NEBUCHADNEZZAR.

THERE was a king that much might,
Who Nabugodonosor hight.
To his empire and to his laws,
As who saith, all in thilke dawes
Were obeisant, and tribute bear,
As tho' God of earth he were:
Till that the high king of kings
Which seeth and knoweth all things,
Whose eye may nothing asterte,
The privates of man's heart
They speken and sound in his ear
As though they loud winds were,
He took vengeance of his pride.

GOWER: Confessio Amantis.

Most dignifies the haver: if it be, The man I speak of cannot in the world

Be singly counterpoised. At sixteen years,

When Tarquin made a head for
Rome, he fought
Beyond the mark of others: our
then dictator,

Whom with all praise I point at, saw him fight

When with his Amazonian chin he drove

The bristled lips before him: he bestrid

An o'erpressed Roman, and in the consul's view

Slew three opposers: Tarquin's self he met,

And struck him on his knee: in that

Cor.

Ha!

Measureless liar, thou hast made my heart

Too great for what contains it. Boy! O slave!

Pardon me, lords, 'tis the first time that ever

I was forced to scold. Your judg ments, my grave lords, Must give this cur the lie: and his own notion

(Who wears my stripes impressed on him; that must bear My beating to his grave) shall join to thrust

The lie unto him.

Cut me to pieces, Volsces; men and lads,

Stain all your edges on me.- Boy! False hound!

If you have writ your annals true, 'tis there,

That like an eagle in a dove-cote, I Fluttered your Volsces in Corioli: Alone I did it. - Boy!

List his discourse of war, and you shall hear

A fearful battle rendered you in music:

Turn him to any cause of policy, The Gordian knot of it he will unloose,

Familiar as his garter; that, when he speaks,

The air, a chartered libertine, is still,

And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears,

To steal his sweet and honeyed sentences;

So that the air and practic part of life

Must be the mistress to this theoric: Which is a wonder, how his grace should glean it,

Since his addiction was to courses vain:

His companies unlettered, rude, and shallow;

His hours filled up with riots, banquets, sports,

And never noted in him any study, Any retirement, any sequestration From open haunts and popularity. SHAKSPEARE.