154 HENRY IV.'S SOLILOQUY ON SLEEP. HENRY IV.'S SOLILOQUY ON SLEEP. How Why rather, Sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs, 5 And hush'd with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber; Than in the perfum'd chambers of the great, Under the canopies of costly state, And lull'd with sounds of sweetest melody? O thou dull god, why liest thou with the vile, In loathsome beds; and leavest the kingly couch, Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast And in the visitation of the winds, Who take the ruffian billows by the top, 10 15 Curling their monstrous heads, and hanging them 20 SHAKSPEARE. 25 WOLSEY. FAREWELL, a long farewell, to all my greatness! 5 10 15 More pangs and fears than wars or women have; 20 And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer, Never to hope again. SHAKSPEARE. ODE TO TRUTH. I. 1. SAY, will no white-robed Son of Light, Here deign to take his hallow'd stand; Here wave his amber locks; unfold His pinions clothed with downy gold; Here smiling stretch his tutelary wand? 5 And you, ye host of Saints, for ye have known 10 Will not your train descend in radiant state, [Fate? To break with Mercy's beam this gathering cloud of I. 2. "T is silence all. No Son of Light Darts swiftly from his heavenly height; No train of radiant Saints descend. "Mortals, in vain ye hope to find, If guilt, if fraud has stain'd your mind, Or Saint to hear, or Angel to defend." 15 So Truth proclaims. I hear the sacred sound Burst from the centre of her burning throne; 20 Where aye she sits with star-wreathed lustre A bright sun clasps her adamantine zone. [crown'd: I. 3. "Attend, ye sons of men; attend, and say, Does not enough of my refulgent ray Break through the veil of your mortality? Say, does not reason in this form descry Unnumber'd, nameless glories, that surpass The Angel's floating pomp, the Seraph's glowing grace? II. 1. "Shall then your earth-born daughters vie With me? Shall she, whose brightest eye 29 But emulates the diamond's blaze, Whose cheek but mocks the peach's bloom, Whose breath the hyacinth's perfume, Whose melting voice the warbling woodlark's lays, Shall she be deem'd my rival? Shall a form Of elemental dross, of mouldering clay, 35 Vie with these charms imperial? The poor worm Shall prove her contest vain. Life's little day 40 Shall pass, and she is gone; while I appear [year. Flush'd with the bloom of youth thro' Heaven's eternal II. 2. "Know, Mortals, know, ere first ye sprung, I shone amid the heavenly throng. And taught Archangels their triumphant song. And Ocean heave on his extended bed; II. 3. 45 50 55 "Last, Man arose, erect in youthful grace, Heaven's hallow'd image stampt upon his face, And as he rose the high behest was given, That I alone, of all the host of Heaven, Should reign Protectress of the godlike youth: Thus the Almighty spake: he spake, and call'd me Truth." MASON. P THE BARD. I. 1. "RUIN seize thee, ruthless King! From Cambria's curse, from Cambria's tears!" 10 He wound with toilsome march his long array. Stout Glo'ster stood aghast in speechless trance: "To arms!" cried Mortimer, and couch'd his quivering lance. I. 2. On a rock, whose haughty brow Frowns o'er old Conway's foaming flood, With haggard eyes the poet stood; Stream'd, like a meteor, to the troubled air) 66 Hark, how each giant oak, and desert cave, To high-born Hoel's harp, or soft Llewellyn's lay. |