No bitterness that I will bitter think,
Nor double penance to correct correction.

Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye,
And all my soul, and all my every part;
And for this sin there is no remedy,
It is so grounded inward in my heart.
Methinks no face so gracious is as mine,
No shape so true, no truth of such account;
And for myself mine own worth do define,
As 1 all other in all worths surmount.
But when my glass, shows me myself indeed,
Beated and chopp'd with tann'd antiquity,
Mine own self-love quite contrary I read,
Self so self-loving were iniquity.

Poems.

Poems.

778 Contemplation on the shortness of life.
That time of year thou may'st in me behold,
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang,
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou seest the twilight of such day
As after sun-set fadeth in the west;

Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou seest the glowing of such fire,
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie;
As the death-bed whereon it must expire,
Consumed with that which it was nourish'd by.

Poor Soul, the centre of my sinful earth,*
Fool'd by those rebel powers that thee array,
Why dost thou pine within, and suffer dearth,
Painting thy outward walls so costly gay ?
Why so large cost, having so short a lease,t
Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend ?
Shall worms, inheritors of this excess,
Eat up thy charge? Is this thy BODY's end ?

Poems.

Then, Soul, live thou upon thy servant's loss,
And let that pine to aggravate thy store;
Buy terms Divine in selling hours of dross;
Within be fed,* without be rich no more :
So shalt thou feed on Death, that feeds on men:t
And, death once dead, there's no more dying then.

Poems.

780 The foundation of his faith and hope in Christ alone. "In the name of God, amen. I, William Shakspeare, at Stratford-upon-Avon, in the county of Warwick, gent.; in perfect health and, memory God be praised! do make and ordain this, my last will and testament, in manner and form following; that is to say:

"First, I commend my soul into the hands of God my creator, hoping, and assuredly believing, through the only merits of Jesus Christ my Saviour, to be made partaker of life everlasting; and my body to the earth whereof it is made."

DELINEATIONS

OF

CHARACTER.

"The mind of Shakspeare was as a magic mirror, in which all human nature's possible forms and combinations were present, intuitively and inherently-not conceived-but as connatural portions of his own humanity."

Quarterly Review.

I set you up a glass,
Where you may see the inmost part of you.

NOBLE CHARACTERS,

ACCORDING TO THEIR RESPECTIVE VIRTUES AND

ACCOMPLISHMENTS.

1

It much repairs* me To talk of your good father: In his youth He had the wit, which I can well observe To-day in our young lords; but they may jest, Till their own scorn return to them unnoted, Ere they can hide their levity in honour. So like a courtier, contempt nor bitterness Were in his pride or sharpness; if they were, His equal had awakened them; and his honour Clock to itself, knew the true minute, when Exception bid him speak, and, at this time, His tongue obeyed his hand: who were below him, He used as creatures of another place, And bow'd his eminent top to their low ranks, Making them proud of his humility, In their poor praise he humbled: Such a man Might be a copy to these younger times; Which follow'd well, would demonstrate them now

His plausive words

*

He scatter'd not in ears, but grafted them,
To grow there, and to bear,-Let me not live,—

Thus his good melancholy oft began,

On the catastrophe and heel of pastime,
When it was out, let me not live, quoth he,
After my flame lacks oil, to be the snuff