Plays

"Who has not known ill fortune, never knew Himself, or his own virtue."

"What proves the hero truly great, Is never, never to despair."

"Rule Britannia, rule the waves: Britons never will be slaves."

"The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee"

"42nd Street (musical)"

"21 Chump Street"

"A Chorus Line"

"A Christmas Carol"

"A Class Act"

"A Thurber Carnival"

"Addams Family"

"Ain't Misbehavin'"

"Ain't Too Proud"

"All Shook Up"

"Altar Boys"

"Alice's Adventures In Wonderland"

"American Idiot"

"An American in Paris"

"Anatomy of Gray"

"Angels in America"

"Annie Get Your Gun"

"Anyone Can Whistle"

"Anything Goes"

"Aspects of Love"

"Babes in Arms"

"Babes in Toyland"

"Bat Boy the Musical"

"Be More Chill"

"Beauty and the Beast"

"Beetlejuice"

"Beggar's Opera"

"Beyond the Fringe"

"Billy Elliott"

"Blood Brothers"

"Boeing-Boeing"

"Bonnie and Clyde"

"The Book of Mormon"

"The Boyfriend"

"Boys From Syracuse"

"Breakfast at Tiffany's"

"Bright Lights, Big City"

"Brighton Beach Memoirs"

"Bring It On"

"Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story"

"Bugsy Malone"

"Bye Bye Birdie"

"Damn Yankees"

"Dangerous Game"

"Dear Evan Hansen"

"Death and the Maiden"

"Death of a Salesman"

"Desert Song"

"Dirty Rotten Scoundrels"

"Don Giovanni"

"Dreamgirls"

"Drowsy Chaperone"

"Duchess of Malfi"

"Elf: The Musical"

"Escape To Margaritaville"

"Everybody's Talking About Jamie"

"Everyday Rapture"

"The Fantasticks"

"Fiddler on the Roof"

"Finding Neverland"

"Finian's Rainbow"

"Flower Drum Song"

"Forbidden Broadway"

"Forty-Second Street"

"Freaky Friday"

"Free As Air"

"Full Monty"

"Funny Girl"

"Gentlemen Prefer Blondes"

"Girl Crazy"

"Glass Menagerie, The"

"Goodbye Girl, The"

"Grand Night For Singing"

"Groundhog Day"

"Guys and Dolls"

"Gutenberg!"

"Half a Sixpence"

"Hands on a Hard Body"

"Happy Days"

"Harry Potter and the Cursed Child"

"Hedwig and the Angry Inch"

"Hello Dolly!"

"High School Musical 1-3"

"High Society"

"Holiday Inn"

"How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying"

"The Hunchback of Notre Dame"

"I Love You Because"

"I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change"

"Importance of Being Earnest, The"

"Indiscretions"

"Inherit the Wind"

"In the Heights"

"Into the Woods"

"It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman"

"It's A Wonderful Life"

"Jagged Little Pill"

"James and the Giant Peach"

"Jekyll and Hyde"

"Jersey Boys"

"Jesus Christ Superstar"

"Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat"

"Junior Miss"

"The King and I"

"Kinky Boots"

"Kiss Me Kate"

"Kiss of a Spider Woman"

"Knickerbocker Holiday"

"La Cage Aux Folles"

"Last Five Years"

"The Last Ship"

"Legally Blonde"

"Les Misérables"

"Light in the Piazza"

"Little Shop of Horrors"

"Little Women"

"Lost in Yonkers"

"Love Story"

"Lucky Stiff"

"Little mermaid"

"Mack and Mabel"

"Man of La Mancha"

"Marry Me a Little"

"Mary Poppins"

"Me and My Girl"

"Mean Girls"

"Meet Me in St. Louis"

"Merrily We Roll Along"

"Million Dollar Quartet"

"Miss Saigon"

"Most Happy Fella"

"Murder Ballad"

"The Music Man"

"My Fair Lady"

"Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812"

"New Girl in Town"

"Next to Normal"

"Nice Work If You Can Get It"

"No, No, Nanette"

"No Strings"

"Nonsense: The Ohio Musical"

"Oh, Coward!"

"On a Clear Day You Can See Forever"

"Once Upon a Mattress"

"On the Town"

"On the Verge"

"Once on this Island"

"Paint Your Wagon"

"The Pajama Game"

"Perestroika (2nd part of Angels in America)"

"The Phantom of the Opera"

"Pipe Dream"

"The Play That Went Wrong"

"Porgy and Bess"

"Pretty Woman (musical)"

"Priscilla Queen of the Desert"

"The Producers"

"Promises, Promises"

"Queen o' Hearts"

"Ride the Cyclone"

"Rock of Ages"

"Rocky the Musical"

"Rocky Horror Show"

"Room 46 - The Musical"

"Saint Joan"

"Salad Days"

"Saturday Night Fever"

"Scarlet Pimpernel"

"School of Rock"

"Secret Garden"

"Seven Brides for Seven Brothers"

"She Loves Me"

"Shrek the Musical"

"Singin' in the Rain"

"Sister Act"

"Sleep No More"

"Smokey Joe's Café"

"Some Like It Hot"

"Something Rotten"

"Song and Dance"

"Songs for a New World"

"Sound of Music"

"South Pacific"

"Spelling Bee"

"Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark"

"Spongebob Squarepants the musical"

"Spring Awakening"

"Starlight Express"

"State Fair"

"Steel Magnolias"

"Steel Pier"

"Stop The World - I Want to Get Off!"

"Streetcar Named Desire, A"

"Strike Up the Band"

"Sunday in the Park with George"

"Sunset Boulevard"

"Sweeney Todd"

"Sweet Charity"

"Take Me Out"

"The Color Purple"

"The Crucible"

"The Greatest Showman"

"The Lehman Trilogy"

"The Mystery of Edwin Drood"

"The Threepenny Opera"

"Thoroughly Modern Millie"

"Tick Tick Boom"

"To Kill A Mockingbird"

"Twelve Angry Jurors"

"Urinetown: The Musical"

"Unsinkable Molly Brown, the Lyrics"

"Victor/Victoria"

"Waiting for Godot"

"Waitress (musical)"

"The Wedding Singer"

"West Side Story"

"We Will Rock You"

"Whistle Down the Wind"

"White Christmas"

"The Who's Tommy"

"Wicked (musical)"

"Wild Party"

"Wind in the Willows"

"The Wizard of Oz"

"Wonderful Town"

"Wonderland"

". Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory"

"Young Frankenstein"

"You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown"

"You Can’t Take it with You!"

"Ziegfeld Follies"

"Your Women of honour, as you call 'em, are only chary of their reputations, not their persons, / and 'tis scandal they would avoid, not men."

"A mistress should be like a little country retreat near the town, not to dwell in constantly, but only for a night and away; to taste the town the better when a man returns."

"Methinks wit is more necessary than beauty, and I think no young woman ugly that has it, and no handsome / woman agreeable without it."

"Women, as you say, are like soldiers made constant and loyal by good pay, rather than by oaths and covenants, therefore I'd advise my friends to keep rather than marry;"

"'Tis my maxim, he's a fool that marries; but he's a greater that does not marry a fool."

"A beauty masked, like the sun in eclipse, Gathers together more gazers than if it shined out."

"[Mr. Pinchwife tells Mrs. Pinchwife of the pleasures of the town]"

"[The penknife scene]"

"[The china scene – The husband of Lady Fidget and the grandmother of Mrs. Squeamish are listening front stage and nodding in approval, failing to pick up the double entendre which is obvious to the audience.]"

"[The ladies' drinking scene ¬– The "brimmer" is a drinking cup passing from hand to hand.]"

"[Squeamish, Dainty, and Lady Fidget have realized that that Horner is the secret lover of them all.]"

""Simmer down now, Billy; you're forgettin' - here there *is* no time; this is the beginning and the end." ~ Starkeeper"

"[to Mrs. Mullin] "Put on a new coat of paint. You're startin' to peel, old pleasure-boat!" ~ Jigger Craigin"

"JUNE IS BUSTIN OUT ALL OVER ACT I"

"YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE ACT II"

"Little Sally: "(Say Officer Lockstock, is this where you tell the audience about the water shortage?)" Officer Lockstock: "What's that Little Sally?" LS: "You know, the water shortage. The hard times. The drought. A shortage so awful that private toilets eventually became unthinkable. A premise so absurd that. . ." OL: "Whoa, there Little Sally. Not all at once. They'll hear more about the water shortage in the next scene." LS: "Oh, I guess you don't want to overload them with too much exposition, huh." OL: "Everything in its time, Little Sally. You're too young to understand it now, but nothing can kill a show like too much exposition." LS: "How about bad subject matter?" OL: "Well-" LS: "Or a bad title, even? That could kill a show pretty good." OL: "Well Little Sally, suffice it to say that in Urinetown (the musical) everyone has to use public bathrooms in order to take care of their private business."

"Pennywise: I am her mother. All:[Gasp]. Pennywise: And she is my daughter!. All: [Bigger Gasp]."

"Old Man Strong: Bobby! Bobby, reason with the woman. I'm a little short this morning. Tiny Tom: No shorter than yesterday. Unless I've grown."

"Hope: "Gosh, Daddy, I never realized large, monopolizing corporations could be such a force for good in the world!" Mr. Cladwell: "Few do.""

"Hope: "Do you think you'd be feeling as bad as you do if you didn't have a heart?" Bobby: "I don't know. I suppose not." Hope: "Of course you wouldn't. Because then you'd be dead!""

"Mr. Cladwell: [to Hope] "Don't be the bunny!""

"Senator Fipp: "You're a good girl, Hope. I used to be one, before your father got to me." Hope: "You were a good girl?" Senator Fipp: "You heard me.""

"Bobby: "We will look into the faces of our fellow man and see not only a brother, (To Tiny Tom) But a sister as well." Tiny Tom:"What's that supposed to mean?""

"Mr. McQueen: "Ms. Cladwell! What an unexpected surprise!" Hope: "Is there any other kind?""

"In the midst of life we are in the midst of death."

"...We're all human; who isn't?"

"And my advice to you is not to inquire into why or whither, but to enjoy your ice cream while it's on your plate; that's my philosophy."

"Children are a thing that only a parent can stand, and a truer word was never said."

"I can't invent any words for this play, and I'm glad I can't. I hate this play and every word in it."

"You've let the fire go out."

"Mrs. Antrobus: Have you milked the mammoth? Sabina: I don't understand a word of this play -- Yes, I've milked the mammoth."

"Reading and writing and counting on your fingers is all very well in their way- but I keep the home going."

"There's that dinosaur on the front lawn again."

"Yes, any booby can fool with it now, but I thought of it first!"

"Ladies and gentlemen! Don't take this play serious. The world's not coming to an end. You know it's not. People exaggerate! Most people really have enough to eat and a roof over their heads. Nobody actually starves--you can always eat grass or something. ... Savages don't love their families--not like we do."

"The Ten Commandments. Faugh!!--That's the worst line I've ever had to say on any stage."

"Booby, pass the sandwiches."

"Two weeks, that's the law."

"Mrs. Antrobus, I'm taking back my notice. Mrs. Antrobus, I wouldn't want to leave a house that receives such interesting telegrams!"

"Gladys Antrobus, what's that red stuff on your face?! You're a detestable child! Get away from me, both of you! I never want to see sight nor sound of you!"

"The dinosaur is extinct; the ice has retreated; and the common cold is being pursued by every means within our power."

"I give you the watchword for the future: Enjoy Yourselves."

"Who can tell your past,--eh? Nobody!"

"One of those black disks means bad weather; two means storm; three means hurricane; and four means the end of the world."

"Just a moment. I have something I wish to say to the audience.--Ladies and gentlemen. I'm not going to play this particular scene tonight. It's just a short scene and we're going to skip it."

"I have a letter...and in the letter is written all the things that a woman knows. It's never been told to any man and it's never been told to any woman, and if it finds its destination, a new time will come. We're not what books and plays say we are. We're not what advertisements say we are. We're not in the movies and we're not on the radio."

"And I'm sorry to say we'll need a short rehearsal, just a short run-through. And as some of it takes place in the auditorium, we'll have to keep the curtain up."

"God forgive me but I enjoyed the war. Everybody's at their best in wartime."

"I don't know how to say it, but the enemy is Henry; Henry is the enemy."

"How can you make a world for people to live in, unless you've first put in order yourself?"

"It's not wholly his fault that he wants to strangle me in this scene. It's my fault, too."

"I've never forgotten for long at a time that living is struggle. I know that every good and excellent thing in the world stands moment by moment on the razor-edge of danger and must be fought for — whether it's a field, or a home, or a country."

"...I didn't make this war. I didn't ask for it. And, in my opinion, after everybody's gone through what they've gone through, they have a right to grab what they can find. You're a very nice man, Mr. Antrobus, but you'd have got on better in the world if you'd realized that dog-eat-dog was the rule in the beginning and always will be."

"[To the audience] This is where you came in. We have to go on for ages and ages yet. You go home. The end of this play isn't written yet."

"The Scarlet Pimpernel works in the dark, and his identity is only known under the solemn oath of secrecy to his immediate followers."

""The Scarlet Pimpernel?" said Suzanne, with a merry laugh. "Why! what a droll name! What is the Scarlet Pimpernel, Monsieur?" She looked at Sir Andrew with eager curiosity. The young man's face had become almost transfigured. His eyes shone with enthusiasm; hero-worship, love, admiration for his leader seemed literally to glow upon his face. "The Scarlet Pimpernel, Mademoiselle," he said at last "is the name of a humble English wayside flower; but it is also the name chosen to hide the identity of the best and bravest man in all the world, so that he may better succeed in accomplishing the noble task he has set himself to do." "Ah, yes," here interposed the young Vicomte, "I have heard speak of this Scarlet Pimpernel. A little flower — red? — yes! They say in Paris that every time a royalist escapes to England that devil, Foucquier-Tinville, the Public Prosecutor, receives a paper with that little flower designated in red upon it."

"We seek him here, we seek him there, Those Frenchies seek him everywhere. Is he in heaven? — Is he in hell? That damned, elusive Pimpernel"

"It is only when we are very happy, that we can bear to gaze merrily upon the vast and limitless expanse of water, rolling on and on with such persistent, irritating monotony, to the accompaniment of our thoughts, whether grave or gay. When they are gay, the waves echo their gaiety; but when they are sad, then every breaker, as it rolls, seems to bring additional sadness, and to speak to us of hopelessness and of the pettiness of all our joys."

"Sing! Swing! Savor the sting! As she severs you Madame Guillotine. Slice! Come paradise! You'll be smitten with Madame Guillotine!"

"We all are caught in the middle of one long treacherous riddle. Can I trust you? Should you trust me too?... We shamble on through this hell taking on more secrets to sell 'til there comes a day when we sell our souls away."

"We seek him here,we seek him there, Those Frenchies seek him everywhere! Is he in heaven? Is he in hell? Where is that damn elusive Pimpernel! He gives the Frenchies nothing but frustration Popping in and out each week! Spoiling every lovely execution LA! What cheek!"

"Without the good will of manipulators and audience alike, puppets cannot sustain an illusion of life."

"And although I'm not exactly sure what [Jim Henson] did, whatever it was really moved me."

"I had never worked with puppets before so just the concept of talking to this green, grungy-lookin' rag comin' out of a trash can was totally alien to me."

"We have a ways to go in understanding the power of puppetry … Our problem is for too long we have thought of puppets being for children. … The appeal of puppetry to me is it's much more freeing for an artist … Puppetry is a completely controllable means to attack your characters in every possible way. The artist has the possibility to create a much larger landscape with puppetry. The human becomes more human in that sense. Another of the great things about puppetry is the ability to transform."

"My excitement about making the [puppet] team was slightly tempered by the fact that everyone who auditioned had made the team."

"When I hear the art of puppetry discussed, I often feel frustrated in that it's one of those pure things that somehow becomes much less interesting when it is overdiscussed or analyzed."

"One of the nice things about puppets is that it's your own hand in there. You can make it do anything you want it to."

"A good character is almost always derived from an aspect of the performer's personality."

"Parents are concerned that if kids see that a person operates the Muppet, an illusion will be shattered. But I think kids see us as just the people who carry their friends around."

"I feel that almost everyone maintains a childlike quality throughout their adulthood. One of the nice things about the puppet form is that it has the ability to communicate with this childlike side of the audience."

"Working as I do with movement of puppet creatures, I'm always struck by the feebleness of our efforts to achieve naturalistic movement. Just looking at the incredible movement of a lizard or a bird, or even the smallest insect, can be a very humbling experience."

"It was interesting and kind of fun to do--but I wasn't really interested in puppetry then. It was just a means to an end."

"A lot of people build very stiff puppets--you can barely move the thing--and you can get very little expression out of a character that you can barely move. Your hand has a lot of flexibility to it, and what you want to do is to build a puppet that can reflect all that flexibility."

"Kids come to visit the [Sesame Street] studio and they and the puppets are old friends. Those puppets are in their living rooms every day. As soon as a puppet goes up on somebody's arm, the puppeteer ceases to exist. The child comes right up to talk to Grover or the Count. They don't look at the puppeteer. They don't look at the monitor."

"Jim [Henson] had a lot of respect for puppetry, but not much for the puppet as a physical object. It was a means to an end. If he was giving a live demonstration, he didn't care if people saw him put his hand in the puppet, and he didn't try to sustain the illusion once the performance was over."

"And so that he can tell what’s happening, a puppeteer always watches his performance in a television monitor. In a way, the puppeteer becomes an audience to his own performance."

"Well, the thing to remember here is that my own personality has absolutely nothing to do with this weirdo."

"Now I can see one or two of you are thinking, now look here, what if one of our American friends makes a boo-boo, presses the wrong button, and sends up one of their missiles by mistake? It could not happen. You see, before they press that button they've got to get on the telephone to number 10 Downing Street, and say, "Now look, Mr. Macmillan, Sir, can I press this button?" And Mr. Macmillan will say "yes" — or "no" — as the mood takes him."

"Life, you know, is rather like opening a tin of sardines. We are all of us looking for the key. And, I wonder, how many of you here tonight have wasted years of your lives looking behind the kitchen dressers of this life for that key."

"Others think they've found the key, don't they? They roll back the lid of the sardine tin of life, they reveal the sardines, the riches of life, therein, and they get them out, they enjoy them. But, you know, there's always a little bit in the corner you can't get out. I wonder — I wonder, is there a little bit in the corner of your life? I know there is in mine."

"I'd like to make one thing quite clear at the outset. When you speak of a "train robbery", this in fact involved no loss of train."

"I went first to Germany, and there I spoke with the German Foreign Minister, Herr...Herr and there, and we exchanged many frank words in our respective languages; so precious little came of that in the way of understanding. I would, however, emphasise that the little that came of it was indeed, truly, precious."

"That is not to say that we do not have our own Nuclear Striking Force — we do, we have the Blue Steel; a very effective missile, as it has a range of one hundred and fifty miles, which means that we can just about get Paris — and, by God, we will."

"Now, we shall receive four minutes warning of any impending nuclear attack. Some people have said, "Oh my goodness me — four minutes? — that is not a very long time!" Well, I would remind those doubters that some people in this great country of ours can run a mile in four minutes."

"Yes, I could have been a judge but I never had the Latin, never had the Latin for the judging, I just never had sufficient of it to get through the rigorous judging exams."

"I managed to get through the mining exams — they're not very rigorous, they only ask one question, they say, "What is your name?", and I got 50 per cent on that."

"I am very interested in the Universe — I am specialising in the Universe and all that surrounds it."

"The young lady who modelled for Constable was Alice Lauderdale, who was the young lady who came in and did for Constable — practically any woman would do for Constable. She, in any case, used to come in and dust around in the nude, and Constable would get her down on the canvas and immortalise her. As you see, in most of his paintings of Alice he has been forced to disguise her as arable land."

"The leg division, Mr. Spiggott. You are deficient in it — to the tune of one. Your right leg I like. I like your right leg. A lovely leg for the role. That's what I said when I saw you come in. I said, "A lovely leg for the role." I've got nothing against your right leg. The trouble is — neither have you."

"There's that marvellous unpunctuated motto over the lavatory saying, "Gentlemen lift the seat". What exactly does this mean? Is it a sociological description — a definition of a gentleman which I can either take or leave? Or perhaps it's a Loyal Toast? It could be a blunt military order, or an invitation to upper-class larceny."

"In fact, I'm not really a Jew, just Jew-ish. Not the whole hog, you know."

"Please, don't call me "vicar". Call me Dick. That's the sort of vicar I am."

"Terry Randall: That isn't acting; that's piecework. You're not a human being, you're a thing in a vacuum. Noise shut out, human response shut out. But in the theatre, when you hear that lovely sound out there, then you know you're right. It's as though they'd turned on an electric current that hit you here. And that's how you learn to act. Jean Maitland: You can learn to act in pictures. You have to do it till it's right. Terry Randall: Yes, and then they put it in a tin can -- like Campell's soup. And if you die the next day it doesn't matter a bit. You don't even have to be alive to act in pictures."

"Terry Randall: It isn't just a career, it's a feeling. The theatre is something that's gone on for hundreds of years. It's -- I don't know -- it's part of civilization."

"David Kingsley: When picture people come into the theatre -- when they take a really fine play and put a girl like Jean in it -- when they use a play like this for camera fodder, that's more than I can stand. The theatre means too much to me."

"Kaye Hamilton: There's nothing else I can do and nobody I can go back to. Except somebody I'll never go back to."

"Terry Randall: You're an actress if you're acting. Without a job and those lines to say, an actress is just an ordinary person, trying not to look as scared as she feels."

"O Death, thou comest when I had thee least in mind."

"The tyde abydeth no man."

"Death: What, wenest thou thy lyfe is gyven thee And thy wordely gooddes also? Everyman: I had wende so, verely. Death: Ney, nay, it was but lend thee, For as sone as thou arte go Another a whyle shall have it, and than go therfro Even as thou hast done. Everyman, thou arte mad, that hast thy wyttes five And here on erth wyll not amende thy lyve, For sodenly I do cume."

"Loo, fayre wordes maketh fooles fayne; They promyse, and nothynge wyll do certayne."

"Everyman, I wyll go with thee and be thy guyde In thy moste nede to go by thy syde."

"I am gracyus and grete, God withoutyn begynnyng, I am maker unmade, all mighte es in me; I am lyfe and way unto welth-wynnyng, I am formaste and fyrste, als I byd sall it be."

"O, what I am fetys and fayre and fygured full fytt! The forme of all fayrehede apon me es feste, All welth in my weelde es, I wote be my wytte; The bemes of my brighthede are bygged with the beste. My schewyng es schemerande and schynande, So bygly to blys am I broghte; Me nedes for to noy me righte noghte, Here sall never payne me be pynande."

"Owe, certes, what I am worthely wroghte with wyrschip, iwys! For in a glorius gle my gleteryng it glemes; I am so mightyly made my mirth may noghte mys- Ay sall I byde in this blys thorowe brightnes of bemes. Me nedes noghte of noy for to neven, All welth in my welde have I weledande; Abowne yohit sall I be beeldand, On heghte in the hyeste of hewuen."

"I sall be lyke unto hym that es hyeste on heghte. Owe, what I am derworth and defte-Owe! Dewes! All goes downe! My mighte and my mayne es all marrande- Helpe, felawes! In faythe I am fallande."

"Nowe in my sawle grete joie have I, I am all cladde in comforte clere, Now will be borne of my body Both God and man togedir in feere."

"Hayle my lord God, hayle prince of pees, Hayle my fadir, and hayle my sone; Hayle sovereyne sege all synnes to sesse, Hayle God and man in erth to wonne. Hayle, thurgh whos myht All this worlde was first begonne, Merknes and light."

"Thus schall the sothe be bought and solde And treasoune schall for trewthe be tolde."

"This woffull worlde is brought till ende, Mi fadir of heuene he woll it be; Therfore till erthe nowe will I wende Miselve to sitte in magesté. To deme my domes I woll descende; This body will I bere with me – Howe it was dight, mannes mys to mende, All mankynde there schall it see."

"As I out rode this enderes night, Of thre ioli sheppardes I saw a sight, And all abowte there fold a star shone bright; They sange "terli terlowe"; So mereli the sheppards ther pipes can blow."

"By by, lully lullay, þow littell tyne child, By by, lully lullay."

"Herod, the king, in his raging, Chargid he hath this day His men of might in his owne sight All yonge children to slay. That wo is me, pore child, for thee, And ever morne and say For thi parting nether say nor singe By by, lully lullay."

"The weykist gothe eyuer to the walle."

"Say, felows, how semys now me To sit in seyte of trynyte? I am so bright of ich a lym I trow me seme as well as hym."

"We, that were angels so fare, And sat so hie above the ayere, Now ar we waxen blak as any coyll, And ugly, tatyrd as a foyll. What alyd the, lucifer, to fall?"

"Lord, I were at ese and hertely full hoylle, Might I onys have a measse of wedows coyll; For thi saull, without lese shuld I dele penny doyll, So wold mo, no frese that I se on this sole Of wifis that ar here, For the life that thay leyd, Wold thare husbandis were dede, For, as ever ete I brede, So wold I oure syre were."

"He shall out of preson pas, For that he begyled was Thrugh the edder, and his wyfe; Thay gart hym towch the tree of lyfe, And ete the frute that I forbed, And he was dampned for that dede. Ryghtwysnes wyll we make; I wyll that my son manhede take, For reson wyll that ther be thre, A man, a madyn, and a tre: Man for man, tre for tre, Madyn for madyn; thus shal it be."

"Ffyrst must us crepe and sythen go."

"Now god gyf you care foles all sam; Sagh I neuer none so fare bot the foles of gotham."

"Bot we sely shepardes that walkys on the moore, In fayth we are nere handys outt of the doore; No wonder as it standys if we be poore, For the tylthe of oure landys lyys falow as the floore."

