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 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
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 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
SHAKESPEARE'S RULE OF LIFE. 
 
SHAKESPEARE'S 
 
 KTTLE OF LIFE. 
 
 <t 
 
 COMPILED BY 
 
 EDWARD E. FISHLEY, 
 
 i * 
 
 
 
 
 
 > • I »i — 
 
 
 FEED S. COLLINS. 
 
 Publisher. 
 
 20 BRATTLE ST., BOSTON, MASS. 
 
 1891. 
 
 O 
 

 
 7 
 
 Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1891, by Edward E. Fishley, in 
 the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
 
INTRODUCTION, 
 
 The presentation of this humble addition to the already over- 
 whelmingly voluminous Shakesperian literature may seem inexcus- 
 able; but it is a "labour of love," and if it meets with a gracious recep- 
 tion by the public will not be "loves labour lost." We will not attempt 
 to criticise or to panegyrize the great author. No condemnation can 
 deduct from, no praise can increase his fame. As the traveller over the 
 Sahara approaches an oasis it looms up before him like a beautiful pic- 
 ture in the dreary waste of sand : so, in the intellectual world, may 
 Shakespeare be compared to an oasis. His star shines brightly, but 
 has not yet reached the zenith. To his so-called critics we throw down 
 the gauntlet. When the man exists that can write a play, or even a 
 single scene, equal to Shakespeare's, let him tell us the faults of Shake- 
 speare, — and not till then. 
 
 Shakespeare's magic could not copied be; 
 
 Within that circle none durst walk but he. — Dryden. 
 
*%u 
 
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 plays many parts, — 
 His Acts being seven ages. At first, the Infant * 
 Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms : 
 Then the whining Schoolboy, with his satchel 
 And shining morning face, creeping like snail 
 Unwillingly to school : And then the Lover, 
 Sighing like furnace, with woful 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, 
 Turning again towards childish 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 — every thing. 
 
SHAKESPEARE'S 
 
 RULE OF LIFE. 
 
 F to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels 
 had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' palaces. 
 I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, 
 nan to be one of the twenty to follow mane own teaching. 9 
 Talkers are no good doers. 23 
 
 Think, what a man is : . » consider his frailty, and then judge 
 of my merit. 3 
 
 Men should be what they seem. 34 
 
 We are oft to blame in this,— 
 T Tis too much prov'd, — -that, with devotion's visage, 
 And pious action, we do sugar o'er 
 The Devil himself. 3 2 
 
 r Tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus. 34 
 
 Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, 
 Which we ascribe to Heaven : the fated sky 
 Gives us free scope; only, doth backward pull 
 Our slow designs, when we ourselves are dull. 12 
 
 (O,) that we were all, as some would seem to be, 
 [ Free ] from our faults, as from faults seeming free ! 4 
 As we are ourselves what things are we \ I2 
 
 I will chide no breather in the world but myself, against whom 
 know most faults. 10 
 
ro SHAKESPEARE'S 
 
 Men's faults do seldom to themselves appear; 
 
 O, how are they wrapp'd in with infamies, 
 That from their own misdeeds askance their eyes ! 39 
 Excusing of a fault 
 Doth make the fault the worse by the excuse. *5 
 How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds, 
 Make ill deeds done ! *5 
 
 The better foot before. *5 
 
 Is it a world to hade virtues- in? 13 
 
 Assume a virtue if you have it not. 3 2 
 
 Be not thy tongue thy own shame's orator 
 
 Apparel vice like virtue's harbinger : 
 
 Bear a fair presence, though your heart be tainted; 
 
 Teach sin the carriage of a holy saint. 
 
 What simple thief brags of his own attaint? 5 
 
 Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied, 
 And vice sometime's by action dignified. 28 
 
 Men's evil manners live in brass; their virtues 
 We write in water, 24 
 
 'Tis better to be vile • than vile esteemed. 
 
 I am that I am; and they that level 
 
 At my abuses, reckon up their own : 
 
 I may be straight, though they themselves be bevel. 
 
