Mine were the very cipher of a function,' To find the faults, whose fine stands in record, Isab. O just but severe law! I had a brother, then;-must he needs die? Isab. Yes; I do think that you might pardon him, Isab. But can you, if you would? Ang. Look; what I will not, that I can not do. Isab. But might you do't, and do the world no wrong, if so your heart were touch'd with that remorse, As mine is to him? Ang. He's sentenced; 'tis too late. Isab. Too late? Why, no; I, that do speak a word, No ceremony that to the great belongs, And you as he, you would have slipt like him; Isab. I would to Heaven I had your potency,' Ang. Your brother is a forfeit of the law, And you but waste your words. Alas! alas! Isab. 1 Function (fůngk' shun), duty; office; performance.—3 Truncheon (trůn' shun), a short staff; a club.- Po' ten cy, power; authority.— For' feit, that which is lost by an offense. If He, which is the top of judgment, should Like man new made. Ang. Be you content, fair maid; It is the law, not I, condemns your brother. Were he my kinsman, brother, or my son, It should be thus with him; he dies to-morrow. Isab. To-morrow? oh! that's sudden. Spare him, spare him. Good, good my lord, bethink you : Who is it that hath died for this offense? There's many have committed it. Ang. The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept; If the first man that did the edict' infringe,' Isab. Yet show some pity. Ang. I show it most of all, when I show justice; For then I pity those I do not know, Which a dismiss'd offense would after gall; And do him right, that, answering one foul wrong, Lives not to act another. Be satisfied; Your brother dies to-morrow; be content. Isab. So you must be the first that gives this sentence: To have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous3 Thou rather, with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt, Splittest the unwedgeable and gnarled oak, 1E'dict, proclamation; law. In fringe', break; encroach upon.-. Tyr'an nous, cruel; unjustly severe. Dress'd in a little brief authority, Most ignorant of what he's most assured, We can not weigh our brother with yourself: That in the captain's but a choleric2 word, Ang. Why do you put these sayings upon me? That skins the vice o' the top: go to your bosom; Let it not sound a thought upon your tongue Ang. She speaks, 'tis suc sense, That my sense bleeds with it. Fare you Isab. Gentle my lord, turn back. well. Ang. I will bethink me; come again to-morrow. Isab. Hark, how I'll bribe you; good my lord, turn back. Ang. How! bribe me? Isab. Ay, with such gifts, that Heaven shall share with you. Not with fond shekels' of the tested' gold, Or stones, whose rate is either rich or poor, Ang. Well, come to-morrow. Isab. Heaven keep your honor safe. SHAKSPEARE 1 Prof a nå' tion, a violation of something sacred; treating with abuse or disrespect..— Choleric (kol' er ik), angry; passionate.-' Blås' phemy, irreverent or contemptuous words uttered wickedly against God.-'Shekel (shek' kl), a Jewish coin of the value of about half a dollar, or sixty cents. Test' ed, tried; purified. 1. WITH 169. THE TRAVELER. ITHDRAW yon curtain, look within that room, 2. 'Tis he, the husband, father, lost in care, O'er that sweet fellow in his cradle there: 3. His eye must see, his foot each spot must tread, The Pagan's temple and the Churchman's tower, 1 Socrates, an illustrious Grecian philosopher and teacher of youth was born at Athens, in the year 468 B. C. Though the best of all the men of his time, and one of the wisest and most just of all men, he unjustly suffered the punishment of death for impiety at the age of seventy. Homer, the most distinguished of poets, called the "Father of Song." He is supposed to have been an Asiatic Greek, though his birth-place, and the period in which he lived, are not known. From Virgil's' tomb he longs to pluck one flower To bless his own sweet home, his own proud shore, 5. Wrapp'd in the raiment that it long must wear, Even there the spirit that I sing is true, Virgil, the most distinguished of the Roman poets, was born at Andes, a small village of Mantua, on the 15th of October, B. c. 70. He died on the 22d of September, B. c. 19, before completing his fiftyfirst year. His body lies buried at the distance of two miles from the city of Naples.- Avon, a river in England, on the bank of which Shakspeare was born.- John Milton, the most illustrious English poet, was born in London, on the 9th of December, 1608. He died on Sunday, the 8th of November, 1675. 2 |