"We ar so hamyd, For-taxed and ramyd, We ar mayde hand tamyd, With thyse gentlery men. Thus thay refe vs oure rest oure lady theym wary! These men that ar lord fest thay cause the ploghe tary."

"Thus hold, thay us hunder, Thus thay bryng us in blonder; It were greatte wonder, And ever shuld we thryfe. For may he gett a paynt slefe or a broche now on dayes, Wo is hym that hym grefe or onys agane says!"

"He can make purveance, With boste and bragance, And all is thrugh maintenance Of men that are gretter. Ther shall com a swane as prowde as a po, He must borow my wane my ploghe also, Then I am full fane to graunt or he go. Thus lyf we in payne anger, and wo, By nyght and day; He must have if he langyd, If I shuld, forgang it, I were better be hangyd Then oones say hym nay."

"Whoso couthe take hede and lett the warld pas, It is ever in drede and brekyll as glas, And slythys. This warld, fowre never so, With mervels mo and mo, Now in weyll, now in wo, And all thyng wrythys."

"Ryse, hyrd men heynd! for now is he borne That shall take fro the feynd that adam had lorne: That warloo to sheynd this nyght is he borne. God is made youre freynd now at this morne. He behestys, At bedlem go se, Ther lygys that fre In a cryb full poorely, Betwyx two bestys."

"For I am he that may make or mar a man; My self if I it say as men of cowrte now can; Supporte a man to day to-morn agans hym than, On both parties thus I play and fenys me to ordan The right."

"Here is a bag full, lokys, Of pride and of lust, Of Wraggers and wrears a bag full of brefes, Of carpars and cryars of mychers and thefes, Of lurdans and lyars that no man lefys, Of flytars, of flyars and renderars of reffys; This can I."

"The schoolboy who uses his Homer to throw at his fellow's head makes perhaps the safest and most rational use of him than any one ever will."

"Our political experiment of democracy, the last refuge of cheap misgovernment, will ruin us if our citizens are ill bred."

"Progress can do nothing but make the most of us all as we are…"

"We must either breed political capacity or be ruined by Democracy, which was forced on us by the failure of the older alternatives. Yet if Despotism failed only for want of a capable benevolent despot, what chance has Democracy, which requires a whole population of capable voters."

"This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy."

"Bunyan's perception that righteousness is filthy rags, his scorn for Mr Legality in the village of Morality, his defiance of the Church as the supplanter of religion, his insistence on courage as the virtue of virtues, his estimate of the career of the conventionally respectable and sensible Worldly Wiseman as no better at bottom than the life and death of Mr Badman: all this, expressed by Bunyan in the terms of a tinker's theology, is what Nietzsche has expressed in terms of post-Darwinian, post-Schopenhaurian philosophy; Wagner in terms of polytheistic mythology; and Ibsen in terms of mid-XIX century Parisian dramaturgy."

"A lifetime of happiness! No man alive could bear it: it would be hell on earth."

"The more things a man is ashamed of, the more respectable he is."

"The true artist will let his wife starve, his children go barefoot, his mother drudge for his living at seventy, sooner than work at anything but his art."

"Since marriage began, the great artist has been known as a bad-boy husband. But he is worse: he is a child-robber, a bloodsucker, a hypocrite and a cheat. Perish the race and wither a thousand women if only the sacrifice of them enable him to act Hamlet better, to paint a finer picture, to write a deeper poem, a greater play, a profounder philosophy!"

"Octavius [earnestly]: I believe most intensely in the dignity of labor. Straker [unimpressed]: That's because you never done any, Mr Robinson."

"... the book about the bird and the bee is natural history. It's an awful lesson to mankind. You think that you are Ann's suitor; that you are the pursuer and she the pursued; that it is your part to woo, to persuade, to prevail, to overcome. Fool: it is you who are the pursued, the marked down quarry, the destined prey. You need not sit looking longingly at the bait through the wires of the trap: the door is open, and will remain so until it shuts behind you for ever."

"Marry Ann; and at the end of a week you'll find no more inspiration in her than in a plate of muffins."

"In short, the way to avoid misunderstanding is for everybody to lie and slander and insinuate and pretend as hard as they can. That is what obeying your mother comes to."

"As he comes along the drive from the house with Mrs Whitefield he is sedulously making himself agreeable and entertaining, and thereby placing on her slender wit a burden it is unable to bear."

"You can be as romantic as you please about love, Hector; but you mustn't be romantic about money."

"If we were reasoning, farsighted people, four fifths of us would go straight to the Guardians for relief, and knock the whole social system to pieces with most beneficial reconstructive results. The reason we do not do this is because we work like bees or ants, by instinct or habit, not reasoning about the matter at all. Therefore when a man comes along who can and does reason, and who, applying the Kantian test to his conduct, can truly say to us, If everybody did as I do, the world would be compelled to reform itself industrially, and abolish slavery and squalor, which exist only because everybody does as you do, let us honor that man and seriously consider the advisability of following his example."

"A movement which is confined to philosophers and honest men can never exercise any real political influence: there are too few of them. Until a movement shows itself capable of spreading among brigands, it can never hope for a political majority."

"Abnormal professions attract two classes: those who are not good enough for ordinary bourgeois life and those who are too good for it. We are dregs and scum, sir: the dregs very filthy, the scum very superior."

"Hell is the home of honor, duty, justice, and the rest of the seven deadly virtues. All the wickedness on earth is done in their name: where else but in hell should they have their reward?"

"You may remember that on Earth--though of course we never confessed it--the death of anyone we knew, even those we liked best, was always mingled with a certain satisfaction at being finally done with them."

"Written over the gate here are the words "Leave every hope behind, ye who enter." Only think what a relief that is! For what is hope? A form of moral responsibility. Here there is no hope, and consequently no duty, no work, nothing to be gained by praying, nothing to be lost by doing what you like. Hell, in short, is a place where you have nothing to do but amuse yourself."

"I was a hypocrite; and it served me right to be sent to heaven."

"... for Englishmen never will be slaves: they are free to do whatever the Government and public opinion allows them to do."

"At every one of those concerts in England you will find rows of weary people who are there, not because they really like classical music, but because they think they ought to like it. Well, there is the same thing in heaven. A number of people sit there in glory, not because they are happy, but because they think they owe it to their position to be in heaven."

"The earth is a nursery in which men and women play at being heroes and heroines, saints and sinners; but they are dragged down from their fool's paradise by their bodies: hunger and cold and thirst, age and decay and disease, death above all, make them slaves of reality: thrice a day meals must be eaten and digested: thrice a century a new generation must be engendered: ages of faith, of romance, and of science are all driven at last to have but one prayer "Make me a healthy animal.""

"But Heaven cannot be described by metaphor. Thither I shall go presently, because there I hope to escape at last from lies and from the tedious, vulgar pursuit of happiness, to spend my eons in contemplation."

"Senor Commander: I do not blame your disgust: a picture gallery is a dull place for a blind man. But even as you enjoy the contemplation of such romantic mirages as beauty and pleasure; so would I enjoy the contemplation of that which interests me above all things namely, Life: the force that ever strives to attain greater power of contemplating itself. What made this brain of mine, do you think? Not the need to move my limbs; for a rat with half my brains moves as well as I. Not merely the need to do, but the need to know what I do, lest in my blind efforts to live I should be slaying myself."

"What a piece of work is man! says the poet. Yes: but what a blunderer! Here is the highest miracle of organization yet attained by life, the most intensely alive thing that exists, the most conscious of all the organisms; and yet, how wretched are his brains! Stupidity made sordid and cruel by the realities learnt from toil and poverty: Imagination resolved to starve sooner than face these realities, piling up illusions to hide them, and calling itself cleverness, genius! And each accusing the other of its own defect: Stupidity accusing Imagination of folly, and Imagination accusing Stupidity of ignorance: whereas, alas! Stupidity has all the knowledge, and Imagination all the intelligence."

"And a pretty kettle of fish they make of it between them. Did I not say, when I was arranging that affair of Faust's, that all Man's reason has done for him is to make him beastlier than any beast. One splendid body is worth the brains of a hundred dyspeptic, flatulent philosophers."

"And is Man any the less destroying himself for all this boasted brain of his? Have you walked up and down upon the earth lately? I have; and I have examined Man's wonderful inventions. And I tell you that in the arts of life man invents nothing; but in the arts of death he outdoes Nature herself, and produces by chemistry and machinery all the slaughter of plague, pestilence and famine. The peasant I tempt to-day eats and drinks what was eaten and drunk by the peasants of ten thousand years ago; and the house he lives in has not altered as much in a thousand centuries as the fashion of a lady's bonnet in a score of weeks. But when he goes out to slay, he carries a marvel of mechanism that lets loose at the touch of his finger all the hidden molecular energies, and leaves the javelin, the arrow, the blowpipe of his fathers far behind."

"In the arts of peace Man is a bungler. I have seen his cotton factories and the like, with machinery that a greedy dog could have invented if it had wanted money instead of food. I know his clumsy typewriters and bungling locomotives and tedious bicycles: they are toys compared to the Maxim gun, the submarine torpedo boat. There is nothing in Man's industrial machinery but his greed and sloth: his heart is in his weapons. This marvellous force of Life of which you boast is a force of Death: Man measures his strength by his destructiveness."

"What is his religion? An excuse for hating ME. What is his law? An excuse for hanging YOU. What is his morality? Gentility! an excuse for consuming without producing. What is his art? An excuse for gloating over pictures of slaughter. What are his politics? Either the worship of a despot because a despot can kill, or parliamentary cockfighting."

"...Man, the inventor of the rack, the stake, the gallows, and the electrocutor; of the sword and gun; above all, of justice, duty, patriotism and all the other isms by which even those who are clever enough to be humanely disposed are persuaded to become the most destructive of all the destroyers."

"Man gives every reason for his conduct save one, every excuse for his crimes save one, every plea for his safety save one; and that one is his cowardice. Yet all his civilization is founded on his cowardice, on his abject tameness, which he calls his respectability. There are limits to what a mule or an ass will stand; but Man will suffer himself to be degraded until his vileness becomes so loathsome to his oppressors that they themselves are forced to reform it."

"Man, who in his own selfish affairs is a coward to the backbone, will fight for an idea like a hero. He may be abject as a citizen; but he is dangerous as a fanatic. He can only be enslaved whilst he is spiritually weak enough to listen to reason."

"When the military man approaches, the world locks up its spoons and packs off its womankind. No: I sing, not arms and the hero, but the philosophic man: he who seeks in contemplation to discover the inner will of the world, in invention to discover the means of fulfilling that will, and in action to do that will by the so-discovered means.""

"The confusion of marriage with morality has done more to destroy the conscience of the human race than any other single error."

"Those who talk most about the blessings of marriage and the constancy of its vows are the very people who declare that if the chain were broken and the prisoners left free to choose, the whole social fabric would fly asunder. You cannot have the argument both ways. If the prisoner is happy, why lock him in? If he is not, why pretend that he is?"

"I have had my share of vanity; for as a young man I was admired by women; and as a statue I am praised by art critics."

"Your friends are all the dullest dogs I know. They are not beautiful: they are only decorated. They are not clean: they are only shaved and starched. They are not dignified: they are only fashionably dressed. They are not educated they are only college passmen. They are not religious: they are only pewrenters. They are not moral: they are only conventional. They are not virtuous: they are only cowardly. They are not even vicious: they are only "frail." They are not artistic: they are only lascivious. They are not prosperous: they are only rich. They are not loyal, they are only servile; not dutiful, only sheepish; not public spirited, only patriotic; not courageous, only quarrelsome; not determined, only obstinate; not masterful, only domineering; not self-controlled, only obtuse; not self-respecting, only vain; not kind, only sentimental; not social, only gregarious; not considerate, only polite; not intelligent, only opinionated; not progressive, only factious; not imaginative, only superstitious; not just, only vindictive; not generous, only propitiatory; not disciplined, only cowed; and not truthful at all--liars every one of them, to the very backbone of their souls."

"Yes, it is mere talk. But why is it mere talk? Because, my friend, beauty, purity, respectability, religion, morality, art, patriotism, bravery and the rest are nothing but words which I or anyone else can turn inside out like a glove. Were they realities, you would have to plead guilty to my indictment; but fortunately for your self-respect, my diabolical friend, they are not realities. As you say, they are mere words, useful for duping barbarians into adopting civilization, or the civilized poor into submitting to be robbed and enslaved. That is the family secret of the governing caste; and if we who are of that caste aimed at more Life for the world instead of at more power and luxury for our miserable selves, that secret would make us great."

"Here there is nothing but love and beauty. Ugh! it is like sitting for all eternity at the first act of a fashionable play, before the complications begin. Never in my worst moments of superstitious terror on earth did I dream that Hell was so horrible. I live, like a hairdresser, in the continual contemplation of beauty, toying with silken tresses. I breathe an atmosphere of sweetness, like a confectioner's shopboy."

"... men get tired of everything, of heaven no less than of hell; and that all history is nothing but a record of the oscillations of the world between these two extremes. An epoch is but a swing of the pendulum; and each generation thinks the world is progressing because it is always moving. But when you are as old as I am; when you have a thousand times wearied of heaven, like myself and the Commander, and a thousand times wearied of hell, as you are wearied now, you will no longer imagine that every swing from heaven to hell is an emancipation, every swing from hell to heaven an evolution. Where you now see reform, progress, fulfilment of upward tendency, continual ascent by Man on the stepping stones of his dead selves to higher things, you will see nothing but an infinite comedy of illusion. You will discover the profound truth of the saying of my friend Koheleth, that there is nothing new under the sun. Vanitas vanitatum."

"Were I not possessed with a purpose beyond my own I had better be a ploughman than a philosopher; for the ploughman lives as long as the philosopher, eats more, sleeps better, and rejoices in the bosom of his wife with less misgiving."

"The philosopher is Nature's pilot. And there you have our difference: to be in hell is to drift: to be in heaven is to steer."

"Well, well, go your way, Senor Don Juan. I prefer to be my own master and not the tool of any blundering universal force. I know that beauty is good to look at; that music is good to hear; that love is good to feel; and that they are all good to think about and talk about. I know that to be well exercised in these sensations, emotions, and studies is to be a refined and cultivated being. Whatever they may say of me in churches on earth, I know that it is universally admitted in good society that the prince of Darkness is a gentleman; and that is enough for me."

"As to your Life Force, which you think irresistible, it is the most resistible thing in the world for a person of any character. But if you are naturally vulgar and credulous, as all reformers are, it will thrust you first into religion, where you will sprinkle water on babies to save their souls from me; then it will drive you from religion into science, where you will snatch the babies from the water sprinkling and inoculate them with disease to save them from catching it accidentally; then you will take to politics, where you will become the catspaw of corrupt functionaries and the henchman of ambitious humbugs; and the end will be despair and decrepitude, broken nerve and shattered hopes, vain regrets for that worst and silliest of wastes and sacrifices, the waste and sacrifice of the power of enjoyment: in a word, the punishment of the fool who pursues the better before he has secured the good."

"Beware of the pursuit of the Superhuman: it leads to an indiscriminate contempt for the Human."

"This Don Juan was kind to women and courteous to men as your daughter here was kind to her pet cats and dogs; but such kindness is a denial of the exclusively human character of the soul."

"ANA. ...Tell me where can I find the Superman? THE DEVIL. He is not yet created, Senora. THE STATUE. And never will be, probably[...] ANA. Not yet created! Then my work is not yet done. [Crossing herself devoutly] I believe in the Life to Come. [Crying to the universe] A father--a father for the Superman!"

"[between his teeth] Goon. Talk politics, you idiots: nothing sounds more respectable. Keep it up, I tell you."

"Hell is full of musical amateurs. Music is the brandy of the damned."

"An Englishman thinks he is moral when he is only uncomfortable."

"What is virtue but the Trade Unionism of the married?"

"There are two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart's desire. The other is to get it."

"Do not do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same. Never resist temptation: prove all things: hold fast that which is good. Do not love your neighbor as yourself. If you are on good terms with yourself it is an impertinence: if on bad, an injury. The golden rule is that there are no golden rules."

"The art of government is the organization of idolatry."

"Kings are not born: they are made by universal hallucination."

"Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few."

"He who confuses political liberty with freedom and political equality with similarity has never thought for five minutes about either."

"Nothing can be unconditional: consequently nothing can be free."

"Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it."

"He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches."

"Activity is the only road to knowledge."

"Marriage is popular because it combines the maximum of temptation with the maximum of opportunity."

"Imprisonment is as irrevocable as death."

"It is the deed that teaches, not the name we give it. Murder and capital punishment are not opposites that cancel one another, but similars that breed their kind."

"Whilst we have prisons it matters little which of us occupy the cells."

"Titles distinguish the mediocre, embarrass the superior, and are disgraced by the inferior."

"There are no perfectly honorable men; but every true man has one main point of honor and a few minor ones."

"Man is the only animal which esteems itself rich in proportion to the number and voracity of its parasites."

"If you strike a child, take care that you strike it in anger, even at the risk of maiming it for life. A blow in cold blood neither can nor should be forgiven."

"Beware of the man whose god is in the skies."

"What a man believes may be ascertained, not from his creed, but from the assumptions on which he habitually acts."

"No specific virtue or vice in a man implies the existence of any other specific virtue or vice in him, however closely the imagination may associate them. Virtue consists, not in abstaining from vice, but in not desiring it. Self-denial is not a virtue : it is only the effect of prudence on rascality. Obedience simulates subordination as fear of the police simulates honesty. Disobedience, the rarest and most courageous of the virtues, is seldom distinguished from neglect, the laziest and commonest of the vices. Vice is waste of life. Poverty, obedience and celibacy are the canonical vices. Economy is the art of making the most of life. The love of economy is the root of all virtue."

"In heaven an angel is nobody in particular."

"Happiness and beauty are by-products."

"The unconscious self is the real genius. Your breathing goes wrong the moment your conscious self meddles with it."

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."

"Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience."

"Hell is paved with good intentions, not with bad ones."

"The right to live is abused whenever it is not constantly challenged."

"Civilization is a disease produced by the practice of building societies with rotten material."

"Every man over forty is a scoundrel."

"Youth, which is forgiven everything, forgives itself nothing: age, which forgives itself everything, is forgiven nothing."

"Take care to get what you like or you will be forced to like what you get. Where there is no ventilation fresh air is declared unwholesome. Where there is no religion hypocrisy becomes good taste. Where there is no knowledge ignorance calls itself science."

"If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience!"

"Those who understand evil pardon it: those who resent it destroy it."

"It is dangerous to be sincere unless you are also stupid."

"Beware of the man who does not return your blow: he neither forgives you nor allows you to forgive yourself."

"Two starving men cannot be twice as hungry as one; but two rascals can be ten times as vicious as one."

"Self-sacrifice enables us to sacrifice other people without blushing."

"If you begin by sacrificing yourself to those you love, you will end by hating those to whom you have sacrificed yourself."

"Cóż tam, panie, w polityce? Chińcyki trzymają się mocno!?"

"Niech na całym świecie wojna, byle polska wieś zaciszna, byle polska wieś spokojna."

"A, jak myślę, ze panowie duza by juz mogli mieć, ino oni nie chcom chcieć!"

"Trza być w butach na weselu."

"Ach, pan gada, gada, gada."

"Chłop potęgą jest i basta."

"To któż moich groszy złodzij, czy Żyd jucha, cy dobrodzij!?"

"Mego dziadka piłą rżnęli... Myśmy wszystko zapomnieli."

"Kto mnie wołał, czego chciał?"

"Świętości nie szargać, bo trza, żeby święte były"

"Chopin gdyby jeszcze żył, toby pił"

"A to Polska właśnie."

"Miałeś, chamie, złoty róg, miałeś, chamie, czapkę z piór: (...) ostał ci sie ino sznur"

"S’il n’y avait pas de Pologne il n’y aurait pas de Polonais !"

"One man has one great good true thing in his life. One great good thing which is true! I had friendship with Skipper. You are namin' it dirty!"

"What's that smell in this room? Didn't you notice it, Brick? Didn't you notice the powerful and obnoxious odor of mendacity in this room?"

"I'm not living with you! We occupy the same cage, that's all."

"One more crack, queenie, just one, and I will not only spit in your eye but I will punch it black and blue!"

"I never believed war would make a difference like this. There's money around."

"Dreaming is not making your own decisions but letting others make them for you."

"I shouldn't have killed him."

"Sam is definitely not a babe."

"Now there's conscription coming, if women take their jobs they'll have to go."

"I couldn't love a man who'd stayed at home."

"Inspectors and drivers. Drivers are the worst. Mine's forever slamming on the brakes to have me fall over. Won't speak to me hardly... and they won't have girls in the rest room except to get our tea. Then they dock our pay cos they say we have to have assistance with the poles turning the trams round at the terminus."

"They say we're taking jobs off them an that we'll want to be drivers next."

"There was nothing in the paper."

"I've got to cuddle something somehow."

"I'd be a female lumberjack if I could... in the Forestry... if I hadn't my own burdens."

"What about the munitions girls.. the girls in Gretna that got blown up that they tried to hush up? And getting canary through working with TNT so your coughing yellow cut the rest of your life?"

"If there's one thing that narks the men about this war it's the way it shows them up for creating such mysteries round things."

"I shall be his very shadow."

"I will make that young man my special charge. Hand your responsibility over to me and I shall not be found wanting. I shall be with h in every present danger.. the darkest moments, you can be assured."

"Then it depends on which way you read them."

"Its a free exchange of skills... of produce or hand or brain. That's what's needed . Not money."

"One for all and one for each. (in a letter to May)"

"That’s the great thing about the army. You don’t need money… It’s free exchange."

"We exchanged our skills. No money was involved"

"If you look at Leonardo da Vinci's drawings... the tip of the middle finger reaches further down the thigh bone."

"They're stuck! Stuck! that's why every things cock-eyed. Stuck in their own little worlds. They can't see further than what they know. Mentally stuck. It's got so they think they'll go under for stepping beyond their own back yard."

"God has called me to the lists and if I fall let my death help cleanse the world of its weakness."

"We have failed to build Jerusalem and this is God’s answer."

"Christ said suffer the children. Suffer them!"

"We are merely the stars' tennis balls, struck and bandied Which way please them."

"A Spanish fig for the imputation"

"Do you not weep? Other sins only speak; murder shrieks out. The element of water moistens the earth, But blood flies upwards and bedews the heavens."

"Cover her face. Mine eyes dazzle. She died young."

"She and I were twins; And should I die this instant, I had liv'd Her time to a minute."

"It seems she was born first: You have bloodily approv'd the ancient truth, That kindred commonly do worse agree Than remote strangers."

"Whether we fall by ambition, blood or lust, Like diamonds we are cut with our own dust."

"The Duchess: Diamonds are of most value They say, that have pass'd through most jewellers hands Ferdinand: Whores, by that rule, are precious."

"Vindice: Duke, royal lecher, go, gray-hair'd adultery; And thou his son, as impious steep'd as he; And thou his bastard, true-begot in evil; And thou his duchess that will do with [the] devil: Four ex'lent characters."

"Hippolito: Last evening predecessor unto this, The duke's son warily enquir'd for me, Whose pleasure I attended: he began By policy to open and unhusk me About the time and common rumour; But I had so much wit to keep my thoughts Up in their built houses, yet afforded him An idle satisfaction without danger. But the whole aim and scope of his intent Ended in this: conjuring me in private To seek some strange-digested fellow forth Of ill-contented nature, either disgrac'd In former times, or by new grooms displac'd Since his stepmother's nuptials, such a blood A man that were for evil only good; To give you the true word, some base-coin'd pander."

"Vindici: We must coin. Women are apt, you know, to take false money, But I dare stake my soul for these two creatures, Only excuse excepted that they'll swallow Because their sex is easy in belief."

"Ambitioso: Brother, this makes for thee; Fear not, we'll have a trick to set thee free. Junior: Brother, I will expect it from you both, And in that hope I rest."

"Vindice: What think you now, lady? Speak, are you wiser? What said advancement to you? Thus it said: The daughter's fall lifts up the mother's head. Did it not, madam? But I'll swear it does In many places; tut, this age fears no man: "'Tis no shame to be bad, because 'tis common.""

"Lussurioso: I much applaud thy judgment; thou art well-read in a fellow, And 'tis the deepest art to study man. I know this, which I never learnt in schools: The world's divided into knaves and fools."

"Duke: It well becomes that judge to nod at crimes That does commit greater himself and lives. I may forgive a disobedient error That expect pardon for adultery, And in my old days am a youth in lust: Many a beauty have I turn'd to poison In the denial, covetous of all. Age hot is like a monster to be seen: My hairs are white, and yet my sins are green."

"Supervacuo: Brother, let my opinion sway you once, I speak it for the best, to have him die Surest and soonest; if the signet come Unto the judges' hands, why, then his doom Will be deferr'd till sittings and court-days, Juries and further. Faiths are bought and sold; Oaths in these days are but the skin of gold."

"[Spurio and the Duchess kiss] Spurio: Had not that kiss a taste of sin, 'twere sweet. Duchess: Why, there's no pleasure sweet but it is sinful. Spurio: True, such a bitter sweetness fate hath given; Best side to us is the worst side to heaven. Duchess: Push, come: 'tis the old duke thy doubtful father; The thought of him rubs heaven in thy way, But I protest by yonder waxen fire, Forget him or I'll poison him. Spurio: Madam, you urge a thought which ne'er had life. So deadly do I loathe him for my birth, That if he took me hasp'd within his bed, I would add murther to adultery, And with my sword give up his years to death."

"Vindici: Here might a scornful and ambitious woman Look through and through herself; see, ladies, with false forms You deceive men but cannot deceive worms."

