act i. sc. 1.
[93-2] Have a care o' th' main chance.--BUTLER: _Hudibras, part ii. canto ii._
Be careful still of the main chance.--DRYDEN: _Persius, satire vi._
[93-3] See Raleigh, page 25; Lyly, page 33.
[94-1] See Marlowe, page 40.
[96-1] For fools rush in where angels fear to tread.--POPE: _Essay on Criticism, part iii. line 66._
[96-2] "Stolen forth" in White and Knight.
[97-1] A little too wise, they say, do ne'er live long.--MIDDLETON: _The Phoenix, act i. sc. 1._
[97-2] Off with his head! so much for Buckingham!--CIBBER: _Richard III._ (_altered_), _act iv. sc. 3._
[98-1] A weak invention of the enemy.--CIBBER: _Richard III. (altered), act v. sc. 3._
[98-2] See Spenser, page 27.
[100-1] For men use, if they have an evil tourne, to write it in marble: and whoso doth us a good tourne we write it in duste.--SIR THOMAS MORE: _Richard III. and his miserable End._
All your better deeds Shall be in water writ, but this in marble.
BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER: _Philaster, act v. sc. 3._
L'injure se grave en metal; et le bienfait s'escrit en l'onde. (An injury graves itself in metal, but a benefit writes itself in water.)
JEAN BERTAUT. _Circa 1611._
[101-1] Act v. Sc. 2 in Dyce, Singer, Staunton, and White.
[101-2] Act v. Sc. 4 in Dyce, Singer, Staunton, and White.
[101-3] Labour for his pains.--EDWARD MOORE: _The Boy and his Rainbow._
Labour for their pains.--CERVANTES: _Don Quixote, The Author's Preface._
[102-1] Unless degree is preserved, the first place is safe for no one.--PUBLIUS SYRUS: _Maxim 1042._
[103-1] When flowing cups pass swiftly round With no allaying Thames.
RICHARD LOVELACE: _To Althea from Prison, ii._
[103-2] See Sidney, page 34.
[103-3] Act v. sc. 5 in Singer and Knight.
[104-1] See Heywood, page 18.
[104-2] See Chapman, page 36.
[105-1] My dancing days are done.--BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER: _The Scornful Lady, act v. sc. 3._
[105-2] Dyce, Knight, and White read, "Her beauty hangs."
[105-3] Act ii. sc. 1 in White.
[105-4] Act ii. sc. 1. in White.
[106-1] Perjuria ridet amantum Jupiter (Jupiter laughs at the perjuries of lovers).--TIBULLUS: _iii. 6, 49._
[106-2] Act ii. sc. 1 in White.
[107-1] True as steel.--CHAUCER: _Troilus and Creseide, book v._ Compare _Troilus and Cressida, act iii. sc. 2_.
[107-2] Word and a blow.--DRYDEN: _Amphitryon, act i. sc. 1._ BUNYAN: _Pilgrim's Progress, part i._
[111-1] "Utmost" in Singer.
[112-1] Dear as the ruddy drops that warm my heart.--GRAY: _The Bard, i. 3, line 12._
[113-1] Though last not least.--SPENSER: _Colin Clout, line 444._
[118-1] See Heywood, page 14.
[119-1] Act. ii. sc. 1 in Dyce, Staunton, and White.
[120-1] Act ii. sc. 1 in Dyce, Staunton, White.
[120-2] Act ii. sc. 1 in Dyce and White; Act ii. sc. 2 in Staunton.
[120-3] Act ii. sc. 2 in Dyce and White; Act ii. sc. 3 in Staunton.
[123-1] Let the air strike our tune, Whilst we show reverence to yond peeping moon.
MIDDLETON: _The Witch, act. v. sc. 2._
[126-1] Act v. Sc. 7 in Singer and White.
[127-1] "Can walk" in White.
[127-2] "Eastern hill" in Dyce, Singer, Staunton, and White.
[127-3] "One auspicious and one dropping eye" in Dyce, Singer, and Staunton.
[128-1] "Armed at all points" in Singer and White.
[129-1] And may you better reck the rede, Than ever did the adviser.
BURNS: _Epistle to a Young Friend._
[129-2] "Hooks" in Singer.
[131-1] And makes night hideous.--POPE: _The Dunciad, book iii. line 166._
[131-2] "To lasting fires" in Singer.
[131-3] "Porcupine" in Singer and Staunton.
[131-4] "Rots itself" in Staunton.
[133-1] A short saying oft contains much wisdom.--SOPHOCLES: _Aletes, frag. 99._
[135-1] See Chaucer, page 5.
[136-1] "Who would these fardels" in White.
[138-1] "Protests" in Dyce, Singer, and Staunton.
[141-1] Extreme remedies are very appropriate for extreme diseases.--HIPPOCRATES: _Aphorism i._
[143-1] Thus woe succeeds a woe, as wave a wave.--HERRICK: _Sorrows Succeed._
Woes cluster; rare are solitary woes; They love a train, they tread each other's heel.
