemona, who was easy to be won over in any honest suit; and she
+promised Cassio that she should be his solicitor with her lord, and
+rather die than give up his cause. This she immediately set about in so
+earnest and pretty a manner, that Othello, who was mortally offended
+with Cassio, could not put her off. When he pleaded delay, and that it
+was too soon to pardon such an offender, she would not be beat back, but
+insisted that it should be the next night, or the morning after, or the
+next morning to that at farthest. Then she showed how penitent and
+humbled poor Cassio was, and that his offence did not deserve so sharp a
+check. And when Othello still hung back, "What! my lord," said she,
+"that I should have so much to do to plead for Cassio, Michael Cassio,
+that came a courting for you, and oftentimes, when I have spoken in
+dispraise of you, has taken your part! I count this but a little thing
+to ask of you. When I mean to try your love indeed, I shall ask a
+weighty matter." Othello could deny nothing to such a pleader, and only
+requesting that Desdemona would leave the time to him, promised to
+receive Michael Cassio again in favour.
+
+It happened that Othello and Iago had entered into the room where
+Desdemona was, just as Cassio, who had been imploring her intercession,
+was departing at the opposite door: and Iago, who was full of art, said
+in a low voice, as if to himself, "I like not that." Othello took no
+great notice of what he said; indeed, the conference which immediately
+took place with his lady put it out of his head; but he remembered it
+afterwards. For when Desdemona was gone, Iago, as if for mere
+satisfaction of his thought, questioned Othello whether Michael Cassio,
+when Othello was courting his lady, knew of his love. To this the
+general answering in the affirmative, and adding, that he had gone
+between them very often during the courtship, Iago knitted his brow, as
+if he had got fresh light on some terrible matter, and cried, "Indeed!"
+This brought into Othello's mind the words which Iago had let fall upon
+entering the room, and seeing Cassio with Desdemona; and he began to
+think there was some meaning in all this: for he deemed Iago to be a
+just man, and full of love and honesty, and what in a false knave would
+be tricks, in him seemed to be the natural workings of an honest mind,
+big with something too great for utterance: and Othello prayed Iago to
+speak what he knew, and to give his worst thoughts words. "And what,"
+said Iago, "if some thoughts very vile should have intruded into my
+breast, as where is the palace into which foul things do not enter?"
+Then Iago went on to say, what a pity it were, if any trouble should
+arise to Othello out of his imperfect observations; that it would not be
+for Othello's peace to know his thoughts; that people's good names were
+not to be taken away for slight suspicions; and when Othello's curiosity
+was raised almost to distraction with these hints and scattered words,
+Iago, as if in earnest care for Othello's peace of mind, besought him to
+beware of jealousy: with such art did this villain raise suspicions in
+the unguarded Othello, by the very caution which he pretended to give
+him against suspicion. "I know," said Othello, "that my wife is fair,
+loves company and feasting, is free of speech, sings, plays, and dances
+well: but where virtue is, these qualities are virtuous. I must have
+proof before I think her dishonest." Then Iago, as if glad that Othello
+was slow to believe ill of his lady, frankly declared that he had no
+proof, but begged Othello to observe her behaviour well, when Cassio was
+by; not to be jealous nor too secure neither, for that he (Iago) knew
+the dispositions of the Italian ladies, his country-women, better than
+Othello could do; and that in Venice the wives let heaven see many
+pranks they dared not show their husbands. Then he artfully insinuated
+that Desdemona deceived her father in marrying with Othello, and carried
+it so closely, that the poor old man thought that witchcraft had been
+used. Othello was much moved with this argument, which brought the
+matter home to him, for if she had deceived her father, why might she
+not deceive her husband?
+
+Iago begged pardon for having moved him; but Othello, assuming an
+indifference, while he was really shaken with inward grief at Iago's
+words, begged him to go on, which Iago did with many apologies, as if
+unwilling to produce anything against Cassio, whom he called his friend:
+he then came strongly to the point, and reminded Othello how Desdemona
+had refused many suitable matches of her own clime and complexion, and
+had married him, a Moor, which showed unnatural in her, and proved her
+to have a headstrong will; and when her better judgment returned, how
+probable it was she should fall upon comparing Othello with the fine
+forms and clear white complexions of the young Italians her countrymen.
+He concluded with advising Othello to put off his reconcilement with
+Cassio a little longer, and in the meanwhile to note with what
+earnestness Desdemona should intercede in his behalf; for that much
+would be seen in that. So mischievously did this artful villain lay his
+plots to turn the gentle qualities of this innocent lady into her
+destruction, and make a net for her out of her own goodness to entrap
+her: first setting Cassio on to entreat her mediation, and then out of
+that very mediation contriving stratagems for her ruin.
+
+The conference ended with Iago's begging Othello to account his wife
+innocent, until he had more decisive proof; and Othello promised to be
+patient; but from that moment the deceived Othello never tasted content
+of mind. Poppy, nor the juice of mandragora, nor all the sleeping
+potions in the world, could ever again restore to him that sweet rest,
+which he had enjoyed but yesterday. His occupation sickened upon him. He
+no longer took delight in arms. His heart, that used to be roused at the
+sight of troops, and banners, and battle-array, and would stir and leap
+at the sound of a drum, or a trumpet, or a neighing war-horse, seemed to
+have lost all that pride and ambition which are a soldier's virtue; and
+his military ardour and all his old joys forsook him. Sometimes he
+thought his wife honest, and at times he thought her not so; sometimes
+he thought Iago just, and at times he thought him not so; then he would
+wish that he had never known of it; he was not the worse for her loving
+Cassio, so long as he knew it not: torn to pieces with these distracting
+thoughts, he once laid hold on Iago's throat, and demanded proof of
+Desdemona's guilt, or threatened instant death for his having belied
+her. Iago, feigning indignation that his honesty should be taken for a
+vice, asked Othello, if he had not sometimes seen a handkerchief spotted
+with strawberries in his wife's hand. Othello answered, that he had
+given her such a one, and that it was his first gift. "That same
+handkerchief," said Iago, "did I see Michael Cassio this day wipe his
+face with." "If it be as you say," said Othello, "I will not rest till a
+wide revenge swallow them up: and first, for a token of your fidelity, I
+expect that Cassio shall be put to death within three days; and for that
+fair devil (meaning his lady), I will withdraw and devise some swift
+means of death for her."
+
+Trifles light as air are to the jealous proofs as strong as holy writ. A
+handkerchief of his wife's seen in Cassio's hand, was motive enough to
+the deluded Othello to pass sentence of death upon them both, without
+once inquiring how Cassio came by it. Desdemona had never given such a
+present to Cassio, nor would this constant lady have wronged her lord
+with doing so naughty a thing as giving his presents to another man;
+both Cassio and Desdemona were innocent of any offence against Othello:
+but the wicked Iago, whose spirits never slept in contrivance of
+villany, had made his wife (a good, but a weak woman) steal this
+handkerchief from Desdemona, under pretence of getting the work copied,
+but in reality to drop it in Cassio's way, where he might find it, and
+give a handle to Iago's suggestion that it was Desdemona's present.
+
+Othello, soon after meeting his wife, pretended that he had a headache
+(as he might indeed with truth), and desired her to lend him her
+handkerchief to hold to his temples. She did so. "Not this," said
+Othello, "but that handkerchief I gave you." Desdemona had it not about
+her (for indeed it was stolen, as we have related). "How?" said Othello,
+"this is a fault indeed. That handkerchief an Egyptian woman gave to my
+mother; the woman was a witch and could read people's thoughts: she told
+my mother, while she kept it, it would make her amiable, and my father
+would love her; but, if she lost it, or gave it away, my father's fancy
+would turn, and he would loathe her as much as he had loved her. She
+dying gave it to me, and bade me, if I ever married, to give it to my
+wife. I did so; take heed of it. Make it a darling as precious as your
+eye." "Is it possible?" said the frighted lady. "'Tis true," continued
+Othello; "it is a magical handkerchief; a sibyl that had lived in the
+world two hundred years, in a fit of prophetic fury worked it; the
+silkworms that furnished the silk were hallowed, and it was dyed in a
+mummy of maidens' hearts conserved." Desdemona, hearing the wondrous
+virtues of the handkerchief, was ready to die with fear, for she plainly
+perceived she had lost it, and with it, she feared, the affections of
+her husband. Then Othello started, and looked as if he were going to do
+some rash thing, and still he demanded the handkerchief, which when she
+could not produce, she tried to divert her husband from too serious
+thoughts, and cheerfully told him she saw all his talk about the
+handkerchief was only to put her off from her suit about Michael Cassio,
+whom she went on to praise (as Iago had foretold), till Othello in
+perfect distraction burst out of the room, and then Desdemona, though
+unwillingly, began to suspect that her lord was jealous.
+
+What cause she could have ministered to him she knew not, and then she
+accused herself for accusing the noble Othello, and thought to be sure
+that some untoward news from Venice, or some state troubles had puddled
+his spirits, and made his temper not so sweet as formerly. And she said,
+"Men are not gods, and we must not look for that observance from them
+when they are married, which they show us on the bridal day." And she
+beshrewed herself for so unkindly judging of his unkindness.
+
+Again Othello and Desdemona met, and he accused her more plainly of
+being unfaithful, and of loving another man, but he did not name whom:
+and Othello wept, and Desdemona said, "Alas! the heavy day! why do you
+weep?" And Othello told her, he could have borne all sorts of evils with
+fortitude--poverty, and disease, and disgrace; but her infidelity had
+broken his heart: and he called her a weed, that looked so fair, and
+smelled so sweet, that the sense ached at it; and wished she had never
+been born. And when he had left her, this innocent lady was so stupefied
+with wonder at her lord's untrue suspicion of her, that a weight-like
+sleep came over her, and she only desired her attendant to make her bed,
+and to lay her wedding-sheets upon it, saying, that when people teach
+their babes, they do it by gentle means and easy tasks, and Othello
+might have chid her so; for in good faith she was but a child when she
+was chidden. And this was all the complaint which this gentle lady
+made.
+
+Desdemona being retired to bed expecting her lord would follow her, soon
+fell into a slumber, the effect of her troubled spirits, when Othello
+entered the chamber, full of the black purpose which he had meditated of
+putting his lady to death. But when he saw her asleep, he thought he
+would not shed her blood, nor scar that white skin of hers, more white
+than alabaster. But he was resolved she should die; else (as he said)
+she would live to betray more men, as she had done him. Then he kissed
+her for the last time (as he said), and that kiss was so sweet, that he
+must needs kiss her again: and he wept, but he said they were cruel
+tears.
+
+Desdemona was awakened with his kisses, and she looked upon Othello, and
+she saw him gnaw his under lip, and roll his eyes, and she knew he was
+always fatal when he looked so: and he bade her prepare for death, and
+to say her prayers, for he would not kill her soul. And this innocent
+wife, as she lay at his mercy, begged for compassion, and to know her
+fault, and then he named Cassio, and the handkerchief which (he said)
+she had given him; and as the guiltless lady was proceeding to clear
+herself he suddenly would hear no more, but covering her up in the
+bed-clothes, stifled her till she died.
+
+In this instant of time was brought into the house Cassio, wounded and
+bleeding, whom Iago had set one of his creatures on to assassinate; but
+the fellow not succeeding in his attempt to kill Cassio (whom he
+wounded, but not mortally,) and being himself killed by Iago to prevent
+discovery, in his pockets were found certain letters, which made the
+guilt of Iago, and the innocence of Cassio, clear beyond all doubt; and
+Cassio now came to beg pardon of Othello, and to ask wherein he had
+offended him, that he had employed Iago to murder him.
+
+This discovery was as a thunderstroke to Othello, who now plainly saw
+that he was no better than a murderer, and that his wife (poor innocent
+lady) had been ever faithful to him; the extreme anguish of which
+discovery making life insupportable, he fell upon his sword, and
+throwing himself upon the body of his dear injured lady, expired.
+
+These rash acts raised much passion of horror and amazement in the
+bystanders, for Othello had borne a fair reputation, and till he was
+wrought upon by the arts of a villain, which his own noble nature never
+gave him leave to suspect, he was a loving and a doting husband. He had
+loved not wisely, but too well; and his manly eyes (when he learned his
+mistake), though not used to weep on every small occasion, dropped tears
+
+as fast as the Arabian trees their gum. And when he was dead all his
+former merits and his valiant acts were remembered. Nothing now remained
+for his successor but to put the utmost censure of the law in force
+against Iago, who was executed with strict tortures; and to send word to
+the state of Venice of the lamentable death of their renowned general.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE
+
+
+Pericles, Prince of Tyre, became a voluntary exile from his dominions,
+to avert the dreadful calamities which Antiochus, the wicked emperor of
+Greece, threatened to bring upon his subjects and city of Tyre, in
+revenge for a discovery which the prince had made of a shocking deed
+which the emperor had done in secret; as commonly it proves dangerous to
+pry into the hidden crimes of great ones. Leaving the government of his
+people in the hands of his able and honest minister, Helicanus, Pericles
+set sail from Tyre, thinking to absent himself till the wrath of
+Antiochus, who was mighty, should be appeased.
+
+The first place which the prince directed his course to was Tarsus, and
+hearing that the city of Tarsus was at that time suffering under a
+severe famine, he took with him store of provisions for its relief. On
+his arrival he found the city reduced to the utmost distress; and, he
+coming like a messenger from heaven with his unhoped-for succour, Cleon,
+the governor of Tarsus, welcomed him with boundless thanks. Pericles
+had not been here many days, before letters came from his faithful
+minister, warning him that it was not safe for him to stay at Tarsus,
+for Antiochus knew of his abode, and by secret emissaries despatched for
+that purpose sought his life. Upon receipt of these letters Pericles put
+out to sea again, amidst the blessings and prayers of a whole people who
+had been fed by his bounty.
+
+He had not sailed far, when his ship was overtaken by a dreadful storm,
+and every man on board perished except Pericles, who was cast by the
+sea-waves naked on an unknown shore, where he had not wandered long
+before he met with some poor fishermen, who invited him to their homes,
+giving him clothes and provisions. The fishermen told Pericles the name
+of their country was Pentapolis, and that their king was Simonides,
+commonly called the good Simonides, because of his peaceable reign and
+good government. From them he also learned that King Simonides had a
+fair young daughter, and that the following day was her birthday, when a
+grand tournament was to be held at court, many princes and knights being
+come from all parts to try their skill in arms for the love of Thaisa,
+this fair princess. While the prince was listening to this account, and
+secretly lamenting the loss of his good armour, which disabled him from
+making one among these valiant knights, another fisherman brought in a
+complete suit of armour that he had taken out of the sea with his
+fishing-net, which proved to be the very armour he had lost. When
+Pericles beheld his own armour, he said, "Thanks, Fortune; after all my
+crosses you give me somewhat to repair myself. This armour was
+bequeathed to me by my dead father, for whose dear sake I have so loved
+it, that whithersoever I went, I still have kept it by me, and the rough
+sea that parted it from me, having now become calm, hath given it back
+again, for which I thank it, for, since I have my father's gift again, I
+think my shipwreck no misfortune."
+
+The next day Pericles, clad in his brave father's armour, repaired to
+the royal court of Simonides, where he performed wonders at the
+tournament, vanquishing with ease all the brave knights and valiant
+princes who contended with him in arms for the honour of Thaisa's love.
+When brave warriors contended at court tournaments for the love of
+kings' daughters, if one proved sole victor over all the rest, it was
+usual for the great lady for whose sake these deeds of valour were
+undertaken, to bestow all her respect upon the conqueror, and Thaisa did
+not depart from this custom, for she presently dismissed all the princes
+and knights whom Pericles had vanquished, and distinguished him by her
+especial favour and regard, crowning him with the wreath of victory, as
+king of that day's happiness; and Pericles became a most passionate
+lover of this beauteous princess from the first moment he beheld her.
+
+The good Simonides so well approved of the valour and noble qualities of
+Pericles, who was indeed a most accomplished gentleman, and well learned
+in all excellent arts, that though he knew not the rank of this royal
+stranger (for Pericles for fear of Antiochus gave out that he was a
+private gentleman of Tyre), yet did not Simonides disdain to accept of
+the valiant unknown for a son-in-law, when he perceived his daughter's
+affections were firmly fixed upon him.
+
+Pericles had not been many months married to Thaisa, before he received
+intelligence that his enemy Antiochus was dead; and that his subjects of
+Tyre, impatient of his long absence, threatened to revolt, and talked of
+placing Helicanus upon his vacant throne. This news came from Helicanus
+himself, who, being a loyal subject to his royal master, would not
+accept of the high dignity offered him, but sent to let Pericles know
+their intentions, that he might return home and resume his lawful right.
+It was matter of great surprise and joy to Simonides, to find that his
+son-in-law (the obscure knight) was the renowned Prince of Tyre; yet
+again he regretted that he was not the private gentleman he supposed him
+to be, seeing that he must now part both with his admired son-in-law
+and his beloved daughter, whom he feared to trust to the perils of the
+sea, because Thaisa was with child; and Pericles himself wished her to
+remain with her father till after her confinement, but the poor lady so
+earnestly desired to go with her husband, that at last they consented,
+hoping she would reach Tyre before she was brought to bed.
+
+The sea was no friendly element to unhappy Pericles, for long before
+they reached Tyre another dreadful tempest arose, which so terrified
+Thaisa that she was taken ill, and in a short space of time her nurse
+Lychorida came to Pericles with a little child in her arms, to tell the
+prince the sad tidings that his wife died the moment her little babe was
+born. She held the babe towards its father, saying, "Here is a thing too
+young for such a place. This is the child of your dead queen." No tongue
+can tell the dreadful sufferings of Pericles when he heard his wife was
+dead. As soon as he could speak, he said, "O you gods, why do you make
+us love your goodly gifts, and then snatch those gifts away?" "Patience,
+good sir," said Lychorida, "here is all that is left alive of our dead
+queen, a little daughter, and for your child's sake be more manly.
+Patience, good sir, even for the sake of this precious charge." Pericles
+took the new-born infant in his arms, and he said to the little babe,
+"Now may your life be mild, for a more blusterous birth had never babe!
+May your condition be mild and gentle, for you have had the rudest
+welcome that ever prince's child did meet with! May that which follows
+be happy, for you have had as chiding a nativity as fire, air, water,
+earth, and heaven could make to herald you from the womb! Even at the
+first, your loss," meaning in the death of her mother, "is more than all
+the joys, which you shall find upon this earth to which you are come a
+new visitor, shall be able to recompense."
+
+The storm still continuing to rage furiously, and the sailors having a
+superstition that while a dead body remained in the ship the storm
+would never cease, they came to Pericles to demand that his queen should
+be thrown overboard; and they said, "What courage, sir? God save you!"
+"Courage enough," said the sorrowing prince: "I do not fear the storm;
+it has done to me its worst; yet for the love of this poor infant, this
+fresh new seafarer, I wish the storm was over." "Sir," said the sailors,
+"your queen must overboard. The sea works high, the wind is loud, and
+the storm will not abate till the ship be cleared of the dead." Though
+Pericles knew how weak and unfounded this superstition was, yet he
+patiently submitted, saying, "As you think meet. Then she must
+overboard, most wretched queen!" And now this unhappy prince went to
+take a last view of his dear wife, and as he looked on his Thaisa, he
+said, "A terrible childbed hast thou had, my dear; no light, no fire;
+the unfriendly elements forget thee utterly, nor have I time to bring
+thee hallowed to thy grave, but must cast thee scarcely coffined into
+the sea, where for a monument upon thy bones the humming waters must
+overwhelm thy corpse, lying with simple shells. O Lychorida, bid Nestor
+bring me spices, ink, and paper, my casket and my jewels, and bid
+Nicandor bring me the satin coffin. Lay the babe upon the pillow, and go
+about this suddenly, Lychorida, while I say a priestly farewell to my
+Thaisa."
+
+They brought Pericles a large chest, in which (wrapped in a satin
+shroud) he placed his queen, and sweet-smelling spices he strewed over
+her, and beside her he placed rich jewels, and a written paper, telling
+who she was, and praying if haply any one should find the chest which
+contained the body of his wife, they would give her burial: and then
+with his own hands he cast the chest into the sea. When the storm was
+over, Pericles ordered the sailors to make for Tarsus. "For," said
+Pericles, "the babe cannot hold out till we come to Tyre. At Tarsus I
+will leave it at careful nursing."
+
+After that tempestuous night when Thaisa was thrown into the sea, and
+while it was yet early morning, as Cerimon a worthy gentleman of
+Ephesus, and a most skilful physician, was standing by the sea-side, his
+servants brought to him a chest, which they said the sea-waves had
+thrown on the land. "I never saw," said one of them, "so huge a billow
+as cast it on our shore." Cerimon ordered the chest to be conveyed to
+his own house, and when it was opened he beheld with wonder the body of
+a young and lovely lady; and the sweet-smelling spices and rich casket
+of jewels made him conclude it was some great person who was thus
+strangely entombed: searching farther, he discovered a paper, from which
+he learned that the corpse which lay as dead before him had been a
+queen, and wife to Pericles, Prince of Tyre; and much admiring at the
+strangeness of that accident, and more pitying the husband who had lost
+this sweet lady, he said, "If you are living, Pericles, you have a heart
+that even cracks with woe." Then observing attentively Thaisa's face, he
+saw how fresh and unlike death her looks were, and he said, "They were
+too hasty that threw you into the sea:" for he did not believe her to be
+dead. He ordered a fire to be made, and proper cordials to be brought,
+and soft music to be played, which might help to calm her amazed spirits
+if she should revive; and he said to those who crowded round her,
+wondering at what they saw, "I pray you, gentlemen, give her air; the
+queen will live; she has not been entranced above five hours; and see,
+she begins to blow into life again; she is alive; behold, her eyelids
+move; this fair creature will live to make us weep to hear her fate."
+Thaisa had never died, but after the birth of her little baby had fallen
+into a deep swoon, which made all that saw her conclude her to be dead;
+and now by the care of this kind gentleman she once more revived to
+light and life; and opening her eyes, she said, "Where am I? Where is my
+lord? What world is this?" By gentle degrees Cerimon let her understand
+what had befallen her; and when he thought she was enough recovered to
+bear the sight, he showed her the paper written by her husband, and the
+jewels; and she looked on the paper, and said, "It is my lord's writing.
+That I was shipped at sea, I well remember, but whether there delivered
+of my babe, by the holy gods I cannot rightly say; but since my wedded
+lord I never shall see again, I will put on a vestal livery, and never
+more have joy." "Madam," said Cerimon, "if you purpose as you speak, the
+temple of Diana is not far distant from hence; there you may abide as a
+vestal. Moreover, if you please, a niece of mine shall there attend
+you." This proposal was accepted with thanks by Thaisa; and when she was
+perfectly recovered, Cerimon placed her in the temple of Diana, where
+she became a vestal or priestess of that goddess, and passed her days in
+sorrowing for her husband's supposed loss, and in the most devout
+exercises of those times.
+
+Pericles carried his young daughter (whom he named Marina, because she
+was born at sea) to Tarsus, intending to leave her with Cleon, the
+governor of that city, and his wife Dionysia, thinking, for the good he
+had done to them at the time of their famine, they would be kind to his
+little motherless daughter. When Cleon saw Prince Pericles, and heard of
+the great loss which had befallen him, he said, "O your sweet queen,
+that it had pleased Heaven you could have brought her hither to have
+blessed my eyes with the sight of her!" Pericles replied, "We must obey
+the powers above us. Should I rage and roar as the sea does in which my
+Thaisa lies, yet the end must be as it is. My gentle babe, Marina here,
+I must charge your charity with her. I leave her the infant of your
+care, beseeching you to give her princely training." And then turning to
+Cleon's wife, Dionysia, he said, "Good madam, make me blessed in your
+care in bringing up my child:" and she answered, "I have a child myself
+who shall not be more dear to my respect than yours, my lord;" and
+Cleon made the like promise, saying, "Your noble services, Prince
+Pericles, in feeding my whole people with your corn (for which in their
+prayers they daily remember you) must in your child be thought on. If I
+should neglect your child, my whole people that were by you relieved
+would force me to my duty; but if to that I need a spur, the gods
+revenge it on me and mine to the end of generation." Pericles, being
+thus assured that his child would be carefully attended to, left her to
+the protection of Cleon and his wife Dionysia, and with her he left the
+nurse Lychorida. When he went away, the little Marina knew not her loss,
+but Lychorida wept sadly at parting with her royal master. "O, no tears,
+Lychorida," said Pericles: "no tears; look to your little mistress, on
+whose grace you may depend hereafter."
+
+Pericles arrived in safety at Tyre, and was once more settled in the
+quiet possession of his throne, while his woeful queen, whom he thought
+dead, remained at Ephesus. Her little babe Marina, whom this hapless
+mother had never seen, was brought up by Cleon in a manner suitable to
+her high birth. He gave her the most careful education, so that by the
+time Marina attained the age of fourteen years, the most deeply-learned
+men were not more studied in the learning of those times than was
+Marina. She sang like one immortal, and danced as goddess-like, and with
+her needle she was so skilful that she seemed to compose nature's own
+shapes, in birds, fruits, or flowers, the natural roses being scarcely
+more like to each other than they were to Marina's silken flowers. But
+when she had gained from education all these graces, which made her the
+general wonder, Dionysia, the wife of Cleon, became her mortal enemy
+from jealousy, by reason that her own daughter, from the slowness of her
+mind, was not able to attain to that perfection wherein Marina excelled:
+and finding that all praise was bestowed on Marina, whilst her daughter,
+who was of the same age, and had been educated with the same care as
+Marina, though not with the same success, was in comparison disregarded,
+she formed a project to remove Marina out of the way, vainly imagining
+that her untoward daughter would be more respected when Marina was no
+more seen. To encompass this she employed a man to murder Marina, and
+she well timed her wicked design, when Lychorida, the faithful nurse,
+had just died. Dionysia was discoursing with the man she had commanded
+to commit this murder, when the young Marina was weeping over the dead
+Lychorida. Leonine, the man she employed to do this bad deed, though he
+was a very wicked man, could hardly be persuaded to undertake it, so had
+Marina won all hearts to love her. He said, "She is a goodly creature!"
+"The fitter then the gods should have her," replied her merciless enemy:
+"here she comes weeping for the death of her nurse Lychorida: are you
+resolved to obey me?" Leonine, fearing to disobey her, replied, "I am
+resolved." And so, in that one short sentence, was the matchless Marina
+doomed to an untimely death. She now approached, with a basket of
+flowers in her hand, which she said she would daily strew over the grave
+of good Lychorida. The purple violet and the marigold should as a carpet
+hang upon her grave, while summer days did last. "Alas, for me!" she
+said, "poor unhappy maid, born in a tempest, when my mother died. This
+world to me is like a lasting storm, hurrying me from my friends." "How
+now, Marina," said the dissembling Dionysia, "do you weep alone? How
+does it chance my daughter is not with you? Do not sorrow for Lychorida,
+you have a nurse in me. Your beauty is quite changed with this
+unprofitable woe. Come, give me your flowers, the sea-air will spoil
+them; and walk with Leonine: the air is fine, and will enliven you.
+Come, Leonine, take her by the arm, and walk with her." "No madam," said
+Marina, "I pray you let me not deprive you of your servant:" for Leonine
+was one of Dionysia's attendants. "Come, come," said this artful woman,
+who wished for a pretence to leave her alone with Leonine, "I love the
+prince, your father, and I love you. We every day expect your father
+here; and when he comes, and finds you so changed by grief from the
+paragon of beauty we reported you, he will think we have taken no care
+of you. Go, I pray you, walk, and be cheerful once again. Be careful of
+that excellent complexion, which stole the hearts of old and young."
+Marina, being thus importuned, said, "Well, I will go, but yet I have no
+desire to it." As Dionysia walked away, she said to Leonine, "_Remember
+what I have said!_"--shocking words, for their meaning was that he
+should remember to kill Marina.
+
+Marina looked towards the sea, her birthplace, and said, "Is the wind
+westerly that blows?" "South-west," replied Leonine. "When I was born
+the wind was north," said she: and then the storm and tempest, and all
+her father's sorrows, and her mother's death, came full into her mind;
+and she said, "My father, as Lychorida told me, did never fear, but
+cried, _Courage, good seamen_, to the sailors, galling his princely
+hands with the ropes, and, clasping to the masts, he endured a sea that
+almost split the deck." "When was this?" said Leonine. "When I was
+born," replied Marina: "never were wind and waves more violent;" and
+then she described the storm, the action of the sailors, the boatswain's
+whistle, and the loud call of the master, "which," said she, "trebled
+the confusion of the ship." Lychorida had so often recounted to Marina
+the story of her hapless birth that these things seemed ever present to
+her imagination. But here Leonine interrupted her with desiring her to
+say her prayers. "What mean you?" said Marina, who began to fear, she
+knew not why. "If you require a little space for prayer, I grant it,"
+said Leonine; "but be not tedious, the gods are quick of ear, and I am
+sworn to do my work in haste." "Will you kill me?" said Marina: "alas!
+why?" "To satisfy my lady," replied Leonine. "Why would she have me
+killed?" said Marina: "now, as I can remember, I never hurt her in all
+my life. I never spake bad word, nor did any ill turn to any living
+creature. Believe me now, I never killed a mouse, nor hurt a fly. I trod
+upon a worm once against my will, but I wept for it. How have I
+offended?" The murderer replied, "My commission is not to reason on the
+deed, but to do it." And he was just going to kill her, when certain
+pirates happened to land at that very moment, who seeing Marina, bore
+her off as a prize to their ship.
+
+The pirate who had made Marina his prize carried her to Mitylene, and
+sold her for a slave, where, though in that humble condition, Marina
+soon became known throughout the whole city of Mitylene for her beauty
+and her virtues; and the person to whom she was sold became rich by the
+money she earned for him. She taught music, dancing, and fine
+needleworks, and the money she got by her scholars she gave to her
+master and mistress; and the fame of her learning and her great industry
+came to the knowledge of Lysimachus, a young nobleman who was governor
+of Mitylene, and Lysimachus went himself to the house where Marina
+dwelt, to see this paragon of excellence, whom all the city praised so
+highly. Her conversation delighted Lysimachus beyond measure, for though
+he had heard much of this admired maiden, he did not expect to find her
+so sensible a lady, so virtuous, and so good, as he perceived Marina to
+be; and he left her, saying, he hoped she would persevere in her
+industrious and virtuous course, and that if ever she heard from him
+again it should be for her good. Lysimachus thought Marina such a
+miracle for sense, fine breeding, and excellent qualities, as well as
+for beauty and all outward graces, that he wished to marry her, and
+notwithstanding her humble situation, he hoped to find that her birth
+was noble; but ever when they asked her parentage she would sit still
+and weep.
+
+Meantime, at Tarsus, Leonine, fearing the anger of Dionysia, told her he
+had killed Marina; and that wicked woman gave out that she was dead, and
+made a pretended funeral for her, and erected a stately monument; and
+shortly after Pericles, accompanied by his loyal minister Helicanus,
+made a voyage from Tyre to Tarsus, on purpose to see his daughter,
+intending to take her home with him: and he never having beheld her
+since he left her an infant in the care of Cleon and his wife, how did
+this good prince rejoice at the thought of seeing this dear child of his
+buried queen! but when they told him Marina was dead, and showed the
+monument they had erected for her, great was the misery this most
+wretched father endured, and not being able to bear the sight of that
+country where his last hope and only memory of his dear Thaisa was
+entombed, he took ship, and hastily departed from Tarsus. From the day
+he entered the ship a dull and heavy melancholy seized him. He never
+spoke, and seemed totally insensible to everything around him.
+
+Sailing from Tarsus to Tyre, the ship in its course passed by Mitylene,
+where Marina dwelt; the governor of which place, Lysimachus, observing
+this royal vessel from the shore, and desirous of knowing who was on
+board, went in a barge to the side of the ship, to satisfy his
+curiosity. Helicanus received him very courteously and told him that the
+ship came from Tyre, and that they were conducting thither Pericles,
+their prince; "A man, sir," said Helicanus, "who has not spoken to any
+one these three months, nor taken any sustenance, but just to prolong
+his grief; it would be tedious to repeat the whole ground of his
+distemper, but the main springs from the loss of a beloved daughter and
+a wife." Lysimachus begged to see this afflicted prince, and when he
+beheld Pericles, he saw he had been once a goodly person, and he said to
+him, "Sir king, all hail, the gods preserve you, hail, royal sir!" But
+in vain Lysimachus spoke to him; Pericles made no answer, nor did he
+appear to perceive any stranger approached. And then Lysimachus
+bethought him of the peerless maid Marina, that haply with her sweet
+tongue she might win some answer from the silent prince: and with the
+consent of Helicanus he sent for Marina, and when she entered the ship
+in which her own father sat motionless with grief, they welcomed her on
+board as if they had known she was their princess; and they cried, "She
+is a gallant lady." Lysimachus was well pleased to hear their
+commendations, and he said, "She is such a one, that were I well assured
+she came of noble birth, I would wish no better choice, and think me
+rarely blessed in a wife." And then he addressed her in courtly terms,
+as if the lowly-seeming maid had been the high-born lady he wished to
+find her, calling her _Fair and beautiful Marina_, telling her a great
+prince on board that ship had fallen into a sad and mournful silence;
+and, as if Marina had the power of conferring health and felicity, he
+begged she would undertake to cure the royal stranger of his melancholy.
+"Sir," said Marina, "I will use my utmost skill in his recovery,
+provided none but I and my maid be suffered to come near him."
+
+She, who at Mitylene had so carefully concealed her birth, ashamed to
+tell that one of royal ancestry was now a slave, first began to speak to
+Pericles of the wayward changes in her own fate, telling him from what a
+high estate herself had fallen. As if she had known it was her royal
+father she stood before, all the words she spoke were of her own
+sorrows; but her reason for so doing was, that she knew nothing more
+wins the attention of the unfortunate than the recital of some sad
+calamity to match their own. The sound of her sweet voice aroused the
+drooping prince; he lifted up his eyes, which had been so long fixed and
+motionless; and Marina, who was the perfect image of her mother,
+presented to his amazed sight the features of his dead queen. The
+long-silent prince was once more heard to speak. "My dearest wife," said
+the awakened Pericles, "was like this maid, and such a one might my
+daughter have been. My queen's square brows, her stature to an inch, as
+wand-like straight, as silver-voiced, her eyes as jewel-like. Where do
+you live, young maid? Report your parentage. I think you said you had
+been tossed from wrong to injury, and that you thought your griefs would
+equal mine, if both were opened." "Some such thing I said," replied
+Marina, "and said no more than what my thoughts did warrant me as
+likely." "Tell me your story," answered Pericles; "if I find you have
+known the thousandth part of my endurance, you have borne your sorrows
+like a man, and I have suffered like a girl; yet you do look like
+Patience gazing on kings' graves, and smiling extremity out of act. How
+lost you your name, my most kind virgin? Recount your story I beseech
+you. Come, sit by me." How was Pericles surprised when she said her name
+was _Marina_, for he knew it was no usual name, but had been invented by
+himself for his own child to signify _seaborn_: "O, I am mocked," said
+he, "and you are sent hither by some incensed god to make the world
+laugh at me." "Patience, good sir," said Marina, "or I must cease here."
+"Nay," said Pericles, "I will be patient; you little know how you do
+startle me, to call yourself Marina." "The name," she replied, "was
+given me by one that had some power, my father, and a king." "How, a
+king's daughter!" said Pericles, "and called Marina! But are you flesh
+and blood? Are you no fairy? Speak on; where were you born? and
+wherefore called Marina?" She replied, "I was called Marina, because I
+was born at sea. My mother was the daughter of a king; she died the
+minute I was born, as my good nurse Lychorida has often told me weeping.
+The king, my father, left me at Tarsus, till the cruel wife of Cleon
+sought to murder me. A crew of pirates came and rescued me, and brought
+me here to Mitylene. But, good sir, why do you weep? It may be, you
+think me an impostor. But, indeed, sir, I am the daughter to King
+Pericles, if good King Pericles be living." Then Pericles, terrified as
+he seemed at his own sudden joy, and doubtful if this could be real,
+loudly called for his attendants, who rejoiced at the sound of their
+beloved king's voice; and he said to Helicanus, "O Helicanus, strike me,
+give me a gash, put me to present pain, lest this great sea of joys
+rushing upon me, overbear the shores of my mortality. O come hither,
+thou that wast born at sea, buried at Tarsus, and found at sea again. O
+Helicanus, down on your knees, thank the holy gods! This is Marina. Now
+blessings on thee, my child! Give me fresh garments, mine own Helicanus!
+She is not dead at Tarsus as she should have been by the savage
+Dionysia. She shall tell you all, when you shall kneel to her and call
+her your very princess. Who is this?" (observing Lysimachus for the
+first time). "Sir," said Helicanus, "it is the governor of Mitylene,
+who, hearing of your melancholy, came to see you." "I embrace you, sir,"
+said Pericles. "Give me my robes! I am well with beholding----O heaven
+bless my girl! But hark, what music is that?"--for now, either sent by
+some kind god, or by his own delighted fancy deceived, he seemed to hear
+soft music. "My lord, I hear none," replied Helicanus. "None?" said
+Pericles; "why it is the music of the spheres." As there was no music to
+be heard, Lysimachus concluded that the sudden joy had unsettled the
+prince's understanding; and he said, "It is not good to cross him: let
+him have his way:" and then they told him they heard the music; and he
+now complaining of a drowsy slumber coming over him, Lysimachus
+persuaded him to rest on a couch, and placing a pillow under his head,
+he, quite overpowered with excess of joy, sank into a sound sleep, and
+Marina watched in silence by the couch of her sleeping parent.
+
+While he slept, Pericles dreamed a dream which made him resolve to go to
+Ephesus. His dream was, that Diana, the goddess of the Ephesians,
+appeared to him, and commanded him to go to her temple at Ephesus, and
+there before her altar to declare the story of his life and misfortunes;
+and by her silver bow she swore, that if he performed her injunction, he
+should meet with some rare felicity. When he awoke, being miraculously
+refreshed, he told his dream, and that his resolution was to obey the
+bidding of the goddess.
+
+Then Lysimachus invited Pericles to come on shore, and refresh himself
+with such entertainment as he should find at Mitylene, which courteous
+offer Pericles accepting, agreed to tarry with him for the space of a
+day or two. During which time we may well suppose what feastings, what
+rejoicings, what costly shows and entertainments the governor made in
+Mitylene, to greet the royal father of his dear Marina, whom in her
+obscure fortunes he had so respected. Nor did Pericles frown upon
+Lysimachus's suit, when he understood how he had honoured his child in
+the days of her low estate, and that Marina showed herself not averse to
+his proposals; only he made it a condition, before he gave his consent,
+that they should visit with him the shrine of the Ephesian Diana: to
+whose temple they shortly after all three undertook a voyage; and, the
+goddess herself filling their sails with prosperous winds, after a few
+weeks they arrived in safety at Ephesus.
+
+There was standing near the altar of the goddess, when Pericles with his
+train entered the temple, the good Cerimon (now grown very aged) who had
+restored Thaisa, the wife of Pericles, to life; and Thaisa, now a
+priestess of the temple, was standing before the altar; and though the
+many years he had passed in sorrow for her loss had much altered
+Pericles, Thaisa thought she knew her husband's features, and when he
+approached the altar and began to speak, she remembered his voice, and
+listened to his words with wonder and a joyful amazement. And these were
+the words that Pericles spoke before the altar: "Hail, Diana! to perform
+thy just commands, I here confess myself the Prince of Tyre, who,
+frighted from my country, at Pentapolis wedded the fair Thaisa: she died
+at sea in childbed, but brought forth a maid-child called Marina. She at
+Tarsus was nursed with Dionysia, who at fourteen years thought to kill
+her, but her better stars brought her to Mitylene, by whose shores as I
+sailed, her good fortunes brought this maid on board, where by her most
+clear remembrance she made herself known to be my daughter."
+
+Thaisa, unable to bear the transports which his words had raised in her,
+cried out, "You are, you are, O royal Pericles"----and fainted. "What
+means this woman?" said Pericles: "she dies! gentlemen, help."--"Sir,"
+said Cerimon, "if you have told Diana's altar true, this is your wife."
+"Reverend gentleman, no," said Pericles: "I threw her overboard with
+these very arms." Cerimon then recounted how, early one tempestuous
+morning, this lady was thrown upon the Ephesian shore; how, opening the
+coffin, he found therein rich jewels, and a paper; how, happily, he
+recovered her, and placed her here in Diana's temple. And now, Thaisa
+being restored from her swoon said, "O my lord, are you not Pericles?
+Like him you speak, like him you are. Did you not name a tempest, a
+birth, and death?" He astonished said, "The voice of dead Thaisa!" "That
+Thaisa am I," she replied, "supposed dead and drowned." "O true Diana!"
+exclaimed Pericles, in a passion of devout astonishment. "And now," said
+Thaisa, "I know you better. Such a ring as I see on your finger did the
+king my father give you, when we with tears parted from him at
+Pentapolis." "Enough, you gods!" cried Pericles, "your present kindness
+makes my past miseries sport. O come, Thaisa, be buried a second time
+within these arms."
+
+And Marina said, "My heart leaps to be gone into my mother's bosom."
+Then did Pericles show his daughter to her mother, saying, "Look who
+kneels here, flesh of thy flesh, thy burthen at sea, and called Marina,
+because she was yielded there." "Blessed and my own!" said Thaisa: and
+while she hung in rapturous joy over her child, Pericles knelt before
+the altar, saying, "Pure Diana, bless thee for thy vision. For this, I
+will offer oblations nightly to thee." And then and there did Pericles,
+with the consent of Thaisa, solemnly affiance their daughter, the
+virtuous Marina, to the well-deserving Lysimachus in marriage.
+
+Thus have we seen in Pericles, his queen, and daughter, a famous example
+of virtue assailed by calamity (through the sufferance of Heaven, to
+teach patience and constancy to men), under the same guidance becoming
+finally successful, and triumphing over chance and change. In Helicanus
+we have beheld a notable pattern of truth, of faith, and loyalty, who,
+when he might have succeeded to a throne, chose rather to recall the
+rightful owner to his possession, than to become great by another's
+wrong. In the worthy Cerimon, who restored Thaisa to life, we are
+instructed how goodness directed by knowledge, in bestowing benefits
+upon mankind, approaches to the nature of the gods. It only remains to
+be told, that Dionysia, the wicked wife of Cleon, met with an end
+proportionable to her deserts; the inhabitants of Tarsus, when her cruel
+attempt upon Marina was known, rising in a body to revenge the daughter
+of their benefactor, and setting fire to the palace of Cleon, burnt both
+him and her, and their whole household: the gods seeming well pleased,
+that so foul a murder, though but intentional, and never carried into
+act, should be punished in a way befitting its enormity.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Tales from Shakespeare, by 
+Charles Lamb and Mary  Lamb
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE ***
+
+***** This file should be named 20657-8.txt or 20657-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/6/5/20657/
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Janet Blenkinship and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/20657-8.zip b/20657-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..292204a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-8.zip
diff --git a/20657-h.zip b/20657-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..87d3c88
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h.zip
diff --git a/20657-h/20657-h.htm b/20657-h/20657-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ac2a165
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/20657-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,10126 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Tales From Shakespeare, by Charles &amp; Mary Lamb.
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+/*<![CDATA[  XML blockout */
+<!--
+    p {  margin-top: .75em;
+         text-align: justify;
+         margin-bottom: .75em;
+         }
+    h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {
+         text-align: center; /* all headings centered */
+         clear: both;
+         }
+    hr { width: 33%;
+	 margin-top: 2em;
+	 margin-bottom: 2em;
+         margin-left: auto;
+         margin-right: auto;
+         clear: both;
+       }
+
+    table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;}
+
+    body{margin-left: 10%;
+         margin-right: 10%;
+        }
+
+    img {border:0;}
+
+    .pagenum  { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */
+            /*  visibility: hidden;  */
+                position: absolute;
+                left: 92%;
+                font-size: smaller;
+                text-align: right;
+              } /* page numbers */
+
+
+    .linenum  {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */
+    .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;}
+
+    .bb       {border-bottom: solid 2px;}
+    .bl       {border-left: solid 2px;}
+    .bt       {border-top: solid 2px;}
+    .br       {border-right: solid 2px;}
+    .bbox     {border: solid 2px;}
+
+    .center   {text-align: center;}
+    .smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
+    .u        {text-decoration: underline;}
+
+    .caption  {font-weight: bold;}
+
+    .figcenter   {margin: auto; text-align: center;}
+
+    .figleft     {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top:
+                 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;}
+
+    .figright    {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;
+                 margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;}
+
+    .footnotes        {border: dashed 1px;}
+    .footnote         {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;}
+    .footnote .label  {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;}
+    .fnanchor         {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;}
+
+    .poem             {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;}
+    .poem br          {display: none;}
+    .poem .stanza     {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;}
+    .poem span.i0     {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i2     {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i4     {display: block; margin-left: 4em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    // -->
+    /* XML end  ]]>*/
+    </style>
+  </head>
+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+Project Gutenberg's Tales from Shakespeare, by Charles Lamb and Mary  Lamb
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Tales from Shakespeare
+
+Author: Charles Lamb and Mary  Lamb
+
+Illustrator: Arthur Rackham
+
+Release Date: February 24, 2007 [EBook #20657]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Janet Blenkinship and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<h1>TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE<br /><br /></h1>
+
+<h2>By CHARLES &amp; MARY LAMB<br /><br /><br /></h2>
+
+
+
+<h3>ILLUSTRATED BY ARTHUR RACKHAM<br /><br /><br /><br /></h3>
+
+<p class='center'><i>WEATHERVANE BOOKS NEW YORK</i><br /><br />
+Copyright &copy; MCMLXXV by Crown Publishers, Inc.<br />
+Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 75-18860<br />
+All rights reserved.<br /><br />
+This edition is published by Weathervane Books, a division of Barre
+Publishing Company, Inc.<br /><br />
+Manufactured in the United States of America</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE</h2>
+
+
+<p>The following Tales are meant to be submitted to the young reader as an
+introduction to the study of Shakespeare, for which purpose his words
+are used whenever it seemed possible to bring them in; and in whatever
+has been added to give them the regular form of a connected story,
+diligent care has been taken to select such words as might least
+interrupt the effect of the beautiful English tongue in which he wrote:
+therefore, words introduced into our language since his time have been
+as far as possible avoided.</p>
+
+<p>In those tales which have been taken from the Tragedies, the young
+readers will perceive, when they come to see the source from which these
+stories are derived, that Shakespeare's own words, with little
+alteration, recur very frequently in the narrative as well as in the
+dialogue; but in those made from the Comedies the writers found
+themselves scarcely ever able to turn his words into the narrative form:
+therefore it is feared that, in them, dialogue has been made use of too
+frequently for young people not accustomed to the dramatic form of
+writing. But this fault, if it be a fault, has been caused by an earnest
+wish to give as much of Shakespeare's own words as possible: and if the
+"<i>He said</i>," and "<i>She said</i>," the question and the reply, should
+sometimes seem tedious to their young ears, they must pardon it, because
+it was the only way in which could be given to them a few hints and
+little foretastes of the great pleasure which awaits them in their elder
+years, when they come to the rich treasures from which these small and
+valueless coins are extracted; pretending to no other merit than as
+faint and imperfect stamps of Shakespeare's matchless image. Faint and
+imperfect images they must be called, because the beauty of his language
+is too frequently destroyed by the necessity of changing many of his
+excellent words into words far less expressive of his true sense, to
+make it read something like prose; and even in some few places, where
+his blank verse is given unaltered, as hoping from its simple plainness
+to cheat the young readers into the belief that they are reading prose,
+yet still his language being transplanted from its own natural soil and
+wild poetic garden, it must want much of its native beauty.</p>
+
+<p>It has been wished to make these Tales easy reading for very young
+children. To the utmost of their ability the writers have constantly
+kept this in mind; but the subjects of most of them made this a very
+difficult task. It was no easy matter to give the histories of men and
+women in terms familiar to the apprehension of a very young mind. For
+young ladies too, it has been the intention chiefly to write; because
+boys being generally permitted the use of their fathers' libraries at a
+much earlier age than girls are, they frequently have the best scenes of
+Shakespeare by heart, before their sisters are permitted to look into
+this manly book; and, therefore, instead of recommending these Tales to
+the perusal of young gentlemen who can read them so much better in the
+originals, their kind assistance is rather requested in explaining to
+their sisters such parts as are hardest for them to understand: and when
+they have helped them to get over the difficulties, then perhaps they
+will read to them (carefully selecting what is proper for a young
+sister's ear) some passage which has pleased them in one of these
+stories, in the very words of the scene from which it is taken; and it
+is hoped they will find that the beautiful extracts, the select
+passages, they may choose to give their sisters in this way will be much
+better relished and understood from their having some notion of the
+general story from one of these imperfect abridgments;&mdash;which if they
+be fortunately so done as to prove delightful to any of the young
+readers, it is hoped that no worse effect will result than to make them
+wish themselves a little older, that they may be allowed to read the
+Plays at full length (such a wish will be neither peevish nor
+irrational). When time and leave of judicious friends shall put them
+into their hands, they will discover in such of them as are here
+abridged (not to mention almost as many more, which are left untouched)
+many surprising events and turns of fortune, which for their infinite
+variety could not be contained in this little book, besides a world of
+sprightly and cheerful characters, both men and women, the humour of
+which it was feared would be lost if it were attempted to reduce the
+length of them.</p>
+
+<p>What these Tales shall have been to the <i>young</i> readers, that and much
+more it is the writers' wish that the true Plays of Shakespeare may
+prove to them in older years&mdash;enrichers of the fancy, strengtheners of
+virtue, a withdrawing from all selfish and mercenary thoughts, a lesson
+of all sweet and honourable thoughts and actions, to teach courtesy,
+benignity, generosity, humanity: for of examples, teaching these
+virtues, his pages are full.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+
+
+<div class='centered'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" width="60%" cellspacing="0" summary="CONTENTS">
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td align='right'>PAGE</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Tempest</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1'><b>1</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Midsummer Night's Dream</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_14'><b>14</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Winter's Tale</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_27'><b>27</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Much Ado about Nothing</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_39'><b>39</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">As You Like It</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_53'><b>53</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Two Gentlemen of Verona</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_71'><b>71</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Merchant of Venice</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_85'><b>85</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Cymbeline</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_102'><b>102</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">King Lear</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_117'><b>117</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Macbeth</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_136'><b>136</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">All's Well that Ends Well</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_148'><b>148</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Taming of the Shrew</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_162'><b>162</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Comedy of Errors</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_174'><b>174</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Measure for Measure</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_190'><b>190</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Twelfth Night; or, What you Will</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_206'><b>206</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Timon of Athens</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_221'><b>221</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Romeo and Juliet</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_236'><b>236</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Hamlet, Prince of Denmark</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_255'><b>255</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Othello</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_272'><b>272</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Pericles, Prince of Tyre</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_287'><b>287</b></a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS" id="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS"></a>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
+
+
+<div class='centered'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" width="80%" cellspacing="0" summary="LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS">
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Perdita</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#PERDITA'><b><big>....</big></b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">When Caliban was lazy and neglected his Work, Ariel would come slily and pinch him</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#CALIBAN'><b><big>....</big></b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Where is Pease-Blossom?</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#PEASE'><b><big>....</big></b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Paulina drew back the Curtain which concealed this famous Statue</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#PAULINA'><b><big>....</big></b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Ganymede assumed the Forward Manners often seen in Youths when they are between Boys and Men</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#GANYMEDE'><b><big>....</big></b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Imogen's Two Brothers then carried her to a Shady Covert</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#IMOGEN'><b><big>....</big></b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Cordelia</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#CORDELIA'><b><big>....</big></b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">They were stopped by the Strange Appearance of Three Figures</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#STRANGE'><b><big>....</big></b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Petruchio, pretending to find Fault with every Dish, threw the Meat about the Floor</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#PETRUCHIO'><b><big>....</big></b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">She began to think of confessing that she was a Woman</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#WOMAN'><b><big>....</big></b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">At the Cell of Friar Lawrence</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#FRIAR'><b><big>....</big></b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">To this Brook Ophelia came</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#OPHELIA'><b><big>....</big></b></a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img01.jpg"  width="600" height="437" alt="THE TEMPEST" title="" /></div>
+
+
+<p>There was a certain island in the sea, the only inhabitants of which
+were an old man, whose name was Prospero, and his daughter Miranda, a
+very beautiful young lady. She came to this island so young, that she
+had no memory of having seen any other human face than her father's.</p>
+
+<p>They lived in a cave or cell, made out of a rock; it was divided into
+several apartments, one of which Prospero called his study; there he
+kept his books, which chiefly treated of magic, a study at that time
+much affected by all learned men: and the knowledge of this art he found
+very useful to him; for being thrown by a strange chance upon this
+island, which had been enchanted by a witch called Sycorax, who died
+there a short time before his arrival, Prospero, by virtue of his art,
+released many good spirits that Sycorax had imprisoned in the bodies of
+large trees, because they had refused to execute her wicked commands.
+These gentle spirits were ever after obedient to the will of Prospero.
+Of these Ariel was the chief.</p>
+
+<p><a name="CALIBAN" id="CALIBAN"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter">
+             <a href="images/img002.jpg"><img
+             src="images/img002-tb.jpg" width="283" height="500"
+             alt="WHEN CALIBAN WAS LAZY AND NEGLECTED HIS WORK" /></a><br />
+         <b>WHEN CALIBAN WAS LAZY AND NEGLECTED HIS WORK,<br />ARIEL WOULD
+COME SLILY AND PINCH HIM</b>
+    </div>
+
+
+<p>The lively little sprite Ariel had nothing mischievous in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> his nature,
+except that he took rather too much pleasure in tormenting an ugly
+monster called Caliban, for he owed him a grudge because he was the son
+of his old enemy Sycorax. This Caliban, Prospero found in the woods, a
+strange misshapen thing, far less human in form than an ape: he took him
+home to his cell, and taught him to speak; and Prospero would have been
+very kind to him, but the bad nature which Caliban inherited from his
+mother Sycorax, would not let him learn anything good or useful:
+therefore he was employed like a slave, to fetch wood, and do the most
+laborious offices; and Ariel had the charge of compelling him to these
+services.</p>
+
+<p>When Caliban was lazy and neglected his work, Ariel (who was invisible
+to all eyes but Prospero's) would come slily and pinch him, and
+sometimes tumble him down in the mire; and then Ariel, in the likeness
+of an ape, would make mouths at him. Then swiftly changing his shape, in
+the likeness of a hedgehog, he would lie tumbling in Caliban's way, who
+feared the hedgehog's sharp quills would prick his bare feet. With a
+variety of such-like vexatious tricks Ariel would often torment him,
+whenever Caliban neglected the work which Prospero commanded him to do.</p>
+
+<p>Having these powerful spirits obedient to his will, Prospero could by
+their means command the winds, and the waves of the sea. By his orders
+they raised a violent storm, in the midst of which, and struggling with
+the wild sea-waves that every moment threatened to swallow it up, he
+showed his daughter a fine large ship, which he told her was full of
+living beings like themselves. "O my dear father," said she, "if by your
+art you have raised this dreadful storm, have pity on their sad
+distress. See! the vessel will be dashed to pieces. Poor souls! they
+will all perish. If I had power, I would sink the sea beneath the earth,
+rather than the good ship should be destroyed, with all the precious
+souls within her."</p>
+
+<p>"Be not so amazed, daughter Miranda," said Prospero;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> "there is no harm
+done. I have so ordered it, that no person in the ship shall receive any
+hurt. What I have done has been in care of you, my dear child. You are
+ignorant who you are, or where you came from, and you know no more of
+me, but that I am your father, and live in this poor cave. Can you
+remember a time before you came to this cell? I think you cannot, for
+you were not then three years of age."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly I can, sir," replied Miranda.</p>
+
+<p>"By what?" asked Prospero; "by any other house or person? Tell me what
+you can remember, my child."</p>
+
+<p>Miranda said, "It seems to me like the recollection of a dream. But had
+I not once four or five women who attended upon me?"</p>
+
+<p>Prospero answered, "You had, and more. How is it that this still lives
+in your mind? Do you remember how you came here?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir," said Miranda, "I remember nothing more."</p>
+
+<p>"Twelve years ago, Miranda," continued Prospero, "I was Duke of Milan,
+and you were a princess, and my only heir. I had a younger brother,
+whose name was Antonio, to whom I trusted everything; and as I was fond
+of retirement and deep study, I commonly left the management of my state
+affairs to your uncle, my false brother (for so indeed he proved). I,
+neglecting all worldly ends, buried among my books, did dedicate my
+whole time to the bettering of my mind. My brother Antonio being thus in
+possession of my power, began to think himself the duke indeed. The
+opportunity I gave him of making himself popular among my subjects
+awakened in his bad nature a proud ambition to deprive me of my dukedom:
+this he soon effected with the aid of the King of Naples, a powerful
+prince, who was my enemy."</p>
+
+<p>"Wherefore," said Miranda, "did they not that hour destroy us?"</p>
+
+<p>"My child," answered her father, "they durst not, so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> dear was the love
+that my people bore me. Antonio carried us on board a ship, and when we
+were some leagues out at sea, he forced us into a small boat, without
+either tackle, sail, or mast: there he left us, as he thought, to
+perish. But a kind lord of my court, one Gonzalo, who loved me, had
+privately placed in the boat, water, provisions, apparel, and some books
+which I prize above my dukedom."</p>
+
+<p>"O my father," said Miranda, "what a trouble must I have been to you
+then!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, my love," said Prospero, "you were a little cherub that did
+preserve me. Your innocent smiles made me bear up against my
+misfortunes. Our food lasted till we landed on this desert island, since
+when my chief delight has been in teaching you, Miranda, and well have
+you profited by my instructions."</p>
+
+<p>"Heaven thank you, my dear father," said Miranda. "Now pray tell me,
+sir, your reason for raising this sea-storm?"</p>
+
+<p>"Know then," said her father, "that by means of this storm, my enemies,
+the King of Naples, and my cruel brother, are cast ashore upon this
+island."</p>
+
+<p>Having so said, Prospero gently touched his daughter with his magic
+wand, and she fell fast asleep; for the spirit Ariel just then presented
+himself before his master, to give an account of the tempest, and how he
+had disposed of the ship's company, and though the spirits were always
+invisible to Miranda, Prospero did not choose she should hear him
+holding converse (as would seem to her) with the empty air.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my brave spirit," said Prospero to Ariel, "how have you performed
+your task?"</p>
+
+<p>Ariel gave a lively description of the storm, and of the terrors of the
+mariners; and how the king's son, Ferdinand, was the first who leaped
+into the sea; and his father thought he saw his dear son swallowed up by
+the waves and lost. "But he is safe," said Ariel, "in a corner of the
+isle, sitting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> with his arms folded, sadly lamenting the loss of the
+king, his father, whom he concludes drowned. Not a hair of his head is
+injured, and his princely garments, though drenched in the sea-waves,
+look fresher than before."</p>
+
+<p>"That's my delicate Ariel," said Prospero. "Bring him hither: my
+daughter must see this young prince. Where is the king, and my brother?"</p>
+
+<p>"I left them," answered Ariel, "searching for Ferdinand, whom they have
+little hopes of finding, thinking they saw him perish. Of the ship's
+crew not one is missing; though each one thinks himself the only one
+saved: and the ship, though invisible to them, is safe in the harbour."</p>
+
+<p>"Ariel," said Prospero, "thy charge is faithfully performed: but there
+is more work yet."</p>
+
+<p>"Is there more work?" said Ariel. "Let me remind you, master, you have
+promised me my liberty. I pray, remember, I have done you worthy
+service, told you no lies, made no mistakes, served you without grudge
+or grumbling."</p>
+
+<p>"How now!" said Prospero. "You do not recollect what a torment I freed
+you from. Have you forgot the wicked witch Sycorax, who with age and
+envy was almost bent double? Where was she born? Speak; tell me."</p>
+
+<p>"Sir, in Algiers," said Ariel.</p>
+
+<p>"O was she so?" said Prospero. "I must recount what you have been, which
+I find you do not remember. This bad witch, Sycorax, for her
+witch-crafts, too terrible to enter human hearing, was banished from
+Algiers, and here left by the sailors; and because you were a spirit too
+delicate to execute her wicked commands, she shut you up in a tree,
+where I found you howling. This torment, remember, I did free you from."</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me, dear master," said Ariel, ashamed to seem ungrateful; "I
+will obey your commands."</p>
+
+<p>"Do so," said Prospero, "and I will set you free." He then gave orders
+what further he would have him do; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> away went Ariel, first to where
+he had left Ferdinand, and found him still sitting on the grass in the
+same melancholy posture.</p>
+
+<p>"O my young gentleman," said Ariel, when he saw him, "I will soon move
+you. You must be brought, I find, for the Lady Miranda to have a sight
+of your pretty person. Come, sir, follow me." He then began singing,</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Full fathom five thy father lies:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Of his bones are coral made;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Those are pearls that were his eyes:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Nothing of him that doth fade,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But doth suffer a sea-change</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Into something rich and strange.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hark! now I hear them,&mdash;Ding-dong, bell."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>This strange news of his lost father soon roused the prince from the
+stupid fit into which he had fallen. He followed in amazement the sound
+of Ariel's voice, till it led him to Prospero and Miranda, who were
+sitting under the shade of a large tree. Now Miranda had never seen a
+man before, except her own father.</p>
+
+<p>"Miranda," said Prospero, "tell me what you are looking at yonder."</p>
+
+<p>"O father," said Miranda, in a strange surprise, "surely that is a
+spirit. Lord! how it looks about! Believe me, sir, it is a beautiful
+creature. Is it not a spirit?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, girl," answered her father; "it eats, and sleeps, and has senses
+such as we have. This young man you see was in the ship. He is somewhat
+altered by grief, or you might call him a handsome person. He has lost
+his companions, and is wandering about to find them."</p>
+
+<p>Miranda, who thought all men had grave faces and grey beards like her
+father, was delighted with the appearance of this beautiful young
+prince; and Ferdinand, seeing such a lovely lady in this desert place,
+and from the strange sounds he had heard, expecting nothing but
+wonders,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> thought he was upon an enchanted island, and that Miranda was
+the goddess of the place, and as such he began to address her.</p>
+
+<p>She timidly answered, she was no goddess, but a simple maid, and was
+going to give him an account of herself, when Prospero interrupted her.
+He was well pleased to find they admired each other, for he plainly
+perceived they had (as we say) fallen in love at first sight: but to try
+Ferdinand's constancy, he resolved to throw some difficulties in their
+way: therefore advancing forward, he addressed the prince with a stern
+air, telling him, he came to the island as a spy, to take it from him
+who was the lord of it. "Follow me," said he, "I will tie you neck and
+feet together. You shall drink sea-water; shell-fish, withered roots,
+and husks of acorns shall be your food." "No," said Ferdinand, "I will
+resist such entertainment, till I see a more powerful enemy," and drew
+his sword; but Prospero, waving his magic wand, fixed him to the spot
+where he stood, so that he had no power to move.</p>
+
+<p>Miranda hung upon her father, saying, "Why are you so ungentle? Have
+pity, sir; I will be his surety. This is the second man I ever saw, and
+to me he seems a true one."</p>
+
+<p>"Silence," said the father: "one word more will make me chide you, girl!
+What! an advocate for an impostor! You think there are no more such fine
+men, having seen only him and Caliban. I tell you, foolish girl, most
+men as far excel this, as he does Caliban." This he said to prove his
+daughter's constancy; and she replied, "My affections are most humble. I
+have no wish to see a goodlier man."</p>
+
+<p>"Come on, young man," said Prospero to the Prince; "you have no power to
+disobey me."</p>
+
+<p>"I have not indeed," answered Ferdinand; and not knowing that it was by
+magic he was deprived of all power of resistance, he was astonished to
+find himself so strangely compelled to follow Prospero: looking back on
+Miranda as long as he could see her, he said, as he went after Prospero<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>
+into the cave, "My spirits are all bound up, as if I were in a dream;
+but this man's threats, and the weakness which I feel, would seem light
+to me if from my prison I might once a day behold this fair maid."</p>
+
+<p>Prospero kept Ferdinand not long confined within the cell: he soon
+brought out his prisoner, and set him a severe task to perform, taking
+care to let his daughter know the hard labour he had imposed on him, and
+then pretending to go into his study, he secretly watched them both.</p>
+
+<p>Prospero had commanded Ferdinand to pile up some heavy logs of wood.
+Kings' sons not being much used to laborious work, Miranda soon after
+found her lover almost dying with fatigue. "Alas!" said she, "do not
+work so hard; my father is at his studies, he is safe for these three
+hours; pray rest yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"O my dear lady," said Ferdinand, "I dare not. I must finish my task
+before I take my rest."</p>
+
+<p>"If you will sit down," said Miranda, "I will carry your logs the
+while." But this Ferdinand would by no means agree to. Instead of a help
+Miranda became a hindrance, for they began a long conversation, so that
+the business of log-carrying went on very slowly.</p>
+
+<p>Prospero, who had enjoined Ferdinand this task merely as a trial of his
+love, was not at his books, as his daughter supposed, but was standing
+by them invisible, to overhear what they said.</p>
+
+<p>Ferdinand inquired her name, which she told, saying it was against her
+father's express command she did so.</p>
+
+<p>Prospero only smiled at this first instance of his daughter's
+disobedience, for having by his magic art caused his daughter to fall in
+love so suddenly, he was not angry that she showed her love by
+forgetting to obey his commands. And he listened well pleased to a long
+speech of Ferdinand's, in which he professed to love her above all the
+ladies he ever saw.</p>
+
+<p>In answer to his praises of her beauty, which he said<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> exceeded all the
+women in the world, she replied, "I do not remember the face of any
+woman, nor have I seen any more men than you, my good friend, and my
+dear father. How features are abroad, I know not; but, believe me, sir,
+I would not wish any companion in the world but you, nor can my
+imagination form any shape but yours that I could like. But, sir, I fear
+I talk to you too freely, and my father's precepts I forget."</p>
+
+<p>At this Prospero smiled, and nodded his head, as much as to say, "This
+goes on exactly as I could wish; my girl will be Queen of Naples."</p>
+
+<p>And then Ferdinand, in another fine long speech (for young princes speak
+in courtly phrases), told the innocent Miranda he was heir to the crown
+of Naples, and that she should be his queen.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! sir," said she, "I am a fool to weep at what I am glad of. I will
+answer you in plain and holy innocence. I am your wife if you will marry
+me."</p>
+
+<p>Prospero prevented Ferdinand's thanks by appearing visible before them.</p>
+
+<p>"Fear nothing, my child," said he; "I have overheard, and approve of all
+you have said. And, Ferdinand, if I have too severely used you, I will
+make you rich amends, by giving you my daughter. All your vexations were
+but trials of your love, and you have nobly stood the test. Then as my
+gift, which your true love has worthily purchased, take my daughter, and
+do not smile that I boast she is above all praise." He then, telling
+them that he had business which required his presence, desired they
+would sit down and talk together till he returned; and this command
+Miranda seemed not at all disposed to disobey.</p>
+
+<p>When Prospero left them, he called his spirit Ariel, who quickly
+appeared before him, eager to relate what he had done with Prospero's
+brother and the King of Naples. Ariel said he had left them almost out
+of their senses with fear, at the strange things he had caused them to
+see and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> hear. When fatigued with wandering about, and famished for want
+of food, he had suddenly set before them a delicious banquet, and then,
+just as they were going to eat, he appeared visible before them in the
+shape of a harpy, a voracious monster with wings, and the feast vanished
+away. Then, to their utter amazement, this seeming harpy spoke to them,
+reminding them of their cruelty in driving Prospero from his dukedom,
+and leaving him and his infant daughter to perish in the sea; saying,
+that for this cause these terrors were suffered to afflict them.</p>
+
+<p>The King of Naples, and Antonio the false brother, repented the
+injustice they had done to Prospero; and Ariel told his master he was
+certain their penitence was sincere, and that he, though a spirit, could
+not but pity them.</p>
+
+<p>"Then bring them hither, Ariel," said Prospero: "if you, who are but a
+spirit, feel for their distress, shall not I, who am a human being like
+themselves, have compassion on them? Bring them, quickly, my dainty
+Ariel."</p>
+
+<p>Ariel soon returned with the king, Antonio, and old Gonzalo in their
+train, who had followed him, wondering at the wild music he played in
+the air to draw them on to his master's presence. This Gonzalo was the
+same who had so kindly provided Prospero formerly with books and
+provisions, when his wicked brother left him, as he thought, to perish
+in an open boat in the sea.</p>
+
+<p>Grief and terror had so stupefied their senses, that they did not know
+Prospero. He first discovered himself to the good old Gonzalo, calling
+him the preserver of his life; and then his brother and the king knew
+that he was the injured Prospero.</p>
+
+<p>Antonio with tears, and sad words of sorrow and true repentance,
+implored his brother's forgiveness, and the king expressed his sincere
+remorse for having assisted Antonio to depose his brother: and Prospero
+forgave them; and, upon their engaging to restore his dukedom, he said<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>
+to the King of Naples, "I have a gift in store for you too;" and opening
+a door, showed him his son Ferdinand playing at chess with Miranda.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing could exceed the joy of the father and the son at this
+unexpected meeting, for they each thought the other drowned in the
+storm.</p>
+
+<p>"O wonder!" said Miranda, "what noble creatures these are! It must
+surely be a brave world that has such people in it."</p>
+
+<p>The King of Naples was almost as much astonished at the beauty and
+excellent graces of the young Miranda, as his son had been. "Who is this
+maid?" said he; "she seems the goddess that has parted us, and brought
+us thus together." "No, sir," answered Ferdinand, smiling to find his
+father had fallen into the same mistake that he had done when he first
+saw Miranda, "she is a mortal, but by immortal Providence she is mine; I
+chose her when I could not ask you, my father, for your consent, not
+thinking you were alive. She is the daughter to this Prospero, who is
+the famous Duke of Milan, of whose renown I have heard so much, but
+never saw him till now: of him I have received a new life: he has made
+himself to me a second father, giving me this dear lady."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I must be her father," said the king; "but oh! how oddly will it
+sound, that I must ask my child forgiveness."</p>
+
+<p>"No more of that," said Prospero: "let us not remember our troubles
+past, since they so happily have ended." And then Prospero embraced his
+brother, and again assured him of his forgiveness; and said that a wise
+over-ruling Providence had permitted that he should be driven from his
+poor dukedom of Milan, that his daughter might inherit the crown of
+Naples, for that by their meeting in this desert island, it had happened
+that the king's son had loved Miranda.</p>
+
+<p>These kind words which Prospero spoke, meaning to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> comfort his brother,
+so filled Antonio with shame and remorse, that he wept and was unable to
+speak; and the kind old Gonzalo wept to see this joyful reconciliation,
+and prayed for blessings on the young couple.</p>
+
+<p>Prospero now told them that their ship was safe in the harbour, and the
+sailors all on board her, and that he and his daughter would accompany
+them home the next morning. "In the meantime," says he, "partake of such
+refreshments as my poor cave affords; and for your evening's
+entertainment I will relate the history of my life from my first landing
+in this desert island." He then called for Caliban to prepare some food,
+and set the cave in order; and the company were astonished at the
+uncouth form and savage appearance of this ugly monster, who (Prospero
+said) was the only attendant he had to wait upon him.</p>
+
+<p>Before Prospero left the island, he dismissed Ariel from his service, to
+the great joy of that lively little spirit; who, though he had been a
+faithful servant to his master, was always longing to enjoy his free
+liberty, to wander uncontrolled in the air, like a wild bird, under
+green trees, among pleasant fruits, and sweet-smelling flowers. "My
+quaint Ariel," said Prospero to the little sprite when he made him free,
+"I shall miss you; yet you shall have your freedom." "Thank you, my dear
+master," said Ariel; "but give me leave to attend your ship home with
+prosperous gales, before you bid farewell to the assistance of your
+faithful spirit; and then, master, when I am free, how merrily I shall
+live!" Here Ariel sung this pretty song:</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Where the bee sucks, there suck I;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">In a cowslip's bell I lie:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">There I crouch when owls do cry</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">On the bat's back I do fly</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">After summer merrily.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Merrily, merrily shall I live now</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Under the blossom that hangs on the bough."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Prospero then buried deep in the earth his magical books<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> and wand, for
+he was resolved never more to make use of the magic art. And having thus
+overcome his enemies, and being reconciled to his brother and the King
+of Naples, nothing now remained to complete his happiness, but to
+revisit his native land, to take possession of his dukedom, and to
+witness the happy nuptials of his daughter and Prince Ferdinand, which
+the king said should be instantly celebrated with great splendour on
+their return to Naples. At which place, under the safe convoy of the
+spirit Ariel, they, after a pleasant voyage, soon arrived.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img24.jpg"  alt="Chapter endpiece" title="" /></div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img03.jpg"  width="600" height="428" alt="A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM" title="" /></div>
+
+
+<p>There was a law in the city of Athens which gave to its citizens the
+power of compelling their daughters to marry whomsoever they pleased;
+for upon a daughter's refusing to marry the man her father had chosen to
+be her husband, the father was empowered by this law to cause her to be
+put to death; but as fathers do not often desire the death of their own
+daughters, even though they do happen to prove a little refractory, this
+law was seldom or never put in execution, though perhaps the young
+ladies of that city were not unfrequently threatened by their parents
+with the terrors of it.</p>
+
+<p>There was one instance, however, of an old man, whose name was Egeus,
+who actually did come before Theseus (at that time the reigning Duke of
+Athens), to complain that his daughter Hermia, whom he had commanded to
+marry Demetrius, a young man of a noble Athenian family, refused to obey
+him, because she loved another young Athenian, named Lysander. Egeus
+demanded justice of Theseus, and desired that this cruel law might be
+put in force against his daughter.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Hermia pleaded in excuse for her disobedience, that Demetrius had
+formerly professed love for her dear friend Helena, and that Helena
+loved Demetrius to distraction; but this honourable reason, which Hermia
+gave for not obeying her father's command, moved not the stern Egeus.</p>
+
+<p>Theseus, though a great and merciful prince, had no power to alter the
+laws of his country; therefore he could only give Hermia four days to
+consider of it: and at the end of that time, if she still refused to
+marry Demetrius, she was to be put to death.</p>
+
+<p>When Hermia was dismissed from the presence of the duke, she went to her
+lover Lysander, and told him the peril she was in, and that she must
+either give him up and marry Demetrius, or lose her life in four days.</p>
+
+<p>Lysander was in great affliction at hearing these evil tidings; but
+recollecting that he had an aunt who lived at some distance from Athens,
+and that at the place where she lived the cruel law could not be put in
+force against Hermia (this law not extending beyond the boundaries of
+the city), he proposed to Hermia that she should steal out of her
+father's house that night, and go with him to his aunt's house, where he
+would marry her. "I will meet you," said Lysander, "in the wood a few
+miles without the city; in that delightful wood where we have so often
+walked with Helena in the pleasant month of May."</p>
+
+<p>To this proposal Hermia joyfully agreed; and she told no one of her
+intended flight but her friend Helena. Helena (as maidens will do
+foolish things for love) very ungenerously resolved to go and tell this
+to Demetrius, though she could hope no benefit from betraying her
+friend's secret, but the poor pleasure of following her faithless lover
+to the wood; for she well knew that Demetrius would go thither in
+pursuit of Hermia.</p>
+
+<p>The wood, in which Lysander and Hermia proposed to meet was the
+favourite haunt of those little beings known by the name of <i>Fairies</i>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Oberon the king, and Titania the queen of the Fairies, with all their
+tiny train of followers, in this wood held their midnight revels.</p>
+
+<p>Between this little king and queen of sprites there happened, at this
+time, a sad disagreement; they never met by moonlight in the shady walks
+of this pleasant wood, but they were quarrelling, till all their fairy
+elves would creep into acorn-cups and hide themselves for fear.</p>
+
+<p>The cause of this unhappy disagreement was Titania's refusing to give
+Oberon a little changeling boy, whose mother had been Titania's friend;
+and upon her death the fairy queen stole the child from its nurse, and
+brought him up in the woods.</p>
+
+<p>The night on which the lovers were to meet in this wood, as Titania was
+walking with some of her maids of honour, she met Oberon attended by his
+train of fairy courtiers.</p>
+
+<p>"Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania," said the fairy king. The queen
+replied, "What, jealous Oberon, is it you? Fairies, skip hence; I have
+forsworn his company." "Tarry, rash fairy," said Oberon; "am not I thy
+lord? Why does Titania cross her Oberon? Give me your little changeling
+boy to be my page."</p>
+
+<p>"Set your heart at rest," answered the queen; "your whole fairy kingdom
+buys not the boy of me." She then left her lord in great anger. "Well,
+go your way," said Oberon: "before the morning dawns I will torment you
+for this injury."</p>
+
+<p>Oberon then sent for Puck, his chief favourite and privy counsellor.</p>
+
+<p>Puck, (or as he was sometimes called, Robin Goodfellow) was a shrewd and
+knavish sprite, that used to play comical pranks in the neighbouring
+villages; sometimes getting into the dairies and skimming the milk,
+sometimes plunging his light and airy form into the butter-churn, and
+while he was dancing his fantastic shape in the churn, in vain the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>
+dairy-maid would labour to change her cream into butter: nor had the
+village swains any better success; whenever Puck chose to play his
+freaks in the brewing copper, the ale was sure to be spoiled. When a few
+good neighbours were met to drink some comfortable ale together, Puck
+would jump into the bowl of ale in the likeness of a roasted crab, and
+when some old goody was going to drink he would bob against her lips,
+and spill the ale over her withered chin; and presently after, when the
+same old dame was gravely seating herself to tell her neighbours a sad
+and melancholy story, Puck would slip her three-legged stool from under
+her, and down toppled the poor old woman, and then the old gossips would
+hold their sides and laugh at her, and swear they never wasted a merrier
+hour.</p>
+
+<p>"Come hither, Puck," said Oberon to this little merry wanderer of the
+night; "fetch me the flower which maids call <i>Love in Idleness</i>; the
+juice of that little purple flower laid on the eyelids of those who
+sleep, will make them, when they awake, dote on the first thing they
+see. Some of the juice of that flower I will drop on the eyelids of my
+Titania when she is asleep; and the first thing she looks upon when she
+opens her eyes she will fall in love with, even though it be a lion or a
+bear, a meddling monkey, or a busy ape; and before I will take this
+charm from off her sight, which I can do with another charm I know of, I
+will make her give me that boy to be my page."</p>
+
+<p>Puck, who loved mischief to his heart, was highly diverted with this
+intended frolic of his master, and ran to seek the flower; and while
+Oberon was waiting the return of Puck, he observed Demetrius and Helena
+enter the wood: he overheard Demetrius reproaching Helena for following
+him, and after many unkind words on his part, and gentle expostulations
+from Helena, reminding him of his former love and professions of true
+faith to her, he left her (as he said) to the mercy of the wild beasts,
+and she ran after him as swiftly as she could.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The fairy king, who was always friendly to true lovers, felt great
+compassion for Helena; and perhaps, as Lysander said they used to walk
+by moonlight in this pleasant wood, Oberon might have seen Helena in
+those happy times when she was beloved by Demetrius. However that might
+be, when Puck returned with the little purple flower, Oberon said to his
+favourite, "Take a part of this flower; there has been a sweet Athenian
+lady here, who is in love with a disdainful youth; if you find him
+sleeping, drop some of the love-juice in his eyes, but contrive to do it
+when she is near him, that the first thing he sees when he awakes may be
+this despised lady. You will know the man by the Athenian garments which
+he wears." Puck promised to manage this matter very dexterously: and
+then Oberon went, unperceived by Titania, to her bower, where she was
+preparing to go to rest. Her fairy bower was a bank, where grew wild
+thyme, cowslips, and sweet violets, under a canopy of wood-bine,
+musk-roses, and eglantine. There Titania always slept some part of the
+night; her coverlet the enamelled skin of a snake, which, though a small
+mantle, was wide enough to wrap a fairy in.</p>
+
+<p>He found Titania giving orders to her fairies, how they were to employ
+themselves while she slept. "Some of you," said her majesty, "must kill
+cankers in the musk-rose buds, and some wage war with the bats for their
+leathern wings, to make my small elves coats; and some of you keep watch
+that the clamorous owl, that nightly hoots, come not near me: but first
+sing me to sleep." Then they began to sing this song:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"You spotted snakes with double tongue,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Newts and blind-worms do no wrong</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Come not near our Fairy Queen.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Philomel, with melody,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sing in our sweet lullaby,</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lulla, lulla, lullaby; lulla, lulla, lullaby;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Never harm, nor spell, nor charm,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Come our lovely lady nigh;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So good night with lullaby."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>When the fairies had sung their queen asleep with this pretty lullaby,
+they left her to perform the important services she had enjoined them.
+Oberon then softly drew near his Titania, and dropped some of the
+love-juice on her eyelids, saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"What thou seest when thou dost wake,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Do it for thy true-love take."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>But to return to Hermia, who made her escape out of her father's house
+that night, to avoid the death she was doomed to for refusing to marry
+Demetrius. When she entered the wood, she found her dear Lysander
+waiting for her, to conduct her to his aunt's house; but before they had
+passed half through the wood, Hermia was so much fatigued, that
+Lysander, who was very careful of this dear lady, who had proved her
+affection for him even by hazarding her life for his sake, persuaded her
+to rest till morning on a bank of soft moss, and lying down himself on
+the ground at some little distance, they soon fell fast asleep. Here
+they were found by Puck, who, seeing a handsome young man asleep, and
+perceiving that his clothes were made in the Athenian fashion, and that
+a pretty lady was sleeping near him, concluded that this must be the
+Athenian maid and her disdainful lover whom Oberon had sent him to seek;
+and he naturally enough conjectured that, as they were alone together,
+she must be the first thing he would see when he awoke; so, without more
+ado, he proceeded to pour some of the juice of the little purple flower
+into his eyes. But it so fell out, that Helena came that way, and,
+instead of Hermia, was the first object Lysander beheld when he opened
+his eyes; and strange to relate, so powerful was the love-charm, all his
+love for Hermia vanished away, and Lysander fell in love with Helena.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Had he first seen Hermia when he awoke, the blunder Puck committed would
+have been of no consequence, for he could not love that faithful lady
+too well; but for poor Lysander to be forced by a fairy love-charm to
+forget his own true Hermia, and to run after another lady, and leave
+Hermia asleep quite alone in a wood at midnight, was a sad chance
+indeed.</p>
+
+<p>Thus this misfortune happened. Helena, as has been before related,
+endeavoured to keep pace with Demetrius when he ran away so rudely from
+her; but she could not continue this unequal race long, men being always
+better runners in a long race than ladies. Helena soon lost sight of
+Demetrius; and as she was wandering about, dejected and forlorn, she
+arrived at the place where Lysander was sleeping. "Ah!" said she, "this
+is Lysander lying on the ground: is he dead or asleep?" Then, gently
+touching him, she said, "Good sir, if you are alive, awake." Upon this
+Lysander opened his eyes, and (the love-charm beginning to work)
+immediately addressed her in terms of extravagant love and admiration;
+telling her she as much excelled Hermia in beauty as a dove does a
+raven, and that he would run through fire for her sweet sake; and many
+more such lover-like speeches. Helena, knowing Lysander was her friend
+Hermia's lover, and that he was solemnly engaged to marry her, was in
+the utmost rage when she heard herself addressed in this manner; for she
+thought (as well she might) that Lysander was making a jest of her.
+"Oh!" said she, "why was I born to be mocked and scorned by every one?
+Is it not enough, is it not enough, young man, that I can never get a
+sweet look or a kind word from Demetrius; but you, sir, must pretend in
+this disdainful manner to court me? I thought, Lysander, you were a lord
+of more true gentleness." Saying these words in great anger, she ran
+away; and Lysander followed her, quite forgetful of his own Hermia, who
+was still asleep.</p>
+
+<p>When Hermia awoke, she was in a sad fright at finding<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> herself alone.
+She wandered about the wood, not knowing what was become of Lysander, or
+which way to go to seek for him. In the meantime Demetrius not being
+able to find Hermia and his rival Lysander, and fatigued with his
+fruitless search, was observed by Oberon fast asleep. Oberon had learnt
+by some questions he had asked of Puck, that he had applied the
+love-charm to the wrong person's eyes; and now having found the person
+first intended, he touched the eyelids of the sleeping Demetrius with
+the love-juice, and he instantly awoke; and the first thing he saw being
+Helena, he, as Lysander had done before, began to address love-speeches
+to her; and just at that moment Lysander, followed by Hermia (for
+through Puck's unlucky mistake it was now become Hermia's turn to run
+after her lover) made his appearance; and then Lysander and Demetrius,
+both speaking together, made love to Helena, they being each one under
+the influence of the same potent charm.</p>
+
+<p>The astonished Helena thought that Demetrius, Lysander, and her once
+dear friend Hermia, were all in a plot together to make a jest of her.</p>
+
+<p>Hermia was as much surprised as Helena: she knew not why Lysander and
+Demetrius, who both before loved her, were now become the lovers of
+Helena; and to Hermia the matter seemed to be no jest.</p>
+
+<p>The ladies, who before had always been the dearest of friends, now fell
+to high words together.</p>
+
+<p>"Unkind Hermia," said Helena, "it is you have set Lysander on to vex me
+with mock praises; and your other lover Demetrius, who used almost to
+spurn me with his foot, have you not bid him call me Goddess, Nymph,
+rare, precious, and celestial? He would not speak thus to me, whom he
+hates, if you did not set him on to make a jest of me. Unkind Hermia, to
+join with men in scorning your poor friend. Have you forgot our
+school-day friendship? How often, Hermia, have we two, sitting on one
+cushion,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> both singing one song, with our needles working the same
+flower, both on the same sampler wrought; growing up together in fashion
+of a double cherry, scarcely seeming parted! Hermia, it is not friendly
+in you, it is not maidenly to join with men in scorning your poor
+friend."</p>
+
+<p>"I am amazed at your passionate words," said Hermia: "I scorn you not;
+it seems you scorn me." "Ay, do," returned Helena, "persevere,
+counterfeit serious looks, and make mouths at me when I turn my back;
+then wink at each other, and hold the sweet jest up. If you had any
+pity, grace, or manners, you would not use me thus."</p>
+
+<p>While Helena and Hermia were speaking these angry words to each other,
+Demetrius and Lysander left them, to fight together in the wood for the
+love of Helena.</p>
+
+<p>When they found the gentlemen had left them, they departed, and once
+more wandered weary in the wood in search of their lovers.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as they were gone, the fairy king, who with little Puck had been
+listening to their quarrels, said to him, "This is your negligence,
+Puck; or did you do this wilfully?" "Believe me, king of shadows,"
+answered Puck, "it was a mistake; did not you tell me I should know the
+man by his Athenian garments? However, I am not sorry this has happened,
+for I think their jangling makes excellent sport." "You heard," said
+Oberon, "that Demetrius and Lysander are gone to seek a convenient place
+to fight in. I command you to overhang the night with a thick fog, and
+lead these quarrelsome lovers so astray in the dark, that they shall not
+be able to find each other. Counterfeit each of their voices to the
+other, and with bitter taunts provoke them to follow you, while they
+think it is their rival's tongue they hear. See you do this, till they
+are so weary they can go no farther; and when you find they are asleep,
+drop the juice of this other flower into Lysander's eyes, and when he
+awakes he will forget his new love for Helena, and return to his old
+passion for Hermia; and then the two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> fair ladies may each one be happy
+with the man she loves, and they will think all that has passed a
+vexatious dream. About this quickly, Puck, and I will go and see what
+sweet love my Titania has found."</p>
+
+<p>Titania was still sleeping, and Oberon seeing a clown near her, who had
+lost his way in the wood, and was likewise asleep: "This fellow," said
+he, "shall be my Titania's true love;" and clapping an ass's head over
+the clown's, it seemed to fit him as well as if it had grown upon his
+own shoulders. Though Oberon fixed the ass's head on very gently, it
+awakened him, and rising up, unconscious of what Oberon had done to him,
+he went towards the bower where the fairy queen slept.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! what angel is that I see?" said Titania, opening her eyes, and the
+juice of the little purple flower beginning to take effect: "are you as
+wise as you are beautiful?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, mistress," said the foolish clown, "if I have wit enough to find
+the way out of this wood, I have enough to serve my turn."</p>
+
+<p>"Out of the wood do not desire to go," said the enamoured queen. "I am a
+spirit of no common rate. I love you. Go with me, and I will give you
+fairies to attend upon you."</p>
+
+<p>She then called four of her fairies: their names were, Pease-blossom,
+Cobweb, Moth, and Mustard-seed.</p>
+
+<p><a name="PEASE" id="PEASE"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter">
+             <a href="images/img003.jpg"><img
+             src="images/img003-tb.jpg" width="312" height="500"
+             alt="WHERE IS PEASE-BLOSSOM" /></a><br />
+         <b>WHERE IS PEASE-BLOSSOM?</b>
+    </div>
+
+
+
+
+<p>"Attend," said the queen, "upon this sweet gentleman; hop in his walks,
+and gambol in his sight; feed him with grapes and apricots, and steal
+for him the honey-bags from the bees. Come, sit with me," said she to
+the clown, "and let me play with your amiable hairy cheeks, my beautiful
+ass! and kiss your fair large ears, my gentle joy!"</p>
+
+<p>"Where is Pease-blossom?" said the ass-headed clown, not much regarding
+the fairy queen's courtship, but very proud of his new attendants.</p>
+
+<p>"Here, sir," said little Pease-blossom.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Scratch my head," said the clown. "Where is Cobweb?"</p>
+
+<p>"Here, sir," said Cobweb.</p>
+
+<p>"Good Mr. Cobweb," said the foolish clown, "kill me the red humble bee
+on the top of that thistle yonder; and, good Mr. Cobweb, bring me the
+honey-bag. Do not fret yourself too much in the action, Mr. Cobweb, and
+take care the honey-bag break not; I should be sorry to have you
+overflown with a honey-bag. Where is Mustard-seed?"</p>
+
+<p>"Here, sir," said Mustard-seed: "what is your will?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing," said the clown, "good Mr. Mustard-seed, but to help Mr.
+Pease-blossom to scratch; I must go to a barber's, Mr. Mustard-seed, for
+methinks I am marvellous hairy about the face."</p>
+
+<p>"My sweet love," said the queen, "what will you have to eat? I have a
+venturous fairy shall seek the squirrel's hoard, and fetch you some new
+nuts."</p>
+
+<p>"I had rather have a handful of dried pease," said the clown, who with
+his ass's head had got an ass's appetite. "But, I pray, let none of your
+people disturb me, for I have a mind to sleep."</p>
+
+<p>"Sleep, then," said the queen, "and I will wind you in my arms. O how I
+love you! how I dote upon you!"</p>
+
+<p>When the fairy king saw the clown sleeping in the arms of his queen, he
+advanced within her sight, and reproached her with having lavished her
+favours upon an ass.</p>
+
+<p>This she could not deny, as the clown was then sleeping within her arms,
+with his ass's head crowned by her with flowers.</p>
+
+<p>When Oberon had teased her for some time, he again demanded the
+changeling boy; which she, ashamed of being discovered by her lord with
+her new favourite, did not dare to refuse him.</p>
+
+<p>Oberon, having thus obtained the little boy he had so long wished for to
+be his page, took pity on the disgraceful situation into which, by his
+merry contrivance, he had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> brought his Titania, and threw some of the
+juice of the other flower into her eyes; and the fairy queen immediately
+recovered her senses, and wondered at her late dotage, saying how she
+now loathed the sight of the strange monster.</p>
+
+<p>Oberon likewise took the ass's head from off the clown, and left him to
+finish his nap with his own fool's head upon his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>Oberon and his Titania being now perfectly reconciled, he related to her
+the history of the lovers, and their midnight quarrels; and she agreed
+to go with him and see the end of their adventures.</p>
+
+<p>The fairy king and queen found the lovers and their fair ladies, at no
+great distance from each other, sleeping on a grass-plot; for Puck, to
+make amends for his former mistake, had contrived with the utmost
+diligence to bring them all to the same spot, unknown to each other; and
+he had carefully removed the charm from off the eyes of Lysander with
+the antidote the fairy king gave to him.</p>
+
+<p>Hermia first awoke, and finding her lost Lysander asleep so near her,
+was looking at him and wondering at his strange inconstancy. Lysander
+presently opening his eyes, and seeing his dear Hermia, recovered his
+reason which the fairy charm had before clouded, and with his reason,
+his love for Hermia; and they began to talk over the adventures of the
+night, doubting if these things had really happened, or if they had both
+been dreaming the same bewildering dream.</p>
+
+<p>Helena and Demetrius were by this time awake; and a sweet sleep having
+quieted Helena's disturbed and angry spirits, she listened with delight
+to the professions of love which Demetrius still made to her, and which,
+to her surprise as well as pleasure, she began to perceive were sincere.</p>
+
+<p>These fair night-wandering ladies, now no longer rivals, became once
+more true friends; all the unkind words which had passed were forgiven,
+and they calmly consulted together what was best to be done in their
+present situation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> It was soon agreed that, as Demetrius had given up
+his pretensions to Hermia, he should endeavour to prevail upon her
+father to revoke the cruel sentence of death which had been passed
+against her. Demetrius was preparing to return to Athens for this
+friendly purpose, when they were surprised with the sight of Egeus,
+Hermia's father, who came to the wood in pursuit of his runaway
+daughter.</p>
+
+<p>When Egeus understood that Demetrius would not now marry his daughter,
+he no longer opposed her marriage with Lysander, but gave his consent
+that they should be wedded on the fourth day from that time, being the
+same day on which Hermia had been condemned to lose her life; and on
+that same day Helena joyfully agreed to marry her beloved and now
+faithful Demetrius.</p>
+
+<p>The fairy king and queen, who were invisible spectators of this
+reconciliation, and now saw the happy ending of the lovers' history,
+brought about through the good offices of Oberon, received so much
+pleasure, that these kind spirits resolved to celebrate the approaching
+nuptials with sports and revels throughout their fairy kingdom.</p>
+
+<p>And now, if any are offended with this story of fairies and their
+pranks, as judging it incredible and strange, they have only to think
+that they have been asleep and dreaming, and that all these adventures
+were visions which they saw in their sleep: and I hope none of my
+readers will be so unreasonable as to be offended with a pretty harmless
+Midsummer Night's Dream.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img04.jpg"  width="600" height="352" alt="THE WINTER'S TALE" title="" /></div>
+
+
+
+<p>Leontes, King of Sicily, and his queen, the beautiful and virtuous
+Hermione, once lived in the greatest harmony together. So happy was
+Leontes in the love of this excellent lady, that he had no wish
+ungratified, except that he sometimes desired to see again, and to
+present to his queen, his old companion and school-fellow, Polixenes,
+King of Bohemia. Leontes and Polixenes were brought up together from
+their infancy, but being, by the death of their fathers, called to reign
+over their respective kingdoms, they had not met for many years, though
+they frequently interchanged gifts, letters, and loving embassies.</p>
+
+<p>At length, after repeated invitations, Polixenes came from Bohemia to
+the Sicilian court, to make his friend Leontes a visit.</p>
+
+<p>At first this visit gave nothing but pleasure to Leontes. He recommended
+the friend of his youth to the queen's particular attention, and seemed
+in the presence of his dear friend and old companion to have his
+felicity quite completed. They talked over old times; their school-days
+and their youthful pranks were remembered, and recounted to Hermione,
+who always took a cheerful part in these conversations.</p>
+
+<p>When, after a long stay, Polixenes was preparing to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> depart, Hermione,
+at the desire of her husband, joined her entreaties to his that
+Polixenes would prolong his visit.</p>
+
+<p>And now began this good queen's sorrow; for Polixenes refusing to stay
+at the request of Leontes, was won over by Hermione's gentle and
+persuasive words to put off his departure for some weeks longer. Upon
+this, although Leontes had so long known the integrity and honourable
+principles of his friend Polixenes, as well as the excellent disposition
+of his virtuous queen, he was seized with an ungovernable jealousy.
+Every attention Hermione showed to Polixenes, though by her husband's
+particular desire, and merely to please him, increased the unfortunate
+king's jealousy; and from being a loving and a true friend, and the best
+and fondest of husbands, Leontes became suddenly a savage and inhuman
+monster. Sending for Camillo, one of the lords of his court, and telling
+him of the suspicion he entertained, he commanded him to poison
+Polixenes.</p>
+
+<p>Camillo was a good man; and he, well knowing that the jealousy of
+Leontes had not the slightest foundation in truth, instead of poisoning
+Polixenes, acquainted him with the king his master's orders, and agreed
+to escape with him out of the Sicilian dominions; and Polixenes, with
+the assistance of Camillo, arrived safe in his own kingdom of Bohemia,
+where Camillo lived from that time in the king's court, and became the
+chief friend and favourite of Polixenes.</p>
+
+<p>The flight of Polixenes enraged the jealous Leontes still more; he went
+to the queen's apartment, where the good lady was sitting with her
+little son Mamillius, who was just beginning to tell one of his best
+stories to amuse his mother, when the king entered, and taking the child
+away, sent Hermione to prison.</p>
+
+<p>Mamillius, though but a very young child, loved his mother tenderly; and
+when he saw her so dishonoured, and found she was taken from him to be
+put into a prison, he took it deeply to heart, and drooped and pined
+away by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> slow degrees, losing his appetite and his sleep, till it was
+thought his grief would kill him.</p>
+
+<p>The king, when he had sent his queen to prison, commanded Cleomenes and
+Dion, two Sicilian lords, to go to Delphos, there to inquire of the
+oracle at the temple of Apollo, if his queen had been unfaithful to him.</p>
+
+<p>When Hermione had been a short time in prison, she was brought to bed of
+a daughter; and the poor lady received much comfort from the sight of
+her pretty baby, and she said to it, "My poor little prisoner, I am as
+innocent as you are."</p>
+
+<p><a name="PAULINA" id="PAULINA"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter">
+             <a href="images/img004.jpg"><img
+             src="images/img004-tb.jpg" width="281" height="500"
+             alt="PAULINA DREW BACK THE CURTAIN" /></a><br />
+         <b>PAULINA DREW BACK THE CURTAIN WHICH CONCEALED<br />THIS FAMOUS
+STATUE</b>
+    </div>
+
+
+<p>Hermione had a kind friend in the noble-spirited Paulina, who was the
+wife of Antigonus, a Sicilian lord; and when the lady Paulina heard her
+royal mistress was brought to bed, she went to the prison where Hermione
+was confined; and she said to Emilia, a lady who attended upon Hermione,
+"I pray you, Emilia, tell the good queen, if her majesty dare trust me
+with her little babe, I will carry it to the king, its father; we do not
+know how he may soften at the sight of his innocent child." "Most worthy
+madam," replied Emilia, "I will acquaint the queen with your noble
+offer; she was wishing to-day that she had any friend who would venture
+to present the child to the king." "And tell her," said Paulina, "that I
+will speak boldly to Leontes in her defence." "May you be for ever
+blessed," said Emilia, "for your kindness to our gracious queen!" Emilia
+then went to Hermione, who joyfully gave up her baby to the care of
+Paulina, for she had feared that no one would dare venture to present
+the child to its father.</p>
+
+<p>Paulina took the new-born infant, and forcing herself into the king's
+presence, notwithstanding her husband, fearing the king's anger,
+endeavoured to prevent her, she laid the babe at its father's feet, and
+Paulina made a noble speech to the king in defence of Hermione, and she
+reproached him severely for his inhumanity, and implored him to have
+mercy on his innocent wife and child. But<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> Paulina's spirited
+remonstrances only aggravated Leontes' displeasure, and he ordered her
+husband Antigonus to take her from his presence.</p>
+
+<p>When Paulina went away, she left the little baby at its father's feet,
+thinking when he was alone with it, he would look upon it, and have pity
+on its helpless innocence.</p>
+
+<p>The good Paulina was mistaken: for no sooner was she gone than the
+merciless father ordered Antigonus, Paulina's husband, to take the
+child, and carry it out to sea, and leave it upon some desert shore to
+perish.</p>
+
+<p>Antigonus, unlike the good Camillo, too well obeyed the orders of
+Leontes; for he immediately carried the child on ship-board, and put out
+to sea, intending to leave it on the first desert coast he could find.</p>
+
+<p>So firmly was the king persuaded of the guilt of Hermione, that he would
+not wait for the return of Cleomenes and Dion, whom he had sent to
+consult the oracle of Apollo at Delphos; but before the queen was
+recovered from her lying-in, and from her grief for the loss of her
+precious baby, he had her brought to a public trial before all the lords
+and nobles of his court. And when all the great lords, the judges, and
+all the nobility of the land were assembled together to try Hermione,
+and that unhappy queen was standing as a prisoner before her subjects to
+receive their judgment, Cleomenes and Dion entered the assembly, and
+presented to the king the answer of the oracle, sealed up; and Leontes
+commanded the seal to be broken, and the words of the oracle to be read
+aloud, and these were the words:&mdash;"<i>Hermione is innocent, Polixenes
+blameless, Camillo a true subject, Leontes a jealous tyrant, and the
+king shall live without an heir if that which is lost be not found.</i>"
+The king would give no credit to the words of the oracle: he said it was
+a falsehood invented by the queen's friends, and he desired the judge to
+proceed in the trial of the queen; but while Leontes was speaking, a man
+entered and told him that the Prince Mamillius, hearing his mother was
+to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> be tried for her life, struck with grief and shame, had suddenly
+died.</p>
+
+<p>Hermione, upon hearing of the death of this dear affectionate child, who
+had lost his life in sorrowing for her misfortune, fainted; and Leontes,
+pierced to the heart by the news, began to feel pity for his unhappy
+queen, and he ordered Paulina, and the ladies who were her attendants,
+to take her away, and use means for her recovery. Paulina soon returned,
+and told the king that Hermione was dead.</p>
+
+<p>When Leontes heard that the queen was dead, he repented of his cruelty
+to her; and now that he thought his ill-usuage had broken Hermione's
+heart, he believed her innocent; and now he thought the words of the
+oracle were true, as he knew "if that which was lost was not found,"
+which he concluded was his young daughter, he should be without an heir,
+the young Prince Mamillius being dead; and he would give his kingdom now
+to recover his lost daughter: and Leontes gave himself up to remorse,
+and passed many years in mournful thoughts and repentant grief.</p>
+
+<p>The ship in which Antigonus carried the infant princess out to sea was
+driven by a storm upon the coast of Bohemia, the very kingdom of the
+good King Polixenes. Here Antigonus landed, and here he left the little
+baby.</p>
+
+<p>Antigonus never returned to Sicily to tell Leontes where he had left his
+daughter, for as he was going back to the ship, a bear came out of the
+woods, and tore him to pieces; a just punishment on him for obeying the
+wicked order of Leontes.</p>
+
+<p>The child was dressed in rich clothes and jewels; for Hermione had made
+it very fine when she sent it to Leontes, and Antigonus had pinned a
+paper to its mantle, and the name of <i>Perdita</i> written thereon, and
+words obscurely intimating its high birth and untoward fate.</p>
+
+<p><a name="PERDITA" id="PERDITA"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter">
+             <a href="images/img001.jpg"><img
+             src="images/img001-tb.jpg" width="337" height="500"
+             alt="PERDITA" /></a><br />
+         <b>PERDITA</b>
+    </div>
+
+
+<p>This poor deserted baby was found by a shepherd. He was a humane man,
+and so he carried the little Perdita<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> home to his wife, who nursed it
+tenderly; but poverty tempted the shepherd to conceal the rich prize he
+had found: therefore he left that part of the country, that no one might
+know where he got his riches, and with part of Perdita's jewels he
+bought herds of sheep, and became a wealthy shepherd. He brought up
+Perdita as his own child, and she knew not she was any other than a
+shepherd's daughter.</p>
+
+<p>The little Perdita grew up a lovely maiden; and though she had no better
+education than that of a shepherd's daughter, yet so did the natural
+graces she inherited from her royal mother shine forth in her untutored
+mind, that no one from her behaviour would have known she had not been
+brought up in her father's court.</p>
+
+<p>Polixenes, the King of Bohemia, had an only son, whose name was
+Florizel. As this young prince was hunting near the shepherd's dwelling,
+he saw the old man's supposed daughter; and the beauty, modesty, and
+queen-like deportment of Perdita caused him instantly to fall in love
+with her. He soon, under the name of Doricles, and in the disguise of a
+private gentleman, became a constant visitor at the old shepherd's
+house. Florizel's frequent absences from court alarmed Polixenes; and
+setting people to watch his son, he discovered his love for the
+shepherd's fair daughter.</p>
+
+<p>Polixenes then called for Camillo, the faithful Camillo, who had
+preserved his life from the fury of Leontes, and desired that he would
+accompany him to the house of the shepherd, the supposed father of
+Perdita.</p>
+
+<p>Polixenes and Camillo, both in disguise, arrived at the old shepherd's
+dwelling while they were celebrating the feast of sheep-shearing; and
+though they were strangers, yet at the sheep-shearing every guest being
+made welcome, they were invited to walk in, and join in the general
+festivity.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing but mirth and jollity was going forward. Tables were spread, and
+great preparations were making<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> for the rustic feast. Some lads and
+lasses were dancing on the green before the house, while others of the
+young men were buying ribands, gloves, and such toys, of a pedlar at the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>While this busy scene was going forward, Florizel and Perdita sat
+quietly in a retired corner, seemingly more pleased with the
+conversation of each other, than desirous of engaging in the sports and
+silly amusements of those around them.</p>
+
+<p>The king was so disguised that it was impossible his son could know him:
+he therefore advanced near enough to hear the conversation. The simple
+yet elegant manner in which Perdita conversed with his son did not a
+little surprise Polixenes: he said to Camillo, "This is the prettiest
+low-born lass I ever saw; nothing she does or says but looks like
+something greater than herself, too noble for this place."</p>
+
+<p>Camillo replied, "Indeed she is the very queen of curds and cream."</p>
+
+<p>"Pray, my good friend," said the king to the old shepherd, "what fair
+swain is that talking with your daughter?" "They call him Doricles,"
+replied the shepherd. "He says he loves my daughter; and, to speak
+truth, there is not a kiss to choose which loves the other best. If
+young Doricles can get her, she shall bring him that he little dreams
+of;" meaning the remainder of Perdita's jewels; which, after he had
+bought herds of sheep with part of them, he had carefully hoarded up for
+her marriage portion.</p>
+
+<p>Polixenes then addressed his son. "How now, young man!" said he: "your
+heart seems full of something that takes off your mind from feasting.
+When I was young, I used to load my love with presents; but you have let
+the pedlar go, and have bought your lass no toy."</p>
+
+<p>The young prince, who little thought he was talking to the king his
+father, replied, "Old sir, she prizes not such trifles; the gifts which
+Perdita expects from me are locked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> up in my heart." Then turning to
+Perdita, he said to her, "O hear me, Perdita, before this ancient
+gentleman, who it seems was once himself a lover; he shall hear what I
+profess." Florizel then called upon the old stranger to be a witness to
+a solemn promise of marriage which he made to Perdita, saying to
+Polixenes, "I pray you, mark our contract."</p>
+
+<p>"Mark your divorce, young sir," said the king, discovering himself.
+Polixenes then reproached his son for daring to contract himself to this
+low-born maiden, calling Perdita "shepherd's-brat, sheep-hook," and
+other disrespectful names; and threatening, if ever she suffered his son
+to see her again, he would put her, and the old shepherd her father, to
+a cruel death.</p>
+
+<p>The king then left them in great wrath, and ordered Camillo to follow
+him with Prince Florizel.</p>
+
+<p>When the king had departed, Perdita, whose royal nature was roused by
+Polixenes' reproaches, said, "Though we are all undone, I was not much
+afraid; and once or twice I was about to speak, and tell him plainly
+that the selfsame sun which shines upon his palace, hides not his face
+from our cottage, but looks on both alike." Then sorrowfully she said,
+"But now I am awakened from this dream, I will queen it no further.
+Leave me, sir; I will go milk my ewes and weep."</p>
+
+<p>The kind-hearted Camillo was charmed with the spirit and propriety of
+Perdita's behaviour; and perceiving that the young prince was too deeply
+in love to give up his mistress at the command of his royal father, he
+thought of a way to befriend the lovers, and at the same time to execute
+a favourite scheme he had in his mind.</p>
+
+<p>Camillo had long known that Leontes, the King of Sicily, was become a
+true penitent; and though Camillo was now the favoured friend of King
+Polixenes, he could not help wishing once more to see his late royal
+master and his native home. He therefore proposed to Florizel and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>
+Perdita that they should accompany him to the Sicilian court, where he
+would engage Leontes should protect them, till, through his mediation,
+they could obtain pardon from Polixenes, and his consent to their
+marriage.</p>
+
+<p>To this proposal they joyfully agreed; and Camillo, who conducted
+everything relative to their flight, allowed the old shepherd to go
+along with them.</p>
+
+<p>The shepherd took with him the remainder of Perdita's jewels, her baby
+clothes, and the paper which he had found pinned to her mantle.</p>
+
+<p>After a prosperous voyage, Florizel and Perdita, Camillo and the old
+shepherd, arrived in safety at the court of Leontes. Leontes, who still
+mourned his dead Hermione and his lost child, received Camillo with
+great kindness, and gave a cordial welcome to Prince Florizel. But
+Perdita, whom Florizel introduced as his princess, seemed to engross all
+Leontes' attention: perceiving a resemblance between her and his dead
+queen Hermione, his grief broke out afresh, and he said, such a lovely
+creature might his own daughter have been, if he had not so cruelly
+destroyed her. "And then, too," said he to Florizel, "I lost the society
+and friendship of your brave father, whom I now desire more than my life
+once again to look upon."</p>
+
+<p>When the old shepherd heard how much notice the king had taken of
+Perdita, and that he had lost a daughter, who was exposed in infancy, he
+fell to comparing the time when he found the little Perdita, with the
+manner of its exposure, the jewels and other tokens of its high birth;
+from all which it was impossible for him not to conclude that Perdita
+and the king's lost daughter were the same.</p>
+
+<p>Florizel and Perdita, Camillo and the faithful Paulina, were present
+when the old shepherd related to the king the manner in which he had
+found the child, and also the circumstance of Antigonus' death, he
+having seen the bear seize upon him. He showed the rich mantle in which
+Paulina remembered Hermione had wrapped the child; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> he produced a
+jewel which she remembered Hermione had tied about Perdita's neck, and
+he gave up the paper which Paulina knew to be the writing of her
+husband; it could not be doubted that Perdita was Leontes' own daughter:
+but oh! the noble struggles of Paulina, between sorrow for her husband's
+death, and joy that the oracle was fulfilled, in the king's heir, his
+long-lost daughter being found. When Leontes heard that Perdita was his
+daughter, the great sorrow that he felt that Hermione was not living to
+behold her child, made him that he could say nothing for a long time,
+but, "O thy mother, thy mother!"</p>
+
+<p>Paulina interrupted this joyful yet distressful scene, with saying to
+Leontes, that she had a statue newly finished by that rare Italian
+master, Julio Romano, which was such a perfect resemblance of the queen,
+that would his majesty be pleased to go to her house and look upon it,
+he would be almost ready to think it was Hermione herself. Thither then
+they all went; the king anxious to see the semblance of his Hermione,
+and Perdita longing to behold what the mother she never saw did look
+like.</p>
+
+<p>When Paulina drew back the curtain which concealed this famous statue,
+so perfectly did it resemble Hermione, that all the king's sorrow was
+renewed at the sight: for a long time he had no power to speak or move.</p>
+
+<p>"I like your silence, my liege," said Paulina, "it the more shows your
+wonder. Is not this statue very like your queen?"</p>
+
+<p>At length the king said, "O, thus she stood, even with such majesty,
+when I first wooed her. But yet, Paulina, Hermione was not so aged as
+this statue looks." Paulina replied, "So much the more the carver's
+excellence, who has made the statue as Hermione would have looked had
+she been living now. But let me draw the curtain, sire, lest presently
+you think it moves."</p>
+
+<p>The king then said, "Do not draw the curtain; Would I were dead! See,
+Camillo, would you not think it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> breathed? Her eye seems to have motion
+in it." "I must draw the curtain, my liege," said Paulina. "You are so
+transported, you will persuade yourself the statue lives." "O, sweet
+Paulina," said Leontes, "make me think so twenty years together! Still
+methinks there is an air comes from her. What fine chisel could ever yet
+cut breath? Let no man mock me, for I will kiss her." "Good my lord,
+forbear!" said Paulina. "The ruddiness upon her lip is wet; you will
+stain your own with oily painting. Shall I draw the curtain?" "No, not
+these twenty years," said Leontes.</p>
+
+<p>Perdita, who all this time had been kneeling, and beholding in silent
+admiration the statue of her matchless mother, said now, "And so long
+could I stay here, looking upon my dear mother."</p>
+
+<p>"Either forbear this transport," said Paulina to Leontes, "and let me
+draw the curtain; or prepare yourself for more amazement. I can make the
+statue move indeed; ay, and descend from off the pedestal, and take you
+by the hand. But then you will think, which I protest I am not, that I
+am assisted by some wicked powers."</p>
+
+<p>"What you can make her do," said the astonished king, "I am content to
+look upon. What you can make her speak, I am content to hear; for it is
+as easy to make her speak as move."</p>
+
+<p>Paulina then ordered some slow and solemn music, which she had prepared
+for the purpose, to strike up; and, to the amazement of all the
+beholders, the statue came down from off the pedestal, and threw its
+arms around Leontes' neck. The statue then began to speak, praying for
+blessings on her husband, and on her child, the newly-found Perdita.</p>
+
+<p>No wonder that the statue hung upon Leontes' neck, and blessed her
+husband and her child. No wonder; for the statue was indeed Hermione
+herself, the real, the living queen.</p>
+
+<p>Paulina had falsely reported to the king the death of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> Hermione,
+thinking that the only means to preserve her royal mistress' life; and
+with the good Paulina, Hermione had lived ever since, never choosing
+Leontes should know she was living, till she heard Perdita was found;
+for though she had long forgiven the injuries which Leontes had done to
+herself, she could not pardon his cruelty to his infant daughter.</p>
+
+<p>His dead queen thus restored to life, his lost daughter found, the
+long-sorrowing Leontes could scarcely support the excess of his own
+happiness.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing but congratulations and affectionate speeches were heard on all
+sides. Now the delighted parents thanked Prince Florizel for loving
+their lowly-seeming daughter; and now they blessed the good old shepherd
+for preserving their child. Greatly did Camillo and Paulina rejoice that
+they had lived to see so good an end of all their faithful services.</p>
+
+<p>And as if nothing should be wanting to complete this strange and
+unlooked-for joy, King Polixenes himself now entered the palace.</p>
+
+<p>When Polixenes first missed his son and Camillo, knowing that Camillo
+had long wished to return to Sicily, he conjectured he should find the
+fugitives here; and, following them with all speed, he happened to just
+arrive at this, the happiest moment of Leontes' life.</p>
+
+<p>Polixenes took a part in the general joy; he forgave his friend Leontes
+the unjust jealousy he had conceived against him, and they once more
+loved each other with all the warmth of their first boyish friendship.
+And there was no fear that Polixenes would now oppose his son's marriage
+with Perdita. She was no "sheep-hook" now, but the heiress of the crown
+of Sicily.</p>
+
+<p>Thus have we seen the patient virtues of the long-suffering Hermione
+rewarded. That excellent lady lived many years with her Leontes and her
+Perdita, the happiest of mothers and of queens.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img05.jpg"  width="600" height="343" alt="MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING" title="" /></div>
+
+
+
+<p>There lived in the palace at Messina two ladies, whose names were Hero
+and Beatrice. Hero was the daughter, and Beatrice the niece, of Leonato,
+the governor of Messina.</p>
+
+<p>Beatrice was of a lively temper, and loved to divert her cousin Hero,
+who was of a more serious disposition, with her sprightly sallies.
+Whatever was going forward was sure to make matter of mirth for the
+light-hearted Beatrice.</p>
+
+<p>At the time the history of these ladies commences some young men of high
+rank in the army, as they were passing through Messina on their return
+from a war that was just ended, in which they had distinguished
+themselves by their great bravery, came to visit Leonato. Among these
+were Don Pedro, the Prince of Arragon; and his friend Claudio, who was a
+lord of Florence; and with them came the wild and witty Benedick, and he
+was a lord of Padua.</p>
+
+<p>These strangers had been at Messina before, and the hospitable governor
+introduced them to his daughter and his niece as their old friends and
+acquaintance.</p>
+
+<p>Benedick, the moment he entered the room, began a lively conversation
+with Leonato and the prince. Beatrice, who liked not to be left out of
+any discourse, interrupted Benedick with saying, "I wonder that you will
+still be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> talking, Signior Benedick: nobody marks you." Benedick was
+just such another rattle-brain as Beatrice, yet he was not pleased at
+this free salutation; he thought it did not become a well-bred lady to
+be so flippant with her tongue; and he remembered, when he was last at
+Messina, that Beatrice used to select him to make her merry jests upon.
+And as there is no one who so little likes to be made a jest of as those
+who are apt to take the same liberty themselves, so it was with Benedick
+and Beatrice; these two sharp wits never met in former times but a
+perfect war of raillery was kept up between them, and they always parted
+mutually displeased with each other. Therefore when Beatrice stopped him
+in the middle of his discourse with telling him nobody marked what he
+was saying, Benedick, affecting not to have observed before that she was
+present, said, "What, my dear Lady Disdain, are you yet living?" And now
+war broke out afresh between them, and a long jangling argument ensued,
+during which Beatrice, although she knew he had so well approved his
+valour in the late war, said that she would eat all he had killed there:
+and observing the prince take delight in Benedick's conversation, she
+called him "the prince's jester." This sarcasm sunk deeper into the mind
+of Benedick than all Beatrice had said before. The hint she gave him
+that he was a coward, by saying she would eat all he had killed, he did
+not regard, knowing himself to be a brave man; but there is nothing that
+great wits so much dread as the imputation of buffoonery, because the
+charge comes sometimes a little too near the truth: therefore Benedick
+perfectly hated Beatrice when she called him "the prince's jester."</p>
+
+<p>The modest lady Hero was silent before the noble guests; and while
+Claudio was attentively observing the improvement which time had made in
+her beauty, and was contemplating the exquisite graces of her fine
+figure (for she was an admirable young lady), the prince was highly
+amused with listening to the humorous dialogue between Benedick and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>
+Beatrice; and he said in a whisper to Leonato, "This is a
+pleasant-spirited young lady. She were an excellent wife for Benedick."
+Leonato replied to this suggestion, "O, my lord, my lord, if they were
+but a week married, they would talk themselves mad." But though Leonato
+thought they would make a discordant pair, the prince did not give up
+the idea of matching these two keen wits together.</p>
+
+<p>When the prince returned with Claudio from the palace, he found that the
+marriage he had devised between Benedick and Beatrice was not the only
+one projected in that good company, for Claudio spoke in such terms of
+Hero, as made the prince guess at what was passing in his heart; and he
+liked it well, and he said to Claudio, "Do you affect Hero?" To this
+question Claudio replied, "O my lord, when I was last at Messina, I
+looked upon her with a soldier's eye, that liked, but had no leisure for
+loving; but now, in this happy time of peace, thoughts of war have left
+their places vacant in my mind, and in their room come thronging soft
+and delicate thoughts, all prompting me how fair young Hero is,
+reminding me that I liked her before I went to the wars." Claudio's
+confession of his love for Hero so wrought upon the prince, that he lost
+no time in soliciting the consent of Leonato to accept of Claudio for a
+son-in-law. Leonato agreed to this proposal, and the prince found no
+great difficulty in persuading the gentle Hero herself to listen to the
+suit of the noble Claudio, who was a lord of rare endowments, and highly
+accomplished, and Claudio, assisted by his kind prince, soon prevailed
+upon Leonato to fix an early day for the celebration of his marriage
+with Hero.</p>
+
+<p>Claudio was to wait but a few days before he was to be married to his
+fair lady; yet he complained of the interval being tedious, as indeed
+most young men are impatient when they are waiting for the
+accomplishment of any event they have set their hearts upon: the prince,
+therefore, to make the time seem short to him, proposed as a kind of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>
+merry pastime that they should invent some artful scheme to make
+Benedick and Beatrice fall in love with each other. Claudio entered with
+great satisfaction into this whim of the prince, and Leonato promised
+them his assistance, and even Hero said she would do any modest office
+to help her cousin to a good husband.</p>
+
+<p>The device the prince invented was, that the gentlemen should make
+Benedick believe that Beatrice was in love with him, and that Hero
+should make Beatrice believe that Benedick was in love with her.</p>
+
+<p>The prince, Leonato, and Claudio began their operations first: and
+watching upon an opportunity when Benedick was quietly seated reading in
+an arbour, the prince and his assistants took their station among the
+trees behind the arbour, so near that Benedick could not choose but hear
+all they said; and after some careless talk the prince said, "Come
+hither, Leonato. What was it you told me the other day&mdash;that your niece
+Beatrice was in love with signior Benedick? I did never think that lady
+would have loved any man." "No, nor I neither, my lord," answered
+Leonato. "It is most wonderful that she should so dote on Benedick, whom
+she in all outward behaviour seemed ever to dislike." Claudio confirmed
+all this with saying that Hero had told him Beatrice was so in love with
+Benedick, that she would certainly die of grief, if he could not be
+brought to love her; which Leonato and Claudio seemed to agree was
+impossible, he having always been such a railer against all fair ladies,
+and in particular against Beatrice.</p>
+
+<p>The prince affected to hearken to all this with great compassion for
+Beatrice, and he said, "It were good that Benedick were told of this."
+"To what end?" said Claudio; "he would but make sport of it, and torment
+the poor lady worse." "And if he should," said the prince, "it were a
+good deed to hang him; for Beatrice is an excellent sweet lady, and
+exceeding wise in everything but in loving Benedick." Then the prince
+motioned to his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> companions that they should walk on, and leave Benedick
+to meditate upon what he had overheard.</p>
+
+<p>Benedick had been listening with great eagerness to this conversation;
+and he said to himself when he heard Beatrice loved him, "Is it
+possible? Sits the wind in that corner?" And when they were gone, he
+began to reason in this manner with himself: "This can be no trick! they
+were very serious, and they have the truth from Hero, and seem to pity
+the lady. Love me! Why it must be requited! I did never think to marry.
+But when I said I should die a bachelor, I did not think I should live
+to be married. They say the lady is virtuous and fair. She is so. And
+wise in everything but loving me. Why, that is no great argument of her
+folly. But here comes Beatrice. By this day, she is a fair lady. I do
+spy some marks of love in her." Beatrice now approached him, and said
+with her usual tartness, "Against my will I am sent to bid you come in
+to dinner." Benedick, who never felt himself disposed to speak so
+politely to her before, replied, "Fair Beatrice, I thank you for your
+pains:" and when Beatrice, after two or three more rude speeches, left
+him, Benedick thought he observed a concealed meaning of kindness under
+the uncivil words she uttered, and he said aloud, "If I do not take pity
+on her, I am a villain. If I do not love her, I am a Jew. I will go get
+her picture."</p>
+
+<p>The gentleman being thus caught in the net they had spread for him, it
+was now Hero's turn to play her part with Beatrice; and for this purpose
+she sent for Ursula and Margaret, two gentlewomen who attended upon her,
+and she said to Margaret, "Good Margaret, run to the parlour; there you
+will find my cousin Beatrice talking with the prince and Claudio.
+Whisper in her ear, that I and Ursula are walking in the orchard, and
+that our discourse is all of her. Bid her steal into that pleasant
+arbour, where honeysuckles, ripened by the sun, like ungrateful minions,
+forbid the sun to enter." This arbour, into which Hero desired<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> Margaret
+to entice Beatrice, was the very same pleasant arbour where Benedick had
+so lately been an attentive listener.</p>
+
+<p>"I will make her come, I warrant, presently," said Margaret.</p>
+
+<p>Hero, then taking Ursula with her into the orchard, said to her, "Now,
+Ursula, when Beatrice comes, we will walk up and down this alley, and
+our talk must be only of Benedick, and when I name him, let it be your
+part to praise him more than ever man did merit. My talk to you must be
+how Benedick is in love with Beatrice. Now begin; for look where
+Beatrice like a lapwing runs close by the ground, to hear our
+conference." They then began; Hero saying, as if in answer to something
+which Ursula had said, "No, truly, Ursula. She is too disdainful; her
+spirits are as coy as wild birds of the rock." "But are you sure," said
+Ursula, "that Benedick loves Beatrice so entirely?" Hero replied, "So
+says the prince, and my lord Claudio, and they entreated me to acquaint
+her with it; but I persuaded them, if they loved Benedick, never to let
+Beatrice know of it." "Certainly," replied Ursula, "it were not good she
+knew his love, lest she made sport of it." "Why, to say truth," said
+Hero, "I never yet saw a man, how wise soever, or noble, young, or
+rarely featured, but she would dispraise him." "Sure sure, such carping
+is not commendable," said Ursula. "No," replied Hero, "but who dare tell
+her so? If I should speak, she would mock me into air." "O! you wrong
+your cousin," said Ursula: "she cannot be so much without true judgment,
+as to refuse so rare a gentleman as signior Benedick." "He hath an
+excellent good name," said Hero: "indeed, he is the first man in Italy,
+always excepting my dear Claudio." And now, Hero giving her attendant a
+hint that it was time to change the discourse, Ursula said, "And when
+are you to be married, madam?" Hero then told her, that she was to be
+married to Claudio the next day, and desired<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> she would go in with her,
+and look at some new attire, as she wished to consult with her on what
+she would wear on the morrow. Beatrice, who had been listening with
+breathless eagerness to this dialogue, when they went away, exclaimed,
+"What fire is in mine ears? Can this be true? Farewell, contempt and
+scorn, and maiden pride, adieu! Benedick, love on! I will requite you,
+taming my wild heart to your loving hand."</p>
+
+<p>It must have been a pleasant sight to see these old enemies converted
+into new and loving friends, and to behold their first meeting after
+being cheated into mutual liking by the merry artifice of the
+good-humoured prince. But a sad reverse in the fortunes of Hero must now
+be thought of. The morrow, which was to have been her wedding-day,
+brought sorrow on the heart of Hero and her good father Leonato.</p>
+
+<p>The prince had a half-brother, who came from the wars along with him to
+Messina. This brother (his name was Don John) was a melancholy,
+discontented man, whose spirits seemed to labour in the contriving of
+villanies. He hated the prince his brother, and he hated Claudio,
+because he was the prince's friend, and determined to prevent Claudio's
+marriage with Hero, only for the malicious pleasure of making Claudio
+and the prince unhappy; for he knew the prince had set his heart upon
+this marriage, almost as much as Claudio himself; and to effect this
+wicked purpose, he employed one Borachio, a man as bad as himself, whom
+he encouraged with the offer of a great reward. This Borachio paid his
+court to Margaret, Hero's attendant; and Don John, knowing this,
+prevailed upon him to make Margaret promise to talk with him from her
+lady's chamber window that night, after Hero was asleep, and also to
+dress herself in Hero's clothes, the better to deceive Claudio into the
+belief that it was Hero; for that was the end he meant to compass by
+this wicked plot.</p>
+
+<p>Don John then went to the prince and Claudio, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> told them that Hero
+was an imprudent lady, and that she talked with men from her chamber
+window at midnight. Now this was the evening before the wedding, and he
+offered to take them that night, where they should themselves hear Hero
+discoursing with a man from her window; and they consented to go along
+with him, and Claudio said, "If I see anything to-night why I should not
+marry her, to-morrow in the congregation, where I intended to wed her,
+there will I shame her." The prince also said, "And as I assisted you to
+obtain her, I will join with you to disgrace her."</p>
+
+<p>When Don John brought them near Hero's chamber that night, they saw
+Borachio standing under the window, and they saw Margaret looking out of
+Hero's window, and heard her talking with Borachio: and Margaret being
+dressed in the same clothes they had seen Hero wear, the prince and
+Claudio believed it was the lady Hero herself.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing could equal the anger of Claudio, when he had made (as he
+thought) this discovery. All his love for the innocent Hero was at once
+converted into hatred, and he resolved to expose her in the church, as
+he had said he would, the next day; and the prince agreed to this,
+thinking no punishment could be too severe for the naughty lady, who
+talked with a man from her window the very night before she was going to
+be married to the noble Claudio.</p>
+
+<p>The next day, when they were all met to celebrate the marriage, and
+Claudio and Hero were standing before the priest, and the priest, or
+friar, as he was called, was proceeding to pronounce the marriage
+ceremony, Claudio, in the most passionate language, proclaimed the guilt
+of the blameless Hero, who, amazed at the strange words he uttered, said
+meekly, "Is my lord well, that he does speak so wide?"</p>
+
+<p>Leonato, in the utmost horror, said to the prince, "My lord, why speak
+not you?" "What should I speak?" said the prince; "I stand dishonoured,
+that have gone about to link my dear friend to an unworthy woman.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>
+Leonato, upon my honour, myself, my brother, and this grieved Claudio,
+did see and hear her last night at midnight talk with a man at her
+chamber window."</p>
+
+<p>Benedick, in astonishment at what he heard, said, "This looks not like a
+nuptial."</p>
+
+<p>"True, O God!" replied the heart-struck Hero; and then this hapless lady
+sunk down in a fainting fit, to all appearance dead. The prince and
+Claudio left the church, without staying to see if Hero would recover,
+or at all regarding the distress into which they had thrown Leonato. So
+hard-hearted had their anger made them.</p>
+
+<p>Benedick remained, and assisted Beatrice to recover Hero from her swoon,
+saying, "How does the lady?" "Dead, I think," replied Beatrice in great
+agony, for she loved her cousin; and knowing her virtuous principles,
+she believed nothing of what she had heard spoken against her. Not so
+the poor old father; he believed the story of his child's shame, and it
+was piteous to hear him lamenting over her, as she lay like one dead
+before him, wishing she might never more open her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>But the ancient friar was a wise man, and full of observation on human
+nature, and he had attentively marked the lady's countenance when she
+heard herself accused, and noted a thousand blushing shames to start
+into her face, and then he saw an angel-like whiteness bear away those
+blushes, and in her eye he saw a fire that did belie the error that the
+prince did speak against her maiden truth, and he said to the sorrowing
+father, "Call me a fool; trust not my reading, nor my observation; trust
+not my age, my reverence, nor my calling, if this sweet lady lie not
+guiltless here under some biting error."</p>
+
+<p>When Hero had recovered from the swoon into which she had fallen, the
+friar said to her, "Lady, what man is he you are accused of?" Hero
+replied, "They know that do accuse me; I know of none:" then turning to
+Leonato, she said, "O my father, if you can prove that any man has ever<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>
+conversed with me at hours unmeet, or that I yesternight changed words
+with any creature, refuse me, hate me, torture me to death."</p>
+
+<p>"There is," said the friar, "some strange misunderstanding in the prince
+and Claudio;" and then he counselled Leonato, that he should report that
+Hero was dead; and he said that the death-like swoon in which they had
+left Hero would make this easy of belief; and he also advised him that
+he should put on mourning, and erect a monument for her, and do all
+rites that appertain to a burial. "What shall become of this?" said
+Leonato; "What will this do?" The friar replied, "This report of her
+death shall change slander into pity: that is some good; but that is not
+all the good I hope for. When Claudio shall hear she died upon hearing
+his words, the idea of her life shall sweetly creep into his
+imagination. Then shall he mourn, if ever love had interest in his
+heart, and wish that he had not so accused her; yea, though he thought
+his accusation true."</p>
+
+<p>Benedick now said, "Leonato, let the friar advise you; and though you
+know how well I love the prince and Claudio, yet on my honour I will not
+reveal this secret to them."</p>
+
+<p>Leonato, thus persuaded, yielded; and he said sorrowfully, "I am so
+grieved, that the smallest twine may lead me." The kind friar then led
+Leonato and Hero away to comfort and console them, and Beatrice and
+Benedick remained alone; and this was the meeting from which their
+friends, who contrived the merry plot against them, expected so much
+diversion; those friends who were now overwhelmed with affliction, and
+from whose minds all thoughts of merriment seemed for ever banished.</p>
+
+<p>Benedick was the first who spoke, and he said, "Lady Beatrice, have you
+wept all this while?" "Yea, and I will weep a while longer," said
+Beatrice. "Surely," said Benedick, "I do believe your fair cousin is
+wronged."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> "Ah!" said Beatrice, "how much might that man deserve of me
+who would right her!" Benedick then said, "Is there any way to show such
+friendship? I do love nothing in the world so well as you: is not that
+strange?" "It were as possible," said Beatrice, "for me to say I loved
+nothing in the world so well as you; but believe me not, and yet I lie
+not. I confess nothing, nor I deny nothing. I am sorry for my cousin."
