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

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.'

And die with decency.

Act v. Sc. 1.

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! 2

Sc. 3.

The Orphan. Act iii. Sc. 1.

Let us embrace, and from this very moment vow an eternal misery together.

Act iv. Sc. 2.

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 Burd, part i. stanza 3.

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

• Let us swear an eternal friendship.— FRERE: The Rovers, act 1. sc 1.

-LEE.

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!1

Alexander the Great. Act i. Sc. 3.

Ibid.

Vows with so much passion, swears with so much grace,
That 't is a kind of heaven to be deluded by him.
When Greeks joined Greeks, then was the tug of war.

'Tis beauty calls, and glory shows the way.
Man, false man, smiling, destructive man!

Act iv. Sc. 2.
Ibid.

Theodosius. Act iii. Sc. 2.

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;"
Mortality's too weak to bear them long.

1 See Beaumont and Fletcher, page 197.

The Parting.

"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.

3 Like those of angels, short and far between. - BLAIR: The Grave,

line 588.

Like angel visits, few and far between. Hope, part ii, line 378.

- CAMPBELL: Pleasures of

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.1

THOMAS SOUTHERNE. 1660-1746.

Pity 's akin to love.2

Oroonoka. Act i. Sc. 1.

Of the king's creation you may be; but he who makes a count ne'er made a man.3

Sir Anthony Love. Act ii. Sc. 1.

MATHEW HENRY.

The better day, the worse deed.

1662-1714.

Commentaries. Genesis iii.

Many a dangerous temptation comes to us in fine gay colours that are but skin-deep.

Ibid.

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.

2 See Beaumont and Fletcher, page 198.

8 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.

4 Mathew Henry says of his father, Rev. Philip Henry (1631-1691): "He would say sometimes, when he was in the midst of the comforts of this life, All this, and heaven too!'" — Life of Rev. Philip Henry, p. 70 (London, 1830.)

5 See Middleton, page 172.

6 See Venning, page 262.

So

great was the extremity of his pain and anguish that he did not only sigh but roar.1

To their own second thoughts."

Commentaries. Job iii.

vi.

He rolls it under his tongue as a sweet morsel.

Here is bread, which strengthens man's heart, and therefore called the staff of life.*

Hearkners, we say, seldom hear good of themselves.

civ.

Ecclesiastes vii.

It was a common saying among the Puritans, “Brown bread and the Gospel is good fare."

Blushing is the colour of virtue."

Isaiah xxx.

Jeremiah iii.

It is common for those that are farthest from God, to boast themselves most of their being near to the Church.®

None so blind as those that will not see."

Not lost, but gone before.s

vii.

XX.

Matthew ii.

1 Nature says best; and she says, Roar ! — EDGEWORTH ; Ormond, chap. v. (King Corny in a paroxysm of gout.)

2 I consider biennial elections as a security that the sober second thought of the people shall be law. - FISHER AMES: On Biennial Elections, 1788.

3 See Heywood, page 19.

4 Bread is the staff of life.
Corne, which is the staffe of life.

England, p. 47. (London, 1624.)

- WINSLOW: Good Newes from New

The stay and the staff, the whole staff of bread. — Isaiah iii. 1.

5 Diogenes once saw a youth blushing, and said: "Courage, my boy! that is the complexion of virtue." - DIOGENES LAERTIUS: Diogenes, vi.

• See Heywood, page 12.

7 There is none so blind as they that won't see. versation, dialogue iii.

SWIFT Polite Co.

& Literally from Seneca, Epistola lxiii. 16.
Not dead, but gone before. - ROGERS: Human Life.

Men of polite learning and a liberal education.

It is good news, worthy of all acceptation; not too good to be true.

It is not fit the public trusts should be lodged in the hands of any, till they are first proved and found fit for the business they are to be entrusted with."

It is a maxim with me that no man was ever written out of reputation but by himself.

Monk's Life of Bentley. Page 90.

"Whatever is, is not," is the maxim of the anarchist, as often as anything comes across him in the shape of a law which he happens not to like.

Declaration of Rights.

The fortuitous or casual concourse of atoms.

1 See Heywood page 13.

Sermons, vii. Works, Vol. ii. p. 147 (1692).

2 See Appendix, page 859.

8 See Dryden, page 276. 4 That fortuitous concourse of atoms.- - Review of Sir Robert Peel's Address. Quarterly Review, vol. liii. p. 270 (1835).

In this article a party was described as a fortuitous concourse of atoms, - a phrase supposed to have been used for the first time many years afterwards by Lord John Russell. - Croker Papers, vol. ü. p. 54.