And leads the will to desperate undertakings,
As oft as any passion under heaven,

That does afflict our natures.

36-ii. 1.

Is, to be frighted out of fear: and, in that mood,
The dove will peck the estridge

*

When valour preys on reason,

It eats the sword it fights with.

356

Excess of grief and joy.

The violence of either grief or joy

30-iii. 11.

Their own enacturest with themselves destroy :
Where joy most revels, grief doth most lament;
Grief joys, joy grieves, on slender accident.

36-iii. 2.

Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass,
Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron,
Can be retentive to the strength of spirit.

29-i. 3.

The harlot's cheek, beautied with plast'ring art,
Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it,
Than is my deed to my most painted word.

36-iii. 1.

Ignomy in ransom, and free pardon,
Are of two houses: lawful mercy is
Nothing akin to foul redemption.

360

Affliction, most felt by contrast.

To be worst,

5-ii. 4.

The lowest, and most dejected thing of fortune,
Stands still in esperance; lives not in fear:
The lamentable change is from the best;
The worst returns to laughter.

* Ostrich.

34-iv. 1.

† Determinations.

That is, compared with the thing that helps it. § An ignominious ransom.

Hope.

To some kind of men,

Their graces serve them but as enemies.-
O, what a world is this, when what is comely
Envenoms him that bears it!

363

Man and Woman, comparative view of.

Men have marble, women waxen, minds,

10-ii. 2.

And therefore are they form'd as marble will;

The weak oppress'd, the impression of strange kinds
Is form'd in them by force, by fraud, or skill:
Then call them not the authors of their ill,
No more than wax shall be accounted evil,
Wherein is stamp'd the semblance of a devil.
Their smoothness, like a goodly champaign plain,
Lays open all the little worms that creep;
In men, as in a rough-grown grove, remain
Cave-keeping evils that obscurely sleep:

Through crystal walls each little mote will peep:
Though men can cover crimes with bold stern looks,
Poor women's faces are their own faults' books.

No man inveigh against the wither'd flower,
But chide rough Winter that the flower hath kill'd!
Not that devour'd, but that which doth devour,
Is worthy blame. O, let it not be hild
Poor women's faults, that they are so fulfill'd
With men's abuses: those proud lords, to blame,
Make weak-made women tenants to their shame.

364

Appearances often deceitful.

It is the bright day that brings forth the adder;
And that craves wary walking.

Poems.

29-ii. 1.

Pirates may make cheap pennyworths of their pillage, And purchase friends, and give to courtezans,

Still revelling, like lords, till all be gone:

While as the silly owner of the goods

Weeps over them, and wrings his hapless hands,

And shakes his head, and trembling stands aloof,
While all is shared, and all is borne away;
Ready to starve, and dare not touch his own.

22-i. 1.

Who, ne'er so tame, so cherish'd, and lock'd up,
Will have a wild trick of his ancestors.

18-v. 2.

Marriage is a matter of more worth
Than to be dealt in by attorneyship.*

For what is wedlock forced, but a hell,
An age of discord and continual strife?
Whereas the contrary bringeth forth bliss,
And is a pattern of celestial peace.

A woman moved, is like a fountain troubled,
Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty;
And while it is so, none so dry or thirsty
Will deign to sip, or touch one drop of it.

Do not curst wives hold that self-sovereignty
Only for praise sake, when they strive to be
Lords o'er their lords?

370

Pleasure, more pursued than enjoyed.

Who riseth from a feast,

21-v. 5.

12-v. 2.

8-iv. 1.

With that keen appetite that he sits down?
Where is the horse that doth untread again
His tedious measures with the unbated fire
That he did pace them first? All things that are,
Are with more spirit chased than enjoy'd.
How, like a younker, or a prodigal,

The scarfed bark puts from her native bay,
Hugg'd and embraced by the strumpet wind!
How like the prodigal doth she return,

*By the discretionary agency of another.

† Decorated with flags.

瓶

With over-weather'd ribs, and ragged sails,
Lean, rent, and beggar'd, by the strumpet wind!

371

The effects of a disordered mind.

9-ii. 6.

Who can be wise, amazed, temperate, and furious,
Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man.

15-ii. 3.

372

Knowledge gained by experience.

Our courtiers say, all's savage but at court:
Experience, O thou disprov'st report!

The imperious* seas breed monsters; for the dish,
Poor tributary rivers as sweet fish.

31-iv. 2.

You cannot make gross sins look clear;
To revenge is no valour, but to bear.

27-iii. 5.

Trifles, light as air,

375

Are, to the jealous, confirmations strong
As proofs of holy writ.

The treasury of life, when life itself

Yields to the theft.†

What's a drunken man like?

Like a drown'd man, a fool, and a madman: one draught above heat‡ makes him a fool; the second mads him; and a third drowns him.

377

Pride and poverty.

O world, how apt the poor are to be proud!

There's nothing, situate under heaven's eye,
But hath his bound, in earth, in sea, in sky.

4-i. 5.

4-iii. 1.

37-iii. 3.

The power of imagination.

Conceit may rob

34-iv. 6.

14—ii. 1.

* Imperial.

When life is willing to be destroyed.

i.e. Above the state of being warm.

Counsel may stop awhile, what will not stay;
For when we rage, advice is often seen
By blunting us to make our wits more keen.
Nor gives it satisfaction to our blood,
That we must curb it upon others' proof;
To be forbid the sweets that seem so good,
For fear of harms that preach in our behoof.
O appetite, from judgment stand aloof!
The one a palate hath that needs will taste,
Though reason weep and cry-it is thy last.

What pleasure find we in life, to lock it
From action and adventure?

Poems.

31-iv. 4.

Every lane's end, every shop, church, session, hanging, yields a careful man work.

13-iv. 3.

O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee-devil!

*

*

* O, that men should put an enemy in their mouths, to steal away their brains! that we should, with joy, revel, pleasure, and applause, transform ourselves into beasts!

37-ii. 3.

Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,

So do our minutes hasten to their end;

Each changing place with that which goes before;
In sequent toil all forwards do contend.