+"By my sword," said Benedick, "you love me, and I protest I love you.
+Come, bid me do anything for you." "Kill Claudio," said Beatrice. "Ha!
+not for the wide world," said Benedick; for he loved his friend Claudio,
+and he believed he had been imposed upon. "Is not Claudio a villain,
+that has slandered, scorned, and dishonoured my cousin?" said Beatrice:
+"O that I were a man!" "Hear me, Beatrice!" said Benedick. But Beatrice
+would hear nothing in Claudio's defence; and she continued to urge on
+Benedick to revenge her cousin's wrongs: and she said, "Talk with a man
+out of the window; a proper saying! Sweet Hero! she is wronged; she is
+slandered; she is undone. O that I were a man for Claudio's sake! or
+that I had any friend, who would be a man for my sake! but valour is
+melted into courtesies and compliments. I cannot be a man with wishing,
+therefore I will die a woman with grieving." "Tarry, good Beatrice,"
+said Benedick: "by this hand I love you." "Use it for my love some other
+way than swearing by it," said Beatrice. "Think you on your soul that
+Claudio has wronged Hero?" asked Benedick. "Yea," answered Beatrice; "as
+sure as I have a thought, or a soul." "Enough," said Benedick; "I am
+engaged; I will challenge him. I will kiss your hand, and so leave you.
+By this hand, Claudio shall render me a dear account! As you hear from
+me, so think of me. Go, comfort your cousin."</p>
+
+<p>While Beatrice was thus powerfully pleading with Benedick, and working
+his gallant temper by the spirit of her angry words, to engage in the
+cause of Hero, and fight<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> even with his dear friend Claudio, Leonato was
+challenging the prince and Claudio to answer with their swords the
+injury they had done his child, who, he affirmed, had died for grief.
+But they respected his age and his sorrow, and they said, "Nay, do not
+quarrel with us, good old man." And now came Benedick, and he also
+challenged Claudio to answer with his sword the injury he had done to
+Hero; and Claudio and the prince said to each other, "Beatrice has set
+him on to do this." Claudio nevertheless must have accepted this
+challenge of Benedick, had not the justice of Heaven at the moment
+brought to pass a better proof of the innocence of Hero than the
+uncertain fortune of a duel.</p>
+
+<p>While the prince and Claudio were yet talking of the challenge of
+Benedick, a magistrate brought Borachio as a prisoner before the prince.
+Borachio had been overheard talking with one of his companions of the
+mischief he had been employed by Don John to do.</p>
+
+<p>Borachio made a full confession to the prince in Claudio's hearing, that
+it was Margaret dressed in her lady's clothes that he had talked with
+from the window, whom they had mistaken for the lady Hero herself; and
+no doubt continued on the minds of Claudio and the prince of the
+innocence of Hero. If a suspicion had remained it must have been removed
+by the flight of Don John, who, finding his villanies were detected,
+fled from Messina to avoid the just anger of his brother.</p>
+
+<p>The heart of Claudio was sorely grieved when he found he had falsely
+accused Hero, who, he thought, died upon hearing his cruel words; and
+the memory of his beloved Hero's image came over him, in the rare
+semblance that he loved it first; and the prince asking him if what he
+heard did not run like iron through his soul, he answered, that he felt
+as if he had taken poison while Borachio was speaking.</p>
+
+<p>And the repentant Claudio implored forgiveness of the old man Leonato
+for the injury he had done his child; and promised, that whatever
+penance Leonato would lay upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> him for his fault in believing the false
+accusation against his betrothed wife, for her dear sake he would endure
+it.</p>
+
+<p>The penance Leonato enjoined him was, to marry the next morning a cousin
+of Hero's, who, he said, was now his heir, and in person very like Hero.
+Claudio, regarding the solemn promise he made to Leonato, said, he would
+marry this unknown lady, even though she were an Ethiop: but his heart
+was very sorrowful, and he passed that night in tears, and in remorseful
+grief, at the tomb which Leonato had erected for Hero.</p>
+
+<p>When the morning came, the prince accompanied Claudio to the church,
+where the good friar, and Leonato and his niece, were already assembled,
+to celebrate a second nuptial; and Leonato presented to Claudio his
+promised bride; and she wore a mask, that Claudio might not discover her
+face. And Claudio said to the lady in the mask, "Give me your hand,
+before this holy friar; I am your husband, if you will marry me." "And
+when I lived I was your other wife," said this unknown lady; and, taking
+off her mask, she proved to be no niece (as was pretended), but
+Leonato's very daughter, the Lady Hero herself. We may be sure that this
+proved a most agreeable surprise to Claudio, who thought her dead, so
+that he could scarcely for joy believe his eyes; and the prince, who was
+equally amazed at what he saw, exclaimed, "Is not this Hero, Hero that
+was dead?" Leonato replied, "She died, my lord, but while her slander
+lived." The friar promised them an explanation of this seeming miracle,
+after the ceremony was ended; and was proceeding to marry them, when he
+was interrupted by Benedick, who desired to be married at the same time
+to Beatrice. Beatrice making some demur to this match, and Benedick
+challenging her with her love for him, which he had learned from Hero, a
+pleasant explanation took place; and they found they had both been
+tricked into a belief of love, which had never existed, and had become
+lovers in truth by the power of a false jest: but the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> affection, which
+a merry invention had cheated them into, was grown too powerful to be
+shaken by a serious explanation; and since Benedick proposed to marry,
+he was resolved to think nothing to the purpose that the world could say
+against it; and he merrily kept up the jest, and swore to Beatrice, that
+he took her but for pity, and because he heard she was dying of love for
+him; and Beatrice protested, that she yielded but upon great persuasion,
+and partly to save his life, for she heard he was in a consumption. So
+these two mad wits were reconciled, and made a match of it, after
+Claudio and Hero were married; and to complete the history, Don John,
+the contriver of the villany, was taken in his flight, and brought back
+to Messina; and a brave punishment it was to this gloomy, discontented
+man, to see the joy and feastings which, by the disappointment of his
+plots, took place in the palace in Messina.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img06.jpg"  alt="Chapter endpiece" title="" /></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img07.jpg"  width="600" height="490" alt="AS YOU LIKE IT" title="" /></div>
+
+
+<p>During the time that France was divided into provinces (or dukedoms as
+they were called) there reigned in one of these provinces an usurper,
+who had deposed and banished his elder brother, the lawful duke.</p>
+
+<p>The duke, who was thus driven from his dominions, retired with a few
+faithful followers to the forest of Arden; and here the good duke lived
+with his loving friends, who had put themselves into a voluntary exile
+for his sake, while their land and revenues enriched the false usurper;
+and custom soon made the life of careless ease they led here more sweet
+to them than the pomp and uneasy splendour of a courtier's life. Here
+they lived like the old Robin Hood of England, and to this forest many
+noble youths daily resorted from the court, and did fleet the time
+carelessly, as they did who lived in the golden age. In the summer they
+lay along under the fine shade of the large forest trees, marking the
+playful sports of the wild deer; and so fond were they of these poor
+dappled fools, who seemed to be the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> native inhabitants of the forest,
+that it grieved them to be forced to kill them to supply themselves with
+venison for their food. When the cold winds of winter made the duke feel
+the change of his adverse fortune, he would endure it patiently, and
+say, "These chilling winds which blow upon my body are true counsellors;
+they do not flatter, but represent truly to me my condition; and though
+they bite sharply, their tooth is nothing like so keen as that of
+unkindness and ingratitude. I find that howsoever men speak against
+adversity, yet some sweet uses are to be extracted from it; like the
+jewel, precious for medicine, which is taken from the head of the
+venomous and despised toad." In this manner did the patient duke draw a
+useful moral from everything that he saw; and by the help of this
+moralising turn, in that life of his, remote from public haunts, he
+could find tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in
+stones, and good in everything.</p>
+
+<p>The banished duke had an only daughter, named Rosalind, whom the
+usurper, Duke Frederick, when he banished her father, still retained in
+his court as a companion for his own daughter Celia. A strict friendship
+subsisted between these ladies, which the disagreement between their
+fathers did not in the least interrupt, Celia striving by every kindness
+in her power to make amends to Rosalind for the injustice of her own
+father in deposing the father of Rosalind; and whenever the thoughts of
+her father's banishment, and her own dependence on the false usurper,
+made Rosalind melancholy, Celia's whole care was to comfort and console
+her.</p>
+
+<p>One day, when Celia was talking in her usual kind manner to Rosalind,
+saying, "I pray you, Rosalind, my sweet cousin, be merry," a messenger
+entered from the duke, to tell them that if they wished to see a
+wrestling match, which was just going to begin, they must come instantly
+to the court before the palace; and Celia, thinking it would amuse
+Rosalind, agreed to go and see it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In those times wrestling, which is only practised now by country clowns,
+was a favourite sport even in the courts of princes, and before fair
+ladies and princesses. To this wrestling match, therefore, Celia and
+Rosalind went. They found that it was likely to prove a very tragical
+sight; for a large and powerful man, who had been long practised in the
+art of wrestling, and had slain many men in contests of this kind, was
+just going to wrestle with a very young man, who, from his extreme youth
+and inexperience in the art, the beholders all thought would certainly
+be killed.</p>
+
+<p>When the duke saw Celia and Rosalind, he said, "How now, daughter and
+niece, are you crept hither to see the wrestling? You will take little
+delight in it, there is such odds in the men: in pity to this young man,
+I would wish to persuade him from wrestling. Speak to him, ladies, and
+see if you can move him."</p>
+
+<p>The ladies were well pleased to perform this humane office, and first
+Celia entreated the young stranger that he would desist from the
+attempt; and then Rosalind spoke so kindly to him, and with such feeling
+consideration for the danger he was about to undergo, that instead of
+being persuaded by her gentle words to forego his purpose, all his
+thoughts were bent to distinguish himself by his courage in this lovely
+lady's eyes. He refused the request of Celia and Rosalind in such
+graceful and modest words, that they felt still more concern for him; he
+concluded his refusal with saying, "I am sorry to deny such fair and
+excellent ladies anything. But let your fair eyes and gentle wishes go
+with me to my trial, wherein if I be conquered there is one shamed that
+was never gracious; if I am killed, there is one dead that is willing to
+die; I shall do my friends no wrong, for I have none to lament me; the
+world no injury, for in it I have nothing; for I only fill up a place in
+the world which may be better supplied when I have made it empty."</p>
+
+<p>And now the wrestling match began. Celia wished the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> young stranger
+might not be hurt; but Rosalind felt most for him. The friendless state
+which he said he was in, and that he wished to die, made Rosalind think
+that he was like herself, unfortunate; and she pitied him so much, and
+so deep an interest she took in his danger while he was wrestling, that
+she might almost be said at that moment to have fallen in love with him.</p>
+
+<p>The kindness shown this unknown youth by these fair and noble ladies
+gave him courage and strength, so that he performed wonders; and in the
+end completely conquered his antagonist, who was so much hurt, that for
+a while he was unable to speak or move.</p>
+
+<p>The Duke Frederick was much pleased with the courage and skill shown by
+this young stranger; and desired to know his name and parentage, meaning
+to take him under his protection.</p>
+
+<p>The stranger said his name was Orlando, and that he was the youngest son
+of Sir Rowland de Boys.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Rowland de Boys, the father of Orlando, had been dead some years;
+but when he was living, he had been a true subject and dear friend of
+the banished duke: therefore, when Frederick heard Orlando was the son
+of his banished brother's friend, all his liking for this brave young
+man was changed into displeasure, and he left the place in very ill
+humour. Hating to hear the very name of any of his brother's friends,
+and yet still admiring the valour of the youth, he said, as he went out,
+that he wished Orlando had been the son of any other man.</p>
+
+<p>Rosalind was delighted to hear that her new favourite was the son of her
+father's old friend; and she said to Celia, "My father loved Sir Rowland
+de Boys, and if I had known this young man was his son, I would have
+added tears to my entreaties before he should have ventured."</p>
+
+<p>The ladies then went up to him; and seeing him abashed by the sudden
+displeasure shown by the duke, they spoke kind and encouraging words to
+him; and Rosalind, when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> they were going away, turned back to speak some
+more civil things to the brave young son of her father's old friend; and
+taking a chain from off her neck, she said, "Gentleman, wear this for
+me. I am out of suits with fortune, or I would give you a more valuable
+present."</p>
+
+<p>When the ladies were alone, Rosalind's talk being still of Orlando,
+Celia began to perceive her cousin had fallen in love with the handsome
+young wrestler, and she said to Rosalind, "Is it possible you should
+fall in love so suddenly?" Rosalind replied, "The duke, my father, loved
+his father dearly." "But," said Celia, "does it therefore follow that
+you should love his son dearly? for then I ought to hate him, for my
+father hated his father; yet I do not hate Orlando."</p>
+
+<p>Frederick being enraged at the sight of Sir Rowland de Boys' son, which
+reminded him of the many friends the banished duke had among the
+nobility, and having been for some time displeased with his niece,
+because the people praised her for her virtues, and pitied her for her
+good father's sake, his malice suddenly broke out against her; and while
+Celia and Rosalind were talking of Orlando, Frederick entered the room,
+and with looks full of anger ordered Rosalind instantly to leave the
+palace, and follow her father into banishment; telling Celia, who in
+vain pleaded for her, that he had only suffered Rosalind to stay upon
+her account. "I did not then," said Celia, "entreat you to let her stay,
+for I was too young at that time to value her; but now that I know her
+worth, and that we so long have slept together, rose at the same
+instant, learned, played, and eat together, I cannot live out of her
+company." Frederick replied, "She is too subtle for you; her smoothness,
+her very silence, and her patience speak to the people, and they pity
+her. You are a fool to plead for her, for you will seem more bright and
+virtuous when she is gone; therefore open not your lips in her favour,
+for the doom which I have passed upon her is irrevocable."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>When Celia found she could not prevail upon her father to let Rosalind
+remain with her, she generously resolved to accompany her; and leaving
+her father's palace that night, she went along with her friend to seek
+Rosalind's father, the banished duke, in the forest of Arden.</p>
+
+<p>Before they set out, Celia considered that it would be unsafe for two
+young ladies to travel in the rich clothes they then wore; she therefore
+proposed that they should disguise their rank by dressing themselves
+like country maids. Rosalind said it would be a still greater protection
+if one of them was to be dressed like a man; and so it was quickly
+agreed on between them, that as Rosalind was the tallest, she should
+wear the dress of a young countryman, and Celia should be habited like a
+country lass, and that they should say they were brother and sister, and
+Rosalind said she would be called Ganymede, and Celia chose the name of
+Aliena.</p>
+
+<p><a name="GANYMEDE" id="GANYMEDE"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter">
+             <a href="images/img005.jpg"><img
+             src="images/img005-tb.jpg" width="290" height="500"
+             alt="GANYMEDE ASSUMED THE FORWARD MANNERS" /></a><br />
+         <b>GANYMEDE ASSUMED THE FORWARD MANNERS<br />OFTEN SEEN IN YOUTHS
+WHEN THEY ARE BETWEEN BOYS AND MEN</b>
+    </div>
+
+
+
+<p>In this disguise, and taking their money and jewels to defray their
+expenses, these fair princesses set out on their long travel; for the
+forest of Arden was a long way off, beyond the boundaries of the duke's
+dominions.</p>
+
+<p>The Lady Rosalind (or Ganymede as she must now be called) with her manly
+garb seemed to have put on a manly courage. The faithful friendship
+Celia had shown in accompanying Rosalind so many weary miles, made the
+new brother, in recompense for this true love, exert a cheerful spirit,
+as if he were indeed Ganymede, the rustic and stout-hearted brother of
+the gentle village maiden, Aliena.</p>
+
+<p>When at last they came to the forest of Arden, they no longer found the
+convenient inns and good accommodations they had met with on the road;
+and being in want of food and rest, Ganymede, who had so merrily cheered
+his sister with pleasant speeches and happy remarks all the way, now
+owned to Aliena that he was so weary, he could find in his heart to
+disgrace his man's apparel, and cry like a woman; and Aliena declared
+she could go no farther; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> then again Ganymede tried to recollect
+that it was a man's duty to comfort and console a woman, as the weaker
+vessel; and to seem courageous to his new sister, he said, "Come, have a
+good heart, my sister Aliena; we are now at the end of our travel, in
+the forest of Arden." But feigned manliness and forced courage would no
+longer support them; for though they were in the forest of Arden, they
+knew not where to find the duke: and here the travel of these weary
+ladies might have come to a sad conclusion, for they might have lost
+themselves, and perished for want of food; but providentially, as they
+were sitting on the grass, almost dying with fatigue and hopeless of any
+relief, a countryman chanced to pass that way, and Ganymede once more
+tried to speak with a manly boldness, saying, "Shepherd, if love or gold
+can in this desert place procure us entertainment, I pray you bring us
+where we may rest ourselves; for this young maid, my sister, is much
+fatigued with travelling, and faints for want of food."</p>
+
+<p>The man replied that he was only a servant to a shepherd, and that his
+master's house was just going to be sold, and therefore they would find
+but poor entertainment; but that if they would go with him, they should
+be welcome to what there was. They followed the man, the near prospect
+of relief giving them fresh strength; and bought the house and sheep of
+the shepherd, and took the man who conducted them to the shepherd's
+house to wait on them; and being by this means so fortunately provided
+with a neat cottage, and well supplied with provisions, they agreed to
+stay here till they could learn in what part of the forest the duke
+dwelt.</p>
+
+<p>When they were rested after the fatigue of their journey, they began to
+like their new way of life, and almost fancied themselves the shepherd
+and shepherdess they feigned to be; yet sometimes Ganymede remembered he
+had once been the same Lady Rosalind who had so dearly loved the brave
+Orlando, because he was the son of old Sir Rowland,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> her father's
+friend; and though Ganymede thought that Orlando was many miles distant,
+even so many weary miles as they had travelled, yet it soon appeared
+that Orlando was also in the forest of Arden: and in this manner this
+strange event came to pass.</p>
+
+<p>Orlando was the youngest son of Sir Rowland de Boys, who, when he died,
+left him (Orlando being then very young) to the care of his eldest
+brother Oliver, charging Oliver on his blessing to give his brother a
+good education, and provide for him as became the dignity of their
+ancient house. Oliver proved an unworthy brother; and disregarding the
+commands of his dying father, he never put his brother to school, but
+kept him at home untaught and entirely neglected. But in his nature and
+in the noble qualities of his mind Orlando so much resembled his
+excellent father, that without any advantages of education he seemed
+like a youth who had been bred with the utmost care; and Oliver so
+envied the fine person and dignified manners of his untutored brother,
+that at last he wished to destroy him; and to effect this he set on
+people to persuade him to wrestle with the famous wrestler, who, as has
+been before related, had killed so many men. Now, it was this cruel
+brother's neglect of him which made Orlando say he wished to die, being
+so friendless.</p>
+
+<p>When, contrary to the wicked hopes he had formed, his brother proved
+victorious, his envy and malice knew no bounds, and he swore he would
+burn the chamber where Orlando slept. He was overheard making this vow
+by one that had been an old and faithful servant to their father, and
+that loved Orlando because he resembled Sir Rowland. This old man went
+out to meet him when he returned from the duke's palace, and when he saw
+Orlando, the peril his dear young master was in made him break out into
+these passionate exclamations: "O my gentle master, my sweet master, O
+you memory of old Sir Rowland! why are you virtuous? why are you gentle,
+strong, and valiant? and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> why would you be so fond to overcome the
+famous wrestler? Your praise is come too swiftly home before you."
+Orlando, wondering what all this meant, asked him what was the matter.
+And then the old man told him how his wicked brother, envying the love
+all people bore him, and now hearing the fame he had gained by his
+victory in the duke's palace, intended to destroy him, by setting fire
+to his chamber that night; and in conclusion, advised him to escape the
+danger he was in by instant flight; and knowing Orlando had no money,
+Adam (for that was the good old man's name) had brought out with him his
+own little hoard, and he said, "I have five hundred crowns, the thrifty
+hire I saved under your father, and laid by to be provision for me when
+my old limbs should become unfit for service; take that, and he that
+doth the ravens feed be comfort to my age! Here is the gold; all this I
+give to you: let me be your servant; though I look old I will do the
+service of a younger man in all your business and necessities." "O good
+old man!" said Orlando, "how well appears in you the constant service of
+the old world! You are not for the fashion of these times. We will go
+along together, and before your youthful wages are spent, I shall light
+upon some means for both our maintenance."</p>
+
+<p>Together then this faithful servant and his loved master set out; and
+Orlando and Adam travelled on, uncertain what course to pursue, till
+they came to the forest of Arden, and there they found themselves in the
+same distress for want of food that Ganymede and Aliena had been. They
+wandered on, seeking some human habitation, till they were almost spent
+with hunger and fatigue. Adam at last said, "O my dear master, I die for
+want of food, I can go no farther!" He then laid himself down, thinking
+to make that place his grave, and bade his dear master farewell.
+Orlando, seeing him in this weak state, took his old servant up in his
+arms, and carried him under the shelter of some pleasant trees; and he
+said to him, "Cheerly, old Adam,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> rest your weary limbs here awhile, and
+do not talk of dying!"</p>
+
+<p>Orlando then searched about to find some food, and he happened to arrive
+at that part of the forest where the duke was; and he and his friends
+were just going to eat their dinner, this royal duke being seated on the
+grass, under no other canopy than the shady covert of some large trees.</p>
+
+<p>Orlando, whom hunger had made desperate, drew his sword, intending to
+take their meat by force, and said, "Forbear and eat no more; I must
+have your food!" The duke asked him, if distress had made him so bold,
+or if he were a rude despiser of good manners? On this Orlando said, he
+was dying with hunger; and then the duke told him he was welcome to sit
+down and eat with them. Orlando hearing him speak so gently, put up his
+sword, and blushed with shame at the rude manner in which he had
+demanded their food. "Pardon me, I pray you," said he: "I thought that
+all things had been savage here, and therefore I put on the countenance
+of stern command; but whatever men you are, that in this desert, under
+the shade of melancholy boughs, lose and neglect the creeping hours of
+time; if ever you have looked on better days; if ever you have been
+where bells have knolled to church; if you have ever sat at any good
+man's feast; if ever from your eyelids you have wiped a tear, and know
+what it is to pity or be pitied, may gentle speeches now move you to do
+me human courtesy!" The duke replied, "True it is that we are men (as
+you say) who have seen better days, and though we have now our
+habitation in this wild forest, we have lived in towns and cities, and
+have with holy bell been knolled to church, have sat at good men's
+feasts, and from our eyes have wiped the drops which sacred pity has
+engendered; therefore sit you down, and take of our refreshment as much
+as will minister to your wants." "There is an old poor man," answered
+Orlando, "who has limped after me many a weary step in pure love,
+oppressed at once<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> with two sad infirmities, age and hunger; till he be
+satisfied, I must not touch a bit." "Go, find him out, and bring him
+hither," said the duke; "we will forbear to eat till you return." Then
+Orlando went like a doe to find its fawn and give it food; and presently
+returned, bringing Adam in his arms; and the duke said, "Set down your
+venerable burthen; you are both welcome:" and they fed the old man, and
+cheered his heart, and he revived, and recovered his health and strength
+again.</p>
+
+<p>The duke inquired who Orlando was; and when he found that he was the son
+of his old friend, Sir Rowland de Boys, he took him under his
+protection, and Orlando and his old servant lived with the duke in the
+forest.</p>
+
+<p>Orlando arrived in the forest not many days after Ganymede and Aliena
+came there, and (as has been before related) bought the shepherd's
+cottage.</p>
+
+<p>Ganymede and Aliena were strangely surprised to find the name of
+Rosalind carved on the trees, and love-sonnets, fastened to them, all
+addressed to Rosalind; and while they were wondering how this could be,
+they met Orlando, and they perceived the chain which Rosalind had given
+him about his neck.</p>
+
+<p>Orlando little thought that Ganymede was the fair Princess Rosalind,
+who, by her noble condescension and favour, had so won his heart that he
+passed his whole time in carving her name upon the trees, and writing
+sonnets in praise of her beauty: but being much pleased with the
+graceful air of this pretty shepherd-youth, he entered into conversation
+with him, and he thought he saw a likeness in Ganymede to his beloved
+Rosalind, but that he had none of the dignified deportment of that noble
+lady; for Ganymede assumed the forward manners often seen in youths when
+they are between boys and men, and with much archness and humour talked
+to Orlando of a certain lover, "who," said he, "haunts our forest, and
+spoils our young trees with carving Rosalind upon their barks; and he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>
+hangs odes upon hawthorns, and elegies on brambles, all praising this
+same Rosalind. If I could find this lover, I would give him some good
+counsel that would soon cure him of his love."</p>
+
+<p>Orlando confessed that he was the fond lover of whom he spoke, and asked
+Ganymede to give him the good counsel he talked of. The remedy Ganymede
+proposed, and the counsel he gave him, was that Orlando should come
+every day to the cottage where he and his sister Aliena dwelt: "And
+then," said Ganymede, "I will feign myself to be Rosalind, and you shall
+feign to court me in the same manner as you would do if I was Rosalind,
+and then I will imitate the fantastic ways of whimsical ladies to their
+lovers, till I make you ashamed of your love; and this is the way I
+propose to cure you." Orlando had no great faith in the remedy, yet he
+agreed to come every day to Ganymede's cottage, and feign a playful
+courtship; and every day Orlando visited Ganymede and Aliena, and
+Orlando called the shepherd Ganymede his Rosalind, and every day talked
+over all the fine words and flattering compliments which young men
+delight to use when they court their mistresses. It does not appear,
+however, that Ganymede made any progress in curing Orlando of his love
+for Rosalind.</p>
+
+<p>Though Orlando thought all this was but a sportive play (not dreaming
+that Ganymede was his very Rosalind), yet the opportunity it gave him of
+saying all the fond things he had in his heart, pleased his fancy almost
+as well as it did Ganymede's, who enjoyed the secret jest in knowing
+these fine love-speeches were all addressed to the right person.</p>
+
+<p>In this manner many days passed pleasantly on with these young people;
+and the good-natured Aliena, seeing it made Ganymede happy, let him have
+his own way, and was diverted at the mock-courtship, and did not care to
+remind Ganymede that the Lady Rosalind had not yet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> made herself known
+to the duke her father, whose place of resort in the forest they had
+learnt from Orlando. Ganymede met the duke one day, and had some talk
+with him, and the duke asked of what parentage he came. Ganymede
+answered that he came of as good parentage as he did, which made the
+duke smile, for he did not suspect the pretty shepherd-boy came of royal
+lineage. Then seeing the duke look well and happy, Ganymede was content
+to put off all further explanation for a few days longer.</p>
+
+<p>One morning, as Orlando was going to visit Ganymede, he saw a man lying
+asleep on the ground, and a large green snake had twisted itself about
+his neck. The snake, seeing Orlando approach, glided away among the
+bushes. Orlando went nearer, and then he discovered a lioness lie
+crouching, with her head on the ground, with a cat-like watch, waiting
+until the sleeping man awaked (for it is said that lions will prey on
+nothing that is dead or sleeping). It seemed as if Orlando was sent by
+Providence to free the man from the danger of the snake and lioness; but
+when Orlando looked in the man's face, he perceived that the sleeper who
+was exposed to this double peril, was his own brother Oliver, who had so
+cruelly used him, and had threatened to destroy him by fire; and he was
+almost tempted to leave him a prey to the hungry lioness; but brotherly
+affection and the gentleness of his nature soon overcame his first anger
+against his brother; and he drew his sword, and attacked the lioness,
+and slew her, and thus preserved his brother's life both from the
+venomous snake and from the furious lioness; but before Orlando could
+conquer the lioness, she had torn one of his arms with her sharp claws.</p>
+
+<p>While Orlando was engaged with the lioness, Oliver awaked, and
+perceiving that his brother Orlando, whom he had so cruelly treated, was
+saving him from the fury of a wild beast at the risk of his own life,
+shame and remorse at once seized him, and he repented of his unworthy
+conduct,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> and besought with many tears his brother's pardon for the
+injuries he had done him. Orlando rejoiced to see him so penitent, and
+readily forgave him: they embraced each other; and from that hour Oliver
+loved Orlando with a true brotherly affection, though he had come to the
+forest bent on his destruction.</p>
+
+<p>The wound in Orlando's arm having bled very much, he found himself too
+weak to go to visit Ganymede, and therefore he desired his brother to go
+and tell Ganymede, "whom," said Orlando, "I in sport do call my
+Rosalind," the accident which had befallen him.</p>
+
+<p>Thither then Oliver went, and told to Ganymede and Aliena how Orlando
+had saved his life: and when he had finished the story of Orlando's
+bravery, and his own providential escape, he owned to them that he was
+Orlando's brother, who had so cruelly used him; and then he told them of
+their reconciliation.</p>
+
+<p>The sincere sorrow that Oliver expressed for his offences made such a
+lively impression on the kind heart of Aliena, that she instantly fell
+in love with him; and Oliver observing how much she pitied the distress
+he told her he felt for his fault, he as suddenly fell in love with her.
+But while love was thus stealing into the hearts of Aliena and Oliver,
+he was no less busy with Ganymede, who hearing of the danger Orlando had
+been in, and that he was wounded by the lioness, fainted; and when he
+recovered, he pretended that he had counterfeited the swoon in the
+imaginary character of Rosalind, and Ganymede said to Oliver, "Tell your
+brother Orlando how well I counterfeited a swoon." But Oliver saw by the
+paleness of his complexion that he did really faint, and much wondering
+at the weakness of the young man, he said, "Well, if you did
+counterfeit, take a good heart, and counterfeit to be a man." "So I do,"
+replied Ganymede, truly, "but I should have been a woman by right."</p>
+
+<p>Oliver made this visit a very long one, and when at last<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> he returned
+back to his brother, he had much news to tell him; for besides the
+account of Ganymede's fainting at the hearing that Orlando was wounded,
+Oliver told him how he had fallen in love with the fair shepherdess
+Aliena, and that she had lent a favourable ear to his suit, even in this
+their first interview; and he talked to his brother, as of a thing
+almost settled, that he should marry Aliena, saying, that he so well
+loved her, that he would live here as a shepherd, and settle his estate
+and house at home upon Orlando.</p>
+
+<p>"You have my consent," said Orlando. "Let your wedding be to-morrow, and
+I will invite the duke and his friends. Go and persuade your shepherdess
+to agree to this: she is now alone; for look, here comes her brother."
+Oliver went to Aliena; and Ganymede, whom Orlando had perceived
+approaching, came to inquire after the health of his wounded friend.</p>
+
+<p>When Orlando and Ganymede began to talk over the sudden love which had
+taken place between Oliver and Aliena, Orlando said he had advised his
+brother to persuade his fair shepherdess to be married on the morrow,
+and then he added how much he could wish to be married on the same day
+to his Rosalind.</p>
+
+<p>Ganymede, who well approved of this arrangement, said that if Orlando
+really loved Rosalind as well as he professed to do, he should have his
+wish; for on the morrow he would engage to make Rosalind appear in her
+own person, and also that Rosalind should be willing to marry Orlando.</p>
+
+<p>This seemingly wonderful event, which, as Ganymede was the Lady
+Rosalind, he could so easily perform, he pretended he would bring to
+pass by the aid of magic, which he said he had learnt of an uncle who
+was a famous magician.</p>
+
+<p>The fond lover Orlando, half believing and half doubting what he heard,
+asked Ganymede if he spoke in sober mean<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>ing. "By my life I do," said
+Ganymede; "therefore put on your best clothes, and bid the duke and your
+friends to your wedding; for if you desire to be married to-morrow to
+Rosalind, she shall be here."</p>
+
+<p>The next morning, Oliver having obtained the consent of Aliena, they
+came into the presence of the duke, and with them also came Orlando.</p>
+
+<p>They being all assembled to celebrate this double marriage, and as yet
+only one of the brides appearing, there was much of wondering and
+conjecture, but they mostly thought that Ganymede was making a jest of
+Orlando.</p>
+
+<p>The duke, hearing that it was his own daughter that was to be brought in
+this strange way, asked Orlando if he believed the shepherd-boy could
+really do what he had promised; and while Orlando was answering that he
+knew not what to think, Ganymede entered, and asked the duke, if he
+brought his daughter, whether he would consent to her marriage with
+Orlando. "That I would," said the duke, "if I had kingdoms to give with
+her." Ganymede then said to Orlando, "And you say you will marry her if
+I bring her here." "That I would," said Orlando, "if I were king of many
+kingdoms."</p>
+
+<p>Ganymede and Aliena then went out together, and Ganymede throwing off
+his male attire, and being once more dressed in woman's apparel, quickly
+became Rosalind without the power of magic; and Aliena changing her
+country garb for her own rich clothes, was with as little trouble
+transformed into the Lady Celia.</p>
+
+<p>While they were gone, the duke said to Orlando, that he thought the
+shepherd Ganymede very like his daughter Rosalind; and Orlando said, he
+also had observed the resemblance.</p>
+
+<p>They had no time to wonder how all this would end, for Rosalind and
+Celia in their own clothes entered; and no longer pretending that it was
+by the power of magic that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> she came there, Rosalind threw herself on
+her knees before her father, and begged his blessing. It seemed so
+wonderful to all present that she should so suddenly appear, that it
+might well have passed for magic; but Rosalind would no longer trifle
+with her father, and told him the story of her banishment, and of her
+dwelling in the forest as a shepherd-boy, her cousin Celia passing as
+her sister.</p>
+
+<p>The duke ratified the consent he had already given to the marriage; and
+Orlando and Rosalind, Oliver and Celia, were married at the same time.
+And though their wedding could not be celebrated in this wild forest
+with any of the parade or splendour usual on such occasions, yet a
+happier wedding-day was never passed: and while they were eating their
+venison under the cool shade of the pleasant trees, as if nothing should
+be wanting to complete the felicity of this good duke and the true
+lovers, an unexpected messenger arrived to tell the duke the joyful
+news, that his dukedom was restored to him.</p>
+
+<p>The usurper, enraged at the flight of his daughter Celia, and hearing
+that every day men of great worth resorted to the forest of Arden to
+join the lawful duke in his exile, much envying that his brother should
+be so highly respected in his adversity, put himself at the head of a
+large force, and advanced towards the forest, intending to seize his
+brother, and put him with all his faithful followers to the sword; but,
+by a wonderful interposition of Providence, this bad brother was
+converted from his evil intention; for just as he entered the skirts of
+the wild forest, he was met by an old religious man, a hermit, with whom
+he had much talk, and who in the end completely turned his heart from
+his wicked design. Thenceforward he became a true penitent, and
+resolved, relinquishing his unjust dominion, to spend the remainder of
+his days in a religious house. The first act of his newly-conceived
+penitence was to send a messenger to his brother (as has been related)
+to offer to restore to him his dukedom, which he had usurped so long,
+and with it the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> lands and revenues of his friends, the faithful
+followers of his adversity.</p>
+
+<p>This joyful news, as unexpected as it was welcome, came opportunely to
+heighten the festivity and rejoicings at the wedding of the princesses.
+Celia complimented her cousin on this good fortune which had happened to
+the duke, Rosalind's father, and wished her joy very sincerely, though
+she herself was no longer heir to the dukedom, but by this restoration
+which her father had made, Rosalind was now the heir: so completely was
+the love of these two cousins unmixed with anything of jealousy or of
+envy.</p>
+
+<p>The duke had now an opportunity of rewarding those true friends who had
+stayed with him in his banishment; and these worthy followers, though
+they had patiently shared his adverse fortune, were very well pleased to
+return in peace and prosperity to the palace of their lawful duke.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img08.jpg" alt="Chapter endpiece" title="" /></div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img09.jpg"  width="600" height="414" alt="THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA" title="" /></div>
+
+
+<p>There lived in the city of Verona two young gentlemen, whose names were
+Valentine and Proteus, between whom a firm and uninterrupted friendship
+had long subsisted. They pursued their studies together, and their hours
+of leisure were always passed in each other's company, except when
+Proteus visited a lady he was in love with; and these visits to his
+mistress, and this passion of Proteus for the fair Julia, were the only
+topics on which these two friends disagreed; for Valentine, not being
+himself a lover, was sometimes a little weary of hearing his friend for
+ever talking of his Julia, and then he would laugh at Proteus, and in
+pleasant terms ridicule the passion of love, and declare that no such
+idle fancies should ever enter his head, greatly preferring (as he said)
+the free and happy life he led, to the anxious hopes and fears of the
+lover Proteus.</p>
+
+<p>One morning Valentine came to Proteus to tell him that they must for a
+time be separated, for that he was going to Milan. Proteus, unwilling to
+part with his friend, used many arguments to prevail upon Valentine not
+to leave<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> him: but Valentine said, "Cease to persuade me, my loving
+Proteus. I will not, like a sluggard, wear out my youth in idleness at
+home. Home-keeping youths have ever homely wits. If your affection were
+not chained to the sweet glances of your honoured Julia, I would entreat
+you to accompany me, to see the wonders of the world abroad; but since
+you are a lover, love on still, and may your love be prosperous!"</p>
+
+<p>They parted with mutual expressions of unalterable friendship. "Sweet
+Valentine, adieu!" said Proteus; "think on me, when you see some rare
+object worthy of notice in your travels, and wish me partaker of your
+happiness."</p>
+
+<p>Valentine began his journey that same day towards Milan; and when his
+friend had left him, Proteus sat down to write a letter to Julia, which
+he gave to her maid Lucetta to deliver to her mistress.</p>
+
+<p>Julia loved Proteus as well as he did her, but she was a lady of a noble
+spirit, and she thought it did not become her maiden dignity too easily
+to be won; therefore she affected to be insensible of his passion, and
+gave him much uneasiness in the prosecution of his suit.</p>
+
+<p>And when Lucetta offered the letter to Julia, she would not receive it,
+and chid her maid for taking letters from Proteus, and ordered her to
+leave the room. But she so much wished to see what was written in the
+letter, that she soon called in her maid again; and when Lucetta
+returned, she said, "What o'clock is it?" Lucetta, who knew her mistress
+more desired to see the letter than to know the time of day, without
+answering her question, again offered the rejected letter. Julia, angry
+that her maid should thus take the liberty of seeming to know what she
+really wanted, tore the letter in pieces, and threw it on the floor,
+ordering her maid once more out of the room. As Lucetta was retiring,
+she stopped to pick up the fragments of the torn letter; but Julia, who
+meant not so to part with them,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> said, in pretended anger, "Go, get you
+gone, and let the papers lie; you would be fingering them to anger me."</p>
+
+<p>Julia then began to piece together as well as she could the torn
+fragments. She first made out these words, "Love-wounded Proteus;" and
+lamenting over these and such like loving words, which she made out
+though they were all torn asunder, or, she said <i>wounded</i> (the
+expression "Love-wounded Proteus" giving her that idea), she talked to
+these kind words, telling them she would lodge them in her bosom as in a
+bed, till their wounds were healed, and that she would kiss each several
+piece, to make amends.</p>
+
+<p>In this manner she went on talking with a pretty ladylike childishness,
+till finding herself unable to make out the whole, and vexed at her own
+ingratitude in destroying such sweet and loving words, as she called
+them, she wrote a much kinder letter to Proteus than she had ever done
+before.</p>
+
+<p>Proteus was greatly delighted at receiving this favourable answer to his
+letter; and while he was reading it, he exclaimed, "Sweet love, sweet
+lines, sweet life!" In the midst of his raptures he was interrupted by
+his father. "How now!" said the old gentleman; "what letter are you
+reading there?"</p>
+
+<p>"My lord," replied Proteus, "it is a letter from my friend Valentine, at
+Milan."</p>
+
+<p>"Lend me the letter," said his father: "let me see what news."</p>
+
+<p>"There are no news, my lord," said Proteus, greatly alarmed, "but that
+he writes how well beloved he is of the Duke of Milan, who daily graces
+him with favours; and how he wishes me with him, the partner of his
+fortune."</p>
+
+<p>"And how stand you affected to his wish?" asked the father.</p>
+
+<p>"As one relying on your lordship's will, and not depending on his
+friendly wish," said Proteus.</p>
+
+<p>Now it had happened that Proteus' father had just been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> talking with a
+friend on this very subject: his friend had said, he wondered his
+lordship suffered his son to spend his youth at home, while most men
+were sending their sons to seek preferment abroad; "some," said he, "to
+the wars, to try their fortunes there, and some to discover islands far
+away, and some to study in foreign universities; and there is his
+companion Valentine, he is gone to the Duke of Milan's court. Your son
+is fit for any of these things, and it will be a great disadvantage to
+him in his riper age not to have travelled in his youth."</p>
+
+<p>Proteus' father thought the advice of his friend was very good, and upon
+Proteus telling him that Valentine "wished him with him, the partner of
+his fortune," he at once determined to send his son to Milan; and
+without giving Proteus any reason for this sudden resolution, it being
+the usual habit of this positive old gentleman to command his son, not
+reason with him, he said, "My will is the same as Valentine's wish;" and
+seeing his son look astonished, he added, "Look not amazed, that I so
+suddenly resolve you shall spend some time in the Duke of Milan's court;
+for what I will I will, and there is an end. To-morrow be in readiness
+to go. Make no excuses; for I am peremptory."</p>
+
+<p>Proteus knew it was of no use to make objections to his father, who
+never suffered him to dispute his will; and he blamed himself for
+telling his father an untruth about Julia's letter, which had brought
+upon him the sad necessity of leaving her.</p>
+
+<p>Now that Julia found she was going to lose Proteus for so long a time,
+she no longer pretended indifference; and they bade each other a
+mournful farewell, with many vows of love and constancy. Proteus and
+Julia exchanged rings, which they both promised to keep for ever in
+remembrance of each other; and thus, taking a sorrowful leave, Proteus
+set out on his journey to Milan, the abode of his friend Valentine.</p>
+
+<p>Valentine was in reality what Proteus had feigned to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> his father, in
+high favour with the Duke of Milan; and another event had happened to
+him, of which Proteus did not even dream, for Valentine had given up the
+freedom of which he used so much to boast, and was become as passionate
+a lover as Proteus.</p>
+
+<p>She who had wrought this wondrous change in Valentine was the Lady
+Silvia, daughter of the Duke of Milan, and she also loved him; but they
+concealed their love from the duke, because although he showed much
+kindness for Valentine, and invited him every day to his palace, yet he
+designed to marry his daughter to a young courtier whose name was
+Thurio. Silvia despised this Thurio, for he had none of the fine sense
+and excellent qualities of Valentine.</p>
+
+<p>These two rivals, Thurio and Valentine, were one day on a visit to
+Silvia, and Valentine was entertaining Silvia with turning everything
+Thurio said into ridicule, when the duke himself entered the room, and
+told Valentine the welcome news of his friend Proteus' arrival.
+Valentine said, "If I had wished a thing, it would have been to have
+seen him here!" And then he highly praised Proteus to the duke, saying,
+"My lord, though I have been a truant of my time, yet hath my friend
+made use and fair advantage of his days, and is complete in person and
+in mind, in all good grace to grace a gentleman."</p>
+
+<p>"Welcome him then according to his worth," said the duke. "Silvia, I
+speak to you, and you, Sir Thurio; for Valentine, I need not bid him do
+so." They were here interrupted by the entrance of Proteus, and
+Valentine introduced him to Silvia, saying, "Sweet lady, entertain him
+to be my fellow-servant to your ladyship."</p>
+
+<p>When Valentine and Proteus had ended their visit, and were alone
+together, Valentine said, "Now tell me how all does from whence you
+came? How does your lady, and how thrives your love?" Proteus replied,
+"My tales of love used to weary you. I know you joy not in a love
+discourse."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Ay, Proteus," returned Valentine, "but that life is altered now. I have
+done penance for condemning love. For in revenge of my contempt of love,
+love has chased sleep from my enthralled eyes. O gentle Proteus, Love is
+a mighty lord, and hath so humbled me, that I confess there is no woe
+like his correction, nor no such joy on earth as in his service. I now
+like no discourse except it be of love. Now I can break my fast, dine,
+sup, and sleep, upon the very name of love."</p>
+
+<p>This acknowledgment of the change which love had made in the disposition
+of Valentine was a great triumph to his friend Proteus. But "friend"
+Proteus must be called no longer, for the same all-powerful deity Love,
+of whom they were speaking (yea, even while they were talking of the
+change he had made in Valentine), was working in the heart of Proteus;
+and he, who had till this time been a pattern of true love and perfect
+friendship, was now, in one short interview with Silvia, become a false
+friend and a faithless lover; for at the first sight of Silvia all his
+love for Julia vanished away like a dream, nor did his long friendship
+for Valentine deter him from endeavouring to supplant him in her
+affections; and although, as it will always be, when people of
+dispositions naturally good become unjust, he had many scruples before
+he determined to forsake Julia, and become the rival of Valentine; yet
+he at length overcame his sense of duty, and yielded himself up, almost
+without remorse, to his new unhappy passion.</p>
+
+<p>Valentine imparted to him in confidence the whole history of his love,
+and how carefully they had concealed it from the duke her father, and
+told him, that, despairing of ever being able to obtain his consent, he
+had prevailed upon Silvia to leave her father's palace that night, and
+go with him to Mantua; then he showed Proteus a ladder of ropes, by help
+of which he meant to assist Silvia to get out of one of the windows of
+the palace after it was dark.</p>
+
+<p>Upon hearing this faithful recital of his friend's dearest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> secrets, it
+is hardly possible to be believed, but so it was, that Proteus resolved
+to go to the duke, and disclose the whole to him.</p>
+
+<p>This false friend began his tale with many artful speeches to the duke,
+such as that by the laws of friendship he ought to conceal what he was
+going to reveal, but that the gracious favour the duke had shown him,
+and the duty he owed his grace, urged him to tell that which else no
+worldly good should draw from him. He then told all he had heard from
+Valentine, not omitting the ladder of ropes, and the manner in which
+Valentine meant to conceal them under a long cloak.</p>
+
+<p>The duke thought Proteus quite a miracle of integrity, in that he
+preferred telling his friend's intention rather than he would conceal an
+unjust action, highly commended him, and promised him not to let
+Valentine know from whom he had learnt this intelligence, but by some
+artifice to make Valentine betray the secret himself. For this purpose
+the duke awaited the coming of Valentine in the evening, whom he soon
+saw hurrying towards the palace, and he perceived somewhat was wrapped
+within his cloak, which he concluded was the rope-ladder.</p>
+
+<p>The duke upon this stopped him, saying, "Whither away so fast,
+Valentine?"&mdash;"May it please your grace," said Valentine, "there is a
+messenger that stays to bear my letters to my friends, and I am going to
+deliver them." Now this falsehood of Valentine's had no better success
+in the event than the untruth Proteus told his father.</p>
+
+<p>"Be they of much import?" said the duke.</p>
+
+<p>"No more, my lord," said Valentine, "than to tell my father I am well
+and happy at your grace's court."</p>
+
+<p>"Nay then," said the duke, "no matter; stay with me a while. I wish your
+counsel about some affairs that concern me nearly." He then told
+Valentine an artful story, as a prelude to draw his secret from him,
+saying that Valentine knew he wished to match his daughter with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> Thurio,
+but that she was stubborn and disobedient to his commands, "neither
+regarding," said he, "that she is my child, nor fearing me as if I were
+her father. And I may say to thee, this pride of hers has drawn my love
+from her. I had thought my age should have been cherished by her
+childlike duty. I now am resolved to take a wife, and turn her out to
+whosoever will take her in. Let her beauty be her wedding dower, for me
+and my possessions she esteems not."</p>
+
+<p>Valentine, wondering where all this would end, made answer, "And what
+would your grace have me to do in all this?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why," said the duke, "the lady I would wish to marry is nice and coy,
+and does not much esteem my aged eloquence. Besides, the fashion of
+courtship is much changed since I was young: now I would willingly have
+you to be my tutor to instruct me how I am to woo."</p>
+
+<p>Valentine gave him a general idea of the modes of courtship then
+practised by young men, when they wished to win a fair lady's love, such
+as presents, frequent visits, and the like.</p>
+
+<p>The duke replied to this, that the lady did refuse a present which he
+sent her, and that she was so strictly kept by her father, that no man
+might have access to her by day.</p>
+
+<p>"Why then," said Valentine, "you must visit her by night."</p>
+
+<p>"But at night," said the artful duke, who was now coming to the drift of
+his discourse, "her doors are fast locked."</p>
+
+<p>Valentine then unfortunately proposed that the duke should get into the
+lady's chamber at night by means of a ladder of ropes, saying he would
+procure him one fitting for that purpose; and in conclusion advised him
+to conceal this ladder of ropes under such a cloak as that which he now
+wore. "Lend me your cloak," said the duke, who had feigned this long
+story on purpose to have a pretence to get<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> off the cloak; so upon
+saying these words, he caught hold of Valentine's cloak, and throwing it
+back, he discovered not only the ladder of ropes, but also a letter of
+Silvia's, which he instantly opened and read; and this letter contained
+a full account of their intended elopement. The duke, after upbraiding
+Valentine for his ingratitude in thus returning the favour he had shown
+him, by endeavouring to steal away his daughter, banished him from the
+court and city of Milan for ever; and Valentine was forced to depart
+that night, without even seeing Silvia.</p>
+
+<p>While Proteus at Milan was thus injuring Valentine, Julia at Verona was
+regretting the absence of Proteus; and her regard for him at last so far
+overcame her sense of propriety, that she resolved to leave Verona, and
+seek her lover at Milan; and to secure herself from danger on the road,
+she dressed her maiden Lucetta and herself in men's clothes, and they
+set out in this disguise, and arrived at Milan soon after Valentine was
+banished from that city through the treachery of Proteus.</p>
+
+<p>Julia entered Milan about noon, and she took up her abode at an inn; and
+her thoughts being all on her dear Proteus, she entered into
+conversation with the innkeeper, or host, as he was called, thinking by
+that means to learn some news of Proteus.</p>
+
+<p>The host was greatly pleased that this handsome young gentleman (as he
+took her to be), who from his appearance he concluded was of high rank,
+spoke so familiarly to him; and being a good-natured man, he was sorry
+to see him look so melancholy; and to amuse his young guest, he offered
+to take him to hear some fine music, with which, he said, a gentleman
+that evening was going to serenade his mistress.</p>
+
+<p>The reason Julia looked so very melancholy was, that she did not well
+know what Proteus would think of the imprudent step she had taken; for
+she knew he had loved her for her noble maiden pride and dignity of
+character, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> she feared she should lower herself in his esteem: and
+this it was that made her wear a sad and thoughtful countenance.</p>
+
+<p>She gladly accepted the offer of the host to go with him, and hear the
+music; for she secretly hoped she might meet Proteus by the way.</p>
+
+<p>But when she came to the palace whither the host conducted her, a very
+different effect was produced to what the kind host intended; for there,
+to her heart's sorrow, she beheld her lover, the inconstant Proteus,
+serenading the Lady Silvia with music, and addressing discourse of love
+and admiration to her. And Julia overheard Silvia from a window talk
+with Proteus, and reproach him for forsaking his own true lady, and for
+his ingratitude to his friend Valentine; and then Silvia left the
+window, not choosing to listen to his music and his fine speeches; for
+she was a faithful lady to her banished Valentine, and abhorred the
+ungenerous conduct of his false friend Proteus.</p>
+
+<p>Though Julia was in despair at what she had just witnessed, yet did she
+still love the truant Proteus; and hearing that he had lately parted
+with a servant, she contrived with the assistance of her host, the
+friendly innkeeper, to hire herself to Proteus as a page; and Proteus
+knew not she was Julia, and he sent her with letters and presents to her
+rival Silvia, and he even sent by her the very ring she gave him as a
+parting gift at Verona.</p>
+
+<p>When she went to that lady with the ring, she was most glad to find that
+Silvia utterly rejected the suit of Proteus; and Julia, or the page
+Sebastian as she was called, entered into conversation with Silvia about
+Proteus' first love, the forsaken Lady Julia. She putting in (as one may
+say) a good word for herself, said she knew Julia; as well she might,
+being herself the Julia of whom she spoke; telling how fondly Julia
+loved her master Proteus, and how his unkind neglect would grieve her:
+and then she with a pretty equivocation went on: "Julia is about my
+height, and of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> my complexion, the colour of her eyes and hair the same
+as mine:" and indeed Julia looked a most beautiful youth in her boy's
+attire. Silvia was moved to pity this lovely lady, who was so sadly
+forsaken by the man she loved; and when Julia offered the ring which
+Proteus had sent, refused it, saying, "The more shame for him that he
+sends me that ring; I will not take it; for I have often heard him say
+his Julia gave it to him. I love thee, gentle youth, for pitying her,
+poor lady! Here is a purse; I give it you for Julia's sake." These
+comfortable words coming from her kind rival's tongue cheered the
+drooping heart of the disguised lady.</p>
+
+<p>But to return to the banished Valentine; who scarce knew which way to
+bend his course, being unwilling to return home to his father a
+disgraced and banished man: as he was wandering over a lonely forest,
+not far distant from Milan, where he had left his heart's dear treasure,
+the Lady Silvia, he was set upon by robbers, who demanded his money.</p>
+
+<p>Valentine told them that he was a man crossed by adversity, that he was
+going into banishment, and that he had no money, the clothes he had on
+being all his riches.</p>
+
+<p>The robbers, hearing that he was a distressed man, and being struck with
+his noble air and manly behaviour, told him if he would live with them,
+and be their chief, or captain, they would put themselves under his
+command; but that if he refused to accept their offer, they would kill
+him.</p>
+
+<p>Valentine, who cared little what became of himself, said he would
+consent to live with them and be their captain, provided they did no
+outrage on women or poor passengers.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the noble Valentine became, like Robin Hood, of whom we read in
+ballads, a captain of robbers and outlawed banditti; and in this
+situation he was found by Silvia, and in this manner it came to pass.</p>
+
+<p>Silvia, to avoid a marriage with Thurio, whom her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> father insisted upon
+her no longer refusing, came at last to the resolution of following
+Valentine to Mantua, at which place she had heard her lover had taken
+refuge; but in this account she was misinformed, for he still lived in
+the forest among the robbers, bearing the name of their captain, but
+taking no part in their depredations, and using the authority which they
+had imposed upon him in no other way than to compel them to show
+compassion to the travellers they robbed.</p>
+
+<p>Silvia contrived to effect her escape from her father's palace in
+company with a worthy old gentleman, whose name was Eglamour, whom she
+took along with her for protection on the road. She had to pass through
+the forest where Valentine and the banditti dwelt; and one of these
+robbers seized on Silvia, and would also have taken Eglamour, but he
+escaped.</p>
+
+<p>The robber who had taken Silvia, seeing the terror she was in, bid her
+not be alarmed, for that he was only going to carry her to a cave where
+his captain lived, and that she need not be afraid, for their captain
+had an honourable mind, and always showed humanity to women. Silvia
+found little comfort in hearing she was going to be carried as a
+prisoner before the captain of a lawless banditti. "O Valentine," she
+cried, "this I endure for thee!"</p>
+
+<p>But as the robber was conveying her to the cave of his captain, he was
+stopped by Proteus, who, still attended by Julia in the disguise of a
+page, having heard of the flight of Silvia, had traced her steps to this
+forest. Proteus now rescued her from the hands of the robber; but scarce
+had she time to thank him for the service he had done her, before he
+began to distress her afresh with his love suit; and while he was rudely
+pressing her to consent to marry him, and his page (the forlorn Julia)
+was standing beside him in great anxiety of mind, fearing lest the great
+service which Proteus had just done to Silvia should win her to show him
+some favour, they were all strangely surprised<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> with the sudden
+appearance of Valentine, who, having heard his robbers had taken a lady
+prisoner, came to console and relieve her.</p>
+
+<p>Proteus was courting Silvia, and he was so much ashamed of being caught
+by his friend, that he was all at once seized with penitence and
+remorse; and he expressed such a lively sorrow for the injuries he had
+done to Valentine, that Valentine, whose nature was noble and generous,
+even to a romantic degree, not only forgave and restored him to his
+former place in his friendship, but in a sudden flight of heroism he
+said, "I freely do forgive you; and all the interest I have in Silvia, I
+give it up to you." Julia, who was standing beside her master as a page,
+hearing this strange offer, and fearing Proteus would not be able with
+this new-found virtue to refuse Silvia, fainted, and they were all
+employed in recovering her: else would Silvia have been offended at
+being thus made over to Proteus, though she could scarcely think that
+Valentine would long persevere in this overstrained and too generous act
+of friendship. When Julia recovered from the fainting fit, she said, "I
+had forgot, my master ordered me to deliver this ring to Silvia."
+Proteus, looking upon the ring, saw that it was the one he gave to
+Julia, in return for that which he received from her, and which he had
+sent by the supposed page to Silvia. "How is this?" said he, "this is
+Julia's ring: how came you by it, boy?" Julia answered, "Julia herself
+did give it me, and Julia herself hath brought it hither."</p>
+
+<p>Proteus, now looking earnestly upon her, plainly perceived that the page
+Sebastian was no other than the Lady Julia herself; and the proof she
+had given of her constancy and true love so wrought in him, that his
+love for her returned into his heart, and he took again his own dear
+lady, and joyfully resigned all pretensions to the Lady Silvia to
+Valentine, who had so well deserved her.</p>
+
+<p>Proteus and Valentine were expressing their happiness in their
+reconciliation, and in the love of their faithful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> ladies when they were
+surprised with the sight of the Duke of Milan and Thurio, who came there
+in pursuit of Silvia.</p>
+
+<p>Thurio first approached, and attempted to seize Silvia, saying, "Silvia
+is mine." Upon this Valentine said to him in a very spirited manner,
+"Thurio, keep back: if once again you say that Silvia is yours, you
+shall embrace your death. Here she stands, take but possession of her
+with a torch! I dare you but to breathe upon my love." Hearing this
+threat, Thurio, who was a great coward, drew back, and said he cared not
+for her, and that none but a fool would fight for a girl who loved him
+not.</p>
+
+<p>The duke, who was a very brave man himself, said now in great anger,
+"The more base and degenerate in you to take such means for her as you
+have done, and leave her on such slight conditions." Then turning to
+Valentine, he said, "I do applaud your spirit, Valentine, and think you
+worthy of an empress' love. You shall have Silvia, for you have well
+deserved her." Valentine then with great humility kissed the duke's
+hand, and accepted the noble present which he had made him of his
+daughter with becoming thankfulness: taking occasion of this joyful
+minute to entreat the good-humoured duke to pardon the thieves with whom
+he had associated in the forest, assuring him, that when reformed and
+restored to society, there would be found among them many good, and fit
+for great employment; for the most of them had been banished, like
+Valentine, for state offences, rather than for any black crimes they had
+been guilty of. To this the ready duke consented: and now nothing
+remained but that Proteus, the false friend, was ordained, by way of
+penance for his love-prompted faults, to be present at the recital of
+the whole story of his loves and falsehoods before the duke; and the
+shame of the recital to his awakened conscience was judged sufficient
+punishment: which being done, the lovers, all four, returned back to
+Milan, and their nuptials were solemnised in the presence of the duke,
+with high triumphs and feasting.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img10.jpg"  width="600" height="485" alt="THE MERCHANT OF VENICE." title="" /></div>
+
+
+
+
+<p>Shylock, the Jew, lived at Venice: he was an usurer, who had amassed an
+immense fortune by lending money at great interest to Christian
+merchants. Shylock, being a hard-hearted man, exacted the payment of the
+money he lent with such severity that he was much disliked by all good
+men, and particularly by Antonio, a young merchant of Venice; and
+Shylock as much hated Antonio, because he used to lend money to people
+in distress, and would never take any interest for the money he lent;
+therefore there was great enmity between this covetous Jew and the
+generous merchant Antonio. Whenever Antonio met Shylock on the Rialto
+(or Exchange), he used to reproach him with his usuries and hard
+dealings, which the Jew would bear with seeming patience, while he
+secretly meditated revenge.</p>
+
+<p>Antonio was the kindest man that lived, the best conditioned, and had
+the most unwearied spirit in doing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> courtesies; indeed, he was one in
+whom the ancient Roman honour more appeared than in any that drew breath
+in Italy. He was greatly beloved by all his fellow-citizens; but the
+friend who was nearest and dearest to his heart was Bassanio, a noble
+Venetian, who, having but a small patrimony, had nearly exhausted his
+little fortune by living in too expensive a manner for his slender
+means, as young men of high rank with small fortunes are too apt to do.
+Whenever Bassanio wanted money, Antonio assisted him; and it seemed as
+if they had but one heart and one purse between them.</p>
+
+<p>One day Bassanio came to Antonio, and told him that he wished to repair
+his fortune by a wealthy marriage with a lady whom he dearly loved,
+whose father, that was lately dead, had left her sole heiress to a large
+estate; and that in her father's lifetime he used to visit at her house,
+when he thought he had observed this lady had sometimes from her eyes
+sent speechless messages, that seemed to say he would be no unwelcome
+suitor; but not having money to furnish himself with an appearance
+befitting the lover of so rich an heiress, he besought Antonio to add to
+the many favours he had shown him, by lending him three thousand ducats.</p>
+
+<p>Antonio had no money by him at that time to lend his friend; but
+expecting soon to have some ships come home laden with merchandise, he
+said he would go to Shylock, the rich money-lender, and borrow the money
+upon the credit of those ships.</p>
+
+<p>Antonio and Bassanio went together to Shylock, and Antonio asked the Jew
+to lend him three thousand ducats upon any interest he should require,
+to be paid out of the merchandise contained in his ships at sea. On
+this, Shylock thought within himself, "If I can once catch him on the
+hip, I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him; he hates our Jewish
+nation; he lends out money gratis, and among the merchants he rails at
+me and my well-earned bargains, which he calls interest. Cursed be my
+tribe if I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> forgive him!" Antonio finding he was musing within himself
+and did not answer, and being impatient for the money, said, "Shylock,
+do you hear? will you lend the money?" To this question the Jew replied,
+"Signior Antonio, on the Rialto many a time and often you have railed at
+me about my monies and my usuries, and I have borne it with a patient
+shrug, for sufferance is the badge of all our tribe; and then you have
+called me unbeliever, cut-throat dog, and spit upon my Jewish garments,
+and spurned at me with your foot, as if I was a cur. Well then, it now
+appears you need my help; and you come to me, and say, <i>Shylock, lend me
+monies</i>. Has a dog money? Is it possible a cur should lend three
+thousand ducats? Shall I bend low and say, Fair sir, you spit upon me on
+Wednesday last, another time you called me dog, and for these courtesies
+I am to lend you monies." Antonio replied, "I am as like to call you so
+again, to spit on you again, and spurn you too. If you will lend me this
+money, lend it not to me as to a friend, but rather lend it to me as to
+an enemy, that, if I break, you may with better face exact the
+penalty."&mdash;"Why, look you," said Shylock, "how you storm! I would be
+friends with you, and have your love. I will forget the shames you have
+put upon me. I will supply your wants, and take no interest for my
+money." This seemingly kind offer greatly surprised Antonio; and then
+Shylock, still pretending kindness, and that all he did was to gain
+Antonio's love, again said he would lend him the three thousand ducats,
+and take no interest for his money; only Antonio should go with him to a
+lawyer, and there sign in merry sport a bond, that if he did not repay
+the money by a certain day, he would forfeit a pound of flesh, to be cut
+off from any part of his body that Shylock pleased.</p>
+
+<p>"Content," said Antonio: "I will sign to this bond, and say there is
+much kindness in the Jew."</p>
+
+<p>Bassanio said Antonio should not sign to such a bond for him; but still
+Antonio insisted that he would sign it,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> for that before the day of
+payment came, his ships would return laden with many times the value of
+the money.</p>
+
+<p>Shylock, hearing this debate, exclaimed, "O, father Abraham, what
+suspicious people these Christians are! Their own hard dealings teach
+them to suspect the thoughts of others. I pray you tell me this,
+Bassanio: if he should break his day, what should I gain by the exaction
+of the forfeiture? A pound of man's flesh, taken from a man, is not so
+estimable, nor profitable neither, as the flesh of mutton or beef. I
+say, to buy his favour I offer this friendship: if he will take it, so;
+if not, adieu."</p>
+
+<p>At last, against the advice of Bassanio, who, notwithstanding all the
+Jew had said of his kind intentions, did not like his friend should run
+the hazard of this shocking penalty for his sake, Antonio signed the
+bond, thinking it really was (as the Jew said) merely in sport.</p>
+
+<p>The rich heiress that Bassanio wished to marry lived near Venice, at a
+place called Belmont: her name was Portia, and in the graces of her
+person and her mind she was nothing inferior to that Portia, of whom we
+read, who was Cato's daughter, and the wife of Brutus.</p>
+
+<p>Bassanio being so kindly supplied with money by his friend Antonio, at
+the hazard of his life, set out for Belmont with a splendid train, and
+attended by a gentleman of the name of Gratiano.</p>
+
+<p>Bassanio proving successful in his suit, Portia in a short time
+consented to accept of him for a husband.</p>
+
+<p>Bassanio confessed to Portia that he had no fortune, and that his high
+birth and noble ancestry was all that he could boast of; she, who loved
+him for his worthy qualities, and had riches enough not to regard wealth
+in a husband, answered with a graceful modesty, that she would wish
+herself a thousand times more fair, and ten thousand times more rich, to
+be more worthy of him; and then the accomplished Portia prettily
+dispraised herself, and said she was an unlessoned girl, unschooled,
+unpractised, yet not so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> old but that she could learn, and that she
+would commit her gentle spirit to be directed and governed by him in all
+things; and she said, "Myself and what is mine, to you and yours is now
+converted. But yesterday, Bassanio, I was the lady of this fair mansion,
+queen of myself, and mistress over these servants; and now this house,
+these servants, and myself, are yours, my lord; I give them with this
+ring;" presenting a ring to Bassanio.</p>
+
+<p>Bassanio was so overpowered with gratitude and wonder at the gracious
+manner in which the rich and noble Portia accepted of a man of his
+humble fortunes, that he could not express his joy and reverence to the
+dear lady who so honoured him, by anything but broken words of love and
+thankfulness; and taking the ring, he vowed never to part with it.</p>
+
+<p>Gratiano and Nerissa, Portia's waiting-maid, were in attendance upon
+their lord and lady, when Portia so gracefully promised to become the
+obedient wife of Bassanio; and Gratiano, wishing Bassanio and the
+generous lady joy, desired permission to be married at the same time.</p>
+
+<p>"With all my heart, Gratiano," said Bassanio, "if you can get a wife."</p>
+
+<p>Gratiano then said that he loved the Lady Portia's fair waiting
+gentlewoman Nerissa, and that she had promised to be his wife, if her
+lady married Bassanio. Portia asked Nerissa if this was true. Nerissa
+replied, "Madam, it is so, if you approve of it." Portia willingly
+consenting, Bassanio pleasantly said, "Then our wedding-feast shall be
+much honoured by your marriage, Gratiano."</p>
+
+<p>The happiness of these lovers was sadly crossed at this moment by the
+entrance of a messenger, who brought a letter from Antonio containing
+fearful tidings. When Bassanio read Antonio's letter, Portia feared it
+was to tell him of the death of some dear friend, he looked so pale; and
+inquiring what was the news which had so distressed him, he said, "O
+sweet Portia, here are a few of the un<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>pleasantest words that ever
+blotted paper; gentle lady, when I first imparted my love to you, I
+freely told you all the wealth I had ran in my veins; but I should have
+told you that I had less than nothing, being in debt." Bassanio then
+told Portia what has been here related, of his borrowing the money of
+Antonio, and of Antonio's procuring it of Shylock the Jew, and of the
+bond by which Antonio had engaged to forfeit a pound of flesh, if it was
+not repaid by a certain day: and then Bassanio read Antonio's letter;
+the words of which were, "<i>Sweet Bassanio, my ships are all lost, my
+bond to the Jew is forfeited, and since in paying it is impossible I
+should live, I could wish to see you at my death; notwithstanding, use
+your pleasure; if your love for me do not persuade you to come, let not
+my letter.</i>" "O, my dear love," said Portia, "despatch all business, and
+begone; you shall have gold to pay the money twenty times over, before
+this kind friend shall lose a hair by my Bassanio's fault; and as you
+are so dearly bought, I will dearly love you." Portia then said she
+would be married to Bassanio before he set out, to give him a legal
+right to her money; and that same day they were married, and Gratiano
+was also married to Nerissa; and Bassanio and Gratiano, the instant they
+were married, set out in great haste for Venice, where Bassanio found
+Antonio in prison.</p>
+
+<p>The day of payment being past, the cruel Jew would not accept of the
+money which Bassanio offered him, but insisted upon having a pound of
+Antonio's flesh. A day was appointed to try this shocking cause before
+the Duke of Venice, and Bassanio awaited in dreadful suspense the event
+of the trial.</p>
+
+<p>When Portia parted with her husband, she spoke cheeringly to him, and
+bade him bring his dear friend along with him when he returned; yet she
+feared it would go hard with Antonio, and when she was left alone, she
+began to think and consider within herself, if she could by any means be
+instrumental in saving the life of her dear Bassanio's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> friend; and
+notwithstanding when she wished to honour her Bassanio, she had said to
+him with such a meek and wife-like grace, that she would submit in all
+things to be governed by his superior wisdom, yet being now called forth
+into action by the peril of her honoured husband's friend, she did
+nothing doubt her own powers, and by the sole guidance of her own true
+and perfect judgment, at once resolved to go herself to Venice, and
+speak in Antonio's defence.</p>
+
+<p>Portia had a relation who was a counsellor in the law; to this
+gentleman, whose name was Bellario, she wrote, and stating the case to
+him, desired his opinion, and that with his advice he would also send
+her the dress worn by a counsellor. When the messenger returned, he
+brought letters from Bellario of advice how to proceed, and also
+everything necessary for her equipment.</p>
+
+<p>Portia dressed herself and her maid Nerissa in men's apparel, and
+putting on the robes of a counsellor, she took Nerissa along with her as
+her clerk; and setting out immediately, they arrived at Venice on the
+very day of the trial. The cause was just going to be heard before the
+duke and senators of Venice in the senate-house, when Portia entered
+this high court of justice, and presented a letter from Bellario, in
+which that learned counsellor wrote to the duke, saying, he would have
+come himself to plead for Antonio, but that he was prevented by
+sickness, and he requested that the learned young doctor Balthasar (so
+he called Portia) might be permitted to plead in his stead. This the
+duke granted, much wondering at the youthful appearance of the stranger,
+who was prettily disguised by her counsellor's robes and her large wig.</p>
+
+<p>And now began this important trial. Portia looked around her, and she
+saw the merciless Jew; and she saw Bassanio, but he knew her not in her
+disguise. He was standing beside Antonio, in an agony of distress and
+fear for his friend.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The importance of the arduous task Portia had engaged in gave this
+tender lady courage, and she boldly proceeded in the duty she had
+undertaken to perform: and first of all she addressed herself to
+Shylock; and allowing that he had a right by the Venetian law to have
+the forfeit expressed in the bond, she spoke so sweetly of the noble
+quality of <i>mercy</i>, as would have softened any heart but the unfeeling
+Shylock's; saying, that it dropped as the gentle rain from heaven upon
+the place beneath; and how mercy was a double blessing, it blessed him
+that gave, and him that received it; and how it became monarchs better
+than their crowns, being an attribute of God himself; and that earthly
+power came nearest to God's, in proportion as mercy tempered justice;
+and she bid Shylock remember that as we all pray for mercy, that same
+prayer should teach us to show mercy. Shylock only answered her by
+desiring to have the penalty forfeited in the bond. "Is he not able to
+pay the money?" asked Portia. Bassanio then offered the Jew the payment
+of the three thousand ducats as many times over as he should desire;
+which Shylock refusing, and still insisting upon having a pound of
+Antonio's flesh, Bassanio begged the learned young counsellor would
+endeavour to wrest the law a little, to save Antonio's life. But Portia
+gravely answered, that laws once established must never be altered.
+Shylock hearing Portia say that the law might not be altered, it seemed
+to him that she was pleading in his favour, and he said, "A Daniel is
+come to judgment! O wise young judge, how I do honour you! How much
+elder are you than your looks!"</p>
+
+<p><a name="SHYLOCK" id="SHYLOCK"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter">
+             <img   src="images/img11.jpg" width="315" height="500"
+             alt="SHYLOCK WAS SHARPENING A LONG KNIFE" /><br />
+         <b>SHYLOCK WAS SHARPENING A LONG KNIFE</b>
+    </div>
+
+<p>Portia now desired Shylock to let her look at the bond; and when she had
+read it, she said, "This bond is forfeited, and by this the Jew may
+lawfully claim a pound of flesh, to be by him cut off nearest Antonio's
+heart." Then she said to Shylock, "Be merciful: take the money, and bid
+me tear the bond." But no mercy would the cruel Shylock show; and he
+said, "By my soul I swear, there is no power<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> in the tongue of man to
+alter me."&mdash;"Why then, Antonio," said Portia, "you must prepare your
+bosom for the knife:" and while Shylock was sharpening a long knife with
+great eagerness to cut off the pound of flesh, Portia said to Antonio,
+"Have you anything to say?" Antonio with a calm resignation replied,
+that he had but little to say, for that he had prepared his mind for
+death. Then he said to Bassanio, "Give me your hand, Bassanio! Fare you
+well! Grieve not that I am fallen into this misfortune for you. Commend
+me to your honourable wife, and tell her how I have loved you!" Bassanio
+in the deepest affliction replied, "Antonio, I am married to a wife, who
+is as dear to me as life itself; but life itself, my wife, and all the
+world, are not esteemed with me above your life: I would lose all, I
+would sacrifice all to this devil here, to deliver you."</p>
+
+<p>Portia hearing this, though the kind-hearted lady was not at all
+offended with her husband for expressing the love he owed to so true a
+friend as Antonio in these strong terms, yet could not help answering,
+"Your wife would give you little thanks, if she were present, to hear
+you make this offer." And then Gratiano, who loved to copy what his lord
+did, thought he must make a speech like Bassanio's, and he said, in
+Nerissa's hearing, who was writing in her clerk's dress by the side of
+Portia, "I have a wife, whom I protest I love; I wish she were in
+heaven, if she could but entreat some power there to change the cruel
+temper of this currish Jew." "It is well you wish this behind her back,
+else you would have but an unquiet house," said Nerissa.</p>
+
+<p>Shylock now cried out impatiently, "We trifle time; I pray pronounce the
+sentence." And now all was awful expectation in the court, and every
+heart was full of grief for Antonio.</p>
+
+<p>Portia asked if the scales were ready to weigh the flesh; and she said
+to the Jew, "Shylock, you must have some surgeon by, lest he bleed to
+death." Shylock, whose whole<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> intent was that Antonio should bleed to
+death, said, "It is not so named in the bond." Portia replied, "It is
+not so named in the bond, but what of that? It were good you did so much
+for charity." To this all the answer Shylock would make was, "I cannot
+find it; it is not in the bond." "Then," said Portia, "a pound of
+Antonio's flesh is thine. The law allows it, and the court awards it.
+And you may cut this flesh from on his breast. The law allows it and the
+court awards it." Again Shylock exclaimed, "O wise and upright judge! A
+Daniel is come to judgment!" And then he sharpened his long knife again,
+and looking eagerly on Antonio, he said, "Come, prepare!"</p>
+
+<p>"Tarry a little, Jew," said Portia; "there is something else. This bond
+here gives you no drop of blood; the words expressly are, 'a pound of
+flesh.' If in the cutting off the pound of flesh you shed one drop of
+Christian blood, your lands and goods are by the law to be confiscated
+to the state of Venice." Now as it was utterly impossible for Shylock to
+cut off the pound of flesh without shedding some of Antonio's blood,
+this wise discovery of Portia's, that it was flesh and not blood that
+was named in the bond, saved the life of Antonio; and all admiring the
+wonderful sagacity of the young counsellor, who had so happily thought
+of this expedient, plaudits resounded from every part of the
+senate-house; and Gratiano exclaimed, in the words which Shylock had
+used, "O wise and upright judge! mark, Jew, a Daniel is come to
+judgment!"</p>
+
+<p>Shylock, finding himself defeated in his cruel intent, said with a
+disappointed look, that he would take the money; and Bassanio, rejoiced
+beyond measure at Antonio's unexpected deliverance, cried out, "Here is
+the money!" But Portia stopped him, saying, "Softly; there is no haste;
+the Jew shall have nothing but the penalty: therefore prepare, Shylock,
+to cut off the flesh; but mind you shed no blood: nor do not cut off
+more nor less than just a pound; be it more or less by one poor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>
+scruple, nay if the scale turn but by the weight of a single hair, you
+are condemned by the laws of Venice to die, and all your wealth is
+forfeited to the senate." "Give me my money, and let me go," said
+Shylock. "I have it ready," said Bassanio: "here it is."</p>
+
+<p>Shylock was going to take the money, when Portia again stopped him,
+saying, "Tarry, Jew; I have yet another hold upon you. By the laws of
+Venice, your wealth is forfeited to the state, for having conspired
+against the life of one of its citizens, and your life lies at the mercy
+of the duke; therefore, down on your knees, and ask him to pardon you."</p>
+
+<p>The duke then said to Shylock, "That you may see the difference of our
+Christian spirit, I pardon you your life before you ask it; half your
+wealth belongs to Antonio, the other half comes to the state."</p>
+
+<p>The generous Antonio then said that he would give up his share of
+Shylock's wealth, if Shylock would sign a deed to make it over at his
+death to his daughter and her husband; for Antonio knew that the Jew had
+an only daughter who had lately married against his consent to a young
+Christian, named Lorenzo, a friend of Antonio's, which had so offended
+Shylock, that he had disinherited her.</p>
+
+<p>The Jew agreed to this: and being thus disappointed in his revenge, and
+despoiled of his riches, he said, "I am ill. Let me go home; send the
+deed after me, and I will sign over half my riches to my
+daughter."&mdash;"Get thee gone, then," said the duke, "and sign it; and if
+you repent your cruelty and turn Christian, the state will forgive you
+the fine of the other half of your riches."</p>
+
+<p>The duke now released Antonio, and dismissed the court. He then highly
+praised the wisdom and ingenuity of the young counsellor, and invited
+him home to dinner. Portia, who meant to return to Belmont before her
+husband, replied, "I humbly thank your grace, but I must away directly."
+The duke said he was sorry he had not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> leisure to stay and dine with
+him; and turning to Antonio, he added, "Reward this gentleman; for in my
+mind you are much indebted to him."</p>
+
+<p>The duke and his senators left the court; and then Bassanio said to
+Portia, "Most worthy gentleman, I and my friend Antonio have by your
+wisdom been this day acquitted of grievous penalties, and I beg you will
+accept of the three thousand ducats due unto the Jew." "And we shall
+stand indebted to you over and above," said Antonio, "in love and
+service evermore."</p>
+
+<p>Portia could not be prevailed upon to accept the money; but upon
+Bassanio still pressing her to accept of some reward, she said, "Give me
+your gloves; I will wear them for your sake;" and then Bassanio taking
+off his gloves, she espied the ring which she had given him upon his
+finger: now it was the ring the wily lady wanted to get from him to make
+a merry jest when she saw her Bassanio again, that made her ask him for
+his gloves; and she said, when she saw the ring, "and for your love I
+will take this ring from you." Bassanio was sadly distressed that the
+counsellor should ask him for the only thing he could not part with, and
+he replied in great confusion, that he could not give him that ring,
+because it was his wife's gift, and he had vowed never to part with it;
+but that he would give him the most valuable ring in Venice, and find it
+out by proclamation. On this Portia affected to be affronted, and left
+the court, saying, "You teach me, sir, how a beggar should be answered."</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Bassanio," said Antonio, "let him have the ring; let my love and
+the great service he has done for me be valued against your wife's
+displeasure." Bassanio, ashamed to appear so ungrateful, yielded, and
+sent Gratiano after Portia with the ring; and then the <i>clerk</i> Nerissa,
+who had also given Gratiano a ring, she begged his ring, and Gratiano
+(not choosing to be outdone in generosity by his lord) gave it to her.
+And there was laughing among these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> ladies to think, when they got home,
+how they would tax their husbands with giving away their rings, and
+swear that they had given them as a present to some woman.</p>
+
+<p>Portia, when she returned, was in that happy temper of mind which never
+fails to attend the consciousness of having performed a good action; her
+cheerful spirits enjoyed everything she saw: the moon never seemed to
+shine so bright before; and when that pleasant moon was hid behind a
+cloud, then a light which she saw from her house at Belmont as well
+pleased her charmed fancy, and she said to Nerissa, "That light we see
+is burning in my hall; how far that little candle throws its beams, so
+shines a good deed in a naughty world;" and hearing the sound of music
+from her house, she said, "Methinks that music sounds much sweeter than
+by day."</p>
+
+<p>And now Portia and Nerissa entered the house, and dressing themselves in
+their own apparel, they awaited the arrival of their husbands, who soon
+followed them with Antonio; and Bassanio presenting his dear friend to
+the Lady Portia, the congratulations and welcomings of that lady were
+hardly over, when they perceived Nerissa and her husband quarrelling in
+a corner of the room. "A quarrel already?" said Portia. "What is the
+matter?" Gratiano replied, "Lady, it is about a paltry gilt ring that
+Nerissa gave me, with words upon it like the poetry on a cutler's knife;
+<i>Love me, and leave me not.</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"What does the poetry or the value of the ring signify?" said Nerissa.
+"You swore to me when I gave it to you, that you would keep it till the
+hour of death; and now you say you gave it to the lawyer's clerk. I know
+you gave it to a woman."&mdash;"By this hand," replied Gratiano, "I gave it
+to a youth, a kind of boy, a little scrubbed boy, no higher than
+yourself; he was clerk to the young counsellor that by his wise pleading
+saved Antonio's life: this prating boy begged it for a fee, and I could
+not for my life deny him." Portia said, "You were to blame, Gratiano,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>
+to part with your wife's first gift. I gave my lord Bassanio a ring, and
+I am sure he would not part with it for all the world." Gratiano, in
+excuse for his fault, now said, "My lord Bassanio gave his ring away to
+the counsellor, and then the boy, his clerk, that took some pains in
+writing, he begged my ring."</p>
+
+<p>Portia, hearing this, seemed very angry, and reproached Bassanio for
+giving away her ring; and she said, Nerissa had taught her what to
+believe, and that she knew some woman had the ring. Bassanio was very
+unhappy to have so offended his dear lady, and he said with great
+earnestness, "No, by my honour, no woman had it, but a civil doctor, who
+refused three thousand ducats of me, and begged the ring, which when I
+denied him, he went displeased away. What could I do, sweet Portia? I
+was so beset with shame for my seeming ingratitude, that I was forced to
+send the ring after him. Pardon me, good lady; had you been there, I
+think you would have begged the ring of me to give the worthy doctor."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" said Antonio, "I am the unhappy cause of these quarrels."</p>
+
+<p>Portia bid Antonio not to grieve at that, for that he was welcome
+notwithstanding; and then Antonio said, "I once did lend my body for
+Bassanio's sake; and but for him to whom your husband gave the ring, I
+should have now been dead. I dare be bound again, my soul upon the
+forfeit, your lord will never more break his faith with you."&mdash;"Then you
+shall be his surety," said Portia; "give him this ring, and bid him keep
+it better than the other."</p>
+
+<p>When Bassanio looked at this ring, he was strangely surprised to find it
+was the same he gave away; and then Portia told him how she was the
+young counsellor, and Nerissa was her clerk; and Bassanio found, to his
+unspeakable wonder and delight, that it was by the noble courage and
+wisdom of his wife that Antonio's life was saved.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>And Portia again welcomed Antonio, and gave him letters which by some
+chance had fallen into her hands, which contained an account of
+Antonio's ships, that were supposed lost, being safely arrived in the
+harbour. So these tragical beginnings of this rich merchant's story were
+all forgotten in the unexpected good fortune which ensued; and there was
+leisure to laugh at the comical adventure of the rings, and the husbands
+that did not know their own wives: Gratiano merrily swearing, in a sort
+of rhyming speech, that</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&mdash;&mdash;while he lived, he'd fear no other thing</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So sore, as keeping safe Nerissa's ring.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img22.jpg"  alt="Chapter endpiece" title="" /></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img13.jpg"  width="600" height="415" alt="CYMBELINE" title="" /></div>
+
+
+<p>During the time of Augustus C&aelig;sar, Emperor of Rome, there reigned in
+England (which was then called Britain) a king whose name was Cymbeline.</p>
+
+<p>Cymbeline's first wife died when his three children (two sons and a
+daughter) were very young. Imogen, the eldest of these children, was
+brought up in her father's court; but by a strange chance the two sons
+of Cymbeline were stolen out of their nursery, when the eldest was but
+three years of age, and the youngest quite an infant; and Cymbeline
+could never discover what was become of them, or by whom they were
+conveyed away.</p>
+
+<p><a name="IMOGEN" id="IMOGEN"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter">
+             <a href="images/img006.jpg"><img
+             src="images/img006-tb.jpg" width="285" height="500"
+             alt="IMOGEN'S TWO BROTHERS THEN CARRIED HER TO A SHADY COVERT" /></a><br />
+         <b>IMOGEN'S TWO BROTHERS THEN CARRIED HER<br />TO A SHADY COVERT</b>
+    </div>
+
+<p>Cymbeline was twice married: his second wife was a wicked, plotting
+woman, and a cruel stepmother to Imogen, Cymbeline's daughter by his
+first wife.</p>
+
+<p>The queen, though she hated Imogen, yet wished her to marry a son of her
+own by a former husband (she also having been twice married): for by
+this means she hoped upon the death of Cymbeline to place the crown of
+Britain upon the head of her son Cloten; for she knew that, if the
+king's sons were not found, the Princess Imogen must be the king's heir.
+But this design was prevented by Imogen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> herself, who married without
+the consent or even knowledge of her father or the queen.</p>
+
+<p>Posthumus (for that was the name of Imogen's husband) was the best
+scholar and most accomplished gentleman of that age. His father died
+fighting in the wars for Cymbeline, and soon after his birth his mother
+died also for grief at the loss of her husband.</p>
+
+<p>Cymbeline, pitying the helpless state of this orphan, took Posthumus
+(Cymbeline having given him that name, because he was born after his
+father's death), and educated him in his own court.</p>
+
+<p>Imogen and Posthumus were both taught by the same masters, and were
+playfellows from their infancy; they loved each other tenderly when they
+were children, and their affection continuing to increase with their
+years, when they grew up they privately married.</p>
+
+<p>The disappointed queen soon learnt this secret, for she kept spies
+constantly in watch upon the actions of her daughter-in-law, and she
+immediately told the king of the marriage of Imogen with Posthumus.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing could exceed the wrath of Cymbeline, when he heard that his
+daughter had been so forgetful of her high dignity as to marry a
+subject. He commanded Posthumus to leave Britain, and banished him from
+his native country for ever.</p>
+
+<p>The queen, who pretended to pity Imogen for the grief she suffered at
+losing her husband, offered to procure them a private meeting before
+Posthumus set out on his journey to Rome, which place he had chosen for
+his residence in his banishment: this seeming kindness she showed, the
+better to succeed in her future designs in regard to her son Cloten; for
+she meant to persuade Imogen, when her husband was gone, that her
+marriage was not lawful, being contracted without the consent of the
+king.</p>
+
+<p>Imogen and Posthumus took a most affectionate leave of each other.
+Imogen gave her husband a diamond ring,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> which had been her mother's,
+and Posthumus promised never to part with the ring; and he fastened a
+bracelet on the arm of his wife, which he begged she would preserve with
+great care, as a token of his love; they then bid each other farewell,
+with many vows of everlasting love and fidelity.</p>
+
+<p>Imogen remained a solitary and dejected lady in her father's court, and
+Posthumus arrived at Rome, the place he had chosen for his banishment.</p>
+
+<p>Posthumus fell into company at Rome with some gay young men of different
+nations, who were talking freely of ladies: each one praising the ladies
+of his own country, and his own mistress. Posthumus, who had ever his
+own dear lady in his mind, affirmed that his wife, the fair Imogen, was
+the most virtuous, wise and constant lady in the world.</p>
+
+<p>One of those gentlemen, whose name was Iachimo, being offended that a
+lady of Britain should be so praised above the Roman ladies, his
+country-women, provoked Posthumus by seeming to doubt the constancy of
+his so highly-praised wife; and at length, after much altercation,
+Posthumus consented to a proposal of Iachimo's, that he (Iachimo) should
+go to Britain, and endeavour to gain the love of the married Imogen.
+They then laid a wager, that if Iachimo did not succeed in this wicked
+design, he was to forfeit a large sum of money; but if he could win
+Imogen's favour, and prevail upon her to give him the bracelet which
+Posthumus had so earnestly desired she would keep as a token of his
+love, then the wager was to terminate with Posthumus giving to Iachimo
+the ring, which was Imogen's love present when she parted with her
+husband. Such firm faith had Posthumus in the fidelity of Imogen, that
+he thought he ran no hazard in this trial of her honour.</p>
+
+<p>Iachimo, on his arrival in Britain, gained admittance, and a courteous
+welcome from Imogen, as a friend of her husband; but when he began to
+make professions of love<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> to her, she repulsed him with disdain, and he
+soon found that he could have no hope of succeeding in his dishonourable
+design.</p>
+
+<p>The desire Iachimo had to win the wager made him now have recourse to a
+stratagem to impose upon Posthumus, and for this purpose he bribed some
+of Imogen's attendants, and was by them conveyed into her bedchamber,
+concealed in a large trunk, where he remained shut up till Imogen was
+retired to rest, and had fallen asleep; and then getting out of the
+trunk, he examined the chamber with great attention, and wrote down
+everything he saw there, and particularly noticed a mole which he
+observed upon Imogen's neck, and then softly unloosing the bracelet from
+her arm, which Posthumus had given to her, he retired into the chest
+again; and the next day he set on for Rome with great expedition, and
+boasted to Posthumus that Imogen had given him the bracelet, and
+likewise permitted him to pass a night in her chamber: and in this
+manner Iachimo told his false tale: "Her bedchamber," said he, "was hung
+with tapestry of silk and silver, the story was <i>the proud Cleopatra
+when she met her Anthony</i>, a piece of work most bravely wrought."</p>
+
+<p>"This is true," said Posthumus; "but this you might have heard spoken of
+without seeing."</p>
+
+<p>"Then the chimney," said Iachimo, "is south of the chamber, and the
+chimney-piece is <i>Diana bathing</i>; never saw I figures livelier
+expressed."</p>
+
+<p>"This is a thing you might have likewise heard," said Posthumus; "for it
+is much talked of."</p>
+
+<p>Iachimo as accurately described the roof of the chamber; and added, "I
+had almost forgot her andirons; they were <i>two winking Cupids</i> made of
+silver, each on one foot standing." He then took out the bracelet, and
+said, "Know you this jewel, sir? She gave me this. She took it from her
+arm. I see her yet; her pretty action did outsell her gift, and yet
+enriched it too. She gave it me, and said, <i>she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> prized it once.</i>" He
+last of all described the mole he had observed upon her neck.</p>
+
+<p>Posthumus, who had heard the whole of this artful recital in an agony of
+doubt, now broke out into the most passionate exclamations against
+Imogen. He delivered up the diamond ring to Iachimo, which he had agreed
+to forfeit to him, if he obtained the bracelet from Imogen.</p>
+
+<p>Posthumus then in a jealous rage wrote to Pisanio, a gentleman of
+Britain, who was one of Imogen's attendants, and had long been a
+faithful friend to Posthumus; and after telling him what proof he had of
+his wife's disloyalty, he desired Pisanio would take Imogen to
+Milford-Haven, a seaport of Wales, and there kill her. And at the same
+time he wrote a deceitful letter to Imogen, desiring her to go with
+Pisanio, for that finding he could live no longer without seeing her,
+though he was forbidden upon pain of death to return to Britain, he
+would come to Milford-Haven, at which place he begged she would meet
+him. She, good unsuspecting lady, who loved her husband above all
+things, and desired more than her life to see him, hastened her
+departure with Pisanio, and the same night she received the letter she
+set out.</p>
+
+<p>When their journey was nearly at an end, Pisanio, who, though faithful
+to Posthumus, was not faithful to serve him in an evil deed, disclosed
+to Imogen the cruel order he had received.</p>
+
+<p>Imogen, who, instead of meeting a loving and beloved husband, found
+herself doomed by that husband to suffer death, was afflicted beyond
+measure.</p>
+
+<p>Pisanio persuaded her to take comfort, and wait with patient fortitude
+for the time when Posthumus should see and repent his injustice: in the
+meantime, as she refused in her distress to return to her father's
+court, he advised her to dress herself in boy's clothes for more
+security in travelling; to which advice she agreed, and thought in that
+disguise she would go over to Rome, and see her husband,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> whom, though
+he had used her so barbarously, she could not forget to love.</p>
+
+<p>When Pisanio had provided her with her new apparel, he left her to her
+uncertain fortune, being obliged to return to court; but before he
+departed he gave her a phial of cordial, which he said the queen had
+given him as a sovereign remedy in all disorders.</p>
+
+<p>The queen, who hated Pisanio because he was a friend to Imogen and
+Posthumus, gave him this phial, which she supposed contained poison, she
+having ordered her physician to give her some poison, to try its effects
+(as she said) upon animals; but the physician, knowing her malicious
+disposition, would not trust her with real poison, but gave her a drug
+which would do no other mischief than causing a person to sleep with
+every appearance of death for a few hours. This mixture, which Pisanio
+thought a choice cordial, he gave to Imogen, desiring her, if she found
+herself ill upon the road, to take it; and so, with blessings and
+prayers for her safety and happy deliverance from her undeserved
+troubles, he left her.</p>
+
+<p>Providence strangely directed Imogen's steps to the dwelling of her two
+brothers, who had been stolen away in their infancy. Bellarius, who
+stole them away, was a lord in the court of Cymbeline, and having been
+falsely accused to the king of treason, and banished from the court, in
+revenge he stole away the two sons of Cymbeline, and brought them up in
+a forest, where he lived concealed in a cave. He stole them through
+revenge, but he soon loved them as tenderly as if they had been his own
+children, educated them carefully, and they grew up fine youths, their
+princely spirits leading them to bold and daring actions; and as they
+subsisted by hunting, they were active and hardy, and were always
+pressing their supposed father to let them seek their fortune in the
+wars.</p>
+
+<p>At the cave where these youths dwelt it was Imogen's fortune to arrive.
+She had lost her way in a large forest,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> through which her road lay to
+Milford-Haven (from which she meant to embark for Rome); and being
+unable to find any place where she could purchase food, she was with
+weariness and hunger almost dying; for it is not merely putting on a
+man's apparel that will enable a young lady, tenderly brought up, to
+bear the fatigue of wandering about lonely forests like a man. Seeing
+this cave, she entered, hoping to find some one within of whom she could
+procure food. She found the cave empty, but looking about she discovered
+some cold meat, and her hunger was so pressing, that she could not wait
+for an invitation, but sat down and began to eat. "Ah," said she,
+talking to herself, "I see a man's life is a tedious one; how tired am
+I! for two nights together I have made the ground my bed: my resolution
+helps me, or I should be sick. When Pisanio showed me Milford-Haven from
+the mountain top, how near it seemed!" Then the thoughts of her husband
+and his cruel mandate came across her, and she said, "My dear Posthumus,
+thou art a false one!"</p>
+
+<p>The two brothers of Imogen, who had been hunting with their reputed
+father, Bellarius, were by this time returned home. Bellarius had given
+them the names of Polydore and Cadwal, and they knew no better, but
+supposed that Bellarius was their father; but the real names of these
+princes were Guiderius and Arviragus.</p>
+
+<p>Bellarius entered the cave first, and seeing Imogen, stopped them,
+saying, "Come not in yet; it eats our victuals, or I should think it was
+a fairy."</p>
+
+<p>"What is the matter, sir?" said the young men. "By Jupiter," said
+Bellarius again, "there is an angel in the cave, or if not, an earthly
+paragon." So beautiful did Imogen look in her boy's apparel.</p>
+
+<p>She, hearing the sound of voices, came forth from the cave, and
+addressed them in these words: "Good masters, do not harm me; before I
+entered your cave, I had thought to have begged or bought what I have
+eaten. Indeed I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> have stolen nothing, nor would I, though I had found
+gold strewed on the floor. Here is money for my meat, which I would have
+left on the board when I had made my meal, and parted with prayers for
+the provider." They refused her money with great earnestness. "I see you
+are angry with me," said the timid Imogen; "but, sirs, if you kill me
+for my fault, know that I should have died if I had not made it."</p>
+
+<p>"Whither are you bound?" asked Bellarius, "and what is your name?"</p>
+
+<p>"Fidele is my name," answered Imogen. "I have a kinsman, who is bound
+for Italy; he embarked at Milford-Haven, to whom being going, almost
+spent with hunger, I am fallen into this offence."</p>
+
+<p>"Prithee, fair youth," said old Bellarius, "do not think us churls, nor
+measure our good minds by this rude place we live in. You are well
+encountered; it is almost night. You shall have better cheer before you
+depart, and thanks to stay and eat it. Boys, bid him welcome."</p>
+
+<p>The gentle youths, her brothers, then welcomed Imogen to their cave with
+many kind expressions, saying they would love her (or, as they said,
+<i>him</i>) as a brother; and they entered the cave, where (they having
+killed venison when they were hunting) Imogen delighted them with her
+neat housewifery, assisting them in preparing their supper; for though
+it is not the custom now for young women of high birth to understand
+cookery, it was then, and Imogen excelled in this useful art; and, as
+her brothers prettily expressed it, Fidele cut their roots in
+characters, and sauced their broth, as if Juno had been sick, and Fidele
+were her dieter. "And then," said Polydore to his brother, "how
+angel-like he sings!"</p>
+
+<p>They also remarked to each other, that though Fidele smiled so sweetly,
+yet so sad a melancholy did overcloud his lovely face, as if grief and
+patience had together taken possession of him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>For these her gentle qualities (or perhaps it was their near
+relationship, though they knew it not) Imogen (or, as the boys called
+her, <i>Fidele</i>) became the doting-piece of her brothers, and she scarcely
+less loved them, thinking that but for the memory of her dear Posthumus,
+she could live and die in the cave with these wild forest youths; and
+she gladly consented to stay with them, till she was enough rested from
+the fatigue of travelling to pursue her way to Milford-Haven.</p>
+
+<p>When the venison they had taken was all eaten and they were going out to
+hunt for more, Fidele could not accompany them because she was unwell.
+Sorrow, no doubt, for her husband's cruel usage, as well as the fatigue
+of wandering in the forest, was the cause of her illness.</p>
+
+<p>They then bid her farewell, and went to their hunt, praising all the way
+the noble parts and graceful demeanour of the youth Fidele.</p>
+
+<p>Imogen was no sooner left alone than she recollected the cordial Pisanio
+had given her, and drank it off, and presently fell into a sound and
+death-like sleep.</p>
+
+<p>When Bellarius and her brothers returned from hunting, Polydore went
+first into the cave, and supposing her asleep, pulled off his heavy
+shoes, that he might tread softly and not awake her; so did true
+gentleness spring up in the minds of these princely foresters; but he
+soon discovered that she could not be awakened by any noise, and
+concluded her to be dead, and Polydore lamented over her with dear and
+brotherly regret, as if they had never from their infancy been parted.</p>
+
+<p>Bellarius also proposed to carry her out into the forest, and there
+celebrate her funeral with songs and solemn dirges, as was then the
+custom.</p>
+
+<p>Imogen's two brothers then carried her to a shady covert, and there
+laying her gently on the grass, they sang repose to her departed spirit,
+and covering her over with leaves and flowers, Polydore said, "While
+summer lasts<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> and I live here, Fidele, I will daily strew thy grave. The
+pale primrose, that flower most like thy face; the blue-bell, like thy
+clear veins; and the leaf of eglantine, which is not sweeter than was
+thy breath; all these will I strew over thee. Yea, and the furred moss
+in winter, when there are no flowers to cover thy sweet corse."</p>
+
+<p>When they had finished her funeral obsequies they departed very
+sorrowful.</p>
+
+<p>Imogen had not been long left alone, when, the effect of the sleepy drug
+going off, she awaked, and easily shaking off the slight covering of
+leaves and flowers they had thrown over her, she arose, and imagining
+she had been dreaming, she said, "I thought I was a cave-keeper, and
+cook to honest creatures; how came I here covered with flowers?" Not
+being able to find her way back to the cave, and seeing nothing of her
+new companions, she concluded it was certainly all a dream; and once
+more Imogen set out on her weary pilgrimage, hoping at last she should
+find her way to Milford-Haven, and thence get a passage in some ship
+bound for Italy; for all her thoughts were still with her husband
+Posthumus, whom she intended to seek in the disguise of a page.</p>
+
+<p>But great events were happening at this time, of which Imogen knew
+nothing; for a war had suddenly broken out between the Roman emperor
+Augustus C&aelig;sar and Cymbeline, the King of Britain; and a Roman army had
+landed to invade Britain, and was advanced into the very forest over
+which Imogen was journeying. With this army came Posthumus.</p>
+
+<p>Though Posthumus came over to Britain with the Roman army he did not
+mean to fight on their side against his own countrymen, but intended to
+join the army of Britain, and fight in the cause of his king who had
+banished him.</p>
+
+<p>He still believed Imogen false to him; yet the death of her he had so
+fondly loved, and by his own orders too<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> (Pisanio having written him a
+letter to say he had obeyed his command, and that Imogen was dead), sat
+heavy on his heart, and therefore he returned to Britain, desiring
+either to be slain in battle, or to be put to death by Cymbeline for
+returning home from banishment.</p>
+
+<p>Imogen, before she reached Milford-Haven, fell into the hands of the
+Roman army; and her presence and deportment recommending her, she was
+made a page to Lucius, the Roman general.</p>
+
+<p>Cymbeline's army now advanced to meet the enemy, and when they entered
+this forest, Polydore and Cadwal joined the king's army. The young men
+were eager to engage in acts of valour, though they little thought they
+were going to fight for their own royal father: and old Bellarius went
+with them to the battle. He had long since repented of the injury he had
+done to Cymbeline in carrying away his sons; and having been a warrior
+in his youth, he gladly joined the army to fight for the king he had so
+injured.</p>
+
+<p>And now a great battle commenced between the two armies, and the Britons
+would have been defeated, and Cymbeline himself killed, but for the
+extraordinary valour of Posthumus and Bellarius and the two sons of
+Cymbeline. They rescued the king, and saved his life, and so entirely
+turned the fortune of the day, that the Britons gained the victory.</p>
+
+<p>When the battle was over, Posthumus, who had not found the death he
+sought for, surrendered himself up to one of the officers of Cymbeline,
+willing to suffer the death which was to be his punishment if he
+returned from banishment.</p>
+
+<p>Imogen and the master she served were taken prisoners, and brought
+before Cymbeline, as was also her old enemy Iachimo, who was an officer
+in the Roman army; and when these prisoners were before the king,
+Posthumus was brought in to receive his sentence of death; and at this
+strange juncture of time, Bellarius with Polydore and Cadwal were also
+brought before Cymbeline, to receive the rewards due to the great
+services they had by their valour done for the king. Pisanio, being one
+of the king's attendants, was likewise present.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore there were now standing in the king's presence (but with very
+different hopes and fears) Posthumus and Imogen, with her new master the
+Roman general; the faithful servant Pisanio, and the false friend
+Iachimo; and likewise the two lost sons of Cymbeline, with Bellarius,
+who had stolen them away.</p>
+
+<p>The Roman general was the first who spoke; the rest stood silent before
+the king, though there was many a beating heart among them.</p>
+
+<p>Imogen saw Posthumus, and knew him, though he was in the disguise of a
+peasant; but he did not know her in her male attire: and she knew
+Iachimo, and she saw a ring on his finger which she perceived to be her
+own, but she did not know him as yet to have been the author of all her
+troubles: and she stood before her own father a prisoner of war.</p>
+
+<p>Pisanio knew Imogen, for it was he who had dressed her in the garb of a
+boy. "It is my mistress," thought he; "since she is living, let the time
+run on to good or bad." Bellarius knew her too, and softly said to
+Cadwal, "Is not this boy revived from death?"&mdash;"One sand," replied
+Cadwal, "does not more resemble another than that sweet rosy lad is like
+the dead Fidele."&mdash;"The same dead thing alive," said Polydore. "Peace,
+peace," said Bellarius; "if it were he, I am sure he would have spoken
+to us."&mdash;"But we saw him dead," again whispered Polydore. "Be silent,"
+replied Bellarius.</p>
+
+<p>Posthumus waited in silence to hear the welcome sentence of his own
+death; and he resolved not to disclose to the king that he had saved his
+life in the battle, lest that should move Cymbeline to pardon him.</p>
+
+<p>Lucius, the Roman general, who had taken Imogen under his protection as
+his page, was the first (as has been before said) who spoke to the king.
+He was a man of high courage and noble dignity, and this was his speech
+to the king:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I hear you take no ransom for your prisoners, but doom them all to
+death: I am a Roman, and with a Roman heart will suffer death. But there
+is one thing for which I would entreat." Then bringing Imogen before the
+king, he said, "This boy is a Briton born. Let him be ransomed. He is my
+page. Never master had a page so kind, so duteous, so diligent on all
+occasions, so true, so nurse-like. He hath done no Briton wrong, though
+he hath served a Roman. Save him, if you spare no one beside."</p>
+
+<p>Cymbeline looked earnestly on his daughter Imogen. He knew her not in
+that disguise; but it seemed that all-powerful Nature spake in his
+heart, for he said, "I have surely seen him, his face appears familiar
+to me. I know not why or wherefore I say, Live, boy; but I give you your
+life, and ask of me what boon you will, and I will grant it you. Yea,
+even though it be the life of the noblest prisoner I have."</p>
+
+<p>"I humbly thank your highness," said Imogen.</p>
+
+<p>What was then called granting a boon was the same as a promise to give
+any one thing, whatever it might be, that the person on whom that favour
+was conferred chose to ask for. They all were attentive to hear what
+thing the page would ask for; and Lucius her master said to her, "I do
+not beg my life, good lad, but I know that is what you will ask
+for."&mdash;"No, no, alas!" said Imogen, "I have other work in hand, good
+master; your life I cannot ask for."</p>
+
+<p>This seeming want of gratitude in the boy astonished the Roman general.</p>
+
+<p>Imogen then, fixing her eye on Iachimo, demanded no other boon than
+this: that Iachimo should be made to confess whence he had the ring he
+wore on his finger.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Cymbeline granted her this boon, and threatened Iachimo with the torture
+if he did not confess how he came by the diamond ring on his finger.</p>
+
+<p>Iachimo then made a full acknowledgment of all his villany, telling, as
+has been before related, the whole story of his wager with Posthumus,
+and how he had succeeded in imposing upon his credulity.</p>
+
+<p>What Posthumus felt at hearing this proof of the innocence of his lady
+cannot be expressed. He instantly came forward, and confessed to
+Cymbeline the cruel sentence which he had enjoined Pisanio to execute
+upon the princess; exclaiming wildly, "O Imogen, my queen, my life, my
+wife! O Imogen, Imogen, Imogen!"</p>
+
+<p>Imogen could not see her beloved husband in this distress without
+discovering herself, to the unutterable joy of Posthumus, who was thus
+relieved from a weight of guilt and woe, and restored to the good graces
+of the dear lady he had so cruelly treated.</p>
+
+<p>Cymbeline, almost as much overwhelmed as he with joy, at finding his
+lost daughter so strangely recovered, received her to her former place
+in his fatherly affection, and not only gave her husband Posthumus his
+life, but consented to acknowledge him for his son-in-law.</p>
+
+<p>Bellarius chose this time of joy and reconciliation to make his
+confession. He presented Polydore and Cadwal to the king, telling him
+they were his two lost sons, Guiderius and Arviragus.</p>
+
+<p>Cymbeline forgave old Bellarius; for who could think of punishments at a
+season of such universal happiness? To find his daughter living, and his
+lost sons in the persons of his young deliverers, that he had seen so
+bravely fight in his defence, was unlooked-for joy indeed!</p>
+
+<p>Imogen was now at leisure to perform good services for her late master,
+the Roman general Lucius, whose life the king her father readily granted
+at her request; and by the mediation of the same Lucius a peace was
+concluded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> between the Romans and the Britons, which was kept inviolate
+many years.</p>
+
+<p>How Cymbeline's wicked queen, through despair of bringing her projects
+to pass, and touched with remorse of conscience, sickened and died,
+having first lived to see her foolish son Cloten slain in a quarrel
+which he had provoked, are events too tragical to interrupt this happy
+conclusion by more than merely touching upon. It is sufficient that all
+were made happy who were deserving; and even the treacherous Iachimo, in
+consideration of his villany having missed its final aim, was dismissed
+without punishment.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img06.jpg"  alt="Chapter endpiece" title="" /></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img15.jpg"  width="600" height="420" alt="KING LEAR" title="" /></div>
+
+
+
+<p>Lear, King of Britain, had three daughters; Goneril, wife to the Duke of
+Albany; Regan, wife to the Duke of Cornwall; and Cordelia, a young maid,
+for whose love the King of France and Duke of Burgundy were joint
+suitors, and were at this time making stay for that purpose in the court
+of Lear.</p>
+
+<p><a name="CORDELIA" id="CORDELIA"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter">
+             <a href="images/img007.jpg"><img
+             src="images/img007-tb.jpg" width="299" height="500"
+             alt="CORDELIA" /></a><br />
+         <b>CORDELIA</b>
+    </div>
+
+
+<p>The old king, worn out with age and the fatigues of government, he being
+more than fourscore years old, determined to take no further part in
+state affairs, but to leave the management to younger strengths, that he
+might have time to prepare for death, which must at no long period
+ensue. With this intent he called his three daughters to him, to know
+from their own lips which of them loved him best, that he might part his
+kingdom among them in such proportions as their affection for him should
+seem to deserve.</p>
+
+<p>Goneril, the eldest, declared that she loved her father more than words
+could give out, that he was dearer to her than the light of her own
+eyes, dearer than life and liberty, with a deal of such professing
+stuff, which is easy to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> counterfeit where there is no real love, only a
+few fine words delivered with confidence being wanted in that case. The
+king, delighted to hear from her own mouth this assurance of her love,
+and thinking truly that her heart went with it, in a fit of fatherly
+fondness bestowed upon her and her husband one third of his ample
+kingdom.</p>
+
+<p>Then calling to him his second daughter, he demanded what she had to
+say. Regan, who was made of the same hollow metal as her sister, was not
+a whit behind in her professions, but rather declared that what her
+sister had spoken came short of the love which she professed to bear for
+his highness; insomuch that she found all other joys dead, in comparison
+with the pleasure which she took in the love of her dear king and
+father.</p>
+
+<p>Lear blessed himself in having such loving children, as he thought; and
+could do no less, after the handsome assurances which Regan had made,
+than bestow a third of his kingdom upon her and her husband, equal in
+size to that which he had already given away to Goneril.</p>
+
+<p>Then turning to his youngest daughter Cordelia, whom he called his joy,
+he asked what she had to say, thinking no doubt that she would glad his
+ears with the same loving speeches which her sisters had uttered, or
+rather that her expressions would be so much stronger than theirs, as
+she had always been his darling, and favoured by him above either of
+them. But Cordelia, disgusted with the flattery of her sisters, whose
+hearts she knew were far from their lips, and seeing that all their
+coaxing speeches were only intended to wheedle the old king out of his
+dominions, that they and their husbands might reign in his lifetime,
+made no other reply but this,&mdash;that she loved his majesty according to
+her duty, neither more nor less.</p>
+
+<p>The king, shocked with this appearance of ingratitude in his favourite
+child, desired her to consider her words, and to mend her speech, lest
+it should mar her fortunes.</p>
+
+<p>Cordelia then told her father, that he was her father,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> that he had
+given her breeding, and loved her; that she returned those duties back
+as was most fit, and did obey him, love him, and most honour him. But
+that she could not frame her mouth to such large speeches as her sisters
+had done, or promise to love nothing else in the world. Why had her
+sisters husbands, if (as they said) they had no love for anything but
+their father? If she should ever wed, she was sure the lord to whom she
+gave her hand would want half her love, half of her care and duty; she
+should never marry like her sisters, to love her father all.</p>
+
+<p>Cordelia, who in earnest loved her old father even almost as
+extravagantly as her sisters pretended to do, would have plainly told
+him so at any other time, in more daughter-like and loving terms, and
+without these qualifications, which did indeed sound a little
+ungracious; but after the crafty flattering speeches of her sisters,
+which she had seen drawn such extravagant rewards, she thought the
+handsomest thing she could do was to love and be silent. This put her
+affection out of suspicion of mercenary ends, and showed that she loved,
+but not for gain; and that her professions, the less ostentatious they
+were, had so much the more of truth and sincerity than her sisters'.</p>
+
+<p>This plainness of speech, which Lear called pride, so enraged the old
+monarch&mdash;who in his best of times always showed much of spleen and
+rashness, and in whom the dotage incident to old age had so clouded over
+his reason, that he could not discern truth from flattery, nor a gay
+painted speech from words that came from the heart&mdash;that in a fury of
+resentment he retracted the third part of his kingdom which yet
+remained, and which he had reserved for Cordelia, and gave it away from
+her, sharing it equally between her two sisters and their husbands, the
+Dukes of Albany and Cornwall; whom he now called to him, and in presence
+of all his courtiers bestowing a coronet between them, invested them
+jointly with all the power, revenue, and execution of government, only
+retaining to himself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> the name of king; all the rest of royalty he
+resigned; with this reservation, that himself, with a hundred knights
+for his attendants, was to be maintained by monthly course in each of
+his daughters' palaces in turn.</p>
+
+<p>So preposterous a disposal of his kingdom, so little guided by reason,
+and so much by passion, filled all his courtiers with astonishment and
+sorrow; but none of them had the courage to interpose between this
+incensed king and his wrath, except the Earl of Kent, who was beginning
+to speak a good word for Cordelia, when the passionate Lear on pain of
+death commanded him to desist; but the good Kent was not so to be
+repelled. He had been ever loyal to Lear, whom he had honoured as a
+king, loved as a father, followed as a master; and he had never esteemed
+his life further than as a pawn to wage against his royal master's
+enemies, nor feared to lose it when Lear's safety was the motive; nor
+now that Lear was most his own enemy, did this faithful servant of the
+king forget his old principles, but manfully opposed Lear, to do Lear
+good; and was unmannerly only because Lear was mad. He had been a most
+faithful counsellor in times past to the king, and he besought him now,
+that he would see with his eyes (as he had done in many weighty
+matters), and go by his advice still; and in his best consideration
+recall this hideous rashness: for he would answer with his life, his
+judgment that Lear's youngest daughter did not love him least, nor were
+those empty-hearted whose low sound gave no token of hollowness. When
+power bowed to flattery, honour was bound to plainness. For Lear's
+threats, what could he do to him, whose life was already at his service?
+That should not hinder duty from speaking.</p>
+
+<p>The honest freedom of this good Earl of Kent only stirred up the king's
+wrath the more, and like a frantic patient who kills his physician, and
+loves his mortal disease, he banished this true servant, and allotted
+him but five days to make his preparations for departure; but if on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>
+sixth his hated person was found within the realm of Britain, that
+moment was to be his death. And Kent bade farewell to the king, and
+said, that since he chose to show himself in such fashion, it was but
+banishment to stay there; and before he went, he recommended Cordelia to
+the protection of the gods, the maid who had so rightly thought, and so
+discreetly spoken; and only wished that her sisters' large speeches
+might be answered with deeds of love; and then he went, as he said, to
+shape his old course to a new country.</p>
+
+<p>The King of France and Duke of Burgundy were now called in to hear the
+determination of Lear about his youngest daughter, and to know whether
+they would persist in their courtship to Cordelia, now that she was
+under her father's displeasure, and had no fortune but her own person to
+recommend her: and the Duke of Burgundy declined the match, and would
+not take her to wife upon such conditions; but the King of France,
+understanding what the nature of the fault had been which had lost her
+the love of her father, that it was only a tardiness of speech, and the
+not being able to frame her tongue to flattery like her sisters, took
+this young maid by the hand, and saying that her virtues were a dowry
+above a kingdom, bade Cordelia to take farewell of her sisters and of
+her father, though he had been unkind, and she should go with him, and
+be queen of him and of fair France, and reign over fairer possessions
+than her sisters: and he called the Duke of Burgundy in contempt a
+waterish duke, because his love for this young maid had in a moment run
+all away like water.</p>
+
+<p>Then Cordelia with weeping eyes took leave of her sisters, and besought
+them to love their father well, and make good their professions: and
+they sullenly told her not to prescribe to them, for they knew their
+duty; but to strive to content her husband, who had taken her (as they
+tauntingly expressed it) as Fortune's alms. And Cordelia<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> with a heavy
+heart departed, for she knew the cunning of her sisters, and she wished
+her father in better hands than she was about to leave him in.</p>
+
+<p>Cordelia was no sooner gone, than the devilish dispositions of her
+sisters began to show themselves in their true colours. Even before the
+expiration of the first month, which Lear was to spend by agreement with
+his eldest daughter Goneril, the old king began to find out the
+difference between promises and performances. This wretch having got
+from her father all that he had to bestow, even to the giving away of
+the crown from off his head, began to grudge even those small remnants
+of royalty which the old man had reserved to himself, to please his
+fancy with the idea of being still a king. She could not bear to see him
+and his hundred knights. Every time she met her father, she put on a
+frowning countenance; and when the old man wanted to speak with her, she
+would feign sickness, or anything to get rid of the sight of him; for it
+was plain that she esteemed his old age a useless burden, and his
+attendants an unnecessary expense: not only she herself slackened in her
+expressions of duty to the king, but by her example, and (it is to be
+feared) not without her private instructions, her very servants affected
+to treat him with neglect, and would either refuse to obey his orders,
+or still more contemptuously pretend not to hear them. Lear could not
+but perceive this alteration in the behaviour of his daughter, but he
+shut his eyes against it as long as he could, as people commonly are
+unwilling to believe the unpleasant consequences which their own
+mistakes and obstinacy have brought upon them.</p>
+
+<p>True love and fidelity are no more to be estranged by <i>ill</i>, than
+falsehood and hollow-heartedness can be conciliated by <i>good</i>, <i>usage</i>.
+This eminently appears in the instance of the good Earl of Kent, who,
+though banished by Lear, and his life made forfeit if he were found in
+Britain, chose to stay and abide all consequences, as long<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> as there was
+a chance of his being useful to the king his master. See to what mean
+shifts and disguises poor loyalty is forced to submit sometimes; yet it
+counts nothing base or unworthy, so as it can but do service where it
+owes an obligation!</p>
+
+<p>In the disguise of a serving man, all his greatness and pomp laid aside,
+this good earl proffered his services to the king, who, not knowing him
+to be Kent in that disguise, but pleased with a certain plainness, or
+rather bluntness in his answers, which the earl put on (so different
+from that smooth oily flattery which he had so much reason to be sick
+of, having found the effects not answerable in his daughter), a bargain
+was quickly struck, and Lear took Kent into his service by the name of
+Caius, as he called himself, never suspecting him to be his once great
+favourite, the high and mighty Earl of Kent.</p>
+
+<p>This Caius quickly found means to show his fidelity and love to his
+royal master: for Goneril's steward that same day behaving in a
+disrespectful manner to Lear, and giving him saucy looks and language,
+as no doubt he was secretly encouraged to do by his mistress, Caius, not
+enduring to hear so open an affront put upon his majesty, made no more
+ado but presently tripped up his heels, and laid the unmannerly slave in
+the kennel; for which friendly service Lear became more and more
+attached to him.</p>
+
+<p>Nor was Kent the only friend Lear had. In his degree, and as far as so
+insignificant a personage could show his love, the poor fool, or jester,
+that had been of his palace while Lear had a palace, as it was the
+custom of kings and great personages at that time to keep a fool (as he
+was called) to make them sport after serious business: this poor fool
+clung to Lear after he had given away his crown, and by his witty
+sayings would keep up his good humour, though he could not refrain
+sometimes from jeering at his master for his imprudence in uncrowning
+himself, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> giving all away to his daughters; at which time, as he
+rhymingly expressed it, these daughters</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For sudden joy did weep</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And he for sorrow sung,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That such a king should play bo-peep</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And go the fools among.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>And in such wild sayings, and scraps of songs, of which he had plenty,
+this pleasant honest fool poured out his heart even in the presence of
+Goneril herself, in many a bitter taunt and jest which cut to the quick:
+such as comparing the king to the hedge-sparrow, who feeds the young of
+the cuckoo till they grow old enough, and then has its head bit off for
+its pains; and saying, that an ass may know when the cart draws the
+horse (meaning that Lear's daughters, that ought to go behind, now
+ranked before their father); and that Lear was no longer Lear, but the
+shadow of Lear: for which free speeches he was once or twice threatened
+to be whipped.</p>
+
+<p>The coolness and falling off of respect which Lear had begun to
+perceive, were not all which this foolish fond father was to suffer from
+his unworthy daughter: she now plainly told him that his staying in her
+palace was inconvenient so long as he insisted upon keeping up an
+establishment of a hundred knights; that this establishment was useless
+and expensive, and only served to fill her court with riot and feasting;
+and she prayed him that he would lessen their number, and keep none but
+old men about him, such as himself, and fitting his age.</p>
+
+<p>Lear at first could not believe his eyes or ears, nor that it was his
+daughter who spoke so unkindly. He could not believe that she who had
+received a crown from him could seek to cut off his train, and grudge
+him the respect due to his old age. But she, persisting in her undutiful
+demand, the old man's rage was so excited, that he called her a detested
+kite, and said that she spoke an untruth; and so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> indeed she did, for
+the hundred knights were all men of choice behaviour and sobriety of
+manners, skilled in all particulars of duty, and not given to rioting or
+feasting, as she said. And he bid his horses to be prepared, for he
+would go to his other daughter, Regan, he and his hundred knights; and
+he spoke of ingratitude, and said it was a marble-hearted devil, and
+showed more hideous in a child than the sea-monster. And he cursed his
+eldest daughter Goneril so as was terrible to hear; praying that she
+might never have a child, or if she had, that it might live to return
+that scorn and contempt upon her which she had shown to him: that she
+might feel how sharper than a serpent's tooth it was to have a thankless
+child. And Goneril's husband, the Duke of Albany, beginning to excuse
+himself for any share which Lear might suppose he had in the unkindness,
+Lear would not hear him out, but in a rage ordered his horses to be
+saddled, and set out with his followers for the abode of Regan, his
+other daughter. And Lear thought to himself how small the fault of
+Cordelia (if it was a fault) now appeared, in comparison with her
+sister's, and he wept; and then he was ashamed that such a creature as
+Goneril should have so much power over his manhood as to make him weep.</p>
+
+<p>Regan and her husband were keeping their court in great pomp and state
+at their palace; and Lear despatched his servant Caius with letters to
+his daughter, that she might be prepared for his reception, while he and
+his train followed after. But it seems that Goneril had been before-hand
+with him, sending letters also to Regan, accusing her father of
+waywardness and ill humours, and advising her not to receive so great a
+train as he was bringing with him. This messenger arrived at the same
+time with Caius, and Caius and he met: and who should it be but Caius's
+old enemy the steward, whom he had formerly tripped up by the heels for
+his saucy behaviour to Lear. Caius not liking the fellow's look, and
+suspecting what he came for, began<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> to revile him, and challenged him to
+fight, which the fellow refusing, Caius, in a fit of honest passion,
+beat him soundly, as such a mischief-maker and carrier of wicked
+messages deserved; which coming to the ears of Regan and her husband,
+they ordered Caius to be put in stocks, though he was a messenger from
+the king her father, and in that character demanded the highest respect:
+so that the first thing the king saw when he entered the castle, was his
+faithful servant Caius sitting in that disgraceful situation.</p>
+
+<p>This was but a bad omen of the reception which he was to expect; but a
+worse followed, when, upon inquiry for his daughter and her husband, he
+was told they were weary with travelling all night, and could not see
+him; and when lastly, upon his insisting in a positive and angry manner
+to see them, they came to greet him, whom should he see in their company
+but the hated Goneril, who had come to tell her own story, and set her
+sister against the king her father!</p>
+
+<p>This sight much moved the old man, and still more to see Regan take her
+by the hand; and he asked Goneril if she was not ashamed to look upon
+his old white beard. And Regan advised him to go home again with
+Goneril, and live with her peaceably, dismissing half of his attendants,
+and to ask her forgiveness; for he was old and wanted discretion, and
+must be ruled and led by persons that had more discretion than himself.
+And Lear showed how preposterous that would sound, if he were to go down
+on his knees, and beg of his own daughter for food and raiment, and he
+argued against such an unnatural dependence, declaring his resolution
+never to return with her, but to stay where he was with Regan, he and
+his hundred knights; for he said that she had not forgot the half of the
+kingdom which he had endowed her with, and that her eyes were not fierce
+like Goneril's, but mild and kind. And he said that rather than return
+to Goneril, with half his train cut off,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> he would go over to France,
+and beg a wretched pension of the king there, who had married his
+youngest daughter without a portion.</p>
+
+<p>But he was mistaken in expecting kinder treatment of Regan than he had
+experienced from her sister Goneril. As if willing to outdo her sister
+in unfilial behaviour, she declared that she thought fifty knights too
+many to wait upon him: that five-and-twenty were enough. Then Lear, nigh
+heart-broken, turned to Goneril and said that he would go back with her,
+for her fifty doubled five-and-twenty, and so her love was twice as much
+as Regan's. But Goneril excused herself, and said, what need of so many
+as five-and-twenty? or even ten? or five? when he might be waited upon
+by her servants, or her sister's servants? So these two wicked
+daughters, as if they strove to exceed each other in cruelty to their
+old father, who had been so good to them, by little and little would
+have abated him of all his train, all respect (little enough for him
+that once commanded a kingdom), which was left him to show that he had
+once been a king! Not that a splendid train is essential to happiness,
+but from a king to a beggar is a hard change, from commanding millions
+to be without one attendant; and it was the ingratitude in his
+daughters' denying it, more than what he would suffer by the want of it,
+which pierced this poor king to the heart; insomuch, that with this
+double ill-usage, and vexation for having so foolishly given away a
+kingdom, his wits began to be unsettled, and while he said he knew not
+what, he vowed revenge against those unnatural hags, and to make
+examples of them that should be a terror to the earth!</p>
+
+<p>While he was thus idly threatening what his weak arm could never
+execute, night came on, and a loud storm of thunder and lightning with
+rain; and his daughters still persisting in their resolution not to
+admit his followers, he called for his horses, and chose rather to
+encounter the utmost fury of the storm abroad, than stay under the same<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>
+roof with these ungrateful daughters: and they, saying that the injuries
+which wilful men procure to themselves are their just punishment,
+suffered him to go in that condition and shut their doors upon him.</p>
+
+<p>The winds were high, and the rain and storm increased, when the old man
+sallied forth to combat with the elements, less sharp than his
+daughters' unkindness. For many miles about there was scarce a bush; and
+there upon a heath, exposed to the fury of the storm in a dark night,
+did King Lear wander out, and defy the winds and the thunder; and he bid
+the winds to blow the earth into the sea, or swell the waves of the sea
+till they drowned the earth, that no token might remain of any such
+ungrateful animal as man. The old king was now left with no other
+companion than the poor fool, who still abided with him, with his merry
+conceits striving to outjest misfortune, saying it was but a naughty
+night to swim in, and truly the king had better go in and ask his
+daughter's blessing:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But he that has a little tiny wit.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">With heigh ho, the wind and the rain!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Must make content with his fortunes fit.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Though the rain it raineth every day:</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>and swearing it was a brave night to cool a lady's pride.</p>
+
+<p>Thus poorly accompanied, this once great monarch was found by his
+ever-faithful servant the good Earl of Kent, now transformed to Caius,
+who ever followed close at his side, though the king did not know him to
+be the earl; and he said, "Alas! sir, are you here? creatures that love
+night, love not such nights as these. This dreadful storm has driven the
+beasts to their hiding places. Man's nature cannot endure the affliction
+or the fear." And Lear rebuked him and said, these lesser evils were not
+felt, where a greater malady was fixed. When the mind is at ease, the
+body has leisure to be delicate, but the tempest in his mind did take
+all feeling else from his senses, but of that which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> beat at his
+heart. And he spoke of filial ingratitude, and said it was all one as if
+the mouth should tear the hand for lifting food to it; for parents were
+hands and food and everything to children.</p>
+
+<p><a name="KING_LEAR" id="KING_LEAR"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter">
+             <img   src="images/img16.jpg" width="311" height="500"
+             alt="THERE UPON A HEATH" /><br />
+         <b>THERE UPON A HEATH, EXPOSED TO THE FURY OF THE STORM<br />ON A
+DARK NIGHT, DID KING LEAR WANDER OUT</b>
+    </div>
+
+
+<p>But the good Caius still persisting in his entreaties that the king
+would not stay out in the open air, at last persuaded him to enter a
+little wretched hovel which stood upon the heath, where the fool first
+entering, suddenly ran back terrified, saying that he had seen a spirit.
