Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

MISTAKE. MISTRESS. MISTRUST.

439

MISTAKE.

How man eternally false judgments makes,
And all his joys and sorrows are mistakes.

Fools into the notion fall,

That vice or virtue there is none at all;
Ask your own heart, and nothing is so plain,
'Tis to mistake them costs the time and pain.

Mistaken Brutus thought to break the yoke,
But cut the bond of union with that stroke.

Young.

Pope.

Waller.

MISTRESS.
LIKE a lily,

That once was mistress of the field, and flourished, I'll hang my head, and perish.

Wonder not sov'reign mistress! if perhaps

Shakspere.

Thou can'st, who art sole wonder; much less arm
Thy looks, the heaven of mildness, with disdain.

Milton.

MISTRUST.

By a divine instinct men's minds mistrust
Ensuing dangers; as by proof we see

The waters swell before a boisterous storm.

Shakspere.

Then, gentle Clarence, welcome unto Warwick;
And welcome Somerset:-I hold it cowardice
To rest mistrustful where a noble heart
Hath pawn'd an open hand in sign of love.

Shakspere.

Not then mistrust, but tender love, enjoins
That I should mind thee oft; and mind thou me.

Milton.

440

MIXTURE. MOCKERY. MODERATION.

MIXTURE.

AIR, and ye elements, the eldest born
Of nature's womb, that in quaternion run,
Perpetual circle multiform; and mix
And nourish all things.

Monastic beards, and shaven crowns,
And capes, and hoods, and friars' gowns,
I find enough; but must confess
Few men are worthy of their dress.
I do not like, upon one dish,

A mixture strange of fowl and fish;
Nor can I understand aright,

A knightly monk, or monkish knight.

Milton.

Gostick, from the German, Reinmar Von Zweter.

MOCKERY,

WHAT cannot be preserved when fortune takes,

Patience her injury a mockery makes.

Many thousand widows

Shakspere.

Will this mock, mock out of their dear husbands, Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down.

[blocks in formation]

Mock us with his blest sight, then snatch him hence Soon shall we see our hopes return.

MODERATION.

I'D have you sober and contain yourself,
Not that your sail be bigger than your boat;
But moderate your expenses now, at first,
As you may keep the same proportion still.

Equally inured

By moderation, either state to bear,
Prosperous or adverse.

In moderation placing all my glory,

Milton.

Ben Jonson.

Milton.

While tories call me whig, and whigs a tory.—Pope.

[blocks in formation]

BUT her sad eyes still fastened on the ground,
Are governed with goodly modesty,

That suffers not one look to glance awry,
Which may let in a thought unsound.

Maidens in modesty say No, to that

Spenser.

Which they would have the profferers construe, Aye.

Can it be

•That modesty may more betray our sense,

Shakspere.

Than woman's lightness: having waste ground enough,
Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary,
And pitch our evils there.

Shakspere.

He saw her charming, but he saw not half
The charms her downcast modesty conceal'd.

True modesty is a discerning grace,
And only blushes at the proper place;

Thomson.

But counterfeit is blind, and skulks through fear, Where 't is ashamed to be ashamed to appear.

It is a harder thing for men to rate,
Their own parts at an equal estimate,

Cowper.

Than cast up fractions, in th' attempt of heav'n,
Of time and motion, and adjust them ev'n;
For modest persons never had a true
Particular of all that is their due.

Butler.

Look, look! the summer rises in her cheeks!
A blush as hot as June comes flooding o'er
Her too proud paleness. Burning modesty
Warms all her brow, and beauty quite abashed
Drops her twin stars to earthward.

Modesty's the charm

That coldest hearts can quickest warm;
Which all our best affections gains,

Procter.

And gaining ever still retains.-J. K. Paulding.

[blocks in formation]

MONEY being the common scale
Of things by measure, weight, and tale,
In all the affairs of church and state,
'Tis both the balance and the weight;
Money is the sov'reign power,
That all mankind falls down before:
'Tis virtue, wit, and worth, and all
That men divine and sacred call;
For what's the worth of any thing,
But so much money as 't will bring?

Butler.

See what money can do: that can change
Men's manners; alter their conditions!
How tempestuous the slaves are without it.
O, thou powerful metal! what authority
Is in thee! thou art the key of all men's
Mouths: with thee a man may lock up the jaws
Of an informer, and without thee, he
Cannot the lips of a lawyer.

MOON.

BUT look! the moon in russet mantle clad,
Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill.

The moon, whose orb

Broome.

Shakspere.

Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views
At evening, from the top of Fesolé
Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands,
Rivers, or mountains, in her spotty globe.

Milton.

Day glimmer'd in the east, and the white moon
Hung like a vapour in the cloudless sky.

Rogers.

Plac'd in the spangled sky, with visage bright
The full-orb'd moon her radiant beams displays;
But 'neath the vivid sun's more splendid rays,
Sinks all her charms, and fades her lovely light.
From the Portuguese of Camoens.

MOPING. MORAL.

MOPING.

EYES without feeling, feeling without sight;
Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all,
Or but a sickly part of one true sense,
Could not so mope.

443

Shakspere.

The busy craftsman and o'erlaboured herd
Forget the travel of the day in sleep;
Care only wakes and moping pensiveness;
With meagre discontented looks they sit,
And watch the wasting of the midnight taper.

Rowe.

MORAL-MORALITY.

WHEN I did hear

The motley fool thus moral on the time,
My lungs began to crow like chanticleer,
That fools should be so deep contemplative.

Shakspere.

Now brandished weapons glittering in their hands,
Mankind is broken loose from moral bands;
No rights of hospitality remain,

The guest by him who harbour'd him is slain.

Dryden.

Learn then what morals critics ought to shew,
'Tis not enough wit, art, and learning join,
In all you speak let truth and candour shine.

Their moral and economy,
Most perfectly they made agree.

So, Lady Flora, take my lay,
And if you find no moral there,
Go look in any glass, and say,
What moral is in being fair.
Or, to what uses shall we put

The wild-weed flower that simply blows?

And is there any moral shut

Within the bosom of the rose?

Pope.

Prior.

Tennyson.

« AnteriorContinuar »