Familiar Quotations, - [best romance ebooks .txt] 📗
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[435:2] Usually quoted, "Few die and none resign."
[436:1] See Appendix, page 859.
JOSIAH QUINCY, Jr. 1744-1775.Blandishments will not fascinate us, nor will threats of a "halter" intimidate. For, under God, we are determined that wheresoever, whensoever, or howsoever we shall be called to make our exit, we will die free men.
Observations on the Boston Port Bill, 1774.
CHARLES DIBDIN. 1745-1814.There 's a sweet little cherub that sits up aloft,
To keep watch for the life of poor Jack.
Poor Jack.
Did you ever hear of Captain Wattle?
He was all for love, and a little for the bottle.
Captain Wattle and Miss Roe.
His form was of the manliest beauty,
His heart was kind and soft;
Faithful below he did his duty,
But now he 's gone aloft.
Tom Bowling.
For though his body 's under hatches,
His soul has gone aloft.
Tom Bowling.
Spanking Jack was so comely, so pleasant, so jolly,
Though winds blew great guns, still he 'd whistle and sing;
Jack loved his friend, and was true to his Molly,
And if honour gives greatness, was great as a king.
The Sailor's Consolation.[436:2]
[436:2] A song with this title, beginning, "One night came on a hurricane," was written by William Pitt, of Malta, who died in 1840.
[437]
HANNAH MORE. 1745-1833.To those who know thee not, no words can paint!
And those who know thee, know all words are faint!
Sensibility.
Since trifles make the sum of human things,
And half our misery from our foibles springs.
Sensibility.
In men this blunder still you find,—
All think their little set mankind.
Florio. Part i.
Small habits well pursued betimes
May reach the dignity of crimes.
Florio. Part i.
LORD STOWELL. 1745-1836.A dinner lubricates business.
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. viii. p. 67, note.
The elegant simplicity of the three per cents.[437:1]
Lives of the Lord Chancellors (Campbell). Vol. x. Chap. 212.
[437:1] The sweet simplicity of the three per cents.—Disraeli (Earl Beaconsfield): Endymion.
SIR WILLIAM JONES. 1746-1794.Than all Bocara's vaunted gold,
Than all the gems of Samarcand.
A Persian Song of Hafiz.
Go boldly forth, my simple lay,
Whose accents flow with artless ease,
Like orient pearls at random strung.[437:2]
A Persian Song of Hafiz.
[438]
On parent knees, a naked new-born child,
Weeping thou sat'st while all around thee smiled;
So live, that sinking in thy last long sleep,
Calm thou mayst smile, while all around thee weep.
From the Persian.
What constitutes a state?
. . . . . . .
Men who their duties know,
But know their rights, and knowing, dare maintain.
. . . . . . .
And sovereign law, that state's collected will,
O'er thrones and globes elate,
Sits empress, crowning good, repressing ill.[438:1]
Ode in Imitation of Alcæus.
Seven hours to law, to soothing slumber seven,
Ten to the world allot, and all to heaven.[438:2]
[437:2]
'T was he that ranged the words at random flung,
Pierced the fair pearls and them together strung.
Eastwick: Anvari Suhaili. (Translated from Firdousi.)
[438:1] Neither walls, theatres, porches, nor senseless equipage, make states, but men who are able to rely upon themselves.—Aristides: Orations (Jebb's edition), vol. i. (trans. by A. W. Austin).
By Themistocles alone, or with very few others, does this saying appear to be approved, which, though Alcæus formerly had produced, many afterwards claimed: "Not stones, nor wood, nor the art of artisans, make a state; but where men are who know how to take care of themselves, these are cities and walls."—Ibid. vol. ii.
[438:2] See Coke, page 24.
JOHN LOGAN. 1748-1788.Thou hast no sorrow in thy song,
No winter in thy year.
To the Cuckoo.
Oh could I fly, I 'd fly with thee!
We 'd make with joyful wing
Our annual visit o'er the globe,
Companions of the spring.
To the Cuckoo.
[439]
JONATHAN M. SEWALL. 1748-1808.No pent-up Utica contracts your powers,
But the whole boundless continent is yours.
Epilogue to Cato.[439:1]
[439:1] Written for the Bow Street Theatre, Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
JOHN EDWIN. 1749-1790.A man's ingress into the world is naked and bare,
His progress through the world is trouble and care;
And lastly, his egress out of the world, is nobody knows where.
If we do well here, we shall do well there:
I can tell you no more if I preach a whole year.[439:2]
The Eccentricities of John Edwin (second edition), vol. i. p. 74. London, 1791.
[439:2] These lines Edwin offers as heads of a "sermon." Longfellow places them in the mouth of "The Cobbler of Hagenau," as a "familiar tune." See "The Wayside Inn, part ii. The Student's Tale."
JOHN TRUMBULL. 1750-1831.But optics sharp it needs, I ween,
To see what is not to be seen.
McFingal. Canto i. Line 67.
But as some muskets so contrive it
As oft to miss the mark they drive at,
And though well aimed at duck or plover,
Bear wide, and kick their owners over.
McFingal. Canto i. Line 93.
As though there were a tie
And obligation to posterity.
We get them, bear them, breed, and nurse:
What has posterity done for us
[440]That we, lest they their rights should lose,
Should trust our necks to gripe of noose?