+But upon examination this spirit proved to be nothing more than a poor
+Bedlam beggar, who had crept into this deserted hovel for shelter, and
+with his talk about devils frighted the fool, one of those poor lunatics
+who are either mad, or feign to be so, the better to extort charity from
+the compassionate country people, who go about the country, calling
+themselves poor Tom and poor Turlygood, saying, "Who gives anything to
+poor Tom?" sticking pins and nails and sprigs of rosemary into their
+arms to make them bleed; and with such horrible actions, partly by
+prayers, and partly with lunatic curses, they move or terrify the
+ignorant country-folks into giving them alms. This poor fellow was such
+a one; and the king seeing him in so wretched a plight, with nothing but
+a blanket about his loins to cover his nakedness, could not be persuaded
+but that the fellow was some father who had given all away to his
+daughters, and brought himself to that pass: for nothing he thought
+could bring a man to such wretchedness but the having unkind daughters.</p>
+
+<p>And from this and many such wild speeches which he uttered, the good
+Caius plainly perceived that he was not in his perfect mind, but that
+his daughters' ill usage had really made him go mad. And now the loyalty
+of this worthy Earl of Kent showed itself in more essential services
+than he had hitherto found opportunity to perform. For with the
+assistance of some of the king's attendants who remained loyal, he had
+the person of his royal master re<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>moved at daybreak to the castle of
+Dover, where his own friends and influence, as Earl of Kent, chiefly
+lay; and himself embarking for France, hastened to the court of
+Cordelia, and did there in such moving terms represent the pitiful
+condition of her royal father, and set out in such lively colours the
+inhumanity of her sisters, that this good and loving child with many
+tears besought the king her husband that he would give her leave to
+embark for England, with a sufficient power to subdue these cruel
+daughters and their husbands, and restore the old king her father to his
+throne; which being granted, she set forth, and with a royal army landed
+at Dover.</p>
+
+<p>Lear having by some chance escaped from the guardians which the good
+Earl of Kent had put over him to take care of him in his lunacy, was
+found by some of Cordelia's train, wandering about the fields near
+Dover, in a pitiable condition, stark mad, and singing aloud to himself,
+with a crown upon his head which he had made of straw, and nettles, and
+other wild weeds that he had picked up in the corn-fields. By the advice
+of the physicians, Cordelia, though earnestly desirous of seeing her
+father, was prevailed upon to put off the meeting, till by sleep and the
+operation of herbs which they gave him, he should be restored to greater
+composure. By the aid of these skilful physicians, to whom Cordelia
+promised all her gold and jewels for the recovery of the old king, Lear
+was soon in a condition to see his daughter.</p>
+
+<p>A tender sight it was to see the meeting between this father and
+daughter; to see the struggles between the joy of this poor old king at
+beholding again his once darling child, and the shame at receiving such
+filial kindness from her whom he had cast off for so small a fault in
+his displeasure; both these passions struggling with the remains of his
+malady, which in his half-crazed brain sometimes made him that he scarce
+remembered where he was, or who it was that so kindly kissed him and
+spoke to him: and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> then he would beg the standers-by not to laugh at
+him, if he were mistaken in thinking this lady to be his daughter
+Cordelia! And then to see him fall on his knees to beg pardon of his
+child; and she, good lady, kneeling all the while to ask a blessing of
+him, and telling him that it did not become him to kneel, but it was her
+duty, for she was his child, his true and very child Cordelia! and she
+kissed him (as she said) to kiss away all her sisters' unkindness, and
+said that they might be ashamed of themselves, to turn their old kind
+father with his white beard out into the cold air, when her enemy's dog,
+though it had bit her (as she prettily expressed it), should have stayed
+by her fire such a night as that, and warmed himself. And she told her
+father how she had come from France with purpose to bring him
+assistance; and he said that she must forget and forgive, for he was old
+and foolish, and did not know what he did; but that to be sure she had
+great cause not to love him, but her sisters had none. And Cordelia said
+that she had no cause, no more than they had.</p>
+
+<p>So we will leave this old king in the protection of his dutiful and
+loving child, where, by the help of sleep and medicine, she and her
+physicians at length succeeded in winding up the untuned and jarring
+senses which the cruelty of his other daughters had so violently shaken.
+Let us return to say a word or two about those cruel daughters.</p>
+
+<p>These monsters of ingratitude, who had been so false to their old
+father, could not be expected to prove more faithful to their own
+husbands. They soon grew tired of paying even the appearance of duty and
+affection, and in an open way showed they had fixed their loves upon
+another. It happened that the object of their guilty loves was the same.
+It was Edmund, a natural son of the late Earl of Gloucester, who by his
+treacheries had succeeded in disinheriting his brother Edgar, the lawful
+heir, from his earldom, and by his wicked practices was now earl
+himself; a wicked man, and a fit object for the love of such wicked
+creatures<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> as Goneril and Regan. It falling out about this time that the
+Duke of Cornwall, Regan's husband, died, Regan immediately declared her
+intention of wedding this Earl of Gloucester, which rousing the jealousy
+of her sister, to whom as well as to Regan this wicked earl had at
+sundry times professed love, Goneril found means to make away with her
+sister by poison; but being detected in her practices, and imprisoned by
+her husband, the Duke of Albany, for this deed, and for her guilty
+passion for the earl which had come to his ears, she, in a fit of
+disappointed love and rage, shortly put an end to her own life. Thus the
+justice of Heaven at last overtook these wicked daughters.</p>
+
+<p>While the eyes of all men were upon this event, admiring the justice
+displayed in their deserved deaths, the same eyes were suddenly taken
+off from this sight to admire at the mysterious ways of the same power
+in the melancholy fate of the young and virtuous daughter, the Lady
+Cordelia, whose good deeds did seem to deserve a more fortunate
+conclusion: but it is an awful truth, that innocence and piety are not
+always successful in this world. The forces which Goneril and Regan had
+sent out under the command of the bad Earl of Gloucester were
+victorious, and Cordelia, by the practices of this wicked earl, who did
+not like that any should stand between him and the throne, ended her
+life in prison. Thus, Heaven took this innocent lady to itself in her
+young years, after showing her to the world an illustrious example of
+filial duty. Lear did not long survive this kind child.</p>
+
+<p>Before he died, the good Earl of Kent, who had still attended his old
+master's steps from the first of his daughters' ill usage to this sad
+period of his decay, tried to make him understand that it was he who had
+followed him under the name of Caius; but Lear's care-crazed brain at
+that time could not comprehend how that could be, or how Kent and Caius
+could be the same person: so Kent thought it needless to trouble him
+with explanations at such a time;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> and Lear soon after expiring, this
+faithful servant to the king, between age and grief for his old master's
+vexations, soon followed him to the grave.</p>
+
+<p>How the judgment of Heaven overtook the bad Earl of Gloucester, whose
+treasons were discovered, and himself slain in single combat with his
+brother, the lawful earl; and how Goneril's husband, the Duke of Albany,
+who was innocent of the death of Cordelia, and had never encouraged his
+lady in her wicked proceedings against her father, ascended the throne
+of Britain after the death of Lear, is needless here to narrate; Lear
+and his Three Daughters being dead, whose adventures alone concern our
+story.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img17.jpg"  alt="Chapter endpiece" title="" /></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img18.jpg"  width="600" height="342" alt="MACBETH" title="" /></div>
+
+
+
+<p>When Duncan the Meek reigned King of Scotland, there lived a great
+thane, or lord, called Macbeth. This Macbeth was a near kinsman to the
+king, and in great esteem at court for his valour and conduct in the
+wars; an example of which he had lately given, in defeating a rebel army
+assisted by the troops of Norway in terrible numbers.</p>
+
+
+<p><a name="STRANGE" id="STRANGE"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter">
+             <a href="images/img008.jpg"><img
+             src="images/img008-tb.jpg" width="292" height="500"
+             alt="THEY WERE STOPPED BY THE STRANGE APPEARANCE OF THREE
+FIGURES" /></a><br />
+         <b>THEY WERE STOPPED BY THE STRANGE APPEARANCE OF THREE
+FIGURES</b>
+    </div>
+
+
+<p>The two Scottish generals, Macbeth and Banquo, returning victorious from
+this great battle, their way lay over a blasted heath, where they were
+stopped by the strange appearance of three figures like women, except
+that they had beards, and their withered skins and wild attire made them
+look not like any earthly creatures. Macbeth first addressed them, when
+they, seemingly offended, laid each one her choppy finger upon her
+skinny lips, in token of silence; and the first of them saluted Macbeth
+with the title of thane of Glamis. The general was not a little startled
+to find himself known by such creatures; but how much more, when the
+second of them followed up that salute by giving him the title of thane
+of Cawdor, to which honour he had no pretensions; and again the third
+bid him "All hail! king that shalt be hereafter!" Such a prophetic
+greeting might well amaze him, who knew that while the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> king's sons
+lived he could not hope to succeed to the throne. Then turning to
+Banquo, they pronounced him, in a sort of riddling terms, to be <i>lesser
+than Macbeth and greater</i>! <i>not so happy, but much happier</i>! and
+prophesied that though he should never reign, yet his sons after him
+should be kings in Scotland. They then turned into air, and vanished: by
+which the generals knew them to be the weird sisters, or witches.</p>
+
+<p>While they stood pondering on the strangeness of this adventure, there
+arrived certain messengers from the king, who were empowered by him to
+confer upon Macbeth the dignity of thane of Cawdor: an event so
+miraculously corresponding with the prediction of the witches astonished
+Macbeth, and he stood wrapped in amazement, unable to make reply to the
+messengers; and in that point of time swelling hopes arose in his mind
+that the prediction of the third witch might in like manner have its
+accomplishment, and that he should one day reign king in Scotland.</p>
+
+<p>Turning to Banquo, he said, "Do you not hope that your children shall be
+kings, when what the witches promised to me has so wonderfully come to
+pass?" "That hope," answered the general, "might enkindle you to aim at
+the throne; but oftentimes these ministers of darkness tell us truths in
+little things, to betray us into deeds of greatest consequence."</p>
+
+<p>But the wicked suggestions of the witches had sunk too deep into the
+mind of Macbeth to allow him to attend to the warnings of the good
+Banquo. From that time he bent all his thoughts how to compass the
+throne of Scotland.</p>
+
+<p>Macbeth had a wife, to whom he communicated the strange prediction of
+the weird sisters, and its partial accomplishment. She was a bad,
+ambitious woman, and so as her husband and herself could arrive at
+greatness, she cared not much by what means. She spurred on the
+reluctant purpose of Macbeth, who felt compunction at the thoughts of
+blood, and did not cease to represent the murder of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> king as a step
+absolutely necessary to the fulfilment of the flattering prophecy.</p>
+
+<p>It happened at this time that the king, who out of his royal
+condescension would oftentimes visit his principal nobility upon
+gracious terms, came to Macbeth's house, attended by his two sons,
+Malcolm and Donalbain, and a numerous train of thanes and attendants,
+the more to honour Macbeth for the triumphal success of his wars.</p>
+
+<p>The castle of Macbeth was pleasantly situated, and the air about it was
+sweet and wholesome, which appeared by the nests which the martlet, or
+swallow, had built under all the jutting friezes and buttresses of the
+building, wherever it found a place of advantage; for where those birds
+most breed and haunt, the air is observed to be delicate. The king
+entered well-pleased with the place, and not less so with the attentions
+and respect of his honoured hostess, Lady Macbeth, who had the art of
+covering treacherous purposes with smiles; and could look like the
+innocent flower, while she was indeed the serpent under it.</p>
+
+<p>The king being tired with his journey, went early to bed, and in his
+state-room two grooms of his chamber (as was the custom) slept beside
+him. He had been unusually pleased with his reception, and had made
+presents before he retired to his principal officers; and among the
+rest, had sent a rich diamond to Lady Macbeth, greeting her by the name
+of his most kind hostess.</p>
+
+<p>Now was the middle of night, when over half the world nature seems dead,
+and wicked dreams abuse men's minds asleep, and none but the wolf and
+the murderer is abroad. This was the time when Lady Macbeth waked to
+plot the murder of the king. She would not have undertaken a deed so
+abhorrent to her sex, but that she feared her husband's nature, that it
+was too full of the milk of human kindness, to do a contrived murder.
+She knew him to be ambitious, but withal to be scrupulous, and not yet
+prepared for that height of crime which commonly in the end<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> accompanies
+inordinate ambition. She had won him to consent to the murder, but she
+doubted his resolution; and she feared that the natural tenderness of
+his disposition (more humane than her own) would come between, and
+defeat the purpose. So with her own hands armed with a dagger, she
+approached the king's bed; having taken care to ply the grooms of his
+chamber so with wine, that they slept intoxicated, and careless of their
+charge. There lay Duncan in a sound sleep after the fatigues of his
+journey, and as she viewed him earnestly, there was something in his
+face, as he slept, which resembled her own father; and she had not the
+courage to proceed.</p>
+
+<p>She returned to confer with her husband. His resolution had begun to
+stagger. He considered that there were strong reasons against the deed.
+In the first place, he was not only a subject, but a near kinsman to the
+king; and he had been his host and entertainer that day, whose duty, by
+the laws of hospitality, it was to shut the door against his murderers,
+not bear the knife himself. Then he considered how just and merciful a
+king this Duncan had been, how clear of offence to his subjects, how
+loving to his nobility, and in particular to him; that such kings are
+the peculiar care of Heaven, and their subjects doubly bound to revenge
+their deaths. Besides, by the favours of the king, Macbeth stood high in
+the opinion of all sorts of men, and how would those honours be stained
+by the reputation of so foul a murder!</p>
+
+<p>In these conflicts of the mind Lady Macbeth found her husband inclining
+to the better part, and resolving to proceed no further. But she being a
+woman not easily shaken from her evil purpose, began to pour in at his
+ears words which infused a portion of her own spirit into his mind,
+assigning reason upon reason why he should not shrink from what he had
+undertaken; how easy the deed was; how soon it would be over; and how
+the action of one short night would give to all their nights and days to
+come<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> sovereign sway and royalty! Then she threw contempt on his change
+of purpose, and accused him of fickleness and cowardice; and declared
+that she had given suck, and knew how tender it was to love the babe
+that milked her; but she would, while it was smiling in her face, have
+plucked it from her breast, and dashed its brains out, if she had so
+sworn to do it, as he had sworn to perform that murder. Then she added,
+how practicable it was to lay the guilt of the deed upon the drunken
+sleepy grooms. And with the valour of her tongue she so chastised his
+sluggish resolutions, that he once more summoned up courage to the
+bloody business.</p>
+
+<p>So, taking the dagger in his hand, he softly stole in the dark to the
+room where Duncan lay; and as he went, he thought he saw another dagger
+in the air, with the handle towards him, and on the blade and at the
+point of it drops of blood; but when he tried to grasp at it, it was
+nothing but air, a mere phantasm proceeding from his own hot and
+oppressed brain and the business he had in hand.</p>
+
+<p>Getting rid of this fear, he entered the king's room, whom he despatched
+with one stroke of his dagger. Just as he had done the murder, one of
+the grooms, who slept in the chamber, laughed in his sleep, and the
+other cried, "Murder," which woke them both; but they said a short
+prayer; one of them said, "God bless us!" and the other answered "Amen;"
+and addressed themselves to sleep again. Macbeth, who stood listening to
+them, tried to say, "Amen," when the fellow said, "God bless us!" but,
+though he had most need of a blessing, the word stuck in his throat, and
+he could not pronounce it.</p>
+
+<p>Again he thought he heard a voice which cried, "Sleep no more: Macbeth
+doth murder sleep, the innocent sleep, that nourishes life." Still it
+cried, "Sleep no more," to all the house. "Glamis hath murdered sleep,
+and therefore Cawdor shall sleep no more, Macbeth shall sleep no more."</p>
+
+<p>With such horrible imaginations Macbeth returned to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> his listening wife,
+who began to think he had failed of his purpose, and that the deed was
+somehow frustrated. He came in so distracted a state, that she
+reproached him with his want of firmness, and sent him to wash his hands
+of the blood which stained them, while she took his dagger, with purpose
+to stain the cheeks of the grooms with blood, to make it seem their
+guilt.</p>
+
+<p>Morning came, and with it the discovery of the murder, which could not
+be concealed; and though Macbeth and his lady made great show of grief,
+and the proofs against the grooms (the dagger being produced against
+them and their faces smeared with blood) were sufficiently strong, yet
+the entire suspicion fell upon Macbeth, whose inducements to such a deed
+were so much more forcible than such poor silly grooms could be supposed
+to have; and Duncan's two sons fled. Malcolm, the eldest, sought for
+refuge in the English court; and the youngest, Donalbain, made his
+escape to Ireland.</p>
+
+<p>The king's sons, who should have succeeded him, having thus vacated the
+throne, Macbeth as next heir was crowned king, and thus the prediction
+of the weird sisters was literally accomplished.</p>
+
+<p>Though placed so high, Macbeth and his queen could not forget the
+prophecy of the weird sisters, that, though Macbeth should be king, yet
+not his children, but the children of Banquo, should be kings after him.
+The thought of this, and that they had defiled their hands with blood,
+and done so great crimes, only to place the posterity of Banquo upon the
+throne, so rankled within them, that they determined to put to death
+both Banquo and his son, to make void the predictions of the weird
+sisters, which in their own case had been so remarkably brought to pass.</p>
+
+<p>For this purpose they made a great supper, to which they invited all the
+chief thanes; and, among the rest, with marks of particular respect,
+Banquo and his son Fleance were invited. The way by which Banquo was to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>
+pass to the palace at night was beset by murderers appointed by Macbeth,
+who stabbed Banquo; but in the scuffle Fleance escaped. From that
+Fleance descended a race of monarchs who afterwards filled the Scottish
+throne, ending with James the Sixth of Scotland and the First of
+England, under whom the two crowns of England and Scotland were united.</p>
+
+<p>At supper, the queen, whose manners were in the highest degree affable
+and royal, played the hostess with a gracefulness and attention which
+conciliated every one present, and Macbeth discoursed freely with his
+thanes and nobles, saying, that all that was honourable in the country
+was under his roof, if he had but his good friend Banquo present, whom
+yet he hoped he should rather have to chide for neglect, than to lament
+for any mischance. Just at these words the ghost of Banquo, whom he had
+caused to be murdered, entered the room and placed himself on the chair
+which Macbeth was about to occupy. Though Macbeth was a bold man, and
+one that could have faced the devil without trembling, at this horrible
+sight his cheeks turned white with fear, and he stood quite unmanned
+with his eyes fixed upon the ghost. His queen and all the nobles, who
+saw nothing, but perceived him gazing (as they thought) upon an empty
+chair, took it for a fit of distraction; and she reproached him,
+whispering that it was but the same fancy which made him see the dagger
+in the air, when he was about to kill Duncan. But Macbeth continued to
+see the ghost, and gave no heed to all they could say, while he
+addressed it with distracted words, yet so significant, that his queen,
+fearing the dreadful secret would be disclosed, in great haste dismissed
+the guests, excusing the infirmity of Macbeth as a disorder he was often
+troubled with.</p>
+
+<p>To such dreadful fancies Macbeth was subject. His queen and he had their
+sleeps afflicted with terrible dreams, and the blood of Banquo troubled
+them not more than the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> escape of Fleance, whom now they looked upon as
+father to a line of kings who should keep their posterity out of the
+throne. With these miserable thoughts they found no peace, and Macbeth
+determined once more to seek out the weird sisters, and know from them
+the worst.</p>
+
+<p>He sought them in a cave upon the heath, where they, who knew by
+foresight of his coming, were engaged in preparing their dreadful
+charms, by which they conjured up infernal spirits to reveal to them
+futurity. Their horrid ingredients were toads, bats, and serpents, the
+eye of a newt, and the tongue of a dog, the leg of a lizard, and the
+wing of the night-owl, the scale of a dragon, the tooth of a wolf, the
+maw of the ravenous salt-sea shark, the mummy of a witch, the root of
+the poisonous hemlock (this to have effect must be digged in the dark),
+the gall of a goat, and the liver of a Jew, with slips of the yew tree
+that roots itself in graves, and the finger of a dead child: all these
+were set on to boil in a great kettle, or cauldron, which, as fast as it
+grew too hot, was cooled with a baboon's blood: to these they poured in
+the blood of a sow that had eaten her young, and they threw into the
+flame the grease that had sweaten from a murderer's gibbet. By these
+charms they bound the infernal spirits to answer their questions.</p>
+
+<p>It was demanded of Macbeth, whether he would have his doubts resolved by
+them, or by their masters, the spirits. He, nothing daunted by the
+dreadful ceremonies which he saw, boldly answered, "Where are they? let
+me see them." And they called the spirits, which were three. And the
+first arose in the likeness of an armed head, and he called Macbeth by
+name, and bid him beware of the thane of Fife; for which caution Macbeth
+thanked him; for Macbeth had entertained a jealousy of Macduff, the
+thane of Fife.</p>
+
+<p>And the second spirit arose in the likeness of a bloody child, and he
+called Macbeth by name, and bid him have no fear, but laugh to scorn the
+power of man, for none of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> woman born should have power to hurt him; and
+he advised him to be bloody, bold, and resolute. "Then live, Macduff!"
+cried the king; "what need I fear of thee? but yet I will make assurance
+doubly sure. Thou shalt not live; that I may tell pale-hearted Fear it
+lies, and sleep in spite of thunder."</p>
+
+<p>That spirit being dismissed, a third arose in the form of a child
+crowned, with a tree in his hand. He called Macbeth by name, and
+comforted him against conspiracies, saying, that he should never be
+vanquished, until the wood of Birnam to Dunsinane Hill should come
+against him. "Sweet bodements! good!" cried Macbeth; "who can unfix the
+forest, and move it from its earth-bound roots? I see I shall live the
+usual period of man's life, and not be cut off by a violent death. But
+my heart throbs to know one thing. Tell me, if your art can tell so
+much, if Banquo's issue shall ever reign in this kingdom?" Here the
+cauldron sank into the ground, and a noise of music was heard, and eight
+shadows, like kings, passed by Macbeth, and Banquo last, who bore a
+glass which showed the figures of many more, and Banquo all bloody
+smiled upon Macbeth, and pointed to them; by which Macbeth knew that
+these were the posterity of Banquo, who should reign after him in
+Scotland; and the witches, with a sound of soft music, and with dancing,
+making a show of duty and welcome to Macbeth, vanished. And from this
+time the thoughts of Macbeth were all bloody and dreadful.</p>
+
+<p>The first thing he heard when he got out of the witches' cave, was that
+Macduff, thane of Fife, had fled to England, to join the army which was
+forming against him under Malcolm, the eldest son of the late king, with
+intent to displace Macbeth, and set Malcolm, the right heir, upon the
+throne. Macbeth, stung with rage, set upon the castle of Macduff, and
+put his wife and children, whom the thane had left behind, to the sword,
+and extended the slaughter to all who claimed the least relationship to
+Macduff.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>These and such-like deeds alienated the minds of all his chief nobility
+from him. Such as could, fled to join with Malcolm and Macduff, who were
+now approaching with a powerful army, which they had raised in England;
+and the rest secretly wished success to their arms, though for fear of
+Macbeth they could take no active part. His recruits went on slowly.
+Everybody hated the tyrant; nobody loved or honoured him; but all
+suspected him, and he began to envy the condition of Duncan, whom he had
+murdered, who slept soundly in his grave, against whom treason had done
+its worst: steel nor poison, domestic malice nor foreign levies, could
+hurt him any longer.</p>
+
+<p>While these things were acting, the queen, who had been the sole partner
+in his wickedness, in whose bosom he could sometimes seek a momentary
+repose from those terrible dreams which afflicted them both nightly,
+died, it is supposed, by her own hands, unable to bear the remorse of
+guilt, and public hate; by which event he was left alone, without a soul
+to love or care for him, or a friend to whom he could confide his wicked
+purposes.</p>
+
+<p>He grew careless of life, and wished for death; but the near approach of
+Malcolm's army roused in him what remained of his ancient courage, and
+he determined to die (as he expressed it) "with armour on his back."
+Besides this, the hollow promises of the witches had filled him with a
+false confidence, and he remembered the sayings of the spirits, that
+none of woman born was to hurt him, and that he was never to be
+vanquished till Birnam wood should come to Dunsinane, which he thought
+could never be. So he shut himself up in his castle, whose impregnable
+strength was such as defied a siege: here he sullenly waited the
+approach of Malcolm. When, upon a day, there came a messenger to him,
+pale and shaking with fear, almost unable to report that which he had
+seen; for he averred, that as he stood upon his watch on the hill, he
+looked towards Birnam, and to his thinking the wood began to move! "Liar
+and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> slave!" cried Macbeth; "if thou speakest false, thou shalt hang
+alive upon the next tree, till famine end thee. If thy tale be true, I
+care not if thou dost as much by me;" for Macbeth now began to faint in
+resolution, and to doubt the equivocal speeches of the spirits. He was
+not to fear till Birnam wood should come to Dunsinane; and now a wood
+did move! "However," said he, "if this which he avouches be true, let us
+arm and out. There is no flying hence, nor staying here. I begin to be
+weary of the sun, and wish my life at an end." With these desperate
+speeches he sallied forth upon the besiegers, who had now come up to the
+castle.</p>
+
+<p>The strange appearance which had given the messenger an idea of a wood
+moving is easily solved. When the besieging army marched through the
+wood of Birnam, Malcolm, like a skilful general, instructed his soldiers
+to hew down every one a bough and bear it before him, by way of
+concealing the true numbers of his host. This marching of the soldiers
+with boughs had at a distance the appearance which had frightened the
+messenger. Thus were the words of the spirit brought to pass, in a sense
+different from that in which Macbeth had understood them, and one great
+hold of his confidence was gone.</p>
+
+<p>And now a severe skirmishing took place, in which Macbeth, though feebly
+supported by those who called themselves his friends, but in reality
+hated the tyrant and inclined to the party of Malcolm and Macduff, yet
+fought with the extreme of rage and valour, cutting to pieces all who
+were opposed to him, till he came to where Macduff was fighting. Seeing
+Macduff, and remembering the caution of the spirit who had counselled
+him to avoid Macduff, above all men, he would have turned, but Macduff,
+who had been seeking him through the whole fight, opposed his turning,
+and a fierce contest ensued; Macduff giving him many foul reproaches for
+the murder of his wife and children. Macbeth, whose soul was charged
+enough<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> with blood of that family already, would still have declined the
+combat; but Macduff still urged him to it, calling him tyrant, murderer,
+hell-hound, and villain.</p>
+
+<p>Then Macbeth remembered the words of the spirit, how none of woman born
+should hurt him; and smiling confidently he said to Macduff, "Thou
+losest thy labour, Macduff. As easily thou mayest impress the air with
+thy sword, as make me vulnerable. I bear a charmed life, which must not
+yield to one of woman born."</p>
+
+<p>"Despair thy charm," said Macduff, "and let that lying spirit whom thou
+hast served, tell thee, that Macduff was never born of woman, never as
+the ordinary manner of men is to be born, but was untimely taken from
+his mother."</p>
+
+<p>"Accursed be the tongue which tells me so," said the trembling Macbeth,
+who felt his last hold of confidence give way; "and let never man in
+future believe the lying equivocations of witches and juggling spirits,
+who deceive us in words which have double senses, and while they keep
+their promise literally, disappoint our hopes with a different meaning.
+I will not fight with thee."</p>
+
+<p>"Then live!" said the scornful Macduff; "we will have a show of thee, as
+men show monsters, and a painted board, on which shall be written, 'Here
+men may see the tyrant!'"</p>
+
+<p>"Never," said Macbeth, whose courage returned with despair; "I will not
+live to kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet, and to be baited
+with the curses of the rabble. Though Birnam wood be come to Dunsinane,
+and thou opposed to me, who wast never born of woman, yet will I try the
+last." With these frantic words he threw himself upon Macduff, who,
+after a severe struggle, in the end overcame him, and cutting off his
+head, made a present of it to the young and lawful king, Malcolm; who
+took upon him the government which, by the machinations of the usurper,
+he had so long been deprived of, and ascended the throne of Duncan the
+Meek, amid the acclamations of the nobles and the people.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img19.jpg"  width="600" height="447" alt="ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL" title="" /></div>
+
+
+<p>Bertram, Count of Rousillon, had newly come to his title and estate, by
+the death of his father. The King of France loved the father of Bertram,
+and when he heard of his death, he sent for his son to come immediately
+to his royal court in Paris, intending, for the friendship he bore the
+late count, to grace young Bertram with his especial favour and
+protection.</p>
+
+<p>Bertram was living with his mother, the widowed countess, when Lafeu, an
+old lord of the French court, came to conduct him to the king. The King
+of France was an absolute monarch, and the invitation to court was in
+the form of a royal mandate, or positive command, which no subject, of
+what high dignity soever, might disobey; therefore though the countess,
+in parting with this dear son, seemed a second time to bury her husband,
+whose loss she had so lately mourned, yet she dared not to keep him a
+single day, but gave instant orders for his departure. Lafeu, who came
+to fetch him, tried to comfort the countess for the loss of her late
+lord, and her son's sudden absence;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> and he said, in a courtier's
+flattering manner, that the king was so kind a prince, she would find in
+his majesty a husband, and that he would be a father to her son; meaning
+only, that the good king would befriend the fortunes of Bertram. Lafeu
+told the countess that the king had fallen into a sad malady, which was
+pronounced by his physicians to be incurable. The lady expressed great
+sorrow on hearing this account of the king's ill health, and said, she
+wished the father of Helena (a young gentlewoman who was present in
+attendance upon her) were living, for that she doubted not he could have
+cured his majesty of his disease. And she told Lafeu something of the
+history of Helena, saying she was the only daughter of the famous
+physician Gerard de Narbon, and that he had recommended his daughter to
+her care when he was dying, so that since his death she had taken Helena
+under her protection; then the countess praised the virtuous disposition
+and excellent qualities of Helena, saying she inherited these virtues
+from her worthy father. While she was speaking, Helena wept in sad and
+mournful silence, which made the countess gently reprove her for too
+much grieving for her father's death.</p>
+
+<p>Bertram now bade his mother farewell. The countess parted with this dear
+son with tears and many blessings, and commended him to the care of
+Lafeu, saying, "Good my lord, advise him, for he is an unseasoned
+courtier."</p>
+
+<p>Bertram's last words were spoken to Helena, but they were words of mere
+civility, wishing her happiness; and he concluded his short farewell to
+her with saying, "Be comfortable to my mother, your mistress, and make
+much of her."</p>
+
+<p>Helena had long loved Bertram, and when she wept in sad and mournful
+silence, the tears she shed were not for Gerard de Narbon. Helena loved
+her father, but in the present feeling of a deeper love, the object of
+which she was about to lose, she had forgotten the very form and
+features<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> of her dead father, her imagination presenting no image to her
+mind but Bertram's.</p>
+
+<p>Helena had long loved Bertram, yet she always remembered that he was the
+Count of Rousillon, descended from the most ancient family in France.
+She of humble birth. Her parents of no note at all. His ancestors all
+noble. And therefore she looked up to the high-born Bertram as to her
+master and to her dear lord, and dared not form any wish but to live his
+servant, and so living to die his vassal. So great the distance seemed
+to her between his height of dignity and her lowly fortunes, that she
+would say, "It were all one that I should love a bright particular star,
+and think to wed it, Bertram is so far above me."</p>
+
+<p>Bertram's absence filled her eyes with tears and her heart with sorrow;
+for though she loved without hope, yet it was a pretty comfort to her to
+see him every hour, and Helena would sit and look upon his dark eye, his
+arched brow, and the curls of his fine hair, till she seemed to draw his
+portrait on the tablet of her heart, that heart too capable of retaining
+the memory of every line in the features of that loved face.</p>
+
+<p>Gerard de Narbon, when he died, left her no other portion than some
+prescriptions of rare and well-proved virtue, which by deep study and
+long experience in medicine he had collected as sovereign and almost
+infallible remedies. Among the rest, there was one set down as an
+approved medicine for the disease under which Lafeu said the king at
+that time languished: and when Helena heard of the king's complaint,
+she, who till now had been so humble and so hopeless, formed an
+ambitious project in her mind to go herself to Paris, and undertake the
+cure of the king. But though Helena was the possessor of this choice
+prescription, it was unlikely, as the king as well as his physicians was
+of opinion that his disease was incurable, that they would give credit
+to a poor unlearned virgin, if she should offer to perform a cure. The
+firm hopes that Helena had of succeeding, if she might<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> be permitted to
+make the trial, seemed more than even her father's skill warranted,
+though he was the most famous physician of his time; for she felt a
+strong faith that this good medicine was sanctified by all the luckiest
+stars in heaven to be the legacy that should advance her fortune, even
+to the high dignity of being Count Rousillon's wife.</p>
+
+<p>Bertram had not been long gone, when the countess was informed by her
+steward, that he had overheard Helena talking to herself, and that he
+understood from some words she uttered, she was in love with Bertram,
+and thought of following him to Paris. The countess dismissed the
+steward with thanks, and desired him to tell Helena she wished to speak
+with her. What she had just heard of Helena brought the remembrance of
+days long past into the mind of the countess; those days probably when
+her love for Bertram's father first began; and she said to herself,
+"Even so it was with me when I was young. Love is a thorn that belongs
+to the rose of youth; for in the season of youth, if ever we are
+nature's children, these faults are ours, though then we think not they
+are faults."</p>
+
+<p>While the countess was thus meditating on the loving errors of her own
+youth, Helena entered, and she said to her, "Helena, you know I am a
+mother to you." Helena replied, "You are my honourable mistress." "You
+are my daughter," said the countess again: "I say I am your mother. Why
+do you start and look pale at my words?" With looks of alarm and
+confused thoughts, fearing the countess suspected her love, Helena still
+replied, "Pardon me, madam, you are not my mother; the Count Rousillon
+cannot be my brother, nor I your daughter." "Yet, Helena," said the
+countess, "you might be my daughter-in-law; and I am afraid that is what
+you mean to be, the words <i>mother</i> and <i>daughter</i> so disturb you.
+Helena, do you love my son?" "Good madam, pardon me," said the
+affrighted Helena. Again the countess repeated her ques<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>tion, "Do you
+love my son?" "Do not you love him, madam?" said Helena. The countess
+replied, "Give me not this evasive answer, Helena. Come, come, disclose
+the state of your affections, for your love has to the full appeared."
+Helena on her knees now owned her love, and with shame and terror
+implored the pardon of her noble mistress; and with words expressive of
+the sense she had of the inequality between their fortunes, she
+protested Bertram did not know she loved him, comparing her humble
+unaspiring love to a poor Indian, who adores the sun that looks upon his
+worshipper, but knows of him no more. The countess asked Helena if she
+had not lately an intent to go to Paris? Helena owned the design she had
+formed in her mind, when she heard Lafeu speak of the king's illness.
+"This was your motive for wishing to go to Paris," said the countess,
+"was it? Speak truly." Helena honestly answered, "My lord your son made
+me to think of this; else Paris, and the medicine, and the king, had
+from the conversation of my thoughts been absent then." The countess
+heard the whole of this confession without saying a word either of
+approval or of blame, but she strictly questioned Helena as to the
+probability of the medicine being useful to the king. She found that it
+was the most prized by Gerard de Narbon of all he possessed, and that he
+had given it to his daughter on his deathbed; and remembering the solemn
+promise she had made at that awful hour in regard to this young maid,
+whose destiny, and the life of the king himself, seemed to depend on the
+execution of a project (which though conceived by the fond suggestions
+of a loving maiden's thoughts, the countess knew not but it might be the
+unseen workings of Providence to bring to pass the recovery of the king,
+and to lay the foundation of the future fortunes of Gerard de Narbon's
+daughter), free leave she gave to Helena to pursue her own way, and
+generously furnished her with ample means and suitable attendants; and
+Helena set out for Paris with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> blessings of the countess, and her
+kindest wishes for her success.</p>
+
+<p>Helena arrived at Paris, and by the assistance of her friend the old
+Lord Lafeu, she obtained an audience of the king. She had still many
+difficulties to encounter, for the king was not easily prevailed on to
+try the medicine offered him by this fair young doctor. But she told him
+she was Gerard de Narbon's daughter (with whose fame the king was well
+acquainted), and she offered the precious medicine as the darling
+treasure which contained the essence of all her father's long experience
+and skill, and she boldly engaged to forfeit her life, if it failed to
+restore his majesty to perfect health in the space of two days. The king
+at length consented to try it, and in two days' time Helena was to lose
+her life if the king did not recover; but if she succeeded, he promised
+to give her the choice of any man throughout all France (the princes
+only excepted) whom she could like for a husband; the choice of a
+husband being the fee Helena demanded if she cured the king of his
+disease.</p>
+
+<p>Helena did not deceive herself in the hope she conceived of the efficacy
+of her father's medicine. Before two days were at an end, the king was
+restored to perfect health, and he assembled all the young noblemen of
+his court together, in order to confer the promised reward of a husband
+upon his fair physician; and he desired Helena to look round on this
+youthful parcel of noble bachelors, and choose her husband. Helena was
+not slow to make her choice, for among these young lords she saw the
+Count Rousillon, and turning to Bertram, she said, "This is the man. I
+dare not say, my lord, I take you, but I give me and my service ever
+whilst I live into your guiding power." "Why, then," said the king,
+"young Bertram, take her; she is your wife." Bertram did not hesitate to
+declare his dislike to this present of the king's of the self-offered
+Helena, who, he said, was a poor physician's daughter, bred at his
+father's charge, and now living a dependent on his mother's bounty.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>
+Helena heard him speak these words of rejection and of scorn, and she
+said to the king, "That you are well, my lord, I am glad. Let the rest
+go." But the king would not suffer his royal command to be so slighted;
+for the power of bestowing their nobles in marriage was one of the many
+privileges of the kings of France; and that same day Bertram was married
+to Helena, a forced and uneasy marriage to Bertram, and of no promising
+hope to the poor lady, who, though she gained the noble husband she had
+hazarded her life to obtain, seemed to have won but a splendid blank,
+her husband's love not being a gift in the power of the King of France
+to bestow.</p>
+
+<p>Helena was no sooner married, than she was desired by Bertram to apply
+to the king for him for leave of absence from court; and when she
+brought him the king's permission for his departure, Bertram told her
+that he was not prepared for this sudden marriage, it had much unsettled
+him, and therefore she must not wonder at the course he should pursue.
+If Helena wondered not, she grieved when she found it was his intention
+to leave her. He ordered her to go home to his mother. When Helena heard
+this unkind command, she replied, "Sir, I can nothing say to this, but
+that I am your most obedient servant, and shall ever with true
+observance seek to eke out that desert, wherein my homely stars have
+failed to equal my great fortunes." But this humble speech of Helena's
+did not at all move the haughty Bertram to pity his gentle wife, and he
+parted from her without even the common civility of a kind farewell.</p>
+
+<p>Back to the countess then Helena returned. She had accomplished the
+purport of her journey, she had preserved the life of the king, and she
+had wedded her heart's dear lord, the Count Rousillon; but she returned
+back a dejected lady to her noble mother-in-law, and as soon as she
+entered the house she received a letter from Bertram which almost broke
+her heart.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The good countess received her with a cordial welcome, as if she had
+been her son's own choice, and a lady of a high degree, and she spoke
+kind words to comfort her for the unkind neglect of Bertram in sending
+his wife home on her bridal day alone. But this gracious reception
+failed to cheer the sad mind of Helena, and she said, "Madam, my lord is
+gone, for ever gone." She then read these words out of Bertram's letter:
+<i>When you can get the ring from my finger, which never shall come off,
+then call me husband, but in such a Then I write a Never</i>. "This is a
+dreadful sentence!" said Helena. The countess begged her to have
+patience, and said, now Bertram was gone, she should be her child, and
+that she deserved a lord that twenty such rude boys as Bertram might
+tend upon, and hourly call her mistress. But in vain by respectful
+condescension and kind flattery this matchless mother tried to soothe
+the sorrows of her daughter-in-law.</p>
+
+<p>Helena still kept her eyes fixed upon the letter, and cried out in an
+agony of grief, <i>Till I have no wife, I have nothing in France</i>. The
+countess asked her if she found those words in the letter? "Yes, madam,"
+was all poor Helena could answer.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning Helena was missing. She left a letter to be delivered
+to the countess after she was gone, to acquaint her with the reason of
+her sudden absence: in this letter she informed her that she was so much
+grieved at having driven Bertram from his native country and his home,
+that to atone for her offence, she had undertaken a pilgrimage to the
+shrine of St. Jaques le Grand, and concluded with requesting the
+countess to inform her son that the wife he so hated had left his house
+for ever.</p>
+
+<p>Bertram, when he left Paris, went to Florence, and there became an
+officer in the Duke of Florence's army, and after a successful war, in
+which he distinguished himself by many brave actions, Bertram received
+letters from his mother, containing the acceptable tidings that Helena<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>
+would no more disturb him; and he was preparing to return home, when
+Helena herself, clad in her pilgrim's weeds, arrived at the city of
+Florence.</p>
+
+<p>Florence was a city through which the pilgrims used to pass on their way
+to St. Jaques le Grand; and when Helena arrived at this city, she heard
+that a hospitable widow dwelt there, who used to receive into her house
+the female pilgrims that were going to visit the shrine of that saint,
+giving them lodging and kind entertainment. To this good lady,
+therefore, Helena went, and the widow gave her a courteous welcome, and
+invited her to see whatever was curious in that famous city, and told
+her that if she would like to see the duke's army, she would take her
+where she might have a full view of it. "And you will see a countryman
+of yours," said the widow; "his name is Count Rousillon, who has done
+worthy service in the duke's wars." Helena wanted no second invitation,
+when she found Bertram was to make part of the show. She accompanied her
+hostess; and a sad and mournful pleasure it was to her to look once more
+upon her dear husband's face. "Is he not a handsome man?" said the
+widow. "I like him well," replied Helena, with great truth. All the way
+they walked, the talkative widow's discourse was all of Bertram: she
+told Helena the story of Bertram's marriage, and how he had deserted the
+poor lady his wife, and entered into the duke's army to avoid living
+with her. To this account of her own misfortunes Helena patiently
+listened, and when it was ended, the history of Bertram was not yet
+done, for then the widow began another tale, every word of which sank
+deep into the mind of Helena; for the story she now told was of
+Bertram's love for her daughter.</p>
+
+<p>Though Bertram did not like the marriage forced on him by the king, it
+seems he was not insensible to love, for since he had been stationed
+with the army at Florence, he had fallen in love with Diana, a fair
+young gentlewoman, the daughter of this widow who was Helena's hostess;
+and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> every night, with music of all sorts, and songs composed in praise
+of Diana's beauty, he would come under her window, and solicit her love;
+and all his suit to her was, that she would permit him to visit her by
+stealth after the family were retired to rest; but Diana would by no
+means be persuaded to grant this improper request, nor give any
+encouragement to his suit, knowing him to be a married man; for Diana
+had been brought up under the counsels of a prudent mother, who, though
+she was now in reduced circumstances, was well born, and descended from
+the noble family of the Capulets.</p>
+
+<p>All this the good lady related to Helena, highly praising the virtuous
+principles of her discreet daughter, which she said were entirely owing
+to the excellent education and good advice she had given her; and she
+further said, that Bertram had been particularly importunate with Diana
+to admit him to the visit he so much desired that night, because he was
+going to leave Florence early the next morning.</p>
+
+<p>Though it grieved Helena to hear of Bertram's love for the widow's
+daughter, yet from this story the ardent mind of Helena conceived a
+project (nothing discouraged at the ill success of her former one) to
+recover her truant lord. She disclosed to the widow that she was Helena,
+the deserted wife of Bertram, and requested that her kind hostess and
+her daughter would suffer this visit from Bertram to take place, and
+allow her to pass herself upon Bertram for Diana; telling them, her
+chief motive for desiring to have this secret meeting with her husband,
+was to get a ring from him, which he had said, if ever she was in
+possession of he would acknowledge her as his wife.</p>
+
+<p>The widow and her daughter promised to assist her in this affair, partly
+moved by pity for this unhappy forsaken wife, and partly won over to her
+interest by the promises of reward which Helena made them, giving them a
+purse of money in earnest of her future favour. In the course of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> that
+day Helena caused information to be sent to Bertram that she was dead;
+hoping that when he thought himself free to make a second choice by the
+news of her death, he would offer marriage to her in her feigned
+character of Diana. And if she could obtain the ring and this promise
+too, she doubted not she should make some future good come of it.</p>
+
+<p>In the evening, after it was dark, Bertram was admitted into Diana's
+chamber, and Helena was there ready to receive him. The flattering
+compliments and love discourse he addressed to Helena were precious
+sounds to her, though she knew they were meant for Diana; and Bertram
+was so well pleased with her, that he made her a solemn promise to be
+her husband, and to love her for ever; which she hoped would be
+prophetic of a real affection, when he should know it was his own wife,
+the despised Helena, whose conversation had so delighted him.</p>
+
+<p>Bertram never knew how sensible a lady Helena was, else perhaps he would
+not have been so regardless of her; and seeing her every day, he had
+entirely overlooked her beauty; a face we are accustomed to see
+constantly, losing the effect which is caused by the first sight either
+of beauty or of plainness; and of her understanding it was impossible he
+should judge, because she felt such reverence, mixed with her love for
+him, that she was always silent in his presence: but now that her future
+fate, and the happy ending of all her love-projects, seemed to depend on
+her leaving a favourable impression on the mind of Bertram from this
+night's interview, she exerted all her wit to please him; and the simple
+graces of her lively conversation and the endearing sweetness of her
+manners so charmed Bertram, that he vowed she should be his wife. Helena
+begged the ring from off his finger as a token of his regard, and he
+gave it to her; and in return for this ring, which it was of such
+importance to her to possess, she gave him another ring, which was one
+the king had made her a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> present of. Before it was light in the morning,
+she sent Bertram away; and he immediately set out on his journey towards
+his mother's house.</p>
+
+<p>Helena prevailed on the widow and Diana to accompany her to Paris, their
+further assistance being necessary to the full accomplishment of the
+plan she had formed. When they arrived there, they found the king was
+gone upon a visit to the Countess of Rousillon, and Helena followed the
+king with all the speed she could make.</p>
+
+<p>The king was still in perfect health, and his gratitude to her who had
+been the means of his recovery was so lively in his mind, that the
+moment he saw the Countess of Rousillon, he began to talk of Helena,
+calling her a precious jewel that was lost by the folly of her son; but
+seeing the subject distressed the countess, who sincerely lamented the
+death of Helena, he said, "My good lady, I have forgiven and forgotten
+all." But the good-natured old Lafeu, who was present, and could not
+bear that the memory of his favourite Helena should be so lightly passed
+over, said, "This I must say, the young lord did great offence to his
+majesty, his mother, and his lady; but to himself he did the greatest
+wrong of all, for he has lost a wife whose beauty astonished all eyes,
+whose words took all ears captive, whose deep perfection made all hearts
+wish to serve her." The king said, "Praising what is lost makes the
+remembrance dear. Well&mdash;call him hither;" meaning Bertram, who now
+presented himself before the king: and, on his expressing deep sorrow
+for the injuries he had done to Helena, the king, for his dead father's
+and his admirable mother's sake, pardoned him and restored him once more
+to his favour. But the gracious countenance of the king was soon changed
+towards him, for he perceived that Bertram wore the very ring upon his
+finger which he had given to Helena: and he well remembered that Helena
+had called all the saints in heaven to witness she would never part with
+that ring, unless she sent it to the king<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> himself upon some great
+disaster befalling her; and Bertram, on the king's questioning him how
+he came by the ring, told an improbable story of a lady throwing it to
+him out of a window, and denied ever having seen Helena since the day of
+their marriage. The king, knowing Bertram's dislike to his wife, feared
+he had destroyed her: and he ordered his guards to seize Bertram,
+saying, "I am wrapt in dismal thinking, for I fear the life of Helena
+was foully snatched." At this moment Diana and her mother entered, and
+presented a petition to the king, wherein they begged his majesty to
+exert his royal power to compel Bertram to marry Diana, he having made
+her a solemn promise of marriage. Bertram, fearing the king's anger,
+denied he had made any such promise; and then Diana produced the ring
+(which Helena had put into her hands) to confirm the truth of her words;
+and she said that she had given Bertram the ring he then wore, in
+exchange for that, at the time he vowed to marry her. On hearing this,
+the king ordered the guards to seize her also; and her account of the
+ring differing from Bertram's, the king's suspicions were confirmed: and
+he said, if they did not confess how they came by this ring of Helena's,
+they should be both put to death. Diana requested her mother might be
+permitted to fetch the jeweller of whom she bought the ring, which being
+granted, the widow went out, and presently returned leading in Helena
+herself.</p>
+
+<p>The good countess, who in silent grief had beheld her son's danger, and
+had even dreaded that the suspicion of his having destroyed his wife
+might possibly be true, finding her dear Helena, whom she loved with
+even a maternal affection, was still living, felt a delight she was
+hardly able to support; and the king, scarce believing for joy that it
+was Helena, said, "Is this indeed the wife of Bertram that I see?"
+Helena, feeling herself yet an unacknowledged wife, replied, "No, my
+good lord, it is but the shadow of a wife you see, the name and not the
+thing." Bertram cried<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> out, "Both, both! O pardon!"&mdash;"O my lord," said
+Helena, "when I personated this fair maid, I found you wondrous kind;
+and look, here is your letter!" reading to him in a joyful tone those
+words which she had once repeated so sorrowfully, <i>When from my finger
+you can get this ring</i>,&mdash;"This is done; it was to me you gave the ring.
+Will you be mine, now you are doubly won?" Bertram replied, "If you can
+make it plain that you were the lady I talked with that night, I will
+love you dearly ever, ever dearly." This was no difficult task, for the
+widow and Diana came with Helena to prove this fact; and the king was so
+well pleased with Diana, for the friendly assistance she had rendered
+the dear lady he so truly valued for the service she had done him, that
+he promised her also a noble husband: Helena's history giving him a
+hint, that it was a suitable reward for kings to bestow upon fair ladies
+when they perform notable services.</p>
+
+<p>Thus Helena at last found that her father's legacy was indeed sanctified
+by the luckiest stars in heaven; for she was now the beloved wife of her
+dear Bertram, the daughter-in-law of her noble mistress, and herself the
+Countess of Rousillon.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img08.jpg"  alt="Chapter endpiece" title="" /></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img21.jpg"  width="600" height="401" alt="THE TAMING OF THE SHREW" title="" /></div>
+
+
+<p>Katharine, the Shrew, was the eldest daughter of Baptista, a rich
+gentleman of Padua. She was a lady of such an ungovernable spirit and
+fiery temper, such a loud-tongued scold, that she was known in Padua by
+no other name than Katharine the Shrew. It seemed very unlikely, indeed
+impossible, that any gentleman would ever be found who would venture to
+marry this lady, and therefore Baptista was much blamed for deferring
+his consent to many excellent offers that were made to her gentle sister
+Bianca, putting off all Bianca's suitors with this excuse, that when the
+eldest sister was fairly off his hands, they should have free leave to
+address young Bianca.</p>
+
+<p><a name="PETRUCHIO" id="PETRUCHIO"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter">
+             <a href="images/img009.jpg"><img
+             src="images/img009-tb.jpg" width="296" height="500"
+             alt="PETRUCHIO, PRETENDING TO FIND FAULT WITH EVERY DISH" /></a><br />
+         <b>PETRUCHIO, PRETENDING TO FIND FAULT WITH EVERY DISH,<br />
+THREW THE MEAT ABOUT THE FLOOR</b>
+    </div>
+
+
+<p>It happened, however, that a gentleman, named Petruchio, came to Padua,
+purposely to look out for a wife, who, nothing discouraged by these
+reports of Katharine's temper, and hearing she was rich and handsome,
+resolved upon marrying this famous termagant, and taming her into a meek
+and manageable wife. And truly none was so fit to set about this
+herculean labour as Petruchio, whose spirit was as high as Katharine's,
+and he was a witty and most happy-tempered humourist, and withal so
+wise, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> of such a true judgment, that he well knew how to feign a
+passionate and furious deportment, when his spirits were so calm that
+himself could have laughed merrily at his own angry feigning, for his
+natural temper was careless and easy; the boisterous airs he assumed
+when he became the husband of Katharine being but in sport, or more
+properly speaking, affected by his excellent discernment, as the only
+means to overcome, in her own way, the passionate ways of the furious
+Katharine.</p>
+
+<p>A courting then Petruchio went to Katharine the Shrew; and first of all
+he applied to Baptista her father, for leave to woo his <i>gentle
+daughter</i> Katharine, as Petruchio called her, saying archly, that having
+heard of her bashful modesty and mild behaviour, he had come from Verona
+to solicit her love. Her father, though he wished her married, was
+forced to confess Katharine would ill answer this character, it being
+soon apparent of what manner of gentleness she was composed, for her
+music-master rushed into the room to complain that the gentle Katharine,
+his pupil, had broken his head with her lute, for presuming to find
+fault with her performance; which, when Petruchio heard, he said, "It is
+a brave wench; I love her more than ever, and long to have some chat
+with her;" and hurrying the old gentleman for a positive answer, he
+said, "My business is in haste, Signior Baptista, I cannot come every
+day to woo. You knew my father: he is dead, and has left me heir to all
+his lands and goods. Then tell me, if I get your daughter's love, what
+dowry you will give with her." Baptista thought his manner was somewhat
+blunt for a lover; but being glad to get Katharine married, he answered
+that he would give her twenty thousand crowns for her dowry, and half
+his estate at his death: so this odd match was quickly agreed on, and
+Baptista went to apprise his shrewish daughter of her lover's addresses,
+and sent her in to Petruchio to listen to his suit.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime Petruchio was settling with himself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> the mode of
+courtship he should pursue; and he said, "I will woo her with some
+spirit when she comes. If she rails at me, why then I will tell her she
+sings as sweetly as a nightingale; and if she frowns, I will say she
+looks as clear as roses newly washed with dew. If she will not speak a
+word, I will praise the eloquence of her language; and if she bids me
+leave her, I will give her thanks as if she bid me stay with her a
+week." Now the stately Katharine entered, and Petruchio first addressed
+her with "Good morrow, Kate, for that is your name, I hear." Katharine,
+not liking this plain salutation, said disdainfully, "They call me
+Katharine who do speak to me." "You lie," replied the lover; "for you
+are called plain Kate, and bonny Kate, and sometimes Kate the Shrew:
+but, Kate, you are the prettiest Kate in Christendom, and therefore,
+Kate, hearing your mildness praised in every town, I am come to woo you
+for my wife."</p>
+
+<p>A strange courtship they made of it. She in loud and angry terms showing
+him how justly she had gained the name of Shrew, while he still praised
+her sweet and courteous words, till at length, hearing her father
+coming, he said (intending to make as quick a wooing as possible),
+"Sweet Katharine, let us set this idle chat aside, for your father has
+consented that you shall be my wife, your dowry is agreed on, and
+whether you will or no, I will marry you."</p>
+
+<p>And now Baptista entering, Petruchio told him his daughter had received
+him kindly, and that she had promised to be married the next Sunday.
+This Katharine denied, saying she would rather see him hanged on Sunday,
+and reproached her father for wishing to wed her to such a mad-cap
+ruffian as Petruchio. Petruchio desired her father not to regard her
+angry words, for they had agreed she should seem reluctant before him,
+but that when they were alone he had found her very fond and loving; and
+he said to her, "Give me your hand, Kate; I will go to Venice to buy you
+fine apparel against our wedding day.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> Provide the feast, father, and
+bid the wedding guests. I will be sure to bring rings, fine array, and
+rich clothes, that my Katharine may be fine; and kiss me, Kate, for we
+will be married on Sunday."</p>
+
+<p>On the Sunday all the wedding guests were assembled, but they waited
+long before Petruchio came, and Katharine wept for vexation to think
+that Petruchio had only been making a jest of her. At last, however, he
+appeared; but he brought none of the bridal finery he had promised
+Katharine, nor was he dressed himself like a bridegroom, but in strange
+disordered attire, as if he meant to make a sport of the serious
+business he came about; and his servant and the very horses on which
+they rode were in like manner in mean and fantastic fashion habited.</p>
+
+<p>Petruchio could not be persuaded to change his dress; he said Katharine
+was to be married to him, and not to his clothes; and finding it was in
+vain to argue with him, to the church they went, he still behaving in
+the same mad way, for when the priest asked Petruchio if Katharine
+should be his wife, he swore so loud that she should, that, all amazed,
+the priest let fall his book, and as he stooped to take it up, this
+mad-brained bridegroom gave him such a cuff, that down fell the priest
+and his book again. And all the while they were being married he stamped
+and swore so, that the high-spirited Katharine trembled and shook with
+fear. After the ceremony was over, while they were yet in the church, he
+called for wine, and drank a loud health to the company, and threw a sop
+which was at the bottom of the glass full in the sexton's face, giving
+no other reason for this strange act, than that the sexton's beard grew
+thin and hungerly, and seemed to ask the sop as he was drinking. Never
+sure was there such a mad marriage; but Petruchio did but put this
+wildness on, the better to succeed in the plot he had formed to tame his
+shrewish wife.</p>
+
+<p>Baptista had provided a sumptuous marriage feast, but when they returned
+from church, Petruchio, taking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> hold of Katharine, declared his
+intention of carrying his wife home instantly: and no remonstrance of
+his father-in-law, or angry words of the enraged Katharine, could make
+him change his purpose. He claimed a husband's right to dispose of his
+wife as he pleased, and away he hurried Katharine off: he seeming so
+daring and resolute that no one dared attempt to stop him.</p>
+
+<p>Petruchio mounted his wife upon a miserable horse, lean and lank, which
+he had picked out for the purpose, and himself and his servant no better
+mounted; they journeyed on through rough and miry ways, and ever when
+this horse of Katharine's stumbled, he would storm and swear at the poor
+jaded beast, who could scarce crawl under his burthen, as if he had been
+the most passionate man alive.</p>
+
+<p>At length, after a weary journey, during which Katharine had heard
+nothing but the wild ravings of Petruchio at the servant and the horses,
+they arrived at his house. Petruchio welcomed her kindly to her home,
+but he resolved she should have neither rest nor food that night. The
+tables were spread, and supper soon served; but Petruchio, pretending to
+find fault with every dish, threw the meat about the floor, and ordered
+the servants to remove it away; and all this he did, as he said, in love
+for his Katharine, that she might not eat meat that was not well
+dressed. And when Katharine, weary and supperless, retired to rest, he
+found the same fault with the bed, throwing the pillows and bed-clothes
+about the room, so that she was forced to sit down in a chair, where if
+she chanced to drop asleep, she was presently awakened by the loud voice
+of her husband, storming at the servants for the ill-making of his
+wife's bridal-bed.</p>
+
+<p>The next day Petruchio pursued the same course, still speaking kind
+words to Katharine, but when she attempted to eat, finding fault with
+everything that was set before her, throwing the breakfast on the floor
+as he had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> done the supper; and Katharine, the haughty Katharine, was
+fain to beg the servants would bring her secretly a morsel of food; but
+they being instructed by Petruchio, replied, they dared not give her
+anything unknown to their master. "Ah," said she, "did he marry me to
+famish me? Beggars that come to my father's door have food given them.
+But I, who never knew what it was to entreat for anything, am starved
+for want of food, giddy for want of sleep, with oaths kept waking, and
+with brawling fed; and that which vexes me more than all, he does it
+under the name of perfect love, pretending that if I sleep or eat, it
+were present death to me." Here the soliloquy was interrupted by the
+entrance of Petruchio: he, not meaning she should be quite starved, had
+brought her a small portion of meat, and he said to her, "How fares my
+sweet Kate? Here, love, you see how diligent I am, I have dressed your
+meat myself. I am sure this kindness merits thanks. What, not a word?
+Nay, then you love not the meat, and all the pains I have taken is to no
+purpose." He then ordered the servant to take the dish away. Extreme
+hunger, which had abated the pride of Katharine, made her say, though
+angered to the heart, "I pray you let it stand." But this was not all
+Petruchio intended to bring her to, and he replied, "The poorest service
+is repaid with thanks, and so shall mine before you touch the meat." On
+this Katharine brought out a reluctant "I thank you, sir." And now he
+suffered her to make a slender meal, saying, "Much good may it do your
+gentle heart, Kate; eat apace! And now, my honey love, we will return to
+your father's house, and revel it as bravely as the best, with silken
+coats and caps and golden rings, with ruffs and scarfs and fans and
+double change of finery;" and to make her believe he really intended to
+give her these gay things, he called in a tailor and a haberdasher, who
+brought some new clothes he had ordered for her, and then giving her
+plate to the servant to take away, before she had half satisfied her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>
+hunger, he said, "What, have you dined?" The haberdasher presented a
+cap, saying, "Here is the cap your worship bespoke;" on which Petruchio
+began to storm afresh, saying the cap was moulded in a porringer, and
+that it was no bigger than a cockle or walnut shell, desiring the
+haberdasher to take it away and make it bigger. Katharine said, "I will
+have this; all gentlewomen wear such caps as these."&mdash;"When you are
+gentle," replied Petruchio, "you shall have one too, and not till then."
+The meat Katharine had eaten had a little revived her fallen spirits,
+and she said, "Why, sir, I trust I may have leave to speak, and speak I
+will: I am no child, no babe; your betters have endured to hear me say
+my mind; and if you cannot, you had better stop your ears." Petruchio
+would not hear these angry words, for he had happily discovered a better
+way of managing his wife than keeping up a jangling argument with her;
+therefore his answer was, "Why, you say true; it is a paltry cap, and I
+love you for not liking it."&mdash;"Love me, or love me not," said Katharine,
+"I like the cap, and I will have this cap or none."&mdash;"You say you wish
+to see the gown," said Petruchio, still affecting to misunderstand her.
+The tailor then came forward and showed her a fine gown he had made for
+her. Petruchio, whose intent was that she should have neither cap nor
+gown, found as much fault with that. "O mercy, Heaven!" said he, "what
+stuff is here! What, do you call this a sleeve? it is like a
+demi-cannon, carved up and down like an apple tart." The tailor said,
+"You bid me make it according to the fashion of the times;" and
+Katharine said, she never saw a better fashioned gown. This was enough
+for Petruchio, and privately desiring these people might be paid for
+their goods, and excuses made to them for the seemingly strange
+treatment he bestowed upon them, he with fierce words and furious
+gestures drove the tailor and the haberdasher out of the room; and then,
+turning to Katharine, he said, "Well,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> come, my Kate, we will go to your
+father's even in these mean garments we now wear." And then he ordered
+his horses, affirming they should reach Baptista's house by dinner-time,
+for that it was but seven o'clock. Now it was not early morning, but the
+very middle of the day, when he spoke this; therefore Katharine ventured
+to say, though modestly, being almost overcome by the vehemence of his
+manner, "I dare assure you, sir, it is two o'clock, and will be
+supper-time before we get there." But Petruchio meant that she should be
+so completely subdued, that she should assent to everything he said,
+before he carried her to her father; and therefore, as if he were lord
+even of the sun, and could command the hours, he said it should be what
+time he pleased to have it, before he set forward; "For," he said,
+"whatever I say or do, you still are crossing it. I will not go to-day,
+and when I go, it shall be what o'clock I say it is." Another day
+Katharine was forced to practise her newly-found obedience, and not till
+he had brought her proud spirit to such a perfect subjection, that she
+dared not remember there was such a word as contradiction, would
+Petruchio allow her to go to her father's house; and even while they
+were upon their journey thither, she was in danger of being turned back
+again, only because she happened to hint it was the sun, when he
+affirmed the moon shone brightly at noonday. "Now, by my mother's son,"
+said he, "and that is myself, it shall be the moon, or stars, or what I
+list, before I journey to your father's house." He then made as if he
+were going back again; but Katharine, no longer Katharine the Shrew, but
+the obedient wife, said, "Let us go forward, I pray, now we have come so
+far, and it shall be the sun, or moon, or what you please, and if you
+please to call it a rush candle henceforth, I vow it shall be so for
+me." This he was resolved to prove, therefore he said again, "I say, it
+is the moon."&mdash;"I know it is the moon," replied Katharine. "You lie, it
+is the blessed sun," said Petruchio. "Then it is the blessed sun,"
+replied<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> Katharine; "but sun it is not, when you say it is not. What you
+will have it named, even so it is, and so it ever shall be for
+Katharine." Now then he suffered her to proceed on her journey; but
+further to try if this yielding humour would last, he addressed an old
+gentleman they met on the road as if he had been a young woman, saying
+to him, "Good morrow, gentle mistress;" and asked Katharine if she had
+ever beheld a fairer gentlewoman, praising the red and white of the old
+man's cheeks, and comparing his eyes to two bright stars; and again he
+addressed him, saying, "Fair lovely maid, once more good day to you!"
+and said to his wife, "Sweet Kate, embrace her for her beauty's sake."
+The now completely vanquished Katharine quickly adopted her husband's
+opinion, and made her speech in like sort to the old gentleman, saying
+to him, "Young budding virgin, you are fair, and fresh, and sweet:
+whither are you going, and where is your dwelling? Happy are the parents
+of so fair a child."&mdash;"Why, how now, Kate," said Petruchio; "I hope you
+are not mad. This is a man, old and wrinkled, faded and withered, and
+not a maiden, as you say he is." On this Katharine said, "Pardon me, old
+gentleman; the sun has so dazzled my eyes, that everything I look on
+seemeth green. Now I perceive you are a reverend father: I hope you will
+pardon me for my sad mistake."&mdash;"Do, good old grandsire," said Petruchio,
+"and tell us which way you are travelling. We shall be glad of your good
+company, if you are going our way." The old gentleman replied, "Fair
+sir, and you, my merry mistress, your strange encounter has much amazed
+me. My name is Vincentio, and I am going to visit a son of mine who
+lives at Padua." Then Petruchio knew the old gentleman to be the father
+of Lucentio, a young gentleman who was to be married to Baptista's
+younger daughter, Bianca, and he made Vincentio very happy, by telling
+him the rich marriage his son was about to make: and they all journeyed
+on pleasantly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> together till they came to Baptista's house, where there
+was a large company assembled to celebrate the wedding of Bianca and
+Lucentio, Baptista having willingly consented to the marriage of Bianca
+when he had got Katharine off his hands.</p>
+
+<p>When they entered, Baptista welcomed them to the wedding feast, and
+there was present also another newly married pair.</p>
+
+<p>Lucentio, Bianca's husband, and Hortensio, the other new married man,
+could not forbear sly jests, which seemed to hint at the shrewish
+disposition of Petruchio's wife, and these fond bridegrooms seemed
+highly pleased with the mild tempers of the ladies they had chosen,
+laughing at Petruchio for his less fortunate choice. Petruchio took
+little notice of their jokes till the ladies were retired after dinner,
+and then he perceived Baptista himself joined in the laugh against him:
+for when Petruchio affirmed that his wife would prove more obedient than
+theirs, the father of Katharine said, "Now, in good sadness, son
+Petruchio, I fear you have got the veriest shrew of all." "Well," said
+Petruchio, "I say no, and therefore for assurance that I speak the
+truth, let us each one send for his wife, and he whose wife is most
+obedient to come at first when she is sent for, shall win a wager which
+we will propose." To this the other two husbands willingly consented,
+for they were quite confident that their gentle wives would prove more
+obedient than the headstrong Katharine; and they proposed a wager of
+twenty crowns, but Petruchio merrily said, he would lay as much as that
+upon his hawk or hound, but twenty times as much upon his wife. Lucentio
+and Hortensio raised the wager to a hundred crowns, and Lucentio first
+sent his servant to desire Bianca would come to him. But the servant
+returned, and said, "Sir, my mistress sends you word she is busy and
+cannot come."&mdash;"How," said Petruchio, "does she say she is busy and
+cannot come? Is that an answer for a wife?" Then they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> laughed at him,
+and said, it would be well if Katharine did not send him a worse answer.
+And now it was Hortensio's turn to send for his wife; and he said to his
+servant, "Go, and entreat my wife to come to me." "Oh ho! entreat her!"
+said Petruchio. "Nay, then, she needs must come."&mdash;"I am afraid, sir,"
+said Hortensio, "your wife will not be entreated." But presently this
+civil husband looked a little blank, when the servant returned without
+his mistress; and he said to him, "How now! Where is my wife?"&mdash;"Sir,"
+said the servant, "my mistress says, you have some goodly jest in hand,
+and therefore she will not come. She bids you come to her."&mdash;"Worse and
+worse!" said Petruchio; and then he sent his servant, saying, "Sirrah,
+go to your mistress, and tell her I command her to come to me." The
+company had scarcely time to think she would not obey this summons, when
+Baptista, all in amaze, exclaimed, "Now, by my <i>holidame</i>, here comes
+Katharine!" and she entered, saying meekly to Petruchio, "What is your
+will, sir, that you send for me?"&mdash;"Where is your sister and Hortensio's
+wife?" said he. Katharine replied, "They sit conferring by the parlour
+fire."&mdash;"Go, fetch them hither!" said Petruchio. Away went Katharine
+without reply to perform her husband's command. "Here is a wonder," said
+Lucentio, "if you talk of a wonder."&mdash;"And so it is," said Hortensio; "I
+marvel what it bodes."&mdash;"Marry, peace it bodes," said Petruchio, "and
+love, and quiet life, and right supremacy; and, to be short, everything
+that is sweet and happy." Katharine's father, overjoyed to see this
+reformation in his daughter, said, "Now, fair befall thee, son
+Petruchio! you have won the wager, and I will add another twenty
+thousand crowns to her dowry, as if she were another daughter, for she
+is changed as if she had never been."&mdash;"Nay," said Petruchio, "I will
+win the wager better yet, and show more signs of her new-built virtue
+and obedience." Katharine now entering with the two ladies, he
+continued, "See where<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> she comes, and brings your froward wives as
+prisoners to her womanly persuasion. Katharine, that cap of yours does
+not become you; off with that bauble, and throw it under foot."
+Katharine instantly took off her cap, and threw it down. "Lord!" said
+Hortensio's wife, "may I never have a cause to sigh till I am brought to
+such a silly pass!" And Bianca, she too said, "Fie, what foolish duty
+call you this?" On this Bianca's husband said to her, "I wish your duty
+were as foolish too! The wisdom of your duty, fair Bianca, has cost me a
+hundred crowns since dinner-time."&mdash;"The more fool you," said Bianca,
+"for laying on my duty."&mdash;"Katharine," said Petruchio, "I charge you
+tell these headstrong women what duty they owe their lords and
+husbands." And to the wonder of all present, the reformed shrewish lady
+spoke as eloquently in praise of the wife-like duty of obedience, as she
+had practised it implicitly in a ready submission to Petruchio's will.
+And Katharine once more became famous in Padua, not as heretofore, as
+Katharine the Shrew, but as Katharine the most obedient and duteous wife
+in Padua.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img22.jpg"  alt="Chapter endpiece" title="" /></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img23.jpg"  width="600" height="348" alt="THE COMEDY OF ERRORS" title="" /></div>
+
+
+<p>The states of Syracuse and Ephesus being at variance, there was a cruel
+law made at Ephesus, ordaining that if any merchant of Syracuse was seen
+in the city of Ephesus, he was to be put to death, unless he could pay a
+thousand marks for the ransom of his life.</p>
+
+<p>&AElig;geon, an old merchant of Syracuse, was discovered in the streets of
+Ephesus, and brought before the duke, either to pay this heavy fine, or
+to receive sentence of death.</p>
+
+<p>&AElig;geon had no money to pay the fine, and the duke, before he pronounced
+the sentence of death upon him, desired him to relate the history of his
+life, and to tell for what cause he had ventured to come to the city of
+Ephesus, which it was death for any Syracusan merchant to enter.</p>
+
+<p>&AElig;geon said, that he did not fear to die, for sorrow had made him weary
+of his life, but that a heavier task could not have been imposed upon
+him than to relate the events of his unfortunate life. He then began his
+own history, in the following words:</p>
+
+<p>"I was born at Syracuse, and brought up to the profession of a merchant.
+I married a lady, with whom I lived very happily, but being obliged to
+go to Epidamnum, I was detained there by my business six months, and
+then, finding I should be obliged to stay some time longer, I sent for
+my wife, who, as soon as she arrived, was brought to bed of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> two sons,
+and what was very strange, they were both so exactly alike, that it was
+impossible to distinguish the one from the other. At the same time that
+my wife was brought to bed of these twin boys, a poor woman in the inn
+where my wife lodged was brought to bed of two sons, and these twins
+were as much like each other as my two sons were. The parents of these
+children being exceeding poor, I bought the two boys, and brought them
+up to attend upon my sons.</p>
+
+<p>"My sons were very fine children, and my wife was not a little proud of
+two such boys: and she daily wishing to return home, I unwillingly
+agreed, and in an evil hour we got on ship-board; for we had not sailed
+above a league from Epidamnum before a dreadful storm arose, which
+continued with such violence, that the sailors seeing no chance of
+saving the ship, crowded into the boat to save their own lives, leaving
+us alone in the ship, which we every moment expected would be destroyed
+by the fury of the storm.</p>
+
+<p>"The incessant weeping of my wife, and the piteous complaints of the
+pretty babes, who, not knowing what to fear, wept for fashion, because
+they saw their mother weep, filled me with terror for them, though I did
+not for myself fear death; and all my thoughts were bent to contrive
+means for their safety. I tied my youngest son to the end of a small
+spare mast, such as seafaring men provide against storms; at the other
+end I bound the youngest of the twin slaves, and at the same time I
+directed my wife how to fasten the other children in like manner to
+another mast. She thus having the care of the two eldest children, and I
+of the two younger, we bound ourselves separately to these masts with
+the children; and but for this contrivance we had all been lost, for the
+ship split on a mighty rock, and was dashed in pieces; and we, clinging
+to these slender masts, were supported above the water, where I, having
+the care of two children, was unable to assist my wife, who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> with the
+other children was soon separated from me; but while they were yet in my
+sight, they were taken up by a boat of fishermen, from Corinth, (as I
+supposed), and seeing them in safety, I had no care but to struggle with
+the wild sea-waves, to preserve my dear son and the youngest slave. At
+length we, in our turn, were taken up by a ship, and the sailors,
+knowing me, gave us kind welcome and assistance, and landed us in safety
+at Syracuse; but from that sad hour I have never known what became of my
+wife and eldest child.</p>
+
+<p>"My youngest son, and now my only care, when he was eighteen years of
+age, began to be inquisitive after his mother and his brother, and often
+importuned me that he might take his attendant, the young slave, who had
+also lost his brother, and go in search of them: at length I unwillingly
+gave consent, for though I anxiously desired to hear tidings of my wife
+and eldest son, yet in sending my younger one to find them, I hazarded
+the loss of him also. It is now seven years since my son left me; five
+years have I passed in travelling through the world in search of him: I
+have been in farthest Greece, and through the bounds of Asia, and
+coasting homewards, I landed here in Ephesus, being unwilling to leave
+any place unsought that harbours men; but this day must end the story of
+my life, and happy should I think myself in my death, if I were assured
+my wife and sons were living."</p>
+
+<p>Here the hapless &AElig;geon ended the account of his misfortunes; and the
+duke, pitying this unfortunate father, who had brought upon himself this
+great peril by his love for his lost son, said, if it were not against
+the laws, which his oath and dignity did not permit him to alter, he
+would freely pardon him; yet, instead of dooming him to instant death,
+as the strict letter of the law required, he would give him that day to
+try if he could beg or borrow the money to pay the fine.</p>
+
+<p>This day of grace did seem no great favour to &AElig;geon,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> for not knowing
+any man in Ephesus, there seemed to him but little chance that any
+stranger would lend or give him a thousand marks to pay the fine; and
+helpless and hopeless of any relief, he retired from the presence of the
+duke in the custody of a jailor.</p>
+
+<p>&AElig;geon supposed he knew no person in Ephesus; but at the very time he was
+in danger of losing his life through the careful search he was making
+after his youngest son, that son and his eldest son also were both in
+the city of Ephesus.</p>
+
+<p>&AElig;geon's sons, besides being exactly alike in face and person, were both
+named alike, being both called Antipholus, and the two twin slaves were
+also both named Dromio. &AElig;geon's youngest son, Antipholus of Syracuse, he
+whom the old man had come to Ephesus to seek, happened to arrive at
+Ephesus with his slave Dromio that very same day that &AElig;geon did; and he
+being also a merchant of Syracuse, he would have been in the same danger
+that his father was, but by good fortune he met a friend who told him
+the peril an old merchant of Syracuse was in, and advised him to pass
+for a merchant of Epidamnum; this Antipholus agreed to do, and he was
+sorry to hear one of his own countrymen was in this danger, but he
+little thought this old merchant was his own father.</p>
+
+<p>The eldest son of &AElig;geon (who must be called Antipholus of Ephesus, to
+distinguish him from his brother Antipholus of Syracuse) had lived at
+Ephesus twenty years, and, being a rich man, was well able to have paid
+the money for the ransom of his father's life; but Antipholus knew
+nothing of his father, being so young when he was taken out of the sea
+with his mother by the fishermen that he only remembered he had been so
+preserved, but he had no recollection of either his father or his
+mother; the fishermen who took up this Antipholus and his mother and the
+young slave Dromio, having carried the two children away from her (to
+the great grief of that unhappy lady), intending to sell them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Antipholus and Dromio were sold by them to Duke Menaphon, a famous
+warrior, who was uncle to the Duke of Ephesus, and he carried the boys
+to Ephesus when he went to visit the duke his nephew.</p>
+
+<p>The Duke of Ephesus taking a liking to young Antipholus, when he grew
+up, made him an officer in his army, in which he distinguished himself
+by his great bravery in the wars, where he saved the life of his patron
+the duke, who rewarded his merit by marrying him to Adriana, a rich lady
+of Ephesus; with whom he was living (his slave Dromio still attending
+him) at the time his father came there.</p>
+
+<p>Antipholus of Syracuse, when he parted with his friend, who advised him
+to say he came from Epidamnum, gave his slave Dromio some money to carry
+to the inn where he intended to dine, and in the meantime he said he
+would walk about and view the city, and observe the manners of the
+people.</p>
+
+<p>Dromio was a pleasant fellow, and when Antipholus was dull and
+melancholy he used to divert himself with the odd humours and merry
+jests of his slave, so that the freedoms of speech he allowed in Dromio
+were greater than is usual between masters and their servants.</p>
+
+<p>When Antipholus of Syracuse had sent Dromio away, he stood awhile
+thinking over his solitary wanderings in search of his mother and his
+brother, of whom in no place where he landed could he hear the least
+tidings; and he said sorrowfully to himself, "I am like a drop of water
+in the ocean, which seeking to find its fellow drop, loses itself in the
+wide sea. So I unhappily, to find a mother and a brother, do lose
+myself."</p>
+
+<p>While he was thus meditating on his weary travels, which had hitherto
+been so useless, Dromio (as he thought) returned. Antipholus, wondering
+that he came back so soon, asked him where he had left the money. Now it
+was not his own Dromio, but the twin-brother that lived with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> Antipholus
+of Ephesus, that he spoke to. The two Dromios and the two Antipholuses
+were still as much alike as &AElig;geon had said they were in their infancy;
+therefore no wonder Antipholus thought it was his own slave returned,
+and asked him why he came back so soon. Dromio replied, "My mistress
+sent me to bid you come to dinner. The capon burns, and the pig falls
+from the spit, and the meat will be all cold if you do not come home."
+"These jests are out of season," said Antipholus: "where did you leave
+the money?" Dromio still answering, that his mistress had sent him to
+fetch Antipholus to dinner: "What mistress?" said Antipholus. "Why, your
+worship's wife, sir," replied Dromio. Antipholus having no wife, he was
+very angry with Dromio, and said, "Because I familiarly sometimes chat
+with you, you presume to jest with me in this free manner. I am not in a
+sportive humour now: where is the money? we being strangers here, how
+dare you trust so great a charge from your own custody?" Dromio hearing
+his master, as he thought him, talk of their being strangers, supposing
+Antipholus was jesting, replied merrily, "I pray you, sir, jest as you
+sit at dinner. I had no charge but to fetch you home, to dine with my
+mistress and her sister." Now Antipholus lost all patience, and beat
+Dromio, who ran home, and told his mistress that his master had refused
+to come to dinner, and said that he had no wife.</p>
+
+<p>Adriana, the wife of Antipholus of Ephesus, was very angry when she
+heard that her husband said he had no wife; for she was of a jealous
+temper, and she said her husband meant that he loved another lady better
+than herself; and she began to fret, and say unkind words of jealousy
+and reproach of her husband; and her sister Luciana, who lived with her,
+tried in vain to persuade her out of her groundless suspicions.</p>
+
+<p>Antipholus of Syracuse went to the inn, and found Dromio with the money
+in safety there, and seeing his own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> Dromio, he was going again to chide
+him for his free jests, when Adriana came up to him, and not doubting
+but it was her husband she saw, she began to reproach him for looking
+strange upon her (as well he might, never having seen this angry lady
+before); and then she told him how well he loved her before they were
+married, and that now he loved some other lady instead of her. "How
+comes it now, my husband," said she, "O how comes it that I have lost
+your love?"&mdash;"Plead you to me, fair dame?" said the astonished
+Antipholus. It was in vain he told her he was not her husband, and that
+he had been in Ephesus but two hours; she insisted on his going home
+with her, and Antipholus at last, being unable to get away, went with
+her to his brother's house, and dined with Adriana and her sister, the
+one calling him husband, and the other brother, he, all amazed, thinking
+he must have been married to her in his sleep, or that he was sleeping
+now. And Dromio, who followed them, was no less surprised, for the
+cook-maid, who was his brother's wife, also claimed him for her husband.</p>
+
+<p>While Antipholus of Syracuse was dining with his brother's wife, his
+brother, the real husband, returned home to dinner with his slave
+Dromio; but the servants would not open the door, because their mistress
+had ordered them not to admit any company; and when they repeatedly
+knocked, and said they were Antipholus and Dromio, the maids laughed at
+them, and said that Antipholus was at dinner with their mistress, and
+Dromio was in the kitchen; and though they almost knocked the door down,
+they could not gain admittance, and at last Antipholus went away very
+angry, and strangely surprised at hearing a gentleman was dining with
+his wife.</p>
+
+<p>When Antipholus of Syracuse had finished his dinner, he was so perplexed
+at the lady's still persisting in calling him husband, and at hearing
+that Dromio had also been claimed by the cook-maid, that he left the
+house, as soon as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> he could find any pretence to get away; for though he
+was very much pleased with Luciana, the sister, yet the jealous-tempered
+Adriana he disliked very much, nor was Dromio at all better satisfied
+with his fair wife in the kitchen: therefore both master and man were
+glad to get away from their new wives as fast as they could.</p>
+
+<p>The moment Antipholus of Syracuse had left the house, he was met by a
+goldsmith, who mistaking him, as Adriana had done, for Antipholus of
+Ephesus, gave him a gold chain, calling him by his name; and when
+Antipholus would have refused the chain, saying it did not belong to
+him, the goldsmith replied he made it by his own orders; and went away,
+leaving the chain in the hands of Antipholus, who ordered his man Dromio
+to get his things on board a ship, not choosing to stay in a place any
+longer, where he met with such strange adventures that he surely thought
+himself bewitched.</p>
+
+<p>The goldsmith who had given the chain to the wrong Antipholus, was
+arrested immediately after for a sum of money he owed; and Antipholus,
+the married brother, to whom the goldsmith thought he had given the
+chain, happened to come to the place where the officer was arresting the
+goldsmith, who, when he saw Antipholus, asked him to pay for the gold
+chain he had just delivered to him, the price amounting to nearly the
+same sum as that for which he had been arrested. Antipholus denying the
+having received the chain, and the goldsmith persisting to declare that
+he had but a few minutes before given it to him, they disputed this
+matter a long time, both thinking they were right: for Antipholus knew
+the goldsmith never gave him the chain, and so like were the two
+brothers, the goldsmith was as certain he had delivered the chain into
+his hands, till at last the officer took the goldsmith away to prison
+for the debt he owed, and at the same time the goldsmith made the
+officer arrest Antipholus for the price of the chain; so that at the
+conclusion of their dispute, Antipholus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> and the merchant were both
+taken away to prison together.</p>
+
+<p>As Antipholus was going to prison, he met Dromio of Syracuse, his
+brother's slave, and mistaking him for his own, he ordered him to go to
+Adriana his wife, and tell her to send the money for which he was
+arrested. Dromio wondering that his master should send him back to the
+strange house where he dined, and from which he had just before been in
+such haste to depart, did not dare to reply, though he came to tell his
+master the ship was ready to sail: for he saw Antipholus was in no
+humour to be jested with. Therefore he went away, grumbling within
+himself, that he must return to Adriana's house, "Where," said he,
+"Dowsabel claims me for a husband: but I must go, for servants must obey
+their masters' commands."</p>
+
+<p>Adriana gave him the money, and as Dromio was returning, he met
+Antipholus of Syracuse, who was still in amaze at the surprising
+adventures he met with; for his brother being well known in Ephesus,
+there was hardly a man he met in the streets but saluted him as an old
+acquaintance: some offered him money which they said was owing to him,
+some invited him to come and see them, and some gave him thanks for
+kindnesses they said he had done them, all mistaking him for his
+brother. A tailor showed him some silks he had bought for him, and
+insisted upon taking measure of him for some clothes.</p>
+
+<p>Antipholus began to think he was among a nation of sorcerers and
+witches, and Dromio did not at all relieve his master from his
+bewildered thoughts, by asking him how he got free from the officer who
+was carrying him to prison, and giving him the purse of gold which
+Adriana had sent to pay the debt with. This talk of Dromio's of the
+arrest and of a prison, and of the money he had brought from Adriana,
+perfectly confounded Antipholus, and he said, "This fellow Dromio is
+certainly distracted, and we wander here in illusions;" and quite
+terrified at his own confused<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> thoughts, he cried out, "Some blessed
+power deliver us from this strange place!"</p>
+
+<p>And now another stranger came up to him, and she was a lady, and she too
+called him Antipholus, and told him he had dined with her that day, and
+asked him for a gold chain which she said he had promised to give her.
+Antipholus now lost all patience, and calling her a sorceress, he denied
+that he had ever promised her a chain, or dined with her, or had even
+seen her face before that moment. The lady persisted in affirming he had
+dined with her, and had promised her a chain, which Antipholus still
+denying, she further said, that she had given him a valuable ring, and
+if he would not give her the gold chain, she insisted upon having her
+own ring again. On this Antipholus became quite frantic, and again
+calling her sorceress and witch, and denying all knowledge of her or her
+ring, ran away from her, leaving her astonished at his words and his
+wild looks, for nothing to her appeared more certain than that he had
+dined with her, and that she had given him a ring, in consequence of his
+promising to make her a present of a gold chain. But this lady had
+fallen into the same mistake the others had done, for she had taken him
+for his brother: the married Antipholus had done all the things she
+taxed this Antipholus with.</p>
+
+<p>When the married Antipholus was denied entrance into his own house
+(those within supposing him to be already there), he had gone away very
+angry, believing it to be one of his wife's jealous freaks, to which she
+was very subject, and remembering that she had often falsely accused him
+of visiting other ladies, he, to be revenged on her for shutting him out
+of his own house, determined to go and dine with this lady, and she
+receiving him with great civility, and his wife having so highly
+offended him, Antipholus promised to give her a gold chain, which he had
+intended as a present for his wife; it was the same chain which the
+goldsmith by mistake had given to his brother. The lady liked so well<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span>
+the thoughts of having a fine gold chain, that she gave the married
+Antipholus a ring; which when, as she supposed (taking his brother for
+him), he denied, and said he did not know her, and left her in such a
+wild passion, she began to think he was certainly out of his senses; and
+presently she resolved to go and tell Adriana that her husband was mad.
+And while she was telling it to Adriana, he came, attended by the jailor
+(who allowed him to come home to get the money to pay the debt), for the
+purse of money, which Adriana had sent by Dromio, and he had delivered
+to the other Antipholus.</p>
+
+<p>Adriana believed the story the lady told her of her husband's madness
+must be true, when he reproached her for shutting him out of his own
+house; and remembering how he had protested all dinner-time that he was
+not her husband, and had never been in Ephesus till that day, she had no
+doubt that he was mad; she therefore paid the jailor the money, and
+having discharged him, she ordered her servants to bind her husband with
+ropes, and had him conveyed into a dark room, and sent for a doctor to
+come and cure him of his madness: Antipholus all the while hotly
+exclaiming against this false accusation, which the exact likeness he
+bore to his brother had brought upon him. But his rage only the more
+confirmed them in the belief that he was mad; and Dromio persisting in
+the same story, they bound him also, and took him away along with his
+master.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after Adriana had put her husband into confinement, a servant came
+to tell her that Antipholus and Dromio must have broken loose from their
+keepers, for that they were both walking at liberty in the next street.
+On hearing this, Adriana ran out to fetch him home, taking some people
+with her to secure her husband again; and her sister went along with
+her. When they came to the gates of a convent in their neighbourhood,
+there they saw Antipholus and Dromio, as they thought, being again
+deceived by the likeness of the twin-brothers.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Antipholus of Syracuse was still beset with the perplexities this
+likeness had brought upon him. The chain which the goldsmith had given
+him was about his neck, and the goldsmith was reproaching him for
+denying that he had it, and refusing to pay for it, and Antipholus was
+protesting that the goldsmith freely gave him the chain in the morning,
+and that from that hour he had never seen the goldsmith again.</p>
+
+<p>And now Adriana came up to him and claimed him as her lunatic husband,
+who had escaped from his keepers; and the men she brought with her were
+going to lay violent hands on Antipholus and Dromio; but they ran into
+the convent, and Antipholus begged the abbess to give him shelter in her
+house.</p>
+
+<p>And now came out the lady abbess herself to inquire into the cause of
+this disturbance. She was a grave and venerable lady, and wise to judge
+of what she saw, and she would not too hastily give up the man who had
+sought protection in her house; so she strictly questioned the wife
+about the story she told of her husband's madness, and she said, "What
+is the cause of this sudden distemper of your husband's? Has he lost his
+wealth at sea? Or is it the death of some dear friend that has disturbed
+his mind?" Adriana replied, that no such things as these had been the
+cause. "Perhaps," said the abbess, "he has fixed his affections on some
+other lady than you his wife; and that has driven him to this state."
+Adriana said she had long thought the love of some other lady was the
+cause of his frequent absences from home. Now it was not his love for
+another, but the teasing jealousy of his wife's temper, that often
+obliged Antipholus to leave his home; and (the abbess suspecting this
+from the vehemence of Adriana's manner) to learn the truth, she said,
+"You should have reprehended him for this."&mdash;"Why, so I did," replied
+Adriana. "Ay," said the abbess, "but perhaps not enough." Adriana,
+willing to convince the abbess that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> she had said enough to Antipholus
+on this subject, replied, "It was the constant subject of our
+conversation: in bed I would not let him sleep for speaking of it. At
+table I would not let him eat for speaking of it. When I was alone with
+him, I talked of nothing else; and in company I gave him frequent hints
+of it. Still all my talk was how vile and bad it was in him to love any
+lady better than me."</p>
+
+<p>The lady abbess, having drawn this full confession from the jealous
+Adriana, now said, "And therefore comes it that your husband is mad. The
+venomous clamour of a jealous woman is a more deadly poison than a mad
+dog's tooth. It seems his sleep was hindered by your railing; no wonder
+that his head is light: and his meat was sauced with your upbraidings;
+unquiet meals make ill digestions, and that has thrown him into this
+fever. You say his sports were disturbed by your brawls; being debarred
+from the enjoyment of society and recreation, what could ensue but dull
+melancholy and comfortless despair? The consequence is then, that your
+jealous fits have made your husband mad."</p>
+
+<p>Luciana would have excused her sister, saying, she always reprehended
+her husband mildly; and she said to her sister, "Why do you hear these
+rebukes without answering them?" But the abbess had made her so plainly
+perceive her fault, that she could only answer, "She has betrayed me to
+my own reproof."</p>
+
+<p>Adriana, though ashamed of her own conduct, still insisted on having her
+husband delivered up to her; but the abbess would suffer no person to
+enter her house, nor would she deliver up this unhappy man to the care
+of the jealous wife, determining herself to use gentle means for his
+recovery, and she retired into her house again, and ordered her gates to
+be shut against them.</p>
+
+<p>During the course of this eventful day, in which so many errors had
+happened from the likeness the twin brothers bore to each other, old
+&AElig;geon's day of grace was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> passing away, it being now near sunset; and at
+sunset he was doomed to die, if he could not pay the money.</p>
+
+<p>The place of his execution was near this convent, and here he arrived
+just as the abbess retired into the convent; the duke attending in
+person, that if any offered to pay the money, he might be present to
+pardon him.</p>
+
+<p>Adriana stopped this melancholy procession, and cried out to the duke
+for justice, telling him that the abbess had refused to deliver up her
+lunatic husband to her care. While she was speaking, her real husband
+and his servant Dromio, who had got loose, came before the duke to
+demand justice, complaining that his wife had confined him on a false
+charge of lunacy; and telling in what manner he had broken his bands,
+and eluded the vigilance of his keepers. Adriana was strangely surprised
+to see her husband, when she thought he had been within the convent.</p>
+
+<p>&AElig;geon, seeing his son, concluded this was the son who had left him to go
+in search of his mother and his brother; and he felt secure that this
+dear son would readily pay the money demanded for his ransom. He
+therefore spoke to Antipholus in words of fatherly affection, with
+joyful hope that he should now be released. But to the utter
+astonishment of &AElig;geon, his son denied all knowledge of him, as well he
+might, for this Antipholus had never seen his father since they were
+separated in the storm in his infancy; but while the poor old &AElig;geon was
+in vain endeavouring to make his son acknowledge him, thinking surely
+that either his griefs and the anxieties he had suffered had so
+strangely altered him that his son did not know him, or else that he was
+ashamed to acknowledge his father in his misery; in the midst of this
+perplexity, the lady abbess and the other Antipholus and Dromio came
+out, and the wondering Adriana saw two husbands and two Dromios standing
+before her.</p>
+
+<p>And now these riddling errors, which had so perplexed them all, were
+clearly made out. When the duke saw the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> two Antipholuses and the two
+Dromios both so exactly alike, he at once conjectured aright of these
+seeming mysteries, for he remembered the story &AElig;geon had told him in the
+morning; and he said, these men must be the two sons of &AElig;geon and their
+twin slaves.</p>
+
+<p>But now an unlooked-for joy indeed completed the history of &AElig;geon; and
+the tale he had in the morning told in sorrow, and under sentence of
+death, before the setting sun went down was brought to a happy
+conclusion, for the venerable lady abbess made herself known to be the
+long-lost wife of &AElig;geon, and the fond mother of the two Antipholuses.</p>
+
+<p>When the fishermen took the eldest Antipholus and Dromio away from her,
+she entered a nunnery, and by her wise and virtuous conduct, she was at
+length made lady abbess of this convent, and in discharging the rites of
+hospitality to an unhappy stranger she had unknowingly protected her own
+son.</p>
+
+<p>Joyful congratulations and affectionate greetings between these long
+separated parents and their children made them for a while forget that
+&AElig;geon was yet under sentence of death; but when they were become a
+little calm, Antipholus of Ephesus offered the duke the ransom money for
+his father's life; but the duke freely pardoned &AElig;geon, and would not
+take the money. And the duke went with the abbess and her newly-found
+husband and children into the convent, to hear this happy family
+discourse at leisure of the blessed ending of their adverse fortunes.
+And the two Dromios' humble joy must not be forgotten; they had their
+congratulations and greetings too, and each Dromio pleasantly
+complimented his brother on his good looks, being well pleased to see
+his own person (as in a glass) show so handsome in his brother.</p>
+
+<p>Adriana had so well profited by the good counsel of her mother-in-law,
+that she never after cherished unjust suspicions, or was jealous of her
+husband.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Antipholus of Syracuse married the fair Luciana, the sister of his
+brother's wife; and the good old &AElig;geon, with his wife and sons, lived at
+Ephesus many years. Nor did the unravelling of these perplexities so
+entirely remove every ground of mistake for the future, but that
+sometimes, to remind them of adventures past, comical blunders would
+happen, and the one Antipholus, and the one Dromio, be mistaken for the
+other, making altogether a pleasant and diverting Comedy of Errors.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img22.jpg"  alt="Chapter endpiece" title="" /></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img25.jpg"  width="600" height="460" alt="MEASURE FOR MEASURE" title="" /></div>
+
+
+<p>In the city of Vienna there once reigned a duke of such a mild and
+gentle temper, that he suffered his subjects to neglect the laws with
+impunity; and there was in particular one law, the existence of which
+was almost forgotten, the duke never having put it in force during his
+whole reign. This was a law dooming any man to the punishment of death,
+who should live with a woman that was not his wife; and this law,
+through the lenity of the duke, being utterly disregarded, the holy
+institution of marriage became neglected, and complaints were every day
+made to the duke by the parents of the young ladies in Vienna, that
+their daughters had been seduced from their protection, and were living
+as the companions of single men.</p>
+
+<p>The good duke perceived with sorrow this growing evil among his
+subjects; but he thought that a sudden change in himself from the
+indulgence he had hitherto shown, to the strict severity requisite to
+check this abuse, would make his people (who had hitherto loved him)
+consider him as a tyrant; therefore he determined to absent himself a
+while from his dukedom, and depute another to the full<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> exercise of his
+power, that the law against these dishonourable lovers might be put in
+effect, without giving offence by an unusual severity in his own person.</p>
+
+<p>Angelo, a man who bore the reputation of a saint in Vienna for his
+strict and rigid life, was chosen by the duke as a fit person to
+undertake this important charge; and when the duke imparted his design
+to Lord Escalus, his chief counsellor, Escalus said, "If any man in
+Vienna be of worth to undergo such ample grace and honour, it is Lord
+Angelo." And now the duke departed from Vienna under pretence of making
+a journey into Poland, leaving Angelo to act as the lord deputy in his
+absence; but the duke's absence was only a feigned one, for he privately
+returned to Vienna, habited like a friar, with the intent to watch
+unseen the conduct of the saintly-seeming Angelo.</p>
+
+<p>It happened just about the time that Angelo was invested with his new
+dignity, that a gentleman, whose name was Claudio, had seduced a young
+lady from her parents; and for this offence, by command of the new lord
+deputy, Claudio was taken up and committed to prison, and by virtue of
+the old law which had been so long neglected, Angelo sentenced Claudio
+to be beheaded. Great interest was made for the pardon of young Claudio,
+and the good old Lord Escalus himself interceded for him. "Alas," said
+he, "this gentleman whom I would save had an honourable father, for
+whose sake I pray you pardon the young man's transgression." But Angelo
+replied, "We must not make a scare-crow of the law, setting it up to
+frighten birds of prey, till custom, finding it harmless, makes it their
+perch, and not their terror. Sir, he must die."</p>
+
+<p>Lucio, the friend of Claudio, visited him in the prison, and Claudio
+said to him, "I pray you, Lucio, do me this kind service. Go to my
+sister Isabel, who this day proposes to enter the convent of Saint
+Clare; acquaint her with the danger of my state; implore her that she
+make friends with the strict deputy; bid her go herself to Angelo.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> I
+have great hopes in that; for she can discourse with prosperous art, and
+well she can persuade; besides, there is a speechless dialect in
+youthful sorrow, such as moves men."</p>
+
+<p>Isabel, the sister of Claudio, had, as he said, that day entered upon
+her noviciate in the convent, and it was her intent, after passing
+through her probation as a novice, to take the veil, and she was
+inquiring of a nun concerning the rules of the convent, when they heard
+the voice of Lucio, who, as he entered that religious house, said,
+"Peace be in this place!"&mdash;"Who is it that speaks?" said Isabel. "It is
+a man's voice," replied the nun: "Gentle Isabel, go to him, and learn
+his business; you may, I may not. When you have taken the veil, you must
+not speak with men but in the presence of the prioress; then if you
+speak you must not show your face, or if you show your face, you must
+not speak."&mdash;"And have you nuns no further privileges?" said Isabel.
+"Are not these large enough?" replied the nun. "Yes, truly," said
+Isabel: "I speak not as desiring more, but rather wishing a more strict
+restraint upon the sisterhood, the votarists of Saint Clare." Again they
+heard the voice of Lucio, and the nun said, "He calls again. I pray you
+answer him." Isabel then went out to Lucio, and in answer to his
+salutation, said, "Peace and Prosperity! Who is it that calls?" Then
+Lucio, approaching her with reverence, said, "Hail, virgin, if such you
+be, as the roses on your cheeks proclaim you are no less! can you bring
+me to the sight of Isabel, a novice of this place, and the fair sister
+to her unhappy brother Claudio?"&mdash;"Why her unhappy brother?" said
+Isabel, "let me ask! for I am that Isabel, and his sister."&mdash;"Fair and
+gentle lady," he replied, "your brother kindly greets you by me; he is
+in prison."&mdash;"Woe is me! for what?" said Isabel. Lucio then told her,
+Claudio was imprisoned for seducing a young maiden. "Ah," said she, "I
+fear it is my cousin Juliet." Juliet and Isabel were not related, but
+they called each other cousin in remembrance of their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> school days'
+friendship; and as Isabel knew that Juliet loved Claudio, she feared she
+had been led by her affection for him into this transgression. "She it
+is," replied Lucio. "Why then, let my brother marry Juliet," said
+Isabel. Lucio replied that Claudio would gladly marry Juliet, but that
+the lord deputy had sentenced him to die for his offence; "Unless," said
+he, "you have the grace by your fair prayer to soften Angelo, and that
+is my business between you and your poor brother."&mdash;"Alas!" said Isabel,
+"what poor ability is there in me to do him good? I doubt I have no
+power to move Angelo."&mdash;"Our doubts are traitors," said Lucio, "and make
+us lose the good we might often win, by fearing to attempt it. Go to
+Lord Angelo! When maidens sue, and kneel, and weep, men give like
+gods."&mdash;"I will see what I can do," said Isabel: "I will but stay to
+give the prioress notice of the affair, and then I will go to Angelo.
+Commend me to my brother: soon at night I will send him word of my
+success."</p>
+
+<p>Isabel hastened to the palace, and threw herself on her knees before
+Angelo, saying, "I am a woful suitor to your honour, if it will please
+your honour to hear me."&mdash;"Well, what is your suit?" said Angelo. She
+then made her petition in the most moving terms for her brother's life.
+But Angelo said, "Maiden, there is no remedy; your brother is sentenced,
+and he must die."&mdash;"O just, but severe law," said Isabel: "I had a
+brother then&mdash;Heaven keep your honour!" and she was about to depart. But
+Lucio, who had accompanied her, said, "Give it not over so; return to
+him again, entreat him, kneel down before him, hang upon his gown. You
+are too cold; if you should need a pin, you could not with a more tame
+tongue desire it." Then again Isabel on her knees implored for mercy.
+"He is sentenced," said Angelo: "it is too late."&mdash;"Too late!" said
+Isabel: "Why, no: I that do speak a word may call it back again. Believe
+this, my lord, no ceremony that to great ones belongs, not the king's
+crown, nor the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> deputed sword, the marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's
+robe, becomes them with one half so good a grace as mercy does."&mdash;"Pray
+you begone," said Angelo. But still Isabel entreated; and she said, "If
+my brother had been as you, and you as he, you might have slipped like
+him, but he, like you, would not have been so stern. I would to heaven I
+had your power, and you were Isabel. Should it then be thus? No, I would
+tell you what it were to be a judge, and what a prisoner."&mdash;"Be content,
+fair maid!" said Angelo: "it is the law, not I, condemns your brother.
+Were he my kinsman, my brother, or my son, it should be thus with him.
+He must die to-morrow."&mdash;"To-morrow?" said Isabel; "Oh, that is sudden:
+spare him, spare him; he is not prepared for death. Even for our
+kitchens we kill the fowl in season; shall we serve Heaven with less
+respect than we minister to our gross selves? Good, good, my lord,
+bethink you, none have died for my brother's offence, though many have
+committed it. So you would be the first that gives this sentence, and he
+the first that suffers it. Go to your own bosom, my lord; knock there,
+and ask your heart what it does know that is like my brother's fault; if
+it confess a natural guiltiness such as his is, let it not sound a
+thought against my brother's life!" Her last words more moved Angelo
+than all she had before said, for the beauty of Isabel had raised a
+guilty passion in his heart, and he began to form thoughts of
+dishonourable love, such as Claudio's crime had been; and the conflict
+in his mind made him to turn away from Isabel; but she called him back,
+saying, "Gentle my lord, turn back; hark, how I will bribe you. Good my
+lord, turn back!"&mdash;"How, bribe me!" said Angelo, astonished that she
+should think of offering him a bribe. "Ay," said Isabel, "with such
+gifts that Heaven itself shall share with you; not with golden
+treasures, or those glittering stones, whose price is either rich or
+poor as fancy values them, but with true prayers that shall be up to
+Heaven before sun<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span>rise,&mdash;prayers from preserved souls, from fasting
+maids whose minds are dedicated to nothing temporal."&mdash;"Well, come to me
+to-morrow," said Angelo. And for this short respite of her brother's
+life, and for this permission that she might be heard again, she left
+him with the joyful hope that she should at last prevail over his stern
+nature: and as she went away she said, "Heaven keep your honour safe!
+Heaven save your honour!" Which when Angelo heard, he said within his
+heart, "Amen, I would be saved from thee and from thy virtues:" and
+then, affrighted at his own evil thoughts, he said, "What is this? What
+is this? Do I love her, that I desire to hear her speak again, and feast
+upon her eyes? What is it I dream on? The cunning enemy of mankind, to
+catch a saint, with saints does bait the hook. Never could an immodest
+woman once stir my temper, but this virtuous woman subdues me quite.
+Even till now, when men were fond, I smiled and wondered at them."</p>
+
+<p>In the guilty conflict in his mind Angelo suffered more that night than
+the prisoner he had so severely sentenced; for in the prison Claudio was
+visited by the good duke, who, in his friar's habit, taught the young
+man the way to heaven, preaching to him the words of penitence and
+peace. But Angelo felt all the pangs of irresolute guilt: now wishing to
+seduce Isabel from the paths of innocence and honour, and now suffering
+remorse and horror for a crime as yet but intentional. But in the end
+his evil thoughts prevailed; and he who had so lately started at the
+offer of a bribe, resolved to tempt this maiden with so high a bribe, as
+she might not be able to resist, even with the precious gift of her dear
+brother's life.</p>
+
+<p>When Isabel came in the morning, Angelo desired she might be admitted
+alone to his presence: and being there, he said to her, if she would
+yield to him her virgin honour and transgress even as Juliet had done
+with Claudio, he would give her her brother's life; "For," said he, "I
+love<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> you, Isabel."&mdash;"My brother," said Isabel, "did so love Juliet, and
+yet you tell me he shall die for it."&mdash;"But," said Angelo, "Claudio
+shall not die, if you will consent to visit me by stealth at night, even
+as Juliet left her father's house at night to come to Claudio." Isabel,
+in amazement at his words, that he should tempt her to the same fault
+for which he passed sentence upon her brother, said, "I would do as much
+for my poor brother as for myself; that is, were I under sentence of
+death, the impression of keen whips I would wear as rubies, and go to my
+death as to a bed that longing I had been sick for, ere I would yield
+myself up to this shame." And then she told him, she hoped he only spoke
+these words to try her virtue. But he said, "Believe me, on my honour,
+my words express my purpose." Isabel, angered to the heart to hear him
+use the word Honour to express such dishonourable purposes, said, "Ha!
+little honour to be much believed; and most pernicious purpose. I will
+proclaim thee, Angelo, look for it! Sign me a present pardon for my
+brother, or I will tell the world aloud what man thou art!"&mdash;"Who will
+believe you, Isabel?" said Angelo; "my unsoiled name, the austereness of
+my life, my word vouched against yours, will outweigh your accusation.
+Redeem your brother by yielding to my will, or he shall die to-morrow.
+As for you, say what you can, my false will overweigh your true story.
+Answer me to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"To whom should I complain? Did I tell this, who would believe me?" said
+Isabel, as she went towards the dreary prison where her brother was
+confined. When she arrived there, her brother was in pious conversation
+with the duke, who in his friar's habit had also visited Juliet, and
+brought both these guilty lovers to a proper sense of their fault; and
+unhappy Juliet with tears and a true remorse confessed that she was more
+to blame than Claudio, in that she willingly consented to his
+dishonourable solicitations.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>As Isabel entered the room where Claudio was confined, she said, "Peace
+be here, grace, and good company!"&mdash;"Who is there?" said the disguised
+duke; "come in; the wish deserves a welcome."&mdash;"My business is a word or
+two with Claudio," said Isabel. Then the duke left them together, and
+desired the provost, who had the charge of the prisoners, to place him
+where he might overhear their conversation.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, sister, what is the comfort?" said Claudio. Isabel told him he
+must prepare for death on the morrow. "Is there no remedy?" said
+Claudio.&mdash;"Yes, brother," replied Isabel, "there is; but such a one, as
+if you consented to it would strip your honour from you, and leave you
+naked."&mdash;"Let me know the point," said Claudio. "O, I do fear you,
+Claudio!" replied his sister; "and I quake, lest you should wish to
+live, and more respect the trifling term of six or seven winters added
+to your life, than your perpetual honour! Do you dare to die? The sense
+of death is most in apprehension, and the poor beetle that we tread
+upon, feels a pang as great as when a giant dies." "Why do you give me
+this shame?" said Claudio. "Think you I can fetch a resolution from
+flowery tenderness? If I must die, I will encounter darkness as a bride,
+and hug it in my arms."&mdash;"There spoke my brother," said Isabel; "there
+my father's grave did utter forth a voice. Yes, you must die; yet would
+you think it, Claudio! this outward sainted deputy, if I would yield to
+him my virgin honour, would grant your life. O, were it but my life, I
+would lay it down for your deliverance as frankly as a pin!"&mdash;"Thanks,
+dear Isabel," said Claudio. "Be ready to die to-morrow," said Isabel.
+"Death is a fearful thing," said Claudio. "And shamed life a hateful,"
+replied his sister. But the thoughts of death now overcame the constancy
+of Claudio's temper, and terrors, such as the guilty only at their
+deaths do know, assailing him, he cried out, "Sweet sister, let me live!
+The sin you do to save a brother's life,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> nature dispenses with the deed
+so far, that it becomes a virtue."&mdash;"O faithless coward! O dishonest
+wretch!" said Isabel; "would you preserve your life by your sister's
+shame? O fie, fie, fie! I thought, my brother, you had in you such a
+mind of honour, that had you twenty heads to render up on twenty blocks,
+you would have yielded them up all, before your sister should stoop to
+such dishonour." "Nay, hear me, Isabel!" said Claudio. But what he would
+have said in defence of his weakness, in desiring to live by the
+dishonour of his virtuous sister, was interrupted by the entrance of the
+duke; who said, "Claudio, I have overheard what has passed between you
+and your sister. Angelo had never the purpose to corrupt her; what he
+said, has only been to make trial of her virtue. She having the truth of
+honour in her, has given him that gracious denial which he is most glad
+to receive. There is no hope that he will pardon you; therefore pass
+your hours in prayer, and make ready for death." Then Claudio repented
+of his weakness, and said, "Let me ask my sister's pardon! I am so out
+of love with life, that I will sue to be rid of it." And Claudio
+retired, overwhelmed with shame and sorrow for his fault.</p>
+
+<p>The duke being now alone with Isabel, commended her virtuous resolution,
+saying, "The hand that made you fair, has made you good."&mdash;"O," said
+Isabel, "how much is the good duke deceived in Angelo! if ever he
+return, and I can speak to him, I will discover his government." Isabel
+knew not that she was even now making the discovery she threatened. The
+duke replied, "That shall not be much amiss; yet as the matter now
+stands, Angelo will repel your accusation; therefore lend an attentive
+ear to my advisings. I believe that you may most righteously do a poor
+wronged lady a merited benefit, redeem your brother from the angry law,
+do no stain to your own most gracious person, and much please the absent
+duke, if peradventure he shall ever return to have notice of this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>
+business." Isabel said, she had a spirit to do anything he desired,
+provided it was nothing wrong. "Virtue is bold, and never fearful," said
+the duke: and then he asked her, if she had ever heard of Mariana, the
+sister of Frederick, the great soldier who was drowned at sea. "I have
+heard of the lady," said Isabel, "and good words went with her
+name."&mdash;"This lady," said the duke, "is the wife of Angelo; but her
+marriage dowry was on board the vessel in which her brother perished,
+and mark how heavily this befell to the poor gentlewoman! for, beside
+the loss of a most noble and renowned brother, who in his love towards
+her was ever most kind and natural, in the wreck of her fortune she lost
+the affections of her husband, the well-seeming Angelo; who pretending
+to discover some dishonour in this honourable lady (though the true
+cause was the loss of her dowry) left her in her tears, and dried not
+one of them with his comfort. His unjust unkindness, that in all reason
+should have quenched her love, has, like an impediment in the current,
+made it more unruly, and Mariana loves her cruel husband with the full
+continuance of her first affection." The duke then more plainly unfolded
+his plan. It was, that Isabel should go to Lord Angelo, and seemingly
+consent to come to him as he desired at midnight; that by this means she
+would obtain the promised pardon; and that Mariana should go in her
+stead to the appointment, and pass herself upon Angelo in the dark for
+Isabel. "Nor, gentle daughter," said the feigned friar, "fear you to do
+this thing; Angelo is her husband, and to bring them thus together is no
+sin." Isabel being pleased with this project, departed to do as he
+directed her; and he went to apprise Mariana of their intention. He had
+before this time visited this unhappy lady in his assumed character,
+giving her religious instruction and friendly consolation, at which
+times he had learned her sad story from her own lips; and now she,
+looking upon him as a holy man, readily consented to be directed by him
+in this undertaking.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>When Isabel returned from her interview with Angelo, to the house of
+Mariana, where the duke had appointed her to meet him, he said, "Well
+met, and in good time; what is the news from this good deputy?" Isabel
+related the manner in which she had settled the affair. "Angelo," said
+she, "has a garden surrounded with a brick wall, on the western side of
+which is a vineyard, and to that vineyard is a gate." And then she
+showed to the duke and Mariana two keys that Angelo had given her; and
+she said, "This bigger key opens the vineyard gate; this other a little
+door which leads from the vineyard to the garden. There I have made my
+promise at the dead of the night to call upon him, and have got from him
+his word of assurance for my brother's life. I have taken a due and wary
+note of the place; and with whispering and most guilty diligence he
+showed me the way twice over."&mdash;"Are there no other tokens agreed upon
+between you, that Mariana must observe?" said the duke. "No, none," said
+Isabel, "only to go when it is dark. I have told him my time can be but
+short; for I have made him think a servant comes along with me, and that
+this servant is persuaded I come about my brother." The duke commended
+her discreet management, and she, turning to Mariana, said, "Little have
+you to say to Angelo, when you depart from him, but soft and low,
+<i>Remember now my brother</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>Mariana was that night conducted to the appointed place by Isabel, who
+rejoiced that she had, as she supposed, by this device preserved both
+her brother's life and her own honour. But that her brother's life was
+safe the duke was not well satisfied, and therefore at midnight he again
+repaired to the prison, and it was well for Claudio that he did so, else
+would Claudio have that night been beheaded; for soon after the duke
+entered the prison, an order came from the cruel deputy, commanding that
+Claudio should be beheaded, and his head sent to him by five o'clock in
+the morning. But the duke persuaded the provost to put off<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> the
+execution of Claudio, and to deceive Angelo, by sending him the head of
+a man who died that morning in the prison. And to prevail upon the
+provost to agree to this, the duke, whom still the provost suspected not
+to be anything more or greater than he seemed, showed the provost a
+letter written with the duke's hand, and sealed with his seal, which
+when the provost saw, he concluded this friar must have some secret
+order from the absent duke, and therefore he consented to spare Claudio;
+and he cut off the dead man's head, and carried it to Angelo.</p>
+
+<p>Then the duke in his own name, wrote to Angelo a letter, saying, that
+certain accidents had put a stop to his journey, and that he should be
+in Vienna by the following morning, requiring Angelo to meet him at the
+entrance of the city, there to deliver up his authority; and the duke
+also commanded it to be proclaimed, that if any of his subjects craved
+redress for injustice, they should exhibit their petitions in the street
+on his first entrance into the city.</p>
+
+<p>Early in the morning Isabel came to the prison, and the duke, who there
+awaited her coming, for secret reasons thought it good to tell her that
+Claudio was beheaded; therefore when Isabel inquired if Angelo had sent
+the pardon for her brother, he said, "Angelo has released Claudio from
+this world. His head is off, and sent to the deputy." The much-grieved
+sister cried out, "O unhappy Claudio, wretched Isabel, injurious world,
+most wicked Angelo!" The seeming friar bid her take comfort, and when
+she was become a little calm, he acquainted her with the near prospect
+of the duke's return, and told her in what manner she should proceed in
+preferring her complaint against Angelo; and he bade her not fear if the
+cause should seem to go against her for a while. Leaving Isabel
+sufficiently instructed, he next went to Mariana, and gave her counsel
+in what manner she also should act.</p>
+
+<p>Then the duke laid aside his friar's habit, and in his own royal robes,
+amidst a joyful crowd of his faithful subjects,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> assembled to greet his
+arrival, entered the city of Vienna, where he was met by Angelo, who
+delivered up his authority in the proper form. And there came Isabel, in
+the manner of a petitioner for redress, and said, "Justice, most royal
+duke! I am the sister of one Claudio, who, for the seducing a young
+maid, was condemned to lose his head. I made my suit to Lord Angelo for
+my brother's pardon. It were needless to tell your grace how I prayed
+and kneeled, how he repelled me, and how I replied; for this was of much
+length. The vile conclusion I now begin with grief and shame to utter.
+Angelo would not but by my yielding to his dishonourable love release my
+brother; and after much debate within myself, my sisterly remorse
+overcame my virtue, and I did yield to him. But the next morning
+betimes, Angelo, forfeiting his promise, sent a warrant for my poor
+brother's head!" The duke affected to disbelieve her story; and Angelo
+said that grief for her brother's death, who had suffered by the due
+course of the law, had disordered her senses. And now another suitor
+approached, which was Mariana; and Mariana said, "Noble prince, as there
+comes light from heaven, and truth from breath, as there is sense in
+truth and truth in virtue, I am this man's wife, and, my good lord, the
+words of Isabel are false; for the night she says she was with Angelo, I
+passed that night with him in the garden-house. As this is true, let me
+in safety rise, or else for ever be fixed here a marble monument." Then
+did Isabel appeal for the truth of what she had said to Friar Lodowick,
+that being the name the duke had assumed in his disguise. Isabel and
+Mariana had both obeyed his instructions in what they said, the duke
+intending that the innocence of Isabel should be plainly proved in that
+public manner before the whole city of Vienna; but Angelo little thought
+that it was from such a cause that they thus differed in their story,
+and he hoped from their contradictory evidence to be able to clear
+himself from the accusation of Isabel; and he said, assuming the look
+of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> offended innocence, "I did but smile till now; but, good my lord, my
+patience here is touched, and I perceive these poor distracted women are
+but the instruments of some greater one, who sets them on. Let me have
+way, my lord, to find this practice out."&mdash;"Ay, with all my heart," said
+the duke, "and punish them to the height of your pleasure. You, Lord
+Escalus, sit with Lord Angelo, lend him your pains to discover this
+abuse; the friar is sent for that set them on, and when he comes, do
+with your injuries as may seem best in any chastisement. I for a while
+will leave you, but stir not you, Lord Angelo, till you have well
+determined upon this slander." The duke then went away, leaving Angelo
+well pleased to be deputed judge and umpire in his own cause. But the
+duke was absent only while he threw off his royal robes and put on his
+friar's habit; and in that disguise again he presented himself before
+Angelo and Escalus: and the good old Escalus, who thought Angelo had
+been falsely accused, said to the supposed friar, "Come, sir, did you
+set these women on to slander Lord Angelo?" He replied, "Where is the
+duke? It is he who should hear me speak." Escalus said, "The duke is in
+us, and we will hear you. Speak justly."&mdash;"Boldly at least," retorted
+the friar; and then he blamed the duke for leaving the cause of Isabel
+in the hands of him she had accused, and spoke so freely of many corrupt
+practices he had observed, while, as he said, he had been a looker-on in
+Vienna, that Escalus threatened him with the torture for speaking words
+against the state, and for censuring the conduct of the duke, and
+ordered him to be taken away to prison. Then, to the amazement of all
+present, and to the utter confusion of Angelo, the supposed friar threw
+off his disguise, and they saw it was the duke himself.</p>
+
+<p>The duke first addressed Isabel. He said to her, "Come hither, Isabel.
+Your friar is now your prince, but with my habit I have not changed my
+heart. I am still devoted to your service." "O give me pardon," said
+Isabel, "that I,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> your vassal, have employed and troubled your unknown
+sovereignty." He answered that he had most need of forgiveness from her,
+for not having prevented the death of her brother&mdash;for not yet would he
+tell her that Claudio was living; meaning first to make a further trial
+of her goodness. Angelo now knew the duke had been a secret witness of
+his bad deeds, and he said, "O my dread lord, I should be guiltier than
+my guiltiness, to think I can be undiscernible, when I perceive your
+grace, like power divine, has looked upon my actions. Then, good prince,
+no longer prolong my shame, but let my trial be my own confession.
+Immediate sentence and death is all the grace I beg." The duke replied,
+"Angelo, thy faults are manifest. We do condemn thee to the very block
+where Claudio stooped to death; and with like haste away with him; and
+for his possessions, Mariana, we do instate and widow you withal, to buy
+you a better husband."&mdash;"O my dear lord," said Mariana, "I crave no
+other, nor no better man:" and then on her knees, even as Isabel had
+begged the life of Claudio, did this kind wife of an ungrateful husband
+beg the life of Angelo; and she said, "Gentle my liege, O good my lord!
+Sweet Isabel, take my part! Lend me your knees, and all my life to come
+I will lend you all my life, to do you service!" The duke said, "Against
+all sense you importune her. Should Isabel kneel down to beg for mercy,
+her brother's ghost would break his paved bed, and take her hence in
+horror." Still Mariana said, "Isabel, sweet Isabel, do but kneel by me,
+hold up your hand, say nothing! I will speak all. They say, best men are
+moulded out of faults, and for the most part become much the better for
+being a little bad. So may my husband. Oh, Isabel, will you not lend a
+knee?" The duke then said, "He dies for Claudio." But much pleased was
+the good duke, when his own Isabel, from whom he expected all gracious
+and honourable acts, kneeled down before him, and said, "Most bounteous
+sir, look, if it please you, on this man con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span>demned, as if my brother
+lived. I partly think a due sincerity governed his deeds, till he did
+look on me. Since it is so, let him not die! My brother had but justice,
+in that he did the thing for which he died."</p>
+
+<p>The duke, as the best reply he could make to this noble petitioner for
+her enemy's life, sending for Claudio from his prison-house, where he
+lay doubtful of his destiny, presented to her this lamented brother
+living; and he said to Isabel, "Give me your hand, Isabel; for your
+lovely sake I pardon Claudio. Say you will be mine, and he shall be my
+brother too." By this time Lord Angelo perceived he was safe; and the
+duke, observing his eye to brighten up a little, said, "Well, Angelo,
+look that you love your wife; her worth has obtained your pardon: joy to
+you, Mariana! Love her, Angelo! I have confessed her, and know her
+virtue." Angelo remembered, when dressed in a little brief authority,
+how hard his heart had been, and felt how sweet is mercy.</p>
+
+<p>The duke commanded Claudio to marry Juliet, and offered himself again to
+the acceptance of Isabel, whose virtuous and noble conduct had won her
+prince's heart. Isabel, not having taken the veil, was free to marry;
+and the friendly offices, while hid under the disguise of a humble
+friar, which the noble duke had done for her, made her with grateful joy
+accept the honour he offered her; and when she became Duchess of Vienna,
+the excellent example of the virtuous Isabel worked such a complete
+reformation among the young ladies of that city, that from that time
+none ever fell into the transgression of Juliet, the repentant wife of
+the reformed Claudio. And the mercy-loving duke long reigned with his
+beloved Isabel, the happiest of husbands and of princes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img26.jpg"  width="600" height="440" alt="TWELFTH NIGHT OR WHAT YOU WILL" title="" /></div>
+
+
+<p>Sebastian and his sister Viola, a young gentleman and lady of Messaline,
+were twins, and (which was accounted a great wonder) from their birth
+they so much resembled each other, that, but for the difference in their
+dress, they could not be known apart. They were both born in one hour,
+and in one hour they were both in danger of perishing, for they were
+shipwrecked on the coast of Illyria, as they were making a sea-voyage
+together. The ship, on board of which they were, split on a rock in a
+violent storm, and a very small number of the ship's company escaped
+with their lives. The captain of the vessel, with a few of the sailors
+that were saved, got to land in a small boat, and with them they brought
+Viola safe on shore, where she, poor lady, instead of rejoicing at her
+own deliverance, began to lament her brother's loss; but the captain
+comforted her with the assurance that he had seen her brother, when the
+ship spilt, fasten himself to a strong mast, on which, as long as he
+could see anything of him for the distance, he perceived him borne up
+above the waves. Viola was much consoled by the hope this account gave
+her, and now considered how she was to dispose of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> herself in a strange
+country, so far from home; and she asked the captain if he knew anything
+of Illyria. "Ay, very well, madam," replied the captain, "for I was born
+not three hours' travel from this place."&mdash;"Who governs here?" said
+Viola. The captain told her, Illyria was governed by Orsino, a duke
+noble in nature as well as dignity. Viola said, she had heard her father
+speak of Orsino, and that he was unmarried then. "And he is so now,"
+said the captain; "or was so very lately, for, but a month ago, I went
+from here, and then it was the general talk (as you know what great ones
+do, the people will prattle of) that Orsino sought the love of fair
+Olivia, a virtuous maid, the daughter of a count who died twelve months
+ago, leaving Olivia to the protection of her brother, who shortly after
+died also; and for the love of this dear brother, they say, she has
+abjured the sight and company of men." Viola, who was herself in such a
+sad affliction for her brother's loss, wished she could live with this
+lady, who so tenderly mourned a brother's death. She asked the captain
+if he could introduce her to Olivia, saying she would willingly serve
+this lady. But he replied, this would be a hard thing to accomplish,
+because the Lady Olivia would admit no person into her house since her
+brother's death, not even the duke himself. Then Viola formed another
+project in her mind, which was, in a man's habit, to serve the Duke
+Orsino as a page. It was a strange fancy in a young lady to put on male
+attire, and pass for a boy; but the forlorn and unprotected state of
+Viola, who was young and of uncommon beauty, alone, and in a foreign
+land, must plead her excuse.</p>
+
+<p>She having observed a fair behaviour in the captain, and that he showed
+a friendly concern for her welfare, entrusted him with her design, and
+he readily engaged to assist her. Viola gave him money, and directed him
+to furnish her with suitable apparel, ordering her clothes to be made of
+the same colour and in the same fashion her brother Sebas<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span>tian used to
+wear, and when she was dressed in her manly garb, she looked so exactly
+like her brother that some strange errors happened by means of their
+being mistaken for each other; for, as will afterwards appear, Sebastian
+was also saved.</p>
+
+<p>Viola's good friend, the captain, when he had transformed this pretty
+lady into a gentleman, having some interest at court, got her presented
+to Orsino under the feigned name of Cesario. The duke was wonderfully
+pleased with the address and graceful deportment of this handsome youth,
+and made Cesario one of his pages, that being the office Viola wished to
+obtain: and she so well fulfilled the duties of her new station, and
+showed such a ready observance and faithful attachment to her lord, that
+she soon became his most favoured attendant. To Cesario Orsino confided
+the whole history of his love for the Lady Olivia. To Cesario he told
+the long and unsuccessful suit he had made to one who, rejecting his
+long services, and despising his person, refused to admit him to her
+presence; and for the love of this lady who had so unkindly treated him,
+the noble Orsino, forsaking the sports of the field and all manly
+exercises in which he used to delight, passed his hours in ignoble
+sloth, listening to the effeminate sounds of soft music, gentle airs,
+and passionate love-songs; and neglecting the company of the wise and
+learned lords with whom he used to associate, he was now all day long
+conversing with young Cesario. Unmeet companion no doubt his grave
+courtiers thought Cesario was for their once noble master, the great
+Duke Orsino.</p>
+
+<p>It is a dangerous matter for young maidens to be the confidants of
+handsome young dukes; which Viola too soon found to her sorrow, for all
+that Orsino told her he endured for Olivia, she presently perceived she
+suffered for the love of him; and much it moved her wonder, that Olivia
+could be so regardless of this her peerless lord and master, whom she
+thought no one could behold without the deepest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> admiration, and she
+ventured gently to hint to Orsino, that it was a pity he should affect a
+lady who was so blind to his worthy qualities; and she said, "If a lady
+were to love you, my lord, as you love Olivia (and perhaps there may be
+one who does), if you could not love her in return, would you not tell
+her that you could not love, and must she not be content with this
+answer?" But Orsino would not admit of this reasoning, for he denied
+that it was possible for any woman to love as he did. He said, no
+woman's heart was big enough to hold so much love, and therefore it was
+unfair to compare the love of any lady for him, to his love for Olivia.
