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Can be made easy, till I have fhook off
The burthen of my fins in free confeffion,
Aided with forrow, and repentance for them
Is against reafon. Tis not laying by
My royal ornaments, or putting on
This garment of humility, and contrition,
The throwing duft, and afhes on my head,
Long fafts to tame my proud flesh, that can make
Atonement for my foul; that must be humbled;
All outward figns of penitence elfe are useless.

Maffinger's Emperor of the East. Sorrow for paft ills, doth restore frail man To his firft innocence.

Nabbs's Microcofmus.

Hope with forrow; greatest faults are small,
When that alone may make amends for all.

'Tis not, to cry God mercy, or to fit

And droop, or to confefs that thou haft fail'd : 'Tis to bewail the fins thou didst commit;

And not commit thofe fins thou haft bewail'd. He that bewails, and not forfakes them too; Confeffes rather what he means to do.

Ibid.

Quarles.
He for his fins hath paid with death and forrow;
His credit's more that pays, than doth not borrow.
Killegrew's Confpiracy.

He that repents e're he commits a fault;
Doth like a thirsty finner ftore his foul
With mercy, to absolve that fin himself,
Which he may afterwards more fecurely
Fall into.

Sir W. Davenant's Cruel Brother.

But penitence appears unnatural;
For we repent what nature did perfwade:
And we lamenting man's continu'd fall,
Accuse what nature neceffary made.

Since

Since the requir'd extreme of penitence

Seems fo fevere, this temple was defign'd
Solemn and strange without, to catch the sense;

And difmal fhew'd within, to awe the mind.
Of fad black marble, was the outward frame,
(A mourning monument to distant fight):
But by the largeness, when you near it came,
It feem'd the palace of eternal night.
Black beauty (which black Meroens had prais'd
Above their own) fadly adorn'd each part;
In ftone from Nile's hard quarrys, flowly rais'd,
And flowlier polish'd by Numidian art.
Hither a loud bell's toll rather commands
Than feems t'invite the perfecuted ear;
A fummons nature hardly understands ;
For few, and flow are those who enter here:
Within a dismal majefty they find;

All gloomy, great, all filent does appear,
As Chaos was, e're th' elements were defign'd;
Man's evil fate feems hid and fashion'd here.
Here all the ornament is rev'rend black;
Here the check'd fun his universal face
Stops bafhfully, and will no entrance make;

As if he spy'd night naked through the glass.
Black curtains hide the glass; whilft from on high,
A winking lamp, ftill threatens all the room;
As if the lazy flame juft now would die :

Such will the fun's laft light appear at doom.

This lamp was all, that here inform'd all eyes;
And by reflex, did on a picture gain
Some few falfe beams, that then from Sodom rise ;
Where pencils feign the Fire which Heav'n did rain.

This on another tablet did reflect,

Where twice was drawn the am'rous Magdaline; Whilft beauty was her care, then her neglect,

And brightest through her tears she seem'd to fhine. Near her, feem'd crucify'd, that lucky thief

(In heav'n's dark lott'ry profp'rous more than wife); Who grop'd at laft, by chance, for heav'n's relief, And throngs undoes with hope, by one drawn prize. many figures by reflex were fent,

In

Through this black vault instructive to the mind, That early, and this tardy penitent;

For with Obfidian ftone 'twas chiefly lin'd.

The feats were made of Ethiopian wood;
The polifh'd ebony, but thinly fill'd:
For none this place by nature understood;

And practice, when unpleasant, makes few skill'd.
Yet thefe, whom heav'n's myfterious choice fetch'd in,
Quickly attain devotion's utmost scope;
For having foftly mourn'd away their fin,
They grow fo certain, as to need no hope.

At a low door they enter, but depart

Through a large gate, and to fair fields proceed:
Where Aftragon makes nature laft by art,
And such long summers fhew, as ask no feed.

Sir W. Davenant's Gondibert.

'Tis not too late yet, to recant all this;

And there is oft more glory in repenting

Us of fome errors, than never to have err'd:
Because we find there are more folks have judgment

Than ingenuity,

A limb by being broke gets ftrength, they say,
If fet with art; fo broken vertue may.

Fountain's Rewards of Virtue.

Crown's Married Beau.

VOL. III.

F

REPORT.

REPORT.

For feldom fhall a ruler lofe his life,
Before falfe rumours openly be spread:
Whereby this proverb is as true as rife,

That rulers rumours hunt about a head:
Frown fortune once, all good report is fled:
For prefent fhew doth make the many blind,
And fuch as fee dare not difclose their mind.

Mirror for Magiftrates.

Reafon with the fellow,
Before you punish him, where he heard this;
Left
you fhould chance to whip your Information,
And beat the meffenger, who bids beware
Of what is to be dreaded.

Shakespear's Coriolanus.
Open your ears: For which of you will stop
The vent of hearing, when loud rumour speaks?
I from the orient to the drooping weft,
Making the wind my post-horse, ftill unfold
The acts commenced on this Ball of earth.
Upon my tongues continual flanders ride,
The which in ev'ry language I pronounce ;
Stuffing the ears of men with falfe reports.
I speak of peace, while covert enmity,
Under the smile of fafety, wounds the world :
And who but rumour, who but only I,
Make fearful mufters, and prepar'd defence;
Whilft the big year, fwoln with fome other griefs,
Is thought with child by the stern tyrant war,
And no fuch matter? Rumour is a pipe,
Blown by furmifes, jealoufies, conjectures,
And, of so easy and so plain a stop,

That the blunt monster, with uncounted heads,
The ftill-difcordant wav'ring multitude,

Can play upon it. But what need I thus

My well known body to anatomise

Among my houfhold? From rumour's tongues,

They bring fmooth comforts falfe, worse than true wrongs.

Shakespear's Second Part of K. Henry IV.

Is't not fome vain report, born without cause,
That envy or imagination draws

From private ends, to breed a publick fear,
T'amufe the world with things that never were?

They that intend

Daniel's Philotas.

To do, are like deep waters that run quietly;
Leaving no face, of what they were, behind them.
This rumour is too common, and too loud

To carry truth.

Beaumont and Fletcher's Captain.

I regard not, as a straw, the world:

Fame from the tongues of men, doth injury
Oftner than justice; and as confcience
Only makes guilty perfons, not report,
(For fhew we as clear as fprings unto the world,
If our own knowledge doth not make us fo,
That is fmall fatisfaction to our selves):
So ftand we ne'er fo lep'rous to man's eye,
It cannot hurt heart known integrity.

Nathaniel Field's Amends for Ladies.

Wrong'd by flying rumours, which like birds
Soaring at random, mute on any head.

Crown's Ambitious Statesman.

REPROOF

Forbear fharp fpeeches to her.

She's a Lady

So tender of rebukes, that words are ftrokes,

And ftrokes death to her.

Thou turn'ft mine eyes into my very foul,

Shakespear's Cymbeline.

Shakespear's Hamlet.

And there I fee fuch black and grained spots,

As will not leave their tinct,

If

any

here chance to behold himself,

Let him not dare to challenge me of wrong;
For, if he fhame to have his follies known,
First he should shame to act them. My ftrict hand
Was made to feize on vice; and, with a gripe,

F 2

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