Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels,

All scattered in the bottom of the sea.

Some lay in dead men's skulls; and, in those holes
Where eyes did once inhabit, there were crept
(As 't were in scorn of eyes,) reflecting gems,
That wooed the slimy bottom of the deep,

And mocked the dead bones that lay scattered by.
Brak. Had you such leisure in the time of death,
To gaze upon these secrets of the deep?

Clar. Methought, I had; and often did I strive
To yield the ghost: but still the envious flood
Kept in my soul, and would not let it forth
To seek the empty, vast, and wandering air;
But smothered it within my panting bulk,
Which almost burst to belch it in the sea.
Brak. Awaked you not with this sore agony?
Clar. O, no, my dream was lengthened after life;
O, then began the tempest to my soul!

I passed, methought, the melancholy flood,

With that grim ferryman which poets write of,
Unto the kingdom of perpetual night.

The first that there did greet my stranger soul,
Was my great father-in-law, renowned Warwick;
Who cried aloud,- What scourge for perjury
Can this dark monarchy afford false Clarence!
And so he vanished: Then came wandering by
A shadow like an angel, with bright hair

Dabbled in blood; and he shrieked out aloud,

Clarence is come,—false, fleeting, perjured Clarence, That stabbed me in the field by Tewksbury;—

Seize on him, furies, take him to your torments!-With that, methought, a legion of foul fiends

Environed me, and howléd in mine ears
Such hideous cries, that, with the very noise,
I trembling waked, and, for a season after,
Could not believe but that I was in hell;
Such terrible impression made my dream.

WOLSEY'S SOLILOQUY, AFTER HIS DOWNFALL.

(From Henry VIII.)

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 honours thick upon him: The third day, comes a frost, a killing frost; 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 opened: O, how wretched Is that poor man, that hangs on princes' favours! There is betwixt that smile he 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!

SHYLOCK.

(From the Merchant of Venice.

Signior Antonio, many a time and oft,
In the Rialto you have rated me

About my moneys, and my usances:

Still have I borne it with a patient shrug;
For sufferance is the badge of all our tribe:
You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog,
And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine,

And all for use of that which is mine own.
Well then, it now appears, you need my help,
Go to then; you come to me, and you say,
Shylock, we would have moneys: You say so,
You, that did void your rheum upon my beard,

And foot me, as you spurn a stranger cur

Over

your threshold; moneys

your suit.

What should I say to you? Should I not say,
Hath a dog money? is it possible,

A cur can lend three thousand ducats? or
Shall I bend low, and in a bondman's key,
With 'bated breath, and whispering humbleness,
Say this,

Fair sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last ;
You spurned me such a day; another time

I'll lend you thus much moneys.

Shylock at length lends the money on condition of the payment of a pound of flesh, if the money is not returned at the time appointed. Salarino says:

Why, I am sure, if he forfeit, thou wilt not take his flesh; What's that good for?

Shylock replies:

To bait fish withal: 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 mine 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? 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 winter and summer, as a Christian is? if you prick 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.

BASSANIO LOOKING AT PORTIA'S PORTRAIT.

(From the Merchant of Venice.)

What find I here?

Fair Portia's counterfeit? What demi-god

Hath come so near creation? Move these eyes?
Or whether, riding on the balls of mine,

Seem they in motion? Here are severed lips,

Parted with sugar breath; so sweet a bar

Should sunder such sweet friends: Here in her hairs

The painter plays the spider; and hath woven

A golden mesh to entrap the hearts of men,
Faster than gnats in cobwebs; But her eyes, -
How could he see to do them? having made one,
Methinks, it should have power to steal both his,
And leave itself unfurnished.

MERCY.

(From the Merchant of Venice.)

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 thronéd 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 fear of kings;
But
is above this sceptred sway,

mercy

It is enthronéd 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.