+Now, though Viola had the utmost deference for the duke's opinions, she
+could not help thinking this was not quite true, for she thought her
+heart had full as much love in it as Orsino's had; and she said, "Ah,
+but I know, my lord."&mdash;"What do you know, Cesario?" said Orsino. "Too
+well I know," replied Viola, "what love women may owe to men. They are
+as true of heart as we are. My father had a daughter loved a man, as I
+perhaps, were I a woman, should love your lordship."&mdash;"And what is her
+history?" said Orsino. "A blank, my lord," replied Viola: "she never
+told her love, but let concealment, like a worm in the bud, feed on her
+damask cheek. She pined in thought, and with a green and yellow
+melancholy, she sat like Patience on a monument, smiling at Grief." The
+duke inquired if this lady died of her love, but to this question Viola
+returned an evasive answer; as probably she had feigned the story, to
+speak words expressive of the secret love and silent grief she suffered
+for Orsino.</p>
+
+<p>While they were talking, a gentleman entered whom the duke had sent to
+Olivia, and he said, "So please you, my lord, I might not be admitted to
+the lady, but by her handmaid she returned you this answer: Until seven
+years hence, the element itself shall not behold her face; but like a
+cloistress she will walk veiled, watering her chamber with her tears for
+the sad remembrance of her dead brother."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> On hearing this, the duke
+exclaimed, "O she that has a heart of this fine frame, to pay this debt
+of love to a dead brother, how will she love, when the rich golden shaft
+has touched her heart!" And then he said to Viola, "You know, Cesario, I
+have told you all the secrets of my heart; therefore, good youth, go to
+Olivia's house. Be not denied access; stand at her doors, and tell her,
+there your fixed foot shall grow till you have audience."&mdash;"And if I do
+speak to her, my lord, what then?" said Viola. "O then;" replied Orsino,
+"unfold to her the passion of my love. Make a long discourse to her of
+my dear faith. It will well become you to act my woes, for she will
+attend more to you than to one of graver aspect."</p>
+
+<p>Away then went Viola; but not willingly did she undertake this
+courtship, for she was to woo a lady to become a wife to him she wished
+to marry: but having undertaken the affair, she performed it with
+fidelity; and Olivia soon heard that a youth was at her door who
+insisted upon being admitted to her presence. "I told him," said the
+servant, "that you were sick: he said he knew you were, and therefore he
+came to speak with you. I told him that you were asleep: he seemed to
+have a foreknowledge of that too, and said, that therefore he must speak
+with you. What is to be said to him, lady? for he seems fortified
+against all denial, and will speak with you, whether you will or no."
+Olivia, curious to see who this peremptory messenger might be, desired
+he might be admitted; and throwing her veil over her face, she said she
+would once more hear Orsino's embassy, not doubting but that he came
+from the duke, by his importunity. Viola, entering, put on the most
+manly air she could assume, and affecting the fine courtier language of
+great men's pages, she said to the veiled lady, "Most radiant,
+exquisite, and matchless beauty, I pray you tell me if you are the lady
+of the house; for I should be sorry to cast away my speech upon another;
+for besides that it is excellently well penned, I have taken great pains
+to learn<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> it."&mdash;"Whence come you, sir?" said Olivia. "I can say little
+more than I have studied," replied Viola; "and that question is out of
+my part."&mdash;"Are you a comedian?" said Olivia. "No," replied Viola; "and
+yet I am not that which I play;" meaning that she, being a woman,
+feigned herself to be a man. And again she asked Olivia if she were the
+lady of the house. Olivia said she was; and then Viola, having more
+curiosity to see her rival's features, than haste to deliver her
+master's message, said, "Good madam, let me see your face." With this
+bold request Olivia was not averse to comply; for this haughty beauty,
+whom the Duke Orsino had loved so long in vain, at first sight conceived
+a passion for the supposed page, the humble Cesario.</p>
+
+<p>When Viola asked to see her face, Olivia said, "Have you any commission
+from your lord and master to negotiate with my face?" And then,
+forgetting her determination to go veiled for seven long years, she drew
+aside her veil, saying, "But I will draw the curtain and show the
+picture. Is it not well done?" Viola replied, "It is beauty truly mixed;
+the red and white upon your cheeks is by Nature's own cunning hand laid
+on. You are the most cruel lady living, if you will lead these graces to
+the grave, and leave the world no copy."&mdash;"O, sir," replied Olivia, "I
+will not be so cruel. The world may have an inventory of my beauty. As,
+<i>item</i>, two lips, indifferent red; <i>item</i>, two grey eyes, with lids to
+them; one neck; one chin; and so forth. Were you sent here to praise
+me?" Viola replied, "I see what you are: you are too proud, but you are
+fair. My lord and master loves you. O such a love could but be
+recompensed, though you were crowned the queen of beauty: for Orsino
+loves you with adoration and with tears, with groans that thunder love,
+and sighs of fire."&mdash;"Your lord," said Olivia, "knows well my mind. I
+cannot love him; yet I doubt not he is virtuous; I know him to be noble
+and of high estate, of fresh and spotless<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> youth. All voices proclaim
+him learned, courteous, and valiant; yet I cannot love him, he might
+have taken his answer long ago."&mdash;"If I did love you as my master does,"
+said Viola, "I would make me a willow cabin at your gates, and call upon
+your name, I would write complaining sonnets on Olivia, and sing them in
+the dead of the night; your name should sound among the hills, and I
+would make Echo, the babbling gossip of the air, cry out <i>Olivia</i>. O you
+should not rest between the elements of earth and air, but you should
+pity me."&mdash;"You might do much," said Olivia: "what is your parentage?"
+Viola replied, "Above my fortunes, yet my state is well. I am a
+gentleman." Olivia now reluctantly dismissed Viola, saying, "Go to your
+master, and tell him, I cannot love him. Let him send no more, unless
+perchance you come again to tell me how he takes it." And Viola
+departed, bidding the lady farewell by the name of Fair Cruelty. When
+she was gone, Olivia repeated the words, <i>Above my fortunes, yet my
+state is well. I am a gentleman.</i> And she said aloud, "I will be sworn
+he is; his tongue, his face, his limbs, action, and spirit, plainly show
+he is a gentleman." And then she wished Cesario was the duke; and
+perceiving the fast hold he had taken on her affections, she blamed
+herself for her sudden love: but the gentle blame which people lay upon
+their own faults has no deep root; and presently the noble Lady Olivia
+so far forgot the inequality between her fortunes and those of this
+seeming page, as well as the maidenly reserve which is the chief
+ornament of a lady's character, that she resolved to court the love of
+young Cesario, and sent a servant after him with a diamond ring, under
+the pretence that he had left it with her as a present from Orsino. She
+hoped by thus artfully making Cesario a present of the ring, she should
+give him some intimation of her design; and truly it did make Viola
+suspect; for knowing that Orsino had sent no ring by her, she began to
+recollect that Olivia's looks and manner were expressive<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> of admiration,
+and she presently guessed her master's mistress had fallen in love with
+her. "Alas," said she, "the poor lady might as well love a dream.
+Disguise I see is wicked, for it has caused Olivia to breathe as
+fruitless sighs for me as I do for Orsino."</p>
+
+<p>Viola returned to Orsino's palace, and related to her lord the ill
+success of the negotiation, repeating the command of Olivia, that the
+duke should trouble her no more. Yet still the duke persisted in hoping
+that the gentle Cesario would in time be able to persuade her to show
+some pity, and therefore he bade him he should go to her again the next
+day. In the meantime, to pass away the tedious interval, he commanded a
+song which he loved to be sung; and he said, "My good Cesario, when I
+heard that song last night, methought it did relieve my passion much.
+Mark it, Cesario, it is old and plain. The spinsters and the knitters
+when they sit in the sun, and the young maids that weave their thread
+with bone, chant this song. It is silly, yet I love it, for it tells of
+the innocence of love in the old times."</p>
+
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 8em;"><b>SONG</b></span></p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Come away, come away, Death,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">And in sad cypress let me be laid;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Fly away, fly away, breath,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">I am slain by a fair cruel maid.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">My shroud of white stuck all with yew, O prepare it!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">My part of death no one so true did share it.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Not a flower, not a flower sweet,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">On my black coffin let there be strewn:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Not a friend, not a friend greet</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">My poor corpse, where my bones shall be thrown.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A thousand thousand sighs to save, lay me O where</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sad true lover never find my grave, to weep there!</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Viola did not fail to mark the words of the old song, which in such true
+simplicity described the pangs of unrequited love, and she bore
+testimony in her countenance of feeling what the song expressed. Her sad
+looks were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> observed by Orsino, who said to her, "My life upon it,
+Cesario, though you are so young, your eye has looked upon some face
+that it loves: has it not, boy?"&mdash;"A little, with your leave," replied
+Viola. "And what kind of woman, and of what age is she?" said Orsino.
+"Of your age and of your complexion, my lord," said Viola; which made
+the duke smile to hear this fair young boy loved a woman so much older
+than himself, and of a man's dark complexion; but Viola secretly meant
+Orsino, and not a woman like him.</p>
+
+<p>When Viola made her second visit to Olivia, she found no difficulty in
+gaining access to her. Servants soon discover when their ladies delight
+to converse with handsome young messengers; and the instant Viola
+arrived, the gates were thrown wide open, and the duke's page was shown
+into Olivia's apartment with great respect; and when Viola told Olivia
+that she was come once more to plead in her lord's behalf, this lady
+said, "I desired you never to speak of him again; but if you would
+undertake another suit, I had rather hear you solicit, than music from
+the spheres." This was pretty plain speaking, but Olivia soon explained
+herself still more plainly, and openly confessed her love; and when she
+saw displeasure with perplexity expressed in Viola's face, she said, "O
+what a deal of scorn looks beautiful in the contempt and anger of his
+lip! Cesario, by the roses of the spring, by maidhood, honour, and by
+truth, I love you so, that, in spite of your pride, I have neither wit
+nor reason to conceal my passion." But in vain the lady wooed; Viola
+hastened from her presence, threatening never more to come to plead
+Orsino's love; and all the reply she made to Olivia's fond solicitation
+was, a declaration of a resolution <i>Never to love any woman.</i></p>
+
+<p>No sooner had Viola left the lady than a claim was made upon her valour.
+A gentleman, a rejected suitor of Olivia, who had learned how that lady
+had favoured the duke's messenger, challenged him to fight a duel. What
+should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> poor Viola do, who, though she carried a manlike outside, had a
+true woman's heart, and feared to look on her own sword?</p>
+
+<p><a name="WOMAN" id="WOMAN"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter">
+             <a href="images/img010.jpg"><img
+             src="images/img010-tb.jpg" width="299" height="500"
+             alt="SHE BEGAN TO THINK OF CONFESSING THAT SHE WAS A WOMAN" /></a><br />
+         <b>SHE BEGAN TO THINK OF CONFESSING THAT SHE WAS A WOMAN</b>
+    </div>
+
+<p>When she saw her formidable rival advancing towards her with his sword
+drawn, she began to think of confessing that she was a woman; but she
+was relieved at once from her terror, and the shame of such a discovery,
+by a stranger that was passing by, who made up to them, and as if he had
+been long known to her, and were her dearest friend, said to her
+opponent, "If this young gentleman has done offence, I will take the
+fault on me; and if you offend him, I will for his sake defy you."
+Before Viola had time to thank him for his protection, or to inquire the
+reason of his kind interference, her new friend met with an enemy where
+his bravery was of no use to him; for the officers of justice coming up
+in that instant, apprehended the stranger in the duke's name, to answer
+for an offence he had committed some years before: and he said to Viola,
+"This comes with seeking you:" and then he asked her for a purse,
+saying, "Now my necessity makes me ask for my purse, and it grieves me
+much more for what I cannot do for you, than for what befalls myself.
+You stand amazed, but be of comfort." His words did indeed amaze Viola,
+and she protested she knew him not, nor had ever received a purse from
+him; but for the kindness he had just shown her, she offered him a small
+sum of money, being nearly the whole she possessed. And now the stranger
+spoke severe things, charging her with ingratitude and unkindness. He
+said, "This youth, whom you see here, I snatched from the jaws of death,
+and for his sake alone I came to Illyria, and have fallen into this
+danger." But the officers cared little for hearkening to the complaints
+of their prisoner, and they hurried him on, saying, "What is that to
+us?" And as he was carried away, he called Viola by the name of
+Sebastian, reproaching the supposed Sebastian for disowning his friend,
+as long as he was within hearing. When Viola<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> heard herself called
+Sebastian, though the stranger was taken away too hastily for her to ask
+an explanation, she conjectured that this seeming mystery might arise
+from her being mistaken for her brother; and she began to cherish hopes
+that it was her brother whose life this man said he had preserved. And
+so indeed it was. The stranger, whose name was Antonio, was a
+sea-captain. He had taken Sebastian up into his ship, when, almost
+exhausted with fatigue, he was floating on the mast to which he had
+fastened himself in the storm. Antonio conceived such a friendship for
+Sebastian, that he resolved to accompany him whithersoever he went; and
+when the youth expressed a curiosity to visit Orsino's court, Antonio,
+rather than part from him, came to Illyria, though he knew, if his
+person should be known there, his life would be in danger, because in a
+sea-fight he had once dangerously wounded the Duke Orsino's nephew. This
+was the offence for which he was now made a prisoner.</p>
+
+<p>Antonio and Sebastian had landed together but a few hours before Antonio
+met Viola. He had given his purse to Sebastian, desiring him to use it
+freely if he saw anything he wished to purchase, telling him he would
+wait at the inn, while Sebastian went to view the town; but Sebastian
+not returning at the time appointed, Antonio had ventured out to look
+for him, and Viola being dressed the same, and in face so exactly
+resembling her brother, Antonio drew his sword (as he thought) in
+defence of the youth he had saved, and when Sebastian (as he supposed)
+disowned him, and denied him his own purse, no wonder he accused him of
+ingratitude.</p>
+
+<p>Viola, when Antonio was gone, fearing a second invitation to fight,
+slunk home as fast as she could. She had not been long gone, when her
+adversary thought he saw her return; but it was her brother Sebastian,
+who happened to arrive at this place, and he said, "Now, sir, have I met
+with you again? There's for you;" and struck him a blow.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> Sebastian was
+no coward; he returned the blow with interest, and drew his sword.</p>
+
+<p>A lady now put a stop to this duel, for Olivia came out of the house,
+and she too mistaking Sebastian for Cesario, invited him to come into
+her house, expressing much sorrow at the rude attack he had met with.
+Though Sebastian was as much surprised at the courtesy of this lady as
+at the rudeness of his unknown foe, yet he went very willingly into the
+house, and Olivia was delighted to find Cesario (as she thought him)
+become more sensible of her attentions; for though their features were
+exactly the same, there was none of the contempt and anger to be seen in
+his face, which she had complained of when she told her love to Cesario.</p>
+
+<p>Sebastian did not at all object to the fondness the lady lavished on
+him. He seemed to take it in very good part, yet he wondered how it had
+come to pass, and he was rather inclined to think Olivia was not in her
+right senses; but perceiving that she was mistress of a fine house, and
+that she ordered her affairs and seemed to govern her family discreetly,
+and that in all but her sudden love for him she appeared in the full
+possession of her reason, he well approved of the courtship; and Olivia
+finding Cesario in this good humour, and fearing he might change his
+mind, proposed that, as she had a priest in the house, they should be
+instantly married. Sebastian assented to this proposal; and when the
+marriage ceremony was over, he left his lady for a short time, intending
+to go and tell his friend Antonio the good fortune that he had met with.
+In the meantime Orsino came to visit Olivia: and at the moment he
+arrived before Olivia's house, the officers of justice brought their
+prisoner, Antonio, before the duke. Viola was with Orsino, her master;
+and when Antonio saw Viola, whom he still imagined to be Sebastian, he
+told the duke in what manner he had rescued this youth from the perils
+of the sea; and after fully relating all the kindness he had really
+shown to Sebastian, he ended his complaint with saying, that for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> three
+months, both day and night, this ungrateful youth had been with him. But
+now the Lady Olivia coming forth from her house, the duke could no
+longer attend to Antonio's story; and he said, "Here comes the countess:
+now Heaven walks on earth! but for thee, fellow, thy words are madness.
+Three months has this youth attended on me:" and then he ordered Antonio
+to be taken aside. But Orsino's heavenly countess soon gave the duke
+cause to accuse Cesario as much of ingratitude as Antonio had done, for
+all the words he could hear Olivia speak were words of kindness to
+Cesario: and when he found his page had obtained this high place in
+Olivia's favour, he threatened him with all the terrors of his just
+revenge; and as he was going to depart, he called Viola to follow him,
+saying, "Come, boy, with me. My thoughts are ripe for mischief." Though
+it seemed in his jealous rage he was going to doom Viola to instant
+death, yet her love made her no longer a coward, and she said she would
+most joyfully suffer death to give her master ease. But Olivia would not
+so lose her husband, and she cried, "Where goes my Cesario?" Viola
+replied, "After him I love more than my life." Olivia, however,
+prevented their departure by loudly proclaiming that Cesario was her
+husband, and sent for the priest, who declared that not two hours had
+passed since he had married the Lady Olivia to this young man. In vain
+Viola protested she was not married to Olivia; the evidence of that lady
+and the priest made Orsino believe that his page had robbed him of the
+treasure he prized above his life. But thinking that it was past recall,
+he was bidding farewell to his faithless mistress, and the <i>young
+dissembler</i>, her husband, as he called Viola, warning her never to come
+in his sight again, when (as it seemed to them) a miracle appeared! for
+another Cesario entered, and addressed Olivia as his wife. This new
+Cesario was Sebastian, the real husband of Olivia; and when their wonder
+had a little ceased at seeing two persons<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> with the same face, the same
+voice, and the same habit, the brother and sister began to question each
+other; for Viola could scarce be persuaded that her brother was living,
+and Sebastian knew not how to account for the sister he supposed drowned
+being found in the habit of a young man. But Viola presently
+acknowledged that she was indeed Viola, and his sister, under that
+disguise.</p>
+
+<p>When all the errors were cleared up which the extreme likeness between
+this twin brother and sister had occasioned, they laughed at the Lady
+Olivia for the pleasant mistake she had made in falling in love with a
+woman; and Olivia showed no dislike to her exchange, when she found she
+had wedded the brother instead of the sister.</p>
+
+<p>The hopes of Orsino were for ever at an end by this marriage of Olivia,
+and with his hopes, all his fruitless love seemed to vanish away, and
+all his thoughts were fixed on the event of his favourite, young
+Cesario, being changed into a fair lady. He viewed Viola with great
+attention, and he remembered how very handsome he had always thought
+Cesario was, and he concluded she would look very beautiful in a woman's
+attire; and then he remembered how often she had said <i>she loved him</i>,
+which at the time seemed only the dutiful expressions of a faithful
+page; but now he guessed that something more was meant, for many of her
+pretty sayings, which were like riddles to him, came now into his mind,
+and he no sooner remembered all these things than he resolved to make
+Viola his wife; and he said to her (he still could not help calling her
+<i>Cesario</i> and <i>boy</i>), "Boy, you have said to me a thousand times that
+you should never love a woman like to me, and for the faithful service
+you have done for me so much beneath your soft and tender breeding, and
+since you have called me master so long, you shall now be your master's
+mistress, and Orsino's true duchess."</p>
+
+<p>Olivia, perceiving Orsino was making over that heart, which she had so
+ungraciously rejected, to Viola, invited<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> them to enter her house, and
+offered the assistance of the good priest, who had married her to
+Sebastian in the morning, to perform the same ceremony in the remaining
+part of the day for Orsino and Viola. Thus the twin brother and sister
+were both wedded on the same day: the storm and shipwreck, which had
+separated them, being the means of bringing to pass their high and
+mighty fortunes. Viola was the wife of Orsino, the Duke of Illyria, and
+Sebastian the husband of the rich and noble countess, the Lady Olivia.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img27.jpg"  alt="Chapter endpiece" title="" /></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img28.jpg"  width="600" height="487" alt="TIMON OF ATHENS" title="" /></div>
+
+
+<p>Timon, a lord of Athens, in the enjoyment of a princely fortune,
+affected a humour of liberality which knew no limits. His almost
+infinite wealth could not flow in so fast, but he poured it out faster
+upon all sorts and degrees of people. Not the poor only tasted of his
+bounty, but great lords did not disdain to rank themselves among his
+dependants and followers. His table was resorted to by all the luxurious
+feasters, and his house was open to all comers and goers at Athens. His
+large wealth combined with his free and prodigal nature to subdue all
+hearts to his love; men of all minds and dispositions tendered their
+services to Lord Timon, from the glass-faced flatterer, whose face
+reflects as in a mirror the present humour of his patron, to the rough
+and unbending cynic, who affecting a contempt of men's persons, and an
+indifference to worldly things, yet could not stand out against the
+gracious manners and munificent soul of Lord Timon, but would come
+(against his nature) to partake of his royal enter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span>tainments, and return
+most rich in his own estimation if he had received a nod or a salutation
+from Timon.</p>
+
+<p>If a poet had composed a work which wanted a recommendatory introduction
+to the world, he had no more to do but to dedicate it to Lord Timon, and
+the poem was sure of sale, besides a present purse from the patron, and
+daily access to his house and table. If a painter had a picture to
+dispose of, he had only to take it to Lord Timon, and pretend to consult
+his taste as to the merits of it; nothing more was wanting to persuade
+the liberal-hearted lord to buy it. If a jeweller had a stone of price,
+or a mercer rich costly stuffs, which for their costliness lay upon his
+hands, Lord Timon's house was a ready mart always open, where they might
+get off their wares or their jewellery at any price, and the
+good-natured lord would thank them into the bargain, as if they had done
+him a piece of courtesy in letting him have the refusal of such precious
+commodities. So that by this means his house was thronged with
+superfluous purchases, of no use but to swell uneasy and ostentatious
+pomp; and his person was still more inconveniently beset with a crowd of
+these idle visitors, lying poets, painters, sharking tradesmen, lords,
+ladies, needy courtiers, and expectants, who continually filled his
+lobbies, raining their fulsome flatteries in whispers in his ears,
+sacrificing to him with adulation as to a God, making sacred the very
+stirrup by which he mounted his horse, and seeming as though they drank
+the free air but through his permission and bounty.</p>
+
+<p>Some of these daily dependants were young men of birth, who (their means
+not answering to their extravagance) had been put in prison by
+creditors, and redeemed thence by Lord Timon; these young prodigals
+thenceforward fastened upon his lordship, as if by common sympathy he
+were necessarily endeared to all such spendthrifts and loose livers,
+who, not being able to follow him in his wealth, found it easier to copy
+him in prodigality and copious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> spending of what was their own. One of
+these flesh-flies was Ventidius, for whose debts, unjustly contracted,
+Timon but lately had paid down the sum of five talents.</p>
+
+<p>But among this confluence, this great flood of visitors, none were more
+conspicuous than the makers of presents and givers of gifts. It was
+fortunate for these men if Timon took a fancy to a dog or a horse, or
+any piece of cheap furniture which was theirs. The thing so praised,
+whatever it was, was sure to be sent the next morning with the
+compliments of the giver for Lord Timon's acceptance, and apologies for
+the unworthiness of the gift; and this dog or horse, or whatever it
+might be, did not fail to produce from Timon's bounty, who would not be
+outdone in gifts, perhaps twenty dogs or horses, certainly presents of
+far richer worth, as these pretended donors knew well enough, and that
+their false presents were but the putting out of so much money at large
+and speedy interest. In this way Lord Lucius had lately sent to Timon a
+present of four milk-white horses, trapped in silver, which this cunning
+lord had observed Timon upon some occasion to commend; and another lord,
+Lucullus, had bestowed upon him in the same pretended way of free gift a
+brace of greyhounds, whose make and fleetness Timon had been heard to
+admire; these presents the easy-hearted lord accepted without suspicion
+of the dishonest views of the presenters; and the givers of course were
+rewarded with some rich return, a diamond or some jewel of twenty times
+the value of their false and mercenary donation.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes these creatures would go to work in a more direct way, and
+with gross and palpable artifice, which yet the credulous Timon was too
+blind to see, would affect to admire and praise something that Timon
+possessed, a bargain that he had bought, or some late purchase, which
+was sure to draw from this yielding and soft-hearted lord a gift of the
+thing commended, for no service in the world done for it but the easy
+expense of a little cheap and obvious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> flattery. In this way Timon but
+the other day had given to one of these mean lords the bay courser which
+he himself rode upon, because his lordship had been pleased to say that
+it was a handsome beast and went well; and Timon knew that no man ever
+justly praised what he did not wish to possess. For Lord Timon weighed
+his friends' affection with his own, and so fond was he of bestowing,
+that he could have dealt kingdoms to these supposed friends, and never
+have been weary.</p>
+
+<p>Not that Timon's wealth all went to enrich these wicked flatterers; he
+could do noble and praiseworthy actions; and when a servant of his once
+loved the daughter of a rich Athenian, but could not hope to obtain her
+by reason that in wealth and rank the maid was so far above him, Lord
+Timon freely bestowed upon his servant three Athenian talents, to make
+his fortune equal with the dowry which the father of the young maid
+demanded of him who should be her husband. But for the most part, knaves
+and parasites had the command of his fortune, false friends whom he did
+not know to be such, but, because they flocked around his person, he
+thought they must needs love him; and because they smiled and flattered
+him, he thought surely that his conduct was approved by all the wise and
+good. And when he was feasting in the midst of all these flatterers and
+mock friends, when they were eating him up, and draining his fortunes
+dry with large draughts of richest wines drunk to his health and
+prosperity, he could not perceive the difference of a friend from a
+flatterer, but to his deluded eyes (made proud with the sight) it seemed
+a precious comfort to have so many like brothers commanding one
+another's fortunes (though it was his own fortune which paid all the
+costs), and with joy they would run over at the spectacle of such, as it
+appeared to him, truly festive and fraternal meeting.</p>
+
+<p>But while he thus outwent the very heart of kindness, and poured out his
+bounty, as if Plutus, the god of gold, had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> been but his steward; while
+thus he proceeded without care or stop, so senseless of expense that he
+would neither inquire how he could maintain it, nor cease his wild flow
+of riot; his riches, which were not infinite, must needs melt away
+before a prodigality which knew no limits. But who should tell him so?
+his flatterers? they had an interest in shutting his eyes. In vain did
+his honest steward Flavius try to represent to him his condition, laying
+his accounts before him, begging of him, praying of him, with an
+importunity that on any other occasion would have been unmannerly in a
+servant, beseeching him with tears to look into the state of his
+affairs. Timon would still put him off, and turn the discourse to
+something else; for nothing is so deaf to remonstrance as riches turned
+to poverty, nothing is so unwilling to believe its situation, nothing so
+incredulous to its own true state, and hard to give credit to a reverse.
+Often had this good steward, this honest creature, when all the rooms of
+Timon's great house have been choked up with riotous feeders at his
+master's cost, when the floors have wept with drunken spilling of wine,
+and every apartment has blazed with lights and resounded with music and
+feasting, often had he retired by himself to some solitary spot, and
+wept faster than the wine ran from the wasteful casks within, to see the
+mad bounty of his lord, and to think, when the means were gone which
+brought him praises from all sorts of people, how quickly the breath
+would be gone of which the praise was made; praises won in feasting
+would be lost in fasting, and at one cloud of winter-showers these flies
+would disappear.</p>
+
+<p>But now the time was come that Timon could shut his ears no longer to
+the representations of this faithful steward. Money must be had; and
+when he ordered Flavius to sell some of his land for that purpose,
+Flavius informed him, what he had in vain endeavoured at several times
+before to make him listen to, that most of his land was already sold or
+forfeited, and that all he possessed at present was not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> enough to pay
+the one half of what he owed. Struck with wonder at this presentation,
+Timon hastily replied, "My lands extend from Athens to Lacedaemon." "O
+my good lord," said Flavius, "the world is but a world, and has bounds;
+were it all yours to give in a breath, how quickly were it gone!"</p>
+
+<p>Timon consoled himself that no villanous bounty had yet come from him,
+that if he had given his wealth away unwisely, it had not been bestowed
+to feed his vices, but to cherish his friends; and he bade the
+kind-hearted steward (who was weeping) to take comfort in the assurance
+that his master could never lack means, while he had so many noble
+friends; and this infatuated lord persuaded himself that he had nothing
+to do but to send and borrow, to use every man's fortune (that had ever
+tasted his bounty) in this extremity, as freely as his own. Then with a
+cheerful look, as if confident of the trial, he severally despatched
+messengers to Lord Lucius, to Lords Lucullus and Sempronius, men upon
+whom he had lavished his gifts in past times without measure or
+moderation; and to Ventidius, whom he had lately released out of prison
+by paying his debts, and who, by the death of his father, was now come
+into the possession of an ample fortune, and well enabled to requite
+Timon's courtesy: to request of Ventidius the return of those five
+talents which he had paid for him, and of each of those noble lords the
+loan of fifty talents; nothing doubting that their gratitude would
+supply his wants (if he needed it) to the amount of five hundred times
+fifty talents.</p>
+
+<p>Lucullus was the first applied to. This mean lord had been dreaming
+overnight of a silver bason and cup, and when Timon's servant was
+announced, his sordid mind suggested to him that this was surely a
+making out of his dream, and that Timon had sent him such a present: but
+when he understood the truth of the matter, and that Timon wanted money,
+the quality of his faint and watery<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> friendship showed itself, for with
+many protestations he vowed to the servant that he had long foreseen the
+ruin of his master's affairs, and many a time had he come to dinner to
+tell him of it, and had come again to supper to try to persuade him to
+spend less, but he would take no counsel nor warning by his coming: and
+true it was that he had been a constant attender (as he said) at Timon's
+feasts, as he had in greater things tasted his bounty; but that he ever
+came with that intent, or gave good counsel or reproof to Timon, was a
+base unworthy lie, which he suitably followed up with meanly offering
+the servant a bribe, to go home to his master and tell him that he had
+not found Lucullus at home.</p>
+
+<p>As little success had the messenger who was sent to Lord Lucius. This
+lying lord, who was full of Timon's meat, and enriched almost to
+bursting with Timon's costly presents, when he found the wind changed,
+and the fountain of so much bounty suddenly stopped, at first could
+hardly believe it; but on its being confirmed, he affected great regret
+that he should not have it in his power to serve Lord Timon, for
+unfortunately (which was a base falsehood) he had made a great purchase
+the day before, which had quite disfurnished him of the means at
+present, the more beast he, he called himself, to put it out of his
+power to serve so good a friend; and he counted it one of his greatest
+afflictions that his ability should fail him to pleasure such an
+honourable gentleman.</p>
+
+<p>Who can call any man friend that dips in the same dish with him? just of
+this metal is every flatterer. In the recollection of everybody Timon
+had been a father to this Lucius, had kept up his credit with his purse;
+Timon's money had gone to pay the wages of his servants, to pay the hire
+of the labourers who had sweat to build the fine houses which Lucius's
+pride had made necessary to him: yet, oh! the monster which man makes
+himself when he proves ungrateful! this Lucius now denied to Timon a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span>
+sum, which, in respect of what Timon had bestowed on him, was less than
+charitable men afford to beggars.</p>
+
+<p>Sempronius, and every one of these mercenary lords to whom Timon applied
+in their turn, returned the same evasive answer or direct denial; even
+Ventidius, the redeemed and now rich Ventidius, refused to assist him
+with the loan of those five talents which Timon had not lent but
+generously given him in his distress.</p>
+
+<p>Now was Timon as much avoided in his poverty as he had been courted and
+resorted to in his riches. Now the same tongues which had been loudest
+in his praises, extolling him as bountiful, liberal, and open handed,
+were not ashamed to censure that very bounty as folly, that liberality
+as profuseness, though it had shown itself folly in nothing so truly as
+in the selection of such unworthy creatures as themselves for its
+objects. Now was Timon's princely mansion forsaken, and become a shunned
+and hated place, a place for men to pass by, not a place, as formerly,
+where every passenger must stop and taste of his wine and good cheer;
+now, instead of being thronged with feasting and tumultuous guests, it
+was beset with impatient and clamorous creditors, usurers, extortioners,
+fierce and intolerable in their demands, pleading bonds, interest,
+mortgages; iron-hearted men that would take no denial nor putting off,
+that Timon's house was now his jail, which he could not pass, nor go in
+nor out for them; one demanding his due of fifty talents, another
+bringing in a bill of five thousand crowns, which if he would tell out
+his blood by drops, and pay them so, he had not enough in his body to
+discharge, drop by drop.</p>
+
+<p>In this desperate and irremediable state (as it seemed) of his affairs,
+the eyes of all men were suddenly surprised at a new and incredible
+lustre which this setting sun put forth. Once more Lord Timon proclaimed
+a feast, to which he invited his accustomed guests, lords, ladies, all
+that was great or fashionable in Athens. Lord Lucius and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> Lucullus came,
+Ventidius, Sempronius, and the rest. Who more sorry now than these
+fawning wretches, when they found (as they thought) that Lord Timon's
+poverty was all pretence, and had been only put on to make trial of
+their loves, to think that they should not have seen through the
+artifice at the time, and have had the cheap credit of obliging his
+lordship? yet who more glad to find the fountain of that noble bounty,
+which they had thought dried up, still fresh and running? They came
+dissembling, protesting, expressing deepest sorrow and shame, that when
+his lordship sent to them, they should have been so unfortunate as to
+want the present means to oblige so honourable a friend. But Timon
+begged them not to give such trifles a thought, for he had altogether
+forgotten it. And these base fawning lords, though they had denied him
+money in his adversity, yet could not refuse their presence at this new
+blaze of his returning prosperity. For the swallow follows not summer
+more willingly than men of these dispositions follow the good fortunes
+of the great, nor more willingly leaves winter than these shrink from
+the first appearance of a reverse; such summer birds are men. But now
+with music and state the banquet of smoking dishes was served up; and
+when the guests had a little done admiring whence the bankrupt Timon
+could find means to furnish so costly a feast, some doubting whether the
+scene which they saw was real, as scarce trusting their own eyes; at a
+signal given, the dishes were uncovered, and Timon's drift appeared:
+instead of those varieties and far-fetched dainties which they expected,
+that Timon's epicurean table in past times had so liberally presented,
+now appeared under the covers of these dishes a preparation more
+suitable to Timon's poverty, nothing but a little smoke and lukewarm
+water, fit feast for this knot of mouth-friends, whose professions were
+indeed smoke, and their hearts lukewarm and slippery as the water with
+which Timon welcomed his astonished guests, bidding them, "Uncover,
+dogs, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> lap;" and before they could recover their surprise,
+sprinkling it in their faces, that they might have enough, and throwing
+dishes and all after them, who now ran huddling out, lords, ladies, with
+their caps snatched up in haste, a splendid confusion, Timon pursuing
+them, still calling them what they were, "smooth smiling parasites,
+destroyers under the mask of courtesy, affable wolves, meek bears, fools
+of fortune, feast-friends, time-flies." They, crowding out to avoid him,
+left the house more willingly than they had entered it; some losing
+their gowns and caps, and some their jewels in the hurry, all glad to
+escape out of the presence of such a mad lord, and from the ridicule of
+his mock banquet.</p>
+
+<p>This was the last feast which ever Timon made, and in it he took
+farewell of Athens and the society of men; for, after that, he betook
+himself to the woods, turning his back upon the hated city and upon all
+mankind, wishing the walls of that detestable city might sink, and the
+houses fall upon their owners, wishing all plagues which infest
+humanity, war, outrage, poverty, diseases, might fasten upon its
+inhabitants, praying the just gods to confound all Athenians, both young
+and old, high and low; so wishing, he went to the woods, where he said
+he should find the unkindest beast much kinder than mankind. He stripped
+himself naked, that he might retain no fashion of a man, and dug a cave
+to live in, and lived solitary in the manner of a beast, eating the wild
+roots, and drinking water, flying from the face of his kind, and
+choosing rather to herd with wild beasts, as more harmless and friendly
+than man.</p>
+
+<p>What a change from Lord Timon the rich, Lord Timon the delight of
+mankind, to Timon the naked, Timon the man-hater! Where were his
+flatterers now? Where were his attendants and retinue? Would the bleak
+air, that boisterous servitor, be his chamberlain, to put his shirt on
+warm? Would those stiff trees that had outlived the eagle,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> turn young
+and airy pages to him, to skip on his errands when he bade them? Would
+the cool brook, when it was iced with winter, administer to him his warm
+broths and caudles when sick of an overnight's surfeit? Or would the
+creatures that lived in those wild woods come and lick his hand and
+flatter him?</p>
+
+<p>Here on a day, when he was digging for roots, his poor sustenance, his
+spade struck against something heavy, which proved to be gold, a great
+heap which some miser had probably buried in a time of alarm, thinking
+to have come again, and taken it from its prison, but died before the
+opportunity had arrived, without making any man privy to the
+concealment; so it lay, doing neither good nor harm, in the bowels of
+the earth, its mother, as if it had never come from thence, till the
+accidental striking of Timon's spade against it once more brought it to
+light.</p>
+
+<p>Here was a mass of treasure which, if Timon had retained his old mind,
+was enough to have purchased him friends and flatterers again; but Timon
+was sick of the false world, and the sight of gold was poisonous to his
+eyes; and he would have restored it to the earth, but that, thinking of
+the infinite calamities which by means of gold happen to mankind, how
+the lucre of it causes robberies, oppression, injustice, briberies,
+violence, and murder, among men, he had a pleasure in imagining (such a
+rooted hatred did he bear to his species) that out of this heap, which
+in digging he had discovered, might arise some mischief to plague
+mankind. And some soldiers passing through the woods near to his cave at
+that instant, which proved to be a part of the troops of the Athenian
+captain Alcibiades, who upon some disgust taken against the senators of
+Athens (the Athenians were ever noted to be a thankless and ungrateful
+people, giving disgust to their generals and best friends), was marching
+at the head of the same triumphant army which he had formerly headed in
+their defence, to war<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> against them; Timon, who liked their business
+well, bestowed upon their captain the gold to pay his soldiers,
+requiring no other service from him, than that he should with his
+conquering army lay Athens level with the ground, and burn, slay, kill
+all her inhabitants; not sparing the old men for their white beards, for
+(he said) they were usurers, nor the young children for their seeming
+innocent smiles, for those (he said) would live, if they grew up, to be
+traitors; but to steel his eyes and ears against any sights or sounds
+that might awaken compassion; and not to let the cries of virgins,
+babes, or mothers, hinder him from making one universal massacre of the
+city, but to confound them all in his conquest; and when he had
+conquered, he prayed that the gods would confound him also, the
+conqueror: so thoroughly did Timon hate Athens, Athenians, and all
+mankind.</p>
+
+<p>While he lived in this forlorn state, leading a life more brutal than
+human, he was suddenly surprised one day with the appearance of a man
+standing in an admiring posture at the door of his cave. It was Flavius,
+the honest steward, whom love and zealous affection to his master had
+led to seek him out at his wretched dwelling, and to offer his services;
+and the first sight of his master, the once noble Timon, in that abject
+condition, naked as he was born, living in the manner of a beast among
+beasts, looking like his own sad ruins and a monument of decay, so
+affected this good servant, that he stood speechless, wrapped up in
+horror, and confounded. And when he found utterance at last to his
+words, they were so choked with tears, that Timon had much ado to know
+him again, or to make out who it was that had come (so contrary to the
+experience he had had of mankind) to offer him service in extremity. And
+being in the form and shape of a man, he suspected him for a traitor,
+and his tears for false; but the good servant by so many tokens
+confirmed the truth of his fidelity, and made it clear that nothing but
+love and zealous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> duty to his once dear master had brought him there,
+that Timon was forced to confess that the world contained one honest
+man; yet, being in the shape and form of a man, he could not look upon
+his man's face without abhorrence, or hear words uttered from his man's
+lips without loathing; and this singly honest man was forced to depart,
+because he was a man, and because, with a heart more gentle and
+compassionate than is usual to man, he bore man's detested form and
+outward feature.</p>
+
+<p>But greater visitants than a poor steward were about to interrupt the
+savage quiet of Timon's solitude. For now the day was come when the
+ungrateful lords of Athens sorely repented the injustice which they had
+done to the noble Timon. For Alcibiades, like an incensed wild boar, was
+raging at the walls of their city, and with his hot siege threatened to
+lay fair Athens in the dust. And now the memory of Lord Timon's former
+prowess and military conduct came fresh into their forgetful minds, for
+Timon had been their general in past times, and a valiant and expert
+soldier, who alone of all the Athenians was deemed able to cope with a
+besieging army such as then threatened them, or to drive back the
+furious approaches of Alcibiades.</p>
+
+<p>A deputation of the senators was chosen in this emergency to wait upon
+Timon. To him they come in their extremity, to whom, when he was in
+extremity, they had shown but small regard; as if they presumed upon his
+gratitude whom they had disobliged, and had derived a claim to his
+courtesy from their own most discourteous and unpiteous treatment.</p>
+
+<p>Now they earnestly beseech him, implore him with tears, to return and
+save that city, from which their ingratitude had so lately driven him;
+now they offer him riches, power, dignities, satisfaction for past
+injuries, and public honours, and the public love; their persons, lives,
+and fortunes, to be at his disposal, if he will but come back and save<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>
+them. But Timon the naked, Timon the man-hater, was no longer Lord
+Timon, the lord of bounty, the flower of valour, their defence in war,
+their ornament in peace. If Alcibiades killed his countrymen, Timon
+cared not. If he sacked fair Athens, and slew her old men and her
+infants, Timon would rejoice. So he told them; and that there was not a
+knife in the unruly camp which he did not prize above the reverendest
+throat in Athens.</p>
+
+<p>This was all the answer he vouchsafed to the weeping disappointed
+senators; only at parting he bade them commend him to his countrymen,
+and tell them, that to ease them of their griefs and anxieties, and to
+prevent the consequences of fierce Alcibiades' wrath, there was yet a
+way left, which he would teach them, for he had yet so much affection
+left for his dear countrymen as to be willing to do them a kindness
+before his death. These words a little revived the senators, who hoped
+that his kindness for their city was returning. Then Timon told them
+that he had a tree, which grew near his cave, which he should shortly
+have occasion to cut down, and he invited all his friends in Athens,
+high or low, of what degree soever, who wished to shun affliction, to
+come and take a taste of his tree before he cut it down; meaning, that
+they might come and hang themselves on it, and escape affliction that
+way.</p>
+
+<p>And this was the last courtesy, of all his noble bounties, which Timon
+showed to mankind, and this the last sight of him which his countrymen
+had: for not many days after, a poor soldier, passing by the sea-beach,
+which was at a little distance from the woods which Timon frequented,
+found a tomb on the verge of the sea, with an inscription upon it,
+purporting that it was the grave of Timon the man-hater, who "While he
+lived, did hate all living men, and dying wished a plague might consume
+all caitiffs left!"</p>
+
+<p>Whether he finished his life by violence, or whether mere distaste of
+life and the loathing he had for mankind brought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> Timon to his
+conclusion, was not clear, yet all men admired the fitness of his
+epitaph, and the consistency of his end; dying, as he had lived, a hater
+of mankind: and some there were who fancied a conceit in the very choice
+which he had made of the sea-beach for his place of burial, where the
+vast sea might weep for ever upon his grave, as in contempt of the
+transient and shallow tears of hypocritical and deceitful mankind.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img17.jpg"  alt="Chapter endpiece" title="" /></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img30.jpg"  width="600" height="399" alt="ROMEO AND JULIET" title="" /></div>
+
+
+
+<p>The two chief families in Verona were the rich Capulets and the
+Montagues. There had been an old quarrel between these families, which
+was grown to such a height, and so deadly was the enmity between them,
+that it extended to the remotest kindred, to the followers and retainers
+of both sides, insomuch that a servant of the house of Montague could
+not meet a servant of the house of Capulet, nor a Capulet encounter with
+a Montague by chance, but fierce words and sometimes bloodshed ensued;
+and frequent were the brawls from such accidental meetings, which
+disturbed the happy quiet of Verona's streets.</p>
+
+<p>Old Lord Capulet made a great supper, to which many fair ladies and many
+noble guests were invited. All the admired beauties of Verona were
+present, and all comers were made welcome if they were not of the house
+of Montague. At this feast of Capulets, Rosaline, beloved of Romeo, son
+to the old Lord Montague, was present; and though it was dangerous for a
+Montague to be seen in this assembly, yet Benvolio, a friend of Romeo,
+persuaded the young lord to go to this assembly in the disguise of a
+mask, that he might see his Rosaline, and seeing her, compare her with
+some choice beauties of Verona, who (he said) would make him think his
+swan a crow. Romeo had small faith<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> in Benvolio's words; nevertheless,
+for the love of Rosaline, he was persuaded to go. For Romeo was a
+sincere and passionate lover, and one that lost his sleep for love, and
+fled society to be alone, thinking on Rosaline, who disdained him, and
+never requited his love, with the least show of courtesy or affection;
+and Benvolio wished to cure his friend of this love by showing him
+diversity of ladies and company. To this feast of Capulets then young
+Romeo with Benvolio and their friend Mercutio went masked. Old Capulet
+bid them welcome, and told them that ladies who had their toes unplagued
+with corns would dance with them. And the old man was light hearted and
+merry, and said that he had worn a mask when he was young, and could
+have told a whispering tale in a fair lady's ear. And they fell to
+dancing, and Romeo was suddenly struck with the exceeding beauty of a
+lady who danced there, who seemed to him to teach the torches to burn
+bright, and her beauty to show by night like a rich jewel worn by a
+blackamoor; beauty too rich for use, too dear for earth! like a snowy
+dove trooping with crows (he said), so richly did her beauty and
+perfections shine above the ladies her companions. While he uttered
+these praises, he was overheard by Tybalt, a nephew of Lord Capulet, who
+knew him by his voice to be Romeo. And this Tybalt, being of a fiery and
+passionate temper, could not endure that a Montague should come under
+cover of a mask, to fleer and scorn (as he said) at their solemnities.
+And he stormed and raged exceedingly, and would have struck young Romeo
+dead. But his uncle, the old Lord Capulet, would not suffer him to do
+any injury at that time, both out of respect to his guests, and because
+Romeo had borne himself like a gentleman, and all tongues in Verona
+bragged of him to be a virtuous and well-governed youth. Tybalt, forced
+to be patient against his will, restrained himself, but swore that this
+vile Montague should at another time dearly pay for his intrusion.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The dancing being done, Romeo watched the place where the lady stood;
+and under favour of his masking habit, which might seem to excuse in
+part the liberty, he presumed in the gentlest manner to take her by the
+hand, calling it a shrine, which if he profaned by touching it, he was a
+blushing pilgrim, and would kiss it for atonement. "Good pilgrim,"
+answered the lady, "your devotion shows by far too mannerly and too
+courtly: saints have hands, which pilgrims may touch, but kiss
+not."&mdash;"Have not saints lips, and pilgrims too?" said Romeo. "Ay," said
+the lady, "lips which they must use in prayer."&mdash;"O then, my dear
+saint," said Romeo, "hear my prayer, and grant it, lest I despair." In
+such like allusions and loving conceits they were engaged, when the lady
+was called away to her mother. And Romeo inquiring who her mother was,
+discovered that the lady whose peerless beauty he was so much struck
+with, was young Juliet, daughter and heir to the Lord Capulet, the great
+enemy of the Montagues; and that he had unknowingly engaged his heart to
+his foe. This troubled him, but it could not dissuade him from loving.
+As little rest had Juliet, when she found that the gentleman that she
+had been talking with was Romeo and a Montague, for she had been
+suddenly smit with the same hasty and inconsiderate passion for Romeo,
+which he had conceived for her; and a prodigious birth of love it seemed
+to her, that she must love her enemy, and that her affections should
+settle there, where family considerations should induce her chiefly to
+hate.</p>
+
+<p>It being midnight, Romeo with his companions departed; but they soon
+missed him, for, unable to stay away from the house where he had left
+his heart, he leaped the wall of an orchard which was at the back of
+Juliet's house. Here he had not been long, ruminating on his new love,
+when Juliet appeared above at a window, through which her exceeding
+beauty seemed to break like the light of the sun in the east; and the
+moon, which shone in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> orchard with a faint light, appeared to Romeo
+as if sick and pale with grief at the superior lustre of this new sun.
+And she, leaning her cheek upon her hand, he passionately wished himself
+a glove upon that hand, that he might touch her cheek. She all this
+while thinking herself alone, fetched a deep sigh, and exclaimed, "Ah
+me!" Romeo, enraptured to hear her speak, said softly, and unheard by
+her, "O speak again, bright angel, for such you appear, being over my
+head, like a winged messenger from heaven whom mortals fall back to gaze
+upon." She, unconscious of being overheard, and full of the new passion
+which that night's adventure had given birth to, called upon her lover
+by name (whom she supposed absent): "O Romeo, Romeo!" said she,
+"wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father, and refuse thy name, for my
+sake; or if thou wilt not, be but my sworn love, and I no longer will be
+a Capulet." Romeo, having this encouragement, would fain have spoken,
+but he was desirous of hearing more; and the lady continued her
+passionate discourse with herself (as she thought), still chiding Romeo
+for being Romeo and a Montague, and wishing him some other name, or that
+he would put away that hated name, and for that name which was no part
+of himself, he should take all herself. At this loving word Romeo could
+no longer refrain, but taking up the dialogue as if her words had been
+addressed to him personally, and not merely in fancy, he bade her call
+him Love, or by whatever other name she pleased, for he was no longer
+Romeo, if that name was displeasing to her. Juliet, alarmed to hear a
+man's voice in the garden, did not at first know who it was, that by
+favour of the night and darkness had thus stumbled upon the discovery of
+her secret; but when he spoke again, though her ears had not yet drunk a
+hundred words of that tongue's uttering, yet so nice is a lover's
+hearing, that she immediately knew him to be young Romeo, and she
+expostulated with him on the danger to which he had exposed himself by
+climbing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> the orchard walls, for if any of her kinsmen should find him
+there, it would be death to him being a Montague. "Alack," said Romeo,
+"there is more peril in your eye, than in twenty of their swords. Do you
+but look kind upon me, lady, and I am proof against their enmity. Better
+my life should be ended by their hate, than that hated life should be
+prolonged, to live without your love."&mdash;"How came you into this place,"
+said Juliet, "and by whose direction?"&mdash;"Love directed me," answered
+Romeo: "I am no pilot, yet wert thou as far apart from me, as that vast
+shore which is washed with the farthest sea, I should venture for such
+merchandise." A crimson blush came over Juliet's face, yet unseen by
+Romeo by reason of the night, when she reflected upon the discovery
+which she had made, yet not meaning to make it, of her love to Romeo.
+She would fain have recalled her words, but that was impossible: fain
+would she have stood upon form, and have kept her lover at a distance,
+as the custom of discreet ladies is, to frown and be perverse, and give
+their suitors harsh denials at first; to stand off, and affect a coyness
+or indifference, where they most love, that their lovers may not think
+them too lightly or too easily won; for the difficulty of attainment
+increases the value of the object. But there was no room in her case for
+denials, or puttings off, or any of the customary arts of delay and
+protracted courtship. Romeo had heard from her own tongue, when she did
+not dream that he was near her, a confession of her love. So with an
+honest frankness, which the novelty of her situation excused, she
+confirmed the truth of what he had before heard, and addressing him by
+the name of <i>fair Montague</i> (love can sweeten a sour name), she begged
+him not to impute her easy yielding to levity or an unworthy mind, but
+that he must lay the fault of it (if it were a fault) upon the accident
+of the night which had so strangely discovered her thoughts. And she
+added, that though her behaviour to him might not be sufficiently
+prudent, measured by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> custom of her sex, yet that she would prove
+more true than many whose prudence was dissembling, and their modesty
+artificial cunning.</p>
+
+<p>Romeo was beginning to call the heavens to witness, that nothing was
+farther from his thoughts than to impute a shadow of dishonour to such
+an honoured lady, when she stopped him, begging him not to swear; for
+although she joyed in him, yet she had no joy of that night's contract:
+it was too rash, too unadvised, too sudden. But he being urgent with her
+to exchange a vow of love with him that night, she said that she already
+had given him hers before he requested it; meaning, when he overheard
+her confession; but she would retract what she then bestowed, for the
+pleasure of giving it again, for her bounty was as infinite as the sea,
+and her love as deep. From this loving conference she was called away by
+her nurse, who slept with her, and thought it time for her to be in bed,
+for it was near to daybreak; but hastily returning, she said three or
+four words more to Romeo, the purport of which was, that if his love was
+indeed honourable, and his purpose marriage, she would send a messenger
+to him to-morrow, to appoint a time for their marriage, when she would
+lay all her fortunes at his feet, and follow him as her lord through the
+world. While they were settling this point, Juliet was repeatedly called
+for by her nurse, and went in and returned, and went and returned again,
+for she seemed as jealous of Romeo going from her, as a young girl of
+her bird, which she will let hop a little from her hand, and pluck it
+back with a silken thread; and Romeo was as loath to part as she; for
+the sweetest music to lovers is the sound of each other's tongues at
+night. But at last they parted, wishing mutually sweet sleep and rest
+for that night.</p>
+
+<p><a name="FRIAR" id="FRIAR"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter">
+             <a href="images/img011.jpg"><img
+             src="images/img011-tb.jpg" width="287" height="500"
+             alt="AT THE CELL OF FRIAR LAWRENCE" /></a><br />
+         <b>AT THE CELL OF FRIAR LAWRENCE</b>
+    </div>
+
+<p>The day was breaking when they parted, and Romeo, who was too full of
+thoughts of his mistress and that blessed meeting to allow him to sleep,
+instead of going home, bent his course to a monastery hard by, to find
+Friar Lawrence.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> The good friar was already up at his devotions, but
+seeing young Romeo abroad so early, he conjectured rightly that he had
+not been abed that night, but that some distemper of youthful affection
+had kept him waking. He was right in imputing the cause of Romeo's
+wakefulness to love, but he made a wrong guess at the object, for he
+thought that his love for Rosaline had kept him waking. But when Romeo
+revealed his new passion for Juliet, and requested the assistance of the
+friar to marry them that day, the holy man lifted up his eyes and hands
+in a sort of wonder at the sudden change in Romeo's affections, for he
+had been privy to all Romeo's love for Rosaline, and his many complaints
+of her disdain: and he said, that young men's love lay not truly in
+their hearts, but in their eyes. But Romeo replying, that he himself had
+often chidden him for doting on Rosaline, who could not love him again,
+whereas Juliet both loved and was beloved by him, the friar assented in
+some measure to his reasons; and thinking that a matrimonial alliance
+between young Juliet and Romeo might happily be the means of making up
+the long breach between the Capulets and the Montagues; which no one
+more lamented than this good friar, who was a friend to both the
+families and had often interposed his mediation to make up the quarrel
+without effect; partly moved by policy, and partly by his fondness for
+young Romeo, to whom he could deny nothing, the old man consented to
+join their hands in marriage.</p>
+
+<p>Now was Romeo blessed indeed, and Juliet, who knew his intent from a
+messenger which she had despatched according to promise, did not fail to
+be early at the cell of Friar Lawrence, where their hands were joined in
+holy marriage; the good friar praying the heavens to smile upon that
+act, and in the union of this young Montague and young Capulet to bury
+the old strife and long dissensions of their families.</p>
+
+<p>The ceremony being over, Juliet hastened home, where<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> she stayed
+impatient for the coming of night, at which time Romeo promised to come
+and meet her in the orchard, where they had met the night before; and
+the time between seemed as tedious to her, as the night before some
+great festival seems to an impatient child, that has got new finery
+which it may not put on till the morning.</p>
+
+<p>That same day, about noon, Romeo's friends, Benvolio and Mercutio,
+walking through the streets of Verona, were met by a party of the
+Capulets with the impetuous Tybalt at their head. This was the same
+angry Tybalt who would have fought with Romeo at old Lord Capulet's
+feast. He, seeing Mercutio, accused him bluntly of associating with
+Romeo, a Montague. Mercutio, who had as much fire and youthful blood in
+him as Tybalt, replied to this accusation with some sharpness; and in
+spite of all Benvolio could say to moderate their wrath, a quarrel was
+beginning, when Romeo himself passing that way, the fierce Tybalt turned
+from Mercutio to Romeo, and gave him the disgraceful appellation of
+villain. Romeo wished to avoid a quarrel with Tybalt above all men,
+because he was the kinsman of Juliet, and much beloved by her; besides,
+this young Montague had never thoroughly entered into the family
+quarrel, being by nature wise and gentle, and the name of a Capulet,
+which was his dear lady's name, was now rather a charm to allay
+resentment, than a watchword to excite fury. So he tried to reason with
+Tybalt, whom he saluted mildly by the name of <i>good Capulet</i>, as if he,
+though a Montague, had some secret pleasure in uttering that name: but
+Tybalt, who hated all Montagues as he hated hell, would hear no reason,
+but drew his weapon; and Mercutio, who knew not of Romeo's secret motive
+for desiring peace with Tybalt, but looked upon his present forbearance
+as a sort of calm dishonourable submission, with many disdainful words
+provoked Tybalt to the prosecution of his first quarrel with him; and
+Tybalt and Mercutio fought, till Mercutio fell, receiving his death's
+wound while Romeo<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> and Benvolio were vainly endeavouring to part the
+combatants. Mercutio being dead, Romeo kept his temper no longer, but
+returned the scornful appellation of villain which Tybalt had given him;
+and they fought till Tybalt was slain by Romeo. This deadly broil
+falling out in the midst of Verona at noonday, the news of it quickly
+brought a crowd of citizens to the spot, and among them the old Lords
+Capulet and Montague, with their wives; and soon after arrived the
+prince himself, who being related to Mercutio, whom Tybalt had slain,
+and having had the peace of his government often disturbed by these
+brawls of Montagues and Capulets, came determined to put the law in
+strictest force against those who should be found to be offenders.
+Benvolio, who had been eye-witness to the fray, was commanded by the
+prince to relate the origin of it; which he did, keeping as near the
+truth as he could without injury to Romeo, softening and excusing the
+part which his friends took in it. Lady Capulet, whose extreme grief for
+the loss of her kinsman Tybalt made her keep no bounds in her revenge,
+exhorted the prince to do strict justice upon his murderer, and to pay
+no attention to Benvolio's representation, who, being Romeo's friend and
+a Montague, spoke partially. Thus she pleaded against her new
+son-in-law, but she knew not yet that he was her son-in-law and Juliet's
+husband. On the other hand was to be seen Lady Montague pleading for her
+child's life, and arguing with some justice that Romeo had done nothing
+worthy of punishment in taking the life of Tybalt, which was already
+forfeited to the law by his having slain Mercutio. The prince, unmoved
+by the passionate exclamations of these women, on a careful examination
+of the facts, pronounced his sentence, and by that sentence Romeo was
+banished from Verona.</p>
+
+<p>Heavy news to young Juliet, who had been but a few hours a bride, and
+now by this decree seemed everlastingly divorced! When the tidings
+reached her, she at first gave<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> way to rage against Romeo, who had slain
+her dear cousin, she called him a beautiful tyrant, a fiend angelical, a
+ravenous dove, a lamb with a wolf's nature, a serpent-heart hid with a
+flowering face, and other like contradictory names, which denoted the
+struggles in her mind between her love and her resentment: but in the
+end love got the mastery, and the tears which she shed for grief that
+Romeo had slain her cousin, turned to drops of joy that her husband
+lived whom Tybalt would have slain. Then came fresh tears, and they were
+altogether of grief for Romeo's banishment. That word was more terrible
+to her than the death of many Tybalts.</p>
+
+<p>Romeo, after the fray, had taken refuge in Friar Lawrence's cell, where
+he was first made acquainted with the prince's sentence, which seemed to
+him far more terrible than death. To him it appeared there was no world
+out of Verona's walls, no living out of the sight of Juliet. Heaven was
+there where Juliet lived, and all beyond was purgatory, torture, hell.
+The good friar would have applied the consolation of philosophy to his
+griefs: but this frantic young man would hear of none, but like a madman
+he tore his hair, and threw himself all along upon the ground, as he
+said, to take the measure of his grave. From this unseemly state he was
+roused by a message from his dear lady, which a little revived him; and
+then the friar took the advantage to expostulate with him on the unmanly
+weakness which he had shown. He had slain Tybalt, but would he also slay
+himself, slay his dear lady, who lived but in his life? The noble form
+of man, he said, was but a shape of wax, when it wanted the courage
+which should keep it firm. The law had been lenient to him, that instead
+of death, which he had incurred, had pronounced by the prince's mouth
+only banishment. He had slain Tybalt, but Tybalt would have slain him:
+there was a sort of happiness in that. Juliet was alive, and (beyond all
+hope) had become his dear wife; therein he was most happy. All these
+blessings, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> the friar made them out to be, did Romeo put from him
+like a sullen misbehaved wench. And the friar bade him beware, for such
+as despaired (he said) died miserable. Then when Romeo was a little
+calmed, he counselled him that he should go that night and secretly take
+his leave of Juliet, and thence proceed straightways to Mantua, at which
+place he should sojourn, till the friar found fit occasion to publish
+his marriage, which might be a joyful means of reconciling their
+families; and then he did not doubt but the prince would be moved to
+pardon him, and he would return with twenty times more joy than he went
+forth with grief. Romeo was convinced by these wise counsels of the
+friar, and took his leave to go and seek his lady, proposing to stay
+with her that night, and by daybreak pursue his journey alone to Mantua;
+to which place the good friar promised to send him letters from time to
+time, acquainting him with the state of affairs at home.</p>
+
+<p>That night Romeo passed with his dear wife, gaining secret admission to
+her chamber, from the orchard in which he had heard her confession of
+love the night before. That had been a night of unmixed joy and rapture;
+but the pleasures of this night, and the delight which these lovers took
+in each other's society, were sadly allayed with the prospect of
+parting, and the fatal adventures of the past day. The unwelcome
+daybreak seemed to come too soon, and when Juliet heard the morning song
+of the lark, she would have persuaded herself that it was the
+nightingale, which sings by night; but it was too truly the lark which
+sang, and a discordant and unpleasing note it seemed to her; and the
+streaks of day in the east too certainly pointed out that it was time
+for these lovers to part. Romeo took his leave of his dear wife with a
+heavy heart, promising to write to her from Mantua every hour in the
+day; and when he had descended from her chamber-window, as he stood
+below her on the ground, in that sad foreboding state of mind in which
+she was, he appeared to her eyes as one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> dead in the bottom of a tomb.
+Romeo's mind misgave him in like manner: but now he was forced hastily
+to depart, for it was death for him to be found within the walls of
+Verona after daybreak.</p>
+
+<p>This was but the beginning of the tragedy of this pair of star-crossed
+lovers. Romeo had not been gone many days, before the old Lord Capulet
+proposed a match for Juliet. The husband he had chosen for her, not
+dreaming that she was married already, was Count Paris, a gallant,
+young, and noble gentleman, no unworthy suitor to the young Juliet, if
+she had never seen Romeo.</p>
+
+<p>The terrified Juliet was in a sad perplexity at her father's offer. She
+pleaded her youth unsuitable to marriage, the recent death of Tybalt,
+which had left her spirits too weak to meet a husband with any face of
+joy, and how indecorous it would show for the family of the Capulets to
+be celebrating a nuptial feast, when his funeral solemnities were hardly
+over: she pleaded every reason against the match, but the true one,
+namely, that she was married already. But Lord Capulet was deaf to all
+her excuses, and in a peremptory manner ordered her to get ready, for by
+the following Thursday she should be married to Paris: and having found
+her a husband, rich, young, and noble, such as the proudest maid in
+Verona might joyfully accept, he could not bear that out of an affected
+coyness, as he construed her denial, she should oppose obstacles to her
+own good fortune.</p>
+
+<p>In this extremity Juliet applied to the friendly friar, always her
+counsellor in distress, and he asking her if she had resolution to
+undertake a desperate remedy, and she answering that she would go into
+the grave alive rather than marry Paris, her own dear husband living; he
+directed her to go home, and appear merry, and give her consent to marry
+Paris, according to her father's desire, and on the next night, which
+was the night before the marriage, to drink off the contents of a phial
+which he then gave her,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> the effect of which would be that for
+two-and-forty hours after drinking it she should appear cold and
+lifeless; and when the bridegroom came to fetch her in the morning, he
+would find her to appearance dead; that then she would be borne, as the
+manner in that country was, uncovered on a bier, to be buried in the
+family vault; that if she could put off womanish fear, and consent to
+this terrible trial, in forty-two hours after swallowing the liquid
+(such was its certain operation) she would be sure to awake, as from a
+dream; and before she should awake, he would let her husband know their
+drift, and he should come in the night, and bear her thence to Mantua.
+Love, and the dread of marrying Paris, gave young Juliet strength to
+undertake this horrible adventure; and she took the phial of the friar,
+promising to observe his directions.</p>
+
+<p>Going from the monastery, she met the young Count Paris, and modestly
+dissembling, promised to become his bride. This was joyful news to the
+Lord Capulet and his wife. It seemed to put youth into the old man; and
+Juliet, who had displeased him exceedingly, by her refusal of the count,
+was his darling again, now she promised to be obedient. All things in
+the house were in a bustle against the approaching nuptials. No cost was
+spared to prepare such festival rejoicings as Verona had never before
+witnessed.</p>
+
+<p>On the Wednesday night Juliet drank off the potion. She had many
+misgivings lest the friar, to avoid the blame which might be imputed to
+him for marrying her to Romeo, had given her poison; but then he was
+always known for a holy man: then lest she should awake before the time
+that Romeo was to come for her; whether the terror of the place, a vault
+full of dead Capulets' bones, and where Tybalt, all bloody, lay
+festering in his shroud, would not be enough to drive her distracted:
+again she thought of all the stories she had heard of spirits haunting
+the places where their bodies were bestowed. But then her love<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> for
+Romeo, and her aversion for Paris returned, and she desperately
+swallowed the draught, and became insensible.</p>
+
+<p>When young Paris came early in the morning with music to awaken his
+bride, instead of a living Juliet, her chamber presented the dreary
+spectacle of a lifeless corse. What death to his hopes! What confusion
+then reigned through the whole house! Poor Paris lamenting his bride,
+whom most detestable death had beguiled him of, had divorced from him
+even before their hands were joined. But still more piteous it was to
+hear the mournings of the old Lord and Lady Capulet, who having but this
+one, one poor loving child to rejoice and solace in, cruel death had
+snatched her from their sight, just as these careful parents were on the
+point of seeing her advanced (as they thought) by a promising and
+advantageous match. Now all things that were ordained for the festival
+were turned from their properties to do the office of a black funeral.
+The wedding cheer served for a sad burial feast, the bridal hymns were
+changed for sullen dirges, the sprightly instruments to melancholy
+bells, and the flowers that should have been strewed in the bride's
+path, now served but to strew her corse. Now, instead of a priest to
+marry her, a priest was needed to bury her; and she was borne to church
+indeed, not to augment the cheerful hopes of the living, but to swell
+the dreary numbers of the dead.</p>
+
+<p>Bad news, which always travels faster than good, now brought the dismal
+story of his Juliet's death to Romeo, at Mantua, before the messenger
+could arrive, who was sent from Friar Lawrence to apprise him that these
+were mock funerals only, and but the shadow and representation of death,
+and that his dear lady lay in the tomb but for a short while, expecting
+when Romeo would come to release her from that dreary mansion. Just
+before, Romeo had been unusually joyful and light-hearted. He had
+dreamed in the night that he was dead (a strange dream, that gave a dead
+man leave to think), and that his lady came and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> found him dead, and
+breathed such life with kisses in his lips, that he revived, and was an
+emperor! And now that a messenger came from Verona, he thought surely it
+was to confirm some good news which his dreams had presaged. But when
+the contrary to this flattering vision appeared, and that it was his
+lady who was dead in truth, whom he could not revive by any kisses, he
+ordered horses to be got ready, for he determined that night to visit
+Verona, and to see his lady in her tomb. And as mischief is swift to
+enter into the thoughts of desperate men, he called to mind a poor
+apothecary, whose shop in Mantua he had lately passed, and from the
+beggarly appearance of the man, who seemed famished, and the wretched
+show in his show of empty boxes ranged on dirty shelves, and other
+tokens of extreme wretchedness, he had said at the time (perhaps having
+some misgivings that his own disastrous life might haply meet with a
+conclusion so desperate), "If a man were to need poison, which by the
+law of Mantua it is death to sell, here lives a poor wretch who would
+sell it him." These words of his now came into his mind, and he sought
+out the apothecary, who after some pretended scruples, Romeo offering
+him gold, which his poverty could not resist, sold him a poison, which,
+if he swallowed, he told him, if he had the strength of twenty men,
+would quickly despatch him.</p>
+
+<p>With this poison he set out for Verona, to have a sight of his dear lady
+in her tomb, meaning, when he had satisfied his sight, to swallow the
+poison, and be buried by her side. He reached Verona at midnight, and
+found the churchyard, in the midst of which was situated the ancient
+tomb of the Capulets. He had provided a light, and a spade, and
+wrenching iron, and was proceeding to break open the monument, when he
+was interrupted by a voice, which by the name of <i>vile Montague</i>, bade
+him desist from his unlawful business. It was the young Count Paris, who
+had come to the tomb of Juliet at that unseasonable time<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> of night, to
+strew flowers and to weep over the grave of her that should have been
+his bride. He knew not what an interest Romeo had in the dead, but
+knowing him to be a Montague, and (as he supposed) a sworn foe to all
+the Capulets, he judged that he was come by night to do some villanous
+shame to the dead bodies; therefore in an angry tone he bade him desist;
+and as a criminal, condemned by the laws of Verona to die if he were
+found within the walls of the city, he would have apprehended him. Romeo
+urged Paris to leave him, and warned him by the fate of Tybalt, who lay
+buried there, not to provoke his anger, or draw down another sin upon
+his head, by forcing him to kill him. But the count in scorn refused his
+warning, and laid hands on him as a felon, which Romeo resisting, they
+fought, and Paris fell. When Romeo, by the help of a light, came to see
+who it was that he had slain, that it was Paris, who (he learned in his
+way from Mantua) should have married Juliet, he took the dead youth by
+the hand, as one whom misfortune had made a companion, and said that he
+would bury him in a triumphal grave, meaning in Juliet's grave, which he
+now opened: and there lay his lady, as one whom death had no power upon
+to change a feature or complexion, in her matchless beauty; or as if
+Death were amorous, and the lean abhorred monster kept her there for his
+delight; for she lay yet fresh and blooming, as she had fallen to sleep
+when she swallowed that benumbing potion; and near her lay Tybalt in his
+bloody shroud, whom Romeo seeing, begged pardon of his lifeless corse,
+and for Juliet's sake called him <i>cousin</i>, and said that he was about to
+do him a favour by putting his enemy to death. Here Romeo took his last
+leave of his lady's lips, kissing them; and here he shook the burden of
+his cross stars from his weary body, swallowing that poison which the
+apothecary had sold him, whose operation was fatal and real, not like
+that dissembling potion which Juliet had swallowed, the effect of which
+was now nearly expiring, and she about to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> awake to complain that Romeo
+had not kept his time, or that he had come too soon.</p>
+
+<p>For now the hour was arrived at which the friar had promised that she
+should awake; and he, having learned that his letters which he had sent
+to Mantua, by some unlucky detention of the messenger, had never reached
+Romeo, came himself, provided with a pickaxe and lantern, to deliver the
+lady from her confinement; but he was surprised to find a light already
+burning in the Capulets' monument, and to see swords and blood near it,
+and Romeo and Paris lying breathless by the monument.</p>
+
+<p>Before he could entertain a conjecture, to imagine how these fatal
+accidents had fallen out, Juliet awoke out of her trance, and seeing the
+friar near her, she remembered the place where she was, and the occasion
+of her being there, and asked for Romeo, but the friar, hearing a noise,
+bade her come out of that place of death, and of unnatural sleep, for a
+greater power than they could contradict had thwarted their intents; and
+being frightened by the noise of people coming, he fled: but when Juliet
+saw the cup closed in her true love's hands, she guessed that poison had
+been the cause of his end, and she would have swallowed the dregs if any
+had been left, and she kissed his still warm lips to try if any poison
+yet did hang upon them; then hearing a nearer noise of people coming,
+she quickly unsheathed a dagger which she wore, and stabbing herself,
+died by her true Romeo's side.</p>
+
+<p>The watch by this time had come up to the place. A page belonging to
+Count Paris, who had witnessed the fight between his master and Romeo,
+had given the alarm, which had spread among the citizens, who went up
+and down the streets of Verona confusedly exclaiming, A Paris! a Romeo!
+a Juliet! as the rumour had imperfectly reached them, till the uproar
+brought Lord Montague and Lord Capulet out of their beds, with the
+prince, to inquire into the causes of the disturbance. The friar had
+been apprehended by some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> of the watch, coming from the churchyard,
+trembling, sighing, and weeping, in a suspicious manner. A great
+multitude being assembled at the Capulets' monument, the friar was
+demanded by the prince to deliver what he knew of these strange and
+disastrous accidents.</p>
+
+<p>And there, in the presence of the old Lords Montague and Capulet, he
+faithfully related the story of their children's fatal love, the part he
+took in promoting their marriage, in the hope in that union to end the
+long quarrels between their families: how Romeo, there dead, was husband
+to Juliet; and Juliet, there dead, was Romeo's faithful wife; how before
+he could find a fit opportunity to divulge their marriage, another match
+was projected for Juliet, who, to avoid the crime of a second marriage,
+swallowed the sleeping draught (as he advised), and all thought her
+dead; how meantime he wrote to Romeo, to come and take her thence when
+the force of the potion should cease, and by what unfortunate
+miscarriage of the messenger the letters never reached Romeo: further
+than this the friar could not follow the story, nor knew more than that
+coming himself, to deliver Juliet from that place of death, he found the
+Count Paris and Romeo slain. The remainder of the transactions was
+supplied by the narration of the page who had seen Paris and Romeo
+fight, and by the servant who came with Romeo from Verona, to whom this
+faithful lover had given letters to be delivered to his father in the
+event of his death, which made good the friar's words, confessing his
+marriage with Juliet, imploring the forgiveness of his parents,
+acknowledging the buying of the poison of the poor apothecary, and his
+intent in coming to the monument, to die, and lie with Juliet. All these
+circumstances agreed together to clear the friar from any hand he could
+be supposed to have in these complicated slaughters, further than as the
+unintended consequences of his own well meant, yet too artificial and
+subtle contrivances.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>And the prince, turning to these old lords, Montague and Capulet,
+rebuked them for their brutal and irrational enmities, and showed them
+what a scourge Heaven had laid upon such offences, that it had found
+means even through the love of their children to punish their unnatural
+hate.</p>
+
+<p>And these old rivals, no longer enemies, agreed to bury their long
+strife in their children's graves; and Lord Capulet requested Lord
+Montague to give him his hand, calling him by the name of brother, as if
+in acknowledgment of the union of their families, by the marriage of the
+young Capulet and Montague; and saying that Lord Montague's hand (in
+token of reconcilement) was all he demanded for his daughter's jointure:
+but Lord Montague said he would give him more, for he would raise her a
+statue of pure gold, that while Verona kept its name, no figure should
+be so esteemed for its richness and workmanship as that of the true and
+faithful Juliet. And Lord Capulet in return said that he would raise&nbsp;
+another statue to Romeo. So did these</p>
+<p class='center'>poor old lords, when it was too late, strive to outgo<br />
+each other in mutual courtesies: while so deadly<br />
+had been their rage and enmity in past<br />
+times, that nothing but the fearful<br />
+overthrow of their children (poor<br />
+sacrifices to their quarrels and<br />
+dissensions) could remove<br />
+the rooted hates and<br />
+jealousies of the<br />
+noble families.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img31.jpg"  alt="Chapter endpiece" title="" /></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img32.jpg"  width="600" height="473" alt="HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK" title="" /></div>
+
+
+<p>Gertrude, Queen of Denmark, becoming a widow by the sudden death of King
+Hamlet, in less than two months after his death married his brother
+Claudius, which was noted by all people at the time for a strange act of
+indiscretion, or unfeelingness, or worse: for this Claudius did no ways
+resemble her late husband in the qualities of his person or his mind,
+but was as contemptible in outward appearance, as he was base and
+unworthy in disposition; and suspicions did not fail to arise in the
+minds of some, that he had privately made away with his brother, the
+late king, with the view of marrying his widow, and ascending the throne
+of Denmark, to the exclusion of young Hamlet, the son of the buried
+king, and lawful successor to the throne.</p>
+
+<p>But upon no one did this unadvised action of the queen make such
+impression as upon this young prince, who loved and venerated the memory
+of his dead father almost to idolatry, and being of a nice sense of
+honour, and a most<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> exquisite practiser of propriety himself, did sorely
+take to heart this unworthy conduct of his mother Gertrude: insomuch
+that, between grief for his father's death and shame for his mother's
+marriage, this young prince was overclouded with a deep melancholy, and
+lost all his mirth and all his good looks; all his customary pleasure in
+books forsook him, his princely exercises and sports, proper to his
+youth, were no longer acceptable; he grew weary of the world, which
+seemed to him an unweeded garden, where all the wholesome flowers were
+choked up, and nothing but weeds could thrive. Not that the prospect of
+exclusion from the throne, his lawful inheritance, weighed so much upon
+his spirits, though that to a young and high-minded prince was a bitter
+wound and a sore indignity; but what so galled him, and took away all
+his cheerful spirits, was, that his mother had shown herself so
+forgetful to his father's memory: and such a father! who had been to her
+so loving and so gentle a husband! and then she always appeared as
+loving and obedient a wife to him, and would hang upon him as if her
+affection grew to him: and now within two months, or as it seemed to
+young Hamlet, less than two months, she had married again, married his
+uncle, her dear husband's brother, in itself a highly improper and
+unlawful marriage, from the nearness of relationship, but made much more
+so by the indecent haste with which it was concluded, and the unkingly
+character of the man whom she had chosen to be the partner of her throne
+and bed. This it was, which more than the loss of ten kingdoms, dashed
+the spirits and brought a cloud over the mind of this honourable young
+prince.</p>
+
+<p>In vain was all that his mother Gertrude or the king could do to
+contrive to divert him; he still appeared in court in a suit of deep
+black, as mourning for the king his father's death, which mode of dress
+he had never laid aside, not even in compliment to his mother upon the
+day she was married, nor could he be brought to join in any of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span>
+festivities or rejoicings of that (as appeared to him) disgraceful day.</p>
+
+<p>What mostly troubled him was an uncertainty about the manner of his
+father's death. It was given out by Claudius that a serpent had stung
+him; but young Hamlet had shrewd suspicions that Claudius himself was
+the serpent; in plain English, that he had murdered him for his crown,
+and that the serpent who stung his father did now sit on the throne.</p>
+
+<p>How far he was right in this conjecture, and what he ought to think of
+his mother, how far she was privy to this murder, and whether by her
+consent or knowledge, or without, it came to pass, were the doubts which
+continually harassed and distracted him.</p>
+
+<p>A rumour had reached the ear of young Hamlet, that an apparition,
+exactly resembling the dead king his father, had been seen by the
+soldiers upon watch, on the platform before the palace at midnight, for
+two or three nights successively. The figure came constantly clad in the
+same suit of armour, from head to foot, which the dead king was known to
+have worn: and they who saw it (Hamlet's bosom friend Horatio was one)
+agreed in their testimony as to the time and manner of its appearance:
+that it came just as the clock struck twelve; that it looked pale, with
+a face more of sorrow than of anger; that its beard was grisly, and the
+colour a <i>sable silvered</i>, as they had seen it in his lifetime: that it
+made no answer when they spoke to it; yet once they thought it lifted up
+its head, and addressed itself to motion, as if it were about to speak;
+but in that moment the morning cock crew, and it shrunk in haste away,
+and vanished out of their sight.</p>
+
+<p>The young prince, strangely amazed at their relation, which was too
+consistent and agreeing with itself to disbelieve, concluded that it was
+his father's ghost which they had seen, and determined to take his watch
+with the soldiers that night, that he might have a chance of seeing it;
+for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> he reasoned with himself, that such an appearance did not come for
+nothing, but that the ghost had something to impart, and though it had
+been silent hitherto, yet it would speak to him. And he waited with
+impatience for the coming of night.</p>
+
+<p>When night came he took his stand with Horatio, and Marcellus, one of
+the guard, upon the platform, where this apparition was accustomed to
+walk: and it being a cold night, and the air unusually raw and nipping,
+Hamlet and Horatio and their companion fell into some talk about the
+coldness of the night, which was suddenly broken off by Horatio
+announcing that the ghost was coming.</p>
+
+<p>At the sight of his father's spirit, Hamlet was struck with a sudden
+surprise and fear. He at first called upon the angels and heavenly
+ministers to defend them, for he knew not whether it were a good spirit
+or bad; whether it came for good or evil: but he gradually assumed more
+courage; and his father (as it seemed to him) looked upon him so
+piteously, and as it were desiring to have conversation with him, and
+did in all respects appear so like himself as he was when he lived, that
+Hamlet could not help addressing him: he called him by his name, Hamlet,
+King, Father! and conjured him that he would tell the reason why he had
+left his grave, where they had seen him quietly bestowed, to come again
+and visit the earth and the moonlight: and besought him that he would
+let them know if there was anything which they could do to give peace to
+his spirit. And the ghost beckoned to Hamlet, that he should go with him
+to some more removed place, where they might be alone; and Horatio and
+Marcellus would have dissuaded the young prince from following it, for
+they feared lest it should be some evil spirit, who would tempt him to
+the the neighbouring sea, or to the top of some dreadful cliff, and
+there put on some horrible shape which might deprive the prince of his
+reason. But their counsels and entreaties could not alter Hamlet's
+determination, who cared too<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> little about life to fear the losing of
+it; and as to his soul, he said, what could the spirit do to that, being
+a thing immortal as itself? And he felt as hardy as a lion, and bursting
+from them, who did all they could to hold him, he followed whithersoever
+the spirit led him.</p>
+
+<p>And when they were alone together, the spirit broke silence, and told
+him that he was the ghost of Hamlet, his father, who had been cruelly
+murdered, and he told the manner of it; that it was done by his own
+brother Claudius, Hamlet's uncle, as Hamlet had already but too much
+suspected, for the hope of succeeding to his bed and crown. That as he
+was sleeping in his garden, his custom always in the afternoon, his
+treasonous brother stole upon him in his sleep, and poured the juice of
+poisonous henbane into his ears, which has such an antipathy to the life
+of man, that swift as quicksilver it courses through all the veins of
+the body, baking up the blood, and spreading a crustlike leprosy all
+over the skin: thus sleeping, by a brother's hand he was cut off at once
+from his crown, his queen, and his life: and he adjured Hamlet, if he
+did ever his dear father love, that he would revenge his foul murder.
+And the ghost lamented to his son, that his mother should so fall off
+from virtue, as to prove false to the wedded love of her first husband,
+and to marry his murderer; but he cautioned Hamlet, howsoever he
+proceeded in his revenge against his wicked uncle, by no means to act
+any violence against the person of his mother, but to leave her to
+heaven, and to the stings and thorns of conscience. And Hamlet promised
+to observe the ghost's direction in all things, and the ghost vanished.</p>
+
+<p>And when Hamlet was left alone, he took up a solemn resolution, that all
+he had in his memory, all that he had ever learned by books or
+observation, should be instantly forgotten by him, and nothing live in
+his brain but the memory of what the ghost had told him, and enjoined
+him to do. And Hamlet related the particulars of the conver<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span>sation which
+had passed to none but his dear friend Horatio; and he enjoined both to
+him and Marcellus the strictest secrecy as to what they had seen that
+night.</p>
+
+<p>The terror which the sight of the ghost had left upon the senses of
+Hamlet, he being weak and dispirited before, almost unhinged his mind,
+and drove him beside his reason. And he, fearing that it would continue
+to have this effect, which might subject him to observation, and set his
+uncle upon his guard, if he suspected that he was meditating anything
+against him, or that Hamlet really knew more of his father's death than
+he professed, took up a strange resolution, from that time to
+counterfeit as if he were really and truly mad; thinking that he would
+be less an object of suspicion when his uncle should believe him
+incapable of any serious project, and that his real perturbation of mind
+would be best covered and pass concealed under a disguise of pretended
+lunacy.</p>
+
+<p>From this time Hamlet affected a certain wildness and strangeness in his
+apparel, his speech, and behaviour, and did so excellently counterfeit
+the madman, that the king and queen were both deceived, and not thinking
+his grief for his father's death a sufficient cause to produce such a
+distemper, for they knew not of the appearance of the ghost, they
+concluded that his malady was love, and they thought they had found out
+the object.</p>
+
+<p><a name="OPHELIA" id="OPHELIA"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter">
+             <a href="images/img012.jpg"><img
+             src="images/img012-tb.jpg" width="287" height="500"
+             alt="TO THIS BROOK OPHELIA CAME" /></a><br />
+         <b>TO THIS BROOK OPHELIA CAME</b>
+    </div>
+
+
+<p>Before Hamlet fell into the melancholy way which has been related, he
+had dearly loved a fair maid called Ophelia, the daughter of Polonius,
+the king's chief counsellor in affairs of state. He had sent her letters
+and rings, and made many tenders of his affection to her, and importuned
+her with love in honourable fashion: and she had given belief to his
+vows and importunities. But the melancholy which he fell into latterly
+had made him neglect her, and from the time he conceived the project of
+counterfeiting madness, he affected to treat her with unkindness, and a
+sort of rudeness: but she, good lady, rather than reproach<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> him with
+being false to her, persuaded herself that it was nothing but the
+disease in his mind, and no settled unkindness, which had made him less
+observant of her than formerly; and she compared the faculties of his
+once noble mind and excellent understanding, impaired as they were with
+the deep melancholy that oppressed him, to sweet bells which in
+themselves are capable of most exquisite music, but when jangled out of
+tune, or rudely handled, produce only a harsh and unpleasing sound.</p>
+
+<p>Though the rough business which Hamlet had in hand, the revenging of his
+father's death upon his murderer, did not suit with the playful state of
+courtship, or admit of the society of so idle a passion as love now
+seemed to him, yet it could not hinder but that soft thoughts of his
+Ophelia would come between, and in one of these moments, when he thought
+that his treatment of this gentle lady had been unreasonably harsh, he
+wrote her a letter full of wild starts of passion, and in extravagant
+terms, such as agreed with his supposed madness, but mixed with some
+gentle touches of affection, which could not but show to this honoured
+lady that a deep love for her yet lay at the bottom of his heart. He
+bade her to doubt the stars were fire, and to doubt that the sun did
+move, to doubt truth to be a liar, but never to doubt that he loved;
+with more of such extravagant phrases. This letter Ophelia dutifully
+showed to her father, and the old man thought himself bound to
+communicate it to the king and queen, who from that time supposed that
+the true cause of Hamlet's madness was love. And the queen wished that
+the good beauties of Ophelia might be the happy cause of his wildness,
+for so she hoped that her virtues might happily restore him to his
+accustomed way again, to both their honours.</p>
+
+<p>But Hamlet's malady lay deeper than she supposed, or than could be so
+cured. His father's ghost, which he had seen, still haunted his
+imagination, and the sacred injunction to revenge his murder gave him no
+rest till it was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> accomplished. Every hour of delay seemed to him a sin,
+and a violation of his father's commands. Yet how to compass the death
+of the king, surrounded as he constantly was with his guards, was no
+easy matter. Or if it had been, the presence of the queen, Hamlet's
+mother, who was generally with the king, was a restraint upon his
+purpose, which he could not break through. Besides, the very
+circumstance that the usurper was his mother's husband filled him with
+some remorse, and still blunted the edge of his purpose. The mere act of
+putting a fellow-creature to death was in itself odious and terrible to
+a disposition naturally so gentle as Hamlet's was. His very melancholy,
+and the dejection of spirits he had so long been in, produced an
+irresoluteness and wavering of purpose, which kept him from proceeding
+to extremities. Moreover, he could not help having some scruples upon
+his mind, whether the spirit which he had seen was indeed his father, or
+whether it might not be the devil, who he had heard has power to take
+any form he pleases, and who might have assumed his father's shape only
+to take advantage of his weakness and his melancholy, to drive him to
+the doing of so desperate an act as murder. And he determined that he
+would have more certain grounds to go upon than a vision, or apparition,
+which might be a delusion.</p>
+
+<p>While he was in this irresolute mind there came to the court certain
+players, in whom Hamlet formerly used to take delight, and particularly
+to hear one of them speak a tragical speech, describing the death of old
+Priam, King of Troy, with the grief of Hecuba his queen. Hamlet welcomed
+his old friends, the players, and remembering how that speech had
+formerly given him pleasure, requested the player to repeat it; which he
+did in so lively a manner, setting forth the cruel murder of the feeble
+old king, with the destruction of his people and city by fire, and the
+mad grief of the old queen, running barefoot up and down the palace,
+with a poor clout upon that head where a crown<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> had been, and with
+nothing but a blanket upon her loins, snatched up in haste, where she
+had worn a royal robe; that not only it drew tears from all that stood
+by, who thought they saw the real scene, so lively was it represented,
+but even the player himself delivered it with a broken voice and real
+tears. This put Hamlet upon thinking, if that player could so work
+himself up to passion by a mere fictitious speech, to weep for one that
+he had never seen, for Hecuba, that had been dead so many hundred years,
+how dull was he, who having a real motive and cue for passion, a real
+king and a dear father murdered, was yet so little moved, that his
+revenge all this while had seemed to have slept in dull and muddy
+forgetfulness! and while he meditated on actors and acting, and the
+powerful effects which a good play, represented to the life, has upon
+the spectator, he remembered the instance of some murderer, who seeing a
+murder on the stage, was by the mere force of the scene and resemblance
+of circumstances so affected, that on the spot he confessed the crime
+which he had committed. And he determined that these players should play
+something like the murder of his father before his uncle, and he would
+watch narrowly what effect it might have upon him, and from his looks he
+would be able to gather with more certainty if he were the murderer or
+not. To this effect he ordered a play to be prepared, to the
+representation of which he invited the king and queen.</p>
+
+<p>The story of the play was of a murder done in Vienna upon a duke. The
+duke's name was Gonzago, his wife Baptista. The play showed how one
+Lucianus, a near relation to the duke, poisoned him in his garden for
+his estate, and how the murderer in a short time after got the love of
+Gonzago's wife.</p>
+
+<p>At the representation of this play, the king, who did not know the trap
+which was laid for him, was present, with his queen and the whole court:
+Hamlet sitting attentively near him to observe his looks. The play began
+with a con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span>versation between Gonzago and his wife, in which the lady
+made many protestations of love, and of never marrying a second husband,
+if she should outlive Gonzago; wishing she might be accursed if she ever
+took a second husband, and adding that no woman did so, but those wicked
+women who kill their first husbands. Hamlet observed the king his uncle
+change colour at this expression, and that it was as bad as wormwood
+both to him and to the queen. But when Lucianus, according to the story,
+came to poison Gonzago sleeping in the garden, the strong resemblance
+which it bore to his own wicked act upon the late king, his brother,
+whom he had poisoned in his garden, so struck upon the conscience of
+this usurper, that he was unable to sit out the rest of the play, but on
+a sudden calling for lights to his chamber, and affecting or partly
+feeling a sudden sickness, he abruptly left the theatre. The king being
+departed, the play was given over. Now Hamlet had seen enough to be
+satisfied that the words of the ghost were true, and no illusion; and in
+a fit of gaiety, like that which comes over a man who suddenly has some
+great doubt or scruple resolved, he swore to Horatio, that he would take
+the ghost's word for a thousand pounds. But before he could make up his
+resolution as to what measures of revenge he should take, now he was
+certainly informed that his uncle was his father's murderer, he was sent
+for by the queen his mother, to a private conference in her closet.</p>
+
+<p>It was by desire of the king that the queen sent for Hamlet, that she
+might signify to her son how much his late behaviour had displeased them
+both, and the king, wishing to know all that passed at that conference,
+and thinking that the too partial report of a mother might let slip some
+part of Hamlet's words, which it might much import the king to know,
+Polonius, the old counsellor of state, was ordered to plant himself
+behind the hangings in the queen's closet, where he might unseen hear
+all that passed. This artifice was particularly adapted to the
+dis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span>position of Polonius, who was a man grown old in crooked maxims and
+policies of state, and delighted to get at the knowledge of matters in
+an indirect and cunning way.</p>
+
+<p>Hamlet being come to his mother, she began to tax him in the roundest
+way with his actions and behaviour, and she told him that he had given
+great offence to <i>his father</i>, meaning the king, his uncle, whom,
+because he had married her, she called Hamlet's father. Hamlet, sorely
+indignant that she should give so dear and honoured a name as father
+seemed to him, to a wretch who was indeed no better than the murderer of
+his true father, with some sharpness replied, "Mother, <i>you</i> have much
+offended <i>my father</i>." The queen said that was but an idle answer. "As
+good as the question deserved," said Hamlet. The queen asked him if he
+had forgotten who it was he was speaking to? "Alas!" replied Hamlet, "I
+wish I could forget. You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife;
+and you are my mother: I wish you were not what you are." "Nay, then,"
+said the queen, "if you show me so little respect, I will set those to
+you that can speak," and was going to send the king or Polonius to him.
+But Hamlet would not let her go, now he had her alone, till he had tried
+if his words could not bring her to some sense of her wicked life; and,
+taking her by the wrist, he held her fast, and made her sit down. She,
+affrighted at his earnest manner, and fearful lest in his lunacy he
+should do her a mischief, cried out; and a voice was heard from behind
+the hangings, "Help, help, the queen!" which Hamlet hearing, and verily
+thinking that it was the king himself there concealed, he drew his sword
+and stabbed at the place where the voice came from, as he would have
+stabbed a rat that ran there, till the voice ceasing, he concluded the
+person to be dead. But when he dragged for the body, it was not the
+king, but Polonius, the old officious counsellor, that had planted
+himself as a spy behind the hangings. "Oh me!" exclaimed the queen,
+"what a rash and bloody deed have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> you done!" "A bloody deed, mother,"
+replied Hamlet, "but not so bad as yours, who killed a king, and married
+his brother." Hamlet had gone too far to leave off here. He was now in
+the humour to speak plainly to his mother, and he pursued it. And though
+the faults of parents are to be tenderly treated by their children, yet
+in the case of great crimes the son may have leave to speak even to his
+own mother with some harshness, so as that harshness is meant for her
+good, and to turn her from her wicked ways, and not done for the purpose
+of upbraiding. And now this virtuous prince did in moving terms
+represent to the queen the heinousness of her offence, in being so
+forgetful of the dead king, his father, as in so short a space of time
+to marry with his brother and reputed murderer: such an act as, after
+the vows which she had sworn to her first husband, was enough to make
+all vows of women suspected, and all virtue to be accounted hypocrisy,
+wedding contracts to be less than gamesters' oaths, and religion to be a
+mockery and a mere form of words. He said she had done such a deed, that
+the heavens blushed at it, and the earth was sick of her because of it.
+And he showed her two pictures, the one of the late king, her first
+husband, and the other of the present king, her second husband, and he
+bade her mark the difference; what a grace was on the brow of his
+father, how like a god he looked! the curls of Apollo, the forehead of
+Jupiter, the eye of Mars, and a posture like to Mercury newly alighted
+on some heaven-kissing hill! this man, he said, <i>had been</i> her husband.
+And then he showed her whom she had got in his stead: how like a blight
+or a mildew he looked, for so he had blasted his wholesome brother. And
+the queen was sore ashamed that he should so turn her eyes inward upon
+her soul, which she now saw so black and deformed. And he asked her how
+she could continue to live with this man, and be a wife to him, who had
+murdered her first husband, and got the crown by as false means as a
+thief&mdash;&mdash;and just as he spoke, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> ghost of his father, such as he was
+in his lifetime, and such as he had lately seen it, entered the room,
+and Hamlet, in great terror, asked what it would have; and the ghost
+said that it came to remind him of the revenge he had promised, which
+Hamlet seemed to have forgot; and the ghost bade him speak to his
+mother, for the grief and terror she was in would else kill her. It then
+vanished, and was seen by none but Hamlet, neither could he by pointing
+to where it stood, or by any description, make his mother perceive it;
+who was terribly frightened all this while to hear him conversing, as it
+seemed to her, with nothing; and she imputed it to the disorder of his
+mind. But Hamlet begged her not to flatter her wicked soul in such a
+manner as to think that it was his madness, and not her own offences,
+which had brought his father's spirit again on the earth. And he bade
+her feel his pulse, how temperately it beat, not like a madman's. And he
+begged of her with tears, to confess herself to heaven for what was
+past, and for the future to avoid the company of the king, and be no
+more as a wife to him: and when she should show herself a mother to him,
+by respecting his father's memory, he would ask a blessing of her as a
+son. And she promising to observe his directions, the conference ended.</p>
+
+<p>And now Hamlet was at leisure to consider who it was that in his
+unfortunate rashness he had killed: and when he came to see that it was
+Polonius, the father of the Lady Ophelia, whom he so dearly loved, he
+drew apart the dead body, and, his spirits being now a little quieter,
+he wept for what he had done.</p>
+
+<p>The unfortunate death of Polonius gave the king a pretence for sending
+Hamlet out of the kingdom. He would willingly have put him to death,
+fearing him as dangerous; but he dreaded the people, who loved Hamlet,
+and the queen, who, with all her faults, doted upon the prince, her son.
+So this subtle king, under pretence of providing for Hamlet's safety,
+that he might not be called to account for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> Polonius' death, caused him
+to be conveyed on board a ship bound for England, under the care of two
+courtiers, by whom he despatched letters to the English court, which in
+that time was in subjection and paid tribute to Denmark, requiring for
+special reasons there pretended, that Hamlet should be put to death as
+soon as he landed on English ground. Hamlet, suspecting some treachery,
+in the night-time secretly got at the letters, and skilfully erasing
+his own name, he in the stead of it put in the names of those two
+courtiers, who had the charge of him, to be put to death: then sealing
+up the letters, he put them into their place again. Soon after the ship
+was attacked by pirates, and a sea-fight commenced; in the course of
+which Hamlet, desirous to show his valour, with sword in hand singly
+boarded the enemy's vessel; while his own ship, in a cowardly manner,
+bore away, and leaving him to his fate, the two courtiers made the best
+of their way to England, charged with those letters the sense of which
+Hamlet had altered to their own deserved destruction.</p>
+
+<p>The pirates, who had the prince in their power, showed themselves gentle
+enemies; and knowing whom they had got prisoner, in the hope that the
+prince might do them a good turn at court in recompense for any favour
+they might show him, they set Hamlet on shore at the nearest port in
+Denmark. From that place Hamlet wrote to the king, acquainting him with
+the strange chance which had brought him back to his own country, and
+saying that on the next day he should present himself before his
+majesty. When he got home, a sad spectacle offered itself the first
+thing to his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>This was the funeral of the young and beautiful Ophelia, his once dear
+mistress. The wits of this young lady had begun to turn ever since her
+poor father's death. That he should die a violent death, and by the
+hands of the prince whom she loved, so affected this tender young maid,
+that in a little time she grew perfectly distracted, and would go<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> about
+giving flowers away to the ladies of the court, and saying that they
+were for her father's burial, singing songs about love and about death,
+and sometimes such as had no meaning at all, as if she had no memory of
+what happened to her. There was a willow which grew slanting over a
+brook, and reflected its leaves on the stream. To this brook she came
+one day when she was unwatched, with garlands she had been making, mixed
+up of daisies and nettles, flowers and weeds together, and clambering up
+to hang her garland upon the boughs of the willow, a bough broke, and
+precipitated this fair young maid, garland, and all that she had
+gathered, into the water, where her clothes bore her up for a while,
+during which she chanted scraps of old tunes, like one insensible to her
+own distress, or as if she were a creature natural to that element: but
+long it was not before her garments, heavy with the wet, pulled her in
+from her melodious singing to a muddy and miserable death. It was the
+funeral of this fair maid which her brother Laertes was celebrating, the
+king and queen and whole court being present, when Hamlet arrived. He
+knew not what all this show imported, but stood on one side, not
+inclining to interrupt the ceremony. He saw the flowers strewed upon her
+grave, as the custom was in maiden burials, which the queen herself
+threw in; and as she threw them she said, "Sweets to the sweet! I
+thought to have decked thy bride-bed, sweet maid, not to have strewed
+thy grave. Thou shouldst have been my Hamlet's wife." And he heard her
+brother wish that violets might spring from her grave: and he saw him
+leap into the grave all frantic with grief, and bid the attendants pile
+mountains of earth upon him, that he might be buried with her. And
+Hamlet's love for this fair maid came back to him, and he could not bear
+that a brother should show so much transport of grief, for he thought
+that he loved Ophelia better than forty thousand brothers. Then
+discovering himself, he leaped into the grave where Laertes was, all as
+frantic or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> more frantic than he, and Laertes knowing him to be Hamlet,
+who had been the cause of his father's and his sister's death, grappled
+him by the throat as an enemy, till the attendants parted them: and
+Hamlet, after the funeral, excused his hasty act in throwing himself
+into the grave as if to brave Laertes; but he said he could not bear
+that any one should seem to outgo him in grief for the death of the fair
+Ophelia. And for the time these two noble youths seemed reconciled.</p>
+
+<p>But out of the grief and anger of Laertes for the death of his father
+and Ophelia, the king, Hamlet's wicked uncle, contrived destruction for
+Hamlet. He set on Laertes, under cover of peace and reconciliation, to
+challenge Hamlet to a friendly trial of skill at fencing, which Hamlet
+accepting, a day was appointed to try the match. At this match all the
+court was present, and Laertes, by direction of the king, prepared a
+poisoned weapon. Upon this match great wagers were laid by the
+courtiers, as both Hamlet and Laertes were known to excel at this sword
+play; and Hamlet taking up the foils chose one, not at all suspecting
+the treachery of Laertes, or being careful to examine Laertes' weapon,
+who, instead of a foil or blunted sword, which the laws of fencing
+require, made use of one with a point, and poisoned. At first Laertes
+did but play with Hamlet, and suffered him to gain some advantages,
+which the dissembling king magnified and extolled beyond measure,
+drinking to Hamlet's success, and wagering rich bets upon the issue: but
+after a few pauses, Laertes growing warm made a deadly thrust at Hamlet
+with his poisoned weapon, and gave him a mortal blow. Hamlet incensed,
+but not knowing the whole of the treachery, in the scuffle exchanged his
+own innocent weapon for Laertes' deadly one, and with a thrust of
+Laertes' own sword repaid Laertes home, who was thus justly caught in
+his own treachery. In this instant the queen shrieked out that she was
+poisoned. She had inadvertently drunk out of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> bowl which the king had
+prepared for Hamlet, in case, that being warm in fencing, he should call
+for drink: into this the treacherous king had infused a deadly poison,
+to make sure of Hamlet, if Laertes had failed. He had forgotten to warn
+the queen of the bowl, which she drank of, and immediately died,
+exclaiming with her last breath that she was poisoned. Hamlet,
+suspecting some treachery, ordered the doors to be shut, while he sought
+it out. Laertes told him to seek no farther, for he was the traitor; and
+feeling his life go away with the wound which Hamlet had given him, he
+made confession of the treachery he had used, and how he had fallen a
+victim to it: and he told Hamlet of the envenomed point, and said that
+Hamlet had not half an hour to live, for no medicine could cure him; and
+begging forgiveness of Hamlet, he died, with his last words accusing the
+king of being the contriver of the mischief. When Hamlet saw his end
+draw near, there being yet some venom left upon the sword, he suddenly
+turned upon his false uncle, and thrust the point of it to his heart,
+fulfilling the promise which he had made to his father's spirit, whose
+injunction was now accomplished, and his foul murder revenged upon the
+murderer. Then Hamlet, feeling his breath fail and life departing,
+turned to his dear friend Horatio, who had been spectator of this fatal
+tragedy; and with his dying breath requested him that he would live to
+tell his story to the world (for Horatio had made a motion as if he
+would slay himself to accompany the prince in death), and Horatio
+promised that he would make a true report, as one that was privy to all
+the circumstances. And, thus satisfied, the noble heart of Hamlet
+cracked; and Horatio and the bystanders with many tears commended the
+spirit of this sweet prince to the guardianship of angels. For Hamlet
+was a loving and a gentle prince, and greatly beloved for his many noble
+and princelike qualities; and if he had lived, would no doubt have
+proved a most royal and complete king to Denmark.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img33.jpg"  width="600" height="349" alt="OTHELLO" title="" /></div>
+
+
+<p>Brabantio, the rich senator of Venice, had a fair daughter, the gentle
+Desdemona. She was sought to by divers suitors, both on account of her
+many virtuous qualities, and for her rich expectations. But among the
+suitors of her own clime and complexion, she saw none whom she could
+affect: for this noble lady, who regarded the mind more than the
+features of men, with a singularity rather to be admired than imitated,
+had chosen for the object of her affections, a Moor, a black, whom her
+father loved, and often invited to his house.</p>
+
+<p>Neither is Desdemona to be altogether condemned for the unsuitableness
+of the person whom she selected for her lover. Bating that Othello was
+black, the noble Moor wanted nothing which might recommend him to the
+affections of the greatest lady. He was a soldier, and a brave one; and
+by his conduct in bloody wars against the Turks, had risen to the rank
+of general in the Venetian service, and was esteemed and trusted by the
+state.</p>
+
+<p>He had been a traveller, and Desdemona (as is the manner of ladies)
+loved to hear him tell the story of his adventures, which he would run
+through from his earliest recollection; the battles, sieges, and
+encounters, which he had passed through; the perils he had been exposed
+to by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> land and by water; his hair-breadth escapes, when he had entered
+a breach, or marched up to the mouth of a cannon; and how he had been
+taken prisoner by the insolent enemy, and sold to slavery; how he
+demeaned himself in that state, and how he escaped: all these accounts,
+added to the narration of the strange things he had seen in foreign
+countries, the vast wilderness and romantic caverns, the quarries, the
+rocks and mountains, whose heads are in the clouds; of the savage
+nations, the cannibals who are man-eaters, and a race of people in
+Africa whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders: these travellers'
+stories would so enchain the attention of Desdemona, that if she were
+called off at any time by household affairs, she would despatch with all
+haste that business, and return, and with a greedy ear devour Othello's
+discourse. And once he took advantage of a pliant hour, and drew from
+her a prayer, that he would tell her the whole story of his life at
+large, of which she had heard so much, but only by parts: to which he
+consented, and beguiled her of many a tear, when he spoke of some
+distressful stroke which his youth had suffered.</p>
+
+<p>His story being done, she gave him for his pains a world of sighs: she
+swore a pretty oath, that it was all passing strange, and pitiful,
+wondrous pitiful: she wished (she said) she had not heard it, yet she
+wished that heaven had made her such a man; and then she thanked him,
+and told him, if he had a friend who loved her, he had only to teach him
+how to tell his story, and that would woo her. Upon this hint, delivered
+not with more frankness than modesty, accompanied with certain
+bewitching prettiness, and blushes, which Othello could not but
+understand, he spoke more openly of his love, and in this golden
+opportunity gained the consent of the generous Lady Desdemona privately
+to marry him.</p>
+
+<p>Neither Othello's colour nor his fortune were such that it could be
+hoped Brabantio would accept him for a son-in-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span>law. He had left his
+daughter free; but he did expect that, as the manner of noble Venetian
+ladies was, she would choose ere long a husband of senatorial rank or
+expectations; but in this he was deceived; Desdemona loved the Moor,
+though he was black, and devoted her heart and fortunes to his valiant
+parts and qualities; so was her heart subdued to an implicit devotion to
+the man she had selected for a husband, that his very colour, which to
+all but this discerning lady would have proved an insurmountable
+objection, was by her esteemed above all the white skins and clear
+complexions of the young Venetian nobility, her suitors.</p>
+
+<p>Their marriage, which, though privately carried, could not long be kept
+a secret, came to the ears of the old man, Brabantio, who appeared in a
+solemn council of the senate, as an accuser of the Moor Othello, who by
+spells and witchcraft (he maintained) had seduced the affections of the
+fair Desdemona to marry him, without the consent of her father, and
+against the obligations of hospitality.</p>
+
+<p>At this juncture of time it happened that the state of Venice had
+immediate need of the services of Othello, news having arrived that the
+Turks with mighty preparation had fitted out a fleet, which was bending
+its course to the island of Cyprus, with intent to regain that strong
+post from the Venetians, who then held it; in this emergency the state
+turned its eyes upon Othello, who alone was deemed adequate to conduct
+the defence of Cyprus against the Turks. So that Othello, now summoned
+before the senate, stood in their presence at once as a candidate for a
+great state employment, and as a culprit, charged with offences which by
+the laws of Venice were made capital.</p>
+
+<p>The age and senatorial character of old Brabantio, commanded a most
+patient hearing from that grave assembly; but the incensed father
+conducted his accusation with so much intemperance, producing
+likelihoods and allegations for proofs, that, when Othello was called
+upon for his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> defence, he had only to relate a plain tale of the course
+of his love; which he did with such an artless eloquence, recounting the
+whole story of his wooing, as we have related it above, and delivered
+his speech with so noble a plainness (the evidence of truth), that the
+duke, who sat as chief judge, could not help confessing that a tale so
+told would have won his daughter too: and the spells and conjurations
+which Othello had used in his courtship, plainly appeared to have been
+no more than the honest arts of men in love; and the only witchcraft
+which he had used, the faculty of telling a soft tale to win a lady's
+ear.</p>
+
+<p>This statement of Othello was confirmed by the testimony of the Lady
+Desdemona herself, who appeared in court, and professing a duty to her
+father for life and education, challenged leave of him to profess a yet
+higher duty to her lord and husband, even so much as her mother had
+shown in preferring him (Brabantio) above <i>her</i> father.</p>
+
+<p>The old senator, unable to maintain his plea, called the Moor to him
+with many expressions of sorrow, and, as an act of necessity, bestowed
+upon him his daughter, whom, if he had been free to withhold her (he
+told him), he would with all his heart have kept from him; adding, that
+he was glad at soul that he had no other child, for this behaviour of
+Desdemona would have taught him to be a tyrant, and hang clogs on them
+for her desertion.</p>
+
+<p>This difficulty being got over, Othello, to whom custom had rendered the
+hardships of a military life as natural as food and rest are to other
+men, readily undertook the management of the wars in Cyprus: and
+Desdemona, preferring the honour of her lord (though with danger) before
+the indulgence of those idle delights in which new-married people
+usually waste their time, cheerfully consented to his going.</p>
+
+<p>No sooner were Othello and his lady landed in Cyprus, than news arrived,
+that a desperate tempest had dispersed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> the Turkish fleet, and thus the
+island was secure from any immediate apprehension of an attack. But the
+war, which Othello was to suffer, was now beginning; and the enemies,
+which malice stirred up against his innocent lady, proved in their
+nature more deadly than strangers or infidels.</p>
+
+<p>Among all the general's friends no one possessed the confidence of
+Othello more entirely than Cassio. Michael Cassio was a young soldier, a
+Florentine, gay, amorous, and of pleasing address, favourite qualities
+with women; he was handsome and eloquent, and exactly such a person as
+might alarm the jealousy of a man advanced in years (as Othello in some
+measure was), who had married a young and beautiful wife; but Othello
+was as free from jealousy as he was noble, and as incapable of
+suspecting as of doing a base action. He had employed this Cassio in his
+love affair with Desdemona, and Cassio had been a sort of go-between in
+his suit: for Othello, fearing that himself had not those soft parts of
+conversation which please ladies, and finding these qualities in his
+friend, would often depute Cassio to go (as he phrased it) a courting
+for him: such innocent simplicity being rather an honour than a blemish
+to the character of the valiant Moor. So that no wonder, if next to
+Othello himself (but at far distance, as beseems a virtuous wife) the
+gentle Desdemona loved and trusted Cassio. Nor had the marriage of this
+couple made any difference in their behaviour to Michael Cassio. He
+frequented their house, and his free and rattling talk was no unpleasing
+variety to Othello, who was himself of a more serious temper: for such
+tempers are observed often to delight in their contraries, as a relief
+from the oppressive excess of their own: and Desdemona and Cassio would
+talk and laugh together, as in the days when he went a courting for his
+friend.</p>
+
+<p>Othello had lately promoted Cassio to be the lieutenant, a place of
+trust, and nearest to the general's person. This<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> promotion gave great
+offence to Iago, an older officer who thought he had a better claim than
+Cassio, and would often ridicule Cassio as a fellow fit only for the
+company of ladies, and one that knew no more of the art of war or how to
+set an army in array for battle, than a girl. Iago hated Cassio, and he
+hated Othello, as well for favouring Cassio, as for an unjust suspicion,
+which he had lightly taken up against Othello, that the Moor was too
+fond of Iago's wife Emilia. From these imaginary provocations, the
+plotting mind of Iago conceived a horrid scheme of revenge, which should
+involve both Cassio, the Moor, and Desdemona, in one common ruin.</p>
+
+<p>Iago was artful, and had studied human nature deeply, and he knew that
+of all the torments which afflict the mind of man (and far beyond bodily
+torture), the pains of jealousy were the most intolerable, and had the
+sorest sting. If he could succeed in making Othello jealous of Cassio,
+he thought it would be an exquisite plot of revenge, and might end in
+the death of Cassio or Othello, or both; he cared not.</p>
+
+<p>The arrival of the general and his lady, in Cyprus, meeting with the
+news of the dispersion of the enemy's fleet, made a sort of holiday in
+the island. Everybody gave themselves up to feasting and making merry.
+Wine flowed in abundance, and cups went round to the health of the black
+Othello, and his lady the fair Desdemona.</p>
+
+<p>Cassio had the direction of the guard that night, with a charge from
+Othello to keep the soldiers from excess in drinking, that no brawl
+might arise, to fright the inhabitants, or disgust them with the
+new-landed forces. That night Iago began his deep-laid plans of
+mischief: under colour of loyalty and love to the general, he enticed
+Cassio to make rather too free with the bottle (a great fault in an
+officer upon guard). Cassio for a time resisted, but he could not long
+hold out against the honest freedom which Iago knew how to put on, but
+kept swallowing glass after<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> glass (as Iago still plied him with drink
+and encouraging songs), and Cassio's tongue ran over in praise of the
+Lady Desdemona, whom he again and again toasted, affirming that she was
+a most exquisite lady: until at last the enemy which he put into his
+mouth stole away his brains; and upon some provocation given him by a
+fellow whom Iago had set on, swords were drawn, and Montano, a worthy
+officer, who interfered to appease the dispute, was wounded in the
+scuffle. The riot now began to be general, and Iago, who had set on foot
+the mischief, was foremost in spreading the alarm, causing the
+castle-bell to be rung (as if some dangerous mutiny instead of a slight
+drunken quarrel had arisen): the alarm-bell ringing awakened Othello,
+who, dressing in a hurry, and coming to the scene of action, questioned
+Cassio of the cause. Cassio was now come to himself, the effect of the
+wine having a little gone off, but was too much ashamed to reply; and
+Iago, pretending a great reluctance to accuse Cassio, but, as it were,
+forced into it by Othello, who insisted to know the truth, gave an
+account of the whole matter (leaving out his own share in it, which
+Cassio was too far gone to remember) in such a manner, as while he
+seemed to make Cassio's offence less, did indeed make it appear greater
+than it was. The result was, that Othello, who was a strict observer of
+discipline, was compelled to take away Cassio's place of lieutenant from
+him.</p>
+
+<p>Thus did Iago's first artifice succeed completely; he had now undermined
+his hated rival, and thrust him out of his place: but a further use was
+hereafter to be made of the adventure of this disastrous night.</p>
+
+<p>Cassio, whom this misfortune had entirely sobered, now lamented to his
+seeming friend Iago that he should have been such a fool as to transform
+himself into a beast. He was undone, for how could he ask the general
+for his place again? he would tell him he was a drunkard. He despised
+himself. Iago, affecting to make light of it, said,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> that he, or any man
+living, might be drunk upon occasion; it remained now to make the best
+of a bad bargain; the general's wife was now the general, and could do
+anything with Othello; that he were best to apply to the Lady Desdemona
+to mediate for him with her lord; that she was of a frank, obliging
+disposition, and would readily undertake a good office of this sort, and
+set Cassio right again in the general's favour; and then this crack in
+their love would be made stronger than ever. A good advice of Iago, if
+it had not been given for wicked purposes, which will after appear.</p>
+
+<p>Cassio did as Iago advised him, and made application to the Lady
+Desdemona, who was easy to be won over in any honest suit; and she
+promised Cassio that she should be his solicitor with her lord, and
+rather die than give up his cause. This she immediately set about in so
+earnest and pretty a manner, that Othello, who was mortally offended
+with Cassio, could not put her off. When he pleaded delay, and that it
+was too soon to pardon such an offender, she would not be beat back, but
+insisted that it should be the next night, or the morning after, or the
+next morning to that at farthest. Then she showed how penitent and
+humbled poor Cassio was, and that his offence did not deserve so sharp a
+check. And when Othello still hung back, "What! my lord," said she,
+"that I should have so much to do to plead for Cassio, Michael Cassio,
+that came a courting for you, and oftentimes, when I have spoken in
+dispraise of you, has taken your part! I count this but a little thing
+to ask of you. When I mean to try your love indeed, I shall ask a
+weighty matter." Othello could deny nothing to such a pleader, and only
+requesting that Desdemona would leave the time to him, promised to
+receive Michael Cassio again in favour.</p>
+
+<p>It happened that Othello and Iago had entered into the room where
+Desdemona was, just as Cassio, who had been imploring her intercession,
+was departing at the opposite<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> door: and Iago, who was full of art, said
+in a low voice, as if to himself, "I like not that." Othello took no
+great notice of what he said; indeed, the conference which immediately
+took place with his lady put it out of his head; but he remembered it
+afterwards. For when Desdemona was gone, Iago, as if for mere
+satisfaction of his thought, questioned Othello whether Michael Cassio,
+when Othello was courting his lady, knew of his love. To this the
+general answering in the affirmative, and adding, that he had gone
+between them very often during the courtship, Iago knitted his brow, as
+if he had got fresh light on some terrible matter, and cried, "Indeed!"
+This brought into Othello's mind the words which Iago had let fall upon
+entering the room, and seeing Cassio with Desdemona; and he began to
+think there was some meaning in all this: for he deemed Iago to be a
+just man, and full of love and honesty, and what in a false knave would
+be tricks, in him seemed to be the natural workings of an honest mind,
+big with something too great for utterance: and Othello prayed Iago to
+speak what he knew, and to give his worst thoughts words. "And what,"
+said Iago, "if some thoughts very vile should have intruded into my
+breast, as where is the palace into which foul things do not enter?"
+Then Iago went on to say, what a pity it were, if any trouble should
+arise to Othello out of his imperfect observations; that it would not be
+for Othello's peace to know his thoughts; that people's good names were
+not to be taken away for slight suspicions; and when Othello's curiosity
+was raised almost to distraction with these hints and scattered words,
+Iago, as if in earnest care for Othello's peace of mind, besought him to
+beware of jealousy: with such art did this villain raise suspicions in
+the unguarded Othello, by the very caution which he pretended to give
+him against suspicion. "I know," said Othello, "that my wife is fair,
+loves company and feasting, is free of speech, sings, plays, and dances
+well: but where virtue is, these qualities are virtuous. I must have
+proof<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> before I think her dishonest." Then Iago, as if glad that Othello
+was slow to believe ill of his lady, frankly declared that he had no
+proof, but begged Othello to observe her behaviour well, when Cassio was
+by; not to be jealous nor too secure neither, for that he (Iago) knew
+the dispositions of the Italian ladies, his country-women, better than
+Othello could do; and that in Venice the wives let heaven see many
+pranks they dared not show their husbands. Then he artfully insinuated
+that Desdemona deceived her father in marrying with Othello, and carried
+it so closely, that the poor old man thought that witchcraft had been
+used. Othello was much moved with this argument, which brought the
+matter home to him, for if she had deceived her father, why might she
+not deceive her husband?</p>
+
+<p>Iago begged pardon for having moved him; but Othello, assuming an
+indifference, while he was really shaken with inward grief at Iago's
+words, begged him to go on, which Iago did with many apologies, as if
+unwilling to produce anything against Cassio, whom he called his friend:
+he then came strongly to the point, and reminded Othello how Desdemona
+had refused many suitable matches of her own clime and complexion, and
+had married him, a Moor, which showed unnatural in her, and proved her
+to have a headstrong will; and when her better judgment returned, how
+probable it was she should fall upon comparing Othello with the fine
+forms and clear white complexions of the young Italians her countrymen.
+He concluded with advising Othello to put off his reconcilement with
+Cassio a little longer, and in the meanwhile to note with what
+earnestness Desdemona should intercede in his behalf; for that much
+would be seen in that. So mischievously did this artful villain lay his
+plots to turn the gentle qualities of this innocent lady into her
+destruction, and make a net for her out of her own goodness to entrap
+her: first setting Cassio on to entreat her mediation, and then out of
+that very mediation contriving stratagems for her ruin.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The conference ended with Iago's begging Othello to account his wife
+innocent, until he had more decisive proof; and Othello promised to be
+patient; but from that moment the deceived Othello never tasted content
+of mind. Poppy, nor the juice of mandragora, nor all the sleeping
+potions in the world, could ever again restore to him that sweet rest,
+which he had enjoyed but yesterday. His occupation sickened upon him. He
+no longer took delight in arms. His heart, that used to be roused at the
+sight of troops, and banners, and battle-array, and would stir and leap
+at the sound of a drum, or a trumpet, or a neighing war-horse, seemed to
+have lost all that pride and ambition which are a soldier's virtue; and
+his military ardour and all his old joys forsook him. Sometimes he
+thought his wife honest, and at times he thought her not so; sometimes
+he thought Iago just, and at times he thought him not so; then he would
+wish that he had never known of it; he was not the worse for her loving
+Cassio, so long as he knew it not: torn to pieces with these distracting
+thoughts, he once laid hold on Iago's throat, and demanded proof of
+Desdemona's guilt, or threatened instant death for his having belied
+her. Iago, feigning indignation that his honesty should be taken for a
+vice, asked Othello, if he had not sometimes seen a handkerchief spotted
+with strawberries in his wife's hand. Othello answered, that he had
+given her such a one, and that it was his first gift. "That same
+handkerchief," said Iago, "did I see Michael Cassio this day wipe his
+face with." "If it be as you say," said Othello, "I will not rest till a
+wide revenge swallow them up: and first, for a token of your fidelity, I
+expect that Cassio shall be put to death within three days; and for that
+fair devil (meaning his lady), I will withdraw and devise some swift
+means of death for her."</p>
+
+<p>Trifles light as air are to the jealous proofs as strong as holy writ. A
+handkerchief of his wife's seen in Cassio's hand, was motive enough to
+the deluded Othello to pass sentence of death upon them both, without
+once inquiring<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> how Cassio came by it. Desdemona had never given such a
+present to Cassio, nor would this constant lady have wronged her lord
+with doing so naughty a thing as giving his presents to another man;
+both Cassio and Desdemona were innocent of any offence against Othello:
+but the wicked Iago, whose spirits never slept in contrivance of
+villany, had made his wife (a good, but a weak woman) steal this
+handkerchief from Desdemona, under pretence of getting the work copied,
+but in reality to drop it in Cassio's way, where he might find it, and
+give a handle to Iago's suggestion that it was Desdemona's present.</p>
+
+<p>Othello, soon after meeting his wife, pretended that he had a headache
+(as he might indeed with truth), and desired her to lend him her
+handkerchief to hold to his temples. She did so. "Not this," said
+Othello, "but that handkerchief I gave you." Desdemona had it not about
+her (for indeed it was stolen, as we have related). "How?" said Othello,
+"this is a fault indeed. That handkerchief an Egyptian woman gave to my
+mother; the woman was a witch and could read people's thoughts: she told
+my mother, while she kept it, it would make her amiable, and my father
+would love her; but, if she lost it, or gave it away, my father's fancy
+would turn, and he would loathe her as much as he had loved her. She
+dying gave it to me, and bade me, if I ever married, to give it to my
+wife. I did so; take heed of it. Make it a darling as precious as your
+eye." "Is it possible?" said the frighted lady. "'Tis true," continued
+Othello; "it is a magical handkerchief; a sibyl that had lived in the
+world two hundred years, in a fit of prophetic fury worked it; the
+silkworms that furnished the silk were hallowed, and it was dyed in a
+mummy of maidens' hearts conserved." Desdemona, hearing the wondrous
+virtues of the handkerchief, was ready to die with fear, for she plainly
+perceived she had lost it, and with it, she feared, the affections of
+her husband. Then Othello started, and looked as if he were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> going to do
+some rash thing, and still he demanded the handkerchief, which when she
+could not produce, she tried to divert her husband from too serious
+thoughts, and cheerfully told him she saw all his talk about the
+handkerchief was only to put her off from her suit about Michael Cassio,
+whom she went on to praise (as Iago had foretold), till Othello in
+perfect distraction burst out of the room, and then Desdemona, though
+unwillingly, began to suspect that her lord was jealous.</p>
+
+<p>What cause she could have ministered to him she knew not, and then she
+accused herself for accusing the noble Othello, and thought to be sure
+that some untoward news from Venice, or some state troubles had puddled
+his spirits, and made his temper not so sweet as formerly. And she said,
+"Men are not gods, and we must not look for that observance from them
+when they are married, which they show us on the bridal day." And she
+beshrewed herself for so unkindly judging of his unkindness.</p>
+
+<p>Again Othello and Desdemona met, and he accused her more plainly of
+being unfaithful, and of loving another man, but he did not name whom:
+and Othello wept, and Desdemona said, "Alas! the heavy day! why do you
+weep?" And Othello told her, he could have borne all sorts of evils with
+fortitude&mdash;poverty, and disease, and disgrace; but her infidelity had
+broken his heart: and he called her a weed, that looked so fair, and
+smelled so sweet, that the sense ached at it; and wished she had never
+been born. And when he had left her, this innocent lady was so stupefied
+with wonder at her lord's untrue suspicion of her, that a weight-like
+sleep came over her, and she only desired her attendant to make her bed,
+and to lay her wedding-sheets upon it, saying, that when people teach
+their babes, they do it by gentle means and easy tasks, and Othello
+might have chid her so; for in good faith she was but a child when she
+was chidden. And this was all the complaint which this gentle lady
+made.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Desdemona being retired to bed expecting her lord would follow her, soon
+fell into a slumber, the effect of her troubled spirits, when Othello
+entered the chamber, full of the black purpose which he had meditated of
+putting his lady to death. But when he saw her asleep, he thought he
+would not shed her blood, nor scar that white skin of hers, more white
+than alabaster. But he was resolved she should die; else (as he said)
+she would live to betray more men, as she had done him. Then he kissed
+her for the last time (as he said), and that kiss was so sweet, that he
+must needs kiss her again: and he wept, but he said they were cruel
+tears.</p>
+
+<p>Desdemona was awakened with his kisses, and she looked upon Othello, and
+she saw him gnaw his under lip, and roll his eyes, and she knew he was
+always fatal when he looked so: and he bade her prepare for death, and
+to say her prayers, for he would not kill her soul. And this innocent
+wife, as she lay at his mercy, begged for compassion, and to know her
+fault, and then he named Cassio, and the handkerchief which (he said)
+she had given him; and as the guiltless lady was proceeding to clear
+herself he suddenly would hear no more, but covering her up in the
+bed-clothes, stifled her till she died.</p>
+
+<p>In this instant of time was brought into the house Cassio, wounded and
+bleeding, whom Iago had set one of his creatures on to assassinate; but
+the fellow not succeeding in his attempt to kill Cassio (whom he
+wounded, but not mortally,) and being himself killed by Iago to prevent
+discovery, in his pockets were found certain letters, which made the
+guilt of Iago, and the innocence of Cassio, clear beyond all doubt; and
+Cassio now came to beg pardon of Othello, and to ask wherein he had
+offended him, that he had employed Iago to murder him.</p>
+
+<p>This discovery was as a thunderstroke to Othello, who now plainly saw
+that he was no better than a murderer, and that his wife (poor innocent
+lady) had been ever<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> faithful to him; the extreme anguish of which
+discovery making life insupportable, he fell upon his sword, and
+throwing himself upon the body of his dear injured lady, expired.</p>
+
+<p>These rash acts raised much passion of horror and amazement in the
+bystanders, for Othello had borne a fair reputation, and till he was
+wrought upon by the arts of a villain, which his own noble nature never
+gave him leave to suspect, he was a loving and a doting husband. He had
+loved not wisely, but too well; and his manly eyes (when he learned his
+mistake), though not used to weep on every small occasion, dropped tears</p>
+
+<p class='center'>
+as fast as the Arabian trees their gum. And when he<br />
+was dead all his former merits and his valiant acts<br />
+were remembered. Nothing now remained for<br />
+his successor but to put the utmost censure<br />
+of the law in force against Iago, who<br />
+was executed with strict tortures;<br />
+and to send word to the<br />
+state of Venice of the<br />
+lamentable death of<br />
+their renowned<br />
+general.
