A prison is a house of care,
A place where none can thrive,
A touchstone true to try a friend, A grave for one alive; Sometimes a place of right,
Sometimes a place of wrong, Sometimes a place of rogues and thieves, And honest men among.
Inscription on Edinburgh Tolbooth.
A prison heav'ns, I loath the hated name, Famine's metropolis, the sink of shame, A nauseous sepulchre, whose craving womb Hourly inters poor mortals in its tomb; By ev'ry plague and ev'ry ill possess'd, Ev'n purgatory itself to thee's a jest; Emblem of hell, nursery of vice, Thou crawling university of lice: Where wretches nuinberless to ease their pains, With smoke and ale delude their pensive chains. How shall I thee avoid? or with what spell Dissolve th' enchantment of thy magic cell? Ev'n For himself can't boast so many martyrs, As yearly fall within thy wretched quarters. Money I've none, and debts I cannot pay, Unless my vermin will those debts defray. Not scolding wife, nor inquisition's worse; 'Thou 'rt ev'ry mischief cramm'd into one curse. Tom Brown.
A prison's to a grave! when dead, we are With solemn pomp brought thither; and our heirs, Masking their joy in false dissembled tears, Weep o'er the hearse: but earth no sooner covers The earth brought thither, but they turn away With inward smiles, the dead no more remember'd: So enter'd into a prison.
Massinger's Maid of Honour.
Here's the place Which men (for being poor) are sent to starve in,Rude remedy, I trow, for sore disease. Within these walls, stifled by damp and stench, Does hope's fair torch expire; and at the snuff, Ere yet 't is quite extinct, rude, wild, and wayward The desperate reveries of wild despair, Kindling their hell-born cressets, like to deeds.. That the poor captive would have died ere practised, Till bondage sunk his soul to this condition.
A prison is in all things like a grave, Where we no better privileges have Than dead men; nor so good. The soul once fled Lives freer now, than when she was cloist'red In walls of flesh; and though she organs want To act her swift designs, yet all will grant Her facultics more clear, now separate, Than if the same conjunction, which of late Did marry her to earth, had stood in force; Incapable of death, or of divorce; But an imprison'd mind, though living, dies, And, at one time, feels two captivities : A narrow dungeon which her body holds, But narrower body, which herself enfolds.
Dr. King, Bishop Chichester They say this is the dwelling of distress, The very mansion-house of misery! To me, alas! it seems but just the same, With that more spacious jail-the busy world! Beller's Injured Innocence. They enter'd-'t was a prison room Of stern serenity and gloom.
Thas like a fever that doth shake a man From strength to weakness, I consume myself: I know this company, their custom wild, Hated, abhorr'd of good men; yet, like a child, By reason's rule instructed how to know Evil from good, I to the worser go.
Wilkins's Miseries of enforced Marriage. What is a prodigal? faith, like a brush, That wears himself, to flourish others' clothes; And having worn his heart ev'n to the stump, He's thrown away like a deformed lump: O such am I! I have spent all the wealth My ancestors did purchase; made others brave In shape and riches, and myself a knave: For tho' my wealth rais'd some to paint their door, 'Tis shut against me, saying, I am poor.
Wilkins's Miseries of enforced Marriage. What will this come to? he commands us to Provide, and give great gifts, and all out of An empty coffer: nor will he know His purse, or yield me this-
To show him what a beggar his heart is, Being of no power to make his wishes good; His promises fly so beyond his state, That what he speaks is all in debt; he owes for every word.
He is so kind, that he pays interest for 't: His lands put to their books.
Shaks. Timon of Athens.
That which made him gracious in your eyes, And gilded over his imperfections, Is wasted and consumed ev'n like ice, Which by the vehemence of heat dissolves, And glides to many rivers; so his wealth, That felt a prodigal hand, hot in expense, Melted within his gripe, and from his coffers Ran like a violent stream to other men's.
