A DICTIONARY

OF

POETICAL QUOTATIONS.

ABDICATION.

I give this heavy weight from off my head,
And this unwieldy sceptre from my hand,
The pride of kingly sway from out my heart;
With mine own tears I wash away my balm,
With mine own hands I give away my crown,
With mine own tongue deny my sacred state,
With mine own breath release all duty's rites.

ABSENCE.

Shakespeare, Ric. II. IV. 1.

What! keep a week away! Seven days and nights?
Eight score eight hours? and lover's absent hours,
More tedious than the dial eight score times ?

O weary reckoning!

It so falls out,

That what we have we prize not to the worth
Whiles we enjoy it; but, being lacked and lost,
Why then we rack* the value.

Absence not long enough to root out quite

Sh. Oth. I. 4.

Sh. M. Ado, IV. 1.

All love, increases love at second sight.

T. May, Henry II.

Fly swift, ye hours, you measure time in vain,

Till you bring back Leonidas again :

Be swifter now; and, to redeem that wrong,

When he and I are met, be twice as long.

Dry. Mar, a la M.

Love reckons hours for months, and days for years;

And every little absence is an age.

Dry. Amphitrion.

All flowers will droop in absence of the sun

That wak'd their sweets.

Dry. Aurengzebe.

Condemn'd whole years in absence to deplore,
And image charms he must behold no more.

Pope, Eloisa.

* Overrate.

B

Ye flowers that droop, forsaken by the spring;
Ye birds that, left by summer, cease to sing;
Ye trees that fade, when autumn heats remove,
Say, is not absence death to those who love?

Pope.

Where'er I roam, whatever realms to see,
My heart, untravell'd, fondly turns to thee;
Still to my brother turns, with ceaseless pain,
And drags at each remove a lengthening chain.

Goldsmith, Traveller, 7.

Cowper, Task, vi.

Not to understand a treasure's worth
Till time has stol'n away the slighted good,
Is cause of half the poverty we feel,
And makes the world the wilderness it is.

Think'st thou that I could bear to part
From thee, and learn to halve my heart?
Years have not seen, time shall not see

The hour that tears my soul from thee. Byron, Bride of Ab.

Wives in their husband's absences grow subtler,

And daughters sometimes run off with the butler.

Byron, Don Juan, III. 22.

O tell him I have sat these three long hours,
Counting the weary beatings of the clock,
Which slowly portion'd out the promis'd time
That brought him not to bless me with his sight.

Jo. Baillie, Raynor, 1. 1.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Oh! couldst thou but know

Moore, Shades of E.

With what a deep devotedness of woe
I wept thy absence-o'er and o'er again
Thinking of thee, still thee, till thought grew pain,
And memory, like a drop that, night and day,
Falls cold and ceaseless, wore my heart away!

ABSTINENCE.

Moore, Lalla Rookh.

Yet abstinence in things we must profess,
Which nature fram'd for need, not for excess. Browne, Past.

Against diseases here the strongest fence
Is the defensive virtue abstinence.

Herrick, Aph. 331.

He is deformed, crooked, old, and sere,

Ill-faced, worse-bodied, shapeless every where;

Vicious, ungentle, foolish, blunt, unkind;

Sh. Com. Er. IV. 2.

Thou yard, three-quarters, half-yard, quarter, nail,

Stigmatical in making, worse in mind.

Thou thread, thou thimble,

Thou flea, thou nit, thou winter cricket thou :

Away, thou rag, thou quantity, thou remnant.

Sh. T. S. IV. 3.

ACCIDENT.

Sh. Ham. V. 2.

I have shot mine arrow o'er the house,

And hurt my brother.

As the unthought-on accident is guilty
Of what we wildly do, so we profess
Ourselves to be the slaves of chance, and flies

Of every wind that blows.

ACCOUNT.

No reckoning made, but sent to my account

With all my imperfections on my head.

Sh. Wint. Τ. ΙV. 3.

Sh. Ham. 1. 5.

And how his audit stands, who knows, save Heaven? Ib.111.3.

ACHIEVEMENTS.

Great things thro' greatest hazards are achiev'd,

And then they shine.

ACTION-see Promptitude.

Beaumont, Loy. Sub.

Away, then; work with boldness and with speed;

On greatest actions greatest dangers feed. Marlowe, Lust. D.

Whilst timorous knowledge stands considering,

For who knows most, the most he knows to doubt;

Audacious ignorance hath done the deed;

The least discourse is commonly most stout.

Daniel, Phil.

The evil that men do lives after them;

The good is oft interrèd with their bones.

Sh. Jul. C. 111. 3.

Pleasure and action make the hours seem short.

Sh. Oth. 11. 3.

For good and evil must in our actions meet;
Wicked is not much worse than indiscreet.
Good actions crown themselves with lasting bays;
Who well deserves needs not another's praise.
Of every noble action, the intent

Donne.

Heath, Clar.

Is to give worth reward-vice punishment.

B. & F. Capt.

* A beautiful vale eighteen miles from Florence.

Some place the bliss in action, some in ease,
Those call it pleasure, and contentment these. Pope, E. M.1v.21.

The body sins not; 'tis the will
That makes the action good or ill.

Herrick, Aphor.

ACTIVITY-see Decision, Despatch, Energy, Promptitude.
If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well
It were done quickly.

Sh. Mac. 1. 7.

Wise men ne'er sit and wail their loss,

But cheerly seek how to redress their harms.

Take the instant way; For emulation hath a thousand sons,

Sh. Hen. VI. pt. 3, v. 4.

That one by one pursue: if you give way,
Or edge aside from the direct forthright,
Like to an enter'd tide, they all rush by,

And leave you hindmost.

Celerity is never more admired

Than by the negligent.

Sh. Troil. & Cress. III. 3.

Sh. Ant. & Cleop. III. 7.

The wise and active conquer difficulties,
By daring to attempt; sloth and folly
Shiver and sink at sights of toil and hazard

And make the impossibility they fear.

Rowe, Amb. Stepm.

Holmes.

Run if you like, but try to keep your breath:

Work like a man, but don't be worked to death.

ACTORS.

Look to the players; see them well bestow'd:
They are the abstract and brief chroniclers of the times.

They say we live by vice; indeed 'tis true,
As the physicians by diseases do,

Only to cure them.

Boldly I dare say,

There have been more by us in some one play
Laugh'd into wit and virtue, than have been

Sh. Ham. II. 2.

Randolph.

By twenty tedious lectures drawn from sin,
And foppish humours; hence the cause doth rise,

Men are not won by th' ears, so well as eyes.

ADIEU-see Farewell, Parting.

If we do meet again, why, we shall smile;

Randolph.

If not, why then this parting was well made. Sh. Jul. C. v. 1.