8

But here comes one, more worthy those large speeches,
Than the large speaker of them.

Beaumont and Fletcher's Philaster, act i. sc. 1.

And he shall speak great words against the most High.

382

Τούς τε δισ

σάρχας ὀλέσσας βασιλεῖς

Τέλος θάνοιμι καυτός.

For Illustration, see Agamemnon, 1610. Chocph., 432.

Add,

385

387

Then Lethe open thine infernal gates,

I'll down with joy, because before I die,
Mine eyes have seen what I in haste desire;
Pompey may not revive, and Pompey dead,
Let me but see the murderer murdered.

Dan. vii. 25.

Kyd's Cornelia, act iii.

"Οταν κατεύχῃ ταῦθ', ὁμοῦ κἀμοὶ θανεῖν Εὔχου· τί γὰρ δεῖ ζῆν με, σοῦ τεθνηκότος. What is my being, thou hast ceased to be?

Byron's Childe Harold, II. stanza 96.

Lee's Gloriana, act iv.

What will life signify when thou art gone?

'Io
Σκότος, ἐμὸν φάος.

Honey is their gall, brightness their night.

Herbert's Poems, the Sacrifice.

Henry VI. p. II. act ii. sc. 4.

No; dark shall be my light, and night my day.

Similar expressions are of frequent occurrence in English poetry.

War, war, no peace: peace is to me a war.

King John, act iii. sc. 1.

Be ill our good, be joy our woe.

Dryden. Song in Albion and Albanus.

Carnage and ruin have been made their food
From infancy, ill has become their good.

Shelley's Revolt of Islam, canto iv.

I found no difference 'twixt war and peace,

For war was peace to me, and peace was war.

Beaumont and Fletcher's Laws of Candy, act i. sc. 2.

There are similar expressions in Chaucer's Dream; Milton's Paradise Lost; Southey's Ode on Capitulation with Buonaparte.

389

Ερεβος ὦ φαεννότατον, ὡς ἐμοί,
Ελεσθ', ἕλεσθέ μ' οικήτορα,

Ελεσθέ μ'.

Let Death

Within his vaulty durance, dark and still,
Receive me too; and where th' afflicted rest,
There fold me in for ever.

Brook's Gustavus, act v. sc. 2.

Hail, horrors! hail,

Infernal world! And thou, profoundest hell,

Receive thy new possessor.

418

Γείτονες ῥοαί,

Εὔφρονες ̓Αργείοις

Οὐκ ἔτ ̓ ἄνδρα

Τόνδ ̓ ἴδητ'.

Ye tufted groves, ye gently falling rills,
Ye high o'ershadowing hills,

Paradise Lost, I. 250.

But never shall you now behold her more.

425

Αἰαι· τίς ἄν ποτ ̓ ὤεθ ̓ ὧδ ̓ ἐπώνυμον

Τοὐμὸν ξυνοίσειν ὄνομα τοῖς ἐμοῖς κακοῖς.

Ovid Metamorph. b. x. Bion.

The memory of every reader will furnish him with instances of these puns, of which it is scarcely worth while to make a collection. The following is as apposite as any to the present passage:

GAUNT. Oh, how that name befits my composition :

Old Gaunt, indeed ; and gaunt in being old, &c.

449

461

468

Κεῖνοι δ ̓ ἐπεγγελῶσιν ἐκπεφευγότες,
Ἐμοῦ μὲν οὐχ, ἑκόντος.

Camillo and Polyxenes

Laugh at me; make their pastime at my sorrow ;
They should not laugh, if I could reach them.

Winter's Tale, act ii. sc. 3.

̓Αλλὰ δῆτ ̓ ἰὼν
Πρὸς ἔρυμα Τρώων, ξυμπεσὼν μόνος μόνοις,
Καὶ ὁρῶν τι χρηστόν, εἶτα λοίσθιον θάνω ;
Αλλ ̓ ὧδε γ' Ατρείδας ἂν εὐφράναιμί που.
Οὐκ ἔστι ταῦτα.

Si nunc me suspendam, meam operam luserim,
Et præter operam, restim sumptifecerim,
Et meis inimicis voluptatem creaverim.

