Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

That he lefs fear'd a hundred launces, than
Th'impetuous charges of a fingle pen.

Aleyn's Henry VII.

Interpret counter what is cross rehears'd;
Libels are commendations when revers❜d:
Juft as an optick glass contracts the fight
At one end, but when turn'd, doth multiply't.

You are the only man, whose wealthy muse
Doth furnish all the fidlers in the state
With defp'rate ballads, and invective fongs :
Libels, of fuch weak fancy and compofure,
'That we do all efteem it greater wrong
To have our names extant in fuch paltry
Rhime, than in the flanderous fenfe.

Cleveland.

Sir W. Davenant's Cruel Brother. LIBERTY.

1. Whence comes this reftraint?

2. From too much liberty, my Lucio, liberty;
As furfeit is the father of much fast,
So ev'ry scope by the immod❜rate use
Turns to restraint: Our natures do pursue,
Like rats that ravin down their proper bane,
A thirsty evil; and when we drink, we die.

Shakespear's Meafure for Measure. For like a lion that escapes his bound,

Having been long reftrain'd his ufe to ftray,
Ranges the reftlefs woods, ftays on no ground,
Riots with blood-fhed, wantons on his prey;
Seeks not for need, but in his pride to wound,
Glorying to fee his ftrength, and what he may:
So this unbridl'd king, freed of his fears,
In liberty, himself thus wildy bears.
For standing now alone, he fees his might
Out of the compafs of refpective awe ;.
And now begins to violate all right,

Whilft no restraining fear at hand he faw:
Now he exacts of all, waftes in delight,

Riots in pleasure, and neglects the law:

He

He thinks his crown is licens'd to do ill:
That lefs fhould lift, that may do what it will.

Daniel's Civil War.

But reafon fworn in general to fenfe,
Makes honour, bondage; justice an offence:
Till liberty, that fair deceiving light,
Turns mifchief to an humour popular;
Where good men catch'd in nets of duty are.

Lord Brooke's Alabam

Our falcon's kind cannot the cage endure,
Nor buzzard like doth ftoop to ev'ry lure;
Their mounting brood in open air doth rove,
Nor will with crows be coop'd within a grove.

Drayton's Duke of Suffolk to Queen Margaret!

O happy men born under good stars,

Where what is honeft you may freely think;

Speak what you think, and write what you do fpeak; Not bound to fervile foothings!

Liberty is devolved to the son,

Marfion's Fawn.

Which doth enhance its price; as you have seen
Something preferv'd with great religion,

Only for this; It had his grandfire's been:
'Tis priz'd but by conjectural conceit;

Like an old piece, for which there is no weight.

A fhew of liberty,

Aleyn's Poitiers.

When we have lost the substance; is best kept,

By feeming not to understand those faults,

Which we want power to mend.

1. What's the quarrel ?

2. Liberty, they fay.

1. 'Sfoot, let the king make an act,

May's Cleopatra.

That any man may be unmarried again;
There's liberty for them. A race

Of half-witted fellows quarrel about freedom;

And all that while, allow the bonds of matrimony!

Suckling's Bennoralt.

Let all go on ftill in the publick name,
But keep an ear open to particular offers.
Liberty, and publick good, are like great olios,
Muft have the upper end ftill of our tables,
Though they are but for fhew.

Suckling's Brennorak,

If we retain the glory of our ancestors,
Whose ashes will rife up against our dullness ;
Shake off our tameness, and give way to courage;
We need not doubt, infpir'd with a juft rage,
To break the necks of thofe, that would yoke ours.
Tatham's Diftracted State.

For fubjects, getting liberty,

Get but a licence to be mad.

Birds that are long in cages aw'd,

If they get out, a while will roam; But ftrait want skill to live abroad,

Then pine and hover near their home.
And to the ocean rivers run

From being pent in banks of flow'rs,
Not knowing that th' exhaling fun
Will fend them back in weeping fhow'rs.
Soon thus for pride of liberty,

I low defires of bondage found;
And vanity of being free,

. Bred the difcretion to be bound.
But as dull fubjects fee too late

Their fafety in monarchal reign,
Finding their freedom in a ftate,
Is but proud ftrutting in a chain.

Sir W. Davenant to George Porter.
This a more innocent, and happy chace
Than when of old, but in the self fame place,
Fair liberty purfu'd *, and meant a prey
To lawless pow'r here turn'd, and ftood at bay.

* Runny Mead, where that great Charter was first seal'd.

When

When in that remedy all hope was plac'd,
Which was, or fhould have been at least, the laft.
Here was that charter * feal'd, wherein the crown
All marks of arbitrary pow'r lays down.

Tyrant and flave, thofe names of hate and fear,
The happier ftile of king and fubject bear:
Happy when both to the fame centre move;
When kings give liberty, and fubjects love.
Therefore not long in force this charter stood;
Wanting that feal, it must be seal'd in blood.
The fubjects arm'd, the more their princes gave,
Th' advantage only took, the more to crave:
Till kings by giving, give themfelves away,
And ev❜n that pow'r, that fhould deny, betray:
Who gives conftrain'd, but his own fear reviles,
Not thank'd, but fcorn'd; nor are they gifts, but fpoils.
Thus, kings, by grasping more than they could hold,
Firft made their fubjects, by oppreffion, bold:
And pop'lar fway, by forcing kings to give
More than was fit for fubjects to receive,
Ran to the fame extremes: and one excess
Made both, by ftriving to be greater, lefs.

Denham's Cooper's Hill

Thofe ills that mortal men endure,
So long are capable of cure,
As they of freedom may be fure:
But that deny'd; a grief, though fmall,
Shakes the whole roof, or ruins all.

I love my freedom: yet strong prifons can
Vex but the bad, and not the virtuous man.

* Magna Charta.

Herrick.

Watkyns.

LIFE.

[ocr errors]

LIFE.

The longer life, I wote the greater fin,
The greater fin, the greater punishment;
All thofe great battles which thou boasts to win
Through ftrife, and blood-fhed, and avengement,
Now prais'd, hereafter dear thou fhalt repent:
For life muft life, and blood muft blood repay.
Is not enough thy evil life forefpent?

For he, that once hath miffed the right way,
The further he doth go, the further he doth fray.

Then do no further go, no further stray,

But here lie down, and to thy rest betake;
Th' ill to prevent, that life enfuen may :

For, what hath life, that may it loved make,
And gives not rather caufe it to forfake?

Fear, fickness, age, lofs, labour, forrow, strife,

Pain, hunger, cold, that makes the heart to quake, And ever-fickle fortune raging rife ;

All which,and thousands more, do make a loathfome life. Spenfer's Fairy Quesu. The web of our life is of a mingled

Yarn, good and ill together: Our virtues

Would be proud, if our faults whipt them not; and Our crimes would despair, if they were not

Cherish'd by our virtues.

Shakespear's All's Well that ends Well.

Be abfolute for death; or death, or life

Shall thereby be the sweeter. Reason thus with life;
If I do lofe thee, I do lofe a thing,

That none but fools would reck: a breath thou art,
Servile to all the skyie influences;

That doth this habitation, where thou keep'ft,
Hourly afflict: merely, thou art death's fool,
For him thou labour'it by thy flight to fhun;

And yet run'ft toward him ftill. Thou art not noble;
For all th' accomodations, that thou bear'ft,

Are nurfs'd by baseness: thour't by no means valiant ; For thou doft fear the foft and tender fork

Of

« AnteriorContinua »