 By their rank thoughts my deeds must not be shewn. +- 
 
 We must not stint 
 Our necessary actions, in the fear 
 To cope malicious censurers. 24 
 Danger deviseth shifts; wit waits on fear. 3 8 
 
 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, m 
 
RULE OF LIFE. n 
 
 Heaven doth with us as we with torches do, 
 Not Mght them for themselves; for if our virtues 
 Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike 
 As if we had them not. 4 
 No man is the lord of any thing, 
 (Though in and of him there be much consisting,) 
 Till he communicate <his parts to others : 
 Nor doth he of himself know them for aught 
 Till he behold them formed in th' applause 
 Where they're extended; who, like an arch, teverb'rates 
 The voice again; or like a gate of steel 
 Fronting the sun, receives and renders back 
 His figure and his heat. 25 
 
 Men, like butterflies, 
 Shew not their mealy wings but to the summer ; 
 And not a man, for being simply man, 
 Hath any honour; but honour for those honours 
 That are without him, as place, riches, and favour, 
 Prizes of accident as oft as merit. 2 5 
 
 Time hath . . a wallet at his back, 
 
 Wherein he puts alms for oblivion, — 
 
 A great-siz'd monster of ingratitudes : 
 
 Those scraps are good deeds past; which are devour'd 
 
 As fast as they are made, forgot as soon 
 
 As done. Perseverance . . 
 
 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 straight 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'd tide, they all rush by, 
 
 And leave you hindmost. 
 
 Things in motion sooner catch the eye, 
 Than what not stirs. 25 
 
12 SHAKESPEARE'S 
 
 Our doubt* are traitors, 
 And make us lose the good we oft might win, 
 By fearing to attempt. 4 
 
 Dull not device by coldness and delay. 34 
 
 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. 3° 
 
 Men at some time are masters of their fates: 
 
 The fault . . is not in our stars, 
 
 But in ourselves, that we are underlings, 3° 
 
 That we would do 
 We should do when we would; for this 'would' changes- 
 And hath abatements and delays as many, 
 As there are tongues, are hands, accidents. 3 2 
 
 Be not ta'en tardy by unwise delay. 23 
 
 I have learn'd that fearful commenting 
 
 Is leaden servitor to dull delay; 
 
 Delay leads impotent and snail-pac'd beggary. 23 
 
 Those that much covet are with gain so fond, 
 That what they have not, that which they possess, 
 They scatter and unloose it from their bond, 
 And so, by hoping more, they have but less; 
 Or, gaining more, the profit of excess 
 Is but to surfeit, and such griefs sustain, 
 That they prove bankrupt in this poor rich gain.. 
 
 The aim of all is but to nurse the life 
 With honour, wealth, and ease, in waning age; 
 And in this aim there is such thwarting strife, 
 That one for all, or all for one we gage; 
 As life for honour in fell battles' rage; 
 
 Honour for wealth, and oft that wealth doth coal 
 The death of all, and all together lost 
 
 So that in venturing ill, we leave to be 
 
 The things we are for that which we expect - ? 
 
 And this ambitious foul infirmity, 
 
RULE OF LIFE. 13 
 
 In having much, torments us with defect 
 Of that we have : so then we do neglect 
 
 The thing we have; and, all for want of wit. 
 
 Make something nothing by augmenting it. 39 
 
 Did'st thou never hear 
 That things ill got had ever bad success? 
 And happy always was it for that son 
 Whose father, for his hoarding, went to Hell? 
 I'll leave my son my virtuous deeds behind, 
 And would my father had left me no more; 
 For all the rest is held at such a rate 
 As brings a thousand-fold more care to keep 
 Than in possession any jot of pleasure.22 
 
 They are as sick, that surfeit with too much, as they that starve 
 with nothing: it is no small happiness, therefore, to be seated in the 
 mean. 9 
 
 'Tis better to be lowly born, 
 And range with humble livers in content, 
 Than to be perk'd up in a glist'ring grief, 
 And wear a golden sorrow. 24 
 
 Lord, who would live turmoiled in the Court, 
 And may enjoy such quiet walks as these? 
 This small inheritance, my father left me, 
 Contenteth me, and worth a monarchy. 
 I seek not to wax great by others' waning, 
 Or gather wealth I care not with what envy : 
 Sufficeth that I have maintains my state, 
 And sends the poor well pleased from my gate, 2I 
 Poor and content is rich, and rich enough. 34 
 
 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; 
 
 nips his root, 
 And then he falls. 24 
 
 Banish the canker of ambitious thoughts. 2I 
 
i 4 SHAKESPEARE'S 
 
 Fling away ambition : 
 By that sin fell the angels. 
 