YOUNG: _Night Thoughts, night iii. line 63._
And woe succeeds to woe.--POPE: _The Iliad, book xvi. line 139._
[144-1] And from his ashes may be made The violet of his native land.
TENNYSON: _In Memoriam, xviii._
[144-2] A ministering angel thou.--SCOTT: _Marmion, canto vi. st. 30._
[145-1] But they that are above Have ends in everything.
BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER: _The Maid's Tragedy act v. sc. 4._
[147-1] The prince of darkness is a gentleman.--SUCKLING: _The Goblins._
[149-1] Though I be rude in speech.--_2 Cor. xi. 6._
[150-1] "These things to hear" in Singer.
[152-1] Though these lines are from an old ballad given in Percy's _Reliques_, they are much altered by Shakespeare, and it is his version we sing in the nursery.
[153-1] For he being dead, with him is beauty slain, And, beauty dead, black chaos comes again.
_Venus and Adonis._
[153-2] "Fondly" in Singer and White; "soundly" in Staunton.
[155-1] CERVANTES: _Don Quixote, part ii. chap. i._
[155-2] "His slow and moving finger" in Knight and Staunton.
[159-1] See Marlowe, page 41.
[159-2] See Lyly, page 32.
[161-1] "Worth" in White.
FRANCIS BACON. 1561-1626.
(_Works: Spedding and Ellis_).
I hold every man a debtor to his profession; from the which as men of course do seek to receive countenance and profit, so ought they of duty to endeavour themselves by way of amends to be a help and ornament thereunto.
_Maxims of the Law. Preface._
Come home to men's business and bosoms.
_Dedication to the Essays, Edition 1625._
No pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage-ground of truth.
_Of Truth._
Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other.
_Of Death._
Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.
_Of Revenge._
It was a high speech of Seneca (after the manner of the Stoics), that "The good things which belong to prosperity are to be wished, but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired."
_Of Adversity._
It is yet a higher speech of his than the other, "It is true greatness to have in one the frailty of a man and the security of a god."
_Of Adversity._
Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New.
_Of Adversity._
Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes.
_Of Adversity._
Virtue is like precious odours,--most fragrant when they are incensed or crushed.[165-1]
_Of Adversity._
He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief.
_Of Marriage and Single Life._
Wives are young men's mistresses, companions for middle age, and old men's nurses.[165-2]
_Of Marriage and Single Life._
Men in great place are thrice servants,--servants of the sovereign or state, servants of fame, and servants of business.
_Of Great Place._
Mahomet made the people believe that he would call a hill to him, and from the top of it offer up his prayers for the observers of his law. The people assembled. Mahomet called the hill to come to him, again and again; and when the hill stood still he was never a whit abashed, but said, "If the hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the hill."
_Of Boldness._
The desire of power in excess caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge in excess caused man to fall.[165-3]
_Of Goodness._
The remedy is worse than the disease.[165-4]
_Of Seditions._
I had rather believe all the fables in the legends and the Talmud and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a mind.
_Of Atheism._
A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion.[166-1]
_Of Atheism._
Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience. He that travelleth into a country before he hath some entrance into the language, goeth to school, and not to travel.
_Of Travel._
Princes are like to heavenly bodies, which cause good or evil times, and which have much veneration but no rest.[166-2]
_Of Empire._
In things that a man would not be seen in himself, it is a point of cunning to borrow the name of the world; as to say, "The world says," or "There is a speech abroad."
_Of Cunning._
There is a cunning which we in England call "the turning of the cat in the pan;" which is, when that which a man says to another, he lays it as if another had said it to him.
_Of Cunning._
It is a good point of cunning for a man to shape the answer he would have in his own words and propositions, for it makes the other party stick the less.
_Of Cunning._
It hath been an opinion that the French are wiser than they seem, and the Spaniards seem wiser than they are; but howsoever it be between nations, certainly it is so between man and man.
_Of Seeming Wise._
There is a wisdom in this beyond the rules of physic. A man's own observation, what he finds good of and what he finds hurt of, is the best physic to preserve health.
_Of Regimen of Health._
Discretion of speech is more than eloquence; and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal is more than to speak in good words or in good order.
_Of Discourse._
Men's thoughts are much according to their inclination,[167-1] their discourse and speeches according to their learning and infused opinions.
_Of Custom and Education._
Chiefly the mould of a man's fortune is in his own hands.[167-2]
_Of Fortune._
If a man look sharply and attentively, he shall see Fortune; for though she is blind, she is not invisible.[167-3]
_Of Fortune._
Young men are fitter to invent than to judge, fitter for execution than for counsel, and fitter for new projects than for settled business.
_Of Youth and Age._
Virtue is like a rich stone,--best plain set.
_Of Beauty._
God Almighty first planted a garden.[167-4]
_Of Gardens._
And because the breath of flowers is far sweeter in the air (where it comes and goes, like the warbling of music) than in the hand, therefore nothing is more fit for that delight than to know what be the flowers and plants that do best perfume the air.
_Of Gardens._
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.
_Of Studies._
Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.