"Kay: Remember what we once were and what we thought we'd be. And now this. And it's all we have, Allan, it's us. Every step we've taken—every tick of the clock—making everything worse. If this is all life is, what's the use? Better to die, like Carol, before you find it out, before Time gets to work on you. I've felt it before, Allan, but never as I've done tonight. There's a great devil in the universe, and we call it Time."

"Kay: I'll try to understand . . . so long as you really believe—and think it's possible for me to believe—that Time's not ticking our lives away . . . wrecking . . . and ruining everything . . . for ever . . . Alan: No, it's all right, Kay. I'll get you that book. You know, I believe that half our trouble now is because we think Time's ticking our lives away. That's why we snatch and grab and hurt each other. Kay: As if we were all in a panic on a sinking ship. Alan: Yes, it's like that. Kay: But you don't do those things—bless you! Alan: I think it's easier not to—if you take a long view. Kay: As if we're—immortal beings? Alan: Yes, and in for a tremendous adventure."

"Nay, what tickled me was him saying he must ha' come at wrong year. now that's as good as aught I've heard o' some time. If he's going around asking for people -- not friends of his, mind you -- and he doesn't know where they are nor what year they'll be here -- I reckon he's got his work cut out."

"A lot of use it is you or anybody else saying what they'd do if they had their time over again. A fat chance they have, haven't they? Time moves on and it takes you with it, whatever you say -- as I know only too well."

"But now I see that we do not understand ourselves, the nature of our lives. What seems to happen continually just outside the edge of our attention -- the little fears and fancies, as you call them -- may be all-important because they belong to a profounder reality, like the vague sounds of the city outside that we hear sometimes inside a theatre."

"Ormund: But being rich isn't simply the opposite of being poor. It's not really worth much -- being rich. Half the time there's a thick glass between you and most of the fun and friendliness of the world. There's something devilishly dull about most of the rich. Too much money seems to take the taste and colour out of things. It oughtn't to do, but it does -- damn it! Dr. Görtler: But power -- you have that, haven't you? Ormund: Yes, and that's a very different thing. Dr. Görtler: Ah! -- you like power. Ormund: Well, you get some fun out of it. I don't mean bullying a lot of poor devils. but putting ideas into action. And not being at the end of somebody else's bit of string."

"I suppose -- in the last resort -- you trust life -- or you don't. Well -- I don't. There's something malicious . . . corrupt . . . cruel . . . at the heart of it. We don't belong. We're a mistake."

"But time is not single and universal. It is only the name we give to higher dimensions of things. In our present state of consciousness, we cannot experience dimensions spatially, but only successively. That we call time. but there are more times than one."

"Some people, steadily developing, will exhaust the possibilities of their circles of time and will finally swing out of them into new existences. Others -- the criminals, madmen, suicides -- live their lives in ever darkening circles of their time. Fatality begins to haunt them. more and more of their lives are passed in the shadow of death."

"I have lived longer than you. I have thought more, and I have suffered more. And I tell you there is more truth to the fundamental nature of things in the most foolish fairy tales than there is in any of your complaints against life."

"Yes, but you do not know -- you will not understand -- that life is penetrated through and through by our feeling, imagination and will. In the end, the whole universe must respond to every real effort we make. We each live a fairy tale created by ourselves."

"Benediction. Í[S'] a preserve you ! he who is revealed In these eight forms by man perceptible— Water, of all creation's works the first; The Fire that bears on high the sacrifice Presented with solemnity to heaven; The Priest, the holy offerer of gifts; The Sun and Moon, those two majestic orbs, Eternal marshallers of day and night; The subtle Ether, vehicle of sound, Diffused throughout the boundless universe; The Earth, by sages called 'The place of birth Of all material essences and things'; And Air, which giveth life to all that breathe."

"King: Now, Charioteer, see me kill the deer."

"A Voice: Hold, O King! this deer belongs to our hermitage. Kill it not! kill it not!"

"Charioteer: Great King, some hermits have stationed themselves so as to screen the antelope at the very moment of its coming within range of your arrow."

"King: Then stop the horses."

"Hermit:This deer, O King, belongs to our hermitage. Kill it not! kill it not! Now heaven forbid this barbed shaft descend Upon the fragile body of a fawn, Like fire upon a heap of tender flowers! Can thy steel bolts no meeter quarry find Than the warm life-blood of a harmless deer? Restore, great Prince, thy weapon to its quiver. More it becomes thy arms to shield the weak, Than to bring anguish on the innocent."

"Hermits: May heaven indeed grant thee a son, a sovereign of the earth from sea to sea!"

"King: I accept with gratitude a Bráhman's benediction.... Is the Chief of your Society now at home?"

"Hermit: No; he has gone to Soma-tírtha to propitiate Destiny, which threatens his daughter Shakoontalá with some calamity; but he has commissioned her in his absence to entertain all guests with hospitality."

"King: The inhabitants of this sacred retreat must not be disturbed. Stay the chariot, that I may alight.... Charioteer, groves devoted to penance must be entered in humble attire. Take these ornaments.... Here is the entrance to the hermitage. I will now go in. Serenest peace is in this calm retreat, By passion's breath unruffled; what portends My throbbing arm? Why should it whisper here Of happy love? Yet everywhere around us Stand the closed portals of events unknown."

"A Voice: This way, my dear companions; this way."

"King: Hark! I hear voices to the right of yonder grove of trees. I will walk in that direction. Ah! here are the maidens of the hermitage coming this way to water the shrubs, carrying water-pots proportioned to their strength."

"SHAKOONTALÁ:This way, my dear companions; this way."

"Anasúyá: Dear SHAKOONTALÁ, one would think that father Kanwa had more affection for the shrubs of the hermitage even than for you, seeing he assigns to you, who are yourself as delicate as the fresh-blown jasmine, the task of filling with water the trenches which encircle their roots."

"SHAKOONTALÁ: Dear Anasúyá, although I am charged by my good father with this duty, yet I cannot regard it as a task. I really feel a sisterly love for these plants>....Good Anasúyá, Priyamvadá has drawn this bark-dress too tightly about my chest. I pray thee, loosen it a little."

"King: Can this be the daughter of Kanwa? The saintly man, though descended from the great Kasyapa, must be very deficient in judgment to habituate such a maiden to the life of a recluse. The sage who would this form of artless grace Inure to penance, thoughtlessly attemptsbr>To cleave in twain the hard acacia's stem With the soft edge of a blue lotus-leaf. Well! concealed behind this tree, I will watch her without raising her suspicions."

"Priyamvadá: Why do you lay the blame on me? Blame rather your own blooming youthfulness which imparts fulness to your bosom."

"King: A most just observation! This youthful form, whose bosom's swelling charms By the bark's knotted tissue are concealed, Like some fair bud close folded in its sheath, Gives not to view the blooming of its beauty. But what am I saying? In real truth this bark-dress, though ill-suited to her figure, sets it off like an ornament."

"Priyamvadá: The Keshara-tree, whilst your graceful form bends about its stem, appears as if it were wedded to some lovely twining creeper."

"SHAKOONTALÁ: Ah! saucy girl, you are most appropriately named Priyamvadá('Speaker of flattering things')."

"King: What Priyamvadá says, though complimentary, is nevertheless true. Verily,Her ruddy lip vies with the opening bud; Her graceful arms are as the twining stalks; And her whole form is radiant with the glow Of youthful beauty, as the tree with bloom."

"Priyamvadá: She is wishing that as the jasmine is united to a suitable tree, so, in like manner, she may obtain a husband worthy of her."

"SHAKOONTALÁ: Speak for yourself, girl; this is the thought in your own mind."

"King: Would that my union with her were permissible! and yet I hardly dare hope that the maiden is sprung from a caste different from that of the Head of the hermitage. But away with doubt: That she is free to wed a warrior-king My heart attests. For, in conflicting doubts, The secret promptings of the good man's soul Are an unerring index of the truth. However, come what may, I will ascertain the fact."

"SHAKOONTALÁ: How now! he is following me here. Help! my dear friends, help! deliver me from the attacks of this troublesome insect[Bee]."

"Priyamvadáand Anasúyá: How can we deliver you? Call Dushyanta to your aid. The sacred groves are under the King's special protection."

"King: An excellent opportunity for me to show myself. Fear not— When mighty Puru's offspring sways the earth, And o'er the wayward holds his threatening rod, Who dares molest the gentle maids that keep Their holy vigils here in Kanwa's grove?"

"Anasúyá: All is well indeed, now that we are honoured by the reception of a distinguished guest. Dear Shakoontalá, go, bring from the hermitage an offering of flowers, rice, and fruit. This water that we have brought with us will serve to bathe our guest's feet."

"King: The rites of hospitality are already performed; your truly kind words are the best offering I can receive."

"SHAKOONTALÁ [Aside]: How is it that the sight of this made me sensible of emotions inconsistent with religious vows?"

"King: How charmingly your friendship is in keeping with the equality of your ages and appearance!"

"Anasúyá: Your kind words, noble Sir, fill me with confidence, and prompt me to inquire of what regal family our noble guest is the ornament? what country is now mourning his absence? and what induced a person so delicately nurtured to expose himself to the fatigue of visiting this grove of penance?"

"King: How now shall I reply? shall I make myself known, or shall I still disguise my real rank? I have it; I will answer her thus. [Aloud.] I am the person charged by his Majesty, the descendant of Puru, with the administration of justice and religion; and am come to this sacred grove to satisfy myself that the rites of the hermits are free from obstruction... May I be allowed, in my turn, to ask you maidens a few particulars respecting your friend?"

"King: The sage Kanwa lives in the constant practice of austerities. How, then, can this friend of yours be called his daughter?"

"Anasúyá: I will explain to you. Sir. You have heard of an illustrious sage of regal caste, [[w:Vishwamitra|Vishwámitra, whose family name is Kaushika....Know that he is the real father of our friend. The venerable Kanwa is only her reputed father. He it was who brought her up, when she was deserted by her mother."

"King: 'Deserted by her mother!' My curiosity is excited; pray let me hear the story from the beginning."

"Anasúyá: You shall hear it, Sir. Some time since, this sage of regal caste, while performing a most severe penance on the banks of the river Godávarí, excited the jealousy and alarm of the gods; insomuch that they despatched a lovely nymph named Menaká to interrupt his devotions.... You shall hear it, Sir. Some time since, this sage of regal caste, while performing a most severe penance on the banks of the river Godávarí, excited the jealousy and alarm of the gods; insomuch that they despatched a lovely nymph named Menaká to interrupt his devotions...."

"King: The rest may be easily divined. Shakoontalá, then, is the offspring of the nymph....It is quite intelligible. How would a mortal to such charms give birth? The lightning's radiance flashes not from earth. And so my desire has really scope for its indulgence. Yet I am still distracted by doubts, remembering the pleasantry of her female companions respecting her wish for a husband....I am so eager to hear the particulars of your friend's history, that I have still another question to ask."

"King: I wish to ascertain one point respecting your friend. Will she be bound by solitary vows Opposed to love, till her espousals only? Or ever dwell with these her cherished fawns, Whose eyes, in lustre vying with her own, Return her gaze of sisterly affection?"

"Priyamvadá: Hitherto, Sir, she has been engaged in the practice of religious duties, and has lived in subjection to her foster-father; but it is now his fixed intention to give her away in marriage to a husband worthy of her."

"SHAKOONTALÁ: Anasúyá, I shall leave you...That I may go and report this impertinent Priyamvadá to the venerable matron, Gautamí."

"King: [Making a movement to arrest her departure, but checking himself. Aside.] Ah! a lover's feelings betray themselves by his gestures. When I would fain have stayed the maid, a sense Of due decorum checked my bold design; Though I have stirred not, yet my mien betrays My eagerness to follow on her steps."

"King: Spare her this trouble, gentle maiden. The exertion of watering the shrubs has already fatigued her. The water-jar has overtasked the strength Of her slim arms; her shoulders droop, her hands Are ruddy with the glow of quickened pulses; E'en now her agitated breath imparts Unwonted tremor to her heaving breast; The pearly drops that mar the recent bloom Of the [S']irísha pendent in her ear, Gather in clustering circles on her cheek; Loosed is the fillet of her hair; her hand Restrains the locks that struggle to be free. Suffer me, then, thus to discharge the debt for you. [Offers a ring to Priyamvadá. Both the maidens, reading the name Dushyanta on the seal, look at each other with surprise.]...Nay, think not that I am King Dushyanta. I am only the King's officer, and this is the ring which I have received from him as my credentials."

"Priyamvadá: The greater the reason you ought not to part with the ring from your finger. I am content to release her from her obligation at your simple request. Now, Shakoontalá, my love, you are at liberty to retire, thanks to the intercession of this noble stranger, or rather of this mighty prince."

"A Voice: O hermits, be ready to protect the animals belonging to our hermitage. King Dushyanta, amusing himself with hunting, is near at hand."

"Priyamvadáand Anasúyá: Noble Sir, we are terrified by the accidental disturbance caused by the wild elephant. Permit us to return to the cottage."

"King: Go, gentle maidens. It shall be our care that no injury happen to the hermitage....The mere sight of you, sweet maidens, has been to me the best entertainment."

"SHAKOONTALÁ: Anasúyá, a pointed blade of Kusha-grass has pricked my foot; and my bark-mantle is caught in the branch of a Kuruvaka-bush. Be so good as to wait for me until I have disentangled it."

"Máthavya(King's friend): Oh! here he comes, attended by the Yavana women, with bows in their hands, wearing garlands of wild flowers. What shall I do? I have it. I will pretend to stand in the easiest attitude for resting my bruised and crippled limbs."

"King: True, by no easy conquest may I win her, Yet are my hopes encouraged by her mien, Love is not yet triumphant; but, methinks, The hearts of both are ripe for his delights."

"Máthavya: Here are you living the life of a wild man of the woods in a savage unfrequented region, while your State-affairs are left to shift for themselves; and as for poor me, I am no longer master of my own limbs, but have to follow you about day after day in your chases after wild animals, till my bones are all crippled and out of joint. Do, my dear friend, let me have one day's rest."

"General: Victory to the King! We have tracked the wild beasts to their lairs in the forest. Why delay, when everything is ready?"

"King: My friend Máthavya here has been disparaging the chase, till he has taken away all my relish for it....My good General, as we are just now in the neighbourhood of a consecrated grove, your panegyric upon hunting is somewhat ill-timed, and I cannot assent to all you have said."

"King: Recall, then, the beaters who were sent in advance to surround the forest. My troops must not be allowed to disturb this sacred retreat, and irritate its pious inhabitants."

"King: Máthavya, it may be said of you that you have never beheld anything worth seeing; for your eyes have not yet looked upon the loveliest object in creation."

"Máthavya: If, as you intimate, she is a hermit's daughter, you cannot lawfully ask her in marriage. You may as well then dismiss her from your mind, for any good the mere sight of her can do."

"King: Think you that a descendant of the mighty Puru could fix his affections on an unlawful object? Though, as men say, the offspring of the sage, The maiden to a nymph celestial owes Her being, and by her mother left on earth, Was found and nurtured by the holy man As his own daughter, in this hermitage. So, when dissevered from its parent stalk, Some falling blossom of the jasmine, wafted Upon the sturdy sun-flower, right|thumb|I will describe her, my dear friend, in a few words, Man's all-wise Maker, wishing to create A faultless form, whose matchless symmetry Should far transcend Creation's choicest works,... - w:Dushyanta|King Dushyanta"

"Máthavya: This passion of yours for a rustic maiden, when you have so many gems of women at home in your palace, seems to me very like the fancy of a man who is tired of sweet dates, and longs for sour tamarinds as a variety....I can quite understand it must require something surpassingly attractive to excite the admiration of such a great man as you."

"King: I will describe her, my dear friend, in a few words, Man's all-wise Maker, wishing to create A faultless form, whose matchless symmetry Should far transcend Creation's choicest works, Did call together by his mighty will, And garner up in his eternal mind, A bright assemblage of all lovely things;And then, as in a picture, fashion them Into one perfect and ideal form— Such the divine, the wondrous prototype, Whence her fair shape was moulded into being."

"Máthavya: Make haste, then, to her aid; you have no time to lose, if you don't wish this fruit of all the virtues to drop into the mouth of some greasy-headed rustic of devout habits."

"King: Maidens brought up in a hermitage are naturally shy and reserved; but for all that She did look towards me, though she quick withdrew Her stealthy glances when she met my gaze; She smiled upon me sweetly, but disguised With maiden grace the secret of her smiles. Coy love was half unveiled; then, sudden checked By modesty, left half to be divined."

"Máthavya: Why, of course, my dear friend, you never could seriously expect that at the very first sight she would fall over head ears in love with you, and without more ado come and sit in your lap."

"King: You must know, my good fellow, that I have been recognised by some of the inmates of the hermitage. Now I want the assistance of your fertile invention, in devising some excuse for going there again."

"Two hermits: The inhabitants of the hermitage, having heard of your Majesty's sojourn in our neighbourhood, make this humble petition:In the absence of our Superior, the great sage Kanwa, evil demons are disturbing our sacrificial rites. Deign, therefore, accompanied by your charioteer, to take up your abode in our hermitage for a few days."

"King: Go first, reverend Sirs, I will follow you immediately."

"Warder: Sire, the chariot is ready, and only waits to conduct you to victory. But here is a messenger named Karabhaka, just arrived from your capital, with a message from the Queen, your mother."

"Karabhaka: Victory to the King! The Queen-mother bids me say that in four days from the present time she intends celebrating a solemn ceremony for the advancement and preservation of her son. She expects that your Majesty will honour her with your presence on that occasion."

"King: Friend Máthavya, as you were my playfellow in childhood, the Queen has already received you like a second son; go you, then, back to her, and tell her of my solemn engagement to assist these holy men. You can supply my place in the ceremony, and act the part of a son to the Queen."

"Máthavya: Already I feel quite like a young prince."

"King: This is a giddy fellow, and in all probability he will let out the truth about my present pursuit to the women of the palace. What is to be done? I must say something to deceive him."

"King: Dear friend, I am going to the hermitage wholly and solely out of respect for its pious inhabitants, and not because I have really any liking for [S']akoontalá, the hermit's daughter. Observe: What suitable communion could there be Between a monarch and a rustic girl? I did but feign an idle passion, friend, Take not in earnest what was said in jest."

"Máthavya: Don't distress yourself; I quite understand."

"King: The holy sage possesses magic power In virtue of his penance; she, his ward, Under the shadow of his tutelage, Rests in security, I know it well; Yet sooner shall the rushing cataract In foaming eddies re-ascend the steep, Than my fond heart turn back from its pursuit. God of love! God of the flowery shafts ! we lovers are cruelly deceived by thee, and by the Moon, however deserving of confidence you may both appear...."

"King: Welcome this anguish, welcome to my heart These rankling wounds inflicted by the god, Who on his scutcheon bears the monster-fish Slain by his prowess; welcome death itself, So that, commissioned by the lord of love, This fair one be my executioner. Adorable divinity! Can I by no reproaches excite your commiseration? Have I not daily offered at thy shrine Innumerable vows, the only food Of thine ethereal essence? Are my prayers Thus to be slighted? Is it meet that thou Should'st aim thy shafts at thy true votary's heart, Drawing thy bow-string even to thy ear?... I have but one resource. Oh for another sight of the Idol of my soul! I will seek her."

"King: I will peep through those branches. Ah! now my eyes are gratified by an entrancing sight. Yonder is the beloved of my heart reclining on a rock strewn with flowers, and attended by her two friends. How fortunate! Concealed behind the leaves, I will listen to their conversation, without raising their suspicions."

"Anasúyá: We know very little about love-matters, dear Shakoontalá; but for all that, I cannot help suspecting your present state to be something similar to that of the lovers we have heard about in romances. Tell us frankly what is the cause of your disorder. It is useless to apply a remedy, until the disease be understood."

"Priyamvadá: What Anasúyá says, dear [S']akoontalá, is very just. Why give so little heed to your ailment? Every day you are becoming thinner; though I must confess your complexion is still as beautiful as ever."

"SHAKOONTALÁ: Dear friends, to no one would I rather reveal the nature of my malady than to you; but I should only be troubling you."

"Priyamvadáand Anasúyá: Nay, this is the very point about which we are so solicitous. Sorrow shared with affectionate friends is relieved of half its poignancy."

"King: Pressed by the partners of her joys and griefs, Her much beloved companions, to reveal The cherished secret locked within her breast, She needs must utter it; although her looks Encourage me to hope, my bosom throbs As anxiously I listen for her answer."

"SHAKOONTALÁ: Know then, dear friends, that from the first moment the illustrious Prince who is the guardian of our sacred grove presented himself to my sight—Ever since that happy moment, my heart's affections have been fixed upon him, and my energies of mind and body have all deserted me, as you see. You must consent, then, dear friends, to contrive some means by which I may find favour with the King, or you will have ere long to assist at my funeral."

"King: Enough! These words remove all my doubts."

"Priyamvadá to Anasúyá: She is far gone in love, dear Anasúyá, and no time ought to be lost. Since she has fixed her affections on a monarch who is the ornament of Puru's line, we need not hesitate for a moment to express our approval."

"Priyamvadá: An idea strikes me, Anasúyá. Let [S']akoontalá write a love-letter;I will conceal it in a flower, and contrive to drop it in the King's path. He will surely mistake it for the remains of some sacred offering, and will, in all probability, pick it up."

"SHAKOONTALÁ: Well, I will do my best; but my heart trembles when I think of the chances of a refusal....Listen, dear friends, and tell me whether the ideas are appropriately expressed. I know not the secret thy bosom conceals, Thy form is not near me to gladden my sight; But sad is the tale that my fever reveals, Of the love that consumes me by day and by night."

"King: Nay, Love does but warm thee, fair maiden,—thy frame Only droops like the bud in the glare of the noon; But me he consumes with a pitiless flame, As the beams of the day-star destroy the pale moon."

"Priyamvadá and Anasúyá: Welcome, the desire of our hearts, that so speedily presents itself!"

"SHAKOONTALÁ toPriyamvadá What do you mean by detaining the King, who must be anxious to return to his royal consorts after so long a separation?"

"King: Sweet maiden, banish from thy mind the thought That I could love another. Thou dost reign Supreme, without a rival, in my heart, And I am thine alone; disown me not, Else must I die a second deadlier death, Killed by thy words, as erst by Káma's shafts."

"Anasúyá: Kind Sir, we have heard it said that kings have many favourite consorts. You must not, then, by your behaviour towards our dear friend, give her relations cause to sorrow for her."

"King: Listen, gentle maiden, while in a few words I quiet your anxiety. Though many beauteous forms my palace grace, Henceforth two things alone will I esteem The glory of my royal dynasty— My sea-girt realm, and this most lovely maid."

"SHAKOONTALÁ: Infringe not the rules of decorum, mighty descendant of Puru. Remember, though I love you, I have no power to dispose of myself."

"King: Why this fear of offending your relations, timid maid? When your venerable foster-father hears of it, he will not find fault with you. He knows that the law permits us to be united without consulting him. In Indra's heaven, so at least 'tis said, No nuptial rites prevail, nor is the bride Led to the altar by her future lord; But all in secret does the bridegroom plight His troth, and each unto the other vow Mutual allegiance. Such espousals, too, Are authorised on earth, and many daughters Of royal saints thus wedded to their lords Have still received their father's benison."

"SHAKOONTALÁ: Leave me, leave me; I must take counsel with my female friends."

"King: I will leave thee when I have gently stolen from thy lips Their yet untasted nectar, to allay The raging of my thirst, e'en as the bee Sips the fresh honey from the opening bud."

"SHAKOONTALÁ: Great Prince, I hear the voice of the matron Gautamí. She is coming this way to inquire after my health. Hasten and conceal yourself behind the branches."

"Gautami: My child, is the fever of thy limbs allayed?"

"SHAKOONTALÁ: Venerable mother, there is certainly a change for the better."

"Gautami: Let me sprinkle you with this holy water, and all your ailments will depart. The day is closing, my child; come, let us go to the cottage."

"SHAKOONTALÁ: Oh my heart! thou didst fear to taste of happiness when it was within thy reach. Now that the object of thy desires is torn from thee, how bitter will be thy remorse, how distracting thine anguish!Farewell! bower of creepers, sweet soother of my sufferings, farewell! may I soon again be happy under thy shade."

"King: Alas! how many are the obstacles to the accomplishment of our wishes!Albeit she did coyly turn away Her glowing cheek, and with her fingers guard Her pouting lips, that murmured a denial In faltering accents, she did yield herself A sweet reluctant captive to my will. As eagerly I raised her lovely face; But ere with gentle force I stole the kiss, Too envious Fate did mar my daring purpose."

"King: Albeit she did coyly turn away Her glowing cheek, and with her fingers guard Her pouting lips, that murmured a denial In faltering accents, she did yield herself A sweet reluctant captive to my will. As eagerly I raised her lovely face; But ere with gentle force I stole the kiss, Too envious Fate did mar my daring purpose."

"King: Here printed on the flowery couch I see The fair impression of her slender limbs; Here is the sweet confession of her love, Traced with her nail upon the lotus-leaf; And yonder are the withered lily-stalks That graced her wrist. While all around I view Things that recall her image, can I quit This bower, e'en though its living be fled?"

"Anasúyá: Although, dear Priyamvadá, it rejoices my heart to think that [S']akoontalá has been happily united to a husband in every respect worthy of her, by the form of marriage prevalent among Indra's celestial musicians, nevertheless, I cannot help feeling somewhat uneasy in my mind."

"Anasúyá: You know that the pious King was gratefully dismissed by the hermits on the successful termination of their sacrificial rites. He has now returned to his capital, leaving [S']akoontalá under our care; and it may be doubted whether, in the society of his royal consorts, he will not forget all that has taken place in this hermitage of ours."

"Priyamvadá: On that score be at ease. Persons of his noble nature are not so destitute of all honourable feeling. I confess, however, that there is one point about which I am rather anxious. What, think you, will Father Kanwa say when he hears what has occurred?"

