Familiar Quotations, - [best romance ebooks .txt] 📗
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Chi fa ingiuria non perdona mai (He never pardons those he injures).—Italian Proverb.
[276:1] There are not eight finer lines in Lucretius.—Macaulay: History of England, chap. xviii.
[276:2] Whatever is, is right.—Pope: Essay on Man, epistle i. line 289.
[276:3] A green old age unconscious of decay.—Pope: The Iliad, book xxiii. line 929.
[277:1]
There is a pleasure in poetic pains.
Which only poets know.
Cowper: The Timepiece, line 285.
[277:2] Lords of humankind.—Goldsmith: The Traveller, line 327.
[277:3] Adore the hand that gives the blow.—Pomfret: Verses to his Friend.
[277:4] Among mortals second thoughts are the wisest.—Euripides: Hippolytus, 438.
[277:5] See Butler, page 211.
[277:6] The precious porcelain of human clay.—Byron: Don Juan, canto iv. stanza 11.
[277:7] Give ample room and verge enough.—Gray: The Bard, ii. 1.
[277:8] Whistling aloud to bear his courage up.—Blair: The Grave, line 58.
[277:9]
Le véritable Amphitryon
Est l'Amphitryon où l'on dîne
(The true Amphitryon is the Amphitryon where we dine).
Molière: Amphitryon, act iii. sc. 5.
[278]
EARL OF ROSCOMMON. 1633-1684.Remember Milo's end,
Wedged in that timber which he strove to rend.
Essay on Translated Verse. Line 87.
And choose an author as you choose a friend.
Essay on Translated Verse. Line 96.
Immodest words admit of no defence,
For want of decency is want of sense.
Essay on Translated Verse. Line 113.
The multitude is always in the wrong.
Essay on Translated Verse. Line 184.
My God, my Father, and my Friend,
Do not forsake me at my end.
Translation of Dies Iræ.
THOMAS KEN. 1637-1711.Praise God, from whom all blessings flow!
Praise Him, all creatures here below!
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host!
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!
Morning and Evening Hymn.
SIR JOHN POWELL. —— -1713.Let us consider the reason of the case. For nothing is law that is not reason.[278:1]
Coggs vs. Bernard, 2 Lord Raymond, 911.
[278:1] See Coke, page 24.
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.[278:2]
Brewster's Memoirs of Newton. Vol. ii. Chap. xxvii.
[278:2] See Milton, page 241.
[279]
EARL OF ROCHESTER. 1647-1680.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.
Song.
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.
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.[279:1]
An allusion to Horace, Satire x. Book i.
A merry monarch, scandalous and poor.
On the King.
It is a very good world to live in,
To lend, or to spend, or to give in;
But to beg or to borrow, or to get a man's own,
It is the very worst world that ever was known.[279:2]
[279:1] Thou best-humour'd man with the worst-humour'd muse!—Goldsmith: Retaliation. Postscript.
[279:2] These last four lines are attributed to Rochester.
SHEFFIELD, DUKE OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE. 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.[279:3]
Essay on Poetry.
[280]
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.
Essay on Poetry.
[279:3] See Suckling, page 257.
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.
Venice Preserved. Act i. Sc. 1.
Dear as the vital warmth that feeds my life;
Dear as these eyes, that weep in fondness o'er thee.[280:1]
Venice Preserved. Act v. Sc. 1.
And die with decency.
Venice Preserved. Act v. Sc. 3.
What mighty ills have not been done by woman!
Who was 't betrayed 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![280:2]
The Orphan. Act iii. Sc. 1.
Let us embrace, and from this very moment, vow an eternal misery together.[280:3]
The Orphan. Act iv. Sc. 2.
[280:1] See Shakespeare, page 112.
Dear as the light that visits these sad eyes;
Dear as the ruddy drops that warm my heart.
Gray: The Bard, part i. stanza 3.
[280:2]
O woman, woman! when to ill thy mind
Is bent, all hell contains no fouler fiend.
Pope: Homer's Odyssey, book xi. line 531.
[280:3] Let us swear an eternal friendship.—Frere: The Rovers, act i. sc. 1.
[281]
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.
