Imatges de pàgina
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ing them correctly, and punctually to af fign his own thoughts to every author.

Having given fome account of this work, it may be no unnatural tranfition to fay fomething of its merits and utility. It is a kind of body instinct with foul in every part. Wherever you open it, you are in the heart of your fubject: Every leaf includes many leffons, and is a fyftem of knowledge in a few lines. It is a guide in the actions, paffions, fortunes, misfortunes, and all the viciffitudes, of life. The merely fpeculative may here find experience; the flattered, truth; the diffident, refolution; the prefumptuous, modefty; the oppreffor, mercy; the proud, humility; and the power ful, juftice. Youth and age may improve equally by confulting it: The one it directs, the other it admonishes: Whilft it amends the heart, it informs the head, and is, at the fame time, the rule of virtue, and the ftandard of poetical eloquence; efpecially to thofe who can difcern delicacy of wit, dignity of fentiment, and fublimity of thought, through antiquated modes of speech, and the language of an age ago.

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Shakespear's Yorkshire Tragedy.
The whole day

Is't not enough now, but the night's to play :

And while our 'states, ftrength, body and mind we waste;
Go make ourselves the us'rer's at a cait.

He that no more, for age, cramps, palfies, can
Now use the bones, we fee doth hire a man
To take the box up for him; and purfues
The dice with glaffen eyes, to the glad views
Of what he throws: Like letchers grown content
To be beholders, when their pow'rs are spent.
Johnfons Underwoods.

I would not have thee fell thy fubftance,
And time, worth all, in those damn'd fhops of hell,

VO L. II.

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Thofe

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Thofe dicing houfes; that stand never well,
But when they stand moft ill: That four-fquar'd fin
Has almoft lodg'd us in the beggar's inn.
A fort of ravens have hung upon thy fleeve,
And fed upon thee; thy fame is fpeckled,
Yet it fhews clear among them.

Dekker's Second Part of the Honeft Whore.

If yet thou love game at fo dear a rate,

Learn this, that hath old gamefters dearly coft ; Doft lofe? Rife up: Doft win? Rife in that state: Who ftrive to fit out lofing hands are lost. Game is a civil gun-powder, in peace Blowing up houfes with their whole increase.

Herbert.

1. Hath fir Thomas loft five hundred pounds
Already? 2. And five hundred more he borrow'd;
The dice are notable devourers, madam;
They make no more of pieces, than pebbles,
But thruft their heaps togther to engender;
'Two hundred more the cafter; cries this gentleman,
I'm we'ye. I've that to nothing, fir; the cafter
Again; 'tis cover'd, and the table too,

With fums that frighted me; here one fneaks out,
And with a martyr's patience, fmiles upon
His money's executioner, the dice ;

Commands a pipe of good tobacco, and
I'th' fmoke on't vanifhes; another makes

The bones vault o'er his head, fwears that ill throwing
Has put his fhoulder out of joint, calls for

A bone-fetter that looks to th’box, to bid

His masters fend him fome more hundred pounds,
Which loft, he takes tobacco, and is quiet;
Here a strong arm throws in, and in; with which
He brufheth all the table, pays the rooks

That went their fmelts a-piece upon his hand,

Yet fwears he has not drawn a stake these seven years.

Shirley's Lady of Pleasure.

GEN

This is the hell of all gamesters, I think ;
When they are at play, the board eats up all
The money: For if there be five hundred
Pounds loft, there's never but a hundred won.

3

Wilkins's Miferies of enforced Marriage. Some play for gain; to pass time, others play For nothing; both do play the fool, I fay: Nor time or coin I'll lofe, or idly fpend; Who gets by play, proves lofer in the end.

Heath's Claraftella.

GENERAL.

Who now beholds

The royal captain of this ruin'd band

Walking from watch to watch, from tent to tent,
Let him cry, praife and glory on his head !
For forth he goes, and vifits all his hoft;
Bids them good morrow with a modest smile,
And calls them brothers, friends, and countrymen.
Upon his royal face there is no note,

How dread an army hath enrounded him ;
Nor doth he dedicate one jot of colour
Unto the weary and all-watched night :
But freshly looks and over-bears attaint,
With chearful femblance and sweet majesty :
That ev'ry wretch, pining and pale before,
Beholding him, plucks comfort from his looks:
A largess univerfal, like the fun,

His lib'ral eye doth give to ev'ry one,

Thawing cold fear.

Shakespear's King Henry V.

What had his arms been, without my arm,

That with its motion, made the whole field move?

And this held up, we ftill had victory.

When over-charg'd with numbers his few friends
Retir'd amaz'd, I fet them on affur'd ;
And what rude ruin feiz'd on, I confirm'd:
When I left leading, all his army reel'd;
One fell on th'other foul: And as the Cyclop

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That

That having loft his eye, ftruck ev'ry way,
His blows directed to no certain fcope;
Or as the foul departed from the body,
The body wants coherence in his parts,
Cannot confift, but fever, and diffolve;
So I remov'd once, all his armies fhook,
Panted and fainted, and were ever flying;
Like wand'ring pulfes, fpread through bodies dying..
Chapman's First Part of Byron's Confpiracy.

A commander must

Ufe pretty cheats, dark ftratagems devife;

If not perfidious, they are not unjust:
No matter in thy enemies defeat,
If it be open force, or fine deceit.

Courageous Edward fpurs their valour on,

Aleyn's Crefcey,

And chears his fprightful foldiers: Where he came His breath did kindle valour, where was none; And where it found a fpark, it made a flame. Armies of fearful harts will fcorn to yield,

If lions be their captains in the field.

We may confider

Aleyn's Crefcey.

The Carthaginian gen'ral, is a man
Worn with imployment into more decay
Of strength and years, than can give any hopes
Of a continuance; Rome's green champion
Is full of growing fap to make him spread :
Whilst th❜other, like an aged oak that long
Hath fought with tempefts, and withstood the rage
Of burning air, now yields to ev'ry guft,
A bough, or árm; till one more violent
Shatters the dry'd limbs, or quite roots it up,

Nabbs's Hannibal and Scipio.

Yet did the king, almoft forfaken quite
Fy all his men, maintain a noble fight;
As if afhamed to out-live the fad
Discomfiture, which his own rafhness made:

Nor

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