 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. 2 4 . " 
 Prefer a noble life before a long. 2 6 
 
 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. 2I 
 He's truly valiant that can wisely suffer 
 The worst that man can breathe, and make his wrongs 
 His outsides; to wear them like his raiment, carelessly, 
 And ne'er prefer his injuries to his heart, 
 To bring it into danger. 
 If wrongs be evils, and enforce us kill, 
 What folly 'tis to hazard life for ill? 29 
 
 They that have power to hurt, and will do none, 
 That do not do the thing they most do shew, 
 Who, moving others, are themselves as stone, 
 Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow; 
 They rightly do inherit Heaven's graces, 
 
 They are the lords and owners of their faces, 
 Others but stewards of their excellence. 4° 
 
 'Tis meet that noble minds "keep ever with their likes; 
 For who so firm that cannot be seduc'd? 3° 
 
 For by our ears our hearts oft tainted be. 
 
 For unstain'd thoughts do seldom dream on evil. 
 
 Then, where is truth, if there be no self-trust? 39 
 It is certain that either wise bearing or ignorant carriage is caught, 
 as men take diseases, one of another : therefore, let men take heed of 
 their company. J 8 
 
RULE OF LIFE. 15 
 
 How use doth breed a habit in a man ! 2 
 
 Be wary, then; best safety lies in fear. 3 2 
 
 I cannot sing, 
 Nor heel the high lavolt, nor sweeten talk, 
 Nor play at subtle games; fair virtues all, 
 
 But I can tell, that in each grace of these 
 There lurks a still and dumb discoursive devil, 
 That tempts most cunningly. But be not tempted. 
 
 Something may be done, that we will not : 
 And sometimes we are devils to ourselves, 
 When we will tempt the frailty of our powers, 
 Presuming on their changeful potency. 2 5 
 
 The purest treasure mortal times afford 
 
 Is spotless reputation; that away, 
 
 Men are but gilded loam or painted clay. *6 
 
 These few precepts in thy memory 
 See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue, 
 Nor any unproportion'd thought his act. 
 Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar : 
 The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, 
 Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel; 
 But do not dull thy palm with entertainment 
 Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade. Beware 
 Of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in, 
 Bear 't that th' opposed may beware of thee. 
 ^"Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice; 
 
 Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgement. 
 
 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 it self 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 day, 
 Thou canst not then be false to any man. 32 
 
16 SHAKESPEARE'S 
 
 The Prince but studies his companions, 
 
 Like a strange tongue : wherein, to gain the language, 
 
 'Tis needful that the most immodest word 
 
 Be looked upon and learn'd; which, once attain'd 
 
 . . . . comes to no farther use 
 But to be known, and hated. So, like gross, terms, 
 The Prince will, in the perfectness of time, 
 Cast off his followers; and their memory 
 Shall as a pattern or a measure live, 
 By which his grace must mete the lives of others, 
 Turning past evils to advantages. r & 
 
 I am strong and lusty : 
 Eor in my youth I never did apply 
 Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood, 
 Nor did not with unbashful forehead woo 
 The means of weakness and debility. *° 
 
 Self love . . is not so vile a sin 
 As self neglecting. 19 
 
 Fool. Sirrah, I'll teach thee a speech. 
 
 Lear. Do. 
 
 Fool. Mark it nuncle. — 
 Have more than thou shewest, 
 Speak less than thou knowest, 
 Lend less than thou owest, 
 Ride more than thou goest, 
 Learn more than thou trowest, 
 Set less than thou thro west; 
 Leave thy drink and thy whore, 
 And keep in-a-door, 
 And thou shalt have more 
 Than two tens to a score. 
 
