From
Julius Teddy,
Act III, scene ii
Marcus
Bernardius:
Friends, Romans,
countrybears, lend me your ears!
I come to bury Teddy, not to praise him.
The evil that bears do lives after them,
The good is oft interred with their stuffing;
So let it be with Teddy. The noble Brutebear
Has told you Teddy was ambitious;
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Teddy answer'd it.
Here, under leave of Brutebear and the rest
(For Brutebear is an honorable bear,
So are they all, all honorable bears),
Come I to speak in Teddy's funeral.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me;
But Brutebear says he was ambitious,
And Brutebear is an honorable bear.
He hath brought many beehives back to Rome,
Whose honeys did the geral coffers fill;
Did this in Teddy seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Teddy hath wept;
Ambition should be made of sterner stuffing:
Yet Brutebear says that he was ambitious,
And Brutebear is an honorable bear.
You all did see that on the Kodiak
I thrice presented him a bearly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition?
Yet Brutebear says he was ambitious,
And sure he is an honorable bear.
I speak not to disprove what Brutebear spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without cause;
What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?
O judgment! thou art fled to brutish men,
And bears
have lost their reason. Bear with me,
My heart is in the coffin there with Teddy,
And I must pause till it come back to me.
From
Bernard V,
Act I,
scene vii
Westbearland:
O that we
now had here
But one ten thousand of those bears in England
That do no work to-day!
King Bernard:
What's he
that wishes so?
My cousin Westbearland? No, my fair cousin.
If we are mark'd to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer bears, the greater share of honor.
God's will, I pray thee wish not one bear more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for fish,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my stream;
It yearns me not if bears my beehives take;
Such edible things dwell not in my desires.
But if it be a sin to covet honor,
I am the most offending bear alive.
No, faith, my coz, wish not a bear from England.
God's peace, I would not lose so great an honor
As one bear more methinks would share from me,
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Westbearland, through my den,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart, his passport shall be made,
And fish for convoy put into his paunch.
We would not die in that bear's company
That fears his ursineship to die with us.
This day is
call'd the feast of Crisbearian:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a' tiptoe when this day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crisbearian.
He that shall see this day, and live old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbears,
And say, "To-morrow is Saint Crisbearian,"
Then wil he strip his fur and show his scars,
And say, "These woulds I had on Crisbear's day."
Old bears forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as denhold words,
Bernie the King, Bearford and Exebear,
Bearwick and Talbear, Salisbeary and Gloubearster,
Be in their flowing streams freshly rememb'red.
This story shall the good bear teach his cub;
And Crisbear Crisbearian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered--
We few, we happy few, we den of brothers;
For he to-day that shed his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlebears in England, now a-bed,
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here;
And hold their bearhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crisbear's day.
From
Macbear,
Act I,
scene vii
Macbear:
Prithee peace!
I dare do all that may become a bear;
Who dares do more is none.
Lady Macbear:
What man was't
then
That made you break this enterprise to me?
When you durst do it, then you were a bear;
And to be more than what you were, you would
Be so much more the bear. Nor time, nor place,
Did then adhere, and yet you would make both:
They have made themselves, and that their fitness now
Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know
How tender 'tis to love the cub that milks me;
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums,
And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as you
Have done to this.
