Conte

“ DUKE. The contents of this is the return of the Duke; you shall anon over-read it at your pleasure, where you shall find within these two days he will be here. This is a thing that Angelo knows not; for he this very day receives letters of strange tenour, perchance of the Duke's death, perchance entering into some monastery; but, by chance, nothing of what is writ. Look, th' unfolding star calls up the shepherd. Put not yourself into amazement how these things should be: all difficulties are but easy when they are known. Call your executioner, and off with Barnardine's head. ”

“ Meantime the King sent heralds round into all countries to proclaim that every noble, or knight of high degree, who could make his way into the castle should have one of his daughters in marriage; they were likewise at the same time to set forth their beauty, to let all men know the worth of the prize for which they were asked to contend. ”

“ QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION Are the odd allusions in the play a result of the corrupt text, ignorance, ridicule of learning? Or are they introduced to give a lively and contemporaneous effect?
III THE DUKE AND SEBASTIAN How does the play set off these two lovers against each other? Which has the more constant nature? Note the evidences of the Duke's restlessness and changeableness; how soon he tires of the music he calls for, of the clown's song (II. iv.) . Is his first speech to Viola, on woman's constancy before the song, consistent with his second, after it? ”

“ KING HENRY VI My crown is in my heart, not on my head;
Not decked with diamonds and Indian stones,
Nor to be seen: my crown is called content:
A crown it is that seldom kings enjoy. ”

“ But the conclusion that the Conte du Graal is in the main a working up of Celtic popular traditions, which had clustered round a hero, whose fortunes bore, in part, a striking resemblance to those of Fionn, the typical representative of the Expulsion and Return formula cycle among the Celts, though hardly to be gainsaid, does not seem to help much towards settling the question of the origin of the Grail itself. ”

“ Even where the direct influence of the intruding element is slightest, as in the Conte du Graal, we can still perceive that it is responsible for the germs of after development. Sometimes violently and unintelligently, sometimes with a keen feeling for the possibilities of the original romance, sometimes with the boldest introduction of new matter, sometimes with slavish adherence to pre-Christian conceptions, the transformation of the Celtic tales goes on. ”

“ Reignier of France, I give thee kingly thanks,
Because this is in traffic of a king.
[Aside.] And yet, methinks, I could be well content ⁠164
To be mine own attorney in this case.
I'll over, then, to England with this news,
And make this marriage to be solemniz'd.
So farewell, Reignier: set this diamond safe, ⁠168
In golden palaces, as it becomes.
Reig. I do embrace thee, as I would embrace
The Christian prince, King Henry, were he here.
Mar. Farewell, my lord. Good wishes, praise, and prayers ⁠172
Shall Suffolk ever have of Margaret. She is going. ”

“ Such is the impassioned force of the argument from analogy, fortified, as it can be in these later days, by the doctrine of evolution. As Dr. Le Conte has so eloquently and so forcibly shown, it does seem clear, through the long and agonising path of evolution, — through struggle, and death, and survival, — that a rational, a moral, a self-active being is on the way toward realised existence; and it is true that, unless there is immortality awaiting it, this long and hard advance through Nature will be balked, and the whole process of evolution turn futile. ”

“ Enter KING HENRY VI alone KING HENRY VI This battle fares like to the morning's war,
When dying clouds contend with growing light,
What time the shepherd, blowing of his nails,
Can neither call it perfect day nor night. ”

“ There can be little doubt that he dealt with his model in a free and daring spirit, altering and adding as seemed best to him. This alone explains how Manessier, slavishly following the common original, tells differently the cause of the lame king's wound. Gautier, who lacked Chrestien's creative power, though he often equals him in the grace and vivacity of his narrative, seems to have had no conception of a plan; the section of Conte du Graal which goes under his name is a mere disorderly heap of disconnected adventures brought together without care for consistency. ”

“ The character of the principal hero is in consonancy with this aim, wholly remote from the life of man on earth. A shadowy perfection at the outset, he remains a shadowy perfection throughout, a bloodless and unreal creature, as fit when he first appears upon the scene as when he quits it, to accomplish a quest, purposeless, inasmuch as it only removes him from a world in which he has neither part nor share. Such human interest as there is in the story is supplied by Lancelot, who takes over many of the adventures of Perceval or Gawain in the Conte du Graal. ”

“ CURAN.
Have you heard of no likely wars toward, ’twixt the two dukes of Cornwall and Albany?
EDMUND.
Not a word.
CURAN.
You may do, then, in time. Fare you well, sir.
[Exit.]
EDMUND.
The Duke be here tonight? The better! best!
This weaves itself perforce into my business.
My father hath set guard to take my brother;
And I have one thing, of a queasy question,
Which I must act. Briefness and fortune work!
Brother, a word, descend, brother, I say!
Enter Edgar.
My father watches: O sir, fly this place;
Intelligence is given where you are hid ”

