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With this her solemn bird, nor walk by moon,
Or glitt'ring starlight, without thee is sweet.

But wherefore all night long shine these? for whom This glorious sight, when sleep hath shut all eyes."

Milton.

DRAMATIC, COMIC,

AND

OTHER PIECES.

Ulysses to Achilles.

;

TIME hath, my lord, a wallet at his back,
Wherein he puts alms for Oblivion
A great-siz'd monster of ingratitudes;
Those scraps are good deeds past,

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Which are devour'd as fast as they are made, tɔ* oT
Forgot as soon as done: Persev'rance, dear my lord,
Keeps Honour bright: to have done, is to hang
Quite out of fashion, like a rusty mail

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In monumental mockery. Take the instant way;
For Honour travels in a strait so narrow,

That 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 forth-right,
Like to an entered tide they all rush by,
And leave you hindmost ;-

Or, like a gallant horse fall'n in first rank,

T

I

O'er-run and trampled on: then what they do in present,

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Tho' less than yours in past, must o'ertop yours
For Time is like a fashionable host,

That slightly shakes his parting guest by th' hand,
And with his arms outstretch'd, as he would fly,
Grasps in the comer: the Welcome ever smiles,
And Farewell goes out sighing. O, let not virtue seek

Remuneration for the thing it was; for beauty, wit,
High birth, vigour of bone, desert in service,
Love, friendship, charity, are subjects all

To envious and calumniating time;

One touch of nature makes the whole world kin, That all, with one consent, praise new-born gauds, Though they are made and moulded of things past.”

Shakspeare.

Astarte !

Manfred to his beloved Astarte.

HEAR me, hear me→

my beloved! speak to me:

I have so much endured-so much endure

Look on me! the grave hath not changed thee more
Than I am changed for thee. Thou lovedst me
Too much, as I loved thee: we were not made
To torture thus each other, though it were
The deadliest sin to love as we have loved.
Say that thou loath'st me not-that I do bear
The punishment for both-that thou wilt be
One of the blessed-and that I shall die,
For hitherto all hateful things conspire
To bind me in existence-in a life
Which makes me shrink from immortality-
A future like the past. I cannot rest.
I know not what I ask, nor what I seek:
I feel but what thou art-and what I am;
And I would hear yet once, before I perish,
The voice which was my music-Speak to me !
For I have call'd on thee in the still night,

Startled the slumbering birds from the hush'd boughs,
And woke the mountain wolves, and made the caves
Acquainted with thy vainly echoed name,

Which answered me-many things answered me—
Spirits and men-but thou wert silent all.
Yet speak to me! I have outwatch'd the stars,
And gazed o'er heaven in vain in search of thee,

Speak to me! I have wandered o'er the earth
And never found thy likeness-Speak to me !
Look on the fiends around-they feel for me:
I fear them not, and feel for thee alone-
Speak to me! though it be in wrath ;—but say—
I reck not what-but let me hear thee once-
This once-once more!

Byron.

Rolla to the Peruvians.

My brave associates !-partners of my toil, my feelings, and my fame! Can Rolla's words add vigour to the virtuous energies which inspire 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. Whene'er they move in anger, desolation tracks their progress!-Where'er they pause in amity, affliction mourns their friendship.-They boast they come but to improve our state, enlarge our thoughts, and free us from the yoke of error !-Yes-they-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 honour 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's Pizarro. 2

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Shylock justifying his meditated Revenge.

If it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and hindered me of half a million laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated my enemies! And what's his reason? I am a Jew! Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Is he not fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same summer and winter, as a Christian is? If you stab us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that! If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, Revenge! The villany you teach me I will execute; and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.

Shakspeare.

Cato's Soliloquy.

IT must be so- -Plato, thou reason'st well!
Else, whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire,
This longing after Immortality?

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Or, whence this secret dread, and inward horror,

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