A brave man struggling in the storms of fate, While Cato gives his little senate laws, The mouse that always trusts to one poor hole The Wife of Bath. Her Prologue. Line 298. Love seldom haunts the breast where learning. lies, And Venus sets ere Mercury can rise. Ibid. Line 369. You beat your pate, and fancy wit will come; Knock as you please, there's nobody at home." Epigram. Party is the madness of many for the gain of a few.3 Thoughts on Various Subjects. I never knew any man in my life who could not bear another's misfortunes perfectly like a Christian. Ibid. 1 I hold a mouse's hert not worth a leek, That hath but oon hole to sterte to. Chaucer, The Prologue of The Wyfe of Bathe, V.572. 2 Cf. Cowper, p. 367. 8 From Roscoe's edition of Pope, Vol. v. p. 376; origi nally printed in Motte's Miscellanies, 1727. In the edition of 1736, Pope says, "I must own that the prose part (The Thoughts on Various Subjects), at the end of the second volume, was wholly mine. January, 1734." 13* ILIAD. Achilles' wrath, to Greece the direful spring Of woes unnumber'd, heavenly goddess, sing! Booki. Line 1. The distant Trojans never injured me. Book i. Line 200. Shakes his ambrosial curls, and gives the nod; The stamp of fate, and sanction of the god. Book i. Line 684. She moves a goddess, and she looks a queen. Book iii. Line 208. Not two strong men the enormous weight could raise; Such men as live in these degenerate days. Book v. Line 371. Like leaves on trees the race of man is found, Now green in youth, now withering on the ground: Another race the following spring supplies; They fall successive, and successive rise. Book vi. Line 181. Who dares think one thing, and another tell, My heart detests him as the gates of hell. Book ix. Line 412. A generous friendship no cold medium knows, Burns with one love, with one resentment glows. Book ix. Line 725. ODYSSEY. Few sons attain the praise Of their great sires, and most their sires disgrace. Book ii. Line 315. Far from gay cities and the ways of men. Book xiv. Line 410. Who love too much, hate in the like extreme. Book xv. Line 79. True friendship's laws are by this rule exprest, Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest.1 Book xv. Line 83. Whatever day Makes man a slave takes half his worth away. Yet, taught by time, my heart has learned to glow This is the Jew That Shakespeare drew.2 1 Cf. Satire ii. Book ii. Line 160, p. 288. 2 On the 14th of February, 1741, Macklin established his fame as an actor, in the character of Shylock, in the "Merchant of Venice." . . . . Macklin's performance of this character so forcibly struck a gentleman in the pit, that he, as it were involuntarily, exclaimed, "This is the Jew That Shakespeare drew." It has been said that this gentleman was Mr Pope, and that he meant his panegyric on Macklin as a satire against Lord Lansdowne.- Biog. Dram. Vol. i. Pt. ii. p. 469. THOMAS TICKELL. 1686-1740. Just men, by whom impartial laws were given; Nor e'er was to the bowers of bliss convey'd Ibid. Line 45. There taught us how to live; and (oh! too high The price for knowledge) taught us how to die.1 Ibid. Line 81. The sweetest garland to the sweetest maid. To a Lady; with a Present of Flowers. I hear a voice you cannot hear, I see a hand you cannot see, Colin and Lucy. DR. GEORGE SEWELL. - 1726. When all the blandishments of life are gone, The coward sneaks to death, the brave live on. The Suicide. 1 Cf. Porteus, Death, Line 318. I have taught you, my dear flock, for above thirty years how to live; and I will show you in a very short time how to die. Sandys, Anglorum Speculum, p. 903. JOHN GAY. 1688-1732. "T was when the sea was roaring A damsel lay deploring, All on a rock reclin'd. The What D'ye call't. Act ii. Sc. 8. So comes a reckoning when the banquet 's o'er, The dreadful reckoning, and men smile no more. Ibid. Act ii. Sc. 9. 'Tis woman that seduces all mankind; By her we first were taught the wheedling arts. The Beggar's Opera. Acti. Sc. 1. Over the hills and far away.1 Ibid. Act i. Sc. 1. If the heart of a man is depress'd with cares, Ibid. Act ii. Sc. 1. The fly that sips treacle is lost in the sweets. Ibid. Act ii. Sc. 2. Brother, brother, we are both in the wrong. Ibid. Act ii. Sc. 2. How happy could I be with either, Ibid. Act. Sc. 2. 1 And 't is o'er the hills and far away. Jockey's Lamentation. From Wit's Mirth, Vol. iv. |