"Anasúyá: From the first, it was always his fixed purpose to bestow the maiden on a husband worthy of her; and since heaven has given her such a husband, his wishes have been realized without any trouble to himself."

"Anasúyá: That must be the voice of a guest announcing his arrival."

"Priyamvadá: Surely, Shakoontalá is not absent from the cottage."

"A Voice[Durvasa]: Woe to thee, maiden, for daring to slight a guest like me! Shall I stand here unwelcomed—even I, A very mine of penitential merit, Worthy of all respect? Shalt thou, rash maid, Thus set at nought the ever sacred ties Of hospitality? and fix thy thoughts Upon the cherished object of thy love, While I am present? Thus I curse thee, then— He, even he of whom thou thinkest, he Shall think no more of thee; nor in his heart Retain thine image. Vainly shalt thou strive To waken his remembrance of the past; He shall disown thee, even as the sot, Roused from his midnight drunkenness, denies The words he uttered in his revellings."

"Priyamvadá: Alas! alas! I fear a terrible misfortune has occurred. [S']akoontalá, from absence of mind, must have offended some guest whom she was bound to treat with respect."

"Priyamvadá: Ah! yes; I see; and no less a person than the great sage Durvásas, who is known to be most irascible. He it is that has just cursed her, and is now retiring with hasty strides, trembling with passion, and looking as if nothing could turn him. His wrath is like a consuming fire."

"Anasúyá: Go quickly, dear Priyamvadá, throw yourself at his feet, and persuade him to come back, while I prepare a propitiatory offering[59] for him, with water and refreshments."

"Priyamvadá: Well, dear Anasúyá, I have done my best; but what living being could succeed in pacifying such a cross-grained, ill-tempered old fellow? However, I managed to mollify him a little."

"Priyamvadá: When he refused to turn back, I implored his forgiveness in these words: 'Most venerable sage, pardon, I beseech you, this first offence of a young and inexperienced girl, who was ignorant of the respect due to your saintly character and exalted rank."

"Anasúyá: And what did he reply?"

"Priyamvadá: My word must not be falsified; but, at the sight of the ring of recognition the spell shall cease.' So saying, he disappeared."

"Anasúyá: Oh! then we may breathe again; for, now I think of it, the King himself, at his departure, fastened on [S']akoontalá's finger, as a token of remembrance, a ring on which his own name was engraved. She has, therefore, a remedy for her misfortune at her own command."

"Priyamvadá: See, Anasúyá, there sits our dear friend, motionless as a statue, resting her face on her left hand, her whole mind absorbed in thinking of her absent husband. She can pay no attention to herself, much less to a stranger."

"Pupil: My master, the venerable Kanwa, who is but lately returned from his pilgrimage, has ordered me to ascertain how the time goes. I have therefore come into the open air to see if it be still dark."

"Pupil: While the round Moon withdraws his looming disc Beneath the western sky, the full-blown flower Of the night-loving lotus sheds her leave In sorrow for his loss, bequeathing nought But the sweet memory of her loveliness To my bereaved sight; e'en as the bride Disconsolately mourns her absent lord, And yields her heart a prey to anxious grief."

"Anasúyá: Little as I know of the ways of the world, I cannot help thinking that King Dushyanta is treating Shakoontalá very improperly."

"Anasúyá: I am broad awake, but what shall I do? I have no energy to go about my usual occupations. My hands and feet seem to have lost their power. Well, Love has gained his object; and Love only is to blame for having induced our dear friend, in the innocence of her heart, to confide in such a perfidious man. Possibly, however, the imprecation of Durvása's may be already taking effect. Indeed, I cannot otherwise account for the King's strange conduct, in allowing so long a time to elapse without even a letter; and that, too, after so many promises and protestations. I cannot think what to do unless we send him the ring which was to be the token of recognition. But which of these austere hermits could we ask to be the bearer of it? Then, again, Father Kanwa has just returned from his pilgrimage; and how am I to inform him of Shakoontalá's marriage to King Dushyanta, and her expectation of becoming soon a mother? I never could bring myself to tell him, even if I felt that Shakoontalá had been in fault, which she certainly has not. What is to be done?"

"Priyamvadá: Quick! quick! Anasúyá! come and assist in the joyful preparations for Shakoontalá's departure to her husband's palace....Listen, now, and I will tell you all about it. I went just now to Shakoontalá, to inquire whether she had slept comfortably—"

"Priyamvadá: She was sitting with her face bowed down to the very ground with shame, when Father Kanwa entered, and, embracing her, of his own accord offered her his congratulations. 'I give thee joy, my child,' he said, 'we have had an auspicious omen. The priest who offered the oblation dropped it into the very centre of the sacred fire, though thick smoke obstructed his vision. Henceforth thou wilt cease to be an object of compassion. This very day I purpose sending thee, under the charge of certain trusty hermits, to the King's palace; and shall deliver thee into the hands of thy husband, as I would commit knowledge to the keeping of a wise and faithful student."

"Anasúyá: Oh, my dear Priyamvadá, what delightful news! I am pleased beyond measure; yet when I think that we are to lose our dear [S']akoontalá this very day, a feeling of melancholy mingles with my joy."

"Priyamvadá: Quick, quick, Anasúyá! They are calling the hermits who are to go with Sakoontalá to Hastinápur."

"Priyamvadá: See! there sits [S']akoontalá, her locks arranged even at this early hour of the morning. The holy women of the hermitage are congratulating her, and invoking blessings on her head, while they present her with wedding-gifts and offerings of consecrated wild-rice. Let us join them."

"SHAKOONTALÁ: I ought indeed to be grateful for your kind offices, now that I am so soon to be deprived of them. Dear, dear friends, perhaps I shall never be dressed by you again."

"Kanwa: This day my loved one leaves me, and my heart Is heavy with its grief; the streams of sorrow, Choked at the source, repress my faltering voice, I have no words to speak; mine eyes are dimmed By the dark shadows of the thoughts that rise Within my soul. If such the force of grief In an old hermit parted from his nursling, What anguish must the stricken parent feel— Bereft for ever of an only daughter."

"Gautami: Daughter, see, here comes thy foster-father; he is eager to fold thee in his arms; his eyes swim with tears of joy. Hasten to do him reverence."

"Kanwa: Holy flames, that gleam around Every altar's hallowed ground Holy flames, whose frequent food Is the consecrated wood, And for whose encircling bed, Sacred Kusha-grass is spread; Holy flames, that waft to heaven Sweet oblations daily given, Mortal guilt to purge away, Hear, oh hear me, when I pray— Purify my child this day! Now then, my daughter, set out on thy journey."

"SHAKOONTALÁ: Eager as I am, dear Priyamvadá, to see my husband once more, yet my feet refuse to move, now that I am quitting for ever the home of my girlhood."

"Priyamvadá: You are not the only one, dearest, to feel the bitterness of parting. As the time of separation approaches, the whole grove seems to share your anguish. In sorrow for thy loss, the herd of deer Forget to browse; the peacock on the lawn Ceases its dance; the very trees around Shed their pale leaves, like tears, upon the ground."

"Kanwa: Daughter, the cherished purpose of my heart Has ever been to wed thee to a man That should be worthy of thee; such a spouse Hast thou thyself, by thine own merits, won. To him thou goest, and about his neck Soon shalt thou cling confidingly, as now Thy favourite jasmine twines its loving arms Around the sturdy mango. Leave thou it To its protector—e'en as I consign Thee to thy lord, and henceforth from my mind Banish all anxious thought on thy behalf."

"SHAKOONTALÁ: My father, see you there my pet deer, grazing close to the hermitage? She expects soon to fawn, and even now the weight of the little one she carries hinders her movements. Do not forget to send me word when she becomes a mother."

"Kanwa: Shárngarava! when you have introduced Sakoontalá into the presence of the King, you must give him this message from me:— Most puissant prince! we here present before thee One thou art bound to cherish and receive As thine own wife; yea, even to enthrone As thine own queen—worthy of equal love With thine imperial consorts. So much, Sire, We claim of thee as justice due to us, In virtue of our holy character, In virtue of thine honourable rank, In virtue of the pure spontaneous love That secretly grew up 'twixt thee and her, Without consent or privity of us. We ask no more—the rest we freely leave To thy just feeling and to destiny."

"Shárngarava: A most suitable message! I will take care to deliver it correctly."

"Kanwa: Listen, then, my daughter. When thou reachest thy husband's palace, and art admitted into his family, Honour thy betters; ever be respectful To those above thee; and, should others share Thy husband's love, ne'er yield thyself a prey to jealousy; but ever be a friend, A loving friend, to those who rival thee In his affections. Should thy wedded lord Treat thee with harshness, thou most never be Harsh in return, but patient and submissive; Be to thy menials courteous, and to all Placed under thee, considerate and kind; Be never self-indulgent, but avoid Excess in pleasure; and, when fortune smiles, Be not puffed up. Thus to thy husband's house Wilt thou a blessing prove, and not a curse. What thinks Gautamí of this advice?"

"Gautamí: An excellent compendium, truly, of every wife's duties! Lay it well to heart, my daughter."

"SHAKOONTALÁ: Removed from thy bosom, my beloved father, like a young tendril of the sandal-tree torn from its home in the western mountains, how shall I be able to support life in a foreign soil?"

"Kanwa: Daughter, thy fears are groundless. Soon shall thy lord prefer thee to the rank Of his own consort; and unnumbered cares Befitting his imperial dignity Shall constantly engross thee. Then the bliss Of bearing him a son—a noble boy, Bright as the day-star, shall transport thy soul With new delights, and little shalt thou reck Of the light sorrow that afflicts thee now At parting from thy father and thy friends."

"SHAKOONTALÁ: Dear father, when shall I ever see this hallowed grove again?"

"Kanwa: I will tell thee; listen:— When thou hast passed a long and blissful life As King Dushyanta's queen, and jointly shared With all the earth his ever-watchful care; And hast beheld thine own heroic son, Matchless in arms, united to a bride In happy wedlock; when his aged sire, Thy faithful husband, hath to him resigned The helm of state; then, weary of the world, Together with Dushyanta thou shalt seek The calm seclusion of thy former home; There amid holy scenes to be at peace, Till thy pure spirit gain its last release."

"Gautamí: Come, my child, the favourable time for our journey is fast passing. Let thy father return. Venerable Sire, be thou the first to move homewards, or these last words will never end."

"Kanwa: Daughter, detain me no longer. My religious duties must not be interrupted."

"SHAKOONTALÁ: Beloved father, thy frame is much enfeebled by penitential exercises. Do not, oh! do not, allow thyself to sorrow too much on my account."

"Kanwa: How, O my child, shall my bereaved heart Forget its bitterness, when, day by day, Full in my sight shall grow the tender plants Reared by thy care, or sprang from hallowed grain Which thy loved hands have strewn around the door— A frequent offering to our household gods? Go, my daughter, and may thy journey be prosperous."

"Priyamvadá and Anasúyá: Holy father, the sacred grove will be a desert without Sakoontalá. How can we ever return to it?"

"Kanwa: It is natural enough that your affection should make you view it in this light. As for me, I am quite surprised at myself. Now that I have fairly dismissed her to her husband's house, my mind is easy; for, indeed, A daughter is a loan—a precious jewel Lent to a parent till her husband claim her. And now that to her rightful lord and master I have delivered her, my burdened soul Is lightened, and I seem to breathe more freely."

"Máthavya: Hark! my dear friend, listen a minute, and you will hear sweet sounds proceeding from the music-room. Some one is singing a charming air. Who can it be? Oh! I know. The queen Hansapadiká is practising her notes, that she may greet you with a new song."

"King: She means to reprove me, because I once paid her great attention, and have lately deserted her for the queen Vasumatí. Go, my dear fellow, and tell Hansapadiká from me that I take her delicate reproof as it is intended."

"Máthavya: But stay—I don't much relish being sent to bear the brunt of her jealousy. The chances are that she will have me seized by the hair of the head and beaten to a jelly. I would as soon expose myself, after a vow of celibacy, to the seductions of a lovely nymph, as encounter the fury of a jealous woman."

"King: Go, go; you can disarm her wrath by a civil speech; but give her my message."

"Vátáyana, Chamberlain: Victory to the King! So please your Majesty, some hermits who live in a forest near the Snowy Mountains have arrived here, bringing certain women with them. They have a message to deliver from the sage Kanwa and desire an audience. I await your Majesty's commands."

"King: Tell my domestic priest Somaráta to receive the hermits with due honour, according to the prescribed form. He may then himself introduce them into my presence. I will await them in a place suitable for the reception of such holy guests."

"Warder (Vetravatí): Here is the terrace of the hallowed fire-chamber, and yonder stands the cow that yields the milk for the oblations. The sacred enclosure has been recently purified, and looks clean and beautiful. Ascend, Sire."

"King: Vetravatí, what can possibly be the message that the venerable Kanwa has sent me by these hermits? Perchance their sacred rites have been disturbed By demons, or some evil has befallen The innocent herds, their favourites, that graze Within the precincts of the hermitage, Or haply, through my sins, some withering blight Has nipped the creeping plants that spread their arms Around the hallowed grove. Such troubled thoughts Crowd through my mind, and fill me with misgiving."

"Warder (Vetravatí) If you ask my opinion, Sire, I think the hermits merely wish to take an opportunity of testifying their loyalty, and are therefore come to offer homage to your majesty."

"Shárngarava: O Sháradwata, 'Tis true the monarch lacks no royal grace, Nor ever swerves from justice; true, his people, Yea such as in life's humblest walks are found, Refrain from evil courses; still to me, A lonely hermit reared in solitude, This throng appears bewildering, and I seem To look upon a burning house, whose inmates Are running to and fro in wild dismay."

"Sháradwata: It is natural that the first sight of the King's capital should affect you in this manner; my own sensations are very similar. As one just bathed beholds the man polluted; As one late purified, the yet impure; As one awake looks on the yet unawakened; Or as the freeman gazes on the thrall, So I regard this crowd of pleasure-seekers."

"SHAKOONTALÁ: Alas! what means this throbbing of my right eyelid?"

"Gautami: Heaven avert the evil omen, my child! May the guardian deities of thy husband's family convert it into a sign of good fortune!"

"King: But the lady there— Who can she be, whose form of matchless grace Is half concealed beneath her flowing veil? Among the sombre hermits she appears Like a fresh bud 'mid sear and yellow leaves."

"Priest: These holy men have been received with all due honour. One of them has now a message to deliver from his spiritual superior. Will your Majesty deign to hear it?"

"King: I trust no one is molesting you in the prosecution of your religious rites."

"Hermits: Who dares disturb our penitential rites When thou art our protector? Can the night Prevail to cast her shadows o'er the earth While the sun's beams irradiate the sky?"

"King: Such, indeed, is the very meaning of my title—'Defender of the Just.' I trust the venerable Kanwa is in good health. The world is interested in his well-being."

"Hermits: Holy men have health and prosperity in their own power. He bade us greet your Majesty, and, after kind inquiries, deliver this message."

"Shárngarava: He bade us say that he feels happy in giving his sanction to the marriage which your Majesty contracted with this lady, his daughter, privately and by mutual agreement. Because, By us thou art esteemed the most illustrious Of noble husbands; and Shakoontalá, Virtue herself in human form revealed. Great Brahmá hath in equal yoke united A bride unto a husband worthy of her; Henceforth let none make blasphemous complaint That he is pleased with ill-assorted unions Since, therefore, she expects soon to be the mother of thy child, receive her into thy palace, that she may perform, in conjunction with thee, the ceremonies prescribed by religion on such an occasion."

"Gautami: So please your Majesty, I would add a few words; but why should I intrude my sentiments when an opportunity of speaking my mind has never been allowed me? She took no counsel with her kindred; thou Didst not confer with thine, but all alone Didst solemnize thy nuptials with thy wife. Together, then, hold converse; let us leave you."

"King: What strange proposal is this?"

"SHAKOONTALÁ: [Aside] His words are like fire to me."

"Shárngarava: What do I hear? Dost thou, then, hesitate? Monarch, thou art well acquainted with the ways of the world, and knowest that A wife, however virtuous and discreet, If she live separate from her wedded lord, Though under shelter of her parent's roof, Is marked for vile suspicion. Let her dwell Beside her husband, though he hold her not In his affection. So her kinsmen will it."

"King: Do you really mean to assert that I ever married this lady?"

"SHAKOONTALÁ: [Aside] O my heart, thy worst misgivings are confirmed."

"Shárngarava: Is it becoming in a monarch to depart from the rules of justice, because he repents of his engagements?"

"King: I cannot answer a question which is based on a mere fabrication."

"Shárngarava: Such inconstancy is fortunately not common, except in men intoxicated by power."

"King: Is that remark aimed at me?"

"Gautami: Be not ashamed, my daughter. Let me remove thy veil for a little space. Thy husband will then recognize thee.[Removes Shakuntala's veil]."

"King: [Aside]What charms are here revealed before mine eyes! Truly no blemish mars the symmetry Of that fair form; yet can I ne'er believe She is my wedded wife; and like a bee That circles round the flower whose nectared cup Teems with the dew of morning, I must pause Ere eagerly I taste the proffered sweetness."

"Warder (Vetravatí) How admirably does our royal master's behaviour prove his regard for justice! Who else would hesitate for a moment when good fortune offered for his acceptance a form of such rare beauty?"

"Shárngarava: Great King, why art thou silent?"

"Gautami: Holy men, I have revolved the matter in my mind; but the more I think of it, the less able am I to recollect that I ever contracted an alliance with this lady. What answer, then, can I possibly give you when I do not believe myself to be her husband, and I plainly see that she is soon to become a mother?"

"SHAKOONTALÁ: [Aside] Woe! woe! Is our very marriage to be called in question by my own husband? Ah me! is this to be the end of all my bright visions of wedded happiness?"

"Shárngarava: Beware! Beware how thou insult the holy Sage! Remember how he generously allowed Thy secret union with his foster-child; And how, when thou didst rob him of his treasure, He sought to furnish thee excuse, when rather He should have cursed thee for a ravisher."

"Sháradwata: Shárngarava, speak to him no more. [S']akoontalá, our part is performed; we have said all we have to say, and the King has replied in the manner thou hast heard. It is now thy turn to give him convincing evidence of thy marriage."

"SHAKOONTALÁ: [Aside] Since his feeling towards me has undergone a complete revolution, what will it avail to revive old recollections? One thing is clear—I shall soon have to mourn my own widowhood."

"SHAKOONTALÁ: My revered husband. But no—I dare not address thee by this title, since thou hast refused to acknowledge our union. Noble descendant of Puru! It is not worthy of thee to betray an innocent-minded girl, and disown her in such terms, after having so lately and so solemnly plighted thy vows to her in the hermitage."

"King: [Stopping his ears].I will hear no more. Be such a crime far from my thoughts!"

"King: What evil spirit can possess thee, lady, That thou dost seek to sully my good name By base aspersions, like a swollen torrent, That, leaping from its narrow bed, o'erthrows The tree upon its bank, and strives to blend Its turbid waters with the crystal stream?"

"SHAKOONTALÁ: If, then, thou really believest me to be the wife of another, and thy present conduct proceeds from some cloud that obscures thy recollection, I will easily convince thee by this token."

"King: An excellent idea!"

"SHAKOONTALÁ: [Feeling for the ring]. Alas! alas! woe is me! There is no ring on my finger!"

"Gautami: The ring must have slipped off when thou wast in the act of offering homage to the holy water of Shachí's sacred pool, near Sakrávatára."

"King: People may well talk of the readiness of woman's invention! Here is an instance of it."

"SHAKOONTALÁ: Say, rather, of the omnipotence of fate. I will mention another circumstance, which may yet convince thee."

"King: By all means let me hear it at once."

"SHAKOONTALÁ: One day, while we were seated in a jasmine-bower, thou didst pour into the hollow of thine hand some water, sprinkled by a recent shower in the cup of a lotus-blossom—"

"King: I am listening; proceed."

"SHAKOONTALÁ: At that instant, my adopted child, the little fawn, with soft, long eyes, came running towards us. Upon which, before tasting the water thyself, thou didst kindly offer some to the little creature, saying fondly:—'Drink first, gentle fawn.' But she could not be induced to drink from the hand of a stranger; though immediately afterwards, when I took the water in my own hand, she drank with perfect confidence. Then, with a smile, thou didst say;—'Every creature confides naturally in its own kind. You are both inhabitants of the same forest, and have learnt to trust each other.'"

"King: Voluptuaries may allow themselves to be seduced from the path of duty by falsehoods such as these, expressed in honeyed words."

"Gautami: Speak not thus, illustrious Prince. This lady was brought up in a hermitage, and has never learnt deceit."

"King: Holy matron, E'en in untutored brutes, the female sex Is marked by inborn subtlety—much more In beings gifted with intelligence. The wily Koïl[83], ere towards the sky She wings her sportive flight, commits her eggs To other nests, and artfully consigns The rearing of her little ones to strangers."

"SHAKOONTALÁ: Dishonourable man, thou judgest of others by thine own evil heart. Thou, at least, art unrivalled in perfidy, and standest alone—a base deceiver in the garb of virtue and religion—like a deep pit whose yawning mouth is concealed by smiling flowers."

"King: [Aside] Her anger, at any rate, appears genuine, and makes me almost doubt whether I am in the right. For indeed, When I had vainly searched my memory, And so with stern severity denied The fabled story of our secret loves, Her brows, that met before in graceful curves, Like the arched weapon of the god of love, Seemed by her frown dissevered; while the fire Of sudden anger kindled in her eyes."

"King: My good lady, Dushyanta's character is well known to all. I comprehend not your meaning."

"SHAKOONTALÁ: Well do I deserve to be thought a harlot for having in the innocence of my heart, and out of the confidence I reposed in a Prince of Puru's race, entrusted my honour to a man whose mouth distils honey, while his heart is full of poison."

"Shárngarava: Thus it is that burning remorse must ever follow rash actions which might have been avoided, and for which one has only one's self to blame. Not hastily should marriage be contracted, And specially in secret. Many a time, In hearts that know not each the other's fancies, Fond love is changed into most bitter hate."

"King: How now! Do you give credence to this woman rather than to me, that you heap such accusations on me?"

"Shárngarava: That would be too absurd, certainly. You have heard the proverb:—Hold in contempt the innocent words of those Who from their infancy have known no guile; But trust the treacherous counsels of the man Who makes a very science of deceit."

"King: Most veracious Bráhman, grant that you are in the right, what end would be gained by betraying this lady?"

"Shárngarava: Ruin."

"Sháradwata: This altercation is idle, Shárngarava. We have executed the commission of our preceptor; come, let us return."

"Sháradwata: to the King Shakoontalá is certainly thy bride; Receive her or reject her, she is thine. Do with her, King, according to thy pleasure— The husband o'er the wife is absolute."

"Sháradwata: Go on before us, Gautamí."

"SHAKOONTALÁ: What! is it not enough to have been betrayed by this perfidious man? Must you also forsake me, regardless of my tears and lamentations? [[Attempts to follow them.]"

"Gautami: My son Sárngarava, see! Shakoontalá is following us, and with tears implores us not to leave her. Alas! poor child, what will she do here with a cruel husband who casts her from him?"

"Shárngarava: Wilful woman, dost thou seek to be independent of thy lord?...Shakoontalá! If thou art really what the King proclaims thee, How can thy father e'er receive thee back Into his house and home? but if thy conscience Be witness to thy purity of soul, E'en should thy husband to a handmaid's lot Condemn thee, thou may'st cheerfully endure it. When ranked among the number of his household. Thy duty therefore is to stay. As for us, we must return immediately."

"King: Deceive not this lady, my good hermit, by any such expectations. The moon expands the lotus of the night, The rising sun awakes the lily; each Is with his own contented. Even so The virtuous man is master of his passions, And from another's wife averts his gaze."

"Shárngarava: Since thy union with another woman has rendered thee oblivious of thy marriage with Shakoontalá, whence this fear of losing thy character for constancy and virtue?"

"King addressing a priest: You must counsel me, revered Sir, as to my course of action. Which of the two evils involves the greater or less sin? Whether by some dark veil my mind be clouded. Or this designing woman speak untruly, I know not. Tell me, must I rather be The base disowner of my wedded wife, Or the defiling and defiled adulterer?"

"Priest: You must take an intermediate course....I will provide an asylum for the lady in my own house until the birth of her child; and my reason, if you ask me, is this: Soothsayers have predicted that your first-born will have universal dominion. Now, if the hermit's daughter bring forth a son with the discus or mark of empire in the lines of his hand[84], you must admit her immediately into your royal apartments with great rejoicings; if not, then determine to send her back as soon as possible to her father."

"King: I bow to the decision of my spiritual advisor."

"Priest: Daughter, follow me."

"SHAKOONTALÁ: O divine earth, open and receive me into thy bosom!"

"A Voice: A miracle! a miracle!"

"Priest: Great Prince, a stupendous prodigy has just occurred....May it please your Majesty, so soon as Kanwa's pupils had departed, Sakoontalá, her eyes all bathed in tears, with outstretched arms, bewailed her cruel fate— When suddenly a shining apparition, In female shape, descended from the skies, Near the nymph's pool, and bore her up to heaven."

"King: My good priest, from the very first I declined having anything to do with this matter. It is now all over, and we can never, by our conjectures, unravel the mystery; let it rest; go, seek repose."

"Priest: Be it so. Victory to the King!"

"King: Do what I will, I cannot call to mind That I did e'er espouse the sage's daughter; Therefore I have disowned her; yet 'tis strange How painfully my agitated heart Bears witness to the truth of her assertion, And makes me credit her against my judgment."

"Prelude To ACT VI (Scene—A Street.)"

"Two Constables: Take that for a rascally thief that you are; and now tell us, sirrah, where you found this ring—aye, the King's own signet-ring. See, here is the royal name engraved on the setting of the jewel."

