In dangerous wars, whilst you securely slept ;
For all my blood in Rome's great quarrel shed;
For all the frosty nights that I have watch'd;
And for these bitter tears, which now you see
Filling the aged wrinkles in my cheeks;
Be pitiful to my condemned sons.

Titus's Vain Appeal to the Tribunes.

If they did hear,

They would not mark me; or, if they did mark,
All bootless to them, they'd not pity me.
Therefore I tell my sorrows to the stones;
Who, though they cannot answer my distress,
Yet in some sort they're better than the tribunes,
For that they will not intercept my tale :
When I do weep, they humbly at my feet
Receive my tears, and seem to weep with me;
And, were they but attired in grave weeds,

Rome could afford no tribune like to these.

A stone is soft as wax, tribunes more hard than stones; A stone is silent, and offendeth not;

And tribunes with their tongues doom men to death.

Cruelty.

But how, if that fly had a father and mother,

How would he hang his slender gilded wings,

And buzz lamenting doings in the air?

Poor harmless fly!

That with his pretty buzzing melody,

Came here to make us merry; and thou hast kill'd him.

ACT V.

Revenge.

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

·000

TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.

This play describes the siege of Troy by the Greeks. Troilus, son of Priam king of Troy, and brother of Hector, is in love with Cressida, daughter of Calchas a Trojan priest, who takes part with the Greeks. Pandarus, uncle of Cressida, encourages the suit of Troilus, and he and Cressida exchange vows of fidelity; she, however, proves inconstant, and is seen in her father's tent by Troilus in the act of giving a token of love he had presented her with, to the Grecian commander Diomedes. Hector sends a challenge, daring any of the Grecian warriors to meet him in combat, which is accepted by Ajax; the fight takes place, but is broken off by Hector, who embraces Ajax and is invited by the Greeks to visit their camp. Achilles, one of the Greek chieftains, has stood aloof from the conflict in consequence of a quarrel with Agamemnon, the general-in-chief of the Greeks, he, however, after Hector's combat with Ajax, provokes the Trojan warrior to challenge him. They meet on the field of battle, and Hector, having put aside his helmet, is surprised by Achilles and his myrmidons and slain. Dr. Johnson, speaking of this play, says, "It is more correctly written than most of Shakspere's compositions, but it is not one of those in which either the extent of his views, or elevation of his fancy, is fully displayed."

Аст I.

Troilus's love for Cressida.

I tell thee I am mad

In Cressid's love: thou answer'st, She is fair
Pour'st in the open ulcer of my heart

;

Her eyes, her hair, her cheek, her gait, her voice;
Handlest in thy discourse, O, that her hand,
In whose comparison all whites are ink,

Writing their own reproach; to whose soft seizure,
The cygnet's down is harsh, and spirit of sense

Hard as the palm of ploughman! This thou tell'st me,
As true thou tell'st me, when I say—I love her;
But, saying thus, instead of oil and balm,

Thou layest in every gash that love hath given me
The knife that made it.

Respect.

I ask, that I might waken reverence, And bid the cheek be ready with a blush Modest as morning when she coldly eyes The youthful Phoebus.

Even such a passion doth embrace my bosom.
My heart beats thicker than a feverish pulse;
And all my powers do their bestowing lose,
Like vassalage at unawares encount'ring
The eye of majesty.

Cressida's profession of Constancy.

If I be false, or swerve a hair from truth, When time is old and hath forgot itself,

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

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

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

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

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

Pard to the hind, or stepdame to her son;

Yea, let them say, to stick the heart of falsehood,
As false as Cressid.

Honour.

Honour travels in a strait so narrow,
Where one but goes abreast: keep then the path :
For emulation hath a thousand sons,

That one by one pursue: if you give way,
Or hedge aside from the direct forthright,
Like to an enter'd tide, they all rush by,
And leave you hindmost.

ACT IV.

Character of Troilus.

The youngest son of Priam, a true knight; Not yet mature, yet matchless; firm of word: Speaking in deeds, and deedless* in his tongue; Not soon provoked, nor, being provoked, soon calm'd His heart and hand both open and both free; For what he has he gives, what thinks he shows: Yet gives he not till judgment guides his bounty, Nor dignifies an impair+ thought with breath Manly as Hector, but more dangerous;

*Not given to boasting.

:

† Improper.

For Hector, in his blaze of wrath, subscribes*
To tender objects; but he, in heat of action,
Is more vindictive than jealous love.

They call him Troilus.

Hector in Battle.

I have, thou gallant Trojan, seen thee oft, Labouring for destiny, make cruel way

Through ranks of Greekish youth: and I have seen thee,

As hot as Perseus, spur thy Phrygian steed,

And seen thee scorning forfeits and subduements, When thou hast hung thy advanced sword i' the air, Not letting it decline on the declined,†

That I have said unto my standers by,

Ló, Jupiter is yonder, dealing life !”

And I have seen thee pause, and take thy breath,
When that a ring of Greeks have hemm'd thee in,
Like an Olympian wrestling.

Achilles Surveying Hector.

Tell me, you heavens, in which part of his body Shall I destroy him? Whether there, there, or there? That I may give the local wound a name;

And make distinct the very breach whereout
Hector's great spirit flew answer me heavens !

·000——

CORIOLANUS.

Caius Marcius, a noble Roman, surnamed Coriolanus, from a great victory obtained by him over the Volscians in Corioli, is un

* Gives way to.

+ Vanquished.