Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

He gratis comes; and thou art well appay'd,
As well to hear as grant what he hath said.

[blocks in formation]

Guilty thou art of murder and of theft;
Guilty of perjury and subornation;
Guilty of treason, forgery, and shift;
Guilty of incest, that abomination:
An accessary by thine inclination
To all sins past, and all that are to come,
From the creation to the general doom.

[blocks in formation]

Mis-shapen Time, copesmate of ugly night,
Swift subtle post, carrier of grisly care;
Eater of youth, false slave to false delight,

*

Poems.

Base watch of woes, sin's pack-horse, virtue's snare;
Thou nursest all, and murderest all, that are.

[blocks in formation]

Time's glory is to calm contending kings;
To unmask falsehood, and bring truth to light;
To stamp the seal of time on aged things;
To wake the morn, and centinel the night;
To wrong the wronger, till he render right;
To ruinate proud buildings, with thy hours,
And smear with dust their glittering golden towers:
To fill with worm-holes stately monuments;
To feed oblivion with decay of things;
To blot old books, and alter their contents;
To pluck the quills from ancient ravens' wings;
To dry the old oak's sap, and cherish springs;
To spoil antiquities of hammer'd steel,
And turn the giddy round of fortune's wheel:
To shew the beldame daughters of her daughter;
To make the child a man, the man a child;
To slay the tiger, that doth live by slaughter;
To tame the unicorn, and lion wild;

To mock the subtle, in themselves beguiled;
To cheer the ploughman with increaseful crops,
And waste huge stones with little water-drops.
Why work'st thou mischief in thy pilgrimage,
Unless thou could'st return to make amends?

[ocr errors]

One poor retiring minute in an age,

Would purchase thee a thousand thousand friends; Lending him wit, that to bad debtors lends.

Poems,

534

Moral conquest.

Brave conquerors!-for so you are,
That war against your own affections,
And the huge army of the world's desires.

535

Every place a home to the wise.

All places, that the eye of heaven visits,
Are to a wise man ports and happy havens:1
Teach thy necessity to reason thus;

There is no virtue like necessity.

8-i. 1.

17-i. 3.

536 The proffered means of Heaven to be embraced.

The means, that heaven yields, must be embraced,
And not neglected; else, if heaven would,
And we will not, heaven's offer we refuse;

The proffer'd means of succour and redress.

537

Self-conquest.

17-iii. 2.

Better conquest never can'st thou make, Than arm thy constant and thy nobler parts. Against those giddy loose suggestions.

538

[ocr errors]

16-iii. 1.

Acquaintanceship to be formed with caution.

It is certain that either wise bearing, or ignorant carriage, is caught, as men take diseases, one of another: therefore, let men take heed of their company. 19-v. 1.

1 Tit. i. 15.

539

Sorrow not to be courted.

In wooing sorrow let's be brief,

Since, wedding it, there is such length in grief.

540

17-v. 1.

The solemnity of oaths.

The truth thou art unsure

To swear, swearm only not to be forsworn;
Else, what a mockery should it be to swear!

541

Resignation to the will of God.

16-iii. 1.

Heaven me such usage send,

Not to pick bad from bad; but, by bad, mend!

542

Knowledge to govern ourselves.

Let's teach ourselves. Ah, honourable stop,
Not to outsport discretion.

543

Anger to be controlled by reason.

37-iv. 3.

Let your reason with your choler question
What 'tis you go about: To climb steep hills
Requires slow pace at first: Anger is like
A full hot horse; who being allow'd his way,
Self-mettle tires him.

[blocks in formation]

Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper
Sprinkle cool patience.

545

37-ii. 3.

25-i. 1.

36-iii. 4.

Virtuous conflict.

O virtuous fight,

When right with right wars, who shall be most right!

[blocks in formation]

Let's take the instant by the forward top;
For we are old, and on our quick'st decrees
The inaudible and noiseless foot of time
Steals, ere we can effect them.

m Old copy reads swears.

26-iii. 2.

31-iii. 4.

11-v. 3.

548

The encouragement to hope.

What! we have many goodly days to see:
The liquid drops of tears that you have shed,
Shall come again, transform'd to orient pearl;
Advantaging their loan with interest,

Of ten-times-double gain of happiness.

[blocks in formation]

24-iv. 4.

9-ii. 7.

550

Confidence in the future.

6-iv. 1.

Doubt not but success

Will fashion the event in better shape
Than I can lay it down in likelihood.

[blocks in formation]

Though I look old, yet I am strong and lusty :
For in my youth I never did apply

Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood;
Nor did not with unbashful forehead woo
The means of weakness and debility;
Therefore my age is as a lusty winter,
Frosty, but kindly.

552

10-ii. 3.

The effects of anger.
Is your blood

So madly hot, that no discourse of reason,
Nor fear of bad success in a bad cause,
Can qualify the same ?

[blocks in formation]

26-ii. 2.

You should account me the more virtuous, that I have not been common in my love.

28-ii. 3.

[blocks in formation]

How long

Shall tender duty make me suffer wrong? 17-ii. 1.

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

You undergo too strict a paradox,

Striving to make an ugly deed look fair:

Your words have took such pains, as if they labour'd
To bring manslaughter into form, set quarrelling
Upon the head of valour; which, indeed,

Is valour misbegot, and came into the world
When sects and factions were newly born:
He's truly valiant, that can wisely suffer

The worst that man can breathe; and make his wrongs
His outsides; wear them like his raiment, carelessly;
And ne'er prefer his injuries to his heart,

To bring it into danger.

If wrongs be evils, and enforce us kill,
What folly 'tis, to hazard life for ill?

27-iii. 5.

[blocks in formation]

Stop the rage betime,

Before the wound do grow incurable;

For, being green, there is great hope of help.

558

Compassion recommended to the proud.
Take physic, Pomp;

Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel,

22-iii. 1.

That thou may'st shake the superflux" to them,
And shew the heavens more just.

559

The duty owing to ourselves and others.

34-iii. 4.

Love all, trust a few,

Do wrong to none; be able for thine enemy
Rather in power, than use; and keep thy friend
Under thy own life's key; be check'd for silence,
But never tax'd for speech.

[blocks in formation]

11-i. 1.

I will chide no breather in the world, but myself; against whom I know most faults.

561

Imperfections belong to the best.
Thou art noble; yet, I see,

Thy honourable metal may be wrought

10-iii. 2.

" Superfluity.

« AnteriorContinuar »