453 REFLECTIONS ON THE FALL OF SEJANUS

Arr.

DOST

ARRUNTIUS-TERENTIUS

OST thou hope, Fortune, to redeem thy crimes, to make amend for thy ill placed favours, with these strange punishments? Forbear, you things that stand upon the pinnacles of state,

to boast your slippery height; when you do fall, you pash yourselves in pieces, ne'er to rise; and he that lends you pity is not wise. Ter. Let this example move the insolent man, not to grow proud and careless of the gods: it is an odious wisdom to blaspheme,

454

much more to slighten, or deny their powers:
for, whom the morning saw so great and high,
thus low and little, 'fore the even doth lie.

DORDAN COUNSELLING FERREX

B. JONSON

A that of your brother you can thinke so ill?

LAS, my lord, what griefful thing is this

I never saw him utter likelie signe,

whereby a man might see or once misdeme
such hate of you, ne such unyelding pride:
ill is their counsell, shamefull be their ende,
that raysing such mistrustful feare in you,
sowing the seede of such unkindly hate,
travaile by treason to destroy you both.
Wise is your brother and of noble hope,
worthie to welde a large and mighty realme;
so much a stronger frende have you therby,
whose strength is your strength, if you 'gree in one.

T. SACKVILLE

455 ENCOURAgement to tHE WEAK BY the virtues

AND PRIVILEGES OF THE GOSPEL

Sand confirm the tottering knees,

TRENGTHEN ye the feeble hands,

say ye to the faint-hearted-Be ye strong:
fear ye not; behold your God!

He himself will come, and will deliver you.

Then shall be unclosed the eyes of the blind;

the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped;
then shall the lame bound like a hart,
and the tongue of the dumb shall sing:

for in the wilderness shall burst forth waters,
and torrents in the desert:

and in the haunt of the dragon shall spring forth
the grass with the reed and the bulrush.

ISAIAH

456

Foc.

AND

JOCASTA-POLYNICES

ND how didst thou before thy marriage, son, maintaine thy life, a stranger so bestad? Pol. Sometyme I found (though seldom so it were) some gentle heart that could for curtesie

content himself to succour mine estate.

Joc. Thy father's friends and thine, did they not help for to releeve that naked need of thine?

Pol. Mother, he hath a foolish fantasie

that thinks to find a friend in misery. Joc. Thou mightest have help by thy nobilitie. Pol. Covered alas in cloke of povertie.

457

G. GASCOIGNE

SPRETA TAMEN VIVUNT

DESPISED things may live, although they pine

in paine,

and thyngs oft trodden under foot may once yet rise againe.

The stone, that lieth full low, may climb at last full hie:

and stand aloft on stately towers in sight of everie eie. The cruell ax, whych felles the tree that grew full

streight,

is worne wyth rust, when it renues, and springeth up on height.

The roots of rotten weeds in swelling seas are seene; and when each tide hath tosst his worst they grow again full green.

I see no sight on earth, but it to change enclines; as little clouds oft overcast the brightest sunne that

shines.

No flower is so fresh, but frost can it deface:

no man so sure in any seat, but he may loose hys

place.

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G. GASCOIGNE

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460

AUDACES FORTUNA JUVAT

IF, feart e heart had tane the charge,

yeelding feare or cankred villanie

the wals of Rome had not bin reared so hie,
nor yet the mightie empire left so large.
If Menelaus could have rulde his will,
with foule reproch to loose his faire delight,

then had the stately towres of Troy stood still

and Greekes with grudge had dronke their owne
despight.

If dread of drenching waues or feare of fire
had staid the wandring prince amid his race,
Ascanius then, the fruit of his desire,

in Lavine land had not possessed place.
But true it is, where lots do light by chance,
there fortune helps the boldest to advance.

