55

Rumour, its diffusiveness.

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.

19-Induction. 56

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,

I
Stuffing the ears of men with false reports.

19-Induction. 57

Companionship.

In companions 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. 9-iii. 4. 58

Friendship. Friendship is constant in all other things, Save in the office and affairs of love : 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, 59

Happiness, where delusive. 0, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man's eyes !

10—v. ii. 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.

9-4. 9. 61

True Modesty.
It is the witness still of excellency,
To put a strange face on his own perfection. 6–ii. 3.
62

Intellectual advancement.
For nature, crescent,t does not grow alone
In thews and bulk; but as this temple waxes,
The inward service of the mind and soul
Grows wide withal.

36-i. 3. 63

Guile. O, what authority and show of truth Can cunning sin cover itself withal! 6-iv. 1. 64

Hypocrisy. The devil can cite scripture for his purpose. I 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. 65

Fear unfits for action. The guilt being great, the fear doth still exceed, And extreme fear can neither fight nor fly, But coward-like with trembling terror die. Poems. 66

Fame, the love of. Glory grows guilty of detested crimes; When, for fame's sake, for praise, an outward part, We bend to that the working of the heart. 8-iv. 1. 67

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,
To follow as it draws!

*

68

Duplicity.
0, 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 ! 5iii. 2.
69

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

thou shalt not escape calumny.

36-iii. 1. 70

False praise.
When we for recompense have praised the vile,
It stains the glory in that happy verse
Which aptly
sings the good.

27-i. 1. 71

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,f than to die for need; and falsehood Is worse in kings, than beggars.

31-iii. 6. 72

Mercy.

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

5-ii. 2. Authority. Could great men thunder As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet, For every pelting,ll petty officer,

[der. Would use his heaven for thunder: nothing but thunMerciful Heaven ! Thou rather, with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt, Split'st the unwedgeable and gnarled T oak,

73

* Appearance.

† False and feeble pretences. I Sorer, a greater or heavier crime.

$ The noble eaying of John of France, ' That if truth were banished all other places of the earth, she ought still to find a dwelling in the hearts of kings.'

# Paltry.

T Knotted.

1

a

Than the soft myrtle !—0, but man, proud man!
Drest in a little brief authority-
Most ignorant of what he's most assured,
His glassy essence,-like an angry ape,
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven,
As make the angels weep.

5-ii. 2. 74

Divine Justice.

You are above,
You justicers, that these our nether crimes
So speedily can venge!

34-iv. 2. 75

Unseasonable comfort.
That comfort comes too late;
'Tis like a pardon after execution:
That gentle physic, given in time, had cured me;
But now I am past all comforts here, but prayers.

25-iv. 2. 76

Things to be valued by their worth. From the lowest place when virtuous things proceed, The place is dignified by the doer's deed : Where great additions* swell, and virtue none, It is a dropsied honour : good alone Is good, without a name; vileness is so:t The property by what it is should go, Not by the title.

11-ii. 3. 77

Fidelity.

We must not stinti
Our necessary actions, in the fear
To copes malicious censurers; which ever,
As ravenous fishes, do a vessel follow,
That is new trimm'd; but benefit no farther
Than vainly longing.

25-i. 2. Judgment of weak minds not to be regarded.

What we oft do best,
By sick interpreters, oncell weak ones, is
Not ours, or not allow'd ;IT what worst, as oft,

a

78

Hitting a grosser quality, is cried up
For our best act.

25-i. 2. 79

Depravity.
Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile :*
Filths savour but themselves.

34-iv. 2. 80

Oppression.
In the fatness of these pursy times,
Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg;
Yea, curbt and woo, for leave to do him good.

36-iii. 4. 81

Traducement.
O wicked wit, and gifts, that have the power
To seduce !

36-i. 5. 82

Flattery.
O, that men's ears should be
To counsel deaf but not to flattery!

27-i. 2. 83

Virtue and Vice. Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall: Some run from brakest of vice, and answer none; And some condemned for a fault alone. 5-ii. 1. 84

Satan outwitting himself. The devil knew not what he did, when he made man politic; he crossed himself by't: and I cannot think, but, in the end, the villanies of man will set him clear.

27-iij. 3.

Carnality.
Ingrateful man, with liquorish draughts,
And morsels unctuous, greases his pure mind,
That from it all consideration slips. 27-iv. 3.
86

Mental deformity and virtue.
In nature there's no blemish, but the mind ;
None can be call'd deform'd, but the unkind :

85