Of a capricious bridegroom, laugh—­the madmen! 
  Laugh at the jocund bridal feast, and weep
  When the fair corse is laid in blessed rest,
  Deep, deep in mother earth.  Oh, happier far,
  So to have lost my child!

FICKLE GREATNESS.

  Thou art as one
  Perched on some lofty steeple’s dizzy height,
  Dazzled by the sun, inebriate by long draughts
  Of thinner air; too giddy to look down
  Where all his safety lies; too proud to dare
  The long descent to the low depths from whence
  The desperate climber rose.

RIENZI’S ORIGIN.

  There’s the sting,—­
  That I, an insect of to-day, outsoar
  The reverend worm, nobility!  Wouldst shame me
  With my poor parentage!—­Sir, I’m the son
  Of him who kept a sordid hostelry
  In the Jews’ quarter—­my good mother cleansed
  Linen for honest hire.—­Canst thou say worse?

  Ang.  Can worse be said?

Rie.  Add, that my boasted schoolcraft Was gained from such base toil, gained with such pain, That the nice nurture of the mind was oft Stolen at the body’s cost.  I have gone dinnerless And supperless, the scoff of our poor street, For tattered vestments and lean, hungry looks, To pay the pedagogue.—­Add what thou wilt Of injury.  Say that, grown into man, I’ve known the pittance of the hospital, And, more degrading still, the patronage Of the Colonna.  Of the tallest trees The roots delve deepest.  Yes, I’ve trod thy halls, Scorned and derided midst their ribald crew, A licensed jester, save the cap and bells, I have borne this—­and I have borne the death, The unavenged death, of a dear brother.  I seemed, I was, a base, ignoble slave.  What am I?—­Peace, I say!—­What am I now?  Head of this great republic, chief of Rome—­ In all but name, her sovereign—­last of all, Thy father.

CIVIL WAR.

  The city’s full
  Of camp-like noises—­tramp of steeds, and clash
  Of mail, and trumpet-blast, and ringing clang
  Of busy armourers—­the grim ban-dog bays—­
  The champing war horse in his stall neighs loud—­
  The vulture shrieks aloft.

FEAR.

  Terror, not love,
  Strikes anchor in ignoble souls.

THE CAPITOL BELL.[3]

[3] The passage between commas is omitted in the representation, but we know not why.

  It is the bell that thou so oft hast heard
  Summoning the band of liberty—­“the bell
  That pealed its loud, triumphant note, and raised
  Its mighty voice with such a mastery
  Of glorious power, as if the spirit of sound
  That dwells in the viewless wind, and walks the waves
  Of the chafed sea, and rules the thunder-cloud
  That shrouded him in that small orb, to spread
  Tidings of freedom to the nations.”