PROPER USE OF RICHES

OT that riches

NOT

G. GASCOIGNE

is or should be contemned, it being a blessing derived from heaven, and by your industry

pull'd down upon you; but in this, dear sir,
you have many equals: such a man's possessions
extend as far as yours: a second hath

his bags as full; a third in credit flies

as high in the popular voice: but the distinction
and noble difference by which you are
divided from them, is, that you are styled
gentle in your abundance, good in plenty;
and that you feel compassion in your bowels
of others' miseries, while they are curs'd
as rigid and inexorable.

ENID TO EARL DOORM

P. MASSINGER

In poor gown ving in my father's hall:

N this poor gown my dear lord found me first,

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462

K. E. L. G.

in this poor gown I rode with him to court,
and there the Queen array'd me like the sun:
in this poor gown he bade me clothe myself,
when now he rode upon this fatal quest
of honour, where no honour can be gain'd:
and this poor gown I will not cast aside
until himself arise a living man,

and bid me cast it. I have griefs enough:
pray you be gentle, pray you let me be:
I never loved, can never love but him:
yea, God, I pray you of your gentleness,
he being as he is, to let me be.

THE

PALLAS TO JUNO AND VENUS

A. TENNYSON

HE beauty that this subtil prize must win
no outward beauty hight, but dwells within,
and sift it as you please, and you shall find,
this beauty is the beauty of the mind:
this fairness, virtue hight in general,
that many branches hath in special;
this beauty wisdom hight, whereof am I,
by heaven appointed, goddess worthily.

And look how much the mind, the better part,
doth overpass the body in desert,

so much the mistress of those gifts divine
excels the beauty, and that state of thine.
Then if this prize be thus bequeathed to beauty,
the only she that wins this prize am I.

N°

KING EDWARD IV-LADY GREY

G. PEELE

OW tell me, madam, do you love your children?
Ay, full as dearly as I love myself.

K. E. And would you not do much, to do them good?
L. G. To do them good, I would sustain some harm.
K. E. Then get your husband's lands, to do them good.
L. G. Therefore I came unto your majesty.

K. E. I'll tell you, how these lands are to be got.
L. G. So shall you bind me to your highness' service.
K. E. What service wilt thou do me, if I give them.
L. G. What you command, that rests in me to do.
K. E. But you will take exceptions to my boon.

F. S. III

6

L. G. No, gracious Lord, except I cannot do it.

K. E. Ay, but thou canst do what I mean to ask.

L. G. Why, then I will do what your grace commands.

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464

465

LET

A FATHER'S LEGACY

KING LEAR

W. SHAKESPEARE

ET it be so,-Thy truth, then, be thy dower:
for, by the sacred radiance of the sun,

the mysteries of Hecate, and the night;

by all the operations of the orbs

from whom we do exist and cease to be;
here I disclaim all my paternal care,
propinquity and property of blood,

and as a stranger to my heart and me

hold thee, from this, for ever. The barbarous Scythian,
or he that makes his generation messes

to gorge his appetite, shall to my bosom
be well neighboured, pitied and relieved,
as thou my sometime daughter.

W. SHAKESPEARE

TO THE CONSTITUTIONAL EXILES OF 1823

WISE

ISE are ye in a wisdom vainly sought
thro' all the records of the historic page;
it is not to be learned by lengthened age;
scarce by deep musings of unaided thought:
by suffering and endurance ye have bought
a knowledge of the thousand links that bind
the highest with the lowest of our kind,
and how the indissoluble chain is wrought.
Ye fell by your own mercy once;-beware,
when your lots leap again from fortune's urn,
an heavier error—to be pardoned less:
yours be it to the nations to declare
that years of pain and disappointment turn
weak hearts to gall, but wise to gentleness.

FLEE

GOOD PRECEPTS

R. C. TRENCH

LEE fro the pres, and duelle with sothfastnesse;
suffice the thy good though hit be smale;

for horde hath hate, and clymbyng tikelnesse,
pres hath envye, and wele is blent over alle.