Southey's Common-place Book: Original memoranda, etc

Is like Alcides' shirt, if it stay on us
Till pride hath mixt it with our blood; nor

can we

-"Sweet expressions, quick conceit, Familiar language, fashioned to the weight Part with't at pleasure: when we would Of such as speak it."

"PUT on

The surest armour anvil'd in the shop
Of passive fortitude."

BEAUMONT and FLETCHER. Lover's

Progress, p. 421.

"A MAN from whose example As from a compass, we may steer our fortunes,

Our actions, and our age; and safe arrive at A memory that shall become our ashes." Ibid. The Pilgrim, p. 445.

"FOR he that holds no faith, shall find no trust;

But sowing wrong, is sure to reap the same." DANIEL, vol. 1, p. 77.

uncase,

It brings along with it both flesh and sinews, And leaves us living monsters."

Ibid. Prophetess, p. 166.

"WHERE benefits

Are ill-conferred, as on unworthy men
That turn them to bad uses, the bestower
For wanting judgement how and on whom
to place them,
Is partly guilty."

Ibid. Queen of Corinth, p. 192.

Humility.

"THE fullest and best ears of corn hang lowest towards the ground." -BP. REYNOLDS, vol. 5, p. 47.

"OURSELVES change most; yea, all things Col callo del costume il senso indura."

change below,

Ibid. vol. 2, p. 9.

"CHI sta nel mondo, e pur vaol pace in

terna

Voglia il solo voler di chi il governa."

Ibid. p. 12.

MOTTO. "Non è chiuso sentier, che meni all'ombra Dell'amate foreste di Parnaso,

Che a lui fosse nascosto: e non è calle.
Che sorga à puri rivi d'Ippocrene,
Che a lui non fosse aperto."

CHIABRERA. T. 2, p. 175.

"THE humourous (i.e. humid) air shall mix her solemn tunes

With thy sad words."

BEN JONSON, vol. 2, p. 237. Cynthia's Revels.

"BUT such is the perverseness of our nature,
That if we once but fancy levity,
How antic and ridiculous soe'er
It suit with us, yet will our muffled thought
Choose rather not to see it, than avoid it:
And if we can but banish our own sense,
We act our mimic tricks with that free
license,

That lust, that pleasure, that security,
As if we practised in a paste-board case,
And no one saw the motion, but the motion."
Ibid. p. 252.

"MEN speak ill of thee: so they be ill men, If they spake worse, 'twere better; for of such

To be dispraised, is the most perfect praise. What can his censure hurt me, whom the world

Hath censured vile before me !"

Ibid. p. 281.

"Arts, Arrantius?

"YEARS are beneath the spheres; and time None but the plain and passive fortitude,

makes weak

To suffer and be silent; never stretch These arms against the torrent; live at

home

With my own thoughts, and innocence about

me,

Not tempting the wolves' jaws: these are my arts."-BEN JONSON. Sejanus, p. 104.

out

"WHAT a wild muster's here of attributes | Handsome and neat; but then as they grew T'express a worm,-a snake."-Ibid. p. 115. Said of the serpent which came out of his statue, but applicable to adulatory epithets of dignity.

"It is a note

Of upstart greatness, to observe and watch
For these poor trifles, which the noble mind
Neglects and scorns.

-Aye, and they think themselves
Deeply dishonoured where they are omitted,
(As if they were necessities that helped
To the perfection of their dignities,)
And hate the men that but refrain them."

Ibid. p. 137.
"BEAUTY, wit, and grace,
The elements of active delicacy,
Those all-eye-pleasing harmonies of sight
Which do enchant men's fancies, and stir up

The life blood of dull earth."

MACHIN'S Dumb Knight.

Old Play, vol. 4, p. 383.
"AYE! well done!
Promises are no fetters: with that tongue
Thy promise past, unpromise it again.
Wherefore has man a tongue of power to
speak,

But to speak still to his own private purpose?
Beasts utter but one sound; but men have

Of speech, and reason, even by nature given
Now to say one thing, and another now,
As best may serve their profitable ends."
CHAPMAN. All Fools.
Old Play, vol. 4. p. 129.
"BELIEVE it, sir,

That clothes do much upon the wit, as
weather

Does on the brain: and thence, sir, comes
your proverb,
[perience
The tailor makes the man. I speak by ex-
Of my own customers. I have had gallants
Both court and country, would have fool'd

you up

In a new suit, with the best wits in being, And kept their speed as long as their clothes lasted

At the elbows again, or had a stain or spot,
They have sunk most wretchedly."

"I WONDER gentlemen

And men of means will not maintain them-
selves
[highest:
Fresher in wit, I mean in clothes, to the
For he that's out of clothes is out of fashion,
And out of fashion is out of countenance,
And out of countenance is out of wit."
BEN JONSON. Staple of News,
vol. 5, pp. 177-8.

"A POOR affrighted

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