151 
Among our own poets, Shakspeare, in Henry the Fifth, 
speaking of the effects of protracted war in France, 
says,— 
-“ Her husbandry doth lie in heaps, 
Corrupting in its own fertility ; 
Her vine, the merry choeror of the heart, 
Unpruned dies." 
In Henry the Eighth he borrows prophetic imagery, 
and applies it to the security and prosperity predicted 
by the prelate under Elizabeth’s sway : — 
« In her days, every man shall eat in safety, 
Under his own vine, what he plants; and sing 
The merry songs of peace to all his neighbours.” 
In Comus, when the disguised enchanter gives in¬ 
formation to the lady of her belated brothers, he says,— 
“ I saw them under a green mantling vine, 
That crawls along the side of yon small hill, 
Plucking ripe clusters from the tender shoots ; 
Their port was more than human as they stood. 
I took it for a faery vision 
Of some gay creatures of the elements, 
That in the colours of the rainbow live, 
And play i’ ill* plighted clouds." 
L 4 
