Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/237

 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

173 (***)

TH* expense of Spirit in a waste of shame Is lust in action; and till action, lust

Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame,

Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust;

Enjoy'd no sooner but despised straight;

Past reason hunted; and, no sooner had,

Past reason hated, as a swallow'd bait

On purpose laid to make the taker mad:

Mad in pursuit, and in possession so;

Had," having, and in quest to have, extreme;

A bliss in proof, and proved, a very woe;

Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.

All this the world well knows; yet none knows well To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.

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��174 (XX)

JOOR soul, the centre of my sinful earth

My sinful earth, these rebel powers array Why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth, Painting thy outward walls so costly gay? Why so large cost, having so short a lease, Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend ^ Shall worms, inheritors of this excess, Eat up thy charge^ Is this thy body's end? Then, soul, live thou upon thy servant's loss, And let that pine to aggravate thy store; Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross; Within be fed, without be rich no more:

So shalt thoU feed on Death, that feeds on men ;

And Death once dead, there's no more dying then.

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