The Works Of John Dryden Now First Collected In Eighteen Volume

_Creon._ Thebes is at length my own; and all my wishes, Which sure were great as royalty e'er formed, Fortune and my auspicious stars have crowned. O diadem, thou centre of ambi...

_Jud._ Well, you are a lucky man! Mrs Brainsick is fool enough to believe you wholly innocent; and that the adventure of the garden-house, last night, was only a vision of Mrs S...

_Agam._ Thus far the promise of the day is fair. Æneas rather loses ground than gains. I saw him over-laboured, taking breath, And leaning on his spear, behold our trenches, Lik...

_Pyr._ Some business of import, that triumph wears, You seem to go with; nor is it hard to guess When you are pleased, by a malicious joy, Whose red and fiery beams cast through...

_Cre._ I pr'ythee let my soul take air a while; Were she in OEdipus, I were a king; Then I had killed a monster, gained a battle, And had my rival prisoner; brave, brave actions...

_Dioc._ No sun to cheer us; but a bloody globe, That rolls above, a bald and beamless fire, His face o'er-grown with scurf: The sun's sick, too; Shortly he'll be an earth.

_Gerv._ No, sir; the servants have informed me, that she rises every morning, and goes to a private meeting-house; where they pray for the government, and practise against the a...

_Ulys._ Achilles stands i' the entrance of his tent: Please it our general to pass strangely by him, As if he were forgot; and, princes all, Look on him with neglectful eyes and...

_Aldo._ Before George, there is not enough to rig out a mournival of whores: They'll think me grown a mere curmudgeon. Mercy on me, how will this glorious trade be carried on, w...

_Raym._ Now, valiant citizens, the time is come, To show your courage, and your loyalty. You have a prince of Sancho's royal blood, The darling of the heavens, and joy of earth;...

_Wood._ Hitherto, sweet Gervase, we have carried matters swimmingly. I have danced in a net before my father, almost check-mated the keeper, retired to my chamber undiscovered,...

_Saint._ Above all things, have a care of him yourself; for surely there is witchcraft betwixt his lips: He is a wolf within the sheepfold; and therefore I will be earnest, that...

_Pand._ Come, come, what need you blush? Shame's a baby; swear the oaths now to her, that you swore to me: What, are you gone again? you must be watched ere you are made tame, m...

_Hæm._ Sure 'tis the end of all things! fate has torn The lock of time off, and his head is now The ghastly ball of round eternity! Call you these peals of thunder, but the yawn...

_Raym._ Are these, are these, ye powers, the promised joys, With which I flattered my long, tedious absence, To find, at my return, my master murdered? O, that I could but weep,...

_Lor._ How, thy conscience not digest them! There is ne'er a friar in Spain can shew a conscience, that comes near it for digestion. It digested pimping, when I sent thee with m...

_Elv._ He'll come, that's certain; young appetites are sharp, and seldom need twice bidding to such a banquet. Well, if I prove frail,--as I hope I shall not till I have compass...

_Ped._ O, Alphonso! I fear they come too late. Her father's crimes Sit heavy on her, and weigh down her prayers. A crown usurped; a lawful king deposed, In bondage held, debarre...

_Ter._ You are not what you were, since yesterday; Your food forsakes you, and your needful rest; You pine, you languish, love to be alone; Think much, speak little, and, in spe...

_Troil._ The Greeks are strong, and skilful to their strength, Fierce to their skill, and to their fierceness wary; But I am weaker than a woman's tears, Tamer than sleep, fonde...

_Ulys._ The seeded pride, That has to this maturity blown up In rank Achilles, must or now be cropped, Or, shedding, breed a nursery of like ill, To overtop us all.

_Ped._ 'Tis that has taught him this. What learn our youth abroad, but to refine The homely vices of their native land? Give me an honest home-spun country clown Of our own grow...

_Lor._ Well, I am the most unlucky rogue! I have been ranging over half the town; but have sprung no game. Our women are worse infidels than the Moors: I told them I was one of...

My Leonora there!-- Mine! is she mine? my father's murderer mine? O! that I could, with honour, love her more, Or hate her less, with reason!--See, she weeps! Thinks me unkind,...

_Thers._ Shall the idiot Ajax use me thus? he beats me, and I rail at him. O worthy satisfaction! would I could but beat him, and he railed at me! Then there's Achilles, a rare...

_Pand._ Nothing, do you call it! is that nothing, do you call that nothing? why he looks, for all the world, like one of your rascally malefactors, just thrown off the gibbet, w...

_Elv._ I care not; the sooner I am starved, the sooner I am rid of wedlock. I shall learn the knack to fast o' days; you have used me to fasting nights already.

_Priam._ After the expence of so much time and blood, Thus once again the Grecians send to Troy;-- Deliver Helen, and all other loss Shall be forgotten.--Hector, what say you to...

_Hect._ The blue mists rise from off the nether grounds, And the sun mounts apace. To arms, to arms! I am resolved to put to the utmost proof The fate of Troy this day.

_Limb._ Thou hast robbed me of my repose for ever: I am like Macbeth, after the death of good king Duncan; methinks a voice says to me,--Sleep no more; Tricksy has murdered sleep.

_Mrs Brain._ My note has taken, as I wished: he will be here immediately. If I could but resolve to lose no time, out of modesty; but it is his part to be violent, for both our...

_Pand._ Thou must be gone, girl; thou must be gone, to the fugitive rogue-priest, thy father: (and he's my brother too; but that's all one at this time:) A pox upon Antenor!

_Lor._ This may hit; 'tis more than barely possible; for friars have free admittance into every house. This jacobin, whom I have sent to, is her confessor; and who can suspect a...

_Agam._ Princes, it seems not strange to us, nor new, That, after nine years siege, Troy makes defence, Since every action of recorded fame Has with long difficulties been invol...

_Lor._ Love, almighty love; that, which turned Jupiter into a town-bull, has transformed me into a friar. I have had a letter from Elvira, in answer to that I sent by you.