 He that keeps nor crust nor crum, 
 Weary of all, shall want some. 33 
 
 He's mad, that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a horse's health,. 
 a boy's love, or a whore's oath. 33 
 
 Let senses rule; the word is, 'Pitch and pay;' 
 
RULE OF LIFE. 17 
 
 Trust none; 
 
 For oaths are straws, men's faith are wafer-cakes, 
 And Hold-fast is the only dog, . . : 
 
 Therefore, caveto be thy counsellor. 33 
 
 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. * 2 
 
 Speak scholarly, and wisely. 3 
 
 We must give folks leave to prate. 3 
 
 Few words to fair faith. 25 
 
 Words pay no debts, give her deeds'. 2 5 
 
 Speak to be understood. 7 
 
 Be plain . . and homely in thy drift. 28 
 
 I hear, yet say not much, but think the more. 22 
 
 Rather be unmannerly, than troublesome. 3 
 
 Ceremony was but devis'd at first, 
 
 To set a gloss on faint deeds, hollow welcomes, 
 
 Recanting goodness, sorry ere 'tis shown; 
 
 But where there is true friendship, there needs none. 2 y 
 
 Every one that flatters thee, 
 Is no friend in misery. 
 
 He that is thy friend indeed, 
 He will help thee in thy need. 
 If thou sorrow, he will weep; 
 If thou wake, he cannot sleep : 
 Thus of every grief in heart 
 He with thee doth bear a part. 
 These are certain signs to know 
 Faithful friend from flattering foe. 4 2 
 
 They that thrive well take counsel of their friends. 3 8 
 
 'Tis not enough to help the feeble up, 
 But to support him after. 2 9 
 
is SHAKESPEARE'S 
 
 There's none 
 Can truly say, he gives, if he receives. 2 9 
 
 For misery is trodden on by many, 
 And being low, never reliev'd by any. 3 8 
 
 Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge. 2 7 
 Friends should associate friends in grief and woe. 2 7 
 The king-becoming graces, 
 As justice, verity, temp'rance, stableness. 
 Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness, 
 Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude. 3 1 
 Hate ingratitude more 
 Than lying, vainness, babbling, drunkenness. *3 
 
 All places that the eye of heaven visits 
 Are to a wise man ports and happy havens. 
 
 To mourn a mischief that is past and gone 
 Is the next way to draw more mischief on. 3-4 
 There is no virtue like necessity. 16 
 
 There's a divinity that shapes our ends, 
 Rough-hew them how we will. 3 2 
 
 How poor are they that have not patience ! 34 
 
 Stay, my lord, 
 And let your reason with your choler question 
 What 'tis 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. Not a man in England 
 Can advise me like you: be to yourself 
 As you would to your friend. 2 4 
 
 Blind fear, that seeing reason leads, rinds safer footing than blind 
 reason, stumbling without fear: to fear the worst, oft cures the worse. '■•■ 
 
 Do not plunge thyself too far in anger. I2 
 
 Wisely and slow : they stumble that run fast. 2 # 
 
 Firm of word, 
 Speaking in deeds, and deedless in his tongue; 
 
RULE OF LIFE. 19 
 
 Not soon provok'd, nor being provok'd soon calm'd : 
 His heart and hand both open and both free; 
 For what he has, he gives, what thinks, he shews; 
 Yet gives he not till judgement guide his bounty. 25 
 
 Whate'er you think, good words, I think, were best. 15 
 Sir, sir, impatience hath his privilege. 
 'Tis true; to hurt his master, no man else. 15 
 
 .Never anger made good guard for itself. 35 
 
 Be pitifully good: 
 
 Who cannot condemn rashness in cold blood ? 
 
 To kill, I grant, is sin's extremest gust; 
 
 But in defence, by mercy, 'tis most just. 
 
 To be in anger, is impiety; 
 
 But who is man, that is not angry? 29 
 
 Be stirring as the time; be fire with fire; 
 Threaten the threatener, and outface the brow 
 Of bragging honour. 
 
 Shew boldness and aspiring confidence. 15 
 
 What is a man, 
 If his chief good and market of his time 
 Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more. 
 Sure, He that made us with such large discourse. 
 Looking before and after, gave us not 
 That capability and godlike reason, 
 To fust in us unus'd. 3 2 
 
 Home-keeping youth have ever homely wits. 2 
 
 Be great impeachment to his age, 
 
 In having known no travel in his youth. 2 
 
 He cannot be a perfect man, 
 
 Not being tried and tutor'd in the world: 
 
 Experience is by industry achiev'd, 
 
 And perfected by the swift course of time. 2 
 
 There be some sports are painful, and their labour 
 Delight in them sets off: some kinds of baseness 
 
