508

There is a kind of confession in your looks, which your modesties have not craft enough to colour.

509

Being fed by us, you used us so
As that ungentle gull, the cuckoo's bird,*
Useth the sparrow: did oppress our nest;
Grew by our feeding to so great a bulk,

36-ii. 2.

That even our love durst not come near your sight,
For fear of swallowing.

18-v. 1.

510

Tear-falling pity dwells not in this eye.

24-iv. 2.

511

A devil, a born devil, on whose nature

Nurture can never stick; on whom my pains,
Humanely taken, all, all lost, quite lost;

And as, with age, his body uglier grows,

So his mind cankers.

512

A fearful eye thou hast: Where is that blood,
That I have seen inhabit in those cheeks?
So foul a sky clears not without a storm.

513

1-iv. 1.

16-iv. 2.

His face, though full of cares, yet show'd content;
So mild, that Patience seem'd to scorn his woes.

An humble gait, calm looks, eyes wailing still,
A brow unbent, that seem'd to welcome woe;
Cheeks neither red nor pale, but mingled so
That blushing red no guilty instance gave,
Nor ashy pale the fear that false hearts have.

But, like a constant and confirmed devil,

He entertain'd a show so seeming just,

*The cuckoo's chicken, who being hatched and fed by the sparrow, in whose nest the cuckoo's egg was laid, grows in time able to devour her nurse. † Education.

And therein so ensconced his secret evil,
That jealousy itself could not mistrust,
False-creeping craft and perjury should thrust
Into so bright a day such black-faced storms,
Or blot with hell-born sin such saint-like forms.

514

Thy sin's not accidental, but a trade.*

515

Poems.

5-iii. 1.

The middle of humanity thou never knewest, but the extremity of both ends. When thou wast in thy gilt, and thy perfume, they mocked thee for too much curiosity; in thy rags thou knowest none, but art despised for the contrary.

516

He cannot buckle his distemper'd cause
Within the belt of rule.

517

27-iv. 3.

15-v. 2.

Allowed by order of law a furred gown to keep him warm; and furred with fox and lamb-skins too, to signify, that craft, being richer than innocency, stands for the facing.

518

Why should we be tender,

To let an arrogant piece of flesh threat us;
Play judge, and executioner, all himself?

519

In seeking tales and informations,

Against this man, (whose honesty the devil

5-iii. 2.

31-iv. 2.

And his disciples only envy at,)

Ye blew the fire that burns ye.

520

25-v. 2.

Whose disposition, all the world well knows,

Will not be rubb'd, nor stopp'd.

*An establish'd habit.

34-ii. 2.

For too much finical delicacy. [Here is the depth, precision,

and acuteness, of Aristotle.]

521

His show

Beguiles him, as the mournful crocodile
With sorrow snares relenting passengers;
Or as the snake, roll'd in a flowering* bank,
With shining checker'd slough,† doth sting a child,
That, for the beauty, thinks it excellent.

522

This cur is venom-mouth'd, and I

22-iii. 1.

Have not the power to muzzle him; therefore, best
Not wake him in his slumber.

25-i. 1.

523

He hath faults, with surplus, to tire in repetition.

Most smiling, smooth, detested parasites,

Courteous destroyers, affable wolves, meek bears,
You fools of fortune, trencher-friends, time's flies,t
Cap and knee slaves, vapours, and minute-jacks.§

526

27-iii. 6.

If thou wert honourable,

Thou would'st have told this tale for virtue, not
For such an end thou seek'st; as base, as strange.
Thou wrong'st a gentleman, who is as far
From thy report, as thou from honour.

527

31-i. 7.

How fairly this lord strives to appear foul! takes virtuous copies to be wicked; like those, that, under hot ardent zeal, would set whole realms on fire. Of such a nature is his politic love.

*i. e. In the flowers growing on the bank. Flies of a season.

27-iii. 3.

† Skin.

§ Jacks of the clock.

528

I would not buy

Their mercy at the price of one fair word;
Nor check my courage for what they can give,
To have 't with saying, Good morrow.

529

28-iii. 3.

He hath no friends, but who are friends for fear.

530

Thou disease of a friend, and not himself!
Has friendship such a faint and milky heart,
It turns in less than two nights?

531

24-v. 2.

27-iii. 1.

How he coasts,

But in this point

And hedges, his own way.*

All his tricks founder, and he brings his physic

If the devil have given thee proofs for sin,
Thou wilt prove his.

5-iii. 2.

534

Too bad for bad report.

31-i. 1.

535

Thou know'st no law of God nor man;

No beast so fierce, but knows some touch of pity.

536

O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face!

Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave?

Beautiful tyrant, fiend angelical!

24-i. 2.

*Not to take the direct and open path, but to steal covertly through circumvolutions.

Dove-feather'd raven! wolvish-ravening lamb!
Despised substance of divinest show!
Just opposite to what thou justly seem'st,
A damned saint, an honourable villain!

537

Is not thy kindness subtle, covetous,

35-iii. 2.

If not a usuring kindness; and as rich men deal gifts, Expecting in return twenty for one?

538

27-iv. 3.

He that will give good words to thee, will flatter

Beneath abhorring.

539

This top-proud fellow,

(Whom from the flow of gall I name not, but
From sincere motions,*) by intelligence,
And proofs as clear as founts in July, when
We see each grain of gravel, I do know
To be corrupt and treasonous.

28-i. 1.

25-i. 1,

25-iii. 2.

False of heart, light of ear, bloody of hand; hog in sloth, fox in stealth, wolf in greediness, dog in madness, lion in prey.

542

34-iii. 4.

Like rats, oft bite the holy cords atwain

[sion

Which are too intrinset t' unloose: smooth every pasThat in the nature of their lords rebels;

Bring oil to fire, snow to their colder moods;

*Honest indignation.

† Perplexed.