“ JAILER.
Lord Arcite, you must presently to th’ Duke;
The cause I know not yet.
ARCITE.
I am ready, keeper.
JAILER.
Prince Palamon, I must awhile bereave you
Of your fair cousin’s company.
[Exeunt Arcite and Jailer.]
PALAMON.
And me too,
Even when you please, of life.—Why is he sent for?
It may be he shall marry her; he’s goodly,
And like enough the Duke hath taken notice
Both of his blood and body. But his falsehood!
Why should a friend be treacherous? If that
Get him a wife so noble and so fair,
Let honest men ne’er love again. ”

“ SCENE V. Rossillon. A room in the Countess’s palace. Enter Clown, Countess and Lafew.
LAFEW.
No, no, no, your son was misled with a snipt-taffeta fellow there, whose villanous saffron would have made all the unbak’d and doughy youth of a nation in his colour. Your daughter-in-law had been alive at this hour, and your son here at home, more advanc’d by the king than by that red-tail’d humble-bee I speak of.
COUNTESS.
I would I had not known him; it was the death of the most virtuous gentlewoman that ever nature had praise for creating. ”

“ FALSTAFF. Some sack, Francis.
PRINCE & POINS. Anon, anon, sir. [Advancing]
FALSTAFF. Ha! a bastard son of the King's? And art thou not
Poins
his brother?
PRINCE. Why, thou globe of sinful continents, what a life dost
thou
lead!
FALSTAFF. A better than thou. I am a gentleman: thou art a
drawer.
PRINCE. Very true, sir, and I come to draw you out by the ears.
HOSTESS. O, the Lord preserve thy Grace! By my troth, welcome
to
London. Now the Lord bless that sweet face of thine. ”

“ He attends here in the forest on the
Duke,
your father.
ROSALIND. I met the Duke yesterday, and had much question with
him.
He asked me of what parentage I was; I told him, of as good
as
he; so he laugh'd and let me go. But what talk we of fathers
when
there is such a man as Orlando?
CELIA. O, that's a brave man! He writes brave verses, speaks
brave
words, swears brave oaths, and breaks them bravely, quite
traverse, athwart the heart of his lover ”

“ Then one of the young men ran straight to the king’s palace, and said: ‘The wall has been climbed, and the prize is won!’
‘By whom?’ cried the king, starting up from his throne; ‘which of the princes may I claim as my son-in-law?’
‘The youth who succeeded in climbing to the princess’s window is not a prince at all,’ answered the young man. ‘He is the son of the master of the horse to the great king who dwells across the river, and he fled from his own country to escape from the hatred of his stepmother. ”

“ The courtiers extolled the duke to the skies for making such a choice, and considered it another proof of his great wisdom. "The duke," said they, "is waxing a little too old, the damsel, on the other hand, is a little too young; if one is lacking in years, the other has a superabundance; thus a want on one side is balanced by the excess on the other, and the result is a well-assorted marriage." ”

“ Ambitious York did level at thy crown,
Thou smiling while he knit his angry brows.
He, but a duke, would have his son a king,
And raise his issue like a loving sire;
Thou, being a king, blest with a goodly son,
Didst yield consent to disinherit him,
Which argued thee a most unloving father.
Unreasonable creatures feed their young ”

“ Well, my good lord, I have inform'd them so. Lear. Inform'd them? Dost thou understand me, man? Glou. Ay, my good lord. Lear. The King would speak with Cornwall; the dear father Would with his daughter speak, commands her service. Are they inform'd of this? My breath and blood! Fiery? the fiery Duke? Tell the hot Duke that- No, but not yet! May be he is not well. Infirmity doth still neglect all office Whereto our health is bound. We are not ourselves When nature, being oppress'd, commands the mind To suffer with the body. ”

“ Beheaded publicly for his offence.
ANGELO.
See where they come. We will behold his death.
LUCIANA.
Kneel to the Duke before he pass the abbey.
Enter the Duke, attended; Egeon, bareheaded; with the Headsman and other Officers.
DUKE.
Yet once again proclaim it publicly,
If any friend will pay the sum for him,
He shall not die; so much we tender him.
ADRIANA.
Justice, most sacred duke, against the abbess!
DUKE.
She is a virtuous and a reverend lady,
It cannot be that she hath done thee wrong. ”