McFingal. Canto ii. Line 121.
No man e'er felt the halter draw,
With good opinion of the law.
McFingal. Canto iii. Line 489.
RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 1751-1816.Illiterate him, I say, quite from your memory.
The Rivals. Act i. Sc. 2.
'T is safest in matrimony to begin with a little aversion.
The Rivals. Act i. Sc. 2.
A progeny of learning.
The Rivals. Act i. Sc. 2.
A circulating library in a town is as an evergreen tree of diabolical knowledge.
The Rivals. Act iii. Sc. 1.
He is the very pine-apple of politeness!
The Rivals. Act iii. Sc. 3.
If I reprehend anything in this world, it is the use of my oracular tongue, and a nice derangement of epitaphs!
The Rivals. Act iii. Sc. 3.
As headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile.
The Rivals. Act iii. Sc. 3.
Too civil by half.
The Rivals. Act iii. Sc. 4.
Our ancestors are very good kind of folks; but they are the last people I should choose to have a visiting acquaintance with.
The Rivals. Act iv. Sc. 1.
No caparisons, miss, if you please. Caparisons don't become a young woman.
The Rivals. Act iv. Sc. 2.
We will not anticipate the past; so mind, young people,—our retrospection will be all to the future.
The Rivals. Act iv. Sc. 2.
You are not like Cerberus, three gentlemen at once, are you?
The Rivals. Act iv. Sc. 2.
[441]
The quarrel is a very pretty quarrel as it stands; we should only spoil it by trying to explain it.
The Rivals. Act iv. Sc. 3.
You 're our enemy; lead the way, and we 'll precede.
The Rivals. Act v. Sc. 1.
There 's nothing like being used to a thing.[441:1]
The Rivals. Act v. Sc. 3.
As there are three of us come on purpose for the game, you won't be so cantankerous as to spoil the party by sitting out.
The Rivals. Act v. Sc. 3.
My valour is certainly going! it is sneaking off! I feel it oozing out, as it were, at the palm of my hands!
The Rivals. Act v. Sc. 3.
I own the soft impeachment.
The Rivals. Act v. Sc. 3.
Steal! to be sure they may; and, egad, serve your best thoughts as gypsies do stolen children,—disfigure them to make 'em pass for their own.[441:2]
The Critic. Act i. Sc. 1.
The newspapers! Sir, they are the most villanous, licentious, abominable, infernal— Not that I ever read them! No, I make it a rule never to look into a newspaper.
The Critic. Act i. Sc. 2.
Egad, I think the interpreter is the hardest to be understood of the two!
The Critic. Act i. Sc. 2.
Sheer necessity,—the proper parent of an art so nearly allied to invention.
The Critic. Act i. Sc. 2.
No scandal about Queen Elizabeth, I hope?
The Critic. Act ii. Sc. 1.
Certainly nothing is unnatural that is not physically impossible.
The Critic. Act ii. Sc. 1.
Where they do agree on the stage, their unanimity is wonderful.
The Critic. Act ii. Sc. 2.
Inconsolable to the minuet in Ariadne.
The Critic. Act ii. Sc. 2.
The Spanish fleet thou canst not see, because—it is not yet in sight!
The Critic. Act ii. Sc. 2.
[442]
An oyster may be crossed in love.
The Critic. Act iii. Sc. 1.
You shall see them on a beautiful quarto page, where a neat rivulet of text shall meander through a meadow of margin.
School for Scandal. Act i. Sc. 1.
Here is the whole set! a character dead at every word.
School for Scandal. Act ii. Sc. 2.
I leave my character behind me.
School for Scandal. Act ii. Sc. 2.
Here 's to the maiden of bashful fifteen;
Here 's to the widow of fifty;
Here 's to the flaunting, extravagant quean,
And here 's to the housewife that 's thrifty!
Let the toast pass;
Drink to the lass;
I 'll warrant she 'll prove an excuse for the glass.
School for Scandal. Act iii. Sc. 3.
An unforgiving eye, and a damned disinheriting countenance.
School for Scandal. Act v. Sc. 1.
It was an amiable weakness.[442:1]
School for Scandal. Act v. Sc. 1.
I ne'er could any lustre see
In eyes that would not look on me;
I ne'er saw nectar on a lip
But where my own did hope to sip.
The Duenna. Act i. Sc. 2.
Had I a heart for falsehood framed,
I ne'er could injure you.
The Duenna. Act i. Sc. 5.
Conscience has no more to do with gallantry than it has with politics.
The Duenna. Act ii. Sc. 4.
While his off-heel, insidiously aside.
Provokes the caper which he seems to chide.
Pizarro. The Prologue.
Such protection as vultures give to lambs.
Pizarro. Act ii. Sc. 2.
[443]
A life spent worthily should be measured by a nobler line,—by deeds, not years.[443:1]
Pizarro. Act iv. Sc. 1.
The Right Honorable gentleman is indebted to his memory for his jests, and to his imagination for his facts.[443:2]
Speech in Reply to Mr. Dundas. Sheridaniana.
You write with ease to show your breeding,
But easy writing 's curst hard reading.
Clio's Protest. Life of Sheridan (Moore). Vol. i. p. 155.
[441:1]
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