Squeeze out the humour of fuch spongy natures,
As lick up ev'ry idle vanity.
Johnson's Every Man out of his Humour.
The fiction of the porth-wind and the sun,
Both working on a traveller, and contending
Which had moft pow'r to take his cloak from him:
Which, when the wind attempted, he roar'd out
Outragious blafts at him, to force it off,
Then wrapt it closer on: When the calm fun
(The wind once leaving) charg'd him with ftill beams,
Quiet, and fervent, and therein was conftant,
Which made him caft off both his cloak and coat:
Like whom should men do; if ye wifh your wives
Should leave diflik'd things, feek it not with rage;
For that enrages: What
ye give, ye have:
But ufe calm warnings, and kind manly means;
And that in wives most prostitute, will win
Not only fure amends, but make us wives,
Better than those that ne'er led faulty lives.
Chapman's Revenge of Buffey D'ambois.
I did but chide in jeft; the bef. loves use it
Sometimes, it fets an edge upon affection.
When we invite our best friends to a feast,
'Tis not all sweet meats that we set before them;
There's fomewhat sharp and salt, both to whet appetite,
And make them tafte their wine well: So methinks
After a friendly, fharp, and favoury chiding,
A kifs taftes wond'rous well, and full o' th' grape.
Middleton's Women beware Women,
Caft on bitumen, fo from these sharp checks
Nabbs's Hannibal and Scipio.
A harshness chide the error of his love;
Left like a christal ftream, which, unoppos'd
Runs with a smooth brow gently in it's course,
Being ftop'd o'th' fudden, his calm nature riot
Into a wilful fury, and perfift
Glapthorne's Albertus Wallenftein. Reprove not in their wrath incenfed men ; Good council comes clean out of season then: But when his fury is appeas'd, and pass'd, He will conceive his fault, and mend at last. When he is cool, and calm, then utter it; No man gives phyfick in the midst o'th' fit.
I will not let thee fleep, nor eat, nor drink;
But I will ring thee fuch a piece of chiding,
Thou fhalt confefs the troubled fea more calm;
That thunder with lefs violence cleaves the air:
The ravens, screech-owls, and the mandrakes voice
Shall be thy constant mufick.
Randolph's Jealous Lovers.
'Tis not enough to ftrive against the act,
Or not to do't; we muft reprove the fact
In others too: The fin being once made known:
To us, if not reprov'd, becomes our own
We must diffuade the vice, we fcorn to follow.
It is not juft I fhould rebuke them for
Their harmony of mind; that were to fhew
The rage, and envious malice of the devil;
Who quarrels with the good, because they have
That happiness, which he can ne'er enjoy.
Sir W. Davenant's Law against Lovers.
REPUTATION..
The purest treasure mortal times afford,
Is fpotless reputation; that away,
Men are but gilded loam, or painted clay.
Shakespear's King Richard II.
Good name in man and woman,
Is the immediate jewel of their fouls;
F 3
Whofteals my purse, steals trash; 'tis fomething, nothing; 'Twas mine, 'tis his; and has been flave to thousands: But he that filches from me my good name,
Robs me of that, which not inriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.
Thou awe of fools and great men thou that choak'st
Freeft additions and mak'ft mortals fweat
Blood and cold drops, in fear to loofe, or hope
To gain thy never-certain, feldom-worthy gracings!
Marfton's Sophoniba.
Upon a time, reputation, love, and death,
Would travel o'er the world; and 'twas concluded,
That they fhould part, and take three fev'ral ways:
Death told them, they fhould find him in great battles,
Or cities plagu'd with plagues. Love gives them council,
T'inquire for him 'mongst unambitious fhepherds,
Where dowries were not talk'd of; and fometimes
'Mongft quiet kindred, that had nothing left
By their dead parents. Stay, quoth reputation,
Do not forfake me; for it is my nature,
If once I part from any man I meet,
I am never found again.
Webster's Dutchess of Malfy.
The ulc'rous reputation feels the poize
Of lightest wrongs; as fores are vex'd with flies.
Middleton's Women beware Women.
The force of reputation fhall prevail.
Tourneur's Atheist's Tragedy.
Thy credit wary keep, 'tis quickly gone ;
Being got by many actions, loft by one.
This I'm fure of, that each man natʼrally
Addicts himfelf to make a choice of fome
Way gaining a repute with others; in
Which, if he receive a check, there's nothing
Can more undervalue him; he being
Suppos'd to chufe that, in which he most excell'd.
Of virtuous actions pafs'd; if not kept up
By an access, and fresh fupply of new ones,
Is loft and foon forgotten; and like palaces,
For want of habitation and repair,
Diffolve to heaps of ruin.
No crime fo bold, but would be understood
A real, or at least a feeming good :
Who fears not to do ill, yet fears the name,
And free from confcience, is a flave to fame.
Do not neglect the candour of thy name;
Thou shouldft not ftain thy cloaths, much less thy fame
Fine houfes men will build, repair, and trim,
And keep them neat without, and fair within:
But little they regard, if by foul ways
They blot their names, and flubber o'er their days:
Such men in life are odious, and shall be
In death a scandal to posterity.
I'll tread a righteous path; a good report
Makes men live long, although their life is fhort.
RESERVATION
The hope and expectation of thy time
Is ruin'd, and the foul of ev'ry man
Prophetically does fore-think thy fall.
Had I fo lavish of my prefence been,
So common-hackney'd in the eyes of men,
So ftale and cheap to vulgar company;
Opinion, that did help me to the crown,
Had ftill kept loyal to poffeffion;
And left me in reputelefs banifhment,
A fellow of no mark, nor likelihood.
By being seldom feen, I could not stir,
But like a comet I was wonder'd at :
That men would tell their children, this is he.
Others would fay, where? Which is Bolingbroke?
And then I ftele all courtesy from heav'n,
And drefs'd myself in fuch humility,
That I did pluck allegiance from men's hearts,
Loud fhouts and falutations from their mouths,
Ev'n in the presence of the crowned king.
Thus did I keep my perfon fresh and new ;
My prefence, like a robe pontifical,
Ne'er feen, but wonder'd at; and fo
my state,
Seldom, but fumptuous, fhewed like a feast,
And won, by rarenefs, fuch folemnity :
The skipping king, he ambled up and down
With fhallow jefters, and rafh bavin wits,
Soon kindled, and foon burnt; carded his ftate;
Mingled his royalty with carping fools;
Had his great name profaned with their scorns;
And gave his countenance against his name,
To laugh at gybing boys, and stand the push
Of ev'ry beardless, vain comparative :
Grew a companion to the common streets,
Enfeoff'd himself by popularity:
That, being daily fwallow'd by mens eyes,
They furfeited with honey; and began
To loath the taste of fweetness; whereof a little
More than a little, is by much too much.
So when he had occafion to be seen,
He was, but, as the cuckow is in June,
Heard, not regarded; feen, but with fuch eyes,
As, fick and blunted with community,
Afford no extraordinary gaze;
Such as is bent on fun-like majefty,
When it shines feldom in admiring eyes :
But rather drowz'd, and hung their eye-lids down,
Slept in his face, and render'd fuch afpec,
As cloudy men ufe to their adveríaries,
Being with his prefence glutted, gorg'd, and full.
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