Holds such an enmity with blood of man,
That, swift as quicksilver, it courses through
The natural gates and alleys of the body;
And, with a sudden vigour, it doth posset
And curd, like eager droppings into milk,
The thin and wholesome blood: so did it mine;
And a most instant tetter bark'd about,
Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust,
All my smooth body.

Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother's hand,
Of life, of crown, of queen, at once despatch'd:
Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin,
Unhousel'd, disappointed, unaneal'd;

No reckoning made, but sent to my account,
With all my imperfections on my head:
O horrible! O horrible! most horrible!

Hamlet Act 1 Scene 5.

and fearful to the nature of man, and of all others can be least prevented, either by manhood or providence: and that made Fleta to say, Item nec per patriam se defendere debet quis de veneno dato, sed tantum per corpus suum, eo quod initium facti non fuit tam publicum, quod sciri poterit a patria &c. But that is not holden for law at this day. All the ancient authors, of old time defined murder to be, Occulta hominis occisio, &c. Hamlet.

There is a play to-night before the king;
One scene of it comes near the circumstance,
Which I have told thee of my father's death.
I pr'ythee, when thou seest that act a foot,
Even with the very comment of thy soul
Observe my uncle: if his occulted guilt
Do not itself unkennel in one speech,
It is a damned ghost that we have seen;
And my imaginations are as foul
As Vulcan's stithy.

Act 3 Scene 2.

when it was done in secret, so as the offender was not known: but now it is taken in a larger sense." (Coke 3. Institute Cap. VII.) Hamlet, who knew how his father had been poisoned by Claudius, speaks of his uncle's occulted guilt and Fleta says, Traditores qui alicui occulte venenum praebuerint unde expiravit, et inde convincantur, detractentur et suspendantur. Lib. I. c. 35. The reader will perceive that Coke, speaking of murder by poison, says, it is the most detestable of all, because it is most horrible;" and that the Ghost of Hamlet's Father after describing the manner in which he was murdered by poison, exclaims,

O horrible! O horrible! most horrible!

Iago.

There are a kind of men so loose of soul,
That in their sleeps will mutter their affairs;
One of this kind is Cassio.

Othello Act 3 Scene 8.

Quippe ubi se multi per somnia saepe loquentes,
Aut morbo delirantes, procreasse ferantur,
Et celata diu in medium peccata dedisse.

Lucret. lib. V. 1157.

„Certes the making of new gentlemen bred great strife sometimes amongst the Romans, I meane when those which were Novi homines, were more allowed of for their vertues newlie seene and shewed, than the old smell of ancient race,

What colour, madam? How shall I answer you?

latelie defaced by the cowardise and evill life of their nepheues and defendants could make the other to be." The Description of England. Chap. 5. Holinshed.

2. Thief.

I'll believe him as an enemy, and give over my trade.

Timon of Athens. Act 4 Scene 3. Duke.

I know thee well: How dost thou, my good fellow?

Clown.

Truly, sir, the better for my foes, and the worse for my friends.

Marry, sir, they praise me, and make an ass of me; now, my foes tell me plainly I am an ass; so that by my foes, sir, I profit by the knowledge of myself; and by my friends I am abused: so that, conclusions to be as kisses, if your four negatives make your two affirmatives, why, then the worse for my friends, and the better for my foes. Twelfth Night Act 5 Scene 1.

That we may learn many things from our enemies is a sentiment to be found in one of the Comedies of Aristophanes.

ΕΠΟΨ.

Εἰ δὲ τὴν φύσιν μὲν ἐχθροὶ, τὸν δὲ νοῦν εἰσιν φίλοι,
Καὶ διδάξοντές τι δεῖρ ̓ ἤκουσιν ὑμᾶς χρήσιμον;

ΧΟΡΟ Σ.

Πῶς δ ̓ ἂν οἴδ ̓ ἡμᾶς τι χρήσιμον διδάξειάν ποτε,
Ἢ φράσειαν, ὄντες, ἐχθροὶ τοῖσι πάπποις τοῖς ἐμοῖς;

ΕΠΟΨ.

Ἀλλ' ἀπ' ἐχθρῶν δῆτα πολλὰ μανθάνουσιν οἱ σοφοί.
Ἡ γὰρ εὐλάβεια σώζει πάντα. παρὰ μὲν οὖν φίλον
Οὐ μάθοις ἂν τοῦθ'· ὁ δ ̓ ἐχθρὸς εὐθὺς ἐξηνάγκασεν,
Αντίχ αἱ πόλεις παρ' ἀνδρῶν γ' ἔμαθον ἐχθρῶν, ποὺ φίλων,
Ἐκπονεῖν θ' ὑψηλὰ τείχη ναῦς τε κεκτῆσθαι μακράς.
Τὸ δὲ μάθημα τοῦτο σώζει παῖδας, οἶκον, χρήματα.

ΧΟΡΟΣ.

