When flowing cups pass swiftly round

With no allaying Thames.1

To Althea from Prison, ii.

Fishes, that tipple in the deep,

Know no such liberty.

Stone walls do not a prison make,

Nor iron bars a cage;

Minds innocent and quiet take

That for an hermitage;
If I have freedom in my love,
And in my soul am free,
Angels alone that soar above

Enjoy such liberty.

JOHN WEBSTER.

Ibid.

Ibid. iv.

- 1638.

'Tis just like a summer bird-cage in a garden; the birds that are without despair to get in, and the birds that are within despair and are in a consumption, for fear they shall never get out.2 The White Devil. Acti. Sc. 2.

1 A cup of hot wine with not a drop of allaying Tyber in 't. Shakespeare, Coriolanus, Act ii. Sc. 1,

2 Le mariage est comme une forteresse assiégée; ceux qui sont dehors veulent y entrer, et ceux qui sont dedans veulent en sortir.- Un proverbe Arabe. Quitard, Études sur les Proverbes Français, p. 102.

It happens as with cages: the birds without despair to get in, and those within despair of getting out. Montaigne, Essays, Ch. v. Vol. iii.

Wedlock, indeed, hath oft compared been
To public feasts, where meet a public rout,

Condemn you me for that the duke did love me? So may you blame some fair and crystal river, For that some melancholic, distracted man Hath drown'd himself in 't. Ibid. Act iii. Sc. 2.

Glories, like glow-worms, afar off shine bright,
But look'd to near have neither heat nor light.1
Ibid. Activ. Sc. 4.

Call for the robin-redbreast and the wren,
Since o'er shady groves they hover,
And with leaves and flowers do cover
The friendless bodies of unburied men.

Ibid. Act v. Sc. 2.

Where they that are without would fain go in,
And they that are within would fain go out.

Sir John Davies, Contention betwixt a Wife, &c.
(From Davison's Poetical Rhapsody.)

Is not marriage an open question, when it is alleged, from the beginning of the world, that such as are in the institution wish to get out, and such as are out wish to get in? Emerson, Representative Men: Montaigne.

1 Love is like a landscape which doth stand Smooth at a distance, rough at hand.

Robert Hegge, On Love. We're charm'd with distant views of happiness, But near approaches make the prospect less.

Yalden, Against Enjoyment. As distant prospects please us, but when near We find but desert rocks and fleeting air.

Garth, The Dispensatory, Canto iii. 27. 'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view, And robes the mountain in its azure hue.

Campbell, Pleasures of Hope, Parti. Line 7.

RICHARD CRASHAW.

Circa 1616-1650.

The conscious water saw its God and blushed.1

Translation of Epigram on John ii.

Whoe'er she be,

That not impossible she,

That shall command my heart and me.

Life that dares send

A challenge to his end,

And when it comes, say, Welcome, friend!

Sydneian showers

Ibid.

Of sweet discourse, whose powers

Can crown old Winter's head with flowers.

Ibid.

A happy soul, that all the way

To heaven hath a summer's day.

In Praise of Lessius's Rule of Health.

The modest front of this small floor,
Believe me, reader, can say more
Than many a braver marble can,
"Here lies a truly honest man!"

Epitaph upon Mr. Ashton.

1 Nympha pudica Deum vidit, et erubuit.
Epig. Sacra. Aquæ in vinum versæ, p. 299.

THOMAS HEYWOOD.

The world's a theatre, the earth a stage
Which God and nature do with actors fill.

1649.

Apology for Actors. 1612. I hold he loves me best that calls me Tom.

Hierarchie of the blessed Angells. Ed. 1635, p. 206. Seven cities warr'd for Homer being dead; Who living had no roofe to shrowd his head.1 Ibid. p. 207.

Her that ruled the rost in the kitchen.2
History of Women. Ed. 1624, p. 286.

WILLIAM BASSE.

1613-1648.

Renowned Spenser, lie a thought more nigh
To learned Chaucer, and rare Beaumont lie

A little nearer Spenser, to make room

For Shakespeare in your threefold, fourfold On Shakespeare.

tomb.3

SIR WILLIAM DAVENANT.

1605-1668.

Th' assembled souls of all that men held wise.

Gondibert. Book ii. Canto v. St. 37.

Since knowledge is but sorrow's spy,

It is not safe to know.4

The Just Italian. Act v. Sc. i.

1 Seven wealthy towns contend for Homer dead, Through which the living Homer begged his bread. Ascribed to Thomas Seward.

2 See Proverbial Expressions.

3 See Jonson, To the Memory of Shakespeare. Compare Prior, post, p. 258.

SIR JOHN DENHAM. 1615-1668.

Though with those streams he no resemblance hold,

Whose foam is amber and their gravel gold;
His genuine and less guilty wealth t'explore,
Search not his bottom, but survey his shore.
Cooper's Hill, Line 165.

O, could I flow like thee, and make thy stream
My great example, as it is my theme!
Though deep, yet clear; though gentle, yet not

dull ;

Strong without rage; without o'erflowing full. Line 189.

Actions of the last age are like almanacs of the last year. The Sophy. A Tragedy.

But whither am I strayed? I need not raise
Trophies to thee from other men's dispraise;
Nor is thy fame on lesser ruins built;
Nor needs thy juster title the foul guilt

Of Eastern kings, who, to secure their reign,
Must have their brothers, sons, and kindred

slain.1

On Mr. John Fletcher's Works.

1 Poets are sultans, if they had their will; For every author would his brother kill.

Orrery, "in one of his Prologues," says Johnson.

Should such a man, too fond to rule alone,

Bear like the Turk, no brother near the throne.

Pope, Prologue to the Satires, Line 197.