+</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img34.jpg"  alt="Chapter endpiece" title="" /></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img35.jpg"  width="600" height="464" alt="PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE" title="" /></div>
+
+
+<p>Pericles, Prince of Tyre, became a voluntary exile from his dominions,
+to avert the dreadful calamities which Antiochus, the wicked emperor of
+Greece, threatened to bring upon his subjects and city of Tyre, in
+revenge for a discovery which the prince had made of a shocking deed
+which the emperor had done in secret; as commonly it proves dangerous to
+pry into the hidden crimes of great ones. Leaving the government of his
+people in the hands of his able and honest minister, Helicanus, Pericles
+set sail from Tyre, thinking to absent himself till the wrath of
+Antiochus, who was mighty, should be appeased.</p>
+
+<p>The first place which the prince directed his course to was Tarsus, and
+hearing that the city of Tarsus was at that time suffering under a
+severe famine, he took with him store of provisions for its relief. On
+his arrival he found the city reduced to the utmost distress; and, he
+coming like a messenger from heaven with his unhoped-for succour, Cleon,
+the governor of Tarsus, welcomed him with bound<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span>less thanks. Pericles
+had not been here many days, before letters came from his faithful
+minister, warning him that it was not safe for him to stay at Tarsus,
+for Antiochus knew of his abode, and by secret emissaries despatched for
+that purpose sought his life. Upon receipt of these letters Pericles put
+out to sea again, amidst the blessings and prayers of a whole people who
+had been fed by his bounty.</p>
+
+<p>He had not sailed far, when his ship was overtaken by a dreadful storm,
+and every man on board perished except Pericles, who was cast by the
+sea-waves naked on an unknown shore, where he had not wandered long
+before he met with some poor fishermen, who invited him to their homes,
+giving him clothes and provisions. The fishermen told Pericles the name
+of their country was Pentapolis, and that their king was Simonides,
+commonly called the good Simonides, because of his peaceable reign and
+good government. From them he also learned that King Simonides had a
+fair young daughter, and that the following day was her birthday, when a
+grand tournament was to be held at court, many princes and knights being
+come from all parts to try their skill in arms for the love of Thaisa,
+this fair princess. While the prince was listening to this account, and
+secretly lamenting the loss of his good armour, which disabled him from
+making one among these valiant knights, another fisherman brought in a
+complete suit of armour that he had taken out of the sea with his
+fishing-net, which proved to be the very armour he had lost. When
+Pericles beheld his own armour, he said, "Thanks, Fortune; after all my
+crosses you give me somewhat to repair myself. This armour was
+bequeathed to me by my dead father, for whose dear sake I have so loved
+it, that whithersoever I went, I still have kept it by me, and the rough
+sea that parted it from me, having now become calm, hath given it back
+again, for which I thank it, for, since I have my father's gift again, I
+think my shipwreck no misfortune."</p>
+
+<p>The next day Pericles, clad in his brave father's armour,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> repaired to
+the royal court of Simonides, where he performed wonders at the
+tournament, vanquishing with ease all the brave knights and valiant
+princes who contended with him in arms for the honour of Thaisa's love.
+When brave warriors contended at court tournaments for the love of
+kings' daughters, if one proved sole victor over all the rest, it was
+usual for the great lady for whose sake these deeds of valour were
+undertaken, to bestow all her respect upon the conqueror, and Thaisa did
+not depart from this custom, for she presently dismissed all the princes
+and knights whom Pericles had vanquished, and distinguished him by her
+especial favour and regard, crowning him with the wreath of victory, as
+king of that day's happiness; and Pericles became a most passionate
+lover of this beauteous princess from the first moment he beheld her.</p>
+
+<p>The good Simonides so well approved of the valour and noble qualities of
+Pericles, who was indeed a most accomplished gentleman, and well learned
+in all excellent arts, that though he knew not the rank of this royal
+stranger (for Pericles for fear of Antiochus gave out that he was a
+private gentleman of Tyre), yet did not Simonides disdain to accept of
+the valiant unknown for a son-in-law, when he perceived his daughter's
+affections were firmly fixed upon him.</p>
+
+<p>Pericles had not been many months married to Thaisa, before he received
+intelligence that his enemy Antiochus was dead; and that his subjects of
+Tyre, impatient of his long absence, threatened to revolt, and talked of
+placing Helicanus upon his vacant throne. This news came from Helicanus
+himself, who, being a loyal subject to his royal master, would not
+accept of the high dignity offered him, but sent to let Pericles know
+their intentions, that he might return home and resume his lawful right.
+It was matter of great surprise and joy to Simonides, to find that his
+son-in-law (the obscure knight) was the renowned Prince of Tyre; yet
+again he regretted that he was not the private gentleman he supposed him
+to be, seeing that he must now<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> part both with his admired son-in-law
+and his beloved daughter, whom he feared to trust to the perils of the
+sea, because Thaisa was with child; and Pericles himself wished her to
+remain with her father till after her confinement, but the poor lady so
+earnestly desired to go with her husband, that at last they consented,
+hoping she would reach Tyre before she was brought to bed.</p>
+
+<p>The sea was no friendly element to unhappy Pericles, for long before
+they reached Tyre another dreadful tempest arose, which so terrified
+Thaisa that she was taken ill, and in a short space of time her nurse
+Lychorida came to Pericles with a little child in her arms, to tell the
+prince the sad tidings that his wife died the moment her little babe was
+born. She held the babe towards its father, saying, "Here is a thing too
+young for such a place. This is the child of your dead queen." No tongue
+can tell the dreadful sufferings of Pericles when he heard his wife was
+dead. As soon as he could speak, he said, "O you gods, why do you make
+us love your goodly gifts, and then snatch those gifts away?" "Patience,
+good sir," said Lychorida, "here is all that is left alive of our dead
+queen, a little daughter, and for your child's sake be more manly.
+Patience, good sir, even for the sake of this precious charge." Pericles
+took the new-born infant in his arms, and he said to the little babe,
+"Now may your life be mild, for a more blusterous birth had never babe!
+May your condition be mild and gentle, for you have had the rudest
+welcome that ever prince's child did meet with! May that which follows
+be happy, for you have had as chiding a nativity as fire, air, water,
+earth, and heaven could make to herald you from the womb! Even at the
+first, your loss," meaning in the death of her mother, "is more than all
+the joys, which you shall find upon this earth to which you are come a
+new visitor, shall be able to recompense."</p>
+
+<p>The storm still continuing to rage furiously, and the sailors having a
+superstition that while a dead body re<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span>mained in the ship the storm
+would never cease, they came to Pericles to demand that his queen should
+be thrown overboard; and they said, "What courage, sir? God save you!"
+"Courage enough," said the sorrowing prince: "I do not fear the storm;
+it has done to me its worst; yet for the love of this poor infant, this
+fresh new seafarer, I wish the storm was over." "Sir," said the sailors,
+"your queen must overboard. The sea works high, the wind is loud, and
+the storm will not abate till the ship be cleared of the dead." Though
+Pericles knew how weak and unfounded this superstition was, yet he
+patiently submitted, saying, "As you think meet. Then she must
+overboard, most wretched queen!" And now this unhappy prince went to
+take a last view of his dear wife, and as he looked on his Thaisa, he
+said, "A terrible childbed hast thou had, my dear; no light, no fire;
+the unfriendly elements forget thee utterly, nor have I time to bring
+thee hallowed to thy grave, but must cast thee scarcely coffined into
+the sea, where for a monument upon thy bones the humming waters must
+overwhelm thy corpse, lying with simple shells. O Lychorida, bid Nestor
+bring me spices, ink, and paper, my casket and my jewels, and bid
+Nicandor bring me the satin coffin. Lay the babe upon the pillow, and go
+about this suddenly, Lychorida, while I say a priestly farewell to my
+Thaisa."</p>
+
+<p>They brought Pericles a large chest, in which (wrapped in a satin
+shroud) he placed his queen, and sweet-smelling spices he strewed over
+her, and beside her he placed rich jewels, and a written paper, telling
+who she was, and praying if haply any one should find the chest which
+contained the body of his wife, they would give her burial: and then
+with his own hands he cast the chest into the sea. When the storm was
+over, Pericles ordered the sailors to make for Tarsus. "For," said
+Pericles, "the babe cannot hold out till we come to Tyre. At Tarsus I
+will leave it at careful nursing."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>After that tempestuous night when Thaisa was thrown into the sea, and
+while it was yet early morning, as Cerimon a worthy gentleman of
+Ephesus, and a most skilful physician, was standing by the sea-side, his
+servants brought to him a chest, which they said the sea-waves had
+thrown on the land. "I never saw," said one of them, "so huge a billow
+as cast it on our shore." Cerimon ordered the chest to be conveyed to
+his own house, and when it was opened he beheld with wonder the body of
+a young and lovely lady; and the sweet-smelling spices and rich casket
+of jewels made him conclude it was some great person who was thus
+strangely entombed: searching farther, he discovered a paper, from which
+he learned that the corpse which lay as dead before him had been a
+queen, and wife to Pericles, Prince of Tyre; and much admiring at the
+strangeness of that accident, and more pitying the husband who had lost
+this sweet lady, he said, "If you are living, Pericles, you have a heart
+that even cracks with woe." Then observing attentively Thaisa's face, he
+saw how fresh and unlike death her looks were, and he said, "They were
+too hasty that threw you into the sea:" for he did not believe her to be
+dead. He ordered a fire to be made, and proper cordials to be brought,
+and soft music to be played, which might help to calm her amazed spirits
+if she should revive; and he said to those who crowded round her,
+wondering at what they saw, "I pray you, gentlemen, give her air; the
+queen will live; she has not been entranced above five hours; and see,
+she begins to blow into life again; she is alive; behold, her eyelids
+move; this fair creature will live to make us weep to hear her fate."
+Thaisa had never died, but after the birth of her little baby had fallen
+into a deep swoon, which made all that saw her conclude her to be dead;
+and now by the care of this kind gentleman she once more revived to
+light and life; and opening her eyes, she said, "Where am I? Where is my
+lord? What world is this?" By gentle degrees Cerimon let her understand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span>
+what had befallen her; and when he thought she was enough recovered to
+bear the sight, he showed her the paper written by her husband, and the
+jewels; and she looked on the paper, and said, "It is my lord's writing.
+That I was shipped at sea, I well remember, but whether there delivered
+of my babe, by the holy gods I cannot rightly say; but since my wedded
+lord I never shall see again, I will put on a vestal livery, and never
+more have joy." "Madam," said Cerimon, "if you purpose as you speak, the
+temple of Diana is not far distant from hence; there you may abide as a
+vestal. Moreover, if you please, a niece of mine shall there attend
+you." This proposal was accepted with thanks by Thaisa; and when she was
+perfectly recovered, Cerimon placed her in the temple of Diana, where
+she became a vestal or priestess of that goddess, and passed her days in
+sorrowing for her husband's supposed loss, and in the most devout
+exercises of those times.</p>
+
+<p>Pericles carried his young daughter (whom he named Marina, because she
+was born at sea) to Tarsus, intending to leave her with Cleon, the
+governor of that city, and his wife Dionysia, thinking, for the good he
+had done to them at the time of their famine, they would be kind to his
+little motherless daughter. When Cleon saw Prince Pericles, and heard of
+the great loss which had befallen him, he said, "O your sweet queen,
+that it had pleased Heaven you could have brought her hither to have
+blessed my eyes with the sight of her!" Pericles replied, "We must obey
+the powers above us. Should I rage and roar as the sea does in which my
+Thaisa lies, yet the end must be as it is. My gentle babe, Marina here,
+I must charge your charity with her. I leave her the infant of your
+care, beseeching you to give her princely training." And then turning to
+Cleon's wife, Dionysia, he said, "Good madam, make me blessed in your
+care in bringing up my child:" and she answered, "I have a child myself
+who shall not be more dear to my respect than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> yours, my lord;" and
+Cleon made the like promise, saying, "Your noble services, Prince
+Pericles, in feeding my whole people with your corn (for which in their
+prayers they daily remember you) must in your child be thought on. If I
+should neglect your child, my whole people that were by you relieved
+would force me to my duty; but if to that I need a spur, the gods
+revenge it on me and mine to the end of generation." Pericles, being
+thus assured that his child would be carefully attended to, left her to
+the protection of Cleon and his wife Dionysia, and with her he left the
+nurse Lychorida. When he went away, the little Marina knew not her loss,
+but Lychorida wept sadly at parting with her royal master. "O, no tears,
+Lychorida," said Pericles: "no tears; look to your little mistress, on
+whose grace you may depend hereafter."</p>
+
+<p>Pericles arrived in safety at Tyre, and was once more settled in the
+quiet possession of his throne, while his woeful queen, whom he thought
+dead, remained at Ephesus. Her little babe Marina, whom this hapless
+mother had never seen, was brought up by Cleon in a manner suitable to
+her high birth. He gave her the most careful education, so that by the
+time Marina attained the age of fourteen years, the most deeply-learned
+men were not more studied in the learning of those times than was
+Marina. She sang like one immortal, and danced as goddess-like, and with
+her needle she was so skilful that she seemed to compose nature's own
+shapes, in birds, fruits, or flowers, the natural roses being scarcely
+more like to each other than they were to Marina's silken flowers. But
+when she had gained from education all these graces, which made her the
+general wonder, Dionysia, the wife of Cleon, became her mortal enemy
+from jealousy, by reason that her own daughter, from the slowness of her
+mind, was not able to attain to that perfection wherein Marina excelled:
+and finding that all praise was bestowed on Marina, whilst her daughter,
+who was of the same age, and had been educated with the same<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> care as
+Marina, though not with the same success, was in comparison disregarded,
+she formed a project to remove Marina out of the way, vainly imagining
+that her untoward daughter would be more respected when Marina was no
+more seen. To encompass this she employed a man to murder Marina, and
+she well timed her wicked design, when Lychorida, the faithful nurse,
+had just died. Dionysia was discoursing with the man she had commanded
+to commit this murder, when the young Marina was weeping over the dead
+Lychorida. Leonine, the man she employed to do this bad deed, though he
+was a very wicked man, could hardly be persuaded to undertake it, so had
+Marina won all hearts to love her. He said, "She is a goodly creature!"
+"The fitter then the gods should have her," replied her merciless enemy:
+"here she comes weeping for the death of her nurse Lychorida: are you
+resolved to obey me?" Leonine, fearing to disobey her, replied, "I am
+resolved." And so, in that one short sentence, was the matchless Marina
+doomed to an untimely death. She now approached, with a basket of
+flowers in her hand, which she said she would daily strew over the grave
+of good Lychorida. The purple violet and the marigold should as a carpet
+hang upon her grave, while summer days did last. "Alas, for me!" she
+said, "poor unhappy maid, born in a tempest, when my mother died. This
+world to me is like a lasting storm, hurrying me from my friends." "How
+now, Marina," said the dissembling Dionysia, "do you weep alone? How
+does it chance my daughter is not with you? Do not sorrow for Lychorida,
+you have a nurse in me. Your beauty is quite changed with this
+unprofitable woe. Come, give me your flowers, the sea-air will spoil
+them; and walk with Leonine: the air is fine, and will enliven you.
+Come, Leonine, take her by the arm, and walk with her." "No madam," said
+Marina, "I pray you let me not deprive you of your servant:" for Leonine
+was one of Dionysia's attendants. "Come, come," said this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> artful woman,
+who wished for a pretence to leave her alone with Leonine, "I love the
+prince, your father, and I love you. We every day expect your father
+here; and when he comes, and finds you so changed by grief from the
+paragon of beauty we reported you, he will think we have taken no care
+of you. Go, I pray you, walk, and be cheerful once again. Be careful of
+that excellent complexion, which stole the hearts of old and young."
+Marina, being thus importuned, said, "Well, I will go, but yet I have no
+desire to it." As Dionysia walked away, she said to Leonine, "<i>Remember
+what I have said!</i>"&mdash;shocking words, for their meaning was that he
+should remember to kill Marina.</p>
+
+<p>Marina looked towards the sea, her birthplace, and said, "Is the wind
+westerly that blows?" "South-west," replied Leonine. "When I was born
+the wind was north," said she: and then the storm and tempest, and all
+her father's sorrows, and her mother's death, came full into her mind;
+and she said, "My father, as Lychorida told me, did never fear, but
+cried, <i>Courage, good seamen</i>, to the sailors, galling his princely
+hands with the ropes, and, clasping to the masts, he endured a sea that
+almost split the deck." "When was this?" said Leonine. "When I was
+born," replied Marina: "never were wind and waves more violent;" and
+then she described the storm, the action of the sailors, the boatswain's
+whistle, and the loud call of the master, "which," said she, "trebled
+the confusion of the ship." Lychorida had so often recounted to Marina
+the story of her hapless birth that these things seemed ever present to
+her imagination. But here Leonine interrupted her with desiring her to
+say her prayers. "What mean you?" said Marina, who began to fear, she
+knew not why. "If you require a little space for prayer, I grant it,"
+said Leonine; "but be not tedious, the gods are quick of ear, and I am
+sworn to do my work in haste." "Will you kill me?" said Marina: "alas!
+why?" "To satisfy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> my lady," replied Leonine. "Why would she have me
+killed?" said Marina: "now, as I can remember, I never hurt her in all
+my life. I never spake bad word, nor did any ill turn to any living
+creature. Believe me now, I never killed a mouse, nor hurt a fly. I trod
+upon a worm once against my will, but I wept for it. How have I
+offended?" The murderer replied, "My commission is not to reason on the
+deed, but to do it." And he was just going to kill her, when certain
+pirates happened to land at that very moment, who seeing Marina, bore
+her off as a prize to their ship.</p>
+
+<p>The pirate who had made Marina his prize carried her to Mitylene, and
+sold her for a slave, where, though in that humble condition, Marina
+soon became known throughout the whole city of Mitylene for her beauty
+and her virtues; and the person to whom she was sold became rich by the
+money she earned for him. She taught music, dancing, and fine
+needleworks, and the money she got by her scholars she gave to her
+master and mistress; and the fame of her learning and her great industry
+came to the knowledge of Lysimachus, a young nobleman who was governor
+of Mitylene, and Lysimachus went himself to the house where Marina
+dwelt, to see this paragon of excellence, whom all the city praised so
+highly. Her conversation delighted Lysimachus beyond measure, for though
+he had heard much of this admired maiden, he did not expect to find her
+so sensible a lady, so virtuous, and so good, as he perceived Marina to
+be; and he left her, saying, he hoped she would persevere in her
+industrious and virtuous course, and that if ever she heard from him
+again it should be for her good. Lysimachus thought Marina such a
+miracle for sense, fine breeding, and excellent qualities, as well as
+for beauty and all outward graces, that he wished to marry her, and
+notwithstanding her humble situation, he hoped to find that her birth
+was noble; but ever when they asked her parentage she would sit still
+and weep.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Meantime, at Tarsus, Leonine, fearing the anger of Dionysia, told her he
+had killed Marina; and that wicked woman gave out that she was dead, and
+made a pretended funeral for her, and erected a stately monument; and
+shortly after Pericles, accompanied by his loyal minister Helicanus,
+made a voyage from Tyre to Tarsus, on purpose to see his daughter,
+intending to take her home with him: and he never having beheld her
+since he left her an infant in the care of Cleon and his wife, how did
+this good prince rejoice at the thought of seeing this dear child of his
+buried queen! but when they told him Marina was dead, and showed the
+monument they had erected for her, great was the misery this most
+wretched father endured, and not being able to bear the sight of that
+country where his last hope and only memory of his dear Thaisa was
+entombed, he took ship, and hastily departed from Tarsus. From the day
+he entered the ship a dull and heavy melancholy seized him. He never
+spoke, and seemed totally insensible to everything around him.</p>
+
+<p>Sailing from Tarsus to Tyre, the ship in its course passed by Mitylene,
+where Marina dwelt; the governor of which place, Lysimachus, observing
+this royal vessel from the shore, and desirous of knowing who was on
+board, went in a barge to the side of the ship, to satisfy his
+curiosity. Helicanus received him very courteously and told him that the
+ship came from Tyre, and that they were conducting thither Pericles,
+their prince; "A man, sir," said Helicanus, "who has not spoken to any
+one these three months, nor taken any sustenance, but just to prolong
+his grief; it would be tedious to repeat the whole ground of his
+distemper, but the main springs from the loss of a beloved daughter and
+a wife." Lysimachus begged to see this afflicted prince, and when he
+beheld Pericles, he saw he had been once a goodly person, and he said to
+him, "Sir king, all hail, the gods preserve you, hail, royal sir!" But
+in vain Lysimachus spoke to him; Pericles made no answer, nor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> did he
+appear to perceive any stranger approached. And then Lysimachus
+bethought him of the peerless maid Marina, that haply with her sweet
+tongue she might win some answer from the silent prince: and with the
+consent of Helicanus he sent for Marina, and when she entered the ship
+in which her own father sat motionless with grief, they welcomed her on
+board as if they had known she was their princess; and they cried, "She
+is a gallant lady." Lysimachus was well pleased to hear their
+commendations, and he said, "She is such a one, that were I well assured
+she came of noble birth, I would wish no better choice, and think me
+rarely blessed in a wife." And then he addressed her in courtly terms,
+as if the lowly-seeming maid had been the high-born lady he wished to
+find her, calling her <i>Fair and beautiful Marina</i>, telling her a great
+prince on board that ship had fallen into a sad and mournful silence;
+and, as if Marina had the power of conferring health and felicity, he
+begged she would undertake to cure the royal stranger of his melancholy.
+"Sir," said Marina, "I will use my utmost skill in his recovery,
+provided none but I and my maid be suffered to come near him."</p>
+
+<p>She, who at Mitylene had so carefully concealed her birth, ashamed to
+tell that one of royal ancestry was now a slave, first began to speak to
+Pericles of the wayward changes in her own fate, telling him from what a
+high estate herself had fallen. As if she had known it was her royal
+father she stood before, all the words she spoke were of her own
+sorrows; but her reason for so doing was, that she knew nothing more
+wins the attention of the unfortunate than the recital of some sad
+calamity to match their own. The sound of her sweet voice aroused the
+drooping prince; he lifted up his eyes, which had been so long fixed and
+motionless; and Marina, who was the perfect image of her mother,
+presented to his amazed sight the features of his dead queen. The
+long-silent prince was once more heard to speak. "My dearest wife," said
+the awakened Pericles,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> "was like this maid, and such a one might my
+daughter have been. My queen's square brows, her stature to an inch, as
+wand-like straight, as silver-voiced, her eyes as jewel-like. Where do
+you live, young maid? Report your parentage. I think you said you had
+been tossed from wrong to injury, and that you thought your griefs would
+equal mine, if both were opened." "Some such thing I said," replied
+Marina, "and said no more than what my thoughts did warrant me as
+likely." "Tell me your story," answered Pericles; "if I find you have
+known the thousandth part of my endurance, you have borne your sorrows
+like a man, and I have suffered like a girl; yet you do look like
+Patience gazing on kings' graves, and smiling extremity out of act. How
+lost you your name, my most kind virgin? Recount your story I beseech
+you. Come, sit by me." How was Pericles surprised when she said her name
+was <i>Marina</i>, for he knew it was no usual name, but had been invented by
+himself for his own child to signify <i>seaborn</i>: "O, I am mocked," said
+he, "and you are sent hither by some incensed god to make the world
+laugh at me." "Patience, good sir," said Marina, "or I must cease here."
+"Nay," said Pericles, "I will be patient; you little know how you do
+startle me, to call yourself Marina." "The name," she replied, "was
+given me by one that had some power, my father, and a king." "How, a
+king's daughter!" said Pericles, "and called Marina! But are you flesh
+and blood? Are you no fairy? Speak on; where were you born? and
+wherefore called Marina?" She replied, "I was called Marina, because I
+was born at sea. My mother was the daughter of a king; she died the
+minute I was born, as my good nurse Lychorida has often told me weeping.
+The king, my father, left me at Tarsus, till the cruel wife of Cleon
+sought to murder me. A crew of pirates came and rescued me, and brought
+me here to Mitylene. But, good sir, why do you weep? It may be, you
+think me an impostor. But, indeed, sir, I am the daughter to King<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span>
+Pericles, if good King Pericles be living." Then Pericles, terrified as
+he seemed at his own sudden joy, and doubtful if this could be real,
+loudly called for his attendants, who rejoiced at the sound of their
+beloved king's voice; and he said to Helicanus, "O Helicanus, strike me,
+give me a gash, put me to present pain, lest this great sea of joys
+rushing upon me, overbear the shores of my mortality. O come hither,
+thou that wast born at sea, buried at Tarsus, and found at sea again. O
+Helicanus, down on your knees, thank the holy gods! This is Marina. Now
+blessings on thee, my child! Give me fresh garments, mine own Helicanus!
+She is not dead at Tarsus as she should have been by the savage
+Dionysia. She shall tell you all, when you shall kneel to her and call
+her your very princess. Who is this?" (observing Lysimachus for the
+first time). "Sir," said Helicanus, "it is the governor of Mitylene,
+who, hearing of your melancholy, came to see you." "I embrace you, sir,"
+said Pericles. "Give me my robes! I am well with beholding&mdash;&mdash;O heaven
+bless my girl! But hark, what music is that?"&mdash;for now, either sent by
+some kind god, or by his own delighted fancy deceived, he seemed to hear
+soft music. "My lord, I hear none," replied Helicanus. "None?" said
+Pericles; "why it is the music of the spheres." As there was no music to
+be heard, Lysimachus concluded that the sudden joy had unsettled the
+prince's understanding; and he said, "It is not good to cross him: let
+him have his way:" and then they told him they heard the music; and he
+now complaining of a drowsy slumber coming over him, Lysimachus
+persuaded him to rest on a couch, and placing a pillow under his head,
+he, quite overpowered with excess of joy, sank into a sound sleep, and
+Marina watched in silence by the couch of her sleeping parent.</p>
+
+<p>While he slept, Pericles dreamed a dream which made him resolve to go to
+Ephesus. His dream was, that Diana, the goddess of the Ephesians,
+appeared to him, and com<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span>manded him to go to her temple at Ephesus, and
+there before her altar to declare the story of his life and misfortunes;
+and by her silver bow she swore, that if he performed her injunction, he
+should meet with some rare felicity. When he awoke, being miraculously
+refreshed, he told his dream, and that his resolution was to obey the
+bidding of the goddess.</p>
+
+<p>Then Lysimachus invited Pericles to come on shore, and refresh himself
+with such entertainment as he should find at Mitylene, which courteous
+offer Pericles accepting, agreed to tarry with him for the space of a
+day or two. During which time we may well suppose what feastings, what
+rejoicings, what costly shows and entertainments the governor made in
+Mitylene, to greet the royal father of his dear Marina, whom in her
+obscure fortunes he had so respected. Nor did Pericles frown upon
+Lysimachus's suit, when he understood how he had honoured his child in
+the days of her low estate, and that Marina showed herself not averse to
+his proposals; only he made it a condition, before he gave his consent,
+that they should visit with him the shrine of the Ephesian Diana: to
+whose temple they shortly after all three undertook a voyage; and, the
+goddess herself filling their sails with prosperous winds, after a few
+weeks they arrived in safety at Ephesus.</p>
+
+<p>There was standing near the altar of the goddess, when Pericles with his
+train entered the temple, the good Cerimon (now grown very aged) who had
+restored Thaisa, the wife of Pericles, to life; and Thaisa, now a
+priestess of the temple, was standing before the altar; and though the
+many years he had passed in sorrow for her loss had much altered
+Pericles, Thaisa thought she knew her husband's features, and when he
+approached the altar and began to speak, she remembered his voice, and
+listened to his words with wonder and a joyful amazement. And these were
+the words that Pericles spoke before the altar: "Hail, Diana! to perform
+thy just commands, I here confess myself the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> Prince of Tyre, who,
+frighted from my country, at Pentapolis wedded the fair Thaisa: she died
+at sea in childbed, but brought forth a maid-child called Marina. She at
+Tarsus was nursed with Dionysia, who at fourteen years thought to kill
+her, but her better stars brought her to Mitylene, by whose shores as I
+sailed, her good fortunes brought this maid on board, where by her most
+clear remembrance she made herself known to be my daughter."</p>
+
+<p>Thaisa, unable to bear the transports which his words had raised in her,
+cried out, "You are, you are, O royal Pericles"&mdash;&mdash;and fainted. "What
+means this woman?" said Pericles: "she dies! gentlemen, help."&mdash;"Sir,"
+said Cerimon, "if you have told Diana's altar true, this is your wife."
+"Reverend gentleman, no," said Pericles: "I threw her overboard with
+these very arms." Cerimon then recounted how, early one tempestuous
+morning, this lady was thrown upon the Ephesian shore; how, opening the
+coffin, he found therein rich jewels, and a paper; how, happily, he
+recovered her, and placed her here in Diana's temple. And now, Thaisa
+being restored from her swoon said, "O my lord, are you not Pericles?
+Like him you speak, like him you are. Did you not name a tempest, a
+birth, and death?" He astonished said, "The voice of dead Thaisa!" "That
+Thaisa am I," she replied, "supposed dead and drowned." "O true Diana!"
+exclaimed Pericles, in a passion of devout astonishment. "And now," said
+Thaisa, "I know you better. Such a ring as I see on your finger did the
+king my father give you, when we with tears parted from him at
+Pentapolis." "Enough, you gods!" cried Pericles, "your present kindness
+makes my past miseries sport. O come, Thaisa, be buried a second time
+within these arms."</p>
+
+<p>And Marina said, "My heart leaps to be gone into my mother's bosom."
+Then did Pericles show his daughter to her mother, saying, "Look who
+kneels here, flesh of thy flesh, thy burthen at sea, and called Marina,
+because<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> she was yielded there." "Blessed and my own!" said Thaisa: and
+while she hung in rapturous joy over her child, Pericles knelt before
+the altar, saying, "Pure Diana, bless thee for thy vision. For this, I
+will offer oblations nightly to thee." And then and there did Pericles,
+with the consent of Thaisa, solemnly affiance their daughter, the
+virtuous Marina, to the well-deserving Lysimachus in marriage.</p>
+
+<p>Thus have we seen in Pericles, his queen, and daughter, a famous example
+of virtue assailed by calamity (through the sufferance of Heaven, to
+teach patience and constancy to men), under the same guidance becoming
+finally successful, and triumphing over chance and change. In Helicanus
+we have beheld a notable pattern of truth, of faith, and loyalty, who,
+when he might have succeeded to a throne, chose rather to recall the
+rightful owner to his possession, than to become great by another's
+wrong. In the worthy Cerimon, who restored Thaisa to life, we are
+instructed how goodness directed by knowledge, in bestowing benefits
+upon mankind, approaches to the nature of the gods. It only remains to
+be told, that Dionysia, the wicked wife of Cleon, met with an end
+proportionable to her deserts; the inhabitants of Tarsus, when her cruel
+attempt upon Marina was known, rising in a body to revenge the daughter
+of their benefactor, and setting fire to the palace of Cleon, burnt both
+him and her, and their whole household: the gods seeming well pleased,
+that so foul a murder, though but intentional, and never carried into
+act, should be punished in a way befitting its enormity.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img08.jpg"  alt="Chapter endpiece" title="" /></div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Tales from Shakespeare, by 
+Charles Lamb and Mary  Lamb
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE ***
+
+***** This file should be named 20657-h.htm or 20657-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/6/5/20657/
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Janet Blenkinship and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+
+</pre>
+
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img001-tb.jpg b/20657-h/images/img001-tb.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1af85fb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img001-tb.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img001.jpg b/20657-h/images/img001.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cc48683
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img001.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img002-tb.jpg b/20657-h/images/img002-tb.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..23a0d8c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img002-tb.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img002.jpg b/20657-h/images/img002.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6a42d41
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img002.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img003-tb.jpg b/20657-h/images/img003-tb.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..59cc4b3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img003-tb.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img003.jpg b/20657-h/images/img003.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..675a2bf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img003.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img004-tb.jpg b/20657-h/images/img004-tb.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2294539
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img004-tb.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img004.jpg b/20657-h/images/img004.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c20963d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img004.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img005-tb.jpg b/20657-h/images/img005-tb.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0e72fe7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img005-tb.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img005.jpg b/20657-h/images/img005.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cd60edb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img005.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img006-tb.jpg b/20657-h/images/img006-tb.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d595a92
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img006-tb.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img006.jpg b/20657-h/images/img006.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0bbd9e8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img006.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img007-tb.jpg b/20657-h/images/img007-tb.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b64eeb3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img007-tb.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img007.jpg b/20657-h/images/img007.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fd9352d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img007.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img008-tb.jpg b/20657-h/images/img008-tb.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3889593
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img008-tb.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img008.jpg b/20657-h/images/img008.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0c62e7a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img008.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img009-tb.jpg b/20657-h/images/img009-tb.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..569fd82
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img009-tb.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img009.jpg b/20657-h/images/img009.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6a3e6d5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img009.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img01.jpg b/20657-h/images/img01.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..26369de
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img01.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img010-tb.jpg b/20657-h/images/img010-tb.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..212fbfa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img010-tb.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img010.jpg b/20657-h/images/img010.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..47ec6cc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img010.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img011-tb.jpg b/20657-h/images/img011-tb.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..29fd30f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img011-tb.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img011.jpg b/20657-h/images/img011.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0226704
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img011.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img012-tb.jpg b/20657-h/images/img012-tb.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c9da5fb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img012-tb.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img012.jpg b/20657-h/images/img012.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f09dac9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img012.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img03.jpg b/20657-h/images/img03.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9b690ec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img03.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img04.jpg b/20657-h/images/img04.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4d37b86
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img04.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img05.jpg b/20657-h/images/img05.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1da2863
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img05.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img06.jpg b/20657-h/images/img06.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4b758e4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img06.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img07.jpg b/20657-h/images/img07.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..822cec7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img07.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img08.jpg b/20657-h/images/img08.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2dae6c6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img08.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img09.jpg b/20657-h/images/img09.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..34c8c70
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img09.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img10.jpg b/20657-h/images/img10.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b381221
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img10.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img11.jpg b/20657-h/images/img11.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b922d52
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img11.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img13.jpg b/20657-h/images/img13.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..784b7fa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img13.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img15.jpg b/20657-h/images/img15.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9ab7f9d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img15.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img16.jpg b/20657-h/images/img16.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c92f6fb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img16.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img17.jpg b/20657-h/images/img17.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..06b8bba
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img17.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img18.jpg b/20657-h/images/img18.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7c714ae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img18.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img19.jpg b/20657-h/images/img19.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..30d682f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img19.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img21.jpg b/20657-h/images/img21.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..23d0209
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img21.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img22.jpg b/20657-h/images/img22.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a8270b2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img22.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img23.jpg b/20657-h/images/img23.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..47668d9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img23.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img24.jpg b/20657-h/images/img24.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d04553f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img24.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img25.jpg b/20657-h/images/img25.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..602ccac
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img25.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img26.jpg b/20657-h/images/img26.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b457bae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img26.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img27.jpg b/20657-h/images/img27.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..78e6cb8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img27.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img28.jpg b/20657-h/images/img28.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e897611
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img28.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img30.jpg b/20657-h/images/img30.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c70b8c1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img30.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img31.jpg b/20657-h/images/img31.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6481b33
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img31.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img32.jpg b/20657-h/images/img32.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d1381f9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img32.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img33.jpg b/20657-h/images/img33.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ce5baa1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img33.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img34.jpg b/20657-h/images/img34.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..662af01
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img34.jpg
diff --git a/20657-h/images/img35.jpg b/20657-h/images/img35.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ecea1e9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-h/images/img35.jpg
diff --git a/20657-page-images.zip b/20657-page-images.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7dc76e1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657-page-images.zip
diff --git a/20657.txt b/20657.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..057707d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,9931 @@
+Project Gutenberg's Tales from Shakespeare, by Charles Lamb and Mary  Lamb
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Tales from Shakespeare
+
+Author: Charles Lamb and Mary  Lamb
+
+Illustrator: Arthur Rackham
+
+Release Date: February 24, 2007 [EBook #20657]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Janet Blenkinship and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE
+
+By CHARLES & MARY LAMB
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATED BY ARTHUR RACKHAM
+
+
+
+
+_WEATHERVANE BOOKS NEW YORK_
+
+Copyright (C) MCMLXXV by Crown Publishers, Inc.
+Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 75-18860
+
+All rights reserved.
+
+This edition is published by Weathervane Books, a division of Barre
+Publishing Company, Inc.
+
+Manufactured in the United States of America
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The following Tales are meant to be submitted to the young reader as an
+introduction to the study of Shakespeare, for which purpose his words
+are used whenever it seemed possible to bring them in; and in whatever
+has been added to give them the regular form of a connected story,
+diligent care has been taken to select such words as might least
+interrupt the effect of the beautiful English tongue in which he wrote:
+therefore, words introduced into our language since his time have been
+as far as possible avoided.
+
+In those tales which have been taken from the Tragedies, the young
+readers will perceive, when they come to see the source from which these
+stories are derived, that Shakespeare's own words, with little
+alteration, recur very frequently in the narrative as well as in the
+dialogue; but in those made from the Comedies the writers found
+themselves scarcely ever able to turn his words into the narrative form:
+therefore it is feared that, in them, dialogue has been made use of too
+frequently for young people not accustomed to the dramatic form of
+writing. But this fault, if it be a fault, has been caused by an earnest
+wish to give as much of Shakespeare's own words as possible: and if the
+"_He said_," and "_She said_," the question and the reply, should
+sometimes seem tedious to their young ears, they must pardon it, because
+it was the only way in which could be given to them a few hints and
+little foretastes of the great pleasure which awaits them in their elder
+years, when they come to the rich treasures from which these small and
+valueless coins are extracted; pretending to no other merit than as
+faint and imperfect stamps of Shakespeare's matchless image. Faint and
+imperfect images they must be called, because the beauty of his language
+is too frequently destroyed by the necessity of changing many of his
+excellent words into words far less expressive of his true sense, to
+make it read something like prose; and even in some few places, where
+his blank verse is given unaltered, as hoping from its simple plainness
+to cheat the young readers into the belief that they are reading prose,
+yet still his language being transplanted from its own natural soil and
+wild poetic garden, it must want much of its native beauty.
+
+It has been wished to make these Tales easy reading for very young
+children. To the utmost of their ability the writers have constantly
+kept this in mind; but the subjects of most of them made this a very
+difficult task. It was no easy matter to give the histories of men and
+women in terms familiar to the apprehension of a very young mind. For
+young ladies too, it has been the intention chiefly to write; because
+boys being generally permitted the use of their fathers' libraries at a
+much earlier age than girls are, they frequently have the best scenes of
+Shakespeare by heart, before their sisters are permitted to look into
+this manly book; and, therefore, instead of recommending these Tales to
+the perusal of young gentlemen who can read them so much better in the
+originals, their kind assistance is rather requested in explaining to
+their sisters such parts as are hardest for them to understand: and when
+they have helped them to get over the difficulties, then perhaps they
+will read to them (carefully selecting what is proper for a young
+sister's ear) some passage which has pleased them in one of these
+stories, in the very words of the scene from which it is taken; and it
+is hoped they will find that the beautiful extracts, the select
+passages, they may choose to give their sisters in this way will be much
+better relished and understood from their having some notion of the
+general story from one of these imperfect abridgments;--which if they
+be fortunately so done as to prove delightful to any of the young
+readers, it is hoped that no worse effect will result than to make them
+wish themselves a little older, that they may be allowed to read the
+Plays at full length (such a wish will be neither peevish nor
+irrational). When time and leave of judicious friends shall put them
+into their hands, they will discover in such of them as are here
+abridged (not to mention almost as many more, which are left untouched)
+many surprising events and turns of fortune, which for their infinite
+variety could not be contained in this little book, besides a world of
+sprightly and cheerful characters, both men and women, the humour of
+which it was feared would be lost if it were attempted to reduce the
+length of them.
+
+What these Tales shall have been to the _young_ readers, that and much
+more it is the writers' wish that the true Plays of Shakespeare may
+prove to them in older years--enrichers of the fancy, strengtheners of
+virtue, a withdrawing from all selfish and mercenary thoughts, a lesson
+of all sweet and honourable thoughts and actions, to teach courtesy,
+benignity, generosity, humanity: for of examples, teaching these
+virtues, his pages are full.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                                    PAGE
+
+  THE TEMPEST                                                          1
+
+  A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM                                           14
+
+  THE WINTER'S TALE                                                   27
+
+  MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING                                              39
+
+  AS YOU LIKE IT                                                      53
+
+  THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA                                         71
+
+  THE MERCHANT OF VENICE                                              85
+
+  CYMBELINE                                                          102
+
+  KING LEAR                                                          117
+
+  MACBETH                                                            136
+
+  ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL                                          148
+
+  THE TAMING OF THE SHREW                                            162
+
+  THE COMEDY OF ERRORS                                               174
+
+  MEASURE FOR MEASURE                                                190
+
+  TWELFTH NIGHT; OR, WHAT YOU WILL                                   206
+
+  TIMON OF ATHENS                                                    221
+
+  ROMEO AND JULIET                                                   236
+
+  HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK                                          255
+
+  OTHELLO                                                            272
+
+  PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE                                           287
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+  PERDITA
+
+  WHEN CALIBAN WAS LAZY AND NEGLECTED HIS WORK,
+  ARIEL WOULD COME SLILY AND PINCH HIM
+
+  WHERE IS PEASE-BLOSSOM?
+
+  PAULINA DREW BACK THE CURTAIN WHICH CONCEALED
+  THIS FAMOUS STATUE
+
+  GANYMEDE ASSUMED THE FORWARD MANNERS OFTEN
+  SEEN IN YOUTHS WHEN THEY ARE BETWEEN BOYS
+  AND MEN
+
+  IMOGEN'S TWO BROTHERS THEN CARRIED HER TO A
+  SHADY COVERT
+
+  CORDELIA
+
+  THEY WERE STOPPED BY THE STRANGE APPEARANCE
+  OF THREE FIGURES
+
+  PETRUCHIO, PRETENDING TO FIND FAULT WITH EVERY
+  DISH, THREW THE MEAT ABOUT THE FLOOR
+
+  SHE BEGAN TO THINK OF CONFESSING THAT SHE WAS
+  A WOMAN
+
+  AT THE CELL OF FRIAR LAWRENCE
+
+  TO THIS BROOK OPHELIA CAME
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+THE TEMPEST
+
+
+There was a certain island in the sea, the only inhabitants of which
+were an old man, whose name was Prospero, and his daughter Miranda, a
+very beautiful young lady. She came to this island so young, that she
+had no memory of having seen any other human face than her father's.
+
+They lived in a cave or cell, made out of a rock; it was divided into
+several apartments, one of which Prospero called his study; there he
+kept his books, which chiefly treated of magic, a study at that time
+much affected by all learned men: and the knowledge of this art he found
+very useful to him; for being thrown by a strange chance upon this
+island, which had been enchanted by a witch called Sycorax, who died
+there a short time before his arrival, Prospero, by virtue of his art,
+released many good spirits that Sycorax had imprisoned in the bodies of
+large trees, because they had refused to execute her wicked commands.
+These gentle spirits were ever after obedient to the will of Prospero.
+Of these Ariel was the chief.
+
+[Illustration: WHEN CALIBAN WAS LAZY AND NEGLECTED HIS WORK, ARIEL WOULD
+COME SLILY AND PINCH HIM]
+
+The lively little sprite Ariel had nothing mischievous in his nature,
+except that he took rather too much pleasure in tormenting an ugly
+monster called Caliban, for he owed him a grudge because he was the son
+of his old enemy Sycorax. This Caliban, Prospero found in the woods, a
+strange misshapen thing, far less human in form than an ape: he took him
+home to his cell, and taught him to speak; and Prospero would have been
+very kind to him, but the bad nature which Caliban inherited from his
+mother Sycorax, would not let him learn anything good or useful:
+therefore he was employed like a slave, to fetch wood, and do the most
+laborious offices; and Ariel had the charge of compelling him to these
+services.
+
+When Caliban was lazy and neglected his work, Ariel (who was invisible
+to all eyes but Prospero's) would come slily and pinch him, and
+sometimes tumble him down in the mire; and then Ariel, in the likeness
+of an ape, would make mouths at him. Then swiftly changing his shape, in
+the likeness of a hedgehog, he would lie tumbling in Caliban's way, who
+feared the hedgehog's sharp quills would prick his bare feet. With a
+variety of such-like vexatious tricks Ariel would often torment him,
+whenever Caliban neglected the work which Prospero commanded him to do.
+
+Having these powerful spirits obedient to his will, Prospero could by
+their means command the winds, and the waves of the sea. By his orders
+they raised a violent storm, in the midst of which, and struggling with
+the wild sea-waves that every moment threatened to swallow it up, he
+showed his daughter a fine large ship, which he told her was full of
+living beings like themselves. "O my dear father," said she, "if by your
+art you have raised this dreadful storm, have pity on their sad
+distress. See! the vessel will be dashed to pieces. Poor souls! they
+will all perish. If I had power, I would sink the sea beneath the earth,
+rather than the good ship should be destroyed, with all the precious
+souls within her."
+
+"Be not so amazed, daughter Miranda," said Prospero; "there is no harm
+done. I have so ordered it, that no person in the ship shall receive any
+hurt. What I have done has been in care of you, my dear child. You are
+ignorant who you are, or where you came from, and you know no more of
+me, but that I am your father, and live in this poor cave. Can you
+remember a time before you came to this cell? I think you cannot, for
+you were not then three years of age."
+
+"Certainly I can, sir," replied Miranda.
+
+"By what?" asked Prospero; "by any other house or person? Tell me what
+you can remember, my child."
+
+Miranda said, "It seems to me like the recollection of a dream. But had
+I not once four or five women who attended upon me?"
+
+Prospero answered, "You had, and more. How is it that this still lives
+in your mind? Do you remember how you came here?"
+
+"No, sir," said Miranda, "I remember nothing more."
+
+"Twelve years ago, Miranda," continued Prospero, "I was Duke of Milan,
+and you were a princess, and my only heir. I had a younger brother,
+whose name was Antonio, to whom I trusted everything; and as I was fond
+of retirement and deep study, I commonly left the management of my state
+affairs to your uncle, my false brother (for so indeed he proved). I,
+neglecting all worldly ends, buried among my books, did dedicate my
+whole time to the bettering of my mind. My brother Antonio being thus in
+possession of my power, began to think himself the duke indeed. The
+opportunity I gave him of making himself popular among my subjects
+awakened in his bad nature a proud ambition to deprive me of my dukedom:
+this he soon effected with the aid of the King of Naples, a powerful
+prince, who was my enemy."
+
+"Wherefore," said Miranda, "did they not that hour destroy us?"
+
+"My child," answered her father, "they durst not, so dear was the love
+that my people bore me. Antonio carried us on board a ship, and when we
+were some leagues out at sea, he forced us into a small boat, without
+either tackle, sail, or mast: there he left us, as he thought, to
+perish. But a kind lord of my court, one Gonzalo, who loved me, had
+privately placed in the boat, water, provisions, apparel, and some books
+which I prize above my dukedom."
+
+"O my father," said Miranda, "what a trouble must I have been to you
+then!"
+
+"No, my love," said Prospero, "you were a little cherub that did
+preserve me. Your innocent smiles made me bear up against my
+misfortunes. Our food lasted till we landed on this desert island, since
+when my chief delight has been in teaching you, Miranda, and well have
+you profited by my instructions."
+
+"Heaven thank you, my dear father," said Miranda. "Now pray tell me,
+sir, your reason for raising this sea-storm?"
+
+"Know then," said her father, "that by means of this storm, my enemies,
+the King of Naples, and my cruel brother, are cast ashore upon this
+island."
+
+Having so said, Prospero gently touched his daughter with his magic
+wand, and she fell fast asleep; for the spirit Ariel just then presented
+himself before his master, to give an account of the tempest, and how he
+had disposed of the ship's company, and though the spirits were always
+invisible to Miranda, Prospero did not choose she should hear him
+holding converse (as would seem to her) with the empty air.
+
+"Well, my brave spirit," said Prospero to Ariel, "how have you performed
+your task?"
+
+Ariel gave a lively description of the storm, and of the terrors of the
+mariners; and how the king's son, Ferdinand, was the first who leaped
+into the sea; and his father thought he saw his dear son swallowed up by
+the waves and lost. "But he is safe," said Ariel, "in a corner of the
+isle, sitting with his arms folded, sadly lamenting the loss of the
+king, his father, whom he concludes drowned. Not a hair of his head is
+injured, and his princely garments, though drenched in the sea-waves,
+look fresher than before."
+
+"That's my delicate Ariel," said Prospero. "Bring him hither: my
+daughter must see this young prince. Where is the king, and my brother?"
+
+"I left them," answered Ariel, "searching for Ferdinand, whom they have
+little hopes of finding, thinking they saw him perish. Of the ship's
+crew not one is missing; though each one thinks himself the only one
+saved: and the ship, though invisible to them, is safe in the harbour."
+
+"Ariel," said Prospero, "thy charge is faithfully performed: but there
+is more work yet."
+
+"Is there more work?" said Ariel. "Let me remind you, master, you have
+promised me my liberty. I pray, remember, I have done you worthy
+service, told you no lies, made no mistakes, served you without grudge
+or grumbling."
+
+"How now!" said Prospero. "You do not recollect what a torment I freed
+you from. Have you forgot the wicked witch Sycorax, who with age and
+envy was almost bent double? Where was she born? Speak; tell me."
+
+"Sir, in Algiers," said Ariel.
+
+"O was she so?" said Prospero. "I must recount what you have been, which
+I find you do not remember. This bad witch, Sycorax, for her
+witch-crafts, too terrible to enter human hearing, was banished from
+Algiers, and here left by the sailors; and because you were a spirit too
+delicate to execute her wicked commands, she shut you up in a tree,
+where I found you howling. This torment, remember, I did free you from."
+
+"Pardon me, dear master," said Ariel, ashamed to seem ungrateful; "I
+will obey your commands."
+
+"Do so," said Prospero, "and I will set you free." He then gave orders
+what further he would have him do; and away went Ariel, first to where
+he had left Ferdinand, and found him still sitting on the grass in the
+same melancholy posture.
+
+"O my young gentleman," said Ariel, when he saw him, "I will soon move
+you. You must be brought, I find, for the Lady Miranda to have a sight
+of your pretty person. Come, sir, follow me." He then began singing,
+
+  "Full fathom five thy father lies:
+    Of his bones are coral made;
+  Those are pearls that were his eyes:
+    Nothing of him that doth fade,
+  But doth suffer a sea-change
+  Into something rich and strange.
+  Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:
+  Hark! now I hear them,--Ding-dong, bell."
+
+This strange news of his lost father soon roused the prince from the
+stupid fit into which he had fallen. He followed in amazement the sound
+of Ariel's voice, till it led him to Prospero and Miranda, who were
+sitting under the shade of a large tree. Now Miranda had never seen a
+man before, except her own father.
+
+"Miranda," said Prospero, "tell me what you are looking at yonder."
+
+"O father," said Miranda, in a strange surprise, "surely that is a
+spirit. Lord! how it looks about! Believe me, sir, it is a beautiful
+creature. Is it not a spirit?"
+
+"No, girl," answered her father; "it eats, and sleeps, and has senses
+such as we have. This young man you see was in the ship. He is somewhat
+altered by grief, or you might call him a handsome person. He has lost
+his companions, and is wandering about to find them."
+
+Miranda, who thought all men had grave faces and grey beards like her
+father, was delighted with the appearance of this beautiful young
+prince; and Ferdinand, seeing such a lovely lady in this desert place,
+and from the strange sounds he had heard, expecting nothing but
+wonders, thought he was upon an enchanted island, and that Miranda was
+the goddess of the place, and as such he began to address her.
+
+She timidly answered, she was no goddess, but a simple maid, and was
+going to give him an account of herself, when Prospero interrupted her.
+He was well pleased to find they admired each other, for he plainly
+perceived they had (as we say) fallen in love at first sight: but to try
+Ferdinand's constancy, he resolved to throw some difficulties in their
+way: therefore advancing forward, he addressed the prince with a stern
+air, telling him, he came to the island as a spy, to take it from him
+who was the lord of it. "Follow me," said he, "I will tie you neck and
+feet together. You shall drink sea-water; shell-fish, withered roots,
+and husks of acorns shall be your food." "No," said Ferdinand, "I will
+resist such entertainment, till I see a more powerful enemy," and drew
+his sword; but Prospero, waving his magic wand, fixed him to the spot
+where he stood, so that he had no power to move.
+
+Miranda hung upon her father, saying, "Why are you so ungentle? Have
+pity, sir; I will be his surety. This is the second man I ever saw, and
+to me he seems a true one."
+
+"Silence," said the father: "one word more will make me chide you, girl!
+What! an advocate for an impostor! You think there are no more such fine
+men, having seen only him and Caliban. I tell you, foolish girl, most
+men as far excel this, as he does Caliban." This he said to prove his
+daughter's constancy; and she replied, "My affections are most humble. I
+have no wish to see a goodlier man."
+
+"Come on, young man," said Prospero to the Prince; "you have no power to
+disobey me."
+
+"I have not indeed," answered Ferdinand; and not knowing that it was by
+magic he was deprived of all power of resistance, he was astonished to
+find himself so strangely compelled to follow Prospero: looking back on
+Miranda as long as he could see her, he said, as he went after Prospero
+into the cave, "My spirits are all bound up, as if I were in a dream;
+but this man's threats, and the weakness which I feel, would seem light
+to me if from my prison I might once a day behold this fair maid."
+
+Prospero kept Ferdinand not long confined within the cell: he soon
+brought out his prisoner, and set him a severe task to perform, taking
+care to let his daughter know the hard labour he had imposed on him, and
+then pretending to go into his study, he secretly watched them both.
+
+Prospero had commanded Ferdinand to pile up some heavy logs of wood.
+Kings' sons not being much used to laborious work, Miranda soon after
+found her lover almost dying with fatigue. "Alas!" said she, "do not
+work so hard; my father is at his studies, he is safe for these three
+hours; pray rest yourself."
+
+"O my dear lady," said Ferdinand, "I dare not. I must finish my task
+before I take my rest."
+
+"If you will sit down," said Miranda, "I will carry your logs the
+while." But this Ferdinand would by no means agree to. Instead of a help
+Miranda became a hindrance, for they began a long conversation, so that
+the business of log-carrying went on very slowly.
+
+Prospero, who had enjoined Ferdinand this task merely as a trial of his
+love, was not at his books, as his daughter supposed, but was standing
+by them invisible, to overhear what they said.
+
+Ferdinand inquired her name, which she told, saying it was against her
+father's express command she did so.
+
+Prospero only smiled at this first instance of his daughter's
+disobedience, for having by his magic art caused his daughter to fall in
+love so suddenly, he was not angry that she showed her love by
+forgetting to obey his commands. And he listened well pleased to a long
+speech of Ferdinand's, in which he professed to love her above all the
+ladies he ever saw.
+
+In answer to his praises of her beauty, which he said exceeded all the
+women in the world, she replied, "I do not remember the face of any
+woman, nor have I seen any more men than you, my good friend, and my
+dear father. How features are abroad, I know not; but, believe me, sir,
+I would not wish any companion in the world but you, nor can my
+imagination form any shape but yours that I could like. But, sir, I fear
+I talk to you too freely, and my father's precepts I forget."
+
+At this Prospero smiled, and nodded his head, as much as to say, "This
+goes on exactly as I could wish; my girl will be Queen of Naples."
+
+And then Ferdinand, in another fine long speech (for young princes speak
+in courtly phrases), told the innocent Miranda he was heir to the crown
+of Naples, and that she should be his queen.
+
+"Ah! sir," said she, "I am a fool to weep at what I am glad of. I will
+answer you in plain and holy innocence. I am your wife if you will marry
+me."
+
+Prospero prevented Ferdinand's thanks by appearing visible before them.
+
+"Fear nothing, my child," said he; "I have overheard, and approve of all
+you have said. And, Ferdinand, if I have too severely used you, I will
+make you rich amends, by giving you my daughter. All your vexations were
+but trials of your love, and you have nobly stood the test. Then as my
+gift, which your true love has worthily purchased, take my daughter, and
+do not smile that I boast she is above all praise." He then, telling
+them that he had business which required his presence, desired they
+would sit down and talk together till he returned; and this command
+Miranda seemed not at all disposed to disobey.
+
+When Prospero left them, he called his spirit Ariel, who quickly
+appeared before him, eager to relate what he had done with Prospero's
+brother and the King of Naples. Ariel said he had left them almost out
+of their senses with fear, at the strange things he had caused them to
+see and hear. When fatigued with wandering about, and famished for want
+of food, he had suddenly set before them a delicious banquet, and then,
+just as they were going to eat, he appeared visible before them in the
+shape of a harpy, a voracious monster with wings, and the feast vanished
+away. Then, to their utter amazement, this seeming harpy spoke to them,
+reminding them of their cruelty in driving Prospero from his dukedom,
+and leaving him and his infant daughter to perish in the sea; saying,
+that for this cause these terrors were suffered to afflict them.
+
+The King of Naples, and Antonio the false brother, repented the
+injustice they had done to Prospero; and Ariel told his master he was
+certain their penitence was sincere, and that he, though a spirit, could
+not but pity them.
+
+"Then bring them hither, Ariel," said Prospero: "if you, who are but a
+spirit, feel for their distress, shall not I, who am a human being like
+themselves, have compassion on them? Bring them, quickly, my dainty
+Ariel."
+
+Ariel soon returned with the king, Antonio, and old Gonzalo in their
+train, who had followed him, wondering at the wild music he played in
+the air to draw them on to his master's presence. This Gonzalo was the
+same who had so kindly provided Prospero formerly with books and
+provisions, when his wicked brother left him, as he thought, to perish
+in an open boat in the sea.
+
+Grief and terror had so stupefied their senses, that they did not know
+Prospero. He first discovered himself to the good old Gonzalo, calling
+him the preserver of his life; and then his brother and the king knew
+that he was the injured Prospero.
+
+Antonio with tears, and sad words of sorrow and true repentance,
+implored his brother's forgiveness, and the king expressed his sincere
+remorse for having assisted Antonio to depose his brother: and Prospero
+forgave them; and, upon their engaging to restore his dukedom, he said
+to the King of Naples, "I have a gift in store for you too;" and opening
+a door, showed him his son Ferdinand playing at chess with Miranda.
+
+Nothing could exceed the joy of the father and the son at this
+unexpected meeting, for they each thought the other drowned in the
+storm.
+
+"O wonder!" said Miranda, "what noble creatures these are! It must
+surely be a brave world that has such people in it."
+
+The King of Naples was almost as much astonished at the beauty and
+excellent graces of the young Miranda, as his son had been. "Who is this
+maid?" said he; "she seems the goddess that has parted us, and brought
+us thus together." "No, sir," answered Ferdinand, smiling to find his
+father had fallen into the same mistake that he had done when he first
+saw Miranda, "she is a mortal, but by immortal Providence she is mine; I
+chose her when I could not ask you, my father, for your consent, not
+thinking you were alive. She is the daughter to this Prospero, who is
+the famous Duke of Milan, of whose renown I have heard so much, but
+never saw him till now: of him I have received a new life: he has made
+himself to me a second father, giving me this dear lady."
+
+"Then I must be her father," said the king; "but oh! how oddly will it
+sound, that I must ask my child forgiveness."
+
+"No more of that," said Prospero: "let us not remember our troubles
+past, since they so happily have ended." And then Prospero embraced his
+brother, and again assured him of his forgiveness; and said that a wise
+over-ruling Providence had permitted that he should be driven from his
+poor dukedom of Milan, that his daughter might inherit the crown of
+Naples, for that by their meeting in this desert island, it had happened
+that the king's son had loved Miranda.
+
+These kind words which Prospero spoke, meaning to comfort his brother,
+so filled Antonio with shame and remorse, that he wept and was unable to
+speak; and the kind old Gonzalo wept to see this joyful reconciliation,
+and prayed for blessings on the young couple.
+
+Prospero now told them that their ship was safe in the harbour, and the
+sailors all on board her, and that he and his daughter would accompany
+them home the next morning. "In the meantime," says he, "partake of such
+refreshments as my poor cave affords; and for your evening's
+entertainment I will relate the history of my life from my first landing
+in this desert island." He then called for Caliban to prepare some food,
+and set the cave in order; and the company were astonished at the
+uncouth form and savage appearance of this ugly monster, who (Prospero
+said) was the only attendant he had to wait upon him.
+
+Before Prospero left the island, he dismissed Ariel from his service, to
+the great joy of that lively little spirit; who, though he had been a
+faithful servant to his master, was always longing to enjoy his free
+liberty, to wander uncontrolled in the air, like a wild bird, under
+green trees, among pleasant fruits, and sweet-smelling flowers. "My
+quaint Ariel," said Prospero to the little sprite when he made him free,
+"I shall miss you; yet you shall have your freedom." "Thank you, my dear
+master," said Ariel; "but give me leave to attend your ship home with
+prosperous gales, before you bid farewell to the assistance of your
+faithful spirit; and then, master, when I am free, how merrily I shall
+live!" Here Ariel sung this pretty song:
+
+    "Where the bee sucks, there suck I;
+    In a cowslip's bell I lie:
+    There I crouch when owls do cry
+    On the bat's back I do fly
+    After summer merrily.
+    Merrily, merrily shall I live now
+  Under the blossom that hangs on the bough."
+
+Prospero then buried deep in the earth his magical books and wand, for
+he was resolved never more to make use of the magic art. And having thus
+overcome his enemies, and being reconciled to his brother and the King
+of Naples, nothing now remained to complete his happiness, but to
+revisit his native land, to take possession of his dukedom, and to
+witness the happy nuptials of his daughter and Prince Ferdinand, which
+the king said should be instantly celebrated with great splendour on
+their return to Naples. At which place, under the safe convoy of the
+spirit Ariel, they, after a pleasant voyage, soon arrived.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
+
+
+There was a law in the city of Athens which gave to its citizens the
+power of compelling their daughters to marry whomsoever they pleased;
+for upon a daughter's refusing to marry the man her father had chosen to
+be her husband, the father was empowered by this law to cause her to be
+put to death; but as fathers do not often desire the death of their own
+daughters, even though they do happen to prove a little refractory, this
+law was seldom or never put in execution, though perhaps the young
+ladies of that city were not unfrequently threatened by their parents
+with the terrors of it.
+
+There was one instance, however, of an old man, whose name was Egeus,
+who actually did come before Theseus (at that time the reigning Duke of
+Athens), to complain that his daughter Hermia, whom he had commanded to
+marry Demetrius, a young man of a noble Athenian family, refused to obey
+him, because she loved another young Athenian, named Lysander. Egeus
+demanded justice of Theseus, and desired that this cruel law might be
+put in force against his daughter.
+
+Hermia pleaded in excuse for her disobedience, that Demetrius had
+formerly professed love for her dear friend Helena, and that Helena
+loved Demetrius to distraction; but this honourable reason, which Hermia
+gave for not obeying her father's command, moved not the stern Egeus.
+
+Theseus, though a great and merciful prince, had no power to alter the
+laws of his country; therefore he could only give Hermia four days to
+consider of it: and at the end of that time, if she still refused to
+marry Demetrius, she was to be put to death.
+
+When Hermia was dismissed from the presence of the duke, she went to her
+lover Lysander, and told him the peril she was in, and that she must
+either give him up and marry Demetrius, or lose her life in four days.
+
+Lysander was in great affliction at hearing these evil tidings; but
+recollecting that he had an aunt who lived at some distance from Athens,
+and that at the place where she lived the cruel law could not be put in
+force against Hermia (this law not extending beyond the boundaries of
+the city), he proposed to Hermia that she should steal out of her
+father's house that night, and go with him to his aunt's house, where he
+would marry her. "I will meet you," said Lysander, "in the wood a few
+miles without the city; in that delightful wood where we have so often
+walked with Helena in the pleasant month of May."
+
+To this proposal Hermia joyfully agreed; and she told no one of her
+intended flight but her friend Helena. Helena (as maidens will do
+foolish things for love) very ungenerously resolved to go and tell this
+to Demetrius, though she could hope no benefit from betraying her
+friend's secret, but the poor pleasure of following her faithless lover
+to the wood; for she well knew that Demetrius would go thither in
+pursuit of Hermia.
+
+The wood, in which Lysander and Hermia proposed to meet was the
+favourite haunt of those little beings known by the name of _Fairies_.
+
+Oberon the king, and Titania the queen of the Fairies, with all their
+tiny train of followers, in this wood held their midnight revels.
+
+Between this little king and queen of sprites there happened, at this
+time, a sad disagreement; they never met by moonlight in the shady walks
+of this pleasant wood, but they were quarrelling, till all their fairy
+elves would creep into acorn-cups and hide themselves for fear.
+
+The cause of this unhappy disagreement was Titania's refusing to give
+Oberon a little changeling boy, whose mother had been Titania's friend;
+and upon her death the fairy queen stole the child from its nurse, and
+brought him up in the woods.
+
+The night on which the lovers were to meet in this wood, as Titania was
+walking with some of her maids of honour, she met Oberon attended by his
+train of fairy courtiers.
+
+"Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania," said the fairy king. The queen
+replied, "What, jealous Oberon, is it you? Fairies, skip hence; I have
+forsworn his company." "Tarry, rash fairy," said Oberon; "am not I thy
+lord? Why does Titania cross her Oberon? Give me your little changeling
+boy to be my page."
+
+"Set your heart at rest," answered the queen; "your whole fairy kingdom
+buys not the boy of me." She then left her lord in great anger. "Well,
+go your way," said Oberon: "before the morning dawns I will torment you
+for this injury."
+
+Oberon then sent for Puck, his chief favourite and privy counsellor.
+
+Puck, (or as he was sometimes called, Robin Goodfellow) was a shrewd and
+knavish sprite, that used to play comical pranks in the neighbouring
+villages; sometimes getting into the dairies and skimming the milk,
+sometimes plunging his light and airy form into the butter-churn, and
+while he was dancing his fantastic shape in the churn, in vain the
+dairy-maid would labour to change her cream into butter: nor had the
+village swains any better success; whenever Puck chose to play his
+freaks in the brewing copper, the ale was sure to be spoiled. When a few
+good neighbours were met to drink some comfortable ale together, Puck
+would jump into the bowl of ale in the likeness of a roasted crab, and
+when some old goody was going to drink he would bob against her lips,
+and spill the ale over her withered chin; and presently after, when the
+same old dame was gravely seating herself to tell her neighbours a sad
+and melancholy story, Puck would slip her three-legged stool from under
+her, and down toppled the poor old woman, and then the old gossips would
+hold their sides and laugh at her, and swear they never wasted a merrier
+hour.
+
+"Come hither, Puck," said Oberon to this little merry wanderer of the
+night; "fetch me the flower which maids call _Love in Idleness_; the
+juice of that little purple flower laid on the eyelids of those who
+sleep, will make them, when they awake, dote on the first thing they
+see. Some of the juice of that flower I will drop on the eyelids of my
+Titania when she is asleep; and the first thing she looks upon when she
+opens her eyes she will fall in love with, even though it be a lion or a
+bear, a meddling monkey, or a busy ape; and before I will take this
+charm from off her sight, which I can do with another charm I know of, I
+will make her give me that boy to be my page."
+
+Puck, who loved mischief to his heart, was highly diverted with this
+intended frolic of his master, and ran to seek the flower; and while
+Oberon was waiting the return of Puck, he observed Demetrius and Helena
+enter the wood: he overheard Demetrius reproaching Helena for following
+him, and after many unkind words on his part, and gentle expostulations
+from Helena, reminding him of his former love and professions of true
+faith to her, he left her (as he said) to the mercy of the wild beasts,
+and she ran after him as swiftly as she could.
+
+The fairy king, who was always friendly to true lovers, felt great
+compassion for Helena; and perhaps, as Lysander said they used to walk
+by moonlight in this pleasant wood, Oberon might have seen Helena in
+those happy times when she was beloved by Demetrius. However that might
+be, when Puck returned with the little purple flower, Oberon said to his
+favourite, "Take a part of this flower; there has been a sweet Athenian
+lady here, who is in love with a disdainful youth; if you find him
+sleeping, drop some of the love-juice in his eyes, but contrive to do it
+when she is near him, that the first thing he sees when he awakes may be
+this despised lady. You will know the man by the Athenian garments which
+he wears." Puck promised to manage this matter very dexterously: and
+then Oberon went, unperceived by Titania, to her bower, where she was
+preparing to go to rest. Her fairy bower was a bank, where grew wild
+thyme, cowslips, and sweet violets, under a canopy of wood-bine,
+musk-roses, and eglantine. There Titania always slept some part of the
+night; her coverlet the enamelled skin of a snake, which, though a small
+mantle, was wide enough to wrap a fairy in.
+
+He found Titania giving orders to her fairies, how they were to employ
+themselves while she slept. "Some of you," said her majesty, "must kill
+cankers in the musk-rose buds, and some wage war with the bats for their
+leathern wings, to make my small elves coats; and some of you keep watch
+that the clamorous owl, that nightly hoots, come not near me: but first
+sing me to sleep." Then they began to sing this song:--
+
+  "You spotted snakes with double tongue,
+  Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen;
+  Newts and blind-worms do no wrong
+  Come not near our Fairy Queen.
+  Philomel, with melody,
+  Sing in our sweet lullaby,
+  Lulla, lulla, lullaby; lulla, lulla, lullaby;
+  Never harm, nor spell, nor charm,
+  Come our lovely lady nigh;
+  So good night with lullaby."
+
+When the fairies had sung their queen asleep with this pretty lullaby,
+they left her to perform the important services she had enjoined them.
+Oberon then softly drew near his Titania, and dropped some of the
+love-juice on her eyelids, saying,--
+
+  "What thou seest when thou dost wake,
+  Do it for thy true-love take."
+
+But to return to Hermia, who made her escape out of her father's house
+that night, to avoid the death she was doomed to for refusing to marry
+Demetrius. When she entered the wood, she found her dear Lysander
+waiting for her, to conduct her to his aunt's house; but before they had
+passed half through the wood, Hermia was so much fatigued, that
+Lysander, who was very careful of this dear lady, who had proved her
+affection for him even by hazarding her life for his sake, persuaded her
+to rest till morning on a bank of soft moss, and lying down himself on
+the ground at some little distance, they soon fell fast asleep. Here
+they were found by Puck, who, seeing a handsome young man asleep, and
+perceiving that his clothes were made in the Athenian fashion, and that
+a pretty lady was sleeping near him, concluded that this must be the
+Athenian maid and her disdainful lover whom Oberon had sent him to seek;
+and he naturally enough conjectured that, as they were alone together,
+she must be the first thing he would see when he awoke; so, without more
+ado, he proceeded to pour some of the juice of the little purple flower
+into his eyes. But it so fell out, that Helena came that way, and,
+instead of Hermia, was the first object Lysander beheld when he opened
+his eyes; and strange to relate, so powerful was the love-charm, all his
+love for Hermia vanished away, and Lysander fell in love with Helena.
+
+Had he first seen Hermia when he awoke, the blunder Puck committed would
+have been of no consequence, for he could not love that faithful lady
+too well; but for poor Lysander to be forced by a fairy love-charm to
+forget his own true Hermia, and to run after another lady, and leave
+Hermia asleep quite alone in a wood at midnight, was a sad chance
+indeed.
+
+Thus this misfortune happened. Helena, as has been before related,
+endeavoured to keep pace with Demetrius when he ran away so rudely from
+her; but she could not continue this unequal race long, men being always
+better runners in a long race than ladies. Helena soon lost sight of
+Demetrius; and as she was wandering about, dejected and forlorn, she
+arrived at the place where Lysander was sleeping. "Ah!" said she, "this
+is Lysander lying on the ground: is he dead or asleep?" Then, gently
+touching him, she said, "Good sir, if you are alive, awake." Upon this
+Lysander opened his eyes, and (the love-charm beginning to work)
+immediately addressed her in terms of extravagant love and admiration;
+telling her she as much excelled Hermia in beauty as a dove does a
+raven, and that he would run through fire for her sweet sake; and many
+more such lover-like speeches. Helena, knowing Lysander was her friend
+Hermia's lover, and that he was solemnly engaged to marry her, was in
+the utmost rage when she heard herself addressed in this manner; for she
+thought (as well she might) that Lysander was making a jest of her.
+"Oh!" said she, "why was I born to be mocked and scorned by every one?
+Is it not enough, is it not enough, young man, that I can never get a
+sweet look or a kind word from Demetrius; but you, sir, must pretend in
+this disdainful manner to court me? I thought, Lysander, you were a lord
+of more true gentleness." Saying these words in great anger, she ran
+away; and Lysander followed her, quite forgetful of his own Hermia, who
+was still asleep.
+
+When Hermia awoke, she was in a sad fright at finding herself alone.
+She wandered about the wood, not knowing what was become of Lysander, or
+which way to go to seek for him. In the meantime Demetrius not being
+able to find Hermia and his rival Lysander, and fatigued with his
+fruitless search, was observed by Oberon fast asleep. Oberon had learnt
+by some questions he had asked of Puck, that he had applied the
+love-charm to the wrong person's eyes; and now having found the person
+first intended, he touched the eyelids of the sleeping Demetrius with
+the love-juice, and he instantly awoke; and the first thing he saw being
+Helena, he, as Lysander had done before, began to address love-speeches
+to her; and just at that moment Lysander, followed by Hermia (for
+through Puck's unlucky mistake it was now become Hermia's turn to run
+after her lover) made his appearance; and then Lysander and Demetrius,
+both speaking together, made love to Helena, they being each one under
+the influence of the same potent charm.
+
+The astonished Helena thought that Demetrius, Lysander, and her once
+dear friend Hermia, were all in a plot together to make a jest of her.
+
+Hermia was as much surprised as Helena: she knew not why Lysander and
+Demetrius, who both before loved her, were now become the lovers of
+Helena; and to Hermia the matter seemed to be no jest.
+
+The ladies, who before had always been the dearest of friends, now fell
+to high words together.
+
+"Unkind Hermia," said Helena, "it is you have set Lysander on to vex me
+with mock praises; and your other lover Demetrius, who used almost to
+spurn me with his foot, have you not bid him call me Goddess, Nymph,
+rare, precious, and celestial? He would not speak thus to me, whom he
+hates, if you did not set him on to make a jest of me. Unkind Hermia, to
+join with men in scorning your poor friend. Have you forgot our
+school-day friendship? How often, Hermia, have we two, sitting on one
+cushion, both singing one song, with our needles working the same
+flower, both on the same sampler wrought; growing up together in fashion
+of a double cherry, scarcely seeming parted! Hermia, it is not friendly
+in you, it is not maidenly to join with men in scorning your poor
+friend."
+
+"I am amazed at your passionate words," said Hermia: "I scorn you not;
+it seems you scorn me." "Ay, do," returned Helena, "persevere,
+counterfeit serious looks, and make mouths at me when I turn my back;
+then wink at each other, and hold the sweet jest up. If you had any
+pity, grace, or manners, you would not use me thus."
+
+While Helena and Hermia were speaking these angry words to each other,
+Demetrius and Lysander left them, to fight together in the wood for the
+love of Helena.
+
+When they found the gentlemen had left them, they departed, and once
+more wandered weary in the wood in search of their lovers.
+
+As soon as they were gone, the fairy king, who with little Puck had been
+listening to their quarrels, said to him, "This is your negligence,
+Puck; or did you do this wilfully?" "Believe me, king of shadows,"
+answered Puck, "it was a mistake; did not you tell me I should know the
+man by his Athenian garments? However, I am not sorry this has happened,
+for I think their jangling makes excellent sport." "You heard," said
+Oberon, "that Demetrius and Lysander are gone to seek a convenient place
+to fight in. I command you to overhang the night with a thick fog, and
+lead these quarrelsome lovers so astray in the dark, that they shall not
+be able to find each other. Counterfeit each of their voices to the
+other, and with bitter taunts provoke them to follow you, while they
+think it is their rival's tongue they hear. See you do this, till they
+are so weary they can go no farther; and when you find they are asleep,
+drop the juice of this other flower into Lysander's eyes, and when he
+awakes he will forget his new love for Helena, and return to his old
+passion for Hermia; and then the two fair ladies may each one be happy
+with the man she loves, and they will think all that has passed a
+vexatious dream. About this quickly, Puck, and I will go and see what
+sweet love my Titania has found."
+
+Titania was still sleeping, and Oberon seeing a clown near her, who had
+lost his way in the wood, and was likewise asleep: "This fellow," said
+he, "shall be my Titania's true love;" and clapping an ass's head over
+the clown's, it seemed to fit him as well as if it had grown upon his
+own shoulders. Though Oberon fixed the ass's head on very gently, it
+awakened him, and rising up, unconscious of what Oberon had done to him,
+he went towards the bower where the fairy queen slept.
+
+"Ah! what angel is that I see?" said Titania, opening her eyes, and the
+juice of the little purple flower beginning to take effect: "are you as
+wise as you are beautiful?"
+
+"Why, mistress," said the foolish clown, "if I have wit enough to find
+the way out of this wood, I have enough to serve my turn."
+
+"Out of the wood do not desire to go," said the enamoured queen. "I am a
+spirit of no common rate. I love you. Go with me, and I will give you
+fairies to attend upon you."
+
+She then called four of her fairies: their names were, Pease-blossom,
+Cobweb, Moth, and Mustard-seed.
+
+[Illustration: WHERE IS PEASE-BLOSSOM?]
+
+"Attend," said the queen, "upon this sweet gentleman; hop in his walks,
+and gambol in his sight; feed him with grapes and apricots, and steal
+for him the honey-bags from the bees. Come, sit with me," said she to
+the clown, "and let me play with your amiable hairy cheeks, my beautiful
+ass! and kiss your fair large ears, my gentle joy!"
+
+"Where is Pease-blossom?" said the ass-headed clown, not much regarding
+the fairy queen's courtship, but very proud of his new attendants.
+
+"Here, sir," said little Pease-blossom.
+
+"Scratch my head," said the clown. "Where is Cobweb?"
+
+"Here, sir," said Cobweb.
+
+"Good Mr. Cobweb," said the foolish clown, "kill me the red humble bee
+on the top of that thistle yonder; and, good Mr. Cobweb, bring me the
+honey-bag. Do not fret yourself too much in the action, Mr. Cobweb, and
+take care the honey-bag break not; I should be sorry to have you
+overflown with a honey-bag. Where is Mustard-seed?"
+
+"Here, sir," said Mustard-seed: "what is your will?"
+
+"Nothing," said the clown, "good Mr. Mustard-seed, but to help Mr.
+Pease-blossom to scratch; I must go to a barber's, Mr. Mustard-seed, for
+methinks I am marvellous hairy about the face."
+
+"My sweet love," said the queen, "what will you have to eat? I have a
+venturous fairy shall seek the squirrel's hoard, and fetch you some new
+nuts."
+
+"I had rather have a handful of dried pease," said the clown, who with
+his ass's head had got an ass's appetite. "But, I pray, let none of your
+people disturb me, for I have a mind to sleep."
+
+"Sleep, then," said the queen, "and I will wind you in my arms. O how I
+love you! how I dote upon you!"
+
+When the fairy king saw the clown sleeping in the arms of his queen, he
+advanced within her sight, and reproached her with having lavished her
+favours upon an ass.
+
+This she could not deny, as the clown was then sleeping within her arms,
+with his ass's head crowned by her with flowers.
+
+When Oberon had teased her for some time, he again demanded the
+changeling boy; which she, ashamed of being discovered by her lord with
+her new favourite, did not dare to refuse him.
+
+Oberon, having thus obtained the little boy he had so long wished for to
+be his page, took pity on the disgraceful situation into which, by his
+merry contrivance, he had brought his Titania, and threw some of the
+juice of the other flower into her eyes; and the fairy queen immediately
+recovered her senses, and wondered at her late dotage, saying how she
+now loathed the sight of the strange monster.
+
+Oberon likewise took the ass's head from off the clown, and left him to
+finish his nap with his own fool's head upon his shoulders.
+
+Oberon and his Titania being now perfectly reconciled, he related to her
+the history of the lovers, and their midnight quarrels; and she agreed
+to go with him and see the end of their adventures.
+
+The fairy king and queen found the lovers and their fair ladies, at no
+great distance from each other, sleeping on a grass-plot; for Puck, to
+make amends for his former mistake, had contrived with the utmost
+diligence to bring them all to the same spot, unknown to each other; and
+he had carefully removed the charm from off the eyes of Lysander with
+the antidote the fairy king gave to him.
+
+Hermia first awoke, and finding her lost Lysander asleep so near her,
+was looking at him and wondering at his strange inconstancy. Lysander
+presently opening his eyes, and seeing his dear Hermia, recovered his
+reason which the fairy charm had before clouded, and with his reason,
+his love for Hermia; and they began to talk over the adventures of the
+night, doubting if these things had really happened, or if they had both
+been dreaming the same bewildering dream.
+
+Helena and Demetrius were by this time awake; and a sweet sleep having
+quieted Helena's disturbed and angry spirits, she listened with delight
+to the professions of love which Demetrius still made to her, and which,
+to her surprise as well as pleasure, she began to perceive were sincere.
+
+These fair night-wandering ladies, now no longer rivals, became once
+more true friends; all the unkind words which had passed were forgiven,
+and they calmly consulted together what was best to be done in their
+present situation. It was soon agreed that, as Demetrius had given up
+his pretensions to Hermia, he should endeavour to prevail upon her
+father to revoke the cruel sentence of death which had been passed
+against her. Demetrius was preparing to return to Athens for this
+friendly purpose, when they were surprised with the sight of Egeus,
+Hermia's father, who came to the wood in pursuit of his runaway
+daughter.
+
+When Egeus understood that Demetrius would not now marry his daughter,
+he no longer opposed her marriage with Lysander, but gave his consent
+that they should be wedded on the fourth day from that time, being the
+same day on which Hermia had been condemned to lose her life; and on
+that same day Helena joyfully agreed to marry her beloved and now
+faithful Demetrius.
+
+The fairy king and queen, who were invisible spectators of this
+reconciliation, and now saw the happy ending of the lovers' history,
+brought about through the good offices of Oberon, received so much
+pleasure, that these kind spirits resolved to celebrate the approaching
+nuptials with sports and revels throughout their fairy kingdom.
+
+And now, if any are offended with this story of fairies and their
+pranks, as judging it incredible and strange, they have only to think
+that they have been asleep and dreaming, and that all these adventures
+were visions which they saw in their sleep: and I hope none of my
+readers will be so unreasonable as to be offended with a pretty harmless
+Midsummer Night's Dream.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+THE WINTER'S TALE
+
+
+Leontes, King of Sicily, and his queen, the beautiful and virtuous
+Hermione, once lived in the greatest harmony together. So happy was
+Leontes in the love of this excellent lady, that he had no wish
+ungratified, except that he sometimes desired to see again, and to
+present to his queen, his old companion and school-fellow, Polixenes,
+King of Bohemia. Leontes and Polixenes were brought up together from
+their infancy, but being, by the death of their fathers, called to reign
+over their respective kingdoms, they had not met for many years, though
+they frequently interchanged gifts, letters, and loving embassies.
+
+At length, after repeated invitations, Polixenes came from Bohemia to
+the Sicilian court, to make his friend Leontes a visit.
+
+At first this visit gave nothing but pleasure to Leontes. He recommended
+the friend of his youth to the queen's particular attention, and seemed
+in the presence of his dear friend and old companion to have his
+felicity quite completed. They talked over old times; their school-days
+and their youthful pranks were remembered, and recounted to Hermione,
+who always took a cheerful part in these conversations.
+
+When, after a long stay, Polixenes was preparing to depart, Hermione,
+at the desire of her husband, joined her entreaties to his that
+Polixenes would prolong his visit.
+
+And now began this good queen's sorrow; for Polixenes refusing to stay
+at the request of Leontes, was won over by Hermione's gentle and
+persuasive words to put off his departure for some weeks longer. Upon
+this, although Leontes had so long known the integrity and honourable
+principles of his friend Polixenes, as well as the excellent disposition
+of his virtuous queen, he was seized with an ungovernable jealousy.
+Every attention Hermione showed to Polixenes, though by her husband's
+particular desire, and merely to please him, increased the unfortunate
+king's jealousy; and from being a loving and a true friend, and the best
+and fondest of husbands, Leontes became suddenly a savage and inhuman
+monster. Sending for Camillo, one of the lords of his court, and telling
+him of the suspicion he entertained, he commanded him to poison
+Polixenes.
+
+Camillo was a good man; and he, well knowing that the jealousy of
+Leontes had not the slightest foundation in truth, instead of poisoning
+Polixenes, acquainted him with the king his master's orders, and agreed
+to escape with him out of the Sicilian dominions; and Polixenes, with
+the assistance of Camillo, arrived safe in his own kingdom of Bohemia,
+where Camillo lived from that time in the king's court, and became the
+chief friend and favourite of Polixenes.
+
+The flight of Polixenes enraged the jealous Leontes still more; he went
+to the queen's apartment, where the good lady was sitting with her
+little son Mamillius, who was just beginning to tell one of his best
+stories to amuse his mother, when the king entered, and taking the child
+away, sent Hermione to prison.
+
+Mamillius, though but a very young child, loved his mother tenderly; and
+when he saw her so dishonoured, and found she was taken from him to be
+put into a prison, he took it deeply to heart, and drooped and pined
+away by slow degrees, losing his appetite and his sleep, till it was
+thought his grief would kill him.
+
+The king, when he had sent his queen to prison, commanded Cleomenes and
+Dion, two Sicilian lords, to go to Delphos, there to inquire of the
+oracle at the temple of Apollo, if his queen had been unfaithful to him.
+
+When Hermione had been a short time in prison, she was brought to bed of
+a daughter; and the poor lady received much comfort from the sight of
+her pretty baby, and she said to it, "My poor little prisoner, I am as
+innocent as you are."
+
+[Illustration: PAULINA DREW BACK THE CURTAIN WHICH CONCEALED THIS FAMOUS
+STATUE]
+
+Hermione had a kind friend in the noble-spirited Paulina, who was the
+wife of Antigonus, a Sicilian lord; and when the lady Paulina heard her
+royal mistress was brought to bed, she went to the prison where Hermione
+was confined; and she said to Emilia, a lady who attended upon Hermione,
+"I pray you, Emilia, tell the good queen, if her majesty dare trust me
+with her little babe, I will carry it to the king, its father; we do not
+know how he may soften at the sight of his innocent child." "Most worthy
+madam," replied Emilia, "I will acquaint the queen with your noble
+offer; she was wishing to-day that she had any friend who would venture
+to present the child to the king." "And tell her," said Paulina, "that I
+will speak boldly to Leontes in her defence." "May you be for ever
+blessed," said Emilia, "for your kindness to our gracious queen!" Emilia
+then went to Hermione, who joyfully gave up her baby to the care of
+Paulina, for she had feared that no one would dare venture to present
+the child to its father.
+
+Paulina took the new-born infant, and forcing herself into the king's
+presence, notwithstanding her husband, fearing the king's anger,
+endeavoured to prevent her, she laid the babe at its father's feet, and
+Paulina made a noble speech to the king in defence of Hermione, and she
+reproached him severely for his inhumanity, and implored him to have
+mercy on his innocent wife and child. But Paulina's spirited
+remonstrances only aggravated Leontes' displeasure, and he ordered her
+husband Antigonus to take her from his presence.
+
+When Paulina went away, she left the little baby at its father's feet,
+thinking when he was alone with it, he would look upon it, and have pity
+on its helpless innocence.
+
+The good Paulina was mistaken: for no sooner was she gone than the
+merciless father ordered Antigonus, Paulina's husband, to take the
+child, and carry it out to sea, and leave it upon some desert shore to
+perish.
+
+Antigonus, unlike the good Camillo, too well obeyed the orders of
+Leontes; for he immediately carried the child on ship-board, and put out
+to sea, intending to leave it on the first desert coast he could find.
+
+So firmly was the king persuaded of the guilt of Hermione, that he would
+not wait for the return of Cleomenes and Dion, whom he had sent to
+consult the oracle of Apollo at Delphos; but before the queen was
+recovered from her lying-in, and from her grief for the loss of her
+precious baby, he had her brought to a public trial before all the lords
+and nobles of his court. And when all the great lords, the judges, and
+all the nobility of the land were assembled together to try Hermione,
+and that unhappy queen was standing as a prisoner before her subjects to
+receive their judgment, Cleomenes and Dion entered the assembly, and
+presented to the king the answer of the oracle, sealed up; and Leontes
+commanded the seal to be broken, and the words of the oracle to be read
+aloud, and these were the words:--"_Hermione is innocent, Polixenes
+blameless, Camillo a true subject, Leontes a jealous tyrant, and the
+king shall live without an heir if that which is lost be not found._"
+The king would give no credit to the words of the oracle: he said it was
+a falsehood invented by the queen's friends, and he desired the judge to
+proceed in the trial of the queen; but while Leontes was speaking, a man
+entered and told him that the Prince Mamillius, hearing his mother was
+to be tried for her life, struck with grief and shame, had suddenly
+died.
+
+Hermione, upon hearing of the death of this dear affectionate child, who
+had lost his life in sorrowing for her misfortune, fainted; and Leontes,
+pierced to the heart by the news, began to feel pity for his unhappy
+queen, and he ordered Paulina, and the ladies who were her attendants,
+to take her away, and use means for her recovery. Paulina soon returned,
+and told the king that Hermione was dead.
+
+When Leontes heard that the queen was dead, he repented of his cruelty
+to her; and now that he thought his ill-usuage had broken Hermione's
+heart, he believed her innocent; and now he thought the words of the
+oracle were true, as he knew "if that which was lost was not found,"
+which he concluded was his young daughter, he should be without an heir,
+the young Prince Mamillius being dead; and he would give his kingdom now
+to recover his lost daughter: and Leontes gave himself up to remorse,
+and passed many years in mournful thoughts and repentant grief.
+
+The ship in which Antigonus carried the infant princess out to sea was
+driven by a storm upon the coast of Bohemia, the very kingdom of the
+good King Polixenes. Here Antigonus landed, and here he left the little
+baby.
+
+Antigonus never returned to Sicily to tell Leontes where he had left his
+daughter, for as he was going back to the ship, a bear came out of the
+woods, and tore him to pieces; a just punishment on him for obeying the
+wicked order of Leontes.
+
+The child was dressed in rich clothes and jewels; for Hermione had made
+it very fine when she sent it to Leontes, and Antigonus had pinned a
+paper to its mantle, and the name of _Perdita_ written thereon, and
+words obscurely intimating its high birth and untoward fate.
+
+[Illustration: PERDITA]
+
+This poor deserted baby was found by a shepherd. He was a humane man,
+and so he carried the little Perdita home to his wife, who nursed it
+tenderly; but poverty tempted the shepherd to conceal the rich prize he
+had found: therefore he left that part of the country, that no one might
+know where he got his riches, and with part of Perdita's jewels he
+bought herds of sheep, and became a wealthy shepherd. He brought up
+Perdita as his own child, and she knew not she was any other than a
+shepherd's daughter.
+
+The little Perdita grew up a lovely maiden; and though she had no better
+education than that of a shepherd's daughter, yet so did the natural
+graces she inherited from her royal mother shine forth in her untutored
+mind, that no one from her behaviour would have known she had not been
+brought up in her father's court.
+
+Polixenes, the King of Bohemia, had an only son, whose name was
+Florizel. As this young prince was hunting near the shepherd's dwelling,
+he saw the old man's supposed daughter; and the beauty, modesty, and
+queen-like deportment of Perdita caused him instantly to fall in love
+with her. He soon, under the name of Doricles, and in the disguise of a
+private gentleman, became a constant visitor at the old shepherd's
+house. Florizel's frequent absences from court alarmed Polixenes; and
+setting people to watch his son, he discovered his love for the
+shepherd's fair daughter.
+
+Polixenes then called for Camillo, the faithful Camillo, who had
+preserved his life from the fury of Leontes, and desired that he would
+accompany him to the house of the shepherd, the supposed father of
+Perdita.
+
+Polixenes and Camillo, both in disguise, arrived at the old shepherd's
+dwelling while they were celebrating the feast of sheep-shearing; and
+though they were strangers, yet at the sheep-shearing every guest being
+made welcome, they were invited to walk in, and join in the general
+festivity.
+
+Nothing but mirth and jollity was going forward. Tables were spread, and
+great preparations were making for the rustic feast. Some lads and
+lasses were dancing on the green before the house, while others of the
+young men were buying ribands, gloves, and such toys, of a pedlar at the
+door.
+
+While this busy scene was going forward, Florizel and Perdita sat
+quietly in a retired corner, seemingly more pleased with the
+conversation of each other, than desirous of engaging in the sports and
+silly amusements of those around them.
+
+The king was so disguised that it was impossible his son could know him:
+he therefore advanced near enough to hear the conversation. The simple
+yet elegant manner in which Perdita conversed with his son did not a
+little surprise Polixenes: he said to Camillo, "This is the prettiest
+low-born lass I ever saw; nothing she does or says but looks like
+something greater than herself, too noble for this place."
+
+Camillo replied, "Indeed she is the very queen of curds and cream."
+
+"Pray, my good friend," said the king to the old shepherd, "what fair
+swain is that talking with your daughter?" "They call him Doricles,"
+replied the shepherd. "He says he loves my daughter; and, to speak
+truth, there is not a kiss to choose which loves the other best. If
+young Doricles can get her, she shall bring him that he little dreams
+of;" meaning the remainder of Perdita's jewels; which, after he had
+bought herds of sheep with part of them, he had carefully hoarded up for
+her marriage portion.
+
+Polixenes then addressed his son. "How now, young man!" said he: "your
+heart seems full of something that takes off your mind from feasting.
+When I was young, I used to load my love with presents; but you have let
+the pedlar go, and have bought your lass no toy."
+
+The young prince, who little thought he was talking to the king his
+father, replied, "Old sir, she prizes not such trifles; the gifts which
+Perdita expects from me are locked up in my heart." Then turning to
+Perdita, he said to her, "O hear me, Perdita, before this ancient
+gentleman, who it seems was once himself a lover; he shall hear what I
+profess." Florizel then called upon the old stranger to be a witness to
+a solemn promise of marriage which he made to Perdita, saying to
+Polixenes, "I pray you, mark our contract."
+
+"Mark your divorce, young sir," said the king, discovering himself.
+Polixenes then reproached his son for daring to contract himself to this
+low-born maiden, calling Perdita "shepherd's-brat, sheep-hook," and
+other disrespectful names; and threatening, if ever she suffered his son
+to see her again, he would put her, and the old shepherd her father, to
+a cruel death.
+
+The king then left them in great wrath, and ordered Camillo to follow
+him with Prince Florizel.
+
+When the king had departed, Perdita, whose royal nature was roused by
+Polixenes' reproaches, said, "Though we are all undone, I was not much
+afraid; and once or twice I was about to speak, and tell him plainly
+that the selfsame sun which shines upon his palace, hides not his face
+from our cottage, but looks on both alike." Then sorrowfully she said,
+"But now I am awakened from this dream, I will queen it no further.
+Leave me, sir; I will go milk my ewes and weep."
+
+The kind-hearted Camillo was charmed with the spirit and propriety of
+Perdita's behaviour; and perceiving that the young prince was too deeply
+in love to give up his mistress at the command of his royal father, he
+thought of a way to befriend the lovers, and at the same time to execute
+a favourite scheme he had in his mind.
+
+Camillo had long known that Leontes, the King of Sicily, was become a
+true penitent; and though Camillo was now the favoured friend of King
+Polixenes, he could not help wishing once more to see his late royal
+master and his native home. He therefore proposed to Florizel and
+Perdita that they should accompany him to the Sicilian court, where he
+would engage Leontes should protect them, till, through his mediation,
+they could obtain pardon from Polixenes, and his consent to their
+marriage.
+
+To this proposal they joyfully agreed; and Camillo, who conducted
+everything relative to their flight, allowed the old shepherd to go
+along with them.
+
+The shepherd took with him the remainder of Perdita's jewels, her baby
+clothes, and the paper which he had found pinned to her mantle.
+
+After a prosperous voyage, Florizel and Perdita, Camillo and the old
+shepherd, arrived in safety at the court of Leontes. Leontes, who still
+mourned his dead Hermione and his lost child, received Camillo with
+great kindness, and gave a cordial welcome to Prince Florizel. But
+Perdita, whom Florizel introduced as his princess, seemed to engross all
+Leontes' attention: perceiving a resemblance between her and his dead
+queen Hermione, his grief broke out afresh, and he said, such a lovely
+creature might his own daughter have been, if he had not so cruelly
+destroyed her. "And then, too," said he to Florizel, "I lost the society
+and friendship of your brave father, whom I now desire more than my life
+once again to look upon."
+
+When the old shepherd heard how much notice the king had taken of
+Perdita, and that he had lost a daughter, who was exposed in infancy, he
+fell to comparing the time when he found the little Perdita, with the
+manner of its exposure, the jewels and other tokens of its high birth;
+from all which it was impossible for him not to conclude that Perdita
+and the king's lost daughter were the same.
+
+Florizel and Perdita, Camillo and the faithful Paulina, were present
+when the old shepherd related to the king the manner in which he had
+found the child, and also the circumstance of Antigonus' death, he
+having seen the bear seize upon him. He showed the rich mantle in which
+Paulina remembered Hermione had wrapped the child; and he produced a
+jewel which she remembered Hermione had tied about Perdita's neck, and
+he gave up the paper which Paulina knew to be the writing of her
+husband; it could not be doubted that Perdita was Leontes' own daughter:
+but oh! the noble struggles of Paulina, between sorrow for her husband's
+death, and joy that the oracle was fulfilled, in the king's heir, his
+long-lost daughter being found. When Leontes heard that Perdita was his
+daughter, the great sorrow that he felt that Hermione was not living to
+behold her child, made him that he could say nothing for a long time,
+but, "O thy mother, thy mother!"
+
+Paulina interrupted this joyful yet distressful scene, with saying to
+Leontes, that she had a statue newly finished by that rare Italian
+master, Julio Romano, which was such a perfect resemblance of the queen,
+that would his majesty be pleased to go to her house and look upon it,
+he would be almost ready to think it was Hermione herself. Thither then
+they all went; the king anxious to see the semblance of his Hermione,
+and Perdita longing to behold what the mother she never saw did look
+like.
+
+When Paulina drew back the curtain which concealed this famous statue,
+so perfectly did it resemble Hermione, that all the king's sorrow was
+renewed at the sight: for a long time he had no power to speak or move.
+
+"I like your silence, my liege," said Paulina, "it the more shows your
+wonder. Is not this statue very like your queen?"
+
+At length the king said, "O, thus she stood, even with such majesty,
+when I first wooed her. But yet, Paulina, Hermione was not so aged as
+this statue looks." Paulina replied, "So much the more the carver's
+excellence, who has made the statue as Hermione would have looked had
+she been living now. But let me draw the curtain, sire, lest presently
+you think it moves."
+
+The king then said, "Do not draw the curtain; Would I were dead! See,
+Camillo, would you not think it breathed? Her eye seems to have motion
+in it." "I must draw the curtain, my liege," said Paulina. "You are so
+transported, you will persuade yourself the statue lives." "O, sweet
+Paulina," said Leontes, "make me think so twenty years together! Still
+methinks there is an air comes from her. What fine chisel could ever yet
+cut breath? Let no man mock me, for I will kiss her." "Good my lord,
+forbear!" said Paulina. "The ruddiness upon her lip is wet; you will
+stain your own with oily painting. Shall I draw the curtain?" "No, not
+these twenty years," said Leontes.
+
+Perdita, who all this time had been kneeling, and beholding in silent
+admiration the statue of her matchless mother, said now, "And so long
+could I stay here, looking upon my dear mother."
+
+"Either forbear this transport," said Paulina to Leontes, "and let me
+draw the curtain; or prepare yourself for more amazement. I can make the
+statue move indeed; ay, and descend from off the pedestal, and take you
+by the hand. But then you will think, which I protest I am not, that I
+am assisted by some wicked powers."
+
+"What you can make her do," said the astonished king, "I am content to
+look upon. What you can make her speak, I am content to hear; for it is
+as easy to make her speak as move."
+
+Paulina then ordered some slow and solemn music, which she had prepared
+for the purpose, to strike up; and, to the amazement of all the
+beholders, the statue came down from off the pedestal, and threw its
+arms around Leontes' neck. The statue then began to speak, praying for
+blessings on her husband, and on her child, the newly-found Perdita.
+
+No wonder that the statue hung upon Leontes' neck, and blessed her
+husband and her child. No wonder; for the statue was indeed Hermione
+herself, the real, the living queen.
+
+Paulina had falsely reported to the king the death of Hermione,
+thinking that the only means to preserve her royal mistress' life; and
+with the good Paulina, Hermione had lived ever since, never choosing
+Leontes should know she was living, till she heard Perdita was found;
+for though she had long forgiven the injuries which Leontes had done to
+herself, she could not pardon his cruelty to his infant daughter.
+
+His dead queen thus restored to life, his lost daughter found, the
+long-sorrowing Leontes could scarcely support the excess of his own
+happiness.
+
+Nothing but congratulations and affectionate speeches were heard on all
+sides. Now the delighted parents thanked Prince Florizel for loving
+their lowly-seeming daughter; and now they blessed the good old shepherd
+for preserving their child. Greatly did Camillo and Paulina rejoice that
+they had lived to see so good an end of all their faithful services.
+
+And as if nothing should be wanting to complete this strange and
+unlooked-for joy, King Polixenes himself now entered the palace.
+
+When Polixenes first missed his son and Camillo, knowing that Camillo
+had long wished to return to Sicily, he conjectured he should find the
+fugitives here; and, following them with all speed, he happened to just
+arrive at this, the happiest moment of Leontes' life.
+
+Polixenes took a part in the general joy; he forgave his friend Leontes
+the unjust jealousy he had conceived against him, and they once more
+loved each other with all the warmth of their first boyish friendship.
+And there was no fear that Polixenes would now oppose his son's marriage
+with Perdita. She was no "sheep-hook" now, but the heiress of the crown
+of Sicily.
+
+Thus have we seen the patient virtues of the long-suffering Hermione
+rewarded. That excellent lady lived many years with her Leontes and her
+Perdita, the happiest of mothers and of queens.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
+
+
+There lived in the palace at Messina two ladies, whose names were Hero
+and Beatrice. Hero was the daughter, and Beatrice the niece, of Leonato,
+the governor of Messina.
+
+Beatrice was of a lively temper, and loved to divert her cousin Hero,
+who was of a more serious disposition, with her sprightly sallies.
+Whatever was going forward was sure to make matter of mirth for the
+light-hearted Beatrice.
+
+At the time the history of these ladies commences some young men of high
+rank in the army, as they were passing through Messina on their return
+from a war that was just ended, in which they had distinguished
+themselves by their great bravery, came to visit Leonato. Among these
+were Don Pedro, the Prince of Arragon; and his friend Claudio, who was a
+lord of Florence; and with them came the wild and witty Benedick, and he
+was a lord of Padua.
+
+These strangers had been at Messina before, and the hospitable governor
+introduced them to his daughter and his niece as their old friends and
+acquaintance.
+
+Benedick, the moment he entered the room, began a lively conversation
+with Leonato and the prince. Beatrice, who liked not to be left out of
+any discourse, interrupted Benedick with saying, "I wonder that you will
+still be talking, Signior Benedick: nobody marks you." Benedick was
+just such another rattle-brain as Beatrice, yet he was not pleased at
+this free salutation; he thought it did not become a well-bred lady to
+be so flippant with her tongue; and he remembered, when he was last at
+Messina, that Beatrice used to select him to make her merry jests upon.
+And as there is no one who so little likes to be made a jest of as those
+who are apt to take the same liberty themselves, so it was with Benedick
+and Beatrice; these two sharp wits never met in former times but a
+perfect war of raillery was kept up between them, and they always parted
+mutually displeased with each other. Therefore when Beatrice stopped him
+in the middle of his discourse with telling him nobody marked what he
+was saying, Benedick, affecting not to have observed before that she was
+present, said, "What, my dear Lady Disdain, are you yet living?" And now
+war broke out afresh between them, and a long jangling argument ensued,
+during which Beatrice, although she knew he had so well approved his
+valour in the late war, said that she would eat all he had killed there:
+and observing the prince take delight in Benedick's conversation, she
+called him "the prince's jester." This sarcasm sunk deeper into the mind
+of Benedick than all Beatrice had said before. The hint she gave him
+that he was a coward, by saying she would eat all he had killed, he did
+not regard, knowing himself to be a brave man; but there is nothing that
+great wits so much dread as the imputation of buffoonery, because the
+charge comes sometimes a little too near the truth: therefore Benedick
+perfectly hated Beatrice when she called him "the prince's jester."
+
+The modest lady Hero was silent before the noble guests; and while
+Claudio was attentively observing the improvement which time had made in
+her beauty, and was contemplating the exquisite graces of her fine
+figure (for she was an admirable young lady), the prince was highly
+amused with listening to the humorous dialogue between Benedick and
+Beatrice; and he said in a whisper to Leonato, "This is a
+pleasant-spirited young lady. She were an excellent wife for Benedick."
+Leonato replied to this suggestion, "O, my lord, my lord, if they were
+but a week married, they would talk themselves mad." But though Leonato
+thought they would make a discordant pair, the prince did not give up
+the idea of matching these two keen wits together.
+
+When the prince returned with Claudio from the palace, he found that the
+marriage he had devised between Benedick and Beatrice was not the only
+one projected in that good company, for Claudio spoke in such terms of
+Hero, as made the prince guess at what was passing in his heart; and he
+liked it well, and he said to Claudio, "Do you affect Hero?" To this
+question Claudio replied, "O my lord, when I was last at Messina, I
+looked upon her with a soldier's eye, that liked, but had no leisure for
+loving; but now, in this happy time of peace, thoughts of war have left
+their places vacant in my mind, and in their room come thronging soft
+and delicate thoughts, all prompting me how fair young Hero is,
+reminding me that I liked her before I went to the wars." Claudio's
+confession of his love for Hero so wrought upon the prince, that he lost
+no time in soliciting the consent of Leonato to accept of Claudio for a
+son-in-law. Leonato agreed to this proposal, and the prince found no
+great difficulty in persuading the gentle Hero herself to listen to the
+suit of the noble Claudio, who was a lord of rare endowments, and highly
+accomplished, and Claudio, assisted by his kind prince, soon prevailed
+upon Leonato to fix an early day for the celebration of his marriage
+with Hero.
+
+Claudio was to wait but a few days before he was to be married to his
+fair lady; yet he complained of the interval being tedious, as indeed
+most young men are impatient when they are waiting for the
+accomplishment of any event they have set their hearts upon: the prince,
+therefore, to make the time seem short to him, proposed as a kind of
+merry pastime that they should invent some artful scheme to make
+Benedick and Beatrice fall in love with each other. Claudio entered with
+great satisfaction into this whim of the prince, and Leonato promised
+them his assistance, and even Hero said she would do any modest office
+to help her cousin to a good husband.
+
+The device the prince invented was, that the gentlemen should make
+Benedick believe that Beatrice was in love with him, and that Hero
+should make Beatrice believe that Benedick was in love with her.
+
+The prince, Leonato, and Claudio began their operations first: and
+watching upon an opportunity when Benedick was quietly seated reading in
+an arbour, the prince and his assistants took their station among the
+trees behind the arbour, so near that Benedick could not choose but hear
+all they said; and after some careless talk the prince said, "Come
+hither, Leonato. What was it you told me the other day--that your niece
+Beatrice was in love with signior Benedick? I did never think that lady
+would have loved any man." "No, nor I neither, my lord," answered
+Leonato. "It is most wonderful that she should so dote on Benedick, whom
+she in all outward behaviour seemed ever to dislike." Claudio confirmed
+all this with saying that Hero had told him Beatrice was so in love with
+Benedick, that she would certainly die of grief, if he could not be
+brought to love her; which Leonato and Claudio seemed to agree was
+impossible, he having always been such a railer against all fair ladies,
+and in particular against Beatrice.
+
+The prince affected to hearken to all this with great compassion for
+Beatrice, and he said, "It were good that Benedick were told of this."
+"To what end?" said Claudio; "he would but make sport of it, and torment
+the poor lady worse." "And if he should," said the prince, "it were a
+good deed to hang him; for Beatrice is an excellent sweet lady, and
+exceeding wise in everything but in loving Benedick." Then the prince
+motioned to his companions that they should walk on, and leave Benedick
+to meditate upon what he had overheard.
+
+Benedick had been listening with great eagerness to this conversation;
+and he said to himself when he heard Beatrice loved him, "Is it
+possible? Sits the wind in that corner?" And when they were gone, he
+began to reason in this manner with himself: "This can be no trick! they
+were very serious, and they have the truth from Hero, and seem to pity
+the lady. Love me! Why it must be requited! I did never think to marry.
+But when I said I should die a bachelor, I did not think I should live
+to be married. They say the lady is virtuous and fair. She is so. And
+wise in everything but loving me. Why, that is no great argument of her
+folly. But here comes Beatrice. By this day, she is a fair lady. I do
+spy some marks of love in her." Beatrice now approached him, and said
+with her usual tartness, "Against my will I am sent to bid you come in
+to dinner." Benedick, who never felt himself disposed to speak so
+politely to her before, replied, "Fair Beatrice, I thank you for your
+pains:" and when Beatrice, after two or three more rude speeches, left
+him, Benedick thought he observed a concealed meaning of kindness under
+the uncivil words she uttered, and he said aloud, "If I do not take pity
+on her, I am a villain. If I do not love her, I am a Jew. I will go get
+her picture."
+
+The gentleman being thus caught in the net they had spread for him, it
+was now Hero's turn to play her part with Beatrice; and for this purpose
+she sent for Ursula and Margaret, two gentlewomen who attended upon her,
+and she said to Margaret, "Good Margaret, run to the parlour; there you
+will find my cousin Beatrice talking with the prince and Claudio.
+Whisper in her ear, that I and Ursula are walking in the orchard, and
+that our discourse is all of her. Bid her steal into that pleasant
+arbour, where honeysuckles, ripened by the sun, like ungrateful minions,
+forbid the sun to enter." This arbour, into which Hero desired Margaret
+to entice Beatrice, was the very same pleasant arbour where Benedick had
+so lately been an attentive listener.
+
+"I will make her come, I warrant, presently," said Margaret.
+
+Hero, then taking Ursula with her into the orchard, said to her, "Now,
+Ursula, when Beatrice comes, we will walk up and down this alley, and
+our talk must be only of Benedick, and when I name him, let it be your
+part to praise him more than ever man did merit. My talk to you must be
+how Benedick is in love with Beatrice. Now begin; for look where
+Beatrice like a lapwing runs close by the ground, to hear our
+conference." They then began; Hero saying, as if in answer to something
+which Ursula had said, "No, truly, Ursula. She is too disdainful; her
+spirits are as coy as wild birds of the rock." "But are you sure," said
+Ursula, "that Benedick loves Beatrice so entirely?" Hero replied, "So
+says the prince, and my lord Claudio, and they entreated me to acquaint
+her with it; but I persuaded them, if they loved Benedick, never to let
+Beatrice know of it." "Certainly," replied Ursula, "it were not good she
+knew his love, lest she made sport of it." "Why, to say truth," said
+Hero, "I never yet saw a man, how wise soever, or noble, young, or
+rarely featured, but she would dispraise him." "Sure sure, such carping
+is not commendable," said Ursula. "No," replied Hero, "but who dare tell
+her so? If I should speak, she would mock me into air." "O! you wrong
+your cousin," said Ursula: "she cannot be so much without true judgment,
+as to refuse so rare a gentleman as signior Benedick." "He hath an
+excellent good name," said Hero: "indeed, he is the first man in Italy,
+always excepting my dear Claudio." And now, Hero giving her attendant a
+hint that it was time to change the discourse, Ursula said, "And when
+are you to be married, madam?" Hero then told her, that she was to be
+married to Claudio the next day, and desired she would go in with her,
+and look at some new attire, as she wished to consult with her on what
+she would wear on the morrow. Beatrice, who had been listening with
+breathless eagerness to this dialogue, when they went away, exclaimed,
+"What fire is in mine ears? Can this be true? Farewell, contempt and
+scorn, and maiden pride, adieu! Benedick, love on! I will requite you,
+taming my wild heart to your loving hand."
+
+It must have been a pleasant sight to see these old enemies converted
+into new and loving friends, and to behold their first meeting after
+being cheated into mutual liking by the merry artifice of the
+good-humoured prince. But a sad reverse in the fortunes of Hero must now
+be thought of. The morrow, which was to have been her wedding-day,
+brought sorrow on the heart of Hero and her good father Leonato.
+
+The prince had a half-brother, who came from the wars along with him to
+Messina. This brother (his name was Don John) was a melancholy,
+discontented man, whose spirits seemed to labour in the contriving of
+villanies. He hated the prince his brother, and he hated Claudio,
+because he was the prince's friend, and determined to prevent Claudio's
+marriage with Hero, only for the malicious pleasure of making Claudio
+and the prince unhappy; for he knew the prince had set his heart upon
+this marriage, almost as much as Claudio himself; and to effect this
+wicked purpose, he employed one Borachio, a man as bad as himself, whom
+he encouraged with the offer of a great reward. This Borachio paid his
+court to Margaret, Hero's attendant; and Don John, knowing this,
+prevailed upon him to make Margaret promise to talk with him from her
+lady's chamber window that night, after Hero was asleep, and also to
+dress herself in Hero's clothes, the better to deceive Claudio into the
+belief that it was Hero; for that was the end he meant to compass by
+this wicked plot.
+
+Don John then went to the prince and Claudio, and told them that Hero
+was an imprudent lady, and that she talked with men from her chamber
+window at midnight. Now this was the evening before the wedding, and he
+offered to take them that night, where they should themselves hear Hero
+discoursing with a man from her window; and they consented to go along
+with him, and Claudio said, "If I see anything to-night why I should not
+marry her, to-morrow in the congregation, where I intended to wed her,
+there will I shame her." The prince also said, "And as I assisted you to
+obtain her, I will join with you to disgrace her."
+
+When Don John brought them near Hero's chamber that night, they saw
+Borachio standing under the window, and they saw Margaret looking out of
+Hero's window, and heard her talking with Borachio: and Margaret being
+dressed in the same clothes they had seen Hero wear, the prince and
+Claudio believed it was the lady Hero herself.
+
+Nothing could equal the anger of Claudio, when he had made (as he
+thought) this discovery. All his love for the innocent Hero was at once
+converted into hatred, and he resolved to expose her in the church, as
+he had said he would, the next day; and the prince agreed to this,
+thinking no punishment could be too severe for the naughty lady, who
+talked with a man from her window the very night before she was going to
+be married to the noble Claudio.
+
+The next day, when they were all met to celebrate the marriage, and
+Claudio and Hero were standing before the priest, and the priest, or
+friar, as he was called, was proceeding to pronounce the marriage
+ceremony, Claudio, in the most passionate language, proclaimed the guilt
+of the blameless Hero, who, amazed at the strange words he uttered, said
+meekly, "Is my lord well, that he does speak so wide?"
+
+Leonato, in the utmost horror, said to the prince, "My lord, why speak
+not you?" "What should I speak?" said the prince; "I stand dishonoured,
+that have gone about to link my dear friend to an unworthy woman.
+Leonato, upon my honour, myself, my brother, and this grieved Claudio,
+did see and hear her last night at midnight talk with a man at her
+chamber window."
+
+Benedick, in astonishment at what he heard, said, "This looks not like a
+nuptial."
+
+"True, O God!" replied the heart-struck Hero; and then this hapless lady
+sunk down in a fainting fit, to all appearance dead. The prince and
+Claudio left the church, without staying to see if Hero would recover,
+or at all regarding the distress into which they had thrown Leonato. So
+hard-hearted had their anger made them.
+
+Benedick remained, and assisted Beatrice to recover Hero from her swoon,
+saying, "How does the lady?" "Dead, I think," replied Beatrice in great
+agony, for she loved her cousin; and knowing her virtuous principles,
+she believed nothing of what she had heard spoken against her. Not so
+the poor old father; he believed the story of his child's shame, and it
+was piteous to hear him lamenting over her, as she lay like one dead
+before him, wishing she might never more open her eyes.
+
+But the ancient friar was a wise man, and full of observation on human
+nature, and he had attentively marked the lady's countenance when she
+heard herself accused, and noted a thousand blushing shames to start
+into her face, and then he saw an angel-like whiteness bear away those
+blushes, and in her eye he saw a fire that did belie the error that the
+prince did speak against her maiden truth, and he said to the sorrowing
+father, "Call me a fool; trust not my reading, nor my observation; trust
+not my age, my reverence, nor my calling, if this sweet lady lie not
+guiltless here under some biting error."
+
+When Hero had recovered from the swoon into which she had fallen, the
+friar said to her, "Lady, what man is he you are accused of?" Hero
+replied, "They know that do accuse me; I know of none:" then turning to
+Leonato, she said, "O my father, if you can prove that any man has ever
+conversed with me at hours unmeet, or that I yesternight changed words
+with any creature, refuse me, hate me, torture me to death."
+
+"There is," said the friar, "some strange misunderstanding in the prince
+and Claudio;" and then he counselled Leonato, that he should report that
+Hero was dead; and he said that the death-like swoon in which they had
+left Hero would make this easy of belief; and he also advised him that
+he should put on mourning, and erect a monument for her, and do all
+rites that appertain to a burial. "What shall become of this?" said
+Leonato; "What will this do?" The friar replied, "This report of her
+death shall change slander into pity: that is some good; but that is not
+all the good I hope for. When Claudio shall hear she died upon hearing
+his words, the idea of her life shall sweetly creep into his
+imagination. Then shall he mourn, if ever love had interest in his
+heart, and wish that he had not so accused her; yea, though he thought
+his accusation true."
+
+Benedick now said, "Leonato, let the friar advise you; and though you
+know how well I love the prince and Claudio, yet on my honour I will not
+reveal this secret to them."
+
+Leonato, thus persuaded, yielded; and he said sorrowfully, "I am so
+grieved, that the smallest twine may lead me." The kind friar then led
+Leonato and Hero away to comfort and console them, and Beatrice and
+Benedick remained alone; and this was the meeting from which their
+friends, who contrived the merry plot against them, expected so much
+diversion; those friends who were now overwhelmed with affliction, and
+from whose minds all thoughts of merriment seemed for ever banished.
+
+Benedick was the first who spoke, and he said, "Lady Beatrice, have you
+wept all this while?" "Yea, and I will weep a while longer," said
+Beatrice. "Surely," said Benedick, "I do believe your fair cousin is
+wronged." "Ah!" said Beatrice, "how much might that man deserve of me
+who would right her!" Benedick then said, "Is there any way to show such
+friendship? I do love nothing in the world so well as you: is not that
+strange?" "It were as possible," said Beatrice, "for me to say I loved
+nothing in the world so well as you; but believe me not, and yet I lie
+not. I confess nothing, nor I deny nothing. I am sorry for my cousin."
+"By my sword," said Benedick, "you love me, and I protest I love you.
+Come, bid me do anything for you." "Kill Claudio," said Beatrice. "Ha!
+not for the wide world," said Benedick; for he loved his friend Claudio,
+and he believed he had been imposed upon. "Is not Claudio a villain,
+that has slandered, scorned, and dishonoured my cousin?" said Beatrice:
+"O that I were a man!" "Hear me, Beatrice!" said Benedick. But Beatrice
+would hear nothing in Claudio's defence; and she continued to urge on
+Benedick to revenge her cousin's wrongs: and she said, "Talk with a man
+out of the window; a proper saying! Sweet Hero! she is wronged; she is
+slandered; she is undone. O that I were a man for Claudio's sake! or
+that I had any friend, who would be a man for my sake! but valour is
+melted into courtesies and compliments. I cannot be a man with wishing,
+therefore I will die a woman with grieving." "Tarry, good Beatrice,"
+said Benedick: "by this hand I love you." "Use it for my love some other
+way than swearing by it," said Beatrice. "Think you on your soul that
+Claudio has wronged Hero?" asked Benedick. "Yea," answered Beatrice; "as
+sure as I have a thought, or a soul." "Enough," said Benedick; "I am
+engaged; I will challenge him. I will kiss your hand, and so leave you.
+By this hand, Claudio shall render me a dear account! As you hear from
+me, so think of me. Go, comfort your cousin."
+
+While Beatrice was thus powerfully pleading with Benedick, and working
+his gallant temper by the spirit of her angry words, to engage in the
+cause of Hero, and fight even with his dear friend Claudio, Leonato was
+challenging the prince and Claudio to answer with their swords the
+injury they had done his child, who, he affirmed, had died for grief.
+But they respected his age and his sorrow, and they said, "Nay, do not
+quarrel with us, good old man." And now came Benedick, and he also
+challenged Claudio to answer with his sword the injury he had done to
+Hero; and Claudio and the prince said to each other, "Beatrice has set
+him on to do this." Claudio nevertheless must have accepted this
+challenge of Benedick, had not the justice of Heaven at the moment
+brought to pass a better proof of the innocence of Hero than the
+uncertain fortune of a duel.
+
+While the prince and Claudio were yet talking of the challenge of
+Benedick, a magistrate brought Borachio as a prisoner before the prince.
+Borachio had been overheard talking with one of his companions of the
+mischief he had been employed by Don John to do.
+
+Borachio made a full confession to the prince in Claudio's hearing, that
+it was Margaret dressed in her lady's clothes that he had talked with
+from the window, whom they had mistaken for the lady Hero herself; and
+no doubt continued on the minds of Claudio and the prince of the
+innocence of Hero. If a suspicion had remained it must have been removed
+by the flight of Don John, who, finding his villanies were detected,
+fled from Messina to avoid the just anger of his brother.
+
+The heart of Claudio was sorely grieved when he found he had falsely
+accused Hero, who, he thought, died upon hearing his cruel words; and
+the memory of his beloved Hero's image came over him, in the rare
+semblance that he loved it first; and the prince asking him if what he
+heard did not run like iron through his soul, he answered, that he felt
+as if he had taken poison while Borachio was speaking.
+
+And the repentant Claudio implored forgiveness of the old man Leonato
+for the injury he had done his child; and promised, that whatever
+penance Leonato would lay upon him for his fault in believing the false
+accusation against his betrothed wife, for her dear sake he would endure
+it.
+
+The penance Leonato enjoined him was, to marry the next morning a cousin
+of Hero's, who, he said, was now his heir, and in person very like Hero.
+Claudio, regarding the solemn promise he made to Leonato, said, he would
+marry this unknown lady, even though she were an Ethiop: but his heart
+was very sorrowful, and he passed that night in tears, and in remorseful
+grief, at the tomb which Leonato had erected for Hero.
+
+When the morning came, the prince accompanied Claudio to the church,
+where the good friar, and Leonato and his niece, were already assembled,
+to celebrate a second nuptial; and Leonato presented to Claudio his
+promised bride; and she wore a mask, that Claudio might not discover her
+face. And Claudio said to the lady in the mask, "Give me your hand,
+before this holy friar; I am your husband, if you will marry me." "And
+when I lived I was your other wife," said this unknown lady; and, taking
+off her mask, she proved to be no niece (as was pretended), but
+Leonato's very daughter, the Lady Hero herself. We may be sure that this
+proved a most agreeable surprise to Claudio, who thought her dead, so
+that he could scarcely for joy believe his eyes; and the prince, who was
+equally amazed at what he saw, exclaimed, "Is not this Hero, Hero that
+was dead?" Leonato replied, "She died, my lord, but while her slander
+lived." The friar promised them an explanation of this seeming miracle,
+after the ceremony was ended; and was proceeding to marry them, when he
+was interrupted by Benedick, who desired to be married at the same time
+to Beatrice. Beatrice making some demur to this match, and Benedick
+challenging her with her love for him, which he had learned from Hero, a
+pleasant explanation took place; and they found they had both been
+tricked into a belief of love, which had never existed, and had become
+lovers in truth by the power of a false jest: but the affection, which
+a merry invention had cheated them into, was grown too powerful to be
+shaken by a serious explanation; and since Benedick proposed to marry,
+he was resolved to think nothing to the purpose that the world could say
+against it; and he merrily kept up the jest, and swore to Beatrice, that
+he took her but for pity, and because he heard she was dying of love for
+him; and Beatrice protested, that she yielded but upon great persuasion,
+and partly to save his life, for she heard he was in a consumption. So
+these two mad wits were reconciled, and made a match of it, after
+Claudio and Hero were married; and to complete the history, Don John,
+the contriver of the villany, was taken in his flight, and brought back
+to Messina; and a brave punishment it was to this gloomy, discontented
+man, to see the joy and feastings which, by the disappointment of his
+plots, took place in the palace in Messina.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+AS YOU LIKE IT
+
+
+During the time that France was divided into provinces (or dukedoms as
+they were called) there reigned in one of these provinces an usurper,
+who had deposed and banished his elder brother, the lawful duke.
+
+The duke, who was thus driven from his dominions, retired with a few
+faithful followers to the forest of Arden; and here the good duke lived
+with his loving friends, who had put themselves into a voluntary exile
+for his sake, while their land and revenues enriched the false usurper;
+and custom soon made the life of careless ease they led here more sweet
+to them than the pomp and uneasy splendour of a courtier's life. Here
+they lived like the old Robin Hood of England, and to this forest many
+noble youths daily resorted from the court, and did fleet the time
+carelessly, as they did who lived in the golden age. In the summer they
+lay along under the fine shade of the large forest trees, marking the
+playful sports of the wild deer; and so fond were they of these poor
+dappled fools, who seemed to be the native inhabitants of the forest,
+that it grieved them to be forced to kill them to supply themselves with
+venison for their food. When the cold winds of winter made the duke feel
+the change of his adverse fortune, he would endure it patiently, and
+say, "These chilling winds which blow upon my body are true counsellors;
+they do not flatter, but represent truly to me my condition; and though
+they bite sharply, their tooth is nothing like so keen as that of
+unkindness and ingratitude. I find that howsoever men speak against
+adversity, yet some sweet uses are to be extracted from it; like the
+jewel, precious for medicine, which is taken from the head of the
+venomous and despised toad." In this manner did the patient duke draw a
+useful moral from everything that he saw; and by the help of this
+moralising turn, in that life of his, remote from public haunts, he
+could find tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in
+stones, and good in everything.
+
+The banished duke had an only daughter, named Rosalind, whom the
+usurper, Duke Frederick, when he banished her father, still retained in
+his court as a companion for his own daughter Celia. A strict friendship
+subsisted between these ladies, which the disagreement between their
+fathers did not in the least interrupt, Celia striving by every kindness
+in her power to make amends to Rosalind for the injustice of her own
+father in deposing the father of Rosalind; and whenever the thoughts of
+her father's banishment, and her own dependence on the false usurper,
+made Rosalind melancholy, Celia's whole care was to comfort and console
+her.
+
+One day, when Celia was talking in her usual kind manner to Rosalind,
+saying, "I pray you, Rosalind, my sweet cousin, be merry," a messenger
+entered from the duke, to tell them that if they wished to see a
+wrestling match, which was just going to begin, they must come instantly
+to the court before the palace; and Celia, thinking it would amuse
+Rosalind, agreed to go and see it.
+
+In those times wrestling, which is only practised now by country clowns,
+was a favourite sport even in the courts of princes, and before fair
+ladies and princesses. To this wrestling match, therefore, Celia and
+Rosalind went. They found that it was likely to prove a very tragical
+sight; for a large and powerful man, who had been long practised in the
+art of wrestling, and had slain many men in contests of this kind, was
+just going to wrestle with a very young man, who, from his extreme youth
+and inexperience in the art, the beholders all thought would certainly
+be killed.
+
+When the duke saw Celia and Rosalind, he said, "How now, daughter and
+niece, are you crept hither to see the wrestling? You will take little
+delight in it, there is such odds in the men: in pity to this young man,
+I would wish to persuade him from wrestling. Speak to him, ladies, and
+see if you can move him."
+
+The ladies were well pleased to perform this humane office, and first
+Celia entreated the young stranger that he would desist from the
+attempt; and then Rosalind spoke so kindly to him, and with such feeling
+consideration for the danger he was about to undergo, that instead of
+being persuaded by her gentle words to forego his purpose, all his
+thoughts were bent to distinguish himself by his courage in this lovely
+lady's eyes. He refused the request of Celia and Rosalind in such
+graceful and modest words, that they felt still more concern for him; he
+concluded his refusal with saying, "I am sorry to deny such fair and
+excellent ladies anything. But let your fair eyes and gentle wishes go
+with me to my trial, wherein if I be conquered there is one shamed that
+was never gracious; if I am killed, there is one dead that is willing to
+die; I shall do my friends no wrong, for I have none to lament me; the
+world no injury, for in it I have nothing; for I only fill up a place in
+the world which may be better supplied when I have made it empty."
+
+And now the wrestling match began. Celia wished the young stranger
+might not be hurt; but Rosalind felt most for him. The friendless state
+which he said he was in, and that he wished to die, made Rosalind think
+that he was like herself, unfortunate; and she pitied him so much, and
+so deep an interest she took in his danger while he was wrestling, that
+she might almost be said at that moment to have fallen in love with him.
+
+The kindness shown this unknown youth by these fair and noble ladies
+gave him courage and strength, so that he performed wonders; and in the
+end completely conquered his antagonist, who was so much hurt, that for
+a while he was unable to speak or move.
+
+The Duke Frederick was much pleased with the courage and skill shown by
+this young stranger; and desired to know his name and parentage, meaning
+to take him under his protection.
+
+The stranger said his name was Orlando, and that he was the youngest son
+of Sir Rowland de Boys.
+
+Sir Rowland de Boys, the father of Orlando, had been dead some years;
+but when he was living, he had been a true subject and dear friend of
+the banished duke: therefore, when Frederick heard Orlando was the son
+of his banished brother's friend, all his liking for this brave young
+man was changed into displeasure, and he left the place in very ill
+humour. Hating to hear the very name of any of his brother's friends,
+and yet still admiring the valour of the youth, he said, as he went out,
+that he wished Orlando had been the son of any other man.
+
+Rosalind was delighted to hear that her new favourite was the son of her
+father's old friend; and she said to Celia, "My father loved Sir Rowland
+de Boys, and if I had known this young man was his son, I would have
+added tears to my entreaties before he should have ventured."
+
+The ladies then went up to him; and seeing him abashed by the sudden
+displeasure shown by the duke, they spoke kind and encouraging words to
+him; and Rosalind, when they were going away, turned back to speak some
+more civil things to the brave young son of her father's old friend; and
+taking a chain from off her neck, she said, "Gentleman, wear this for
+me. I am out of suits with fortune, or I would give you a more valuable
+present."
+
+When the ladies were alone, Rosalind's talk being still of Orlando,
+Celia began to perceive her cousin had fallen in love with the handsome
+young wrestler, and she said to Rosalind, "Is it possible you should
+fall in love so suddenly?" Rosalind replied, "The duke, my father, loved
+his father dearly." "But," said Celia, "does it therefore follow that
+you should love his son dearly? for then I ought to hate him, for my
+father hated his father; yet I do not hate Orlando."
+
+Frederick being enraged at the sight of Sir Rowland de Boys' son, which
+reminded him of the many friends the banished duke had among the
+nobility, and having been for some time displeased with his niece,
+because the people praised her for her virtues, and pitied her for her
+good father's sake, his malice suddenly broke out against her; and while
+Celia and Rosalind were talking of Orlando, Frederick entered the room,
+and with looks full of anger ordered Rosalind instantly to leave the
+palace, and follow her father into banishment; telling Celia, who in
+vain pleaded for her, that he had only suffered Rosalind to stay upon
+her account. "I did not then," said Celia, "entreat you to let her stay,
+for I was too young at that time to value her; but now that I know her
+worth, and that we so long have slept together, rose at the same
+instant, learned, played, and eat together, I cannot live out of her
+company." Frederick replied, "She is too subtle for you; her smoothness,
+her very silence, and her patience speak to the people, and they pity
+her. You are a fool to plead for her, for you will seem more bright and
+virtuous when she is gone; therefore open not your lips in her favour,
+for the doom which I have passed upon her is irrevocable."
