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1647-1680.

EARL OF ROCHESTER.

Angels listen when she speaks:

She's my delight, all mankind's wonder;
But my jealous heart would break,
Should we live one day asunder.

Here lies our sovereign lord the king,
Whose word no man relies on ;

He never says a foolish thing,

Nor ever does a wise one.

Song.

Written on the Bedchamber Door of Charles II.

And ever since the conquest have been fools. Artemisia in the Town to Chloe in the Country.

For pointed satire I would Buckhurst choose, The best good man with the worst-natured muse. An Allusion to Satire x. Horace. Book i.

A merry monarch, scandalous and poor.

On the King.

SIR CHARLES SEDLEY. 1639-1701.

When change itself can give no more,

'Tis easy to be true.

Reasons for Constancy.

Sheffield.-Aldrich.

235

SHEFFIELD, DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM-
SHIRE. 1649 – 1720.

Of all those arts in which the wise excel,
Nature's chief masterpiece is writing well.
Essay on Poetry.
There's no such thing in nature, and you'll draw
A faultless monster which the world ne'er saw.

Ibid.

Read Homer once, and you can read no more, For all books else appear so mean, so poor; Verse will seem prose; but still persist to read, And Homer will be all the books you need.

Ibid.

HENRY ALDRICH. 1647-1710.

If on my theme I rightly think,
There are five reasons why men drink :
Good wine, a friend, because I'm dry,
Or lest I should be by and by,

Or

any other reason why.1

Biog. Britannica.

Vol. i. p. 131.

1 These lines are a translation of a Latin epigram (erroneously ascribed to Aldrich in the Biog. Brit.) which Menage and De la Monnoye attribute to Père Sirmond.

Si bene commemini, causæ sunt quinque bibendi ;
Hospitis adventus; præsens sitis atque futura;
Et vini bonitas, et quælibet altera causa.

Menagiana, Vol. i. p. 172.

236 Otway. - Fletcher of Saltoun.

THOMAS OTWAY.

1651-1685.

O woman! lovely woman! nature made thee
To temper man; we had been brutes without you.
Angels are painted fair, to look like you :

There's in you all that we believe of heaven;
Amazing brightness, purity, and truth,

Eternal joy, and everlasting love.

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Dear as the vital warmth that feeds my life; Dear as these eyes, that weep in fondness o'er thee.1

Ibid. Act v. Sc. I.

What mighty ills have not been done by woman? Who was 't betray'd the Capitol? A woman! Who lost Mark Antony the world? A woman! Who was the cause of a long ten years' war, And laid at last old Troy in ashes? Woman! Destructive, damnable, deceitful woman!

The Orphan. Act iii. Sc. I.

ANDREW FLETCHER OF SALTOUN. 1653-1716.

I knew a very wise man that believed that, if a man were permitted to make all the ballads, he need not care who should make the laws of a nation.

Letter to the Marquis of Montrose, the Earl of Rothes, etc.

1 Cf. Gray, The Bard, Part i. St. 3.

ISAAC NEWTON. 1642-1727.

I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble, or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.1

Brewster's Memoirs of Newton.

Vol. ii. Ch. 27.

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'T is beauty calls, and glory shows the way.3

Ibid. Act iv. Sc. 2.

Man, false man, smiling, destructive man.

Theodosius. Act iii. Sc. 2.

1 Cf. Milton, Paradise Reg., Book iv. Lines 327 - 330. 2 It would talk,

Lord! how it talked!

Beaumont and Fletcher, The Scornful Lady, Act v. Sc. I. 8 leads the way,' in the stage editions, which contain various interpolations, among them

"See the conquering hero comes,

Sound the trumpet, beat the drums."

238 Norris. Pope. - Southerne.

JOHN NORRIS.

1657-1711.

How fading are the joys we dote upon !
Like apparitions seen and gone ;
But those which soonest take their flight
Are the most exquisite and strong;
Like angels' visits, short and bright,1
Mortality 's too weak to bear them long.

The Parting.

DR. WALTER POPE. 1630-1714.

May I govern my passion with absolute sway, And grow wiser and better as my strength wears

away.

The Old Man's Wish.

THOMAS SOUTHERNE. 1660-1746.

Pity 's akin to love.2

1 Cf. Campbell, p. 440.

2 Vio. I pity you.

Oroonoka. Act ii. Sc. 1.

Oli. That's a degree to Love.

Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act iii. Sc. 1.

Of all the paths that lead to woman's love

Pity 's the straightest.

Beaumont and Fletcher, Knight of Malta, Acti. Sc. 1.

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