Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

Ah, be not those most miferable fouls,

Their judgments to refine, who never strive! Nor will not look upon the learned fcrouls, Which without practice do experience give : But whilft base floth each better care controuls, Are dead in ignorance, intomb'd alive :

'Twixt beafts, and fuch, the diff'rence is but small ; They, ufe not reason, beasts have none at all. E. of Sterline to Prince Henry.

Yet regifters of memorable things

[ocr errors]

Would help, great prince, to make thy judgment found;

Which to the eye a perfect mirror brings,

Where all fhould glafs themselves, who would be crown'd:

Read these rare parts, that acted were by kings,
The strain's heroick, and the end renown'd:
Which, whilst thou in thy cabinet doft fit,
Are worthy to bewitch thy growing wit.

And do not, do not thou the means omit,

Times match'd with times, what they beget to spy; Since history may lead thee unto it;

A pillar whereupon good fp'rites rely;

Of time the table, and the nurse of wit;

The fquare of reason, and the minds clear eye: Which leads the curious reader through huge harms,

Who stands fecure, whilft looking on alarms.

E. of Sterline to Prince Henry.

Hiftorians to fome courts have had recourse

By kings commands; who did of them explore The former age: That they might steer their course, As skilful pilots of great ftates before;

And cut out all their actions by the thread
Of ancient times: Beft doctors are the dead.

Aleyn's Poitiers.

I remember in the age of Affaracus
And Ninus, and about the wars of Thebes,

And

[ocr errors]

And the fiege of Troy, there were few things committed
To my charge, but thofe that were well worthy
The preferving; but now ev'ry trifle

Must be wrapp'd up in the volume of eternity:
A rich pudding-wife, or a cobbler cannot die,
But I muft immortalize his name with

An epitaph: A dog cannot pifs in

A nobleman's fhoe, but it must be fprinkled
Into the chronicles; so that I never

Could remember my treas'ry more full, and
Never emptier of honourable

And true heroical actions.

This is a great fault in a chronologer
To turn parafite; an abfolute hiftory

Should be in fear of none; neither should he
Write any thing more than truth for friendship,
Or elfe for hate; but keep himself equal
And conftant in all his difcourfes.

Chronologers, many of them, are fo fantastick,
As when they bring a captain to the combat,
Lifting up his revengeful arm to dispart
The head of his enemy, they'll hold up
His arms fo long, till they have beftow'd three
Or four pages in defcribing the gold
Hilts of his threatning fauchion; fo that
In my fancy, the reader may well wonder
His adverfary ftabs him not, before

He strikes.

The ftile is full, and princely,

Stately, and abfolute, beyond what e'er

Lingua.

Lingua.

Lingua.

Thefe eyes have feen; and Rome, whofe majesty
Is there defcrib'd, in after-times fhall owe
For her memorial to your learned pen,
More than to all thofe fading monuments
Built with the riches of the spoiled world.

When

When ruft fhall eat her brafs, when times ftrong hand
Shall bruise to duft her marble palaces,
Triumphal arches, pillars, obelisks;
When Julius' Temple, Claudius' aqueducts,
Agrippa's baths, and Pompey's theatre;
Nay, Rome itself shall not be found at all,
Hiftorians books fhall live;those strong records,
Those deathless monuments alone shall shew,
What, and how great, the Roman empire was.

May's Agrippina.
The nobleft spur unto the fons of fame,
Is thirst of honour, and to have their name
Inroll'd in faithful hiftory: Thus worth
Was by a wife ambition firft brought forth.
Truth is the Hiftorian's crown, and art
Squares it to ftricter comeliness: Each part
Thou skillfully observ'ft, whose learned fleight
Shall teach fucceeding ages how to write.

John Hall on Charles Aleyn.

Hiftorians, only things of weight,
Refults of perfons, or affairs of state,

Briefly, with truth and clearness should relate :
Laconick fhortness memory feeds-

HONESTY.

1. Take note, Oh world,

To be direct and honest, is not safe.

I thank you for this profit, and from hence,
I'll love no friend, fith love breeds fuch offence.
2. Nay, ftay thou fhould'st be honest-
1. I should be wife, for honesty's a fool,
And lofes what it works for.

A good man fhould and must

Heath.

Shakespear's Othello.

Sit rather down with lofs, than rife unjust.

Johnfon's Sejanus.

Lands

Lands mortgag'd may return, and more esteem'd ;
But honefty once pawn'd, is ne'er. redeem'd.

Middleton's Trick to catch the Old One.

Good honourable fool,

That would'st be honest, 'cause thou wouldst be fo;
Producing no one reafon but thy will.

And't has a good report, prettily commended,
But pray by whom? mean people, ignorant people;
The better fort I'm fure cannot abide it :

And by what rule fhould we fquare our lives,

But by our betters actions?

Tourneur's Revenger's Tragedy.

'Tis honefty you urge; what's honesty?

'Tis but heav'n's beggar; and what woman is So foolish to keep honesty,

And be not able to keep her self? no,

Times are grown wifer, and will keep lefs charge: A maid that has small portion, now intends

To break up house, and live upon her friends.

For if charity

Be an effential part of honefty,

Tourneur, Ibid.

And fhould be practis'd firft upon ourselves,
Which must be granted; then your honest man
That's poor, is most dishoneft; for he is

Uncharitable to the man, whom he

Should moft respect.

Tourneur's Atheift's Tragedy.

An honeft foul is like a fhip at sea,

'That fleeps at anchor when the ocean's calm ; But when the rages, and the wind blows high, He cuts his way with skill and majesty.

Beaumont and Fletcher's Honeft Man's Fortune. He that would mount to honour, must not make Dainty to use the head of his mother, Back of his father, or neck of his brother, For ladders to his preferment: for, but observe, And you fhall find for the most part, cunning

Villany

Villany fit at a feast as principal gueft,
And innocent honesty wait as a
Contemn'd fervant with a trencher.

Beaumont and Fletcher's Honeft Man's Fortune.

Virtue and honour, I allow you names;
You may give matter for difpute and noise,
But
you have loft your effence; and that truth
We fondly have believ'd in humane fouls,
Is ceas'd to be; we are grown fantastick bodies,
Figures, and empty titles, and make hafte
To our firft nothing: he that will be honest,
Muft quite throw off his cold decrepit nature,
And have a new creation.

Man is like pliant wax,

Shirley's Impofture.

That yields unto a fair impreffion,
Though fent not from the nobleft metal:
And, in this world, it bears an equal show,
To feem but only honeft, or be fo.

Sir Robert Howard's Blind Lady.

An honeft man is ftill an unmov'd rock,

Wash'd whiter, but not fhaken with the shock:
Whose heart conceives no finifter device;
Fearless he plays with flames, and treads on ice.

Davenport's City Night-Cap.

He fays he'll keep his honefty; damn'd fot!
What will he do with it? go beg with it?
For in this age, tis of no other use,
But like a beggar's child to move compaffion;
Yet never gains the half it coft in keeping,
For all men will suspect it for a bastard.

Crown's Ambitious Statesman.

HONOUR.

Who fo in pomp of proud eftate, quoth fhe,

Does fwim, and bathe himself in courtly bliss,

Does wafte his days in dark obfcurity,

And in oblivion ever buried is:

VOL. II.

[blocks in formation]
« AnteriorContinua »