“ All that I will tell you is, that the Duke hath dined. Get your apparel together, good strings to your beards, new ribbons to your pumps; meet presently at the palace; every man look o’er his part. For the short and the long is, our play is preferred. In any case, let Thisbe have clean linen; and let not him that plays the lion pare his nails, for they shall hang out for the lion’s claws. And most dear actors, eat no onions nor garlick, for we are to utter sweet breath; and I do not doubt but to hear them say it is a sweet comedy. ”

“ The Frolicksome Duke; or, The Tinker's Good Fortune.
Now as fame does report, a young duke keeps a court,
One that pleases his fancy with frolicksome sport:
But amongst all the rest, here is one I protest,
Which will make you to smile when you hear the true jest:
A poor tinker he found, lying drunk on the ground,
As secure in a sleep as if laid in a swound. ”

“ There was a middle-aged peer, and a young and wealthy baronet, and a simple esquire, enormously rich in everything but brains, and a captain of dragoons, the nephew and presumptive heir to a duke, who, to say the truth, was the best of the party, for he was a man of feeling, of character, and of thought, a little enthusiastic, indeed, in his notions, but whose imagination, in all its flights, soared heavenward. ”

“ I have check'd him for it; and the young lion repents—marry, not in ashes and sackcloth, but in new silk and old sack. CHIEF JUSTICE. Well, God send the Prince a better companion! FALSTAFF. God send the companion a better prince! I cannot rid my hands of him. CHIEF JUSTICE. Well, the King hath sever'd you. I hear you are going with Lord John of Lancaster against the Archbishop and the Earl of Northumberland. FALSTAFF. Yea; I thank your pretty sweet wit for it. But look you pray, all you that kiss my Lady Peace at home, that our armies join not in a hot day ”

“ Is it the prince whom they expected?’
‘The prince, be d—d!’ exclaimed the farmer. ‘What’s the value of a foreign prince beside one of our own English noblemen? I wouldn’t give you that for the prince,’ snapping his fingers. ‘No; it is somebody much better and higher. It’s your old master, the Earl of Ilfracombe, and his lady. What do you think of that?’
‘The Earl of Ilfracombe!’ echoed Nell, in order to gain time. ”

“ CHIEF JUSTICE. What foolish master taught you these manners,
Sir
John?
FALSTAFF. Master Gower, if they become me not, he was a fool
that
taught them me. This is the right fencing grace, my lord; tap
for
tap, and so part fair.
CHIEF JUSTICE. Now, the Lord lighten thee! Thou art a great
fool.
Exeunt
SCENE II. London. Another street Enter PRINCE HENRY and POINS
PRINCE. Before God, I am exceeding weary.
POINS. Is't come to that? I had thought weariness durst not
have
attach'd one of so high blood.
PRINCE. Faith, it does me ”

“ I see it in the eyes of them.' This was a good while before the first act was over, and so gave us ease soon; for that duke (besides his own good taste) has a particular knack, as any one now living, in discovering the taste of the publick. He was quite right in this, as usual; the good-nature of the audience appeared stronger and stronger every act, and ended in a clamour of applause. ”

“ Not only men, but money
Will the Duke want.——Go, tell him, sirs!
I've earn'd and laid up somewhat in his service,
I lend it him; and is he my survivor,
It has been already long ago bequeath'd to him.
He is my heir. For me, I stand alone
Here in the world; naught know I of the feeling
That binds the husband to a wife and children. ”

“ Thine, by yea and no—which is as much as to say as thou usest him—JACK FALSTAFF with my familiars, JOHN with my brothers and sisters, and SIR JOHN with all Europe.' POINS. My lord, I'll steep this letter in sack and make him eat it. PRINCE. That's to make him eat twenty of his words. But do you use me thus, Ned? Must I marry your sister? POINS. God send the wench no worse fortune! But I never said so. PRINCE. Well, thus we play the fools with the time, and the spirits of the wise sit in the clouds and mock us. Is your master here in London? BARDOLPH. Yea, my lord. PRINCE. Where sups he? ”

“ ACT V SCENE I. The Camp of the British Forces near Dover Enter, with drum and colours Edmund, Regan, Officers, Soldiers and others.
EDMUND.
Know of the Duke if his last purpose hold,
Or whether since he is advis’d by aught
To change the course, he’s full of alteration
And self-reproving, bring his constant pleasure.
[To an Officer, who goes out.]
REGAN.
Our sister’s man is certainly miscarried.
EDMUND.
’Tis to be doubted, madam.
REGAN.
Now, sweet lord,
You know the goodness I intend upon you:
Tell me but truly, but then speak the truth,
Do you not love my sister? ”