The instant action (a cause on foot)
Lives so in hope, as in an early spring
We see th' appearing buds; which, to prove fruit,

Hope gives not so much warrant, as despair,

That frosts will bite them.

so much

By how much unexpected, by
We must awake endeavour for defence;

For courage mounteth with occasion.

19-i. 3.

16-ii. 1.

Why, who cries out on pride,
That can therein tax any private party ?
Doth it not flow as hugely as the sea,
Till that the very very means do ebb ?
What woman in the city do I name,
When that I say, The city-woman bears
The cost of princes on unworthy shoulders?
Who can come in, and say, that I mean her,
When such a one as she, such is her neighbour?
Or what is he of basest function,

That says, his bravery is not on my cost
(Thinking that I mean him), but therein suits
His folly to the mettle of my speech ?
There then; How, what then? Let me see wherein
My tongue hath wrong'd him; if it do him right,
Then he hath wrong'd himself; if he be free,
Why then, my taxing like a wild-goose flies,
Unclaim'd of any man.

47

10-ii. 7.

Contentment.

How, in one house,

34-ii. 4.

Effrontery of Vice.

I ne'er heard yet,

Should many people, under two commands,

Hold amity ?*

48

That any of these bolder vices wanted
Less impudence to gainsay what they did,

Than to perform it first.

13-iii. 2.

Merely our own traitors. And as in the common course of all treasons, we still see them reveal themselves, till they attain to their abhorred ends; so he, that contrives against his own nobility, in his proper stream o'erflows himself.*

The jewel, best enamelled,

11-iv. 3.

Will lose his beauty; and though gold 'bides still,

That others touch, yet often touching will

Wear gold; and so no man that hath a name,

But falsehood and corruption doth it shame.t

14-ii. 1.

The shrug, the hum, or ha; these petty brands,
That calumny doth use:-

For calumny will sear‡

Virtue itself:-these shrugs, these hums, and ha's,

When you have said, she's goodly, come between,

Ere you can say, she's honest.

52

Impediments increase desire.

All impediments in fancy's course

Are motives of more fancy.

The purest treasure mortal times afford,

Is-spotless reputation; that away,

Men are but gilded loam, or painted clay.

A jewel in a ten-times-barr'd-up chest

Foundations fly the wretched; such, I mean,

Where they should be relieved.

13-ii. 1.

11-v. 3.

17-i. 1.

Rumour is a pipe

Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures;
And of so easy and so plain a stop,

That the blunt monster with uncounted heads,

The still discordant wavering multitude,

Can play upon it.

56

19-Induction.

The same.

Loud Rumour speaks:

I, from the orient to the drooping west,
Making the wind my post-horse, still unfold
The acts commenced on this ball of earth:
Upon my tongues continual slanders ride;
The which in every language I pronounce,
Stuffing the ears of men with false reports.

57

19-Induction.

In companions

Companionship.

That do converse and waste the time together,
Whose souls do bear an equal yoke of love,
There must be needs a like proportion
Of lineaments, of manners, and of spirit.

Friendship is constant in all other things,

Save in the office and affairs of love:

9-iii. 4.

Therefore,* all hearts in love use their own tongues;

Let every eye negotiate for itself,

And trust no agent: for beauty is a witch,

Against whose charms faith melteth into blood.t

6-ii. 1.

10-v. ii.

O, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man's eyes!

60

The effect of show on weak minds.

The fool multitude, that choose by show, Not learning more than the fond eye doth teach; Which pries not to th' interior, but, like the martlet,

Builds in the weather on the outward wall,
Even in the force* and road of casualty.

It is the witness still of excellency,

9-ii. 9.

To put a strange face on his own perfection. 6-ii. 3.

For nature, crescent,† does not grow alone
In thews and bulk; but as this temple waxes,

The inward service of the mind and soul

The devil can cite scripture for his purpose.‡

An evil soul, producing holy witness,

Is like a villain with a smiling cheek;

A goodly apple rotten at the heart;

O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!

9-i. 3.

The guilt being great, the fear doth still exceed,

And extreme fear can neither fight nor fly,

But coward-like with trembling terror die.

Glory grows guilty of detested crimes;

Poems.

When, for fame's sake, for praise, an outward part,

We bend to that the working of the heart.

67

8-iv. 1.

Fickle-mindedness.

O perilous mouths,

That bear in them one and the self-same tongue,

Either of condemnation or approof!

Bidding the law make court'sy to their will;

Hooking both right and wrong to th' appetite,

O, what may man within him hide,
Though angel on the outward side!

How may likeness,* made in crimes,

Making practice on the times,

Draw with idle spiders, stringst

Most pond'rous and substantial things!

5-iii. 2.

Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou

shalt not escape calumny.

36-iii. 1.

When we for recompense have praised the vile,

It stains the glory in that happy verse

Which aptly sings the good.

71

27-i. 1.

1

Falsehood, its evil.

Will poor folks lie,

That have afflictions on them; knowing 'tis

A punishment, or trial? Yes; no wonder,

When rich ones scarce tell true: To lapse in fulness

Is sorer, than to lie for need; and falsehood

Is worse in kings, than beggars.)

31-iii. 6.

To have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous
To use it like a giant.

Could great men thunder

5-ii. 2.

As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet,

[der.

Would use his heaven for thunder: nothing but thun

For every pelting, || petty officer,

Merciful Heaven!

Thou rather, with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt,

Split'st the unwedgeable and gnarled oak,