Class Book COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT SHAKESPEARE BOILED DOWN li THE BEST THOUGHTS OF SHAKESPEARE. Price, 10 Cents. r **17~2L / By PAUL VICTOR LOTH. COPYRIGHT, 1894. CINCINNATI, OHIO: TMFS MONITOR COMPANY, Publishers. 1 1 "Enlightens every mind, cheers every heart, Brings sunshine into every home." THE MONITOR, A MONTHLY MAGAZINE) DEVOTED TO THE CLASSICS, CINCINNATI, OHIO. THIS is an age of concentration and perfection. Instead of accepting control of an entire department, men nowadays devote their entire attention to details, and perfect them. You pay a butcher a neat profit to select your meats and game, because he gives his entire attention to this one affair, and understands it thoroughly. A grocer secures your order, because he has the ability to select proper articles for the inner man. The editor of The Monitor is retained because he has the ability to select the most readable and valuable of all the classics. The Monitor is mailed, portage paid, for one year, for one dollar, stamps or postal note. Address The* Monitor Co., cincinnati, ohio. SHAKESPEARE BOILED DOWN. The Merchant of Venice. Nature hath fram'd strange fellows in her time : Some that will evermore peep through their eyes A.nd laugh like parrots at a bag-piper, And other of such vinegar aspect That they'll not show their teeth in way of smile. They lose the world who buy it with much care. Tis fit we hold the world but as the world : A stage where everyone must play his part. With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come. If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches and poor men's cottages prince's palaces. It is a good divine that follows his own instructions: I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than to be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching. Thrift is blessing, if men steal it not. An evil soul producing- holy witness Is like a villain with a smiling cheek, A goodly apple rotten, at the heart: O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath! Truth will conic to light ; murder cannot be hid long. All things that are, Are with more spirit chased than enjoy'd. Men that hazard all Do it in hope of fair advantages: A golden mind stoops not to shows of dross. Let none presume To wear an undeserved dignity. O, that estates, degrees and offices Were not deriv'd corruptly, and that clear honour Were purehas'd by the merit of the wearer! How many then should cover that stand bare! How many be commanded that command! How much low peasantry would then be glean'd From the true seed of honor! and how much honor Pick'd from the chaff and ruin of the times To be new-varnish'd ! Love is blind and lovers cannot see The pretty follies that themselves commit. So may the outward shows be least themselves: The world is still deceiVd with ornament. In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt, But, being season'd with a gracious voice, Obscures the show of evil? In religion, What damned error, but some sober brow Will bless it and approve it with a text, Hiding the grossness with fair ornament? There is no vice so simple but assumes Some mark of virtue on its outward parts : How many cowards, whose hearts are all as false As stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins The beards of Hercules and frowning Mais, Who, inward search'd, have livers white as milk; And these assume but valour's excrement To render them redoubted! Look on beauty. And you shall see 'tis purchas'd by the weight; Which therein works a miracle in nature, Making them lightest that wear most of it: So are those crisped golden snaky locks Which make such wanton gambols with the wind, Upon supposed fairness, often known To be the dowry of a second head, The skull that bred them in the sepulchre. Thus ornament is but the guiled shore To a most dangerous sea; the beauteous scarf Veiling an Indian beauty; in a word, The seeming truth which cunning times put on To entrap the wisest. Every offence is not a hate at first. How should men hope for mercy, showing none? What judgement shall we dread, doing no wrong? The weakest kind of fruit Drops soonest to the ground. We do pray for mercy, And that same prayer doth teach us all to render The deeds of mercy. They take the house that take away the prop That doth sustain the house : — they take the life That take away the means by which we live. The quality of mercy is not strain'd ; It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes: 'T is mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes The throned 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 mercy is above the sceptred sway; It is enthroned 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. He is well paid that is well satisfied. The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not mov'd with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils: Let no such man be trusted. How far that little candle throws his beam ! So shines a good deed in a naughty world. So doth the greater glory dim the less: A substitute shines brightly as a king Until a king be by ; and then his state Empties itself, as doth an inland brook Into the main of waters. How many things by season season'd are To their right praise and true perfection. As You Like It. O, how full of briars is this working-day world. Sweet are the uses of adversity, AVhich, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head. To some kind of men Their graces serve them but as enemies. And so, from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe, And then, from hour to hour, we rot and rot, And thereby hangs a tale. Your gentleness shall force More than your force move one to gentleness. All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plaj^s many parts, His acts being seven ages. At first the infant, Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms. And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like snail Unwillingly to school. And then the lover, Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier, Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard, Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel, Seeking the bubble reputation Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice, In fair round belly with good capon lin'd, With eyes severe and beard of formal cut, Full of wise saws and modern instances; And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon, With spectacles on nose and pouch on side, His youthful hose, well sav'd, a world too wide For his shrunk shank ; and his big manly voice, 8 Turning again toward childisn treble, pipes? And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all. That ends this strange eventful history, Is second childishness and mere oblivion, Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything. Blow, blow, thou winter wind, Thou art not so unkind As man's ingratitude; Thy tooth is not so keen, Because thou art not seen, Although thy breath be rude. Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky, That dost not bite so nigh As benefits forgot : Though thou the waters warp, Thy sting is not so sharp As friend remember'd not. He that wants money, means and content is with- out three good friends. Good pasture makes fat sheep. Time is the old justice that examines all offenders. 9 As a wall'd town is more worthier than a village, so is the forehead of a married man more honour- able than the bare brow of a bachelor Words do well When he that speaks them pleases those that hear. Omittance is do quittance. To have seen much and to have nothing, is to have rich eyes and poor hands. I had rather have a fool to make me merry than experience to make me sad. Make the doors upon a woman's wit and it will out at the casement ; shut that and 't will out at the key-hole; stop that, 't will fly with the smoke out at the chimney. O, how bitter a thing it is to look into happi- ness through another man's eyes! Rich honesty dwells like a miser in a poor house ; as your pearl in your foul oyster. Your If is the only peace-maker ; much virtue in If. 10 A Midsummer-night's Dream. The course of true love never did run smooth. What fools these mortals be ! Sleep sometimes shuts up sorrow's eye. Never anything can be amiss, When simpleness and duty tender it. Love, and tongue-tied simplicity, In least speak most. It is not enough to speak, but to speak true. Truth makes all things plain. The Taming of the Shrew. Frame your mind to mirth and merriment, Which bars a thousand harms and lengthens life. Let the world slip : we shall ne'er be younger. No profit grows where is no pleasure ta'en. There's small choice in rotten apples. Though little fire grows great with little wind, Yet extreme gusts will blow out fire and all. 11 'T is deeds must win the prize. The poorest service is repaid with thanks. 'T is the mind that makes the hody rich ; And as the sun breaks through the darkest cloud* 80 honour 'peareth in the meanest habit. All's Well That Ends Well. Moderate lamentation is the right of the dead, excessive grief the enemy to the living. Love all, trust a few, Do wrong to none: be able for thine enemy Rather in power than use, and keep thy friend Under thy own life's key: be check'd for silence But never tax'd for speech. Full oft we see Cold wisdom waiting on superfluous folly. Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, Which we ascribe to heaven. Marriage comes by destiny. Things may serve long, but not serve ever. 12 Though honesty be no puritan, yet it will do no hurt; it will wear the surplice of humility over the black gown of a big heart. Labouring art can never ransom nature From her inaidible estate ; I say we must not So stain our judgement, or corrupt our hope, To prostitute our past-cure malady To empirics, or to dissever so Our great self and our credit, to esteem A senseless help when help past sense we deem. Oft expectation fails and most oft there Where most it promises; and oft it hits Where hope is coldest and despair most sits. There is no fettering of authority. No legacy is so rich as honesty. 'T is not the many oaths that makes the truth, But the plain single vow that is vow'd true. How mightily sometimes we make us comforts of our losses! And how mightily some other times we drown our gain in tears! 13 The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together: our virtues would be proud, if our faults whipp'd them not; and our crimes would despair, if they were not cherish'd by our virtues. Praising what is lost Makes the remembrance dear. Our rash faults Make trivial price of serious things we have, Not knowing them until we know their grave : Oft our displeasures, to ourselvos unjust, Destroy our friends and after weep their dust: Our own love waking cries to see what's done, ^ r hile shameful hate sleeps out the afternoon. Twelfth Night. Care's an enemy to life. To be generous, guiltless and of free disposition, is to take those things for bird bolts that you deem cannon-bullets. Undo not what you have done ; kill not whom you have recover'd. 14 What is yours to bestow is not yours to reserve. Present mirth hath present laughter; What's to come is still unsure: In delay there lies uo plenty ; Youth's a stuff will not endure. However we do praise ourselves, Our fancies are more giddy and unfirm, More longing, wavering, sooner lost and worn, Than women's are. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em. A sentence is but a cheveril glove to a good wit: how quickly the wrong side may be turn'd outward! I hate ingratitude more in a man Than lying, vainness, babbling, drunkenness, Or any taint of vice whose strong corruption Inhabits our frail blood. To be said an honest man and a good housekeeper goes as fairly as to say a careful man and a great scholar. 15 Foolery shines everywhere. In nature there's no blemish but the mind ; None can be call'd deform' d but the unkind ; Virtue is beauty, but the beauteous evil Are empty trunks o'erflourish'd by the Devil. There is no darkness but ignorance. The Winter's Tale. Our praises are our wages: you may ride 's With one soft kiss a thousand furlongs ere With spur we heat an acre. I am sure 't is safer to Avoid what's grown than question how 't is born. Calumny will sear Virtue itself. The silence often of pure innocence Persuades when speaking fails. Prosperity's the very bond of love, Whose fresh complexion and whoso heart together Affliction alters. 