Quote#Children
Give, you gods
Quote byJohn Dryden · 1631–1700
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: All for Love (1678), Act II, sc. ii.
English (original)
Give, you gods, Give to your boy, your Caesar, The rattle of a globe to play withal, This gewgaw world, and put him cheaply off; I'll not be pleased with less than Cleopatra.
— John Dryden
More from John Dryden
But Shakespeare's magic could not copied be; Within that circle none durst walk but he.
An horrid stillness first invades the ear, And in that silence we the tempest fear.
Thus all below is strength, and all above is grace.
All things are hush'd, as Nature's self lay dead, The Mountains seem to nod their drowsy head; The little Birds in dreams their Songs repeat, And sleeping Flowers, beneath the night-dew sweat; Even Lust and Envy sleep.
So softly death succeeded life in her, She did but dream of heaven, and she was there.
Their heavenly harps a lower strain began, And in soft music mourn the fall of man.