"Fisherman: Mercy! kind sirs, mercy! I did not steal it; indeed I did not....One day I was cutting open a large carp[87] I had just hooked, when the sparkle of a jewel caught my eye, and what should I find in the fish's maw but that ring! Soon afterwards, when I was offering it for sale, I was seized by your honours. Now you know everything. Whether you kill me, or whether you let me go, this is the true account of how the ring came into my possession."

"Superintendent: Well, Jánuka, the rascal emits such a fishy odour that I have no doubt of his being a fisherman; but we must inquire a little more closely into this queer story about the finding of the ring. Come, we'll take him before the King's household."

"Second Constable: There's our Superintendent at last, I declare. See! he is coming towards us with a paper in his hand. We shall soon know the King's command; so prepare, my fine fellow, either to become food for the vultures, or to make acquaintance with some hungry cur."

"Superintendent: Ho, there, Súchaka! set the fisherman at liberty, I tell you. His story about the ring is all correct."

"Fisherman: Now, master, what think you of my way of getting a livelihood?"

"Superintendent: Here, my good man, the King desired me to present you with this purse. It contains a sum of money equal to the full value of the ring."

"Fisherman: His Majesty does me too great honour."

"Súchaka (Constable): You may well say so. He might as well have taken you from the gallows to seat you on his state elephant."

"Jánuka (another constable): Master, the King must value the ring very highly, or he would never have sent such a sum of money to this ragamuffin."

"Superintendent: I don't think he prizes it as a costly jewel so much as a memorial of some person he tenderly loves. The moment it was shown to him he became much agitated, though in general he conceals his feelings."

"Fisherman: Here's half the money for you, my masters. It will serve to purchase the flowers you spoke of, if not to buy me your good-will."

"Superintendent: My good fisherman, you are an excellent fellow, and I begin to feel quite a regard for you. Let us seal our first friendship over a glass of good liquor. Come along to the next wine-shop, and we'll drink your health."

"Sánumatí: (The nymph Sánumatí is seen descending in a celestial car.) Behold me just arrived from attending in my proper turn at the nymph's pool, where I have left the other nymphs to perform their ablutions, whilst I seek to ascertain, with my own eyes, how it fares with King Dushyanta. My connexion with the nymph Menaká has made her daughter Sakoontalá dearer to me than my own flesh and blood; and Menaká it was who charged me with this errand on her daughter's behalf. How is it that I see no preparations in the King's household for celebrating the great vernal festival? I could easily discover the reason by my divine faculty of meditation but respect must be shown to the wishes of my friend. How then shall I arrive at the truth? I know what I will do. I will become invisible, and place myself near those two maidens who are tending the plants in the garden."

"Chamberlin: Hold there, thoughtless woman [the two maids in the garden]. What are you about, breaking off those mango-blossoms, when the King has forbidden the celebration of the spring festival?"

"Both Maidens: Pardon us, kind Sir, we have heard nothing of it."

"Chamberlin: You have heard nothing of it? Why, all the vernal plants and shrubs, and the very birds that lodge in their branches, show more respect to the King's order than you do....But tell us, kind Sir, why has the King prohibited the usual festivities? We are curious to hear, if we may."

"Sánumatí: Men are naturally fond of festive entertainments. There must be some good reason for the prohibition."

"Chamberlin: The whole affair is now public; why should I not speak of it? Has not the gossip about the King's rejection of Shakoontalá reached your ears yet?"

"Both Maidens: Oh yes, we heard the story from the King's brother-in-law, as far, at least, as the discovery of the ring."

"Chamberlin: Then there is little more to tell you. As soon as the King's memory was restored by the sight of his own ring, he exclaimed: 'Yes, it is all true. I remember now my secret marriage with Shakoontalá. When I repudiated her, I had lost my recollection!' Ever since that moment, he has yielded himself a prey to the bitterest remorse."

"Sánumatí: To me this account is delightful"

"Chamberlin: In short, the King is so completely out of his mind that the festival has been prohibited....Oh! here comes his Majesty in this direction. Pass on, maidens; attend to your duties."

"Sánumatí: Now that I have seen him, I can well understand why [S']akoontalá should pine after such a man, in spite of his disdainful rejection of her."

"King: [In deep thought] When fatal lethargy o'erwhelmed my soul, My loved one strove to rouse me, but in vain; And now, when I would fain in slumber deep Forget myself, full soon remorse doth wake me."

"Sánumatí:[Aside] My poor Shakoontalá's sufferings are very similar."

"Máthavya: He is taken with another attack of this odious Shakoontalá-fever. How shall we ever cure him?"

"Chamberlin: Victory to the King! Great Prince, the royal pleasure-grounds have been put in order. Your Majesty can resort to them for exercise and amusement whenever you think proper."

"King: Vetravatí, tell the worthy Pishuna, my prime minister, from me, that I am so exhausted by want of sleep that I cannot sit on the judgment-seat to-day. If any case of importance be brought before the tribunal, he must give it his best attention, and inform me of the circumstances by letter."

"Sánumatí: [Aside] Now that you have rid yourself of these troublesome fellows, you can enjoy the delightful coolness of your pleasure-grounds without interruption."

"King: Ah! my dear friend, there is an old adage:—'When affliction has a mind to enter, she will find a crevice somewhere;' and it is verified in me. Scarce is my soul delivered from the cloud That darkened its remembrance of the past, When lo! the heart-born deity of love With yonder blossom of the mango barbs His keenest shaft, and aims it at my breast."

"Máthavya: Well, then, wait a moment; I will soon demolish Master Káma's[47] arrow with a cut of my cane."

"King: That will do. I see very well the god of love is not a match for a Bráhman. And now, my dear friend, where shall I sit down, that I may enchant my sight by gazing on the twining plants, which seem to remind me of the graceful shape of my beloved?"

"Máthavya: Don't you remember? you told your personal attendant, Chaturiká, that you would pass the heat of the day in the jasmine-bower; and commanded her to bring the likeness of your queen [S']akoontalá, sketched with your own hand."

"King: True. The sight of her picture will refresh my soul. Lead the way to the arbour."

"Máthavya: Here we are at the jasmine-bower. Look, it has a marble seat, and seems to bid us welcome with its offerings of delicious flowers. You have only to enter and sit down."

"Sánumatí: I will lean against these young jasmines. I can easily, from behind them, glance at my friend's picture, and will then hasten to inform her of her husband's ardent affection"

"King: Oh! my dear friend, how vividly all the circumstances of my union with [S']akoontalá present themselves to my recollection at this moment! But tell me now how it was that, between the time of my leaving her in the hermitage and my subsequent rejection of her, you never breathed her name to me? True, you were not by my side when I disowned her; but I had confided to you the story of my love, and you were acquainted with every particular. Did it pass out of your mind as it did out of mine?"

"Máthavya: No, no; trust me for that. But, if you remember, when you had finished telling me about it, you added that I was not to take the story in earnest, for that you were not really in love with a country girl, but were only jesting; and I was dull and thick-headed enough to believe you. But so fate decreed, and there is no help for it...."

"King: How can I be otherwise than inconsolable, when I call to mind the agonized demeanour of the dear one on the occasion of my disowning her? When cruelly I spurned her from my presence, She fain had left me; but the young recluse, Stern as the Sage, and with authority As from his saintly master, in a voice That brooked not contradiction, bade her stay. Then through her pleading eyes, bedimmed with tears, She cast on me one long reproachful look, Which like a poisoned shaft torments me still."

"Sánumatí: [Aside] Alas! such is the force of self-reproach following a rash action. But his anguish only rejoices me."

"Máthavya: An idea has just struck me. I should not wonder if some celestial being had carried her off to heaven."

"King: Very likely. Who else would have dared to lay a finger on a wife, the idol of her husband? It is said that Menaká, the nymph of heaven, gave her birth. The suspicion has certainly crossed my mind that some of her celestial companions may have taken her to their own abode."

"Sánumatí: [Aside] His present recollection of every circumstance of her history does not surprise me so much as his former forgetfulness."

"Máthavya: If that's the case, you will be certain to meet her before long."

"King: Why?"

"Máthavya: No father and mother can endure to see a daughter suffering the pain of separation from her husband."

"King: Oh! my dear Máthavya, Was it a dream? or did some magic dire, Dulling my senses with a strange delusion, O'ercome my spirit? or did destiny, Jealous of my good actions, mar their fruit, And rob me of their guerdon? It is past, Whate'er the spell that bound me. Once again Am I awake, but only to behold The precipice o'er which my hopes have fallen."

"Máthavya: Do not despair in this manner. Is not this very ring a proof that what has been lost may be unexpectedly found?"

"King: Ah! this ring, too, has fallen from a station not easily regained, and I offer it my sympathy. O gem, The punishment we suffer is deserved, And equal is the merit of our works, When such our common doom. Thou didst enjoy The thrilling contact of those slender fingers, Bright as the dawn; and now how changed thy lot!"

"Sánumatí: [Aside] Had it found its way to the hand of any other person, then indeed its fate would have been deplorable."

"Máthavya: Pray, how did the ring ever come upon her hand at all?"

"Sánumatí: [Aside] I myself am curious to know."

"King: You shall hear. When I was leaving my beloved [S']akoontalá that I might return to my own capital, she said to me, with tears in her eyes: 'How long will it be ere my lord send for me to his palace and make me his queen?'...Then I placed the ring on her finger, and thus addressed her:— Repeat each day one letter of the name Engraven on this gem; ere thou hast reckoned The tale of syllables, my minister Shall come to lead thee to thy husband's palace. But, hard-hearted man that I was, I forgot to fulfil my promise, owing to the infatuation that took possession of me."

"Sánumatí: [Aside] A pleasant arrangement! Fate, however, ordained that the appointment should not be kept."

"Máthavya: But how did the ring contrive to pass into the stomach of that carp which the fisherman caught and was cutting up?"

"King: It must have slipped from my Shakoontalá's hand, and fallen into the stream of the Ganges, while she was offering homage to the water of Shachí's holy pool."

"Sánumatí: [Aside] Hence it happened, I suppose, that the King, always fearful of committing the least injustice, came to doubt his marriage with my poor Sakoontalá. But why should affection so strong as his stand in need of any token of recognition?"

"King: O forsaken one, unjustly banished from my presence, take pity on thy slave, whose heart is consumed by the fire of remorse, and return to my sight."

"Chaturiká: Here is the Queen's portrait."

"Máthavya: Excellent, my dear friend, excellent! The imitation of nature is perfect, and the attitude of the figures is really charming. They stand out in such bold relief that the eye is quite deceived."

"Sánumatí: [Aside] A most artistic performance! I admire the King's skill, and could almost believe that Shakoontalá herself was before me."

"King: I own 'tis not amiss, though it portrays But feebly her angelic loveliness. Aught less than perfect is depicted falsely, And fancy must supply the imperfection."

"Sánumatí: [Aside] A very just remark from a modest man, whose affection is exaggerated by the keenness of his remorse."

"Máthavya: Tell me:—I see three female figures drawn on the canvas, and all of them beautiful; which of the three is her Majesty [S']akoontalá?"

"King: My finger, burning with the glow of love, Has left its impress on the painted tablet; While here and there, alas! a scalding tear Has fallen on the cheek and dimmed its brightness. Chaturiká, the garden in the background of the picture is only half-painted. Go, fetch the brush that I may finish it...."

"Vetravatí: So please your Majesty, your prime minister begs respectfully to inform you that he has devoted much time to the settlement of financial calculations, and only one case of importance has been submitted by the citizens for his consideration. He has made a written report of the facts, and requests your Majesty to cast your eyes over it."

"King: What have we here? 'A merchant named Dhanamitra, trading by sea, was lost in a late shipwreck. Though a wealthy trader, he was childless; and the whole of his immense property becomes by law forfeited to the king.' So writes the minister. Alas! alas! for his childlessness! But surely, if he was wealthy, he must have had many wives. Let an inquiry be made whether any one of them is expecting to give birth to a child."

"Vetravatí: They say that his wife, the daughter of the foreman of a guild belonging to Ayodhyá , has just completed the ceremonies usual upon such expectations."

"King: The unborn child has a title to its father's property. Such is my decree. Go, bid my minister proclaim it so...."

"King: Let there be no question whether he may or may not have left offspring; Rather be it proclaimed that whosoe'er Of King Dushyanta's subjects be bereaved Of any loved relation, an it be not That his estates are forfeited for crimes, Dushyanta will himself to them supply That kinsman's place in tenderest affection."

"Vetravatí: Your Majesty's proclamation was received with acclamations of joy, like grateful rain at the right season."

"King: So, then, the property of rich men, who have no lineal descendants, passes over to a stranger at their decease. And such, alas! must be the fate of the fortunes of the race of Puru at my death; even as when fertile soil is sown with seed at the wrong season....Fool that I was to reject such happiness when it offered itself for my acceptance!"

"Sánumatí: [Aside] He may well blame his own folly when he calls to mind his treatment of my beloved Shakoontalá."

"King: Ah! woe is me! when I forsook my wife— My lawful wife—concealed within her breast There lay my second self, a child unborn, Hope of my race, e'en as the choicest fruit Lies hidden in the bosom of the earth."

"Sánumatí: [Aside] There is no fear of your race being cut off for want of a son."

"King: Alas! the shades of my forefathers are even now beginning to be alarmed, lest at my death they may be deprived of their funeral libations. No son remains in King Dushyanta's place To offer sacred homage to the dead Of Puru's noble line; my ancestors Must drink these glistening tears, the last libation A childless man can ever hope to make them."

"Sánumatí: [Aside] Alas! alas! though a bright light is shining near him, he is involved in the blackest darkness, by reason of the veil that obscures his sight. I will now reveal all, and put an end to his misery. But no; I heard the mother of the great Indra, when she was consoling Shakoontalá, say that the gods will soon bring about a joyful union between husband and wife, being eager for the sacrifice which will be celebrated in their honour on the occasion. I must not anticipate the happy moment, but will return at once to my dear friend and cheer her with an account of what I have seen and heard. [She rises aloft and disappears]."

"A Voice: Help! help! to the rescue!"

"Vetravatí: Your friend [Máthavya] is in danger; save him, great King....Some evil demon, invisible to human eyes, has seized him, and carried him to one of the turrets of the Palace of Clouds."

"Another Voice: Here, thirsting for thy life-blood, will I slay thee, As a fierce tiger rends his struggling prey. Call now thy friend Dushyanta to thy aid; His bow is mighty to defend the weak; Yet all its vaunted power shall be as nought."

"King: What! dares he defy me to my face? Hold there, monster! Prepare to die, for your time is come."

"A Voice: Help! Save me! I can see you, though you cannot see me. I am like a mouse in the claws of a cat; my life is not worth a minute's purchase."

"King: Avaunt, monster! You may pride yourself on the magic that renders you invisible, but my arrow shall find you out. Thus do I fix a shaft That shall discern between an impious demon, And a good Bráhman; bearing death to thee, To him deliverance—even as the swan Distinguishes the milk from worthless water."

"Mátali: Turn thou thy deadly arrows on the demons; Such is the will of Indra; let thy bow Be drawn against the enemies of the gods; But on thy friends cast only looks of favour."

"King: What, Mátali! Welcome, most noble charioteer of the mighty Indra."

"Máthavya: So, here is a monster who thought as little about slaughtering me as if I had been a bullock for sacrifice, and you must e'en greet him with a welcome."

"Mátali: Great Prince, hear on what errand Indra sent me into your presence....There is a race of giants, the descendants of Kálanemi, whom the gods find it difficult to subdue."

"King: So I have already heard from Nárada."

"Mátali: Heaven's mighty lord, who deigns to call thee 'friend,' Appoints thee to the post of highest honour, As leader of his armies; and commits The subjugation of this giant brood To thy resistless arms, e'en as the sun Leaves the pale moon to dissipate the darkness. Let your Majesty, therefore, ascend at once the celestial car of Indra; and, grasping your arms, advance to victory."

"King: The mighty Indra honours me too highly by such a mark of distinction. But tell me, what made you act thus towards my poor friend Máthavya?"

"Mátali: I will tell you. Perceiving that your Majesty's spirit was completely broken by some distress of mind under which you were labouring, I determined to rouse your energies by moving you to anger. Because To light a flame, we need but stir the embers; The cobra, when incensed, extends his head And springs upon his foe; the bravest men Display their courage only when provoked."

"King: My dear Máthavya, the commands of the great Indra must not be left unfulfilled. Go you and acquaint my minister, Pishuna, with what has happened, and say to him from me:— Dushyanta to thy care confides his realm— Protect with all the vigour of thy mind The interests of his people; while his bow Is braced against the enemies of heaven."

"King: My good Mátali, it appears to me incredible that I can merit such a mark of distinction for having simply fulfilled the behests of the great Indra."

"Mátali: Great Prince, it seems to me that neither of you is satisfied with himself. You underrate the services you have rendered, And think too highly of the god's reward; He deems it scarce sufficient recompense For your heroic deeds on his behalf."

"King: My good Mátali, yesterday, when I ascended the sky, I was so eager to do battle with the demons, that the road by which we were travelling towards Indra's heaven escaped my observation. Tell me, in which path of the seven winds are we now moving?"

"Mátali: We journey in the path of Parivaha— The wind that bears along the triple Ganges And causes Ursa's seven stars to roll In their appointed orbits, scattering Their several rays with equal distribution. 'Tis the same path that once wassanctified By the divine impression of the foot Of Vishnu, when, to conquer haughty Bali, He spanned the heavens in his second stride."

"King: This is the reason, I suppose, that a sensation of calm repose pervades all my senses.Ah! Mátali, we are descending towards the earth's atmosphere....The car itself instructs me; we are moving O'er pregnant clouds, surcharged with rain; below us I see the moisture-loving Chátakas.In sportive flight dart through the spokes; the steeds Of Indra glisten with the lightning's flash;And a thick mist bedews the circling wheels."

"King: Tell me, Mátali, what is the range of mountains which, like a bank of clouds illumined by the setting sun, pours down a stream of gold? On one side its base dips into the eastern ocean, and on the other side into the western."

"Mátali: Great Prince, it is called 'Golden-peak,' and is the abode of the attendants of the god of wealth. In this spot the highest forms of penance are wrought out. There Kashyapa, the great progenitor Of demons and of gods, himself the offspring Of the divine Maríchi, Brahmá's son, With Adití, his wife, in calm seclusion, Does holy penance for the good of mortals."

"King: Then I must not neglect so good an opportunity of obtaining his blessing. I should much like to visit this venerable personage and offer him my homage."

"Mátali: If your Majesty will rest under the shade, at the foot of this Ashoka-tree, I will seek an opportunity of announcing your arrival to Indra's reputed father."

"King: Wherefore this causeless throbbing, O mine arm? All hope has fled for ever; mock me not With presages of good, when happiness Is lost, and nought but misery remains."

"A Voice: Be not so naughty. Do you begin already to show a refractory spirit?"

"King: This is no place for petulance. Who can it be whose behaviour calls for such a rebuke?"

"King: A child, is it? closely attended by two holy women. His disposition seems anything but child-like. See! He braves the fury of yon lioness Suckling its savage offspring, and compels The angry whelp to leave the half-sucked dug, Tearing its tender mane in boisterous sport."

"Child: Open your mouth, my young lion, I want to count your teeth."

"First Attendant: You naughty child, why do you tease the animals? Know you not that we cherish them in this hermitage as if they were our own children? In good sooth, you have a high spirit of your own, and are beginning already to do justice to the name Sarva-damana ('All-taming'), given you by the hermits."

"King: Strange! My heart inclines towards the boy with almost as much affection as if he were my own child. What can be the reason? I suppose my own childlessness makes me yearn towards the sons of others."

"Second Attendant: This lioness will certainly attack you if you do not release her whelp."

"Child: Oh! indeed! let her come. Much I fear her, to be sure!"

"King: The germ of mighty courage lies concealed Within this noble infant, like a spark Beneath the fuel, waiting but a breath To fan the flame and raise a conflagration."

"First Attendant: Let the young lion go, like a dear child, and I will give you something else to play with."

"Child: Where is it? Give it me first."

"King: How's that? His hand exhibits one of those mystic marks[84] which are the sure prognostic of universal empire. See! His fingers stretched in eager expectation To grasp the wished-for toy, and knit together By a close-woven web, in shape resemble. A lotus blossom, whose expanding petals The early dawn has only half unfolded."

"Second Attendant: We shall never pacify him by mere words, dear Suvratá. Be kind enough to go to my cottage, and you will find there a plaything belonging to Márkandeya, one of the hermit's children. It is a peacock made of china-ware, painted in many colours. Bring it here for the child."

"Child: No, no; I shall go on playing with the young lion."

"King: I feel an unaccountable affection for this wayward child. How blessed the virtuous parents whose attire Is soiled with dust, by raising from the ground The child that asks a refuge in their arms! And happy are they while with lisping prattle, In accents sweetly inarticulate, He charms their ears; and with his artless smiles Gladdens their hearts, revealing to their gaze His pearly teeth just budding into view."

"Attendant: Addressing the King Kind Sir, could you come hither a moment and help me to release the young lion from the clutch of this child who is teasing him in boyish play?"

"Child: Listen to me, thou child of a mighty saint! Dost thou dare show a wayward spirit here? Here, in this hallowed region? Take thou heed Lest, as the serpent's young defiles the sandal, Thou bring dishonour on the holy sage Thy tender-hearted parent, who delights To shield from harm the tenants of the wood."

"Attendant: Gentle Sir, I thank you; but he is not the saint's son."

"King: His behaviour and whole bearing would have led me to doubt it, had not the place of his abode encouraged the idea.... I marvel that the touch of this strange child Should thrill me with delight; if so it be, How must the fond caresses of a son Transport the father's soul who gave him being!"

"Attendant: I am astonished at the striking resemblance between the child and yourself; and, what is still more extraordinary, he seems to have taken to you kindly and submissively, though you are a stranger to him."

"King: If he be not the son of the great sage, of what family does he come, may I ask?"

"Attendant: Of the race of Puru."

"King:[Aside] What! are we, then, descended from the same ancestry? This, no doubt, accounts for the resemblance she traces between the child and me. Certainly it has always been an established usage among the princes of Puru's race, To dedicate the morning of their days To the world's weal, in palaces and halls, 'Mid luxury and regal pomp abiding; Then, in the wane of life, to seek release From kingly cares, and make the hallowed shade Of sacred trees their last asylum, where As hermits they may practise self-abasement, And bind themselves by rigid vows of penance."

"King: But how could mortals by their own power gain admission to this sacred region?"

"Attendant: Your remark is just; but your wonder will cease when I tell you that his mother is the offspring of a celestial nymph, and gave him birth in the hallowed grove of Kashyapa."

"King:[Aside] Strange that my hopes should be again excited!"

"King: But what, let me ask, was the name of the prince whom she deigned to honour with her hand?"

"Attendant: How could I think of polluting my lips by the mention of a wretch who had the cruelty to desert his lawful wife?"

"King:[Aside] Ha! the description suits me exactly. Would I could bring myself to inquire the name of the child's mother!But it is against propriety to make too minute inquiries about the wife of another man."

"Second Attendant: Sarva-damana, Sarva-damana, see, see, what a beautiful Shakoonta (bird)."

"Child: My mother! Where? Let me go to her."

"King:[Aside]What! is his mother's name Shakoontalá? But the name is not uncommon among women. Alas! I fear the mere similarity of a name, like the deceitful vapour of the desert, has once more raised my hopes only to dash them to the ground."

"First Attendant: Alas! alas! I do not see the amulet on his wrist."

"King: Don't distress yourself. Here it is. It fell off while he was struggling with the young lion."

"The Two Attendants: Hold! hold! Touch it not, for your life. How marvellous! He has actually taken it up without the slightest hesitation."

"King: Why did you try to prevent my touching it?"

"First Attendant: Listen, great Monarch. This amulet, known as 'The Invincible,' was given to the boy by the divine son of Maríchi, soon after his birth, when the natal ceremony was performed. Its peculiar virtue is, that when it falls on the ground, no one except the father or mother of the child can touch it unhurt."

"King: And suppose another person touches it?"

"First Attendant: Then it instantly becomes a serpent, and bites him...."

"King: [After embracing the child, aside] Joy! joy! Are then my dearest hopes to be fulfilled?"

"Second Attendant: Come, my dear Suvratá, we must inform [S']akoontalá immediately of this wonderful event, though we have to interrupt her in the performance of her religious vows."

"Child [To the King]: Don't hold me. I want to go to my mother."

"King: We will go to her together, and give her joy, my son."

"Child [To the King]: Dushyanta is my father, not you."

"King: His contradiction only convinces me the more"

"SHAKOONTALÁ [Aside]: I have just heard that Sarva-damana's amulet has retained its form, though a stranger raised it from the ground. I can hardly believe in my good fortune. Yet why should not Sánumatí's prediction be verified?"

"King: [Aside]Alas! can this indeed be my Shakoontalá? Clad in the weeds of widowhood, her face Emaciate with fasting, her long hair Twined in a single braid, her whole demeanour Expressive of her purity of soul; With patient constancy she thus prolongs The vow to which my cruelty condemned her."

"SHAKOONTALÁ [Aside]: Surely this is not like my husband; yet who can it be that dares pollute by the pressure of his hand my child, whose amulet should protect him from a stranger's touch?"

"Child: Mother, who is this man that has been kissing me and calling me his son?"

"King: My best beloved, I have indeed treated thee most cruelly, but am now once more thy fond and affectionate lover. Refuse not to acknowledge me as thy husband."

"SHAKOONTALÁ [Aside]: Be of good cheer, my heart. The anger of Destiny is at last appeased. Heaven regards thee with compassion. But is he in very truth my husband?"

