Sivut kuvina
PDF
ePub

'The world is a great dance, in which we find
The good and bad have various turns affign'd;
But when they've ended the great masquerade,
One goes to glory, th' other to a fhade.

Crown's Juliana.

YOUTH.

BE

Cotonea,

E affable and courteous in youth, that
You may be honour'd in age. Rofes that
Lote their colours, keep their favours, and pluck'd
From the ftalk, are put to the ftill.
Because it boweth when the fun rifeth,
Is sweetest when it is oldest and children,
Which in their tender Years fow courtesy,
Shall in their declining ftates reap pity,

Lilly's Sapho and Phas.

-Let me not live (quoth he)

After my flame lacks oil; to be the fnuff
Of younger fpirits, whofe apprehenfive fenfes
All but new things disdain; whose judgments are
Meer fathers of their garments; whofe conftancies
Expire before their fashions.

Shakespear's All's well that ends well.

-For Youth no less becomes

The light and carelefs livery' that it wears, 'Than fettled age his fables, and his weeds

Importing health and graveness.

Shakespear's Hamlet.

I'll ferve his youth, for youth must have his course,
For being restrain'd, it makes him ten times worse :
His pride, his riot, all that may be nam'd,
Time may recall, and all his madness tam'd.

Shakespear's London Prodigal.

I'll not practice any violent means to stay
Th' unbridled courfe of youth in him for that
Reftrain'd, grows more impatient; and, in kind,
Like to the eager, but the gen'rous grey-hound,
Who, ne'er fo little from his game withheld,
Turns head, and leaps up at his holder's throat.

Johnson's Every Man in his Humour. What Stoick ftrange, who moft precife appears, Could that Youth's death with tearless eyes behold? In all perfections ripe, tho' green in years;

A hoary judgment under locks of gold.

-The heat

E. of Sterline's Crafus.

Of an unfteady youth, a giddy brain,
Green indifcretion, flattery of greatness,
Rawnels of judgment, wilfulness in folly,

Thoughts vagrant as the wind, and as uncertain.

John Ford's Broken Heart.

-Folly may be in youth:

But many times 'tis mixt with grave difcretion
That tempers it to use, and makes its judgment
Equal, if not exceeding that, which palleys
Have almoft fhaken into a disease.

I love to fee a nimble activeness

Nabbs's Covent Garden.

In noble youth; it argues active minds
In well fhap'd bodies, and begets a joy
Dancing within me.

1. Though youthful blood be hot,

Yet it must be allay'd and cool'd by snowy age;
And those of elder years ought to restrain
Its violent and impetuous course.

2. Ay, but with this caution and provifo,
That the restraint be not unfeasonable :
'Tis a receiv'd opinion 'mong anatomists,
That the ligature and binding of a member,
If feasonably apply'd, preferves the heart

Ibid.

From

From violent influxes of the blood;
But if the application be untimely, it caufes
Gangreens and hæmorrhagies;

So youthful blood if checkt unfeasonably,
Becomes more infolent and impetuous,
More vitiated and corrupt, than if
Its natural courfe had not been hinder'd ;
The age of youth is the strong rein of
Paffion, and vice does ride in triumph
Upon the wheels of vehement defire,
Which run with infinite celerity,
When the body drives the chariot,
They can't be stopp'd on a fudden;
Art and deliberation must be us'd.

Nevile's Poor Scholar.
All hardy youths! from valiant fathers fprung,
Whom perfect honour he fo highly taught,
That th' aged fetch'd examples from the young,
And hid the vain experience which they brought.
Sir William Davenant's Gondibert.
Something of youth, I in old age approve;
But more the marks of age in youth I love.
Who this obferves, may in his body find
Decrepit age, but never in his mind.

Denham.

And they whofe high examples youth obeys,
Are not defpifed, though their ftrength decays;
And thofe decays, to fpeak the naked truth,
Though the defects of age, were crimes of youth:
Intemp'rate youth, by fad experience found,
Ends in an age imperfect and unfound.

And to rafh youth 'tis an unhappy fate,
To come too early to a great estate.

FINI S.

Denham.

Crown's Califto.

M

« EdellinenJatka »