Marrying for beauty, only pleases me,
Obliges her, and keeps her humble too.
'Twould be an injuftice to all human kind,
If ftill the rich fhould only wed the rich;
The world would then confist only of
Us'rers and beggars: But if rich men
Marry the poor and hand fome women, and
The rich women the poor and handsome men ;
The gifts of nature and of fortune, will
Be equally diftributed: Delight
And wealth fo fhar'd, will restore to both the
Sexes that happiness, which the old formal
Ways of acting have fo long depriv'd them of.
1. Young and handsome is portion enough to
Him that needs not any: I hate constraint
In any thing, and in love above all things.
1. Though your structure be
Noble and high, if you will build it on
A low foundation, it can ne'er appear
So high, as if your basis higher were.
You may appear yourself; but when
Join with an equal, you appear him too.
2. Pardon me, fir, I only him appear,
I lose my name, and all I was before.
I am not greater, when his wife, because
I was a princess; for fhould he but wed
The meanest lafs in all Arcadia, he
In doing fo, would make her full as great
As I should be. Ambitious rivers, whilst
They needs will strive to join with greater floods,
Do add indeed to them; but lose themselves:
Whilft those that court fome fmaller brook, at once
Encrease their waters, and preserve their names.
Fountain's Rewards of Virtue
The hour of marriage ends the female reign;
And we give all we have to buy a chain;
Hire men to be our lords, who were our flaves;
And bribe our lovers to be perjur'd knaves.
O how they fwear to heaven and the bride,
They will be kind to her, and none befide;
And to themselves, the while in fecret swear,
They will be kind to ev'ry one, but her!
MASTER.
The mafter which in paffion kills his flave
That may be useful to him, does himself
The injury.
Malinger's Unnatural Combat.
An equal mafter; whofe fincere intents
Ne'er chang'd good fervants, to bad inftruments.
By children, fervants, neighbours so esteem'd,
He not a master, but a monarch seem'd :
All his relations his admirers were;
His fons paid rev'rence, and his fervants fear.
MEDIOCRITY
Stand who fo lift for me,
In highest flipp'ry place:
Though great their glory be,
Yet greater their difgrace:
And who fo fubject to mischance,
As thofe whom fortune doth advance
These base, earth-creeping mates,
Proud envy never spies :
When at the greatest states
Her poifon'd quiver flies.
Each tempeft doth turmoil the feas,
When little lakes have quiet ease.
Ants live fafely, till they have gotten wings,
And juniper is not blown up till it
Hath gotten an high top: The mean estate
Is without care, as long as it continueth
Without pride.
Lilly's Alexander and Campafpe
Thou art a ferryman Phao, yet
A freeman; poffeffing for riches content,
And for honours quiet. Thy thoughts are no
Higher than thy fortunes, nor thy defires
Greater than thy calling.
Who climbeth, ftands
On glafs, and falls on thorn. Thy heart's thirft is
Satisfy'd with thy hands thrift; and thy gentle
Labours in the day, turn to sweet slumbers,
In the night. As much doth it delight thee
To rule thine oar in a calm ftream; as it
Doth Sapho to fway the scepter in her
Brave court. Envy never cafteth her eye
Low; ambition pointeth always upwards;
And revenge barketh only at ftars. Thou
Fareft delicately, if thou haft a
Fare to buy any thing. Thine angle is
Ready, when thine oar is idle; and as
Sweet is the fish, which thou gettest in the
River, as the fowl which others buy in
The market. Thou need't not fear poifon in
Thy glass; nor treafon in thy guard. The wind
Is thy greatest enemy, whofe might is
Withstood with policy. Ofweet life seldom
Found under a golden covert, often
Under a thatched cottage!
We muft, in paffing to our wifhed ends,
Through things call'd good and bad, be like the air, That ev'nly interpos'd betwixt the feas,
And the oppofed element of fire ;
As either toucheth, but partakes with neither;
Is neither hot nor cold, but with a flight
And harmless temper, mixt of both th' extremes.
Chapman's First Part of Byron's Conspiracy.
Thou prizeless jewel, only mean men have
But cannot value; like the precious jem,
Found in the muck-hill by th' ignorant cock.
Beaumont and Fletcher's Queen of Corinth.
Had I been born a fervant, my low life
Had steady stood from all these miseries.
The waving reeds stand free from ev'ry guft,
When the tall Oaks are rent up by the roots.
How a Man may choose a good Wife from bad.
Iam that even course that must be kept
To fhun two dang'rous gulphs; the middle tract
"Twixt Scylla and Charibdis; the small Ifthmus
That fuffers not th' Ægean tide to meet
The violent rage of th' Ionian wave.
I am a bridge oe'r an impetuous fea;
Free, and fafe paffage to the wary ftep:
But he, whofe wantonnefs, or folly dares
Decline to either fide, falls defperate
Into a certain ruin- -Dwell with me,
Whose manfion is not plac'd fo near the fun,
As to complain of's neighbourhood, and be fcorch'd
With his directer beams; nor fo remote
From his bright rays, as to be fituate
Under the icy pole of the cold bear;
But in a temp'rate zone: 'Tis I am fhe,
I am the golden mediocrity.
Randolph's Mufe's Looking-glass.
ME LANCHOLY
Tell me, fweet lord, what is't that takes from thee
Thy ftomach, plea fure, and thy golden fleep?
Why doft thou bend thy eyes upon the earth?
And ftart fo often when thou fitt'ft alone?
Why hast thou loft the fresh blood in thy cheeks,
And giv'n my treasures and my rights of thee,
To thick-ey'd mufing, and curs'd melancholy?
Shakespear's First Part of K. Henry IV.
Who ever yet could found thy bottom? find
The Ooze, to fhew what coaft thy fluggish carrack' Might eas'lieft harbour in ?
I am as melancholy as a gib cat,
Or a lugg'd bear; or an old lion, or
A lover's lute; yea, or the drone of a
Lincolnshire bagpipe. What fay'ft thou to a
Hare, or the melancholy of Moor ditch?
Shakespear's First Part of K. Henry IV.
I have neither the fcholar's melancholy,
Which is emulation; nor the musician's,
Which is fantaftical; nor the courtier's,
Which is pride; nor the foldier's, which is
Ambitious; nor the lawyer's, which is politick;
Nor the lady's, which is nice; nor the lover's,
Which is all these but it is a melancholy
Of mine own; compounded of many fimples,
Extracted from many objects, and, indeed,
The fundry contemplation of my travels;
In which my often rumination wraps me
In a most hum'rous sadness.
Shakespear's As you like it.
I'll bear me in fome ftrain of melancholy,
And ftring myself with heavy-founding wire,
Like fuch an inftrument, that fpeaks merry things fadly.
Tourneur's Revenger's Tragedy.
Will poifon all his goodness; for I'll tell you,
If too immod'rate fleep be truly faid
To be an inward ruft unto the foul;
It then doth follow, want of action
Breeds all black malecontents; and their clofe rearing, Like moths in cloaths, do hurt for want of wearing.
Webster's Dutchess of Malfy.
Though ending in diftraction, should work
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