"King: Behold me, best and loveliest of women, Delivered from the cloud of fatal darkness That erst oppressed my memory. Again Behold us brought together by the grace Of the great lord of Heaven. So the moon Shines forth from dim eclipse, to blend his rays With the soft lustre of his Rohiní."

"SHAKOONTALÁ: May my husband be victorious—"

"King: O fair one, though the utterance of thy prayer Be lost amid the torrent of thy tears, Yet does the sight of thy fair countenance And of thy pallid lips, all unadorned And colourless in sorrow for my absence, Make me already more than conqueror."

"Child: Mother, who is this man?"

"SHAKOONTALÁ: My child, ask the deity that presides over thy destiny."

"King:[Falling at her feet] Fairest of women, banish from thy mind The memory of my cruelty; reproach The fell delusion that o'erpowered my soul, And blame not me, thy husband; 'tis the curse Of him in whom the power of darkness reigns, That he mistakes the gifts of those he loves For deadly evils. Even though a friend Should wreathe a garland on a blind man's brow, Will he not cast it from him as a serpent?"

"SHAKOONTALÁ: Rise, my own husband, rise. Thou wast not to blame. My own evil deeds, committed in a former state of being[37], brought down this judgment upon me. How else could my husband, who was ever of a compassionate disposition, have acted so unfeelingly? But tell me, my husband, how did the remembrance of thine unfortunate wife return to thy mind?"

"King: As soon as my heart's anguish is removed, and its wounds are healed, I will tell thee all. Oh! let me, fair one, chase away the drop That still bedews the fringes of thine eye; And let me thus efface the memory Of every tear that stained thy velvet cheek, Unnoticed and unheeded by thy lord, When in his madness he rejected thee."

"SHAKOONTALÁ: [Seeing the signet-ring on his finger] Ah! my dear husband, is that the Lost Ring?"

"King: Yes; the moment I recovered it my memory was restored."

"SHAKOONTALÁ: The ring was to blame in allowing itself to be lost at the very time when I was anxious to convince my noble husband of the reality of my marriage."

"King: Receive it back, as the beautiful twining-plant receives again its blossom in token of its reunion with the spring."

"SHAKOONTALÁ: Nay; I can never more place confidence in it. Let my husband retain it."

"Mátali: I congratulate your Majesty. Happy are you in your reunion with your wife; happy are you in beholding the face of your own son."

"King: Yes, indeed. My heart's dearest wish has borne sweet fruit. But tell me, Mátali, is this joyful event known to the great Indra?"

"Mátali: What is unknown to the gods? But come with me, noble Prince, the divine [[Kashyapa graciously permits thee to be presented to him."

"King: Shakoontalá, take our child and lead the way. We will together go into the presence of the holy Sage."

"SHAKOONTALÁ: I shrink from entering the august presence of the great Saint, even with my husband at my side."

"King: Nay; on such a joyous occasion it is highly proper. Come, come; I entreat thee."

"Kashyapa [To his wife]: O Adití, This is the mighty hero, King Dushyanta, Protector of the earth; who, at the head Of the celestial armies of thy son, Does battle with the enemies of heaven. Thanks to his bow, the thunderbolt of Indra Rests from its work, no more the minister Of death and desolation to the world, But a mere symbol of divinity."

"Aditi: He bears in his noble form all the marks of dignity."

"Mátali: Sire, the venerable progenitors of the celestials are gazing at your Majesty with as much affection as if you were their son. You may advance towards them."

"King: Are these, O Mátali, the holy pair, Offspring of Daksha and divine Maríchi, Children of Brahmá's sons, by sages deemed Sole fountain of celestial light, diffused Through twelve effulgent orbs? Are these the pair From whom the ruler of the triple world, Sovereign of gods and lord of sacrifice, Sprang into being? That immortal pair Whom Vishnu, greater than the Self-existent, Chose for his parents, when, to save mankind, He took upon himself the shape of mortals?"

"King: Most august of beings! Dushyanta, content to have fulfilled the commands of your son Indra, offers you his adoration."

"Kashyapa: My son, long may'st thou live, and happily may'st thou reign over the earth!"

"Aditi: My son, may'st thou ever be invincible in the field of battle!"

"SHAKOONTALÁ: I also prostrate myself before you, most adorable Beings, and my child with me."

"Kashyapa: My daughter, Thy lord resembles Indra, and thy child Is noble as Jayanta, Indra's son; I have no worthier blessing left for thee, May'st thou be faithful as the god's own wife!"

"Aditi: My daughter, may'st thou be always the object of thy husband's fondest love; and may thy son live long to be the joy of both his parents! Be seated."

"Kashyapa: Hail to the beautiful Shakoontalá, Hail to her noble son, and hail to thee, Illustrious Prince—rare triple combination Of virtue, wealth, and energy united!"

"King: Most venerable Kashyapa, by your favour all my desires were accomplished even before I was admitted to your presence. Never was mortal so honoured that his boon should be granted ere it was solicited. Because— Bloom before fruit, the clouds before the rain, Cause first and then effect, in endless sequence, Is the unchanging law of constant nature; But, ere the blessing issued from thy lips, The wishes of my heart were all fulfilled."

"Mátali: It is thus that the great progenitors of the world confer favours."

"King: Most reverend Sage, this thy handmaid was married to me by the Gándharva ceremony, and after a time was conducted to my palace by her relations. Meanwhile a fatal delusion seized me; I lost my memory and rejected her, thus committing a grievous offence against the venerable Kanwa, who is of thy divine race. Afterwards the sight of this ring restored my faculties, and brought back to my mind all the circumstances of my union with his daughter. But my conduct still seems to me incomprehensible; As foolish as the fancies of a man Who, when he sees an elephant, denies That 'tis an elephant; then afterwards, When its huge bulk moves onward, hesitates; Yet will not be convinced till it has passed For ever from his sight, and left behind No vestige of its presence save its footsteps."

"Kashyapa: My son, cease to think thyself in fault. Even the delusion that possessed thy mind was not brought about by any act of thine. Listen to me."

"King: I am attentive."

"Kashyapa: Know that when the nymph Menaká, the mother of Shakoontalá, became aware of her daughter's anguish in consequence of the loss of the ring at the nymph's pool, and of thy subsequent rejection of her, she brought her and confided her to the care of Adití. And I no sooner saw her than I ascertained by my divine faculty of meditation, that thy repudiation of thy poor faithful wife had been caused entirely by the curse of Durvásas—not by thine own fault—and that the spell would terminate on the discovery of the ring."

"King: Oh! what a weight is taken off my mind, now that my character is cleared of reproach."

"SHAKOONTALÁ: Joy! joy! My revered husband did not, then, reject me without good reason, though I have no recollection of the curse pronounced upon me. But, in all probability, I unconsciously brought it upon myself, when I was so distracted on being separated from my husband soon after our marriage. For I now remember that my two friends advised me not to fail to show the ring in case he should have forgotten me."

"Kashyapa: At last, my daughter, thou art happy, and hast gained thy heart's desire. Indulge, then, no feeling of resentment against thy consort. See, now, Though he repulsed thee, 'twas the sage's curse That clouded his remembrance; 'twas the curse That made thy tender husband harsh towards thee. Soon as the spell was broken, and his soul Delivered from its darkness, in a moment, Thou didst regain thine empire o'er his heart. So on the tarnished surface of a mirror No image is reflected, till the dust, That dimmed its wonted lustre, is removed."

"King: Holy father, see here the hope of my royal race."

"Kashyapa: Know that he, too, will become the monarch of the wholes earth. Observe, Soon, a resistless hero, shall he cross The trackless ocean, borne above the waves In an aërial car; and shall subdue The earth's seven sea-girt isles. Now has he gained, As the brave tamer of the forest-beasts, The title Sarva-damana; but then Mankind shall hail him as King Bharata, And call him the supporter of the world."

"King: We cannot but entertain the highest hopes of a child for whom your Highness performed the natal rites."

"Aditi: My revered husband, should not the intelligence be conveyed to Kanwa, that his daughter's wishes are fulfilled, and her happiness complete? He is [S']akoontalá's foster-father. Menaká, who is one of my attendants, is her mother, and dearly does she love her daughter."

"SHAKOONTALÁ: [Aside] The venerable matron has given utterance to the very wish that was in my mind."

"Kashyapa: His penances have gained for him the faculty of omniscience, and the whole scene is already present to his mind's eye."

"King: Then most assuredly he cannot be very angry with me."

"Kashyapa: Nevertheless, it becomes us to send him intelligence of this happy event, and hear his reply. What ho there!"

"Pupil: Holy father, what are your commands?"

"Kashyapa: My good Gálava, delay not an instant, but hasten through the air and convey to the venerable Kanwa, from me, the happy news that the fatal spell has ceased, that Dushyanta's memory is restored, that his daughter Shakoontalá has a son, and that she is once more tenderly acknowledged by her husband."

"Kashyapa: And now, my dear son, take thy consort and thy child, re-ascend the car of Indra, and return to thy imperial capital."

"King: Most holy father, I obey."

"Kashyapa: And accept this blessing— For countless ages may the god of gods, Lord of the atmosphere, by copious showers Secure abundant harvests to thy subjects; And thou by frequent offerings preserve The Thunderer's friendship. Thus, by interchange Of kindly actions may you both confer Unnumbered benefits on earth and heaven."

"King: Holy father, I will strive, as far as I am able, to attain this happiness."

"Kashyapa: What other favour can I bestow on thee, my son?"

"King: What other can I desire? If, however, you permit me to form another wish, I would humbly beg that the saying of the sage Bharata be fulfilled: May kings reign only for their subjects' weal; May the divine Saraswatí, the source Of speech, and goddess of dramatic art, Be ever honoured by the great and wise; And may the purple self-existent god, Whose vital Energy pervades all space, From future transmigrations save my soul."

"Fuck the Renaissance. And fuck literature and Plato and Michelangelo and Oscar Wilde and all the other shrunken violets you people line up. This is a school and it isn’t normal."

"花落水流红，闲愁万种。"

"月色溶溶夜，花阴寂寂春。 如何临皓魂，不见月中人。"

"兰闺深寂寞，无计度芳春。 料得高吟者，应怜长叹人。"

"我是个多愁多病身，怎当你倾国倾城貌。"

"好句有情怜皓月，落花无语怨东风。"

"愿天下有情的都成了眷属。"

"Pao-yu began to feel restless and discontented. He did not know exactly what he wanted, but something was clamoring within him, undefined and yet insistent. Ming-yen sought to relieve his boredom, securing for his master some novels [...] and plays such as Record of the Western Chamber. To Pao-yu these were great discoveries. Ming-yen asked him not to take the books into the Takuanyuan, where they might be discovered and traced to him. But what use were the books if Pao-yu, who lived in the Takuanyuan, could not take them with him? So he selected a safe corner in his room and, when no one was around, he would take them out and pore over them. One day about the middle of the Third Moon, Pao-yu sat reading Record of the Western Chamber in a peach grove by the brook that wound its way through the Takuanyuan. As he reached the passage containing the line "petals falling into patterns of red," a gust of wind seemed to respond to the words and scattered the peach blossoms all around him, covering his lap and the book. He hesitated to shake them on the ground lest he trample on them. Instead, he carefully gathered them in the broad folds of his garment and shook them into the brook."

"'...if I do let you look, you must promise not to tell anyone. It's marvellous stuff. Once you start reading it, you'll even stop wanting to eat!' He handed the book to her, and Dai-yu put down her things and looked. The more she read, the more she liked it, and before very long she had read several acts. She felt the power of the words and their lingering fragrance. Long after she had finished reading, when she had laid down the book and was sitting there rapt and silent, the lines continued to ring on in her head. 'Well,' said Bao-yu, 'is it good?' Dai-yu smiled and nodded."

"The Western Wing is not a work written by an individual named Wang Shifu alone; if I read it carefully, it will also be a work of my own creation, because all the words in The Western Wing happen to be the words that I want to say and that I want to write down."

"[Yun] had not yet gone to bed. She was bending her beautiful white neck before the bright candles, quite absorbed reading a book. I patted her on the shoulder and said, "Sister, why are you still working so hard? You must be quite tired with the full days we've had." Quickly Yun turned her head and stood up saying, "I was going to bed when I opened the book-case and saw this book and have not been able to leave it since. Now my sleepiness is all gone. I have heard of the name of Western Chamber for a long time, but today I see it for the first time. It is really the work of a genius, only I feel that its style is a little bit too biting." "Only geniuses can write a biting style," I smiled and said."

"A masterpiece of the first order in Chinese literature."

"The most important lyrical drama in the history of Chinese literature."

"原来姹紫嫣红开遍，似这般都付与断井颓垣。良辰美景奈何天，赏心乐事谁家院。"

"那書生可意呵，咱不是前生愛眷，又素乏平生半面。則道來生出現，乍便今生夢見。生就箇書生，恰恰生生抱咱去眠。那些好不動人春意也。"

"偶然間心似繾，梅樹邊。這般花花草草由人戀，生生死死隨人愿，便酸酸楚楚無人怨。待打拼香魂一片，月陰雨梅天，守的個梅根相見。"

"In world drama there is no more extensive or beautiful exploration of love than Tang Xianzu's Mudan ting (The Peony Pavilion). In 55 scenes and a performance time of more than 18 hours, The Peony Pavilion merits the designation of epic. Its central character, the young woman Du Liniang, embarks on a journey of discovery to reach her heart's desire, facing down life-and-death obstacles in this world and the next. Along the way an entire culture's values and traditions are displayed. In a Western context The Peony Pavilion combines elements of Homer's Odyssey, Virgil's Aeneid, Dante's Divine Comedy, and John Milton's Paradise Lost. Moreover, it is arguably the first great epic with a complex, believable woman protagonist. Despite its vast scope, The Peony Pavilion is anchored by a remarkable psychological depth and earthy realism. In turns lyrical, philosophical, satirical, fantastical, and bawdy, interweaving sentiment and humor, The Peony Pavilion provides one of the great entry points for an understanding of Chinese culture and Chinese classical dramatic traditions."

"這里黛玉見寶玉去了，聽見眾姐妹也不在房中，自己悶悶的。正欲回房，剛走到梨香院牆角外，只聽見牆內笛韻悠揚，歌聲婉轉，黛玉便知是那十二個女孩子演習戲文。雖未留心去聽，偶然兩句吹到耳朵內，明明白白一字不落道：“原來是奼紫嫣紅開遍，似這般都付與斷井頹垣。”黛玉聽了，倒也十分感慨纏綿，便止步側耳細聽。又唱道是：“良辰美景奈何天，賞心樂事誰家院。”聽了這兩句，不覺點頭自嘆，心下自思：“原來戲上也有好文章，可惜世人只知看戲，未必能領略其中的趣味。”想畢，又后悔不該胡想，耽誤了聽曲子。再聽時，恰唱到：“只為你如花美眷，似水流年。”黛玉聽了這兩句，不覺心動神搖。又聽道“你在幽閨自憐”等句，越發如醉如痴，站立不住，便一蹲身坐在一塊山子石上，細嚼“如花美眷，似水流年”八個字的滋味。"

"Tang Yireng's A Dream of the Peony Pavilion became so popular upon its debut that it overshadowed The Romance of the West Chamber."

"Destiny waits in the hand of God, not in the hands of statesmen."

"The pattern is the action and the suffering, that the wheel may turn and still be forever still."

"They speak better than they know, and beyond your understanding. They know and do not know, what it is to act or suffer. They know and do not know, that action is suffering And suffering is action. Neither does the agent suffer Nor the patient act. But both are fixed In an eternal action, an eternal patience. To which all must consent that it may be willed And which all must suffer that they may will it, That the pattern may subsist, for the pattern is the action And the suffering, that the wheel may turn and still Be forever still."

"Men learn little from others' experience. But in the life of one man, never The same time returns. Sever The cord, shed the scale. Only The fool, fixed in his folly, may think He can turn the wheel on which he turns."

"Purpose is plain. Endurance of friendship does not depend Upon ourselves, but upon circumstance. But circumstance is not undetermined. Unreal friendship may turn to real But real friendship, once ended, cannot be mended. Sooner shall enmity turn to alliance. The enmity that never knew friendship Can sooner know accord."

"All things become less real, man passes From unreality to unreality."

"God is leaving us, God is leaving us, more pang, more pain, than birth or death."

"The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do the right deed for the wrong reason."

"First Priest: But again, is it war or peace? Messenger: Peace, but not the kiss of peace."

"Servant of God has chance of greater sin And sorrow, than the man who serves a king. For those who serve the greater cause may make the cause serve them, Still doing right: and striving with political men May make that cause political, not by what they do But by what they are."

"Saints are not made by accident. Still less is a Christian martyrdom the effect of a man's will to become a Saint, as a man by willing and contriving may become a ruler of men. Ambition fortifies the will of man to become ruler over other men: it operates with deception, cajolery, and violence, it is the action of impurity upon impurity. Not so in Heaven. A martyr, a saint, is always made by the design of God, for His love of men, to warn them and to lead them, to bring them back to His ways. A martyrdom is never the design of man; for the true martyr is he who has become the instrument of God, who has lost his will in the will of God, not lost it but found it, for he has found freedom in submission to God. The martyr no longer desires anything for himself, not even the glory of martyrdom. So thus as on earth the Church mourns and rejoices at once, in a fashion that the world cannot understand; so in Heaven the Saints"

"You shall forget these things, toiling in the household, You shall remember them, droning by the fire, When age and forgetfulness sweeten memory Only like a dream that has often been told And often been changed in the telling. They will seem unreal. Human kind cannot bear very much reality."

"The church shall be open, even to our enemies. We are not here to triumph by fighting, by stratagem, or by resistance, Not to fight with beasts as men. We have fought the beast And have conquered. We have only to conquer Now, by suffering. This is the easier victory."

"You would bar the door Against the lion, the leopard, the wolf or the boar, Why not more Against beasts with the souls of damned men, against men Who would damn themselves to beasts. My Lord! My Lord!"

"You think me reckless, desperate and mad. You argue by results, as this world does, To settle if an act be good or bad. You defer to the fact. For every life and every act Consequence of good and evil can be shown. And as in time results of many deeds are blended So good and evil in the end become confounded. It is not in time that my death shall be known; It is out of time that my decision is taken If you call that decision To which my whole being gives entire consent. I give my life To the Law of God above the Law of Man. Those who do not the same How should they know what I do?"

"We did not wish anything to happen. We understood the private catastrophe, The personal loss, the general misery, Living and partly living;"

"In life there is not time to grieve long But this, this is out of life, this is out of time, An instant eternity of evil and wrong."

"In the small circle of pain within the skull You still shall tramp and tread one endless round Of thought, to justify your action to yourselves, Weaving a fiction which unravels as you weave, Pacing forever in the hell of make-believe Which never is belief: this is your fate on earth And we must think no further of you."

"We praise thee, O God, for thy glory displayed in all the creatures of the earth, In the snow, in the rain, in the wind, in the storm, in all of thy creatures, both the hunters and the hunted, For all things exist as seen by thee, only as known by thee, all things exist Only in thy light, and thy glory is declared even in that which denies thee; the darkness declares the glory of light. Those who deny thee could not deny, if thou didst not exist; and their denial is never complete, for if it were so, they would not exist. They affirm thee in living; all things affirm thee in living; the bird in the air, both the hawk and the finch; the beast on the earth, both the wolf and the lamb. Therefore we, whom thou hast made to be conscious of thee, must consciously praise thee, in thought and in word and in deed."

"O father, father Gone from us, lost to us, The church lies bereft, Alone, Desecrated, desolated. And the heathen shall build On the ruins Their world without God. I see it. I see it."

"Wherever a saint has dwelt, wherever a martyr has given his blood for the blood of Christ, There is holy ground, and the sanctity shall not depart from it Though armies trample over it, though sightseers come with guide-books looking over it; From where the western seas gnaw at the coast of Iona, To the death in the desert, the prayer in forgotten places by the broken Imperial column, From such ground springs that which forever renews the earth Though it is forever denied."

"Success is relative: It is what we can make of the mess we have made of things."

"Round and round the circle Completing the charm So the knot be unknotted The cross be uncrossed The crooked be made straight And the curse be ended."

"I don't belong to any generation."

"The man who returns will have to meet The boy who left."

"Thus with most careful devotion Thus with precise attention To detail, interfering preparation Of that which is already prepared Men tighten the knot of confusion Into perfect misunderstanding"

"All that I can hope to make you understand Is only events: not what has happened. And people to whom nothing has ever happened Cannot understand the unimportance of events."

"You are all people To whom has happened, at most a continual impact Of external events. You have gone through life in sleep. Never woken to the nightmare. I tell you life would be unendurable If you were wide awake. You do not know The noxious smell untraceable in the drains, Inaccessible to the plumbers, that has its hour of the night; you do not know The unspoken voice of sorrow in the ancient bedroom At three o'clock in the morning. I am not speaking Of my own experience, but trying to give you Comparisons in a more familiar medium. I am the old house With the noxious smell and the sorrow before morning, In which all past is present, all degradation Is unredeemable. As for what happens — Of the past you can only see what is past, Not what is always present. That is what matters."

"This is what matters, but it is unspeakable. Untranslatable: I talk in general terms Because the particular has no language."

"You isolate the single event As something so dreadful that it couldn't have happened Because you could not bear it. So you must believe That I suffer from delusions. It is not my conscience Not my mind, that is diseased, but the world I have to live in."

"Hold tight, hold tight, we must insist that the world is what we have always taken it to be."

"I see more than this, more than I can tell you, More than there are words for. At this moment there is no decision to be made; The decision will be made by powers beyond us Which now and then emerge."

"One thing you cannot know: The sudden extinction of every alternative, The unexpected crash of the iron cataract. You do not know what hope is, until you have lost it. You only know what it is not to hope: You do not know what it is to have hope taken from you, Or to fling it away, to join the legion of the hopeless Unrecognized by other men, though sometimes by each other."

"If I tried to explain, you could never understand; Explaining would only make a worse misunderstanding..."

"It's all a delusion, Everything you feel — I don't mean what you think, But what you feel. You attach yourself to loathing As others do to loving; an infatuation That's wrong, a good that is misdirected."

"Pain is the opposite of joy, but joy is a kind of pain I believe the moment of birth Is when we have knowledge of death I believe the season of birth Is the season of sacrifice"

"It is only when they see nothing That people can always show the suitable emotions — And so far as they feel at all, their emotions are suitable. They don't understand what it is to be awake, To be living on several planes at once Though one cannot speak with several voices at once."

"To rest in your own suffering Is evasion of suffering. We must learn to suffer more."

"The moment of sudden loathing And the season of stifled sorrow The whisper, the transparent deception The keeping up of appearances The making the best of a bad job All twined and tangled together, all are recorded."

"There is nothing at all to be done about it, There is nothing to do about anything"

"Everything is true in a different sense, A sense that would have seemed meaningless before. Everything tends towards reconciliation As a stone falls, as the tree falls, And in the end That is the completion which at the beginning would have seemed the ruin."

"Accident is design And design is accident In a cloud of unknowing."

"Harry has crossed the frontier Beyond which safety and danger have a different meaning. And he cannot return. That is his privilege."

"I've no gift of language, but I'm sure of what I mean: We most of us seem to live according to circumstance, But with people like him, there's something inside them That accounts for what happens to them. You get a feeling of it."

"He is every bit as sane as you or I, He sees the world as clearly as you or I see it, It is only that he has seen a great deal more than that."

"The circle of our understanding Is a very restricted area. Except for a limited number Of strictly practical purposes We do not know what we are doing; And even then, when you think of it, We do not know much about thinking."

"You’ve missed the point completely, Julia: There were no tigers. That was the point."

"The one thing to do is to do nothing. Wait. … You will find that you survive humiliation and that's an experience of incalculable value."

"Edward: Whom shall we drink to? Celia: To the Guardians. Edward: To the Guardians? Celia: To the Guardians. It was you who mentioned guardians. [They drink.] Celia: It may even be that Julia is a Guardian. Perhaps she is my guardian."

"What is hell? Hell is oneself. Hell is alone, the other figures in it Merely projections. There is nothing to escape from And nothing to escape to. One is always alone."

"Julia: [...] You and I don't know the process by which the human is Transhumanised: what do we know Of the kind of suffering they must undergo On the way to illumination? Reilly: Will she be frightened By the first appearance of projected spirits? Julia: Henry, you simply do not understand innocence. She will be afraid of nothing; she will not even know That there is anything to be afraid of. She is too humble."

"It will do you no harm to find yourself ridiculous. Resign yourself to be the fool you are."

"You will find that you survive humiliation And that's an experience of incalculable value."

"That is the worst moment, when you feel you have lost The desires for all that was most desirable, Before you are contented with what you can desire; Before you know what is left to be desired; And you go on wishing that you could desire What desire has left behind. But you cannot understand. How could you understand what it is to feel old?"

"You will change your mind, but you are not free. Your moment of freedom was yesterday. You made a decision. You set in motion Forces in your life and in the lives of others Which cannot be reversed."

"We die to each other daily. What we know of other people Is only our memory of the moments During which we knew them. And they have changed since then. To pretend that they and we are the same Is a useful and convenient social convention Which must sometimes broken. We must also remember That at every meeting we are meeting a stranger."

"I have had quite enough humiliation Lately, to bring me to the point At which humiliation ceases to humiliate. You get to the point at which you cease to feel And then you speak your mind."

"You're still trying to invent a personality for me Which will only keep me away from myself."

"All cases are unique, and very similar to others."

"Half the harm that is done in this world Is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm — but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it Because they are absorbed in the endless struggle To think well of themselves."

"It is very often that my patients Are only pieces of a total situation Which I have to explore. The single patient Who is ill all by himself, is rather the exception."

"There are several symptoms Which must occur together, and to a marked degree, To qualify a patient for my sanatorium: And one of them is an honest mind. That is one of the causes of their suffering."

