289

Sorrow distorts appearances.

Each substance of a grief hath twenty shadows,
Which show like grief itself, but are not so:
For sorrow's eye, glazed with blinding tears,
Divides one thing entire to many objects;
Like perspectives,* which, rightly gazed upon,
Show nothing but confusion; eyed awry,
Distinguish form.

290

17-ii. 2.

Bid that welcome

Fortitude under afflictions.

Which comes to punish us, and we punish it
Seeming to bear it lightly.

Sweet are the uses of adversity;

Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.

30-iv. 12.

10-ii. 1.

From Rumour's tongues

They bring smooth comforts false, worse than true 19-Induction.

wrongs.

Time. I,—that please some, try all; both joy, and

terror,

Of good and bad; that make, and unfold, error.

294

13-iv. Chorus.

Mankind different in exterior only.

Are we not brothers?

So man and man should be; But clay and clay differs in dignity, Whose dust is both alike.

31-iv. 2.

*Amongst mathematical recreations, there is one in optics, in which a figure is drawn, wherein all the rules of perspective are inverted, so that if held in the same position with those pictures which are drawn according to the rules of perspective, it can present nothing but confusion: and to be seen in form, and under a regular appearance, it must be looked upon from a contrary station; or, as Shakspeare says, eyed awry.

This curious double allusion to an optical experiment, not even now very familiar, shows the strength, comprehensiveness and subtilty, of the poet's observation. The anamorphosis cylinder and polymorphic prism are both introduced.

There have been many great men that have flattered the people, who never loved them; and there be many that they have loved, they know not wherefore: so that, if they love they know not why, they hate upon no better ground. 28-ii. 2.

There is no sure foundation set in blood;
No certain life achieved by others' death.

297

Truth, beauty's ornament.

16-iv. 2.

O, how much more doth beauty beauteous seem,
By that sweet ornament which truth doth give!
The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem
For that sweet odour which doth in it live.
The canker-blooms have full as deep a dye,
As the perfumed tincture of the roses;
Hang on such thorns, and play so wantonly,

When summer's breath their masked buds discloses ;
But, for their virtue only is their show,

They live unwoo'd, and unrespected fade;
Die to themselves; sweet roses do not so;

Of their sweet deaths are sweetest odours made.

298

Poems.

Time.

The end crowns all;

26-iv. 5.

And that old common arbitrator, Time,

Will one day end it.

If the great gods be just, they shall assist
The deeds of justest men.

30-ii. 1.

To be called into a huge sphere, and not to be seen to move in it, are the holes where eyes should be, which pitifully disaster the cheeks.* 30-ii. 7.

*The being called into a huge sphere, and not being seen to move in it,' resembles sockets in a face where eyes should be [but are not]; which empty sockets, or holes without eyes, pitifully dis figure the countenance.

Heaven is above all; there sits a Judge,
That no king can corrupt.

O cunning enemy, that, to catch a saint,

25-iii. 1.

With saints dost bait thy hook! Most dangerous
Is that temptation, that doth goad us on
To sin in loving virtue.

303 The danger of relying on our own strength. [Lie in the lap of sin,] and not mean harm? It is hypocrisy against the devil:

They that mean virtuously, and yet do so,

5-ii. 2.

The devil their virtue tempts, and they tempt heaven.*

304

Pomp and power, their end.

37-iv. 1.

Why, what is pomp, rule, reign, but earth and dust? And, live we how we can, yet die we must.

23-v. 2.

Your worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all creatures else, to fat us; and we fat ourselves for maggots: Your fat king, and your lean beggar, is but variable service; two dishes, but to one table; that's the end. 36-iv. 3.

"Tis better to be much abused,

Than but to know't a little.

37-iii. 3.

307 The clearest sight without wisdom, blindness.

What an infinite mock is this, that a man should

have the best use of eyes, to see the way of blindness!

308

31-v. 4.

A guilty conscience.

Unnatural deeds

Do breed unnatural troubles: Infected minds

To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets.

*Matt. iv. 7.

15-v. 1.

The sleeping, and the dead,

Are but as pictures: 'tis the eye of childhood,
That fears a painted devil.

310

The variableness of mankind.

15-ii. 2.

The veins unfill'd, our blood is cold, and then
We pout upon the morning, are unapt
To give or to forgive; but when we have stuff'd
These pipes, and these conveyances of our blood,
With wine and feeding, we have suppler souls
Than in our priest-like fasts.
28-v. 1.

311

Confident security dangerous.

The wound of peace is surety,

Surety secure; but modest doubt is call'd

The beacon of the wise, the tent that searches
To the bottom of the worst.

26-ii. 2.

Shall we serve heaven

With less respect than we do minister
To our gross selves?

What viler thing upon the earth, than friends,
Who can bring noblest minds to basest ends!

5-ii. 2.

*This was the case of Queen Elizabeth after the execution of

Essex.

The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices
Make instruments to scourge us.*

Our size of sorrow,

Proportion'd to our cause, must be as great
As that which makes it.

319

34-v. 3.

30-iv. 13.

Time, its fleetness.

It is ten o'clock:

Thus may we see, how the world wags:
"Tis but an hour ago, since it was nine;
And after an hour more 'twill be eleven;
And so, from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe,
And then, from hour to hour, we rot and rot,
And thereby hangs a tale.

320

Wickedness, its own reward.

10-ii. 7.

What mischiefs work the wicked ones; Heaping confusion on their own heads thereby !

O mighty Cæsar! dost thou lie so low?

22-ii. 1.

Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils,
Shrunk to this little measure?

322

29-iii. 1.

Contention.

When two authorities are up,

Neither supreme, how soon confusion

May enter 'twixt the gap of both, and take

The one by the other.

28-iii. 1.

You snatch some hence for little faults; that's love,
To have them fall no more; you some permit
To second ills with ills, each elder worse;
And make them dread it to the doers' thrift.