greatest intellect who, in our recorded world, has left record of himself in the way of literature. On the whole, I know not such a power of vision, such a faculty of thought, if we take all the characters of it, in any other man such a calmness of depth, placid, joyous strength, all things imaged in that great soul of his so true and clear, as in a tranquil, unfathomable sea!"

OTHELLO'S SPEECH TO THE SENATE

MOST potent, grave, and reverend signiors,
My very noble and approved good masters,
That I have ta'en away this old man's daughter,
It is most true; true, I have married her;
The very head and front of my offending
Hath this extent, no more. Rude am I in speech,
And little blessed with the set phrase of peace;
For since these arms of mine had seven years' pith,
Till now some nine moons wasted, they have used
Their dearest action in the tented field;

And little of this great world can I speak,

More than pertains to feats of broil and battle;

And therefore little shall I grace my cause

In speaking for myself. Yet, by your gracious patience,

I will a round unvarnished tale deliver

Of

my

whole course of love; what drugs, what charms, What conjuration, and what mighty magic

(For such proceeding I am charged withal 1),

I won his daughter with..

Her father loved me; oft invited me ;

Still questioned me the story of my life

From year to year; the battles, sieges, fortunes
That I have passed.

I ran it through, even from my boyish days
To the very moment that he bade me tell it.
Wherein I spake of most disastrous chances,

1 here a preposition = with

Of moving accidents by flood and field,

Of hair-breadth 'scapes i' the imminent deadly breach;
Of being taken by the insolent foe,

And sold to slavery; of my redemption thence,

And portance in my travel's history;

Wherein of antres 2 vast, and deserts idle,

Rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads touch heaven,

It was my hint to speak;

such was the process;

And of the cannibals that each other eat

The anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders. This to hear,
Would Desdemona seriously incline:

But still the house affairs would draw her thence;
Which ever as she could with haste despatch,

She'd come again, and with a greedy ear
Devour up my discourse which I observing,
Took once a pliant hour, and found good means
To draw from her a prayer of earnest heart,
That I would all my pilgrimage dilate,
Whereof by parcels she had something heard,
But not intentively. I did consent;
And often did beguile her of her tears
When I did speak of some distressful stroke
That my youth suffered. My story being done,
She gave me for my pains a world of sighs :

She swore

In faith, 't was strange, 't was passing strange;

'T was pitiful, 't was wondrous pitiful :

She wished she had not heard it; yet she wished

That Heaven had made her such a man: she thanked me;

And bade me, if I had a friend that loved her,

I should but teach him how to tell my story,

And that would woo her. Upon this hint, I spake :

She loved me for the dangers I had passed;

And I loved her, that she did pity them.

This only is the witchcraft I have used.

1 demeanor, conduct

2 caverns

3 intently, closely

THE WINNING OF JULIET1

JULIET. Thou know'st the mask of night is on my face:
Else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek

For that which thou hast heard me speak to-night.
Fain would I dwell on form; fain, fain deny
What I have spoke but farewell compliment!
Dost thou love me? I know thou wilt say, Ay:
And I will take thy word; yet, if thou swear'st,
Thou mayst prove false; at lovers' perjuries,
They say, Jove laughs. O gentle Romeo,
If thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully:
Or if thou think'st I am too quickly won,
I'll frown and be perverse, and say thee nay,
So thou wilt woo; but else, not for the world.
In truth, fair Montague, I am too fond;
And therefore thou mayst think my 'havior light.
But trust me, gentleman, I'll prove more true
Than those that have more cunning to be strange.
I should have been more strange, I must confess,
But that thou overheard'st, ere I was 'ware,
My true love's passion: therefore pardon me ;
And not impute this yielding to light love,

Which the dark night hath so discovered.

ROMEO. Lady, by yonder blesséd moon I swear,

That tips with silver all these fruit-tree tops

JULIET. O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moor, That monthly changes in her circled orb,

Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.

ROMEO. What shall I swear by?

JULIET.

Do not swear at all,

Or, if thou wilt, swear by thy gracious self,

1 An extract from the love scene in the garden, in the play of "Romeo and Juliet." Romeo, concealed in the garden at night, is discovered by Juliet listening to her declaration of love for him.

JULIET. Well, do not swear: although I joy in thee,

I have no joy of this contract to-night;

It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden :

Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be
Ere one can say, It lightens. Sweet, good-night!
This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath,
May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.
Good-night, good-night! as sweet repose and rest
Come to thy heart, as that within my breast!
ROMEO. O, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?
JULIET. What satisfaction canst thou have to-night?
ROMEO. The exchange of thy love's faithful vow for mine.
JULIET. I gave thee mine before thou didst request it :

And yet I would it were to give again.

ROMEO. Wouldst thou withdraw it? for what purpose, love?
JULIET. But to be frank, and give it thee again.

And yet I wish but for the thing I have:

My bounty is as boundless as the sea,

My love as deep; the more I give to thee,

The more I have, for both are infinite.

WOLSEY ON THE VICISSITUDES OF LIFE'

FAREWELL, a long farewell, to all my greatness.
This is the state of man; to-day he puts forth
The tender leaves of hope, to-morrow blossoms,
And bears his blushing honors thick upon him;
The third day comes a frost, a killing frost;

1 Cardinal Wolsey held high offices of state under King Henry VIII. Being suddenly deprived of all his honors by the king, Shakespeare rep. resents him as uttering this speech.

And, when he thinks, good easy man, full surely
His greatness is a-ripening, - nips his root,
And then he falls, as I do. I have ventured,
Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders,
This many summers in a sea of glory ;
But far beyond my depth; my high-blown pride
At length broke under me; and now has left me,
Weary, and old with service, to the mercy
Of a rude stream, that must forever hide me.
Vain pomp and glory of this world, I hate ye;
I feel my heart new opened: O, how wretched
Is that poor man that hangs on princes' favors!
There is, betwixt that smile we would aspire to,
That sweet aspéct of princes, and their ruin,
More pangs and fears, than wars or women have :
And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer,
Never to hope again.

HAMLET'S SOLILOQUY

TO BE, or not to be, - that is the question :
Whether 't is nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune;
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,1

And, by opposing, end them?-To die, - to sleep,
and, by a sleep, to say we end

No more;

The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to, 't is a consummation

Devoutly to be wished. To die; - to sleep;

To sleep! perchance to dream; —ay, there's the rub:
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,2

1 to take. troubles; what is the rhetorical fault?