SHAKESPEARE'S 
 
 Arc nobly undergone; and most poor matters 
 
 Point to rich ends, i 
 No profit grows where is no pleasure ta'en; — 
 In brief, sir, study what you most affect. ll 
 
 If your mind dislike any thing, obey it. 3 2 
 
 What's sweet to do, to do will aptly find. 41 
 
 I )irect not him whose way himself will choose. l6 
 
 He tires betimes that spurs tooTast betimes. 16 
 
 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 id'ly in the sun. 2 5 
 
 It oft falls out, 
 To have what we would have, we speak not what 
 We mean. 4 
 
 Truth hath a quiet breast. l6 
 
 I do now remember a saying; 'The fool doth think he is wise, but 
 the wise man knows himself to be a fool.' *° 
 
 There's not one wise man among twenty that will praise himself. ft 
 
 Better a witty fool than a foolish wit. 
 
 Infirmity, that decays the wise, doth ever make the better fool. ' 
 
 Light vanity, insatiate cormorant, 
 Consuming means, soon preys upon itself. 16 
 
 Ros. They say you are a melancholy fellow. 
 
 Jaq. I am so: I do love it better than laughing. 
 
 A'os. Those that are in extremity of either are abominable fellows. 
 
 yaq. It is a melancholy of mine own, compounded of many 
 simples, extracted from many objects, and, indeed, the sundry contem- 
 plation of my travels. 
 
 Ros. A traveller! By my faith, you have great reason to be sad. 
 i fear you have sold your own land to see other men's. 
 
 Jaq. Yes, I have gain'd my experience. 
 
 Ros. And your experience makes you sad, . . . And 
 to travel for it too ! . . . Farewell, Monsieur Traveller. 
 
 Look you lisp, and wear strange suits; disable all the benefits of your 
 
RULE OF LIFE. 21 
 
 own country; he out of love with your nativity, and almost chicle God 
 for making you that countenance you are; or I will scarce think you 
 have swam in a gondola. 10 
 
 Ape m. A poor unmanly melancholy, sprung 
 From change of fortune. 
 
 The middle of humanity thou never knewest, but the extremity of 
 both ends. .... What man did'st thou ever know 
 unthrift, that was belov'd after his means? 
 
 Tim. Who. without those means thou talk'st of, did'st thou ever 
 know belov'd ? 2 9 
 
 A light heart lives long. 7 
 
 A merry heart goes all the day, your sad tires in a mile. x + 
 
 Melancholy is the nurse of frenzy. " 
 
 Frame your mind to mirth and merriment, 
 
 Which bars a thousand harms, and lengthens life. " 
 
 Care's an enemy to life. 13 
 
 Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth : 
 Turn melancholy forth to funerals. 8 
 
 Lay aside life-harming heaviness, 
 
 And entertain a cheerful disposition. 16 
 
 Sir. To. Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall 
 be no more cakes and ale ? 
 
 Clo. Yes, by Saint Anne; and ginger shall be hot i'th' mouth 
 too. 13 
 
 Lnquiet meals make ill digestions. 5 
 
 Sweet recreation barr'd what doth ensue 
 But moody and dull melancholy. 5 
 
 Though it be honest, it is never good 
 To bring bad news : give to a gracious message 
 An host of tongues; but let ill tidings tell 
 Themselves, when they be felt. 35 
 
 Learn to jest in good time : there's a time for all things. 5 
 
 That part of philosophy 
 
SHAKESPEARE'S 
 
 Will I apply, that treaty of happiness 
 By virtue specially to be achiev'd. « 
 1 ,ove they to live, that love and honour have. 16 
 
 Were man ^ 
 
 Hut constant, he were perfect : that one error 
 Fills him with faults, makes him run th' all the sins. 
 
 As a wall'd town is more worthier than a village, so is the forehead 
 of a married man more honourable than the bare brow of a bachelor. IO 
 Things growing to themselves are growth's abuse : 
 
 Thou wast begot, to get it is thy duty; 
 
 That thirie may live when thou thyself art dead; 
 And so in spite of death thou dost survive, 
 In that thy likeness still is left alive. 3 8 
 
 Then what could death do if thou should'st depart, 
 
 Leaving thee living in posterity. 
 