+
+When Celia found she could not prevail upon her father to let Rosalind
+remain with her, she generously resolved to accompany her; and leaving
+her father's palace that night, she went along with her friend to seek
+Rosalind's father, the banished duke, in the forest of Arden.
+
+Before they set out, Celia considered that it would be unsafe for two
+young ladies to travel in the rich clothes they then wore; she therefore
+proposed that they should disguise their rank by dressing themselves
+like country maids. Rosalind said it would be a still greater protection
+if one of them was to be dressed like a man; and so it was quickly
+agreed on between them, that as Rosalind was the tallest, she should
+wear the dress of a young countryman, and Celia should be habited like a
+country lass, and that they should say they were brother and sister, and
+Rosalind said she would be called Ganymede, and Celia chose the name of
+Aliena.
+
+[Illustration: GANYMEDE ASSUMED THE FORWARD MANNERS OFTEN SEEN IN YOUTHS
+WHEN THEY ARE BETWEEN BOYS AND MEN]
+
+In this disguise, and taking their money and jewels to defray their
+expenses, these fair princesses set out on their long travel; for the
+forest of Arden was a long way off, beyond the boundaries of the duke's
+dominions.
+
+The Lady Rosalind (or Ganymede as she must now be called) with her manly
+garb seemed to have put on a manly courage. The faithful friendship
+Celia had shown in accompanying Rosalind so many weary miles, made the
+new brother, in recompense for this true love, exert a cheerful spirit,
+as if he were indeed Ganymede, the rustic and stout-hearted brother of
+the gentle village maiden, Aliena.
+
+When at last they came to the forest of Arden, they no longer found the
+convenient inns and good accommodations they had met with on the road;
+and being in want of food and rest, Ganymede, who had so merrily cheered
+his sister with pleasant speeches and happy remarks all the way, now
+owned to Aliena that he was so weary, he could find in his heart to
+disgrace his man's apparel, and cry like a woman; and Aliena declared
+she could go no farther; and then again Ganymede tried to recollect
+that it was a man's duty to comfort and console a woman, as the weaker
+vessel; and to seem courageous to his new sister, he said, "Come, have a
+good heart, my sister Aliena; we are now at the end of our travel, in
+the forest of Arden." But feigned manliness and forced courage would no
+longer support them; for though they were in the forest of Arden, they
+knew not where to find the duke: and here the travel of these weary
+ladies might have come to a sad conclusion, for they might have lost
+themselves, and perished for want of food; but providentially, as they
+were sitting on the grass, almost dying with fatigue and hopeless of any
+relief, a countryman chanced to pass that way, and Ganymede once more
+tried to speak with a manly boldness, saying, "Shepherd, if love or gold
+can in this desert place procure us entertainment, I pray you bring us
+where we may rest ourselves; for this young maid, my sister, is much
+fatigued with travelling, and faints for want of food."
+
+The man replied that he was only a servant to a shepherd, and that his
+master's house was just going to be sold, and therefore they would find
+but poor entertainment; but that if they would go with him, they should
+be welcome to what there was. They followed the man, the near prospect
+of relief giving them fresh strength; and bought the house and sheep of
+the shepherd, and took the man who conducted them to the shepherd's
+house to wait on them; and being by this means so fortunately provided
+with a neat cottage, and well supplied with provisions, they agreed to
+stay here till they could learn in what part of the forest the duke
+dwelt.
+
+When they were rested after the fatigue of their journey, they began to
+like their new way of life, and almost fancied themselves the shepherd
+and shepherdess they feigned to be; yet sometimes Ganymede remembered he
+had once been the same Lady Rosalind who had so dearly loved the brave
+Orlando, because he was the son of old Sir Rowland, her father's
+friend; and though Ganymede thought that Orlando was many miles distant,
+even so many weary miles as they had travelled, yet it soon appeared
+that Orlando was also in the forest of Arden: and in this manner this
+strange event came to pass.
+
+Orlando was the youngest son of Sir Rowland de Boys, who, when he died,
+left him (Orlando being then very young) to the care of his eldest
+brother Oliver, charging Oliver on his blessing to give his brother a
+good education, and provide for him as became the dignity of their
+ancient house. Oliver proved an unworthy brother; and disregarding the
+commands of his dying father, he never put his brother to school, but
+kept him at home untaught and entirely neglected. But in his nature and
+in the noble qualities of his mind Orlando so much resembled his
+excellent father, that without any advantages of education he seemed
+like a youth who had been bred with the utmost care; and Oliver so
+envied the fine person and dignified manners of his untutored brother,
+that at last he wished to destroy him; and to effect this he set on
+people to persuade him to wrestle with the famous wrestler, who, as has
+been before related, had killed so many men. Now, it was this cruel
+brother's neglect of him which made Orlando say he wished to die, being
+so friendless.
+
+When, contrary to the wicked hopes he had formed, his brother proved
+victorious, his envy and malice knew no bounds, and he swore he would
+burn the chamber where Orlando slept. He was overheard making this vow
+by one that had been an old and faithful servant to their father, and
+that loved Orlando because he resembled Sir Rowland. This old man went
+out to meet him when he returned from the duke's palace, and when he saw
+Orlando, the peril his dear young master was in made him break out into
+these passionate exclamations: "O my gentle master, my sweet master, O
+you memory of old Sir Rowland! why are you virtuous? why are you gentle,
+strong, and valiant? and why would you be so fond to overcome the
+famous wrestler? Your praise is come too swiftly home before you."
+Orlando, wondering what all this meant, asked him what was the matter.
+And then the old man told him how his wicked brother, envying the love
+all people bore him, and now hearing the fame he had gained by his
+victory in the duke's palace, intended to destroy him, by setting fire
+to his chamber that night; and in conclusion, advised him to escape the
+danger he was in by instant flight; and knowing Orlando had no money,
+Adam (for that was the good old man's name) had brought out with him his
+own little hoard, and he said, "I have five hundred crowns, the thrifty
+hire I saved under your father, and laid by to be provision for me when
+my old limbs should become unfit for service; take that, and he that
+doth the ravens feed be comfort to my age! Here is the gold; all this I
+give to you: let me be your servant; though I look old I will do the
+service of a younger man in all your business and necessities." "O good
+old man!" said Orlando, "how well appears in you the constant service of
+the old world! You are not for the fashion of these times. We will go
+along together, and before your youthful wages are spent, I shall light
+upon some means for both our maintenance."
+
+Together then this faithful servant and his loved master set out; and
+Orlando and Adam travelled on, uncertain what course to pursue, till
+they came to the forest of Arden, and there they found themselves in the
+same distress for want of food that Ganymede and Aliena had been. They
+wandered on, seeking some human habitation, till they were almost spent
+with hunger and fatigue. Adam at last said, "O my dear master, I die for
+want of food, I can go no farther!" He then laid himself down, thinking
+to make that place his grave, and bade his dear master farewell.
+Orlando, seeing him in this weak state, took his old servant up in his
+arms, and carried him under the shelter of some pleasant trees; and he
+said to him, "Cheerly, old Adam, rest your weary limbs here awhile, and
+do not talk of dying!"
+
+Orlando then searched about to find some food, and he happened to arrive
+at that part of the forest where the duke was; and he and his friends
+were just going to eat their dinner, this royal duke being seated on the
+grass, under no other canopy than the shady covert of some large trees.
+
+Orlando, whom hunger had made desperate, drew his sword, intending to
+take their meat by force, and said, "Forbear and eat no more; I must
+have your food!" The duke asked him, if distress had made him so bold,
+or if he were a rude despiser of good manners? On this Orlando said, he
+was dying with hunger; and then the duke told him he was welcome to sit
+down and eat with them. Orlando hearing him speak so gently, put up his
+sword, and blushed with shame at the rude manner in which he had
+demanded their food. "Pardon me, I pray you," said he: "I thought that
+all things had been savage here, and therefore I put on the countenance
+of stern command; but whatever men you are, that in this desert, under
+the shade of melancholy boughs, lose and neglect the creeping hours of
+time; if ever you have looked on better days; if ever you have been
+where bells have knolled to church; if you have ever sat at any good
+man's feast; if ever from your eyelids you have wiped a tear, and know
+what it is to pity or be pitied, may gentle speeches now move you to do
+me human courtesy!" The duke replied, "True it is that we are men (as
+you say) who have seen better days, and though we have now our
+habitation in this wild forest, we have lived in towns and cities, and
+have with holy bell been knolled to church, have sat at good men's
+feasts, and from our eyes have wiped the drops which sacred pity has
+engendered; therefore sit you down, and take of our refreshment as much
+as will minister to your wants." "There is an old poor man," answered
+Orlando, "who has limped after me many a weary step in pure love,
+oppressed at once with two sad infirmities, age and hunger; till he be
+satisfied, I must not touch a bit." "Go, find him out, and bring him
+hither," said the duke; "we will forbear to eat till you return." Then
+Orlando went like a doe to find its fawn and give it food; and presently
+returned, bringing Adam in his arms; and the duke said, "Set down your
+venerable burthen; you are both welcome:" and they fed the old man, and
+cheered his heart, and he revived, and recovered his health and strength
+again.
+
+The duke inquired who Orlando was; and when he found that he was the son
+of his old friend, Sir Rowland de Boys, he took him under his
+protection, and Orlando and his old servant lived with the duke in the
+forest.
+
+Orlando arrived in the forest not many days after Ganymede and Aliena
+came there, and (as has been before related) bought the shepherd's
+cottage.
+
+Ganymede and Aliena were strangely surprised to find the name of
+Rosalind carved on the trees, and love-sonnets, fastened to them, all
+addressed to Rosalind; and while they were wondering how this could be,
+they met Orlando, and they perceived the chain which Rosalind had given
+him about his neck.
+
+Orlando little thought that Ganymede was the fair Princess Rosalind,
+who, by her noble condescension and favour, had so won his heart that he
+passed his whole time in carving her name upon the trees, and writing
+sonnets in praise of her beauty: but being much pleased with the
+graceful air of this pretty shepherd-youth, he entered into conversation
+with him, and he thought he saw a likeness in Ganymede to his beloved
+Rosalind, but that he had none of the dignified deportment of that noble
+lady; for Ganymede assumed the forward manners often seen in youths when
+they are between boys and men, and with much archness and humour talked
+to Orlando of a certain lover, "who," said he, "haunts our forest, and
+spoils our young trees with carving Rosalind upon their barks; and he
+hangs odes upon hawthorns, and elegies on brambles, all praising this
+same Rosalind. If I could find this lover, I would give him some good
+counsel that would soon cure him of his love."
+
+Orlando confessed that he was the fond lover of whom he spoke, and asked
+Ganymede to give him the good counsel he talked of. The remedy Ganymede
+proposed, and the counsel he gave him, was that Orlando should come
+every day to the cottage where he and his sister Aliena dwelt: "And
+then," said Ganymede, "I will feign myself to be Rosalind, and you shall
+feign to court me in the same manner as you would do if I was Rosalind,
+and then I will imitate the fantastic ways of whimsical ladies to their
+lovers, till I make you ashamed of your love; and this is the way I
+propose to cure you." Orlando had no great faith in the remedy, yet he
+agreed to come every day to Ganymede's cottage, and feign a playful
+courtship; and every day Orlando visited Ganymede and Aliena, and
+Orlando called the shepherd Ganymede his Rosalind, and every day talked
+over all the fine words and flattering compliments which young men
+delight to use when they court their mistresses. It does not appear,
+however, that Ganymede made any progress in curing Orlando of his love
+for Rosalind.
+
+Though Orlando thought all this was but a sportive play (not dreaming
+that Ganymede was his very Rosalind), yet the opportunity it gave him of
+saying all the fond things he had in his heart, pleased his fancy almost
+as well as it did Ganymede's, who enjoyed the secret jest in knowing
+these fine love-speeches were all addressed to the right person.
+
+In this manner many days passed pleasantly on with these young people;
+and the good-natured Aliena, seeing it made Ganymede happy, let him have
+his own way, and was diverted at the mock-courtship, and did not care to
+remind Ganymede that the Lady Rosalind had not yet made herself known
+to the duke her father, whose place of resort in the forest they had
+learnt from Orlando. Ganymede met the duke one day, and had some talk
+with him, and the duke asked of what parentage he came. Ganymede
+answered that he came of as good parentage as he did, which made the
+duke smile, for he did not suspect the pretty shepherd-boy came of royal
+lineage. Then seeing the duke look well and happy, Ganymede was content
+to put off all further explanation for a few days longer.
+
+One morning, as Orlando was going to visit Ganymede, he saw a man lying
+asleep on the ground, and a large green snake had twisted itself about
+his neck. The snake, seeing Orlando approach, glided away among the
+bushes. Orlando went nearer, and then he discovered a lioness lie
+crouching, with her head on the ground, with a cat-like watch, waiting
+until the sleeping man awaked (for it is said that lions will prey on
+nothing that is dead or sleeping). It seemed as if Orlando was sent by
+Providence to free the man from the danger of the snake and lioness; but
+when Orlando looked in the man's face, he perceived that the sleeper who
+was exposed to this double peril, was his own brother Oliver, who had so
+cruelly used him, and had threatened to destroy him by fire; and he was
+almost tempted to leave him a prey to the hungry lioness; but brotherly
+affection and the gentleness of his nature soon overcame his first anger
+against his brother; and he drew his sword, and attacked the lioness,
+and slew her, and thus preserved his brother's life both from the
+venomous snake and from the furious lioness; but before Orlando could
+conquer the lioness, she had torn one of his arms with her sharp claws.
+
+While Orlando was engaged with the lioness, Oliver awaked, and
+perceiving that his brother Orlando, whom he had so cruelly treated, was
+saving him from the fury of a wild beast at the risk of his own life,
+shame and remorse at once seized him, and he repented of his unworthy
+conduct, and besought with many tears his brother's pardon for the
+injuries he had done him. Orlando rejoiced to see him so penitent, and
+readily forgave him: they embraced each other; and from that hour Oliver
+loved Orlando with a true brotherly affection, though he had come to the
+forest bent on his destruction.
+
+The wound in Orlando's arm having bled very much, he found himself too
+weak to go to visit Ganymede, and therefore he desired his brother to go
+and tell Ganymede, "whom," said Orlando, "I in sport do call my
+Rosalind," the accident which had befallen him.
+
+Thither then Oliver went, and told to Ganymede and Aliena how Orlando
+had saved his life: and when he had finished the story of Orlando's
+bravery, and his own providential escape, he owned to them that he was
+Orlando's brother, who had so cruelly used him; and then he told them of
+their reconciliation.
+
+The sincere sorrow that Oliver expressed for his offences made such a
+lively impression on the kind heart of Aliena, that she instantly fell
+in love with him; and Oliver observing how much she pitied the distress
+he told her he felt for his fault, he as suddenly fell in love with her.
+But while love was thus stealing into the hearts of Aliena and Oliver,
+he was no less busy with Ganymede, who hearing of the danger Orlando had
+been in, and that he was wounded by the lioness, fainted; and when he
+recovered, he pretended that he had counterfeited the swoon in the
+imaginary character of Rosalind, and Ganymede said to Oliver, "Tell your
+brother Orlando how well I counterfeited a swoon." But Oliver saw by the
+paleness of his complexion that he did really faint, and much wondering
+at the weakness of the young man, he said, "Well, if you did
+counterfeit, take a good heart, and counterfeit to be a man." "So I do,"
+replied Ganymede, truly, "but I should have been a woman by right."
+
+Oliver made this visit a very long one, and when at last he returned
+back to his brother, he had much news to tell him; for besides the
+account of Ganymede's fainting at the hearing that Orlando was wounded,
+Oliver told him how he had fallen in love with the fair shepherdess
+Aliena, and that she had lent a favourable ear to his suit, even in this
+their first interview; and he talked to his brother, as of a thing
+almost settled, that he should marry Aliena, saying, that he so well
+loved her, that he would live here as a shepherd, and settle his estate
+and house at home upon Orlando.
+
+"You have my consent," said Orlando. "Let your wedding be to-morrow, and
+I will invite the duke and his friends. Go and persuade your shepherdess
+to agree to this: she is now alone; for look, here comes her brother."
+Oliver went to Aliena; and Ganymede, whom Orlando had perceived
+approaching, came to inquire after the health of his wounded friend.
+
+When Orlando and Ganymede began to talk over the sudden love which had
+taken place between Oliver and Aliena, Orlando said he had advised his
+brother to persuade his fair shepherdess to be married on the morrow,
+and then he added how much he could wish to be married on the same day
+to his Rosalind.
+
+Ganymede, who well approved of this arrangement, said that if Orlando
+really loved Rosalind as well as he professed to do, he should have his
+wish; for on the morrow he would engage to make Rosalind appear in her
+own person, and also that Rosalind should be willing to marry Orlando.
+
+This seemingly wonderful event, which, as Ganymede was the Lady
+Rosalind, he could so easily perform, he pretended he would bring to
+pass by the aid of magic, which he said he had learnt of an uncle who
+was a famous magician.
+
+The fond lover Orlando, half believing and half doubting what he heard,
+asked Ganymede if he spoke in sober meaning. "By my life I do," said
+Ganymede; "therefore put on your best clothes, and bid the duke and your
+friends to your wedding; for if you desire to be married to-morrow to
+Rosalind, she shall be here."
+
+The next morning, Oliver having obtained the consent of Aliena, they
+came into the presence of the duke, and with them also came Orlando.
+
+They being all assembled to celebrate this double marriage, and as yet
+only one of the brides appearing, there was much of wondering and
+conjecture, but they mostly thought that Ganymede was making a jest of
+Orlando.
+
+The duke, hearing that it was his own daughter that was to be brought in
+this strange way, asked Orlando if he believed the shepherd-boy could
+really do what he had promised; and while Orlando was answering that he
+knew not what to think, Ganymede entered, and asked the duke, if he
+brought his daughter, whether he would consent to her marriage with
+Orlando. "That I would," said the duke, "if I had kingdoms to give with
+her." Ganymede then said to Orlando, "And you say you will marry her if
+I bring her here." "That I would," said Orlando, "if I were king of many
+kingdoms."
+
+Ganymede and Aliena then went out together, and Ganymede throwing off
+his male attire, and being once more dressed in woman's apparel, quickly
+became Rosalind without the power of magic; and Aliena changing her
+country garb for her own rich clothes, was with as little trouble
+transformed into the Lady Celia.
+
+While they were gone, the duke said to Orlando, that he thought the
+shepherd Ganymede very like his daughter Rosalind; and Orlando said, he
+also had observed the resemblance.
+
+They had no time to wonder how all this would end, for Rosalind and
+Celia in their own clothes entered; and no longer pretending that it was
+by the power of magic that she came there, Rosalind threw herself on
+her knees before her father, and begged his blessing. It seemed so
+wonderful to all present that she should so suddenly appear, that it
+might well have passed for magic; but Rosalind would no longer trifle
+with her father, and told him the story of her banishment, and of her
+dwelling in the forest as a shepherd-boy, her cousin Celia passing as
+her sister.
+
+The duke ratified the consent he had already given to the marriage; and
+Orlando and Rosalind, Oliver and Celia, were married at the same time.
+And though their wedding could not be celebrated in this wild forest
+with any of the parade or splendour usual on such occasions, yet a
+happier wedding-day was never passed: and while they were eating their
+venison under the cool shade of the pleasant trees, as if nothing should
+be wanting to complete the felicity of this good duke and the true
+lovers, an unexpected messenger arrived to tell the duke the joyful
+news, that his dukedom was restored to him.
+
+The usurper, enraged at the flight of his daughter Celia, and hearing
+that every day men of great worth resorted to the forest of Arden to
+join the lawful duke in his exile, much envying that his brother should
+be so highly respected in his adversity, put himself at the head of a
+large force, and advanced towards the forest, intending to seize his
+brother, and put him with all his faithful followers to the sword; but,
+by a wonderful interposition of Providence, this bad brother was
+converted from his evil intention; for just as he entered the skirts of
+the wild forest, he was met by an old religious man, a hermit, with whom
+he had much talk, and who in the end completely turned his heart from
+his wicked design. Thenceforward he became a true penitent, and
+resolved, relinquishing his unjust dominion, to spend the remainder of
+his days in a religious house. The first act of his newly-conceived
+penitence was to send a messenger to his brother (as has been related)
+to offer to restore to him his dukedom, which he had usurped so long,
+and with it the lands and revenues of his friends, the faithful
+followers of his adversity.
+
+This joyful news, as unexpected as it was welcome, came opportunely to
+heighten the festivity and rejoicings at the wedding of the princesses.
+Celia complimented her cousin on this good fortune which had happened to
+the duke, Rosalind's father, and wished her joy very sincerely, though
+she herself was no longer heir to the dukedom, but by this restoration
+which her father had made, Rosalind was now the heir: so completely was
+the love of these two cousins unmixed with anything of jealousy or of
+envy.
+
+The duke had now an opportunity of rewarding those true friends who had
+stayed with him in his banishment; and these worthy followers, though
+they had patiently shared his adverse fortune, were very well pleased to
+return in peace and prosperity to the palace of their lawful duke.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA
+
+
+There lived in the city of Verona two young gentlemen, whose names were
+Valentine and Proteus, between whom a firm and uninterrupted friendship
+had long subsisted. They pursued their studies together, and their hours
+of leisure were always passed in each other's company, except when
+Proteus visited a lady he was in love with; and these visits to his
+mistress, and this passion of Proteus for the fair Julia, were the only
+topics on which these two friends disagreed; for Valentine, not being
+himself a lover, was sometimes a little weary of hearing his friend for
+ever talking of his Julia, and then he would laugh at Proteus, and in
+pleasant terms ridicule the passion of love, and declare that no such
+idle fancies should ever enter his head, greatly preferring (as he said)
+the free and happy life he led, to the anxious hopes and fears of the
+lover Proteus.
+
+One morning Valentine came to Proteus to tell him that they must for a
+time be separated, for that he was going to Milan. Proteus, unwilling to
+part with his friend, used many arguments to prevail upon Valentine not
+to leave him: but Valentine said, "Cease to persuade me, my loving
+Proteus. I will not, like a sluggard, wear out my youth in idleness at
+home. Home-keeping youths have ever homely wits. If your affection were
+not chained to the sweet glances of your honoured Julia, I would entreat
+you to accompany me, to see the wonders of the world abroad; but since
+you are a lover, love on still, and may your love be prosperous!"
+
+They parted with mutual expressions of unalterable friendship. "Sweet
+Valentine, adieu!" said Proteus; "think on me, when you see some rare
+object worthy of notice in your travels, and wish me partaker of your
+happiness."
+
+Valentine began his journey that same day towards Milan; and when his
+friend had left him, Proteus sat down to write a letter to Julia, which
+he gave to her maid Lucetta to deliver to her mistress.
+
+Julia loved Proteus as well as he did her, but she was a lady of a noble
+spirit, and she thought it did not become her maiden dignity too easily
+to be won; therefore she affected to be insensible of his passion, and
+gave him much uneasiness in the prosecution of his suit.
+
+And when Lucetta offered the letter to Julia, she would not receive it,
+and chid her maid for taking letters from Proteus, and ordered her to
+leave the room. But she so much wished to see what was written in the
+letter, that she soon called in her maid again; and when Lucetta
+returned, she said, "What o'clock is it?" Lucetta, who knew her mistress
+more desired to see the letter than to know the time of day, without
+answering her question, again offered the rejected letter. Julia, angry
+that her maid should thus take the liberty of seeming to know what she
+really wanted, tore the letter in pieces, and threw it on the floor,
+ordering her maid once more out of the room. As Lucetta was retiring,
+she stopped to pick up the fragments of the torn letter; but Julia, who
+meant not so to part with them, said, in pretended anger, "Go, get you
+gone, and let the papers lie; you would be fingering them to anger me."
+
+Julia then began to piece together as well as she could the torn
+fragments. She first made out these words, "Love-wounded Proteus;" and
+lamenting over these and such like loving words, which she made out
+though they were all torn asunder, or, she said _wounded_ (the
+expression "Love-wounded Proteus" giving her that idea), she talked to
+these kind words, telling them she would lodge them in her bosom as in a
+bed, till their wounds were healed, and that she would kiss each several
+piece, to make amends.
+
+In this manner she went on talking with a pretty ladylike childishness,
+till finding herself unable to make out the whole, and vexed at her own
+ingratitude in destroying such sweet and loving words, as she called
+them, she wrote a much kinder letter to Proteus than she had ever done
+before.
+
+Proteus was greatly delighted at receiving this favourable answer to his
+letter; and while he was reading it, he exclaimed, "Sweet love, sweet
+lines, sweet life!" In the midst of his raptures he was interrupted by
+his father. "How now!" said the old gentleman; "what letter are you
+reading there?"
+
+"My lord," replied Proteus, "it is a letter from my friend Valentine, at
+Milan."
+
+"Lend me the letter," said his father: "let me see what news."
+
+"There are no news, my lord," said Proteus, greatly alarmed, "but that
+he writes how well beloved he is of the Duke of Milan, who daily graces
+him with favours; and how he wishes me with him, the partner of his
+fortune."
+
+"And how stand you affected to his wish?" asked the father.
+
+"As one relying on your lordship's will, and not depending on his
+friendly wish," said Proteus.
+
+Now it had happened that Proteus' father had just been talking with a
+friend on this very subject: his friend had said, he wondered his
+lordship suffered his son to spend his youth at home, while most men
+were sending their sons to seek preferment abroad; "some," said he, "to
+the wars, to try their fortunes there, and some to discover islands far
+away, and some to study in foreign universities; and there is his
+companion Valentine, he is gone to the Duke of Milan's court. Your son
+is fit for any of these things, and it will be a great disadvantage to
+him in his riper age not to have travelled in his youth."
+
+Proteus' father thought the advice of his friend was very good, and upon
+Proteus telling him that Valentine "wished him with him, the partner of
+his fortune," he at once determined to send his son to Milan; and
+without giving Proteus any reason for this sudden resolution, it being
+the usual habit of this positive old gentleman to command his son, not
+reason with him, he said, "My will is the same as Valentine's wish;" and
+seeing his son look astonished, he added, "Look not amazed, that I so
+suddenly resolve you shall spend some time in the Duke of Milan's court;
+for what I will I will, and there is an end. To-morrow be in readiness
+to go. Make no excuses; for I am peremptory."
+
+Proteus knew it was of no use to make objections to his father, who
+never suffered him to dispute his will; and he blamed himself for
+telling his father an untruth about Julia's letter, which had brought
+upon him the sad necessity of leaving her.
+
+Now that Julia found she was going to lose Proteus for so long a time,
+she no longer pretended indifference; and they bade each other a
+mournful farewell, with many vows of love and constancy. Proteus and
+Julia exchanged rings, which they both promised to keep for ever in
+remembrance of each other; and thus, taking a sorrowful leave, Proteus
+set out on his journey to Milan, the abode of his friend Valentine.
+
+Valentine was in reality what Proteus had feigned to his father, in
+high favour with the Duke of Milan; and another event had happened to
+him, of which Proteus did not even dream, for Valentine had given up the
+freedom of which he used so much to boast, and was become as passionate
+a lover as Proteus.
+
+She who had wrought this wondrous change in Valentine was the Lady
+Silvia, daughter of the Duke of Milan, and she also loved him; but they
+concealed their love from the duke, because although he showed much
+kindness for Valentine, and invited him every day to his palace, yet he
+designed to marry his daughter to a young courtier whose name was
+Thurio. Silvia despised this Thurio, for he had none of the fine sense
+and excellent qualities of Valentine.
+
+These two rivals, Thurio and Valentine, were one day on a visit to
+Silvia, and Valentine was entertaining Silvia with turning everything
+Thurio said into ridicule, when the duke himself entered the room, and
+told Valentine the welcome news of his friend Proteus' arrival.
+Valentine said, "If I had wished a thing, it would have been to have
+seen him here!" And then he highly praised Proteus to the duke, saying,
+"My lord, though I have been a truant of my time, yet hath my friend
+made use and fair advantage of his days, and is complete in person and
+in mind, in all good grace to grace a gentleman."
+
+"Welcome him then according to his worth," said the duke. "Silvia, I
+speak to you, and you, Sir Thurio; for Valentine, I need not bid him do
+so." They were here interrupted by the entrance of Proteus, and
+Valentine introduced him to Silvia, saying, "Sweet lady, entertain him
+to be my fellow-servant to your ladyship."
+
+When Valentine and Proteus had ended their visit, and were alone
+together, Valentine said, "Now tell me how all does from whence you
+came? How does your lady, and how thrives your love?" Proteus replied,
+"My tales of love used to weary you. I know you joy not in a love
+discourse."
+
+"Ay, Proteus," returned Valentine, "but that life is altered now. I have
+done penance for condemning love. For in revenge of my contempt of love,
+love has chased sleep from my enthralled eyes. O gentle Proteus, Love is
+a mighty lord, and hath so humbled me, that I confess there is no woe
+like his correction, nor no such joy on earth as in his service. I now
+like no discourse except it be of love. Now I can break my fast, dine,
+sup, and sleep, upon the very name of love."
+
+This acknowledgment of the change which love had made in the disposition
+of Valentine was a great triumph to his friend Proteus. But "friend"
+Proteus must be called no longer, for the same all-powerful deity Love,
+of whom they were speaking (yea, even while they were talking of the
+change he had made in Valentine), was working in the heart of Proteus;
+and he, who had till this time been a pattern of true love and perfect
+friendship, was now, in one short interview with Silvia, become a false
+friend and a faithless lover; for at the first sight of Silvia all his
+love for Julia vanished away like a dream, nor did his long friendship
+for Valentine deter him from endeavouring to supplant him in her
+affections; and although, as it will always be, when people of
+dispositions naturally good become unjust, he had many scruples before
+he determined to forsake Julia, and become the rival of Valentine; yet
+he at length overcame his sense of duty, and yielded himself up, almost
+without remorse, to his new unhappy passion.
+
+Valentine imparted to him in confidence the whole history of his love,
+and how carefully they had concealed it from the duke her father, and
+told him, that, despairing of ever being able to obtain his consent, he
+had prevailed upon Silvia to leave her father's palace that night, and
+go with him to Mantua; then he showed Proteus a ladder of ropes, by help
+of which he meant to assist Silvia to get out of one of the windows of
+the palace after it was dark.
+
+Upon hearing this faithful recital of his friend's dearest secrets, it
+is hardly possible to be believed, but so it was, that Proteus resolved
+to go to the duke, and disclose the whole to him.
+
+This false friend began his tale with many artful speeches to the duke,
+such as that by the laws of friendship he ought to conceal what he was
+going to reveal, but that the gracious favour the duke had shown him,
+and the duty he owed his grace, urged him to tell that which else no
+worldly good should draw from him. He then told all he had heard from
+Valentine, not omitting the ladder of ropes, and the manner in which
+Valentine meant to conceal them under a long cloak.
+
+The duke thought Proteus quite a miracle of integrity, in that he
+preferred telling his friend's intention rather than he would conceal an
+unjust action, highly commended him, and promised him not to let
+Valentine know from whom he had learnt this intelligence, but by some
+artifice to make Valentine betray the secret himself. For this purpose
+the duke awaited the coming of Valentine in the evening, whom he soon
+saw hurrying towards the palace, and he perceived somewhat was wrapped
+within his cloak, which he concluded was the rope-ladder.
+
+The duke upon this stopped him, saying, "Whither away so fast,
+Valentine?"--"May it please your grace," said Valentine, "there is a
+messenger that stays to bear my letters to my friends, and I am going to
+deliver them." Now this falsehood of Valentine's had no better success
+in the event than the untruth Proteus told his father.
+
+"Be they of much import?" said the duke.
+
+"No more, my lord," said Valentine, "than to tell my father I am well
+and happy at your grace's court."
+
+"Nay then," said the duke, "no matter; stay with me a while. I wish your
+counsel about some affairs that concern me nearly." He then told
+Valentine an artful story, as a prelude to draw his secret from him,
+saying that Valentine knew he wished to match his daughter with Thurio,
+but that she was stubborn and disobedient to his commands, "neither
+regarding," said he, "that she is my child, nor fearing me as if I were
+her father. And I may say to thee, this pride of hers has drawn my love
+from her. I had thought my age should have been cherished by her
+childlike duty. I now am resolved to take a wife, and turn her out to
+whosoever will take her in. Let her beauty be her wedding dower, for me
+and my possessions she esteems not."
+
+Valentine, wondering where all this would end, made answer, "And what
+would your grace have me to do in all this?"
+
+"Why," said the duke, "the lady I would wish to marry is nice and coy,
+and does not much esteem my aged eloquence. Besides, the fashion of
+courtship is much changed since I was young: now I would willingly have
+you to be my tutor to instruct me how I am to woo."
+
+Valentine gave him a general idea of the modes of courtship then
+practised by young men, when they wished to win a fair lady's love, such
+as presents, frequent visits, and the like.
+
+The duke replied to this, that the lady did refuse a present which he
+sent her, and that she was so strictly kept by her father, that no man
+might have access to her by day.
+
+"Why then," said Valentine, "you must visit her by night."
+
+"But at night," said the artful duke, who was now coming to the drift of
+his discourse, "her doors are fast locked."
+
+Valentine then unfortunately proposed that the duke should get into the
+lady's chamber at night by means of a ladder of ropes, saying he would
+procure him one fitting for that purpose; and in conclusion advised him
+to conceal this ladder of ropes under such a cloak as that which he now
+wore. "Lend me your cloak," said the duke, who had feigned this long
+story on purpose to have a pretence to get off the cloak; so upon
+saying these words, he caught hold of Valentine's cloak, and throwing it
+back, he discovered not only the ladder of ropes, but also a letter of
+Silvia's, which he instantly opened and read; and this letter contained
+a full account of their intended elopement. The duke, after upbraiding
+Valentine for his ingratitude in thus returning the favour he had shown
+him, by endeavouring to steal away his daughter, banished him from the
+court and city of Milan for ever; and Valentine was forced to depart
+that night, without even seeing Silvia.
+
+While Proteus at Milan was thus injuring Valentine, Julia at Verona was
+regretting the absence of Proteus; and her regard for him at last so far
+overcame her sense of propriety, that she resolved to leave Verona, and
+seek her lover at Milan; and to secure herself from danger on the road,
+she dressed her maiden Lucetta and herself in men's clothes, and they
+set out in this disguise, and arrived at Milan soon after Valentine was
+banished from that city through the treachery of Proteus.
+
+Julia entered Milan about noon, and she took up her abode at an inn; and
+her thoughts being all on her dear Proteus, she entered into
+conversation with the innkeeper, or host, as he was called, thinking by
+that means to learn some news of Proteus.
+
+The host was greatly pleased that this handsome young gentleman (as he
+took her to be), who from his appearance he concluded was of high rank,
+spoke so familiarly to him; and being a good-natured man, he was sorry
+to see him look so melancholy; and to amuse his young guest, he offered
+to take him to hear some fine music, with which, he said, a gentleman
+that evening was going to serenade his mistress.
+
+The reason Julia looked so very melancholy was, that she did not well
+know what Proteus would think of the imprudent step she had taken; for
+she knew he had loved her for her noble maiden pride and dignity of
+character, and she feared she should lower herself in his esteem: and
+this it was that made her wear a sad and thoughtful countenance.
+
+She gladly accepted the offer of the host to go with him, and hear the
+music; for she secretly hoped she might meet Proteus by the way.
+
+But when she came to the palace whither the host conducted her, a very
+different effect was produced to what the kind host intended; for there,
+to her heart's sorrow, she beheld her lover, the inconstant Proteus,
+serenading the Lady Silvia with music, and addressing discourse of love
+and admiration to her. And Julia overheard Silvia from a window talk
+with Proteus, and reproach him for forsaking his own true lady, and for
+his ingratitude to his friend Valentine; and then Silvia left the
+window, not choosing to listen to his music and his fine speeches; for
+she was a faithful lady to her banished Valentine, and abhorred the
+ungenerous conduct of his false friend Proteus.
+
+Though Julia was in despair at what she had just witnessed, yet did she
+still love the truant Proteus; and hearing that he had lately parted
+with a servant, she contrived with the assistance of her host, the
+friendly innkeeper, to hire herself to Proteus as a page; and Proteus
+knew not she was Julia, and he sent her with letters and presents to her
+rival Silvia, and he even sent by her the very ring she gave him as a
+parting gift at Verona.
+
+When she went to that lady with the ring, she was most glad to find that
+Silvia utterly rejected the suit of Proteus; and Julia, or the page
+Sebastian as she was called, entered into conversation with Silvia about
+Proteus' first love, the forsaken Lady Julia. She putting in (as one may
+say) a good word for herself, said she knew Julia; as well she might,
+being herself the Julia of whom she spoke; telling how fondly Julia
+loved her master Proteus, and how his unkind neglect would grieve her:
+and then she with a pretty equivocation went on: "Julia is about my
+height, and of my complexion, the colour of her eyes and hair the same
+as mine:" and indeed Julia looked a most beautiful youth in her boy's
+attire. Silvia was moved to pity this lovely lady, who was so sadly
+forsaken by the man she loved; and when Julia offered the ring which
+Proteus had sent, refused it, saying, "The more shame for him that he
+sends me that ring; I will not take it; for I have often heard him say
+his Julia gave it to him. I love thee, gentle youth, for pitying her,
+poor lady! Here is a purse; I give it you for Julia's sake." These
+comfortable words coming from her kind rival's tongue cheered the
+drooping heart of the disguised lady.
+
+But to return to the banished Valentine; who scarce knew which way to
+bend his course, being unwilling to return home to his father a
+disgraced and banished man: as he was wandering over a lonely forest,
+not far distant from Milan, where he had left his heart's dear treasure,
+the Lady Silvia, he was set upon by robbers, who demanded his money.
+
+Valentine told them that he was a man crossed by adversity, that he was
+going into banishment, and that he had no money, the clothes he had on
+being all his riches.
+
+The robbers, hearing that he was a distressed man, and being struck with
+his noble air and manly behaviour, told him if he would live with them,
+and be their chief, or captain, they would put themselves under his
+command; but that if he refused to accept their offer, they would kill
+him.
+
+Valentine, who cared little what became of himself, said he would
+consent to live with them and be their captain, provided they did no
+outrage on women or poor passengers.
+
+Thus the noble Valentine became, like Robin Hood, of whom we read in
+ballads, a captain of robbers and outlawed banditti; and in this
+situation he was found by Silvia, and in this manner it came to pass.
+
+Silvia, to avoid a marriage with Thurio, whom her father insisted upon
+her no longer refusing, came at last to the resolution of following
+Valentine to Mantua, at which place she had heard her lover had taken
+refuge; but in this account she was misinformed, for he still lived in
+the forest among the robbers, bearing the name of their captain, but
+taking no part in their depredations, and using the authority which they
+had imposed upon him in no other way than to compel them to show
+compassion to the travellers they robbed.
+
+Silvia contrived to effect her escape from her father's palace in
+company with a worthy old gentleman, whose name was Eglamour, whom she
+took along with her for protection on the road. She had to pass through
+the forest where Valentine and the banditti dwelt; and one of these
+robbers seized on Silvia, and would also have taken Eglamour, but he
+escaped.
+
+The robber who had taken Silvia, seeing the terror she was in, bid her
+not be alarmed, for that he was only going to carry her to a cave where
+his captain lived, and that she need not be afraid, for their captain
+had an honourable mind, and always showed humanity to women. Silvia
+found little comfort in hearing she was going to be carried as a
+prisoner before the captain of a lawless banditti. "O Valentine," she
+cried, "this I endure for thee!"
+
+But as the robber was conveying her to the cave of his captain, he was
+stopped by Proteus, who, still attended by Julia in the disguise of a
+page, having heard of the flight of Silvia, had traced her steps to this
+forest. Proteus now rescued her from the hands of the robber; but scarce
+had she time to thank him for the service he had done her, before he
+began to distress her afresh with his love suit; and while he was rudely
+pressing her to consent to marry him, and his page (the forlorn Julia)
+was standing beside him in great anxiety of mind, fearing lest the great
+service which Proteus had just done to Silvia should win her to show him
+some favour, they were all strangely surprised with the sudden
+appearance of Valentine, who, having heard his robbers had taken a lady
+prisoner, came to console and relieve her.
+
+Proteus was courting Silvia, and he was so much ashamed of being caught
+by his friend, that he was all at once seized with penitence and
+remorse; and he expressed such a lively sorrow for the injuries he had
+done to Valentine, that Valentine, whose nature was noble and generous,
+even to a romantic degree, not only forgave and restored him to his
+former place in his friendship, but in a sudden flight of heroism he
+said, "I freely do forgive you; and all the interest I have in Silvia, I
+give it up to you." Julia, who was standing beside her master as a page,
+hearing this strange offer, and fearing Proteus would not be able with
+this new-found virtue to refuse Silvia, fainted, and they were all
+employed in recovering her: else would Silvia have been offended at
+being thus made over to Proteus, though she could scarcely think that
+Valentine would long persevere in this overstrained and too generous act
+of friendship. When Julia recovered from the fainting fit, she said, "I
+had forgot, my master ordered me to deliver this ring to Silvia."
+Proteus, looking upon the ring, saw that it was the one he gave to
+Julia, in return for that which he received from her, and which he had
+sent by the supposed page to Silvia. "How is this?" said he, "this is
+Julia's ring: how came you by it, boy?" Julia answered, "Julia herself
+did give it me, and Julia herself hath brought it hither."
+
+Proteus, now looking earnestly upon her, plainly perceived that the page
+Sebastian was no other than the Lady Julia herself; and the proof she
+had given of her constancy and true love so wrought in him, that his
+love for her returned into his heart, and he took again his own dear
+lady, and joyfully resigned all pretensions to the Lady Silvia to
+Valentine, who had so well deserved her.
+
+Proteus and Valentine were expressing their happiness in their
+reconciliation, and in the love of their faithful ladies when they were
+surprised with the sight of the Duke of Milan and Thurio, who came there
+in pursuit of Silvia.
+
+Thurio first approached, and attempted to seize Silvia, saying, "Silvia
+is mine." Upon this Valentine said to him in a very spirited manner,
+"Thurio, keep back: if once again you say that Silvia is yours, you
+shall embrace your death. Here she stands, take but possession of her
+with a torch! I dare you but to breathe upon my love." Hearing this
+threat, Thurio, who was a great coward, drew back, and said he cared not
+for her, and that none but a fool would fight for a girl who loved him
+not.
+
+The duke, who was a very brave man himself, said now in great anger,
+"The more base and degenerate in you to take such means for her as you
+have done, and leave her on such slight conditions." Then turning to
+Valentine, he said, "I do applaud your spirit, Valentine, and think you
+worthy of an empress' love. You shall have Silvia, for you have well
+deserved her." Valentine then with great humility kissed the duke's
+hand, and accepted the noble present which he had made him of his
+daughter with becoming thankfulness: taking occasion of this joyful
+minute to entreat the good-humoured duke to pardon the thieves with whom
+he had associated in the forest, assuring him, that when reformed and
+restored to society, there would be found among them many good, and fit
+for great employment; for the most of them had been banished, like
+Valentine, for state offences, rather than for any black crimes they had
+been guilty of. To this the ready duke consented: and now nothing
+remained but that Proteus, the false friend, was ordained, by way of
+penance for his love-prompted faults, to be present at the recital of
+the whole story of his loves and falsehoods before the duke; and the
+shame of the recital to his awakened conscience was judged sufficient
+punishment: which being done, the lovers, all four, returned back to
+Milan, and their nuptials were solemnised in the presence of the duke,
+with high triumphs and feasting.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+THE MERCHANT OF VENICE
+
+
+Shylock, the Jew, lived at Venice: he was an usurer, who had amassed an
+immense fortune by lending money at great interest to Christian
+merchants. Shylock, being a hard-hearted man, exacted the payment of the
+money he lent with such severity that he was much disliked by all good
+men, and particularly by Antonio, a young merchant of Venice; and
+Shylock as much hated Antonio, because he used to lend money to people
+in distress, and would never take any interest for the money he lent;
+therefore there was great enmity between this covetous Jew and the
+generous merchant Antonio. Whenever Antonio met Shylock on the Rialto
+(or Exchange), he used to reproach him with his usuries and hard
+dealings, which the Jew would bear with seeming patience, while he
+secretly meditated revenge.
+
+Antonio was the kindest man that lived, the best conditioned, and had
+the most unwearied spirit in doing courtesies; indeed, he was one in
+whom the ancient Roman honour more appeared than in any that drew breath
+in Italy. He was greatly beloved by all his fellow-citizens; but the
+friend who was nearest and dearest to his heart was Bassanio, a noble
+Venetian, who, having but a small patrimony, had nearly exhausted his
+little fortune by living in too expensive a manner for his slender
+means, as young men of high rank with small fortunes are too apt to do.
+Whenever Bassanio wanted money, Antonio assisted him; and it seemed as
+if they had but one heart and one purse between them.
+
+One day Bassanio came to Antonio, and told him that he wished to repair
+his fortune by a wealthy marriage with a lady whom he dearly loved,
+whose father, that was lately dead, had left her sole heiress to a large
+estate; and that in her father's lifetime he used to visit at her house,
+when he thought he had observed this lady had sometimes from her eyes
+sent speechless messages, that seemed to say he would be no unwelcome
+suitor; but not having money to furnish himself with an appearance
+befitting the lover of so rich an heiress, he besought Antonio to add to
+the many favours he had shown him, by lending him three thousand ducats.
+
+Antonio had no money by him at that time to lend his friend; but
+expecting soon to have some ships come home laden with merchandise, he
+said he would go to Shylock, the rich money-lender, and borrow the money
+upon the credit of those ships.
+
+Antonio and Bassanio went together to Shylock, and Antonio asked the Jew
+to lend him three thousand ducats upon any interest he should require,
+to be paid out of the merchandise contained in his ships at sea. On
+this, Shylock thought within himself, "If I can once catch him on the
+hip, I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him; he hates our Jewish
+nation; he lends out money gratis, and among the merchants he rails at
+me and my well-earned bargains, which he calls interest. Cursed be my
+tribe if I forgive him!" Antonio finding he was musing within himself
+and did not answer, and being impatient for the money, said, "Shylock,
+do you hear? will you lend the money?" To this question the Jew replied,
+"Signior Antonio, on the Rialto many a time and often you have railed at
+me about my monies and my usuries, and I have borne it with a patient
+shrug, for sufferance is the badge of all our tribe; and then you have
+called me unbeliever, cut-throat dog, and spit upon my Jewish garments,
+and spurned at me with your foot, as if I was a cur. Well then, it now
+appears you need my help; and you come to me, and say, _Shylock, lend me
+monies_. Has a dog money? Is it possible a cur should lend three
+thousand ducats? Shall I bend low and say, Fair sir, you spit upon me on
+Wednesday last, another time you called me dog, and for these courtesies
+I am to lend you monies." Antonio replied, "I am as like to call you so
+again, to spit on you again, and spurn you too. If you will lend me this
+money, lend it not to me as to a friend, but rather lend it to me as to
+an enemy, that, if I break, you may with better face exact the
+penalty."--"Why, look you," said Shylock, "how you storm! I would be
+friends with you, and have your love. I will forget the shames you have
+put upon me. I will supply your wants, and take no interest for my
+money." This seemingly kind offer greatly surprised Antonio; and then
+Shylock, still pretending kindness, and that all he did was to gain
+Antonio's love, again said he would lend him the three thousand ducats,
+and take no interest for his money; only Antonio should go with him to a
+lawyer, and there sign in merry sport a bond, that if he did not repay
+the money by a certain day, he would forfeit a pound of flesh, to be cut
+off from any part of his body that Shylock pleased.
+
+"Content," said Antonio: "I will sign to this bond, and say there is
+much kindness in the Jew."
+
+Bassanio said Antonio should not sign to such a bond for him; but still
+Antonio insisted that he would sign it, for that before the day of
+payment came, his ships would return laden with many times the value of
+the money.
+
+Shylock, hearing this debate, exclaimed, "O, father Abraham, what
+suspicious people these Christians are! Their own hard dealings teach
+them to suspect the thoughts of others. I pray you tell me this,
+Bassanio: if he should break his day, what should I gain by the exaction
+of the forfeiture? A pound of man's flesh, taken from a man, is not so
+estimable, nor profitable neither, as the flesh of mutton or beef. I
+say, to buy his favour I offer this friendship: if he will take it, so;
+if not, adieu."
+
+At last, against the advice of Bassanio, who, notwithstanding all the
+Jew had said of his kind intentions, did not like his friend should run
+the hazard of this shocking penalty for his sake, Antonio signed the
+bond, thinking it really was (as the Jew said) merely in sport.
+
+The rich heiress that Bassanio wished to marry lived near Venice, at a
+place called Belmont: her name was Portia, and in the graces of her
+person and her mind she was nothing inferior to that Portia, of whom we
+read, who was Cato's daughter, and the wife of Brutus.
+
+Bassanio being so kindly supplied with money by his friend Antonio, at
+the hazard of his life, set out for Belmont with a splendid train, and
+attended by a gentleman of the name of Gratiano.
+
+Bassanio proving successful in his suit, Portia in a short time
+consented to accept of him for a husband.
+
+Bassanio confessed to Portia that he had no fortune, and that his high
+birth and noble ancestry was all that he could boast of; she, who loved
+him for his worthy qualities, and had riches enough not to regard wealth
+in a husband, answered with a graceful modesty, that she would wish
+herself a thousand times more fair, and ten thousand times more rich, to
+be more worthy of him; and then the accomplished Portia prettily
+dispraised herself, and said she was an unlessoned girl, unschooled,
+unpractised, yet not so old but that she could learn, and that she
+would commit her gentle spirit to be directed and governed by him in all
+things; and she said, "Myself and what is mine, to you and yours is now
+converted. But yesterday, Bassanio, I was the lady of this fair mansion,
+queen of myself, and mistress over these servants; and now this house,
+these servants, and myself, are yours, my lord; I give them with this
+ring;" presenting a ring to Bassanio.
+
+Bassanio was so overpowered with gratitude and wonder at the gracious
+manner in which the rich and noble Portia accepted of a man of his
+humble fortunes, that he could not express his joy and reverence to the
+dear lady who so honoured him, by anything but broken words of love and
+thankfulness; and taking the ring, he vowed never to part with it.
+
+Gratiano and Nerissa, Portia's waiting-maid, were in attendance upon
+their lord and lady, when Portia so gracefully promised to become the
+obedient wife of Bassanio; and Gratiano, wishing Bassanio and the
+generous lady joy, desired permission to be married at the same time.
+
+"With all my heart, Gratiano," said Bassanio, "if you can get a wife."
+
+Gratiano then said that he loved the Lady Portia's fair waiting
+gentlewoman Nerissa, and that she had promised to be his wife, if her
+lady married Bassanio. Portia asked Nerissa if this was true. Nerissa
+replied, "Madam, it is so, if you approve of it." Portia willingly
+consenting, Bassanio pleasantly said, "Then our wedding-feast shall be
+much honoured by your marriage, Gratiano."
+
+The happiness of these lovers was sadly crossed at this moment by the
+entrance of a messenger, who brought a letter from Antonio containing
+fearful tidings. When Bassanio read Antonio's letter, Portia feared it
+was to tell him of the death of some dear friend, he looked so pale; and
+inquiring what was the news which had so distressed him, he said, "O
+sweet Portia, here are a few of the unpleasantest words that ever
+blotted paper; gentle lady, when I first imparted my love to you, I
+freely told you all the wealth I had ran in my veins; but I should have
+told you that I had less than nothing, being in debt." Bassanio then
+told Portia what has been here related, of his borrowing the money of
+Antonio, and of Antonio's procuring it of Shylock the Jew, and of the
+bond by which Antonio had engaged to forfeit a pound of flesh, if it was
+not repaid by a certain day: and then Bassanio read Antonio's letter;
+the words of which were, "_Sweet Bassanio, my ships are all lost, my
+bond to the Jew is forfeited, and since in paying it is impossible I
+should live, I could wish to see you at my death; notwithstanding, use
+your pleasure; if your love for me do not persuade you to come, let not
+my letter._" "O, my dear love," said Portia, "despatch all business, and
+begone; you shall have gold to pay the money twenty times over, before
+this kind friend shall lose a hair by my Bassanio's fault; and as you
+are so dearly bought, I will dearly love you." Portia then said she
+would be married to Bassanio before he set out, to give him a legal
+right to her money; and that same day they were married, and Gratiano
+was also married to Nerissa; and Bassanio and Gratiano, the instant they
+were married, set out in great haste for Venice, where Bassanio found
+Antonio in prison.
+
+The day of payment being past, the cruel Jew would not accept of the
+money which Bassanio offered him, but insisted upon having a pound of
+Antonio's flesh. A day was appointed to try this shocking cause before
+the Duke of Venice, and Bassanio awaited in dreadful suspense the event
+of the trial.
+
+When Portia parted with her husband, she spoke cheeringly to him, and
+bade him bring his dear friend along with him when he returned; yet she
+feared it would go hard with Antonio, and when she was left alone, she
+began to think and consider within herself, if she could by any means be
+instrumental in saving the life of her dear Bassanio's friend; and
+notwithstanding when she wished to honour her Bassanio, she had said to
+him with such a meek and wife-like grace, that she would submit in all
+things to be governed by his superior wisdom, yet being now called forth
+into action by the peril of her honoured husband's friend, she did
+nothing doubt her own powers, and by the sole guidance of her own true
+and perfect judgment, at once resolved to go herself to Venice, and
+speak in Antonio's defence.
+
+Portia had a relation who was a counsellor in the law; to this
+gentleman, whose name was Bellario, she wrote, and stating the case to
+him, desired his opinion, and that with his advice he would also send
+her the dress worn by a counsellor. When the messenger returned, he
+brought letters from Bellario of advice how to proceed, and also
+everything necessary for her equipment.
+
+Portia dressed herself and her maid Nerissa in men's apparel, and
+putting on the robes of a counsellor, she took Nerissa along with her as
+her clerk; and setting out immediately, they arrived at Venice on the
+very day of the trial. The cause was just going to be heard before the
+duke and senators of Venice in the senate-house, when Portia entered
+this high court of justice, and presented a letter from Bellario, in
+which that learned counsellor wrote to the duke, saying, he would have
+come himself to plead for Antonio, but that he was prevented by
+sickness, and he requested that the learned young doctor Balthasar (so
+he called Portia) might be permitted to plead in his stead. This the
+duke granted, much wondering at the youthful appearance of the stranger,
+who was prettily disguised by her counsellor's robes and her large wig.
+
+And now began this important trial. Portia looked around her, and she
+saw the merciless Jew; and she saw Bassanio, but he knew her not in her
+disguise. He was standing beside Antonio, in an agony of distress and
+fear for his friend.
+
+The importance of the arduous task Portia had engaged in gave this
+tender lady courage, and she boldly proceeded in the duty she had
+undertaken to perform: and first of all she addressed herself to
+Shylock; and allowing that he had a right by the Venetian law to have
+the forfeit expressed in the bond, she spoke so sweetly of the noble
+quality of _mercy_, as would have softened any heart but the unfeeling
+Shylock's; saying, that it dropped as the gentle rain from heaven upon
+the place beneath; and how mercy was a double blessing, it blessed him
+that gave, and him that received it; and how it became monarchs better
+than their crowns, being an attribute of God himself; and that earthly
+power came nearest to God's, in proportion as mercy tempered justice;
+and she bid Shylock remember that as we all pray for mercy, that same
+prayer should teach us to show mercy. Shylock only answered her by
+desiring to have the penalty forfeited in the bond. "Is he not able to
+pay the money?" asked Portia. Bassanio then offered the Jew the payment
+of the three thousand ducats as many times over as he should desire;
+which Shylock refusing, and still insisting upon having a pound of
+Antonio's flesh, Bassanio begged the learned young counsellor would
+endeavour to wrest the law a little, to save Antonio's life. But Portia
+gravely answered, that laws once established must never be altered.
+Shylock hearing Portia say that the law might not be altered, it seemed
+to him that she was pleading in his favour, and he said, "A Daniel is
+come to judgment! O wise young judge, how I do honour you! How much
+elder are you than your looks!"
+
+[Illustration: SHYLOCK WAS SHARPENING A LONG KNIFE]
+
+Portia now desired Shylock to let her look at the bond; and when she had
+read it, she said, "This bond is forfeited, and by this the Jew may
+lawfully claim a pound of flesh, to be by him cut off nearest Antonio's
+heart." Then she said to Shylock, "Be merciful: take the money, and bid
+me tear the bond." But no mercy would the cruel Shylock show; and he
+said, "By my soul I swear, there is no power in the tongue of man to
+alter me."--"Why then, Antonio," said Portia, "you must prepare your
+bosom for the knife:" and while Shylock was sharpening a long knife with
+great eagerness to cut off the pound of flesh, Portia said to Antonio,
+"Have you anything to say?" Antonio with a calm resignation replied,
+that he had but little to say, for that he had prepared his mind for
+death. Then he said to Bassanio, "Give me your hand, Bassanio! Fare you
+well! Grieve not that I am fallen into this misfortune for you. Commend
+me to your honourable wife, and tell her how I have loved you!" Bassanio
+in the deepest affliction replied, "Antonio, I am married to a wife, who
+is as dear to me as life itself; but life itself, my wife, and all the
+world, are not esteemed with me above your life: I would lose all, I
+would sacrifice all to this devil here, to deliver you."
+
+Portia hearing this, though the kind-hearted lady was not at all
+offended with her husband for expressing the love he owed to so true a
+friend as Antonio in these strong terms, yet could not help answering,
+"Your wife would give you little thanks, if she were present, to hear
+you make this offer." And then Gratiano, who loved to copy what his lord
+did, thought he must make a speech like Bassanio's, and he said, in
+Nerissa's hearing, who was writing in her clerk's dress by the side of
+Portia, "I have a wife, whom I protest I love; I wish she were in
+heaven, if she could but entreat some power there to change the cruel
+temper of this currish Jew." "It is well you wish this behind her back,
+else you would have but an unquiet house," said Nerissa.
+
+Shylock now cried out impatiently, "We trifle time; I pray pronounce the
+sentence." And now all was awful expectation in the court, and every
+heart was full of grief for Antonio.
+
+Portia asked if the scales were ready to weigh the flesh; and she said
+to the Jew, "Shylock, you must have some surgeon by, lest he bleed to
+death." Shylock, whose whole intent was that Antonio should bleed to
+death, said, "It is not so named in the bond." Portia replied, "It is
+not so named in the bond, but what of that? It were good you did so much
+for charity." To this all the answer Shylock would make was, "I cannot
+find it; it is not in the bond." "Then," said Portia, "a pound of
+Antonio's flesh is thine. The law allows it, and the court awards it.
+And you may cut this flesh from on his breast. The law allows it and the
+court awards it." Again Shylock exclaimed, "O wise and upright judge! A
+Daniel is come to judgment!" And then he sharpened his long knife again,
+and looking eagerly on Antonio, he said, "Come, prepare!"
+
+"Tarry a little, Jew," said Portia; "there is something else. This bond
+here gives you no drop of blood; the words expressly are, 'a pound of
+flesh.' If in the cutting off the pound of flesh you shed one drop of
+Christian blood, your lands and goods are by the law to be confiscated
+to the state of Venice." Now as it was utterly impossible for Shylock to
+cut off the pound of flesh without shedding some of Antonio's blood,
+this wise discovery of Portia's, that it was flesh and not blood that
+was named in the bond, saved the life of Antonio; and all admiring the
+wonderful sagacity of the young counsellor, who had so happily thought
+of this expedient, plaudits resounded from every part of the
+senate-house; and Gratiano exclaimed, in the words which Shylock had
+used, "O wise and upright judge! mark, Jew, a Daniel is come to
+judgment!"
+
+Shylock, finding himself defeated in his cruel intent, said with a
+disappointed look, that he would take the money; and Bassanio, rejoiced
+beyond measure at Antonio's unexpected deliverance, cried out, "Here is
+the money!" But Portia stopped him, saying, "Softly; there is no haste;
+the Jew shall have nothing but the penalty: therefore prepare, Shylock,
+to cut off the flesh; but mind you shed no blood: nor do not cut off
+more nor less than just a pound; be it more or less by one poor
+scruple, nay if the scale turn but by the weight of a single hair, you
+are condemned by the laws of Venice to die, and all your wealth is
+forfeited to the senate." "Give me my money, and let me go," said
+Shylock. "I have it ready," said Bassanio: "here it is."
+
+Shylock was going to take the money, when Portia again stopped him,
+saying, "Tarry, Jew; I have yet another hold upon you. By the laws of
+Venice, your wealth is forfeited to the state, for having conspired
+against the life of one of its citizens, and your life lies at the mercy
+of the duke; therefore, down on your knees, and ask him to pardon you."
+
+The duke then said to Shylock, "That you may see the difference of our
+Christian spirit, I pardon you your life before you ask it; half your
+wealth belongs to Antonio, the other half comes to the state."
+
+The generous Antonio then said that he would give up his share of
+Shylock's wealth, if Shylock would sign a deed to make it over at his
+death to his daughter and her husband; for Antonio knew that the Jew had
+an only daughter who had lately married against his consent to a young
+Christian, named Lorenzo, a friend of Antonio's, which had so offended
+Shylock, that he had disinherited her.
+
+The Jew agreed to this: and being thus disappointed in his revenge, and
+despoiled of his riches, he said, "I am ill. Let me go home; send the
+deed after me, and I will sign over half my riches to my
+daughter."--"Get thee gone, then," said the duke, "and sign it; and if
+you repent your cruelty and turn Christian, the state will forgive you
+the fine of the other half of your riches."
+
+The duke now released Antonio, and dismissed the court. He then highly
+praised the wisdom and ingenuity of the young counsellor, and invited
+him home to dinner. Portia, who meant to return to Belmont before her
+husband, replied, "I humbly thank your grace, but I must away directly."
+The duke said he was sorry he had not leisure to stay and dine with
+him; and turning to Antonio, he added, "Reward this gentleman; for in my
+mind you are much indebted to him."
+
+The duke and his senators left the court; and then Bassanio said to
+Portia, "Most worthy gentleman, I and my friend Antonio have by your
+wisdom been this day acquitted of grievous penalties, and I beg you will
+accept of the three thousand ducats due unto the Jew." "And we shall
+stand indebted to you over and above," said Antonio, "in love and
+service evermore."
+
+Portia could not be prevailed upon to accept the money; but upon
+Bassanio still pressing her to accept of some reward, she said, "Give me
+your gloves; I will wear them for your sake;" and then Bassanio taking
+off his gloves, she espied the ring which she had given him upon his
+finger: now it was the ring the wily lady wanted to get from him to make
+a merry jest when she saw her Bassanio again, that made her ask him for
+his gloves; and she said, when she saw the ring, "and for your love I
+will take this ring from you." Bassanio was sadly distressed that the
+counsellor should ask him for the only thing he could not part with, and
+he replied in great confusion, that he could not give him that ring,
+because it was his wife's gift, and he had vowed never to part with it;
+but that he would give him the most valuable ring in Venice, and find it
+out by proclamation. On this Portia affected to be affronted, and left
+the court, saying, "You teach me, sir, how a beggar should be answered."
+
+"Dear Bassanio," said Antonio, "let him have the ring; let my love and
+the great service he has done for me be valued against your wife's
+displeasure." Bassanio, ashamed to appear so ungrateful, yielded, and
+sent Gratiano after Portia with the ring; and then the _clerk_ Nerissa,
+who had also given Gratiano a ring, she begged his ring, and Gratiano
+(not choosing to be outdone in generosity by his lord) gave it to her.
+And there was laughing among these ladies to think, when they got home,
+how they would tax their husbands with giving away their rings, and
+swear that they had given them as a present to some woman.
+
+Portia, when she returned, was in that happy temper of mind which never
+fails to attend the consciousness of having performed a good action; her
+cheerful spirits enjoyed everything she saw: the moon never seemed to
+shine so bright before; and when that pleasant moon was hid behind a
+cloud, then a light which she saw from her house at Belmont as well
+pleased her charmed fancy, and she said to Nerissa, "That light we see
+is burning in my hall; how far that little candle throws its beams, so
+shines a good deed in a naughty world;" and hearing the sound of music
+from her house, she said, "Methinks that music sounds much sweeter than
+by day."
+
+And now Portia and Nerissa entered the house, and dressing themselves in
+their own apparel, they awaited the arrival of their husbands, who soon
+followed them with Antonio; and Bassanio presenting his dear friend to
+the Lady Portia, the congratulations and welcomings of that lady were
+hardly over, when they perceived Nerissa and her husband quarrelling in
+a corner of the room. "A quarrel already?" said Portia. "What is the
+matter?" Gratiano replied, "Lady, it is about a paltry gilt ring that
+Nerissa gave me, with words upon it like the poetry on a cutler's knife;
+_Love me, and leave me not._"
+
+"What does the poetry or the value of the ring signify?" said Nerissa.
+"You swore to me when I gave it to you, that you would keep it till the
+hour of death; and now you say you gave it to the lawyer's clerk. I know
+you gave it to a woman."--"By this hand," replied Gratiano, "I gave it
+to a youth, a kind of boy, a little scrubbed boy, no higher than
+yourself; he was clerk to the young counsellor that by his wise pleading
+saved Antonio's life: this prating boy begged it for a fee, and I could
+not for my life deny him." Portia said, "You were to blame, Gratiano,
+to part with your wife's first gift. I gave my lord Bassanio a ring, and
+I am sure he would not part with it for all the world." Gratiano, in
+excuse for his fault, now said, "My lord Bassanio gave his ring away to
+the counsellor, and then the boy, his clerk, that took some pains in
+writing, he begged my ring."
+
+Portia, hearing this, seemed very angry, and reproached Bassanio for
+giving away her ring; and she said, Nerissa had taught her what to
+believe, and that she knew some woman had the ring. Bassanio was very
+unhappy to have so offended his dear lady, and he said with great
+earnestness, "No, by my honour, no woman had it, but a civil doctor, who
+refused three thousand ducats of me, and begged the ring, which when I
+denied him, he went displeased away. What could I do, sweet Portia? I
+was so beset with shame for my seeming ingratitude, that I was forced to
+send the ring after him. Pardon me, good lady; had you been there, I
+think you would have begged the ring of me to give the worthy doctor."
+
+"Ah!" said Antonio, "I am the unhappy cause of these quarrels."
+
+Portia bid Antonio not to grieve at that, for that he was welcome
+notwithstanding; and then Antonio said, "I once did lend my body for
+Bassanio's sake; and but for him to whom your husband gave the ring, I
+should have now been dead. I dare be bound again, my soul upon the
+forfeit, your lord will never more break his faith with you."--"Then you
+shall be his surety," said Portia; "give him this ring, and bid him keep
+it better than the other."
+
+When Bassanio looked at this ring, he was strangely surprised to find it
+was the same he gave away; and then Portia told him how she was the
+young counsellor, and Nerissa was her clerk; and Bassanio found, to his
+unspeakable wonder and delight, that it was by the noble courage and
+wisdom of his wife that Antonio's life was saved.
+
+And Portia again welcomed Antonio, and gave him letters which by some
+chance had fallen into her hands, which contained an account of
+Antonio's ships, that were supposed lost, being safely arrived in the
+harbour. So these tragical beginnings of this rich merchant's story were
+all forgotten in the unexpected good fortune which ensued; and there was
+leisure to laugh at the comical adventure of the rings, and the husbands
+that did not know their own wives: Gratiano merrily swearing, in a sort
+of rhyming speech, that
+
+  ----while he lived, he'd fear no other thing
+  So sore, as keeping safe Nerissa's ring.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+CYMBELINE
+
+
+During the time of Augustus Caesar, Emperor of Rome, there reigned in
+England (which was then called Britain) a king whose name was Cymbeline.
+
+Cymbeline's first wife died when his three children (two sons and a
+daughter) were very young. Imogen, the eldest of these children, was
+brought up in her father's court; but by a strange chance the two sons
+of Cymbeline were stolen out of their nursery, when the eldest was but
+three years of age, and the youngest quite an infant; and Cymbeline
+could never discover what was become of them, or by whom they were
+conveyed away.
+
+[Illustration: IMOGEN'S TWO BROTHERS THEN CARRIED HER TO A SHADY COVERT]
+
+Cymbeline was twice married: his second wife was a wicked, plotting
+woman, and a cruel stepmother to Imogen, Cymbeline's daughter by his
+first wife.
+
+The queen, though she hated Imogen, yet wished her to marry a son of her
+own by a former husband (she also having been twice married): for by
+this means she hoped upon the death of Cymbeline to place the crown of
+Britain upon the head of her son Cloten; for she knew that, if the
+king's sons were not found, the Princess Imogen must be the king's heir.
+But this design was prevented by Imogen herself, who married without
+the consent or even knowledge of her father or the queen.
+
+Posthumus (for that was the name of Imogen's husband) was the best
+scholar and most accomplished gentleman of that age. His father died
+fighting in the wars for Cymbeline, and soon after his birth his mother
+died also for grief at the loss of her husband.
+
+Cymbeline, pitying the helpless state of this orphan, took Posthumus
+(Cymbeline having given him that name, because he was born after his
+father's death), and educated him in his own court.
+
+Imogen and Posthumus were both taught by the same masters, and were
+playfellows from their infancy; they loved each other tenderly when they
+were children, and their affection continuing to increase with their
+years, when they grew up they privately married.
+
+The disappointed queen soon learnt this secret, for she kept spies
+constantly in watch upon the actions of her daughter-in-law, and she
+immediately told the king of the marriage of Imogen with Posthumus.
+
+Nothing could exceed the wrath of Cymbeline, when he heard that his
+daughter had been so forgetful of her high dignity as to marry a
+subject. He commanded Posthumus to leave Britain, and banished him from
+his native country for ever.
+
+The queen, who pretended to pity Imogen for the grief she suffered at
+losing her husband, offered to procure them a private meeting before
+Posthumus set out on his journey to Rome, which place he had chosen for
+his residence in his banishment: this seeming kindness she showed, the
+better to succeed in her future designs in regard to her son Cloten; for
+she meant to persuade Imogen, when her husband was gone, that her
+marriage was not lawful, being contracted without the consent of the
+king.
+
+Imogen and Posthumus took a most affectionate leave of each other.
+Imogen gave her husband a diamond ring, which had been her mother's,
+and Posthumus promised never to part with the ring; and he fastened a
+bracelet on the arm of his wife, which he begged she would preserve with
+great care, as a token of his love; they then bid each other farewell,
+with many vows of everlasting love and fidelity.
+
+Imogen remained a solitary and dejected lady in her father's court, and
+Posthumus arrived at Rome, the place he had chosen for his banishment.
+
+Posthumus fell into company at Rome with some gay young men of different
+nations, who were talking freely of ladies: each one praising the ladies
+of his own country, and his own mistress. Posthumus, who had ever his
+own dear lady in his mind, affirmed that his wife, the fair Imogen, was
+the most virtuous, wise and constant lady in the world.
+
+One of those gentlemen, whose name was Iachimo, being offended that a
+lady of Britain should be so praised above the Roman ladies, his
+country-women, provoked Posthumus by seeming to doubt the constancy of
+his so highly-praised wife; and at length, after much altercation,
+Posthumus consented to a proposal of Iachimo's, that he (Iachimo) should
+go to Britain, and endeavour to gain the love of the married Imogen.
+They then laid a wager, that if Iachimo did not succeed in this wicked
+design, he was to forfeit a large sum of money; but if he could win
+Imogen's favour, and prevail upon her to give him the bracelet which
+Posthumus had so earnestly desired she would keep as a token of his
+love, then the wager was to terminate with Posthumus giving to Iachimo
+the ring, which was Imogen's love present when she parted with her
+husband. Such firm faith had Posthumus in the fidelity of Imogen, that
+he thought he ran no hazard in this trial of her honour.
+
+Iachimo, on his arrival in Britain, gained admittance, and a courteous
+welcome from Imogen, as a friend of her husband; but when he began to
+make professions of love to her, she repulsed him with disdain, and he
+soon found that he could have no hope of succeeding in his dishonourable
+design.
+
+The desire Iachimo had to win the wager made him now have recourse to a
+stratagem to impose upon Posthumus, and for this purpose he bribed some
+of Imogen's attendants, and was by them conveyed into her bedchamber,
+concealed in a large trunk, where he remained shut up till Imogen was
+retired to rest, and had fallen asleep; and then getting out of the
+trunk, he examined the chamber with great attention, and wrote down
+everything he saw there, and particularly noticed a mole which he
+observed upon Imogen's neck, and then softly unloosing the bracelet from
+her arm, which Posthumus had given to her, he retired into the chest
+again; and the next day he set on for Rome with great expedition, and
+boasted to Posthumus that Imogen had given him the bracelet, and
+likewise permitted him to pass a night in her chamber: and in this
+manner Iachimo told his false tale: "Her bedchamber," said he, "was hung
+with tapestry of silk and silver, the story was _the proud Cleopatra
+when she met her Anthony_, a piece of work most bravely wrought."
+
+"This is true," said Posthumus; "but this you might have heard spoken of
+without seeing."
+
+"Then the chimney," said Iachimo, "is south of the chamber, and the
+chimney-piece is _Diana bathing_; never saw I figures livelier
+expressed."
+
+"This is a thing you might have likewise heard," said Posthumus; "for it
+is much talked of."
+
+Iachimo as accurately described the roof of the chamber; and added, "I
+had almost forgot her andirons; they were _two winking Cupids_ made of
+silver, each on one foot standing." He then took out the bracelet, and
+said, "Know you this jewel, sir? She gave me this. She took it from her
+arm. I see her yet; her pretty action did outsell her gift, and yet
+enriched it too. She gave it me, and said, _she prized it once._" He
+last of all described the mole he had observed upon her neck.
+
+Posthumus, who had heard the whole of this artful recital in an agony of
+doubt, now broke out into the most passionate exclamations against
+Imogen. He delivered up the diamond ring to Iachimo, which he had agreed
+to forfeit to him, if he obtained the bracelet from Imogen.
+
+Posthumus then in a jealous rage wrote to Pisanio, a gentleman of
+Britain, who was one of Imogen's attendants, and had long been a
+faithful friend to Posthumus; and after telling him what proof he had of
+his wife's disloyalty, he desired Pisanio would take Imogen to
+Milford-Haven, a seaport of Wales, and there kill her. And at the same
+time he wrote a deceitful letter to Imogen, desiring her to go with
+Pisanio, for that finding he could live no longer without seeing her,
+though he was forbidden upon pain of death to return to Britain, he
+would come to Milford-Haven, at which place he begged she would meet
+him. She, good unsuspecting lady, who loved her husband above all
+things, and desired more than her life to see him, hastened her
+departure with Pisanio, and the same night she received the letter she
+set out.
+
+When their journey was nearly at an end, Pisanio, who, though faithful
+to Posthumus, was not faithful to serve him in an evil deed, disclosed
+to Imogen the cruel order he had received.
+
+Imogen, who, instead of meeting a loving and beloved husband, found
+herself doomed by that husband to suffer death, was afflicted beyond
+measure.
+
+Pisanio persuaded her to take comfort, and wait with patient fortitude
+for the time when Posthumus should see and repent his injustice: in the
+meantime, as she refused in her distress to return to her father's
+court, he advised her to dress herself in boy's clothes for more
+security in travelling; to which advice she agreed, and thought in that
+disguise she would go over to Rome, and see her husband, whom, though
+he had used her so barbarously, she could not forget to love.
+
+When Pisanio had provided her with her new apparel, he left her to her
+uncertain fortune, being obliged to return to court; but before he
+departed he gave her a phial of cordial, which he said the queen had
+given him as a sovereign remedy in all disorders.
+
+The queen, who hated Pisanio because he was a friend to Imogen and
+Posthumus, gave him this phial, which she supposed contained poison, she
+having ordered her physician to give her some poison, to try its effects
+(as she said) upon animals; but the physician, knowing her malicious
+disposition, would not trust her with real poison, but gave her a drug
+which would do no other mischief than causing a person to sleep with
+every appearance of death for a few hours. This mixture, which Pisanio
+thought a choice cordial, he gave to Imogen, desiring her, if she found
+herself ill upon the road, to take it; and so, with blessings and
+prayers for her safety and happy deliverance from her undeserved
+troubles, he left her.
+
+Providence strangely directed Imogen's steps to the dwelling of her two
+brothers, who had been stolen away in their infancy. Bellarius, who
+stole them away, was a lord in the court of Cymbeline, and having been
+falsely accused to the king of treason, and banished from the court, in
+revenge he stole away the two sons of Cymbeline, and brought them up in
+a forest, where he lived concealed in a cave. He stole them through
+revenge, but he soon loved them as tenderly as if they had been his own
+children, educated them carefully, and they grew up fine youths, their
+princely spirits leading them to bold and daring actions; and as they
+subsisted by hunting, they were active and hardy, and were always
+pressing their supposed father to let them seek their fortune in the
+wars.
+
+At the cave where these youths dwelt it was Imogen's fortune to arrive.
+She had lost her way in a large forest, through which her road lay to
+Milford-Haven (from which she meant to embark for Rome); and being
+unable to find any place where she could purchase food, she was with
+weariness and hunger almost dying; for it is not merely putting on a
+man's apparel that will enable a young lady, tenderly brought up, to
+bear the fatigue of wandering about lonely forests like a man. Seeing
+this cave, she entered, hoping to find some one within of whom she could
+procure food. She found the cave empty, but looking about she discovered
+some cold meat, and her hunger was so pressing, that she could not wait
+for an invitation, but sat down and began to eat. "Ah," said she,
+talking to herself, "I see a man's life is a tedious one; how tired am
+I! for two nights together I have made the ground my bed: my resolution
+helps me, or I should be sick. When Pisanio showed me Milford-Haven from
+the mountain top, how near it seemed!" Then the thoughts of her husband
+and his cruel mandate came across her, and she said, "My dear Posthumus,
+thou art a false one!"
+
+The two brothers of Imogen, who had been hunting with their reputed
+father, Bellarius, were by this time returned home. Bellarius had given
+them the names of Polydore and Cadwal, and they knew no better, but
+supposed that Bellarius was their father; but the real names of these
+princes were Guiderius and Arviragus.
+
+Bellarius entered the cave first, and seeing Imogen, stopped them,
+saying, "Come not in yet; it eats our victuals, or I should think it was
+a fairy."
+
+"What is the matter, sir?" said the young men. "By Jupiter," said
+Bellarius again, "there is an angel in the cave, or if not, an earthly
+paragon." So beautiful did Imogen look in her boy's apparel.
+
+She, hearing the sound of voices, came forth from the cave, and
+addressed them in these words: "Good masters, do not harm me; before I
+entered your cave, I had thought to have begged or bought what I have
+eaten. Indeed I have stolen nothing, nor would I, though I had found
+gold strewed on the floor. Here is money for my meat, which I would have
+left on the board when I had made my meal, and parted with prayers for
+the provider." They refused her money with great earnestness. "I see you
+are angry with me," said the timid Imogen; "but, sirs, if you kill me
+for my fault, know that I should have died if I had not made it."
+
+"Whither are you bound?" asked Bellarius, "and what is your name?"
+
+"Fidele is my name," answered Imogen. "I have a kinsman, who is bound
+for Italy; he embarked at Milford-Haven, to whom being going, almost
+spent with hunger, I am fallen into this offence."
+
+"Prithee, fair youth," said old Bellarius, "do not think us churls, nor
+measure our good minds by this rude place we live in. You are well
+encountered; it is almost night. You shall have better cheer before you
+depart, and thanks to stay and eat it. Boys, bid him welcome."
+
+The gentle youths, her brothers, then welcomed Imogen to their cave with
+many kind expressions, saying they would love her (or, as they said,
+_him_) as a brother; and they entered the cave, where (they having
+killed venison when they were hunting) Imogen delighted them with her
+neat housewifery, assisting them in preparing their supper; for though
+it is not the custom now for young women of high birth to understand
+cookery, it was then, and Imogen excelled in this useful art; and, as
+her brothers prettily expressed it, Fidele cut their roots in
+characters, and sauced their broth, as if Juno had been sick, and Fidele
+were her dieter. "And then," said Polydore to his brother, "how
+angel-like he sings!"
+
+They also remarked to each other, that though Fidele smiled so sweetly,
+yet so sad a melancholy did overcloud his lovely face, as if grief and
+patience had together taken possession of him.
+
+For these her gentle qualities (or perhaps it was their near
+relationship, though they knew it not) Imogen (or, as the boys called
+her, _Fidele_) became the doting-piece of her brothers, and she scarcely
+less loved them, thinking that but for the memory of her dear Posthumus,
+she could live and die in the cave with these wild forest youths; and
+she gladly consented to stay with them, till she was enough rested from
+the fatigue of travelling to pursue her way to Milford-Haven.
+
+When the venison they had taken was all eaten and they were going out to
+hunt for more, Fidele could not accompany them because she was unwell.
+Sorrow, no doubt, for her husband's cruel usage, as well as the fatigue
+of wandering in the forest, was the cause of her illness.
+
+They then bid her farewell, and went to their hunt, praising all the way
+the noble parts and graceful demeanour of the youth Fidele.
+
+Imogen was no sooner left alone than she recollected the cordial Pisanio
+had given her, and drank it off, and presently fell into a sound and
+death-like sleep.
+
+When Bellarius and her brothers returned from hunting, Polydore went
+first into the cave, and supposing her asleep, pulled off his heavy
+shoes, that he might tread softly and not awake her; so did true
+gentleness spring up in the minds of these princely foresters; but he
+soon discovered that she could not be awakened by any noise, and
+concluded her to be dead, and Polydore lamented over her with dear and
+brotherly regret, as if they had never from their infancy been parted.
+
+Bellarius also proposed to carry her out into the forest, and there
+celebrate her funeral with songs and solemn dirges, as was then the
+custom.
+
+Imogen's two brothers then carried her to a shady covert, and there
+laying her gently on the grass, they sang repose to her departed spirit,
+and covering her over with leaves and flowers, Polydore said, "While
+summer lasts and I live here, Fidele, I will daily strew thy grave. The
+pale primrose, that flower most like thy face; the blue-bell, like thy
+clear veins; and the leaf of eglantine, which is not sweeter than was
+thy breath; all these will I strew over thee. Yea, and the furred moss
+in winter, when there are no flowers to cover thy sweet corse."
+
+When they had finished her funeral obsequies they departed very
+sorrowful.
+
+Imogen had not been long left alone, when, the effect of the sleepy drug
+going off, she awaked, and easily shaking off the slight covering of
+leaves and flowers they had thrown over her, she arose, and imagining
+she had been dreaming, she said, "I thought I was a cave-keeper, and
+cook to honest creatures; how came I here covered with flowers?" Not
+being able to find her way back to the cave, and seeing nothing of her
+new companions, she concluded it was certainly all a dream; and once
+more Imogen set out on her weary pilgrimage, hoping at last she should
+find her way to Milford-Haven, and thence get a passage in some ship
+bound for Italy; for all her thoughts were still with her husband
+Posthumus, whom she intended to seek in the disguise of a page.
+
+But great events were happening at this time, of which Imogen knew
+nothing; for a war had suddenly broken out between the Roman emperor
+Augustus Caesar and Cymbeline, the King of Britain; and a Roman army had
+landed to invade Britain, and was advanced into the very forest over
+which Imogen was journeying. With this army came Posthumus.
+
+Though Posthumus came over to Britain with the Roman army he did not
+mean to fight on their side against his own countrymen, but intended to
+join the army of Britain, and fight in the cause of his king who had
+banished him.
+
+He still believed Imogen false to him; yet the death of her he had so
+fondly loved, and by his own orders too (Pisanio having written him a
+letter to say he had obeyed his command, and that Imogen was dead), sat
+heavy on his heart, and therefore he returned to Britain, desiring
+either to be slain in battle, or to be put to death by Cymbeline for
+returning home from banishment.
+
+Imogen, before she reached Milford-Haven, fell into the hands of the
+Roman army; and her presence and deportment recommending her, she was
+made a page to Lucius, the Roman general.
+
+Cymbeline's army now advanced to meet the enemy, and when they entered
+this forest, Polydore and Cadwal joined the king's army. The young men
+were eager to engage in acts of valour, though they little thought they
+were going to fight for their own royal father: and old Bellarius went
+with them to the battle. He had long since repented of the injury he had
+done to Cymbeline in carrying away his sons; and having been a warrior
+in his youth, he gladly joined the army to fight for the king he had so
+injured.
+
+And now a great battle commenced between the two armies, and the Britons
+would have been defeated, and Cymbeline himself killed, but for the
+extraordinary valour of Posthumus and Bellarius and the two sons of
+Cymbeline. They rescued the king, and saved his life, and so entirely
+turned the fortune of the day, that the Britons gained the victory.
+
+When the battle was over, Posthumus, who had not found the death he
+sought for, surrendered himself up to one of the officers of Cymbeline,
+willing to suffer the death which was to be his punishment if he
+returned from banishment.
+
+Imogen and the master she served were taken prisoners, and brought
+before Cymbeline, as was also her old enemy Iachimo, who was an officer
+in the Roman army; and when these prisoners were before the king,
+Posthumus was brought in to receive his sentence of death; and at this
+strange juncture of time, Bellarius with Polydore and Cadwal were also
+brought before Cymbeline, to receive the rewards due to the great
+services they had by their valour done for the king. Pisanio, being one
+of the king's attendants, was likewise present.
+
+Therefore there were now standing in the king's presence (but with very
+different hopes and fears) Posthumus and Imogen, with her new master the
+Roman general; the faithful servant Pisanio, and the false friend
+Iachimo; and likewise the two lost sons of Cymbeline, with Bellarius,
+who had stolen them away.
+
+The Roman general was the first who spoke; the rest stood silent before
+the king, though there was many a beating heart among them.
+
+Imogen saw Posthumus, and knew him, though he was in the disguise of a
+peasant; but he did not know her in her male attire: and she knew
+Iachimo, and she saw a ring on his finger which she perceived to be her
+own, but she did not know him as yet to have been the author of all her
+troubles: and she stood before her own father a prisoner of war.
+
+Pisanio knew Imogen, for it was he who had dressed her in the garb of a
+boy. "It is my mistress," thought he; "since she is living, let the time
+run on to good or bad." Bellarius knew her too, and softly said to
+Cadwal, "Is not this boy revived from death?"--"One sand," replied
+Cadwal, "does not more resemble another than that sweet rosy lad is like
+the dead Fidele."--"The same dead thing alive," said Polydore. "Peace,
+peace," said Bellarius; "if it were he, I am sure he would have spoken
+to us."--"But we saw him dead," again whispered Polydore. "Be silent,"
+replied Bellarius.
+
+Posthumus waited in silence to hear the welcome sentence of his own
+death; and he resolved not to disclose to the king that he had saved his
+life in the battle, lest that should move Cymbeline to pardon him.
+
+Lucius, the Roman general, who had taken Imogen under his protection as
+his page, was the first (as has been before said) who spoke to the king.
+He was a man of high courage and noble dignity, and this was his speech
+to the king:--
+
+"I hear you take no ransom for your prisoners, but doom them all to
+death: I am a Roman, and with a Roman heart will suffer death. But there
+is one thing for which I would entreat." Then bringing Imogen before the
+king, he said, "This boy is a Briton born. Let him be ransomed. He is my
+page. Never master had a page so kind, so duteous, so diligent on all
+occasions, so true, so nurse-like. He hath done no Briton wrong, though
+he hath served a Roman. Save him, if you spare no one beside."
+
+Cymbeline looked earnestly on his daughter Imogen. He knew her not in
+that disguise; but it seemed that all-powerful Nature spake in his
+heart, for he said, "I have surely seen him, his face appears familiar
+to me. I know not why or wherefore I say, Live, boy; but I give you your
+life, and ask of me what boon you will, and I will grant it you. Yea,
+even though it be the life of the noblest prisoner I have."
+
+"I humbly thank your highness," said Imogen.
+
+What was then called granting a boon was the same as a promise to give
+any one thing, whatever it might be, that the person on whom that favour
+was conferred chose to ask for. They all were attentive to hear what
+thing the page would ask for; and Lucius her master said to her, "I do
+not beg my life, good lad, but I know that is what you will ask
+for."--"No, no, alas!" said Imogen, "I have other work in hand, good
+master; your life I cannot ask for."
+
+This seeming want of gratitude in the boy astonished the Roman general.
+
+Imogen then, fixing her eye on Iachimo, demanded no other boon than
+this: that Iachimo should be made to confess whence he had the ring he
+wore on his finger.
+
+Cymbeline granted her this boon, and threatened Iachimo with the torture
+if he did not confess how he came by the diamond ring on his finger.
+
+Iachimo then made a full acknowledgment of all his villany, telling, as
+has been before related, the whole story of his wager with Posthumus,
+and how he had succeeded in imposing upon his credulity.
+
+What Posthumus felt at hearing this proof of the innocence of his lady
+cannot be expressed. He instantly came forward, and confessed to
+Cymbeline the cruel sentence which he had enjoined Pisanio to execute
+upon the princess; exclaiming wildly, "O Imogen, my queen, my life, my
+wife! O Imogen, Imogen, Imogen!"
+
+Imogen could not see her beloved husband in this distress without
+discovering herself, to the unutterable joy of Posthumus, who was thus
+relieved from a weight of guilt and woe, and restored to the good graces
+of the dear lady he had so cruelly treated.
+
+Cymbeline, almost as much overwhelmed as he with joy, at finding his
+lost daughter so strangely recovered, received her to her former place
+in his fatherly affection, and not only gave her husband Posthumus his
+life, but consented to acknowledge him for his son-in-law.
+
+Bellarius chose this time of joy and reconciliation to make his
+confession. He presented Polydore and Cadwal to the king, telling him
+they were his two lost sons, Guiderius and Arviragus.
+
+Cymbeline forgave old Bellarius; for who could think of punishments at a
+season of such universal happiness? To find his daughter living, and his
+lost sons in the persons of his young deliverers, that he had seen so
+bravely fight in his defence, was unlooked-for joy indeed!
+
+Imogen was now at leisure to perform good services for her late master,
+the Roman general Lucius, whose life the king her father readily granted
+at her request; and by the mediation of the same Lucius a peace was
+concluded between the Romans and the Britons, which was kept inviolate
+many years.
+
+How Cymbeline's wicked queen, through despair of bringing her projects
+to pass, and touched with remorse of conscience, sickened and died,
+having first lived to see her foolish son Cloten slain in a quarrel
+which he had provoked, are events too tragical to interrupt this happy
+conclusion by more than merely touching upon. It is sufficient that all
+were made happy who were deserving; and even the treacherous Iachimo, in
+consideration of his villany having missed its final aim, was dismissed
+without punishment.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+KING LEAR
+
+
+Lear, King of Britain, had three daughters; Goneril, wife to the Duke of
+Albany; Regan, wife to the Duke of Cornwall; and Cordelia, a young maid,
+for whose love the King of France and Duke of Burgundy were joint
+suitors, and were at this time making stay for that purpose in the court
+of Lear.
+
+[Illustration: CORDELIA]
+
+The old king, worn out with age and the fatigues of government, he being
+more than fourscore years old, determined to take no further part in
+state affairs, but to leave the management to younger strengths, that he
+might have time to prepare for death, which must at no long period
+ensue. With this intent he called his three daughters to him, to know
+from their own lips which of them loved him best, that he might part his
+kingdom among them in such proportions as their affection for him should
+seem to deserve.
+
+Goneril, the eldest, declared that she loved her father more than words
+could give out, that he was dearer to her than the light of her own
+eyes, dearer than life and liberty, with a deal of such professing
+stuff, which is easy to counterfeit where there is no real love, only a
+few fine words delivered with confidence being wanted in that case. The
+king, delighted to hear from her own mouth this assurance of her love,
+and thinking truly that her heart went with it, in a fit of fatherly
+fondness bestowed upon her and her husband one third of his ample
+kingdom.
+
+Then calling to him his second daughter, he demanded what she had to
+say. Regan, who was made of the same hollow metal as her sister, was not
+a whit behind in her professions, but rather declared that what her
+sister had spoken came short of the love which she professed to bear for
+his highness; insomuch that she found all other joys dead, in comparison
+with the pleasure which she took in the love of her dear king and
+father.
+
+Lear blessed himself in having such loving children, as he thought; and
+could do no less, after the handsome assurances which Regan had made,
+than bestow a third of his kingdom upon her and her husband, equal in
+size to that which he had already given away to Goneril.
+
+Then turning to his youngest daughter Cordelia, whom he called his joy,
+he asked what she had to say, thinking no doubt that she would glad his
+ears with the same loving speeches which her sisters had uttered, or
+rather that her expressions would be so much stronger than theirs, as
+she had always been his darling, and favoured by him above either of
+them. But Cordelia, disgusted with the flattery of her sisters, whose
+hearts she knew were far from their lips, and seeing that all their
+coaxing speeches were only intended to wheedle the old king out of his
+dominions, that they and their husbands might reign in his lifetime,
+made no other reply but this,--that she loved his majesty according to
+her duty, neither more nor less.
+
+The king, shocked with this appearance of ingratitude in his favourite
+child, desired her to consider her words, and to mend her speech, lest
+it should mar her fortunes.
+
+Cordelia then told her father, that he was her father, that he had
+given her breeding, and loved her; that she returned those duties back
+as was most fit, and did obey him, love him, and most honour him. But
+that she could not frame her mouth to such large speeches as her sisters
+had done, or promise to love nothing else in the world. Why had her
+sisters husbands, if (as they said) they had no love for anything but
+their father? If she should ever wed, she was sure the lord to whom she
+gave her hand would want half her love, half of her care and duty; she
+should never marry like her sisters, to love her father all.
+
+Cordelia, who in earnest loved her old father even almost as
+extravagantly as her sisters pretended to do, would have plainly told
+him so at any other time, in more daughter-like and loving terms, and
+without these qualifications, which did indeed sound a little
+ungracious; but after the crafty flattering speeches of her sisters,
+which she had seen drawn such extravagant rewards, she thought the
+handsomest thing she could do was to love and be silent. This put her
+affection out of suspicion of mercenary ends, and showed that she loved,
+but not for gain; and that her professions, the less ostentatious they
+were, had so much the more of truth and sincerity than her sisters'.
+
+This plainness of speech, which Lear called pride, so enraged the old
+monarch--who in his best of times always showed much of spleen and
+rashness, and in whom the dotage incident to old age had so clouded over
+his reason, that he could not discern truth from flattery, nor a gay
+painted speech from words that came from the heart--that in a fury of
+resentment he retracted the third part of his kingdom which yet
+remained, and which he had reserved for Cordelia, and gave it away from
+her, sharing it equally between her two sisters and their husbands, the
+Dukes of Albany and Cornwall; whom he now called to him, and in presence
+of all his courtiers bestowing a coronet between them, invested them
+jointly with all the power, revenue, and execution of government, only
+retaining to himself the name of king; all the rest of royalty he
+resigned; with this reservation, that himself, with a hundred knights
+for his attendants, was to be maintained by monthly course in each of
+his daughters' palaces in turn.
+
+So preposterous a disposal of his kingdom, so little guided by reason,
+and so much by passion, filled all his courtiers with astonishment and
+sorrow; but none of them had the courage to interpose between this
+incensed king and his wrath, except the Earl of Kent, who was beginning
+to speak a good word for Cordelia, when the passionate Lear on pain of
+death commanded him to desist; but the good Kent was not so to be
+repelled. He had been ever loyal to Lear, whom he had honoured as a
+king, loved as a father, followed as a master; and he had never esteemed
+his life further than as a pawn to wage against his royal master's
+enemies, nor feared to lose it when Lear's safety was the motive; nor
+now that Lear was most his own enemy, did this faithful servant of the
+king forget his old principles, but manfully opposed Lear, to do Lear
+good; and was unmannerly only because Lear was mad. He had been a most
+faithful counsellor in times past to the king, and he besought him now,
+that he would see with his eyes (as he had done in many weighty
+matters), and go by his advice still; and in his best consideration
+recall this hideous rashness: for he would answer with his life, his
+judgment that Lear's youngest daughter did not love him least, nor were
+those empty-hearted whose low sound gave no token of hollowness. When
+power bowed to flattery, honour was bound to plainness. For Lear's
+threats, what could he do to him, whose life was already at his service?
+That should not hinder duty from speaking.
+
+The honest freedom of this good Earl of Kent only stirred up the king's
+wrath the more, and like a frantic patient who kills his physician, and
+loves his mortal disease, he banished this true servant, and allotted
+him but five days to make his preparations for departure; but if on the
+sixth his hated person was found within the realm of Britain, that
+moment was to be his death. And Kent bade farewell to the king, and
+said, that since he chose to show himself in such fashion, it was but
+banishment to stay there; and before he went, he recommended Cordelia to
+the protection of the gods, the maid who had so rightly thought, and so
+discreetly spoken; and only wished that her sisters' large speeches
+might be answered with deeds of love; and then he went, as he said, to
+shape his old course to a new country.
+
+The King of France and Duke of Burgundy were now called in to hear the
+determination of Lear about his youngest daughter, and to know whether
+they would persist in their courtship to Cordelia, now that she was
+under her father's displeasure, and had no fortune but her own person to
+recommend her: and the Duke of Burgundy declined the match, and would
+not take her to wife upon such conditions; but the King of France,
+understanding what the nature of the fault had been which had lost her
+the love of her father, that it was only a tardiness of speech, and the
+not being able to frame her tongue to flattery like her sisters, took
+this young maid by the hand, and saying that her virtues were a dowry
+above a kingdom, bade Cordelia to take farewell of her sisters and of
+her father, though he had been unkind, and she should go with him, and
+be queen of him and of fair France, and reign over fairer possessions
+than her sisters: and he called the Duke of Burgundy in contempt a
+waterish duke, because his love for this young maid had in a moment run
+all away like water.
+
+Then Cordelia with weeping eyes took leave of her sisters, and besought
+them to love their father well, and make good their professions: and
+they sullenly told her not to prescribe to them, for they knew their
+duty; but to strive to content her husband, who had taken her (as they
+tauntingly expressed it) as Fortune's alms. And Cordelia with a heavy
+heart departed, for she knew the cunning of her sisters, and she wished
+her father in better hands than she was about to leave him in.
+
+Cordelia was no sooner gone, than the devilish dispositions of her
+sisters began to show themselves in their true colours. Even before the
+expiration of the first month, which Lear was to spend by agreement with
+his eldest daughter Goneril, the old king began to find out the
+difference between promises and performances. This wretch having got
+from her father all that he had to bestow, even to the giving away of
+the crown from off his head, began to grudge even those small remnants
+of royalty which the old man had reserved to himself, to please his
+fancy with the idea of being still a king. She could not bear to see him
+and his hundred knights. Every time she met her father, she put on a
+frowning countenance; and when the old man wanted to speak with her, she
+would feign sickness, or anything to get rid of the sight of him; for it
+was plain that she esteemed his old age a useless burden, and his
+attendants an unnecessary expense: not only she herself slackened in her
+expressions of duty to the king, but by her example, and (it is to be
+feared) not without her private instructions, her very servants affected
+to treat him with neglect, and would either refuse to obey his orders,
+or still more contemptuously pretend not to hear them. Lear could not
+but perceive this alteration in the behaviour of his daughter, but he
+shut his eyes against it as long as he could, as people commonly are
+unwilling to believe the unpleasant consequences which their own
+mistakes and obstinacy have brought upon them.
+
+True love and fidelity are no more to be estranged by _ill_, than
+falsehood and hollow-heartedness can be conciliated by _good_, _usage_.
+This eminently appears in the instance of the good Earl of Kent, who,
+though banished by Lear, and his life made forfeit if he were found in
+Britain, chose to stay and abide all consequences, as long as there was
+a chance of his being useful to the king his master. See to what mean
+shifts and disguises poor loyalty is forced to submit sometimes; yet it
+counts nothing base or unworthy, so as it can but do service where it
+owes an obligation!
+
+In the disguise of a serving man, all his greatness and pomp laid aside,
+this good earl proffered his services to the king, who, not knowing him
+to be Kent in that disguise, but pleased with a certain plainness, or
+rather bluntness in his answers, which the earl put on (so different
+from that smooth oily flattery which he had so much reason to be sick
+of, having found the effects not answerable in his daughter), a bargain
+was quickly struck, and Lear took Kent into his service by the name of
+Caius, as he called himself, never suspecting him to be his once great
+favourite, the high and mighty Earl of Kent.
+
+This Caius quickly found means to show his fidelity and love to his
+royal master: for Goneril's steward that same day behaving in a
+disrespectful manner to Lear, and giving him saucy looks and language,
+as no doubt he was secretly encouraged to do by his mistress, Caius, not
+enduring to hear so open an affront put upon his majesty, made no more
+ado but presently tripped up his heels, and laid the unmannerly slave in
+the kennel; for which friendly service Lear became more and more
+attached to him.
+
+Nor was Kent the only friend Lear had. In his degree, and as far as so
+insignificant a personage could show his love, the poor fool, or jester,
+that had been of his palace while Lear had a palace, as it was the
+custom of kings and great personages at that time to keep a fool (as he
+was called) to make them sport after serious business: this poor fool
+clung to Lear after he had given away his crown, and by his witty
+sayings would keep up his good humour, though he could not refrain
+sometimes from jeering at his master for his imprudence in uncrowning
+himself, and giving all away to his daughters; at which time, as he
+rhymingly expressed it, these daughters
+
+  For sudden joy did weep
+    And he for sorrow sung,
+  That such a king should play bo-peep
+    And go the fools among.
+
+And in such wild sayings, and scraps of songs, of which he had plenty,
+this pleasant honest fool poured out his heart even in the presence of
+Goneril herself, in many a bitter taunt and jest which cut to the quick:
+such as comparing the king to the hedge-sparrow, who feeds the young of
+the cuckoo till they grow old enough, and then has its head bit off for
+its pains; and saying, that an ass may know when the cart draws the
+horse (meaning that Lear's daughters, that ought to go behind, now
+ranked before their father); and that Lear was no longer Lear, but the
+shadow of Lear: for which free speeches he was once or twice threatened
+to be whipped.
+
+The coolness and falling off of respect which Lear had begun to
+perceive, were not all which this foolish fond father was to suffer from
+his unworthy daughter: she now plainly told him that his staying in her
+palace was inconvenient so long as he insisted upon keeping up an
+establishment of a hundred knights; that this establishment was useless
+and expensive, and only served to fill her court with riot and feasting;
+and she prayed him that he would lessen their number, and keep none but
+old men about him, such as himself, and fitting his age.
+
+Lear at first could not believe his eyes or ears, nor that it was his
+daughter who spoke so unkindly. He could not believe that she who had
+received a crown from him could seek to cut off his train, and grudge
+him the respect due to his old age. But she, persisting in her undutiful
+demand, the old man's rage was so excited, that he called her a detested
+kite, and said that she spoke an untruth; and so indeed she did, for
+the hundred knights were all men of choice behaviour and sobriety of
+manners, skilled in all particulars of duty, and not given to rioting or
+feasting, as she said. And he bid his horses to be prepared, for he
+would go to his other daughter, Regan, he and his hundred knights; and
+he spoke of ingratitude, and said it was a marble-hearted devil, and
+showed more hideous in a child than the sea-monster. And he cursed his
+eldest daughter Goneril so as was terrible to hear; praying that she
+might never have a child, or if she had, that it might live to return
+that scorn and contempt upon her which she had shown to him: that she
+might feel how sharper than a serpent's tooth it was to have a thankless
+child. And Goneril's husband, the Duke of Albany, beginning to excuse
+himself for any share which Lear might suppose he had in the unkindness,
+Lear would not hear him out, but in a rage ordered his horses to be
+saddled, and set out with his followers for the abode of Regan, his
+other daughter. And Lear thought to himself how small the fault of
+Cordelia (if it was a fault) now appeared, in comparison with her
+sister's, and he wept; and then he was ashamed that such a creature as
+Goneril should have so much power over his manhood as to make him weep.
+
+Regan and her husband were keeping their court in great pomp and state
+at their palace; and Lear despatched his servant Caius with letters to
+his daughter, that she might be prepared for his reception, while he and
+his train followed after. But it seems that Goneril had been before-hand
+with him, sending letters also to Regan, accusing her father of
+waywardness and ill humours, and advising her not to receive so great a
+train as he was bringing with him. This messenger arrived at the same
+time with Caius, and Caius and he met: and who should it be but Caius's
+old enemy the steward, whom he had formerly tripped up by the heels for
+his saucy behaviour to Lear. Caius not liking the fellow's look, and
+suspecting what he came for, began to revile him, and challenged him to
+fight, which the fellow refusing, Caius, in a fit of honest passion,
+beat him soundly, as such a mischief-maker and carrier of wicked
+messages deserved; which coming to the ears of Regan and her husband,
+they ordered Caius to be put in stocks, though he was a messenger from
+the king her father, and in that character demanded the highest respect:
+so that the first thing the king saw when he entered the castle, was his
+faithful servant Caius sitting in that disgraceful situation.
+
+This was but a bad omen of the reception which he was to expect; but a
+worse followed, when, upon inquiry for his daughter and her husband, he
+was told they were weary with travelling all night, and could not see
+him; and when lastly, upon his insisting in a positive and angry manner
+to see them, they came to greet him, whom should he see in their company
+but the hated Goneril, who had come to tell her own story, and set her
+sister against the king her father!
+
+This sight much moved the old man, and still more to see Regan take her
+by the hand; and he asked Goneril if she was not ashamed to look upon
+his old white beard. And Regan advised him to go home again with
+Goneril, and live with her peaceably, dismissing half of his attendants,
+and to ask her forgiveness; for he was old and wanted discretion, and
+must be ruled and led by persons that had more discretion than himself.
+And Lear showed how preposterous that would sound, if he were to go down
+on his knees, and beg of his own daughter for food and raiment, and he
+argued against such an unnatural dependence, declaring his resolution
+never to return with her, but to stay where he was with Regan, he and
+his hundred knights; for he said that she had not forgot the half of the
+kingdom which he had endowed her with, and that her eyes were not fierce
+like Goneril's, but mild and kind. And he said that rather than return
+to Goneril, with half his train cut off, he would go over to France,
+and beg a wretched pension of the king there, who had married his
+youngest daughter without a portion.
+
+But he was mistaken in expecting kinder treatment of Regan than he had
+experienced from her sister Goneril. As if willing to outdo her sister
+in unfilial behaviour, she declared that she thought fifty knights too
+many to wait upon him: that five-and-twenty were enough. Then Lear, nigh
+heart-broken, turned to Goneril and said that he would go back with her,
+for her fifty doubled five-and-twenty, and so her love was twice as much
+as Regan's. But Goneril excused herself, and said, what need of so many
+as five-and-twenty? or even ten? or five? when he might be waited upon
+by her servants, or her sister's servants? So these two wicked
+daughters, as if they strove to exceed each other in cruelty to their
+old father, who had been so good to them, by little and little would
+have abated him of all his train, all respect (little enough for him
+that once commanded a kingdom), which was left him to show that he had
+once been a king! Not that a splendid train is essential to happiness,
+but from a king to a beggar is a hard change, from commanding millions
+to be without one attendant; and it was the ingratitude in his
+daughters' denying it, more than what he would suffer by the want of it,
+which pierced this poor king to the heart; insomuch, that with this
+double ill-usage, and vexation for having so foolishly given away a
+kingdom, his wits began to be unsettled, and while he said he knew not
+what, he vowed revenge against those unnatural hags, and to make
+examples of them that should be a terror to the earth!
+
+While he was thus idly threatening what his weak arm could never
+execute, night came on, and a loud storm of thunder and lightning with
+rain; and his daughters still persisting in their resolution not to
+admit his followers, he called for his horses, and chose rather to
+encounter the utmost fury of the storm abroad, than stay under the same
+roof with these ungrateful daughters: and they, saying that the injuries
+which wilful men procure to themselves are their just punishment,
+suffered him to go in that condition and shut their doors upon him.
+
+The winds were high, and the rain and storm increased, when the old man
+sallied forth to combat with the elements, less sharp than his
+daughters' unkindness. For many miles about there was scarce a bush; and
+there upon a heath, exposed to the fury of the storm in a dark night,
+did King Lear wander out, and defy the winds and the thunder; and he bid
+the winds to blow the earth into the sea, or swell the waves of the sea
+till they drowned the earth, that no token might remain of any such
+ungrateful animal as man. The old king was now left with no other
+companion than the poor fool, who still abided with him, with his merry
+conceits striving to outjest misfortune, saying it was but a naughty
+night to swim in, and truly the king had better go in and ask his
+daughter's blessing:--
+
+  But he that has a little tiny wit.
+    With heigh ho, the wind and the rain!
+  Must make content with his fortunes fit.
+    Though the rain it raineth every day:
+
+and swearing it was a brave night to cool a lady's pride.
+
+Thus poorly accompanied, this once great monarch was found by his
+ever-faithful servant the good Earl of Kent, now transformed to Caius,
+who ever followed close at his side, though the king did not know him to
+be the earl; and he said, "Alas! sir, are you here? creatures that love
+night, love not such nights as these. This dreadful storm has driven the
+beasts to their hiding places. Man's nature cannot endure the affliction
+or the fear." And Lear rebuked him and said, these lesser evils were not
+felt, where a greater malady was fixed. When the mind is at ease, the
+body has leisure to be delicate, but the tempest in his mind did take
+all feeling else from his senses, but of that which beat at his
+heart. And he spoke of filial ingratitude, and said it was all one as if
+the mouth should tear the hand for lifting food to it; for parents were
+hands and food and everything to children.
+
+[Illustration: THERE UPON A HEATH, EXPOSED TO THE FURY OF THE STORM ON A
+DARK NIGHT, DID KING LEAR WANDER OUT]
+
+But the good Caius still persisting in his entreaties that the king
+would not stay out in the open air, at last persuaded him to enter a
+little wretched hovel which stood upon the heath, where the fool first
+entering, suddenly ran back terrified, saying that he had seen a spirit.
+But upon examination this spirit proved to be nothing more than a poor
+Bedlam beggar, who had crept into this deserted hovel for shelter, and
+with his talk about devils frighted the fool, one of those poor lunatics
+who are either mad, or feign to be so, the better to extort charity from
+the compassionate country people, who go about the country, calling
+themselves poor Tom and poor Turlygood, saying, "Who gives anything to
+poor Tom?" sticking pins and nails and sprigs of rosemary into their
+arms to make them bleed; and with such horrible actions, partly by
+prayers, and partly with lunatic curses, they move or terrify the
+ignorant country-folks into giving them alms. This poor fellow was such
+a one; and the king seeing him in so wretched a plight, with nothing but
+a blanket about his loins to cover his nakedness, could not be persuaded
+but that the fellow was some father who had given all away to his
+daughters, and brought himself to that pass: for nothing he thought
+could bring a man to such wretchedness but the having unkind daughters.
+
+And from this and many such wild speeches which he uttered, the good
+Caius plainly perceived that he was not in his perfect mind, but that
+his daughters' ill usage had really made him go mad. And now the loyalty
+of this worthy Earl of Kent showed itself in more essential services
+than he had hitherto found opportunity to perform. For with the
+assistance of some of the king's attendants who remained loyal, he had
+the person of his royal master removed at daybreak to the castle of
+Dover, where his own friends and influence, as Earl of Kent, chiefly
+lay; and himself embarking for France, hastened to the court of
+Cordelia, and did there in such moving terms represent the pitiful
+condition of her royal father, and set out in such lively colours the
+inhumanity of her sisters, that this good and loving child with many
+tears besought the king her husband that he would give her leave to
+embark for England, with a sufficient power to subdue these cruel
+daughters and their husbands, and restore the old king her father to his
+throne; which being granted, she set forth, and with a royal army landed
+at Dover.
+
+Lear having by some chance escaped from the guardians which the good
+Earl of Kent had put over him to take care of him in his lunacy, was
+found by some of Cordelia's train, wandering about the fields near
+Dover, in a pitiable condition, stark mad, and singing aloud to himself,
+with a crown upon his head which he had made of straw, and nettles, and
+other wild weeds that he had picked up in the corn-fields. By the advice
+of the physicians, Cordelia, though earnestly desirous of seeing her
+father, was prevailed upon to put off the meeting, till by sleep and the
+operation of herbs which they gave him, he should be restored to greater
+composure. By the aid of these skilful physicians, to whom Cordelia
+promised all her gold and jewels for the recovery of the old king, Lear
+was soon in a condition to see his daughter.
+
+A tender sight it was to see the meeting between this father and
+daughter; to see the struggles between the joy of this poor old king at
+beholding again his once darling child, and the shame at receiving such
+filial kindness from her whom he had cast off for so small a fault in
+his displeasure; both these passions struggling with the remains of his
+malady, which in his half-crazed brain sometimes made him that he scarce
+remembered where he was, or who it was that so kindly kissed him and
+spoke to him: and then he would beg the standers-by not to laugh at
+him, if he were mistaken in thinking this lady to be his daughter
+Cordelia! And then to see him fall on his knees to beg pardon of his
+child; and she, good lady, kneeling all the while to ask a blessing of
+him, and telling him that it did not become him to kneel, but it was her
+duty, for she was his child, his true and very child Cordelia! and she
+kissed him (as she said) to kiss away all her sisters' unkindness, and
+said that they might be ashamed of themselves, to turn their old kind
+father with his white beard out into the cold air, when her enemy's dog,
+though it had bit her (as she prettily expressed it), should have stayed
+by her fire such a night as that, and warmed himself. And she told her
+father how she had come from France with purpose to bring him
+assistance; and he said that she must forget and forgive, for he was old
+and foolish, and did not know what he did; but that to be sure she had
+great cause not to love him, but her sisters had none. And Cordelia said
+that she had no cause, no more than they had.
+
+So we will leave this old king in the protection of his dutiful and
+loving child, where, by the help of sleep and medicine, she and her
+physicians at length succeeded in winding up the untuned and jarring
+senses which the cruelty of his other daughters had so violently shaken.
+Let us return to say a word or two about those cruel daughters.
+
+These monsters of ingratitude, who had been so false to their old
+father, could not be expected to prove more faithful to their own
+husbands. They soon grew tired of paying even the appearance of duty and
+affection, and in an open way showed they had fixed their loves upon
+another. It happened that the object of their guilty loves was the same.
+It was Edmund, a natural son of the late Earl of Gloucester, who by his
+treacheries had succeeded in disinheriting his brother Edgar, the lawful
+heir, from his earldom, and by his wicked practices was now earl
+himself; a wicked man, and a fit object for the love of such wicked
+creatures as Goneril and Regan. It falling out about this time that the
+Duke of Cornwall, Regan's husband, died, Regan immediately declared her
+intention of wedding this Earl of Gloucester, which rousing the jealousy
+of her sister, to whom as well as to Regan this wicked earl had at
+sundry times professed love, Goneril found means to make away with her
+sister by poison; but being detected in her practices, and imprisoned by
+her husband, the Duke of Albany, for this deed, and for her guilty
+passion for the earl which had come to his ears, she, in a fit of
+disappointed love and rage, shortly put an end to her own life. Thus the
+justice of Heaven at last overtook these wicked daughters.
+
+While the eyes of all men were upon this event, admiring the justice
+displayed in their deserved deaths, the same eyes were suddenly taken
+off from this sight to admire at the mysterious ways of the same power
+in the melancholy fate of the young and virtuous daughter, the Lady
+Cordelia, whose good deeds did seem to deserve a more fortunate
+conclusion: but it is an awful truth, that innocence and piety are not
+always successful in this world. The forces which Goneril and Regan had
+sent out under the command of the bad Earl of Gloucester were
+victorious, and Cordelia, by the practices of this wicked earl, who did
+not like that any should stand between him and the throne, ended her
+life in prison. Thus, Heaven took this innocent lady to itself in her
+young years, after showing her to the world an illustrious example of
+filial duty. Lear did not long survive this kind child.
+
+Before he died, the good Earl of Kent, who had still attended his old
+master's steps from the first of his daughters' ill usage to this sad
+period of his decay, tried to make him understand that it was he who had
+followed him under the name of Caius; but Lear's care-crazed brain at
+that time could not comprehend how that could be, or how Kent and Caius
+could be the same person: so Kent thought it needless to trouble him
+with explanations at such a time; and Lear soon after expiring, this
+faithful servant to the king, between age and grief for his old master's
+vexations, soon followed him to the grave.
+
+How the judgment of Heaven overtook the bad Earl of Gloucester, whose
+treasons were discovered, and himself slain in single combat with his
+brother, the lawful earl; and how Goneril's husband, the Duke of Albany,
+who was innocent of the death of Cordelia, and had never encouraged his
+lady in her wicked proceedings against her father, ascended the throne
+of Britain after the death of Lear, is needless here to narrate; Lear
+and his Three Daughters being dead, whose adventures alone concern our
+story.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+MACBETH
+
+
+When Duncan the Meek reigned King of Scotland, there lived a great
+thane, or lord, called Macbeth. This Macbeth was a near kinsman to the
+king, and in great esteem at court for his valour and conduct in the
+wars; an example of which he had lately given, in defeating a rebel army
+assisted by the troops of Norway in terrible numbers.
+
+[Illustration: THEY WERE STOPPED BY THE STRANGE APPEARANCE OF THREE
+FIGURES]
+
+The two Scottish generals, Macbeth and Banquo, returning victorious from
+this great battle, their way lay over a blasted heath, where they were
+stopped by the strange appearance of three figures like women, except
+that they had beards, and their withered skins and wild attire made them
+look not like any earthly creatures. Macbeth first addressed them, when
+they, seemingly offended, laid each one her choppy finger upon her
+skinny lips, in token of silence; and the first of them saluted Macbeth
+with the title of thane of Glamis. The general was not a little startled
+to find himself known by such creatures; but how much more, when the
+second of them followed up that salute by giving him the title of thane
+of Cawdor, to which honour he had no pretensions; and again the third
+bid him "All hail! king that shalt be hereafter!" Such a prophetic
+greeting might well amaze him, who knew that while the king's sons
+lived he could not hope to succeed to the throne. Then turning to
+Banquo, they pronounced him, in a sort of riddling terms, to be _lesser
+than Macbeth and greater_! _not so happy, but much happier_! and
+prophesied that though he should never reign, yet his sons after him
+should be kings in Scotland. They then turned into air, and vanished: by
+which the generals knew them to be the weird sisters, or witches.
+
+While they stood pondering on the strangeness of this adventure, there
+arrived certain messengers from the king, who were empowered by him to
+confer upon Macbeth the dignity of thane of Cawdor: an event so
+miraculously corresponding with the prediction of the witches astonished
+Macbeth, and he stood wrapped in amazement, unable to make reply to the
+messengers; and in that point of time swelling hopes arose in his mind
+that the prediction of the third witch might in like manner have its
+accomplishment, and that he should one day reign king in Scotland.
+
+Turning to Banquo, he said, "Do you not hope that your children shall be
+kings, when what the witches promised to me has so wonderfully come to
+pass?" "That hope," answered the general, "might enkindle you to aim at
+the throne; but oftentimes these ministers of darkness tell us truths in
+little things, to betray us into deeds of greatest consequence."
+
+But the wicked suggestions of the witches had sunk too deep into the
+mind of Macbeth to allow him to attend to the warnings of the good
+Banquo. From that time he bent all his thoughts how to compass the
+throne of Scotland.
+
+Macbeth had a wife, to whom he communicated the strange prediction of
+the weird sisters, and its partial accomplishment. She was a bad,
+ambitious woman, and so as her husband and herself could arrive at
+greatness, she cared not much by what means. She spurred on the
+reluctant purpose of Macbeth, who felt compunction at the thoughts of
+blood, and did not cease to represent the murder of the king as a step
+absolutely necessary to the fulfilment of the flattering prophecy.
+
+It happened at this time that the king, who out of his royal
+condescension would oftentimes visit his principal nobility upon
+gracious terms, came to Macbeth's house, attended by his two sons,
+Malcolm and Donalbain, and a numerous train of thanes and attendants,
+the more to honour Macbeth for the triumphal success of his wars.
+
+The castle of Macbeth was pleasantly situated, and the air about it was
+sweet and wholesome, which appeared by the nests which the martlet, or
+swallow, had built under all the jutting friezes and buttresses of the
+building, wherever it found a place of advantage; for where those birds
+most breed and haunt, the air is observed to be delicate. The king
+entered well-pleased with the place, and not less so with the attentions
+and respect of his honoured hostess, Lady Macbeth, who had the art of
+covering treacherous purposes with smiles; and could look like the
+innocent flower, while she was indeed the serpent under it.
+
+The king being tired with his journey, went early to bed, and in his
+state-room two grooms of his chamber (as was the custom) slept beside
+him. He had been unusually pleased with his reception, and had made
+presents before he retired to his principal officers; and among the
+rest, had sent a rich diamond to Lady Macbeth, greeting her by the name
+of his most kind hostess.
+
+Now was the middle of night, when over half the world nature seems dead,
+and wicked dreams abuse men's minds asleep, and none but the wolf and
+the murderer is abroad. This was the time when Lady Macbeth waked to
+plot the murder of the king. She would not have undertaken a deed so
+abhorrent to her sex, but that she feared her husband's nature, that it
+was too full of the milk of human kindness, to do a contrived murder.
+She knew him to be ambitious, but withal to be scrupulous, and not yet
+prepared for that height of crime which commonly in the end accompanies
+inordinate ambition. She had won him to consent to the murder, but she
+doubted his resolution; and she feared that the natural tenderness of
+his disposition (more humane than her own) would come between, and
+defeat the purpose. So with her own hands armed with a dagger, she
+approached the king's bed; having taken care to ply the grooms of his
+chamber so with wine, that they slept intoxicated, and careless of their
+charge. There lay Duncan in a sound sleep after the fatigues of his
+journey, and as she viewed him earnestly, there was something in his
+face, as he slept, which resembled her own father; and she had not the
+courage to proceed.
+
+She returned to confer with her husband. His resolution had begun to
+stagger. He considered that there were strong reasons against the deed.
+In the first place, he was not only a subject, but a near kinsman to the
+king; and he had been his host and entertainer that day, whose duty, by
+the laws of hospitality, it was to shut the door against his murderers,
+not bear the knife himself. Then he considered how just and merciful a
+king this Duncan had been, how clear of offence to his subjects, how
+loving to his nobility, and in particular to him; that such kings are
+the peculiar care of Heaven, and their subjects doubly bound to revenge
+their deaths. Besides, by the favours of the king, Macbeth stood high in
+the opinion of all sorts of men, and how would those honours be stained
+by the reputation of so foul a murder!
+
+In these conflicts of the mind Lady Macbeth found her husband inclining
+to the better part, and resolving to proceed no further. But she being a
+woman not easily shaken from her evil purpose, began to pour in at his
+ears words which infused a portion of her own spirit into his mind,
+assigning reason upon reason why he should not shrink from what he had
+undertaken; how easy the deed was; how soon it would be over; and how
+the action of one short night would give to all their nights and days to
+come sovereign sway and royalty! Then she threw contempt on his change
+of purpose, and accused him of fickleness and cowardice; and declared
+that she had given suck, and knew how tender it was to love the babe
+that milked her; but she would, while it was smiling in her face, have
+plucked it from her breast, and dashed its brains out, if she had so
+sworn to do it, as he had sworn to perform that murder. Then she added,
+how practicable it was to lay the guilt of the deed upon the drunken
+sleepy grooms. And with the valour of her tongue she so chastised his
+sluggish resolutions, that he once more summoned up courage to the
+bloody business.
+
+So, taking the dagger in his hand, he softly stole in the dark to the
+room where Duncan lay; and as he went, he thought he saw another dagger
+in the air, with the handle towards him, and on the blade and at the
+point of it drops of blood; but when he tried to grasp at it, it was
+nothing but air, a mere phantasm proceeding from his own hot and
+oppressed brain and the business he had in hand.
+
+Getting rid of this fear, he entered the king's room, whom he despatched
+with one stroke of his dagger. Just as he had done the murder, one of
+the grooms, who slept in the chamber, laughed in his sleep, and the
+other cried, "Murder," which woke them both; but they said a short
+prayer; one of them said, "God bless us!" and the other answered "Amen;"
+and addressed themselves to sleep again. Macbeth, who stood listening to
+them, tried to say, "Amen," when the fellow said, "God bless us!" but,
+though he had most need of a blessing, the word stuck in his throat, and
+he could not pronounce it.
+
+Again he thought he heard a voice which cried, "Sleep no more: Macbeth
+doth murder sleep, the innocent sleep, that nourishes life." Still it
+cried, "Sleep no more," to all the house. "Glamis hath murdered sleep,
+and therefore Cawdor shall sleep no more, Macbeth shall sleep no more."
+
+With such horrible imaginations Macbeth returned to his listening wife,
+who began to think he had failed of his purpose, and that the deed was
+somehow frustrated. He came in so distracted a state, that she
+reproached him with his want of firmness, and sent him to wash his hands
+of the blood which stained them, while she took his dagger, with purpose
+to stain the cheeks of the grooms with blood, to make it seem their
+guilt.
+
+Morning came, and with it the discovery of the murder, which could not
+be concealed; and though Macbeth and his lady made great show of grief,
+and the proofs against the grooms (the dagger being produced against
+them and their faces smeared with blood) were sufficiently strong, yet
+the entire suspicion fell upon Macbeth, whose inducements to such a deed
+were so much more forcible than such poor silly grooms could be supposed
+to have; and Duncan's two sons fled. Malcolm, the eldest, sought for
+refuge in the English court; and the youngest, Donalbain, made his
+escape to Ireland.
+
+The king's sons, who should have succeeded him, having thus vacated the
+throne, Macbeth as next heir was crowned king, and thus the prediction
+of the weird sisters was literally accomplished.
+
+Though placed so high, Macbeth and his queen could not forget the
+prophecy of the weird sisters, that, though Macbeth should be king, yet
+not his children, but the children of Banquo, should be kings after him.
+The thought of this, and that they had defiled their hands with blood,
+and done so great crimes, only to place the posterity of Banquo upon the
+throne, so rankled within them, that they determined to put to death
+both Banquo and his son, to make void the predictions of the weird
+sisters, which in their own case had been so remarkably brought to pass.
+
+For this purpose they made a great supper, to which they invited all the
+chief thanes; and, among the rest, with marks of particular respect,
+Banquo and his son Fleance were invited. The way by which Banquo was to
+pass to the palace at night was beset by murderers appointed by Macbeth,
+who stabbed Banquo; but in the scuffle Fleance escaped. From that
+Fleance descended a race of monarchs who afterwards filled the Scottish
+throne, ending with James the Sixth of Scotland and the First of
+England, under whom the two crowns of England and Scotland were united.
+
+At supper, the queen, whose manners were in the highest degree affable
+and royal, played the hostess with a gracefulness and attention which
+conciliated every one present, and Macbeth discoursed freely with his
+thanes and nobles, saying, that all that was honourable in the country
+was under his roof, if he had but his good friend Banquo present, whom
+yet he hoped he should rather have to chide for neglect, than to lament
+for any mischance. Just at these words the ghost of Banquo, whom he had
+caused to be murdered, entered the room and placed himself on the chair
+which Macbeth was about to occupy. Though Macbeth was a bold man, and
+one that could have faced the devil without trembling, at this horrible
+sight his cheeks turned white with fear, and he stood quite unmanned
+with his eyes fixed upon the ghost. His queen and all the nobles, who
+saw nothing, but perceived him gazing (as they thought) upon an empty
+chair, took it for a fit of distraction; and she reproached him,
+whispering that it was but the same fancy which made him see the dagger
+in the air, when he was about to kill Duncan. But Macbeth continued to
+see the ghost, and gave no heed to all they could say, while he
+addressed it with distracted words, yet so significant, that his queen,
+fearing the dreadful secret would be disclosed, in great haste dismissed
+the guests, excusing the infirmity of Macbeth as a disorder he was often
+troubled with.
+
+To such dreadful fancies Macbeth was subject. His queen and he had their
+sleeps afflicted with terrible dreams, and the blood of Banquo troubled
+them not more than the escape of Fleance, whom now they looked upon as
+father to a line of kings who should keep their posterity out of the
+throne. With these miserable thoughts they found no peace, and Macbeth
+determined once more to seek out the weird sisters, and know from them
+the worst.
+
+He sought them in a cave upon the heath, where they, who knew by
+foresight of his coming, were engaged in preparing their dreadful
+charms, by which they conjured up infernal spirits to reveal to them
+futurity. Their horrid ingredients were toads, bats, and serpents, the
+eye of a newt, and the tongue of a dog, the leg of a lizard, and the
+wing of the night-owl, the scale of a dragon, the tooth of a wolf, the
+maw of the ravenous salt-sea shark, the mummy of a witch, the root of
+the poisonous hemlock (this to have effect must be digged in the dark),
+the gall of a goat, and the liver of a Jew, with slips of the yew tree
+that roots itself in graves, and the finger of a dead child: all these
+were set on to boil in a great kettle, or cauldron, which, as fast as it
+grew too hot, was cooled with a baboon's blood: to these they poured in
+the blood of a sow that had eaten her young, and they threw into the
+flame the grease that had sweaten from a murderer's gibbet. By these
+charms they bound the infernal spirits to answer their questions.
+
+It was demanded of Macbeth, whether he would have his doubts resolved by
+them, or by their masters, the spirits. He, nothing daunted by the
+dreadful ceremonies which he saw, boldly answered, "Where are they? let
+me see them." And they called the spirits, which were three. And the
+first arose in the likeness of an armed head, and he called Macbeth by
+name, and bid him beware of the thane of Fife; for which caution Macbeth
+thanked him; for Macbeth had entertained a jealousy of Macduff, the
+thane of Fife.
+
+And the second spirit arose in the likeness of a bloody child, and he
+called Macbeth by name, and bid him have no fear, but laugh to scorn the
+power of man, for none of woman born should have power to hurt him; and
+he advised him to be bloody, bold, and resolute. "Then live, Macduff!"
+cried the king; "what need I fear of thee? but yet I will make assurance
+doubly sure. Thou shalt not live; that I may tell pale-hearted Fear it
+lies, and sleep in spite of thunder."
