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Nor is't a tale,

That female vice fhould be a virtue male,
Or masculine vice a female virtue be :
You fhall it fee,

Prov'd with increase ;

I know to speak, and fhe to hold her peace.

Johnson's Silent Woman.

Oh filence, thou doft fwallow pleasure right!
Words take away fome fenfe from our delight.

Marfton's Sophonisba.
You know my wishes, ever yours did meet :
If I be filent, 'tis no more but fear,
That I fhould fay too little when I fpeak.

Lady Carew's Mariam. By utt'ring what thou know'ft, lefs glory's got, Than by concealing, what thou knoweft not.

Brown's Paftorals.

Silence hath rhetorick; and veils are best
'To portrait that, which cannot be exprefs'd.

I.

In his looks

Aleyn's Crefcey.

He carries guilt, whofe horror breeds this strange
And obftinate filence; fhame and his conscience
Will not permit him to deny it.

2. 'Tis, alas,

His modeft, bafhful nature, and pure innocence,
That makes him filent: Think you that bright rofe
That buds within his cheeks, was planted there
By guilt or fhame? No, he has always been
So unacquainted with all arts of fin,

That but to be fufpected, ftrikes him dumb,
With wonder and amazement.

This is a motion ftill, and foft;

Randolph's Amyntas.,

That Jove himself, who hears each thought,

So free from nofe or cry,

Knows not when we pass by.

Killegrew's Confpiracy.

Chang'd

Chang'd to as great a filence,

Such when a tempeft ceafes, is the calm
That follows, no noife is heard; as if the

Wind with blafts were breathless grown, and the feas Sat down, and after fo much toil requir'd eafe.

SIN.

Who is in finfulness fo bold,

Killegrew's Confpiracy.

His vices fare like weeds; they sprout so fast
They kill the corpfe, as weeds the corn, at last.

Our misdeeds procure us ftill,

Mirror for Magiftrates.

To feek our good amongst much ill.

From love of grace,

Brandon's Octavia,

Lay not that flatt'ring unction to your foul,
That not your trefpafs, but my madness speaks:
It will but skin and film the ulc'rous place;
Whilft rank corruption, mining all within,
Infects unfeen; confefs yourself to heav'n;
Repent what's past, avoid what is to come;
And do not spread the compoft on the weeds
To make them ranker.

Foul deeds will rife,.

Shakespear's Hamlet.

Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes.

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Alas, that in the wane of our affections
We should supply it with a full diffembling!
In which, each youngest maid is grown a mother;
Frailty is fruitful, one fin gets another.

Our loves like fparkles are, that brightest shine
When they go out; moft vice fhews most divine.
Chapman's Buffey D'ambois.
Before, I was fecure 'gainst death and hell;
But now am fubject to the heartless fear
Of ev'ry fhadow, and of ev'ry breath,
And would change firmness with an aspen leaf:
So confident a fpotlefs confcience is ;
So weak a guilty. O the dangerous fiege
Sin lays about us! And the tyranny
He exercifes when he hath expugn'd,
Like to the horror of a winter's thunder,
Mix'd with a gufhing ftorm; that fuffers nothing
To stir abroad on earth, but their own rages,
Is fin, when it hath gather'd head above us :
No roof, no fhelter can fecure us fo,
But he will drown our cheeks in fear or woe.

What tho' our fins go brave and better clad ?
They are, as thofe in rags, as bafe, as bad.

Ibid.

Daniel's Octavia to Antonius.

Bear witness yet ye good, and evil fpirits,
Who in the air invifibly do dwell,
That these ftrange paths I walk of ugliness,
Are forc'd by threat'ning gulphs of treachery,
Nourish'd by ftates, and times injurious:
Nor is it fin, which men for fafety chufe ;
Nor hath it fhame, which men are forc'd to use.
Lord Brooke's Alabam.

God, that to pafs, will have his justice come,
Makes fin the thief, the hangman, and the doom.

Lord Brooke's Inquifition on Fame and Honour.

Pleasure and youth like fmiling evils wooe us,
To tafte new follies; tafted, they undo us.

Middleton and Rowley's Spanish Gipfy.

What monftrous days are these?
Not only to be vicious most men ftudy,
But in it to be ugly; ftrive t' exceed,
Each other in the most deformed deed.

Middleton's Phoenix

Are you fo bitter? 'Tis but want of ufe;
Her tender modesty is fea-fick a little,

Being not accustom'd to the breaking billow..

Of woman's wav'ring faith, blown up with temptations. 'Tis but a qualm of honour; 'twill away,

A little bitter for the time, but lafts not.

Sin tastes at the first draught like wormwood water,
But drank again, 'tis nectar ever after.

Middleton's Women beware Women.

Maids and their honours are like poor beginners;
Were not fin rich, there would be fewer finners.

Tourneur's Revenger's Tragedy.

All men have fins,

Though in their fev'ral kinds, all end in this;
So they get gold, they care not whose it is:
Begging the court, ufe bears the city out,
Lawyers their quirks, thus goes the world about.
So that our villanies have but diff'rent shapes,
Th' effects all one, and poor men are but apes
To imitate their betters: This is the diff'rence,
All great mens fins must still be humoured,

And

poor mens vices largely punished. The privilege that great men have in evil, Is this, they go unpunish'd to the devil.

'Tis fearful building upon any fin;

Barry's Ram-Alley.

One mischief enter'd, brings another in:
The fecond pulls a third, the third draws more,
And they for all the reft fet ope the door :
Till cuftom take away the judging sense,
That to offend we think it no offence.

Wherefore, my lord, kill mifchief while 'tis fmall;

So by degrees, you may destroy it all.

Smith's Hector of Germany.

'Tis a bold cowardice, when men shall dare To act the fin, and the fufpicion fear.

Aleyn's Henry VII. Another's fin, fometimes procures our shame : It ftains our body, or at least our name.

Three fatal fifters wait upon each fin;

Quarles.

Herrick.

First, fear and shame without, then guilt within.

What a ftrange glafs they've fhew'd me now myself in?
Our fins, like to our fhadows

When our day is in it's glory, scarce appear'd :
Towards our evening how great and monftrous
They are?

Suckling's Aglaura.

Tell me why heav'n first did fuffer fin?

Letting feed grow which it had never fown ? Why, when the foul's first fever did begin,

Was it not cur'd, which now a plague is grown? Why did not heav'n's prevention fin restrain ? Or is not pow'rs permiffion a confent? Which is in kings as much as to ordain ;

And ills ordain'd are free from punishment.

And fince no crime could be ere laws were fram'd;
Laws dearly taught us how to know offence :
Had laws not been, we never had been blam'd ;
For not to know we fin, is innocence.

Sin's childhood was not starv'd, but rather more'
Than finely fed; fo fweet were pleasures made
That nourish it: For fweet is luft of pow'r,
And sweeter beauty, which hath pow'r betray'd.
Sin, which at fulleft growth is childish still,
Would but for pleafure's company decay;
As fickly children thrive that have their will,
But quickly languish being kept from play.

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