[Midsummer Night's Dream continued. The lover, all as frantic,

Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt:

The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,

Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;

And, as imagination bodies forth

The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing A local habitation and a name.

Act v. Sc. I.

That is the true beginning of our end.

Act v. Sc. I.

The best in this kind are but shadows.

Act v. Sc. I.

The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve.

Act v. Sc. I.

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE.

Now, by two-headed Janus,

Nature hath fram'd strange fellows in her time.

Act i. Sc. I.

Though Nestor swear the jest be laughable.

Act i. Sc. I.

You have too much respect upon the world:
They lose it, that do buy it with much care.

Act i. Sc. I.

I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano;
A stage, where every man must play a part,
And mine a sad one.
Act i. Sc. I.

Merchant of Venice continued.]

Why should a man, whose blood is warm within, Sit like his grandsire cut in alabaster?

Acti. Sc. 1.

There are a sort of men, whose visages
Do cream and mantle, like a standing pond.
Act i. Sc. 1.

I am Sir Oracle,

And, when I ope my lips, let no dog bark!

Act i. Sc. I.

Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing, more than any man in all Venice. His reasons are as two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff: you shall seek all day ere you find them; and when you have them, they are not worth the search. Act i. Sc. I.

They are as sick, that surfeit with too much, as they that starve with nothing.

Act i. Sc. 2.

God made him, and therefore let him pass for

a man.

Act i. Sc. 2.

Ships are but boards, sailors but men ; there be land-rats and water-rats, land-thieves and water-thieves. Act i. Sc. 3.

I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him.

Act i. Sc. 3.

Act i. Sc. 3.

Even there where merchants most do congregate.

The Devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.

Act i. Sc. 3.

For sufferance is the badge of all our tribe.

Act i. Sc. 3.

In a bondman's key,

With 'bated breath, and whisp'ring humbleness.

Act i. Sc. 3.

It is a wise father that knows his own child.

Act ii. Sc. 2.

And the vile squeaking of the wry-neck'd fife.

Act ii. Sc. 5.

All things that are,

Are with more spirit chased than enjoy'd.

Act ii. Sc. 6.1

I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?

Act iii. Sc. I.

In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt,
But, being season'd with a gracious voice,
Obscures the show of evil?

Act iii. Sc. 2.

Thus when I shun Scylla, your father, I fall into Charybdis, your mother.2 Act iii. Sc. 5.

1 Act ii. Sc. 5, Dyce.

2 Incidis in Scyllam cupiens vitare Charybdim. Philippe Gualtier (about the 13th century), Alexandreis, Book v. line 301.

The quality of mercy is not strain'd;

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath it is twice bless'd;
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes:
'Tis 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 this 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. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this, -
That in the course of justice none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy,

And that same prayer doth teach us all to render The deeds of mercy.

Act iv. Sc. I.

A Daniel come to judgment !

Act iv. Sc. I.

"T is not in the bond.

Act iv. Sc. I.

A second Daniel, a Daniel, Jew!
Now, infidel, I have thee on the hip.

Act iv. Sc. J.

[Merchant of Venice continued.

I thank thee, Jew, for teaching me that word. Act iv. Sc. I.

life

You take my house when you do take the prop That doth sustain my house ; you take my When you do take the means whereby I live.

Act iv. Sc. I.

He is well paid that is well satisfied.

Act iv. Sc. I.

How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!

Act v. Sc. I.

Look, how the floor of Heaven

Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold;

:

There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st
But in his motion like an angel sings,
Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins
Such harmony is in immortal souls ;
But, whilst this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.

Act v. Sc. I.

I am never merry when I hear sweet music.

Act v. Sc. I.

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 :
The motions of his spirit are dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus.

Let no such man be trusted.

Act v. Sc. I.

How far that little candle throws his beams!

So shines a good deed in a naughty world.

Act v. Sc. I.