+
+That spirit being dismissed, a third arose in the form of a child
+crowned, with a tree in his hand. He called Macbeth by name, and
+comforted him against conspiracies, saying, that he should never be
+vanquished, until the wood of Birnam to Dunsinane Hill should come
+against him. "Sweet bodements! good!" cried Macbeth; "who can unfix the
+forest, and move it from its earth-bound roots? I see I shall live the
+usual period of man's life, and not be cut off by a violent death. But
+my heart throbs to know one thing. Tell me, if your art can tell so
+much, if Banquo's issue shall ever reign in this kingdom?" Here the
+cauldron sank into the ground, and a noise of music was heard, and eight
+shadows, like kings, passed by Macbeth, and Banquo last, who bore a
+glass which showed the figures of many more, and Banquo all bloody
+smiled upon Macbeth, and pointed to them; by which Macbeth knew that
+these were the posterity of Banquo, who should reign after him in
+Scotland; and the witches, with a sound of soft music, and with dancing,
+making a show of duty and welcome to Macbeth, vanished. And from this
+time the thoughts of Macbeth were all bloody and dreadful.
+
+The first thing he heard when he got out of the witches' cave, was that
+Macduff, thane of Fife, had fled to England, to join the army which was
+forming against him under Malcolm, the eldest son of the late king, with
+intent to displace Macbeth, and set Malcolm, the right heir, upon the
+throne. Macbeth, stung with rage, set upon the castle of Macduff, and
+put his wife and children, whom the thane had left behind, to the sword,
+and extended the slaughter to all who claimed the least relationship to
+Macduff.
+
+These and such-like deeds alienated the minds of all his chief nobility
+from him. Such as could, fled to join with Malcolm and Macduff, who were
+now approaching with a powerful army, which they had raised in England;
+and the rest secretly wished success to their arms, though for fear of
+Macbeth they could take no active part. His recruits went on slowly.
+Everybody hated the tyrant; nobody loved or honoured him; but all
+suspected him, and he began to envy the condition of Duncan, whom he had
+murdered, who slept soundly in his grave, against whom treason had done
+its worst: steel nor poison, domestic malice nor foreign levies, could
+hurt him any longer.
+
+While these things were acting, the queen, who had been the sole partner
+in his wickedness, in whose bosom he could sometimes seek a momentary
+repose from those terrible dreams which afflicted them both nightly,
+died, it is supposed, by her own hands, unable to bear the remorse of
+guilt, and public hate; by which event he was left alone, without a soul
+to love or care for him, or a friend to whom he could confide his wicked
+purposes.
+
+He grew careless of life, and wished for death; but the near approach of
+Malcolm's army roused in him what remained of his ancient courage, and
+he determined to die (as he expressed it) "with armour on his back."
+Besides this, the hollow promises of the witches had filled him with a
+false confidence, and he remembered the sayings of the spirits, that
+none of woman born was to hurt him, and that he was never to be
+vanquished till Birnam wood should come to Dunsinane, which he thought
+could never be. So he shut himself up in his castle, whose impregnable
+strength was such as defied a siege: here he sullenly waited the
+approach of Malcolm. When, upon a day, there came a messenger to him,
+pale and shaking with fear, almost unable to report that which he had
+seen; for he averred, that as he stood upon his watch on the hill, he
+looked towards Birnam, and to his thinking the wood began to move! "Liar
+and slave!" cried Macbeth; "if thou speakest false, thou shalt hang
+alive upon the next tree, till famine end thee. If thy tale be true, I
+care not if thou dost as much by me;" for Macbeth now began to faint in
+resolution, and to doubt the equivocal speeches of the spirits. He was
+not to fear till Birnam wood should come to Dunsinane; and now a wood
+did move! "However," said he, "if this which he avouches be true, let us
+arm and out. There is no flying hence, nor staying here. I begin to be
+weary of the sun, and wish my life at an end." With these desperate
+speeches he sallied forth upon the besiegers, who had now come up to the
+castle.
+
+The strange appearance which had given the messenger an idea of a wood
+moving is easily solved. When the besieging army marched through the
+wood of Birnam, Malcolm, like a skilful general, instructed his soldiers
+to hew down every one a bough and bear it before him, by way of
+concealing the true numbers of his host. This marching of the soldiers
+with boughs had at a distance the appearance which had frightened the
+messenger. Thus were the words of the spirit brought to pass, in a sense
+different from that in which Macbeth had understood them, and one great
+hold of his confidence was gone.
+
+And now a severe skirmishing took place, in which Macbeth, though feebly
+supported by those who called themselves his friends, but in reality
+hated the tyrant and inclined to the party of Malcolm and Macduff, yet
+fought with the extreme of rage and valour, cutting to pieces all who
+were opposed to him, till he came to where Macduff was fighting. Seeing
+Macduff, and remembering the caution of the spirit who had counselled
+him to avoid Macduff, above all men, he would have turned, but Macduff,
+who had been seeking him through the whole fight, opposed his turning,
+and a fierce contest ensued; Macduff giving him many foul reproaches for
+the murder of his wife and children. Macbeth, whose soul was charged
+enough with blood of that family already, would still have declined the
+combat; but Macduff still urged him to it, calling him tyrant, murderer,
+hell-hound, and villain.
+
+Then Macbeth remembered the words of the spirit, how none of woman born
+should hurt him; and smiling confidently he said to Macduff, "Thou
+losest thy labour, Macduff. As easily thou mayest impress the air with
+thy sword, as make me vulnerable. I bear a charmed life, which must not
+yield to one of woman born."
+
+"Despair thy charm," said Macduff, "and let that lying spirit whom thou
+hast served, tell thee, that Macduff was never born of woman, never as
+the ordinary manner of men is to be born, but was untimely taken from
+his mother."
+
+"Accursed be the tongue which tells me so," said the trembling Macbeth,
+who felt his last hold of confidence give way; "and let never man in
+future believe the lying equivocations of witches and juggling spirits,
+who deceive us in words which have double senses, and while they keep
+their promise literally, disappoint our hopes with a different meaning.
+I will not fight with thee."
+
+"Then live!" said the scornful Macduff; "we will have a show of thee, as
+men show monsters, and a painted board, on which shall be written, 'Here
+men may see the tyrant!'"
+
+"Never," said Macbeth, whose courage returned with despair; "I will not
+live to kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet, and to be baited
+with the curses of the rabble. Though Birnam wood be come to Dunsinane,
+and thou opposed to me, who wast never born of woman, yet will I try the
+last." With these frantic words he threw himself upon Macduff, who,
+after a severe struggle, in the end overcame him, and cutting off his
+head, made a present of it to the young and lawful king, Malcolm; who
+took upon him the government which, by the machinations of the usurper,
+he had so long been deprived of, and ascended the throne of Duncan the
+Meek, amid the acclamations of the nobles and the people.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL
+
+
+Bertram, Count of Rousillon, had newly come to his title and estate, by
+the death of his father. The King of France loved the father of Bertram,
+and when he heard of his death, he sent for his son to come immediately
+to his royal court in Paris, intending, for the friendship he bore the
+late count, to grace young Bertram with his especial favour and
+protection.
+
+Bertram was living with his mother, the widowed countess, when Lafeu, an
+old lord of the French court, came to conduct him to the king. The King
+of France was an absolute monarch, and the invitation to court was in
+the form of a royal mandate, or positive command, which no subject, of
+what high dignity soever, might disobey; therefore though the countess,
+in parting with this dear son, seemed a second time to bury her husband,
+whose loss she had so lately mourned, yet she dared not to keep him a
+single day, but gave instant orders for his departure. Lafeu, who came
+to fetch him, tried to comfort the countess for the loss of her late
+lord, and her son's sudden absence; and he said, in a courtier's
+flattering manner, that the king was so kind a prince, she would find in
+his majesty a husband, and that he would be a father to her son; meaning
+only, that the good king would befriend the fortunes of Bertram. Lafeu
+told the countess that the king had fallen into a sad malady, which was
+pronounced by his physicians to be incurable. The lady expressed great
+sorrow on hearing this account of the king's ill health, and said, she
+wished the father of Helena (a young gentlewoman who was present in
+attendance upon her) were living, for that she doubted not he could have
+cured his majesty of his disease. And she told Lafeu something of the
+history of Helena, saying she was the only daughter of the famous
+physician Gerard de Narbon, and that he had recommended his daughter to
+her care when he was dying, so that since his death she had taken Helena
+under her protection; then the countess praised the virtuous disposition
+and excellent qualities of Helena, saying she inherited these virtues
+from her worthy father. While she was speaking, Helena wept in sad and
+mournful silence, which made the countess gently reprove her for too
+much grieving for her father's death.
+
+Bertram now bade his mother farewell. The countess parted with this dear
+son with tears and many blessings, and commended him to the care of
+Lafeu, saying, "Good my lord, advise him, for he is an unseasoned
+courtier."
+
+Bertram's last words were spoken to Helena, but they were words of mere
+civility, wishing her happiness; and he concluded his short farewell to
+her with saying, "Be comfortable to my mother, your mistress, and make
+much of her."
+
+Helena had long loved Bertram, and when she wept in sad and mournful
+silence, the tears she shed were not for Gerard de Narbon. Helena loved
+her father, but in the present feeling of a deeper love, the object of
+which she was about to lose, she had forgotten the very form and
+features of her dead father, her imagination presenting no image to her
+mind but Bertram's.
+
+Helena had long loved Bertram, yet she always remembered that he was the
+Count of Rousillon, descended from the most ancient family in France.
+She of humble birth. Her parents of no note at all. His ancestors all
+noble. And therefore she looked up to the high-born Bertram as to her
+master and to her dear lord, and dared not form any wish but to live his
+servant, and so living to die his vassal. So great the distance seemed
+to her between his height of dignity and her lowly fortunes, that she
+would say, "It were all one that I should love a bright particular star,
+and think to wed it, Bertram is so far above me."
+
+Bertram's absence filled her eyes with tears and her heart with sorrow;
+for though she loved without hope, yet it was a pretty comfort to her to
+see him every hour, and Helena would sit and look upon his dark eye, his
+arched brow, and the curls of his fine hair, till she seemed to draw his
+portrait on the tablet of her heart, that heart too capable of retaining
+the memory of every line in the features of that loved face.
+
+Gerard de Narbon, when he died, left her no other portion than some
+prescriptions of rare and well-proved virtue, which by deep study and
+long experience in medicine he had collected as sovereign and almost
+infallible remedies. Among the rest, there was one set down as an
+approved medicine for the disease under which Lafeu said the king at
+that time languished: and when Helena heard of the king's complaint,
+she, who till now had been so humble and so hopeless, formed an
+ambitious project in her mind to go herself to Paris, and undertake the
+cure of the king. But though Helena was the possessor of this choice
+prescription, it was unlikely, as the king as well as his physicians was
+of opinion that his disease was incurable, that they would give credit
+to a poor unlearned virgin, if she should offer to perform a cure. The
+firm hopes that Helena had of succeeding, if she might be permitted to
+make the trial, seemed more than even her father's skill warranted,
+though he was the most famous physician of his time; for she felt a
+strong faith that this good medicine was sanctified by all the luckiest
+stars in heaven to be the legacy that should advance her fortune, even
+to the high dignity of being Count Rousillon's wife.
+
+Bertram had not been long gone, when the countess was informed by her
+steward, that he had overheard Helena talking to herself, and that he
+understood from some words she uttered, she was in love with Bertram,
+and thought of following him to Paris. The countess dismissed the
+steward with thanks, and desired him to tell Helena she wished to speak
+with her. What she had just heard of Helena brought the remembrance of
+days long past into the mind of the countess; those days probably when
+her love for Bertram's father first began; and she said to herself,
+"Even so it was with me when I was young. Love is a thorn that belongs
+to the rose of youth; for in the season of youth, if ever we are
+nature's children, these faults are ours, though then we think not they
+are faults."
+
+While the countess was thus meditating on the loving errors of her own
+youth, Helena entered, and she said to her, "Helena, you know I am a
+mother to you." Helena replied, "You are my honourable mistress." "You
+are my daughter," said the countess again: "I say I am your mother. Why
+do you start and look pale at my words?" With looks of alarm and
+confused thoughts, fearing the countess suspected her love, Helena still
+replied, "Pardon me, madam, you are not my mother; the Count Rousillon
+cannot be my brother, nor I your daughter." "Yet, Helena," said the
+countess, "you might be my daughter-in-law; and I am afraid that is what
+you mean to be, the words _mother_ and _daughter_ so disturb you.
+Helena, do you love my son?" "Good madam, pardon me," said the
+affrighted Helena. Again the countess repeated her question, "Do you
+love my son?" "Do not you love him, madam?" said Helena. The countess
+replied, "Give me not this evasive answer, Helena. Come, come, disclose
+the state of your affections, for your love has to the full appeared."
+Helena on her knees now owned her love, and with shame and terror
+implored the pardon of her noble mistress; and with words expressive of
+the sense she had of the inequality between their fortunes, she
+protested Bertram did not know she loved him, comparing her humble
+unaspiring love to a poor Indian, who adores the sun that looks upon his
+worshipper, but knows of him no more. The countess asked Helena if she
+had not lately an intent to go to Paris? Helena owned the design she had
+formed in her mind, when she heard Lafeu speak of the king's illness.
+"This was your motive for wishing to go to Paris," said the countess,
+"was it? Speak truly." Helena honestly answered, "My lord your son made
+me to think of this; else Paris, and the medicine, and the king, had
+from the conversation of my thoughts been absent then." The countess
+heard the whole of this confession without saying a word either of
+approval or of blame, but she strictly questioned Helena as to the
+probability of the medicine being useful to the king. She found that it
+was the most prized by Gerard de Narbon of all he possessed, and that he
+had given it to his daughter on his deathbed; and remembering the solemn
+promise she had made at that awful hour in regard to this young maid,
+whose destiny, and the life of the king himself, seemed to depend on the
+execution of a project (which though conceived by the fond suggestions
+of a loving maiden's thoughts, the countess knew not but it might be the
+unseen workings of Providence to bring to pass the recovery of the king,
+and to lay the foundation of the future fortunes of Gerard de Narbon's
+daughter), free leave she gave to Helena to pursue her own way, and
+generously furnished her with ample means and suitable attendants; and
+Helena set out for Paris with the blessings of the countess, and her
+kindest wishes for her success.
+
+Helena arrived at Paris, and by the assistance of her friend the old
+Lord Lafeu, she obtained an audience of the king. She had still many
+difficulties to encounter, for the king was not easily prevailed on to
+try the medicine offered him by this fair young doctor. But she told him
+she was Gerard de Narbon's daughter (with whose fame the king was well
+acquainted), and she offered the precious medicine as the darling
+treasure which contained the essence of all her father's long experience
+and skill, and she boldly engaged to forfeit her life, if it failed to
+restore his majesty to perfect health in the space of two days. The king
+at length consented to try it, and in two days' time Helena was to lose
+her life if the king did not recover; but if she succeeded, he promised
+to give her the choice of any man throughout all France (the princes
+only excepted) whom she could like for a husband; the choice of a
+husband being the fee Helena demanded if she cured the king of his
+disease.
+
+Helena did not deceive herself in the hope she conceived of the efficacy
+of her father's medicine. Before two days were at an end, the king was
+restored to perfect health, and he assembled all the young noblemen of
+his court together, in order to confer the promised reward of a husband
+upon his fair physician; and he desired Helena to look round on this
+youthful parcel of noble bachelors, and choose her husband. Helena was
+not slow to make her choice, for among these young lords she saw the
+Count Rousillon, and turning to Bertram, she said, "This is the man. I
+dare not say, my lord, I take you, but I give me and my service ever
+whilst I live into your guiding power." "Why, then," said the king,
+"young Bertram, take her; she is your wife." Bertram did not hesitate to
+declare his dislike to this present of the king's of the self-offered
+Helena, who, he said, was a poor physician's daughter, bred at his
+father's charge, and now living a dependent on his mother's bounty.
+Helena heard him speak these words of rejection and of scorn, and she
+said to the king, "That you are well, my lord, I am glad. Let the rest
+go." But the king would not suffer his royal command to be so slighted;
+for the power of bestowing their nobles in marriage was one of the many
+privileges of the kings of France; and that same day Bertram was married
+to Helena, a forced and uneasy marriage to Bertram, and of no promising
+hope to the poor lady, who, though she gained the noble husband she had
+hazarded her life to obtain, seemed to have won but a splendid blank,
+her husband's love not being a gift in the power of the King of France
+to bestow.
+
+Helena was no sooner married, than she was desired by Bertram to apply
+to the king for him for leave of absence from court; and when she
+brought him the king's permission for his departure, Bertram told her
+that he was not prepared for this sudden marriage, it had much unsettled
+him, and therefore she must not wonder at the course he should pursue.
+If Helena wondered not, she grieved when she found it was his intention
+to leave her. He ordered her to go home to his mother. When Helena heard
+this unkind command, she replied, "Sir, I can nothing say to this, but
+that I am your most obedient servant, and shall ever with true
+observance seek to eke out that desert, wherein my homely stars have
+failed to equal my great fortunes." But this humble speech of Helena's
+did not at all move the haughty Bertram to pity his gentle wife, and he
+parted from her without even the common civility of a kind farewell.
+
+Back to the countess then Helena returned. She had accomplished the
+purport of her journey, she had preserved the life of the king, and she
+had wedded her heart's dear lord, the Count Rousillon; but she returned
+back a dejected lady to her noble mother-in-law, and as soon as she
+entered the house she received a letter from Bertram which almost broke
+her heart.
+
+The good countess received her with a cordial welcome, as if she had
+been her son's own choice, and a lady of a high degree, and she spoke
+kind words to comfort her for the unkind neglect of Bertram in sending
+his wife home on her bridal day alone. But this gracious reception
+failed to cheer the sad mind of Helena, and she said, "Madam, my lord is
+gone, for ever gone." She then read these words out of Bertram's letter:
+_When you can get the ring from my finger, which never shall come off,
+then call me husband, but in such a Then I write a Never_. "This is a
+dreadful sentence!" said Helena. The countess begged her to have
+patience, and said, now Bertram was gone, she should be her child, and
+that she deserved a lord that twenty such rude boys as Bertram might
+tend upon, and hourly call her mistress. But in vain by respectful
+condescension and kind flattery this matchless mother tried to soothe
+the sorrows of her daughter-in-law.
+
+Helena still kept her eyes fixed upon the letter, and cried out in an
+agony of grief, _Till I have no wife, I have nothing in France_. The
+countess asked her if she found those words in the letter? "Yes, madam,"
+was all poor Helena could answer.
+
+The next morning Helena was missing. She left a letter to be delivered
+to the countess after she was gone, to acquaint her with the reason of
+her sudden absence: in this letter she informed her that she was so much
+grieved at having driven Bertram from his native country and his home,
+that to atone for her offence, she had undertaken a pilgrimage to the
+shrine of St. Jaques le Grand, and concluded with requesting the
+countess to inform her son that the wife he so hated had left his house
+for ever.
+
+Bertram, when he left Paris, went to Florence, and there became an
+officer in the Duke of Florence's army, and after a successful war, in
+which he distinguished himself by many brave actions, Bertram received
+letters from his mother, containing the acceptable tidings that Helena
+would no more disturb him; and he was preparing to return home, when
+Helena herself, clad in her pilgrim's weeds, arrived at the city of
+Florence.
+
+Florence was a city through which the pilgrims used to pass on their way
+to St. Jaques le Grand; and when Helena arrived at this city, she heard
+that a hospitable widow dwelt there, who used to receive into her house
+the female pilgrims that were going to visit the shrine of that saint,
+giving them lodging and kind entertainment. To this good lady,
+therefore, Helena went, and the widow gave her a courteous welcome, and
+invited her to see whatever was curious in that famous city, and told
+her that if she would like to see the duke's army, she would take her
+where she might have a full view of it. "And you will see a countryman
+of yours," said the widow; "his name is Count Rousillon, who has done
+worthy service in the duke's wars." Helena wanted no second invitation,
+when she found Bertram was to make part of the show. She accompanied her
+hostess; and a sad and mournful pleasure it was to her to look once more
+upon her dear husband's face. "Is he not a handsome man?" said the
+widow. "I like him well," replied Helena, with great truth. All the way
+they walked, the talkative widow's discourse was all of Bertram: she
+told Helena the story of Bertram's marriage, and how he had deserted the
+poor lady his wife, and entered into the duke's army to avoid living
+with her. To this account of her own misfortunes Helena patiently
+listened, and when it was ended, the history of Bertram was not yet
+done, for then the widow began another tale, every word of which sank
+deep into the mind of Helena; for the story she now told was of
+Bertram's love for her daughter.
+
+Though Bertram did not like the marriage forced on him by the king, it
+seems he was not insensible to love, for since he had been stationed
+with the army at Florence, he had fallen in love with Diana, a fair
+young gentlewoman, the daughter of this widow who was Helena's hostess;
+and every night, with music of all sorts, and songs composed in praise
+of Diana's beauty, he would come under her window, and solicit her love;
+and all his suit to her was, that she would permit him to visit her by
+stealth after the family were retired to rest; but Diana would by no
+means be persuaded to grant this improper request, nor give any
+encouragement to his suit, knowing him to be a married man; for Diana
+had been brought up under the counsels of a prudent mother, who, though
+she was now in reduced circumstances, was well born, and descended from
+the noble family of the Capulets.
+
+All this the good lady related to Helena, highly praising the virtuous
+principles of her discreet daughter, which she said were entirely owing
+to the excellent education and good advice she had given her; and she
+further said, that Bertram had been particularly importunate with Diana
+to admit him to the visit he so much desired that night, because he was
+going to leave Florence early the next morning.
+
+Though it grieved Helena to hear of Bertram's love for the widow's
+daughter, yet from this story the ardent mind of Helena conceived a
+project (nothing discouraged at the ill success of her former one) to
+recover her truant lord. She disclosed to the widow that she was Helena,
+the deserted wife of Bertram, and requested that her kind hostess and
+her daughter would suffer this visit from Bertram to take place, and
+allow her to pass herself upon Bertram for Diana; telling them, her
+chief motive for desiring to have this secret meeting with her husband,
+was to get a ring from him, which he had said, if ever she was in
+possession of he would acknowledge her as his wife.
+
+The widow and her daughter promised to assist her in this affair, partly
+moved by pity for this unhappy forsaken wife, and partly won over to her
+interest by the promises of reward which Helena made them, giving them a
+purse of money in earnest of her future favour. In the course of that
+day Helena caused information to be sent to Bertram that she was dead;
+hoping that when he thought himself free to make a second choice by the
+news of her death, he would offer marriage to her in her feigned
+character of Diana. And if she could obtain the ring and this promise
+too, she doubted not she should make some future good come of it.
+
+In the evening, after it was dark, Bertram was admitted into Diana's
+chamber, and Helena was there ready to receive him. The flattering
+compliments and love discourse he addressed to Helena were precious
+sounds to her, though she knew they were meant for Diana; and Bertram
+was so well pleased with her, that he made her a solemn promise to be
+her husband, and to love her for ever; which she hoped would be
+prophetic of a real affection, when he should know it was his own wife,
+the despised Helena, whose conversation had so delighted him.
+
+Bertram never knew how sensible a lady Helena was, else perhaps he would
+not have been so regardless of her; and seeing her every day, he had
+entirely overlooked her beauty; a face we are accustomed to see
+constantly, losing the effect which is caused by the first sight either
+of beauty or of plainness; and of her understanding it was impossible he
+should judge, because she felt such reverence, mixed with her love for
+him, that she was always silent in his presence: but now that her future
+fate, and the happy ending of all her love-projects, seemed to depend on
+her leaving a favourable impression on the mind of Bertram from this
+night's interview, she exerted all her wit to please him; and the simple
+graces of her lively conversation and the endearing sweetness of her
+manners so charmed Bertram, that he vowed she should be his wife. Helena
+begged the ring from off his finger as a token of his regard, and he
+gave it to her; and in return for this ring, which it was of such
+importance to her to possess, she gave him another ring, which was one
+the king had made her a present of. Before it was light in the morning,
+she sent Bertram away; and he immediately set out on his journey towards
+his mother's house.
+
+Helena prevailed on the widow and Diana to accompany her to Paris, their
+further assistance being necessary to the full accomplishment of the
+plan she had formed. When they arrived there, they found the king was
+gone upon a visit to the Countess of Rousillon, and Helena followed the
+king with all the speed she could make.
+
+The king was still in perfect health, and his gratitude to her who had
+been the means of his recovery was so lively in his mind, that the
+moment he saw the Countess of Rousillon, he began to talk of Helena,
+calling her a precious jewel that was lost by the folly of her son; but
+seeing the subject distressed the countess, who sincerely lamented the
+death of Helena, he said, "My good lady, I have forgiven and forgotten
+all." But the good-natured old Lafeu, who was present, and could not
+bear that the memory of his favourite Helena should be so lightly passed
+over, said, "This I must say, the young lord did great offence to his
+majesty, his mother, and his lady; but to himself he did the greatest
+wrong of all, for he has lost a wife whose beauty astonished all eyes,
+whose words took all ears captive, whose deep perfection made all hearts
+wish to serve her." The king said, "Praising what is lost makes the
+remembrance dear. Well--call him hither;" meaning Bertram, who now
+presented himself before the king: and, on his expressing deep sorrow
+for the injuries he had done to Helena, the king, for his dead father's
+and his admirable mother's sake, pardoned him and restored him once more
+to his favour. But the gracious countenance of the king was soon changed
+towards him, for he perceived that Bertram wore the very ring upon his
+finger which he had given to Helena: and he well remembered that Helena
+had called all the saints in heaven to witness she would never part with
+that ring, unless she sent it to the king himself upon some great
+disaster befalling her; and Bertram, on the king's questioning him how
+he came by the ring, told an improbable story of a lady throwing it to
+him out of a window, and denied ever having seen Helena since the day of
+their marriage. The king, knowing Bertram's dislike to his wife, feared
+he had destroyed her: and he ordered his guards to seize Bertram,
+saying, "I am wrapt in dismal thinking, for I fear the life of Helena
+was foully snatched." At this moment Diana and her mother entered, and
+presented a petition to the king, wherein they begged his majesty to
+exert his royal power to compel Bertram to marry Diana, he having made
+her a solemn promise of marriage. Bertram, fearing the king's anger,
+denied he had made any such promise; and then Diana produced the ring
+(which Helena had put into her hands) to confirm the truth of her words;
+and she said that she had given Bertram the ring he then wore, in
+exchange for that, at the time he vowed to marry her. On hearing this,
+the king ordered the guards to seize her also; and her account of the
+ring differing from Bertram's, the king's suspicions were confirmed: and
+he said, if they did not confess how they came by this ring of Helena's,
+they should be both put to death. Diana requested her mother might be
+permitted to fetch the jeweller of whom she bought the ring, which being
+granted, the widow went out, and presently returned leading in Helena
+herself.
+
+The good countess, who in silent grief had beheld her son's danger, and
+had even dreaded that the suspicion of his having destroyed his wife
+might possibly be true, finding her dear Helena, whom she loved with
+even a maternal affection, was still living, felt a delight she was
+hardly able to support; and the king, scarce believing for joy that it
+was Helena, said, "Is this indeed the wife of Bertram that I see?"
+Helena, feeling herself yet an unacknowledged wife, replied, "No, my
+good lord, it is but the shadow of a wife you see, the name and not the
+thing." Bertram cried out, "Both, both! O pardon!"--"O my lord," said
+Helena, "when I personated this fair maid, I found you wondrous kind;
+and look, here is your letter!" reading to him in a joyful tone those
+words which she had once repeated so sorrowfully, _When from my finger
+you can get this ring_,--"This is done; it was to me you gave the ring.
+Will you be mine, now you are doubly won?" Bertram replied, "If you can
+make it plain that you were the lady I talked with that night, I will
+love you dearly ever, ever dearly." This was no difficult task, for the
+widow and Diana came with Helena to prove this fact; and the king was so
+well pleased with Diana, for the friendly assistance she had rendered
+the dear lady he so truly valued for the service she had done him, that
+he promised her also a noble husband: Helena's history giving him a
+hint, that it was a suitable reward for kings to bestow upon fair ladies
+when they perform notable services.
+
+Thus Helena at last found that her father's legacy was indeed sanctified
+by the luckiest stars in heaven; for she was now the beloved wife of her
+dear Bertram, the daughter-in-law of her noble mistress, and herself the
+Countess of Rousillon.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+THE TAMING OF THE SHREW
+
+
+Katharine, the Shrew, was the eldest daughter of Baptista, a rich
+gentleman of Padua. She was a lady of such an ungovernable spirit and
+fiery temper, such a loud-tongued scold, that she was known in Padua by
+no other name than Katharine the Shrew. It seemed very unlikely, indeed
+impossible, that any gentleman would ever be found who would venture to
+marry this lady, and therefore Baptista was much blamed for deferring
+his consent to many excellent offers that were made to her gentle sister
+Bianca, putting off all Bianca's suitors with this excuse, that when the
+eldest sister was fairly off his hands, they should have free leave to
+address young Bianca.
+
+[Illustration: PETRUCHIO, PRETENDING TO FIND FAULT WITH EVERY DISH,
+THREW THE MEAT ABOUT THE FLOOR]
+
+It happened, however, that a gentleman, named Petruchio, came to Padua,
+purposely to look out for a wife, who, nothing discouraged by these
+reports of Katharine's temper, and hearing she was rich and handsome,
+resolved upon marrying this famous termagant, and taming her into a meek
+and manageable wife. And truly none was so fit to set about this
+herculean labour as Petruchio, whose spirit was as high as Katharine's,
+and he was a witty and most happy-tempered humourist, and withal so
+wise, and of such a true judgment, that he well knew how to feign a
+passionate and furious deportment, when his spirits were so calm that
+himself could have laughed merrily at his own angry feigning, for his
+natural temper was careless and easy; the boisterous airs he assumed
+when he became the husband of Katharine being but in sport, or more
+properly speaking, affected by his excellent discernment, as the only
+means to overcome, in her own way, the passionate ways of the furious
+Katharine.
+
+A courting then Petruchio went to Katharine the Shrew; and first of all
+he applied to Baptista her father, for leave to woo his _gentle
+daughter_ Katharine, as Petruchio called her, saying archly, that having
+heard of her bashful modesty and mild behaviour, he had come from Verona
+to solicit her love. Her father, though he wished her married, was
+forced to confess Katharine would ill answer this character, it being
+soon apparent of what manner of gentleness she was composed, for her
+music-master rushed into the room to complain that the gentle Katharine,
+his pupil, had broken his head with her lute, for presuming to find
+fault with her performance; which, when Petruchio heard, he said, "It is
+a brave wench; I love her more than ever, and long to have some chat
+with her;" and hurrying the old gentleman for a positive answer, he
+said, "My business is in haste, Signior Baptista, I cannot come every
+day to woo. You knew my father: he is dead, and has left me heir to all
+his lands and goods. Then tell me, if I get your daughter's love, what
+dowry you will give with her." Baptista thought his manner was somewhat
+blunt for a lover; but being glad to get Katharine married, he answered
+that he would give her twenty thousand crowns for her dowry, and half
+his estate at his death: so this odd match was quickly agreed on, and
+Baptista went to apprise his shrewish daughter of her lover's addresses,
+and sent her in to Petruchio to listen to his suit.
+
+In the meantime Petruchio was settling with himself the mode of
+courtship he should pursue; and he said, "I will woo her with some
+spirit when she comes. If she rails at me, why then I will tell her she
+sings as sweetly as a nightingale; and if she frowns, I will say she
+looks as clear as roses newly washed with dew. If she will not speak a
+word, I will praise the eloquence of her language; and if she bids me
+leave her, I will give her thanks as if she bid me stay with her a
+week." Now the stately Katharine entered, and Petruchio first addressed
+her with "Good morrow, Kate, for that is your name, I hear." Katharine,
+not liking this plain salutation, said disdainfully, "They call me
+Katharine who do speak to me." "You lie," replied the lover; "for you
+are called plain Kate, and bonny Kate, and sometimes Kate the Shrew:
+but, Kate, you are the prettiest Kate in Christendom, and therefore,
+Kate, hearing your mildness praised in every town, I am come to woo you
+for my wife."
+
+A strange courtship they made of it. She in loud and angry terms showing
+him how justly she had gained the name of Shrew, while he still praised
+her sweet and courteous words, till at length, hearing her father
+coming, he said (intending to make as quick a wooing as possible),
+"Sweet Katharine, let us set this idle chat aside, for your father has
+consented that you shall be my wife, your dowry is agreed on, and
+whether you will or no, I will marry you."
+
+And now Baptista entering, Petruchio told him his daughter had received
+him kindly, and that she had promised to be married the next Sunday.
+This Katharine denied, saying she would rather see him hanged on Sunday,
+and reproached her father for wishing to wed her to such a mad-cap
+ruffian as Petruchio. Petruchio desired her father not to regard her
+angry words, for they had agreed she should seem reluctant before him,
+but that when they were alone he had found her very fond and loving; and
+he said to her, "Give me your hand, Kate; I will go to Venice to buy you
+fine apparel against our wedding day. Provide the feast, father, and
+bid the wedding guests. I will be sure to bring rings, fine array, and
+rich clothes, that my Katharine may be fine; and kiss me, Kate, for we
+will be married on Sunday."
+
+On the Sunday all the wedding guests were assembled, but they waited
+long before Petruchio came, and Katharine wept for vexation to think
+that Petruchio had only been making a jest of her. At last, however, he
+appeared; but he brought none of the bridal finery he had promised
+Katharine, nor was he dressed himself like a bridegroom, but in strange
+disordered attire, as if he meant to make a sport of the serious
+business he came about; and his servant and the very horses on which
+they rode were in like manner in mean and fantastic fashion habited.
+
+Petruchio could not be persuaded to change his dress; he said Katharine
+was to be married to him, and not to his clothes; and finding it was in
+vain to argue with him, to the church they went, he still behaving in
+the same mad way, for when the priest asked Petruchio if Katharine
+should be his wife, he swore so loud that she should, that, all amazed,
+the priest let fall his book, and as he stooped to take it up, this
+mad-brained bridegroom gave him such a cuff, that down fell the priest
+and his book again. And all the while they were being married he stamped
+and swore so, that the high-spirited Katharine trembled and shook with
+fear. After the ceremony was over, while they were yet in the church, he
+called for wine, and drank a loud health to the company, and threw a sop
+which was at the bottom of the glass full in the sexton's face, giving
+no other reason for this strange act, than that the sexton's beard grew
+thin and hungerly, and seemed to ask the sop as he was drinking. Never
+sure was there such a mad marriage; but Petruchio did but put this
+wildness on, the better to succeed in the plot he had formed to tame his
+shrewish wife.
+
+Baptista had provided a sumptuous marriage feast, but when they returned
+from church, Petruchio, taking hold of Katharine, declared his
+intention of carrying his wife home instantly: and no remonstrance of
+his father-in-law, or angry words of the enraged Katharine, could make
+him change his purpose. He claimed a husband's right to dispose of his
+wife as he pleased, and away he hurried Katharine off: he seeming so
+daring and resolute that no one dared attempt to stop him.
+
+Petruchio mounted his wife upon a miserable horse, lean and lank, which
+he had picked out for the purpose, and himself and his servant no better
+mounted; they journeyed on through rough and miry ways, and ever when
+this horse of Katharine's stumbled, he would storm and swear at the poor
+jaded beast, who could scarce crawl under his burthen, as if he had been
+the most passionate man alive.
+
+At length, after a weary journey, during which Katharine had heard
+nothing but the wild ravings of Petruchio at the servant and the horses,
+they arrived at his house. Petruchio welcomed her kindly to her home,
+but he resolved she should have neither rest nor food that night. The
+tables were spread, and supper soon served; but Petruchio, pretending to
+find fault with every dish, threw the meat about the floor, and ordered
+the servants to remove it away; and all this he did, as he said, in love
+for his Katharine, that she might not eat meat that was not well
+dressed. And when Katharine, weary and supperless, retired to rest, he
+found the same fault with the bed, throwing the pillows and bed-clothes
+about the room, so that she was forced to sit down in a chair, where if
+she chanced to drop asleep, she was presently awakened by the loud voice
+of her husband, storming at the servants for the ill-making of his
+wife's bridal-bed.
+
+The next day Petruchio pursued the same course, still speaking kind
+words to Katharine, but when she attempted to eat, finding fault with
+everything that was set before her, throwing the breakfast on the floor
+as he had done the supper; and Katharine, the haughty Katharine, was
+fain to beg the servants would bring her secretly a morsel of food; but
+they being instructed by Petruchio, replied, they dared not give her
+anything unknown to their master. "Ah," said she, "did he marry me to
+famish me? Beggars that come to my father's door have food given them.
+But I, who never knew what it was to entreat for anything, am starved
+for want of food, giddy for want of sleep, with oaths kept waking, and
+with brawling fed; and that which vexes me more than all, he does it
+under the name of perfect love, pretending that if I sleep or eat, it
+were present death to me." Here the soliloquy was interrupted by the
+entrance of Petruchio: he, not meaning she should be quite starved, had
+brought her a small portion of meat, and he said to her, "How fares my
+sweet Kate? Here, love, you see how diligent I am, I have dressed your
+meat myself. I am sure this kindness merits thanks. What, not a word?
+Nay, then you love not the meat, and all the pains I have taken is to no
+purpose." He then ordered the servant to take the dish away. Extreme
+hunger, which had abated the pride of Katharine, made her say, though
+angered to the heart, "I pray you let it stand." But this was not all
+Petruchio intended to bring her to, and he replied, "The poorest service
+is repaid with thanks, and so shall mine before you touch the meat." On
+this Katharine brought out a reluctant "I thank you, sir." And now he
+suffered her to make a slender meal, saying, "Much good may it do your
+gentle heart, Kate; eat apace! And now, my honey love, we will return to
+your father's house, and revel it as bravely as the best, with silken
+coats and caps and golden rings, with ruffs and scarfs and fans and
+double change of finery;" and to make her believe he really intended to
+give her these gay things, he called in a tailor and a haberdasher, who
+brought some new clothes he had ordered for her, and then giving her
+plate to the servant to take away, before she had half satisfied her
+hunger, he said, "What, have you dined?" The haberdasher presented a
+cap, saying, "Here is the cap your worship bespoke;" on which Petruchio
+began to storm afresh, saying the cap was moulded in a porringer, and
+that it was no bigger than a cockle or walnut shell, desiring the
+haberdasher to take it away and make it bigger. Katharine said, "I will
+have this; all gentlewomen wear such caps as these."--"When you are
+gentle," replied Petruchio, "you shall have one too, and not till then."
+The meat Katharine had eaten had a little revived her fallen spirits,
+and she said, "Why, sir, I trust I may have leave to speak, and speak I
+will: I am no child, no babe; your betters have endured to hear me say
+my mind; and if you cannot, you had better stop your ears." Petruchio
+would not hear these angry words, for he had happily discovered a better
+way of managing his wife than keeping up a jangling argument with her;
+therefore his answer was, "Why, you say true; it is a paltry cap, and I
+love you for not liking it."--"Love me, or love me not," said Katharine,
+"I like the cap, and I will have this cap or none."--"You say you wish
+to see the gown," said Petruchio, still affecting to misunderstand her.
+The tailor then came forward and showed her a fine gown he had made for
+her. Petruchio, whose intent was that she should have neither cap nor
+gown, found as much fault with that. "O mercy, Heaven!" said he, "what
+stuff is here! What, do you call this a sleeve? it is like a
+demi-cannon, carved up and down like an apple tart." The tailor said,
+"You bid me make it according to the fashion of the times;" and
+Katharine said, she never saw a better fashioned gown. This was enough
+for Petruchio, and privately desiring these people might be paid for
+their goods, and excuses made to them for the seemingly strange
+treatment he bestowed upon them, he with fierce words and furious
+gestures drove the tailor and the haberdasher out of the room; and then,
+turning to Katharine, he said, "Well, come, my Kate, we will go to your
+father's even in these mean garments we now wear." And then he ordered
+his horses, affirming they should reach Baptista's house by dinner-time,
+for that it was but seven o'clock. Now it was not early morning, but the
+very middle of the day, when he spoke this; therefore Katharine ventured
+to say, though modestly, being almost overcome by the vehemence of his
+manner, "I dare assure you, sir, it is two o'clock, and will be
+supper-time before we get there." But Petruchio meant that she should be
+so completely subdued, that she should assent to everything he said,
+before he carried her to her father; and therefore, as if he were lord
+even of the sun, and could command the hours, he said it should be what
+time he pleased to have it, before he set forward; "For," he said,
+"whatever I say or do, you still are crossing it. I will not go to-day,
+and when I go, it shall be what o'clock I say it is." Another day
+Katharine was forced to practise her newly-found obedience, and not till
+he had brought her proud spirit to such a perfect subjection, that she
+dared not remember there was such a word as contradiction, would
+Petruchio allow her to go to her father's house; and even while they
+were upon their journey thither, she was in danger of being turned back
+again, only because she happened to hint it was the sun, when he
+affirmed the moon shone brightly at noonday. "Now, by my mother's son,"
+said he, "and that is myself, it shall be the moon, or stars, or what I
+list, before I journey to your father's house." He then made as if he
+were going back again; but Katharine, no longer Katharine the Shrew, but
+the obedient wife, said, "Let us go forward, I pray, now we have come so
+far, and it shall be the sun, or moon, or what you please, and if you
+please to call it a rush candle henceforth, I vow it shall be so for
+me." This he was resolved to prove, therefore he said again, "I say, it
+is the moon."--"I know it is the moon," replied Katharine. "You lie, it
+is the blessed sun," said Petruchio. "Then it is the blessed sun,"
+replied Katharine; "but sun it is not, when you say it is not. What you
+will have it named, even so it is, and so it ever shall be for
+Katharine." Now then he suffered her to proceed on her journey; but
+further to try if this yielding humour would last, he addressed an old
+gentleman they met on the road as if he had been a young woman, saying
+to him, "Good morrow, gentle mistress;" and asked Katharine if she had
+ever beheld a fairer gentlewoman, praising the red and white of the old
+man's cheeks, and comparing his eyes to two bright stars; and again he
+addressed him, saying, "Fair lovely maid, once more good day to you!"
+and said to his wife, "Sweet Kate, embrace her for her beauty's sake."
+The now completely vanquished Katharine quickly adopted her husband's
+opinion, and made her speech in like sort to the old gentleman, saying
+to him, "Young budding virgin, you are fair, and fresh, and sweet:
+whither are you going, and where is your dwelling? Happy are the parents
+of so fair a child."--"Why, how now, Kate," said Petruchio; "I hope you
+are not mad. This is a man, old and wrinkled, faded and withered, and
+not a maiden, as you say he is." On this Katharine said, "Pardon me, old
+gentleman; the sun has so dazzled my eyes, that everything I look on
+seemeth green. Now I perceive you are a reverend father: I hope you will
+pardon me for my sad mistake."--"Do, good old grandsire," said Petruchio,
+"and tell us which way you are travelling. We shall be glad of your good
+company, if you are going our way." The old gentleman replied, "Fair
+sir, and you, my merry mistress, your strange encounter has much amazed
+me. My name is Vincentio, and I am going to visit a son of mine who
+lives at Padua." Then Petruchio knew the old gentleman to be the father
+of Lucentio, a young gentleman who was to be married to Baptista's
+younger daughter, Bianca, and he made Vincentio very happy, by telling
+him the rich marriage his son was about to make: and they all journeyed
+on pleasantly together till they came to Baptista's house, where there
+was a large company assembled to celebrate the wedding of Bianca and
+Lucentio, Baptista having willingly consented to the marriage of Bianca
+when he had got Katharine off his hands.
+
+When they entered, Baptista welcomed them to the wedding feast, and
+there was present also another newly married pair.
+
+Lucentio, Bianca's husband, and Hortensio, the other new married man,
+could not forbear sly jests, which seemed to hint at the shrewish
+disposition of Petruchio's wife, and these fond bridegrooms seemed
+highly pleased with the mild tempers of the ladies they had chosen,
+laughing at Petruchio for his less fortunate choice. Petruchio took
+little notice of their jokes till the ladies were retired after dinner,
+and then he perceived Baptista himself joined in the laugh against him:
+for when Petruchio affirmed that his wife would prove more obedient than
+theirs, the father of Katharine said, "Now, in good sadness, son
+Petruchio, I fear you have got the veriest shrew of all." "Well," said
+Petruchio, "I say no, and therefore for assurance that I speak the
+truth, let us each one send for his wife, and he whose wife is most
+obedient to come at first when she is sent for, shall win a wager which
+we will propose." To this the other two husbands willingly consented,
+for they were quite confident that their gentle wives would prove more
+obedient than the headstrong Katharine; and they proposed a wager of
+twenty crowns, but Petruchio merrily said, he would lay as much as that
+upon his hawk or hound, but twenty times as much upon his wife. Lucentio
+and Hortensio raised the wager to a hundred crowns, and Lucentio first
+sent his servant to desire Bianca would come to him. But the servant
+returned, and said, "Sir, my mistress sends you word she is busy and
+cannot come."--"How," said Petruchio, "does she say she is busy and
+cannot come? Is that an answer for a wife?" Then they laughed at him,
+and said, it would be well if Katharine did not send him a worse answer.
+And now it was Hortensio's turn to send for his wife; and he said to his
+servant, "Go, and entreat my wife to come to me." "Oh ho! entreat her!"
+said Petruchio. "Nay, then, she needs must come."--"I am afraid, sir,"
+said Hortensio, "your wife will not be entreated." But presently this
+civil husband looked a little blank, when the servant returned without
+his mistress; and he said to him, "How now! Where is my wife?"--"Sir,"
+said the servant, "my mistress says, you have some goodly jest in hand,
+and therefore she will not come. She bids you come to her."--"Worse and
+worse!" said Petruchio; and then he sent his servant, saying, "Sirrah,
+go to your mistress, and tell her I command her to come to me." The
+company had scarcely time to think she would not obey this summons, when
+Baptista, all in amaze, exclaimed, "Now, by my _holidame_, here comes
+Katharine!" and she entered, saying meekly to Petruchio, "What is your
+will, sir, that you send for me?"--"Where is your sister and Hortensio's
+wife?" said he. Katharine replied, "They sit conferring by the parlour
+fire."--"Go, fetch them hither!" said Petruchio. Away went Katharine
+without reply to perform her husband's command. "Here is a wonder," said
+Lucentio, "if you talk of a wonder."--"And so it is," said Hortensio; "I
+marvel what it bodes."--"Marry, peace it bodes," said Petruchio, "and
+love, and quiet life, and right supremacy; and, to be short, everything
+that is sweet and happy." Katharine's father, overjoyed to see this
+reformation in his daughter, said, "Now, fair befall thee, son
+Petruchio! you have won the wager, and I will add another twenty
+thousand crowns to her dowry, as if she were another daughter, for she
+is changed as if she had never been."--"Nay," said Petruchio, "I will
+win the wager better yet, and show more signs of her new-built virtue
+and obedience." Katharine now entering with the two ladies, he
+continued, "See where she comes, and brings your froward wives as
+prisoners to her womanly persuasion. Katharine, that cap of yours does
+not become you; off with that bauble, and throw it under foot."
+Katharine instantly took off her cap, and threw it down. "Lord!" said
+Hortensio's wife, "may I never have a cause to sigh till I am brought to
+such a silly pass!" And Bianca, she too said, "Fie, what foolish duty
+call you this?" On this Bianca's husband said to her, "I wish your duty
+were as foolish too! The wisdom of your duty, fair Bianca, has cost me a
+hundred crowns since dinner-time."--"The more fool you," said Bianca,
+"for laying on my duty."--"Katharine," said Petruchio, "I charge you
+tell these headstrong women what duty they owe their lords and
+husbands." And to the wonder of all present, the reformed shrewish lady
+spoke as eloquently in praise of the wife-like duty of obedience, as she
+had practised it implicitly in a ready submission to Petruchio's will.
+And Katharine once more became famous in Padua, not as heretofore, as
+Katharine the Shrew, but as Katharine the most obedient and duteous wife
+in Padua.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+THE COMEDY OF ERRORS
+
+
+The states of Syracuse and Ephesus being at variance, there was a cruel
+law made at Ephesus, ordaining that if any merchant of Syracuse was seen
+in the city of Ephesus, he was to be put to death, unless he could pay a
+thousand marks for the ransom of his life.
+
+AEgeon, an old merchant of Syracuse, was discovered in the streets of
+Ephesus, and brought before the duke, either to pay this heavy fine, or
+to receive sentence of death.
+
+AEgeon had no money to pay the fine, and the duke, before he pronounced
+the sentence of death upon him, desired him to relate the history of his
+life, and to tell for what cause he had ventured to come to the city of
+Ephesus, which it was death for any Syracusan merchant to enter.
+
+AEgeon said, that he did not fear to die, for sorrow had made him weary
+of his life, but that a heavier task could not have been imposed upon
+him than to relate the events of his unfortunate life. He then began his
+own history, in the following words:
+
+"I was born at Syracuse, and brought up to the profession of a merchant.
+I married a lady, with whom I lived very happily, but being obliged to
+go to Epidamnum, I was detained there by my business six months, and
+then, finding I should be obliged to stay some time longer, I sent for
+my wife, who, as soon as she arrived, was brought to bed of two sons,
+and what was very strange, they were both so exactly alike, that it was
+impossible to distinguish the one from the other. At the same time that
+my wife was brought to bed of these twin boys, a poor woman in the inn
+where my wife lodged was brought to bed of two sons, and these twins
+were as much like each other as my two sons were. The parents of these
+children being exceeding poor, I bought the two boys, and brought them
+up to attend upon my sons.
+
+"My sons were very fine children, and my wife was not a little proud of
+two such boys: and she daily wishing to return home, I unwillingly
+agreed, and in an evil hour we got on ship-board; for we had not sailed
+above a league from Epidamnum before a dreadful storm arose, which
+continued with such violence, that the sailors seeing no chance of
+saving the ship, crowded into the boat to save their own lives, leaving
+us alone in the ship, which we every moment expected would be destroyed
+by the fury of the storm.
+
+"The incessant weeping of my wife, and the piteous complaints of the
+pretty babes, who, not knowing what to fear, wept for fashion, because
+they saw their mother weep, filled me with terror for them, though I did
+not for myself fear death; and all my thoughts were bent to contrive
+means for their safety. I tied my youngest son to the end of a small
+spare mast, such as seafaring men provide against storms; at the other
+end I bound the youngest of the twin slaves, and at the same time I
+directed my wife how to fasten the other children in like manner to
+another mast. She thus having the care of the two eldest children, and I
+of the two younger, we bound ourselves separately to these masts with
+the children; and but for this contrivance we had all been lost, for the
+ship split on a mighty rock, and was dashed in pieces; and we, clinging
+to these slender masts, were supported above the water, where I, having
+the care of two children, was unable to assist my wife, who with the
+other children was soon separated from me; but while they were yet in my
+sight, they were taken up by a boat of fishermen, from Corinth, (as I
+supposed), and seeing them in safety, I had no care but to struggle with
+the wild sea-waves, to preserve my dear son and the youngest slave. At
+length we, in our turn, were taken up by a ship, and the sailors,
+knowing me, gave us kind welcome and assistance, and landed us in safety
+at Syracuse; but from that sad hour I have never known what became of my
+wife and eldest child.
+
+"My youngest son, and now my only care, when he was eighteen years of
+age, began to be inquisitive after his mother and his brother, and often
+importuned me that he might take his attendant, the young slave, who had
+also lost his brother, and go in search of them: at length I unwillingly
+gave consent, for though I anxiously desired to hear tidings of my wife
+and eldest son, yet in sending my younger one to find them, I hazarded
+the loss of him also. It is now seven years since my son left me; five
+years have I passed in travelling through the world in search of him: I
+have been in farthest Greece, and through the bounds of Asia, and
+coasting homewards, I landed here in Ephesus, being unwilling to leave
+any place unsought that harbours men; but this day must end the story of
+my life, and happy should I think myself in my death, if I were assured
+my wife and sons were living."
+
+Here the hapless AEgeon ended the account of his misfortunes; and the
+duke, pitying this unfortunate father, who had brought upon himself this
+great peril by his love for his lost son, said, if it were not against
+the laws, which his oath and dignity did not permit him to alter, he
+would freely pardon him; yet, instead of dooming him to instant death,
+as the strict letter of the law required, he would give him that day to
+try if he could beg or borrow the money to pay the fine.
+
+This day of grace did seem no great favour to AEgeon, for not knowing
+any man in Ephesus, there seemed to him but little chance that any
+stranger would lend or give him a thousand marks to pay the fine; and
+helpless and hopeless of any relief, he retired from the presence of the
+duke in the custody of a jailor.
+
+AEgeon supposed he knew no person in Ephesus; but at the very time he was
+in danger of losing his life through the careful search he was making
+after his youngest son, that son and his eldest son also were both in
+the city of Ephesus.
+
+AEgeon's sons, besides being exactly alike in face and person, were both
+named alike, being both called Antipholus, and the two twin slaves were
+also both named Dromio. AEgeon's youngest son, Antipholus of Syracuse, he
+whom the old man had come to Ephesus to seek, happened to arrive at
+Ephesus with his slave Dromio that very same day that AEgeon did; and he
+being also a merchant of Syracuse, he would have been in the same danger
+that his father was, but by good fortune he met a friend who told him
+the peril an old merchant of Syracuse was in, and advised him to pass
+for a merchant of Epidamnum; this Antipholus agreed to do, and he was
+sorry to hear one of his own countrymen was in this danger, but he
+little thought this old merchant was his own father.
+
+The eldest son of AEgeon (who must be called Antipholus of Ephesus, to
+distinguish him from his brother Antipholus of Syracuse) had lived at
+Ephesus twenty years, and, being a rich man, was well able to have paid
+the money for the ransom of his father's life; but Antipholus knew
+nothing of his father, being so young when he was taken out of the sea
+with his mother by the fishermen that he only remembered he had been so
+preserved, but he had no recollection of either his father or his
+mother; the fishermen who took up this Antipholus and his mother and the
+young slave Dromio, having carried the two children away from her (to
+the great grief of that unhappy lady), intending to sell them.
+
+Antipholus and Dromio were sold by them to Duke Menaphon, a famous
+warrior, who was uncle to the Duke of Ephesus, and he carried the boys
+to Ephesus when he went to visit the duke his nephew.
+
+The Duke of Ephesus taking a liking to young Antipholus, when he grew
+up, made him an officer in his army, in which he distinguished himself
+by his great bravery in the wars, where he saved the life of his patron
+the duke, who rewarded his merit by marrying him to Adriana, a rich lady
+of Ephesus; with whom he was living (his slave Dromio still attending
+him) at the time his father came there.
+
+Antipholus of Syracuse, when he parted with his friend, who advised him
+to say he came from Epidamnum, gave his slave Dromio some money to carry
+to the inn where he intended to dine, and in the meantime he said he
+would walk about and view the city, and observe the manners of the
+people.
+
+Dromio was a pleasant fellow, and when Antipholus was dull and
+melancholy he used to divert himself with the odd humours and merry
+jests of his slave, so that the freedoms of speech he allowed in Dromio
+were greater than is usual between masters and their servants.
+
+When Antipholus of Syracuse had sent Dromio away, he stood awhile
+thinking over his solitary wanderings in search of his mother and his
+brother, of whom in no place where he landed could he hear the least
+tidings; and he said sorrowfully to himself, "I am like a drop of water
+in the ocean, which seeking to find its fellow drop, loses itself in the
+wide sea. So I unhappily, to find a mother and a brother, do lose
+myself."
+
+While he was thus meditating on his weary travels, which had hitherto
+been so useless, Dromio (as he thought) returned. Antipholus, wondering
+that he came back so soon, asked him where he had left the money. Now it
+was not his own Dromio, but the twin-brother that lived with Antipholus
+of Ephesus, that he spoke to. The two Dromios and the two Antipholuses
+were still as much alike as AEgeon had said they were in their infancy;
+therefore no wonder Antipholus thought it was his own slave returned,
+and asked him why he came back so soon. Dromio replied, "My mistress
+sent me to bid you come to dinner. The capon burns, and the pig falls
+from the spit, and the meat will be all cold if you do not come home."
+"These jests are out of season," said Antipholus: "where did you leave
+the money?" Dromio still answering, that his mistress had sent him to
+fetch Antipholus to dinner: "What mistress?" said Antipholus. "Why, your
+worship's wife, sir," replied Dromio. Antipholus having no wife, he was
+very angry with Dromio, and said, "Because I familiarly sometimes chat
+with you, you presume to jest with me in this free manner. I am not in a
+sportive humour now: where is the money? we being strangers here, how
+dare you trust so great a charge from your own custody?" Dromio hearing
+his master, as he thought him, talk of their being strangers, supposing
+Antipholus was jesting, replied merrily, "I pray you, sir, jest as you
+sit at dinner. I had no charge but to fetch you home, to dine with my
+mistress and her sister." Now Antipholus lost all patience, and beat
+Dromio, who ran home, and told his mistress that his master had refused
+to come to dinner, and said that he had no wife.
+
+Adriana, the wife of Antipholus of Ephesus, was very angry when she
+heard that her husband said he had no wife; for she was of a jealous
+temper, and she said her husband meant that he loved another lady better
+than herself; and she began to fret, and say unkind words of jealousy
+and reproach of her husband; and her sister Luciana, who lived with her,
+tried in vain to persuade her out of her groundless suspicions.
+
+Antipholus of Syracuse went to the inn, and found Dromio with the money
+in safety there, and seeing his own Dromio, he was going again to chide
+him for his free jests, when Adriana came up to him, and not doubting
+but it was her husband she saw, she began to reproach him for looking
+strange upon her (as well he might, never having seen this angry lady
+before); and then she told him how well he loved her before they were
+married, and that now he loved some other lady instead of her. "How
+comes it now, my husband," said she, "O how comes it that I have lost
+your love?"--"Plead you to me, fair dame?" said the astonished
+Antipholus. It was in vain he told her he was not her husband, and that
+he had been in Ephesus but two hours; she insisted on his going home
+with her, and Antipholus at last, being unable to get away, went with
+her to his brother's house, and dined with Adriana and her sister, the
+one calling him husband, and the other brother, he, all amazed, thinking
+he must have been married to her in his sleep, or that he was sleeping
+now. And Dromio, who followed them, was no less surprised, for the
+cook-maid, who was his brother's wife, also claimed him for her husband.
+
+While Antipholus of Syracuse was dining with his brother's wife, his
+brother, the real husband, returned home to dinner with his slave
+Dromio; but the servants would not open the door, because their mistress
+had ordered them not to admit any company; and when they repeatedly
+knocked, and said they were Antipholus and Dromio, the maids laughed at
+them, and said that Antipholus was at dinner with their mistress, and
+Dromio was in the kitchen; and though they almost knocked the door down,
+they could not gain admittance, and at last Antipholus went away very
+angry, and strangely surprised at hearing a gentleman was dining with
+his wife.
+
+When Antipholus of Syracuse had finished his dinner, he was so perplexed
+at the lady's still persisting in calling him husband, and at hearing
+that Dromio had also been claimed by the cook-maid, that he left the
+house, as soon as he could find any pretence to get away; for though he
+was very much pleased with Luciana, the sister, yet the jealous-tempered
+Adriana he disliked very much, nor was Dromio at all better satisfied
+with his fair wife in the kitchen: therefore both master and man were
+glad to get away from their new wives as fast as they could.
+
+The moment Antipholus of Syracuse had left the house, he was met by a
+goldsmith, who mistaking him, as Adriana had done, for Antipholus of
+Ephesus, gave him a gold chain, calling him by his name; and when
+Antipholus would have refused the chain, saying it did not belong to
+him, the goldsmith replied he made it by his own orders; and went away,
+leaving the chain in the hands of Antipholus, who ordered his man Dromio
+to get his things on board a ship, not choosing to stay in a place any
+longer, where he met with such strange adventures that he surely thought
+himself bewitched.
+
+The goldsmith who had given the chain to the wrong Antipholus, was
+arrested immediately after for a sum of money he owed; and Antipholus,
+the married brother, to whom the goldsmith thought he had given the
+chain, happened to come to the place where the officer was arresting the
+goldsmith, who, when he saw Antipholus, asked him to pay for the gold
+chain he had just delivered to him, the price amounting to nearly the
+same sum as that for which he had been arrested. Antipholus denying the
+having received the chain, and the goldsmith persisting to declare that
+he had but a few minutes before given it to him, they disputed this
+matter a long time, both thinking they were right: for Antipholus knew
+the goldsmith never gave him the chain, and so like were the two
+brothers, the goldsmith was as certain he had delivered the chain into
+his hands, till at last the officer took the goldsmith away to prison
+for the debt he owed, and at the same time the goldsmith made the
+officer arrest Antipholus for the price of the chain; so that at the
+conclusion of their dispute, Antipholus and the merchant were both
+taken away to prison together.
+
+As Antipholus was going to prison, he met Dromio of Syracuse, his
+brother's slave, and mistaking him for his own, he ordered him to go to
+Adriana his wife, and tell her to send the money for which he was
+arrested. Dromio wondering that his master should send him back to the
+strange house where he dined, and from which he had just before been in
+such haste to depart, did not dare to reply, though he came to tell his
+master the ship was ready to sail: for he saw Antipholus was in no
+humour to be jested with. Therefore he went away, grumbling within
+himself, that he must return to Adriana's house, "Where," said he,
+"Dowsabel claims me for a husband: but I must go, for servants must obey
+their masters' commands."
+
+Adriana gave him the money, and as Dromio was returning, he met
+Antipholus of Syracuse, who was still in amaze at the surprising
+adventures he met with; for his brother being well known in Ephesus,
+there was hardly a man he met in the streets but saluted him as an old
+acquaintance: some offered him money which they said was owing to him,
+some invited him to come and see them, and some gave him thanks for
+kindnesses they said he had done them, all mistaking him for his
+brother. A tailor showed him some silks he had bought for him, and
+insisted upon taking measure of him for some clothes.
+
+Antipholus began to think he was among a nation of sorcerers and
+witches, and Dromio did not at all relieve his master from his
+bewildered thoughts, by asking him how he got free from the officer who
+was carrying him to prison, and giving him the purse of gold which
+Adriana had sent to pay the debt with. This talk of Dromio's of the
+arrest and of a prison, and of the money he had brought from Adriana,
+perfectly confounded Antipholus, and he said, "This fellow Dromio is
+certainly distracted, and we wander here in illusions;" and quite
+terrified at his own confused thoughts, he cried out, "Some blessed
+power deliver us from this strange place!"
+
+And now another stranger came up to him, and she was a lady, and she too
+called him Antipholus, and told him he had dined with her that day, and
+asked him for a gold chain which she said he had promised to give her.
+Antipholus now lost all patience, and calling her a sorceress, he denied
+that he had ever promised her a chain, or dined with her, or had even
+seen her face before that moment. The lady persisted in affirming he had
+dined with her, and had promised her a chain, which Antipholus still
+denying, she further said, that she had given him a valuable ring, and
+if he would not give her the gold chain, she insisted upon having her
+own ring again. On this Antipholus became quite frantic, and again
+calling her sorceress and witch, and denying all knowledge of her or her
+ring, ran away from her, leaving her astonished at his words and his
+wild looks, for nothing to her appeared more certain than that he had
+dined with her, and that she had given him a ring, in consequence of his
+promising to make her a present of a gold chain. But this lady had
+fallen into the same mistake the others had done, for she had taken him
+for his brother: the married Antipholus had done all the things she
+taxed this Antipholus with.
+
+When the married Antipholus was denied entrance into his own house
+(those within supposing him to be already there), he had gone away very
+angry, believing it to be one of his wife's jealous freaks, to which she
+was very subject, and remembering that she had often falsely accused him
+of visiting other ladies, he, to be revenged on her for shutting him out
+of his own house, determined to go and dine with this lady, and she
+receiving him with great civility, and his wife having so highly
+offended him, Antipholus promised to give her a gold chain, which he had
+intended as a present for his wife; it was the same chain which the
+goldsmith by mistake had given to his brother. The lady liked so well
+the thoughts of having a fine gold chain, that she gave the married
+Antipholus a ring; which when, as she supposed (taking his brother for
+him), he denied, and said he did not know her, and left her in such a
+wild passion, she began to think he was certainly out of his senses; and
+presently she resolved to go and tell Adriana that her husband was mad.
+And while she was telling it to Adriana, he came, attended by the jailor
+(who allowed him to come home to get the money to pay the debt), for the
+purse of money, which Adriana had sent by Dromio, and he had delivered
+to the other Antipholus.
+
+Adriana believed the story the lady told her of her husband's madness
+must be true, when he reproached her for shutting him out of his own
+house; and remembering how he had protested all dinner-time that he was
+not her husband, and had never been in Ephesus till that day, she had no
+doubt that he was mad; she therefore paid the jailor the money, and
+having discharged him, she ordered her servants to bind her husband with
+ropes, and had him conveyed into a dark room, and sent for a doctor to
+come and cure him of his madness: Antipholus all the while hotly
+exclaiming against this false accusation, which the exact likeness he
+bore to his brother had brought upon him. But his rage only the more
+confirmed them in the belief that he was mad; and Dromio persisting in
+the same story, they bound him also, and took him away along with his
+master.
+
+Soon after Adriana had put her husband into confinement, a servant came
+to tell her that Antipholus and Dromio must have broken loose from their
+keepers, for that they were both walking at liberty in the next street.
+On hearing this, Adriana ran out to fetch him home, taking some people
+with her to secure her husband again; and her sister went along with
+her. When they came to the gates of a convent in their neighbourhood,
+there they saw Antipholus and Dromio, as they thought, being again
+deceived by the likeness of the twin-brothers.
+
+Antipholus of Syracuse was still beset with the perplexities this
+likeness had brought upon him. The chain which the goldsmith had given
+him was about his neck, and the goldsmith was reproaching him for
+denying that he had it, and refusing to pay for it, and Antipholus was
+protesting that the goldsmith freely gave him the chain in the morning,
+and that from that hour he had never seen the goldsmith again.
+
+And now Adriana came up to him and claimed him as her lunatic husband,
+who had escaped from his keepers; and the men she brought with her were
+going to lay violent hands on Antipholus and Dromio; but they ran into
+the convent, and Antipholus begged the abbess to give him shelter in her
+house.
+
+And now came out the lady abbess herself to inquire into the cause of
+this disturbance. She was a grave and venerable lady, and wise to judge
+of what she saw, and she would not too hastily give up the man who had
+sought protection in her house; so she strictly questioned the wife
+about the story she told of her husband's madness, and she said, "What
+is the cause of this sudden distemper of your husband's? Has he lost his
+wealth at sea? Or is it the death of some dear friend that has disturbed
+his mind?" Adriana replied, that no such things as these had been the
+cause. "Perhaps," said the abbess, "he has fixed his affections on some
+other lady than you his wife; and that has driven him to this state."
+Adriana said she had long thought the love of some other lady was the
+cause of his frequent absences from home. Now it was not his love for
+another, but the teasing jealousy of his wife's temper, that often
+obliged Antipholus to leave his home; and (the abbess suspecting this
+from the vehemence of Adriana's manner) to learn the truth, she said,
+"You should have reprehended him for this."--"Why, so I did," replied
+Adriana. "Ay," said the abbess, "but perhaps not enough." Adriana,
+willing to convince the abbess that she had said enough to Antipholus
+on this subject, replied, "It was the constant subject of our
+conversation: in bed I would not let him sleep for speaking of it. At
+table I would not let him eat for speaking of it. When I was alone with
+him, I talked of nothing else; and in company I gave him frequent hints
+of it. Still all my talk was how vile and bad it was in him to love any
+lady better than me."
+
+The lady abbess, having drawn this full confession from the jealous
+Adriana, now said, "And therefore comes it that your husband is mad. The
+venomous clamour of a jealous woman is a more deadly poison than a mad
+dog's tooth. It seems his sleep was hindered by your railing; no wonder
+that his head is light: and his meat was sauced with your upbraidings;
+unquiet meals make ill digestions, and that has thrown him into this
+fever. You say his sports were disturbed by your brawls; being debarred
+from the enjoyment of society and recreation, what could ensue but dull
+melancholy and comfortless despair? The consequence is then, that your
+jealous fits have made your husband mad."
+
+Luciana would have excused her sister, saying, she always reprehended
+her husband mildly; and she said to her sister, "Why do you hear these
+rebukes without answering them?" But the abbess had made her so plainly
+perceive her fault, that she could only answer, "She has betrayed me to
+my own reproof."
+
+Adriana, though ashamed of her own conduct, still insisted on having her
+husband delivered up to her; but the abbess would suffer no person to
+enter her house, nor would she deliver up this unhappy man to the care
+of the jealous wife, determining herself to use gentle means for his
+recovery, and she retired into her house again, and ordered her gates to
+be shut against them.
+
+During the course of this eventful day, in which so many errors had
+happened from the likeness the twin brothers bore to each other, old
+AEgeon's day of grace was passing away, it being now near sunset; and at
+sunset he was doomed to die, if he could not pay the money.
+
+The place of his execution was near this convent, and here he arrived
+just as the abbess retired into the convent; the duke attending in
+person, that if any offered to pay the money, he might be present to
+pardon him.
+
+Adriana stopped this melancholy procession, and cried out to the duke
+for justice, telling him that the abbess had refused to deliver up her
+lunatic husband to her care. While she was speaking, her real husband
+and his servant Dromio, who had got loose, came before the duke to
+demand justice, complaining that his wife had confined him on a false
+charge of lunacy; and telling in what manner he had broken his bands,
+and eluded the vigilance of his keepers. Adriana was strangely surprised
+to see her husband, when she thought he had been within the convent.
+
+AEgeon, seeing his son, concluded this was the son who had left him to go
+in search of his mother and his brother; and he felt secure that this
+dear son would readily pay the money demanded for his ransom. He
+therefore spoke to Antipholus in words of fatherly affection, with
+joyful hope that he should now be released. But to the utter
+astonishment of AEgeon, his son denied all knowledge of him, as well he
+might, for this Antipholus had never seen his father since they were
+separated in the storm in his infancy; but while the poor old AEgeon was
+in vain endeavouring to make his son acknowledge him, thinking surely
+that either his griefs and the anxieties he had suffered had so
+strangely altered him that his son did not know him, or else that he was
+ashamed to acknowledge his father in his misery; in the midst of this
+perplexity, the lady abbess and the other Antipholus and Dromio came
+out, and the wondering Adriana saw two husbands and two Dromios standing
+before her.
+
+And now these riddling errors, which had so perplexed them all, were
+clearly made out. When the duke saw the two Antipholuses and the two
+Dromios both so exactly alike, he at once conjectured aright of these
+seeming mysteries, for he remembered the story AEgeon had told him in the
+morning; and he said, these men must be the two sons of AEgeon and their
+twin slaves.
+
+But now an unlooked-for joy indeed completed the history of AEgeon; and
+the tale he had in the morning told in sorrow, and under sentence of
+death, before the setting sun went down was brought to a happy
+conclusion, for the venerable lady abbess made herself known to be the
+long-lost wife of AEgeon, and the fond mother of the two Antipholuses.
+
+When the fishermen took the eldest Antipholus and Dromio away from her,
+she entered a nunnery, and by her wise and virtuous conduct, she was at
+length made lady abbess of this convent, and in discharging the rites of
+hospitality to an unhappy stranger she had unknowingly protected her own
+son.
+
+Joyful congratulations and affectionate greetings between these long
+separated parents and their children made them for a while forget that
+AEgeon was yet under sentence of death; but when they were become a
+little calm, Antipholus of Ephesus offered the duke the ransom money for
+his father's life; but the duke freely pardoned AEgeon, and would not
+take the money. And the duke went with the abbess and her newly-found
+husband and children into the convent, to hear this happy family
+discourse at leisure of the blessed ending of their adverse fortunes.
+And the two Dromios' humble joy must not be forgotten; they had their
+congratulations and greetings too, and each Dromio pleasantly
+complimented his brother on his good looks, being well pleased to see
+his own person (as in a glass) show so handsome in his brother.
+
+Adriana had so well profited by the good counsel of her mother-in-law,
+that she never after cherished unjust suspicions, or was jealous of her
+husband.
+
+Antipholus of Syracuse married the fair Luciana, the sister of his
+brother's wife; and the good old AEgeon, with his wife and sons, lived at
+Ephesus many years. Nor did the unravelling of these perplexities so
+entirely remove every ground of mistake for the future, but that
+sometimes, to remind them of adventures past, comical blunders would
+happen, and the one Antipholus, and the one Dromio, be mistaken for the
+other, making altogether a pleasant and diverting Comedy of Errors.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+MEASURE FOR MEASURE
+
+
+In the city of Vienna there once reigned a duke of such a mild and
+gentle temper, that he suffered his subjects to neglect the laws with
+impunity; and there was in particular one law, the existence of which
+was almost forgotten, the duke never having put it in force during his
+whole reign. This was a law dooming any man to the punishment of death,
+who should live with a woman that was not his wife; and this law,
+through the lenity of the duke, being utterly disregarded, the holy
+institution of marriage became neglected, and complaints were every day
+made to the duke by the parents of the young ladies in Vienna, that
+their daughters had been seduced from their protection, and were living
+as the companions of single men.
+
+The good duke perceived with sorrow this growing evil among his
+subjects; but he thought that a sudden change in himself from the
+indulgence he had hitherto shown, to the strict severity requisite to
+check this abuse, would make his people (who had hitherto loved him)
+consider him as a tyrant; therefore he determined to absent himself a
+while from his dukedom, and depute another to the full exercise of his
+power, that the law against these dishonourable lovers might be put in
+effect, without giving offence by an unusual severity in his own person.
+
+Angelo, a man who bore the reputation of a saint in Vienna for his
+strict and rigid life, was chosen by the duke as a fit person to
+undertake this important charge; and when the duke imparted his design
+to Lord Escalus, his chief counsellor, Escalus said, "If any man in
+Vienna be of worth to undergo such ample grace and honour, it is Lord
+Angelo." And now the duke departed from Vienna under pretence of making
+a journey into Poland, leaving Angelo to act as the lord deputy in his
+absence; but the duke's absence was only a feigned one, for he privately
+returned to Vienna, habited like a friar, with the intent to watch
+unseen the conduct of the saintly-seeming Angelo.
+
+It happened just about the time that Angelo was invested with his new
+dignity, that a gentleman, whose name was Claudio, had seduced a young
+lady from her parents; and for this offence, by command of the new lord
+deputy, Claudio was taken up and committed to prison, and by virtue of
+the old law which had been so long neglected, Angelo sentenced Claudio
+to be beheaded. Great interest was made for the pardon of young Claudio,
+and the good old Lord Escalus himself interceded for him. "Alas," said
+he, "this gentleman whom I would save had an honourable father, for
+whose sake I pray you pardon the young man's transgression." But Angelo
+replied, "We must not make a scare-crow of the law, setting it up to
+frighten birds of prey, till custom, finding it harmless, makes it their
+perch, and not their terror. Sir, he must die."
+
+Lucio, the friend of Claudio, visited him in the prison, and Claudio
+said to him, "I pray you, Lucio, do me this kind service. Go to my
+sister Isabel, who this day proposes to enter the convent of Saint
+Clare; acquaint her with the danger of my state; implore her that she
+make friends with the strict deputy; bid her go herself to Angelo. I
+have great hopes in that; for she can discourse with prosperous art, and
+well she can persuade; besides, there is a speechless dialect in
+youthful sorrow, such as moves men."
+
+Isabel, the sister of Claudio, had, as he said, that day entered upon
+her noviciate in the convent, and it was her intent, after passing
+through her probation as a novice, to take the veil, and she was
+inquiring of a nun concerning the rules of the convent, when they heard
+the voice of Lucio, who, as he entered that religious house, said,
+"Peace be in this place!"--"Who is it that speaks?" said Isabel. "It is
+a man's voice," replied the nun: "Gentle Isabel, go to him, and learn
+his business; you may, I may not. When you have taken the veil, you must
+not speak with men but in the presence of the prioress; then if you
+speak you must not show your face, or if you show your face, you must
+not speak."--"And have you nuns no further privileges?" said Isabel.
+"Are not these large enough?" replied the nun. "Yes, truly," said
+Isabel: "I speak not as desiring more, but rather wishing a more strict
+restraint upon the sisterhood, the votarists of Saint Clare." Again they
+heard the voice of Lucio, and the nun said, "He calls again. I pray you
+answer him." Isabel then went out to Lucio, and in answer to his
+salutation, said, "Peace and Prosperity! Who is it that calls?" Then
+Lucio, approaching her with reverence, said, "Hail, virgin, if such you
+be, as the roses on your cheeks proclaim you are no less! can you bring
+me to the sight of Isabel, a novice of this place, and the fair sister
+to her unhappy brother Claudio?"--"Why her unhappy brother?" said
+Isabel, "let me ask! for I am that Isabel, and his sister."--"Fair and
+gentle lady," he replied, "your brother kindly greets you by me; he is
+in prison."--"Woe is me! for what?" said Isabel. Lucio then told her,
+Claudio was imprisoned for seducing a young maiden. "Ah," said she, "I
+fear it is my cousin Juliet." Juliet and Isabel were not related, but
+they called each other cousin in remembrance of their school days'
+friendship; and as Isabel knew that Juliet loved Claudio, she feared she
+had been led by her affection for him into this transgression. "She it
+is," replied Lucio. "Why then, let my brother marry Juliet," said
+Isabel. Lucio replied that Claudio would gladly marry Juliet, but that
+the lord deputy had sentenced him to die for his offence; "Unless," said
+he, "you have the grace by your fair prayer to soften Angelo, and that
+is my business between you and your poor brother."--"Alas!" said Isabel,
+"what poor ability is there in me to do him good? I doubt I have no
+power to move Angelo."--"Our doubts are traitors," said Lucio, "and make
+us lose the good we might often win, by fearing to attempt it. Go to
+Lord Angelo! When maidens sue, and kneel, and weep, men give like
+gods."--"I will see what I can do," said Isabel: "I will but stay to
+give the prioress notice of the affair, and then I will go to Angelo.
+Commend me to my brother: soon at night I will send him word of my
+success."
+
+Isabel hastened to the palace, and threw herself on her knees before
+Angelo, saying, "I am a woful suitor to your honour, if it will please
+your honour to hear me."--"Well, what is your suit?" said Angelo. She
+then made her petition in the most moving terms for her brother's life.
+But Angelo said, "Maiden, there is no remedy; your brother is sentenced,
+and he must die."--"O just, but severe law," said Isabel: "I had a
+brother then--Heaven keep your honour!" and she was about to depart. But
+Lucio, who had accompanied her, said, "Give it not over so; return to
+him again, entreat him, kneel down before him, hang upon his gown. You
+are too cold; if you should need a pin, you could not with a more tame
+tongue desire it." Then again Isabel on her knees implored for mercy.
+"He is sentenced," said Angelo: "it is too late."--"Too late!" said
+Isabel: "Why, no: I that do speak a word may call it back again. Believe
+this, my lord, no ceremony that to great ones belongs, not the king's
+crown, nor the deputed sword, the marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's
+robe, becomes them with one half so good a grace as mercy does."--"Pray
+you begone," said Angelo. But still Isabel entreated; and she said, "If
+my brother had been as you, and you as he, you might have slipped like
+him, but he, like you, would not have been so stern. I would to heaven I
+had your power, and you were Isabel. Should it then be thus? No, I would
+tell you what it were to be a judge, and what a prisoner."--"Be content,
+fair maid!" said Angelo: "it is the law, not I, condemns your brother.
+Were he my kinsman, my brother, or my son, it should be thus with him.
+He must die to-morrow."--"To-morrow?" said Isabel; "Oh, that is sudden:
+spare him, spare him; he is not prepared for death. Even for our
+kitchens we kill the fowl in season; shall we serve Heaven with less
+respect than we minister to our gross selves? Good, good, my lord,
+bethink you, none have died for my brother's offence, though many have
+committed it. So you would be the first that gives this sentence, and he
+the first that suffers it. Go to your own bosom, my lord; knock there,
+and ask your heart what it does know that is like my brother's fault; if
+it confess a natural guiltiness such as his is, let it not sound a
+thought against my brother's life!" Her last words more moved Angelo
+than all she had before said, for the beauty of Isabel had raised a
+guilty passion in his heart, and he began to form thoughts of
+dishonourable love, such as Claudio's crime had been; and the conflict
+in his mind made him to turn away from Isabel; but she called him back,
+saying, "Gentle my lord, turn back; hark, how I will bribe you. Good my
+lord, turn back!"--"How, bribe me!" said Angelo, astonished that she
+should think of offering him a bribe. "Ay," said Isabel, "with such
+gifts that Heaven itself shall share with you; not with golden
+treasures, or those glittering stones, whose price is either rich or
+poor as fancy values them, but with true prayers that shall be up to
+Heaven before sunrise,--prayers from preserved souls, from fasting
+maids whose minds are dedicated to nothing temporal."--"Well, come to me
+to-morrow," said Angelo. And for this short respite of her brother's
+life, and for this permission that she might be heard again, she left
+him with the joyful hope that she should at last prevail over his stern
+nature: and as she went away she said, "Heaven keep your honour safe!
+Heaven save your honour!" Which when Angelo heard, he said within his
+heart, "Amen, I would be saved from thee and from thy virtues:" and
+then, affrighted at his own evil thoughts, he said, "What is this? What
+is this? Do I love her, that I desire to hear her speak again, and feast
+upon her eyes? What is it I dream on? The cunning enemy of mankind, to
+catch a saint, with saints does bait the hook. Never could an immodest
+woman once stir my temper, but this virtuous woman subdues me quite.
+Even till now, when men were fond, I smiled and wondered at them."
+
+In the guilty conflict in his mind Angelo suffered more that night than
+the prisoner he had so severely sentenced; for in the prison Claudio was
+visited by the good duke, who, in his friar's habit, taught the young
+man the way to heaven, preaching to him the words of penitence and
+peace. But Angelo felt all the pangs of irresolute guilt: now wishing to
+seduce Isabel from the paths of innocence and honour, and now suffering
+remorse and horror for a crime as yet but intentional. But in the end
+his evil thoughts prevailed; and he who had so lately started at the
+offer of a bribe, resolved to tempt this maiden with so high a bribe, as
+she might not be able to resist, even with the precious gift of her dear
+brother's life.
+
+When Isabel came in the morning, Angelo desired she might be admitted
+alone to his presence: and being there, he said to her, if she would
+yield to him her virgin honour and transgress even as Juliet had done
+with Claudio, he would give her her brother's life; "For," said he, "I
+love you, Isabel."--"My brother," said Isabel, "did so love Juliet, and
+yet you tell me he shall die for it."--"But," said Angelo, "Claudio
+shall not die, if you will consent to visit me by stealth at night, even
+as Juliet left her father's house at night to come to Claudio." Isabel,
+in amazement at his words, that he should tempt her to the same fault
+for which he passed sentence upon her brother, said, "I would do as much
+for my poor brother as for myself; that is, were I under sentence of
+death, the impression of keen whips I would wear as rubies, and go to my
+death as to a bed that longing I had been sick for, ere I would yield
+myself up to this shame." And then she told him, she hoped he only spoke
+these words to try her virtue. But he said, "Believe me, on my honour,
+my words express my purpose." Isabel, angered to the heart to hear him
+use the word Honour to express such dishonourable purposes, said, "Ha!
+little honour to be much believed; and most pernicious purpose. I will
+proclaim thee, Angelo, look for it! Sign me a present pardon for my
+brother, or I will tell the world aloud what man thou art!"--"Who will
+believe you, Isabel?" said Angelo; "my unsoiled name, the austereness of
+my life, my word vouched against yours, will outweigh your accusation.
+Redeem your brother by yielding to my will, or he shall die to-morrow.
+As for you, say what you can, my false will overweigh your true story.
+Answer me to-morrow."
+
+"To whom should I complain? Did I tell this, who would believe me?" said
+Isabel, as she went towards the dreary prison where her brother was
+confined. When she arrived there, her brother was in pious conversation
+with the duke, who in his friar's habit had also visited Juliet, and
+brought both these guilty lovers to a proper sense of their fault; and
+unhappy Juliet with tears and a true remorse confessed that she was more
+to blame than Claudio, in that she willingly consented to his
+dishonourable solicitations.
+
+As Isabel entered the room where Claudio was confined, she said, "Peace
+be here, grace, and good company!"--"Who is there?" said the disguised
+duke; "come in; the wish deserves a welcome."--"My business is a word or
+two with Claudio," said Isabel. Then the duke left them together, and
+desired the provost, who had the charge of the prisoners, to place him
+where he might overhear their conversation.
+
+"Now, sister, what is the comfort?" said Claudio. Isabel told him he
+must prepare for death on the morrow. "Is there no remedy?" said
+Claudio.--"Yes, brother," replied Isabel, "there is; but such a one, as
+if you consented to it would strip your honour from you, and leave you
+naked."--"Let me know the point," said Claudio. "O, I do fear you,
+Claudio!" replied his sister; "and I quake, lest you should wish to
+live, and more respect the trifling term of six or seven winters added
+to your life, than your perpetual honour! Do you dare to die? The sense
+of death is most in apprehension, and the poor beetle that we tread
+upon, feels a pang as great as when a giant dies." "Why do you give me
+this shame?" said Claudio. "Think you I can fetch a resolution from
+flowery tenderness? If I must die, I will encounter darkness as a bride,
+and hug it in my arms."--"There spoke my brother," said Isabel; "there
+my father's grave did utter forth a voice. Yes, you must die; yet would
+you think it, Claudio! this outward sainted deputy, if I would yield to
+him my virgin honour, would grant your life. O, were it but my life, I
+would lay it down for your deliverance as frankly as a pin!"--"Thanks,
+dear Isabel," said Claudio. "Be ready to die to-morrow," said Isabel.
+"Death is a fearful thing," said Claudio. "And shamed life a hateful,"
+replied his sister. But the thoughts of death now overcame the constancy
+of Claudio's temper, and terrors, such as the guilty only at their
+deaths do know, assailing him, he cried out, "Sweet sister, let me live!
+The sin you do to save a brother's life, nature dispenses with the deed
+so far, that it becomes a virtue."--"O faithless coward! O dishonest
+wretch!" said Isabel; "would you preserve your life by your sister's
+shame? O fie, fie, fie! I thought, my brother, you had in you such a
+mind of honour, that had you twenty heads to render up on twenty blocks,
+you would have yielded them up all, before your sister should stoop to
+such dishonour." "Nay, hear me, Isabel!" said Claudio. But what he would
+have said in defence of his weakness, in desiring to live by the
+dishonour of his virtuous sister, was interrupted by the entrance of the
+duke; who said, "Claudio, I have overheard what has passed between you
+and your sister. Angelo had never the purpose to corrupt her; what he
+said, has only been to make trial of her virtue. She having the truth of
+honour in her, has given him that gracious denial which he is most glad
+to receive. There is no hope that he will pardon you; therefore pass
+your hours in prayer, and make ready for death." Then Claudio repented
+of his weakness, and said, "Let me ask my sister's pardon! I am so out
+of love with life, that I will sue to be rid of it." And Claudio
+retired, overwhelmed with shame and sorrow for his fault.
+
+The duke being now alone with Isabel, commended her virtuous resolution,
+saying, "The hand that made you fair, has made you good."--"O," said
+Isabel, "how much is the good duke deceived in Angelo! if ever he
+return, and I can speak to him, I will discover his government." Isabel
+knew not that she was even now making the discovery she threatened. The
+duke replied, "That shall not be much amiss; yet as the matter now
+stands, Angelo will repel your accusation; therefore lend an attentive
+ear to my advisings. I believe that you may most righteously do a poor
+wronged lady a merited benefit, redeem your brother from the angry law,
+do no stain to your own most gracious person, and much please the absent
+duke, if peradventure he shall ever return to have notice of this
+business." Isabel said, she had a spirit to do anything he desired,
+provided it was nothing wrong. "Virtue is bold, and never fearful," said
+the duke: and then he asked her, if she had ever heard of Mariana, the
+sister of Frederick, the great soldier who was drowned at sea. "I have
+heard of the lady," said Isabel, "and good words went with her
+name."--"This lady," said the duke, "is the wife of Angelo; but her
+marriage dowry was on board the vessel in which her brother perished,
+and mark how heavily this befell to the poor gentlewoman! for, beside
+the loss of a most noble and renowned brother, who in his love towards
+her was ever most kind and natural, in the wreck of her fortune she lost
+the affections of her husband, the well-seeming Angelo; who pretending
+to discover some dishonour in this honourable lady (though the true
+cause was the loss of her dowry) left her in her tears, and dried not
+one of them with his comfort. His unjust unkindness, that in all reason
+should have quenched her love, has, like an impediment in the current,
+made it more unruly, and Mariana loves her cruel husband with the full
+continuance of her first affection." The duke then more plainly unfolded
+his plan. It was, that Isabel should go to Lord Angelo, and seemingly
+consent to come to him as he desired at midnight; that by this means she
+would obtain the promised pardon; and that Mariana should go in her
+stead to the appointment, and pass herself upon Angelo in the dark for
+Isabel. "Nor, gentle daughter," said the feigned friar, "fear you to do
+this thing; Angelo is her husband, and to bring them thus together is no
+sin." Isabel being pleased with this project, departed to do as he
+directed her; and he went to apprise Mariana of their intention. He had
+before this time visited this unhappy lady in his assumed character,
+giving her religious instruction and friendly consolation, at which
+times he had learned her sad story from her own lips; and now she,
+looking upon him as a holy man, readily consented to be directed by him
+in this undertaking.
+
+When Isabel returned from her interview with Angelo, to the house of
+Mariana, where the duke had appointed her to meet him, he said, "Well
+met, and in good time; what is the news from this good deputy?" Isabel
+related the manner in which she had settled the affair. "Angelo," said
+she, "has a garden surrounded with a brick wall, on the western side of
+which is a vineyard, and to that vineyard is a gate." And then she
+showed to the duke and Mariana two keys that Angelo had given her; and
+she said, "This bigger key opens the vineyard gate; this other a little
+door which leads from the vineyard to the garden. There I have made my
+promise at the dead of the night to call upon him, and have got from him
+his word of assurance for my brother's life. I have taken a due and wary
+note of the place; and with whispering and most guilty diligence he
+showed me the way twice over."--"Are there no other tokens agreed upon
+between you, that Mariana must observe?" said the duke. "No, none," said
+Isabel, "only to go when it is dark. I have told him my time can be but
+short; for I have made him think a servant comes along with me, and that
+this servant is persuaded I come about my brother." The duke commended
+her discreet management, and she, turning to Mariana, said, "Little have
+you to say to Angelo, when you depart from him, but soft and low,
+_Remember now my brother_!"
+
+Mariana was that night conducted to the appointed place by Isabel, who
+rejoiced that she had, as she supposed, by this device preserved both
+her brother's life and her own honour. But that her brother's life was
+safe the duke was not well satisfied, and therefore at midnight he again
+repaired to the prison, and it was well for Claudio that he did so, else
+would Claudio have that night been beheaded; for soon after the duke
+entered the prison, an order came from the cruel deputy, commanding that
+Claudio should be beheaded, and his head sent to him by five o'clock in
+the morning. But the duke persuaded the provost to put off the
+execution of Claudio, and to deceive Angelo, by sending him the head of
+a man who died that morning in the prison. And to prevail upon the
+provost to agree to this, the duke, whom still the provost suspected not
+to be anything more or greater than he seemed, showed the provost a
+letter written with the duke's hand, and sealed with his seal, which
+when the provost saw, he concluded this friar must have some secret
+order from the absent duke, and therefore he consented to spare Claudio;
+and he cut off the dead man's head, and carried it to Angelo.
+
+Then the duke in his own name, wrote to Angelo a letter, saying, that
+certain accidents had put a stop to his journey, and that he should be
+in Vienna by the following morning, requiring Angelo to meet him at the
+entrance of the city, there to deliver up his authority; and the duke
+also commanded it to be proclaimed, that if any of his subjects craved
+redress for injustice, they should exhibit their petitions in the street
+on his first entrance into the city.
+
+Early in the morning Isabel came to the prison, and the duke, who there
+awaited her coming, for secret reasons thought it good to tell her that
+Claudio was beheaded; therefore when Isabel inquired if Angelo had sent
+the pardon for her brother, he said, "Angelo has released Claudio from
+this world. His head is off, and sent to the deputy." The much-grieved
+sister cried out, "O unhappy Claudio, wretched Isabel, injurious world,
+most wicked Angelo!" The seeming friar bid her take comfort, and when
+she was become a little calm, he acquainted her with the near prospect
+of the duke's return, and told her in what manner she should proceed in
+preferring her complaint against Angelo; and he bade her not fear if the
+cause should seem to go against her for a while. Leaving Isabel
+sufficiently instructed, he next went to Mariana, and gave her counsel
+in what manner she also should act.
+
+Then the duke laid aside his friar's habit, and in his own royal robes,
+amidst a joyful crowd of his faithful subjects, assembled to greet his
+arrival, entered the city of Vienna, where he was met by Angelo, who
+delivered up his authority in the proper form. And there came Isabel, in
+the manner of a petitioner for redress, and said, "Justice, most royal
+duke! I am the sister of one Claudio, who, for the seducing a young
+maid, was condemned to lose his head. I made my suit to Lord Angelo for
+my brother's pardon. It were needless to tell your grace how I prayed
+and kneeled, how he repelled me, and how I replied; for this was of much
+length. The vile conclusion I now begin with grief and shame to utter.
+Angelo would not but by my yielding to his dishonourable love release my
+brother; and after much debate within myself, my sisterly remorse
+overcame my virtue, and I did yield to him. But the next morning
+betimes, Angelo, forfeiting his promise, sent a warrant for my poor
+brother's head!" The duke affected to disbelieve her story; and Angelo
+said that grief for her brother's death, who had suffered by the due
+course of the law, had disordered her senses. And now another suitor
+approached, which was Mariana; and Mariana said, "Noble prince, as there
+comes light from heaven, and truth from breath, as there is sense in
+truth and truth in virtue, I am this man's wife, and, my good lord, the
+words of Isabel are false; for the night she says she was with Angelo, I
+passed that night with him in the garden-house. As this is true, let me
+in safety rise, or else for ever be fixed here a marble monument." Then
+did Isabel appeal for the truth of what she had said to Friar Lodowick,
+that being the name the duke had assumed in his disguise. Isabel and
+Mariana had both obeyed his instructions in what they said, the duke
+intending that the innocence of Isabel should be plainly proved in that
+public manner before the whole city of Vienna; but Angelo little thought
+that it was from such a cause that they thus differed in their story,
+and he hoped from their contradictory evidence to be able to clear
+himself from the accusation of Isabel; and he said, assuming the look
+of offended innocence, "I did but smile till now; but, good my lord, my
+patience here is touched, and I perceive these poor distracted women are
+but the instruments of some greater one, who sets them on. Let me have
+way, my lord, to find this practice out."--"Ay, with all my heart," said
+the duke, "and punish them to the height of your pleasure. You, Lord
+Escalus, sit with Lord Angelo, lend him your pains to discover this
+abuse; the friar is sent for that set them on, and when he comes, do
+with your injuries as may seem best in any chastisement. I for a while
+will leave you, but stir not you, Lord Angelo, till you have well
+determined upon this slander." The duke then went away, leaving Angelo
+well pleased to be deputed judge and umpire in his own cause. But the
+duke was absent only while he threw off his royal robes and put on his
+friar's habit; and in that disguise again he presented himself before
+Angelo and Escalus: and the good old Escalus, who thought Angelo had
+been falsely accused, said to the supposed friar, "Come, sir, did you
+set these women on to slander Lord Angelo?" He replied, "Where is the
+duke? It is he who should hear me speak." Escalus said, "The duke is in
+us, and we will hear you. Speak justly."--"Boldly at least," retorted
+the friar; and then he blamed the duke for leaving the cause of Isabel
+in the hands of him she had accused, and spoke so freely of many corrupt
+practices he had observed, while, as he said, he had been a looker-on in
+Vienna, that Escalus threatened him with the torture for speaking words
+against the state, and for censuring the conduct of the duke, and
+ordered him to be taken away to prison. Then, to the amazement of all
+present, and to the utter confusion of Angelo, the supposed friar threw
+off his disguise, and they saw it was the duke himself.
+
+The duke first addressed Isabel. He said to her, "Come hither, Isabel.
+Your friar is now your prince, but with my habit I have not changed my
+heart. I am still devoted to your service." "O give me pardon," said
+Isabel, "that I, your vassal, have employed and troubled your unknown
+sovereignty." He answered that he had most need of forgiveness from her,
+for not having prevented the death of her brother--for not yet would he
+tell her that Claudio was living; meaning first to make a further trial
+of her goodness. Angelo now knew the duke had been a secret witness of
+his bad deeds, and he said, "O my dread lord, I should be guiltier than
+my guiltiness, to think I can be undiscernible, when I perceive your
+grace, like power divine, has looked upon my actions. Then, good prince,
+no longer prolong my shame, but let my trial be my own confession.
+Immediate sentence and death is all the grace I beg." The duke replied,
+"Angelo, thy faults are manifest. We do condemn thee to the very block
+where Claudio stooped to death; and with like haste away with him; and
+for his possessions, Mariana, we do instate and widow you withal, to buy
+you a better husband."--"O my dear lord," said Mariana, "I crave no
+other, nor no better man:" and then on her knees, even as Isabel had
+begged the life of Claudio, did this kind wife of an ungrateful husband
+beg the life of Angelo; and she said, "Gentle my liege, O good my lord!
+Sweet Isabel, take my part! Lend me your knees, and all my life to come
+I will lend you all my life, to do you service!" The duke said, "Against
+all sense you importune her. Should Isabel kneel down to beg for mercy,
+her brother's ghost would break his paved bed, and take her hence in
+horror." Still Mariana said, "Isabel, sweet Isabel, do but kneel by me,
+hold up your hand, say nothing! I will speak all. They say, best men are
+moulded out of faults, and for the most part become much the better for
+being a little bad. So may my husband. Oh, Isabel, will you not lend a
+knee?" The duke then said, "He dies for Claudio." But much pleased was
+the good duke, when his own Isabel, from whom he expected all gracious
+and honourable acts, kneeled down before him, and said, "Most bounteous
+sir, look, if it please you, on this man condemned, as if my brother
+lived. I partly think a due sincerity governed his deeds, till he did
+look on me. Since it is so, let him not die! My brother had but justice,
+in that he did the thing for which he died."
+
+The duke, as the best reply he could make to this noble petitioner for
+her enemy's life, sending for Claudio from his prison-house, where he
+lay doubtful of his destiny, presented to her this lamented brother
+living; and he said to Isabel, "Give me your hand, Isabel; for your
+lovely sake I pardon Claudio. Say you will be mine, and he shall be my
+brother too." By this time Lord Angelo perceived he was safe; and the
+duke, observing his eye to brighten up a little, said, "Well, Angelo,
+look that you love your wife; her worth has obtained your pardon: joy to
+you, Mariana! Love her, Angelo! I have confessed her, and know her
+virtue." Angelo remembered, when dressed in a little brief authority,
+how hard his heart had been, and felt how sweet is mercy.
+
+The duke commanded Claudio to marry Juliet, and offered himself again to
+the acceptance of Isabel, whose virtuous and noble conduct had won her
+prince's heart. Isabel, not having taken the veil, was free to marry;
+and the friendly offices, while hid under the disguise of a humble
+friar, which the noble duke had done for her, made her with grateful joy
+accept the honour he offered her; and when she became Duchess of Vienna,
+the excellent example of the virtuous Isabel worked such a complete
+reformation among the young ladies of that city, that from that time
+none ever fell into the transgression of Juliet, the repentant wife of
+the reformed Claudio. And the mercy-loving duke long reigned with his
+beloved Isabel, the happiest of husbands and of princes.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+TWELFTH NIGHT OR WHAT YOU WILL
+
+
+Sebastian and his sister Viola, a young gentleman and lady of Messaline,
+were twins, and (which was accounted a great wonder) from their birth
+they so much resembled each other, that, but for the difference in their
+dress, they could not be known apart. They were both born in one hour,
+and in one hour they were both in danger of perishing, for they were
+shipwrecked on the coast of Illyria, as they were making a sea-voyage
+together. The ship, on board of which they were, split on a rock in a
+violent storm, and a very small number of the ship's company escaped
+with their lives. The captain of the vessel, with a few of the sailors
+that were saved, got to land in a small boat, and with them they brought
+Viola safe on shore, where she, poor lady, instead of rejoicing at her
+own deliverance, began to lament her brother's loss; but the captain
+comforted her with the assurance that he had seen her brother, when the
+ship spilt, fasten himself to a strong mast, on which, as long as he
+could see anything of him for the distance, he perceived him borne up
+above the waves. Viola was much consoled by the hope this account gave
+her, and now considered how she was to dispose of herself in a strange
+country, so far from home; and she asked the captain if he knew anything
+of Illyria. "Ay, very well, madam," replied the captain, "for I was born
+not three hours' travel from this place."--"Who governs here?" said
+Viola. The captain told her, Illyria was governed by Orsino, a duke
+noble in nature as well as dignity. Viola said, she had heard her father
+speak of Orsino, and that he was unmarried then. "And he is so now,"
+said the captain; "or was so very lately, for, but a month ago, I went
+from here, and then it was the general talk (as you know what great ones
+do, the people will prattle of) that Orsino sought the love of fair
+Olivia, a virtuous maid, the daughter of a count who died twelve months
+ago, leaving Olivia to the protection of her brother, who shortly after
+died also; and for the love of this dear brother, they say, she has
+abjured the sight and company of men." Viola, who was herself in such a
+sad affliction for her brother's loss, wished she could live with this
+lady, who so tenderly mourned a brother's death. She asked the captain
+if he could introduce her to Olivia, saying she would willingly serve
+this lady. But he replied, this would be a hard thing to accomplish,
+because the Lady Olivia would admit no person into her house since her
+brother's death, not even the duke himself. Then Viola formed another
+project in her mind, which was, in a man's habit, to serve the Duke
+Orsino as a page. It was a strange fancy in a young lady to put on male
+attire, and pass for a boy; but the forlorn and unprotected state of
+Viola, who was young and of uncommon beauty, alone, and in a foreign
+land, must plead her excuse.
+
+She having observed a fair behaviour in the captain, and that he showed
+a friendly concern for her welfare, entrusted him with her design, and
+he readily engaged to assist her. Viola gave him money, and directed him
+to furnish her with suitable apparel, ordering her clothes to be made of
+the same colour and in the same fashion her brother Sebastian used to
+wear, and when she was dressed in her manly garb, she looked so exactly
+like her brother that some strange errors happened by means of their
+being mistaken for each other; for, as will afterwards appear, Sebastian
+was also saved.
+
+Viola's good friend, the captain, when he had transformed this pretty
+lady into a gentleman, having some interest at court, got her presented
+to Orsino under the feigned name of Cesario. The duke was wonderfully
+pleased with the address and graceful deportment of this handsome youth,
+and made Cesario one of his pages, that being the office Viola wished to
+obtain: and she so well fulfilled the duties of her new station, and
+showed such a ready observance and faithful attachment to her lord, that
+she soon became his most favoured attendant. To Cesario Orsino confided
+the whole history of his love for the Lady Olivia. To Cesario he told
+the long and unsuccessful suit he had made to one who, rejecting his
+long services, and despising his person, refused to admit him to her
+presence; and for the love of this lady who had so unkindly treated him,
+the noble Orsino, forsaking the sports of the field and all manly
+exercises in which he used to delight, passed his hours in ignoble
+sloth, listening to the effeminate sounds of soft music, gentle airs,
+and passionate love-songs; and neglecting the company of the wise and
+learned lords with whom he used to associate, he was now all day long
+conversing with young Cesario. Unmeet companion no doubt his grave
+courtiers thought Cesario was for their once noble master, the great
+Duke Orsino.
+
+It is a dangerous matter for young maidens to be the confidants of
+handsome young dukes; which Viola too soon found to her sorrow, for all
+that Orsino told her he endured for Olivia, she presently perceived she
+suffered for the love of him; and much it moved her wonder, that Olivia
+could be so regardless of this her peerless lord and master, whom she
+thought no one could behold without the deepest admiration, and she
+ventured gently to hint to Orsino, that it was a pity he should affect a
+lady who was so blind to his worthy qualities; and she said, "If a lady
+were to love you, my lord, as you love Olivia (and perhaps there may be
+one who does), if you could not love her in return, would you not tell
+her that you could not love, and must she not be content with this
+answer?" But Orsino would not admit of this reasoning, for he denied
+that it was possible for any woman to love as he did. He said, no
+woman's heart was big enough to hold so much love, and therefore it was
+unfair to compare the love of any lady for him, to his love for Olivia.
+Now, though Viola had the utmost deference for the duke's opinions, she
+could not help thinking this was not quite true, for she thought her
+heart had full as much love in it as Orsino's had; and she said, "Ah,
+but I know, my lord."--"What do you know, Cesario?" said Orsino. "Too
+well I know," replied Viola, "what love women may owe to men. They are
+as true of heart as we are. My father had a daughter loved a man, as I
+perhaps, were I a woman, should love your lordship."--"And what is her
+history?" said Orsino. "A blank, my lord," replied Viola: "she never
+told her love, but let concealment, like a worm in the bud, feed on her
+damask cheek. She pined in thought, and with a green and yellow
+melancholy, she sat like Patience on a monument, smiling at Grief." The
+duke inquired if this lady died of her love, but to this question Viola
+returned an evasive answer; as probably she had feigned the story, to
+speak words expressive of the secret love and silent grief she suffered
+for Orsino.
+
+While they were talking, a gentleman entered whom the duke had sent to
+Olivia, and he said, "So please you, my lord, I might not be admitted to
+the lady, but by her handmaid she returned you this answer: Until seven
+years hence, the element itself shall not behold her face; but like a
+cloistress she will walk veiled, watering her chamber with her tears for
+the sad remembrance of her dead brother." On hearing this, the duke
+exclaimed, "O she that has a heart of this fine frame, to pay this debt
+of love to a dead brother, how will she love, when the rich golden shaft
+has touched her heart!" And then he said to Viola, "You know, Cesario, I
+have told you all the secrets of my heart; therefore, good youth, go to
+Olivia's house. Be not denied access; stand at her doors, and tell her,
+there your fixed foot shall grow till you have audience."--"And if I do
+speak to her, my lord, what then?" said Viola. "O then;" replied Orsino,
+"unfold to her the passion of my love. Make a long discourse to her of
+my dear faith. It will well become you to act my woes, for she will
+attend more to you than to one of graver aspect."
+
+Away then went Viola; but not willingly did she undertake this
+courtship, for she was to woo a lady to become a wife to him she wished
+to marry: but having undertaken the affair, she performed it with
+fidelity; and Olivia soon heard that a youth was at her door who
+insisted upon being admitted to her presence. "I told him," said the
+servant, "that you were sick: he said he knew you were, and therefore he
+came to speak with you. I told him that you were asleep: he seemed to
+have a foreknowledge of that too, and said, that therefore he must speak
+with you. What is to be said to him, lady? for he seems fortified
+against all denial, and will speak with you, whether you will or no."
+Olivia, curious to see who this peremptory messenger might be, desired
+he might be admitted; and throwing her veil over her face, she said she
+would once more hear Orsino's embassy, not doubting but that he came
+from the duke, by his importunity. Viola, entering, put on the most
+manly air she could assume, and affecting the fine courtier language of
+great men's pages, she said to the veiled lady, "Most radiant,
+exquisite, and matchless beauty, I pray you tell me if you are the lady
+of the house; for I should be sorry to cast away my speech upon another;
+for besides that it is excellently well penned, I have taken great pains
+to learn it."--"Whence come you, sir?" said Olivia. "I can say little
+more than I have studied," replied Viola; "and that question is out of
+my part."--"Are you a comedian?" said Olivia. "No," replied Viola; "and
+yet I am not that which I play;" meaning that she, being a woman,
+feigned herself to be a man. And again she asked Olivia if she were the
+lady of the house. Olivia said she was; and then Viola, having more
+curiosity to see her rival's features, than haste to deliver her
+master's message, said, "Good madam, let me see your face." With this
+bold request Olivia was not averse to comply; for this haughty beauty,
+whom the Duke Orsino had loved so long in vain, at first sight conceived
+a passion for the supposed page, the humble Cesario.
+
+When Viola asked to see her face, Olivia said, "Have you any commission
+from your lord and master to negotiate with my face?" And then,
+forgetting her determination to go veiled for seven long years, she drew
+aside her veil, saying, "But I will draw the curtain and show the
+picture. Is it not well done?" Viola replied, "It is beauty truly mixed;
+the red and white upon your cheeks is by Nature's own cunning hand laid
+on. You are the most cruel lady living, if you will lead these graces to
+the grave, and leave the world no copy."--"O, sir," replied Olivia, "I
+will not be so cruel. The world may have an inventory of my beauty. As,
+_item_, two lips, indifferent red; _item_, two grey eyes, with lids to
+them; one neck; one chin; and so forth. Were you sent here to praise
+me?" Viola replied, "I see what you are: you are too proud, but you are
+fair. My lord and master loves you. O such a love could but be
+recompensed, though you were crowned the queen of beauty: for Orsino
+loves you with adoration and with tears, with groans that thunder love,
+and sighs of fire."--"Your lord," said Olivia, "knows well my mind. I
+cannot love him; yet I doubt not he is virtuous; I know him to be noble
+and of high estate, of fresh and spotless youth. All voices proclaim
+him learned, courteous, and valiant; yet I cannot love him, he might
+have taken his answer long ago."--"If I did love you as my master does,"
+said Viola, "I would make me a willow cabin at your gates, and call upon
+your name, I would write complaining sonnets on Olivia, and sing them in
+the dead of the night; your name should sound among the hills, and I
+would make Echo, the babbling gossip of the air, cry out _Olivia_. O you
+should not rest between the elements of earth and air, but you should
+pity me."--"You might do much," said Olivia: "what is your parentage?"
+Viola replied, "Above my fortunes, yet my state is well. I am a
+gentleman." Olivia now reluctantly dismissed Viola, saying, "Go to your
+master, and tell him, I cannot love him. Let him send no more, unless
+perchance you come again to tell me how he takes it." And Viola
+departed, bidding the lady farewell by the name of Fair Cruelty. When
+she was gone, Olivia repeated the words, _Above my fortunes, yet my
+state is well. I am a gentleman._ And she said aloud, "I will be sworn
+he is; his tongue, his face, his limbs, action, and spirit, plainly show
+he is a gentleman." And then she wished Cesario was the duke; and
+perceiving the fast hold he had taken on her affections, she blamed
+herself for her sudden love: but the gentle blame which people lay upon
+their own faults has no deep root; and presently the noble Lady Olivia
+so far forgot the inequality between her fortunes and those of this
+seeming page, as well as the maidenly reserve which is the chief
+ornament of a lady's character, that she resolved to court the love of
+young Cesario, and sent a servant after him with a diamond ring, under
+the pretence that he had left it with her as a present from Orsino. She
+hoped by thus artfully making Cesario a present of the ring, she should
+give him some intimation of her design; and truly it did make Viola
+suspect; for knowing that Orsino had sent no ring by her, she began to
+recollect that Olivia's looks and manner were expressive of admiration,
+and she presently guessed her master's mistress had fallen in love with
+her. "Alas," said she, "the poor lady might as well love a dream.
+Disguise I see is wicked, for it has caused Olivia to breathe as
+fruitless sighs for me as I do for Orsino."
+
+Viola returned to Orsino's palace, and related to her lord the ill
+success of the negotiation, repeating the command of Olivia, that the
+duke should trouble her no more. Yet still the duke persisted in hoping
+that the gentle Cesario would in time be able to persuade her to show
+some pity, and therefore he bade him he should go to her again the next
+day. In the meantime, to pass away the tedious interval, he commanded a
+song which he loved to be sung; and he said, "My good Cesario, when I
+heard that song last night, methought it did relieve my passion much.
+Mark it, Cesario, it is old and plain. The spinsters and the knitters
+when they sit in the sun, and the young maids that weave their thread
+with bone, chant this song. It is silly, yet I love it, for it tells of
+the innocence of love in the old times."
+
+
+SONG
+
+      Come away, come away, Death,
+        And in sad cypress let me be laid;
+      Fly away, fly away, breath,
+        I am slain by a fair cruel maid.
+  My shroud of white stuck all with yew, O prepare it!
+  My part of death no one so true did share it.
+      Not a flower, not a flower sweet,
+        On my black coffin let there be strewn:
+      Not a friend, not a friend greet
+        My poor corpse, where my bones shall be thrown.
+  A thousand thousand sighs to save, lay me O where
+  Sad true lover never find my grave, to weep there!
+
+Viola did not fail to mark the words of the old song, which in such true
+simplicity described the pangs of unrequited love, and she bore
+testimony in her countenance of feeling what the song expressed. Her sad
+looks were observed by Orsino, who said to her, "My life upon it,
+Cesario, though you are so young, your eye has looked upon some face
+that it loves: has it not, boy?"--"A little, with your leave," replied
+Viola. "And what kind of woman, and of what age is she?" said Orsino.
+"Of your age and of your complexion, my lord," said Viola; which made
+the duke smile to hear this fair young boy loved a woman so much older
+than himself, and of a man's dark complexion; but Viola secretly meant
+Orsino, and not a woman like him.
+
+When Viola made her second visit to Olivia, she found no difficulty in
+gaining access to her. Servants soon discover when their ladies delight
+to converse with handsome young messengers; and the instant Viola
+arrived, the gates were thrown wide open, and the duke's page was shown
+into Olivia's apartment with great respect; and when Viola told Olivia
+that she was come once more to plead in her lord's behalf, this lady
+said, "I desired you never to speak of him again; but if you would
+undertake another suit, I had rather hear you solicit, than music from
+the spheres." This was pretty plain speaking, but Olivia soon explained
+herself still more plainly, and openly confessed her love; and when she
+saw displeasure with perplexity expressed in Viola's face, she said, "O
+what a deal of scorn looks beautiful in the contempt and anger of his
+lip! Cesario, by the roses of the spring, by maidhood, honour, and by
+truth, I love you so, that, in spite of your pride, I have neither wit
+nor reason to conceal my passion." But in vain the lady wooed; Viola
+hastened from her presence, threatening never more to come to plead
+Orsino's love; and all the reply she made to Olivia's fond solicitation
+was, a declaration of a resolution _Never to love any woman._
+
+No sooner had Viola left the lady than a claim was made upon her valour.
+A gentleman, a rejected suitor of Olivia, who had learned how that lady
+had favoured the duke's messenger, challenged him to fight a duel. What
+should poor Viola do, who, though she carried a manlike outside, had a
+true woman's heart, and feared to look on her own sword?
+
+[Illustration: SHE BEGAN TO THINK OF CONFESSING THAT SHE WAS A WOMAN]
+
+When she saw her formidable rival advancing towards her with his sword
+drawn, she began to think of confessing that she was a woman; but she
+was relieved at once from her terror, and the shame of such a discovery,
+by a stranger that was passing by, who made up to them, and as if he had
+been long known to her, and were her dearest friend, said to her
+opponent, "If this young gentleman has done offence, I will take the
+fault on me; and if you offend him, I will for his sake defy you."
+Before Viola had time to thank him for his protection, or to inquire the
+reason of his kind interference, her new friend met with an enemy where
+his bravery was of no use to him; for the officers of justice coming up
+in that instant, apprehended the stranger in the duke's name, to answer
+for an offence he had committed some years before: and he said to Viola,
+"This comes with seeking you:" and then he asked her for a purse,
+saying, "Now my necessity makes me ask for my purse, and it grieves me
+much more for what I cannot do for you, than for what befalls myself.
+You stand amazed, but be of comfort." His words did indeed amaze Viola,
+and she protested she knew him not, nor had ever received a purse from
+him; but for the kindness he had just shown her, she offered him a small
+sum of money, being nearly the whole she possessed. And now the stranger
+spoke severe things, charging her with ingratitude and unkindness. He
+said, "This youth, whom you see here, I snatched from the jaws of death,
+and for his sake alone I came to Illyria, and have fallen into this
+danger." But the officers cared little for hearkening to the complaints
+of their prisoner, and they hurried him on, saying, "What is that to
+us?" And as he was carried away, he called Viola by the name of
+Sebastian, reproaching the supposed Sebastian for disowning his friend,
+as long as he was within hearing. When Viola heard herself called
+Sebastian, though the stranger was taken away too hastily for her to ask
+an explanation, she conjectured that this seeming mystery might arise
+from her being mistaken for her brother; and she began to cherish hopes
+that it was her brother whose life this man said he had preserved. And
+so indeed it was. The stranger, whose name was Antonio, was a
+sea-captain. He had taken Sebastian up into his ship, when, almost
+exhausted with fatigue, he was floating on the mast to which he had
+fastened himself in the storm. Antonio conceived such a friendship for
+Sebastian, that he resolved to accompany him whithersoever he went; and
+when the youth expressed a curiosity to visit Orsino's court, Antonio,
+rather than part from him, came to Illyria, though he knew, if his
+person should be known there, his life would be in danger, because in a
+sea-fight he had once dangerously wounded the Duke Orsino's nephew. This
+was the offence for which he was now made a prisoner.
+
+Antonio and Sebastian had landed together but a few hours before Antonio
+met Viola. He had given his purse to Sebastian, desiring him to use it
+freely if he saw anything he wished to purchase, telling him he would
+wait at the inn, while Sebastian went to view the town; but Sebastian
+not returning at the time appointed, Antonio had ventured out to look
+for him, and Viola being dressed the same, and in face so exactly
+resembling her brother, Antonio drew his sword (as he thought) in
+defence of the youth he had saved, and when Sebastian (as he supposed)
+disowned him, and denied him his own purse, no wonder he accused him of
+ingratitude.
+
+Viola, when Antonio was gone, fearing a second invitation to fight,
+slunk home as fast as she could. She had not been long gone, when her
+adversary thought he saw her return; but it was her brother Sebastian,
+who happened to arrive at this place, and he said, "Now, sir, have I met
+with you again? There's for you;" and struck him a blow. Sebastian was
+no coward; he returned the blow with interest, and drew his sword.
+
+A lady now put a stop to this duel, for Olivia came out of the house,
+and she too mistaking Sebastian for Cesario, invited him to come into
+her house, expressing much sorrow at the rude attack he had met with.
+Though Sebastian was as much surprised at the courtesy of this lady as
+at the rudeness of his unknown foe, yet he went very willingly into the
+house, and Olivia was delighted to find Cesario (as she thought him)
+become more sensible of her attentions; for though their features were
+exactly the same, there was none of the contempt and anger to be seen in
+his face, which she had complained of when she told her love to Cesario.
+
+Sebastian did not at all object to the fondness the lady lavished on
+him. He seemed to take it in very good part, yet he wondered how it had
+come to pass, and he was rather inclined to think Olivia was not in her
+right senses; but perceiving that she was mistress of a fine house, and
+that she ordered her affairs and seemed to govern her family discreetly,
+and that in all but her sudden love for him she appeared in the full
+possession of her reason, he well approved of the courtship; and Olivia
+finding Cesario in this good humour, and fearing he might change his
+mind, proposed that, as she had a priest in the house, they should be
+instantly married. Sebastian assented to this proposal; and when the
+marriage ceremony was over, he left his lady for a short time, intending
+to go and tell his friend Antonio the good fortune that he had met with.
+In the meantime Orsino came to visit Olivia: and at the moment he
+arrived before Olivia's house, the officers of justice brought their
+prisoner, Antonio, before the duke. Viola was with Orsino, her master;
+and when Antonio saw Viola, whom he still imagined to be Sebastian, he
+told the duke in what manner he had rescued this youth from the perils
+of the sea; and after fully relating all the kindness he had really
+shown to Sebastian, he ended his complaint with saying, that for three
+months, both day and night, this ungrateful youth had been with him. But
+now the Lady Olivia coming forth from her house, the duke could no
+longer attend to Antonio's story; and he said, "Here comes the countess:
+now Heaven walks on earth! but for thee, fellow, thy words are madness.
+Three months has this youth attended on me:" and then he ordered Antonio
+to be taken aside. But Orsino's heavenly countess soon gave the duke
+cause to accuse Cesario as much of ingratitude as Antonio had done, for
+all the words he could hear Olivia speak were words of kindness to
+Cesario: and when he found his page had obtained this high place in
+Olivia's favour, he threatened him with all the terrors of his just
+revenge; and as he was going to depart, he called Viola to follow him,
+saying, "Come, boy, with me. My thoughts are ripe for mischief." Though
+it seemed in his jealous rage he was going to doom Viola to instant
+death, yet her love made her no longer a coward, and she said she would
+most joyfully suffer death to give her master ease. But Olivia would not
+so lose her husband, and she cried, "Where goes my Cesario?" Viola
+replied, "After him I love more than my life." Olivia, however,
+prevented their departure by loudly proclaiming that Cesario was her
+husband, and sent for the priest, who declared that not two hours had
+passed since he had married the Lady Olivia to this young man. In vain
+Viola protested she was not married to Olivia; the evidence of that lady
+and the priest made Orsino believe that his page had robbed him of the
+treasure he prized above his life. But thinking that it was past recall,
+he was bidding farewell to his faithless mistress, and the _young
+dissembler_, her husband, as he called Viola, warning her never to come
+in his sight again, when (as it seemed to them) a miracle appeared! for
+another Cesario entered, and addressed Olivia as his wife. This new
+Cesario was Sebastian, the real husband of Olivia; and when their wonder
+had a little ceased at seeing two persons with the same face, the same
+voice, and the same habit, the brother and sister began to question each
+other; for Viola could scarce be persuaded that her brother was living,
+and Sebastian knew not how to account for the sister he supposed drowned
+being found in the habit of a young man. But Viola presently
+acknowledged that she was indeed Viola, and his sister, under that
+disguise.
+
+When all the errors were cleared up which the extreme likeness between
+this twin brother and sister had occasioned, they laughed at the Lady
+Olivia for the pleasant mistake she had made in falling in love with a
+woman; and Olivia showed no dislike to her exchange, when she found she
+had wedded the brother instead of the sister.
+
+The hopes of Orsino were for ever at an end by this marriage of Olivia,
+and with his hopes, all his fruitless love seemed to vanish away, and
+all his thoughts were fixed on the event of his favourite, young
+Cesario, being changed into a fair lady. He viewed Viola with great
+attention, and he remembered how very handsome he had always thought
+Cesario was, and he concluded she would look very beautiful in a woman's
+attire; and then he remembered how often she had said _she loved him_,
+which at the time seemed only the dutiful expressions of a faithful
+page; but now he guessed that something more was meant, for many of her
+pretty sayings, which were like riddles to him, came now into his mind,
+and he no sooner remembered all these things than he resolved to make
+Viola his wife; and he said to her (he still could not help calling her
+_Cesario_ and _boy_), "Boy, you have said to me a thousand times that
+you should never love a woman like to me, and for the faithful service
+you have done for me so much beneath your soft and tender breeding, and
+since you have called me master so long, you shall now be your master's
+mistress, and Orsino's true duchess."
+
+Olivia, perceiving Orsino was making over that heart, which she had so
+ungraciously rejected, to Viola, invited them to enter her house, and
+offered the assistance of the good priest, who had married her to
+Sebastian in the morning, to perform the same ceremony in the remaining
+part of the day for Orsino and Viola. Thus the twin brother and sister
+were both wedded on the same day: the storm and shipwreck, which had
+separated them, being the means of bringing to pass their high and
+mighty fortunes. Viola was the wife of Orsino, the Duke of Illyria, and
+Sebastian the husband of the rich and noble countess, the Lady Olivia.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+TIMON OF ATHENS
+
+
+Timon, a lord of Athens, in the enjoyment of a princely fortune,
+affected a humour of liberality which knew no limits. His almost
+infinite wealth could not flow in so fast, but he poured it out faster
+upon all sorts and degrees of people. Not the poor only tasted of his
+bounty, but great lords did not disdain to rank themselves among his
+dependants and followers. His table was resorted to by all the luxurious
+feasters, and his house was open to all comers and goers at Athens. His
+large wealth combined with his free and prodigal nature to subdue all
+hearts to his love; men of all minds and dispositions tendered their
+services to Lord Timon, from the glass-faced flatterer, whose face
+reflects as in a mirror the present humour of his patron, to the rough
+and unbending cynic, who affecting a contempt of men's persons, and an
+indifference to worldly things, yet could not stand out against the
+gracious manners and munificent soul of Lord Timon, but would come
+(against his nature) to partake of his royal entertainments, and return
+most rich in his own estimation if he had received a nod or a salutation
+from Timon.
+
+If a poet had composed a work which wanted a recommendatory introduction
+to the world, he had no more to do but to dedicate it to Lord Timon, and
+the poem was sure of sale, besides a present purse from the patron, and
+daily access to his house and table. If a painter had a picture to
+dispose of, he had only to take it to Lord Timon, and pretend to consult
+his taste as to the merits of it; nothing more was wanting to persuade
+the liberal-hearted lord to buy it. If a jeweller had a stone of price,
+or a mercer rich costly stuffs, which for their costliness lay upon his
+hands, Lord Timon's house was a ready mart always open, where they might
+get off their wares or their jewellery at any price, and the
+good-natured lord would thank them into the bargain, as if they had done
+him a piece of courtesy in letting him have the refusal of such precious
+commodities. So that by this means his house was thronged with
+superfluous purchases, of no use but to swell uneasy and ostentatious
+pomp; and his person was still more inconveniently beset with a crowd of
+these idle visitors, lying poets, painters, sharking tradesmen, lords,
+ladies, needy courtiers, and expectants, who continually filled his
+lobbies, raining their fulsome flatteries in whispers in his ears,
+sacrificing to him with adulation as to a God, making sacred the very
+stirrup by which he mounted his horse, and seeming as though they drank
+the free air but through his permission and bounty.
+
+Some of these daily dependants were young men of birth, who (their means
+not answering to their extravagance) had been put in prison by
+creditors, and redeemed thence by Lord Timon; these young prodigals
+thenceforward fastened upon his lordship, as if by common sympathy he
+were necessarily endeared to all such spendthrifts and loose livers,
+who, not being able to follow him in his wealth, found it easier to copy
+him in prodigality and copious spending of what was their own. One of
+these flesh-flies was Ventidius, for whose debts, unjustly contracted,
+Timon but lately had paid down the sum of five talents.
+
+But among this confluence, this great flood of visitors, none were more
+conspicuous than the makers of presents and givers of gifts. It was
+fortunate for these men if Timon took a fancy to a dog or a horse, or
+any piece of cheap furniture which was theirs. The thing so praised,
+whatever it was, was sure to be sent the next morning with the
+compliments of the giver for Lord Timon's acceptance, and apologies for
+the unworthiness of the gift; and this dog or horse, or whatever it
+might be, did not fail to produce from Timon's bounty, who would not be
+outdone in gifts, perhaps twenty dogs or horses, certainly presents of
+far richer worth, as these pretended donors knew well enough, and that
+their false presents were but the putting out of so much money at large
+and speedy interest. In this way Lord Lucius had lately sent to Timon a
+present of four milk-white horses, trapped in silver, which this cunning
+lord had observed Timon upon some occasion to commend; and another lord,
+Lucullus, had bestowed upon him in the same pretended way of free gift a
+brace of greyhounds, whose make and fleetness Timon had been heard to
+admire; these presents the easy-hearted lord accepted without suspicion
+of the dishonest views of the presenters; and the givers of course were
+rewarded with some rich return, a diamond or some jewel of twenty times
+the value of their false and mercenary donation.
+
+Sometimes these creatures would go to work in a more direct way, and
+with gross and palpable artifice, which yet the credulous Timon was too
+blind to see, would affect to admire and praise something that Timon
+possessed, a bargain that he had bought, or some late purchase, which
+was sure to draw from this yielding and soft-hearted lord a gift of the
+thing commended, for no service in the world done for it but the easy
+expense of a little cheap and obvious flattery. In this way Timon but
+the other day had given to one of these mean lords the bay courser which
+he himself rode upon, because his lordship had been pleased to say that
+it was a handsome beast and went well; and Timon knew that no man ever
+justly praised what he did not wish to possess. For Lord Timon weighed
+his friends' affection with his own, and so fond was he of bestowing,
+that he could have dealt kingdoms to these supposed friends, and never
+have been weary.
+
+Not that Timon's wealth all went to enrich these wicked flatterers; he
+could do noble and praiseworthy actions; and when a servant of his once
+loved the daughter of a rich Athenian, but could not hope to obtain her
+by reason that in wealth and rank the maid was so far above him, Lord
+Timon freely bestowed upon his servant three Athenian talents, to make
+his fortune equal with the dowry which the father of the young maid
+demanded of him who should be her husband. But for the most part, knaves
+and parasites had the command of his fortune, false friends whom he did
+not know to be such, but, because they flocked around his person, he
+thought they must needs love him; and because they smiled and flattered
+him, he thought surely that his conduct was approved by all the wise and
+good. And when he was feasting in the midst of all these flatterers and
+mock friends, when they were eating him up, and draining his fortunes
+dry with large draughts of richest wines drunk to his health and
+prosperity, he could not perceive the difference of a friend from a
+flatterer, but to his deluded eyes (made proud with the sight) it seemed
+a precious comfort to have so many like brothers commanding one
+another's fortunes (though it was his own fortune which paid all the
+costs), and with joy they would run over at the spectacle of such, as it
+appeared to him, truly festive and fraternal meeting.
+
+But while he thus outwent the very heart of kindness, and poured out his
+bounty, as if Plutus, the god of gold, had been but his steward; while
+thus he proceeded without care or stop, so senseless of expense that he
+would neither inquire how he could maintain it, nor cease his wild flow
+of riot; his riches, which were not infinite, must needs melt away
+before a prodigality which knew no limits. But who should tell him so?
+his flatterers? they had an interest in shutting his eyes. In vain did
+his honest steward Flavius try to represent to him his condition, laying
+his accounts before him, begging of him, praying of him, with an
+importunity that on any other occasion would have been unmannerly in a
+servant, beseeching him with tears to look into the state of his
+affairs. Timon would still put him off, and turn the discourse to
+something else; for nothing is so deaf to remonstrance as riches turned
+to poverty, nothing is so unwilling to believe its situation, nothing so
+incredulous to its own true state, and hard to give credit to a reverse.