NATHANIEL LEE. 1655-1692.Then he will talk—good gods! how he will talk![281:1]
Alexander the Great. Act i. Sc. 3.
Vows with so much passion, swears with so much grace,
That 't is a kind of heaven to be deluded by him.
Alexander the Great. Act i. Sc. 3.
When Greeks joined Greeks, then was the tug of war.
Alexander the Great. Act iv. Sc. 2.
'T is beauty calls, and glory shows the way.[281:2]
Alexander the Great. Act iv. Sc. 2.
Man, false man, smiling, destructive man!
Theodosius. Act iii. Sc. 2.
[281:1] See Beaumont and Fletcher, page 197.
[281:2] "Leads the way" in the stage editions, which contain various interpolations, among them—
See the conquering hero comes!
Sound the trumpet, beat the drums!—
which was first used by Handel in "Joshua," and afterwards transferred to "Judas Maccabæus." The text of both oratorios was written by Dr. Thomas Morell, a clergyman.
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;[281:3]
Mortality 's too weak to bear them long.
The Parting.
[281:3] Like those of angels, short and far between.—Blair: The Grave, line 588.
Like angel visits, few and far between.—Campbell: Pleasures of Hope, part ii. line 378.
[282]
JOHN DENNIS. 1657-1734.A man who could make so vile a pun would not scruple to pick a pocket.
The Gentleman's Magazine. Vol. li. Page 324.
They will not let my play run; and yet they steal my thunder.[282:1]
[282:1] Our author, for the advantage of this play ("Appius and Virginia"), had invented a new species of thunder, which was approved of by the actors, and is the very sort that at present is used in the theatre. The tragedy however was coldly received, notwithstanding such assistance, and was acted but a short time. Some nights after, Mr. Dennis, being in the pit at the representation of "Macbeth," heard his own thunder made use of; upon which he rose in a violent passion, and exclaimed, with an oath, that it was his thunder. "See," said he, "how the rascals use me! They will not let my play run, and yet they steal my thunder!"—Biographia Britannica, vol. v. p. 103.
THOMAS SOUTHERNE. 1660-1746.Pity 's akin to love.[282:2]
Oroonoka. Act ii. Sc. 1.
Of the king's creation you may be; but he who makes a count ne'er made a man.[282:3]
Sir Anthony Love. Act ii. Sc. 1.
[282:2] See Beaumont and Fletcher, page 198.
[282:3] I weigh the man, not his title; 't is not the king's stamp can make the metal better.—Wycherley: The Plaindealer, act i. sc. 1.
A prince can make a belted knight,
A marquis, duke, and a' that;
But an honest man 's aboon his might:
Guid faith, he maunna fa' that.
Burns: For a' that and a' that.
MATHEW HENRY.[282:4] 1662-1714.The better day, the worse deed.[282:5]
Commentaries. Genesis iii.
Many a dangerous temptation comes to us in fine gay colours that are but skin-deep.[282:6]
Commentaries. Genesis iii.
[283]
So great was the extremity of his pain and anguish that he did not only sigh but roar.[283:1]
Commentaries. Job iii.
To their own second thoughts.[283:2]
Commentaries. Job vi.
He rolls it under his tongue as a sweet morsel.
Commentaries. Psalm xxxvi.
Our creature comforts.
Commentaries. Psalm xxxvii.
None so deaf as those that will not hear.[283:3]
Commentaries. Psalm lviii.
They that die by famine die by inches.
Commentaries. Psalm lix.
To fish in troubled waters.
Commentaries. Psalm lx.
Here is bread, which strengthens man's heart, and therefore called the staff of life.[283:4]
Commentaries. Psalm civ.
Hearkners, we say, seldom hear good of themselves.
Commentaries. Ecclesiastes vii.
It was a common saying among the Puritans, "Brown bread and the Gospel is good fare."
Commentaries. Isaiah xxx.
Blushing is the colour of virtue.[283:5]
Commentaries. Jeremiah iii.
It is common for those that are farthest from God, to boast themselves most of their being near to the Church.[283:6]
Commentaries. Jeremiah vii.
None so blind as those that will not see.[283:7]
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