16 What's gone and what's past help Should be past grief. A merry heart goes all the day, Your sad tires in a mile. Though authority be a stubborn bear, yet he is j> i't led by the nose with gold: show the inside of . our purse to the outside of his hand, and no more The Tempest. Grief is beauty's canker. Too light winning Makes the prize light. Misery acquaints a man with strange bed-fellows. Some kinds of baseness Are nobly undergone and most poor matters Point to rich ends. While thou liv'st, keep a good tongue in thy head He that dies pays all his debts. How beauteous mankind is! Do not, for one repulse, forego the purpose That you resolv'd t 1 effect. Let us not burthen our remembrance with A heaviness that 's gone. Two Gentlemen of Verona. Home-keeping youth have ever homely wits. Experience is by industry achiev'd And perfected by the swift course of time. A woman sometimes scorns what best contents her. That man that hath a tongue, I say is no man, If with his tongue he cannot win a woman. Cease to lament for that thou canst not help, And study help for that which thou lament'st; Time is the nurse and breeder of all good. Hope is a lover's staff. Good things should be praised. Where your good word can not advantage, Your slander never can endamage. 18 How use doth breed a habit in a man. Who by repentance is not satisfied Is nor of heaven nor earth, for these are pleas'd. By penitence the Eternal's wrath's appeas'd. Were man But constant, he were perfect. That one error Fills him with faults. The Merry Wives of Windsor. Money is a good soldier. Better three hours too soon than a minute too late. O, what a world of vile ill-favored faults Looks handsome in three hundred pounds a-year. What cannot be eschew'd must be embrac'd. Measure for Measure. If our virtues Did not go forth of us, 't were all alike As if we had them not. Good counselers lack no clients. 19 Our doubts are traitors, And make us lose the good we oft might win By fearing to attempt. We must not make a scarecrow of the law, Setting it up to fear the birds of prey, And let it keep one shape, till custom make it Their perch and not their terror. 'T is one thing to be tempted, Another thing to fall. Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall : Some run through brakes of vice, and answer none: And some condemned for a fault alone. Mercy is not itself, that oft looks so ; Pardon is still the nurse of second woe. Condemn the fault and not the actor of it. No ceremony that to great ones 'longs, Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword, The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe Become them with one half so good a grace As mercy does. 20 Shall we serve Heaven With less respect than we do minister To our gross selves? O, 't is excellent To have a giant's strength ; but it is tyrranou:-> To use it like a giant. Man, proud man, Drest in a little brief authority, Most ignorant of what he's most assur'd, His glassy essence, like an angry ape, Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven As make the angels weep. Great men may jest with saints ; 't is wit in them ; But in the less, foul profanation. Authority, though it err like others, Hath yet a kind of medicine in itself. Thieves for their robbery have authority When judges steal themselves. Wisdom wishes to appear most bright When it doth tax itself. 21 The tempter or the tempted, who sins most? It oft falls out, To have what we would have, we speak not what we mean. The miserable have no other medicine But only hope. Hope is a bitter deputy. Death 's a great disguiser. Be absolute for death : either death or life Shall thereby be the sweeter. Reason thus with life If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing That none but fools would keep : a breath thou art, Servile to all the skyey influences, That dost this habitation where thou keep'st Hourly afflict: merely, thou art death's fool; For him thou labour'st by thy flight to shun And yet runn'st toward him still. Thou art not noble ; For all the accommodations that thou bear'st Are nurs'd by baseness. Thou 'rt by no means valiant For thou dost fear the soft and tender fork Of a poor worm. Thy best of rest is sleep, And that thou oft provok'st ; yet grossly fear'st 22 Thy death, which is no more. Thou art not thyself; For thou exist'st on many a thousand grains That issue out of dust. Happy thou art not; For what thou hast not, still thou striVst to get, And what thou hast, forget'st. Thou art not certain ; For thy complexion shifts to strange effects, After the moon. If thou art rich, thou 'rt poor; For, like an ass whose back with ingots hows, Thou bear'st thy heav}^ riches but a journey, And death unloads thee. Friend hast thou none; For thine own bowels, whicli do call thee sire, The mere effusion of thy proper loins, Do curse the gout, serpigo, and the rheum, For ending thee no sooner. Thou hast nor youth nor age But, as it were, an after-dinner's sleep, Dreaming on both ; for all thy blessed youth Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms Of palsied eld; and when thou art old and rich, Thou hast neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty, To make thy riches pleasant. What's yet in this That bears the name of life? Yet in this life Lie hid moe thousand deaths : yet death we fear, That makes these odds all even. 23 The weariest and most loathed worldly life That age, ache, penury and imprisonment Can lay on nature is a paradise To what we fear of death. Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful. Back-wounding calumny The whitest virtue strikes. O, what may man within him hide, Though angel on the outward side! O place and greatness! millions of false eyes Are stuck upon thee : volumes of report Run with these false and most contrarious quests Upon thy doings: thousand escapes of wit Make thee the lather of their idle dreams And rack thee in their fancies. All difficulties are but easy when they are known. Truth is truth To th> end of reckoning. Make not impossible That which but seems unlike. 