+Often had this good steward, this honest creature, when all the rooms of
+Timon's great house have been choked up with riotous feeders at his
+master's cost, when the floors have wept with drunken spilling of wine,
+and every apartment has blazed with lights and resounded with music and
+feasting, often had he retired by himself to some solitary spot, and
+wept faster than the wine ran from the wasteful casks within, to see the
+mad bounty of his lord, and to think, when the means were gone which
+brought him praises from all sorts of people, how quickly the breath
+would be gone of which the praise was made; praises won in feasting
+would be lost in fasting, and at one cloud of winter-showers these flies
+would disappear.
+
+But now the time was come that Timon could shut his ears no longer to
+the representations of this faithful steward. Money must be had; and
+when he ordered Flavius to sell some of his land for that purpose,
+Flavius informed him, what he had in vain endeavoured at several times
+before to make him listen to, that most of his land was already sold or
+forfeited, and that all he possessed at present was not enough to pay
+the one half of what he owed. Struck with wonder at this presentation,
+Timon hastily replied, "My lands extend from Athens to Lacedaemon." "O
+my good lord," said Flavius, "the world is but a world, and has bounds;
+were it all yours to give in a breath, how quickly were it gone!"
+
+Timon consoled himself that no villanous bounty had yet come from him,
+that if he had given his wealth away unwisely, it had not been bestowed
+to feed his vices, but to cherish his friends; and he bade the
+kind-hearted steward (who was weeping) to take comfort in the assurance
+that his master could never lack means, while he had so many noble
+friends; and this infatuated lord persuaded himself that he had nothing
+to do but to send and borrow, to use every man's fortune (that had ever
+tasted his bounty) in this extremity, as freely as his own. Then with a
+cheerful look, as if confident of the trial, he severally despatched
+messengers to Lord Lucius, to Lords Lucullus and Sempronius, men upon
+whom he had lavished his gifts in past times without measure or
+moderation; and to Ventidius, whom he had lately released out of prison
+by paying his debts, and who, by the death of his father, was now come
+into the possession of an ample fortune, and well enabled to requite
+Timon's courtesy: to request of Ventidius the return of those five
+talents which he had paid for him, and of each of those noble lords the
+loan of fifty talents; nothing doubting that their gratitude would
+supply his wants (if he needed it) to the amount of five hundred times
+fifty talents.
+
+Lucullus was the first applied to. This mean lord had been dreaming
+overnight of a silver bason and cup, and when Timon's servant was
+announced, his sordid mind suggested to him that this was surely a
+making out of his dream, and that Timon had sent him such a present: but
+when he understood the truth of the matter, and that Timon wanted money,
+the quality of his faint and watery friendship showed itself, for with
+many protestations he vowed to the servant that he had long foreseen the
+ruin of his master's affairs, and many a time had he come to dinner to
+tell him of it, and had come again to supper to try to persuade him to
+spend less, but he would take no counsel nor warning by his coming: and
+true it was that he had been a constant attender (as he said) at Timon's
+feasts, as he had in greater things tasted his bounty; but that he ever
+came with that intent, or gave good counsel or reproof to Timon, was a
+base unworthy lie, which he suitably followed up with meanly offering
+the servant a bribe, to go home to his master and tell him that he had
+not found Lucullus at home.
+
+As little success had the messenger who was sent to Lord Lucius. This
+lying lord, who was full of Timon's meat, and enriched almost to
+bursting with Timon's costly presents, when he found the wind changed,
+and the fountain of so much bounty suddenly stopped, at first could
+hardly believe it; but on its being confirmed, he affected great regret
+that he should not have it in his power to serve Lord Timon, for
+unfortunately (which was a base falsehood) he had made a great purchase
+the day before, which had quite disfurnished him of the means at
+present, the more beast he, he called himself, to put it out of his
+power to serve so good a friend; and he counted it one of his greatest
+afflictions that his ability should fail him to pleasure such an
+honourable gentleman.
+
+Who can call any man friend that dips in the same dish with him? just of
+this metal is every flatterer. In the recollection of everybody Timon
+had been a father to this Lucius, had kept up his credit with his purse;
+Timon's money had gone to pay the wages of his servants, to pay the hire
+of the labourers who had sweat to build the fine houses which Lucius's
+pride had made necessary to him: yet, oh! the monster which man makes
+himself when he proves ungrateful! this Lucius now denied to Timon a
+sum, which, in respect of what Timon had bestowed on him, was less than
+charitable men afford to beggars.
+
+Sempronius, and every one of these mercenary lords to whom Timon applied
+in their turn, returned the same evasive answer or direct denial; even
+Ventidius, the redeemed and now rich Ventidius, refused to assist him
+with the loan of those five talents which Timon had not lent but
+generously given him in his distress.
+
+Now was Timon as much avoided in his poverty as he had been courted and
+resorted to in his riches. Now the same tongues which had been loudest
+in his praises, extolling him as bountiful, liberal, and open handed,
+were not ashamed to censure that very bounty as folly, that liberality
+as profuseness, though it had shown itself folly in nothing so truly as
+in the selection of such unworthy creatures as themselves for its
+objects. Now was Timon's princely mansion forsaken, and become a shunned
+and hated place, a place for men to pass by, not a place, as formerly,
+where every passenger must stop and taste of his wine and good cheer;
+now, instead of being thronged with feasting and tumultuous guests, it
+was beset with impatient and clamorous creditors, usurers, extortioners,
+fierce and intolerable in their demands, pleading bonds, interest,
+mortgages; iron-hearted men that would take no denial nor putting off,
+that Timon's house was now his jail, which he could not pass, nor go in
+nor out for them; one demanding his due of fifty talents, another
+bringing in a bill of five thousand crowns, which if he would tell out
+his blood by drops, and pay them so, he had not enough in his body to
+discharge, drop by drop.
+
+In this desperate and irremediable state (as it seemed) of his affairs,
+the eyes of all men were suddenly surprised at a new and incredible
+lustre which this setting sun put forth. Once more Lord Timon proclaimed
+a feast, to which he invited his accustomed guests, lords, ladies, all
+that was great or fashionable in Athens. Lord Lucius and Lucullus came,
+Ventidius, Sempronius, and the rest. Who more sorry now than these
+fawning wretches, when they found (as they thought) that Lord Timon's
+poverty was all pretence, and had been only put on to make trial of
+their loves, to think that they should not have seen through the
+artifice at the time, and have had the cheap credit of obliging his
+lordship? yet who more glad to find the fountain of that noble bounty,
+which they had thought dried up, still fresh and running? They came
+dissembling, protesting, expressing deepest sorrow and shame, that when
+his lordship sent to them, they should have been so unfortunate as to
+want the present means to oblige so honourable a friend. But Timon
+begged them not to give such trifles a thought, for he had altogether
+forgotten it. And these base fawning lords, though they had denied him
+money in his adversity, yet could not refuse their presence at this new
+blaze of his returning prosperity. For the swallow follows not summer
+more willingly than men of these dispositions follow the good fortunes
+of the great, nor more willingly leaves winter than these shrink from
+the first appearance of a reverse; such summer birds are men. But now
+with music and state the banquet of smoking dishes was served up; and
+when the guests had a little done admiring whence the bankrupt Timon
+could find means to furnish so costly a feast, some doubting whether the
+scene which they saw was real, as scarce trusting their own eyes; at a
+signal given, the dishes were uncovered, and Timon's drift appeared:
+instead of those varieties and far-fetched dainties which they expected,
+that Timon's epicurean table in past times had so liberally presented,
+now appeared under the covers of these dishes a preparation more
+suitable to Timon's poverty, nothing but a little smoke and lukewarm
+water, fit feast for this knot of mouth-friends, whose professions were
+indeed smoke, and their hearts lukewarm and slippery as the water with
+which Timon welcomed his astonished guests, bidding them, "Uncover,
+dogs, and lap;" and before they could recover their surprise,
+sprinkling it in their faces, that they might have enough, and throwing
+dishes and all after them, who now ran huddling out, lords, ladies, with
+their caps snatched up in haste, a splendid confusion, Timon pursuing
+them, still calling them what they were, "smooth smiling parasites,
+destroyers under the mask of courtesy, affable wolves, meek bears, fools
+of fortune, feast-friends, time-flies." They, crowding out to avoid him,
+left the house more willingly than they had entered it; some losing
+their gowns and caps, and some their jewels in the hurry, all glad to
+escape out of the presence of such a mad lord, and from the ridicule of
+his mock banquet.
+
+This was the last feast which ever Timon made, and in it he took
+farewell of Athens and the society of men; for, after that, he betook
+himself to the woods, turning his back upon the hated city and upon all
+mankind, wishing the walls of that detestable city might sink, and the
+houses fall upon their owners, wishing all plagues which infest
+humanity, war, outrage, poverty, diseases, might fasten upon its
+inhabitants, praying the just gods to confound all Athenians, both young
+and old, high and low; so wishing, he went to the woods, where he said
+he should find the unkindest beast much kinder than mankind. He stripped
+himself naked, that he might retain no fashion of a man, and dug a cave
+to live in, and lived solitary in the manner of a beast, eating the wild
+roots, and drinking water, flying from the face of his kind, and
+choosing rather to herd with wild beasts, as more harmless and friendly
+than man.
+
+What a change from Lord Timon the rich, Lord Timon the delight of
+mankind, to Timon the naked, Timon the man-hater! Where were his
+flatterers now? Where were his attendants and retinue? Would the bleak
+air, that boisterous servitor, be his chamberlain, to put his shirt on
+warm? Would those stiff trees that had outlived the eagle, turn young
+and airy pages to him, to skip on his errands when he bade them? Would
+the cool brook, when it was iced with winter, administer to him his warm
+broths and caudles when sick of an overnight's surfeit? Or would the
+creatures that lived in those wild woods come and lick his hand and
+flatter him?
+
+Here on a day, when he was digging for roots, his poor sustenance, his
+spade struck against something heavy, which proved to be gold, a great
+heap which some miser had probably buried in a time of alarm, thinking
+to have come again, and taken it from its prison, but died before the
+opportunity had arrived, without making any man privy to the
+concealment; so it lay, doing neither good nor harm, in the bowels of
+the earth, its mother, as if it had never come from thence, till the
+accidental striking of Timon's spade against it once more brought it to
+light.
+
+Here was a mass of treasure which, if Timon had retained his old mind,
+was enough to have purchased him friends and flatterers again; but Timon
+was sick of the false world, and the sight of gold was poisonous to his
+eyes; and he would have restored it to the earth, but that, thinking of
+the infinite calamities which by means of gold happen to mankind, how
+the lucre of it causes robberies, oppression, injustice, briberies,
+violence, and murder, among men, he had a pleasure in imagining (such a
+rooted hatred did he bear to his species) that out of this heap, which
+in digging he had discovered, might arise some mischief to plague
+mankind. And some soldiers passing through the woods near to his cave at
+that instant, which proved to be a part of the troops of the Athenian
+captain Alcibiades, who upon some disgust taken against the senators of
+Athens (the Athenians were ever noted to be a thankless and ungrateful
+people, giving disgust to their generals and best friends), was marching
+at the head of the same triumphant army which he had formerly headed in
+their defence, to war against them; Timon, who liked their business
+well, bestowed upon their captain the gold to pay his soldiers,
+requiring no other service from him, than that he should with his
+conquering army lay Athens level with the ground, and burn, slay, kill
+all her inhabitants; not sparing the old men for their white beards, for
+(he said) they were usurers, nor the young children for their seeming
+innocent smiles, for those (he said) would live, if they grew up, to be
+traitors; but to steel his eyes and ears against any sights or sounds
+that might awaken compassion; and not to let the cries of virgins,
+babes, or mothers, hinder him from making one universal massacre of the
+city, but to confound them all in his conquest; and when he had
+conquered, he prayed that the gods would confound him also, the
+conqueror: so thoroughly did Timon hate Athens, Athenians, and all
+mankind.
+
+While he lived in this forlorn state, leading a life more brutal than
+human, he was suddenly surprised one day with the appearance of a man
+standing in an admiring posture at the door of his cave. It was Flavius,
+the honest steward, whom love and zealous affection to his master had
+led to seek him out at his wretched dwelling, and to offer his services;
+and the first sight of his master, the once noble Timon, in that abject
+condition, naked as he was born, living in the manner of a beast among
+beasts, looking like his own sad ruins and a monument of decay, so
+affected this good servant, that he stood speechless, wrapped up in
+horror, and confounded. And when he found utterance at last to his
+words, they were so choked with tears, that Timon had much ado to know
+him again, or to make out who it was that had come (so contrary to the
+experience he had had of mankind) to offer him service in extremity. And
+being in the form and shape of a man, he suspected him for a traitor,
+and his tears for false; but the good servant by so many tokens
+confirmed the truth of his fidelity, and made it clear that nothing but
+love and zealous duty to his once dear master had brought him there,
+that Timon was forced to confess that the world contained one honest
+man; yet, being in the shape and form of a man, he could not look upon
+his man's face without abhorrence, or hear words uttered from his man's
+lips without loathing; and this singly honest man was forced to depart,
+because he was a man, and because, with a heart more gentle and
+compassionate than is usual to man, he bore man's detested form and
+outward feature.
+
+But greater visitants than a poor steward were about to interrupt the
+savage quiet of Timon's solitude. For now the day was come when the
+ungrateful lords of Athens sorely repented the injustice which they had
+done to the noble Timon. For Alcibiades, like an incensed wild boar, was
+raging at the walls of their city, and with his hot siege threatened to
+lay fair Athens in the dust. And now the memory of Lord Timon's former
+prowess and military conduct came fresh into their forgetful minds, for
+Timon had been their general in past times, and a valiant and expert
+soldier, who alone of all the Athenians was deemed able to cope with a
+besieging army such as then threatened them, or to drive back the
+furious approaches of Alcibiades.
+
+A deputation of the senators was chosen in this emergency to wait upon
+Timon. To him they come in their extremity, to whom, when he was in
+extremity, they had shown but small regard; as if they presumed upon his
+gratitude whom they had disobliged, and had derived a claim to his
+courtesy from their own most discourteous and unpiteous treatment.
+
+Now they earnestly beseech him, implore him with tears, to return and
+save that city, from which their ingratitude had so lately driven him;
+now they offer him riches, power, dignities, satisfaction for past
+injuries, and public honours, and the public love; their persons, lives,
+and fortunes, to be at his disposal, if he will but come back and save
+them. But Timon the naked, Timon the man-hater, was no longer Lord
+Timon, the lord of bounty, the flower of valour, their defence in war,
+their ornament in peace. If Alcibiades killed his countrymen, Timon
+cared not. If he sacked fair Athens, and slew her old men and her
+infants, Timon would rejoice. So he told them; and that there was not a
+knife in the unruly camp which he did not prize above the reverendest
+throat in Athens.
+
+This was all the answer he vouchsafed to the weeping disappointed
+senators; only at parting he bade them commend him to his countrymen,
+and tell them, that to ease them of their griefs and anxieties, and to
+prevent the consequences of fierce Alcibiades' wrath, there was yet a
+way left, which he would teach them, for he had yet so much affection
+left for his dear countrymen as to be willing to do them a kindness
+before his death. These words a little revived the senators, who hoped
+that his kindness for their city was returning. Then Timon told them
+that he had a tree, which grew near his cave, which he should shortly
+have occasion to cut down, and he invited all his friends in Athens,
+high or low, of what degree soever, who wished to shun affliction, to
+come and take a taste of his tree before he cut it down; meaning, that
+they might come and hang themselves on it, and escape affliction that
+way.
+
+And this was the last courtesy, of all his noble bounties, which Timon
+showed to mankind, and this the last sight of him which his countrymen
+had: for not many days after, a poor soldier, passing by the sea-beach,
+which was at a little distance from the woods which Timon frequented,
+found a tomb on the verge of the sea, with an inscription upon it,
+purporting that it was the grave of Timon the man-hater, who "While he
+lived, did hate all living men, and dying wished a plague might consume
+all caitiffs left!"
+
+Whether he finished his life by violence, or whether mere distaste of
+life and the loathing he had for mankind brought Timon to his
+conclusion, was not clear, yet all men admired the fitness of his
+epitaph, and the consistency of his end; dying, as he had lived, a hater
+of mankind: and some there were who fancied a conceit in the very choice
+which he had made of the sea-beach for his place of burial, where the
+vast sea might weep for ever upon his grave, as in contempt of the
+transient and shallow tears of hypocritical and deceitful mankind.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+ROMEO AND JULIET
+
+
+The two chief families in Verona were the rich Capulets and the
+Montagues. There had been an old quarrel between these families, which
+was grown to such a height, and so deadly was the enmity between them,
+that it extended to the remotest kindred, to the followers and retainers
+of both sides, insomuch that a servant of the house of Montague could
+not meet a servant of the house of Capulet, nor a Capulet encounter with
+a Montague by chance, but fierce words and sometimes bloodshed ensued;
+and frequent were the brawls from such accidental meetings, which
+disturbed the happy quiet of Verona's streets.
+
+Old Lord Capulet made a great supper, to which many fair ladies and many
+noble guests were invited. All the admired beauties of Verona were
+present, and all comers were made welcome if they were not of the house
+of Montague. At this feast of Capulets, Rosaline, beloved of Romeo, son
+to the old Lord Montague, was present; and though it was dangerous for a
+Montague to be seen in this assembly, yet Benvolio, a friend of Romeo,
+persuaded the young lord to go to this assembly in the disguise of a
+mask, that he might see his Rosaline, and seeing her, compare her with
+some choice beauties of Verona, who (he said) would make him think his
+swan a crow. Romeo had small faith in Benvolio's words; nevertheless,
+for the love of Rosaline, he was persuaded to go. For Romeo was a
+sincere and passionate lover, and one that lost his sleep for love, and
+fled society to be alone, thinking on Rosaline, who disdained him, and
+never requited his love, with the least show of courtesy or affection;
+and Benvolio wished to cure his friend of this love by showing him
+diversity of ladies and company. To this feast of Capulets then young
+Romeo with Benvolio and their friend Mercutio went masked. Old Capulet
+bid them welcome, and told them that ladies who had their toes unplagued
+with corns would dance with them. And the old man was light hearted and
+merry, and said that he had worn a mask when he was young, and could
+have told a whispering tale in a fair lady's ear. And they fell to
+dancing, and Romeo was suddenly struck with the exceeding beauty of a
+lady who danced there, who seemed to him to teach the torches to burn
+bright, and her beauty to show by night like a rich jewel worn by a
+blackamoor; beauty too rich for use, too dear for earth! like a snowy
+dove trooping with crows (he said), so richly did her beauty and
+perfections shine above the ladies her companions. While he uttered
+these praises, he was overheard by Tybalt, a nephew of Lord Capulet, who
+knew him by his voice to be Romeo. And this Tybalt, being of a fiery and
+passionate temper, could not endure that a Montague should come under
+cover of a mask, to fleer and scorn (as he said) at their solemnities.
+And he stormed and raged exceedingly, and would have struck young Romeo
+dead. But his uncle, the old Lord Capulet, would not suffer him to do
+any injury at that time, both out of respect to his guests, and because
+Romeo had borne himself like a gentleman, and all tongues in Verona
+bragged of him to be a virtuous and well-governed youth. Tybalt, forced
+to be patient against his will, restrained himself, but swore that this
+vile Montague should at another time dearly pay for his intrusion.
+
+The dancing being done, Romeo watched the place where the lady stood;
+and under favour of his masking habit, which might seem to excuse in
+part the liberty, he presumed in the gentlest manner to take her by the
+hand, calling it a shrine, which if he profaned by touching it, he was a
+blushing pilgrim, and would kiss it for atonement. "Good pilgrim,"
+answered the lady, "your devotion shows by far too mannerly and too
+courtly: saints have hands, which pilgrims may touch, but kiss
+not."--"Have not saints lips, and pilgrims too?" said Romeo. "Ay," said
+the lady, "lips which they must use in prayer."--"O then, my dear
+saint," said Romeo, "hear my prayer, and grant it, lest I despair." In
+such like allusions and loving conceits they were engaged, when the lady
+was called away to her mother. And Romeo inquiring who her mother was,
+discovered that the lady whose peerless beauty he was so much struck
+with, was young Juliet, daughter and heir to the Lord Capulet, the great
+enemy of the Montagues; and that he had unknowingly engaged his heart to
+his foe. This troubled him, but it could not dissuade him from loving.
+As little rest had Juliet, when she found that the gentleman that she
+had been talking with was Romeo and a Montague, for she had been
+suddenly smit with the same hasty and inconsiderate passion for Romeo,
+which he had conceived for her; and a prodigious birth of love it seemed
+to her, that she must love her enemy, and that her affections should
+settle there, where family considerations should induce her chiefly to
+hate.
+
+It being midnight, Romeo with his companions departed; but they soon
+missed him, for, unable to stay away from the house where he had left
+his heart, he leaped the wall of an orchard which was at the back of
+Juliet's house. Here he had not been long, ruminating on his new love,
+when Juliet appeared above at a window, through which her exceeding
+beauty seemed to break like the light of the sun in the east; and the
+moon, which shone in the orchard with a faint light, appeared to Romeo
+as if sick and pale with grief at the superior lustre of this new sun.
+And she, leaning her cheek upon her hand, he passionately wished himself
+a glove upon that hand, that he might touch her cheek. She all this
+while thinking herself alone, fetched a deep sigh, and exclaimed, "Ah
+me!" Romeo, enraptured to hear her speak, said softly, and unheard by
+her, "O speak again, bright angel, for such you appear, being over my
+head, like a winged messenger from heaven whom mortals fall back to gaze
+upon." She, unconscious of being overheard, and full of the new passion
+which that night's adventure had given birth to, called upon her lover
+by name (whom she supposed absent): "O Romeo, Romeo!" said she,
+"wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father, and refuse thy name, for my
+sake; or if thou wilt not, be but my sworn love, and I no longer will be
+a Capulet." Romeo, having this encouragement, would fain have spoken,
+but he was desirous of hearing more; and the lady continued her
+passionate discourse with herself (as she thought), still chiding Romeo
+for being Romeo and a Montague, and wishing him some other name, or that
+he would put away that hated name, and for that name which was no part
+of himself, he should take all herself. At this loving word Romeo could
+no longer refrain, but taking up the dialogue as if her words had been
+addressed to him personally, and not merely in fancy, he bade her call
+him Love, or by whatever other name she pleased, for he was no longer
+Romeo, if that name was displeasing to her. Juliet, alarmed to hear a
+man's voice in the garden, did not at first know who it was, that by
+favour of the night and darkness had thus stumbled upon the discovery of
+her secret; but when he spoke again, though her ears had not yet drunk a
+hundred words of that tongue's uttering, yet so nice is a lover's
+hearing, that she immediately knew him to be young Romeo, and she
+expostulated with him on the danger to which he had exposed himself by
+climbing the orchard walls, for if any of her kinsmen should find him
+there, it would be death to him being a Montague. "Alack," said Romeo,
+"there is more peril in your eye, than in twenty of their swords. Do you
+but look kind upon me, lady, and I am proof against their enmity. Better
+my life should be ended by their hate, than that hated life should be
+prolonged, to live without your love."--"How came you into this place,"
+said Juliet, "and by whose direction?"--"Love directed me," answered
+Romeo: "I am no pilot, yet wert thou as far apart from me, as that vast
+shore which is washed with the farthest sea, I should venture for such
+merchandise." A crimson blush came over Juliet's face, yet unseen by
+Romeo by reason of the night, when she reflected upon the discovery
+which she had made, yet not meaning to make it, of her love to Romeo.
+She would fain have recalled her words, but that was impossible: fain
+would she have stood upon form, and have kept her lover at a distance,
+as the custom of discreet ladies is, to frown and be perverse, and give
+their suitors harsh denials at first; to stand off, and affect a coyness
+or indifference, where they most love, that their lovers may not think
+them too lightly or too easily won; for the difficulty of attainment
+increases the value of the object. But there was no room in her case for
+denials, or puttings off, or any of the customary arts of delay and
+protracted courtship. Romeo had heard from her own tongue, when she did
+not dream that he was near her, a confession of her love. So with an
+honest frankness, which the novelty of her situation excused, she
+confirmed the truth of what he had before heard, and addressing him by
+the name of _fair Montague_ (love can sweeten a sour name), she begged
+him not to impute her easy yielding to levity or an unworthy mind, but
+that he must lay the fault of it (if it were a fault) upon the accident
+of the night which had so strangely discovered her thoughts. And she
+added, that though her behaviour to him might not be sufficiently
+prudent, measured by the custom of her sex, yet that she would prove
+more true than many whose prudence was dissembling, and their modesty
+artificial cunning.
+
+Romeo was beginning to call the heavens to witness, that nothing was
+farther from his thoughts than to impute a shadow of dishonour to such
+an honoured lady, when she stopped him, begging him not to swear; for
+although she joyed in him, yet she had no joy of that night's contract:
+it was too rash, too unadvised, too sudden. But he being urgent with her
+to exchange a vow of love with him that night, she said that she already
+had given him hers before he requested it; meaning, when he overheard
+her confession; but she would retract what she then bestowed, for the
+pleasure of giving it again, for her bounty was as infinite as the sea,
+and her love as deep. From this loving conference she was called away by
+her nurse, who slept with her, and thought it time for her to be in bed,
+for it was near to daybreak; but hastily returning, she said three or
+four words more to Romeo, the purport of which was, that if his love was
+indeed honourable, and his purpose marriage, she would send a messenger
+to him to-morrow, to appoint a time for their marriage, when she would
+lay all her fortunes at his feet, and follow him as her lord through the
+world. While they were settling this point, Juliet was repeatedly called
+for by her nurse, and went in and returned, and went and returned again,
+for she seemed as jealous of Romeo going from her, as a young girl of
+her bird, which she will let hop a little from her hand, and pluck it
+back with a silken thread; and Romeo was as loath to part as she; for
+the sweetest music to lovers is the sound of each other's tongues at
+night. But at last they parted, wishing mutually sweet sleep and rest
+for that night.
+
+[Illustration: AT THE CELL OF FRIAR LAWRENCE]
+
+The day was breaking when they parted, and Romeo, who was too full of
+thoughts of his mistress and that blessed meeting to allow him to sleep,
+instead of going home, bent his course to a monastery hard by, to find
+Friar Lawrence. The good friar was already up at his devotions, but
+seeing young Romeo abroad so early, he conjectured rightly that he had
+not been abed that night, but that some distemper of youthful affection
+had kept him waking. He was right in imputing the cause of Romeo's
+wakefulness to love, but he made a wrong guess at the object, for he
+thought that his love for Rosaline had kept him waking. But when Romeo
+revealed his new passion for Juliet, and requested the assistance of the
+friar to marry them that day, the holy man lifted up his eyes and hands
+in a sort of wonder at the sudden change in Romeo's affections, for he
+had been privy to all Romeo's love for Rosaline, and his many complaints
+of her disdain: and he said, that young men's love lay not truly in
+their hearts, but in their eyes. But Romeo replying, that he himself had
+often chidden him for doting on Rosaline, who could not love him again,
+whereas Juliet both loved and was beloved by him, the friar assented in
+some measure to his reasons; and thinking that a matrimonial alliance
+between young Juliet and Romeo might happily be the means of making up
+the long breach between the Capulets and the Montagues; which no one
+more lamented than this good friar, who was a friend to both the
+families and had often interposed his mediation to make up the quarrel
+without effect; partly moved by policy, and partly by his fondness for
+young Romeo, to whom he could deny nothing, the old man consented to
+join their hands in marriage.
+
+Now was Romeo blessed indeed, and Juliet, who knew his intent from a
+messenger which she had despatched according to promise, did not fail to
+be early at the cell of Friar Lawrence, where their hands were joined in
+holy marriage; the good friar praying the heavens to smile upon that
+act, and in the union of this young Montague and young Capulet to bury
+the old strife and long dissensions of their families.
+
+The ceremony being over, Juliet hastened home, where she stayed
+impatient for the coming of night, at which time Romeo promised to come
+and meet her in the orchard, where they had met the night before; and
+the time between seemed as tedious to her, as the night before some
+great festival seems to an impatient child, that has got new finery
+which it may not put on till the morning.
+
+That same day, about noon, Romeo's friends, Benvolio and Mercutio,
+walking through the streets of Verona, were met by a party of the
+Capulets with the impetuous Tybalt at their head. This was the same
+angry Tybalt who would have fought with Romeo at old Lord Capulet's
+feast. He, seeing Mercutio, accused him bluntly of associating with
+Romeo, a Montague. Mercutio, who had as much fire and youthful blood in
+him as Tybalt, replied to this accusation with some sharpness; and in
+spite of all Benvolio could say to moderate their wrath, a quarrel was
+beginning, when Romeo himself passing that way, the fierce Tybalt turned
+from Mercutio to Romeo, and gave him the disgraceful appellation of
+villain. Romeo wished to avoid a quarrel with Tybalt above all men,
+because he was the kinsman of Juliet, and much beloved by her; besides,
+this young Montague had never thoroughly entered into the family
+quarrel, being by nature wise and gentle, and the name of a Capulet,
+which was his dear lady's name, was now rather a charm to allay
+resentment, than a watchword to excite fury. So he tried to reason with
+Tybalt, whom he saluted mildly by the name of _good Capulet_, as if he,
+though a Montague, had some secret pleasure in uttering that name: but
+Tybalt, who hated all Montagues as he hated hell, would hear no reason,
+but drew his weapon; and Mercutio, who knew not of Romeo's secret motive
+for desiring peace with Tybalt, but looked upon his present forbearance
+as a sort of calm dishonourable submission, with many disdainful words
+provoked Tybalt to the prosecution of his first quarrel with him; and
+Tybalt and Mercutio fought, till Mercutio fell, receiving his death's
+wound while Romeo and Benvolio were vainly endeavouring to part the
+combatants. Mercutio being dead, Romeo kept his temper no longer, but
+returned the scornful appellation of villain which Tybalt had given him;
+and they fought till Tybalt was slain by Romeo. This deadly broil
+falling out in the midst of Verona at noonday, the news of it quickly
+brought a crowd of citizens to the spot, and among them the old Lords
+Capulet and Montague, with their wives; and soon after arrived the
+prince himself, who being related to Mercutio, whom Tybalt had slain,
+and having had the peace of his government often disturbed by these
+brawls of Montagues and Capulets, came determined to put the law in
+strictest force against those who should be found to be offenders.
+Benvolio, who had been eye-witness to the fray, was commanded by the
+prince to relate the origin of it; which he did, keeping as near the
+truth as he could without injury to Romeo, softening and excusing the
+part which his friends took in it. Lady Capulet, whose extreme grief for
+the loss of her kinsman Tybalt made her keep no bounds in her revenge,
+exhorted the prince to do strict justice upon his murderer, and to pay
+no attention to Benvolio's representation, who, being Romeo's friend and
+a Montague, spoke partially. Thus she pleaded against her new
+son-in-law, but she knew not yet that he was her son-in-law and Juliet's
+husband. On the other hand was to be seen Lady Montague pleading for her
+child's life, and arguing with some justice that Romeo had done nothing
+worthy of punishment in taking the life of Tybalt, which was already
+forfeited to the law by his having slain Mercutio. The prince, unmoved
+by the passionate exclamations of these women, on a careful examination
+of the facts, pronounced his sentence, and by that sentence Romeo was
+banished from Verona.
+
+Heavy news to young Juliet, who had been but a few hours a bride, and
+now by this decree seemed everlastingly divorced! When the tidings
+reached her, she at first gave way to rage against Romeo, who had slain
+her dear cousin, she called him a beautiful tyrant, a fiend angelical, a
+ravenous dove, a lamb with a wolf's nature, a serpent-heart hid with a
+flowering face, and other like contradictory names, which denoted the
+struggles in her mind between her love and her resentment: but in the
+end love got the mastery, and the tears which she shed for grief that
+Romeo had slain her cousin, turned to drops of joy that her husband
+lived whom Tybalt would have slain. Then came fresh tears, and they were
+altogether of grief for Romeo's banishment. That word was more terrible
+to her than the death of many Tybalts.
+
+Romeo, after the fray, had taken refuge in Friar Lawrence's cell, where
+he was first made acquainted with the prince's sentence, which seemed to
+him far more terrible than death. To him it appeared there was no world
+out of Verona's walls, no living out of the sight of Juliet. Heaven was
+there where Juliet lived, and all beyond was purgatory, torture, hell.
+The good friar would have applied the consolation of philosophy to his
+griefs: but this frantic young man would hear of none, but like a madman
+he tore his hair, and threw himself all along upon the ground, as he
+said, to take the measure of his grave. From this unseemly state he was
+roused by a message from his dear lady, which a little revived him; and
+then the friar took the advantage to expostulate with him on the unmanly
+weakness which he had shown. He had slain Tybalt, but would he also slay
+himself, slay his dear lady, who lived but in his life? The noble form
+of man, he said, was but a shape of wax, when it wanted the courage
+which should keep it firm. The law had been lenient to him, that instead
+of death, which he had incurred, had pronounced by the prince's mouth
+only banishment. He had slain Tybalt, but Tybalt would have slain him:
+there was a sort of happiness in that. Juliet was alive, and (beyond all
+hope) had become his dear wife; therein he was most happy. All these
+blessings, as the friar made them out to be, did Romeo put from him
+like a sullen misbehaved wench. And the friar bade him beware, for such
+as despaired (he said) died miserable. Then when Romeo was a little
+calmed, he counselled him that he should go that night and secretly take
+his leave of Juliet, and thence proceed straightways to Mantua, at which
+place he should sojourn, till the friar found fit occasion to publish
+his marriage, which might be a joyful means of reconciling their
+families; and then he did not doubt but the prince would be moved to
+pardon him, and he would return with twenty times more joy than he went
+forth with grief. Romeo was convinced by these wise counsels of the
+friar, and took his leave to go and seek his lady, proposing to stay
+with her that night, and by daybreak pursue his journey alone to Mantua;
+to which place the good friar promised to send him letters from time to
+time, acquainting him with the state of affairs at home.
+
+That night Romeo passed with his dear wife, gaining secret admission to
+her chamber, from the orchard in which he had heard her confession of
+love the night before. That had been a night of unmixed joy and rapture;
+but the pleasures of this night, and the delight which these lovers took
+in each other's society, were sadly allayed with the prospect of
+parting, and the fatal adventures of the past day. The unwelcome
+daybreak seemed to come too soon, and when Juliet heard the morning song
+of the lark, she would have persuaded herself that it was the
+nightingale, which sings by night; but it was too truly the lark which
+sang, and a discordant and unpleasing note it seemed to her; and the
+streaks of day in the east too certainly pointed out that it was time
+for these lovers to part. Romeo took his leave of his dear wife with a
+heavy heart, promising to write to her from Mantua every hour in the
+day; and when he had descended from her chamber-window, as he stood
+below her on the ground, in that sad foreboding state of mind in which
+she was, he appeared to her eyes as one dead in the bottom of a tomb.
+Romeo's mind misgave him in like manner: but now he was forced hastily
+to depart, for it was death for him to be found within the walls of
+Verona after daybreak.
+
+This was but the beginning of the tragedy of this pair of star-crossed
+lovers. Romeo had not been gone many days, before the old Lord Capulet
+proposed a match for Juliet. The husband he had chosen for her, not
+dreaming that she was married already, was Count Paris, a gallant,
+young, and noble gentleman, no unworthy suitor to the young Juliet, if
+she had never seen Romeo.
+
+The terrified Juliet was in a sad perplexity at her father's offer. She
+pleaded her youth unsuitable to marriage, the recent death of Tybalt,
+which had left her spirits too weak to meet a husband with any face of
+joy, and how indecorous it would show for the family of the Capulets to
+be celebrating a nuptial feast, when his funeral solemnities were hardly
+over: she pleaded every reason against the match, but the true one,
+namely, that she was married already. But Lord Capulet was deaf to all
+her excuses, and in a peremptory manner ordered her to get ready, for by
+the following Thursday she should be married to Paris: and having found
+her a husband, rich, young, and noble, such as the proudest maid in
+Verona might joyfully accept, he could not bear that out of an affected
+coyness, as he construed her denial, she should oppose obstacles to her
+own good fortune.
+
+In this extremity Juliet applied to the friendly friar, always her
+counsellor in distress, and he asking her if she had resolution to
+undertake a desperate remedy, and she answering that she would go into
+the grave alive rather than marry Paris, her own dear husband living; he
+directed her to go home, and appear merry, and give her consent to marry
+Paris, according to her father's desire, and on the next night, which
+was the night before the marriage, to drink off the contents of a phial
+which he then gave her, the effect of which would be that for
+two-and-forty hours after drinking it she should appear cold and
+lifeless; and when the bridegroom came to fetch her in the morning, he
+would find her to appearance dead; that then she would be borne, as the
+manner in that country was, uncovered on a bier, to be buried in the
+family vault; that if she could put off womanish fear, and consent to
+this terrible trial, in forty-two hours after swallowing the liquid
+(such was its certain operation) she would be sure to awake, as from a
+dream; and before she should awake, he would let her husband know their
+drift, and he should come in the night, and bear her thence to Mantua.
+Love, and the dread of marrying Paris, gave young Juliet strength to
+undertake this horrible adventure; and she took the phial of the friar,
+promising to observe his directions.
+
+Going from the monastery, she met the young Count Paris, and modestly
+dissembling, promised to become his bride. This was joyful news to the
+Lord Capulet and his wife. It seemed to put youth into the old man; and
+Juliet, who had displeased him exceedingly, by her refusal of the count,
+was his darling again, now she promised to be obedient. All things in
+the house were in a bustle against the approaching nuptials. No cost was
+spared to prepare such festival rejoicings as Verona had never before
+witnessed.
+
+On the Wednesday night Juliet drank off the potion. She had many
+misgivings lest the friar, to avoid the blame which might be imputed to
+him for marrying her to Romeo, had given her poison; but then he was
+always known for a holy man: then lest she should awake before the time
+that Romeo was to come for her; whether the terror of the place, a vault
+full of dead Capulets' bones, and where Tybalt, all bloody, lay
+festering in his shroud, would not be enough to drive her distracted:
+again she thought of all the stories she had heard of spirits haunting
+the places where their bodies were bestowed. But then her love for
+Romeo, and her aversion for Paris returned, and she desperately
+swallowed the draught, and became insensible.
+
+When young Paris came early in the morning with music to awaken his
+bride, instead of a living Juliet, her chamber presented the dreary
+spectacle of a lifeless corse. What death to his hopes! What confusion
+then reigned through the whole house! Poor Paris lamenting his bride,
+whom most detestable death had beguiled him of, had divorced from him
+even before their hands were joined. But still more piteous it was to
+hear the mournings of the old Lord and Lady Capulet, who having but this
+one, one poor loving child to rejoice and solace in, cruel death had
+snatched her from their sight, just as these careful parents were on the
+point of seeing her advanced (as they thought) by a promising and
+advantageous match. Now all things that were ordained for the festival
+were turned from their properties to do the office of a black funeral.
+The wedding cheer served for a sad burial feast, the bridal hymns were
+changed for sullen dirges, the sprightly instruments to melancholy
+bells, and the flowers that should have been strewed in the bride's
+path, now served but to strew her corse. Now, instead of a priest to
+marry her, a priest was needed to bury her; and she was borne to church
+indeed, not to augment the cheerful hopes of the living, but to swell
+the dreary numbers of the dead.
+
+Bad news, which always travels faster than good, now brought the dismal
+story of his Juliet's death to Romeo, at Mantua, before the messenger
+could arrive, who was sent from Friar Lawrence to apprise him that these
+were mock funerals only, and but the shadow and representation of death,
+and that his dear lady lay in the tomb but for a short while, expecting
+when Romeo would come to release her from that dreary mansion. Just
+before, Romeo had been unusually joyful and light-hearted. He had
+dreamed in the night that he was dead (a strange dream, that gave a dead
+man leave to think), and that his lady came and found him dead, and
+breathed such life with kisses in his lips, that he revived, and was an
+emperor! And now that a messenger came from Verona, he thought surely it
+was to confirm some good news which his dreams had presaged. But when
+the contrary to this flattering vision appeared, and that it was his
+lady who was dead in truth, whom he could not revive by any kisses, he
+ordered horses to be got ready, for he determined that night to visit
+Verona, and to see his lady in her tomb. And as mischief is swift to
+enter into the thoughts of desperate men, he called to mind a poor
+apothecary, whose shop in Mantua he had lately passed, and from the
+beggarly appearance of the man, who seemed famished, and the wretched
+show in his show of empty boxes ranged on dirty shelves, and other
+tokens of extreme wretchedness, he had said at the time (perhaps having
+some misgivings that his own disastrous life might haply meet with a
+conclusion so desperate), "If a man were to need poison, which by the
+law of Mantua it is death to sell, here lives a poor wretch who would
+sell it him." These words of his now came into his mind, and he sought
+out the apothecary, who after some pretended scruples, Romeo offering
+him gold, which his poverty could not resist, sold him a poison, which,
+if he swallowed, he told him, if he had the strength of twenty men,
+would quickly despatch him.
+
+With this poison he set out for Verona, to have a sight of his dear lady
+in her tomb, meaning, when he had satisfied his sight, to swallow the
+poison, and be buried by her side. He reached Verona at midnight, and
+found the churchyard, in the midst of which was situated the ancient
+tomb of the Capulets. He had provided a light, and a spade, and
+wrenching iron, and was proceeding to break open the monument, when he
+was interrupted by a voice, which by the name of _vile Montague_, bade
+him desist from his unlawful business. It was the young Count Paris, who
+had come to the tomb of Juliet at that unseasonable time of night, to
+strew flowers and to weep over the grave of her that should have been
+his bride. He knew not what an interest Romeo had in the dead, but
+knowing him to be a Montague, and (as he supposed) a sworn foe to all
+the Capulets, he judged that he was come by night to do some villanous
+shame to the dead bodies; therefore in an angry tone he bade him desist;
+and as a criminal, condemned by the laws of Verona to die if he were
+found within the walls of the city, he would have apprehended him. Romeo
+urged Paris to leave him, and warned him by the fate of Tybalt, who lay
+buried there, not to provoke his anger, or draw down another sin upon
+his head, by forcing him to kill him. But the count in scorn refused his
+warning, and laid hands on him as a felon, which Romeo resisting, they
+fought, and Paris fell. When Romeo, by the help of a light, came to see
+who it was that he had slain, that it was Paris, who (he learned in his
+way from Mantua) should have married Juliet, he took the dead youth by
+the hand, as one whom misfortune had made a companion, and said that he
+would bury him in a triumphal grave, meaning in Juliet's grave, which he
+now opened: and there lay his lady, as one whom death had no power upon
+to change a feature or complexion, in her matchless beauty; or as if
+Death were amorous, and the lean abhorred monster kept her there for his
+delight; for she lay yet fresh and blooming, as she had fallen to sleep
+when she swallowed that benumbing potion; and near her lay Tybalt in his
+bloody shroud, whom Romeo seeing, begged pardon of his lifeless corse,
+and for Juliet's sake called him _cousin_, and said that he was about to
+do him a favour by putting his enemy to death. Here Romeo took his last
+leave of his lady's lips, kissing them; and here he shook the burden of
+his cross stars from his weary body, swallowing that poison which the
+apothecary had sold him, whose operation was fatal and real, not like
+that dissembling potion which Juliet had swallowed, the effect of which
+was now nearly expiring, and she about to awake to complain that Romeo
+had not kept his time, or that he had come too soon.
+
+For now the hour was arrived at which the friar had promised that she
+should awake; and he, having learned that his letters which he had sent
+to Mantua, by some unlucky detention of the messenger, had never reached
+Romeo, came himself, provided with a pickaxe and lantern, to deliver the
+lady from her confinement; but he was surprised to find a light already
+burning in the Capulets' monument, and to see swords and blood near it,
+and Romeo and Paris lying breathless by the monument.
+
+Before he could entertain a conjecture, to imagine how these fatal
+accidents had fallen out, Juliet awoke out of her trance, and seeing the
+friar near her, she remembered the place where she was, and the occasion
+of her being there, and asked for Romeo, but the friar, hearing a noise,
+bade her come out of that place of death, and of unnatural sleep, for a
+greater power than they could contradict had thwarted their intents; and
+being frightened by the noise of people coming, he fled: but when Juliet
+saw the cup closed in her true love's hands, she guessed that poison had
+been the cause of his end, and she would have swallowed the dregs if any
+had been left, and she kissed his still warm lips to try if any poison
+yet did hang upon them; then hearing a nearer noise of people coming,
+she quickly unsheathed a dagger which she wore, and stabbing herself,
+died by her true Romeo's side.
+
+The watch by this time had come up to the place. A page belonging to
+Count Paris, who had witnessed the fight between his master and Romeo,
+had given the alarm, which had spread among the citizens, who went up
+and down the streets of Verona confusedly exclaiming, A Paris! a Romeo!
+a Juliet! as the rumour had imperfectly reached them, till the uproar
+brought Lord Montague and Lord Capulet out of their beds, with the
+prince, to inquire into the causes of the disturbance. The friar had
+been apprehended by some of the watch, coming from the churchyard,
+trembling, sighing, and weeping, in a suspicious manner. A great
+multitude being assembled at the Capulets' monument, the friar was
+demanded by the prince to deliver what he knew of these strange and
+disastrous accidents.
+
+And there, in the presence of the old Lords Montague and Capulet, he
+faithfully related the story of their children's fatal love, the part he
+took in promoting their marriage, in the hope in that union to end the
+long quarrels between their families: how Romeo, there dead, was husband
+to Juliet; and Juliet, there dead, was Romeo's faithful wife; how before
+he could find a fit opportunity to divulge their marriage, another match
+was projected for Juliet, who, to avoid the crime of a second marriage,
+swallowed the sleeping draught (as he advised), and all thought her
+dead; how meantime he wrote to Romeo, to come and take her thence when
+the force of the potion should cease, and by what unfortunate
+miscarriage of the messenger the letters never reached Romeo: further
+than this the friar could not follow the story, nor knew more than that
+coming himself, to deliver Juliet from that place of death, he found the
+Count Paris and Romeo slain. The remainder of the transactions was
+supplied by the narration of the page who had seen Paris and Romeo
+fight, and by the servant who came with Romeo from Verona, to whom this
+faithful lover had given letters to be delivered to his father in the
+event of his death, which made good the friar's words, confessing his
+marriage with Juliet, imploring the forgiveness of his parents,
+acknowledging the buying of the poison of the poor apothecary, and his
+intent in coming to the monument, to die, and lie with Juliet. All these
+circumstances agreed together to clear the friar from any hand he could
+be supposed to have in these complicated slaughters, further than as the
+unintended consequences of his own well meant, yet too artificial and
+subtle contrivances.
+
+And the prince, turning to these old lords, Montague and Capulet,
+rebuked them for their brutal and irrational enmities, and showed them
+what a scourge Heaven had laid upon such offences, that it had found
+means even through the love of their children to punish their unnatural
+hate.
+
+And these old rivals, no longer enemies, agreed to bury their long
+strife in their children's graves; and Lord Capulet requested Lord
+Montague to give him his hand, calling him by the name of brother, as if
+in acknowledgment of the union of their families, by the marriage of the
+young Capulet and Montague; and saying that Lord Montague's hand (in
+token of reconcilement) was all he demanded for his daughter's jointure:
+but Lord Montague said he would give him more, for he would raise her a
+statue of pure gold, that while Verona kept its name, no figure should
+be so esteemed for its richness and workmanship as that of the true and
+faithful Juliet. And Lord Capulet in return said that he would raise
+another statue to Romeo. So did these poor old lords, when it was too
+late, strive to outgo each other in mutual courtesies: while so deadly
+had been their rage and enmity in past times, that nothing but the
+fearful overthrow of their children (poor sacrifices to their quarrels
+and dissensions) could remove the rooted hates and jealousies of the
+noble families.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK
+
+
+Gertrude, Queen of Denmark, becoming a widow by the sudden death of King
+Hamlet, in less than two months after his death married his brother
+Claudius, which was noted by all people at the time for a strange act of
+indiscretion, or unfeelingness, or worse: for this Claudius did no ways
+resemble her late husband in the qualities of his person or his mind,
+but was as contemptible in outward appearance, as he was base and
+unworthy in disposition; and suspicions did not fail to arise in the
+minds of some, that he had privately made away with his brother, the
+late king, with the view of marrying his widow, and ascending the throne
+of Denmark, to the exclusion of young Hamlet, the son of the buried
+king, and lawful successor to the throne.
+
+But upon no one did this unadvised action of the queen make such
+impression as upon this young prince, who loved and venerated the memory
+of his dead father almost to idolatry, and being of a nice sense of
+honour, and a most exquisite practiser of propriety himself, did sorely
+take to heart this unworthy conduct of his mother Gertrude: insomuch
+that, between grief for his father's death and shame for his mother's
+marriage, this young prince was overclouded with a deep melancholy, and
+lost all his mirth and all his good looks; all his customary pleasure in
+books forsook him, his princely exercises and sports, proper to his
+youth, were no longer acceptable; he grew weary of the world, which
+seemed to him an unweeded garden, where all the wholesome flowers were
+choked up, and nothing but weeds could thrive. Not that the prospect of
+exclusion from the throne, his lawful inheritance, weighed so much upon
+his spirits, though that to a young and high-minded prince was a bitter
+wound and a sore indignity; but what so galled him, and took away all
+his cheerful spirits, was, that his mother had shown herself so
+forgetful to his father's memory: and such a father! who had been to her
+so loving and so gentle a husband! and then she always appeared as
+loving and obedient a wife to him, and would hang upon him as if her
+affection grew to him: and now within two months, or as it seemed to
+young Hamlet, less than two months, she had married again, married his
+uncle, her dear husband's brother, in itself a highly improper and
+unlawful marriage, from the nearness of relationship, but made much more
+so by the indecent haste with which it was concluded, and the unkingly
+character of the man whom she had chosen to be the partner of her throne
+and bed. This it was, which more than the loss of ten kingdoms, dashed
+the spirits and brought a cloud over the mind of this honourable young
+prince.
+
+In vain was all that his mother Gertrude or the king could do to
+contrive to divert him; he still appeared in court in a suit of deep
+black, as mourning for the king his father's death, which mode of dress
+he had never laid aside, not even in compliment to his mother upon the
+day she was married, nor could he be brought to join in any of the
+festivities or rejoicings of that (as appeared to him) disgraceful day.
+
+What mostly troubled him was an uncertainty about the manner of his
+father's death. It was given out by Claudius that a serpent had stung
+him; but young Hamlet had shrewd suspicions that Claudius himself was
+the serpent; in plain English, that he had murdered him for his crown,
+and that the serpent who stung his father did now sit on the throne.
+
+How far he was right in this conjecture, and what he ought to think of
+his mother, how far she was privy to this murder, and whether by her
+consent or knowledge, or without, it came to pass, were the doubts which
+continually harassed and distracted him.
+
+A rumour had reached the ear of young Hamlet, that an apparition,
+exactly resembling the dead king his father, had been seen by the
+soldiers upon watch, on the platform before the palace at midnight, for
+two or three nights successively. The figure came constantly clad in the
+same suit of armour, from head to foot, which the dead king was known to
+have worn: and they who saw it (Hamlet's bosom friend Horatio was one)
+agreed in their testimony as to the time and manner of its appearance:
+that it came just as the clock struck twelve; that it looked pale, with
+a face more of sorrow than of anger; that its beard was grisly, and the
+colour a _sable silvered_, as they had seen it in his lifetime: that it
+made no answer when they spoke to it; yet once they thought it lifted up
+its head, and addressed itself to motion, as if it were about to speak;
+but in that moment the morning cock crew, and it shrunk in haste away,
+and vanished out of their sight.
+
+The young prince, strangely amazed at their relation, which was too
+consistent and agreeing with itself to disbelieve, concluded that it was
+his father's ghost which they had seen, and determined to take his watch
+with the soldiers that night, that he might have a chance of seeing it;
+for he reasoned with himself, that such an appearance did not come for
+nothing, but that the ghost had something to impart, and though it had
+been silent hitherto, yet it would speak to him. And he waited with
+impatience for the coming of night.
+
+When night came he took his stand with Horatio, and Marcellus, one of
+the guard, upon the platform, where this apparition was accustomed to
+walk: and it being a cold night, and the air unusually raw and nipping,
+Hamlet and Horatio and their companion fell into some talk about the
+coldness of the night, which was suddenly broken off by Horatio
+announcing that the ghost was coming.
+
+At the sight of his father's spirit, Hamlet was struck with a sudden
+surprise and fear. He at first called upon the angels and heavenly
+ministers to defend them, for he knew not whether it were a good spirit
+or bad; whether it came for good or evil: but he gradually assumed more
+courage; and his father (as it seemed to him) looked upon him so
+piteously, and as it were desiring to have conversation with him, and
+did in all respects appear so like himself as he was when he lived, that
+Hamlet could not help addressing him: he called him by his name, Hamlet,
+King, Father! and conjured him that he would tell the reason why he had
+left his grave, where they had seen him quietly bestowed, to come again
+and visit the earth and the moonlight: and besought him that he would
+let them know if there was anything which they could do to give peace to
+his spirit. And the ghost beckoned to Hamlet, that he should go with him
+to some more removed place, where they might be alone; and Horatio and
+Marcellus would have dissuaded the young prince from following it, for
+they feared lest it should be some evil spirit, who would tempt him to
+the the neighbouring sea, or to the top of some dreadful cliff, and
+there put on some horrible shape which might deprive the prince of his
+reason. But their counsels and entreaties could not alter Hamlet's
+determination, who cared too little about life to fear the losing of
+it; and as to his soul, he said, what could the spirit do to that, being
+a thing immortal as itself? And he felt as hardy as a lion, and bursting
+from them, who did all they could to hold him, he followed whithersoever
+the spirit led him.
+
+And when they were alone together, the spirit broke silence, and told
+him that he was the ghost of Hamlet, his father, who had been cruelly
+murdered, and he told the manner of it; that it was done by his own
+brother Claudius, Hamlet's uncle, as Hamlet had already but too much
+suspected, for the hope of succeeding to his bed and crown. That as he
+was sleeping in his garden, his custom always in the afternoon, his
+treasonous brother stole upon him in his sleep, and poured the juice of
+poisonous henbane into his ears, which has such an antipathy to the life
+of man, that swift as quicksilver it courses through all the veins of
+the body, baking up the blood, and spreading a crustlike leprosy all
+over the skin: thus sleeping, by a brother's hand he was cut off at once
+from his crown, his queen, and his life: and he adjured Hamlet, if he
+did ever his dear father love, that he would revenge his foul murder.
+And the ghost lamented to his son, that his mother should so fall off
+from virtue, as to prove false to the wedded love of her first husband,
+and to marry his murderer; but he cautioned Hamlet, howsoever he
+proceeded in his revenge against his wicked uncle, by no means to act
+any violence against the person of his mother, but to leave her to
+heaven, and to the stings and thorns of conscience. And Hamlet promised
+to observe the ghost's direction in all things, and the ghost vanished.
+
+And when Hamlet was left alone, he took up a solemn resolution, that all
+he had in his memory, all that he had ever learned by books or
+observation, should be instantly forgotten by him, and nothing live in
+his brain but the memory of what the ghost had told him, and enjoined
+him to do. And Hamlet related the particulars of the conversation which
+had passed to none but his dear friend Horatio; and he enjoined both to
+him and Marcellus the strictest secrecy as to what they had seen that
+night.
+
+The terror which the sight of the ghost had left upon the senses of
+Hamlet, he being weak and dispirited before, almost unhinged his mind,
+and drove him beside his reason. And he, fearing that it would continue
+to have this effect, which might subject him to observation, and set his
+uncle upon his guard, if he suspected that he was meditating anything
+against him, or that Hamlet really knew more of his father's death than
+he professed, took up a strange resolution, from that time to
+counterfeit as if he were really and truly mad; thinking that he would
+be less an object of suspicion when his uncle should believe him
+incapable of any serious project, and that his real perturbation of mind
+would be best covered and pass concealed under a disguise of pretended
+lunacy.
+
+From this time Hamlet affected a certain wildness and strangeness in his
+apparel, his speech, and behaviour, and did so excellently counterfeit
+the madman, that the king and queen were both deceived, and not thinking
+his grief for his father's death a sufficient cause to produce such a
+distemper, for they knew not of the appearance of the ghost, they
+concluded that his malady was love, and they thought they had found out
+the object.
+
+[Illustration: TO THIS BROOK OPHELIA CAME]
+
+Before Hamlet fell into the melancholy way which has been related, he
+had dearly loved a fair maid called Ophelia, the daughter of Polonius,
+the king's chief counsellor in affairs of state. He had sent her letters
+and rings, and made many tenders of his affection to her, and importuned
+her with love in honourable fashion: and she had given belief to his
+vows and importunities. But the melancholy which he fell into latterly
+had made him neglect her, and from the time he conceived the project of
+counterfeiting madness, he affected to treat her with unkindness, and a
+sort of rudeness: but she, good lady, rather than reproach him with
+being false to her, persuaded herself that it was nothing but the
+disease in his mind, and no settled unkindness, which had made him less
+observant of her than formerly; and she compared the faculties of his
+once noble mind and excellent understanding, impaired as they were with
+the deep melancholy that oppressed him, to sweet bells which in
+themselves are capable of most exquisite music, but when jangled out of
+tune, or rudely handled, produce only a harsh and unpleasing sound.
+
+Though the rough business which Hamlet had in hand, the revenging of his
+father's death upon his murderer, did not suit with the playful state of
+courtship, or admit of the society of so idle a passion as love now
+seemed to him, yet it could not hinder but that soft thoughts of his
+Ophelia would come between, and in one of these moments, when he thought
+that his treatment of this gentle lady had been unreasonably harsh, he
+wrote her a letter full of wild starts of passion, and in extravagant
+terms, such as agreed with his supposed madness, but mixed with some
+gentle touches of affection, which could not but show to this honoured
+lady that a deep love for her yet lay at the bottom of his heart. He
+bade her to doubt the stars were fire, and to doubt that the sun did
+move, to doubt truth to be a liar, but never to doubt that he loved;
+with more of such extravagant phrases. This letter Ophelia dutifully
+showed to her father, and the old man thought himself bound to
+communicate it to the king and queen, who from that time supposed that
+the true cause of Hamlet's madness was love. And the queen wished that
+the good beauties of Ophelia might be the happy cause of his wildness,
+for so she hoped that her virtues might happily restore him to his
+accustomed way again, to both their honours.
+
+But Hamlet's malady lay deeper than she supposed, or than could be so
+cured. His father's ghost, which he had seen, still haunted his
+imagination, and the sacred injunction to revenge his murder gave him no
+rest till it was accomplished. Every hour of delay seemed to him a sin,
+and a violation of his father's commands. Yet how to compass the death
+of the king, surrounded as he constantly was with his guards, was no
+easy matter. Or if it had been, the presence of the queen, Hamlet's
+mother, who was generally with the king, was a restraint upon his
+purpose, which he could not break through. Besides, the very
+circumstance that the usurper was his mother's husband filled him with
+some remorse, and still blunted the edge of his purpose. The mere act of
+putting a fellow-creature to death was in itself odious and terrible to
+a disposition naturally so gentle as Hamlet's was. His very melancholy,
+and the dejection of spirits he had so long been in, produced an
+irresoluteness and wavering of purpose, which kept him from proceeding
+to extremities. Moreover, he could not help having some scruples upon
+his mind, whether the spirit which he had seen was indeed his father, or
+whether it might not be the devil, who he had heard has power to take
+any form he pleases, and who might have assumed his father's shape only
+to take advantage of his weakness and his melancholy, to drive him to
+the doing of so desperate an act as murder. And he determined that he
+would have more certain grounds to go upon than a vision, or apparition,
+which might be a delusion.
+
+While he was in this irresolute mind there came to the court certain
+players, in whom Hamlet formerly used to take delight, and particularly
+to hear one of them speak a tragical speech, describing the death of old
+Priam, King of Troy, with the grief of Hecuba his queen. Hamlet welcomed
+his old friends, the players, and remembering how that speech had
+formerly given him pleasure, requested the player to repeat it; which he
+did in so lively a manner, setting forth the cruel murder of the feeble
+old king, with the destruction of his people and city by fire, and the
+mad grief of the old queen, running barefoot up and down the palace,
+with a poor clout upon that head where a crown had been, and with
+nothing but a blanket upon her loins, snatched up in haste, where she
+had worn a royal robe; that not only it drew tears from all that stood
+by, who thought they saw the real scene, so lively was it represented,
+but even the player himself delivered it with a broken voice and real
+tears. This put Hamlet upon thinking, if that player could so work
+himself up to passion by a mere fictitious speech, to weep for one that
+he had never seen, for Hecuba, that had been dead so many hundred years,
+how dull was he, who having a real motive and cue for passion, a real
+king and a dear father murdered, was yet so little moved, that his
+revenge all this while had seemed to have slept in dull and muddy
+forgetfulness! and while he meditated on actors and acting, and the
+powerful effects which a good play, represented to the life, has upon
+the spectator, he remembered the instance of some murderer, who seeing a
+murder on the stage, was by the mere force of the scene and resemblance
+of circumstances so affected, that on the spot he confessed the crime
+which he had committed. And he determined that these players should play
+something like the murder of his father before his uncle, and he would
+watch narrowly what effect it might have upon him, and from his looks he
+would be able to gather with more certainty if he were the murderer or
+not. To this effect he ordered a play to be prepared, to the
+representation of which he invited the king and queen.
+
+The story of the play was of a murder done in Vienna upon a duke. The
+duke's name was Gonzago, his wife Baptista. The play showed how one
+Lucianus, a near relation to the duke, poisoned him in his garden for
+his estate, and how the murderer in a short time after got the love of
+Gonzago's wife.
+
+At the representation of this play, the king, who did not know the trap
+which was laid for him, was present, with his queen and the whole court:
+Hamlet sitting attentively near him to observe his looks. The play began
+with a conversation between Gonzago and his wife, in which the lady
+made many protestations of love, and of never marrying a second husband,
+if she should outlive Gonzago; wishing she might be accursed if she ever
+took a second husband, and adding that no woman did so, but those wicked
+women who kill their first husbands. Hamlet observed the king his uncle
+change colour at this expression, and that it was as bad as wormwood
+both to him and to the queen. But when Lucianus, according to the story,
+came to poison Gonzago sleeping in the garden, the strong resemblance
+which it bore to his own wicked act upon the late king, his brother,
+whom he had poisoned in his garden, so struck upon the conscience of
+this usurper, that he was unable to sit out the rest of the play, but on
+a sudden calling for lights to his chamber, and affecting or partly
+feeling a sudden sickness, he abruptly left the theatre. The king being
+departed, the play was given over. Now Hamlet had seen enough to be
+satisfied that the words of the ghost were true, and no illusion; and in
+a fit of gaiety, like that which comes over a man who suddenly has some
+great doubt or scruple resolved, he swore to Horatio, that he would take
+the ghost's word for a thousand pounds. But before he could make up his
+resolution as to what measures of revenge he should take, now he was
+certainly informed that his uncle was his father's murderer, he was sent
+for by the queen his mother, to a private conference in her closet.
+
+It was by desire of the king that the queen sent for Hamlet, that she
+might signify to her son how much his late behaviour had displeased them
+both, and the king, wishing to know all that passed at that conference,
+and thinking that the too partial report of a mother might let slip some
+part of Hamlet's words, which it might much import the king to know,
+Polonius, the old counsellor of state, was ordered to plant himself
+behind the hangings in the queen's closet, where he might unseen hear
+all that passed. This artifice was particularly adapted to the
+disposition of Polonius, who was a man grown old in crooked maxims and
+policies of state, and delighted to get at the knowledge of matters in
+an indirect and cunning way.
+
+Hamlet being come to his mother, she began to tax him in the roundest
+way with his actions and behaviour, and she told him that he had given
+great offence to _his father_, meaning the king, his uncle, whom,
+because he had married her, she called Hamlet's father. Hamlet, sorely
+indignant that she should give so dear and honoured a name as father
+seemed to him, to a wretch who was indeed no better than the murderer of
+his true father, with some sharpness replied, "Mother, _you_ have much
+offended _my father_." The queen said that was but an idle answer. "As
+good as the question deserved," said Hamlet. The queen asked him if he
+had forgotten who it was he was speaking to? "Alas!" replied Hamlet, "I
+wish I could forget. You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife;
+and you are my mother: I wish you were not what you are." "Nay, then,"
+said the queen, "if you show me so little respect, I will set those to
+you that can speak," and was going to send the king or Polonius to him.
+But Hamlet would not let her go, now he had her alone, till he had tried
+if his words could not bring her to some sense of her wicked life; and,
+taking her by the wrist, he held her fast, and made her sit down. She,
+affrighted at his earnest manner, and fearful lest in his lunacy he
+should do her a mischief, cried out; and a voice was heard from behind
+the hangings, "Help, help, the queen!" which Hamlet hearing, and verily
+thinking that it was the king himself there concealed, he drew his sword
+and stabbed at the place where the voice came from, as he would have
+stabbed a rat that ran there, till the voice ceasing, he concluded the
+person to be dead. But when he dragged for the body, it was not the
+king, but Polonius, the old officious counsellor, that had planted
+himself as a spy behind the hangings. "Oh me!" exclaimed the queen,
+"what a rash and bloody deed have you done!" "A bloody deed, mother,"
+replied Hamlet, "but not so bad as yours, who killed a king, and married
+his brother." Hamlet had gone too far to leave off here. He was now in
+the humour to speak plainly to his mother, and he pursued it. And though
+the faults of parents are to be tenderly treated by their children, yet
+in the case of great crimes the son may have leave to speak even to his
+own mother with some harshness, so as that harshness is meant for her
+good, and to turn her from her wicked ways, and not done for the purpose
+of upbraiding. And now this virtuous prince did in moving terms
+represent to the queen the heinousness of her offence, in being so
+forgetful of the dead king, his father, as in so short a space of time
+to marry with his brother and reputed murderer: such an act as, after
+the vows which she had sworn to her first husband, was enough to make
+all vows of women suspected, and all virtue to be accounted hypocrisy,
+wedding contracts to be less than gamesters' oaths, and religion to be a
+mockery and a mere form of words. He said she had done such a deed, that
+the heavens blushed at it, and the earth was sick of her because of it.
+And he showed her two pictures, the one of the late king, her first
+husband, and the other of the present king, her second husband, and he
+bade her mark the difference; what a grace was on the brow of his
+father, how like a god he looked! the curls of Apollo, the forehead of
+Jupiter, the eye of Mars, and a posture like to Mercury newly alighted
+on some heaven-kissing hill! this man, he said, _had been_ her husband.
+And then he showed her whom she had got in his stead: how like a blight
+or a mildew he looked, for so he had blasted his wholesome brother. And
+the queen was sore ashamed that he should so turn her eyes inward upon
+her soul, which she now saw so black and deformed. And he asked her how
+she could continue to live with this man, and be a wife to him, who had
+murdered her first husband, and got the crown by as false means as a
+thief----and just as he spoke, the ghost of his father, such as he was
+in his lifetime, and such as he had lately seen it, entered the room,
+and Hamlet, in great terror, asked what it would have; and the ghost
+said that it came to remind him of the revenge he had promised, which
+Hamlet seemed to have forgot; and the ghost bade him speak to his
+mother, for the grief and terror she was in would else kill her. It then
+vanished, and was seen by none but Hamlet, neither could he by pointing
+to where it stood, or by any description, make his mother perceive it;
+who was terribly frightened all this while to hear him conversing, as it
+seemed to her, with nothing; and she imputed it to the disorder of his
+mind. But Hamlet begged her not to flatter her wicked soul in such a
+manner as to think that it was his madness, and not her own offences,
+which had brought his father's spirit again on the earth. And he bade
+her feel his pulse, how temperately it beat, not like a madman's. And he
+begged of her with tears, to confess herself to heaven for what was
+past, and for the future to avoid the company of the king, and be no
+more as a wife to him: and when she should show herself a mother to him,
+by respecting his father's memory, he would ask a blessing of her as a
+son. And she promising to observe his directions, the conference ended.
+
+And now Hamlet was at leisure to consider who it was that in his
+unfortunate rashness he had killed: and when he came to see that it was
+Polonius, the father of the Lady Ophelia, whom he so dearly loved, he
+drew apart the dead body, and, his spirits being now a little quieter,
+he wept for what he had done.
+
+The unfortunate death of Polonius gave the king a pretence for sending
+Hamlet out of the kingdom. He would willingly have put him to death,
+fearing him as dangerous; but he dreaded the people, who loved Hamlet,
+and the queen, who, with all her faults, doted upon the prince, her son.
+So this subtle king, under pretence of providing for Hamlet's safety,
+that he might not be called to account for Polonius' death, caused him
+to be conveyed on board a ship bound for England, under the care of two
+courtiers, by whom he despatched letters to the English court, which in
+that time was in subjection and paid tribute to Denmark, requiring for
+special reasons there pretended, that Hamlet should be put to death as
+soon as he landed on English ground. Hamlet, suspecting some treachery,
+in the night-time secretly got at the letters, and skilfully erasing
+his own name, he in the stead of it put in the names of those two
+courtiers, who had the charge of him, to be put to death: then sealing
+up the letters, he put them into their place again. Soon after the ship
+was attacked by pirates, and a sea-fight commenced; in the course of
+which Hamlet, desirous to show his valour, with sword in hand singly
+boarded the enemy's vessel; while his own ship, in a cowardly manner,
+bore away, and leaving him to his fate, the two courtiers made the best
+of their way to England, charged with those letters the sense of which
+Hamlet had altered to their own deserved destruction.
+
+The pirates, who had the prince in their power, showed themselves gentle
+enemies; and knowing whom they had got prisoner, in the hope that the
+prince might do them a good turn at court in recompense for any favour
+they might show him, they set Hamlet on shore at the nearest port in
+Denmark. From that place Hamlet wrote to the king, acquainting him with
+the strange chance which had brought him back to his own country, and
+saying that on the next day he should present himself before his
+majesty. When he got home, a sad spectacle offered itself the first
+thing to his eyes.
+
+This was the funeral of the young and beautiful Ophelia, his once dear
+mistress. The wits of this young lady had begun to turn ever since her
+poor father's death. That he should die a violent death, and by the
+hands of the prince whom she loved, so affected this tender young maid,
+that in a little time she grew perfectly distracted, and would go about
+giving flowers away to the ladies of the court, and saying that they
+were for her father's burial, singing songs about love and about death,
+and sometimes such as had no meaning at all, as if she had no memory of
+what happened to her. There was a willow which grew slanting over a
+brook, and reflected its leaves on the stream. To this brook she came
+one day when she was unwatched, with garlands she had been making, mixed
+up of daisies and nettles, flowers and weeds together, and clambering up
+to hang her garland upon the boughs of the willow, a bough broke, and
+precipitated this fair young maid, garland, and all that she had
+gathered, into the water, where her clothes bore her up for a while,
+during which she chanted scraps of old tunes, like one insensible to her
+own distress, or as if she were a creature natural to that element: but
+long it was not before her garments, heavy with the wet, pulled her in
+from her melodious singing to a muddy and miserable death. It was the
+funeral of this fair maid which her brother Laertes was celebrating, the
+king and queen and whole court being present, when Hamlet arrived. He
+knew not what all this show imported, but stood on one side, not
+inclining to interrupt the ceremony. He saw the flowers strewed upon her
+grave, as the custom was in maiden burials, which the queen herself
+threw in; and as she threw them she said, "Sweets to the sweet! I
+thought to have decked thy bride-bed, sweet maid, not to have strewed
+thy grave. Thou shouldst have been my Hamlet's wife." And he heard her
+brother wish that violets might spring from her grave: and he saw him
+leap into the grave all frantic with grief, and bid the attendants pile
+mountains of earth upon him, that he might be buried with her. And
+Hamlet's love for this fair maid came back to him, and he could not bear
+that a brother should show so much transport of grief, for he thought
+that he loved Ophelia better than forty thousand brothers. Then
+discovering himself, he leaped into the grave where Laertes was, all as
+frantic or more frantic than he, and Laertes knowing him to be Hamlet,
+who had been the cause of his father's and his sister's death, grappled
+him by the throat as an enemy, till the attendants parted them: and
+Hamlet, after the funeral, excused his hasty act in throwing himself
+into the grave as if to brave Laertes; but he said he could not bear
+that any one should seem to outgo him in grief for the death of the fair
+Ophelia. And for the time these two noble youths seemed reconciled.
+
+But out of the grief and anger of Laertes for the death of his father
+and Ophelia, the king, Hamlet's wicked uncle, contrived destruction for
+Hamlet. He set on Laertes, under cover of peace and reconciliation, to
+challenge Hamlet to a friendly trial of skill at fencing, which Hamlet
+accepting, a day was appointed to try the match. At this match all the
+court was present, and Laertes, by direction of the king, prepared a
+poisoned weapon. Upon this match great wagers were laid by the
+courtiers, as both Hamlet and Laertes were known to excel at this sword
+play; and Hamlet taking up the foils chose one, not at all suspecting
+the treachery of Laertes, or being careful to examine Laertes' weapon,
+who, instead of a foil or blunted sword, which the laws of fencing
+require, made use of one with a point, and poisoned. At first Laertes
+did but play with Hamlet, and suffered him to gain some advantages,
+which the dissembling king magnified and extolled beyond measure,
+drinking to Hamlet's success, and wagering rich bets upon the issue: but
+after a few pauses, Laertes growing warm made a deadly thrust at Hamlet
+with his poisoned weapon, and gave him a mortal blow. Hamlet incensed,
+but not knowing the whole of the treachery, in the scuffle exchanged his
+own innocent weapon for Laertes' deadly one, and with a thrust of
+Laertes' own sword repaid Laertes home, who was thus justly caught in
+his own treachery. In this instant the queen shrieked out that she was
+poisoned. She had inadvertently drunk out of a bowl which the king had
+prepared for Hamlet, in case, that being warm in fencing, he should call
+for drink: into this the treacherous king had infused a deadly poison,
+to make sure of Hamlet, if Laertes had failed. He had forgotten to warn
+the queen of the bowl, which she drank of, and immediately died,
+exclaiming with her last breath that she was poisoned. Hamlet,
+suspecting some treachery, ordered the doors to be shut, while he sought
+it out. Laertes told him to seek no farther, for he was the traitor; and
+feeling his life go away with the wound which Hamlet had given him, he
+made confession of the treachery he had used, and how he had fallen a
+victim to it: and he told Hamlet of the envenomed point, and said that
+Hamlet had not half an hour to live, for no medicine could cure him; and
+begging forgiveness of Hamlet, he died, with his last words accusing the
+king of being the contriver of the mischief. When Hamlet saw his end
+draw near, there being yet some venom left upon the sword, he suddenly
+turned upon his false uncle, and thrust the point of it to his heart,
+fulfilling the promise which he had made to his father's spirit, whose
+injunction was now accomplished, and his foul murder revenged upon the
+murderer. Then Hamlet, feeling his breath fail and life departing,
+turned to his dear friend Horatio, who had been spectator of this fatal
+tragedy; and with his dying breath requested him that he would live to
+tell his story to the world (for Horatio had made a motion as if he
+would slay himself to accompany the prince in death), and Horatio
+promised that he would make a true report, as one that was privy to all
+the circumstances. And, thus satisfied, the noble heart of Hamlet
+cracked; and Horatio and the bystanders with many tears commended the
+spirit of this sweet prince to the guardianship of angels. For Hamlet
+was a loving and a gentle prince, and greatly beloved for his many noble
+and princelike qualities; and if he had lived, would no doubt have
+proved a most royal and complete king to Denmark.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+OTHELLO
+
+
+Brabantio, the rich senator of Venice, had a fair daughter, the gentle
+Desdemona. She was sought to by divers suitors, both on account of her
+many virtuous qualities, and for her rich expectations. But among the
+suitors of her own clime and complexion, she saw none whom she could
+affect: for this noble lady, who regarded the mind more than the
+features of men, with a singularity rather to be admired than imitated,
+had chosen for the object of her affections, a Moor, a black, whom her
+father loved, and often invited to his house.
+
+Neither is Desdemona to be altogether condemned for the unsuitableness
+of the person whom she selected for her lover. Bating that Othello was
+black, the noble Moor wanted nothing which might recommend him to the
+affections of the greatest lady. He was a soldier, and a brave one; and
+by his conduct in bloody wars against the Turks, had risen to the rank
+of general in the Venetian service, and was esteemed and trusted by the
+state.
+
+He had been a traveller, and Desdemona (as is the manner of ladies)
+loved to hear him tell the story of his adventures, which he would run
+through from his earliest recollection; the battles, sieges, and
+encounters, which he had passed through; the perils he had been exposed
+to by land and by water; his hair-breadth escapes, when he had entered
+a breach, or marched up to the mouth of a cannon; and how he had been
+taken prisoner by the insolent enemy, and sold to slavery; how he
+demeaned himself in that state, and how he escaped: all these accounts,
+added to the narration of the strange things he had seen in foreign
+countries, the vast wilderness and romantic caverns, the quarries, the
+rocks and mountains, whose heads are in the clouds; of the savage
+nations, the cannibals who are man-eaters, and a race of people in
+Africa whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders: these travellers'
+stories would so enchain the attention of Desdemona, that if she were
+called off at any time by household affairs, she would despatch with all
+haste that business, and return, and with a greedy ear devour Othello's
+discourse. And once he took advantage of a pliant hour, and drew from
+her a prayer, that he would tell her the whole story of his life at
+large, of which she had heard so much, but only by parts: to which he
+consented, and beguiled her of many a tear, when he spoke of some
+distressful stroke which his youth had suffered.
+
+His story being done, she gave him for his pains a world of sighs: she
+swore a pretty oath, that it was all passing strange, and pitiful,
+wondrous pitiful: she wished (she said) she had not heard it, yet she
+wished that heaven had made her such a man; and then she thanked him,
+and told him, if he had a friend who loved her, he had only to teach him
+how to tell his story, and that would woo her. Upon this hint, delivered
+not with more frankness than modesty, accompanied with certain
+bewitching prettiness, and blushes, which Othello could not but
+understand, he spoke more openly of his love, and in this golden
+opportunity gained the consent of the generous Lady Desdemona privately
+to marry him.
+
+Neither Othello's colour nor his fortune were such that it could be
+hoped Brabantio would accept him for a son-in-law. He had left his
+daughter free; but he did expect that, as the manner of noble Venetian
+ladies was, she would choose ere long a husband of senatorial rank or
+expectations; but in this he was deceived; Desdemona loved the Moor,
+though he was black, and devoted her heart and fortunes to his valiant
+parts and qualities; so was her heart subdued to an implicit devotion to
+the man she had selected for a husband, that his very colour, which to
+all but this discerning lady would have proved an insurmountable
+objection, was by her esteemed above all the white skins and clear
+complexions of the young Venetian nobility, her suitors.
+
+Their marriage, which, though privately carried, could not long be kept
+a secret, came to the ears of the old man, Brabantio, who appeared in a
+solemn council of the senate, as an accuser of the Moor Othello, who by
+spells and witchcraft (he maintained) had seduced the affections of the
+fair Desdemona to marry him, without the consent of her father, and
+against the obligations of hospitality.
+
+At this juncture of time it happened that the state of Venice had
+immediate need of the services of Othello, news having arrived that the
+Turks with mighty preparation had fitted out a fleet, which was bending
+its course to the island of Cyprus, with intent to regain that strong
+post from the Venetians, who then held it; in this emergency the state
+turned its eyes upon Othello, who alone was deemed adequate to conduct
+the defence of Cyprus against the Turks. So that Othello, now summoned
+before the senate, stood in their presence at once as a candidate for a
+great state employment, and as a culprit, charged with offences which by
+the laws of Venice were made capital.
+
+The age and senatorial character of old Brabantio, commanded a most
+patient hearing from that grave assembly; but the incensed father
+conducted his accusation with so much intemperance, producing
+likelihoods and allegations for proofs, that, when Othello was called
+upon for his defence, he had only to relate a plain tale of the course
+of his love; which he did with such an artless eloquence, recounting the
+whole story of his wooing, as we have related it above, and delivered
+his speech with so noble a plainness (the evidence of truth), that the
+duke, who sat as chief judge, could not help confessing that a tale so
+told would have won his daughter too: and the spells and conjurations
+which Othello had used in his courtship, plainly appeared to have been
+no more than the honest arts of men in love; and the only witchcraft
+which he had used, the faculty of telling a soft tale to win a lady's
+ear.
+
+This statement of Othello was confirmed by the testimony of the Lady
+Desdemona herself, who appeared in court, and professing a duty to her
+father for life and education, challenged leave of him to profess a yet
+higher duty to her lord and husband, even so much as her mother had
+shown in preferring him (Brabantio) above _her_ father.
+
+The old senator, unable to maintain his plea, called the Moor to him
+with many expressions of sorrow, and, as an act of necessity, bestowed
+upon him his daughter, whom, if he had been free to withhold her (he
+told him), he would with all his heart have kept from him; adding, that
+he was glad at soul that he had no other child, for this behaviour of
+Desdemona would have taught him to be a tyrant, and hang clogs on them
+for her desertion.
+
+This difficulty being got over, Othello, to whom custom had rendered the
+hardships of a military life as natural as food and rest are to other
+men, readily undertook the management of the wars in Cyprus: and
+Desdemona, preferring the honour of her lord (though with danger) before
+the indulgence of those idle delights in which new-married people
+usually waste their time, cheerfully consented to his going.
+
+No sooner were Othello and his lady landed in Cyprus, than news arrived,
+that a desperate tempest had dispersed the Turkish fleet, and thus the
+island was secure from any immediate apprehension of an attack. But the
+war, which Othello was to suffer, was now beginning; and the enemies,
+which malice stirred up against his innocent lady, proved in their
+nature more deadly than strangers or infidels.
+
+Among all the general's friends no one possessed the confidence of
+Othello more entirely than Cassio. Michael Cassio was a young soldier, a
+Florentine, gay, amorous, and of pleasing address, favourite qualities
+with women; he was handsome and eloquent, and exactly such a person as
+might alarm the jealousy of a man advanced in years (as Othello in some
+measure was), who had married a young and beautiful wife; but Othello
+was as free from jealousy as he was noble, and as incapable of
+suspecting as of doing a base action. He had employed this Cassio in his
+love affair with Desdemona, and Cassio had been a sort of go-between in
+his suit: for Othello, fearing that himself had not those soft parts of
+conversation which please ladies, and finding these qualities in his
+friend, would often depute Cassio to go (as he phrased it) a courting
+for him: such innocent simplicity being rather an honour than a blemish
+to the character of the valiant Moor. So that no wonder, if next to
+Othello himself (but at far distance, as beseems a virtuous wife) the
+gentle Desdemona loved and trusted Cassio. Nor had the marriage of this
+couple made any difference in their behaviour to Michael Cassio. He
+frequented their house, and his free and rattling talk was no unpleasing
+variety to Othello, who was himself of a more serious temper: for such
+tempers are observed often to delight in their contraries, as a relief
+from the oppressive excess of their own: and Desdemona and Cassio would
+talk and laugh together, as in the days when he went a courting for his
+friend.
+
+Othello had lately promoted Cassio to be the lieutenant, a place of
+trust, and nearest to the general's person. This promotion gave great
+offence to Iago, an older officer who thought he had a better claim than
+Cassio, and would often ridicule Cassio as a fellow fit only for the
+company of ladies, and one that knew no more of the art of war or how to
+set an army in array for battle, than a girl. Iago hated Cassio, and he
+hated Othello, as well for favouring Cassio, as for an unjust suspicion,
+which he had lightly taken up against Othello, that the Moor was too
+fond of Iago's wife Emilia. From these imaginary provocations, the
+plotting mind of Iago conceived a horrid scheme of revenge, which should
+involve both Cassio, the Moor, and Desdemona, in one common ruin.
+
+Iago was artful, and had studied human nature deeply, and he knew that
+of all the torments which afflict the mind of man (and far beyond bodily
+torture), the pains of jealousy were the most intolerable, and had the
+sorest sting. If he could succeed in making Othello jealous of Cassio,
+he thought it would be an exquisite plot of revenge, and might end in
+the death of Cassio or Othello, or both; he cared not.
+
+The arrival of the general and his lady, in Cyprus, meeting with the
+news of the dispersion of the enemy's fleet, made a sort of holiday in
+the island. Everybody gave themselves up to feasting and making merry.
+Wine flowed in abundance, and cups went round to the health of the black
+Othello, and his lady the fair Desdemona.
+
+Cassio had the direction of the guard that night, with a charge from
+Othello to keep the soldiers from excess in drinking, that no brawl
+might arise, to fright the inhabitants, or disgust them with the
+new-landed forces. That night Iago began his deep-laid plans of
+mischief: under colour of loyalty and love to the general, he enticed
+Cassio to make rather too free with the bottle (a great fault in an
+officer upon guard). Cassio for a time resisted, but he could not long
+hold out against the honest freedom which Iago knew how to put on, but
+kept swallowing glass after glass (as Iago still plied him with drink
+and encouraging songs), and Cassio's tongue ran over in praise of the
+Lady Desdemona, whom he again and again toasted, affirming that she was
+a most exquisite lady: until at last the enemy which he put into his
+mouth stole away his brains; and upon some provocation given him by a
+fellow whom Iago had set on, swords were drawn, and Montano, a worthy
+officer, who interfered to appease the dispute, was wounded in the
+scuffle. The riot now began to be general, and Iago, who had set on foot
+the mischief, was foremost in spreading the alarm, causing the
+castle-bell to be rung (as if some dangerous mutiny instead of a slight
+drunken quarrel had arisen): the alarm-bell ringing awakened Othello,
+who, dressing in a hurry, and coming to the scene of action, questioned
+Cassio of the cause. Cassio was now come to himself, the effect of the
+wine having a little gone off, but was too much ashamed to reply; and
+Iago, pretending a great reluctance to accuse Cassio, but, as it were,
+forced into it by Othello, who insisted to know the truth, gave an
+account of the whole matter (leaving out his own share in it, which
+Cassio was too far gone to remember) in such a manner, as while he
+seemed to make Cassio's offence less, did indeed make it appear greater
+than it was. The result was, that Othello, who was a strict observer of
+discipline, was compelled to take away Cassio's place of lieutenant from
+him.
+
+Thus did Iago's first artifice succeed completely; he had now undermined
+his hated rival, and thrust him out of his place: but a further use was
+hereafter to be made of the adventure of this disastrous night.
+
+Cassio, whom this misfortune had entirely sobered, now lamented to his
+seeming friend Iago that he should have been such a fool as to transform
+himself into a beast. He was undone, for how could he ask the general
+for his place again? he would tell him he was a drunkard. He despised
+himself. Iago, affecting to make light of it, said, that he, or any man
+living, might be drunk upon occasion; it remained now to make the best
+of a bad bargain; the general's wife was now the general, and could do
+anything with Othello; that he were best to apply to the Lady Desdemona
+to mediate for him with her lord; that she was of a frank, obliging
+disposition, and would readily undertake a good office of this sort, and
+set Cassio right again in the general's favour; and then this crack in
+their love would be made stronger than ever. A good advice of Iago, if
+it had not been given for wicked purposes, which will after appear.
+
+Cassio did as Iago advised him, and made application to the Lady
+Desdemona, who was easy to be won over in any honest suit; and she
+promised Cassio that she should be his solicitor with her lord, and
+rather die than give up his cause. This she immediately set about in so
+earnest and pretty a manner, that Othello, who was mortally offended
+with Cassio, could not put her off. When he pleaded delay, and that it
+was too soon to pardon such an offender, she would not be beat back, but
+insisted that it should be the next night, or the morning after, or the
+next morning to that at farthest. Then she showed how penitent and
+humbled poor Cassio was, and that his offence did not deserve so sharp a
+check. And when Othello still hung back, "What! my lord," said she,
+"that I should have so much to do to plead for Cassio, Michael Cassio,
+that came a courting for you, and oftentimes, when I have spoken in
+dispraise of you, has taken your part! I count this but a little thing
+to ask of you. When I mean to try your love indeed, I shall ask a
+weighty matter." Othello could deny nothing to such a pleader, and only
+requesting that Desdemona would leave the time to him, promised to
+receive Michael Cassio again in favour.
+
+It happened that Othello and Iago had entered into the room where
+Desdemona was, just as Cassio, who had been imploring her intercession,
+was departing at the opposite door: and Iago, who was full of art, said
+in a low voice, as if to himself, "I like not that." Othello took no
+great notice of what he said; indeed, the conference which immediately
+took place with his lady put it out of his head; but he remembered it
+afterwards. For when Desdemona was gone, Iago, as if for mere
+satisfaction of his thought, questioned Othello whether Michael Cassio,
+when Othello was courting his lady, knew of his love. To this the
+general answering in the affirmative, and adding, that he had gone
+between them very often during the courtship, Iago knitted his brow, as
+if he had got fresh light on some terrible matter, and cried, "Indeed!"
+This brought into Othello's mind the words which Iago had let fall upon
+entering the room, and seeing Cassio with Desdemona; and he began to
+think there was some meaning in all this: for he deemed Iago to be a
+just man, and full of love and honesty, and what in a false knave would
+be tricks, in him seemed to be the natural workings of an honest mind,
+big with something too great for utterance: and Othello prayed Iago to
+speak what he knew, and to give his worst thoughts words. "And what,"
+said Iago, "if some thoughts very vile should have intruded into my
+breast, as where is the palace into which foul things do not enter?"
+Then Iago went on to say, what a pity it were, if any trouble should
+arise to Othello out of his imperfect observations; that it would not be
+for Othello's peace to know his thoughts; that people's good names were
+not to be taken away for slight suspicions; and when Othello's curiosity
+was raised almost to distraction with these hints and scattered words,
+Iago, as if in earnest care for Othello's peace of mind, besought him to
+beware of jealousy: with such art did this villain raise suspicions in
+the unguarded Othello, by the very caution which he pretended to give
+him against suspicion. "I know," said Othello, "that my wife is fair,
+loves company and feasting, is free of speech, sings, plays, and dances
+well: but where virtue is, these qualities are virtuous. I must have
+proof before I think her dishonest." Then Iago, as if glad that Othello
+was slow to believe ill of his lady, frankly declared that he had no
+proof, but begged Othello to observe her behaviour well, when Cassio was
+by; not to be jealous nor too secure neither, for that he (Iago) knew
+the dispositions of the Italian ladies, his country-women, better than
+Othello could do; and that in Venice the wives let heaven see many
+pranks they dared not show their husbands. Then he artfully insinuated
+that Desdemona deceived her father in marrying with Othello, and carried
+it so closely, that the poor old man thought that witchcraft had been
+used. Othello was much moved with this argument, which brought the
+matter home to him, for if she had deceived her father, why might she
+not deceive her husband?
+
+Iago begged pardon for having moved him; but Othello, assuming an
+indifference, while he was really shaken with inward grief at Iago's
+words, begged him to go on, which Iago did with many apologies, as if
+unwilling to produce anything against Cassio, whom he called his friend:
+he then came strongly to the point, and reminded Othello how Desdemona
+had refused many suitable matches of her own clime and complexion, and
+had married him, a Moor, which showed unnatural in her, and proved her
+to have a headstrong will; and when her better judgment returned, how
+probable it was she should fall upon comparing Othello with the fine
+forms and clear white complexions of the young Italians her countrymen.
+He concluded with advising Othello to put off his reconcilement with
+Cassio a little longer, and in the meanwhile to note with what
+earnestness Desdemona should intercede in his behalf; for that much
+would be seen in that. So mischievously did this artful villain lay his
+plots to turn the gentle qualities of this innocent lady into her
+destruction, and make a net for her out of her own goodness to entrap
+her: first setting Cassio on to entreat her mediation, and then out of
+that very mediation contriving stratagems for her ruin.
+
+The conference ended with Iago's begging Othello to account his wife
+innocent, until he had more decisive proof; and Othello promised to be
+patient; but from that moment the deceived Othello never tasted content
+of mind. Poppy, nor the juice of mandragora, nor all the sleeping
+potions in the world, could ever again restore to him that sweet rest,
+which he had enjoyed but yesterday. His occupation sickened upon him. He
+no longer took delight in arms. His heart, that used to be roused at the
+sight of troops, and banners, and battle-array, and would stir and leap
+at the sound of a drum, or a trumpet, or a neighing war-horse, seemed to
+have lost all that pride and ambition which are a soldier's virtue; and
+his military ardour and all his old joys forsook him. Sometimes he
+thought his wife honest, and at times he thought her not so; sometimes
+he thought Iago just, and at times he thought him not so; then he would
+wish that he had never known of it; he was not the worse for her loving
+Cassio, so long as he knew it not: torn to pieces with these distracting
+thoughts, he once laid hold on Iago's throat, and demanded proof of
+Desdemona's guilt, or threatened instant death for his having belied
+her. Iago, feigning indignation that his honesty should be taken for a
+vice, asked Othello, if he had not sometimes seen a handkerchief spotted
+with strawberries in his wife's hand. Othello answered, that he had
+given her such a one, and that it was his first gift. "That same
+handkerchief," said Iago, "did I see Michael Cassio this day wipe his
+face with." "If it be as you say," said Othello, "I will not rest till a
+wide revenge swallow them up: and first, for a token of your fidelity, I
+expect that Cassio shall be put to death within three days; and for that
+fair devil (meaning his lady), I will withdraw and devise some swift
+means of death for her."
+
+Trifles light as air are to the jealous proofs as strong as holy writ. A
+handkerchief of his wife's seen in Cassio's hand, was motive enough to
+the deluded Othello to pass sentence of death upon them both, without
+once inquiring how Cassio came by it. Desdemona had never given such a
+present to Cassio, nor would this constant lady have wronged her lord
+with doing so naughty a thing as giving his presents to another man;
+both Cassio and Desdemona were innocent of any offence against Othello:
+but the wicked Iago, whose spirits never slept in contrivance of
+villany, had made his wife (a good, but a weak woman) steal this
+handkerchief from Desdemona, under pretence of getting the work copied,
+but in reality to drop it in Cassio's way, where he might find it, and
+give a handle to Iago's suggestion that it was Desdemona's present.
+
+Othello, soon after meeting his wife, pretended that he had a headache
+(as he might indeed with truth), and desired her to lend him her
+handkerchief to hold to his temples. She did so. "Not this," said
+Othello, "but that handkerchief I gave you." Desdemona had it not about
+her (for indeed it was stolen, as we have related). "How?" said Othello,
+"this is a fault indeed. That handkerchief an Egyptian woman gave to my
+mother; the woman was a witch and could read people's thoughts: she told
+my mother, while she kept it, it would make her amiable, and my father
+would love her; but, if she lost it, or gave it away, my father's fancy
+would turn, and he would loathe her as much as he had loved her. She
+dying gave it to me, and bade me, if I ever married, to give it to my
+wife. I did so; take heed of it. Make it a darling as precious as your
+eye." "Is it possible?" said the frighted lady. "'Tis true," continued
+Othello; "it is a magical handkerchief; a sibyl that had lived in the
+world two hundred years, in a fit of prophetic fury worked it; the
+silkworms that furnished the silk were hallowed, and it was dyed in a
+mummy of maidens' hearts conserved." Desdemona, hearing the wondrous
+virtues of the handkerchief, was ready to die with fear, for she plainly
+perceived she had lost it, and with it, she feared, the affections of
+her husband. Then Othello started, and looked as if he were going to do
+some rash thing, and still he demanded the handkerchief, which when she
+could not produce, she tried to divert her husband from too serious
+thoughts, and cheerfully told him she saw all his talk about the
+handkerchief was only to put her off from her suit about Michael Cassio,
+whom she went on to praise (as Iago had foretold), till Othello in
+perfect distraction burst out of the room, and then Desdemona, though
+unwillingly, began to suspect that her lord was jealous.
+
+What cause she could have ministered to him she knew not, and then she
+accused herself for accusing the noble Othello, and thought to be sure
+that some untoward news from Venice, or some state troubles had puddled
+his spirits, and made his temper not so sweet as formerly. And she said,
+"Men are not gods, and we must not look for that observance from them
+when they are married, which they show us on the bridal day." And she
+beshrewed herself for so unkindly judging of his unkindness.
+
+Again Othello and Desdemona met, and he accused her more plainly of
+being unfaithful, and of loving another man, but he did not name whom:
+and Othello wept, and Desdemona said, "Alas! the heavy day! why do you
+weep?" And Othello told her, he could have borne all sorts of evils with
+fortitude--poverty, and disease, and disgrace; but her infidelity had
+broken his heart: and he called her a weed, that looked so fair, and
+smelled so sweet, that the sense ached at it; and wished she had never
+been born. And when he had left her, this innocent lady was so stupefied
+with wonder at her lord's untrue suspicion of her, that a weight-like
+sleep came over her, and she only desired her attendant to make her bed,
+and to lay her wedding-sheets upon it, saying, that when people teach
+their babes, they do it by gentle means and easy tasks, and Othello
+might have chid her so; for in good faith she was but a child when she
+was chidden. And this was all the complaint which this gentle lady
+made.
+
+Desdemona being retired to bed expecting her lord would follow her, soon
+fell into a slumber, the effect of her troubled spirits, when Othello
+entered the chamber, full of the black purpose which he had meditated of
+putting his lady to death. But when he saw her asleep, he thought he
+would not shed her blood, nor scar that white skin of hers, more white
+than alabaster. But he was resolved she should die; else (as he said)
+she would live to betray more men, as she had done him. Then he kissed
+her for the last time (as he said), and that kiss was so sweet, that he
+must needs kiss her again: and he wept, but he said they were cruel
+tears.
+
+Desdemona was awakened with his kisses, and she looked upon Othello, and
+she saw him gnaw his under lip, and roll his eyes, and she knew he was
+always fatal when he looked so: and he bade her prepare for death, and
+to say her prayers, for he would not kill her soul. And this innocent
+wife, as she lay at his mercy, begged for compassion, and to know her
+fault, and then he named Cassio, and the handkerchief which (he said)
+she had given him; and as the guiltless lady was proceeding to clear
+herself he suddenly would hear no more, but covering her up in the
+bed-clothes, stifled her till she died.
+
+In this instant of time was brought into the house Cassio, wounded and
+bleeding, whom Iago had set one of his creatures on to assassinate; but
+the fellow not succeeding in his attempt to kill Cassio (whom he
+wounded, but not mortally,) and being himself killed by Iago to prevent
+discovery, in his pockets were found certain letters, which made the
+guilt of Iago, and the innocence of Cassio, clear beyond all doubt; and
+Cassio now came to beg pardon of Othello, and to ask wherein he had
+offended him, that he had employed Iago to murder him.
+
+This discovery was as a thunderstroke to Othello, who now plainly saw
+that he was no better than a murderer, and that his wife (poor innocent
+lady) had been ever faithful to him; the extreme anguish of which
+discovery making life insupportable, he fell upon his sword, and
+throwing himself upon the body of his dear injured lady, expired.
+
+These rash acts raised much passion of horror and amazement in the
+bystanders, for Othello had borne a fair reputation, and till he was
+wrought upon by the arts of a villain, which his own noble nature never
+gave him leave to suspect, he was a loving and a doting husband. He had
+loved not wisely, but too well; and his manly eyes (when he learned his
+mistake), though not used to weep on every small occasion, dropped tears
+
+as fast as the Arabian trees their gum. And when he was dead all his
+former merits and his valiant acts were remembered. Nothing now remained
+for his successor but to put the utmost censure of the law in force
+against Iago, who was executed with strict tortures; and to send word to
+the state of Venice of the lamentable death of their renowned general.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE
+
+
+Pericles, Prince of Tyre, became a voluntary exile from his dominions,
+to avert the dreadful calamities which Antiochus, the wicked emperor of
+Greece, threatened to bring upon his subjects and city of Tyre, in
+revenge for a discovery which the prince had made of a shocking deed
+which the emperor had done in secret; as commonly it proves dangerous to
+pry into the hidden crimes of great ones. Leaving the government of his
+people in the hands of his able and honest minister, Helicanus, Pericles
+set sail from Tyre, thinking to absent himself till the wrath of
+Antiochus, who was mighty, should be appeased.
+
+The first place which the prince directed his course to was Tarsus, and
+hearing that the city of Tarsus was at that time suffering under a
+severe famine, he took with him store of provisions for its relief. On
+his arrival he found the city reduced to the utmost distress; and, he
+coming like a messenger from heaven with his unhoped-for succour, Cleon,
+the governor of Tarsus, welcomed him with boundless thanks. Pericles
+had not been here many days, before letters came from his faithful
+minister, warning him that it was not safe for him to stay at Tarsus,
+for Antiochus knew of his abode, and by secret emissaries despatched for
+that purpose sought his life. Upon receipt of these letters Pericles put
+out to sea again, amidst the blessings and prayers of a whole people who
+had been fed by his bounty.
+
+He had not sailed far, when his ship was overtaken by a dreadful storm,
+and every man on board perished except Pericles, who was cast by the
+sea-waves naked on an unknown shore, where he had not wandered long
+before he met with some poor fishermen, who invited him to their homes,
+giving him clothes and provisions. The fishermen told Pericles the name
+of their country was Pentapolis, and that their king was Simonides,
+commonly called the good Simonides, because of his peaceable reign and
+good government. From them he also learned that King Simonides had a
+fair young daughter, and that the following day was her birthday, when a
+grand tournament was to be held at court, many princes and knights being
+come from all parts to try their skill in arms for the love of Thaisa,
+this fair princess. While the prince was listening to this account, and
+secretly lamenting the loss of his good armour, which disabled him from
+making one among these valiant knights, another fisherman brought in a
+complete suit of armour that he had taken out of the sea with his
+fishing-net, which proved to be the very armour he had lost. When
+Pericles beheld his own armour, he said, "Thanks, Fortune; after all my
+crosses you give me somewhat to repair myself. This armour was
+bequeathed to me by my dead father, for whose dear sake I have so loved
+it, that whithersoever I went, I still have kept it by me, and the rough
+sea that parted it from me, having now become calm, hath given it back
+again, for which I thank it, for, since I have my father's gift again, I
+think my shipwreck no misfortune."
+
+The next day Pericles, clad in his brave father's armour, repaired to
+the royal court of Simonides, where he performed wonders at the
+tournament, vanquishing with ease all the brave knights and valiant
+princes who contended with him in arms for the honour of Thaisa's love.
+When brave warriors contended at court tournaments for the love of
+kings' daughters, if one proved sole victor over all the rest, it was
+usual for the great lady for whose sake these deeds of valour were
+undertaken, to bestow all her respect upon the conqueror, and Thaisa did
+not depart from this custom, for she presently dismissed all the princes
+and knights whom Pericles had vanquished, and distinguished him by her
+especial favour and regard, crowning him with the wreath of victory, as
+king of that day's happiness; and Pericles became a most passionate
+lover of this beauteous princess from the first moment he beheld her.
+
+The good Simonides so well approved of the valour and noble qualities of
+Pericles, who was indeed a most accomplished gentleman, and well learned
+in all excellent arts, that though he knew not the rank of this royal
+stranger (for Pericles for fear of Antiochus gave out that he was a
+private gentleman of Tyre), yet did not Simonides disdain to accept of
+the valiant unknown for a son-in-law, when he perceived his daughter's
+affections were firmly fixed upon him.
+
+Pericles had not been many months married to Thaisa, before he received
+intelligence that his enemy Antiochus was dead; and that his subjects of
+Tyre, impatient of his long absence, threatened to revolt, and talked of
+placing Helicanus upon his vacant throne. This news came from Helicanus
+himself, who, being a loyal subject to his royal master, would not
+accept of the high dignity offered him, but sent to let Pericles know
+their intentions, that he might return home and resume his lawful right.
+It was matter of great surprise and joy to Simonides, to find that his
+son-in-law (the obscure knight) was the renowned Prince of Tyre; yet
+again he regretted that he was not the private gentleman he supposed him
+to be, seeing that he must now part both with his admired son-in-law
+and his beloved daughter, whom he feared to trust to the perils of the
+sea, because Thaisa was with child; and Pericles himself wished her to
+remain with her father till after her confinement, but the poor lady so
+earnestly desired to go with her husband, that at last they consented,
+hoping she would reach Tyre before she was brought to bed.
+
+The sea was no friendly element to unhappy Pericles, for long before
+they reached Tyre another dreadful tempest arose, which so terrified
+Thaisa that she was taken ill, and in a short space of time her nurse
+Lychorida came to Pericles with a little child in her arms, to tell the
+prince the sad tidings that his wife died the moment her little babe was
+born. She held the babe towards its father, saying, "Here is a thing too
+young for such a place. This is the child of your dead queen." No tongue
+can tell the dreadful sufferings of Pericles when he heard his wife was
+dead. As soon as he could speak, he said, "O you gods, why do you make
+us love your goodly gifts, and then snatch those gifts away?" "Patience,
+good sir," said Lychorida, "here is all that is left alive of our dead
+queen, a little daughter, and for your child's sake be more manly.
+Patience, good sir, even for the sake of this precious charge." Pericles
+took the new-born infant in his arms, and he said to the little babe,
+"Now may your life be mild, for a more blusterous birth had never babe!
+May your condition be mild and gentle, for you have had the rudest
+welcome that ever prince's child did meet with! May that which follows
+be happy, for you have had as chiding a nativity as fire, air, water,
+earth, and heaven could make to herald you from the womb! Even at the
+first, your loss," meaning in the death of her mother, "is more than all
+the joys, which you shall find upon this earth to which you are come a
+new visitor, shall be able to recompense."
+
+The storm still continuing to rage furiously, and the sailors having a
+superstition that while a dead body remained in the ship the storm
+would never cease, they came to Pericles to demand that his queen should
+be thrown overboard; and they said, "What courage, sir? God save you!"
+"Courage enough," said the sorrowing prince: "I do not fear the storm;
+it has done to me its worst; yet for the love of this poor infant, this
+fresh new seafarer, I wish the storm was over." "Sir," said the sailors,
+"your queen must overboard. The sea works high, the wind is loud, and
+the storm will not abate till the ship be cleared of the dead." Though
+Pericles knew how weak and unfounded this superstition was, yet he
+patiently submitted, saying, "As you think meet. Then she must
+overboard, most wretched queen!" And now this unhappy prince went to
+take a last view of his dear wife, and as he looked on his Thaisa, he
+said, "A terrible childbed hast thou had, my dear; no light, no fire;
+the unfriendly elements forget thee utterly, nor have I time to bring
+thee hallowed to thy grave, but must cast thee scarcely coffined into
+the sea, where for a monument upon thy bones the humming waters must
+overwhelm thy corpse, lying with simple shells. O Lychorida, bid Nestor
+bring me spices, ink, and paper, my casket and my jewels, and bid
+Nicandor bring me the satin coffin. Lay the babe upon the pillow, and go
+about this suddenly, Lychorida, while I say a priestly farewell to my
+Thaisa."
+
+They brought Pericles a large chest, in which (wrapped in a satin
+shroud) he placed his queen, and sweet-smelling spices he strewed over
+her, and beside her he placed rich jewels, and a written paper, telling
+who she was, and praying if haply any one should find the chest which
+contained the body of his wife, they would give her burial: and then
+with his own hands he cast the chest into the sea. When the storm was
+over, Pericles ordered the sailors to make for Tarsus. "For," said
+Pericles, "the babe cannot hold out till we come to Tyre. At Tarsus I
+will leave it at careful nursing."
+
+After that tempestuous night when Thaisa was thrown into the sea, and
+while it was yet early morning, as Cerimon a worthy gentleman of
+Ephesus, and a most skilful physician, was standing by the sea-side, his
+servants brought to him a chest, which they said the sea-waves had
+thrown on the land. "I never saw," said one of them, "so huge a billow
+as cast it on our shore." Cerimon ordered the chest to be conveyed to
+his own house, and when it was opened he beheld with wonder the body of
+a young and lovely lady; and the sweet-smelling spices and rich casket
+of jewels made him conclude it was some great person who was thus
+strangely entombed: searching farther, he discovered a paper, from which
+he learned that the corpse which lay as dead before him had been a
+queen, and wife to Pericles, Prince of Tyre; and much admiring at the
+strangeness of that accident, and more pitying the husband who had lost
+this sweet lady, he said, "If you are living, Pericles, you have a heart
+that even cracks with woe." Then observing attentively Thaisa's face, he
+saw how fresh and unlike death her looks were, and he said, "They were
+too hasty that threw you into the sea:" for he did not believe her to be
+dead. He ordered a fire to be made, and proper cordials to be brought,
+and soft music to be played, which might help to calm her amazed spirits
+if she should revive; and he said to those who crowded round her,
+wondering at what they saw, "I pray you, gentlemen, give her air; the
+queen will live; she has not been entranced above five hours; and see,
+she begins to blow into life again; she is alive; behold, her eyelids
+move; this fair creature will live to make us weep to hear her fate."
+Thaisa had never died, but after the birth of her little baby had fallen
+into a deep swoon, which made all that saw her conclude her to be dead;
+and now by the care of this kind gentleman she once more revived to
+light and life; and opening her eyes, she said, "Where am I? Where is my
+lord? What world is this?" By gentle degrees Cerimon let her understand
+what had befallen her; and when he thought she was enough recovered to
+bear the sight, he showed her the paper written by her husband, and the
+jewels; and she looked on the paper, and said, "It is my lord's writing.
+That I was shipped at sea, I well remember, but whether there delivered
+of my babe, by the holy gods I cannot rightly say; but since my wedded
+lord I never shall see again, I will put on a vestal livery, and never
+more have joy." "Madam," said Cerimon, "if you purpose as you speak, the
+temple of Diana is not far distant from hence; there you may abide as a
+vestal. Moreover, if you please, a niece of mine shall there attend
+you." This proposal was accepted with thanks by Thaisa; and when she was
+perfectly recovered, Cerimon placed her in the temple of Diana, where
+she became a vestal or priestess of that goddess, and passed her days in
+sorrowing for her husband's supposed loss, and in the most devout
+exercises of those times.
+
+Pericles carried his young daughter (whom he named Marina, because she
+was born at sea) to Tarsus, intending to leave her with Cleon, the
+governor of that city, and his wife Dionysia, thinking, for the good he
+had done to them at the time of their famine, they would be kind to his
+little motherless daughter. When Cleon saw Prince Pericles, and heard of
+the great loss which had befallen him, he said, "O your sweet queen,
+that it had pleased Heaven you could have brought her hither to have
+blessed my eyes with the sight of her!" Pericles replied, "We must obey
+the powers above us. Should I rage and roar as the sea does in which my
+Thaisa lies, yet the end must be as it is. My gentle babe, Marina here,
+I must charge your charity with her. I leave her the infant of your
+care, beseeching you to give her princely training." And then turning to
+Cleon's wife, Dionysia, he said, "Good madam, make me blessed in your
+care in bringing up my child:" and she answered, "I have a child myself
+who shall not be more dear to my respect than yours, my lord;" and
+Cleon made the like promise, saying, "Your noble services, Prince
+Pericles, in feeding my whole people with your corn (for which in their
+prayers they daily remember you) must in your child be thought on. If I
+should neglect your child, my whole people that were by you relieved
+would force me to my duty; but if to that I need a spur, the gods
+revenge it on me and mine to the end of generation." Pericles, being
+thus assured that his child would be carefully attended to, left her to
+the protection of Cleon and his wife Dionysia, and with her he left the
+nurse Lychorida. When he went away, the little Marina knew not her loss,
+but Lychorida wept sadly at parting with her royal master. "O, no tears,
+Lychorida," said Pericles: "no tears; look to your little mistress, on
+whose grace you may depend hereafter."
+
+Pericles arrived in safety at Tyre, and was once more settled in the
+quiet possession of his throne, while his woeful queen, whom he thought
+dead, remained at Ephesus. Her little babe Marina, whom this hapless
+mother had never seen, was brought up by Cleon in a manner suitable to
+her high birth. He gave her the most careful education, so that by the
+time Marina attained the age of fourteen years, the most deeply-learned
+men were not more studied in the learning of those times than was
+Marina. She sang like one immortal, and danced as goddess-like, and with
+her needle she was so skilful that she seemed to compose nature's own
+shapes, in birds, fruits, or flowers, the natural roses being scarcely
+more like to each other than they were to Marina's silken flowers. But
+when she had gained from education all these graces, which made her the
+general wonder, Dionysia, the wife of Cleon, became her mortal enemy
+from jealousy, by reason that her own daughter, from the slowness of her
+mind, was not able to attain to that perfection wherein Marina excelled:
+and finding that all praise was bestowed on Marina, whilst her daughter,
+who was of the same age, and had been educated with the same care as
+Marina, though not with the same success, was in comparison disregarded,
+she formed a project to remove Marina out of the way, vainly imagining
+that her untoward daughter would be more respected when Marina was no
+more seen. To encompass this she employed a man to murder Marina, and
+she well timed her wicked design, when Lychorida, the faithful nurse,
+had just died. Dionysia was discoursing with the man she had commanded
+to commit this murder, when the young Marina was weeping over the dead
+Lychorida. Leonine, the man she employed to do this bad deed, though he
+was a very wicked man, could hardly be persuaded to undertake it, so had
+Marina won all hearts to love her. He said, "She is a goodly creature!"
+"The fitter then the gods should have her," replied her merciless enemy:
+"here she comes weeping for the death of her nurse Lychorida: are you
+resolved to obey me?" Leonine, fearing to disobey her, replied, "I am
+resolved." And so, in that one short sentence, was the matchless Marina
+doomed to an untimely death. She now approached, with a basket of
+flowers in her hand, which she said she would daily strew over the grave
+of good Lychorida. The purple violet and the marigold should as a carpet
+hang upon her grave, while summer days did last. "Alas, for me!" she
+said, "poor unhappy maid, born in a tempest, when my mother died. This
+world to me is like a lasting storm, hurrying me from my friends." "How
+now, Marina," said the dissembling Dionysia, "do you weep alone? How
+does it chance my daughter is not with you? Do not sorrow for Lychorida,
+you have a nurse in me. Your beauty is quite changed with this
+unprofitable woe. Come, give me your flowers, the sea-air will spoil
+them; and walk with Leonine: the air is fine, and will enliven you.
+Come, Leonine, take her by the arm, and walk with her." "No madam," said
+Marina, "I pray you let me not deprive you of your servant:" for Leonine
+was one of Dionysia's attendants. "Come, come," said this artful woman,
+who wished for a pretence to leave her alone with Leonine, "I love the
+prince, your father, and I love you. We every day expect your father
+here; and when he comes, and finds you so changed by grief from the
+paragon of beauty we reported you, he will think we have taken no care
+of you. Go, I pray you, walk, and be cheerful once again. Be careful of
+that excellent complexion, which stole the hearts of old and young."
+Marina, being thus importuned, said, "Well, I will go, but yet I have no
+desire to it." As Dionysia walked away, she said to Leonine, "_Remember
+what I have said!_"--shocking words, for their meaning was that he
+should remember to kill Marina.
+
+Marina looked towards the sea, her birthplace, and said, "Is the wind
+westerly that blows?" "South-west," replied Leonine. "When I was born
+the wind was north," said she: and then the storm and tempest, and all
+her father's sorrows, and her mother's death, came full into her mind;
+and she said, "My father, as Lychorida told me, did never fear, but
+cried, _Courage, good seamen_, to the sailors, galling his princely
+hands with the ropes, and, clasping to the masts, he endured a sea that
+almost split the deck." "When was this?" said Leonine. "When I was
+born," replied Marina: "never were wind and waves more violent;" and
+then she described the storm, the action of the sailors, the boatswain's
+whistle, and the loud call of the master, "which," said she, "trebled
+the confusion of the ship." Lychorida had so often recounted to Marina
+the story of her hapless birth that these things seemed ever present to
+her imagination. But here Leonine interrupted her with desiring her to
+say her prayers. "What mean you?" said Marina, who began to fear, she
+knew not why. "If you require a little space for prayer, I grant it,"
+said Leonine; "but be not tedious, the gods are quick of ear, and I am
+sworn to do my work in haste." "Will you kill me?" said Marina: "alas!
+why?" "To satisfy my lady," replied Leonine. "Why would she have me
+killed?" said Marina: "now, as I can remember, I never hurt her in all
+my life. I never spake bad word, nor did any ill turn to any living
+creature. Believe me now, I never killed a mouse, nor hurt a fly. I trod
+upon a worm once against my will, but I wept for it. How have I
+offended?" The murderer replied, "My commission is not to reason on the
+deed, but to do it." And he was just going to kill her, when certain
+pirates happened to land at that very moment, who seeing Marina, bore
+her off as a prize to their ship.
+
+The pirate who had made Marina his prize carried her to Mitylene, and
+sold her for a slave, where, though in that humble condition, Marina
+soon became known throughout the whole city of Mitylene for her beauty
+and her virtues; and the person to whom she was sold became rich by the
+money she earned for him. She taught music, dancing, and fine
+needleworks, and the money she got by her scholars she gave to her
+master and mistress; and the fame of her learning and her great industry
+came to the knowledge of Lysimachus, a young nobleman who was governor
+of Mitylene, and Lysimachus went himself to the house where Marina
+dwelt, to see this paragon of excellence, whom all the city praised so
+highly. Her conversation delighted Lysimachus beyond measure, for though
+he had heard much of this admired maiden, he did not expect to find her
+so sensible a lady, so virtuous, and so good, as he perceived Marina to
+be; and he left her, saying, he hoped she would persevere in her
+industrious and virtuous course, and that if ever she heard from him
+again it should be for her good. Lysimachus thought Marina such a
+miracle for sense, fine breeding, and excellent qualities, as well as
+for beauty and all outward graces, that he wished to marry her, and
+notwithstanding her humble situation, he hoped to find that her birth
+was noble; but ever when they asked her parentage she would sit still
+and weep.
+
+Meantime, at Tarsus, Leonine, fearing the anger of Dionysia, told her he
+had killed Marina; and that wicked woman gave out that she was dead, and
+made a pretended funeral for her, and erected a stately monument; and
+shortly after Pericles, accompanied by his loyal minister Helicanus,
+made a voyage from Tyre to Tarsus, on purpose to see his daughter,
+intending to take her home with him: and he never having beheld her
+since he left her an infant in the care of Cleon and his wife, how did
+this good prince rejoice at the thought of seeing this dear child of his
+buried queen! but when they told him Marina was dead, and showed the
+monument they had erected for her, great was the misery this most
+wretched father endured, and not being able to bear the sight of that
+country where his last hope and only memory of his dear Thaisa was
+entombed, he took ship, and hastily departed from Tarsus. From the day
+he entered the ship a dull and heavy melancholy seized him. He never
+spoke, and seemed totally insensible to everything around him.
+
+Sailing from Tarsus to Tyre, the ship in its course passed by Mitylene,
+where Marina dwelt; the governor of which place, Lysimachus, observing
+this royal vessel from the shore, and desirous of knowing who was on
+board, went in a barge to the side of the ship, to satisfy his
+curiosity. Helicanus received him very courteously and told him that the
+ship came from Tyre, and that they were conducting thither Pericles,
+their prince; "A man, sir," said Helicanus, "who has not spoken to any
+one these three months, nor taken any sustenance, but just to prolong
+his grief; it would be tedious to repeat the whole ground of his
+distemper, but the main springs from the loss of a beloved daughter and
+a wife." Lysimachus begged to see this afflicted prince, and when he
+beheld Pericles, he saw he had been once a goodly person, and he said to
+him, "Sir king, all hail, the gods preserve you, hail, royal sir!" But
+in vain Lysimachus spoke to him; Pericles made no answer, nor did he
+appear to perceive any stranger approached. And then Lysimachus
+bethought him of the peerless maid Marina, that haply with her sweet
+tongue she might win some answer from the silent prince: and with the
+consent of Helicanus he sent for Marina, and when she entered the ship
+in which her own father sat motionless with grief, they welcomed her on
+board as if they had known she was their princess; and they cried, "She
+is a gallant lady." Lysimachus was well pleased to hear their
+commendations, and he said, "She is such a one, that were I well assured
+she came of noble birth, I would wish no better choice, and think me
+rarely blessed in a wife." And then he addressed her in courtly terms,
+as if the lowly-seeming maid had been the high-born lady he wished to
+find her, calling her _Fair and beautiful Marina_, telling her a great
+prince on board that ship had fallen into a sad and mournful silence;
+and, as if Marina had the power of conferring health and felicity, he
+begged she would undertake to cure the royal stranger of his melancholy.
+"Sir," said Marina, "I will use my utmost skill in his recovery,
+provided none but I and my maid be suffered to come near him."
+
+She, who at Mitylene had so carefully concealed her birth, ashamed to
+tell that one of royal ancestry was now a slave, first began to speak to
+Pericles of the wayward changes in her own fate, telling him from what a
+high estate herself had fallen. As if she had known it was her royal
+father she stood before, all the words she spoke were of her own
+sorrows; but her reason for so doing was, that she knew nothing more
+wins the attention of the unfortunate than the recital of some sad
+calamity to match their own. The sound of her sweet voice aroused the
+drooping prince; he lifted up his eyes, which had been so long fixed and
+motionless; and Marina, who was the perfect image of her mother,
+presented to his amazed sight the features of his dead queen. The
+long-silent prince was once more heard to speak. "My dearest wife," said
+the awakened Pericles, "was like this maid, and such a one might my
+daughter have been. My queen's square brows, her stature to an inch, as
+wand-like straight, as silver-voiced, her eyes as jewel-like. Where do
+you live, young maid? Report your parentage. I think you said you had
+been tossed from wrong to injury, and that you thought your griefs would
+equal mine, if both were opened." "Some such thing I said," replied
+Marina, "and said no more than what my thoughts did warrant me as
+likely." "Tell me your story," answered Pericles; "if I find you have
+known the thousandth part of my endurance, you have borne your sorrows
+like a man, and I have suffered like a girl; yet you do look like
+Patience gazing on kings' graves, and smiling extremity out of act. How
+lost you your name, my most kind virgin? Recount your story I beseech
+you. Come, sit by me." How was Pericles surprised when she said her name
+was _Marina_, for he knew it was no usual name, but had been invented by
+himself for his own child to signify _seaborn_: "O, I am mocked," said
+he, "and you are sent hither by some incensed god to make the world
+laugh at me." "Patience, good sir," said Marina, "or I must cease here."
+"Nay," said Pericles, "I will be patient; you little know how you do
+startle me, to call yourself Marina." "The name," she replied, "was
+given me by one that had some power, my father, and a king." "How, a
+king's daughter!" said Pericles, "and called Marina! But are you flesh
+and blood? Are you no fairy? Speak on; where were you born? and
+wherefore called Marina?" She replied, "I was called Marina, because I
+was born at sea. My mother was the daughter of a king; she died the
+minute I was born, as my good nurse Lychorida has often told me weeping.
+The king, my father, left me at Tarsus, till the cruel wife of Cleon
+sought to murder me. A crew of pirates came and rescued me, and brought
+me here to Mitylene. But, good sir, why do you weep? It may be, you
+think me an impostor. But, indeed, sir, I am the daughter to King
+Pericles, if good King Pericles be living." Then Pericles, terrified as
+he seemed at his own sudden joy, and doubtful if this could be real,
+loudly called for his attendants, who rejoiced at the sound of their
+beloved king's voice; and he said to Helicanus, "O Helicanus, strike me,
+give me a gash, put me to present pain, lest this great sea of joys
+rushing upon me, overbear the shores of my mortality. O come hither,
+thou that wast born at sea, buried at Tarsus, and found at sea again. O
+Helicanus, down on your knees, thank the holy gods! This is Marina. Now
+blessings on thee, my child! Give me fresh garments, mine own Helicanus!
+She is not dead at Tarsus as she should have been by the savage
+Dionysia. She shall tell you all, when you shall kneel to her and call
+her your very princess. Who is this?" (observing Lysimachus for the
+first time). "Sir," said Helicanus, "it is the governor of Mitylene,
+who, hearing of your melancholy, came to see you." "I embrace you, sir,"
+said Pericles. "Give me my robes! I am well with beholding----O heaven
+bless my girl! But hark, what music is that?"--for now, either sent by
+some kind god, or by his own delighted fancy deceived, he seemed to hear
+soft music. "My lord, I hear none," replied Helicanus. "None?" said
+Pericles; "why it is the music of the spheres." As there was no music to
+be heard, Lysimachus concluded that the sudden joy had unsettled the
+prince's understanding; and he said, "It is not good to cross him: let
+him have his way:" and then they told him they heard the music; and he
+now complaining of a drowsy slumber coming over him, Lysimachus
+persuaded him to rest on a couch, and placing a pillow under his head,
+he, quite overpowered with excess of joy, sank into a sound sleep, and
+Marina watched in silence by the couch of her sleeping parent.
+
+While he slept, Pericles dreamed a dream which made him resolve to go to
+Ephesus. His dream was, that Diana, the goddess of the Ephesians,
+appeared to him, and commanded him to go to her temple at Ephesus, and
+there before her altar to declare the story of his life and misfortunes;
+and by her silver bow she swore, that if he performed her injunction, he
+should meet with some rare felicity. When he awoke, being miraculously
+refreshed, he told his dream, and that his resolution was to obey the
+bidding of the goddess.
+
+Then Lysimachus invited Pericles to come on shore, and refresh himself
+with such entertainment as he should find at Mitylene, which courteous
+offer Pericles accepting, agreed to tarry with him for the space of a
+day or two. During which time we may well suppose what feastings, what
+rejoicings, what costly shows and entertainments the governor made in
+Mitylene, to greet the royal father of his dear Marina, whom in her
+obscure fortunes he had so respected. Nor did Pericles frown upon
+Lysimachus's suit, when he understood how he had honoured his child in
+the days of her low estate, and that Marina showed herself not averse to
+his proposals; only he made it a condition, before he gave his consent,
+that they should visit with him the shrine of the Ephesian Diana: to
+whose temple they shortly after all three undertook a voyage; and, the
+goddess herself filling their sails with prosperous winds, after a few
+weeks they arrived in safety at Ephesus.
+
+There was standing near the altar of the goddess, when Pericles with his
+train entered the temple, the good Cerimon (now grown very aged) who had
+restored Thaisa, the wife of Pericles, to life; and Thaisa, now a
+priestess of the temple, was standing before the altar; and though the
+many years he had passed in sorrow for her loss had much altered
+Pericles, Thaisa thought she knew her husband's features, and when he
+approached the altar and began to speak, she remembered his voice, and
+listened to his words with wonder and a joyful amazement. And these were
+the words that Pericles spoke before the altar: "Hail, Diana! to perform
+thy just commands, I here confess myself the Prince of Tyre, who,
+frighted from my country, at Pentapolis wedded the fair Thaisa: she died
+at sea in childbed, but brought forth a maid-child called Marina. She at
+Tarsus was nursed with Dionysia, who at fourteen years thought to kill
+her, but her better stars brought her to Mitylene, by whose shores as I
+sailed, her good fortunes brought this maid on board, where by her most
+clear remembrance she made herself known to be my daughter."
+
+Thaisa, unable to bear the transports which his words had raised in her,
+cried out, "You are, you are, O royal Pericles"----and fainted. "What
+means this woman?" said Pericles: "she dies! gentlemen, help."--"Sir,"
+said Cerimon, "if you have told Diana's altar true, this is your wife."
+"Reverend gentleman, no," said Pericles: "I threw her overboard with
+these very arms." Cerimon then recounted how, early one tempestuous
+morning, this lady was thrown upon the Ephesian shore; how, opening the
+coffin, he found therein rich jewels, and a paper; how, happily, he
+recovered her, and placed her here in Diana's temple. And now, Thaisa
+being restored from her swoon said, "O my lord, are you not Pericles?
+Like him you speak, like him you are. Did you not name a tempest, a
+birth, and death?" He astonished said, "The voice of dead Thaisa!" "That
+Thaisa am I," she replied, "supposed dead and drowned." "O true Diana!"
+exclaimed Pericles, in a passion of devout astonishment. "And now," said
+Thaisa, "I know you better. Such a ring as I see on your finger did the
+king my father give you, when we with tears parted from him at
+Pentapolis." "Enough, you gods!" cried Pericles, "your present kindness
+makes my past miseries sport. O come, Thaisa, be buried a second time
+within these arms."
+
+And Marina said, "My heart leaps to be gone into my mother's bosom."
+Then did Pericles show his daughter to her mother, saying, "Look who
+kneels here, flesh of thy flesh, thy burthen at sea, and called Marina,
+because she was yielded there." "Blessed and my own!" said Thaisa: and
+while she hung in rapturous joy over her child, Pericles knelt before
+the altar, saying, "Pure Diana, bless thee for thy vision. For this, I
+will offer oblations nightly to thee." And then and there did Pericles,
+with the consent of Thaisa, solemnly affiance their daughter, the
+virtuous Marina, to the well-deserving Lysimachus in marriage.
+
+Thus have we seen in Pericles, his queen, and daughter, a famous example
+of virtue assailed by calamity (through the sufferance of Heaven, to
+teach patience and constancy to men), under the same guidance becoming
+finally successful, and triumphing over chance and change. In Helicanus
+we have beheld a notable pattern of truth, of faith, and loyalty, who,
+when he might have succeeded to a throne, chose rather to recall the
+rightful owner to his possession, than to become great by another's
+wrong. In the worthy Cerimon, who restored Thaisa to life, we are
+instructed how goodness directed by knowledge, in bestowing benefits
+upon mankind, approaches to the nature of the gods. It only remains to
+be told, that Dionysia, the wicked wife of Cleon, met with an end
+proportionable to her deserts; the inhabitants of Tarsus, when her cruel
+attempt upon Marina was known, rising in a body to revenge the daughter
+of their benefactor, and setting fire to the palace of Cleon, burnt both
+him and her, and their whole household: the gods seeming well pleased,
+that so foul a murder, though but intentional, and never carried into
+act, should be punished in a way befitting its enormity.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Tales from Shakespeare, by
+Charles Lamb and Mary  Lamb
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE ***
+
+***** This file should be named 20657.txt or 20657.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/6/5/20657/
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Janet Blenkinship and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/20657.zip b/20657.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dc69ecf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/20657.zip
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b179451
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #20657 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20657)
author	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-15 01:24:43 -0700
committer	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-15 01:24:43 -0700
commit	d9fd89e164c0a8b71809750560e63ff2d4ec4766 (patch)
tree	08f6f5628cf68c0107213cc6700f481bf590101a