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Is This a Dagger Which I See Before Me?

Page 9

by William Shakespeare


  And so would any young wench, o’my conscience,

  That ever dreamed, or vowed her maidenhead

  To a young handsome man. Then I loved him,

  Extremely loved him, infinitely loved him;

  And yet he had a cousin, fair as he too;

  But in my heart was Palamon, and there,

  Lord, what a coil he keeps! To hear him

  Sing in an evening, what a heaven it is!

  And yet his songs are sad ones. Fairer spoken

  Was never gentleman. When I come in

  To bring him water in a morning, first

  He bows his noble body, then salutes me, thus:

  ‘Fair, gentle maid, good morrow; may thy goodness

  Get thee a happy husband.’ Once he kissed me;

  I loved my lips the better ten days after –

  Would he would do so every day! He grieves much,

  And me as much to see his misery.

  What should I do, to make him know I love him?

  For I would fain enjoy him. Say I ventured

  To set him free? What says the law then? Thus much

  For law, or kindred! I will do it;

  And this night, or tomorrow, he shall love me.

  [III, iv, 1–18] Lost in the woods in the dead of night, Palamon apparently dead, her dearest plans in disarray, her father’s trust betrayed, the jailer’s daughter is beginning to lose her grip completely:

  I am very cold, and all the stars are out too,

  The little stars, and all, that look like aglets:

  The sun has seen my folly. Palamon!

  Alas, no; he’s in heaven. Where am I now?

  Yonder’s the sea, and there’s a ship; how’t tumbles!

  And there’s a rock lies watching under water,

  Now, now, it beats upon it; now, now, now,

  There’s a leak sprung, a sound one; how they cry!

  Spoon her before the wind, you’ll lose all else:

  Up with a course or two, and tack about, boys.

  Good night, good night, you’re gone. I am very hungry.

  Would I could find a fine frog; he would tell me

  News from all parts o’th’ world, then would I make

  A carrack of a cockleshell, and sail

  By east and north-east to the King of Pygmies,

  For he tells fortunes rarely. Now my father,

  Twenty to one, is trust up in a trice

  Tomorrow morning; I’ll say never a word.

  BOCCACCIO · Mrs Rosie and the Priest

  GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS · As kingfishers catch fire

  The Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-tongue

  THOMAS DE QUINCEY · On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts

  FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE · Aphorisms on Love and Hate

  JOHN RUSKIN · Traffic

  PU SONGLING · Wailing Ghosts

  JONATHAN SWIFT · A Modest Proposal

  Three Tang Dynasty Poets

  WALT WHITMAN · On the Beach at Night Alone

  KENKŌ · A Cup of Sake Beneath the Cherry Trees

  BALTASAR GRACIÁN · How to Use Your Enemies

  JOHN KEATS · The Eve of St Agnes

  THOMAS HARDY · Woman much missed

  GUY DE MAUPASSANT · Femme Fatale

  MARCO POLO · Travels in the Land of Serpents and Pearls

  SUETONIUS · Caligula

  APOLLONIUS OF RHODES · Jason and Medea

  ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON · Olalla

  KARL MARX AND FRIEDRICH ENGELS · The Communist Manifesto

  PETRONIUS · Trimalchio’s Feast

  JOHANN PETER HEBEL · How a Ghastly Story Was Brought to Light by a Common or Garden Butcher’s Dog

  HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN · The Tinder Box

  RUDYARD KIPLING · The Gate of the Hundred Sorrows

  DANTE · Circles of Hell

  HENRY MAYHEW · Of Street Piemen

  HAFEZ · The nightingales are drunk

  GEOFFREY CHAUCER · The Wife of Bath

  MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE · How We Weep and Laugh at the Same Thing

  THOMAS NASHE · The Terrors of the Night

  EDGAR ALLAN POE · The Tell-Tale Heart

  MARY KINGSLEY · A Hippo Banquet

  JANE AUSTEN · The Beautifull Cassandra

  ANTON CHEKHOV · Gooseberries

  SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE · Well, they are gone, and here must I remain

  JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE · Sketchy, Doubtful, Incomplete Jottings

