342

343

Brevity of life.

Some, how brief the life of man
Runs his erring pilgrimage;
That the stretching of a span
Buckles in his sum of age.

Infatuation.

Let the superfluous and lust-dieted man,

10-iii. 2.

That slaves your ordinance, that will not see
Because he doth not feel, feel your power quickly;
So distribution should undo excess,

And each man have enough.

Sometimes we are devils to ourselves,

34-iv. 1.

When we shall tempt the frailty of our powers,
Presuming on their changeful potency.

26-iv. 4.

Why, all delights are vain; but that most vain,
Which, with pain purchased, doth inherit pain.

347

Excess not lasting.

8-i. 1.

Violent fires soon burn out themselves:

Small showers last long, but sudden storms are short; He tires betimes, that spurs too fast betimes;

With eager feeding, food doth choke the feeder :

Light Vanity, insatiate cormorant,

Consuming means, soon preys upon itself. 17-ii. 1.

348

Youth and age distinguished.

349

Love elevates and refines. Base men, being in love, have then a nobility in their natures more than is native to them.

37-ii. 1. 350 The most promising hopes often blasted.

As in the sweetest bud The eating canker dwells, so eating love Inhabits in the finest wits of all.

As the most forward bud
Is eaten by the canker ere it blow,
Even so by, love the young and tender wit
Is turn’d to folly ; blasting in the bud,
Losing his verdure even in the prime,
And all the fair effects of future hopes. 2-i. 1.
351

Sincere vows.
'Tis not the many oaths, that make the truth;
But the plain single vow, that is vow'd true.
What is not holy, that we swear not by,
But take the Highest to witness.*

11-iv. 2. 352

Silence, eloquent. The silence often of pure innocence Persuades, when speaking fails.

13–ii. 2. 353

Delusion of imagination.
O, who can hold a fire in his hand,
By thinking on the frosty Caucasus ?
Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite,
By bare imagination of a feast?
Or wallow naked in December snow,
By thinking on fantastic summer's heat ?
0, no! the apprehension of the good,
Gives but the greater feeling to the worse :
Fell sorrow's tooth doth never rankle more,
Than when it bites, but lancelh not the sore.

17-i. 3. 354

Violence of love.
This is the very ecstasy of love,
Whose violent property foredoest itself,

a

And leads the will to desperate undertakings,
As oft as any passion under heaven,

That does afflict our natures.

To be furious,

36-ii. 1.

Is, to be frighted out of fear: and, in that mood,
The dove will peck the estridge :*

When valour preys on reason,

It eats the sword it fights with.

The violence of either grief or joy

30-iii. 11.

Their own enacturest with themselves destroy:
Where joy most revels, grief doth most lament;
Grief joys, joy grieves, on slender accident.

Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass,
Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron,
Can be retentive to the strength of spirit.

36-iii. 2.

29-i. 3.

The harlot's cheek, beautied with plast'ring art,
Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it,
Than is my deed to my most painted word.

Ignomy in ransom, and free pardon,
Are of two houses: lawful mercy is
Nothing akin to foul redemption.

360

Affliction, most felt by contrast.

36-iii. 1.

5-ii. 4.

361

Suspicion. What ready tongue Suspicion hath.

19-i. 1. 362

Goodness often misinterpreted.

To some kind of men,
Their graces serve them but as enemies.-
0, what a world is this, when what is comely
Envenoms him that bears it!

10%ii. 2. 363 Man and Woman, comparative view of.

Men have marble, women waxen, minds, And therefore are they form'd as marble will; The weak oppress'd, the impression of strange kinds Is form'd in them by force, by fraud, or skill: Then call them not the authors of their ill, No more than wax shall be accounted evil, Wherein is stamp'd the semblance of a devil. Their smoothness, like a goodly champaign plain, Lays open all the little worms that creep; In men, as in a rough-grown grove, remain Cave-keeping evils that obscurely sleep: Through crystal walls each little mote will peep: Though men can cover crimes with bold stern looks, Poor women's faces are their own faults' books. No man inveigh against the wither'd flower, But chide rough Winter that the flower hath kill'd! Not that devour'd, but that which doth devour, Is worthy blame. 0, let it not be hild Poor women's faults, that they are so fulfill'd With men's abuses: those proud lords, to blame, Make weak-made women tenants to their shame.

Poems. 364

Appearances often deceitful.
It is the bright day that brings forth the adder;
And that craves wary walking.

29-ii. 1. 365

Prodigality of pirates. Pirates may make cheap pennyworths of their pillage, And purchase friends, and give to courtezans, Still revelling, like lords, till all be gone : While as the silly owner of the goods Weeps over them, and wrings his hapless hands,

And shakes his head, and trembling stands aloof,
While all is shared, and all is borne away ;
Ready to starve, and dare not touch his own.

22-i. 1. 366

Treason. Treason is but trusted like the fox; Who, ne'er so tame, so cherish’d, and lock'd up, Will have a wild trick of his ancestors. 18-y. 2. 367

Marriage. Marriage is a matter of more worth Than to be dealt in by attorneyship.*

a

For what is wedlock forced, but a hell,
An age of discord and continual strife?
Whereas the contrary bringeth forth bliss,
And is a pattern of celestial

peace.

21-v. 5. 368

Female anger.
A woman moved, is like a fountain troubled,
Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty;
And while it is so, none so dry or thirsty
Will deign to sip, or touch one drop of it. 12-v. 2.
369

Female ascendancy.
Do not curst wives hold that self-sovereignty
Only for praise sake, when they strive to be
Lords o'er their lords?

8-iv. 1. 370 Pleasure, more pursued than enjoyed.

Who riseth from a feast,
With that keen appetite that he sits down?
Where is the horse that doth untread again
His tedious measures with the unbated fire
That he did pace them first? All things that are,
Are with more spirit chased than enjoy'd.
How, like a younker, or a prodigal,
The scarfedf bark puts from her native bay,
Hugg’d and embraced by the strumpet wind !
How like the prodigal doth she return,

By the discretionary agency of another. | Decorated with flags.