_Of Studies._
Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtile; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.
_Of Studies._
The greatest vicissitude of things amongst men is the vicissitude of sects and religions.[168-1]
_Of Vicissitude of Things._
Books must follow sciences, and not sciences books.
_Proposition touching Amendment of Laws._
Knowledge is power.--Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est.[168-2]
_Meditationes Sacrae. De Haeresibus._
Whence we see spiders, flies, or ants entombed and preserved forever in amber, a more than royal tomb.[168-3]
_Historia Vitae et Mortis; Sylva Sylvarum, Cent. i. Exper. 100._
When you wander, as you often delight to do, you wander indeed, and give never such satisfaction as the curious time requires. This is not caused by any natural defect, but first for want of election, when you, having a large and fruitful mind, should not so much labour what to speak as to find what to leave unspoken. Rich soils are often to be weeded.
_Letter of Expostulation to Coke._
"Antiquitas saeculi juventus mundi." These times are the ancient times, when the world is ancient, and not those which we account ancient _ordine retrogrado_, by a computation backward from ourselves.[169-1]
_Advancement of Learning. Book i._ (_1605._)
For the glory of the Creator and the relief of man's estate.
_Advancement of Learning. Book i._
The sun, which passeth through pollutions and itself remains as pure as before.[169-2]
_Advancement of Learning. Book ii._
It [Poesy] was ever thought to have some participation of divineness, because it doth raise and erect the mind by submitting the shews of things to the desires of the mind.
_Advancement of Learning. Book ii._
Sacred and inspired divinity, the sabaoth and port of all men's labours and peregrinations.
_Advancement of Learning. Book ii._
Cleanness of body was ever deemed to proceed from a due reverence to God.[170-1]
_Advancement of Learning. Book ii._
States as great engines move slowly.
_Advancement of Learning. Book ii._
The world 's a bubble, and the life of man Less than a span.[170-2]
_The World._
Who then to frail mortality shall trust But limns on water, or but writes in dust.
_The World._
What then remains but that we still should cry For being born, and, being born, to die?[170-3]
_The World._
For my name and memory, I leave it to men's charitable speeches, to foreign nations, and to the next ages.
_From his Will._
My Lord St. Albans said that Nature did never put her precious jewels into a garret four stories high, and therefore that exceeding tall men had ever very empty heads.[170-4]
_Apothegms. No. 17._
Like the strawberry wives, that laid two or three great strawberries at the mouth of their pot, and all the rest were little ones.[171-1]
_Apothegms. No. 54._
Sir Henry Wotton used to say that critics are like brushers of noblemen's clothes.
_Apothegms. No. 64._
Sir Amice Pawlet, when he saw too much haste made in any matter, was wont to say, "Stay a while, that we may make an end the sooner."
_Apothegms. No. 76._
Alonso of Aragon was wont to say in commendation of age, that age appears to be best in four things,--old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.[171-2]
_Apothegms. No. 97._
Pyrrhus, when his friends congratulated to him his victory over the Romans under Fabricius, but with great slaughter of his own side, said to them, "Yes; but if we have such another victory, we are undone."[171-3]
_Apothegms. No. 193._
Cosmus, Duke of Florence, was wont to say of perfidious friends, that "We read that we ought to forgive our enemies; but we do not read that we ought to forgive our friends."
_Apothegms. No. 206._
Cato said the best way to keep good acts in memory was to refresh them with new.
_Apothegms. No. 247._
FOOTNOTES:
[165-1] As aromatic plants bestow No spicy fragrance while they grow; But crushed or trodden to the ground, Diffuse their balmy sweets around.
GOLDSMITH: _The Captivity, act i._
The good are better made by ill, As odours crushed are sweeter still.
ROGERS: _Jacqueline, stanza 3._
[165-2] BURTON (quoted): _Anatomy of Melancholy, part iii. sect. 2, memb. 5, subsect. 5._
[165-3] Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes; Men would be angels, angels would be gods. Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell, Aspiring to be angels, men rebel.
POPE: _Essay on Man, ep. i. line 125._
[165-4] There are some remedies worse than the disease.--PUBLIUS SYRUS: _Maxim 301._
[166-1] Who are a little wise the best fools be.--DONNE: _Triple Fool._
A little skill in antiquity inclines a man to Popery; but depth in that study brings him about again to our religion.--FULLER: _The Holy State. The True Church Antiquary._
A little learning is a dangerous thing.--POPE: _Essay on Criticism, part ii. line 15._
[166-2] Kings are like stars: they rise and set; they have The worship of the world, but no repose.
SHELLEY: _Hellas._
[167-1] Of similar meaning, "Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought." See Shakespeare, page 90.
[167-2] Every man is the architect of his own fortune.--PSEUDO-SALLUST: _Epist. de Rep. Ordin. ii. 1._
His own character is the arbiter of every one's fortune.--PUBLIUS SYRUS: _Maxim 283._
[167-3] Fortune is painted blind, with a muffler afore her eyes, to signify to you that Fortune is blind.--SHAKESPEARE: _Henry V.