24 The Comedy of Errors. A man is muster of his liberty: Time is their master. A wretched soul, bruis'd with adversity, We bid be quiet, when we hear it cry ; But were we burden'd with like weight of pain, As much or more we should ourselves complain. How many fond fools serve mad jealousy ! There 's a time for all things. The venom clamours of a jealous woman Poisons more deadly than a mad dog's tooth. Unquiet meals make ill digestions. Careful hours with time's deformed hand Write strange defeatures in one's face. Much Ado About Nothing. Trouble being gone, comfort should remain. Silence is the perfectest herald of joy. Every one can master a grief but he that has it. 25 To be a well-favored man is the gift of fortune. They that touch pitch will he defiTd. Fashion wears out more apparel than the man. O, what men dare do! what men may do! what men daily do, not knowing what they do ! What authority and show of truth Can cunning sin cover itself withal ! It so falls out That what we have we prize not to the worth Whiles we enjoy it, hut being lack'd and lost, Why, then we rack the value ; then we find The virtue that possession would not show us. Men Can counsel and speak comfort to that grief Which they themselves not feel; but, tasting it, Their counsel turns to passion, which before Would give preceptial medicine to rage, Fetter strong madness in a silken thread, Charm ache with air and agony with words: No, no ; 't is all men's office to speak patience. 26 To those that wring under the load of sorrow, But no man's virtue nor sufficiency To be so moral when he shall endure The like himself. There was never yet philosopher That could endure the tooth-ache patiently. There 's not one wise man among twenty that will praise himself. Love's Labour's Lost. Affliction may one clay smile again. Short-liv'd wits do wither as they grow. Where fair is not, praise cannot mend the brow. Fair payment for foul words is more than due. O thou monster Ignorance, how deformed dost thou look! Beauty doth varnish age, as if new-born, And gives the crutch the cradle's infancy: O, 't is the sun that maketh all things shine. A light heart lives long. 27 Past cure is still past care. Speak to be understood. The extreme haste of time extremely forms All causes to the purpose of his speed, And often at his very loose decides That which long process could not arbitrate. Honest plain words best pierce the ear of grief. Mirth cannot move a soul in agony. A jest's prosperity lies in the ear Of him that hears it, never in the tongue Of him that makes it. Othello. T is the curse of service Preferment goes by letter and affection, And not by old gradation. We cannot all be masters, nor all masters Cannot be truly follow'd. Men do their broken weapons rather use Than their bare hands. 28 When remedies are past, the griefs are ended By seeing the worst, which late on hopes depended. To mourn a mischief that is past and gone Is the next way to draw new mischief on. What cannot be preserved when fortune takes Patience her injury a mockery makes. The robb'd that smiles steals something from the thief: He robs himself that spends a bootless grief. Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners. Put money in thy purse. A finder of occasions, that has an eye can stamp and counterfeit advantages, though true advantage never present itself. Knavery's plain face is never seen till used. Let's teach ourselves that honourable stop, Not to outsport discretion. A life's but a span. Men in rage strike those that wish them best. Good wine is a good familiar creature if it be well used 29 Reputation is an idle and most false imposition : oft got without merit, aud lost without deserving. O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be kuown by, let us call thee devil! O God, that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains! that we should, with joy, pleasance, revel and applause, transform ourselves into beasts! How poor are they that have not patience ! What wound did ever heal but by degrees? Fruits that blossom first will first be ripe. Pleasure and action make the hours seem short. Good name in man and woman, dear my lord, Is the immediate jewel of their souls : Who steals my purse steals trash ; 'tis something, nothing; 'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands; But lie that filches from me my good, name Robs me of that which not enriches him And makes me poor indeed. 30 Men should be what they seem ; Or those that be not, would they might seem none! O beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock The meat it feeds on. O, what damned minutes tells he o'er Who dotes, yet doubts, suspects, yet strongly loves! Poor and content is rich and rich enough, But riches fineless is as poor as winter To him that ever fears he shall be poor. To be once in doubt Is once to be resolved. Trifles light as air Are to the jealous confirmation strong As proofs of holy writ. He that is robb'd, not wanting what is stol'n, Let him not know't, and he's not robb'd at all. They laugh that win. Guiltiness will speak, Though tongues were out of use. 31 Troilus and Cressida. He that will have a cake out of the wheat must needs tarry the grinding. Men prize the thing ungain'd more than it is: Things won are done ; joy's soul lies in the doing. In the reproof of chance Lies the true proof of men : the sea being smooth, How many shallow bauble boats dare sail Upon her patient breast, making their way With those of nobler bulk ! Modest doubt is call'd The beacon of the wise. What is aught, but as 't is valued? The amity that wisdom knits not, folly may easi- ly untie. Fair fruit in an unwholesome dish, Are like to rot un tasted. He that is proud eats up himself. To make a sweet lady sad is a sour offence. 