Plaut. Casina, II. 7.

If that he, disdainfnl swain, should know,
That for his love I wrought my overthrow;
Will he not glory in it, and from my death
Draw more delight ?

Browne's Britannia's Pastorals, song

Αἰσχρὸν γὰρ ἄνδρα τοῦ μακροῦ χρῄζειν βίου,
Κακοῖσιν ὅστις μηδὲν ἐξαλλάσσεται.

1.

482

Ζῇν ἀισχρὸν οἷς ζῇν ἐφθόνησεν ἡ τύχη.

Gnome Monistich. Poet. Gnom. Græc., Leips. 1829.

Thou seest Alonzo silent; he's a man,

And knows that men abandoned of their hopes,
Should ask no leave, nor stay for suing out,
But help themselves as timely as they could,
And teach the Fates their duty.

Dryden's Don Sebastian, act v. sc. 1.

A common form in English.

487

509

As vile hath been my folly.

If aught seem vile,

Samson Agonistes,

Καί σ ̓ ἀντιάζω πρός τ ̓ ἐφεστίου Διός,
Εὐνῆς τε τῆς σῆς. ᾗ συνηλλάχθης ἐμοί,
Μή μ' ἀξιώσῃς βάξιν ἀλγεινὴν λαβεῖν
Τῶν σῶν ὑπ ̓ ἐχθρῶν, χειρίαν ἀφεὶς τινί.
Εἰ γὰρ θάνης σύ, καὶ τελευτήσας ἀφῇς, &c.

Ah, selfish that thou art, with thee, the toil,
The tedious toil of life will soon be o'er;
While I, a lonely widow, with my orphans,
Am left defenceless to a troubled world.

Oh, if thou lovest me, Edward, I conjure thee,
By all a Father, all a Mother feels,

By every holy tenderness, I charge thee,
Live to protect the pledges of our love,—
Our children.

Thomson's Edward and Eleanora, II. 4.

Ἐμοὶ γὰρ οὐκ ἔτ ̓ ἔστιν εἰς ὅ τι βλέπω,
Πλὴν σοῦ. σὺ γάρ μοι πατρίδ ̓ ᾔστωσας δορί,

Καὶ μητέρ ̓ ἄλλη μοῖρα τὸν φύσαντα τε, &c.

Mygdonis arma patrem, funestaque prælia nuper
Natales rapuere domos; Triviæque potentis
Occidit arcanâ genetrix absumpta sagittâ:
Tu mihi, qui conjux pariter, fraterque, parensque
Solus, et à primâ fueras spes sola juventâ,
Deseris, heu!

Val. Flacc. book III. 320.

I need scarcely say that Sophocles has borrowed this speech from Homer. "Αιδου θανασίμους οικήτορας.

513

516

518

541

Hopelesse Darius hath despair'dly gone,
By violence to dwell among the dead.

Earl of Stirling's Tragedy of Darius, act iii. sc. 3.

I could tell the world

How I have laid his kingdom desolate;

And have sent

The pride of all his youth to people graves.

Beaumont and Fletcher's King and no King, act i. sc. 1.

̓Ανδρὶ τοι χρεὼν

Μνήμην προσεῖναι, τερπνὸν εἴ τί που πάθοι.

By all the joys she gave you,
When in her blooming years she was your treasure,
Look kindly on me.

Otway's Venice Preserved, act v. sc. 1.

Si unquam erga te, animo esse amico sensisti eam, mi
Pamphile,

Sine labore hanc gratiam, te uti sibi des pro illâ, nunc rogat.
Ter. Hecyra. III. 3.

Χάρις χάριν γάρ ἐστιν ἡ τίκτουσ ̓ ἀεὶ.

Good offices their likeness get.

Moore's Fables for the Ladies, fable xi.

Αρ ̓ αὐτόν, αἶρε δεῦρο. παρβήσει γὰρ οὔ,
Νεοσφαγῆ ποὺ τόνδε προσλεύσσων φόνον,
Εἴπερ δικαίως ἔστ' ἐμὸς τὰ πατρόθεν.