Meantime we shall express our darker purpose. Give me the map there. Know that we have divided In three our kingdom: and 'tis our fast intent To shake all cares and business from our age; Conferring them on younger strengths, while we Unburthen'd crawl toward death.
King Lear
Courts adieu, and all delights, All bewitching appetites; Sweetest breath, and clearest eye, Like perfumes go out and die; And consequently this is done, As shadows wait upon the sun. Vain the ambition of kings, Who seek by trophies and dead things, To leave a living name behind, And weave but nets to catch the wind. O you have wrought a miracle, and melted A heart of adamant: you have compris'd In this dumb pageant, a right excellent form Of penitence.
John Webster, The Devil's Law-Case