32 Blind fear, that seeing reason leads, finds safer footing tban blind reason stumbling without fear: to fear the worst oft cures the worst. Greatness, once fall'n out with fortune, Must fall out with men too. O heavens, what some men do, While some men leave to do ! Things in motion sooner catch the eye Than what not stirs. Omission to do what is necessary Seals a commission to a blank of danger ; And danger, like an ague, subtly taints Even then when we sit idly in the sun. Sometimes we are devils to ourselves, When we will tempt the frailty of our powers, Presuming on their changeful potency. What's past and what's to come is strew'd with husks And formless ruin of oblivion. Life every man holds dear; but the brave man Holds honour far more precious-dear than life. 33 Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back, Wherein he puts alms for oblivion, A great-sized monster of ingratitudes: Those scrapes are good deeds past ; which are devour'd As fast as they are made, forgot as soon As done: perseverance, dear my lord, Keeps honour bright: to have done is to hang Quite out of fashion, like a rusty mail In monumental mockery. Take the instant way; For honour travels in a strait so narrow, Where 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, forthright, Like to an enter'cl tide, they all rush by And leave you hindmost; Or, like a gallant horse fall'n in first rank, Lie there for pavement to the abject rear, O'er-run and trampled on: then what they do in present Though less than yours in past, must o'ertop yours; For time is like a fashionable host That slightly shakes his parting guest by the hand, And with his arms outstretch'd, as he would fly, Grasps in the comer: welcome ever smiles, And farewell goes out sighing. O, let not virtue seek Remuneration for the thing it was ; For beauty, wit, 34 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 gawds, Though they are made and moulded of things past, And give to dust that is a little gilt More laud than gilt o'erdusted. The present eye praises the present object. CoRIOLANUS. Nature teaches beasts to know their friends. Ingratitude is monstrous, and for the multitude to be ingrateful, were to make a monster of the multitude. Action is eloquence. Titus Andronicus. Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge. He lives in fame that died in virtue's cause. What you cannot as you would achieve, You must perforce accomplish as you may. 35 Sorrow concealed, like an oven stopp'd, Doth burn the heart to cinders where it is. Two may keep counsel when the third's away. Friends should associate friends in grief and woe. Romeo and Juliet. Sad hours seem long. Love is a smoke rais'd with the fume of sighs ; Being purg'd, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes; Being vex'd, a sea nourish'd with lovers' tears: What is it else? a madness most discreet, A choking gall and a preserving sweet. That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet. Nought so vile that on the earth doth live But to the earth some special good doth give ; Nor aught so good but strain'd from that fair use Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse: Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied; And vice sometimes by action dignified. 36 He jests at scars that never felt a wound. Care keeps his watch in every old man's eye, And where care lodges, sleep will never lie ; But where unbruised youth with imstuff'd brain Doth couch his limbs, 'there golden sleep doth reign. They stumble that run fast. Violent delights have violent ends, And in their triumph die, like fire and powder, Which as they kiss consume. Life, living, all is Death's. O mischief, thou art swift To enter in the thoughts of desperate men! Timon of Athens. 'T is not enough to help the feeble up, But to support him after. Ceremony was but devis'd at first To set a gloss on faint deeds, hollow welcomes, Recanting goodness, sorry ere 't is shown ; But where there is true friendship there needs none. 37 Honest water ne'er left man i' the mire. Immortal gods, I crave no pelf; I pray for no man but myself: Grant I may never prove so fond, To trust man on his oath or bond ; Or a harlot, for her weeping ; Or a dog, that seems a-sleeping ; Or a keeper with my freedom ; Or my friends, if I should need 'em. Amen. — Apemantus' grace. Like madness is the glory of this life. "We make ourselves fools to disport ourselves; And spend our flatteries, to drink those men Upon whose age we void it up again, With poisonous spite and envy. Who lives that's not depraved or depraves? Who dies that bears not one spurn to their graves Of their friends' gift? Friendship 's full of dregs : Me thinks false hearts should never have sound legs. O, that men's ears should be To counsel deaf, but not to flattery ! 38 Pity is the virtue of the law, And none but tyrants use it cruelly. Rich men deal gifts, Expecting in return twenty for one. Promising is the very air o' th' time : it opens the eyes of expectation : performance is ever the duller for his act; and, but in the plainer and simpler kind of people, the deed of saying is quite out of use. To promise is most courtly and fashionable ; performance is a kind of will or testament which argues a great sickness in his judgement that makes it. Julius Cesar. Men at some time are masters of their fates. Antonius, Let me have men about me that are fat: Sleek-headed men and such as sleep o' nights: Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look; He thinks too much: such men are dangerous. A friend should bear his friend's infirmities. 39 The abuse of greatness is, when it disjoins Remorse from power. Lowliness is young ambition's ladder, Whereto the climber upward turns his face ; But when he once attains the upmost round, He then unto the ladder turns his back, Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees By which he did ascend. Between the acting of a dreadful thing And the first motion, all the interim is Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream: The Genius and the mortal instruments Are then in council ; and the state of man, Like to a little kingdom, suffers then The nature of an insurrection. Cowards die many times before their deaths ; The valiant never taste of death but once. There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune: Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries. 40 Good reasons must, of force, give place to better. O hateful error, melancholy's child, Why dost thou show to the apt thoughts of men The things that are not? O error, soon conceiv'd Thou never com'st unto a happy birth, But kill'st the mother that engender'd thee ! Macbeth. Oftentimes, to win us to our harm, The instruments of darkness tell us truths, Win us with honest trifles, to betray 's In deepest consequence. Present fears Are less than horrible imaginings. Screw your courage to the sticking, place, And you'll not fail. Sleep knits up the ravell'd sleeve of care, The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath, Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, Chief nourisher in life's feast. 41 The labour we delight in physics pain. Things without all remedy Should be without regard : what's done is done. Security Is mortals' chiefest enemy. Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell. Boundless intemperance In nature is a tyrrany. The grief that does not speak Whispers the o'er-fraught heart and bids it break. To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time, And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life 's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more : it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. 42 Unnatural deeds Do breed unnatural troubles : infected minds To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets. Hamlet. All that lives must die, Passing through nature to eternity. Foul deeds will rise, Though all the earth o'er whelm them, to men's eyes. A double blessing is a double grace Give thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any unproportioned thought his act. Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel ; But do not dull thy palm with entertainment Of each new-hatcli'd unfledged comrade. Beware Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in, Bear 't that the opposed may beware of thee. Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice ; Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgement. 43 Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy; For the apparel oft proclaims the man. Neither a borrower nor a lender be ; For loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. This above all : to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the clay, Thou canst not then be false to any man. One may smile, and smile, and be a villain. There are more things in heaven and earth, Than are dreamt of in our philosophy. Oft it chances in particular men, That for some vicious mole of nature in them, As, in their birth — wherein they '"are not guilty, Since nature cannot choose his origin — By the o'ergrowth of some complexion Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason, Or by some habit that too much o'erleavens ; The form of 'plausive manners, that these men, Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect, Being nature's 'livery , or fortu^v's star; — 44 Their virtues else — be they as pure as grace, As infinite as man may undergo — Shall in the general censure take corruption From that particular fault : the dram of evil Doth all the noble substance oft adulter To his own scandal. Brevity is the soul of wit, And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes. To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man pick'd out of ten thousand. There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. What a piece of work is a man ! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and mov- ing how express and admirable ! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! Murder, though it have no tongue, will speak With most miraculous organ. To the noble mind Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind. 45 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, And by opposing end them ? To die : to sleep ; No more ; and by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, 't is a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. 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, Must give us pause : there 's the respect That makes calamity of so long life ; For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay, The insolence of office and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, 46 The undiseover'd country from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of? Thus conscience does make cowards of us all ; And thus the native hue of resolution Is sickli'd o'er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pith and moment With this regard their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action. Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Give me that man That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart. Words without thoughts never to heaven go. Repent what 's past; avoid what is to come; And do not spread the compost on the weeds, To make them ranker. Use almost can change the stamp of nature, And either tame the devil or throw him out. 47 Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works. Diseases desperate grown By desperate appliance are relieved Or not at all. What is a man, If his chief good and market of his time Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more. We know what we are, but know not what we may be. When sorrows come, they come not single spies, But in battalions. To what base uses we may return! Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander till he find it stopping a bung-hole ? Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well, When our deep plots do pall : and that should teach us There 's a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will. This fell sergeant, death, Is strict in his arrest. 48 King Lear. Mend your speech a little, Lest it may mar your fortunes. Time shall unfold what plaited cunning hides: Who cover faults, at last shame them derides. Have more than thou skowest, Speak less than thou knowest, Lend less than thou owest. How sharper than a serpant's tooth it is To have a thankless child ! Striving to better, oft we mar what 's well. Tremble, thou wretch, That hast within thee undivulged crimes, Unwhipp'd of justice: hide thee, thou bloody hand; Thou perjur'd, and thou simular man of virtue That art incestuous : caitiff, to pieces shake, That under covert and convenient seeming Hast practis'd on man's life : close pent-up guilts, Rive your concealing continents, and cry These dreadful summoners grace. Allow not nature more than nature needs. 49 We are not ourselves When nature, being oppress'd, commands the mind To suffer with the body. All 's not offence that indiscretion finds so. Where the greater malady is fixed, The lessei is scarce felt. Full oft 't is seen, Our means secure us, and our mere defects Prove our commodities. AVisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile: Filths savour but themselves. Through tatter'd clothes small vices do appear ; Kobes and furr'd gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold, And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks; Arm it in rags, a pigmy's straw does pierce it. Antony and Cleopatra. We, ignorant of ourselves, Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers Deny us for our good : so find we profit By losing of our prayers. 