Bring action hither;
A ftirring dwarf we do allowance give,
Before a fleeping giant.
Shakespear's Troilus and Creffida.
All their actions are govern'd by crude opinion,
Without reason, or caufe; they know not why
They do any thing; but as they are inform'd,
Believe, judge, praife, condemn, love, hate,
And in emulation one of another,
Do all these things alike, only they have
A natʼral inclination fways them generally
To the worst, when they are left to themselves.
Johnson's Silent Woman.
Yet is the office not to be despis'd,
If only love should make the action priz'd.
Men find that action is another thing,
Than they do in difcourfing papers read:
The world's affairs require in managing
More arts than those wherein your clerks proceed :
Whilft tim'rous knowledge itands confidering,
Audacious ignorance hath done the deed.
For who knows moft, the more he knows to doubt The leaft difcourfe is commonly moft ftout.
Let not the leaft act now of his, at last, Mar all his act of life, and glory past,
For good and well must in our actions meet; Wicked is not much worse than indifcreet.
Things of this nature sprung
When they mean action, must use little tongue.
Middleton's and Rowley's Fair Quarrel. Good actions crown themselves with lasting bays, Who deferves well, needs not another's praise.
Is to increase contentment and renown,
Both which, my love, fhall amply joy in you.
2. How can renown enfue an act of shame.
1. No act hath any shame within itself,
But in the knowledge and afcription.
Chapman's Blind Beggar of Alexandria.
Of every noble action, the intent
Is to give worth reward, vice punishment,
Beaumont's and Fletcher's Captain.
If thou doft ill, the joy fades, not the pains:
If well, the pain doth fade, the joy remains.
Be well advis'd, and wary council make,
Ere thou dost any action undertake.
Hav'ng undertaken, thy endeavours bend
To bring thy actions to a perfect end.
Time will be waited on by majesty;
'Tis proper to an action, as place
To bodies: When the winds are contrary,
Wife pilots change their courfe: When they are for't,
They veer about, and make up to their port.
Charles Aleyn's Poitiers.
Actions are weakned with too hafty speed,
Thus predigeftion doth diseases breed,
Heads are the wombs where actions must be
Conceiv'd, and fashioned in all their parts,
And stay the time of juft delivery,
Or elfe the head mifcarries, and aborts.
A hudling hafte fhapes no productions right:
Jove could not get the mufes in a night.
Nothing our own, if they be deeds to come;
They're only our's when they are paft and done.
Thomas Middleton's Mayor of Queenborough.
The body fins not, 'tis the will That makes the action good or ill.
What 'tis you fhew, than what true tinctures dwell
Upon the doves bright neck, which are so one,
And divers, that we can think them all, and none.
And this is your quick prudence, which conveys
One grace into another, that who fays,
You now are courteous when you change the light,
Will fay you're just, and think it a new fight,
And this is your peculiar art; we know
Others might do like actions, but not fo;
The agents alter things; and what does come,
Pow'rful from thefe, flows weaker far from fome ;
Thus the fun's light makes day, if it appear,
And cafts true luftre round the hemifphere;
When if projected from the moon, that light
Makes not a day, but only colours night;
But you, we may ftill full, ftill perfect call,
As what's ftill great, is equal still in all.
William Cartwright. Action is honour's language, fwords are tongues, Which both speak beft, and best do right our wrongs.
Sam. Rowley's Noble Spanish Soldier.
He that purfues an act that is attended
With doubtful iffues, for the means had need
Of policy and force to make it speed.
Thomas Nabb's Unfortunate Mother.
As the new moon th' light of th' old devours; So do thy actions all thine ancestors.
As in a fhip fome climb the fhrouds, t'unfold The fail, fome fweep the deck, fome pump the hold; While he that guides the helm, imploys his skill, And gives the law to them, by fitting ftill.
Great actions lefs from courage, ftrength, and speed,
Than from wife councils and commands proceed.
Sir John Denham.
Be juft in all thy actions, and if join'd
With those that are not, never change thy mind:
If aught obftruct thy course, yet ftand not ftill,
But wind about 'till thou haft topp'd the hill;
To the fame end men fev'ral paths may tread,
As many doors into one temple lead;
And the fame hand into a fist may close,
Which inftantly a palm expanded fhews.
Actions rare and fudden, do commonly
Proceed from fierce neceffity: Or else
From fome oblique defign, which is afham'd
To fhew itself in the publick road.
Sir William Davenant's Cruel Brother. Peace is the ruft of minds; brave fouls refine By great examples, and with use they shine.
Sir Robert Howard's Veftal Virgin.
But our unsteady actions cannot be Manag'd by rules of ftrict philofophy; There is but part belongs unto our care; Fortune has right and title to a fhare.
Sir Robert Howard's Veftal Virgin. All actions finely gilded o'er fucceed; Men ftill the doers mind, and not the deed.
The blaze and fplendor, but not handle fire.
What she did here, by great example, well
T'inlive pofterity, her fame may tell.
And calling truth to witness, make that good
From the inherent graces in her blood.
Adoption strives with nature; and choice breeds
A native flip to us from foreign feeds.
Shakespear's All's well that ends well.
ADVANCEMENT.
You have lay'd
A brave foundation, by the hand of virtue :
Put not the roof to fortune: Foolish statuarys,
That under little faints, fuppofe great bases,
Make lefs to fenfe, the faints; and fo where fortune
Advanceth vile minds, to flates great and noble,
She much the more expofeth them to fhime,
Not able to make good, and fill their bases
With a conformed ftructure.
Chapman's First Part of Biron's Confpiracy.
Advancement now doth not attend desert,
But flows from fancies of a flatter'd mind;
Which to base hierlings, honour doth impart,
Whilft envy'd worth no fafe retreat can find,
All proud ufurpers most addicted prove,
To them whom without cause they raise too high,
As thinking those who ftand but by their love,
To entertain the fame, all means must try.
Where they, whofe virtue reaps a due reward,
Not building only on the giver's grace,
Do by deferts not gain fo great regard,
Whilft they maintain, as they obtain their place.
And if a worthy man to work great things,
Wing'd with a tyrant's favour, raife his flight,
The highest course to him most harm still brings,
Who 'till he fall, cannot have leave to light.
Those who by force would have th'affection mov'd, When willingly men hold fuch gallants dear,
Do
Whose virtue makes their vice more vile appear.
rage that any fhould be freely lov'd,
Sir W. Alexander Earl of Sterline's Julius Cæfar. 1. I was your friend, when you were honest, No fordid flatterer of tyranny:
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