"You have come to where the word 'insult' has no meaning; And you must put up with that."

"To men of a certain type The suspicion that they are incapable of loving Is as disturbing to their self-esteem As, in cruder men, the fear of impotence."

"The best of a bad job is all any of us make of it — Except of course the saints"

"Your burden is not to clear your conscience But to learn how to bear the burdens on your conscience."

"I should really like to think there's something wrong with me — Because, if there isn't then there's something wrong, Or at least, very different from what it seemed to be, With the world itself — and that's much more frightening! That would be terrible."

"An awareness of solitude."

"Everyone's alone — or so it seems to me. They make noises, and think they are talking to each other; They make faces, and think they understand each other. And I'm sure they don't. Is that a delusion?"

"Can we only love Something created in our own imaginations? Are we all in fact unloving and unloveable? Then one is alone, and if one is alone Then lover and beloved are equally unreal And the dreamer is no more real than his dreams."

"I shall be left with the inconsolable memory Of the treasure I went into the forest to find And never found, and which was not there And is perhaps not anywhere? But if not anywhere Why do I feel guilty at not having found it?"

"Disillusion can become itself an illusion If we rest in it."

"It's not that I'm afraid of being hurt again: Nothing again can either hurt or heal. I have thought at moments that the ecstasy is real Although those who experience it may have no reality. For what happened is remembered like a dream In which one is exalted by intensity of loving In the spirit, a vibration of delight Without desire, for desire is fulfilled In the delight of loving. A state one does not know When awake. But what, or whom I love, Or what in me was loving, I do not know. And if all that is meaningless, I want to be cured Of a craving for something I cannot find And of the shame of never finding it."

"Two people who know they do not understand each other, Breeding children whom they do not understand And who will never understand them."

"In a world of lunacy Violence, stupidity, greed…it is a good life."

"I feel it would be a kind of surrender — No, not a surrender — more like a betrayal. You see, I think I really had a vision or something Though I don't know what it is. I don't want to forget it. I want to live with it. I could do without everything Put up with anything, if I might cherish it."

"There is another way, if you have the courage. The first I could describe in familiar terms Because you have seen it, as we all have seen it, Illustrated, more or less, in lives of those about us. The second is unknown, and so requires faith — The kind of faith that issues from despair. The destination cannot be described; You will know very little until you get there; You will journey blind. But the way leads towards possession Of what you have sought for in the wrong place."

"Neither way is better. Both ways are necessary. It is also necessary To make a choice between them."

"Those who take the other Can forget their loneliness. You will not forget yours. Each way means loneliness — and communion."

"We must always take risks. That is our destiny."

"I'd say that she suffered all that we should suffer In fear and pain and loathing — all these together — And reluctance of the body to become a thing. I'd say she suffered more, because more conscious Than the rest of us."

"If we all were judged according to the consequences Of all our words and deeds, beyond the intention And beyond our limited understanding Of ourselves and others, we should all be condemned."

"Only by acceptance of the past will you alter its meaning."

"Every moment is a fresh beginning."

"(portrait) Perfection is beyond the reach of humankind, beyond the reach of magic."

"(portrait) Those that we love never truly leave us, Harry. There are things that death cannot touch. Paint . . . and memory . . . and love."

"I'm not sure being fearless is going to be good for your health."

"So what would you like me to do? Magic myself popular? Conjure myself into a new house? Transfigure myself into a better student? Just cast a spell, Dad, and change me into what you want me to be, okay? It'll work better for both of us."

"I didn't choose, you know that? I didn't choose to be his son."

"I know what it is to be the spare"

"I am the new past. I am the new future. I am the answer this world has been looking for."

"It took me a long time to discover your weakness, Albus Potter. I thought it was pride, I thought it was the need to impress your father, but then I realised your weakness was the same as your father's - friendship."

"I'm being bossed around by Hermione Granger... And I'm mildly enjoying it."

"You -- the three of you -- you shone you know? You liked each other. You had fun. I envied you those friendships more than anything else"

"[When asked what he wanted to do growing up] Quidditch. But I wasn't good enough. Mainly I wanted to be happy."

"... And being alone -- that's so hard. I was alone. And it sent me to a truly dark place. For a long time. Tom Riddle was also a lonely child. You may not understand that, Harry, but I do ..."

"... It is exceptionally lonely, being Draco Malfoy. I will always be suspected. There is no escaping the past."

"[To Harry} People think they know all there is to know about you, but the best bits of you are– have always been– heroic in really quiet ways."

"[quoting Dumbledore] The truth is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution."

"[weeping] I shouldn't have survived. It was my destiny to die - even Dumbledore thought so - and yet I lived. I beat Voldemort. All these people... all these people - my parents, Fred, the Fallen Fifty - and it's me that gets to live? How is that? All this damage, and it's my fault."

"The Boy Who Lived. How many people have to die for the Boy Who Lived?"

"My parents were dentists. I was bound to rebel at some point."

"Hello, Harry. Hello, Draco. Have you been bad boys again?"

"That feels good. Never used to enjoy that. But when you get to my age, you take what you can."

"The rumour is that he's Voldemort's son, Albus."

"[on his daughter, Rose] I have no idea where she gets her ambition from."

"Nothing scares me. Apart from Mum."

"I am probably the most chilled out of all of us and... so maybe transfiguring into him - into the Dark Lord - will do less damage to me than any of you more... intense people."

"Rubbish. Beautifully put but beautiful rubbish."

"I opened a book. Something which has - in all my years on this planet - never been a particularly dangerous activity."

"My geekness is a-quivering."

"The world changes, and we change with it. I am better off in this world. But the world is not better. And I don't want that."

"Okay. Hello. Um. Have we hugged before? Do we hug?"

"When Rose came up to me today in Potions and called me Bread Head I almost hugged her. No, there’s no almost about it, I actually tried to hug her, and then she kicked me in the shin."

"I mean, normally, being in lockdown, being in constant detention, it’d break me, but now — what’s the worst they can do? Bring back Moldy Voldy and have him torture me? Nope"

"I got his nose, his hair, and his name. Not that that's a great thing either. I mean — father-son issues, I have them. But, on the whole, I'd rather be a Malfoy than, you know, the son of the Dark Lord."

"[Imagining talking to a muggle] Hello, Mr. Stationmaster. Mr. Muggle. Question: Did you see a flying witch passing here? And by the way, what year is it"

"Tell Albus - tell Albus Severus - I'm proud he carries my name. Now go. Go."

"3rd Juror: I've sat on juries, and it always amazes me the way these lawyers can talk, and talk and talk, even when the case is as obvious as this one. I mean, did you ever hear so much talk about nothing? 2nd Juror: Well, I guess they're entitled. 3rd Juror: Sure they are. Everybody deserves a fair trial. That's the system. Listen, I'm the last one to say anything against it, but I'm telling you sometimes I think we'd be better off if we took these tough kids and slapped 'em down before they make trouble, you know? Save us a lot of time and money."

"8th Juror: OK, eleven to one - "guilty." Now we know where we are. 10th Juror: Boy-oh-boy! There's always one. 7th Juror: [after a pause] So, what do we do now? 8th Juror: Well, I guess we talk."

"10th Juror: What do you want? 8th Juror: Nothing. I just want to talk. 7th Juror: Well, what's there to talk about? Eleven men here agree. Nobody had to think twice about it, except you. 10th Juror: I want to ask you something. Do you believe his story? 8th Juror: I don't know whether I believe it or not. Maybe I don't. 7th Juror: So what'd you vote "not guilty" for? 8th Juror: There were eleven votes for "guilty." It's not easy for me to raise my hand and send a boy off to die without talking about it first. 7th Juror: Who says it's easy for me? 8th Juror: No one. 7th Juror: What, just because I voted fast? I think the guy's guilty. You couldn't change my mind if you talked for a hundred years. 8th Juror: I'm not trying to change your mind. It's just that we're talking about somebody's life here. I mean, we can't decide in five minutes. Suppose we're wrong?"

"10th Juror: What are we sitting here for? 8th Juror: Maybe for no reason. I don't know. Look, this boy's been kicked around all his life. You know-living in a slum his mother dead since he was nine. He spent a year and a half in an orphanage while his father served a jail term for forgery. That's not a very good head start. He's had a pretty terrible sixteen years. I think maybe we owe him a few words. That's all."

"3rd Juror: Now listen to me, you people. I've seen all kinds of dishonesty in my day - but this little display takes the cake. You come in here with your sanctimonious talk about slum kids and injustice, and you make up some wild stories, and all of a sudden you start getting through to some of these old ladies in here. Well, you're not getting through to me. I've had enough. What's the matter with you people? Every one of you knows this kid is guilty. He's got to burn. We're letting him slip through our fingers here. 8th Juror: Slip through our fingers? Are you his executioner? 3rd Juror: I'm one of 'em. 8th Juror: Maybe you'd like to pull the switch. 3rd Juror: For this kid? You bet I'd like to pull the switch. 8th Juror: I'm sorry for you. 3rd Juror: Don't start with me now. 8th Juror: Ever since we walked into this room you've been behaving like a self-appointed public avenger. 3rd Juror: I'm telling you now! Shut up! 8th Juror: You want to see this boy die because you personally want it, not because of the facts. 3rd Juror: Shut up! 8th Juror: You're a sadist! 3rd Juror: Shut up, you son of a bitch!"

"5th Juror: You still don't think there's any room for reasonable doubt? 7th Juror: No, I don't. 11th Juror: Pardon. Maybe you don't understand the term "reasonable doubt." 7th Juror: What d'ya mean, I don't understand it? Who the hell are you to talk to me like that? How d'ya like this guy? I'm tellin' ya they're all alike. He comes over to this country running for his life and before he can even take a big breath he's telling us how to run the show. The arrogance of the guy! 5th Juror: You mean you're calling him arrogant because he wasn't born here? Well, I'm calling you arrogant because you were. How's that?"

"11th Juror: I beg pardon, in discussing- 10th Juror: I beg pardon. What are you so damn polite about? 11th Juror: For the same reason you're not. It's the way I was brought up."

"2nd Juror: Um - there's something I'd like to say. I mean it's been bothering me a little and as long as we're stuck...Well, there was this whole business about the stab wound and how it was made, the downward angle of it, you know? 3rd Juror: Don't tell me we're gonna start with that. They went over it and over it. 2nd Juror: I know they did, but I don't go along with it. The boy is five feet, seven inches tall. His father was six two. That's a difference of seven inches. It's a very awkward thing to stab down into the chest of someone who's more than half a foot taller than you are."

"10th Juror: We're facing a danger here. Don't you know it? These people are multiplying. That kid on trial, his type, they're multiplying five times as fast as we are. That's the statistic. Five times. And they are - wild animals. They're against us, they hat us, they want to destroy us. That's right. Don't look at me like that! There's a danger. For God's sake, we're living in a dangerous time, and if we don't watch it, if we don't smack them down whenever we can, then they are gonna own us. They're gonna breed us out of existence. 6th Juror: Ah, shut up! 10th Juror: Now you goddamned geniuses had better listen to me. They're violent, they're vicious, they're ignorant, and they will cut us up. That's their intent. To cut us up. I'm warning you. This boy, this boy on trial here. We've got him. That's on at least.I say get him before his kind gets us. I don't give a damn about the law. Why should I? They don't."

"8th Juror: It's very hard to keep personal prejudice out of a thing like this. And no matter where you run into it, prejudice obscures the truth. Well, I don't think any real damage has been done here. Because I don't really know what the truth is. No one ever will, I suppose. Nine of us now seem to feel that the defendant is innocent, but we're just gambling on probabilities. We may be wrong. We may be trying to return a guilty man to the community. No one can really know. But we have a reasonable doubt, and this is the safeguard that has enormous value in our system. No jury can declare a man guilty unless it's sure."

"我自己呢？我爱咱们的国呀，可是谁爱我呢？"

"For myself? I love our country, but who loves me?"

"Faciuntne intellegendo ut nil intellegant?"

"Hoc tempore Obsequium amicos, Veritas odium parit."

"Egregia forma atque aetate integra."

"Hinc illae lacrimae."

"Davos sum, non ."

"Facile omnes quom valemus recta consilia aegrotis damus."

"Verum illud verbum est, vulgo quod dici solet, Omnes sibi malle melius esse quam alteri."

"Amantium irae amoris integratiost."

"Heus, proxumus sum egomet mihi."

"Scripsit comoedias sex, ex quibus primam "Andriam" cum aedilibus daret, iussus ante Caecilio​ recitare, ad cenantem cum venisset, dictus est initium quidem fabulae, quod erat contemptiore vestitu, subsellio iuxta lectulum residens legisse, post paucos vero versus invitatus ut accumberet cenasse una, dein cetera percucurrisse non sine magna Caecilii​ admiratione."

"Sororem falso creditam meretriculae genere Andriae, Glycerium, vitiat Pamphilus gravidaque facta dat fidem uxorem sibi fore hance; namque aliam pater ei desponderat, gnatam Chremetis, atque ut amorem comperit, simulat futuras nuptias, cupiens suos quid haberet animi filius cognoscere. Davi persuasu non repugnat Pamphilus. sed ex Glycerio natum ut vidit puerulum Chremes, recusat nuptias, generum abdicat. mox filiam Glycerium insperato adgnitam hanc Pamphilo, aliam dat Charino coniugem."

"Nicholas Udall; John Higgins, Flovvres or eloquent phrases of the Latine speach, gathered ont [sic of al the sixe comœdies of Terence] (London: imprinted by Thomas Marshe, 1581)"

"Thomas Kyffin, Andria the first comoedie of Terence, in English (London: printed by T[homas] E[ast] for Thomas VVoodcocke, 1588)"

", The Comedies of Terence, Translated into Familiar Blank Verse (London: printed for T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt ..., W. Johnston ..., W. Flexney ..., R. Davis ..., T. Davies ..., 1765)"

"Henry Thomas Riley, The Comedies of Terence, and the Fables of Phædrus (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1853)"

"John Sargeaunt, Terence I: The Lady of Andros · The Self-Tormentor · The Eunuch, LCL 22 (London: William Heinemann; New York: The Macmillan Co., 1912)"

"Exossatum os esse oportet quem probe percusseris."

"Satin parva res est voluptatum in vita atque in aetate agunda praequam quod molestum est?"

"Ita cuique comparatum est in aetate hominum; ita divis est placitum, voluptatem ut maeror comes consequatur."

"Plus aegri ex abitu viri, quam ex adventu voluptatis cepi."

"Virtus praemium est optimum; virtus omnibus remus anteit profecto: libertas salus vita res et parentes, patria et prognati tutantur, servantur: virtus omnia in sese habet, omnia adsunt bona quem penest virtus."

"Non ego illam mihi dotem duco esse, quae dos dicitur, sed pudicitiam et pudorem et sedatum cupidinem, deum metum, parentum amorem et cognatum concordiam, tibi morigera atque ut munifica sim bonis, prosim probis."

"GRANICHUS: O for a Bowle of fatt Canary, Rich Palermo, sparkling Sherry, Some Nectar else, from Juno’s Daiery, O these draughts would make us merry. PSYLLUS: O for a wench, (I deale in faces, And in other dayntier things,) Tickled am I with her Embraces, Fine dancing in such Fairy Ringes. MANES: O for a plump fat leg of Mutton, Veale, Lambe, Capon, Pigge, and Conney, None is happy but a Glutton, None an Asse but who wants money. CHORUS: Wines (indeed,) and Girles are good, But brave victuals feast the bloud, For wenches, wine, and Lusty cheere, Jove would leape down to surfet heere."

"CAMPASPE: Were women never to faire, mẽ wold be false. APELLES: Were womẽ never so false, men wold be fond."

"APELLES: Cupid and my Campaspe playd At Cardes for kisses, Cupid payd; He stakes his Quiver, Bow, and Arrows, His Mothers doves, and teeme of sparrows; Looses them too; then, downe he throwes The corrall of his lippe, the rose Growing on’s cheek (but none knows how), With these, the cristall of his Brow, And then the dimple of his chinne: All these did my Campaspe winne. At last, hee set her both his eyes; Shee won, and Cupid blind did rise. O Love! has shee done this to Thee? What shall (Alas!) become of mee?"

"TRICO singeth: What Bird so sings, yet so dos wayle? O t’is the ravish’d Nightingale. Jug, jug, jug, tereu, shee cryes, And still her woes at Midnight rise. Brave prick song! who is’t now we heare? None but the Larke so shrill and cleare; Now at heavens gats she claps her wings, The Morne not waking till shee sings. Heark, heark, with what a pretty throat Poore Robin red-breast tunes his note; Heark how the jolly Cuckoes sing Cuckoe, to welcome in the spring, Cuckoe, to welcome in the spring."

"VULCAN: My shag-haire Cyclops, come, lets ply Our Lemnion hammers lustily; By my wifes sparrowes, I sweare these arrowes Shall singing fly Through many a wantons Eye.These headed are with golden Blisses, These silver-ones featherd with Kisses, But this of Lead Strikes a Clowne Dead, When in a Dance Hee fals in a Trance, To se his black-brow Lasse not busse him, And then whines out for death t’ untrusse him. So, so, our worke being don lets play, Holliday (Boyes) cry Holliday."

"APOLLO: My Daphne’s Haire is twisted Gold, Bright starres a-piece her Eyes doe hold, My Daphne’s Brow inthrones the Graces, My Daphne’s Beauty staines all Faces; On Daphne’s Cheeke grow Rose and Cherry, On Daphne’s Lip a sweeter Berry, Daphne’s snowy Hand but touch’d does melt, And then no heauenlier Warmth is felt, My Daphne’s voice tunes all the Spheres, My Daphne’s Musick charmes all Eares. Fond am I thus to sing her prayse; These glories now are turn’d to Bayes."

"PAN: Pan’s Syrinx was a Girle indeed, Though now shee’s turn’d into a Reed, From that deare Reed 𝘗𝘢𝘯’𝘴 Pipe doth come, A Pipe that strikes Apollo dumbe; Nor Flute, nor Lute, nor Gitterne can So chant it, as the Pipe of Pan; Cross-gartred Swaines, and Dairie girles, With faces smug, and round as Pearles, When Pans shrill Pipe begins to play, With dancing weare out Night and Day: The Bag-pipes Drone his Hum layes by, When Pan sounds up his Minstrelsie, His Minstrelsie! O Base! this Quill Which at my mouth with winde I fill, Puts me in mind, though Her I misse, That still my Syrinx lips I kisse."

"Sing to Apollo, God of Day, Whose golden beames with morning play, And make her eyes so brightly shine, Aurora’s face is call’d Divine. Sing to Phoebus, and that Throne Of Diamonds which he sits upon. Io, Pæans let vs sing, To Physickes and to Poesies King.Crowne all his Altars with bright fire, Laurels bind about his Lire, A Daphnean Coronet for his Head, The Muses dance about his Bed; When on his ravishing Lute he playes, Strew his Temple round with Bayes. Io, Pæans let vs sing, To the glittering Delian King."

"SILENA: O Cupid! Monarch over Kings, Wherefore hast thou feete and wings? It is to show how swift thou art, When thou wound’st a tender heart: Thy wings being clip’d, and feete held still, Thy Bow so many could not kill. ACCIUS: It is all one in Venus wanton schoole, Who highest sits, the wise man or the foole: Fooles in loves colledge Have farre more knowledge, To read a woman over, Than a neate prating lover. Nay, tis confest, That fooles please women best."

"When as the Rie reach to the chin, And chopcherrie chopcherrie ripe within, Strawberries swimming in the creame, And schoole boyes playing in the streame: Then O, then O, then O my true love said, Till that time come againe, Shee could not live a maid."

"All yee that lovely lovers be, Pray you for me, Loe here we come a sowing, a sowing, And sowe sweete fruites of love: In your sweete hearts well may it proove.Loe heere we come a reaping, a reaping, To reape our harvest fruite, And thus we passe the yeare so long, And never be we mute."

"Gently dip: but not too deepe; For feare you make the gouldē beard to weepe. Faire maiden white and red, Combe me smoothe, and stroke my head: And thou shalt have some cockell bread. Gently dippe, but not too deepe, For feare thou make the gouldē beard to weep. Fair maide, white and redde, Combe me smooth, and stroke my head; And every haire, a sheave shall be, And every sheave a goulden tree."

"Hot sunne, coole fire, temperd with sweet aire, Black shade, fair nurse, shadow my white haire Shine sun, burne fire, breath aire, and ease mee, Black shade, fair nurse, shroud me and please me Shadow (my sweet nurse) keep me from burning Make not my glad cause, cause of mourning. Let not my beauties fire, Enflame unstaied desire, Nor pierce any bright eye, That wand[e]reth lightly."

"I first am nature's subject, then my prince's; I will not serve to innocency's ruine. Whose heaven is earth, let them beleeve in princes, My God is not the God of subtile murther."

"Oh wearisome Condition of Humanity! Borne under one Law, to another, bound: Vainly begot, and yet forbidden vanity, Created sicke, commanded to be sound: What meaneth Nature by these diverse Lawes? Passion and Reason, self-division cause: Is it the marke, or Majestie of Power To make offences that it may forgive? Nature herselfe, doth her owne selfe defloure, To hate those errors she herselfe doth give. For how should man thinke that he may not doe If Nature did not faile, and punish too? Tyrant to others, to her selfe unjust, Onely commands things difficult and hard. Forbids us all things, which it knowes we lust, Makes easie paines, impossible reward. If Nature did not take delight in blood, She would have made more easie wayes to good. We that are bound by vowes, and by Promotion, With pompe of holy Sacrifice and rites, To teach beliefe in good and still devotion To preach of Heavens wonders, and delights: Yet when each of us, in his owne heart lookes, He finds the God there, farre unlike his Bookes."

"CUPID, TELUSA, EUROTA, LARISSA, enter singing.TELUSA: O yes, O yes, if any maid, Whom lering Cupid has betraid To frownes of spite, to eyes of scorne, And would in madness now see torne The boy in pieces,—ALL THREE: Let her come Hither, and lay on him her doome.EUROTA: O yes, O yes, has any lost A heart, which many a sigh hath cost; Is any cozened of a teare, Which (as a pearle) disdaine does weare?ALL THREE: Here stands the thiefe, let her but come Hither, and lay on him her doome.LARISSA: Is any one undone by fire, And turn'd to ashes through desire? Did ever any lady weepe, Being cheated of her golden sleepe? Stolne by sicke thoughts!ALL THREE: The pirat's found, And in her teares hee shal be drown'd. Reade his inditement, let him heare What hee's to trust to: boy give eare."

"Nullumst iam dictum quod non sit dictum prius."

"In amore haec omnia insunt vitia: iniuriae, suspiciones, inimicitiae, indutiae, bellum, pax rursum: incerta haec si tu postules ratione certa facere, nihilo plus agas quam si des operam ut cum ratione insanias."

"Si istuc crederem sincere dici, quidvis possem perpeti."

"Di inmortales, homini homo quid praestat! stulto intellegens quid interest!"

"Omnia habeo neque quicquam habeo; nil quom est, nil defit tamen"

"Omnium rerum, heus, vicissitudost."

"Flos ipsus."

"Ego non flocci pendere."

"Pro Iuppiter, nunc est profecto, interfici quom perpeti me possum, ne hoc gaudium contaminet vita aegritudine aliqua."

"Sine Cerere et Libero friget Venus."

"Novi ingenium mulierum: nolunt ubi velis, ubi nolis cupiunt ultro."

"Ego me in pedes quantum queo."

"Saepe ex huius modi re quapiam malo principio magna familiaritas."

"Utinam tibi conmitigari videam sandalio caput!"

"Sororem falso dictitatam Thaidis id ipsum ignorans miles advexit Thraso ipsique donat. erat haec civis Attica. eidem eunuchum, quem emerat, tradi iubet Thaidis amator Phaedria ac rus ipse abit Thrasoni oratus biduum ut concederet. ephebus frater Phaedriae puellulam cum deperiret dono missam Thaidi, ornatu eunuchi induitur—suadet Parmeno—: intro ut iit, vitiat virginem. sed Atticus civis repertus frater eius conlocat vitiatam ephebo; Phaedriam exorat Thraso."

"A certain citizen of Athens had a daughter named Pamphila, and a son called Chremes. The former was stolen while an infant, and sold to a Rhodian merchant, who having made a present of her to a Courtesan of Rhodes, she brought her up with her own daughter Thais, who was somewhat older. In the course of years, Thais following her mother's way of life, removes to Athens. Her mother dying, her property is put up for sale, and Pamphila is purchased as a slave by Thraso, an officer and an admirer of Thais, who happens just then to be visiting Rhodes. During the absence of Thraso, Thais becomes acquainted with Phasdria, an Athenian youth, the son of Laches; she also discovers from Chremes, who lives near Athens, that Pamphila, her former companion, is his sister. Thraso returns, intending to present to her the girl he has bought, but determines not to do so until she has discarded Phaedria. Finding that the girl is no other than Pamphila, Thais is at a loss what to do, as she both loves Phaedria, and is extremely anxious to recover Pamphila. At length, to please the Captain, she excludes Phaedria, but next day sends for him, and explains to him her reasons, at the same time begging of him to allow Thraso the sole right of admission to her house for the next two days, and assuring him that as soon as she shall have gained possession of the girl, she will entirely throw him off. Phaedria consents, and resolves to spend these two days in the country; at the same time he orders Parmeno to take to Thais a Eunuch and an Aethiopian girl, whom he has purchased for her. The Captain also sends Pamphila, who is accidentally seen by Chaerea, the younger brother of Phaedria; he, being smitten with her beauty, prevails upon Parmeno to introduce him into the house of Thais, in the Eunuch's dress. Being admitted there, in the absence of Thais, lie ravishes the damsel. Shortly afterward Thraso quarrels with Thais, and comes with all his attendants to her house to demand the return of Pamphila, but is disappointed. In conclusion, Pamphila is recognized by her brother Chremes, and is promised in marriage to Chaerea; while Thraso becomes reconciled to Phaedria, through the mediation of Gnatho, his Parasite."

