Part 23 (2/2)

Like this, in elegiac sentimentality, is Romeo:

Before the wors.h.i.+pp'd sun Peer'd forth the golden window of the east....

Many a morning hath he there been seen With tears augmenting the fresh morning's dew.

_Cymbeline, Winter's Tale_, and _As You Like It_ are particularly rich in idyllic traits; the artificiality of court life is contrasted with life in the open; there are songs, too, in praise of woodland joys:

Under the greenwood tree Who loves to lie with me, And tune his merry note Unto the sweet bird's throat, Come hither, come hither, come hither!

Here shall he see No enemy But winter and rough weather.

(_As You Like It._)

Blow, blow, thou winter wind, Thou art not so unkind As man's ingrat.i.tude.

Thy tooth is not so keen, Because thou art not seen Altho' thy breath be rude.

Heigh-ho, sing heigh-ho unto the green holly!

Most friends.h.i.+p is feigning, most loving mere folly![4]

(_As You Like It._)

Turning again to comparisons, we find birds used abundantly:

More pity that the eagle should be mewed While kites and buzzards prey at liberty.

(_Richard III._)

True hope is swift and flies with swallow's wings.

(_Richard III._)

As wild geese that the creeping fowler eye, Or russet-pated choughs, many in sort Rising and cawing at the gun's report Sever themselves and madly sweep the sky, So at his sight away his fellows fly.

(_Midsummer Night's Dream._)

And plant life is touched with special tenderness:

All the bystanders had wet their cheeks Like trees bedashed with rain.

(_Richard III._)

Why grow the branches when the root is gone?

Why wither not the leaves that want their sap?

(_Richard III._)

Their lips were four red roses on a stalk, Which in their summer beauty kiss'd each other.

(_Richard III._)

Ah! my tender babes!

My unblown flowers, new appearing sweets.

(_Richard III._)

Romeo is

To himself so secret and so close ...

As is the bud bit with an envious worm, Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air Or dedicate his beauty to the sun.

<script>