Winding up days with toil, and night with sleep, Hath the fore-hand and vantage of a king.

SHAKESPEAR.

Henry V. act. iv.

How many thousands of my poorest subjects Are at this hour asleep! O gentle sleep, Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee,

That thou no more wilt weigh my eye-lids down, And steep my senses in forgetfulness !

4

Why rather, Sleep, lays't thou in smoky cribs,

Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee,

And hush'd with buzzing night flies to thy slumber;

Than in the perfum'd chambers of the great,
Under the canopies of costly state,

And lull'd with sounds of sweetest melody?

+

SHAKESPEAR.

Second Part Henry IV. act. iii

O POLISH'D perturbation! golden care ! That keep'st the ports of slumber open wide, To many a watchful night!-sleep with it now! Yet not so sound, and half so deeply sweet, As he whose brow, with homely biggen bound, Snores out the watch of night. O majesty! When thou dost pinch thy bearer, thou dost sit Like a rich armour, worn in heat of day,

That scalds with safety,

A MONARCH's crown,

Ib. act iv.

Golden in show, is but a crown of thorns,
Brings dangers, troubles, cares, and sleepless nights,
To him that wears the regal diadem.

N3

MILTON
Paradise Lost.

In yonder camp

They think me happy and they call me great :
There is not such a wretch in the wide world.

King.

LOGAN,

Runnamede, a Tragedy.

[KING, CASTRUCCIO, VILLIO.]

Он; my cruel stars,

That mark'd me out a king, raising me on

This pinnacle of greatness only to be

The nearer blasting!

The common butt for every slave to shoot at!
No peace, no rest I take, but their alarms

Beat at my heart! Why do I live, or seek then
To add a day more to these glorious troubles ?
Or to what end, when all I can arrive at

t

Is but the summing up of fears and sorrows?

I faint beneath the burthen of my cares,
And yield myself most wretched.

Villio (aside to Castruccio) Look but on this :
Has not a man that has but means to keep
A hawk, a greyhound, and a hunting nag,
More pleasure than this king?

Casiruccio. A dull fool still!

Make me a king, and let me scratch with care, And see who'll have the better; give me rule, Command, obedience, pleasure of a king,

And

And let the devil roar; the greatest corrosive
A king can have, is of more precious tickling,
And handled to the height, more dear delight,
Than other men's whole lives, let 'em be safe too.
Villio. Think of the mutinous people!

Castruccio. Hang the people!

1

Give me the pleasure, let me do all, awe all, Enjoy their wives and states at my discretion, And peg 'em when I please, let the slaves mumble. Villio. But say they should be vex'd, and rise against thee.

Castruccio. Let 'em rise, let 'em rise; give me the bridle here,

And see if they can crack my girts: Ah, Villio, Under the sun there's nothing so voluptuous

As riding this monster 'till he founder !

That hath power to do ill.

Castruccio. Of a thing rather

That does divide an empire with the Gods.
Observe but with how little breath he shakes
A populous city, which would stand unmov'd
Against a whirlwind.

Villio. Then you make him more
Than him that rules the winds.

Castruccio. For me, I do profess it, Were I offer'd to be any thing on earth I would be mighty Ferrand,

King. Ha! who names me?

Deliver thy thoughts, slave, thy thoughts, and

truly,

Or be no more!

Castruccio. They rather will deserve

Your favour than your fury. I admire
(As who does not, that is a loyal subject ?)
Your wisdom, power, your perfect happiness,
The most blessed of mankind.

King. Didst thou but feel
The weighty sorrows that sit on a crown,
Though thou shouldst find one in the streets,
Castruccio,

Thou wouldst not think it worth the taking up: But since thou art enamour'd of my fortune,

* The experiment is made, and before the day expires Castruccio repents, and exclaims: " I am a rascal, spare me but this time, if ever I see king more, or once be lieve in king"- " If ever you hear me name a king" or though I live under one, obey him"-&c. aut

COURTS.

T

10

L

INSTEAD of wondering that so many kings, unfit and unworthy to be trusted with the govern ment of mankind, appear in the world, I have been tempted to wonder that there are any tolerable, when I have considered the flattery that environs them most commonly from the cradle, and the tendency of all those false notions that are instilled into them by precept and by example, by the habits of courts, and by the interested selfish views of courtiers. They are bred to esteem themselves of a distinct and superior species among men, as men are among animals.

Louis the Fourteenth was a strong instance of the effect of this education, which trains up kings to be tyrants, without knowing that they are so. That oppression under which he kept his people, during the whole course of a long reign, might proceed, in some degree, from the natural haughtiness of his temper; but it proceeded, in a greater degree, from the principles and habits of his education. By this he had been brought to look on his kingdom as a patrimony that descended to him from his ancestors, and that was to be considered

in