  CHARLES DICKENS · The Great Winglebury Duel

  HERMAN MELVILLE · The Maldive Shark

  ELIZABETH GASKELL · The Old Nurse’s Story

  NIKOLAY LESKOV · The Steel Flea

  HONORÉ DE BALZAC · The Atheist’s Mass

  CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN · The Yellow Wall-Paper

  C. P. CAVAFY · Remember, Body …

  FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY · The Meek One

  GUSTAVE FLAUBERT · A Simple Heart

  NIKOLAI GOGOL · The Nose

  SAMUEL PEPYS · The Great Fire of London

  EDITH WHARTON · The Reckoning

  HENRY JAMES · The Figure in the Carpet

  WILFRED OWEN · Anthem For Doomed Youth

  WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART · My Dearest Father

  PLATO · Socrates’ Defence

  CHRISTINA ROSSETTI · Goblin Market

  Sindbad the Sailor

  SOPHOCLES · Antigone

  RYŪNOSUKE AKUTAGAWA · The Life of a Stupid Man

  LEO TOLSTOY · How Much Land Does A Man Need?

  GIORGIO VASARI · Leonardo da Vinci

  OSCAR WILDE · Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime

  SHEN FU · The Old Man of the Moon

  AESOP · The Dolphins, the Whales and the Gudgeon

  MATSUO BASHŌ · Lips too Chilled

  EMILY BRONTË · The Night is Darkening Round Me

  JOSEPH CONRAD · To-morrow

  RICHARD HAKLUYT · The Voyage of Sir Francis Drake Around the Whole Globe

  KATE CHOPIN · A Pair of Silk Stockings

  CHARLES DARWIN · It was snowing butterflies

  BROTHERS GRIMM · The Robber Bridegroom

  CATULLUS · I Hate and I Love

  HOMER · Circe and the Cyclops

  D. H. LAWRENCE · Il Duro

  KATHERINE MANSFIELD · Miss Brill

  OVID · The Fall of Icarus

  SAPPHO · Come Close

  IVAN TURGENEV · Kasyan from the Beautiful Lands

  VIRGIL · O Cruel Alexis

  H. G. WELLS · A Slip under the Microscope

  HERODOTUS · The Madness of Cambyses

  Speaking of Siva

  The Dhammapada

  JANE AUSTEN · Lady Susan

  JEAN-JACQUES ROSSEAU · The Body Politic

  JEAN DE LA FONTAINE · The World is Full of Foolish Men

  H. G. WELLS · The Sea Raiders

  LIVY · Hannibal

  CHARLES DICKENS · To Be Read at Dusk

  LEO TOLSTOY · The Death of Ivan Ilyich

  MARK TWAIN · The Stolen White Elephant

  WILLIAM BLAKE · Tyger, Tyger

  SHERIDAN LE FANU · Green Tea

  The Yellow Book

  OLAUDAH EQUIANO · Kidnapped

  EDGAR ALLAN POE · A Modern Detective

  The Suffragettes

  MARGERY KEMPE · How To Be a Medieval Woman

  JOSEPH CONRAD · Typhoon

  GIACOMO CASANOVA · The Nun of Murano

  W. B. YEATS · A terrible beauty is born

  THOMAS HARDY · The Withered Arm

  EDWARD LEAR · Nonsense

  ARISTOPHANES · The Frogs

  FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE · Why I Am so Clever

  RAINER MARIA RILKE · Letters to a Young Poet

  LEONID ANDREYEV · Seven Hanged

  APHRA BEHN · Oroonoko

  LEWIS CARROLL · O frabjous day!

  JOHN GAY · Trivia: or, the Art of Walking the Streets of London

  E. T. A. HOFFMANN · The Sandman

  DANTE · Love tha
t moves the sun and other stars

  ALEXANDER PUSHKIN · The Queen of Spades

  ANTON CHEKHOV · A Nervous Breakdown

  KAKUZO OKAKURA · The Book of Tea

  WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE · Is this a dagger which I see before me?

  EMILY DICKINSON · My life had stood a loaded gun

  LONGUS · Daphnis and Chloe

  MARY SHELLEY · Matilda

  GEORGE ELIOT · The Lifted Veil

  FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY · White Nights

  OSCAR WILDE · Only Dull People Are Brilliant at Breakfast

  VIRGINIA WOOLF · Flush

  ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE · Lot No. 249

  The Rule of Benedict

  WASHINGTON IRVING · Rip Van Winkle

  Anecdotes of the Cynics

  VICTOR HUGO · Waterloo

  CHARLOTTE BRONTË · Stancliffe’s Hotel

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  This selection first published in Penguin Classics 2016

  Selection and editorial matter copyright © Michael Kerrigan, 2002

  The moral right of the editor has been asserted

  ISBN: 978-0-241-25220-8

 

 

 


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