 Thou single wilt prove none. 
 
 No love towards others in that bosom sits, 
 
 That on himself such murtherous shame commits. 
 
 If all were minded so, the times should cease, 
 
 And threescore year would make the world away. \o 
 
 We cannot cross the cause why we are born. 7 
 
 Make use of time, let not advantage slip. 3 8 
 
 Art thou a woman's son, and canst not feel 
 
 What 'tis to love? how want of love tormenteth? 3 8 
 
 O, powerful love ! that, in some respects, makes a beast a man, in 
 some other, a man a beast. 3 
 
 Hymen's lamps shall light you. 1 
 
 Do not give dalliance too much the rein. * 
 
 She gives the leer of invitation. 3 
 
 O wicked, wicked world ! 3 
 
 A woman impudent and mannish grown 
 
 Is not more loathed than an effeminate man. 2 5 
 
 Love comforteth like sunshine after rain, 
 
RULE OF LIFE. 
 
 But lust's effect is tempest after sun; 
 Love's gentle spring doth always fresh remain, 
 Lust's winter comes ere summer half be done : 
 Love's surfeits not, lust like a glutton dies; 
 Love is all truth, lust full of forged lies. 38 
 
 Obey thy parents, keep thy word justly; swear not; commit not 
 with man's sworn spouse; set not thy sweet heart on proud array. . 
 
 . . Let not the creaking of shoes, nor the rustling of silks, betray 
 thy poor heart to woman : keep thy foot out of brothels 33 
 
 (Nor) coin heaven's image 
 In stamps that are forbid. 4 
 
 All sects, all ages smack of this vice. 4 
 
 A sin prevailing much in youthful men 
 Who give their eyes the liberty of gazing. 5 
 
 To be wise and love exceeds man's might; that dwells with gods 
 above. 25 
 
 Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly. 10 
 
 Love moderately; long love doth so. 2 8 
 
 Love keeps his revels where there are but twain. 3 8 
 
 The perfect ceremony of love's rite. 4° 
 
 A world-without-end bargain. 7 
 
 Win her with gifts, if she respect not words. 
 Dumb jewels often, in their silent kind, 
 More than quick words do move a woman's mind. 2 
 A woman sometimes scorns what best contents her. 2 
 Never give her o'er, . . take no repulse — 
 That man that hath a tongue, I say, is no man, 
 If with his tongue he cannot win a woman. 2 
 
 Hope to joy is little less in joy, 
 Than hope enjoy 'd. *6 
 
 Things out of hope are compass'd oft with venturing, 
 Chiefly in love. 
 
 Foul words and frowns must not repel a lover. 38 
 
24 RULE OF LIFE. 
 
 Do not, for one repulse, forego the purpose 
 That you resolv'd t' effect. * 
 
 But love will not be spurr'd to what it loathes. 2 
 
 A man may be too confident. 3 
 
 Let thy love be younger than thyself. ^3 
 
 Prosperity's the very bond of love; 
 
 Whose fresh complexion and whose heart together 
 
 Affliction alters. x 4 
 
 Self-harming jealousy ! — fie ! beat it hence. 5 
 
 Striving to better, oft we mar what's well. 33 
 
 A young man married is a man that's marr'd. I2 
 
 Hasty marriage seldom proveth well. 22 
 
 I dare do all that may become a man : 
 Who dares do more is none. 3 1 
 
 What fates impose, that men must needs abide : 
 It boots not to resist both wind and tide. 22 
 
 Come what come may, 
 Time and the hour runs through the roughest day. 3 1 
 
This world's a city full of straying streets, 
 
 And death's the market-place, where each one meets. 
 
 • The Two Noble Kinsmen. 
 
