MACBETH's SOLILOQUY.

IF it were done, when 'tis done; then 'were well,

It were done quickly: if th' affaffination
Could trammel up the confequence, and catch
With its furceafe, fuccefs; that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all; Here,
(Ev'n here upon this bank and fhoal of time),
We'd jump the life to come.-But, in these cafes,
We still have judgment here, that we but teach
Bloody inftructions; which being taught, return
To plague th' inventor.-Even-handed JUSTICE
Returns th' ingredients of our poifon'd chalice
To our own lips..

Shakespear, MacKBETH, A& I..

HENRY the Vth's SOLILOQUY.

UPON the KING! Let us our lives, our fouls,

་

Our debts, our careful wives, our children, and Our fins, lay on the King: He must bear all.' O hard condition, and twin-born with greatness, Subject to breath of ev'ry fool; whofe fenfe No more can feel, but his own wringing! What infinite heart-ease must Kings neglect, Which private men enjoy? And what have kings, Which privates have not too, fave ceremony, Save general ceremony?·

And what art Thou, thou idol, ceremony ?
What kind of god art thou; that fuffer'st more
Of mortal griefs, than do thy worshippers?
Art thou aught elfe, but place, degree, and form,
Creating awe and fear in other men?.

Wherein thou art lefs happy, being fear'd,
Than they in fearing.

What drink'st thou oft', instead of homage sweet,
But poifon'd flatt'ry? O be fick, great Greatness,
And bid thy ceremony give thee cure!

Think it thou the fiery fever will
go out,
With titles blown from adulation?
Will it give place to flexure and low bending?
Can't thou, when thou command'ft the beggar's
Command the health of it?

(knee,
'Tis not the balm, the scepter, and the ball,
The fword, the mace, the crown imperial,
The enter-tiffued robe of gold and pearl;
The farfed title, running 'fore the king,
The throne, he fits on; nor the tide of pomp,
Which beats upon the high fhoar of this world:
No, not all these thrice gorgeous ceremonies
Not all thefe, laid in bed majeftical,

Can fleep fo foundly, as the wretched flave;
Who, with a body fill d and vacant mind,
Gets him to reft, cramm'd with diftrefsful bread
And follows fo the ever-running year,
With profitable labour, to his grave:
And-(buc for ceremony)-fuch a wretch,
Winding up days with toil and nights with fleep,
Hath the fore-hand and 'vantage of a King.

Shakespear, Hen. V. A& 4. Sc. 5.

The Speech of GALGACUS the General of the Cale donii*, in which he exhorts the army he had affembled, in order to repel the Romans, to fight valiantly against their foes under Jul. Agricola.. (Corn. VIT. Tacit. J. AGRIC.)

1

Countrymen and Fellow-foldiers !

HEN I confider the caufe, for which we have drawn our fwords, and the necessity of ftriking an effectual blow, before we fheath them again. I feel joyful hopes arifing in my mind, that this day an opening fhall be made for the restoration of British Liberty, and for fhaking off the infamous yoke of Roman slavery Caladonia is yet free. The all-grafping power of Rome has not yet been able to feize our liberty. But it is only to be prεServed by valour. By fight it cannot for the fea confines us; and that the more effectually, as being poffeffed by the fleets of the enemy. As it is by arms, that the brave acquire immortal fame, so it is by arms, that the fordid muft defend their lives and properties, or loofe them. You are the very men, my friends, who have hitherto fet bounds to the unmeasurable ambition of the Romans. In confequence of your inhabiting the more inaccessible parts of that ifland, to which the fhores of thofe countries on the continent, which are enslaved by the Romans are invisible, you have hitherto been

*The Caledonii were, according to Ptolomy, the inhabirants of the interior parts of what before the Union, was call ed Scotland, now North-Britain.

free from the common difgrace, and the common Sufferings. You lie almoft out of the reach of fame itself. But you must not expect to enjoy this untroubled fecurity any longer, unless you beftir your felves fo effectually, as to put it out of the power of the enemy to fearch out your retreats, and disturb your repofe. If you do not, curiofity alone will fet them a prying, and they will concludes, that there is somewhat worth the labour of conquering, in the interior parts of the island, merely becaufe they have never feen them. What is little known is often coveted, because fo little known. And you are not to expect, that you fhould efcape the ravage of the general plunderers of mankind, by any fentiment of moderation in them. When the countries, which are more accessible, come to be fubdued, they will then force their way into thofe, which are barder to come at. And if they fhould conquer the dry land, over the whole world, they will then think of carrying their arms beyond the ocean, to fee, whether there are not certain unknown regions, which they may attack, and reduce under fubjecti on to the Roman empire. For we fee, that if a country is thought to be powerful in arms, the Romans attack it, because the conqueft will be glarious; if inconfiderable in the military art, because the victory will be eafy; if rich, they are drawn thither by the hope of plunder; if poor, by the defire of fame. The east and west, the fouth and the north, the face of the whole earth, is the fcene of their military atchievements; the world is too little for their ambition, and their avarice. They

are the only nation ever known to be equally defirous of conquering a poor kingdom as a rich one. Their fupreme joy feem to be ravaging, fighting, and fbedding of blood; and when they have unpea pled a region, fo that there are none left alive able to bear arms, they fay, they have given peace to that country.

Nature itfelf has peculiarly endeared to all men, their wives, and their children. But it is known to you, my countrymen, that the conquered youth are daily draughted off to fupply the deficiencies in the Roman army. The wives, the fifters, and the daughters of the conquered are either exposed to the violence, or at leaft corrupted by the arts of thefe cruel fpoilers. The fruits of our industry are plundered, to make up the tributes imposed on us by oppressive avarice. Britons fow their fields; and the greedy Romans reap them.. Our very bo dies are worn out in carrying on their military works, and our toils are rewarded by them with abufe and Atripes. Thofe who are born to flavery, are bought and maintained by their mafters. But this unhap py country pays for being enflaved, and feeds thofe who enflave it. And our portion of disgrace is the bittereft, as the inhabitants of this ifland are the laft, who have fallen under the galling yoke. Our native bent against tyranny, is the offence, which moft fenfibly irritates those lardly ufurpers. Our distance from the feat of government, and our natural defence by the furrounding ocean, render us obnoxious to their fufpicions: for they know, that Britons are born with an instinctive love for liberty i