50 Who seeks, and will not take when once 't is otfer'd, Shall never find it more. Celerity is never more admir'd Than by the negligent. Never anger Made good gaurd for itself. Cymbeline. Winning will put any man into courage. 'T is gold Which makes the true man kill'd and .saves the thief; Nay, sometime hangs both thief and true man: what Can it not do and undo? Plenty and peace breeds cowards: hardness ever Of hardiness is mother. The sweat of industry would dry and die, But for the end it works to. Our stomachs Will make what 's homely savoury : weariness Can snore upon the flint, when resty sloth Finds the down pillow hard. Great griefs med'cine the less. 51 Cowards father cowards and base things sire base: Nature hath meal and bran, contempt and grace. Poor wretches that depend On greatness' favour dream, wake and find nothing. By medicine life may be prolonged, yet deatli Will seize the doctor too. Pericles, Prince of Tyre. Few love to hear the sins they love to act. Flattery is the bellows blows up sin. 'T is time to fear when tyrants seem to kiss. The fishes live in the sea as men do a-land: the great ones eat up the little ones. Opinion 's but a fool, that makes us scan The outward habit by the inward man. Virtue and cunning were endowments ever greater Than nobleness and riches. No visor does become black villany So well as soft and tender flattery. To wisdom he 's a fool that will not yield. 52 King John. New-made honour doth forget men's names. Courage mounteth with occasion. Grief is proud and makes his owner stoop. Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man. Before the curing of a strong disease, Even in the instant of repair and health, The fit is strongest ; evils that take leave, On their departure most of all show evil. When Fortune means to men most good, She looks upon them with a threatening eye. Oftentimes excusing of a fault Doth make the fault the worse by the excuse. How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds Makes ill deeds done ! King Richard the Second. The means that heaven yields must he embrac'd, And not neglected. The purest treasure mortal times afford Is spotless reputation : that away, Men are but gilded loam or painted clay. A jewel iu a ten-times-barr'd-up chest Is a bold spirit in a loyal breast. Mine honour is my life; both grow in one; Take honour from me and my life is done. Violent fires soon burn out themselves ; Small showers last Ions;, but sudden storms are short ; He tires betimes that spurs too fast betimes; With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder : Light vanity, insatiate cormorant, Consuming means, soon preys upon itself. Wise men ne'er sit and wail their woes. I wasted time, and now doth time waste me. King Henry the Fourth. Youth, the more it is wasted the sooner it wears. Nothing can seem foul to those that win. How quickly nature falls into revolt When gold becomes her object! 54 gentlemen, the time of life is short ! To spend that shortness basely were too long, If life did ride upon a dial's point, Still ending at the arrival of an hour. Thought 's the slave of life, and life time's fool ; And time, that takes survey of all the world, Must have a stop. A good wit will make use of anything. • Your wisdom lie your guide. Fortune either gives a stomach and no food ; Such are the poor, in health; or else a feast And takes away the stomach; such are the rich, That have abundance and enjoy it not. An honest man is able to speak for himself. Let men take heed of their company. King Henry the Fifth. Trust none; For oaths are straws, men's faiths are wafer-cakes. Self-love is not so vile a sin As self-neglecting. 55 In cases of defence 't is best to weigh The enemy more mighty than he seems : So the proportions of defence are fill'd ; Which of a weak and niggardly projection Doth, like a miser, spoil his coat with scanting A little cloth. There is some soul of goodness in things evil, Would men observingly distil it out. A speaker is but a prater; a rhyme is but a ballad. A good leg will fall ; a straight back will stoop; a black beard will turn white; a cuiTd pate will grow bald ; a fair face will wither ; a full eye will wax hollows but a good heart is the sun, for it chines bright and never changes, but keeps his course truly. King Henry the Sixth. Glory is like a circle in the water, Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself Till by broad spreading it disperse to nought. Care is no cure, but rather corrosive, For things that are not to be remedied. 56 Delays have dangerous ends. 'T is but a base ignoble mind That mounts no higher than a bird can soar. Blessed are the peacemakers on earth. Sometimes hath the brightest day a cloud ; And after summer evermore succeeds Barren winter, with his wrathful nipping cold : So cares and joys abound, as seasons fleet. Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep. The fox barks not when he would steal the lamb. A heart unspotted is not easily daunted. What stronger breast-plate than a heart untainted ! Thrice is he arm'd that hath his quarrel just, And he but naked, though lock'd up in steel, Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted. Ignorance is the curse of God, Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven. Many strokes, though with a little axe, Hew down and fell the hardest-timber'd oak. 57 For ONE Dollar "The Monitor," a monthly magazine bene- ficial to every member of the family, will bo mailed for one year, including one copy of that charming novel, "OUR PEOSPECTS REVIEWED," by M. Loth, with a steel engraving of the author. For 20 Gents One copy of "Think," The Best Thoughts of the Best Thinkers, and one copy of "Verse,'' The Best Poems of the Best Poets, by Paul Victor Loth, will be forwarded prepaid. Mail your orders with remittance for as many copies as you want to The Monitor Company, Post-office Box 167, Cincinnati, Ohio. 58 Orders will be booked now for Bacon Boiled Down, the Best Thoughts of Francis Bacon. Price, 10 cents a copy, post-paid. In this same series are the following, uniform in style, B and price 10 cents each, post-paid. Think : the Best Thoughts of the Best Thinkers. Verse : the Best Poems of the Best Poets. Shakespeare Boiled Down : the Best Things of Wm. Shakespeare. Agents wanted. Favorable terms are offered to reliable and energetic agents to sell the above and other books and to secure sub- scriptions for the Monitor Magazine. The Monitor Company, Cincinnati, O. 59 True nobility is exempt from fear. The smallest worm will turn being trodden on. Ill blows the wind that profits nobody. Yield not thy neck To fortune's } r oke, but let thy dauntless mind Still ride in triumph over all mischance. Trust not him that hath once broken faith. A little fire is quickly trodden out ; Which, being sufler'd, rivers can not quench. What is poinp, ride, reign, but earth and dust? And, live we how we can, yet die we muse. What cannot be avoided 'T were childish weakness to lament or fear. Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind ; The thief doth fear each bush an officer. King Richard the Third. No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity. They that stand high have many blasts to shake them And if they fall, they dash themselves to pieces. 60 Talkers are no good doers. Sorrow breaks seasons and reposing hours, Makes the night morning, and the noon-tide night. Princes have but their titles for their glories, An outward honour for an inward toil ; And, for unfelt imagination, They often feel a world of restless cares. None can cure their harms by wailing them. Be not ta'en tardy by unwise delay. Gold were as good as twenty orators. I have heard that fearful commenting Is leaden servitor to dull delay ; Delay leads impotent and snail-paced beggary. An honest tale speeds best being plainly told. True hope is swift, and flies with shallow's wings ; Kings it makes gods, and meaner creatures kings. To-morrow is a busy day. When clouds appear, wise men put on their cloaks; When great leaves fall, the winter is at hand ; When the sun sets, who doth not look for night V Untimely storms make men expect a dearth. 61 King Henry the Eighth. Be advis'd; Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot That it do siuge yourself: we may outrun, By violent swiftness, that which we run at, And lose by over-running. Know you not, The fire that mounts the liquor till 't run o'er, In seeming to augment it wastes it? New T customs, Though they he never so ridiculous, Nay, let em he unmanly, yet are followed. 'T is better to be lowly born, And range with humble livers in content, Than to he perk'd up in a glist'riug grief, xVnd wear a golden sorrow. Our content Is our best having. Truth loves open dealing. T is a kind of good deed to say well : And yet words are no deeds. Press not a falling man too far ! 't is virtue. 62 We must not stint Our necessary actions, in the fear To cope malicious censurers; which ever, As rav'nous fishes, do a vessel follow That is new-trimm'd, but benefit do further Than vainly longing. What we oft do best, By sick interpreters, once weak ones, is Not ours, or not allow'd ; what worst, as oft, Hitting a grosser quality, 's cri'd up For our best act. If we shall stand still, In fear our motion will be mock'd or carp'd at, We should take root here where we sit, or sit State-statues only. Let your reason with your choler question What 't is you go about : to climb steep hills Requires slow pace at first: anger is like A full-hot horse, who being allow'd his way, Self-mettle tires him. Things done well, And with a care, exempt themselves from fear ; Things done without example, in their issue Are to be fear'd. 63 Farewell ! a long farewell, to all my greatness ! This is the state of man : to-day he puts forth The tender leaves of hopes ; 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 open'd.* O, how wretched Is that poor man that hangs on princes' favours ! There is, betwixt that smile we would aspire to, That sweet aspect 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. Wolsey's Soliloquy. Cromwell, I charge thee, fting away ambition : By that sin fell the angels ; how can man, then, The image of his Maker, hope to win by it ? Love thyself last : cherish those hearts that hate thee ; Corruption wins not more than honesty. Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace, To silence envious tongues. Be just and fear not : Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's, Thy God's, and truth's. Men's evil manners live in brass ; their virtues We write in water. Love and meekness Become a churchman better than ambition : Win straying souls with modesty again, Cast none away. Pearls from the Bible. By M. Loth. Valuable to every reader. Price in cloth cover one dollar or in paper cover fifty cents forwarded pre-paid. Address The Monitor Company Cincinnati Ohio. Our Prospects Reviewed, Author of " The Forgiving Kiss," "The Miser's Fate," " Our Home: We Have it as We Make it" etc., etc. Our Prospects Reviewed is a tale of real life, with live characters and live scenes. It is a novel that has the rare merit to entertain and instruct the reader, leading him to a higher plane of noble thought that will enrich his life with noble deeds. The London Literary World, in commenting upon the work, said: "We have read and re- read that remarkable transantlantic novel, and we consider that it contains some of the sub- limest lines written in the nineteenth century, * # * an d it should be read in every home." Mail your order with 75 cents to The Moni- tor Co., Cincinnati, Ohio, and one copy of " Our Prospects Reviewed," with a steel en- graving of the author, will be expressed pre-paid to your address. Read Tria.t Meritorious Book:, " Shakespeare Boiled Down," The Best Thoughts of Shakespeare. BY PAUL VICTOR LOTH. Buy "Shakespeare Boiled Down" freely and present them to those whom you esteem, and whose welfare you love to promote, as " Shake- speare Boiled Down" has the merit to elevate the intellect, to awaken noble aims that ripen into noble deeds, crowning life with success. THE MONITOR COMPANY, Publishers, CINCINNATI, OHIO. All orders filled same day as received. Liberal discount to the trade and agents. Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide Treatment Date: Feb. 2009 PreservationTechnologies A WORLD LEADER IN COLLECTIONS PRESERVATION 111 Thomson Park Drive Cranberry Township, PA 16066 (724)779-2111