 The bright day is done, 
 And we are for the dark. 35 
 
 Let the world slide. IT 
 
 Thou among the wastes of time must go. 4° 
 
 Pall into the blind cave of eternal night. 23 
 
 Let the world slip. " 
 
 The earth can yield me but a common grave. 4° 
 
 How brief the life of man 
 
 Runs his erring pilgrimage; 
 That the stretching of a span 
 
 Buckles in the sum of age. 10 
 
 A life was but a flower 
 
 In spring time. 10 
 Like the baseless fabric of a vision 
 The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, 
 The solemn temples, the great globe itself, 
 Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, 
 And, like an insubstantial pageant faded, 
 Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff 
 As dreams are made on; and our little life 
 Is rounded with a sleep. 1 
 
26 SPIAKESPEARE'S 
 
 This world is not for aye. 3 2 
 
 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. 3 1 
 
 O ruin'd piece of nature ! This great world 
 Shall so wear out to naught. 33 
 
 Crowns have their compass, length of days their date, 
 
 Triumphs their tomb, Felicity her fate : 
 
 Of naught but earth can Earth make us partaker. 43 
 
 The ground that gave them first has them again : 
 Their pleasures here are past, so is their pain. 3 6 
 
 1 )eath will have his day. *6 
 
 That what Ave have we prize not to the worth, 
 Whiles we enjoy it, but being lack'd and lost, 
 Why, then we rack the value; then we find 
 The virtue, that possession would not show us, 
 Whiles it was ours. 6 
 
 1 .et's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs. *6 
 
 In the dark backward and abysm of time, i 
 
 To dwell in solemn shades of endless night. J 6 
 
 Grav'd in the hollow ground. l6 
 
 The Earth, that's Nature's mother, is her tomb; 
 What is her burying grave, that is her womb. 28 
 
 Of all my lands, 
 Is nothing left me but my body's length? 
 Why, what is pomp, rule, reign, but earth and dust? 
 And, live we how we can, yet die we must. 22 
 
 Every thing that grows 
 
RULE OF" LIFE. 27 
 
 Holds in perfection but a little moment; 
 
 . . this huge stage presenteth naught but shews, 
 
 Men as plants increase, 
 Cheered and check'd even by the selfsame sky, 
 Vaunt in their youthful sap, at height decrease, 
 And wear their brave state out of memory. 4° 
 
 Wasteful time debateth with decay, 
 
 To change your day of youth to sulli'd night. 4° 
 
 Death remember'd should be like a mirror, 
 
 Who tells us, life's but breath, to trust it, error. 37 
 
 Claud. The miserable have no other medicine, 
 But only hope. 
 I've hope to live, and am prepar'd to die. 
 
 Duke. 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 run'st toward him still : thou art not noble ; 
 For all the accomodations that thou bear'st, 
 Are nurs'd by baseness: thou art 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 
 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 striv'st 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 bows, 
 Thou bear'st thy heavy riches but a journey, 
 
28 SHAKESPEARE'S 
 
 And Death unloads thee: friend hast thou none; 
 
 For thine own bowels which 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 palsi'd 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 more thousand deaths; yet death we fear, 
 
 That makes these odds all even. 
 
 Claud. I humbly thank you, 
 
 To sue to live, I fmd, I seek to die, 
 And seeking death, find life : let it come on. 4 
 
 Dar'st thou die? 
 The sense of death is most in apprehension 
 And the poor beetle, that we tread upon, 
 In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great 
 As when a giant dies. 4 
 
 Kings and mightiest potentates must die, 
 For that's the end of human misery. 2 ° 
 
 By med'cine life may be prolong'd, yet death 
 Will seize the doctor too. 3 6 
 
 Cowards die many times before their deaths; 
 The valiant never taste of death but once. 
 
 It seems to me most strange that men should fear; 
 Seeing that death, a necessary end, 
 Will come, when it will come. 3° 
 
 The earth can have but earth, which is his due. 4° 
 
 Ch. Just. How doth the King? 
 
 War. Exceeding well: his cares are now all ended. 
 
 Ch, Just. I hope not dead. 
 
 War. He's walked the way of nature, 
 
RULE OF LIFE. 29 
 
 And to our purposes he lives no more. x 8 
 
 A'. Rich. What says he? 
 
