Your days and nights bitter and grievous still :
May the hard hand of a vexatious need
Oppress and grind you; till at last, you find
The curse of disobedience all your portion.

Jaff. Half of your curse you have bestowed in vain;
Heaven hath already crown'd our faithful loves
With a young boy sweet as his mother's beauty.

May he live to prove more gentle than his grandsire,
And happier than his father!

Pri. No more.

Jaff. Yes, all; and then-adieu for ever.
There's not a wretch that lives on common charity,
But's happier than I; for I have known

The luscious sweets of plenty; every night
Hath slept with soft content about my head,
And never waked but to a joyful morning;
Yet now must fall, like a full ear of corn,

Whose blossom 'scaped, gets wither'd in the ripening.
Pri. Home, and be humble; study to retrench:
Discharge the lazy vermin of thy hall,

Those pageants of thy folly;

Reduce the glittering trappings of thy wife

To humble weeds, fit for thy little state:

Then to some suburb cottage both retire:

Drudge to feed loathsome life; pine, pine, and starve.

Jaff. Yes, if my heart would let me

This proud, this swelling heart; home I would go,
But that my doors are hateful to my eyes,
Fill'd and damm'd up with gaping creditors.
I've not now fifty ducats in the world;

Yet still I am in love, and pleased with ruin.
Oh! Belvidera!-Oh! she is my wife-
And we will bear our wayward fate together-
But ne'er know comfort more.

OTWAY.

HAMLET, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, AND

POLONIUS.

Ham. Will you play upon this pipe?

Guil. My lord, I cannot.

Ham. I pray you.

Guil. Believe me, I cannot.

Ham. I do beseech you.

Guil. I know no touch of it, my lord.

Ham. 'Tis as easy as lying: govern these ventages with your finger and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent music. Look you, these are the stops.

Guil. But these cannot I command to any utterance of harmony: I have not the skill.

Ham. Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me. You would play upon me; you would seem to know my stops; you would pluck out the heart of my mystery; you would sound me from my lowest note to the top of my compass; and there is much music, excellent voice, in this little organ, yet cannot you make it speak. 'Sblood! do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, you cannot play upon me.

[Enter Polonius.]

God bless you, sir!

Pol. My lord, the queen would speak with you, and presently. Ham. Do you see yonder cloud, that's almost in shape of camel?

Pol. By the mass, and 'tis like a camel, indeed.

Ham. Methinks, it is like a weasel.

Pol. It is backed like a weasel.

Ham. Or, like a whale?

Pol. Very like a whale.

Han. Then will I come to my mother by and by.

SHAKSPERE.

DRAMATIC READINGS,

IT must be so

ON IMMORTALITY.

- Plato, thou reason'st well!
Else, whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire,
This longing after immortality?

Or, whence this secret dread, and inward horror,
Of falling into nought? Why shrinks the soul,
Back on herself, and startles at destruction?
'Tis the Divinity that stirs within us;
"Tis Heaven itself that points out -a hereafter,
And intimates-Eternity, to man.

Eternity!-thou pleasing-dreadful thought!
Through what variety of untried being,

Through what new scenes and changes must we pass ;
The wide, the unbounded prospect, lies before me,
But shadows, clouds, and darkness, rest upon it.
Here will I hold. If there's a Power above us-

And that there is, all nature cries aloud

Through all her works - He must delight in virtue ;
And that which He delights in, must be happy.

But when? or where? This world was made for Cæsar.

I'm weary of conjectures— this must end them. (Laying his hand

on his sword.)

Thus am I doubly arm'd. My death and life,

My bane and antidote, are both before me.

The stars shall fade away, the sun himself
Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years;

But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth,
Unhurt amid the war of elements,

The wreck of matter, and the crush of worlds!

ADDISON.

SPEECH OF ROLLA TO THE PERUVIANS.

My brave associates

partners of my toil, my feelings, and my fame! Can Rolla's words add vigor to the virtuous energies which mspire your hearts? No; -you have judged, as I have, the foulness of the crafty plea by which these bold invaders would delude you. Your generous spirit has compared, as mine has, the motives which, in a war like this, can animate their minds and ours. They, by a strange frenzy driven, fight for power, for plunder, and extended rule-we, for our country, our altars, and our homes. They follow an adventurer whom they fear, and obey a power which they hate: we serve a monarch whom we love. -a God whom we adore. Where'er they move in anger, desolation tracks their progress! Whene'er they pause in amity, affliction mourns her friends. They boast, they come but to improve our state, enlarge our thoughts, and free us from the yoke of error! Yes-they will give enlightened freedom to our minds, who are themselves the slaves of passion, avarice, and pride. They offer us their protection - Yes, such protection as vultures give to lambs, covering and devouring them. They call on us to barter all of good we have inherited and proved, for the desperate chance of something better which they promise. Be our plain answer this: The throne we honor is the people's choice—the laws we reverence are our brave fathers' legacy — the faith we follow teaches us to live in bonds of charity with all mankind, and die with hope of bliss beyond the grave. Tell your invaders this; and tell them too, we seek no change: and, least of all, such change as they would bring us. SHERIDAN.

PORTIA'S SPEECH TO SHYLOCK.

THE quality of mercy is not strained,

It droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven,
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blessed;
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes:
"Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,

Wherein doth sit the dread and power of kings;
But mercy is above that sceptred sway;

It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;

And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this---
That in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy. I have spoken thus much,
To mitigate the justice of thy plea;

Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice

Must needs give sentence 'gainst the merchant there.

SHAKSPERE

HENRY THE FOURTH'S SOLILOQUY ON SLEEP.

How many thousand of my poorest subjects

Are at this hour asleep! O sleep! O gentle sleep!

Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee,

That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down,

And steep my senses in forgetfulness?

Why rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs,

Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee,

And hushed with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber,