On the stage he was natural, simple, affecting; Retaliation. Line 101. He cast off his friends, as a huntsman his pack, back. Who peppered the highest was surest to please. Line 107. Line 112. When they talked of their Raphaels, Correggios, and stuff, He shifted his trumpet, and only took snuff. Taught by that Power that pities me, I learn to pity them. Man wants but little here below, And what is friendship but a name, A charm that lulls to sleep, Line 145. The Hermit. Stanza 6. A shade that follows wealth or fame, The sigh that rends thy constant heart A kind and gentle heart he had, To comfort friends and foes; The naked every day he clad When he put on his clothes. Stanza 8. Stanza 19. Stanza ult. Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog. And in that town a dog was found, As many dogs there be, Both mongrel, puppy, whelp, and hound, And curs of low degree. 1 Compare Young, Night Thoughts, iv. Page 264. Ibid. The dog, to gain his private ends, Went mad, and bit the man. Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog. Ibid. The man recovered of the bite, They would talk of nothing but high life, and highlived company, with other fashionable topics, such as pictures, taste, Shakespeare, and the musical glasses. Vicar of Wakefield. Ch. ix. When lovely woman stoops to folly, And finds too late that men betray, What charm can soothe her melancholy? What art can wash her guilt away? Ibid. On Woman, Ch. xxiv. The only art her guilt to cover, To hide her shame from every eye, To give repentance to her lover, And wring his bosom, is As aromatic plants bestow to die. Ibid. No spicy fragrance while they grow; But crushed, or trodden to the ground, Diffuse their balmy sweets around. The Captivity. Acti. The wretch condemned with life to part, Still, still on hope relies; And every pang that rends the heart 1 While Fell was reposing himself in the hay, A reptile concealed bit his leg as he lay; Act ii. (orig. MS.) But, all venom himself, of the wound he made light, And got well, while the scorpion died of the bite. Lessing's Paraphrase of a Greek Epigram by Demodocus. 2 Compare Bacon, Of Adversity. Page 137. Hope, like the gleaming taper's light, And still, as darker grows the light, Emits a brighter ray. The Captivity. Act ii. (orig. MS.) Good people all, with one accord, Lament for Madam Blaize, Elegy on Mrs. Mary Blaize.1 The king himself has followed her For he who fights and runs away Can never rise and fight again.2 Ibid. The Art of Poetry on a New Plan (1761). Vol. ii. p. 147. 1 Written in imitation of Chanson sur le fameux La Palisse, which is attributed to Bernard de la Monnoye. On dit que dans ses amours Il fut caressé des belles, Qui le suivirent toujours, Tant qu'il marcha devant elles. 2 He that fights and runs away May turn and fight another day; But he that is in battle slain Will never rise to fight again. Ray's History of the Rebellion (Bristol, 1752), p. 48. That same man, that runnith awaie, Maie again fight an other daie. Erasmus, Apothegms (1542), translated by Udall. For those that fly may fight again, Butler, Hudibras, Part iii. Canto 3. Sed omissis quidem divinis exhortationibus illum magis Græcum versiculum secularis sententiæ sibi adhibent. Qui fugiebat, rursus præliabitur: ut et rursus forsitan fugiat. - Tertullian, De Fuga in Persecutione, c. 10. The corresponding Greek, 'Ανὴρ ὁ φεύγων καὶ πάλιν μαχήσεται, Such dainties to them, their health it might hurt; The Good-Natured Man. Act i. Measures, not men, have always been my mark.3 Act ii. The very pink of perfection. She Stoops to Conquer. Act i. The genteel thing. A concatenation accordingly. I'll be with you in the squeezing of a lemon. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. I love everything that's old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wine.* Ibid. Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no fibs. Act iii. One writer, for instance, excels at a plan or a titlepage, another works away the body of the book, and a third is a dab at an index. The Bee. No. i., Oct. 6, 1759. The true use of speech is not so much to express our wants as to conceal them.5 No. iii., Oct. 20, 1759. is ascribed to Menander. See Fragments (appended to Aristophanes in Didot's Bib. Græca), p. 91. Qui fuit, peut revenir aussi; Qui meurt, il n'en est pas ainsi. -Scarron (1610-1660). Peut combattre derechef. - From the Satyre Menippée (1594). 1 To treat a poor wretch with a bottle of Burgundy, and fill his snuff-box, is like giving a pair of laced ruffles to a man that has never a shirt on his back.. Tom Brown, Laconics. 2 Compare Rochefoucauld. Page 575. 3 Of this stamp is the cant of Not men, but measures. Burke, Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents. 4 See Appendix, p. 630. 5 Compare Young. Page 266. MANNERS.-WOLFE.-PORTEUS. LORD JOHN MANNERS. 1721-1770. Let wealth and commerce, laws and learning die, 347 But leave us still our old nobility. England's Trust. Part iii. Line 227. JAMES WOLFE. 1726-1759. There is such a choice of difficulties that I am myself at a loss how to determine. Despatch to Pitt, Sept. 2, 1759. BEILBY PORTEUS. 1731-1808. In sober state, Through the sequestered vale of rural life, The venerable patriarch guileless held War its thousands slays, Peace its ten thousands. Line 178. Teach him how to live, And, O still harder lesson! how to die.3 Line 316. 1 Compare Gray. Page 329. 2 Compare Young, Satire vii. Page 267. 3 Compare Tickell, On the Death of Addison. Page 293. |