Imatges de pàgina
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Who now enjoys thee credulous, all gold,
Who always vacant, always amiable

Hopes thee, of flattering gales

Unmindful. Hapless they

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T'whom thou untry'd seem'st fair. Me, in my vow'd Picture, the sacred wall declares t' have hung

My dank and dropping weeds

To the stern God of sea.

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GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH.

BRUTUS thus addresses DIANA in the country of LEOGECIA.

GODDESS of shades, and huntress, who at will Walk'st on the rowling spheres, and through the

deep;

On thy third reign the earth look now, and tell

What land, what seat of rest, thou bidd'st me seek, What certain seat, where I may worship thee

For

aye, with temples vow'd, and virgin quires.

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To whom, sleeping before the altar, DIANA answers in a vision the

same night.

BRUTUS, far to the west, in th' ocean wide,
Beyond the realm of Gaul, a land there lies,
Sea-girt it lies, where giants dwelt of old,
Now void, it fits thy people: thither bend

2 rowling spheres] Tickell and Fenton read 'lowring spheres.'

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Thy course, there shalt thou find a lasting seat,
There to thy sons another Troy shall rise,

And kings be born of thee, whose dreadful might
Shall awe the world, and conquer nations boid.

DANTE.

АH Constantine, of how much ill was cause,
Not thy conversion, but those rich domains
That the first wealthy pope receiv'd of thee.

DANTE.

FOUNDED in chaste and humble poverty,

'Gainst them that rais'd thee dost thou lift thy horn,
Impudent whore, where hast thou plac'd thy hope?
In thy adulterers, or thy ill-got wealth?
Another Constantine comes not in haste.

ARIOSTO.

THEN past he to a flow'ry mountain green, Which once smelt sweet, now stinks as odiously: This was the gift, if you the truth will have, That Constantine to good Sylvester gave.

HORACE.

WHOM do we count a good man? Whom but he
Who keeps the laws and statutes of the senate,

Who judges in great suits and controversies,
Whose witness and opinion wins the cause?
But his own house, and the whole neighbourhood,
Sees his foul inside through his whited skin.

HORACE.

THE power that did create can change the scene
Of things, make mean of great, and great of mean:
The brightest glory can eclipse with might,
And place the most obscure in dazzling light.

HORACE.

ALL barbarous people and their princes too,
All purple tyrants honour you,

The very wandering Scythians do.
Support the pillar of the Roman state,
Lest all men be involv'd in one man's fate,
Continue us in wealth and state,
Let wars and tumults ever cease.

CATULLUS.

THE Worst of poets I myself declare,
By how much you the best of poets are.

OVID.

ABSTAIN, as manhood you esteem,
From Salmacis' pernicious stream;

If but one moment there you stay,
Too dear you'll for your bathing pay.—
Depart nor man, nor woman, but a sight
Disgracing both, a loath'd Hermaphrodite.

EURIPIDES.

THIS is true liberty, when freeborn men
Having t' advise the public may speak free:
Which he who can, and will, deserves high praise :
Who neither can nor will, may hold his peace,
What can be a juster in a state than this?

VIRGIL.

No eastern nation ever did adore

The majesty of sovereign princes more.

VIRGIL.

AND Britons interwove held the purple hangings.

HORACE.

LAUGHING, to teach the truth,

What hinders? As some teachers give to boys
Junkets and knacks, that they may learn арасе.

HORACE.

JOKING decides great things,

Stronger and better oft than earnest can.

SOPHOCLES.

'Tis you that say it, not I. You do the deeds, And your ungodly deeds find me the words.

SENECA.

THERE can be slain

No sacrifice to God more acceptable,
Than an unjust and wicked king.

TERENCE.

IN silence now and with attention wait,
That ye may know what th' Eunuch has to prate.

HOMER.

GLAUCUS, in Lycia we're ador'd as gods;
What makes 'twixt us and others so great odds?

EPIGRAM ON SALMASIUS'S HUNDREDA.

WHO taught Salmasius, that French chattering pye
To aim at English, and HUNDREDA cry?

The starving rascal, flush'd with just a hundred
English Jacobusses, HUNDREDA blunder'd:

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