"Nicholas Udall; John Higgins, Flovvres or eloquent phrases of the Latine speach, gathered ont [sic of al the sixe comœdies of Terence] (London: imprinted by Thomas Marshe, 1581)"

", The Comedies of Terence, Translated into Familiar Blank Verse (London: printed for T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt ..., W. Johnston ..., W. Flexney ..., R. Davis ..., T. Davies ..., 1765)"

"Henry Thomas Riley, The Comedies of Terence, and the Fables of Phædrus (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1853)"

"John Benson Rose, Comedies of Publius Terentius Afer (London: Dorrell and Son, 1870)"

"John Sargeaunt, Terence I: The Lady of Andros · The Self-Tormentor · The Eunuch, LCL 22 (London: William Heinemann; New York: The Macmillan Co., 1912)"

"Christopher Kelk, "Eunuchus". Poetry in Translation (2023), Online"

"Homo sum: humani nil a me alienum puto."

"Periclum ex aliis facito tibi quod ex usu siet."

"Diem adimere aegritudinem hominibus."

"Aquilae senectus."

"Non licet hominem esse saepe ita ut volt, si res non sinit."

"Nil tam difficilest quin quaerendo investigari possiet."

"Quid si nunc caelum ruat?"

"Ius summum saepe summast malitia."

"Nullast tam facilis res quin difficilis siet, quam invitus facias."

"Quam multa iniusta ac prava fiunt moribus!"

"Modo liceat vivere, est spes."

"In militiam proficisci gnatum Cliniam amantem Antiphilam conpulit durus pater animique sese angebat facti paenitens. mox ut reversust, clam patrem devortitur ad Clitiphonem. is amabat scortum Bacchidem. cum accerseret cupitam Antiphilam Clinia, et eius Bacchis venit amica ac servolae habitum gerens Antiphila: factum id quo patrem suam celaret Clitipho. hie technis Syri decem minas meretriculae aufert a sene. Antiphila Clitiphonis reperitur soror: hanc Clinia, aliam Clitipho uxorem accipit."

"Quam inique comparatumst, ei qui minus habent ut semper aliquid addant ditioribus!"

"Ut nunc sunt mores: adeo res redit: si quis quid reddit, magna habendast gratia."

"Fortis fortuna adiuvat."

"Quam ob rem omnis, quom secundae res sunt maxume, tum maxume meditari secum oportet quo pacto advorsam aerumnam ferant."

"Nil est dictu facilius."

"Quot homines tot sententiae: suos quoique mos."

"Auribus teneo lupum."

"Senectus ipsast morbus (or) Senectus ipsa morbus est."

"Quid has metuis fores? conclusam hic habeo uxorem saevam."

"Chremetis frater aberat peregre Demipho relicto Athenis Antiphone filio. Chremes clam habebat Lemni uxorem et filiam, Athenis aliam coniugem et amantem unice fidicinam gnatum. mater e Lemno advenit Athenas; moritur; virgo sola (aberat Chremes) funus procurat. ibi eam cum visam Antipho amaret, opera parasiti uxorem accipit. pater et Chremes reversi fremere. dein minas triginta dant parasito, ut illam coniugem haberet ipse: argento hoc emitur fidicina. uxorem retinet Antipho a patruo adgnitam."

"Uxor, si cesses, aut te amare cogitat aut tete amari aut potare atque animo obsequi, et tibi bene esse soli, sibi quom sit male."

"Errat longe mea quidem sententia, qui imperium credat gravius esse aut stabilius vi quod fit quam illud quod amicitia adiungitur."

"Hoc patriumst, potius consuefacere filium sua sponte recte facere quam alieno metu: hoc pater ac dominus interest."

"Ego spem pretio non emo."

"Inspicere tamquam in speculum in vitas omnium iubeo atque ex aliis sumere exemplum sibi."

"Ut homost, ita morem geras."

"Omnes, quibus res sunt minus secundae, magis sunt nescio quo modo suspiciosi: ad contumeliam omnia accipiunt magis: propter suam inpotentiam se semper credunt ludier."

"Virginem vitiasti quam te non ius fuerat tangere. iam id peccatum primum magnum, magnum, at humanum tamen: fecere alii saepe item boni."

"Ita vitast hominum quasi quom ludas tesseris: si illud quod maxume opus est iactu non cadit, illud quod cecidit forte, id arte ut corrigas."

"Vetus verbum hoc quidemst, communia esse amicorum inter se omnia."

"Quod hinc accesserit, id de lucro putato esse omne."

"Ad omnia alia aetate sapimus rectius; solum unum hoc vitium adfert senectus hominibus: adtentiores sumus ad rem omnes quam sat est."

"Vitium commune omniumst, quod nimium ad rem in senecta attenti sumus."

"Duos cum haberet Demea adulescentulos, dat Micioni fratri adoptandum Aeschinum, sed Ctesiphonem retinet. hune citharistriae lepore captum sub duro ac tristi patre frater celabat Aeschinus; famam rei, amorem in sese transferebat; denique fidicinam lenoni eripit. vitiaverat idem Aeschinus civem Atticam pauperculam fidemque dederat hanc sibi uxorem fore. Demea iurgare, graviter ferre; mox tamen ut veritas patefactast, ducit Aeschinus vitiatam, potitur Ctesipho citharistriam."

"John Sargeaunt, Terence II: Phormio · The Mother-in-Law · The Brothers, LCL 23 (London: William Heinemann; New York: The Macmillan Co., 1912)"

"Day was my night, and night must be my day; The sun shined on my pleasure with my love, And darkness must lend aid to my revenge. The stage of heaven is hung with solemn black, A time best fitting to act tragedies. The night’s great queen, that maiden governess, Musters black clouds to hide her from the world, Afraid to look on my bold enterprise. Cursed creatures, messengers of death, possess the world; Night-ravens, screetch-owls, and voice-killing mandrakes, The ghosts of misers, that imprison’d gold Within the harmless bowels of the earth, Are night’s companions. Bawds to lust and murder, Be all propitious to my act of justice Upon the scandalisers of her fame, That is the lifeblood of deliciousness, Deem’d Isabella, Cupid’s treasurer, Whose soul contains the richest gifts of love: Her beauty from my heart fear doth expel: They relish pleasure best that dread not hell!"

"Cinthia to thy power, and them we obey. Joy to this great company, and no day Come to steal this night away, Till the rites of love are ended, And the lusty Bridegroom say, Welcome light of all befriended. Pace out you watry powers below, let your feet Like the Gallies when they row, even beat. Let your unknown measures set To the still winds, tell to all That Gods are come immortal great, To honour this great Nuptial."

"Lay a Garland on my Hearse of the dismal yew; Maidens, Willow branches bear; say I died true: My Love was false, but I was firm from my hour of birth; Upon my buried body lay lightly gentle earth."

"Something whispers me, Go not to bed; my guilt is not so great As mine own conscience (too sensible) Would make me think."

"Timorous flesh, Why shak'st thou so? away my idle fears."

"Why, it is thou that wrongest me, I hate thee, Thou shouldst have kill'd thy self."

"I sooner will find out the beds of Snakes, And with my youthful blood warm their cold flesh, Letting them curle themselves about my Limbs, Than sleep one night with thee; this is not feign'd, Nor sounds it like the coyness of a Bride."

"A Maidenhead Amintor at my years?"

"Is flesh so earthly to endure all this? Are these the joyes of Marriage? Hymen keep This story (that will make succeeding youth Neglect thy Ceremonies) from all ears."

"Do not I know the uncontroulèd thoughts That youth brings with him, when his bloud is high With expectation and desires of that He long hath waited for? is not his spirit, Though he be temperate, of a valiant strain, As this our age hath known? what could he do, If such a sudden speech had met his blood, But ruine thee for ever."

"My charity shall go along with thee, Though my embraces must be far from thee."

"I was a world of vertue, Till your curst Court and you (hell bless you for't) With your temptations on temptations Made me give up mine honour."

"Evadne: Stay Sir, stay, You are too hot, and I have brought you Physick To temper your high veins. King: Prethee to bed then; let me take it warm, There you shall know the state of my body better. Evadne: I know you have a surfeited foul body, And you must bleed. King: Bleed! Evadne: Ay, you shall bleed: lie still, and if the Devil Your lust will give you leave, repent: this steel Comes to redeem the honour that you stole."

"Die all our faults together; I forgive thee."

"I am not she: nor bear I in this breast So much cold Spirit to be call'd a Woman: I am a Tyger: I am any thing That knows not pity."

"1 Gentleman: Come now she's gone, let's enter, the King expects it, and will be angry. 2 Gentleman: 'Tis a fine wench, we'l have a snap at her one of these nights as she goes from him. 1 Gentleman: Content: how quickly he had done with her! I see Kings can do no more that way than other mortal people."

"Be sudden Sir to tie All again; what’s done is past recal, And past you to revenge."

"May this a fair example be to me, To rule with temper: for on lustful Kings Unlookt for sudden deaths from heaven are sent! But curst is he that is their instrument."

"Sing his praises that doth keep Our Flocks from harm, Pan the Father of our Sheep, And arm in arm Tread we softly in a round, Whilest the hollow neighbouring ground Fills the Musick with her sound.Pan, O great God Pan, to thee Thus do we sing: Thou that keep’st us chaste and free As the young spring, Ever be thy honour spoke, From that place the morn is broke, To that place Day doth unyoke."

"This place is Ominous, for here I lost My Love and almost life, and since have crost All these Woods over, never a Nook or Dell, Where any little Bird, or Beast doth dwell, But I have sought him, never a bending brow Of any Hill or Glade, the wind sings through, Nor a green bank, nor shade where Shepherds use To sit and Riddle, sweetly pipe, or chuse Their Valentines, that I have mist, to find My love in. Perigot, Oh too unkind, Why hast thou fled me? whither art thou gone? How have I wrong'd thee? was my love alone To thee worthy this scorn'd recompence? 'tis well, I am content to feel it: but I tell Thee Shepherd, and these lusty woods shall hear, Forsaken Amoret is yet as clear Of any stranger fire, as Heaven is From foul corruption, or the deep Abysse From light and happiness; ..."

"Stay thy pace, Most loved Amaryllis, let the Chase Grow calm and milder, flye me not so fast, I fear the pointed Brambles have unlac'd Thy golden Buskins; turn again and see Thy Shepherd follow, that is strong and free, Able to give thee all content and ease. I am not bashful, Virgin, I can please At first encounter, hug thee in mine arm, And give thee many Kisses, soft and warm As those the Sun prints on the smiling Cheek Of Plums, or mellow Peaches; I am sleek And smooth as Neptune, when stern Eolus Locks up his surly Winds, and nimbly thus Can shew my active Youth; why dost thou flye?"

"Three thousand years of sleep-unsheltered hours, And moments aye divided by keen pangs Till they seemed years, torture and solitude, Scorn and despair,—these are mine empire."

"Nailed to this wall of eagle-baffling mountain, Black, wintry, dead, unmeasured; without herb, Insect, or beast, or shape or sound of life."

"No change, no pause, no hope! Yet I endure."

"Ere Babylon was dust, The Magus Zoroaster, my dead child, Met his own image walking in the garden. That apparition, sole of men, he saw."

"Dreams and the light imaginings of men, And all that faith creates or love desires, Terrible, strange, sublime, and beauteous shapes."

"Cruel he looks, but calm and strong, Like one who does, not suffers wrong."

"It doth repent me: words are quick and vain; Grief for awhile is blind, and so was mine. I wish no living thing to suffer pain."

"Evil minds Change good to their own nature."

"Kingly conclaves stern and cold, Where blood with gold is bought and sold."

"See a disenchanted nation Springs like day from desolation; To Truth its state is dedicate, And Freedom leads it forth, her mate."

"And the future is dark, and the present is spread Like a pillow of thorns for thy slumberless head."

"In each human heart terror survives The ruin it has gorged: the loftiest fear All that they would disdain to think were true: Hypocrisy and custom make their minds The fanes of many a worship, now outworn. They dare not devise good for man's estate, And yet they know not that they do not dare."

"The good want power, but to weep barren tears. The powerful goodness want: worse need for them. The wise want love; and those who love want wisdom; And all best things are thus confused to ill. Many are strong and rich, and would be just, But live among their suffering fellow-men As if none felt: they know not what they do."

"Thy words are like a cloud of wingèd snakes; And yet I pity those they torture not."

"Peace is in the grave. The grave hides all things beautiful and good. I am a God and cannot find it there, Nor would I seek it; for, though dread revenge, This is defeat, fierce king, not victory."

"The dust of creeds outworn."

"On a poet's lips I slept Dreaming like a love-adept In the sound his breathing kept; Nor seeks nor finds he mortal blisses, But feeds on the aërial kisses Of shapes that haunt thought's wildernesses. He will watch from dawn to gloom The lake-reflected sun illume The yellow bees in the ivy-bloom, Nor heed nor see what things they be; But from these create he can Forms more real than living man, Nurslings of immortality!"

"Those eyes which burn thro' smiles that fade in tears, Like stars half quenched in mists of silver dew."

"Low, sweet, faint sounds, like the farewell of ghosts."

"Sounds overflow the listener's brain So sweet, that joy is almost pain."

"Who made that sense which, when the winds of spring In rarest visitation, or the voice Of one beloved heard in youth alone, Fills the faint eyes with falling tears which dim The radiant looks of unbewailing flowers, And leaves this peopled earth a solitude When it returns no more?"

"To know nor faith, nor love, nor law, to be Omnipotent but friendless, is to reign."

"He gave man speech, and speech created thought, Which is the measure of the universe."

"All spirits are enslaved which serve things evil."

"Fate, Time, Occasion, Chance and Change? To these All things are subject but eternal Love."

"My coursers are fed with the lightning, They drink of the whirlwind's stream, And when the red morning is bright'ning They bathe in the fresh sunbeam."

"All love is sweet, Given or returned. Common as light is love, And its familiar voice wearies not ever. Like the wide heaven, the all-sustaining air, It makes the reptile equal to the God; They who inspire it most are fortunate, As I am now; but those who feel it most Are happier still."

"Life of Life! thy lips enkindle With their love the breath between them; And thy smiles before they dwindle Make the cold air fire; then screen them In those looks, where whoso gazes Faints, entangled in their mazes. Child of Light! thy lips are burning Thro' the vest which seems to hide them; As the radiant lines of morning Thro' the clouds ere they divide them; And this atmosphere divinest Shrouds thee wheresoe'er thou shinest."

"My soul is an enchanted boat, Which, like a sleeping swan, doth float Upon the silver waves of thy sweet singing."

"We have past Age's icy caves, And Manhood's dark and tossing waves, And Youth's smooth ocean, smiling to betray: Beyond the glassy gulphs we flee Of shadow-peopled Infancy, Through Death and Birth, to a diviner day."

"Thetis, bright image of eternity!"

"We two will sink on the wide waves of ruin, Even as a vulture and a snake outspent Drop, twisted in inextricable fight, Into a shoreless sea."

"Weave harmonies divine, yet ever new."

"Death is the veil which those who live call life; They sleep, and it is lifted."

"Or the dull sneer of self-loved ignorance."

"The loathsome mask has fallen, the man remains,— Sceptreless, free, uncircumscribed, but man: Equal, unclassed, tribeless, and nationless, Exempt from awe, worship, degree, the king Over himself; just, gentle, wise: but man. Passionless? no:—yet free from guilt or pain,— Which were, for his will made or suffered them, Nor yet exempt, tho' ruling them like slaves, From chance, and death, and mutability,— The clogs of that which else might oversoar The loftiest star of unascended heaven, Pinnacled dim in the intense inane."

"The pale stars are gone! For the sun, their swift shepherd, To their folds them compelling, In the depths of the dawn, Hastes, in meteor-eclipsing array, and the flee Beyond his blue dwelling, As fawns flee the leopard."

"Laugh with a vast and inextinguishable laughter."

"Familiar acts are beautiful through love."

"Language is a perpetual Orphic song, Which rules with Dædal harmony a throng Of thoughts and forms, which else senseless and shapeless were."

"Ye kings of suns and stars, Dæmons and Gods, Ethereal Dominations, who possess Elysian, windless, fortunate abodes Beyond Heaven's constellated wilderness."

"Soul meets soul on lovers' lips."

"Man, who wert once a despot and a slave, A dupe and a deceiver! a decay, A traveller from the cradle to the grave Through the dim night of this immortal day."

"This is the day, which down the void abysm At the Earth-born's spell yawns for Heaven's despotism And Conquest is dragged captive through the deep: Love, from its awful throne of patient power In the wise heart, from the last giddy hour Of dread endurance, from the slippery, steep, And narrow verge of crag-like agony, springs And folds over the world its healing wings."

"Gentleness, Virtue, Wisdom, and Endurance, These are the seals of that most firm assurance Which bars the pit over Destruction's strength; And if, with infirm hand, Eternity, Mother of many acts and hours, should free The serpent that would clasp her with his length; These are the spells by which to re-assume An empire o'er the disentangled doom."

"To suffer woes which Hope thinks infinite; To forgive wrongs darker than Death or Night; To defy Power, which seems omnipotent; To love, and bear; to hope till Hope creates From its own wreck the thing it contemplates; Neither to change nor falter nor repent; This, like thy glory, Titan, is to be Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free; This is alone Life, Joy, Empire, and Victory!"

"In truth, mankind cannot be saved from without, by schoolmasters or any other sort of masters: it can only be lamed and enslaved by them. It is said that if you wash a cat it will never again wash itself. This may or may not be true: what is certain is that if you teach a man anything he will never learn it; and if you cure him of a disease he will be unable to cure himself the next time it attacks him."

"People will have their miracles, their stories, their heroes and heroines and saints and martyrs and divinities to exercise their gifts of affection, admiration, wonder, and worship, and their Judases and devils to enable them to be angry and yet feel that they do well to be angry. Every one of these legends is the common heritage of the human race; and there is only one inexorable condition attached to their healthy enjoyment, which is that no one shall believe them literally. The reading of stories and delighting in them made Don Quixote a gentleman: the believing them literally made him a madman who slew lambs instead of feeding them."

"I worship you, Eve. I must have something to worship. Something quite different to myself, like you. There must be something greater than the snake."

"I hear you say "Why?" Always "Why?" You see things; and you say "Why?" But I dream things that never were; and I say "Why not?""

"Make me a beautiful word for doing things tomorrow; for that surely is a great and blessed invention."

"Everything is possible: everything. Listen. I am old. I am the old serpent, older than Adam, older than Eve. I remember Lilith, who came before Adam and Eve. I was her darling as I am yours. She was alone: there was no man with her. She saw death as you saw it when the fawn fell; and she knew then that she must find out how to renew herself and cast the skin like me. She had a mighty will: she strove and strove and willed and willed for more moons than there are leaves on all the trees of the garden. Her pangs were terrible: her groans drove sleep from Eden. She said it must never be again: that the burden of renewing life was past bearing: that it was too much for one. And when she cast the skin, lo! there was not one new Lilith but two: one like herself, the other like Adam. You were the one: Adam was the other."

"Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire; you will what you imagine; and at last you create what you will."

"Conceive. That is the word that means both the beginning in imagination and the end in creation."

"Life must not cease. That comes before everything. It is silly to say you do not care. You do care. It is that care that will prompt your imagination; inflame your desires; make your will irresistible; and create out of nothing."

"I am very subtle; but Man is deeper in his thought than I am. The woman knows that there is no such thing as nothing: the man knows that there is no such day as tomorrow. I do well to worship them."

": The voice in the garden is your own voice. : It is; and it is not. It is something greater than me: I am only a part of it. : The Voice does not tell me not to kill you. Yet I do not want you to die before me. No voice is needed to make me feel that. [throwing his arm round her shoulder with an expression of anguish]: Oh no: that is plain without any voice. There is something that holds us together, something that has no word — : Love. Love. Love. : That is too short a word for so long a thing."

"I make no vows. I take my chance. ... It means that I fear certainty as you fear uncertainty. It means that nothing is certain but uncertainty. If I bind the future I bind my will. If I bind my will I strangle creation."

"You can feel nothing but a torment, and believe nothing but a lie. You will not raise your head to look at all the miracles of life that surround you; but you will run ten miles to see a fight or a death."

"Your father is a fool skin deep; but you are a fool to your very marrow."

"Any sort of plain speaking is better than the nauseous sham good fellowship our democratic public men get up for shop use."

"I enjoy convalescence. It is the part that makes illness worth while."

"There are no secrets except the secrets that keep themselves."

"Everything happens to everybody sooner or later if there is time enough."

"Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn."

"The worst cliques are those which consist of one man."

"Life is not meant to be easy, my child but take courage: it can be delightful."

": When a thing is funny, search it for a hidden truth: Yes; and take all the fun out of it."

"Art is the magic mirror you make to reflect your invisible dreams in visible pictures. You use a glass mirror to see your face: you use works of art to see your soul. But we who are older use neither glass mirrors nor works of art. We have a direct sense of life. When you gain that you will put aside your mirrors and statues, your toys and your dolls."

"When the master has come to do everything through the slave, the slave becomes his master, since he cannot live without him."

"Love is a simple thing and a deep thing: it is an act of life and not an illusion. Art is an illusion."

"Even a vortex is a vortex in something. You can't have a whirlpool without water; and you can't have a vortex without gas, or molecules or atoms or ions or electrons or something, not nothing."

"The body was the slave of the vortex; but the slave has become the master; and we must free ourselves from that tyranny. It is this stuff [indicating her body], this flesh and blood and bone and all the rest of it, that is intolerable. Even prehistoric man dreamed of what he called an astral body, and asked who would deliver him from the body of this death."

"I am justified. For I chose wisdom and the knowledge of good and evil; and now there is no evil; and wisdom and good are one. It is enough."

"They have accepted the burden of eternal life. They have taken the agony from birth; and their life does not fail them even in the hour of their destruction."

"I had patience with them for many ages: they tried me very sorely. They did terrible things: they embraced death, and said that eternal life was a fable. I stood amazed at the malice and destructiveness of the things I had made..."

"I say, let them dread, of all things, stagnation; for from the moment I, Lilith, lose hope and faith in them, they are doomed. In that hope and faith I have let them live for a moment; and in that moment I have spared them many times. But mightier creatures than they have killed hope and faith, and perished from the earth; and I may not spare them for ever. I am Lilith: I brought life into the whirlpool of force, and compelled my enemy, Matter, to obey a living soul. But in enslaving Life's enemy I made him Life's master; for that is the end of all slavery; and now I shall see the slave set free and the enemy reconciled, the whirlpool become all life and no matter. And because these infants that call themselves ancients are reaching out towards that, I will have patience with them still; though I know well that when they attain it they shall become one with me and supersede me, and Lilith will be only a legend and a lay that has lost its meaning. Of Life only is there no end; and though of its million starry mansions many are empty and many still unbuilt, and though its vast domain is as yet unbearably desert, my seed shall one day fill it and master its matter to its uttermost confines. And for what may be beyond, the eyesight of Lilith is too short. It is enough that there is a beyond."

"They have redeemed themselves from their vileness, and turned away from their sins. Best of all, they are still not satisfied: the impulse I gave them in that day when I sundered myself in twain and launched Man and Woman on the earth still urges them: after passing a million goals they press on to the goal of redemption from the flesh, to the vortex freed from matter, to the whirlpool in pure intelligence that, when the world began, was a whirlpool in pure force."

"I can wait: waiting and patience mean nothing to the eternal. I gave the woman the greatest of gifts: curiosity. By that her seed has been saved from my wrath; for I also am curious; and I have waited always to see what they will do tomorrow."

"Sometimes, even a blank canvas can reveal much — about art, and about humans in general. … The production of Art features a star-studded cast, and a simple premise that expands into a multi-layered plot. While satirizing the pretensions of modern aesthetes, it [explores also] the emotions that drive long-running friendships — bringing people together, and tearing them apart."

"Ovunque i mi sia, io sono Amore. Ne'pastori non men, che ne gli heroi; E la disagguaglianza de'soggetti, Come à me piace, agguaglio."

"Forse, se tu gustassi anco una volta La millesima parte de la gioie Che gusta un cor amato riamando, Diresti, ripentita, sospirando: Perduto è tutto il tempo Che in amar non si spende."

"S'ei piace, ei lice"

"Femina, cosa mobil per natura, Più che fraschetta al vento, e più che cima Di pieghevole spica."

"Tu prima, Onor, velasti La fonte dei diletti, Negando l'onde a l'amorosa sete."

"Veramente il secol d'oro è questo, Poiché sol vince l'oro, e regna l'oro."

"Amor servo de l'oro, è il maggior mostro, Et il più abominabile, e il più sozzo, Che produca la terra, o 'l mar frà l'onde."

"Il mondo invecchia, E invecchiando intristisce."

"Hor, non sai tu, com'è fatta la donna? Fugge, e fuggendo vuol, che altri la giunga; Niega, e negando vuol, ch'altri si toglia; Pugna, e pugnando vuol, ch'altri la vinca."

"O che gentile Scongiuro hà ritrovato questo sciocco Di rammentarmi la mia giovanezza, Il ben passato, e la presente noia."

"Amor nascente hà corte l'ali, à pena Può sù tenerle, e non le spiega à volo."

"Amor, leggan pur gli altri Le Socratiche carte, Ch'io in due begl'occhi apprenderò quest'arte."

"Dispietata pietate Fù la tua veramente, ò Dafne, allhora, Che ritenesti il dardo."

"Non bisogna la morte, Ch'astringer nobil cuore, Prima basta la fede, e poi l'amore."

"La pietà messaggiera è de l'Amore, Come'l lampo del tuon."

"La vergogna ritien debile amore; Ma debil freno è di potente Amore"