OTWAY-SHEFFIELD-LEE.

165

THOMAS OTWAY. 1651-1685.

WOMAN! lovely woman! Nature made thee

To temper man; we had been brutes without you.

Angels are painted fair, to look like you :

There's in you all that we believe of heaven ;
Amazing brightness, purity, and truth,

Eternal joy, and everlasting love.

Venice Preserved. Act i. Sc. 1.

SHEFFIELD, DUKE OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE. 1649-1721.

OF

F all those arts in which the wise excel,
Nature's chief masterpiece is writing well.

Essay on Poetry.

There's no such thing in nature, and you'll draw
A faultless monster which the world ne'er saw.

Read Homer once, and you can read no more,
For all books else appear so mean, so poor;
Verse will seem prose; but still persist to read,
And Homer will be all the books you need.

Ibid.

Ibid.

NATHANIEL LEE. 1650-1692.

HEN he will talk-good gods, how he will talk!

THEN

Alexander the Great. Act i. Sc. 3.

166

WALTER POPE-NORRIS.

See the conquering hero comes,

Sound the trumpet, beat the drums.

Ibid. Act . Sc. 1.

'Tis beauty calls and glory leads the way.

Ibid. Act iv. Sc. 2.

When Greeks joined Greeks, then was the tug of war.

Ibid. Act iv. Sc. 2.

MAY

DR. WALTER POPE.

1714.

AY I govern my passion with absolute sway,
And grow wiser and better, as my strength

wears away.

The Old Man's Wish.

JOHN NORRIS. 1657-1711.

HOW fading are the joys we dote upon!

Like apparitions seen and gone ; But those which soonest take their flight Are the most exquisite and strong;

Like angel's visits, short and bright, Mortality's too weak to bear them long.

The Parting.

W1

DANIEL DEFOE. 1661-1731.

HEREVER God erects a house of prayer,
The Devil always builds a chapel there ;+

And 't will be found upon examination,
The latter has the largest congregation.

The True-Born Englishman. Parti. Line 1.

RICHARD GIFFORD. 1725-1807.

VERSE

ERSE sweetens toil, however rude the sound; All at her work the village maiden sings, Nor, while she turns the giddy wheel around, Revolves the sad vicissitudes of things.

Contemplation.

Non amo te, Sabidi, nec possum dicere quare;

Hoc tantum possum dicere, non amo te.

Je ne vous aime pas, Hylas;
Je n'en saurois dire la cause,

Je sais seulement un chose;

C'est que je ne vous aime pas.

MARTIAL, Ep. 1. xxxiii.

ROGER DE BUSSY, Comte de Rabutin, Epistle 33, Book 1.

† See Proverbs, page 391.

MATTHEW PRIOR. 1664-1721.

E to her virtues very kind;

BE

Be to her faults a little blind. An English Padlock.

Be to her merits kind,

And to her faults whate'er they are be blind.

Prologue to the Royal Mischief.

Abra was ready ere I called her name;
And though I called another, Abra came.

Solomon on the Vanity of the World. Part ii.

Now fitted the halter, now traversed the cart,
And often took leave; but was loth to depart.

The Thief and the Cordelier.

Of two evils I have chose the least.* Imitation of Horace.

Here lies what once was Matthew Prior ;+

The son of Adam and of Eve:

Can Bourbon or Nassau claim higher?

Epitaph on Himself.

Odds life! must one swear to the truth of a song?

That, if weak women went astray,

A Better Answer.

Their stars were more in fault than they.

Hans Carvel.

* Of two evils the less is always to be chosen.-THOMAS A KEMPIS. Imitation of Christ. Book iii. Ch. 12.

The following epitaph was written long before the time of Prior:

Johnnie Carnegie lais heer,

Descendit of Adam and Eve,

Gif ony con gang hieher,

Ise willing give him leve.

The end must justify the means.

And virtue is her own reward.

Hans Carvel.

Ode in Imitation of Horace. B. iii. Od. 2. That air and harmony of shape express, Fine by degrees, and beautifully less.*

Henry and Emma.

Our hopes, like tow'ring falcons, aim
At objects in an airy height;
The little pleasure of the game
Is from afar to view the flight.

To the Hon. Charles Montague.

JOSEPH ADDISON.

1672-1719.

CATO.

'HE dawn is overcast, the morning lowers,

THE

And heavily in clouds brings on the day,

The great, the important day, big with the fate
Of Cato, and of Rome.

Acti. Sc. 1.

Thy steady temper, Portius,

Can look on guilt, rebellion, fraud, and Cæsar,

Act i. Sc. 1.

In the calm lights of mild philosophy.

'Tis not in mortals to command success,

But we'll do more, Sempronius: we'll deserve it.

Acti. Sc. 2.

*Fine by defect and delicately weak.-POPE, p. 183.