Sivut kuvina
PDF
ePub

He hath no leifure to defcry
Those errors, which he paffeth by.

Sir W. Davenant's Cruel Brother.

Time lays his hand

On pyramids of brafs, and ruins quite
What all the fond artificers did think
Immortal workmanship; he fends his worms
To books, to old records, and they devour
Th' infcriptions. He loves ingratitude,
For he deftroy'd the memory of man.

Our time confumes like fmoke, and posts away;
Nor can we treasure up a month or day.
The fand within the tranfitory glass
Doth haft, and fo our filent minutes pass.
Confider how the ling'ring hour-glafs fends
Sand after fand, untill the stock it fpends.
Year after year we do confume away,
Untill our debt to nature we do pay.
Old age is full of grief; the life of man,
If we confider, is but like a span

Stretch'd from a fwollen hand: the more extent
It is by ftrength, the more the pains augment:
Defire not to live long, but to live well;
How long we live, not years, but actions tell.

Ibid.

Watkyns.

TITLE S.

Now does he feel his title

Hang loofe about him, like a giant's robe

Upon a dwarfish thief.

Shakespear's Macbeth.

Thou wert the first, mad'ft merit know her ftrength,

And thofe that lack'd it, to fufpect at length,
'Twas not entail'd on titles; that fome word
Might be found out as good, and not my lord,
That nature no fuch diff'rence had imprest
In men, but ev'ry braveft was the best:

That blood not minds, but minds did blood adorn,
And to live great, was better, than great born.

These were thy knowing arts: which who doth now
Virtuously practice, muft at least allow

Them in, if not, from thee; or must commit
A defp'rate folœcism in truth and wit

Johnson's Epigrams.

Man is a name of honour for a king;
Additions take away from each chief thing.

Chapman's Buffy D'ambois.

Where titles prefume to thrust before fit
Means to fecond them, wealth and respect
Often grow fullen, and will not follow.

Chapman Johnfon and Marfton's Eastward Hoe,

What tho' he hath no title? He hath might:
That makes a title, where there is no right.

Daniel's Civil War.

He that above the state of man will strain

His ftile, and will not be that which we are ;

Not only us contemns, but doth difdain

The gods themselves, with whom he would compare.

After me, let none whom greatness fhrowds,

Ibid.

Truft tumid titles, nor oftentive fhews, Sails fwol'n with winds; whilft emulating clouds, That which puffs up, oft at the laft o'erthrows. E. of Sterline's Crafus.

All tranfitory titles I deteft,

A virtuous life I mean to boast alone;
Our births our fires, our virtues be our own.

Drayton's Legend of Matilda.
That height and god-like purity of mind
Refteth not still, where titles moft adorn,
With any, nor peculiarly confin'd

To names, and to be limitted doth fcorn:
Man doth the most degenerate from kind;
Richeft and pooreft both alike are born;
And to be always pertinently good,
Follows not ftill the greatness of our blood.

Drayton in the Mirror for Magiftrates.

-Thefe

-Thefe are lords

That have bought titles. Men may merchandize
Wares, ay, and traffick all commodities
From fea to fea, ay, and from fhore to shore :
But in my thoughts, of all things that are fold;
'Tis pity honour should be bought for gold;
It cuts off all defert.

Heywood's Royal King.

We all are foldiers, and all venture lives :
And where there is no diff'rence in mens worths,
Titles are jefts.

Beaumont and Fletcher's King or no King. I look down upon him

With fuch contempt and fcorn, as on my flave;
He's a name only, and all good in him

He mult derive from his great grandfire's afhes:
For had not their victorious acts bequeath'd
His titles to him, and wrote on his forehead,
This is a lord he had liv'd unobserv'd
By any man of mark, and dy'd as one
Amongst the common rout.

Beaumont and Fletcher's Cuftom of the Country.
How dejectedly

The bafer fpirit of our prefent time

Hath caft itself below the ancient worth

Of our fore-fathers! from whofe noble deeds

Ignobly we derive our pedigrees.

Are you in love with title?

Tourneur's Atheist's Tragedy.

I will have a herald, whofe continual practice?
Is all in pedigree, come a wooing to you,

Or an antiquary in old buskins.

Webfter's Devil's Law Cafe.

Am I not emperor? men call me fo:

A rev'rend title, empty attributes,

And a long page of words follow my name,

But no fubftantial true prerogative.

Goffe's Raging Turk.

-If

If that titles

Or the adorned name of queen could take me,
Here would I fix mine eyes and look no farther:
But these are baits to take a mean born lady,
Not her that boldly may call Cæfar father:
In that, I can bring honour unto any,
But from no king that lives, receive addition
To raise defert and virtue by my fortune;
Though in a low eftate 'twere greater glory,
Than to mix greatness with a prince, that owes
No worth but that name only.

Maffinger and Dekker's Virgin Martyr.
-Poor windy titles

Of dignity and offices, that puff up

The bubble pride, 'till it fwell big, and burst:
What are they but brave nothings? toys, call'd honours,
Make them on whom they are bestow'd, no better
Than glorious flaves, the fervants of the vulgar.

Randolph's Mufes Looking-Glafs.

-Brufh off

'This honour'd duft that foils your company;
This thing, whom nature carelefly obtruded
Upon the world, to teach, that pride and folly
Makes titular greatnefs the envy but

Of fools, the wife man's pity.

Habbington's Queen of Arragon.

-I'll difinvest

Myfelf of all; additions can but fwell
Our pride, not virtue up; my ancestors
Have left me rich enough in title to

Your friendship.

Sicily and Naples.

1. Thy blood runs high; there's not one purple stream Cas'd in these azure veins, but is deriv'd

From the spring of princely anceftry; and thou art
The wealthy ftorehouse of their fortunes too.

2. 'Las! what are thefe, bnt what the owner makes them? Of themselves nothing, only as we use them,

Are

Are good or bad, a bleffing or a curse :

1. But then their virtues, by a thrifty providence, Are all fum'd up in thy bleft self, and make thee A happiness, which if enjoy'd, must be

Beftow'd by gift, because above all purchase.

Had my birth but been

As free from height as from ambition,
I might have flept under a filent roof,
And eat fecurely of a country feaft;
Bound to no ceremonious paths of state,
Nor forc'd to torture mine affections,

Sicily and Naples.

Or chain them till they ftarve, to fome deform'd
Remedy of love; and change our lives content
For a bare title that forfooth must come

To edge a line of words, and make our names fwell
To fill th' ambitious thirst of greedy age.

Jones's Adrafta.
No future titles fwell'd him; in his fight,
The worthy man feem'd greater than the knight:
True honour he to merit chain'd, and found
Defert the title gives, kings but the found.

Lleuellin

To pow'r, adoption makes thy title good;
Preferring worth, as birth gives princes place;
And virtue's claim exceeds the right of blood,;
As foul's extraction does the body's race.

Sir W. Davenant's Gondibert.

I learned to admire goodness; that
Gives the diftinction to men; without
This, I behold them but as pictures, which
Are flourish'd with a pencil, to fupply
The abfence of inward worth, their titles
Like landskips gracing them only far off.

Sir W. Davenant's Siege.

Princes may eafily pay their debts, when
They enforce their creditors to buy titles
And places too, at their own rates.

Sir W. Davenant's Albovine.

« EdellinenJatka »