 North. Nay, nothing; all is said, 
 His tongue is now a stringless instrument : 
 W^rds, life, and all, old Lancaster hath spent. 16 
 
 The rest is silence. 3 2 
 
 Even here I will put off my hope, and keep it 
 No longer for my flatterer. * 
 
 • Present mirth hath present laughter; 
 What's to come is still unsure : 
 
 Youth's a stuff will not endure." 13 
 Defer no time; delays have dangerous ends. 2 ° 
 
 (Men are) the slaves of chance, and flies 
 
 Of every wind that blows. J 4 
 
 Grim death, how foul and loathesome is thine image. " 
 
 Death is the end of all. 2 8 
 
 The arbitrator of despairs, 
 
 Just Death, kind umpire of men's miseries. 2 ° 
 
 Every third thought shall be my grave. 1 
 
 Men must endure 
 Their going hence even as their coming hither. 33 
 
 Cease to lament for that thou canst not help. 2 
 
 Care is no cure, but rather corrosive, 
 
 For things that are not to be remedi'd. 2 ° 
 
 Wise men ne'er wail their present woes, 
 But presently prevent the ways to wail. 16 
 
 Give thanks you have liv'd so long, and make yourself ready . . 
 for the mischance of the hour, if it so hap. 1 
 
 The wills above be done. 1 
 
 Have patience, and endure. 6 
 
 'Tis common, — all that lives must die. 3 2 
 
 Moderate lamentation is the right of the dead; excessive grief, the 
 enemy to the living. 12 
 
30 SHAKESPEARE'S 
 
 Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak 
 Whispers the o'er-fraught heart, and bids it break. 
 
 To weep is to make less the depth of grief. 22 
 
 Some grief shews much of love; 
 
 But much of grief shews still some want of wit. #8 
 
 Things without all remedy, 
 
 Should be without regard; what's done is done. 3 1 
 What's gone, and what's past help, 
 Should be past grief. 14 
 Woe doth the heavier sit 
 Where it perceives it is but faintly borne. *6 
 Gnarling sorrow hath less power to bite ^ 
 The man that mocks at it, and sets it light. *6 
 
 Wise men ne'er sit and wail their loss, 
 
 But cheerly seek how to redress their harms. 
 
 Why, courage, then ! what cannot be avoided, 
 'Twere childish weakness to lament or fear. 22 
 
 The time of life is short ! 
 
 To spend that shortness basely, were too long. *7 
 
 Time's thievish progress to eternity. 40 
 
 To the perpetual wink for aye. * 
 
 Even through the hollow eyes of death, 
 I spy life peering. 16 
 
RULE OF LIFE. 
 
 Nm iK, — The small figures, (technically called superiors), after 
 each quotation designate the play from which they are taken. 
 
 The following list, with the figures affixed, will serve as a key: — 
 
32 RULE OF LIFE. 
 
 PLAYS. 
 
 i. The Tempest. 
 
 2. The Two Gentlemen of Verona. 
 
 3. The Merry Wives of Windsor. 
 
 4. Measure for Measure. 
 
 5. The Comedy of Errors. 
 
 6. Much Ado About Nothing. 
 
 7. Love's Labour's Lost. 
 
 8. A Midsummer-Nights Dream 
 
 9. The Merchant of Venice. 
 10. As You Like It. 
 
 n. The Taming of the Shrew. 
 
 12. All's Well that Ends Well. 
 
 13. Twelfth Night; or, What You Will. 
 
 14. The Winter's Tale. 
 
 15. The Life and Death of King John. 
 
 16. The Tragedy of King Richard II. 
 
 17. The First Part of King Henry IV. 
 
 18. The Second Part of King Henry IV. 
 
 19. The Life of King Henry V. 
 
 20. The First Part of King Henry VI. 
 
 21. The Second Part of King Henry VI. 
 
 22. The Third Part of King Henry VI. 
 
 23. The Tragedy of King Richard III. 
 
 24. The History of King Henry VIII. 
 
 25. Troilus and Cressida. 
 
 26. Coriolanus. 
 
 27. Titus Andronicus. 
 
 28. Romeo and Juliet. 
 
 29. Timon of Athens. 
 
 30. Julius Caesar. 
 
 31. Macbeth. 
 
 32. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. 
 
 33. King Lear. 
 
 34. Othello, The Moor of Venice. 
 
 35. Antony and Cleopatra. 
 
 36. Cymbeline. 
 Pericles. 
 
 37 
 
 38. Venus and Adonis. 
 
 39. Lucrece. 
 
 40. Sonnets. 
 
 41. A Lover's Complaint. 
 
 42. The Passionate Pilgrim. 
 
 43. On the King. 
 
 POEMS. 
 
33 
 
 NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
 
34 
 
35 
 
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