THE BENEFITS OF ADVERSITY.

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 for ever hide me.
Vain pomp and glory of this world, I hate ye :
I feel my heart new open'd.

O, how wretched

Is that poor man that hangs on princes' favors!
There is betwixt that smile we would aspire to,
That sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin,
More pangs and fears than wars and women have ;
And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer,

Never to hope again.

171

[Enter CROMWELL and stands amazed. Why, how now Cromwell?

Crom. I have no power to speak, sir.

Wol.

What, amazed

At my misfortunes? can thy spirit wonder
A great man should decline? Nay, an you weep,
I am fall'n indeed.

Crom.

Wol.

How does your grace?

Never so truly happy, my good Cromwell.

Why, well:

172

SHAKESPEARE'S MORALS.

I know myself now; and I feel within me

A peace above all earthly dignities,

A still and quiet conscience. The king has cured me,
I humbly thank his grace; and from these shoulders,
These ruin'd pillars, out of pity, taken

A load would sink a navy, too much honour :
O, 'tis a burthen, Cromwell, 'tis a burthen
Too heavy for a man that hopes for heaven!

King Henry VIII., Act iii. Sc. 2, 1. 351.

WOLSEY'S DEATH.

At last, with easy roads, he came to Leicester,
Lodged in the abbey; where the reverend abbot,
With all his covent, honourably received him;
To whom he gave these words, 'O, father abbot,
An old man, broken with the storms of state,
Is come to lay his weary bones among ye;
Give him a little earth for charity!'

So went to bed; where eagerly his sickness
Pursued him still: and, three nights after this,
About the hour of eight, which he himself
Foretold should be his last, full of repentance,
Continual meditations, tears, and sorrows,

He gave his honours to the world again,
His blessed part to heaven, and slept in peace.

His overthrow heap'd happiness upon him;
For then, and not till then, he felt himself,

THE BENEFITS OF ADVERSITY.

:

And found the blessedness of being little
And, to add greater honours to his age
Than man could give him, he died fearing God.

173

King Henry VIII., Act iv. Sc. 2, 1. 17.

'Tis good for men to love their present pains

Upon example;1 so the spirit is eased :

And when the mind is quickened, out of doubt,
The organs, though defunct and dead before,
Break up their drowsy grave and newly move,
With casted slough and fresh legerity.

King Henry V., Act iv. Sc. 1, l. 18.

Whate'er I be,

Nor I nor any man that but man is

With nothing shall be pleased, till he be eased

With being nothing.

King Richard II., Act v. Sc. 5, 1. 38.

My long sickness

Of health and living now begins to mend,

And nothing brings me all things.2

Timon of Athens, Act v. Sc. 1, 1. 189.

1 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. - 2 Cor. xii. 10.

2 As having nothing, and yet possessing all things. — 2 Cor. vi. 10.

Adversity a Test of Character.

Queen Anne Bullen, in the very hour when she was preparing for the scaffold, called one of the king's privy chamber to her, and said to him: "Commend me to the king, and tell him he is constant in his course of advancing me. From a private gentlewoman he made me a marquisse; and from a marquisse a queen; and now he had left no higher degree of earthly honour, he hath made me a martyr.”

Agamemnon. Princess,

SIR FRANCIS BACON, Apothegms, 9.

What grief hath set the jaundice on your cheeks?

The ample proposition that hope makes

In all designs begun on earth below,

Fails in the promised largeness: checks and disasters
Grow in the veins of actions highest rear'd,

As knots, by the conflux of meeting sap,
Infect the sound pine and divert his grain
Tortive and errant from his course of growth.

Nor, princes, is it matter new to us

That we come short of our suppose so far

That after seven years' siege yet Troy walls stand;

Sith every action that hath gone before,
Whereof we have record, trial did draw
Bias and thwart, not answering the aim,

ADVERSITY A TEST OF CHARACTER.

And that unbodied figure of the thought

That gave 't surmised shape. Why then, you princes,
Do you with cheeks abash'd behold our works,
And call them shames? which are indeed nought else
But the protractive trials of great Jove

To find persistive constancy in men:

The fineness of which metal is not found

In fortune's love; for then the bold and coward,
The wise and fool, the artist and unread,

The hard and soft, seem all affined and kin :
But, in the wind and tempest of her frown,
Distinction, with a broad and powerful fan,
Puffing at all, winnows the light away:
And what hath mass or matter, by itself
Lies rich in virtue and unmingled.

175

Troilus and Cressida, Act i. Sc. 3.