Ἔστι μὲν λόγων ἀκοῦσαι πρῶτον, ὡς ἡμῖν δοκεῖ,

Χρήσιμον· μάθοι γὰρ ἄν τις κἀπὸ τῶν ἐχθρῶν σοφόν. 382.
Aristophanes OΡΝΙΘΕΣ.

Cade.

Nay, answer, if you can: The Frenchmen are our enemies: go to then, I ask but this: Can he, that speaks with the tongue of an enemy, be a good counsellor, or no?

All.

No, no; and therefore we 'll have his head.

2. Henry VI. Act 4 Scene 2.

To use the language of Stafford, the gross and miserable ignorance" of Cade's followers makes them decide that no man that speaks with the tongue of an enemy can be a good counsellor.

Antony.

Let each man render me his bloody hand:
First, Marcus Brutus, will I shake with you ;
Next, Caius Cassius, do I take your hand;

Now, Decius Brutus, yours; now yours, Metellus;

Yours, Cinna; and, my valiant Casca, yours;

Though last, not least in love, yours, good Trebonius.

Julius Caesar Act 3 Scene 1.

And there, though last not least, is Aetion,

A gentler shepheard may no where be found:
Whose muse, full of high thoughts invention,
Doth like himselfe heroically sound."

CXIII.

Spenser. Colin Clout. 444.

And neigh the castle swiche ther dwelten three:
That on of hem was blind, and might not see,
But it were with thilke eyen of his minde,

With which men mowen see whan they ben blinde."
Chaucer. The Man of Lawes Tale.

The expressions, though last not least" and in my mind's eye" contained in these extracts from Spenser and Chaucer, are often used, in conversation, by educated Englishmen, and generally, I think, as quotations from Shakspeare.

Macbeth.

Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing. ---

Ὁρῶ γὰρ ἡμᾶς οὐδὲν ὄντας ἄλλο, πλὴν
Εἴδωλ, ὅσοιπερ ζῶμεν, ἢ κούφην σκιάν.

Act 5 Scene 5.

„When he heard how the game went, and how his men were discomfited and the most part fled or flieng awaie, he neither tarried for his Chamberleine to apparell him, nor for his page to help him: but with all the hast and post hast he could, he turneth a faire paire of heeles and runneth awaie:

Prince Henry.

But, Francis, darest thou be so valiant, as to play the coward with thy indenture, and to shew it a fair pair of heels, and run from it? 1. Henry IV. Act 2 Scene 4.

and albeit he were verie sharpelie pursued, yet (though hardlie) he escaped." The Conquest of Ireland. Holinshed.

Silius.

Noble Ventidius,

Whilst yet with Parthian blood thy sword is warm,
The fugitive Parthians follow.

Antony and Cleopatra. Act 3 Scene 1.

ἀλλά οἱ αὖθι

Λυσε μένος, πλήξας ξίφει αυχένα κωπήεντι·
Πᾶν δ' ὑπεθερμάνθη ξίφος αἵματι· 331.

Homer ΙΛΙΑΔΟΣ Π.

ὁ δ' Αγήνορος υἱὸν Ἔχεκλον Μέσσην κακκεφαλὴν ξίφει ἤλασε κωπήεντι· Πᾶν δ' ὑπεθερμάνθη ξίφος αἵματι· 476.

Homer ΙΛΙΑΔΟΣ Υ.

,,Providence hath placed the Epiglottis, Ligula, or flap like an ivy-leaf, which alwaies closeth when we swallow, or when the meat and drink passeth over it into the gullet. Which part although all have not that breathe, as all cetaceous and oviparous animals, yet is the Weazon secured some other way; and therefore in Whales that breathe, lest the water should get into the lungs, an ejection thereof is contrived by a Fistula or spout at the head. Fr. Sol.

O, prennez miséricorde! ayez pitié de moy!

Pist.

Moy shall not serve, I will have forty moys;

For I will fetch thy rim out at thy throat,
In drops of crimson blood.

Henry V.

And therefore also though Birds have no Epiglottis, yet can they so contract the rim or chinck of their Larinse as to prevent the admission of wet or dry ingested; either whereof getting in, occasioneth a cough, until it be ejected. Pseudodoxia Epidemica. Book IV. Chap. VIII.

In the second year of Sheffington his governement, it happened that one Henrie White, servant to Benet a Merchant of Dublin, was pitching of a cart of haie in the high street,

and having offered boies plaie to passengers that walked to and fro, he let a bottle of his haie fall on a souldiors bonet, as he passed by in

his cart."

Truly, a peck of provender; I could munch your good dry oats. Methinks, I have a great desire to a bottle of hay: good hay, sweet hay, hath

no fellow.

Midsummer Night Act 4 Scene 1.

The souldior taking this knavish knacke in dudgeon, hurled his dagger at him, and having narrowlie mist the princocks, he sticked it in a post

not farre off."