The spring, the summer, The chilling autumn, angry winter, change Their wonted liveries, and the 'maz'd world, By their increase, now knows not which is which. Shaks. Midsummer Night's Dream.
No 'scape of nature, no distemper'd day, No common wind, no customed event,
Cook's Green's Tu quoque. But they will pluck away its natural cause,
In some circumstances may be allow'd; As when it has no end but honesty; With a respect of person, quantity, Quality, time, and place: but this profuse,
Vain, injudicious spending makes him idiot; And yet the best of liberality
Is to be liberal to ourselves: and thus Your wisdom is most liberal, and knows How fond a thing it is for discreet men To purchase with the loss of their estate The name of one poor virtue, liberality, And that too, only from the mouth of beggars! One of your judgment would not, I am sure, Buy all the virtues at so dear a rate
Randolph's Muse's Looking-Glass.
And call thein meteors, prodigies, and signs, Abortives, presages, and tongues of heaven. Shuks. King John
Learn'd men oft greedily pursue Things that are rather wonderful than truc, And, in their nicest speculations, choose
To make their own discoveries strange news, And nat'ral hist'ry rather a gazette Of rareties stupendous and far-fet; Believe no truths are worthy to be known That are not strongly vast and overgrown, And strive to explicate appearances, Not as they're probable, but as they please In vain endeavour nature to suborn, And, for their pains, are justly paid with scorn
His promises were, as he then was, mighty; But his performance, as he now is, nothing.
Shaks. Henry VIII. Divinest creature, bright Astrea's daughter, How shall I honour thec for this success! Thy promises are like Adonis's gardens, That one day bloom'd, and fruitful were the next. Shaks. Henry IV. Part I.
He lin'd himself with hope,
Eating the air on promise of supply, Flattering himself with project of a power
Much smaller than the smallest of his thoughts;
And so with great imagination,
Proper to madmen, led his powers to death, And winking leap'd into destruction.
A promise may be broke;
Nay, start not at it-"T is an hourly practice; The trader breaks it, yet is counted honest. The courtier keeps it not-yet keeps his honour; Husband and wife in marriage promise much, Yet follow separate pleasure, and are-virtuous. The churchmen promise too, but wisely they To a long payment stretch the crafty bill, And draw upon futurity.
Havard's King Charles I.
They promise-I bow and am thankful; They fail to perform - I ne'er fret.
Wooing thee, I found thee of more value
Shaks. Henry IV. Part II. Than stamps in gold or sums in sealed bags;
Promise me friendship, but perform none: If thou wilt not promise, the gods plague thee, For thou art a man! If thou dost perform, Confound thee, for thou art a man!
Shaks. Timon of Athens. I see, sir, you are liberal in offers: You taught me first to beg; and now, methinks, You teach me how a beggar should be answer'd.
And 't is the very riches of thyself
That now I aim at.
I love this youth; and I have heard you say Love's reason's without reason.
I have ey'd with best regard; and many a time The harmony of their tongues hath into bondage Brought my too diligent ear: for several virtues Have I lik'd several women; never any With so full soul, but some defect in her Did quarrel with the noblest grace she own'd And put it to the foil. But you, O you, So perfect, and so peerless, are created Of every creature's best.
Do I not in plainest truth Tell you I do not, nor I cannot love you?
Hence, then, for ever from my Emma's breast, (That heaven of softness, and that seat of rest) Ye doubts and fears, and all that know to move Tormenting grief, and all that trouble love, Scattered by winds recede, and wild in forests Prior.
Sir Robert Stapleton's Slighted Maid. Hear, solemn Jove! and, conscious Venus, hear!
Within the hearts of all men lie
And thou, bright maid, believe me whilst I swear; No time, no change, no future flame shall move The well-placed basis of my lasting love.
These promises of wider bliss, Which blossom into hopes that cannot die, In sunny hours like this.
James R. Lowell's Poems. When wicked men make promises of truth, "T8 weakness to believe 'em.
Too much, Alexis, I have heard — But you shall promise, ne'er again To breathe your vows, or speak your pain.
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